Iron Man's armor in other media


The armor worn by the Marvel Comics character Iron Man has also appeared in many types of media since it debuted along with Tony Stark in Tales of Suspense #39. It is most famously been featured in the series of live-action films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with actor Robert Downey Jr. portraying Tony Stark.

Film

Live action

Iron Man director Jon Favreau wanted the film to be believable by showing the eventual construction of the Mark III suit in its three stages. Stan Winston and his company were hired to build metal and rubber versions of the armors. Favreau's main concern with the effects was whether the transition between the computer-generated and practical costumes would be too obvious. Industrial Light & Magic was hired to create the bulk of the visual effects with additional work being completed by The Orphanage and The Embassy.
The Mark I design was intended to look like it was built from spare parts: particularly, the back is less armored than the front, as Tony Stark would use his resources to make a forward attack. It also foreshadows the design of Obadiah Stane's Iron Monger armor. A single version was built and was designed to only have its top half worn at times. The Embassy created a digital version of the Mark I. Stan Winston Studios built a, animatronic version of the Iron Monger suit. The animatronic required five operators for the arm, and was built on a gimbal to simulate walking. A scale model was used for the shots of it being built.
The Mark II resembles an airplane prototype, with visible flaps. Iron Man comic book artist Adi Granov designed the Mark III with illustrator Phil Saunders. Granov's designs were the primary inspiration for the film's design, which were streamlined by Saunders, making it stealthier and less cartoonish in its proportions. Sometimes, Downey would only wear the helmet, sleeves and chest of the costume over a motion capture suit. For shots of the Mark III flying, it was animated to look realistic by taking off slowly, and landing quickly.
Saunders created concept art for the War Machine armor and said that it was originally intended to be used in the film but was "cut from the script about halfway through pre-production." Saunders said that the War Machine armor "was going to be called the Mark IV armor and would have had weaponized swap-out parts that would be worn over the original Mark III armor," and that it "would have been worn by Tony Stark in the final battle sequence."
For Iron Man 2, Industrial Light & Magic again did the bulk of the effects, as it did on the first film. ILM's visual effects supervisor on the film, Ben Snow, said their work on the film was "harder" than their work on the first, stating that director Jon Favreau asked more of them this time around. Snow described the process of digitally creating the suits:
Because of how form-fitting the Mark V suitcase suit was required to be, the production team researched some of the classic comics armors, since they were seen as essentially variations on muscle suits. One specific aspect of an earlier armor was the color scheme from the Silver Centurion armor. The Mark VI armor was designed by Granov and Saunders to be sleeker than the Mark III, while retaining many of the Mark III qualities.
In The Avengers, Saunders stated that "director Joss Whedon was looking for something that had the 'cool' factor of the suitcase suit, while still being a fully armored, heavy duty suit that could take on an army in the final battle." To that end, Saunders borrowed ideas that had been proposed in Iron Man 2 as well as some ideas that had been abandoned in Iron Man and merged them together in a modular suit that has big ammo packets on the arms and a backpack. In addition, the chest piece of the Mark VII was changed from the triangle shape of the Mark VI, back to the circular shape of the Mark III.
For Iron Man 3, Chris Townsend served as visual effects supervisor. The film featured over 2,000 visual effects shots and was worked on by 17 studios: Weta Digital, Digital Domain, Scanline VFX, Trixter, Framestore, Luma Pictures, Fuel VFX, Cantina Creative, Cinesite, The Embassy Visual Effects, Lola, Capital T, Prologue and Rise FX. Digital Domain, Scanline VFX and Trixter each worked on separate shots featuring the Mark XLII armor, working with different digital models. The studios shared some of their files to ensure consistency between the shots. For the Mark XLII and Iron Patriot armors, Legacy Effects constructed partial suits that were worn on set. Townsend explained that "Invariably we'd shoot a soft-suit with Robert then we'd also put tracking markers on his trousers. He would also wear lifts in his shoes or be up in a box so he'd be the correct height - Iron Man is 6'5". Digital Domain had a small team embedded at Marvel, where Marvel's art department created flat concept art including front and back views. Digital Domain's team then created full 3D versions of 14 suits from those illustrations and later turned those assets over to Marvel and Weta Digital for use in their shots. One of the challenges of realizing the suits in 3D was in re-working the designs to ensure the suits had the correct physical aspects to allow them to show realistic movement.
Concept art released in March 2014 for ', revealed the inclusion of a "Hulkbuster"–like armor. For ', visual effects vendor Framestore created Iron Man's Mark 50 suit, based on the Bleeding Edge armor from the comics, which is made up of singular nanobots which move around his body to form a suit, and was developed alongside Marvel for about two years.

List of armors


Animated

In the 2007 direct-to-DVD film The Invincible Iron Man, Stark with James Rhodes' help creates a grey and bulky suit of armor in order to escape from caves. After returning to Stark Industries in America, Stark reveals to Rhodey that he had previously used his company's resources to create several multi-use armors that he had been keeping in storage until the time was right to reveal them to the public. Stark first uses his Underwater suit to fight off the Elementals, destroying one while sustaining minor damage to the suit. Stark subsequently uses a red-and-yellow suit to destroy two Elementals in a volcano, although there was severe damage to his suit. When he returns to China, Stark returns to using his grey suit to fight the last Elemental, an army of Terracotta soldiers, a giant dragon, and even the Mandarin.

Television

1994 animated series

As noted above, Iron Man's modular armor was his standard suit for his appearance in the 1990s Iron Man animated series, but with a slightly modified face plate to give it the traditional mouth-slit. The suit was redesigned in the second season of the show, most significantly by restoring the "mouthless" appearance of the armor.
The trademark of a changing armor remained a constant in the animated series, with the first season featuring the hydro-armor and deep space armor, straight from the comics. The second season, however, was when the variant armors became a focal point of the series; the new modifications Stark made to his suit allowed it to shape-shift into different forms with specialized capabilities that could be called upon for the assorted situations he found himself in. The hydro-armor and space armors were incorporated into this mechanism, and more armors from the comics such as the stealth armor and Hulkbuster armor were introduced. The series also introduced an array of original situational armor designs, including:
Destroyer armor. A miniature destroyer in odins
Trophy room. Used against Asgardians
The toyline also featured two armors which did not appear in the series; an entirely silver Arctic armor and the Silver Centurion suit, dubbed Hologram armor.

''Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes''

Several types of Iron Man armors were also featured in the episode "Shell Games". The armors that were featured were the Mark I Armor, Stealth Armor, Hulkbuster Armor, Arctic Armor, War Machine Armor, and the Silver Centurion Armor.

''Iron Man: Armored Adventures''

In ', a teenage Stark initially creates the first armor completely on his own. It is similar to the movie version of the Mark III armor, with a less complex design and more red. Its level of technology is summarized by Obadiah Stane's scientists when they explain the armor is "more advanced than anything we're currently working on" and that "it's years, if not decades ahead of current technology". In addition to the traditional abilities of the armor, it is able to generate a force field around it, uses magnetic manipulation, and has other various functions, including a remote command system to enable Rhodes to control it from a separate computer terminal if Stark cannot, a security system to prevent people from opening it when Stark is unconscious and a secondary wheeled transportation system that enables him to "skate" when the flight system is damaged. It can even adapt to fit any size. In "Ancient History 101", Stark even creates a pack that allows him to don the armor when and where he needs to, combined with anti-gravity devices so as to reduce the suit's weight.
The armor briefly gained intelligence in Episode 14 of Season 1 "Man and Iron Man". Problems arose due to its desire to protect Stark above all - by constantly keeping him inside itself. However, like in the comics, the armor sacrificed itself in order to save Stark during a cardiac arrest.
The first variation of the armor appears in "Cold War" when he created enhanced Thermal Gauntlets for his armor and used them to help him fight Blizzard. After the fight, he talks about creating Arctic and Space Armor.
New armors then appear in various episodes:
In series, in which Iron Man is the co-leader of the Avengers, his standard armors are based on the ones in the film series. In "The Kang Dynasty", he even made special suits for the Avengers to use in the space battle against Kang, excluding the Hulk and Black Panther.
His current armored suits give him the standard superhuman strength and durability, flight, repulsors and the unibeam projector. They also have energy shields, an electromagnetic pulse generator, arm-mounted cannons and projectile launchers, various tools like a drill or detachable hip tasers, and can absorb and release energy.
Additional armors from the comics that were shown in the series are:
The Iron Man anime series features an Iron Man armor similar to the movie's Mark III armor, except that in the anime the armor is only shown to be equipped with the repulsors, unibeam, and mini-rockets. Plus, instead of J.A.R.V.I.S. as the suit's AI; It has a female-voiced computer named "Computer" that sounds similar to the AI in the suit of Iron Man Armored Adventures.
The plot of the series involves Stark traveling to Japan to build an ARC station and also to test a new armor: Iron Man Dio. Stark intends to mass-produce Dio and then retire as Iron Man. The Dio chest power core resembles the one on the Extremis Armor, but the armor is colored blue and silver rather than red and gold. Dio's head is also slightly redesigned from the typical Iron Man armor with curved features on its faceplate. The Dio armor is stolen in the first episode of the series, and Stark is forced to fight the Dio armor repeatedly over the series. Stark asserts the Dio Armor is a knock-off of the real Iron Man armor, but Dio is demonstrated as being equal to or surpassing Stark's standard armor in terms of performance. Maybe it is because the armor's performance depends on how good the pilot is.
The SDF later create a suit of armor called "Ramon Zero", used by Captain Nagato Sakurai. It resembles a samurai's armor. The Japanese armor appears to have a red pentagon-shaped ARC reactor, is armed with powerful swords, and also uses repulsors and missiles in combat.
Yinsen, revealed to still be alive and piloting the Dio Armor, builds an army of autonomous drones called Iron Man Sigma. These drones resemble the Dio Armor, except the Sigma armor is colored army camouflage.

''Iron Man: Rise of Technovore''

In ', Tony Stark dons an armor that could possibly resemble his Marvel NOW! armor from the comics, but with even less gold color and a predominant red instead of black. The abilities of the armor are pretty much the standard, namely extreme physical strength and speed, repulsors, unibeam, and a suitcase transformation module. Its unique feature is the extra thrusters on its back and feet and the small, retractable wings on the shoulder pads. Stark appears with the same armor in the follow-up anime movie '.

''Ultimate Spider-Man''

In the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man, the episode "The Iron Octopus" reveals several prior suits developed by Stark:
In the animated series Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., the episode "Wheels of Fury" reveals several prior suits developed by Stark:
In the animated series, Avengers Assemble, Iron Man battles alongside the other Avengers. Iron Man reveals that he has made numerous armors in the episode "The Avengers Protocol Part 2". In season 2, his main armor looks slightly modified, with smaller shoulder plates and a more "movie-style" detailed helmet. Its prehensile capabilities are shown more prominently and now it has a suitcase module. It is currently unknown which model is this suit. In season 5, Black Panther's Quest, Iron Man's armor has become sleeker, resembling an amalgamation of the Bleeding Edge and Model-Prime armors from the comics and retaining the "holographic" activation style from Season 4:
In this direct-to-video team-up feature, Tony Stark displays three armors. His initial armor, the 'Mark VI', is a slightly bulky hypervelocity armor with a circular unibeam lens. It is somewhat reminiscent of the cinematic Mark III, but with a less complex paint job and more gold color. It is first seen battling a Hulkbuster armor run by J.A.R.V.I.S. in a training exercise. This time, Stark does not wear the Hulkbuster, instead giving the torso armor and the gauntlets to Hulk for extra protection against Zzzax. Stark's final armor is the 'Mark VII', an untested prototype which has better chances of defending against Zzzax. The armor clearly resembles the cinematic Mark VI, with grey plating on the knees and arms, but with a pentagonal unibeam instead of triangular one. The Mark VII is Tony's main and only armor in the follow-up animated movie Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United. While there was also a Stealth armor, it was stolen and worn by Taskmaster.

''Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers''

In , Iron Man's armor is almost identical to the cinematic Mark VI, although the name of this model is not stated in the series. Its weaponry and abilities are the standard, with flight capabilities, repulsor rays, missiles, and the unibeam. When Akira, Tony's partner, inputs the hidden command 'X-W-1-0-1-Alpha-7', Iron Man can unleash his 'Ultimate Unibeam' attack. Because Stark is trapped inside a DISK, he is always seen in his armor. In episode 28, Iron Man gains the Build Up Plate, an extra piece of armor worn over his regular one, which grants him more firepower thanks to his Final Repulsor attack.

''[Marvel Future Avengers]''

The standard Iron Man armor featured in Marvel Future Avengers bears a striking resemblance to the Mark XLVI from '. The suit has prehensile abilities, shown when Tony Stark is able to control a gauntlet individually and then the rest of the pieces form up on him, completing the whole armor. Two additional modular add-ons were shown during the series: the Hulkbuster armor, an add-on donned over his regular armor that looks exactly like the Mark XLIV Hulkbuster from ', and the Booster Unit, an add-on with a pair of thrusters and multiple arc reactors on the chestplate and shoulders that enables Iron Man to reach extremely high speeds during flight. The main operating system of the armor is FRIDAY.

''Marvel's Spider-Man''

Two different armors are shown in the series, the Mark 49 and 50. The Mark 49 appears to be based on the other armors in the franchise. The Mark 50, however, is mainly red with a gold face mask and collar bone, with a prehensile system. According to Tony, it can act as the central unit to an Iron Legion. Both the Mark 49 and 50 debuted in the episode Stark Expo.