Let’s face it, everyone loves a guy in a snazzy suit especially when that snazzy suit is the Iron Man armor and that man is Tony Stark, as played by the amazing Robert Downy Jr. Iron Man 3 opens this Friday in the U.S., and everyone is eager to see if the franchise that made The Avengers possible has what it takes to fly above previous sales.
As someone who’s always been something of an Iron Man fan, I’m well versed in the character’s many armors. A few favorites stand out, which we’ll look at here, along with real-world tech that has influenced the armor and vice versa.
Golden Avenger
Remember Stark’s prototype armor from the first movie? Big, scary, and brutal. It’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect someone to build as an improvised engine of destruction. One issue after the debut of Iron Man, someone decided that the Mark I was just too mean looking. The solution? Paint.
Bonus feature: sexism!
Seriously. The gold* armor seen above was visually the same as the first suit, but painted gold. Way before we became excited about being able to buy a smartphone in multiple colors, Tony Stark was rocking the multichrome.
Also, huge feature you wouldn’t expect was a tape machine, which Tony used to imitate world leaders.
Interestingly, the armor was 3D knitted, a term strikingly similar to 3D printing.
*Yes, I’m aware that this is in fact, not gold but yellow, but that’s due to the limitations of early comics tech.
Greg Land was drawing Iron Man? Where on earth was he finding porn of guys in armor?