‘Iron Man 2’ Trivia: Who Else Has Worn The Armor?
Tony Stark is the man called Iron Man. For years, he has worn high-tech armor of his own creation in order to protect his interests or save the world as a whole. Over the years, he has altered and updated his suit time and time again.
But sometimes Tony has needed other people to wear the armor. Maybe so they can act as back-up. Maybe so they can help provide an alibi. Maybe because Tony himself just can’t do that job that time.
In Iron Man 2, the question comes up about who may be worthy to wear the armor and whether or not there shouldn’t be a whole army of Iron Men protecting the U.S. If a team of Iron Men sounds weird, You might be interested to know that years back there actually was a short-lived “Iron Legion” team formed by Jim Rhodes AKA War Machine and which included the various people who’ve worn the armor over the years.
So without further ado, here are the people who made up that Iron Legion and who’ve been an alternate Iron Man for different reasons over the years.
Eddie March
A famed boxer and sparring partner of Tony Stark’s driver Happy Hogan,
Eddie March was forced to retire from the ring due to a blood clot in
his brain. Happy got him a job at Stark Industries and so March wound up
getting to know Tony Stark.
When Tony finally got an artificial heart, so that he would no longer
have to rely on his armor’s chest unit to keep him alive, he found that
the strain of being Iron Man was too much for it and considered a
replacement. Eddie March became the new alternate Iron Man, donning the
famous armor and training under Stark’s direction.
Tony’s health improved and so Eddie became not the new Iron Man but
rather an alternate who would act whenever Tony needed his aid. After
being injured in battle against the Crimson Dynamo, he was given a
spare-tire version of the classic red and gold armor to keep. Years
later, he used the original “Mark 0” gray armor when he was recruited for the “Iron Legion.”
Harold “Happy” Hogan
Happy Hogan was a boxer who saved Tony’s life when the hero crashed a race car he was driving. Finding out the man was out of work, Tony hired him as his driver. The character is portrayed in Iron Man and Iron Man 2 by director Jon Favreau.
After learning his boss was secretly Iron Man, Happy did what he could
to help convince the public that the super-hero was Tony Stark’s
bodyguard rather than Tony Stark himself. On occasion, he’d even wear
the armor so that Tony and “Iron Man” could be seen together in the same
room.
One time when Happy was pretending to be Iron Man for the media, he was
suddenly captured and confronted by one of Tony’s arch-enemies, the
Mandarin. Happy did his best to fight the villain but wound up getting
so beaten-up that the armor he wore had to be scrapped.
Years later, Happy wore the first version of the red-and-gold armor (the
horned helmet version) when he worked with Rhodey’s “Iron Legion.”
Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes
Tony Stark built his first armor to escape terrorists who had captured
him. After taking down his enemies, Tony ran off and wound up meeting Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes, a marine who was also on his own. The two
worked together to stay alive until they were rescued by U.S. forces and
they remained friends. Years later, Rhodey became Tony Stark’s pilot
and learned the secrets of his double life as Iron Man.
Later on, thanks to the machinations of business rival Obadiah Stane, Tony’s life went to Hell. His girlfriend had dumped him viciously
and without warning (she was actually working for Obadiah), he was losing his company to Stane International, and the stresses off his life had driven him to fall off the wagon and
back into the throes of alcoholism. Realizing he couldn’t be trusted to
properly act as Iron Man in this state, Tony turned the armor over to
his dear friend Rhodey, making him the official new Iron Man.
Rhodey operated as Iron Man for a few months, even participating in the
famous “Secret Wars” event where he and other heroes were forced into
war games by a cosmic being called the Beyonder. But Rhodey began to
become more aggressive, more prone to irrational mood swings. The armor
had not been adjusted for his brainwaves and were corrupting his
personality.
By the time Tony got his life back in order, Rhodey had gone off the
deep end and the two friends fought before Rhodey finally got the help
he needed and returned the suit.
Several years later, Rhodey would go into action again using Tony’s
specialized Variable Threat Response Battle Suit. Calling himself “War
Machine” now, Rhodey was later given the armor as a gift when he and
Tony went down separate paths. For a short time, Rhodey wore an alien
suit of armor instead, but later went back to using Tony’s technology
and has continued his War Machine role for years now.
For a time, Jim Rhodes acted as an instructor for young and inexperienced super-humans at Camp Hammond, as part of the Avengers Initiative. You can see Don Cheadle portray Rhodey and don the War Machine armor in IRON MAN 2.
Michael O’Brien
Michael’s brother Kevin had been an engineer at Stark Industries whom
Tony Stark liked and trusted. In his own specialized suit of armor,
Kevin had acted as the “Guardsman” but later his armor caused him to
become irrational and he died during a battle against Iron Man.
Michael swore revenge against the Armored Avenger and so be came the new
Guardsman. Some time later, Michael saw Tony risking his life and
health to help others and he realized he had been wrong about the man.
To help Tony out of the situation he was in, Michael donned a newly
created version of the Iron Man armor. He later faced the Mandarin while
wearing this armor, before Tony arrived to take care of his arch-enemy
personally.
Years later, Michael wore the silver centurion armor as part of Rhodey’s
Iron Legion.
Carl Walker
Originally named Clayton Wilson, this man was an engineer who built a suit of
high-tech armor that he used as the villain Force. Later on, he built a new Force suit thanks to backing from Justin Hammer, who also provided him with stolen Iron Man technology.
Eventually, Wilson gave up his
criminal life and Tony set him up with a new identity as Carl Walker. The two former enemies became allies and Carl even got a job at Stark Industries.
Sometime after that, Walker was recruited for the Iron Legion by Rhodey
and wore Tony’s old classic red-and-gold suit (sometimes referred to as the Model 4 armor).
Bethany Cabe
Bethany Cabe was a security consultant and expert martial artist who was hired to be Tony Stark’s bodyguard. She became one of his closest confidantes and learned the secret of his double life. When Tony first realized he was an alcoholic, Bethany helped him overcome his demons and sober up. For a time, they dated but circumstances kept drawing them apart again.
Bethany Cabe never wore the armor on
her own but she did don one of Tony’s suits when War Machine asked her to be
part of his Iron Legion. With this armor, she helped the others battle
the giant robot Ultimo.
Pepper Potts
When Tony became a fugitive from the organization H.A.M.M.E.R. and its
leader Norman Osborn, he made sure to take certain precautions. This included giving his best friend and former secretary
Virginia “Pepper” Potts her own suit of armor. To help her operate it, the suit came with a user-friendly A.I.
program modeled after Tony’s butler Edwin Jarvis and named – fittingly – J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just Another Rather Very
Intelligent System).
Pepper’s armor had no weapons on it. All its features involved a
manipulation of force-fields and electro-magnetic energy. After helping
with various catastrophes, this armored identity of Pepper’s earned the
nickname “Rescue.”
The Sons of Yinsen
When Tony built his armor in that terrorist camp, he was helped by a
brilliant scientist named Ho Yinsen. Not only was the scientist’s aid
invaluable, but Yinsen then sacrificed his life to distract Tony’s
guards so that he would have the few moments necessary to fully charge
up his original armor and effectively escape.
Several years later, Tony learned that Yinsen’s scientific work had
continued to flourish under the care of his students and that these
people had created a techno-cult around the man called the Sons of
Yinsen. Living in a floating city that was cloaked from sight, the Sons
of Yinsen all wore suits of armor based on Tony’s own designs. But these
suits were not as powerful as Tony’s own.
The Sons of Yinsen were led, for a time, by what they believed to be the
still-living brain of Ho Yinsen. It was later revealed to actually be
the villainous living robot Ultron and he waged war on the sons,
seriously crippling much of their technology.
A few years later, the story-arc “Execute Program” seems to have
retconned away the Sons of Yinsen, but fans still remember this cult of
Iron Man lookalikes.
Alan Kistler once wore Iron Man’s
briefcase armor and it was awesome. Okay, it wasn’t exactly briefcase
armor so much as a briefcase that fit him. Alan is an actor in New York who does work as a freelance writer and is a weekly columnist for Newsarama’s “Agent of S.T.Y.L.E.” He has been recognized by
Warner Bros. Pictures and mainstream media outlets as a comic book
historian and is the creator/host of Crazy Sexy Geeks: The Series.
His personal website can be found at: KistlerUniverse.com.