IRON MAN

Created as a Cold War-based, Commie-bashing triumph of American technology over conniving, inefficient Russians, Iron Man has proved as durable as his rust-proof armour over the years. This is partly because he’s a very adaptable character – not just in terms of power levels – and partly because, let’s face it, he looks damned cool.

But it’s the man inside the suit who has arguably been more fascinating. Tony Stark, billionaire playboy, has been by turns a reckless maverick, a hopeless drunk, dead (not one of Marvel’s brightest ideas), teenaged (again…), his own bodyguard, a responsible leader and, more recently, the semi-villainous, politically hard-edged instigator of the Civil War which left the Marvel Universe in tatters, and Captain America dead.

Iron Man is relatively simple – point and shoot - but Stark is as complex as they come. As long as that remains the case, Iron Man will remain one to watch.

AKA: TONY STARK

FIRST APPEARED IN TALES OF SUSPENSE #39 (1963)

CREATED BY STAN LEE, LARRY LIEBER, DON HECK AND JACK KIRBY