Silver Centurion
The Iron Man armor evolved for years, but was pretty much just variations on a theme until Marvel decided to ditch the red and gold for a new look.
The red and silver (yes, not white, silver, which is again a choice based on early comics coloring tech) was an insanely powerful armor, with force fields, tractor beams, and high tech weapons like pulse bolts, a unibeam that blasts out of Iron Man’s chests, hologram projectors, and wicked shoulder pads.
It was the 80s, so the shoulderpads made sense then. Really.
Despite being fairly short-lived, the Silver Centurion armor lives on in the hearts and minds of fans. This armor even influenced the design of the suitcase armor in Iron Man 2 as well as the design of Rescue, the suit of armor worn by Pepper Potts in the comics, rumored to make an appearance in Iron Man 3.
Interestingly, I can’t find any new real world tech that was added to the silver armor. It could be that we just haven’t caught up with some of the more fantastic elements in this particular version. The holographic imaging as a sort of visual countermeasure could be something with real military applications.
Then again, this is the era where the “radiation” from the armor drove Jim Rhodes and Tony insane at different points. That makes the characters’ portrayed illness a prediction of sorts for people allergic to WiFi.
Greg Land was drawing Iron Man? Where on earth was he finding porn of guys in armor?