John Henry Irons

Steel

John Henry Irons

## Biography

### Early Life

John Henry Irons was born in the “suicide slums” of Metropolis, to a big family that was struggling to support their young. As such, John was often left to his own devices as a child and into his teenage years. He was supposed to be under the guidance of his older brother Clay, but Clay was himself a delinquent, often running from the police, cutting class, or hanging out with his friends in the local bars.

When John was in junior high, both of his parents were murdered after a splinter faction of the 100 Gang got in a firefight with police. The family apartment was caught in the crosshairs in the middle of their dinner, and both of his parents lost their lives. Clay took this as a sign to shape up and joined the Army, leaving John high and dry. So, John went into the foster care system.

Shoved around between schools and low-class homes, John struggled to maintain his footing with his work. Luckily for John, one of his teachers noticed the boy’s natural intelligence, and kept up with him as he moved around. This woman was Elinore Stone. When John eventually graduated from high school, Elinore pushed him in the direction of college. Thanks to her husband’s connections, and a wonderful recommendation letter, she got him a full ride to Metropolis University.

He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. Elinore offered him a STAR Labs internship with a program that would pay for him to go to graduate school. John accepted. Upon completing graduate school, during which he began development of a weapons system he nicknamed “the Toastmaster”. This system attracted a lot of attention - including from General Sam Lane, who offered to recruit him to a think tank of engineers looking into the increasing metahuman problem.

Irons wasn’t interested in working with the military, and so he took a job at Amertek Industries. His development of the Toastmaster made him rich at a very young age. He worked with Amertek on a joint effort with STAR Labs studying the meteors left behind from the Smallville Meteor Shower.

He discovered that a piece of scrap metal found in the rubble contained an alloy that was near bulletproof and could be used for space travel. When he finished designing it, a launch was planned, and he rode along on it with astronaut Hank Henshaw and star reporter Lois Lane. The launch was sabotaged by Intergang, but thankfully, they were saved by Superman, which would be John’s first of many encounters.

John became a trusted ally to Superman. He showed him findings from the meteors they were studying, even being the one to coin the term Kryptonite and discover how it weakens Kryptonian DNA. In exchange, Superman let him in on everything he knew about Krypton - and once or twice let him tinker with one of the Fortress of Solitude’s android servants. In his free time, John was creating a suit of armor out of these materials.

### Steel

When General Zod broke out of the Phantom Zone and brought his forces to Metropolis, John took up arms with this experimental suit, and a kinetic hammer to go with, and fought back against the Black Zero Squadron, where he found that their armor and his were nearly equally matched.

When the fight eventually subsided, Superman welcomed his friend into the superhero business - giving him the codename of Steel, and then offering him a place in the Justice League, which he accepted.

Steel and Superman continued protecting Metropolis together. John aided Clark in learning as much as he could about Krypton. With some help from Supergirl, John even began re-assembling Kryptonian technology. A deep dive into AmerTek’s finances made John realize they were dealing this technology to Intergang.

As an act of resistance, Steel crashed one of their deals, where he found that the buyer was his brother Clay, now a member of the 100 Gang. He took Clay alive and to the top of the Daily Planet, where he revealed his identity to his brother and forced him to walk the straight-and-narrow.

Clay helped Steel take down some of the 100 Gang’s outposts and expose AmerTek’s dealings. In exchange for helping the DA put together evidence, Clay got a reduced sentence, but still had to go away for a few years. In the meantime, Clay left his daughter, Natasha in the hands of John, who gladly took her in.

Natasha took a liking to everything involving technology and was brought into the fold on the Superman operations. She had a knack for engineering even at a young age, once helping to repair Steel’s suit in a surprisingly quick fashion, and even helping come up with upgrades for his kinetic hammer.

Following Brainiac’s attack on Earth, John wanted to make sure the technology didn’t fall into the wrong hands. So, he started his own engineering firm, Steelworks Inc. There, he began reverse engineering alien technology for the betterment of humanity. Some of Brainiac’s technology was used to make indoor farming more productive. John also held out on selling to bigger buyers - including the US Military, LuthorCorp, and even his former employer STAR Labs, but John focused on keeping his staff small and morality high. When Clay got out of prison, John welcomed him into Steelworks as his co-partner, and the two began working together - brothers, side-by-side.

Steel also became a valued asset in the Justice League. When they moved operations to the Watchtower, he helped design much of the hardware, and worked with Adam Strange to perfect the Zeta Beam transport. He also became a close ally of Ray Palmer’s, briefly working on his Challengers team.

When Superman left Earth in 2014, he left Steel in charge of protecting his city. This ended up being a harder task than Steel thought, as he quickly lost two of his allies, Kara and Conner, when both were afflicted with personal issues that brought them away from Metropolis. Steel quickly began looking for other allies - and found one in the form of the Alpha Centurion, a Roman soldier who had been sent to journey through space, gotten trapped in a micro-dimension, and returned to Earth, some two-thousand years later. He became a close ally to Steel during his time as Metropolis’ protector.

### Steel and the Supermen

Following the Death in the Family, Superman returned to Earth. Steel and Alpha Centurion were operating as the lone heroes of Metropolis. But, seeing Clark distraught over the House of El’s apparent collapse, they offered to continue safeguarding the city, allowing him to take an extended sabbatical and focus on his family.

He attempted to bring Kara into the Metropolis crew, but she was already starting her operations as Power Girl in National City. He attempted to contact Conner as well, who was the lone hero of Hawaii.

Without those two super-allies, he found new ones. Though never officially a team, media outlets dubbed them “the Supermen”. First, a former STAR Labs coworker, Amanda Spence, had suited up and used some of Steelworks’ and STAR’s technology to become Gangbuster, waging a personal war on the organized crime of the Suicide Slums. Next was her partner-in-crime, a mysterious woman calling herself Marilyn Moonlight, going after the same mission.

Then, Sivana Industries tried to come up with their own Justice League replacement, the Sivana Syndicate, which all turned out to be villains masquerading as heroes. Steel had to partner with Martian Manhunter, Vibe, Vixen, and several other heroes to do battle with the Syndicate in Dakota City. But, out of this battle, he discovered the Syndicate’s frontmen, Ultraman and Superwoman, were actually Kryptonian. He took them on as proteges and began to steer them in the right direction. Natasha felt she was finally ready to take on a superhero role. However, John was hesitant, especially following the recent death of the second Robin. But, Natasha insisted, becoming the hero Starlight.

Eventually, even the Supermen fell apart. While fighting the Royal Flush Gang, Nat’s right hand was crushed by falling debris and had to be replaced with a prosthetic. Fearing for his niece’s life, John booted her from the team, putting the two on the outs from one another. Marilyn and Gangbuster both proved to be radical and unwilling to work with the Metropolis Police Department, so they cut ties with Steel and began working as the pseudo-Batman-and-Robin of the Suicide Slums.

Towards the end of his time with the Supermen, Lex Luthor approached him. In the midst of a presidential campaign, Lex wanted Steel’s endorsement, and offered him a place on a corporate-sponsored superhero team, the Conglomerate. Steel declined on both accounts, distrustful of Luthor’s business connections.

Following Lex’s election, Gotham was liberated, and the Justice League returned. Superman came back to Metropolis, and Conner came back into the fold. John started up a romance with Lana Lang. However, they didn’t realize there would be a tragedy on the horizon.

### Death and Legacy

On the day of the OMAC Attacks, Steel responded to the reports of the Watchtower’s destruction at the hands of Prometheus. He raced into the upper atmosphere, and ended up being one of the first on scene. He protected Blue Beetle’s Bug, as he rescued the Trinity. But, in doing so, got stuck in the wreckage as it barreled towards Earth.

Several OMAC androids picked up on his location. As they closed in on him, he used the last remaining charge in his suit for one final blast of his kinetic hammer, destroying the androids as they approached, as well as killing himself in the process.

John’s legacy is one felt throughout the entire league. They named an engineering program at Young Justice Academy after him. Inspired by her uncle, Natasha began trying to recreate the devices he made, eventually becoming the second Steel.