Arno Stark

**Arno Stark** is a male comic character who features in Iron Man.

## Biography

Arno Stark was the biological son of Howard Stark and his wife Maria Stark. (Iron Man v5 #17) The pair had long tried to have a child with Maria becoming pregnant but complications meant that child would suffer severe health issues. Howard Stark decided to seek out knowledge that could help the child come to term but most of the people he encountered offered a solution that came at a cost. This was until he encountered an alien **Grey** who revealed that his gang had encountered a Rigellian Recorder that contained a treasure trove of information. The machine had offered the Grey this information if he aided in his escape and he in turn told Howard Stark. Stark then assembled a team of people he knew called the **Stark Seven** who succeeded in freeing the Recorder. (Iron Man v5 #10) The alien machine known as Recorder 451 then stated that he could help the Stark's in the pregnancy through advanced medical science to allow the boy to survive the birth. However, the Recorder stated that the Earth's existence would become a threat in the future and for the child to survive then the planet needed to survive as well. According to 451, mankind was viewed as a potential threat in the future that could provoke ancient races into striking the Earth in around 30 years. Any effort by him in interfering could result in an earlier assault and thus he advised that the Stark's child be engineered to the point that he could accelerate the technological growth with a mandate to uplift the planet. At first, the Stark's refused but faced no other solution for their child and reluctantly agreed under the belief that their son would help save the world. (Iron Man v5 #11) However, the Stark's did not trust the words of the Rigellian Recorder with Howard keeping a watch on the genetic enhancements worked on their child. He came to discover something secretly added into his son's genetic makeup and came to determine that this was a suicide gene designed to activate when he reached his thirties whereupon his body would die. Rather than confront 451, Howard began secret work on a bio-cocktail designed to counteract this development without the Recorder learning of this addition. During the pregnancy, Maria was given a wide range of treatments by the Recorder to correct all the genetic abnormalities and enhance intelligence traits. Afterwards, the child was born but began to suffer health related issues and was taken to the doctor who stated that whilst degeneration had stopped it was revealed that the boy suffered from impairments that meant he could never breath naturally again. Howard confessed to his wife that this may had been the result of his attempts at circumventing the suicide gene in their son. The pair decided that they needed to hide the existence of their son from 451 as they feared his reaction if he uncovered their actions. Attempts at having another child failed with the pair ultimately deciding to adopt a boy who they named Tony Stark. Their biological son Arno Stark was kept in a secret wing of the family hospital where he survived in an iron lung and provided the best technology they could provide to allow him to see the world remotely. He lived in secrecy in order to evade detection from Recorder 451 and kept watch over his adoptive brothers career. (Iron Man v5 #17)

By adulthood, he still remained in the secret wing of his hospital when he was visited by his adoptive brother Tony Stark who came to learn the truth about his past. Arno thus learnt that Recorder 451 had been defeated which meant he was free leading to him asking to join his brother in helping improve the world. (Iron Man v5 #17) The brothers then set about on their joint project of transforming the decrepit **Mandarin City** which they intended to turn into a utopic settlement they called **Troy**. Around this time, he was introduced to Pepper Potts and commented that he was impressed with her work. (Iron Man v5 #19)

The Stark corporate offices were destroyed but Arno managed to move into a new Iron Man Armour he had constructed. This suit was designed as a supervisor unit allowing him to better direct the Iron Man drones in battle allowing them to defeat the two Mandarin ring wearers. (Iron Man v5 #22) He later contacted **Abigail Burns** and provided her with a voice prediction system for her computer after she lost her hands. (Iron Man v5 #23) Arno decided to give an interview with Abigail Burns where he did not highlight his familial background and instead stated that he intended to release a universal cure using Extremis. (Iron Man v5 #26) He then worked with Tony and Abigail in taking down the other Mandarin ring wielders. (Iron Man v5 #27)

Arno was later consulted to aid his brother Tony in using the Extremis bio-electronic serum as part of an operation to help Bruce Banner. Banner at the time had suffered a bullet shot to the head that led to brain damage when in his human form and terrible pain when he was the Hulk. Thus, the Extremis was seen as an option to help repair the damage to Banner's brain with Arno assisting in the procedure after making modifications to the serum. The operation was seemingly a success and Banner was restored with no apparent side effects at the time. (Hulk v3 #4)

Afterwards, he operated independently from his brother Tony and headed the **Maria Stark Foundation** that engaged in charitable causes. This saw him use his genius to enact scientific solutions to problems around the world that clients brought to him. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #5)

Jocasta approached Arno where she wanted to be turned into an organic being. Stark accepted the job and began the process of transforming her at the Baintronics headquarters but they were interrupted by the arrival of Ultron Pym who wanted to claim his bride Jocasta. Arno was unable to stop him and allowed Ultron to claim her for his own purpose. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #16) Afterwards, Arno used the new technology he had created to develop replicas of his parents who were restored to life at Baintronics. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #18) After Ultron's defeat, Tony Stark publicly placed blame for the incident on himself and stated that he was actually a memory of the real Tony Stark that had died in the recent Civil War II. Thus, he believed he was not resurrected but rather a new being and considered himself not a living entity but rather an artificial one. As a result of this revelation, Arno quickly moved to claim that Tony was a product of the Maria Stark Foundation and thus could not own Stark Unlimited. Thus, he moved to take over the company and merged it with Baintronics whilst firing all of Tony's comrades. He then proceeded to devote all his resources into the Godbuster Armor which he began to wear as he took on the identity of Iron Man. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #19) He was briefly consulted by Blue Marvel about a mysterious code that the hero had uncovered in an extraterrestrial murder case. (Incoming v1 #1) During this time, he set about as Iron Man where he looked to curtail the spread of robotic entities as he believed an artificial intelligence extinction entity was coming to Earth and he wanted to prevent the death of humanity that would occur upon its arrival. This brought him into conflict with the **Robot Revolution** and their leader Machine Man who were seeing a curtailment of A.I. rights. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #1)

Upon confronting Arno, Tony Stark encased his brother within his virtual armour making him believe that the Extinction Entity had come to Earth and that he had to conduct his assigned role in protecting the planet. Within the virtual world, he believed he had succeeded in his mission and was hailed a hero for his efforts but was unaware that everything he had witnessed was fake. Tony Stark believed that the Extinction Entity was not real but a delusion of Arno's mind and that he was destined to die upon successfully defending the world against it. Thus, to stop Arno's madness and to prolong his life he let him live his life in the virtual ream where he became adored for being a beloved hero that saved the world. He then convinced Arsenal and Mistress to upload their consciousness into the virtual world in order to give Arno company as well as prevent him from realising that this reality was a simulation. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #6)

## Overview

### Personality and attributes

He considered the world to be full of problems and that he had solutions to fix it. (Iron Man v5 #17) Due to being in an iron lung most of his life, he sought out all forms of shortcuts to communication. (Iron Man v5 #23) This led to him developing many ideas but no capacity to put them into practice. Arno stated that he was not motivated by money but rather by ideas. (Iron Man v5 #24)

Arno cautioned with the use of artificial intelligences with him not trusting them and was also wearing in the use of xenomaterials. This stemmed largely from his fears over Recorder 451 and though the machine had been defeated he still felt cautious with any technology connected to him. (Iron Man v5 #18) He experienced nightmares where he saw artificial intelligence replace mankind and felt that it was hid destiny to stop this event caused by the extinction entity. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #1)

He felt that he never had parents as they were not part of his life due to Arno spending most of the time in a hospital bed. (Iron Man v5 #24) Despite any animosity, he still felt Tony was his brother and he would not aid in killing him. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #11) Arno tended to state that he was smarter than his adoptive brother Tony. (Iron Man v5 #26)

### Powers and abilities

Originally, Arno Stark suffered from a wide range of genetic problems that meant he would never have survived birth unless through highly advanced extraterrestrial medical science. This allowed for the correction of these abnormalities whilst increasing traits that made him incredibly intelligent. This included the addition of a genetic library of required technological 'forms' that was integrated into his mitochondrial genome as part of his mandate to uplift the planet. A general cognitive ability boost was given that was within the theoretical maxim of Homo Sapiens. There was also an input of sensation enhancement that gave him an added drive and curiosity though there was a risk of addictive behaviour with this being controlled through proper education. Arno was also given numinous response downgrade in order to reduce a sense of wonder in favour of more practical measures. A Leonardo Assembly was added into his body along with regulators for previous enhancements with this being followed by generalised inspiration along with cortex alignment. (Iron Man v5 #11) Initially, the Recorder 451 added a time delayed suicide gene designed to trigger when Arno had reached thirty years old that would eliminate him. This was combated by a bio-cocktail but may had caused Arno to suffer from being unable to breath naturally and suffer from disabilities. (Iron Man v5 #17)

He regarded himself to be much smarter than his adoptive brother Tony Stark. (Iron Man v5 #26) Arno stated that he had hacked his own biology and rewritten his own cells to eliminate the need for sleep. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #5)

Stark was capable of constructing his own versions of the Iron Man armour. (Iron Man v5 #22) He initially used these as exo-skeletons so that he could walk with their aid rather than be restricted in the iron lung. (Iron Man v5 #23)

Arno came to head the **Maria Stark Foundation** that was separate from the **Stark Unlimited** conglomerate and independent from it with it engaging in charity work. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #5)

## Notes

* Arno Stark was created by Kieron Gillen, Dale Eaglesham, and Carlo Pagulayan where he made an unnamed cameo appearance in Iron Man v5 #12 (September, 2013) before fully debuting in Iron Man v5 #17 (December, 2013).
* The character was a reference to Iron Man 2020 who had the same name but that version from an alternate future was the son of Morgan Stark.
* It was noted that editor Mark Paniccia came up with the idea of Arno being confined in an iron lung.
* Christos N. Gage said in an interview that, *"Arno Stark is the biological son of Howard and Maria Stark, but due to a potentially fatal illness, he was essentially raised in a bubble/iron lung for much of his life. Now he's out. He's as smart as Tony - maybe smarter - but due to a lack of human contact, people often confound him, and he can be a bit removed in how he relates to them. Dan compares him to Mr. Spock or Sherlock (in the BBC series) and I think that's a perfect example. But one thing about Arno - he has a mission to save the world, and he is going to stop at nothing to do exactly that."*

## Alternate Versions

* In Armor Wars v1 #½ (2015), an alternate version of Arno Stark appeared in the alternate reality of Battleworld on Earth-12311. This version was the son of Howard Stark and brother of Tony Stark where they lived in the domain of **Technopolis** which required all its inhabitants to wear Iron Man Armour due to an airborne virus that killed anyone outside a suit. Arno operated in competition against his brother Tony Stark was became the designated Baron of the domain after the death of their father. This saw him operating with criminal elements in order to take down his brother.

## Appearances

* *Iron Man v5*: (2013)
* *Original Sin v1*:
* *Hulk v3*:
* *Armor Wars v1*:
* *Invincible Iron Man v1*:
* *Tony Stark: Iron Man v1*:
* *Incoming v1*:
* *Iron Man 2020 v2*: