Early life Anthony Edward Stark (Tony) was born on May 29, 1970, in
Manhattan, New York to
Howard Stark, a famous genius inventor and businessman, and
Maria Stark, a
socialite and philanthropist. Growing up under the eye of family butler
Edwin Jarvis, his life was characterized by a cold and affectionless relationship with his father. Seeing that his son could achieve great things, Howard tried to inspire him with constant talks about his own role in the creation of
Captain America. This instead embittered Stark, who felt that his father was taking more pride in his creations than in his family. A brilliant and unique
child prodigy, Stark attended the prestigious
Phillips Academy in
Andover before entering
MIT at age 14 and graduating
summa cum laude at 17. On December 16, 1991, when Stark was 21, his parents went away to the
Bahamas, but planned to stop at
the Pentagon to deliver
Super Soldier Serum Howard had redeveloped. Instead, both were killed in a car accident—later revealed to be an assassination carried out by the
Winter Soldier, who was mind-controlled by
Hydra to steal the serum. As a result, Stark inherited his father's company, becoming CEO of Stark Industries. Over the years, he became well known as a weapons designer and inventor, and lived a
playboy lifestyle. At a
New Year's Eve party for the new millennium, he attended a conference in
Bern where he met scientists
Maya Hansen, inventor of the
Extremis experimental regenerative treatment, and
Aldrich Killian, rejecting an offer to work for Killian's
Advanced Idea Mechanics.
Becoming Iron Man In 2010, Stark travels to
war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and
military liaison Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes to demonstrate Stark's new "Jericho" missile. After the demonstration, the convoy is ambushed and Stark is critically wounded and imprisoned by a terrorist group, the
Ten Rings. Fellow captive
Ho Yinsen, a doctor, implants an electromagnet into Stark's chest to keep shrapnel shards from reaching his heart and killing him. Stark and Yinsen secretly build a small, powerful electric generator called an arc reactor to power Stark's electromagnet and a
suit of powered armor. When the Ten Rings discover the pair's treachery, they attack the workshop and Yinsen sacrifices himself to buy time while the suit is powered. The armored Stark battles his way out of the cave and finds Yinsen, dying shortly thereafter. Engraged, Stark then destroys the Ten Rings' weapons and flies away, crashing in the desert some distance away. Rescued by Rhodes, Stark returns home to announce that his company will no longer manufacture weapons. In his home workshop, Stark builds a sleeker, more powerful version of his improvised armor suit as well as a more powerful arc reactor. Stark learns that
Obadiah Stane has been engaged in
arms trafficking to criminals worldwide, and is staging a
coup to replace him as Stark Industries' CEO. Stark, in his new armor, flies to Afghanistan and saves a group of villagers under siege by terrorists using Stark weapons. Stane ambushes Stark at his home and takes the arc reactor from his chest, revealing that he was responsible for Stark's captivity. Stark manages to get to his original reactor to replace it and defeats Stane, who had created his own armored suit using the remnants of Stark's first suit. The next day,
The Chronicles dubs Tony's alter-ego "The Iron Man" on their newspaper headline, which he likes and takes the moniker, feeling it is catchy and sounded great when saying, evoking an aura of him being invincible despite the inaccuracy (the suit is made of
titanium gold instead of iron). At a press conference, Stark publicly admits to his identity as Iron Man.
Battling Vanko Six months later in 2011, Stark's fame has grown, and he uses his Iron Man suit for peaceful means, resisting government pressure to sell his designs, while other inventors try to build their own power suits that imitate Stark's with no successes. He reinstitutes the Stark Expo to continue his father's legacy but discovers that the
palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps Stark alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him. Growing increasingly reckless and despondent about his impending death, he appoints
Pepper Potts CEO of Stark Industries. Stark competes in the
Monaco Historic Grand Prix and is attacked mid-race by
Ivan Vanko, who wields electrified whips powered by a miniature arc reactor. Stark dons his Mark V armor and defeats Vanko, but the suit is severely damaged. At his birthday party, Stark gets drunk while wearing the Mark IV suit. Rhodes dons Stark's Mark II prototype armor and tries to restrain him. The fight ends in a stalemate, so Rhodes confiscates the Mark II for the
U.S. Air Force. Stark discovers a hidden message from his father, a diagram of the structure of a new element, which Stark successfully synthesizes and integrates into his arc reactor as a non-toxic replacement for palladium. At the Expo, Stark's rival
Justin Hammer unveils Vanko's armored drones, led by Rhodes in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor. Stark arrives in the newly-built Mark VI armor to warn Rhodes, but Vanko remotely takes control of both the drones and Rhodes' armor and attacks Iron Man. Stark and Rhodes together defeat Vanko and his drones. After narrowly saving Pepper Potts from a self-destructing drone, they start a relationship.
The Battle of New York In 2012, when the
Asgardian Loki arrives and begins menacing Earth, seizing the
Tesseract from a
S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, Fury activates the
Avengers Initiative and Agent
Phil Coulson visits Stark to have him review the research of
Erik Selvig on the Tesseract. In
Stuttgart, Steve Rogers and Loki fight briefly until Tony Stark appears in his Iron Man armor, resulting in Loki's surrender. While Loki is being escorted to S.H.I.E.L.D.,
Thor arrives and frees him, hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard. After a confrontation with Stark and Rogers, Thor agrees to take Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying aircraft carrier, the
Helicarrier. The Avengers become divided, both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to harness the Tesseract to develop weapons. Agents possessed by Loki attack the Helicarrier, disabling one of its engines in flight, which Stark and Rogers must work to restart. Loki escapes, and Stark and Rogers realize that for Loki, simply defeating them will not be enough; he needs to overpower them publicly to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Loki uses the Tesseract to open a wormhole in New York City above the
Stark Tower to allow the
Chitauri fleet in space to invade. Fury's superiors from the
World Security Council attempt to end the invasion by launching a
nuclear missile at
Midtown Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile, and in an apparent sacrifice of his own life, takes it through the wormhole toward the Chitauri fleet. The missile detonates, destroying the Chitauri mothership and disabling their forces on Earth. Stark's suit runs out of power, and he falls back through the wormhole but the
Hulk saves him from crashing into the ground. Stark and the other Avengers capture Loki and Thor takes custody of him.
Pursuing the Mandarin Stark develops
PTSD from his experiences during the alien invasion, resulting in
panic attacks. Restless, he builds several dozen Iron Man suits, creating friction with girlfriend Pepper Potts. Seven months after the invasion,
Happy Hogan is badly injured in one of a string of bombings by a terrorist known only as the
Mandarin, Stark issues a televised threat to him, who destroys Stark's
Malibu home with helicopter gunships. Stark escapes in an Iron Man suit and crashes in rural
Tennessee. His experimental armor lacks sufficient power to return to California, and the world believes him dead. Stark traces the Mandarin to
Miami and infiltrates his headquarters, where he discovers the Mandarin was just an actor named
Trevor Slattery.
Aldrich Killian reveals himself to be the real Mandarin and captures Stark. He escapes and reunites with Rhodes, discovering that Killian intends to attack
U.S. President Ellis aboard
Air Force One. Stark saves the surviving passengers and crew but cannot stop Killian from abducting Ellis and destroying Air Force One. Killian intends to kill Ellis on an oil platform on live television. On the platform, Stark goes to save Potts – who had been kidnapped and subjected to
Extremis — as Rhodes saves the president. Stark summons his Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by J.A.R.V.I.S., to provide air support. Potts, having survived the Extremis procedure, kills Killian. Stark orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to remotely destroy all of the Iron Man suits as a sign of his devotion to Potts, and undergoes surgery to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart. He pitches his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea, musing that he will always be Iron Man.
Creating Ultron In 2015, Stark and the Avengers raid a
Hydra facility commanded by
Wolfgang von Strucker, who has been experimenting on siblings
Pietro and
Wanda Maximoff using the scepter previously wielded by Loki. While the team fights outside, Stark enters the lab and finds the scepter, along with Chitauri artifacts from the Battle of New York. Wanda sneaks up behind him and uses her mind manipulation powers to give him a haunting vision: the death of all the Avengers except him. Stark awakens from the vision and retrieves Loki's scepter. Returning to the Avengers Tower, Stark and Bruce Banner discover an
artificial intelligence within the scepter's gem, and secretly decide to use it to complete Stark's "
Ultron" global defense program. The unexpectedly sentient Ultron eliminates Stark's A.I.
J.A.R.V.I.S. and attacks the Avengers. Escaping with the scepter, Ultron builds an army of robot drones, kills Strucker and recruits the Maximoffs, who hold Stark responsible for their parents' deaths by his company's weapons. The Avengers find and attack Ultron in
Johannesburg, but Wanda subdues most of the team with personalized, disturbing visions, causing Banner to transform into the Hulk and rampage until Stark stops him with his anti-Hulk armor. After hiding at
Clint Barton's house, Nick Fury arrives and encourages Stark and the others to form a plan to stop Ultron, who is discovered to have forced the team's friend Dr. Helen Cho to perfect a new body for him. Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton find Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Romanoff. Returning to Avengers Tower, the Avengers fight amongst themselves when Stark and Banner secretly upload J.A.R.V.I.S.—who is still operational after hiding from Ultron inside the Internet—into the synthetic body. Thor returns to help activate the body, explaining that the gem on its brow was part of his vision. This "
Vision" and the Maximoffs, now on their side, accompany Stark and the Avengers to
Sokovia, where Ultron has used the remaining
vibranium to build a machine to lift part of the capital city skyward, intending to crash it into the ground to cause global extinction. One of Ultron's drones is able to activate the machine. The city plummets, but Stark and Thor overload the machine and shatter the landmass. The Avengers establish a new base in
upstate New York, and Stark leaves the team.
Sokovia Accords and the aftermath In 2016,
U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross informs the Avengers that the
United Nations (UN) is preparing to pass the
Sokovia Accords, which will establish UN oversight of the team. The Avengers are divided: Stark supports oversight because of his role in Ultron's creation and Sokovia's devastation, while Rogers has more faith in their judgment than that of a government. Circumstances lead to Rogers and fellow super-soldier
Bucky Barnes—framed for a terrorist attack—going rogue, along with
Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton, and
Scott Lang. Stark assembles a team composed of Natasha Romanoff,
T'Challa, James Rhodes, Vision, and
Peter Parker to capture the renegades at
Leipzig/Halle Airport. However, during the battle, Rogers and Barnes are able to escape and Rhodes is paralyzed. Stark learns that Barnes was framed and convinces Wilson to give him Rogers' destination. Without informing Ross, Stark goes to the Siberian Hydra facility and strikes a truce with Rogers and Barnes. They find that the other super soldiers have been killed by
Helmut Zemo, who plays footage that reveals that Barnes killed Stark's parents. Stark turns on them, dismembering Barnes' robotic arm. After an intense fight, Rogers finally manages to disable Stark's Iron Man armor and departs with Barnes, leaving
his shield behind. Stark returns to New York to work on exoskeletal leg braces to allow Rhodes to walk again. Steve Rogers sends a mobile phone to Stark to keep in contact if needed. When Ross calls informing him that Rogers has broken the others out of the
Raft, Stark refuses to help. Two months later, Peter Parker resumes his high school studies, with Stark telling him he is not yet ready to become a full Avenger. Stark rescues Parker from nearly drowning after an encounter with
Adrian Toomes and warns Parker against further involvement with the criminals. When another weapon from Toomes malfunctions during a fight with Parker and tears the
Staten Island Ferry in half, Stark helps Parker save the passengers before admonishing him for his recklessness and confiscating his suit. Parker realizes Toomes is planning to hijack a plane transporting weapons from Stark Tower to the team's new headquarters. After Parker thwarts the plan and saves Toomes from an explosion, Stark admits he was wrong about Parker and invites him to become an Avenger full-time, but Parker declines. Potts emerges from a packed press conference, called to make the announcement, and Stark decides to use the opportunity to instead propose to Potts. At the end of the film, he returns the suit to Peter.
Infinity War In 2018, Stark and Potts are in a New York City park discussing having children, when Banner, who had disappeared after the Battle of Sokovia, crash-lands at the
New York Sanctum. Banner relays a warning to
Stephen Strange,
Wong, and Stark that the mad Titan
Thanos plans to use the
Infinity Stones to kill half of all life in the universe.
Ebony Maw and
Cull Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone, prompting Strange, Stark, Wong, and Parker to confront them. Although Cull Obsidian is incapacitated, Strange is captured by Maw. Stark and Parker sneak aboard Maw's spaceship to rescue him. After successfully freeing Strange and killing Maw, the trio proceed to Thanos' home planet
Titan, where they meet members of the
Guardians of the Galaxy. They form a plan to confront Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet, but Thanos overpowers the group and stabs Stark in the abdomen. Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Stark. Thanos takes the stone and departs for Earth, retrieves the final stone, and activates the Infinity Gauntlet. Stark and
Nebula, stranded on Titan, watch as Parker and others
are turned to dust.
Time Heist and sacrifice Stark and Nebula are rescued from space by
Carol Danvers and returned to Earth, where Stark chooses to retire and raise his daughter
Morgan, with Potts. Later, he constructs a secret beach house lab in Mexico for Banner to merge his two identities and spent some time with him including making a
tiki bar. In 2023, when Scott Lang hypothesizes a way to bring back the fallen, the Avengers approach Stark, who initially refuses, considering the idea dangerous. Despite this, he examines the matter privately, discovers
time travel, and agrees to help. The Avengers reassemble and plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones from the past to undo Thanos' actions. Traveling to 2012, Stark fails to retrieve the Space Stone following the Battle of New York and instead goes further back to the 1970s to steal it from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, where he has a meaningful conversation with a younger version of his father, Howard. The Avengers successfully obtain all of the Infinity Stones before returning to the present. The Stones are incorporated into a
Nano Gauntlet made by Stark, which Banner then uses to resurrect those that were disintegrated by Thanos. However, they are followed by an alternate version of Thanos and his army, who are summoned to 2023 by an alternate version of Nebula. During the ensuing battle, Thanos obtains Stark's gauntlet and the two of them wrestle for control of it. Thanos is able to overpower Stark before attempting another snap but discovers that Stark has transferred the Infinity Stones to his own armor. Stark activates the Gauntlet and uses it to disintegrate Thanos and all of his forces and save the universe, but fatally injures himself in the process. He dies surrounded by Rhodes, Parker, and Potts.
Legacy Eight months later, as the world continues to mourn Stark, Parker receives glasses that can access Stark's artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H., with a message that establishes him as Stark's chosen successor. Parker is however tricked by disgruntled former Stark Industries employee
Quentin Beck into giving him the glasses, as Parker sees him as a more worthy successor. Beck, leading a team of other ex-Stark Industries employees such as
William Ginter Riva, and angered at being fired by Stark, seeks to fill the vacancy left by Stark as Iron Man by using the software he developed for Stark, B.A.R.F., to augment illusions of creatures known as the
Elementals, presenting himself as a hero known as Mysterio in "defeating" them. He uses Stark's glasses to conduct drone attacks in
London, targeting Parker. Parker eventually foils Beck's plots and retakes the glasses, and he designs his own Spider-Man suit using technology from Stark Industries, in a similar manner to Stark designing his first Iron Man armor. ==Alternate versions==