Iron Man (armor)

Iron Man is the name of the suit of armor developed by Tony Stark created with the help of Yinsen as a means of escaping captivity in Afghanistan. Once Stark got back to home, he perfected the armor using the vast resources of his former weapons factory Stark Industries.

Tony Stark took the name Iron Man after the suit of armor he built and wore, and used the name as his secret identity for a brief period of time.

The Avengers
After Loki infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. and steals the Cosmic Cube, Nick Fury decides it's time to re-establish the Avengers Initiative. Agent Coulson travels to the newly built Stark Tower where Tony and Pepper are celebrating the successful creation of a new, clean energy source. Tony is informed of Coulson's presence at Stark Tower by J.A.R.V.I.S. to which he informs him that he has "reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark" and refuses to see him. Coulson enters the building anyway and informs Tony that the Initiative is now active and they need him to come in, handing Stark several holographic screens containing information about Captain America, Thor, Bruce Banner and Loki.

Stark suits up in his Mark VI armor and travels to Germany where he finds his old acquaintance, Natasha Romanoff in a jet overlooking the newly unfrozen Captain America in the middle of a battle with the hostile god, Loki. Stark jets right in and blasts Loki with his Repulsors and stands tall next to the Captain forcing Loki to surrender. After escorting Loki onto the Quinjet, the team head back to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Hellicarrier. Stark comments on Steve's fighting skills subtly mocks him. The Quinjet is then surrounded by a storm and is attacked by the Asgardian "God of Thunder", Thor who breaks in and promptly grabs Loki before he flies away. Stark immediately flies off after the two.

While Thor has landed on a mountain top and begins threatening Loki, Tony blasts straight into Thor hurling him onto the forest floor. Stark refuses to let Thor get close to Loki and the two began a fierce battle. During the fight, Thor summons lightning to his hammer, Mjolnir, and electrocutes Stark only for J.A.R.V.I.S. to inform him that this has powered his suit to 475% capacity, allowing him blast Thor off his feet. The armor takes a beating during the battle as Thor easily begins to crush it. The fight is broken up by Captain America who after matching Mjolnir with his Shield manages to stop Thor. They take Loki back to the Hellicarrier where Tony meets Bruce Banner and they both discuss the Tesseract but not before Tony plants a hacking device and allows J.A.R.V.I.S. to begin searching S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database to find out their secrets. Tony and Bruce find out that S.H.I.E.L.D. were trying to harness the Tesseract's powers to create weapons of mass destruction, during a huge argument with Fury, Romanoff, Rogers, Banner and Thor, Loki's mind-controlled troops including Hawkeye had caused an explosion on the Hellicarrier in order to break Loki out. Stark suits up as Iron Man and begins to fix the ship from the outside with the aid of Steve.

Upon fixing the ship and fighting off some of Loki's troops, the duo learn that Banner transformed into the Hulk and escaped from the ship, as well as Thor being ejected from the Hellicarrier by Loki who escaped and murdered Agent Coulson. Fury informs the two that the Avengers Initiative was so that the isolated individuals could become something more and that Coulson died still believing this. Stark takes his death hard and works out where Loki is planning his attack. Iron Man, Captain America, Natasha and Hawkeye (now free from Loki's mind control) travel to Stark Tower where Tony finds Loki has installed a device powered by the Tesseract.

Tony takes off his his armor and begins to "threaten" Loki, secretly putting on two metal bracelets moments before Loki throws him out of the window, as he falls he orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to deploy his new Mark VII suit which jet packs out the window after him and forms around him moments before he hits the ground. Stark flies back up to Loki and blasts him backwards in the name of Agent Coulson. Tony is however confronted by Loki's device which opens a portal into space where Loki's army of Chitauri fly into New York and begin their war against Earth. Iron Man is joined by his team mates as they begin to battle the alien menace. Tony begins to chase after a Leviathan, a giant alien serpent and the warship to dozens of Chitauri. When he is notified of Banner's arrival on the field, Tony leads the serpent towards him so Bruce will transform into the Hulk and defeat it. Tony lands on the ground alongside his fellow heroes, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow. The team are then confronted by hundreds of Chitauri who fly in through the portal as well as several more Leviathans. Rogers gives out orders and instructs Tony to take to the skies and take out more Chitauri. Tony even takes out a Leviathan by flying head first into it mouth and launching missiles from the inside.

After a long battle, the team are still outnumbered and learn that Natasha has found a way to close the portal. Stark hinders this as Fury has instructed him that the World Security Council have sent a nuclear missile in to blow up Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile and flies it up through the portal and blows up the Chitauri Mothership, losing power in the process and falling unconscious back through the portal just before it closes. As Stark falls back to earth, he is caught by the Hulk who lands with him back on the ground. Rogers and Thor run over to the lifeless Iron Man who appears to be dead, only for Hulk to scream in is face, waking him up. The team reform and make sure that Loki surrenders. The Avengers then make sure Loki is taken back to Asgard by Thor along with the Tesseract. The team disband and go their separate ways. Tony is later seen with Pepper Potts on Stark Tower ready to rebuild after the damage that was done. The Stark sign on the side displays only one remaining letter, "A".

Iron Man 3
After the Chitauri invasion of New York, Stark created the Iron Legion, some built for their own specific purpose. He tests the Mark XLII, which was built so he can summon various pieces of the armor when needed. It is shown that the Mark VII (although severely damaged after the events of Avengers) is still in use. After issuing a public threat to the Mandarin, Tony was attacked at his Malibu home. To protect Pepper from the blast, Tony signals the Mark XLII onto her in which she saves Maya. Once she had gotten to safety, Tony summoned the armor back to himself, fending off the helicopters surrounding him. After being out gunned, Stark is pulled into the ocean and barely escapes. Tony found himself in rural Tennessee after J.A.R.V.I.S. followed his initial flight plan to find the Mandarin. Lacking in power to return to California, the world believed him to be dead. Teaming with Harley, a 10-year old boy, Stark traced the Mandarin to Miami. Escaping captivity by summoning his armor from afar, Stark reunited with Rhodey, discovering that Killian plans to attack President Ellis aboard Air Force One. Remotely controlling his armor, Tony defeated Eric Savin and saved the surviving passengers and crew but was unable to rescue Ellis from Killian. Stark and Rhodes traced Killian to an impounded oil drilling platform where he intended to kill Ellis on live television.

Sneaking in, they were attacked by several Extremis soldiers in which Stark summoned all 42-armors to their aid (controlled by J.A.R.V.I.S.), armoring himself with the Silver Centurion. Finding Pepper, Killian unexpectedly attacked him and Stark was forced to bail from Mark XXXIII. When Pepper was presumed dead, Stark engaged in a fight with Killian (using Mark XL, "Shotgun"). Standing over a platform, Stark (armorless), summoned Mark XLII onto Killian, trapping him and ordering J.A.R.V.I.S to let it self-destruct. When Killian was revealed to have survived, Pepper, also alive (due to Extremis), killed Killian with one of Mark VII's repulsors. Realising the current situation, Tony ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to destroy all armors, promising Pepper to find a cure for her, in which they embrace. Later, Tony underwent surgery to have the shrapnel removed from his heart and threw his arc-reactor in the ocean, vowing that no matter what, he is Iron Man.

Design
With the exception of the Mark I Iron Man armor, almost all of the Iron Man suits share a common design and capability set. The suit is a powered exoskeleton with armored plating, capable of enhancing the wearer's strength, speed, agility, and endurance. The suit is powered by a miniaturized Arc Reactor, either using the one surgically installed in Tony Stark's chest or else built into the chestpiece of the armor itself.

The armor helmet features a retractable visor that delivers a holographic, augmented-reality (AR) display to the wearer. The features of the helmet resemble a human face, with eyepieces and a mouth slit showing the point where the face plate meets the jaw.

The armor's primary weapon as well as mode of propulsion are repulsors built into the hands and feet. The foot repulsors provide the majority of the propulsion force, while the hand repulsors are used as flight stabilizers. Given the intense heat and concussive pressure produced by the repulsors, the ones built into the hands are often used as weapons. When need be, the unibeam repulsor built into the chestpiece can be charged to deliver a powerful, destructive blast.

The Mark II armor was built from basic titanium alloys, giving it a silver sheen. From the Mark III onward, he used a gold-titanium alloy to provide the necessary power-to-weight ratio coupled with the ability to resist icing at high altitudes. As the gold-colored suit seemed a bit ostentatious, Stark took to coloring certain parts of the armor hot-rod red to tone it down a bit without losing the flare he was known for. Later suits were colored a variety of colors, from blue to black to green and even yellow and purple.

Up through the design of the Mark XI, Stark stuck with a basic design and aesthetic, merely improving on the technology and increasing the capabilities. From the Mark XI onward, he began specializing the armor capabilities, beginning with stealth systems. By the time he built the Mark XV, he began giving the armors individual names to better identify them among the ever-growing set.

Behind the Scenes

 * The Iron Man MK2 and MK3 costumes are actually composed of three layers with multiple pieces. First, the actor had to wear a skin tight black jumpsuit (seen in-film, on the Mk3's first deployment) followed by detail pieces (the silver machine parts, most noticeable below the neck). Before the armor could be attached, the body, the helmet, and both the arms and legs, were all separate pieces, and came together in a "Megazord" like fashion.
 * Downey commented that like most bulky costumes, it got incredibly hot in the Iron Man armor suit, and would not be very practical as a costume as it took three people to help him get in it.

Trivia

 * In the comics, before switching his armor to its more recognizable appearance, the Mark I armor was painted gold to avoid scaring people due to its scary appearance.
 * Iron Man's Mark II armor resembles the Recovery Armor in the comics.
 * Iron Man's Mark III armor is similar to his New Avenger armor in the comics.
 * Iron Man's Mark V armor resembles the Silver Centurion armor's color scheme in the comics.
 * Iron Man's Mark VI armor resembles the Extremis armor in the comics due the triangler chest piece.
 * Iron Man's Mark VII armor resembles the Bleeding Edge armor in the comics due to its abilities (according to the action figure), but it is similar in appearance to the Ultimates version of the armor.