Anthony Stark (Earth-616)/Expanded History

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==Preface==
A number of the incidents recounted of Tony Stark's are cited to have occurred in specific decades relative to the era of publication. However, the Earth-616 universe operates on a Sliding Timescale these events could not have occurred in the times they appeared due to the fact that it would drastically age the character. As such period specific references should be considered topical references when used in context with the Modern Age of Heroes. These references are generalized in the main body of this article and explained in more detailed in the notations below.
==Early Life==
===Adoption===
Anthony “Tony” Stark was born to two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, named Amanda Armstrong and Jude, who met during a courier mission. After Jude saved Amanda from an assassin, they got to know each other and fell in love. Following a two-year relationship, Amanda became pregnant. A week before giving birth to the Tony, Jude was revealed to have been a Hydra double-agent with little regard for anybody but Amanda and himself who sold out fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers, and was even responsible for the incident that had almost cost Amanda her life. During a discussion when he was trying to convince Amanda to accept Hydra's protection, she attacked Jude and killed him.
Traumatized by this development, Amanda asked S.H.I.E.L.D. to ensure her future son would find a safe and happy home. However, director Nick Fury followed the same procedure used for unwanted pregnancies in the agency, and the baby was left in an orphanage in Sofia, Bulgaria after Amanda had given birth in a local hospital. However Fury's associate and famous industrialist Howard Stark learned of this, and decided to find the baby and adopt him, keeping the name Amanda wished he retained: Anthony. Now the adopted son of millionaire inventor Howard Stark and his wife Maria, they secretly raised the boy as their own, leaving Tony to believe that he was their only biological son.Tony's actual age is left ambiguous so the character does not prematurely age, per the Sliding Timescale The truth, was actually much stranger than that.
Prior to Tony's adoption, Howard and Maria sought to conceive a child, however they were informed by their doctor that the child would not survive childbirth. Stark used his vast fortune, resources and connections to try and find a means to save his unborn son. He was eventually approached by an alien named Rollo a member of an alien race known only as the "Greys". Rollo tipped Stark off to a Rigellian Recorder that the Greys had in their possession at their Vegas Casino, Area 52. Stark gathered a group dubbed the Stark Seven to steal the robot. This Recorder, unit 451, helped Stark alter his son's DNA so that he would survive childbirth. However the Recorder saw that the growing number of scientifically and supernaturally empowered humans on Earth would make it a threat to various galactic interests who would seek to destroy the planet before it could mature into an intergalactic force for good. In exchange for saving the life of their child, the Recorder had the Starks consent to allowing him to alter their child's mind so that he would eventually become a genius who could invent weapons to defend the Earth. This all had to be done in secret otherwise the Earth was at risk of being destroyed. While the Stark's agreed to this, Howard was suspicious and began examining the alterations. Within he found a code that would eventually cause his son's body to burn out by age 30 and made alterations in order to ensure that his child lived a full life. This alteration he kept secret from the Recorder in the event of betrayal. When it came time for their child to be born, the Starks were tracked down and attacked by the Greys. Howard and his Stark Seven destroyed the Greys and the aliens were all killed in order to keep their secret. With the child born, the Recorder left for space entrusting the Starks to keep the child secret. The child was born safe, and they named him Arno. However not long after his birth, Arno developed breathing problems and soon could only survive thanks to a breathing device that kept him alive. In order to protect their son, Howard and Maria secretly hid him away in a Stark run hospice facility. They then quietly adopted Tony. Although this was all kept secret, Howard made a recording for Tony so that he might one day learn the truth. However the secret would remain buried for many decades thereafter.
===Childhood===
Tony lived with his adopted parents in Stark Manor in New York City, although his parents lived a very busy life, he was often left in the care of the family butler Edwin Jarvis. However life living with his family was less than ideal. By this point Howard Stark, a once proud man, had became an alcoholic apparently due to the pressures of maintaining the family business Stark Industries. Seeing his son as a weakling, he often berated Tony for any infraction.It was later revealed that Howard Stark was also a member of the Brotherhood of the Shield per , also according to Stark was also secretly protecting the world from alien and other dimensional invaders. This on top of the fact that his biological son Arno was apparently the savior of the human race, per it can be presumed that there was more than operating a business that caused such a change in Howard Stark. Howard's mantra to Tony was that "Stark men were made of iron". Howard educated Tony as he grew, and while sometimes he was caring, informative, and loving parent, his alcoholism caused him to often lash out at his family. Tony began reading tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The knights in shining armor in his stories combined with his growing interest in engineering created an obsession with Tony about creating a literal man of iron. He would build a model of this iron man with an Erector Set, and he drew his first concept of this suit of iron.The villain Absynthe states that Tony was 10 years old when he first drew a picture of Iron Man. However the Marvel Chronology Project and the place this as happening in this place chronologically. This contradicts which both sources state as happening after Hypervelocity Vol 1 5, that story states that Tony was 7 years old. It can be assumed that Absynthe's assessment of Tony's age was incorrect.
Meanwhile, Howard Stark continued to spiral deeper and deeper into alcoholism. One Christmas Eve not long after, Howard forced Tony to drink a glass of bourbon. Tony drank the glass in order to obtain the approval of his father. This first drink was but the first step in Tony's years long struggle with alcoholism. During this period Stark also had a pet dog named Leo. When the dog died, Howard yelled at his son for getting sad over the loss. However, the warmer and gentler Jarvis encouraged the boy to used his grief in more positive ways. Tony took to inventing things to deal with his pain and losses in life. Although not even an adolescent, Tony took an early interest in girls. It was at this time that Stark had his first girlfriend, albeit a relationship of childhood innocence. Still despite the boy being inventive, Stark the elder still had was disappointed in his son, believing him to be far too soft for his own good. When Tony reached the age of 7, Howard had Tony placed in a private school. There he was bullied by his peers, and sneered at by his teachers who thought him to be too childish. Tony found an escape from this by continuing to enjoy stories about King Arthur, as well as taking interest in Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama, and the Wright Brothers.
===Adolescence===
Stark's time in private school wasn't entirely miserable however. Soon he made friends with another boy named Tiberius Stone. The two developed a friendly competition with each other, in both academics and athletics. Their friendship endured into their teenage years, where Tony was crowned the prom king and Ty's girlfriend of the time prom queen. As Tony continued his high school career, he was known as the resident genius. While this earned him the favor of a girl named Jules, but the ire of another named Miles who was always Tony's second. One of Tony's earliest relationships at the time was with Meredith McCall, daughter of Creighton McCall one of Howard Stark's chief competitors. Neither parent approved of their relationship and they were forbidden from seeing each other. In order to ensure this, Creighton McCall had his daughter shipped off to a private school in Europe. It was also during this period that Tony began experimenting with alcohol and began dating another girl named Naomi Clark. One night while they were drinking wine coolers Tony took Naomi racing on his motorcycle.Tony's narrative of this story states that this event took place sometime in the 1980s. This should be considered a topical reference relative to the year of publication of the story based on the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 Later Tony crashed the motorcycle, but only walked away with nothing more serious than a broken arm. 
Tony continued expanding his education and engineering skills, by the age of 19 he had attracted the attention of the US Army. This was the first recorded time Stark utilized his skills for the family business of munitions manufacturing, developing "Seedpod" bombs for the military.It was stated in this story that the "Seedpod" bombs were used in the which lasted from August 1990 to February 1991. This should be considered a topical reference relative to the year of publication per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 Tony and Tiberius continued their friendship and their regular competition, such as when they competed over the affections of Susan Beaumont, and drag raced in Monte Carlo. Howard's stern rule over Tony during this period also had not abated any. One of Tony's science professors was Ted Slaght, who taught Tony to maintain an open mind in his scientific pursuits and be more flexible with his ideas. Tony eventually became class valedictorian and earned double majors in physics and engineering. However, Tony began to find that things were too easy and grew bored easily. He soon began searching for danger and excitement: driving fast cars, skydiving, alpine skiing, and fast women. However with each new conquered challenge, Tony quickly grew bored and often turned to drinking for solace. By the end of his teens, Tony had breezed through high school, and various technical universities including . 
As a young student Tony Stark met another brilliant mind Bruce Banner at Dr. Derenik Zadian; "Forward Thought Conference" at Oxford University. This would lead to a lifelong scientific rivalry between the two. Although the pair quickly clicked, their different backgrounds eventually caused them to drift apart. 
===Early Adulthood===
Tony soon began working for the family business, Stark Industries, and one of his early assignments was to go to the Technology of the Future Symposium in Arlington, Virginia. There he interacted with scientist Dr. Otto Octavius. When Stark expressed his disillusionment with approaching the military for funding or potentially disastrous consumer application to be pointless. However his notions of inventing new things for the sake of ideas were quickly quashed by Octavius, who told Stark that military and consumer application was the only way to get recognition. Their disagreement brought the two men to blows and Stark had to be pulled off of Octavius. This altercation earned Tony the ire of Otto Octavius. Back at Stark Industries, Tony's relationship with his father had softened but was still troubled due to the fact that Tony was more interested in living up the playboy lifestyle. During this time he frequently went partying with his cousin Morgan. Still a genius, Stark could pump out ideas in moments, leaving Howard frustrated as he wished his son could apply himself. Tony soon began dating an older woman known as Sunset Bain. The couple had a whirlwind relationship, but this was only a means for Bain to manipulate Tony into showing off Stark Industry secrets. One day the Stark Industry facility was attacked by armed men who stole various technologies from the company. Not long after that Sunset abruptly ended her relationship with Tony and started her own company Baintronics, Inc. Tony was quick to realize that Sunset used him to steal ideas from his father's company.
Not long after this, Tony's mother and father seemingly died in a car accident while out on a drive. The cause of the crash is subject to question. Iron Man Vol 1 288 states that it was a design flaw in the break system of the car that caused the crash. While, Iron Man: The Iron Age Vol 1 1 states that the crash was deliberately caused by the Republic Oil and Gas Company who were seeking to claim Stark Industries. However in Howard states that the Brotherhood of the Shield would fake his death in a car crash. However at this time it is unrevealed if this was the case or not. After Tony was informed of the death of his parents,This story erroneously depicts Tony as a small child while all other references to the death of Howard and Maria Stark depict Tony as being in his early 20s he spent the entire evening talking about his loss with long time family butler Edwin Jarvis. Tony found the loss of his parents devastating. Tony then began losing himself in his work in robotics, leaving Jarvis to deal with the media regarding the death of his parents. Tony later attended his parent's funeral, among the mourners was Professor Slaght. When Tony confided that he only wished to gain his father's approval, Slaght assured him that Howard Stark would have been stupid not to be proud of his son. Tony was part of a public inquest looking into the accident that took his family's life. When he learned that faulty break system, Tony spent days perfecting the flaw. He then used his new found fortune to purchase the manufacturer of the the family car in order to implement the changes he perfected. However the same old cycle of boredom crept into Tony's life. He evolved the family company taking on a new focus on electronics technologies turning it into a multinational corporation. However the challenge was quickly gone and Tony retreated back into his reckless playboy lifestyle.This story incorrectly states that Tony renamed Stark Industries to Stark International at that time. The company did not change names until Later while at another symposium, Stark was drinking alone in a bar one night when he began a conversation with medical designer Maya Hansen who took the increasingly jaded Stark to a talk being held by Sal Kennedy, a noted futurist.
However, despite this new inspiration, Tony continued to squander the company and it started seeing cost overheads that would eventually affect business. These expenses were noticed by Virginia "Pepper" Potts. Potts took it upon herself to correct various reports and government contracts, saving the company millions of dollars. When Tony realized these changes and learned who was responsible, he hired Potts as his personal secretary awarding her a substantial raise. Tony's relationship with Pepper at this point was merely professional, as Tony treated her like an object and exploited her skills to keep the company aloft while he continued to party. Tony was still an invaluable inventive genius, as he was tapped by Colonel Nick Fury to develop a stealth plane so that government agents Ben Grimm, Carol Danvers, and Logan could sneak into Russian airspace on what they thought was a mission to investigate why the Russians were using ultra-low frequency radio transmitters. However Tony and Fury learned too late that the actually were on a secret mission to steal a Russian device called Project: Red Storm. Eventually, Danvers, Grimm, and Logan managed to escape from Russia and return home. Back at Stark Industries, Tony began more and more dependent on Pepper to help with the paperwork, pushing her skills to the limit, while he continued to retreat into the debaucherous lifestyle of a playboy.
==Becoming Iron Man==
===The Age of Heroes===
Around this time, Tony's old colleague Bruce Banner had developed a Gamma Bomb for the military in the hopes of further funding his research into gamma radiation. When making a pitch to the military, Tony interrupted the meeting to give his endorsement. However he quickly noticed that Banner had purposely increased the shielding to stifle the blast and make the bomb less lethal. This angered Banner who had ethical reasons not to make the bomb more powerful. Now drinking heavily, Stark was called by one of the Gamma Bomb officials General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross who sought to hire Tony to examine Banner's work and determine if the bomb could be made more powerful. Stark accepted the job for a daily rate of $500,000 cash as well as two bottles of 25 year old scotch. Not wishing to betray his friend, Tony actually went to Banner to ask for permission. However because he was heavily intoxicated at the time, Bruce believed that Tony was only attempting to get involved for his own benefit and rejected his offers. Stark decided to look into the gamma bomb anyway. Upon examining the bomb, Stark found two things about it: that Banner's shielding had the opposite effect, that it would create a more powerful explosion one that would be a danger during the test. The other was that the way gamma radiation was being utilized it could cause a mutagenic effect on whoever was exposed to it. Stark lessened the shielding. Later while drinking, Stark composed an e-mail attempting to warn Banner of the danger of the gamma bomb, however when Bruce received the message he deleted it without reading the message. While Banner's bomb exploded as planned, Banner was accidentally exposed to the gamma rays, mutating him into the monstrous Hulk from time to time, a curse that he would live with for many years thereafter. Stark meanwhile continued to heavily drink, most of his activities carried out during this time were done while he was blackout drunk, and he would not recollect them for many years after. One night after out partying, Stark offered five dollars to a homeless man, unaware that he was secretly the long lost World War II hero known as the Sub-Mariner.Per the Sub-Mariner was stricken with amnesia in the 1950s by the villainous Destiny and spent decades wandering New York City as a homeless derelict. His memory was restored shortly after his encounter with Tony Stark as depicted in Around this time Tony was in a relationship with Joanna Nivena and the two were engaged to be married.
With the resurgence of super-humans on Earth, Tony participated in a meeting between Fantastic Four leader Mister Fantastic, General Ross, and fellow inventor Bolivar Trask to discuss appearance of the Asgardian thunder god Thor, following his battle against the mutant mentalist known as Sandu. Stark and Richards agreed to work together in dealing with these recent developments. Stark's attitude toward Thor irked the thunder god by Reed Richards managed to keep the peace. Stark and Mr. Fantastic were able to call a meeting with Thor at the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building headquarters to advise him that his activities might cause tensions across the world stage with other countries trying to develop super-humans of their own as part of a growing super-human arms race. Not long thereafter, Stark met with Thor again following his battle with the Chinese super-human known as the Radioactive Man. Stark later met with Thor again, representing the American government, thanking him for dealing with the Radioactive Man. Stark also earned Thor's ire again when he deduced there was some connection between Thor and Dr. Donald Blake, secretly Thor's mortal alter-ego. The meeting was brief, as Stark had to leave to the other side of the world for a weapons inspection, a trip that would change Tony Stark's life forever. 
===Origin===
Part of Stark's motivations for leaving to tour his facilities in the east was due to continued problems as Stark Industries. Accounts of where Stark went and why he went east vary and there are many contradictions. One of the primary discrepancies is the geographical location of Stark's travels. Most accounts state that Stark went to Southeast Asia, while another states that he traveled to the Middle East. The conflicting locations are primarily due to the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 being used to make Iron Man's origin either more general to avoid prematurely aging the character, or to provide a topical reference that can relate to the reader around the time of publication. The original telling of Iron Man's origin in states that Tony went to Vietnam during the Vietnam War. This was reinforced in many tales, particularly and . However when this became a dated reference, the geographical location was generalized to a country in Southeast Asia that was not mentioned by name, and all references to the Vietnam War were excised from this origin starting in and . In it was stated that Stark was in Afghanistan during the . In the end, it was changed in to take place during the fictional Siancong War in Siancong to avoid further moving. Stark's motivations for going east varied from account to account. The original account states that Stark went out to witness the weapons his company manufactured being used in the field by the US Army. Other accounts state that Stark wasn't going for a military weapons inspection, but to oversee the facilities as his Southeast Asian operations. A third account states that he went to view these operations because he was combating another fit of boredom. Yet another account states that Stark had developed suits of armor for the military to use in combat scenarios, but they were malfunctioning and Stark was sent out to the region to investigate why.
Whatever the reason, in most accounts the region was an active combat zone thanks to a tyrant named Wong-Chu who was terrorizing the area. Although another account states that the combatants in the region were the Middle East terrorist organization.This account specifically states that this terrorist organization was the Taliban. However this should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. This account appears to omit the involvement of Wong-Chu in the origin of Iron Man. This is counter to all other established origin stories and later tales that confirm that Wong-Chu was a central player in Iron Man's origin. As the origin provided in Iron Man Vol. 4 is heavily abridged, one could assume it was omitted for the sake of faster pacing. During his visit in the region, Stark was seriously injured when he was caught in an explosion and was captured by Wong-Chu's troops. The cause of this explosion vary upon account as well. One states that Stark accidentally triggered a trip mine that was set up by Wong-Chu's forces. Another account states that the trip wire was a long forgotten booby-trap placed during a past conflict. Another account states that Stark stepped on an enemy landmine. Other accounts state that Stark was caught in the blast of an exploding military ATV. While yet another account states that during an ambush by enemy forces a bullet caught one a landmine of Stark's own invention which exploded near him.This account states that Stark and a group of soldiers were attacked by members of the Taliban. This should be considered a topical reference in relation to the date the story was published per the Sliding Timescale Also depending on the account, Stark was not the only one injured in the attack. Two of the tripwire accounts state that Stark was caught in the blast that also killed one of his employees Toshi Kanada. While another one states that an American soldier named Dennis Murray was seriously injured in the blast.
In all the otherwise differing accounts, Tony ended up with a piece of shrapnel lodged in his chest which began migrating close to his heart, putting him at risk of a fatal heart attack should the shrapnel reach that vital organ. He was also taken prisoner by the forces of Wong-Chu along with Ho Yinsen, another brilliant inventor state that Ho Yinsen was a physicist. states that Yinsen was a medical innovator and futurist. His area of expertise is subject to the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 making his skills to be relative to what knowledge of technology, particularly medical science is understood at the time of publication. who was long thought dead. Here accounts vary again, in the original account Wong-Chu first attempted to manipulate Stark into inventing weapons for him, giving the false promise to remove the shrapnel from his heart if he agreed to working for him. Another account states that Stark was given emergency medical treatment by Yinsen who managed to at least temporarily prolong Tony's life. When Stark and Yinsen were later brought before Wong-Chu, the villain offered Stark the chance to work for him. When Tony refused, Wong-Chu ordered his men to beat Stark. While trying to defend himself, the shrapnel in Stark's heart began getting closer to his heart causing him to collapse in pain. With Stark dying on the floor, Yinsen pleaded with Wong-Chu and convinced him to spare Stark's life as he would be a valuable inventive resource to use. 
Once Stark was able to, he worked with Yinsen, first to design a chest plate to regular his injury, keeping the shrapnel away from his heart and keeping Tony alive. Using the meager resources the chest plate became the centerpiece to what became the first suit of armor Stark wore as Iron Man. This armor was very primitive compared to later models, armed with air jets in the boots for limited flight, magnetic devices built into gauntlets, as well as various other adaptable gadgets. The chest plate, which Stark now had to wear indefinitely, saved his life.states that Ho Yinsen was a physicist and that the chest plate of the Model 1 armor used a pacemaker to keep Stark's heart beating. This is more or less the accepted explanation in other retellings such as and , , and . states that the armor's unique "energy cells" kept his heart beating. states that it was a "chest pump". In , Yinsen utilizes a technique called "magnetic wound excision" to keep the shrapnel away from Stark's heart. The technology used in this origin tale should be considered topical per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. It is always subject to change based on what was known about technology and medical science at the time of publication. In all accounts The Model 1 armor is depicted as being grey with the exception of which depicts it as gold. This should be considered an error as Stark does not paint his armor this color until While the armor was charging, Ho Yinsen created a distraction for Wong-Chu and his minions, and was fatally shot.all support the fact that Ho Yinsen was shot. The only exception to this being , however since this was a greatly abridged version of Iron Man's origins, it may have been omitted for narrative pacing. It is later revealed in that Yinsen did not truly die here, but was taken away by and brought forward in time by Dr. Midas With his armor fully charged, Stark now calling himself Iron Man, fought through the enemy soldiers keeping him captive. He then found and challenged Wong-Chu to a battle. No match for Iron Man's weapons, Wong-Chu attempted to flee and was seemingly slain when Iron Man detonated an ammunition store house.depict Wong-Chu being killed in the explosion. However, shows that Wong-Chu survived unscathed after being knocked clear of the blast, only to be transformed into an insect by his employer the Mandarin who then crushed him. completely ignores this, stating that Wong-Chu was horribly burned but survived and went on to start his own slave ring. With Wong-Chu seemingly slain, Iron Man wandered off into the jungle to try and find a way home, unaware that he was being watched by the would-be world conqueror known only as the Mandarin who had Wong-Chu in his employ.
While wondering through the jungles surrounding Wong-Chu's base, Iron Man's batteries began to run low again. While searching for a means to recharge, he came across downed US Marine James Rhodes. Iron Man asked to use the batteries from the downed helicopter to recharge he armor, but Rhodes was not quick to trust the mystery man in armor until Stark saved him from enemy troops who launched an attack.These stories, particularly Iron Man Vol 1 144, reinforce that the events took place in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. As with other references this should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. Iron Man assisted Rhodes in fighting across enemy lines and recovering an enemy helicopter which allowed them to get to a nearby American military base. From there, Iron Man used his credentials as Tony Stark to protect his identity. Given access to a lab, Tony began some alterations of his armor, reducing the size and bulk of the chest plate he was forced to wear so that he could hide it under regular clothing. He then paid a visit to James on the base hospital, offering Rhodes a job at Stark Industries when he was done with his active military duty. With his ability to hide the chest plate keeping him alive, Tony returned home to the United States.
When he returned home he was greeted at the airport by Joanna, but was distant to her because he did not want her to know what happened to him and was reconsidering their future together. Returning to Stark Industries, Stark was very distant in his business dealings with Pepper. Over the next few days Stark began realizing the limitations that the chest plate brought to him both physically and in his social life. In order to strengthen his heart he quit smoking and began exercising. However constantly wearing the chest plate became hard to manage and Stark began making more alterations. Stark then decided to make the best of his situation and attempted to try and market his Iron Man armor and put on a public display of its capabilities. Stark soon decided against mass producing his Iron Man armor when a gang of thieves tried to break into Stark Industries and steal some prototypes. Eventually Joanna came back to Tony and he finally agreed to talk to her about what happened to him oversea. After telling her everything she was sympathetic and decided they should continue their relationship. This all changed drastically however when the pair went on a date to see the US Open. When the tournament was terrorized by members of the American Freedom Front, Tony decided to do something about it. Putting on his Iron Man armor, he used it to incapacitate the terrorists and turn them over to the authorities. While Iron Man was hailed as a hero, but this made Joanna realize that Tony could never be the husband that she wanted and she broke off their engagement, ending their relationship. Tony slumped into another depression giving into drinking and his playboy lifestyle in his real life, while also fighting crime as Iron Man. Unknown to Stark at the time, the Republic Oil and Gas Company were secretly attempting a hostile takeover of Stark Industries and were seeking to utilize illegal means to do so.
==Model 1 Armor==
===Early Adventures===
Early on in his career, Iron Man was called in by the military to try and stop the savage Hulk, unaware that the creature was his former colleague Bruce Banner. Iron Man proved no match against the Hulk by himself, but this would not be the last time the pair fought. However Stark continued to provide now innovations in military hardware as well as fighting crime as Iron Man. One night while out on a date with a young woman named Marion to the circus, the big cats managed to get loose. Changing into Iron Man, Stark came to the rescue but his grey armor frightened people. Deciding to do something about it, he took his date's suggestion that Iron Man should repaint his armor, and colored it gold. Making another date with Marion, Stark later learned that her hometown of Granville suddenly closed itself off to the outside world. Going to investigate the situation and learned that the townspeople were under the hypnotic control by a being calling himself Gargantus. While Gargantus appeared to be a Neanderthal, Iron Man's magnetic devices pulled him apart, revealing Gargantus to be a robot. Iron Man also discovered his controllers, a race of aliens who were seeking to conquer the Earth. Upon discovery the aliens believed their attempts at invasion were doomed to failure and fled the planet. 
Stark Industries soon began to be targeted by members of the secret terrorist organization known as Hydra who were busy stealing technological innovations from various companies. Stark captured some of the most recent spies as Iron Man. Also during this period, Stark employed Jacob Fury who was developing a device called the Zodiac Key that channeled strange dimensional energies. Tony was unaware that Jacob was also a spy for Hydra. Seeking to do something about this and petitioned the United States government to assist him in funding an international counter-espionage organization called the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division, or SHIELD for short. Initially the government refused, but after another Hydra attack in Canada, the President of the United States changed his mind and asked Tony to help them create SHIELD. In the early stages of developing SHIELD, Stark considered two candidates to be leader of the organization. Ultimately, Stark chose Colonel Rick Stoner as the commander of SHIELD. With government backing, Stark was able to also convince other technology innovators such as Cordco, Inc, Williams Industries, and the Republic Oil & Gas Company.Both Fury Vol 1 1 and state that SHIELD was created by Tony Stark. However states that the United States Government had created the concept of SHIELD in the late 20th Century. Further confusing matters , -, and and all state that SHIELD has been active as early as the 1960s. In the case of Original Sins Vol 1 5, it's likely a continuity error ascribing that story to the year 1966. The others show SHIELD active in that era. It could be considered that SHIELD was a completely covert operation for years per Secret Warriors, Bitter March et al. The story from Lost Generation could have been a failed government attempt to make SHIELD public. It could then be possible that the government abandoned their initial plans for "creating" SHIELD, and instead decided to allow Stark -- being a long time government contractor with connections within the United States government -- who must have been made aware of SHIELD (due to his family connection to the organization) decided to revive the concept. It's entirely possible the United States government did this for public relations and plausible deniability of past SHIELD operations during the Cold War. The story in Fury Vol 1 1 story also states that Roxxon Corporation was one of the financial backers. This is a continuity error as at the time, Roxxon was known as the Republic Oil and Gas Company and had not yet changed their name as per Not long after this, while putting on a charity show for sick children, Iron Man was enthralled by Doctor Carlo Strange a criminal scientist who was incarcerated for his crimes. After freeing Strange, Iron Man regained his senses. Later when Dr. Strange threatened to destroy the world with his new S-Bomb, Iron Man infiltrated Strange's island base. There with the aid of Strange's daughter, Iron Man foiled this plot although Dr. Strange managed to evade capture. Iron Man soon began assisting the United States Government in preventing Russian espionage agents from stealing secrets and technology from out of the country. A Russian operative known as the Red Barbarian dispatched his agent the Actor to the United States to steal the secrets of Stark's new disintegration ray. Tricking Tony into going to Washington D.C., the Actor posed as Stark to steal the plans, also discovering that Tony was also Iron Man in the process. Discovering the deception, Iron Man followed after the Actor to Russia where he recovered his stolen plans. After tricking the Red Barbarian into thinking the Actor had betrayed him, Stark returned to the United States and the Actor was executed, taking Iron Man's secret to the grave.All references to the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev and all Cold War references in this story should be considered topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 relative to the date of publication of this story
Soon after, Tony gathered intelligence that revealed that Hydra was now fully operating in the United States and asked Colonel Stoner to look into matters more closely. Stoner was able to find a connection between Hydra and the Republic Oil and Gas Company.Again the name Roxxon used here is a continuity error as at this time the Roxxon Corporation was known as the Republic Oil and Gas Company per Hydra was the least of Stark Industries problems as the Republic Oil and Gas Company was also attempting to discredit the company in their bid to take it over. They hired the Saboteur to infiltrate the company. After she sabotaged a new missile launcher, Stark had to stop the misfired missiles as Iron Man. He then blamed his employees for the issues. The attempts by Republic Oil to discredit Stark Industries worked, as Stark lost his contract with Carter Steel and the United States government decided to cease hiring the company for any future contracts. As Stark's business continued to suffer Tony began withdrawing from it more and more, seeking to use his Iron Man identity as an escape from his troubled company. Tony was next captured by Queen Kala ruler of the subterranean realm known as the Netherworld. Kala intended to conquer the surface world and sought to exploit Tony's inventive genius to these ends. While in captivity, Stark learned that Kala's military commander General Baxu had no interest in conquering the surface world but was in love with his leader and followed her orders. Left to his own devices in a lab, Tony created a second set of Iron Man armor and broke free. He then forced Kala up to the surface where the very atmosphere caused her to begin rapidly aging. Realizing the folly in conquering the surface world, Kala surrendered and was brought back home where she reverted back to her normal age. There she agreed to cease her hostilities and arranged to marry Baxu. Tony and the other captives were then returned to the surface world.
Returning to his business activities, Tony helped reveal industrialist Bruno Horgan was selling inferior materials. With his business ruined, Horgan vowed to get revenge against Stark. As Iron Man continued gaining press for his heroics, Tony continued to distance himself from his company. Tony later traveled to Egypt to assist an archaeologist friend in finding the ancient tomb of Hatap the so-called Mad Pharaoh. As Iron Man, Stark uncovered the tomb but quickly learned that Hatap was still alive after over 2000 years after putting himself in a death-like state of suspended animation to escape execution from Cleopatra. Hatap kidnapped Stark and using his Chariot of Time to forced Stark back in time with him to the year 1 A.D. where the Mad Pharaoh planned to use Stark's inventive genius to help him win his war against the Egyptian princess. Tony escaped Hatap and changed into Iron Man, then used his advanced technology to fight off Roman invaders and assisted Cleopatra in defending her realm from Hatap. During the conflict Hatap dropped his Chariot of Time and accidentally tripped and fell on his own sword trying to reclaim it. Iron Man recovered the Chariot and then used it to return to his own era before his batteries wore out. Tony also continued working on developing technology for SHIELD. Alongside Jake Fury, Mr. Fantastic and the mutant inventor named Forge, he began developing a helicarrier and flying car for the organization. Production was hindered by acts of sabotage, Stark ordered Colonel Stoner to learn who was responsible.
===Forming the Avengers===
It was about this time that the Asgardian trickster god Loki wished to manipulate Hulk as a part of a plan to attack his step-brother Thor. To this end, Loki made it appear as though the Hulk attempted to destroy a train. When the Hulk's sidekick Rick Jones gathered his group the Teen Brigade together to try and contact the Fantastic Four for help. Loki intercepted their transmission and made it so it was received by Thor. However a side effect of the spell the transmission was also received by Iron Man, as well as the size-changing heroes Ant-Man and the Wasp. states that Teen Brigade used ham radios, and that Loki's spell split the signal. In Avengers: The Origin Vol 1 1 the Teen Brigade is depicted as using the internet. It should be noted that the technology used by the Teen Brigade is topical to the era of the original publication and is subject to the Sliding Timescale The meeting was tense at first but Rick calmed nerves and convinced the gathered heroes to help in their cause. During the meeting Thor was shown an illusion of the Hulk convincing him that Loki was involved shows this as an illusion that Thor tried to fight alone, while states that it was beamed into his head and showed the Hulk killing all the gathered heroes. Iron Man then took the heroes to the Stark Industries office in Sugar Land, Texas. There Thor departed to investigate his suspicions while Ant-Man was given access to Tony Stark's technology to build a device that could increase his range and be able to use ants all over the country to try and search for the Hulk. Using this device, Ant-Man was able to locate the Hulk in Canyon City, Colorado where he was posing as a robot attraction in a circus performing there. Ant-Man ordered the ants in the region to distract the Hulk while they arrived. Iron Man Ant-Man, and the Wasp then traveled there and clashed with the Hulk who managed to escape. There are two differing accounts of what happened next, in one account the Hulk fled to an automobile manufacturing plant in Detroit, Michigan while the other states that the Hulk fled to the Cardiff-Grant Munitions R&D Factory in Denver, Colorado. In either case the Hulk clashed with the three heroes until Thor arrived with the defeated Loki and revealed his part in the whole ordeal. Loki attempted to defeat the heroes by becoming radioactive. In the Detroit account Loki was defeated when dumped in a radioactive waste disposal furnace beneath the plant, while the Denver account states that they placed him in a device that was used to conduct controlled explosion experiments. The Detroit account states that the group unanimously agreed to form a team and that the Wasp came up with their name: the Avengers. However the Denver account states that the group did not formally form a group until a meeting three days later at the Stark Industries plant in Sugar Land, Texas. Shortly after their first battle, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk briefly encountered Iron Man's future self and Latverian monarch Dr. Doom who were briefly transported into the past due to a time travel mishap. Iron Man invited his fellow Avengers to use his "employer" Tony Stark's mansion as their headquarters, later dubbed Avengers Mansion. There the group were given a tour, and were introduced to Jarvis, who would now serve as the Avengers butler.
===Corporate and Foreign Sabotage===
By this time things at Stark Industries were at their worse and Tony's cousin Morgan was pressuring Tony to sell the company so that they could continue partying without any interruptions. When Tony began to seriously consider this, Pepper explained that if Tony sold the company he would be putting honest hard working employees out of jobs. To punctuate this point, Pepper took Tony to the home of one of his employees who had a young family to raise. Realizing the impact that he had on the lives of others, Tony began taking a more serious approach to his company taking an active role in dealing with his business affairs. To this end he patched up relations with Carter Steel as well as re-establish the faith the United States government had in him by appealing to Senator Harrington Byrd, who agreed to witness the unveiling of a new Stark Industries Blackbird stealth jet. The early morning on the day the Blackbird was to be tested, the Saboteur attempted to sabotage the Blackbird, and was confronted by Iron Man. Their battle was witnessed by Senator Byrd. After the Saboteur was defeated, Byrd was so impressed by Iron Man he agreed to having Stark design the Blackbird as well as an undersea tank for the government. Late while testing out a newly design race car, Tony got into an accident when his chest plate began running low on power. He was pulled from the flaming wreck by former boxer Harold "Happy" Hogan. Stark then had Hogan take him to a nearby hotel where he secretly recharged his batteries. To thank Hogan, Tony attempted to pay him fifty thousand dollars, but Happy declined, accepting a job as Tony's chauffeur instead. By this point Pepper had fallen in love with Tony. Tony unwilling to get deeply involved with anyone ignored Pepper's interest, while Happy was an unrequited love of Pepper, forming a strange love triangle between the trio. Not long after this, Iron Man caught Stark Industries employee Gregor Shapanka attempting to steal company secrets, Tony then fired Shapanka on the spot and chose not to have him arrested due to his past work. Seeking revenge, Gregor used his cryogenic technology to become the ice-themed super-villain called Jack Frost by the press. When Jack Frost sought revenge against Stark Industries, Iron Man was able to defeat him and turn Shapanka over to the authorities. 
Stark's innovations soon came under the radar of the Russian government once again, this time prompting the Prime Minister of Russia to assign one of his best scientists, Anton Vanko to deal with Stark. Developing his own suit of armor dubbed the Crimson Dynamo, Vanko went to the United States to sabotage Stark Industries. This led to a battle with Iron Man, who convinced Vanko to defect to the United States and work for him by tricking the scientist into thinking his President sought to eliminate him as a potential threat to his rule.The Russian leader depicted here was Chairman Nikita Khrushchev the ruler of the USSR, and that this story took place during the Cold War. These should be considered topical references in relation to the date of publication per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. Hence any reference to the leader of Russia should be generalized, and the position should be also defined as the current title for that leader. The highest position of power in Russia has been that of president since 1991. Later, Stark's latest invention a new energizing module, was targeted by a new armored for calling himself the Neutralizer. Although Iron Man failed to stop the theft, with the help of Pepper and Happy, Tony learned that the thief was his business partner Alan Burstyn and recovered the device.
Returning to the Avengers, Iron Man and the others then revealed themselves to the press. They then began a series of early meetings. During the first meeting the group was trying to determine who would be the chairman to the group. All the male members wanted to test their might to determine who led, but they all agreed to allow the Wasp to secretly be their chairperson so none of their egos could be bruised. Meanwhile, the Republic Oil & Gas Company was still seeking to obtain Stark Industries. In another attempt to sabotage the company, they sent their agents the Dogs of War to make an offer to Iron Man to join their cause, unaware that Iron Man was really Tony Stark. Iron Man accepted an offer to contact Republic employee Simon Krieger to discuss a possible deal. This meeting was observed by Happy, who also unaware of Iron Man's true identity, attempted to warn Stark of the possible betrayal from his "bodyguard", a threat that Tony obviously did not worry about. 
===Early Avengers Missions===
Iron Man then joined another meeting with the Avengers, this time meeting was briefly crashed by yet again by Iron Man's future self and the Black Widow who briefly passed through the meeting room while jaunting through time periods. Iron Man later called a meeting to discuss the signing of a charter of the Avengers code of conduct, and also to stress the fact that the team needed A-1 Priority with the United States government in order to operate freely as an organization. All the members of the Avengers agreed to sign it except for the Hulk who angrily left the meeting, a sign of tensions to come between the gamma spawned monster and his teammates. Bruno Horgan came back to get revenge against Tony Stark, having invented a device that could melt objects comprised of iron. Calling himself the Melter, Hogan began attacking Stark Industries, destroying valuable equipment. The acts of sabotage once again put government pressure on Stark. Finding himself at risk because his armor was also comprised of iron, Tony developed a new suit made out of aluminum. When the Melter's weapon had no effect on this armor, he fled the scene allowing Stark Industries to recover and resume normal operations. 
Iron Man later re-joined the Avengers when they were asked by the military to assist in recovering Dr. Doom's flying fortress which had recently been stolen. The Avengers took on the case and infiltrated the ship but were caught in many of Doom's various traps. The Avengers were freed when Ant-Man used his new growing powers to help his teammates. While they managed to destroy Doom's flying fortress they discovered the "Doom" they were fighting was one of his Doombots. During the next meeting with the Avengers, they were targeted by the Space Phantom who claimed to be an alien seeking to defeat the Avengers so his people could invade the planet.The Space Phantom made this claim in . However it was later revealed in that this was all part of a scheme by the time traveller known as Immortus to manipulate the destiny of the Avengers The Space Phantom plotted to do turn the Avengers against the Hulk, using his ability to shift individuals into the timeless realm of Limbo while assuming their form. When the Space Phantom attacked the Avengers. During the fight, Thor insulted the Hulk and they fought with each other, taking their personal battle to the American southwest. Iron Man followed after them and broke up the fight, convincing them to help defeat the Space Phantom. When the Space Phantom took the form of Iron Man, the Golden Avenger found himself shunted to Limbo for a brief period of time as well where he remained unconscious. Iron Man was returned to his home dimension when the Space Phantom attempted to take the form of Thor, but he proved incapable of duplicating the thunder god's form and found himself shunted into Limbo instead. In the aftermath of the battle the Hulk left the group because of the Avengers growing mistrust of him.
==Model 2 Armor==
===First Upgrade===
Soon the corporate world was being terrorized by a costumed villain calling himself Mister Doll. Doll had a mystic doll that, when shaped to resemble an intended victim, could cause pain to them. He used this to blackmail businessmen into signing over their fortunes to him. One of these victims was the owner of Carter Steel, who promptly cut all business with Stark Industries. When Stark went to investigate as Iron Man, he attempted to stop Mr. Doll from torturing Carter, the villain instead turned the doll on Iron Man. The added strain on his chest plate's battery caused Iron Man to flee. Realizing that the heavy iron armor was constantly putting strain on the batteries, Stark developed a new suit of armor. This suit was a vast improvement with a lighter weight, and better battery life. It also was the first to include the red and gold stylization that became Iron Man's trademark appearance. When Mr. Doll attempted to extort Stark Industries, Iron Man's new armor was able to protect him from Mr. Doll's voodoo doll. Developing a device that could reshape Mr. Doll's weapon, Iron Man caused it to change shape into Mr. Doll himself, causing him to pass out. Doll was then apprehended by the authorities. By this time Republic Oil was putting into motion their final plans. Iron Man contacted Krieger pretending to make a deal with him. Later when Krieger, posing as Tony Stark, took over the SHIELD Helicarrier with the Dogs of War and over national television held both hostage. This attempt was halted by Iron Man with the help of Happy. With Krieger exposed and the helicarrier saved, Republic Oil quickly covered up their involvement by assassinating Krieger and then re-branding themselves as the Roxxon Energy Company, vowing to leave Stark Industries alone for the time being. Iron Man later joined Giant-Man and the Wasp on the manhunt for the Sandman, but their search proved fruitless and the villain was later defeated by the novice hero known as Spider-Man. Meanwhile back at the office, the love triangle between Tony, Pepper and Happy continued to grow. 
When Stark Industries began testing a new nuclear weapon, Iron Man was on the scene to keep the area safe. When the X-Man known as the Angel flew too close to the site, Iron Man attempted to stop him but was too late. The radiation from the blast altered the Angel's personality making him wish to join the X-Men's foes the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Feeling responsible for the Angel's condition, Iron Man kept the young mutant from causing too much danger until his regular personality reasserted itself and he returned to his fellow X-Men. Iron Man continued striving for the Avengers to obtain A-1 Security Clearance. However he found opposition from their liaison with the National Security Agency, Special Agent James Murch who demanded that the Avengers do something about their former member the Hulk. Iron Man assured Murch that his team would handle it. Giant-Man and the Wasp then returned to active Avengers duties and assisted the team in trying to track down the Hulk. During their initial clash with the Hulk, Pym tried to grab him while on a train but ended up being knocked off when it went into a tunnel. When they later tracked the Hulk to an abandoned island that was last used during World War II, they found that the Hulk had allied himself with the Atlantean monarch known as the Sub-Mariner and a clash between the two villains and the Avengers broke out. Ultimately the Hulk began changing back into his alter ego of Bruce Banner who fled. Alone against the Avengers, the Sub-Mariner fled as well. Iron Man and Giant-Man were later involved in a training session together. After the mock battle, Giant-Man confided in the Iron Avenger that he felt that their constant need to upgrade their powers might be a sign that they feel they are not up to the job they have undertaken. Although Iron Man reassured Giant-Man that they had what it took to do their work, after his teammate left Tony began drinking. Not long after this Tony was unaware that Giant-Man was in the room at ant-size while removing his mask, unknowingly revealing his secret identity to his teammate. Giant-Man kept this revelation a secret for many years thereafter.
===The Mandarin===
Around this time Tony began seeing actress and supermodel Veronica Vogue.states that she is a actress while states that she is a supermodel. Soon Iron Man was called upon by the government to investigate reports of a powerful man operating in China calling himself the Mandarin.identifies the government agency as the United States Army, while identifies the agency as SHIELD. Stark then skipped out on a company party in order to be smuggled into China as Iron Man and be air dropped near the Mandarin's castle. The Golden Avenger then fought his way through the Mandarin's troops and faced his opponent one on one, however the Mandarin's power rings were able to incapacitate Iron Man and he was taken prisoner. The Mandarin then attempted to have his minions examine Iron Man's armor, but it was too well protected for them to learn its secrets. Iron Man eventually revived and broke free from his imprisonment and engaged in a rematch against the Mandarin. There are two account as to what happened next. In the original account, Iron Man was able to hold his own against the Mandarin but was forced to flee in order to catch his pick up flight in time. A later account states that Iron Man's armor was heavily damaged and Stark himself seriously injured battling his foe. Iron Man managed to escape after detonating the Mandarin's castle. Stark barely managed to make it back to the United States and to repairs and medical attention in time. Following his battle with Iron Man, the Mandarin then began to study his foe. Learning that Iron Man was in the "employ" of Tony Stark, he believed that this was an attack on him by the western world and began accelerating his plans for global conquest, ordering his sleeper agents all over the globe to become active. During this period, Tony's relationship with Veronica Vogue came to an end. In one account, this was due to Pepper's meddling, while in the other Tony simply brushed her off to focus on his operations as Iron Man. Whatever the case, due to his increasing activities as Iron Man, Tony often ignored Pepper's advances by pawning her off on Happy.
There are two account as to what happened next, in one account Iron Man caught a thief in the middle of a show being put on by escape artist Ebenezer Laughton. In this account, Laughton decided to use his contortion skills to become a burglar and developed the identity of the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow then broke into Tony Stark's apartment to steal secret plans, and was confronted by Tony and Happy. When the Scarecrow escaped, he demanded a ransom from Stark to get the plans back, but after getting the money fled and decided to sell the plans to Cuban operatives instead. Iron Man eventually tracked the Scarecrow out into international waters and while his foe fled, he managed to recover the plans and sink the Cuban vessel. The second account states that Laughton was actually approached by the Mandarin's sleeper agents who created the Scarecrow identity for him. As the Scarecrow, Ebenezer infiltrated Stark Industries and attempted to steal important data from the network when he was confronted by Tony and Happy. When Happy was incapacitated by the intruder, Tony changed into Iron Man. During the ensuing battle, the Scarecrow manage to get away with the stolen data. With the help of Ivan Vanko, Tony was able to track the data to a boat just out of US Waters. As Iron Man, Tony attacked the vessel, and while the Scarecrow also escaped in the account, Iron Man destroyed the stolen data. When he attempted to learn who the men who hired the Scarecrow were working for, they committed suicide rather than talk. With his most recent plan a failure, the Mandarin then sent his son Temugin to infiltrate Stark Industries with orders to kill Tony Stark and Iron Man. 
===Captain America===
Iron Man returned to the Avengers and the group continued their search for the Sub-Mariner in a submarine. The Avengers eventually came across the body of Captain America a wartime hero that had been missing since 1945, frozen in a block of ice. Taking him aboard their ship and thawing out his body, they found that Captain America had been kept in suspended animation. When he was revived, Captain America battled the Avengers, who easily calmed him down and brought him back to New York. There they had Cap wait below deck while they addressed the press and while the heroes were doing so they were blasted by a ray that turned them into living stone, leaving Captain America to wander the modern day on his own. Eventually, Captain America was found by Rick Jones and they both tracked down the one responsible, a member of the D'bari race named Vuk. They learned that Vuk was trapped on Earth and he turned the Avengers to stone for the Sub-Mariner in order to get his ship freed from the bottom of the ocean. Vuk agreed to return the Avengers to normal in exchange for the same help. With Iron Man and the others changed back they were good on their promise but were attacked by the Sub-Mariner and his Atlantean warriors. While Namor was distracted, Vuk's ship was freed and he managed to leave the Earth. With the battle lost the Sub-Mariner fled into the ocean. 
Iron Man took it upon himself to help Captain America reconnect with the world. He started by taking Captain America around the Bronx, he had his doubts that Cap could hack it in this era. This was compounded by the fact that public was also not ready to accept that Steve was the original Captain America either. They soon found themselves attacked by robots sent by an alien race bent on invading the Earth.These unnamed aliens previously clashed with Iron Man with their robot Gargantus in Captain America proved Iron Man wrong when he not only destroyed both robots, but also stopped Iron Man himself when he was hypnotized and forced to fight his comrade. Iron Man later joined the Avengers in assisting the Sentry against his foe the Void.Iron Man and the other Avengers would be forced to forget this encounter for many years per Iron Man and the Avengers then continued their hunt for their former teammate the Hulk who was once again on the rampage. They traced the Hulk back to Avengers Mansion but were trounced by their foe. Following after the Hulk, Cap and the Avengers briefly clashed with another group of heroes the Fantastic Four. However, the two groups put aside their differences and pooled their resources to stop the Hulk, but the gamma spawned brute managed to escape capture.
Iron Man and Giant-Man then conducted tests confirming Captain America's identity, but they were concerned about his memory gaps and clear wartime stress. Cap, not sure he fit in this era, had also learned that the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic had also been experimenting with time travel. After expressing an interest to return to his own era and saving Bucky's life, Iron Man refused to let Cap go back in time due to the risk of knowing too much about the future. These findings were presented to the other Avengers, making them question if Captain America would be mentally fit to be a part of the team. This also caused Iron Man concern who was still struggling to get the team priority clearance. However, still unwilling to give up on helping Cap fit in, Tony took Steve out for the evening to show him all the benefits of the modern age as well as proud moments in American history. After seeing a display of Captain America successors, Steve decided that he could quit his job with a clear conscious and went to see the President of the United States to resign. However the President was tipped off by Stark and he merely reiterated what has been told to Cap before: sending him back into the past was just too dangerous. However this time, it was an order from the Commander-in-Chief of the United States, someone that Rogers would obey without question.These Captain America replacements were: William Nasland, formally the costumed hero known as Spirit of '76. He was active as Captain America in 1945 and 1946. This was circa to . Nasland was revealed to be Captain America during this era and killed in action as depicted in . Jeffrey Mace took over as Captain America from 1946 to 1951 circa to . He retired as Captain America in per . He eventually died of cancer in the modern age in . The last and most notorious Captain America successor was William Burnside who was active from 1953 to 1955 from to . He was put in cryogenic suspension as revealed in 
===The Black Widow===
By this time, Tony was being courted by Russian socialite Natasha Romanoff who had gained the nickname the "Black Widow" because of the untimely deaths of various wealthy technology brokers that got involved with her. Pepper conducted a detailed background check on Romanoff and tried to warn Tony, who merely brushed off her concerns. Meanwhile, Ivan Vanko began working on a new laser light weapon. Even though he was wearing his Crimson Dynamo armor, it was no match for the powerful laser, prompting Tony to save Ivan's life. Also at this time the Black Widow and Boris Turgenov were hired by the Russian government to assassinate Vanko for defecting to the United States. The pair traveled to America where they posed as teachers seeking a tour of Stark Industries. Tony was instantly smitten by Ms. Romanoff and offered to take her out to dinner, foolishly allowing Turgenov to tour the facilities alone.The Russian official who assigned the Black Widow and Boris Turgenov is depicted as Chairman Nikita Khrushchev this and all Cold War references should be considered topical relative to the date of publication per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 Stark eventually took Natasha back to her home where he revealed he knew about her sordid past and warned her that he had the place surrounded by automated weapons and the pair left. While Tony took Natasha out to dinner and dancing, Boris kidnapped Ivan and returned him to a nearby Russian sub before putting on the Crimson Dynamo armor himself to sabotage Stark Industries. When Tony Returned he quickly slipped away and changed into Iron Man. Unaware that it was Boris in the Crimson Dynamo armor, Iron Man was easily defeated and taken prisoner himself while Boris and the Black Widow returned to pilfer Stark secrets. Meanwhile, Tony revived and freed himself and Ivan from the enemy sub and returned to his facility. There Iron Man battled Boris, however the battle was abruptly ended when Ivan sacrificed his life using his new laser weapon to defeat the Crimson Dynamo. While Boris was taken into police custody the Black Widow managed to escape. 
Not long after this Tony began to question the value of creating weapons for the military when, as Iron Man, he traveled to a conflict in Southeast Asia where a new prototype artillery cannon was being tested. Stark was uneasy hearing that the American troops in this area were willing to break international laws to attack their enemies. Soon the soldiers and Iron Man were attacked by enemy troops. While the soldiers were wiped out, Iron Man's armor was heavily damaged. Tony later came across a young local who was blinded by an explosion and helped him get back to his village, only to find it was decimated by Stark's own weapon. Horrified by this, Tony made a mass grave for the victims, and blasting the word "WHY" into the ground to mark his horror over what he had saw.The narrative of this story states it takes place during the Vietnam War, however this should be considered a topical reference relative to the date of publication per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 Back in the United States, Tony began developing a new anti-gravity device however an accident fused many of its controls preventing Stark from figuring out how to duplicate the weapon. Soon the Black Widow approached Tony again using her female charms to lull him into a sense of false security. She took the opportunity to steal the anti-gravity device to gain favor from her employers again. As Iron Man, Tony tracked down the Black Widow and her colleagues and destroyed the anti-grav device, but the Black Widow managed to escape once again.The Russian leader in this story is depicted as Chairman Nikita Khrushchev this and all Cold War references should be considered topical relative to the date of publication per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616
==Model 3 Armor==
===Second Upgrade===
Soon the Avengers were called in to investigate a rock formation growing out of the ground in Nevada and Iron Man joined them in their investigation. This led to a battle with the subterranean creatures known as the Lava Men. The invasion of the Lava Men was eventually turned back thanks to some unforeseen help from the Hulk who escaped capture once again. Stark started to make some headway with the NSA, using legal loopholes to use Captain America's status as a US government operative to gain their security clearance. This was not without conditions as Agent Murch warned Stark that if Captain America could not remain with the team for any reason, their security clearance would be pulled.
Tony attended Ivan Vanko's funeral. Later, Tony was alone in his office recharging his chest plate when his office was infiltrated by Temugin who tried to shoot Tony with a gun. Thanks to his chest plate, Tony survived and the two began to struggle. When their fight took them into a Stark Industries elevator shaft, Tony's brief case was opened sending his armor tumbling down with Temugin. Tony then ordered the armor to self-destruct, seemingly slaying his would be assassin. Tony was then contacted by SHIELD again as they had more information regarding the Mandarin. They informed him that the Mandarin was consolidating power in a bid to take over the world. Detecting that their foe was attempting to steal a SHIELD satellite, Tony attempted to counter the Mandarin's hackers, but failed to prevent it from being stolen. Vowing to stop the Mandarin once and for all, Tony developed his third suit of Iron Man armor.Temugin survived the blast and returned to his father the Mandarin who erased his mind at this time. 
Iron Man returned to his Avengers duties, which led to more conflicts with NSA Special Agent Murch who continued to threaten to pull the groups security clearance. Iron Man also began developing the first prototypes for the Quinjet, a flying craft that would eventually become the Avengers primary source of travel. About this time Captain America allowed Tony Stark to add technological upgrades to his shield, including a magnetic clasp. It was also during this period that Cap's old wartime foe Baron Zemo -- having survived the years hiding out in South America -- resurfaced. Seeking revenge against his old foe, Zemo formed the Masters of Evil a group of super-villains consisting of the Black Knight, Radioactive Man, and the Melter. The group terrorized New York City incapacitating all those they passed with Zemo's Adhesive X. However Iron Man and the Avengers, with assistance form the Teen Brigade battled the Masters. 
By this time Tony realized that he was developing feelings for Pepper Potts when he started feeling jealousy toward the amount of time that Happy Hogan was spending with her, but tried to put aside his feelings, believing that his injured heart and life as Iron Man prevented him from falling in love. His thoughts on love were quickly put on hold when the military advised him that the Mandarin was stealing guided missiles in tests launches. Tony decided that he would tackle his new foe once again, this time confronting him as Tony Stark. Rocketing himself to Southeast Asia, Tony then went to the Mandarin's headquarters where he allowed himself to be captured by the Mandarin's soldiers. When they attempted to examine Tony's briefcase its defenses knocked them out with gas. More guards attempted to torture Tony in order to get information out of him but were unable to do so. He was then locked in a cell while they attempted to open his briefcase. Meanwhile, the Mandarin went to confront his foe and the two argued over their ideological differences before the Mandarin ordered Stark to be executed. Tony managed to incapacitate his executioner and recover his armor before confronting the Mandarin directly. Despite the fact that he had the element of surprise and a new suit and more powerful suit of armor, Iron Man was quickly subdued by the Mandarin. There are two accounts of what happened next. In the first account, the Mandarin attempted to steal another missile, but Iron Man broke free and prevented the Mandarin's tractor beam device from pilfering the test weapon. After another battle against the Mandarin, Iron Man destroyed the device and fled the scene, leaving the Mandarin to survey the damage. In the other, the Mandarin caused the stolen SHIELD satellite to get pulled into Earth's gravity intending it to crash into Beijing, China. Iron Man risked his life pulling the wrecked satellite out into space. When Tony returned to Earth the Mandarin had fled. Upon returning to the United States, Tony was happily greeted by Pepper and Happy, Happy becoming depressed when Tony decided to take Pepper out for the night. Later he met with SHIELD to be debriefed, vowing that when the Mandarin returns Iron Man will be there to face him. It was during this meeting that Tony began to consider replacing Rick Stoner with Nick Fury as the head of SHIELD.
Tony wouldn't get the opportunity to replace Stoner as the SHIELD director soon learned of the connection between Hydra and Roxxon and but was caught and mortally wounded while fleeing the scene. Stoner reached Stark's mansion to try and warn him, but died before he could reveal what he learned. Later when Stark was about to finish the final adjustments on SHIELD's new helicarrier, it was sabotage and exploded during take off. With Stoner now dead Tony was now more determined than ever to learn who was sabotaging his operations for Hydra. He quickly tapped his second choice for SHIELD director -- Colonel Nick Fury -- to solve the mystery. Fury uncovered the traitor to be his own brother Jake. During the ensuing fight Jacob managed to escape but Fury brought Stark the proof he needed. Impressed by Fury's hard work, Stark contacted the president and suggested Nick to be Rick Stoner's replacement.
===Golden Avenger===
Iron Man started spending more time with the Avengers to combat various and earn the organization some legitimacy in the eyes of the government. Iron Man first joined the Avengers in stopping the so-called Weather-Maker who was terrorizing the city. Later when Thor was throwing a temper tantrum across the city, Iron Man joined Giant-Man and the Wasp in trying to calm the thunder god down, but Thor quickly left the scene.At the time Thor was upset that his father Odin refused to allow Thor to marry his mortal lover Jane Foster. Later, Iron Man and the Avengers were later pulled forward in time a few years in the future by the dimensional hopping hero known as Access. They were pulled forward along with members of the heroes from a to stop an alliance between Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and and his beings from that other dimension. However upon their arrival, Iron Man and the Avengers were coerced by the hypnotic to battle the Justice League. However thanks to the intervention from the modern era the heroes shook off this influence and worked together to stop the invasion of New York with the aid of the and the original X-Men. Iron Man was one of the heroes who remained on Earth to help those in danger while members of each team went to stop Magneto and Darkseid. With the crisis over the heroes were restored to normal and returned to their own times where their memories of the experience faded away.
After another Avengers meeting, Iron Man returned to Stark Industries and having become fed up with his lot in life threw a tantrum. He briefly decided to give up his identity of Iron Man and live it up as Tony Stark. However, Tony quickly realized how important being Iron Man was when his business was attacked by the Russian operative known as the Unicorn who seriously injured Happy and kidnapped Pepper in his attack. Iron Man tracked down the Unicorn and rescued Pepper and prevented his foe from setting a bomb off within Stark Industries by surrendering. When Iron Man willingly agreed to go back with the Unicorn to Russia, he wrecked the plane flying them there after they crossed over into Russian airspace, but the Unicorn managed to escape. Back in the States, Tony and Pepper visited Happy in the hospital. When Pepper began showing affection to Hogan, Tony wondered if she was really developing feelings for him or just doing so to make him jealous. Soon after Tony found himself pulled forward through time and space again. This time to the distant future of Earth-794282, at the so-called "End of Time". There he joined an army of Avengers from different times and dimensions against their evil counterparts in a conflict that was later known as the Destiny War.This was the culmination of years of manipulation by the so-called Time-Keepers and their agent Immortus to manipulate the destiny of the Avengers as revealed in . After the conflict was over, Iron Man was returned to his proper place in time, with is memories of these events erased. Back in his own era, Iron Man and the Avengers were once more targeted by Baron Zemo who returned with a new Masters of Evil consisting of the Asgardian exiles the Enchantress and the Executioner. Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp briefly battled Thor when he was enthralled by the Enchantress, but the group managed to defeat their foes, who then retreated.
As Tony Stark, Iron Man also provided further assistance to his fellow Avengers, such as providing Thor with equipment to defeat the Grey Gargoyle. Yet during Avengers meetings none suspected that Tony Stark and Iron Man were the same man. While trying to help Happy ask Pepper out on a date, Tony inadvertently had to take Potts out on a date when she misinterpreted his intentions. Taking Pepper to a county fair, he was forced to change into Iron Man to stop an out of control ride. His appearance there convinced professional arch Clint Barton to become a super-hero himself, taking on the costumed identity of Hawkeye. As Hawkeye, Clint was blamed for a jewel heist and was tricked into working with the Black Widow on her continued campaign against Stark Industries. Although Hawkeye was a match for Iron Man thanks to his gimmicked arrows, Hawkeye fled when the Widow was accidentally injured in battle. By this time Tony's one time rival Otto Octavius became the super-villain known as Dr. Octopus, a frequent foe of the heroic Spider-Man. After Otto's most recent incarceration, Iron Man joined Giant-Man and Mr. Fantastic in trying to remove the mechanical arms that inspired Otto's villainous nom de guerre.Otto Octavius became Dr. Octopus in . This event happens after Dr. Octopus was defeated by Spider-Man in Iron Man later went to investigate reports of a battle between Spider-Man and the villain Electro at his plant, but arrived just after Spider-Man defeated his foe, leaving him in Iron Man's custody. Shortly thereafter two of Spider-Man's foes, Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon attempted to break into the Stark Industries facility only for Kraven to be captured by Iron Man. In order to avenge this defeat the Chameleon disguised himself as Captain America, and convinced Iron Man that he had infiltrated the Avengers. this led to a battle across the city between the real Captain America and Iron Man. Ultimately, the Chameleon was captured and exposed by Giant-Man and the Wasp and the two heroes ended hostilities toward each other.
Not long after this the 30th century time traveler known as Kang the Conqueror arrived in the modern age and ordered the surrender of the world. The United States government responded by deploying the Avengers, with Iron Man accompanying. During the initial attack by the Avengers, Kang was able to overpower the heroes with his advanced weaponry and then attempted to take them prisoner. Soon, Rick and the Teen Brigade had pretended to side with Kang to gain access to his ship and they began freeing the Avengers. He was joined by Captain America, and the reunited Avengers attacked Kang once again, easily disarming him and forcing him to return to his own era. In the aftermath of the battle, Iron Man made Captain America the filed leader of the Avengers, and Cap soon learned to let go of his desire to return to the past. Following the defeat of Kang, Iron Man and the Avengers were honored in a parade thrown in New York City. With this latest victory, Agent Murch told Iron Man that the group could keep their A-1 priority status, provided that Captain America remain with the group, something that proved quite a problem given that Cap had become consumed with seeking revenge against Baron Zemo for killing his former partner Bucky.Bucky was seemingly killed during World War II thanks to a drone plane explosion caused by Baron Zemo as depicted in . However as revealed in Bucky survived and spent the convening decades as the Russian operative known as the Winter Soldier.
===Under Suspicion===
After another Avengers meeting, Tony returned to his factory when suddenly he keeled over in pain. He quickly realized that his chest plate could not longer protect his heart without the additional battery packs he wears as Iron Man. Quickly locking himself away in his office to change into Iron Man, Tony's sudden pain was noticed by Pepper and Happy who feared the worst. This coincided with the Black Knight escaping from prison and wanting revenge against the Avengers attacked Stark Industries. Iron Man quickly defeated the Black Knight, but unable to remove his armor he had to convince Pep and Happy that Tony Stark had to abruptly leave on a secret project leaving Iron Man in charge. Although the pair accepted this, they were suspicious that Iron Man had done something to their boss. Shortly thereafter Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil struck at the Avengers again. This time ionically empowering financially ruined inventory Simon Williams into the superhuman known as Wonder Man. Wonder Man was then sent to infiltrate the Avengers and have them seek a cure for the ionic powers that were actually killing him. Iron Man worked day and night to find a cure, he and Giant-Man taking a scan of his mind as well. Wonder Man later led Iron Man and the Avengers into a ambush by the Masters of Evil. But during the course of the battle Wonder Man realized where his true allegiances were and appeared to sacrifice his life to save the Avengers, although Zemo and his cohorts escaped once again.However Wonder Man did not actually die here but entered into a near death coma state as revealed in When the Mole Man threatened to destroy New York City, Thor and the Avengers tried to go into battle against him but were convinced to step aside by the Fantastic Four who defeated their oldest foe. 
When the villain known as Sundown was threatening New York City, Iron Man joined the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange in forcing Sundown to stand down and turn himself over to the authorities. Iron Man next accompanied the the Avengers to Europe to stop the being known as Lucifer from setting off a massive bomb. Unknown to then the X-Men's leader Charles Xavier was already attempting to stop Lucifer. Detecting that the bomb was linked to Lucifer's heart, Xavier had his X-Men hold the Avengers at bay until the circumstances could be explained. Iron Man and the Avengers then conceded to the X-Men, allowing the young mutants to deal with the crisis in their own way.
Iron Man and the Avengers next continued their hunt for the Hulk, hoping to convince him to rejoin the Avengers. Zemo and his Masters got to the Hulk first, convincing the brute to join them in attacking the Avengers. The battle ended abruptly when the Hulk turned on the Masters after Rick's life was put at risk and Zemo and his minions once again fled and the Hulk evaded capture as well. Things look even more grim at Stark Industries as Pepper and Happy threatened to resign until Iron Man came clean about what happened to Tony Stark. Later that night while trying to correct the problems with his armor, Tony was forced to hide his armor under his bed covers when Happy broke into his home to see if he was there. Stark made up an excuse that he was ill, while Happy and Pepper were happy to learn that Tony was safe, his odd behavior and the fact that he did not look ill still led them to believe that Iron Man was somehow exploiting their employer. After a press conference, Tony's home was attacked by the Mandarin's new orbital satellite, making it seem as though Tony Stark was killed in the blast. Iron Man tracked the blast to the Mandarin's lair, but growing low on power he was easily captured by his foe and tied to a giant wheel to be spun to death. The Mandarin then revealed his origins to Iron Man as well as his plot to trick the Chinese government into triggering World War III with a nuclear missile he designed for them. Activating the giant wheel, the Mandarin left Iron Man alone to his fate. However instead of being spun to death, Iron Man managed to connect a wire to the mechanical wheel and use it as a turbine to recharge his batteries. Breaking free, Iron Man diverted the missile back to the Chinese, foiling the Mandarin's plan and making it seem like he betrayed his would-be allies. On his way back to America, Iron Man finally found a means to solve his problem. Returning to Stark Industries, Tony built a new and more powerful transistor to power his chest plate allowing him to be able to live without having his full armor on. Quickly dispelling the rumors of his death, Tony quickly resumed control of his company allowing things to resume the status quo. This was soon disrupted when the costumed saboteur known as the Phantom was planting bombs at the facility. Iron Man caught and exposed the Phantom as Dr. Donald Birch, a disgruntled scientist under his employ. Also during this period, Tony once again tried to distance himself from Pepper by telling her that he was engaged to be married to a heiress from Boston, but this still did not quash Pepper's feelings for him.
===Passing the Torch===
Iron Man and the Avengers were then targeted by Kang the Conqueror once again. Kang constructed a robot duplicate of Spider-Man who lured the heroes into a trap within an Aztec temple in Mexico. However the group was saved by the real Spider-Man who learned of his impostor and defeated him in battle. Iron Man and the Avengers later battled the Masters of Evil once again, although the details of this battle are unrecorded. Iron Man and the Avengers soon had another crisis on their hands when the Mole Man and the Red Ghost teamed up to destroy the surface world. After Thor and the Avengers fended off an invasion of the Mole Man's Moloids, the heroes foiled the two villains plot and rescued Giant-Man, whom their foes had captured. Iron Man and the Avengers next started focusing on shutting down operations of the Maggia crime family. This garnered the attention of their leader Count Nefaria who at the time was posing as a legitimate business man. Inviting the Avengers to his castle, he captured them and then had duplicates commit acts of treason to make the heroes wanted criminals. The Avengers were eventually freed thanks to Rick Jones and his Teen Brigade. Although the Avengers helped topple Nefaria's criminal operations and clear their names, the Wasp was shot and required immediate medical attention. When the Avengers learned that the only man who could cure the Wasp was Dr. Svenson of Norway, they soon learned that Svenson was a prisoner of the Kallusians, aliens hiding below the Earth's North Pole from their mortal enemies the Yirbek. Iron Man and the Avengers rescued Svenson and exposed the Kallusians to the Yirbek forcing both races to flee the Earth. Svenson was then brought back to the United States where he performed the life saving surgery on the Wasp. While Janet was undergoing surgery, Iron Man attempted to talk to Captain America about his quest for revenge against Baron Zemo, and how it might affect the Avengers maintaining their A-1 Priority Status. Iron Man was more than disturbed to learn that Cap was willing to kill Zemo to avenge the death of Bucky. Shortly thereafter Iron Man and the other Avengers were invited to the engagement party of the Fantastic Four's Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl.
The Black Widow and Hawkeye resurfaced once again, kidnapping both Happy and Pepper in order to get at both Stark and Iron Man once again. As with previous attempts, the two lovers were defeated by Iron Man and forced to flee the scene. Tony was also trying to keep Happy and Pepper's romance on the right track, but Pepper was still in love with him making matters difficult. By this time, Tony had finally had Nick Fury selected to replace Rick Stoner as head of SHIELD. When Stark introduced Fury to a delegation of government and business officials aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Fury proved that he was the man for the job by detecting and disposing of a bomb planted by Hydra, and then as he succeeded in capturing the spy within their midst. For a short time after Fury was installed as leader of SHIELD, Tony began working more closely with the organization. Iron Man was later on site at Avengers Mansion when Rick Jones accidentally injured himself by crashing into some machinery. While attempting to put distance between himself and Pepper, Tony went to inspect his midwest rocket factory. There he left his briefcase containing his armor out in the open and it was stolen by two bit crook Weasel Wills. Wills managed to open the briefcase and utilized the armor to commit a series of crimes. In order to clear the name of his alter-ego, Tony was forced to wear his original suit of Iron Man armor. While the bulky armor was no match for the new sleeker model, Tony used his experience to his advantage, dodging Wills attacks until the armor began to run low on power. Tony was able to then incapacitate Weasel and turn him over to the authorities. By this point, Wills had worked himself up so much he had developed a psychosis wherein he believer that he was really Iron Man, thus preserving Tony's double identity. 
Soon Baron Zemo made his final salvo against Captain America and the Avengers. Freeing the Black Knight, and the Melter he increased the ranks of the Masters of Evil and launched an all out attack. During the initial assault he kidnapped Rick Jones and brought him back to his secret hideout in Bolivia. shows Rick being captured right before the Avengers, while shows Rick being kidnapped by Baron Zemo while the Avengers were away from the Mansion Captain America decided to go after Rick alone, despite Iron Man's protests for him to stay for the sake of the team. While Captain America went after Baron Zemo, Iron Man and the other Avengers faced off against the Masters of Evil in New York. While Cap's battle with Baron Zemo ended in Zemo's death, the other Avengers defeated the Masters, capturing all except for the Enchantress and the Executioner. In the aftermath of the battle each of the Avengers realized that they needed to take a leave of absence from the group in order to focus on their own private ventures, and began selecting new members to act as their replacements. 
In the meantime, Tony had to rush back to Stark Industries to put on a test for Senator Harrington Byrd of a new test submarine. When Tony insisted that Iron Man test the new sub, Happy grew angry because he wanted to prove his worth to Stark and gain Pepper's favor and stormed off. Byrd meanwhile was incredibly critical of Stark whom he had come to regard as nothing more than a playboy who doesn't take his role as America's primary defense contractor seriously. Byrd was further unimpressed when only Iron Man showed up at the test. As Stark tested out his submarine he came across the Atlantean barbarian known as Attuma who had built a massive cannon to fire a Nautilium missile onto the surface to make the air unbreathable to surface dwellers. Iron Man stopped Attuma's plot, but at the expense of the submarine, which did not bode well with Senator Byrd. To make matters worse, Iron Man was also informed that Happy abruptly left as well.
Returning to Avengers Mansion, Iron Man met with Thor, who told the team that he had to leave to deal with matters in Asgard, Iron Man finally confronted the thunder god about his inability to believe his claims. Thor proved to Iron Man who he was by having him touch Mjolnir showing him visions of Asgard before departing. By this point, Jarvis had been meeting regularly with Hawkeye who sought to reform and use his abilities for good. After a mock up attack on Avengers Mansion, Hawkeye convinced Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp to take him in as the first recruit in a new team of Avengers. Afterwards, the former mutant terrorists known as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver also sought to join the Avengers. This was met with opposition from Agent Merch from the NSA, but Iron Man, finally fed up with his interference, warned him against doing anything rash against the Avengers. As Tony Stark, Iron Man made all the necessary arrangements to get the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver into America. After weeks on the trail fighting through many jungle dangers Cap and Rick ended up in the town of Turriabla, where Cap got ahold of an American newspaper that reported that the Avengers had admitted the reformed criminal archer known as Hawkeye into their ranks. By the time Captain America and Rick returned to New York City they found that there was a throng of reporters waiting outside Avengers Mansion. Sneaking in, Captain America learned that Iron Man, the Wap, Giant-Man and Thor were planning on taking leaves of absence in order to deal with their personal affairs and that they had gathered three new replacements: Hawkeye, and the mutant twins the Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. With the new recruits criminal pasts, Iron Man stressed the need for Captain America to remain on the team to appease the government. After some consideration, Captain America agreed to lead the Avengers onward into a new era.
===Titanium Man===
Returning to Stark Industries, Iron Man caught flack from Pepper over Happy's departure. Deciding to go looking for his friend, Tony tracked Hogan to his grandfather's home in Ireland. However his attempts to convince Happy to return home were impeded thanks to Count Nefaria, who used a dream machine to plague Iron Man with nightmares where he was forced to face a number of his own foes in the hopes that the hero would realize it was a dream and give up. If Iron Man was killed in his dream, he would die in real life. However the Golden Avenger's unwillingness to give up proved to be Nefaria's undoing and his machine overloaded. Iron Man came to just in time to hear Happy being convinced to return home thanks to a phone call from Pepper. Count Nefaria wasn't done with Iron Man yet, and sought to discredit the hero and Tony Stark by exploiting his cousin Morgan who at that point racked up a hefty gambling debt by that time. Morgan was forced to return to the United States and use a projector device to make both Iron Man and Tony see what appeared to be alien invaders. This worked initially when authorities and the press began to think that Stark was crazy, but a chance invasion by the alien Froma race interfered with this plot. When Iron Man defeated the Froma, their battle created enough evidence to give credibility to Iron Man's claims of alien invaders, foiling Nefaria's plans. Soon after, Happy and Pepper were kidnapped by a hooded criminal and his assistant called Longarm. They also stole a new disrupted device. When Iron Man came to their rescue he was immobilized by the disruptor, but was able to break free from its effects and defeat Longarm, but his masked employer managed to escape. Later at a Stark Industries meeting, Pepper recognized one of Tony's employees as the man behind the mask and he was apprehended upon confessing.
Tony continued to get pressure from Senator Byrd, who was still highly critical of Stark. While in Russia, military official Boris Bullski became determined to defeat Iron Man in battle and had his scientists develop a suit of titanium armor to try and surpass Iron Man's abilities. As the Titanium Man, Bullski challenged Iron Man to a one-on-one battle in the neutral nation of Alberia. While the world waited for Iron Man to answer this challenge, he was invited to the wedding of the Fantastic Four's Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl. However the wedding was marred by the Fantastic Four's foe Dr. Doom who used his Emotion Changer device to send an army of villains to attack the wedding. Iron Man joined the various superheroes in attendance against this army of super-villains defeating his old foe the Unicorn, as well as the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android. Eventually the battle was ended when the Watcher provided Mr. Fantastic with a time-displacer device that banished the villains and erased everyone's memories of the battle and the wedding continued without issue.
Tony then returned his attention to SHIELD who at the time was trying to dismantle the terrorist organization known as Hydra. While attempting to show SHIELD director Nick Fury his new Braino-Saur device, they were attacked by Hydra. While Stark was able to protect himself, Fury was captured. When Hydra later launched their Betatron Bomb into Earth's orbit, Stark planned to pilot the Braino-Saur himself to disarm it. While SHIELD agents stormed Hydra's headquarters to free Nick Fury, Stark launched the Braino-Saur into space. While that Hydra cell was dismantled, Stark succeeded in disarming their Betatron Bomb. Shortly thereafter when discredited SHIELD esper Mentallo and the terrorist known as the Fixer kidnapped Nick Fury and held him hostage, Fury led SHIELD agents in another rescue. This time, Stark utilized SHIELD's Psi-Division and his Neutralizer device to incapacitate Mentallo so that SHIELD operatives could free Fury. Returning to his own business, Tony decided to accept the Titanium Man's challenge to a battle that would be broadcast around the world. While in Alberia, Tony snubbed Countess Stephanie de la Spiroza who was also there and she vowed to get even with him. Out on the battlefield, Iron Man found that the Titanium Man was not only more durable and powerful than himself, but the battle field had been rigged with traps in advance. While Iron Man and the Titanium Man were battling it out, the Countess broke into Tony's hotel room and stole a new device he was developing in order to get him to see her. After the first round ended, Tony decided to install the new device to give him the leading edge in battle. Rushing back to his hotel room, he found it missing. Finding evidence that the Countess was in his room, Iron Man had Happy track her down and recover the device while he continued his battle. Happy recovered the component but the battle had already begun. Rushing the device to Iron Man, Happy was caught in a blast from one of the Titanium Man's weapons. Passing the weapon on to Iron Man, Happy revealed that he knew that Iron Man was secretly Tony Stark before seemingly dying. 
===Congressional Hearing===
With the new device, and seeking to avenge his friend, Iron Man was able to defeat the Titanium Man in battle, winning a victory for the United States. Soon after the battle, Iron Man learned that Happy was still alive -- but in critical condition -- and was being rushed back to the United States. Returning home, Tony acted cold an uncaring about Happy's fate in an effort to further push Pepper away, even though it hurt him as much as it did Pepper. While Iron Man was hailed as a hero, Tony continued to struggle with his various personal troubles. Meanwhile, Senator Byrd was demanding that Tony reveal Iron Man's secret identity and reveal the technological secrets of his armor for the sake of national security. To make matters worse, Countess de la Spiroza hired the Mad Thinker to get revenge against Stark for snubbing her. The Thinker unleashed his Awesome Android on Stark Industries, but Iron Man forced the android to return him to the Thinker's hideout where he defeated the android and turned the Thinker over to the authorities. To punish the Countess, Iron Man forced her to walk home from the Thinker's hideout. Tony continued to show lack of concern for Happy's condition, further driving Pepper away from him. Going to check on Happy as Iron Man, Tony learned that his friend was just kidnapped by the Black Knight, who had broken out of jail and was seeking revenge against the Avengers once again. Iron Man tracked the Black Knight to his hideout in a nearby castle where they battled in the air. Both were thrown from the Black Knight's horse. While both men fell, Iron Man survived the plunge and called the authorities for help. While paramedics were able to pull Happy away, a weakened Iron Man was unable to get their attention and was left behind.The Black Knight was confirmed to have died in the fall in 
Sending out a distress signal, Iron Man managed to reach Pepper Potts at Stark Industries who came to rescue him. Much to Tony's dismay, he found that Pepper was now falling in love with Iron Man now that she had grown to hate Tony Stark. This proved to be a minor concern when Tony learned that the doctors treating Happy were going to use his untested Enervator device. Fearing that it might mutate Hogan, Iron Man rushed off to the hospital, blowing off Senator Byrd's request for a meeting in the process. However the iron clad hero arrived too late as the Enervator was used and it mutated Happy into a brutish creature that was later dubbed the Freak. Iron Man tried to contain the Freak, but he held back for fear of harming Happy. The Freak however had not such concerns and beat Iron Man to the point where his energy was running low and fled. Iron Man caught up just in time to save Pepper, whom the Freak tossed out of a window. Iron Man then led the Freak back to the Enervator. The device worked in restoring Happy back to normal, but he was struck with amnesia when Tony -- doffing his armor -- revived him. The Freak's attack was the last straw for Senator Byrd who served a subpoena to Stark forcing him to attend a congressional hearing. Tony agreed to go along, but en route he was teleported to the castle headquarters of the Mandarin who sought to get at Iron Man through his "employer". The villain blasted Stark's briefcase out of his hand and then unleashed his latest creation the massive android known as Ultimo.In both and the Mandarin claims to have created Ultimo however revealed that Ultimo was actually created by an alien race centuries earlier before being buried on Earth. Stark managed to escape from the Mandarin and recover his briefcase. Changing into Iron Man confronted Ultimo as it was attacking the Chinese military. Iron Man quickly defeated Ultimo by tricking the android into burying itself in the volcano from which it had arisen. Stealing a ride back into the United States, Tony returned to Stark Industries to find that it had been shut down and the government had put a warrant out for his arrest for failing to show up at his congressional hearing.
Running low on power, Tony tried to get help from both Pepper and Happy but neither were home at the time. Able to change into Iron Man bought him some time, but he was forced into battle during a chance encounter with the Atlantean exile Warlord Krang and Lady Dorma who had fled to the surface world to escape the wrath of the Sub-Mariner. The pair fled, and with his armor heavily damaged, Iron Man was forced to break into Stark Industries to make repairs.Krang and Dorma fled the Sub-Mariner in . Krang forced Dorma to agree to marry him in order to stop him from using the creature known as the Behemoth from slaying Namor. Iron Man's repairs were interrupted by the Sub-Mariner who witnessed his battle with Krang and sought to battle Iron Man for interfering in his affairs. The Armored Avenger managed to stall long enough to repair his armor and recharge it, temporarily repelling his foe. The battle raged on soon after until Namor spotted Krang's ship and abandoned the fight. Tony however realized that he could no longer run and agreed to meet with congress and answer their questions regarding Iron Man. Although agreeing to surrender to authorities, Tony managed to slip away and change into Iron Man to fly to Washington himself. Meanwhile the Russian government sought to prevent the secrets of Iron Man's armor from becoming known to the United States and sent an upgraded Titanium Man to the United States to stop Iron Man. In spite of his increased size and upgrades, the Titanium Man was no match for Iron Man. But the tide of battle changed when Pepper and Happy arrived on the scene. When Pepper rushed into the middle of the battle, the Titanium Man attempted to use her as a hostage. Iron Man saved Pepper, and defeated the Titanium Man who managed to escape. With the battle over, Iron Man was hailed as a hero, Happy's memory was restored, and Pepper's love for Tony was renewed.
Tony then went before Congress and was about to reveal his double-identity and the secrets of his armor when suddenly he suffered a heart attack. When a doctor began performing emergency medical treatment, the chest plate that kept Tony alive for so long after his accident quickly became public knowledge and people began to wonder if Stark and Iron Man were the same person. With Stark recovering in the hospital, he quickly realized that it was not the time to reveal his double identity. In order to protect it, Tony convinced Happy to briefly pose as Iron Man while he was in the hospital. While this ploy worked, it worked too well as Happy was then kidnapped by the Mandarin who teleported "Iron Man" away. Determined to save Happy, Tony secretly fled the hospital and returned to the recently re-opened Stark Industries. There he built a more powerful version of his Mode 3 armor and and used a rocket to launch himself into China to face the Mandarin. Tony then battled the Mandarin who was unprepared for the more powerful armor. Iron Man managed to free Happy, programming his armor to fly his friend to an American army base in Okinawa, Japan. Iron Men then easily defeated the Mandarin, foiling yet another one of his plans to cause a Chinese missile test to spark a world war by altering the missile's trajectory back to the Mandarin's castle. Iron Man fled, as the castle exploded seemingly slaying the Mandarin.The Mandarin was not actually killed here as he is seen again in , he survived by special teleporter as revealed in .
===Rebound===
Although officially on a leave of absence from the group, Iron Man and Tony Stark still assisted the Avengers whenever possible. When his teammate Goliath was stuck at a height of 12 feet, Tony sent Stark Industries scientist Bill Foster to help Goliath solve his problem.Goliath and Bill Foster would not find a cure to this condition until Iron Man was later called back to Avengers duty when Spider-Man was nominated for membership. The founding members sent Spidey on a test mission to capture the Hulk, but the hero decided against capturing the gamma spawned brute after meeting his alter-ego, Bruce Banner and declined Avengers membership. Returning to Stark Industries, Tony evacuated his Flushing, New York facility in order to test a new Earth boring device as Iron Man. However the device was targeted by the Mole Man, who sank the entire facility to obtain it. While fighting off the Mole Man and his Moloids, Iron Man found Pepper Potts had also been trapped below the Earth with him. The Iron Avenger managed to rescue Pepper and set the digging device to explode. Although his factory was destroyed in the process, the Mole Man seemingly perished as well.The Mole Man survived, as revealed in 
Tony soon began having the factory rebuilt, but the new construction wasn't the only major change to occur during this period. First, Tony was visited by Senator Byrd who informed him at that the inquest into his Iron Man technology and the true identity of Iron Man was being dropped in order to prevent these from being known to enemies of American interests. During the construction, an accident also revealed that Pepper chose her feelings for Happy over those of Tony. Accepting that Pepper was finally with the man she deserved, Tony retreated into the life of a playboy, taking on dates every night. Soon the Melter broke out of prison with a new melting ray and attacked Stark Industries in the hopes of forcing Stark into building a smaller version of the weapon. Unwilling to risk his armor being melted, Tony changed out of his armor only to get caught by the Melter shortly thereafter. Tony complied with the Melter's wishes, however he built a flaw into the device that would cause it to break down after it had been used long enough. Now able to melt not just metal, but any substance based on various settings, the Melter turned the weapon on Tony and left him for dead. Since the melting ray was set for human flesh and struck Tony's metal chest plate, he survived the attack. Tony then was forced to put on his original Iron Man armor to face the Melter, holding his own against the foe until the weapon self-destructed leading to the Melter's apprehension. Tony then began developing a new centrifugal ray when his facilities was attacked by the so-called Crusher, a mutated scientist seeking to destroy Iron Man for his government employers in Cuba. Iron Man used the centrifugal ray to send the Crusher plummeting below the Earth ending his threat for a time. Afterward he was visited by Pepper and Happy who informed him that they had eloped, and Tony gave them his blessing. The couple then left his employ.This story depicted Crusher being directed by the late Fidel Castro, former leader of Cuba. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. While not implicitly stated here, Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts leaving Stark Industries was confirmed in 
Not long after this, Stark provided a prison with a new laser containment system, however despite this new addition the Avengers foe known as the Living Laser managed to escape from his cell. Iron Man went to warn the Avengers and the team was informed by Nick Fury that Iron Man's old foe the Mandarin was gathering an army of super-villains in a bid for world domination. The Avengers then split up into groups to stop the various global threats posed by the villains. Iron Man and Goliath traveled to South America where they prevented the Swordsman and Powerman from destroying a city. They later re-joined the Avengers in destroying the Mandarin's orbital death ray satellite, but the Mandarin managed to evade capture once again. Iron Man later joined the other Avengers for a ceremony in Central Park celebrating the Avengers victory, but he had to abruptly leave to attend to personal matters. Iron Man then traveled to Southeast Asia to help the military test out new weapons designed by Stark Industries. He was also asked to deal with the mad scientist Half-Face who was terrorizing the region.The narrative of this story states it takes place in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. However per 's entry on Titanium Man this has been generalized to Southeast Asia per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 At Half-Face's castle Iron Man faced off against a revived Titanium Man, who easily defeated the Avenger before heading off to destroy a local village in the hopes that American forces would be blamed for the attack. Iron Man managed to revive himself in enough time to stop the Titanium Man's rampage, and Half-Face decided to turn on his employers when he realized that his family was living in the village.
===Big M===
When Tony returned to the United States he was shocked to find that Nick Fury had assigned agent Jasper Sitwell to provide additional security at the facility. Soon Stark Industries came under attack from the Grey Gargoyle who sought to steal Stark's new Cobalt Ray in order to defeat Thor. Iron Man faced off against the Gargoyle who turned him into stone and threw Iron Man from the top of a building. Iron Man was saved by Jasper and after the hour time limit on his transformation elapsed, he faced off against the Gargoyle again. This time, Iron Man used the last of his power to redirect the Cobalt Ray back on the Grey Gargoyle causing him to revert back to human form, but this greatly drained Iron Man's batteries and he collapsed. Iron Man was briefly pulled forward a number of years into the future by the students of Doctor Anderson to rescue the She-Hulk along with future versions of the alien Silver Surfer and Thor. Detecting the source that brought him to the future, Iron Man directed She-Hulk to its location before he was returned to his proper place in time with no apparent memory of this encounter."Dr. Anderson" was really the 1940s super-villain known as Isbias. In this story Iron Man appears to have a full charge in his armor and knows who She-Hulk is even though he would not meet her for many years. This could be attributed to the fact that Isbias' device utilized energies from the so-called Fourth Wall. Those who are aware of its existence seem to be aware that they are merely comic book characters. It can be assumed brief exposure to Fourth Wall energies temporarily restored Iron Man's armor and made him aware of whom he was interacting with.
Around this time the Maggia was being led by the mysterious Big M who was seeking to collect on the debt owed by Tony's cousin Morgan. When Morgan was at risk of being tortured by Whiplash, the Big M's enforcer, he offered to bring Iron Man to the Maggia. While Jasper Sitwell was occupied with trying to get Iron Man medical attention, Morgan forced his way onto the property and secreted him away. Still conscious, Iron Man allowed Morgan to take him away, utilizing the cigarette lighter in the back seat to recharge his armor. When cousin Morgan brought Tony out to the Maggia's illegal gambling yacht located beyond the 12 mile limit, Iron Man sprung into action. However his surprise attack was short lived as the Big M trapped Iron Man in a room alone with Whiplash. Still low on power, Iron Man sustained damage against his armor, and was eventually defeated and taken prisoner. The Big M then attempted to burn through Iron Man's helmet with a laser when the yacht was suddenly attacked by the Maggia's rival organization AIM. While the Maggia were distracted by the attack, Iron Man managed to break free and fully recharge his armor and join the battle. In the thick of things he spotted that Jasper Sitwell had tracked him there and saved the SHIELD agent's life before Iron Man was captured once again, this time by AIM. In the clutched of AIM, Iron Man was subjected to a duplicated device created by their leader Maxwell Mordius. Iron Man was then forced to battle three AIM soldiers with duplicates of his armor, but the one true Iron Man succeeded thanks to his experience with his own technology. The damage sustained to the AIM vessel during the battle later caused the ship to explode while Iron Man fled the scene unscathed. On his way back to Stark Industries, Iron Man was attacked by Thor who was enslaved by the cosmic being known as the Collector, who sought to add the Avengers to his collection. Although Thor defeated Iron Man in battle, the other captured Avengers broke free and destroyed the device controlling Thor. Iron Man and Thor then joined the battle, driving the Collector away. After the battle Iron Man departed once again to resume his personal affairs. Shortly thereafter, Tony was upset to learn that the Avengers were seemingly killed and that their newest recruit the Black Panther was accused of the crime. The Black Panther however revealed that this was the work of the villainous Grim Reaper, and revived the Avengers from their death like state.The Grim Reaper is the brother of Wonder Man who at the time was believed to be deceased since . However as revealed in he had been in a death-like coma himself.
Soon Stark Industries was targeted by Drexel Cord a rival business man who was driven mad by Stark's success. Drexel built the Demolisher robot to attack Iron Man. Defeating the hero, the robot brought Iron Man back to Drexel's castle headquarters, while his daughter Janice brought Jasper to try and stop him. When the control computer for the Demolisher was destroyed, the robot went on a rampage. Drexel realizing the errors of his ways sacrificed his life to try and stop the Demolisher from attacking his daughter. Iron Man defeated the robot shortly thereafter, although as much a victim of Drexel's deranged revenge scheme, Tony felt partially responsible for his insanity. By this point Tony learned that Jasper was dating a woman named Whitney Frost, unaware that she was secretly the Maggia's Big M and that she was exploiting her relationship with Sitwell to steal Stark inventions. After stopping a rocket from toppling, Iron Man rushed to recharge his armor and was horrified that the current model of his chest plate was no longer powerful enough to protect his heart. Stark was then forced to remain plugged into a power source to stay alive and retreated into seclusion. The mystery drew Pepper and Happy back to Stark Industries and Tony had Happy secretly begin constructing a new version of his armor that could sustain his weakened heart. While Happy completed the armor, Tony's deteriorating health forced him to overload a cobalt ray causing an explosion. While Hogan managed to get the armor to Tony in time to save his life, his exposure to the cobalt energies caused him to transform into the Freak once again and go on a rampage. Iron Man later saved Pepper from the Freak and subdued him.Giuletta Nefaria -- Aka the Big M and Whitney Frost -- began a romance with Jasper Sitwell after he saved her life during the AIM attack on her yacht in . As revealed in Jasper quickly figured this out and was merely playing along.
===Brief Return to the Avengers===
While Tony was able to restore Happy to normal once again, Pepper held the danger he put Hogan in against him as they left. Not long after this Tony attended the Congress of Scientific Achievement. However the gathering was attacked by the new and improved Unicorn whose enhanced strength came at the price of a shorter lifespan. Holding the scientist hostage for a ransom and possible cure, the Unicorn was defeated by Iron Man and seemingly perished when he jumped off a cliff.However the Unicron survived after being rescued by the Red Ghost as revealed in Tony was later pulled forward in time to the 24 century of Earth-68091 where his counterpart in that reality built the super-computer known as Cerebrus, that went on to enslave the world. The people of this era brought Tony to the future to slay him in the hopes of preventing their dark future from coming to pass. Tony was saved by Krylla who was a historian from that era and she took him to the only surviving suit of Iron Man armor in the ruins of a museum. With it, Tony battled Cerebrus but only defeated the computer by revealing his identity. When faced with it's assured destruction from slaying Tony Stark before he could create it, Cerebrus self-destructed. With the threat of Cerebrus ended, Tony was returned to his own time.Iron Man's visit created the divergent reality of Earth-68091 where Tony Stark created Cerebrus. This reality was given a designation in Discovering that he was developing feelings for Janice Cord, Tony began sending her flowers, however she did not know how to respond to his gifts. Later, the Crusher later freed himself from deep below the Earth and sought revenge against Iron Man. The Iron Avenger defended both Jasper and Whitney from the Crusher, seemingly hurting Jasper's pride. Although Iron Man succeeded in defeating the Crusher by dropping him into the ocean where the villain drowned.
Iron Man was later briefly called back into the Avengers to assist Goliath in examining the remains of the robot Ultron, shutting it down when it tried to destroy them.Ultron was seemingly destroyed by the Avengers in although he would later rebuild himself anew in He was also called upon along with the other original Avengers to decide if the android known as the Vision should be allowed onto the team. After a battery of tests and learning the Vision's origins, Iron Man and the other founding Avengers accepted the Vision into their ranks. However Iron Man was still uneasy and warned the Avengers that adding the Vision to their ranks could cause further tension with NSA Agent Murch and his new partner Special Agent Henry Gyrich. He departed once again after Goliath ensured that he could lead the team. Tony briefly returned to assisting SHIELD directly, by providing Nick Fury with a means to throw off assassins hired by the would-be dictator known as Supremus, whom Fury was able to take down. Later when Goliath suffered a mental breakdown and created the new identity of Yellowjacket, Iron Man was invited to the wedding between Yellowjacket and the Wasp. Iron Man and the other Avengers were also asked to play along with the fact that Yellowjacket believed that he and Goliath were two different being, much to Iron Man's unease. The wedding was later crashed by the Circus of Crime seeking revenge against Thor, but Yellowjacket -- his identity reasserting itself -- and the other Avengers quickly subdued the wedding crashers.The Circus of Crime were seeking revenge against Thor following the events of and wherein Thor was briefly tricked into joining the Circus. Later Iron Man was present when SHIELD commended the Black Panther and the Vision for defeating the Super-Adaptoid. Iron Man then departed the group once again, confident that it could continue on without him as an active member.
Back at Stark Industries, Tony was visited by Janice Cord and her family lawyer Vincent Sandhurst to sell Cordco, Incorporated to Stark. As this transaction was being negotiated, the Big M was being pressured by her Maggia cohorts to launch an attack on Stark Industries. While Tony was viewing the Cord family castle, he, Janice and Vincent were attacked by the Gladiator. Tony managed to flee and change into Iron Man. Iron Man managed to free Janice and Vincent, but the Gladiator fled to help the Big M raid Stark Industries. Iron Man raced to the scene to find Jasper and an army of SHIELD agents defending his business. Iron Man helped round up all the Maggia invaders, but Jasper could not bring himself to take down Whitney, and she managed to escape. In the aftermath of the battle, Iron Man feared that Janice might think his alter-ego was a coward for seemingly fleeing the scene when they were captured by the Gladiator. Tony received more bad news when he heard that Captain America was seemingly slain battling the Hydra organization. Tony took a moment to reflect on his long time ally by reviewing recording of Captain America's history.Captain America seemingly died battling Hydra in . Iron Man returned to the Avengers to try and console Rick Jones who had become Captain America's new partner at the time and took on the identity of Bucky. While attending a funeral for Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, the Black Panther, the Vision, and Nick Fury were gassed and taken prisoner by Hydra agents. They were taken to Drearcliff Cemetery to be buried alive. There they were rescued by Captain America, who turned up alive and well and with the help of Bucky saved his fellow Avengers, seemingly slaying Hydra's leader Madame Hydra in the process.Rick Jones became Bucky in . Captain America's secret identity was revealed to the public in causing him to late become a target of Hydra starting in Captain America Vol 1 110 as well. He faked his death in in an attempt to convince people that Steve Rogers was an assumed alias. Madame Hydra did not die here, before her "death" she was replaced by the Space Phantom as revealed in . & 107 explained that the Space Phantom used a device to erase all public knowledge of Captain America's double identity. This was all part of a larger plan with the Grim Reaper to transfer the mind of the Vision into the body of Captain America. As previously stated at the time, per , the Grim Reaper's brother Wonder Man was presumed dead at the time. It was revealed in that the Vision's mind was created from Wonder Man's brain patterns. The logic of the Reaper's plan being that transferring the Vision's mind into a human body would "resurrect" his brother. Later still in it was revealed that the Space Phantom's activities here were yet another manipulation of the Avengers orchestrated by Immortus.
===Treason, Revenge and Domination===
By this time the Mandarin had begun to suspect that Tony Stark and Iron Man were the same man and sought to prove this conclusively. To this end, he unleashed a Hulk android to kidnap Janice Cord during her latest attempt to sell her father's company to Stark. When Iron Man quickly surfaced thereafter and destroyed the Hulk robot, it convinced the Mandarin that Stark was Iron Man. Seeking to utterly ruin his enemy, the Mandarin then doctored photos of Tony meeting with various officials from enemy states that appeared to be taken at a times when Iron Man was in action. Soon Stark was the center of a scandal where he was being accused of treason. Going into hiding, Iron Man was contacted by Mei Ling, the Mandarin's bride to be, and was instructed to meet at a nearby curio shop for information on the frame job. When Iron Man attempted to go there he was interrupted by Nick Fury and Jasper Sitwell and was forced to flee SHIELD itself. Changing back into Tony Stark, Iron Man hide at Cordco after convincing Janice that he had to clear his name his own way. There he utilized Cordco equipment to come up with a solution to his problem. The he constructed a life-like mask to disguise himself, and then constructed a Life-Model Decoy of himself before going into action.
Iron Man then crashed in on Mei Ling, but the Mandarin chose then to reveal himself and his plans before capturing the Iron Avenger. When the Mandarin later unmasked Iron Man he was shocked to find "someone else" wearing the armor. Iron Man then goaded the Mandarin into turning on a television broadcast of his LMD addressing the media. The Mandarin then went after the LMD leaving Iron Man with Mei Ling. Iron Man broke free and went after the Mandarin, fearing that the Mandarin attacking the LMD could expose the entire ruse. Iron Man arrived at the scene after the Mandarin blasted his decoy and the two fought it out. During the battle, the Mandarin explained his plot before the assembled press, clearing Stark's name in the process. The battle ended abruptly when Janice got in the middle of things and was captured. When Iron Man went after her, Mei Ling realized that the Mandarin had no concept of love, and sacrificed her life to free Janice from her betrothed's clutches. With the Mandarin's escape ship damaged, Iron Man fled with Janice as it crashed and the Mandarin seemingly died in the crash. When Iron Man returned to the scene of their battle he was horrified to find that those on the scene though the Tony Stark was dead and had the LMD shipped away.The Mandarin survived once again and resurfaced in 
Fearing that discovery that the body of "Tony Stark" was a LMD could compromise his double identity again, Iron Man rushed back to his lab where he remotely controlled the LMD, making "Stark" seemingly make a full recovery. He then had the LMD return to Stark Industries where he deactivated it and placed it in storage. By this time Tony had decided that instead of buying out Cordco, he would help Janice revitalize her father's failed company. When they went looking for her layer Vincent Sandhurst, they found that his brother -- horribly burned and crippled scientist Basil -- had turned himself into the cyborg known as the Controller and enslaved the entire town with his control disks. When the Controller captured Janice, Tony changed into Iron Man to face him. The Controller initially defeated Iron Man and then loaded his mento-projector onto a train in the hopes of enslaving all of New York City to increase his strength. With the help of Jasper Sitwell, Iron Man detached the rail car that contained his mento-projector cutting the Controller off from his power source, crippling him. In the aftermath of the battle, Tony was uncertain if he had a right to be romancing Janice when his life is fraught with danger as Iron Man and began distancing himself from her.
This proved to be short lived when an attack on Stark Industries "Project Caribbean" by the so-called Night Phantom brought Tony to Haiti, where Janice was visiting family friend and crippled writer Travis Hoyt. As Iron Man, Tony learned that Hoyt was the Night Phantom having restored his ability to walk thanks to a radioactive pool of water that was threatened by Stark's project in the region. In the end Hoyt sacrificed his life trying defend this healing pool, ending his threat. Tony and Janice began flying back to the United States together. It was at this time that the Mad Thinker, Puppet Master, and Egghead had teamed up to take over the world. Tony's flight briefly passed over the Mad Thinker's hideout causing a brief strain on his heart.The Mad Thinker's base was soon destroyed during a battle between the Sub-Mariner and Toro. The Puppet Master then used one of his puppets to take control of Tony, forcing him to change into his Iron Man armor and jump from the plane. He was then forced to attack a rocket launch at Cape Kennedy. This attack was thwarted by the Kree soldier Captain Marvel. During the fight the strain on Iron Man's heart caused a heart attack putting him briefly into a coma until the Puppet Master inadvertently incapacitated himself, freeing Iron Man from his control. Eventually the Avengers, sans Iron Man, defeated Egghead and foiled the villains world domination bid. Iron Man briefly returned to the Avengers to assist them in trying to find a weakness in scientist Myron MacLain's nearly indestructible metal Adamantium. During this test, based on pre-programmed instructions, the Vision attacked the Avengers and reactivated his master Ultron who sought to claim the metal for a new body. During their initial battle against Ultron, Iron Man was incapacitated. Eventually, the Avengers -- with the Vision free from Ultron's control -- managed to defeat Ultron without Iron Man's assistance.
After helping revitalize Cordco, Tony accompanied Jasper on a trip to a Nevada testing range where the pair were attacked by the Unicorn and Red Ghost, who sought to steal Tony Stark's cosmic ray. During the attack, Jasper pushed Tony out of the plane, and after parachuting to the ground he changed into Iron Man to return to the battle. During the fight, the Red Ghost managed to steal the cosmic ray and use it to boost his powers and the abilities of his new apes Alpha and Beta. He then left both Iron Man and the Unicorn to die in an explosion. The pair survived the blast but their armors were severely damaged, requiring Iron Man and the Unicorn to tether their equipment together to make them operational. They tracked the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes to a nuclear facility in Africa. There Iron Man and the Unicorn defeated the Red Ghost, but the two Russians managed to escape.
By this time, Tony Stark became a target of Mordecai Midas who sought to be the most wealthy man on Earth, part of this plan involved taking control of the Stark fortune. To this end, he managed to get what he thought was useful information from Stark's cousin Morgan. After repairing his armor, Stark returned to the United States only to be briefly incapacitated by minions of Midas. Meanwhile, mercenary Madame Masque set off a bomb at Stark Industries in the hopes of eliminating Stark. This instead reactivated the Stark LMD which gained sentience and began learning all of Stark's secrets. Not wishing to be deactivated again, the LMD then began taking over Stark's life. By the time the real Tony Stark returned, the LMD had made his impersonation iron clad and had the real Stark ejected from Stark Industries without his armor. Cut off from his fortune and with nowhere to turn, Stark was reduced to fleeing from the police after trying to use a car battery to charge his chest plate. As he fled from the authorities he was captured by Madame Masque.Madame Masque is later revealed to be Whitney Frost -- aka Giuletta Nefaria -- who after escaping SHIELD in crashed her escape ship as revealed in . reveals that Frost was horribly scarred in the crash and rescued and employed by Midas Stark was brought before Midas, who also believed that the real Stark was an impostor, in the hopes of using him to take control of Stark Industries. Both Stark and Madame Masque infiltrated the Stark Industries facility when they were attacked by the Stark LMD wearing his Iron Man armor. While Madame Masque fled, Stark was attacked by his doppleganger who let slip to the Stark Industry guards that he was attacking the real Tony Stark. Tony managed to slip away and change into his Model 1 armor and battle the LMD. As the Avengers, called by security, arrived on the scene Tony knocked the LMD into a vat of molten metal, destroying it. However the strain on his heart was too much and he collapsed. Before he passed out, he told the Avengers that he was fighting a LMD, and in order to protect his double identity convinced them that the "real" Iron Man was away on a "secret mission". With Tony hanging on by a thread, the Avengers took him back to Avengers Mansion where he was kept alive by Yellowjackets "Ultra Rejuvenator" device.
===Game of Galaxies===
The Avengers later had to rush Stark to a hospital to undergo heart surgery under the care of Dr. Jose Santini. Soon the hospital was attacked by one of Kang's Growing Men who kidnapped Stark. When the Avengers chased after the android, they found themselves transported to Kang's lair in the 40th Century. Kang explained to the Avengers that he had entered into a competition with the cosmic being known as the Grandmaster. Should Kang win he would get the power over life or death to revive his lover Ravonna, but if he lost the Earth would be obliterated. Cap brokered to have Stark returned to their own time for medical attention and agreed to help. Caught between life and death, Tony had his heart repaired with synthetic materials and survived the surgery. However Dr. Santini warned Tony that any stress could potentially cause his body to reject the synthetic parts and kill him. Finally free from the shrapnel that held his life ransom, Tony now found that while he was free to be Tony Stark again, becoming Iron Man again could potentially be fatal. Tony was soon captured by Madame Masque and brought before Midas who was still attempting to obtain Stark's fortune. While in captivity Tony learned that Madame Masque was really Whitney Frost. His growing attraction to her, despite her now scarred face, convinced her to help him escape. The pair broke free and recovered his Iron Man armor from Midas. They fled as Midas' headquarters exploded, seemingly slaying Midas in the process.Midas did not die here and later resurfaced in Soon Iron Man was summoned to join Captain America, the new Goliath and Thor who transported back to modern day Earth to combat the Grandmaster's champions, the Squadron Sinister.
The trio of Avengers were tasked with stopping a different member of the Squadron from stealing a different world monument. Iron Man traveled to India to prevent Doctor Spectrum from stealing the Taj Mahal. However the first part of the competition was ended in a forfeit when Goliath's attempt to stop the Whizzer from stealing Big Ben was interrupted by another costumed hero known as the Black Knight. The four Avengers, along with the Black Knight's Ebony Blade were teleported away by the Grandmaster. While Yellowjacket, the Black Panther and the Vision were transported back to the year 1944 to battle the Invaders, while Iron Man and the other Avengers were placed in stasis. They were soon freed when the Black Knight used the mystical connection to his sword to pull himself into the future. After freeing the captive Avengers, they confronted Kang just as their teammates won the bout in 1944 and were returned to Kang's era. With Kang having won the challenge, the Grandmaster granted Kang with the power of life over death. Seeing this as an opportunity to finally slay his long time foes, Kang decided to use his power to try and kill the Avengers. Since the Black Knight was not a member of the Avengers at the time, the power did not work on him and he knocked out Kang before he could slay his allies. The Grandmaster then stripped Kang of his power and returned the Avengers to their own era. Upon their return Iron Man and the Avengers unanimously agreed to induct the Black Knight into the ranks of the Avengers. Soon after Stark Industries was attacked by the alien known as Lucifer who took possession of Charles Gray a disgruntled Stark Industries security guard. Iron Man was no match for Lucifer's powers, but the alien entity was expelled from Gray's body thanks to the love and support of his wife, Wilma.
(...)
When Tony's old electrical engineering teacher, Abe Klein was fired from teaching because of his age, Tony hired him at once to instill his new employees with the same enthusiasm Klein had instilled in him. Shortly afterwards, Tony was attacked at a charity party for the Iron Man foundation by Michael O'Brien who blamed Tony for his brother's death. At the same party, Tony was kidnapped by the Super-Apes and brought before the Red Ghost. Kragoff had become trapped in a phantom state after his last defeat at the hands of the Defenders and sought to use Stark's cosmitronic cannon. Stark convinced Red Ghost to return him to Stark Industries, where he made good on his promise to cure him. When Kragofff ordered his Super Apes to kill Stark, Tony changed into Iron man and defeated his opponents, resulting in the Red Ghost becoming completely immaterial once again.
Happy Hogan had been injured during the fight against the Super-Apes, having filled in as Iron Man for Tony. During the treatment of his injuries, he was transformed into the Freak once more, forcing Tony to fight him and siphon off his cobalt energies, returning him to human form. He fought the Blizzard who was out to steal Stark's climatron device, which could be used to alter weather patterns. The Blizzard nearly froze him to death, but he was rescued by Pepper Potts who reenergized his armor. Iron Man caught up with Blizzard and short-circuited the refrigeration units in his suit, incapacitating him and leaving him to the authorities.
Tony traveled to Florida to investigate the possibility of rebuilding Omegaville, an experimental village run entirely on solar power that had been destroyed by Yagzan.In During his visit he clashed with a girl who was possessed by the Molecule Man, turning her into a Gestalt creature. Together with the Man-Thing, he managed to defeat the creature and return the girl to normal.
He next clashed with the Blood Brothers who were under the influence of the Controller. He defeated them with help from Daredevil and then went on to confront the Controller himself. After an attempt at sealing the Controller in plastic, he defeated him by short-circuiting his powers using the symbiotic link between the Blood Brothers. At this time, a new secretary named Krissy Longfellow began working for him.
Stark was contacted by a competitor firm, Aerospace Limited, who had a previous patent on a rocket pack he was trying to patent. Meanwhile, the Melter stole a tactical atomic bomb from the US Army, blackmailing them for six million dollars. He was defeated by Iron Man, who used his oldest armor as a remote-controlled robot as a diversion. During the test of a space rescue device, he crash-landed and was taken prisoner by Commander Kraken.
==References==
==Notations==
Category:Expanded History