Contents show]

History

Deemed as "bleeding edge," this armor was created as Tony Stark essentially reinvented himself and the armor. Being called an upgrade to Extremis by Mr. Fantastic, Tony Stark corrected this comment by saying, "Nah - this is what comes next." It was the first armor powered entirely by repulsor technology via Stark's new device, the R.T. node.[4]

During the War of the Serpent, Odin Borson let Stark have access to the forges of Nidavellir, and created an arsenal of Uru weapons to combat the enemy forces razing the Earth.[5] In order to acquire his own enhancements, Tony merged the systems of the Bleeding Edge Armor with Uru, turning it into the "Iron Destroyer" until the battle ended.[6] When Odin left to Asgard, the enhancements of the Uru weapons and the Iron Destroyer were gone, so Tony vented the Uru from the suit's structure and gave it back to the forges along with the rest of the weapons to be melted.[3]

During the war between the Avengers and the X-Men, a version of the suit was used that was composed of carbon nanotubes, in order to effectively fight against Magneto.[7]

Stark was forced to discard the armor after his competency as the suit's pilot was called into question (due to machinations of the Mandarin). Mr. Fantastic assisted Tony in purging the armor from his body after received orders from the U.S. government; and the two successfully removed all components from Tony's body. They would also render the tech completely inert, denying all possibility of reverse engineering or research to duplication.[8]

Tony would later create a nanotech-free version of the suit for use after Punisher stole the Model 42 during his battle against the Avengers.[9]





Capabilities

This entire armor is kept inside Tony's body until mentally commanded, at which point it manifests itself as the Iron Man Armor. The armor is made up of Nano-Machines that can now be commanded to turn into any type of structure upon Stark's skin. For example, the nano-machines can turn into clothes, other armors, or even different beings completely, by having the nano-machines change their properties into whatever Stark wants them to be. It can also dissociate to transform into the Iron Man armor whenever Stark wishes. The armor and Stark's own transhuman body are powered by the high-yield R.T. node mounted in his chest. The high output of the node has greatly augmented Stark's intelligence and provided him with superhuman-level multitasking and learning capabilities.

Unlike earlier armors, this new armor does not appear to rely on motors and servos for motion. Instead, the nano-machines create a second layer of artificial muscle over Stark's body, upon which additional structures are assembled. This also enables the armor to self-repair and be almost invulnerable, as the armor is capable of transforming and healing itself, by having the constantly replicating nano-machines replace anything that is lost or used, as long as the power output from the arc reactor isn't interrupted or terminated.

The neurokinetic user-controlled morphologic nanoparticle bundles that form the suit reside in Stark's body, and form a fibrous wetweb of iron and platinum, that can be commanded to form any type of structure upon Stark's skin, from weaponry to clothing, and can even stop a howitzer shell.[10]

Known weaponry includes repulsors, uni-beam, pulse bolts, tasers,[2] and an energy blade.[11] Defenses include deflector shields. Other type of weapons and upgrades seems to be created by Stark's imagination, such as a boxing glove,[5] large guns extending from his arms,[10] or cannons.[12]

The suit's repulsors, which are located around the knuckles, chest, back and legs of the armor, as well as in the traditional palms, now function also as cameras, or "eyeballs," which afford Stark a 360-degree panoramic view around himself.[10]



Notes

Trivia

When this armor was adapted into a 3.75" action figure for the series 3 of Hasbro's Marvel Universe toyline, the package mislabelled it as the "Modular Armor Iron Man."