Villain Profile: Baron Heinrich Zemo

I wonder if he ever considered cutting a mouth hole into his mask...

Is there an aristocratic title that sounds more unilaterally evil then Baron? There’s just something about that title that makes you picture an evil wealthy noble holding a glass of wine, swirling it evilly and plotting to murder his higher ranked sibling to steal their title. Or maybe that’s just me. I can’t really think of a good Baron… other then Red Baron Pizza. Just saying. Our next character does nothing to fix the image of Barons, as he’s Baron Zemo.

Surprised his higher ups were
cool with the crown...

Heinrich Zemo was both a Baron and a top scientist within the Nazi party during WW2. He worked in the same branch of the third Reich as Red Skull, Baron Strucker and the other future members of HYDRA. A really twisted SOB, Zemo would often test his latest death machines on captured soldiers and even German civilians. His technology includes enormous death rays, early model androids, and highly corrosive toxins. He often faced off against Captain America and the Howling Commandos. While they clashed a few times before, things came to a head when he was testing out his enormous death ray cannon. He’d decided to test it on a nearby German town in an attempt to kill the Howling Commandos. Nick Fury and his crew escaped, but the town was still destroyed. Zemo planned to frame the Allies for the attack, but Fury and the Commandos were able to expose Zemo. After this, he lost most of his standing in the Nazi party, and he became universally despised. Not enough to get him executed or fired, but he lost face… which made what happened next somewhat ironic.

After that death ray fiasco, Zemo began wearing a reddish-pink hood to cover his face. It kept the townsfolk from throwing tomatoes at him, I imagine. His next great work was a powerful glue that he dubbed Adhesive X. It was incredibly strong, and couldn’t be dissolved or removed by the science of the time. His plan was to release on the Allies, disabling their soldiers and vehicles. Thankfully, Captain Steven Rogers got wind of it and confronted the mad scientists. During their battle, Captain America threw his shield in that beautiful way that he does and shattered the vat containing the adhesive. Adhesive X splashed all over, hitting Zemo in the face, seeping into the hood and permanently fusing the fabric to his face. See? Irony.

The hood didn’t affect his senses or his ability to breath, but lacking a mouth hole made it impossible for him to eat solid food. Being suck behind a mask forever drove Zemo insane… well… more insane. He shifted from a more behind the scenes villain into a field commander for the Third Reich. Once it became clear that the Nazis were pretty boned, Red Skull sent Zemo to London. Why? To steal an experimental plane that the Allies were working on. It wouldn’t save the German’s war effort, but that wasn’t that son of a Schmitt’s real goal. No, Red Skull leaked the plan to the allies, ensuring that Cap would face off against Zemo and kill his ambitious subordinate.

He's going for Cap's heart.

Zemo was able to get the drop on Cap and Bucky, capturing his opponents and strapping them to the plane. Zemo launched the plane, rigged with explosives, and set it off. Captain America was able to get loose and fell into the sea, while Bucky was apparently killed in the explosion. Believing himself finally rid of his hated rival, Zemo fled to South America, where he spent the next few decades. He enslaved a tribe of natives and lived as a king amonst them. Imagine his blinding rage when he learned Captain America resurfaced.

After a few minor failed attempts at killing the first Avenger, he formed the Masters of Evil. This team, composed of opponents of the core Avengers, were hellbent on killing the Avengers. Their plan was to spread Adhesive X all across New York. The plan was stalled by the Teen Brigade, a group of young people that try to help the heroes whenever they can, and finally stopped by the Avengers. Zemo escaped back to South America, to continue plotting. He worked with Thor enemies the Enchantress and the Executioner in one plot, and turned everyman Simon Williams into Wonder Man and had him join the Avengers as a spy. Both plots were foiled with relative easy.

Things were ended when Zemo kidnapped an Avenger’s Ally, Rick Jones. He freed his Masters of Evil and sent the group to battle the Avengers. Leaving Captain America alone to face off against him. They faced a pitched battle that ended with Zemo triggering an avalanche with his gunshots, killing him in the fall. Captain America walked away from the battle believing his partner Bucky had finally been avenged. While that was the end of Heinrich Zemo, his mantle would rise again with his son, Helmut. But that’s another story.

His son is a better dresser,
   just saying.

Baron Heinrich Zemo was a brilliant chemist, physicist, and robotics engineer. His immense intellect would only be eclipsed by his sadism. He seems to relish in causing pain and misery to others. While his skills were only in the academic field, after his accident he spent years developing fighting skills that made him a match for even the likes of Captain America. He also developed a serum to retard his aging, making him retain the physical strength of his prime despite being well into his sixties.

Despite being one a long-time foe of Captain America, Heinrich Zemo hasn’t gotten much screen time outside the comics. This shouldn’t be too shocking, as the original Zemo is often eclipsed by his son in terms of popularity. But he’s had a few roles.

The one I know the best was his role in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. This version is a mix of both Zemo’s, having the background and hatred of Captain America of Heinrich but wearing the costume and having the superior fighting skills of Helmut. He was introduced in the episode “Breakout part 1.” He was being held in the Raft, SHIELD’s highest security prison. It’s where they hold the worst of the worst. This is largely a cameo appearance, as he’s only there long enough to tell the deranged Franklin Hall aka Graviton that he was the longest inmate of the Raft, surpassing Zemo’s own six-year stint. He returns in “Living Legend.” He returned to HYDRA’s base, to reclaim his place at the organizations head from Baron Strucker. In this version he’d been one of HYDRA’s founders. He beats the piss out of Strucker and his #2 The Grim Reaper, but changes his mind about controlling HYDRA when he learns Captain America is alive. He leaves a humiliated Strucker and takes HYDRA top scientists Arnim Zola with him. Zola unleashes a bioweapon called the Doughboy to distract the Avengers while Zemo goes after Captain America. He’s got a great line while dueling Cap, screaming “The Skull can have Bucky. Your life is mine to take!” when he nearly strikes down Captain America. Cap is saved by Black Panther and Zemo retreats. Afterwards, he’s approached by Thor villain the Enchantress and the two form the Masters of Evil. He’s a major recurring antagonist for the first season, escaping several attempts at capture.

Heinrich Zemo is mentioned several times in the third season Avengers Assemble, subtitled Ultron Revolution. He’s the driving force behind his son Helmut’s attempt at reclaiming the family’s honor. His main episode is “The House of Zemo.” In it, Helmut uses technology stolen from the time traveling Kang the Conquering to bring his father to the present from 1943. The two Zemo’s battle the Avengers in the present, and Heinrich bringing a third Zemo from 2099 to the present for aid when he grows disappointed in Helmut. He’s eventually forced back into his proper time.

He’s referenced once by Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War. He and the rest of the Zemo family were killed during the events of Age of Ultron, when the Sokovian capital was raised and dropped during Ultron’s attempt at an extinction event. This version of Heinrich must have been an excellent parent as his death is what drove his spec ops son insane and inspired him to use Bucky as a weapon to destroy the Avengers.

Heinrich Zemo is a villain that I love to hate. Vain, egotistical, narcissistic and cruel, while also brilliant, he’s everything you want in an evil Nazi scientist. He’s a character that I think is mostly remembered for what he did, in forming the original Masters of Evil, creating Wonder Man, and for being the father of the current Zemo, Helmut. And while that’s a shame for Heinrich, it does help that his biggest claim to fame was making the first Anti-Avengers team. While Red Skull will always be Captain America’s greatest foes, Heinrich will always be in the top three. I mean, he’s the reason that Captain America was believed dead for decades. It’s easy to hate a Nazi, but Zemo makes it fun to. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 30

Teenagers battling a serial killer, what could possibly go wrong?

Tenya Iida was intense even at 8.

Last time on My Hero Academia, things were not looking good for the fledgling Ingenium, Tenya Iida, as he fought the Hero Killer Stain. The serial killer wasn’t much impressed by this Ingenium and quickly disabled him. Before he could kill either Iida or his original captured hero, Izuku Midoriya flies in and knocks the villain away. Despite being disabled himself shortly thereafter, Izuku is saved by Shoto Todoroki. He rallies after shaking off Stain’s Quirk-based paralysis and the two heroes-in-training do battle while a furious Iida watches the fight impotently.

We open on a pair of Iida flashbacks. One is to a previous episode where he was gushing about how great a hero his elder brother, Tensei, is. The other is to an older memory of Tenya gushing to Tensei about how awesome he is, and the elder Iida telling young Tenya that he’s such a great hero because his little brother believes in him. In the present, Iida once again tells his friends to run, but they just keep battling Stain. His body is twitching all over as he tries to break free of Stain’s Bloodcurdle quirk. Stain gets in close to Todoroki, chiding the hero-in-training for relying so much on his quirk and goes to slash off his arm. Iida is able to finally shake off the paralysis and rushes Stain with a Recipro Burst. For those who don’t remember, that’s when he shifts his engine legs into overdrive and moves with blinding speed. He’s able to knock Todoroki out of the way and snap Stain’s sword with a kick.

Here he comes to save the day! And he's kicking swords
in half!

Revitalized, Iida says that he won’t allow his friends to bleed any more. Stain is unimpressed, claiming that he doesn’t believe that Iida can be a hero and that he’ll always be a fraud. Iida agrees he’s not a hero, but refuses to back down. They all start battling again. The licensed hero that Stain captured, Native, tries to get Izuku and Todoroki to run as the villain is only after him, but the boys refuse. Todoroki notes that Stain’s movements and behavior are becoming more erratic. The villain still nicks Izuku, stunning him again. Iida has Todoroki freeze his legs, to circumvent the fact that they’re overheating due to the damage his Recipro Burst causes to the engines in his legs. He also takes a few knives to the arm defending Todoroki.  Izuku is able to shake off Stain’s Bloodcurdle again, and he and Iida both rush and hit stain with their respective special moves, Recipro Burst Extend and Full Cowling 5% to the villain’s face. Side note, the level of blunt force trauma that Stain can take to the face is impressive.

We take a brief jump back to Gran Torino and Endeavor battling the Nomu along with the rest of Hosu City’s heroes. The Green monster puts up a decent fight, but is quickly incinerated and flattened by the two heroes. Endeavour, confident in his own abilities to stop the Nomu and remembering his son asking him to send pros if things start winding down with the Nomu, asks Torino to look into where Shoto ran off to. So… Endeavour isn’t a total bastard.  

Back with the boys, Stain is able to get one more slash in on Iida before another kick plus a fire blast and a hard smack to an iceberg knocks him out. With that, our three heroes in training have defeated the notorious Hero Killer. I really hope they have a good healer on hand or Iida in particular is going to have some really gnarly scars.

Double strike!

Back with the heroes and Nomu, the local heroes are having issue with the two remaining Nomu. Faceless Nomu and his flying buddy are smashing things and being a nuisance respectively. Apparently being weaker than the one that attacked the USJ still makes them tougher than the average bear. The Faceless one nearly kills a hero, but is stopped by Endeavor. The flame elementalist knocks the creature back and then incinerates the creature’s brain, killing it easily despite the monsters healing powers. Apparently burnt cells don’t regenerate. Neat. The flying Nomu nabs a hero to uses as a hostage, or maybe for a snack, and buggers off. Endeavor chases after it, hitting it the face, destroying one of its eyes, and forcing it to drop the hero. But I guess Nomu have a high pain tolerance as the beast continues to fly off.

The boys get Stain tied up and disarmed. Which probably took a while, the dude had a TON of knives and other sharp implements hidden in his gear. Iida and Todoroki try to move him as Izuku gets a piggyback ride from Native. The kid was running on fumes by the end of the fight and I guess being paralyzed twice can screw you up. While everyone is happy with the victory, Todoroki is the first to point out this was mostly due to luck. Stain was faster, stronger, and more tactically minded then anyone else. His downfall came about because he was getting desperate to kill at least Native and run. As such, he started to make a lot of mistakes due to his haste. Still, a win is a win. Gran Torino arrives and gives his pupil a sharp kick to the face for getting off the train. Despite this bit of discipline, Torino is honestly impressed with Izuku. More heroes arrive and are shocked to see Stain in custody. Iida is able to apologize to his friends for getting them into danger like that, just before it hits the fan again.

Endeavor is an asshole, but he's #2 for a reason. 

The Flying Nomu swoops in and nabs Izuku in its claws. It splashes some blood around from the wounds Endeavor put into it. Before anyone can react, Stain pulls a hidden blade from his sleeve, breaks free of his bonds, licks up the monster’s blood to stun it, leaps, and stabs in the head. This is all the more impressive when you consider the incredible concussion that the serial killer must have been suffering from. He declares that in a world of fake heroes, Izuku is a ‘worthy’ hero.

Shigaraki, watching from atop a building is infuriated. Both by his Nomu being defeated and by seeing Izuku meddling in his plans again. I’m sensing a pattern forming between these two. Namely, Shigaraki has a plan and Izuku fowls it up. Nice to have a hero/villain dynamic set up so clearly.

Someone should probably check his pulse. Not it!

Endeavor arrives at the scene, which throws Stain into a murderous fury. Can’t imagine why. He screams that the only one that can stop him is All Might, everyone here is going to die, and all that jazz. His sheer, indomitable will keeps everyone frozen with terror at the sight of him. But, instead of capitalizing on his advantage, Stain passes out. Future Narrator Izuku reveals that after the fact they found Stain had punctured a lung and essentially passed out standing up. Well, all’s well that ends well.

This was an excellent climax to the Stain Arc. Seeing this murderous psycho put the young heroes through their paces and shake Iida to the core like he did was both exciting and terrifying. This has been an excellent character arc for Iida, as he was forced to look at the sort off hero that he wants to be. While Stain’s words and actions were cruel throughout, he did push Iida into pushing beyond his desire for vengeance and instead focus on doing what was right to protect others. I especially liked the point that Iida tried to be true to his word, intentionally taking several blows meant for his friends during the battle. An excellent counterpoint to Stain’s adamant belief that a leopard can’t change its spots. Being intensely convicted doesn’t mean one is correct, after all. I especially enjoyed how it took the combined effort of all three boys in order to deliver the finishing blow. Yes, I just realized that I was miss spelling Nomu as Noumu. My bad. While Stain has been defeated, his rampage will have far reaching consequences to this universe. But I'll get back to that on another day. 

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Hero Profile: Iron Man

There was a time when the suit was made of Iron. Back in the 60s.

Wow, I’m at four hundred posts. I never thought that I’d make it this far. Thank you, my audience, for sticking with me for these last few years. I’ve enjoyed writing my various hero and villain profiles, TV and movie series, and anime, and hope to keep making these post well into the future. In honor of this special occasion I feel that I should do a post on arguable the most popular superhero of the last decade, Iron Man.

The start of something amazing.

Iron Man began his life as Anthony “Tony” Stark. Son of Howard and Maria Stark, Tony was given a life of extreme privilege. Being the son of one of the richest industrialists in the word will do that. Tony was extremely intelligent, graduating MIT with Master’s degrees in Engineering and Physics before he was old enough to vote. Sadly, his parents died in a car accident a few years after graduation, and Tony inherited Stark Industries. Tony proved to be an excellent CEO and owner of Stark Industries, pushing the technology his company produced to it’s very limit. Unfortunately, Tony’s personal demons made it hard to like the man. He had a weakness for alcohol, gambling and women.

Things took a turn while showing off some new weapons during the Vietnam War. Tony was injured by a booby trap and captured by the Viet Cong, led by a fella named Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu wanted his prisoner to build him weapons to fight off the Americans, but the shrapnel in Tony’s chest effected his productivity. Chu forced another prisoner, Ho Yinsen, to build a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from ending Stark. Stark and Yinsen worked on weapons for Chu, but in secret also began work on a suit of powered armor to aid them in an escape attempt. The armored exoskeleton would protect Tony and was equipped with enough weaponry to plow through a small army. Which he did, but unfortunately Yinsen was killed providing a distraction for Tony to escape. Tony was picked up by the US Army, and met his future best friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes.

Yes, there was a time when Iron Man fought crime in the
Mark I Armor.

Once back stateside began upgrading his suits of armor and started battling threats to both himself, his company, and/or the United States. Tony circulated the story that the Invincible Armored Iron Man was his personal bodyguard. He pulled a Batman, portraying himself as too much of a playboy industrialist for anyone to take him seriously as a superhero. He cultivated a plethora of villainous opponents, including Black Widow (while she was still a Russian Agent); a pair of armored villains, The Crimson Dynamo (multiple Russian Agents don the suit) and Titanium Man (Merc in a battle suit); and the Mandarin.

He quickly formed the original Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and the Hulk. The heroes came together after Thor’s villainous brother Loki attempted to use the Hulk to kill Thor. Iron Man and the insect duo were also drawn in after tracing the distress call the Loki used to draw Thor to the Hulk. While the team initially believed that the Hulk was the menace, they ultimately came together to stop Loki and agreed to work together should ever an issue too big for any one of them to arise.

As the years went on, Tony’s dependence on alcohol grew more severe. Nearly dying on several occasions can do that to a fella. And finding out SHIELD had been buying shares of Stark Industries in an attempt to force Tony to continue to build weapons for them. Not cool Fury, not cool. It took some doing but he put the kibosh on that. Around the same time, criminal industrialist Justin Hammer used his own resources, a small army of Tony’s minor tech-based opponents, and an expert hacker to control Tony’s Iron Man Armor and used it to kill a diplomat and make Tony’s life a living hell. With help of Rhodey and his other allies, Tony was able to defeat Hammer’s plans. He didn’t bounce back as well when another corporate type named Obadiah Stane attacked him personally again. Stane seized control of Stark Industries using dirty deals, and hired a black widow, not Natasha, to get Tony to fall in love with her just to reveal she was a paid actress. Tony spiraled into Alcoholism, hitting rock bottom and becoming a homeless vagrant. He turned over his Armory and the title of Iron Man over to Rhodey, believing he was no longer fit for the role but knew an Iron Man would always be needed. After some time on the street, Tony started recovering and started a new company to try and get his life back together called Circuits Maximum. He developed a lot of new tech, and started building a new Suit of Armor as therapy. This turned most fortuitous as Rhodey snapped. Turns out, they hadn’t recalibrated the Iron Man Armor to fit Rhodey’s neural patterns. The suit attempting to rewrite his brainwaves to fit Tony’s basically drove him into a homicidal rage. Tony donned his new suit and was able to stop Rhodey. Having figured out that Stane was behind ruining his life, Tony went to face off against him. Stane had used the armor designs he’d taken with the company to build his own suit. The returned Iron Man faced off against the Iron Monger. Tony defeated Stane, but the latter committed suicide rather then face punishment for his crimes.

You wish you look this good.

Since then, Tony has grown to be one of the ‘faces’ of heroes in the US. He has run several Avengers Teams, SHIELD, and other projects all in the attempt to make life safer for everyone. He’s continued to battle his alcoholism, corporate takeovers, and villains stealing his tech. To cover all of his adventures would take way more time, so just know he’s been one of the busiest heroes in the Marvel Universe.

Tony began his career as simply a brilliant weapons designer. He used his marvelous brain and near unlimited resources to build himself an arsenal of powered armor to battle his enemies. He’s pretty much got a suit for every occasion. Such occasions include armors for deep sea, deep space, Arctic conditions, Stealth missions, and the ever popular Hulkbuster Armor. That’s the one that can wrestle the Hulk. Most suits include repulsor technology, the beams of energy that fires from his gauntlets and boots, and the uni-beam, a high powered repulsor on his chest. The suits allow him to fly, take enormous amounts of punishment, and give him super-strength. The suits have become so advanced that Tony needs an AI to help him operate it. He’s had several AI programs including JARVIS, named after Edwin Jarvis, Tony’s butler; HOMER; and later a program called PEPPER. I wonder if anyone told Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts? She’d be… interested in that, I think. Tony is one of the most brilliant men of the Marvel Universe, often working with fellow eggheads Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Hank McCoy, Bruce Banner, and T’Challa to handle some of the more complicated issues that the Marvel Universe creates. He’s a brilliant mathematician, physicist, chemist, and software engineer. He’s also a charismatic leader, having been put in charge of several teams.

Tony has had powers at one time or another. Using an advanced Techno-organic virus called Extremis, he’d been able to control his suit remotely and use an advanced nanobot suit that he could store in his body. He’s lost and regained this power a few times over the years.

Tony has appeared in a TON of Marvel properties over the years. I’ll stick to the shows and series I know best, for simplicities sake.

Obviously the one you all know is from the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. The first film follows his creation pretty closely. Billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark is kidnapped by terrorist following a weapons test. Though in this iteration it’s a Middle Eastern group called the Ten Rings instead of the Viet Cong. He escapes thanks to Yinsed and his Mark One Armor, and comes home only to discover his technology is being sold under the table to groups like the Ten Rings by his long-time business partner and mentor Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). He builds several versions of his Iron Man Armor to battle the Ten Rings and Stane. The final battle taking place atop the Arc Reactor at Stark Industries. The movie ends with Tony revealing to the world that he’s Iron Man (bypassing the Bodyguard lie) and being told by Nick Fury that he’s not the only hero in the world.

This is what you'd get if Iron Man and Spider-Man did
a fusion dance.

The sequel saw Tony battling his industrial opponent Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), an insane Russian Physicist who uses an arc reactor based electric whips named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) and poisoning from the palladium in that the Arc Reactor in his chest uses to keep the shrapnel from his heart. The poisoning makes Tony spiral, much like his alcoholism in the comics, and causes a rift between him, Rhodey (Don Cheadle), and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tony is able to figure out an alternative power source for his Arc Reactor, saving himself from palladium poisoning. This was just in time for the finale, where the movie caps off with Iron Man and Rhodey in his War Machine armor vs. Vanko in his own armor and a squad of Iron drones. Fun fact, Vanko in this series is completely original. He's a combination of the original Crimson Dynamo Anton Vanko, in this version that is his father and Whiplash, a nameless mercenary villain that Tony has battled. His suit is essentially Crimson Dynamo with electro whips.

Iron Man Three saw him having to face things coming full circle as he did battle with the evil organization AIM, it’s founder Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), the ‘Mandarin’ (Ben Kingsley) and their Extremis super soldiers. Despite being forced into a corner more than once, which included blowing up Tony’s house, Tony, Pepper and Rhodey are able to fight off AIM and the Mandarin. Thanks in no small part to JARVIS and Tony’s Houseparty Protocol.  

RDJ’s Tony has appeared in Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. Too much data to cover, just know he’s a pivotal character in all of these films. He’s also a supporting character in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and has a cameo in The Incredible Hulk.

Tony has a CGI TV series back in 2009 called Iron Man: Armored Adventures. Oddly, this version is a teenage Tony Stark battling a teenage Mandarin named Gene Khan, an adult Obadiah Stane, and various individuals trying to steal Stark International from him. Most of his villains were of the tech based variety such as the Maggia crime family, Three or four Crimson Dynamos, Justin Hammer and Hammer industries, the corporate spy Ghost and disgruntled former Stark Industries employee Donald Gill aka Blizzard. It was an odd show, I mean it was essentially fusing Iron Man with Spider-Man, but worth a watch if you see it on a streaming service.   

Iron Man was a founding member of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes along side the original Avengers: Hulk, Thor, Ant Man and Wasp as they battled a villain called Graviton. He became the team’s de facto leader, financial backer and head of advertising. He even lets them set up shop in one of his mansions. He and the team defrosted Captain America, battled escapees from the various Marvel super-prisons, and ultimately fought Thor’s traitorous brother Loki in Asgard. Season 2 had him eventually bailing on the Avengers as the Skrull’s infiltration got into full swing. The infiltrating Skrull posing as Cap had spent the better part of a year planting doubts in the team’s minds in order to disable of the Earth’s most important teams. He rejoined to fight off the Skrull, after a sort-of collaboration between him and the equally brilliant Dr. Doom lead to a means of forcing Skrull infiltrators into their natural forms. He stayed with the team through the series finale, where an expanded Avengers work with their allies to fend off Galactus and his Heralds.

Jump back to 2006, and I doubt anyone would have guessed
at how amazing an Iron Man RDJ would be.

He was also a main character in Avengers Assemble. This series seemed to be loosely connected to the movies, with the core Avengers being Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye. The group disbanded after the battle with Loki, but are forced to rejoin after Captain America is kidnapped by HYDRA. They save Cap, foiling Red Skull’s attempt at stealing Cap’s body, but the villainous MODOK uses his mental control of tech to literally rip Tony’s suit from him and giving it to Skull. They get Tony into a backup suit, and from that point on battle the newly dubbed Iron Skull and his Cabal. They later go on to fighting villains such as Thanos, Ultron, Kang the Conquer and others. This version of Tony also had guest spots on Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of SMASH. All of the shows were part of Disney XD’s Marvel series created by the team called Man of Action.

An aged Iron Man appeared in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow. He was one of four surviving Avengers after Ultron obliterated the team and took over the world. Thor went back to Asgard, the Vision vanished, and Hulk’s in self-imposed exile, FYI. He took his friends children to a safe house in the wilderness. These kids include James Rogers (Son of Captain America and Black Widow), Torunn (daughter of Thor and Lady Sif) Henry Pym Jr. (Son of Ant/Giant Man and Wasp) and Azari (son of Black Panther and Storm). Thor dropped his daughter off after the fact so she could learn to be a hero like he had all those years ago. Tony protects his friend’s progeny for over a decade before things go sideways. The Vision returned to their hideaway, which ultimately leads to Ultron tracking them down. Tony lets himself be captured to by his kids time to escape. The kids discover and team up with Francis Barton (son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird) and an aged Hulk to free Tony and avenge the parents and world they never knew. It was kind of odd seeing Tony in a full mentorship role, but he has a nice bond with these kids. He couldn’t save his friends but he did everything he could to make sure their heirs were ready to do what Avengers do best.

Tony Stark is one of the best characters of the Marvel Universe. I’d read that Stan Lee created the concept of Tony Stark to make a character that people of the time despised and yet would grow into someone they love. Tony started as an alcoholic, warmongering, playboy robber baron that cared only for himself. But, following his near-death experience, he grew to become a hero that other heroes look up to. I’d say that he is one best examples of the Stan Lee/Marvel model, of a flawed person that tries to become a superhero worthy of the term. His brilliant mind, and unlimited resources have allowed him to build a suit for every occasion. His demons make him human, but his drive makes him a hero. I love seeing him in just about every series. He’s been a highlight of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I’ll be sad to see him go after RDJ’s contract is up. The Invincible Armored Iron Man is one to always stand tall and defend the world when called. 

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