Iron Maiden

Antonia Edward "Toni" Stark was a billionaire industrialist, a founding member of the Avengers, and the former CEO of Stark Industries. A brash but brilliant inventor, Stark was self-described as a genius, billionaire, playgirl, and philanthropist. With her great wealth and exceptional technical knowledge, Stark was one of the world's most powerful men following the deaths of her parents and enjoyed the playgirl lifestyle for many years until she was kidnapped by the Ten Rings in Afghanistan, while demonstrating a fleet of Jericho missiles. With her life on the line, Stark created an armored suit which she used to escape her captors. Upon returning home, she utilized several more armors to use against terrorists, as well as Obadiah Stane who turned against Stark. Following her fight against Stane, Stark publicly revealed herself as Iron Maiden.
Fresh off from defeating enemies all over the world, Stark found herself dying due to her own Arc Reactor poisoning her body, all while he was challenged by Ivan Vanko who attempted to destroy her legacy. After the Stark Expo incident, Stark reluctantly agreed to serve as a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D. where she used her position to upgrade their technology while she began a relationship with Erik Lehnsherr. With the world yet again being threatened, Stark joined the Avengers and helped defeat the Chitauri and Loki. Due to the battle, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, leading her to create the Iron Legion to safeguard the world and help her retire.
The 2012 "Mandarin" terrorist attacks forced Stark to come out of retirement to protect her country, inadvertently putting her loved ones at risk and leaving her defenseless when her home was destroyed. Stark continued her mission, finding Aldrich Killian as the mastermind of the attacks. Eventually, Stark defeated Killian, and was prompted to destroy all of his armors with the Clean Slate Protocol after almost losing Lehnsherr. However, when the Avengers were officially demobilized due to the War on HYDRA, Stark built more armors and resumed her role as Iron Maiden, aiding them in the capture of Baron Strucker and acquiring Loki's Scepter.
Once the threat of HYDRA had been ended, at last, Stark, influenced by Scarlet Witch's visions, built Ultron with the help of Bruce Banner as a new peacekeeping A.I. to protect the world and allow the Avengers to retire. However, Ultron believed that humanity threatened the world and thus, according to his program, decided to extinguish humanity. Through the work of the Avengers, Ultron was defeated, however, not without massive civilian cost and many lives being lost during which Sokovia was elevated into the sky.
After the Ultron Offensive, Stark retired from active duty, still haunted by her role in the chaos the A.I. created. The guilt of creating Ultron and causing so much destruction and loss of life eventually convinced Stark to support the Sokovia Accords. Stark was forced to lead a manhunt for her ally Captain America when the latter began protecting the fugitive Winter Soldier, igniting the Avengers Civil War. The result left the Avengers in complete disarray, especially after Stark learned of the Winter Soldier's role in her parents' deaths. Afterwards, Stark returned to New York to mentor and guide Spider-Man into becoming a better hero than she ever was, also becoming engaged with Potts in the process.
In 2018, when Thanos and the Black Order invaded Earth in their conquest to acquire the six Infinity Stones, Stark, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man convened to battle Thanos on Titan with the help of the Guardians of the Galaxy. When Stark was held at Thanos' mercy, Doctor Strange surrendered the Time Stone for Stark's life. After the Snap, Stark and Nebula remained the sole survivors on Titan. Stark and Nebula used the Benatar to escape Titan, but were stranded in space as the ship was damaged. They were rescued by Captain Marvel, who brought them back to Earth.
In the five years after the Snap, Stark chose to retire from being Iron Man, marrying Lehnsherr and having a daughter, Maria. When Stark devised a method to safely travel through time and space, she rejoined the Avengers in their mission to acquire the six Infinity Stones from the past in order to resurrect those killed by the Snap, and traveled back in time to retrieve the Scepter and regain the Tesseract. During the Battle of Earth, Stark sacrificed herself to eliminate an alternate version of Thanos and his army, who traveled through time to collect their Infinity Stones, saving the universe from decimation and leaving behind a legacy as one of Earth's most revered superheroes.
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
==== Troubled Childhood ====
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Antonia Edward "Toni" Stark was born on Friday, May 29, 1970, in Manhattan, New York City, to Howard and Maria Stark. Stark's early life was often dominated by the absence of her father, who she would later describe as both 'cold' and 'calculating'. Growing up, Stark had issues with Howard, who never told his daughter that he loved, or even liked her. Since Stark was so young, Howard could not tell his daughter his plans for her. Howard constantly talked about his admiration for Captain America, which caused Stark to develop hatred and resentment towards the super soldier. On one occasion, a young Stark was playing with a remote control car when she accidentally drove the tiny toy into Howard's foot. Howard slapped it out of her hand in a fit of rage and told her to not have him deal with any non sense. Stark ran outside and repeated that she wanted to go back to school. Her butler, Edwin Jarvis, comforted her, saying that a father and daughter relationship is difficult to maneuver from both sides. On another, her father scolded him for playing with her toys on the Stark Expo map during Howard's filming of the advertisement. However, Stark had a loving relationship with her mother, who was more gentle and nurturing; she enjoyed hearing Maria play the piano.
At a young age, Stark quickly stole the spotlight with her brilliant and unique mind. When she was four years old, she designed his first circuit board. When she was almost seven, she built a V8 motorbike engine. One thing about Stark's childhood that annoyed her was the nanny who cared for him until he was fourteen. Stark attended Phillips Academy in Andover from 1977 to 1984. While she was in high school, Stark hacked into the Pentagon on a dare by some friends. She was admitted early into Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she met James Rhodes and they became lifelong best friends. At sixteen, Stark won the 4th Annual MIT Robot Design Award, which was her fourth consecutive time winning, after inventing robots which she name Dum-E and U. When she was seventeen, Stark graduated summa cum laude from MIT. After college, Stark returned to her home where she had a fling with a woman named Candice.
==== Losing her Parents ====
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In December 1991, when Stark was just twenty-one years old, Howard and Maria prepared to go away to the Bahamas for a few days over the Christmas holiday and leave him home alone, although his father remained skeptical about how responsible Stark would be while they were gone. Minutes before leaving, Howard talked with Stark, who was outside getting a tan in the pool. Howard pushed his daughter to start doing things in life, but Toni pushed him away, saying that she has a plan. Edwin Jarvis reminded him that they needed to go. As Howard left, Toni slipped off her raft into the pool. Sadly, the couple was assassinated by the Winter Soldier in Long Island and HYDRA covered up the incident to be a car crash, leaving Stark in grief and struggling to process this tragedy. As she stood before his parent's caskets, she said that this wasn't part of his plan. For a few months, Obadiah Stane took over as interim CEO of Stark Industries. Sometime later, Stark's long-serving family butler, Edwin Jarvis, also died.
==== Erik Lehnsherr ====
While not much is known.
=== CEO of Stark Industries ===
==== Rebuilding the Company ====
A few months later, still at the age of twenty-one, Stark inherited Stark Industries and took over from Obadiah Stane, becoming the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history. Having built herself a custom mansion, Stark created an A.I. system that helped out in the house. She named the system "Just a Rather Very Intelligent System," shortened J.A.R.V.I.S., in tribute to Edwin Jarvis, whom Stark had often credited for helping to raise her.
Eventually, James Rhodes joined the United States Air Force and became the liaison between Stark Industries and the United States Armed Forces, successfully earning Stark billions of dollars with military contracts. Under Stark's leadership with the aid of Stane, Stark Industries quickly thrived and became one of the most advanced companies in the world, creating new forms of weapons technology that seemed highly futuristic to most looking on at the weapons.
==== Creating Demons ====
On New Year's Eve in 1999, Stark, with her scientist paramour Maya Hansen, attended a science conference in Bern, Switzerland. There, Stark got so drunk she could barely give his speech on integrated circuits and rejoined the party as soon as possible. While celebrating, she met a scientist named Ho Yinsen who introduced Stark to Doctor Wu, although he swiftly dismissed them both.
While moving through the hotel with his bodyguard Happy Hogan, Hansen, and a group of female and male attendees, Stark then arrogantly avoided a gifted but crippled scientist, Aldrich Killian, who wanted his financial backing for a scientific think tank, Advanced Idea Mechanics. Once they were alone in an elevator together, Stark then purposely told the excited Killian to meet her on the rooftop of the building to discuss him working with Stark Industries with the intention of never turning up, wanting to continue spending time with Hansen.
Back in Hansen's hotel room, Stark looked at her new research into a project known as Extremis, which had the potential to regrow human limbs if she could get enough funding. Stark was amazed by the concept, although Hogan was less impressed and played with a nearby plant despite being told not to. Stark and Hansen then went to her bedroom where they continued flirting with each other before then leaning towards one another for a passionate kiss.
However, Hogan inadvertently caused a small explosion by breaking a plant stem, causing a brief moment of panic. Stark sent Hogan away and then slept with Hansen, leaving Killian freezing and humiliated on the rooftop. Stark was unaware of Killian's suffering and woke up the next morning while Hansen was working. She completed her formula for her to fix the combustible glitch in Extremis, before discreetly walking out and returning home, leaving Hansen behind.
==== Testing Weapons in Arizona ====
In 2009, Stark and James Rhodes went to a weapons demonstration at the Yuma Proving Ground, where Stark showed off her product's accelerated wave explosion capability, or "AWE". Pepper Potts then gave the weapon's specifics to the generals while Stark and Rhodes went to a nightclub. Stark enjoyed the company of two girls, Celeste and Eloise, while Rhodes tried to convince her not to go to Afghanistan for the demonstration of Jericho. While dancing, Stark was attacked by a woman whose boyfriend she had previously seduced, but Rhodes was able to defeat the attacker. Stark declared that she would be alright in Afghanistan thanks to her friend having his back. Stark, Rhodes and the girls then went to her mansion to continue their party.
==== Final Day of Freedom ====
After a presentation of Stark's successful past, James Rhodes was given the honor of presenting the Apogee Award to her at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. After Obadiah Stane gave Rhodes a signal saying that Stark was not there to receive it, he accepted the award in Stark's honor. Shortly after the award ceremony, Rhodes brought Stark the award while she was gambling in the casino inside of Caesars Palace. Rhodes got angry at her for not being present. Stark arrogantly accepted the award, but then handed it off to a man masquerading as Julius Caesar.
Right when Stark was about to leave the hotel with his entourage, Christine Everhart ran up and tried to get an interview with him for Vanity Fair Magazine. Having been told by Happy Hogan that Everhart was attractive, Stark agreed to her interview. She deflected her questions on the ethics of Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing with some swift quips. Upon being morally questioned, Stark defended her actions by bringing up his father's achievements in World War II and how the company's deals with the military funded much of its scientific breakthroughs. She was soon saved from the interview by Erik Lehnsherr then the two ended up at his mansion, where they slept together.
Early in the morning, Stark left Lehnsherr in her bed to be greeted by J.A.R.V.I.S. and escorted home while she began working on one of her cars. Stark's assistant, Pepper Potts, later arrived in the workshop and reminded her about her trip to Afghanistan. Stark remained complacent, unfazed about being late as it was the Stark Industries Private Jet and therefore would wait for him. Potts then discussed matters which required her attention; a Jackson Pollock he bid on, the MIT commencement speech she was scheduled to give, and a form she needed to sign. When Stark complained about being rushed out, Potts revealed it was her birthday and she had already used his money to buy a present for herself from her, much to Stark's amusement.
Finishing her coffee, Stark then finally left her mansion and drove to the Stark Industries Aviation Division followed by her bodyguard Happy Hogan, who struggled to keep up with his boss who drove exceptionally fast. She got to the plane three hours late and found Colonel James Rhodes was still there waiting for her to finally turn up, incredibly annoyed to have been left waiting for so long, although Stark was not bothered at all. She then got onto the plane and sat down along with Rhodes who tried to discuss business between Stark Industries and the United States Armed Forces while Stark all wanted to do just drink and then relax, much to Rhodes' continued great annoyance. Despite wanting to discuss his work, Stark managed to convince Rhodes to have a drink with him and before long, she and Rhodes had gotten completely drunk and held a small party on the plane. 
==== Presenting the Jericho ====
Touching down in Afghanistan, Stark was greeted by members of the military before he presented Stark Industries' newest weapon, the Jericho missile, to the military spectators and demonstrated its capability. Giving a speech, Stark explained that the missile was so powerful that it would only be needed to be fired once to defeat the enemy, noting that was how her father, Howard Stark, had worked and it was a successful method for all of America. The missile was fired and Stark received a round of applause from everyone.
After the successful presentation, Stark had a drink, noting that the whiskey came with every order of the Jericho missile. While all of the various members of the United States Air Force celebrated the new deal, Obadiah Stane called Stark to ask how it had gone, with Stark explaining that they would be getting an early Christmas. Stark got into a convoy vehicle to leave, sending James Rhodes to another Humvee to then go and return to their military base.
As they drove down the road towards the military base, Stark sat with her whiskey as three soldiers sat with him in awkward silence and attempted to make small talk. Stark teased them, noting that she would have never guessed that the driver was a woman as she was asked all about sleeping with various supermodels before she was asked to take a selfie. Posing for the picture, Stark muttered about loving peace while jokingly asking Jimmy not to make gang signs.
Category:People
Category:Marvel
Category:X-Men