Obadiah Stane

Obadiah Stane is the President and CEO Stane International , munitions dealer, former chess champion.

## History

   Obadiah Stane was the son of Zebediah Stane, a drunkard who was a failure in making a career for himself.One night, when Obadiah was only a child, his father returned to the hotel room where they were staying, having just won a great deal of money gambling. Apparently overjoyed, the elder Stane told Obadiah that his luck had changed, and to prove it, Zebediah played Russian roulette with himself, loading a single bullet into a gun, spinning the chamber, and then firing the gun at his head. The elder Stane thus killed himself with his first shot, traumatizing young Obadiah. Later, Obadiah decided that his father had realized that the world was his opponent against which he could not succeed, and had therefore intentionally committed suicide. Now orphaned, Stane was raised in a succession of foster homes.

### Death of Zebediah Stane

   Zebediah was a degenerate gambler. One day while on a "lucky streak", Zebediah played a game of Russian roulette and shot himself in the head right in front of young Obadiah.This trauma caused Obadiah to lose all of his blond hair and go bald and shaped him for years to come. From there on, his son became a ruthless manipulator who studies his adversaries to find weaknesses to exploit.When defeated, Obadiah Stane tells Iron Man  that he believed that his father saw the world as his opponent and lost, then committed suicide via his repulsor from his hand in a similar to his father's fatal gunshot. Iron Man later briefly alludes to Zebadiah's degenerate gambler and drunk nature while remembering Obadiah after the first encounter with Ezekiel Stane.Obadiah became introverted. He became fascinated by games of chance, especially chess. Obadiah believed that life was itself a game at which his father had lost, Obadiah determined that he himself would never lose at anything.

### Chess Champion

    One of Stane's fellow students at his school, Bernie Devlin, was a better chess player than him. Devlin bested Stane in the penultimate match of a school chess tournament. The winner of the next game would win the tournament. Stane secretly slit the throat of Devlin's beloved dog, Ruffer, and hid the dog's corpse in Devlin's school locker. After finding Ruffer's body on the day of the final game. Devlin was so distraught that Stane easily won the tournament. This episode was the first major example of Stane's use of psychological warfare in order to get what he wished: Stane would discover his opponent's weakness and then exploit it. Stane became an international chess champion while in his teens.

### The Chessmen

Stane began selling munitions made by his company to whatever buyers offered the best prices for them, often to

    repressive dictatorships. Eventually, Stane built his company into a multinational corporation producing munitions that was based in Salt Lake City, Utah, with offices in various locations in the United States and abroad.

Stane decided to create a team of special bodyguards for himself, the Chessmen, whose costumes and identities derived from Stane's love of chess.

### Iron Monger

Looking through Stark Enterprises ' records, Stane discovers Stark's notes on the Iron Man armor. The notes are incomplete and highly advanced, but Stane assigns a team of scientists to decipher them; they eventually create the Iron Monger armor (officially codename "I-M Mark One") which, according to Stane, is "far superior to Stark's Iron Man armor". He even considers selling the suit to the highest bidder or creating an army of Iron Mongers, using them to "take over any country he wanted".

On learning that Iron Man had invaded Stane International's, Long Island headquarters, Stane realized this Iron Man was indeed Stark

    , and dispatched a Circuits Breaker and a team of Chessmen against him. After Iron Man easily overcame these threats, Stane donned the Iron Monger armor and went into battle against Iron Man himself. As Iron Monger, Stane failed to defeat Iron Man, so he finally resorted to the ploy of seizing the Anders infant and threatening to kill him unless Iron Man surrendered. Realizing that the Iron Monger armor was controlled by a computer in a nearby building, Iron Man destroyed the unoccupied building, causing the Iron Monger suit to become immobile. Stane dropped the baby, whom Iron Man caught and brought to safety. Stane gained some control over the armor, but not enough to avoid a crash landing.

Defeated Stane committed suicide by removing his helmet and firing a repulsor ray blast from his armor at his own head. Stark, as Iron Man, was the only person to witness Stane's death, and Stane's security personnel quickly removed the body from the scene.

Stark, as Iron Man, had already freed the Hogans and Mrs. Arbogast before Stane's death. Shortly after Stane's death Cabe and Madame Masque regained their rightful bodies. Stark regained control of his personal fortune, and decided to make no attempt to regain the presidency and chairmanship of the board of Stane International. Instead, Stark founded a new firm, Stark Enterprises, based in California. The Iron Monger armor somehow fell into the possession of industrialist Simon Steele, who sent an employee of his wearing the armor to kill the former adventurer Dominic Fortune. Stark, as Iron Man, defeated the Iron Monger, and the current whereabouts of the Iron Monger armor have not been revealed.

### Stanes Death

Stane's death was never reported in the news media. Only Stark, a few of Stark's associates, Stane's security personnel, and top-ranking SHIELD officials are aware of it. Following his death, Stane was replaced with a lifelike LMD by the Deltite, a rogue android which had been manipulating SHIELD. Through the LMD of Stane, the Deltite was able to maintain SHIELD's interest in Stane International. The LMD was presumably destroyed. Stane International was later acquired by another of Stark's business rivals, Justin Hammer, but the property was eventually reacquired by Stark himself. Most of the corporation's assets were either absorbed into Stark's then-company Stark Enterprises or closed down.

## Powers and Abilities

Obadiah Stane's abilities are:

* Master of psychological warfare
* Cunning business strategist
* Champion chess player
* Genius-level intellect
* Use of Circuits Breaker and a consciousness exchanging device
* Armored suit grants:
* Superhuman strength and durability
* Subsonic flight
* Energy blasts
* Laser beam

Iron Monger's abilities are:

* Genius Intelligence

* Business: He was an experienced businessman. He also have a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)
* Master Strategist: He was a master of psychological warfare, a cunning business strategist, and a champion chess player

## Weapons

The Iron Monger armor is made of omnium steel, containing various offensive weapons including a powered exoskeleton that amplified Stane’s strength, repulsor ray fired from the gauntlets, and an intense laser beam housed in the armor’s chest unit. The armor also possesses the ability to fly using magnetically powered turbine boot jets.

## Appearances

His first appearance was in the comic series, ***Iron Man*#163** (October, 1982). His appearance of death was in the comic series, Iron Man #200 (November, 1985).