This page is copyright 2005, 2009 by Tim Rassbach.
Iron Man and all associated characters are the property of Marvel Comics.
A Hero Reborn
New Armor for a new origin.
Perhaps the most radical armor design to ever spring from the mind of Anthony Edward Stark, the Prometheum Armor, Model XX, Mark II, was introduced in Iron Man, Volume II, issue #1. Stark depended on it to save his life--it did, in more ways than one. While his body was held together by the armor, his life was put back together by a renewed sense of purpose. The cut-thraot businessman became a knight in shining armor. (See the sidebar for the backstory of Heroes Reborn. Read about the Prometheum Armor, Mark I.)
Red and gold, wrapped in steel cables, with flared exhaust pipes, the Prometheum Armor is a dramatic departure from the clean lines and sleak modernism of most of Tony's armors. It's a rough and jagged armor for a darker world.
Although the armor was an untested prototype, Tony was forced to take it into action against a just-born Hulk. But he didn't want to push the
armor, afraid that what happened to Rebel would happen to him.
Model II is a stunning take on the red and gold armor. The suit's most obvious design point are the two, large exhaust pipes on its back and chestplate. The pipes allow Iron Man to let off steam from internal power sources as well as enabling him to absorb heat from energy blasts and direct them back at attackers as super-hot, vented plasma. The armor can absorb and compensate for a 2 million kilowatt electric blast. (Exhaust portals on hands and knees also help to vent plasma.)
Stark is totally dependent on the armor for total life support. While he can take the rest of the armor off, he must wear the chestplate at all times. Not only does it prevent the shrapnel from reaching his heart, its cardio-pulmonary and respitory systems keep his heart beating and his lungs breathing. To ensure that he doesn't run out of power--a constant worry--the Prometheum Armor can recharge from a variety of sources, including downed power lines and car jumper cables (attached to chest nodes). A reserve power pack is included as a back-up as well.
Like the models before it, Model XX is incredibly powerful. Tony was able to carve an armory out of the New York bedrock beneath his building. (A specially built thermal silo allowed Iron Man to travel from his penthouse to the armory undetected.)
"Armoring-up" is accomplished by pressing a button on the chestpiece, which magnetically attracts the rest of the pieces. As they fly to him, Stark must manually pull them on.
When Stark removes the armor, it automatically turns invisible thanks to an ingeneous auto-cloak system. Not only does this make the armor easier to conceal, but it also allows Iron Man the defensive measure of invisibility. Shellhead can also cloak those he touches, enveloping them in his cloaking field, rendering them invisible as well.
Thought-controlled via its psionic armor control, a mental command paradigm, the armor reacts to Tony's thoughts. This psionic link frequency allows Stark to take control of Rebel's armor also.
The on-board computer system is interfaced via Heads-Up Display (HUD), tied psionically to Stark's brain. The computer has a diagnostic scan and self-repair program. The on-board navigation system provides direction while the gyro system provides stability (often utilizing rear thrusters for attitude control). Boot jets allow for flight. (The green glow and sometimes flame of the jets, along with the obvious need for routine plasma venting, hint at a possible gamma radiation power source. This would fit given Stark's close association with Bruce Banner and their long-rumored secret gamma bomb experiments.)
Beyond the red and gold color scheme, Mark II differs from Mark I by featuring a slightly different forehead configuration. The mask, however, is still detachable.
Armaments: Repulsors; palm lasers; chest laser; tractor beam; low-grade force field (capable of pushing even the Hulk back three miles); light refraction pulse (an extremely energy-intensive energy field, Tony can use it to diffuse laser blasts from the likes of Living Laser); shields; .36 caliber ball bearings pack (fired from left arm in a spread at twice the speed and force of bullets); acid shards (when fired they can pierce targets, then release acid to melt whatever they touch).
Special feature on this suit: Magnetic discs--each generates a field, by reversing the polarity he can send teammates flailing apart.
Iron Man, Volume II: Heroes Reborn
Thanks to the mental powers of Franklin Richards, Iron Man and a few other Marvel heroes were snatched from the Marvel Universe, saving them from certain death at the hands of Onslaught. In this new "pocket universe," known as the Heroes Reborn world, the Marvel heroes were themselves--but different.
This was a darker world, a world in need of heroes. It was a world where Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, and Victor Von Doom had been college roomates. The friends fancied themselves Atomic Knights of the Roundtable, men of science and big things; men of destiny... How right they were.
Tony Stark, in particular, had big things in store for him. He had an idea for a special combat armor. With the help of his friend, Rebel O'Reilly, the armor was built. Titled "Project: Prometheus Rising," the armor was a work of staggering genius and of heartbreak--Rebel died during the intial test flight. Stark abandoned the project. It was stored in a mostly dormant Stark facility in upstate New York and destined to remain there until fate stepped in.
Four years later, while investigating an incident at his supposedly dormant plant, Stark found much more--a terrorist attack, a hulking green beheamoth, and a new reason to live, literally and figuratively.
Stark, run-through with shrapnel, which was working its way to his heart, and losing blood by the quart, after a Hulk-induced chopper crash, had to don his experimental armor to save his life. The armor was a self-contained armory and a mobile life-support unit. Not only did it keep the shrapnel in place and prevent it from working its way to Tony's heart, it kept his heart beating. Quite simply, the Model XX armor was a walking, flying, invincible body armor--Stark's greatest achievement and his greatest failure. And now it would have to save his life.
Communications capabilities include a helmet radio and a holo-projector/comm unit in the chestbeam. Stark can wire into external systems via cables in a left wrist panel.
Sensors in the palms include radiation moduals and medi-scan monitors (capable of scanning friends and foes alike). The internal sensor suite includes other sophisticated biological/life signature sensors for vitals (height, heart rate, blood pressure, weight, etc.), plus laryngeal (voice identification) and retinal scan. A psionic scanner can monitor and detect others' brainwaves. Other known sensor functions: RADAR, sonic, motion detection, and full-spectrum thermal.