25 Fascinating Facts About Iron Man and Tony Stark

In 1996, Marvel filed for bankruptcy. They were able to pay off their debts, but they still couldn’t make a profit off their properties like X-Men. So, in a radical shift, they decided to make their own movie studio. To get the financing, they put all their owned properties on the line, like the Avengers, and then they financed the Iron Man movie themselves. If Iron Man had failed at the box office, they would have gone broke again and lost everything. Fortunately, Iron Man made $500 million, and their cinematic universe was on its way.

Even when Marvel put everything on the line, they didn’t exactly run a tight ship with their new movie studio. For instance, they didn’t have a completed script. Jon Favreau was rushed to make the release date, so he and Robert Downey Jr. just made most of it up as they went along. Jeff Bridges said he’d come to the set and wouldn’t know what his lines were because there weren’t any.

Of course, we all know in the Iron Man movie, Tony Stark built his Iron Man suit as a prisoner in the caves of Afghanistan. However, in the early comics, Stark started in Vietnam and later in the Gulf War.

Jack Kirby and Stan Lee based their character Tony Stark on the playboy millionaire Howard Hughes. Coincidentally, Tony Stark’s father’s name is Howard Stark.

In Iron Man, JARVIS acts as Tony Stark’s artificial intelligence, helping him navigate the complexities of the suit. You might think the anagram would be something intelligent sounding, but instead, all it stands for is, “Just A Rather Very Intelligent System.”

In the comics, the Mandarin is Iron Man’s arch-nemesis. So, Marvel wanted him to be the main villain in the first movie. In fact, he was in the script (that wasn’t finished) until 10 weeks up to filming. They scrapped it because they felt it didn’t work and made Obadiah Stane the main villain instead.

Tony Stark was always a boy genius; at the age of 15, he entered MIT and left at 17 with a Master’s degree in chemical engineering.

Robert Downey Jr. has been playing Iron Man for almost ten years now. That’s longer than most today. But at age 52, he’s also the oldest superhero to still fight on the silver screen.

Area 51 is the mysterious government base where conspiracy theorists think experiments have been done on extraterrestrials. Well, in the Iron Man comics, the base is eventually abandoned and Tony Stark buys it to store the Reality Gem.

Thinking of anyone else playing Iron Man other than Robert Downey Jr. is almost impossible to imagine. The actor made the character, and anyone else would pale in comparison. But before Downey Jr. dawned the suit, Tom Cruise was approached to play the character; he ultimately turned it down.

In the mid-70’s, legendary comic creator Stan Lee asked why Iron Man didn’t have a nose and required he start having one. Then, years later, Stan Lee went back on his decision and told them to remove it.

Sometimes comic book characters can’t easily be adapted from page to screen. So, when Iron Man 3 director Shane Black faced putting the Mandarin in the movie, he had quite the challenge. In his own words, “Well, what we don’t want is this potentially racist stereotype of a Fu Manchu villain just waving his fist.” To avoid any possible racist overtones, they turned the Mandarin into a terrorist with no magical powers. Of course, those who have seen the movie know that’s not the whole story.

In the comics, Tony Stark requested to be trained by Captain America so that he could still be useful if he didn’t have his Iron Man suit available. He turned out to be quite the fighting force afterward.

While Tony Stark and Iron Man were Stan Lee’s idea, he didn’t have time to write his first appearance in Tales of Suspense. That task went to Larry Lieber with Jack Kirby penciling.

If you watched the movies, you wouldn’t notice it, but the character Tony Stark is a bit of an alcoholic. In the comics, it’s plain as day especially with titles like, “Demon in a Bottle!”

Tony Stark is constantly upgrading and optimizing his Iron Man suits. In the comic book universe, he’s made roughly 53 different suits. He’s also made a “rescue suit” for Pepper Potts.

We all know Iron Man builds the Avengers to defend the Earth. But in the comics, Iron Man later teams up with the Guardians of the Galaxy because of his curiosity for other technologies and what’s going on in the galaxy. Whether or not he does the same thing in the cinematic universe has yet to be seen.

With the Iron Man suit on, Tony Stark has unbelievable power and strength. While some say his strength is incalculable, others have said it’s likely he can lift upwards of 100 tons, depending on the suit he’s using.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was in a good place before the Avengers came along. No one expected the massive and roaring success it would have, and with its billion dollar box office win, Marvel Studios decided to up the ante and give Iron Man 3 a much larger budget.

Before Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was a bit of an actor pariah in Hollywood. No one would touch him. In fact, Marvel Studios was terrified to hire him in the first place. Iron Man, of course, became his breakout role and launched him to stardom. Now, he’s one of the top paid actors, raking in $80 million a year.

While Tony Stark is more wealthy than Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark has a net worth of 12 billion while Bruce Wayne only has 9 billion, their companies are different. Wayne Enterprises makes $31 billion in annual revenue while Stark Industries only makes $20 billion.

Peter Billingsley, also known as Ralphie from A Christmas Story, is quite the producer and investor. He decided to take a chance on the first Iron Man movie probably because he’s good friends with the director, Jon Favreau.

Technology continues to develop at an increasing rate, and the military has been researching suits like Iron Man’s for a while now. Well, the suit is closer than ever to becoming a reality with exoskeleton suits that are able to lift heavy objects and even fly.

Sarcastic and irreverent (and an alcoholic), Tony Stark is probably the last person anyone would want as the Secretary of Defense. But, he’s also grown a lot, and in the comic “Iron Man #72” (2003), he does just that.

The rights to the Iron Man character had been passed around so much you’d think he was an unwanted stepchild. Going through 16 years of development, the rights first started at Universal Studios and they sold them to Fox. Fox didn’t do anything with Iron Man, so they passed it along to New Line. Eventually, nothing got off the ground, so Marvel got the rights back and made cinematic history.