Iron Maniac

Origin

Iron Maniac comes from an alternate reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered The Super Skrull Titannus. Most of his teammates were killed by the vicious alien in space. While who was left of the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions - the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus, during which time time, a power-hungry Reed Richards betrays what remains of Earth's heroes.

After being attacked by the human Torch Anthony Stark was left scared and fled to Latveria, for one purpose "Take over the world to save it from Richards," until Richards somehow manages to banish him into trap him in Earth-616 (mainstream continuity.) The name Iron Maniac is what he decided to call himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".

Creation

Iron maniac is hardly the first "evil" incarnation of Iron Man, or Tony Stark, but he does seem to be the first to have as many characteristics that coincide with those of Doctor Doom. Robert Kirkman artist Scott Kolins even gave him a green hooded cloak over silver armor. His original Armor looked very much like Iron Man's Model 1 Armor with a face plate like Doom.

Major Story Arcs

After being transported to Earth 616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange who initially assumed him to be their Doctor Doom having escaped from Hell. However, after he unmasks himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape. Drawing the conclusion that he can't trust them any more than he could trust the FF of his world.

Capturing a recently-discovered mutant, Iron Maniac attempts to return to his reality by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23. After the appearance of after the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow he is clear that he is from another world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys'. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fast ball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War saying that he wouldn't kill them now because it would be an act of kindness.

While Iron Maniac is kept locked up and drugged in the Shield Hellicarrier he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after he is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. After an encounter with Wolverine and Spider-Man Iron Maniac learns that the Avengers were disassembled before the Alien Titannus ever came and therefore never massacred.

He eventually broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD and Diamondback Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the other Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke cagebut was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie heroe Freedom Ring who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.

Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cybornetic with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.

He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.

Powers and Abilities

Anthony stark much like his Earth 616 counterpart is a brilliant engineer, allowing him constant upgrades to his armor. Even going so far as to find a way to make his armor resistant to the affects of Magic.

The armor itself is very durable, capable of withstanding tremendous amounts of punishment. Iron Maniac's armor has a muscularly aligned matrix of crystallized iron enhanced by magnetic fields over layers of other metals like titanium like his counterpart. This grants him enhanced strength to the amount of 100 tons.

His suit has many power sources, such as solar converters, electrical batteries and an on-board generator that uses beta particle absorption as a fuel source. The suit is also able to convert nearby energy sources, such as heat or kinetic energy into electricity, or even drain electrical energy directly into the batteries for recharge. Although the suit has some open holes to allow the wearer to breathe normal air, it can be sealed off, allowing the pilot of the suit to go underwater or into space by granting its own life support and limited air supply systems.

As mentioned, Tony Stark controls the suit mostly by movement as if the armor is his skin essentially making the suit an extension of his own body. In addition to this however is an internal artificial intelligence operating system that provides strategies, background information on opponents, and on surroundings and the current status of the suit.

The Extremis upgrade gave him a healing factor and enhanced abilities and could expel the inner-most armor layer in his body then "will" the rest of the Extremis armor to attach to him

Stark also has equipped the suit with numerous weapons over the years, making the suit more powerful each time. The most often used weapons are the repulsor rays (magnetically channeled beams of super-heated plasma) that are fired from Iron Maniac's palms or gauntlets. Other weapons that are built into the armor include the uni-beam projector in its chest (controlling the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum from blinding searchlights to cutting lasers), pulse bolts that pick up kinetic energy along the way, so that they hit harder the further they have to travel, an electromagnetic pulse generator and energy shield, the generation of ultra-freons, the creating and manipulating of magnetic fields, sonic blasts, and a holographic generator to create decoys.

Tony Stark has also created many specialized models of the armor. Other models that are in his possession include a model for deep-sea diving, for stealth, space travel, etc. He has also enhanced the armor on a few occasions for unique circumstances. For example, Tony Stark has modified suits like the "Hulkbuster" heavy armor, composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability to allow it to take on the Incredible Hulk in combat. One time, when Stark had to face Thor, he made an armor modeled on the Destroyer and used a mystical power source.

Like Tony stark Anthony is effectively a genius, able to constantly create new and improved technologies and make upgrade after upgrade to his suit of cybernetic armor. Iron Maniac is able to harness his intelligence and ingenuity in order to allow him to defeat more powerful foes and escape their dangerous traps and machinations. Stark is also a manipulator and extremely paranoid and disturbed, able to coerce the services of others through his manipulations .

For more information on Iron Man's various armors see: Iron Man Armor.