Anton Vanko Anton Vanko (, ), the first Crimson Dynamo, was also the armor's creator. A Soviet scientist of
Armenian birth with a
Ph.D. in physics, Vanko was one of the world's foremost experts on electricity. At the behest of the USSR, Vanko built a powered exoskeleton capable of performing incredible feats. He also designed the
Unicorn's helmet and instructed the Russian agent in its use. As the Crimson Dynamo, Vanko was sent by the Soviet Government to sabotage
Stark Industries and defeat his American counterpart
Iron Man in battle. Vanko's armor allowed him to generate and control electricity in all of its forms, such as firing devastating bolts of lightning and flying using electromagnetic propulsion. Unlike Iron Man, who at the time had to regularly charge the chest plate powering his suit (and keeping him alive), the Crimson Dynamo was powered by a self-sustaining generator. After losing to Iron Man, Vanko defected to the
United States out of fear that his superiors would kill him for failing. Vanko began to work for
Tony Stark as one of his chief scientists. Eventually, the two became friends and Vanko developed pride and admiration for his new home. Unfortunately, soon the Soviets came for Vanko, just as he predicted. The KGB sent their top agent
Black Widow as well as Boris Turgenev to apprehend him. Vanko died saving Iron Man by firing an unstable, experimental laser pistol at Turgenev, killing himself in the process.
Boris Turgenov Boris Turgenov, the second Crimson Dynamo, had a very short career as a supervillain. Turgenov came to the United States with the
Black Widow to kill Anton Vanko, Tony Stark and Iron Man (at the time Stark kept his identity secret, with Iron Man posing as his most trusted bodyguard - Turgenov believed them to be separate people and planned to kill both). Turgenov almost carried out his mission, virtually defeating Iron Man with the stolen Crimson Dynamo suit. He was killed when Vanko sacrificed his own life for the cause of freedom by firing an experimental and unstable laser pistol at Boris. From there, Nevsky used a new and improved Crimson Dynamo armor and bested Iron Man. Finally, he worked towards undermining Tony Stark by romancing Janice Cord, Stark's girlfriend at the time and a relative of Cord Industries's
CEO Edwin Cord. After he donned the Crimson Dynamo armor in public, his old Soviet masters sent the
Titanium Man to kill him. When Titanium Man killed Janice, Nevsky blamed Iron Man for the tragedy and swore to avenge her. Although he held Titanium Man just as responsible for Janice's death, Nevsky was forced by circumstance to partner with him and
Radioactive Man in Vietnam, where all three Communist-aligned fugitives formed the
Titanic Three. After defecting to Vietnam, Nevsky made one final attempt to kill Iron Man and was once again unsuccessful. As a result, he was found and assassinated by the
KGB and they confiscated his armor for their own purposes. "The Beginning of the End,"—Nevsky's original story arc in
Iron Man #17-23—is considered one of the best Iron Man stories and, alongside Tony Stark's origin in
Tales of Suspense #39, the best Iron Man story of the
Silver Age of Comics.
Yuri Petrovich Yuri Petrovich, the fourth Crimson Dynamo, first appeared in
The Champions #7 (Aug. 1976) as the son of
Ivan Petrovich - a friend of the Black Widow (now reformed). When Western agents (presumably Americans) failed to convince Ivan to defect to the West, they assassinated Yuri's mother; in the chaos that followed, Ivan and Yuri each believed the other dead. Yuri was brought to the West, where Soviet agents posing as Westerners indoctrinated him to hate the West. When Black Widow and Ivan defected to the United States, Yuri was "rescued" by the Soviets, returned to Russia, and trained as a KGB assassin. He was given the Crimson Dynamo armor and sent to kill the Black Widow and Ivan. Yuri and his allies (his girlfriend
Darkstar, the
Griffin,
Rampage, and the original
Titanium Man) fought the Black Widow and her teammates, the
Champions. When Yuri learned of the true nature of his "Western" captors, he went berserk. Darkstar teamed up with the Champions to subdue Yuri, and after he and his other allies were defeated, Yuri was returned to Russia, convicted by the Soviet government, and exiled to a
Siberian labor camp.
Dmitri Bukharin Dmitri Bukharin, the fifth Crimson Dynamo, was given Yuri Petrovich's armor by his masters in the KGB. He joined the
Soviet Super-Soldiers, but was expelled after his teammates decided to sever their connections to the Soviet government. Afterward, he received a new, redesigned suit of armor. He later joined the
Supreme Soviets, a group of superhumans who were loyal to the Soviet government; the group became the People's Protectorate after the USSR dissolved. When the new government confiscated his armor, he was given another suit and adopted the codename
Airstrike. By the events of
Dark Reign, however, he had returned to the identity and armor of the Crimson Dynamo, albeit as an ally of Iron Man instead of an enemy. He is currently a member of the
Winter Guard, a Russian counterpart of the
Avengers. Bukharin's tenure is the longest of anyone in the Crimson Dynamo's publication history and occurred during such seminal Iron Man storylines as "
Demon in a Bottle", "Doomquest", and "
Armor Wars".
Valentin Shatalov Valentin Shatalov, a Colonel-General in the Soviet Army and a KGB agent, is the sixth Crimson Dynamo. He used his rank to obtain the Crimson Dynamo armor from Dmitri Bukharin for his own use. He was the founder of Remont-4, a group of Russian superhumans who sought to return the
Soviet Union to
Stalinism. Shatalov and his allies (the cyborg Firefox and the original
Unicorn among others) recruited the original
Titanium Man to their cause. The Remont-4 fought the Soviet Super Soldiers and a group of Russian mutant exiles in addition to plaguing
Iron Man. In Shatalov's first appearance as the Crimson Dynamo, he was in a training session with
Devastator in
Russia at the same time Iron Man had encountered an out-of-control mutant dubbing himself Freak Quincy in Los Angeles. Quincy's out-of-control powers tapped into Devastator's satellite uplink from the other side of the world, and he managed to switch the minds of Stark and Shatalov. His unfamiliarity with the Iron Man armor resulted in Shatalov firing pulse bolts that destroyed Quincy's arms, although the mutant survived. After Stark and Shatalov struggled to maintain each other's identities, Shatalov was able to get the hospitalized Quincy to recreate the transmission that switched their minds. Out of respect for Stark, Shatalov did not reveal Stark's identity. Sometime after the fall of the Soviet Union, Shatalov received an upgraded Crimson Dynamo armor. Less bulky than Bukharin's model and with silver accents, this was the first Crimson Dynamo armor that was not completely crimson. Shatalov later met Tony Stark in person, when the latter traveled to Russia to oversee the opening of the first Stark Enterprises branch in the country, and revealed to Stark that he had kept his identity as Iron Man a secret. Stark's trip to Russia was interrupted by the rampage of the Titanium Man, Boris Bullski, who still could not accept the new Russia, and saw Stark's presence in his homeland as an affront to everything he believed the U.S.S.R. stood for. As the Titanium Man fought Iron Man, Black Widow, and Crimson Dynamo, Shatalov's leg was broken. He begged Iron Man not to finish the fight with Bullski, as he felt having the American Avenger take down a former Soviet hero would be too damaging to his country's morale. Stark volunteered to wear the Dynamo armor in Shatalov's place, and with radio assistance from Shatalov and the Widow, fought Bullski. When Bullski refused to surrender, Shatalov overrode Stark's control of the Dynamo armor, firing a blast that killed Bullski. Shatalov took the fall with his superiors, who had wanted to recover Bullski alive, and he was relieved of his duties as the Crimson Dynamo.
Other Crimson Dynamos Like many of Iron Man's Cold War-era villains, the Crimson Dynamo fell into a degree of obscurity after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Since Shatalov, there have been seven people to bear the Crimson Dynamo mantle, almost all of them anonymous, short-lived, or otherwise unremarkable foes.
Gregar Valski The seventh Crimson Dynamo,
Gregar Valski, was defeated by
Nick Fury and
Captain America. He wore Dmitri Bukharin's former armor, though his skill piloting it was minimal.
Gennady Gavrilov In Marvel Epic's six-issue 2003 series
Crimson Dynamo, Russian collegiate
Gennady Gavrilov becomes the eighth Crimson Dynamo after he finds the helmet of a "Beta unit" designed by Anton Vanko based on but improved over the original, with its very own recharging satellite in orbit. Believing the helmet to be a sophisticated gaming system, Gavrilov caused the dormant armor to awaken and make its way towards the helmet, inadvertently leaving a trail of destruction. He would eventually, if briefly, wear the entire armor in a standoff with the Russian military. He kept the armor afterward.
Crimson Dynamo IX The
ninth Crimson Dynamo appeared in the
Secret War miniseries as a member of
Lucia von Bardas's army of villains which she gathered to defeat the Avengers. This Crimson Dynamo's armor was created by the
Tinkerer.
Crimson Dynamo X The
tenth Crimson Dynamo is introduced in
Iron Man (vol. 4) #7 (June 2006), where he is apprehended by Iron Man after attempting to rob a bank. It was later revealed that this armor had been bought on the black market and that the designs for Crimson Dynamo-based technology have been for sale for a while. This Crimson Dynamo was later slain by the
Punisher.
Crimson Dynamo XI The
eleventh Crimson Dynamo was a member of the "Alpha Gen Soviet Super-Soldiers", a group of Russian superhumans put into cryogenic stasis after the Cold War ended. During a fight between
the Order and the Infernal Man, Order member Corona set off an enormous explosion which awakened the Super-Soldiers. This Crimson Dynamo was apparently destroyed by Order members Supernaut and Aralune.
Boris Vadim Boris Vadim, the twelfth Crimson Dynamo, first appears in the premiere issue of
Hulk vol. 2 (March 2008). A
S.H.I.E.L.D.-sanctioned team consisting of Iron Man,
Doc Samson and
She-Hulk encounters the
Winter Guard, a Russian superhero team of which Vadim is a member, while investigating the apparent murder of the
Abomination in Russia. Vadim later flees to the United States seeking political asylum, joining the
Red Hulk's mercenary group. Some time later, Vadim was killed by a mutated
Igor Drenkov.
Galina Nemirovsky Galina Nemirovsky replaced Boris Vadim to become the thirteenth Crimson Dynamo. Galina was apparently recruited by
Mandarin and
Zeke Stane to join Iron Man's other villains in a plot to take down Iron Man. Mandarin and Zeke Stane gave Galina a new Crimson Dynamo armor. ==Powers and abilities==