Justin Hammer

**Justin Hammer** is a military contractor, and the former CEO of Hammer Industries who had formed a strong business rivalry with Stark Industries. Seeking to improve his own position and attack Tony Stark, Hammer had worked alongside senator Byrd and attempted to damage the public's own view of Stark; however, this all backfired and Hammer's own public image was highly damaged. Furious at Stark for this failure, Hammer then allied with A.I.M., the convicted terrorist, to attempt to replicate Stark's Armour technology, but this backfired as well when M.O.D.O.K. betrayed Hammer, leading into Hammer then being incarcerated.

## Biography

### Recreating the Iron Man Suit

As Iron Man continued to gain in popularity, Hammer again attempted to discredit him by secretly focusing Hammer Industries' resources into building their own version of the Iron Man suit with a new Arc Reactor, which was something many governments were attempting to do. The prototypes were unsuccessful, however, and during one test flight, the suit malfunctioned, twisting the pilot's body and seriously damaging his spine, although he managed to survive the incident.

#### Meeting with the Senate

*"In the last six months, Anthony Stark has created a sword with untold possibilities, and yet he insists it's a shield. He asks that we trust him as we cower behind it. I wish I were comforted, Anthony, I really do. I'd love to leave my door unlocked when I leave the house, but this ain't Canada."*
―Justin Hammer[src]
Hammer was called as an expert to prove that Tony Stark's ego and his monopoly on his Iron Man armor was now a danger for the United States of America, as part ofByrd's attempt to force Stark to give the Iron Man suit technology to the government. Hammer argued that all Stark's efforts as the Iron Man were not good enough to protect the world, noting that due to the creation of Iron Man, there would be threats which Stark would not be able to foresee, claiming Stark keeping the armor was selfish and dangerous.

Hammer then took his seat as James Rhodes was called to the stand and asked to read out sections on his reports on Iron Man, in Byrd's attempt to discredit Stark with his own friend's words. As Hammer remained silent and confident, Byrd attempted to prove his point as he showed the many attempts by America's enemies to replicate Iron Man's armor, claiming the technology should be in the government's hands, while under Hammer Industries' close supervision.

However, Hammer was then humiliated by Stark, who proceeded to use J.A.R.V.I.S. to hack the screens and show Hammer attempting to also recreate the Arc Reactor and armor technology, but ending up injuring the pilot's spine. Hammer tried to save face by confirming the pilot's survival but Stark won the case and confidently walked out of Washington, D.C.. After his public humiliation, Hammer's weapons contract with the United States Armed Forces was suspended.

### Getting Betrayed

#### Battle at Stark Expo

As Hammer attended the Stark Expo, he stepped onto the stage with a brief and goofy introduction where confidently he danced on stage to music, trying to one-up Tony Stark's own presentation a few months earlier. Hammer told the audience how the Iron Man technology had failed to save all the lives on their soldiers overseas, promising he had the solution for saving thousands of American lives.

Promising to present the newspapers with an even more impressive story, Hammer proudly showed off all the newest technology from Hammer Industries as all of the Hammer Drones were presented to the audience. Hammer explained how the Drones could be used by all of the branches of the United States Armed Forces in order to replace the soldiers on the ground as well as in the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. As the audience cheered and clapped for the drones, Hammer became even more confident as he began charging around the stage to present the drones as they rose onto the stage.

Finally, Hammer explained that he would always have a key role for a human at the command of his new army of Hammer Drones and then presented the War Machine Armor, while also introducing James Rhodes as the pilot of the armor. With his drones and the War Machine on stage, Hammer gave a salute which was greeted by one in return from all of the Drones, as promised, while Hammer vowed that his drones would protect the American people.

The demonstration was interrupted by Stark, who has discovered that Hammer was working with George Tarleton. Hammer initially tried to play off the situation and nervously deny all knowledge of M.O.D.O.K.'s existence, but Tarletonremotely took control of the Drones and of Rhodes' armor, starting a massive attack on the Expo. As the attack started, Hammer dove to safety off the stage as his drones fired upon the audience causing a large battle to unfold.

#### Arrested

*"Listen, we got to get these bitches out of here. What?"*
*"You tell me who's behind this. Who's behind this?"*
*"George Tarleton."*
―Justin Hammer and Natasha Romanoff[src]
While Iron Man defended himself from the attack during the Battle at Stark Expo, Hammer sought to right his wrongs and come out better from the attack, so he attempted to have all of his technicians regain control of all the Hammer Drones as well as the War Machine Armor, finding that the pass-codes had now been changed so they were locked out of the system and unable to shut down the drones, so Hammer suggested that they try entering the codes in Russian to find the right answer.

Hammer's attempts to resolve the situation were soon halted by the arrival of both Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff, whom Hammer demanded leave so his men could continue their work. As Hammer was refusing to help, Romanoff took the matter into her own hands, pinning Hammer down and forced him to reveal M.O.D.O.K.'s location at the Hammer Industries Headquarters by slamming his head onto the table and twisting his arm painfully backwards.

While Romanoff and Happy Hogan went to confront M.O.D.O.K., Potts, in turn, called the police and had Hammer arrested for his complicity with M.O.D.O.K.. As he was taken away, Hammer assured her that this was no problem for him and he would be back and vowed revenge against both Stark and Potts. While Hammer was taken into custody, his Hammer Drones were destroyed and M.O.D.O.K. was stopped during his final battle against Iron Man and War Machine.

## Personality

*"Then I got to wake up and look at this chick? 'Pepper Potts stirs up stuff. Look at me.' Some second-rate, jumped up, Amazon secretary. Tony and I... Tony's cool. Tony and I, we have an understanding. We're both brothers in arms, you know. Literally. We were both arms dealers. We're both good looking. We both have nice hair. We both have boats. I used to have a boat. Well, anyway..."*
―Justin Hammer[src]
Justin Hammer is a self-centered businessman and rival to Tony Stark. Whilst overconfident, Hammer is also incompetent in terms of the quality of his technology, some of which are faulty altogether and even dangerous to the user, such as an attempt to replicate Stark's Iron Man Armor results in the injury of the pilot, the outdated software at Hammer Industries described as "shit".

Following the repeated media attention being distracted from Hammer Industries to Stark, especially since the reveal of Iron Man's identity and his subsequent humiliation, Hammer began engaging in legally dubious activities to finally gain the upper hand over Stark, even breaking the terrorist Ivan Vanko out of prison and getting him to assist Hammer. Though a self-proclaimed businessman, Justin Hammer seems to be without his own original ideas such as creating a Hammer Expo, a few months after Stark's own Expo, and lining it with drones (but Hammer initially asked for suits instead) and selling the War Machine Suit as his own, despite it is granted to him by Rhodes from Stark Industries. Hammer is also willing to endure repeated insults to himself and his company for a period of time for the greater good of matters, as he does with Vanko. However, when pushed to the edge, Hammer can undergo furious, almost temper-traumatic rants against an individual who wronged him.

## Abilities

* **Expert Businessman**: Hammer is an exceptional businessman, running an industry of sufficient standing to be a rival for Stark Industries and possess government and military contracts.
* **Expert Engineer**: Although not at the same level as Tony Stark, Hammer is still an accomplished engineer, having created many weapons deemed to be the equivalent of a grade A military weapon that has impressed the United States government, replacing Stark Industries when it stopped creating them.

## Justin Hammer's Designs

* Hammer Drones: Hammer created a line of manned suits that were supposed to replace Iron Man.

## Relationships

### Allies

* **Hammer Industries**
* **United States Congress**
	+ **United States Senate Committee on Armed Services**
* Harrington Byrd
* Christine Everhart - Interviewer

### Enemies

* Stark Industries - Business Rivals
	+ Tony Stark/Iron Man
	+ Pepper Potts
	+ Happy Hogan
* A.I.M. - Former Allies
	+ George Tarleton/M.O.D.O.K.
* James Rhodes/War Machine - Former Ally
* Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

## Appearances

In Chronological Order:

* Iron Man 2

## Trivia

* In the comics, Justin Hammer is much older and more cynical than his MCU counterpart, and his hatred of Tony Stark is much more apparent. The reason for this change was to create a more anti-Tony Stark-type character by having him around the same age.