Every Character Who Wears Stark Armor In The MCU

Tony Stark is famous for his incredible suits in the Iron Man movies, but he’s not the only MCU character to wear Stark Tech armor. Though Tony’s first suit was famously built in a cave with a box of scraps after the genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist was kidnapped by a branch of the Ten Rings organization, it quickly evolved into something truly cutting edge. Starting with basic armor and weapons and eventually sporting complete nanotech, nobody made better armor than Tony Stark.

Given the incredible number of Iron Man suits in the MCU, it’s unsurprising that Tony also made armor for a few other characters to help them out in combat. Beyond that, some nefarious villains even took Stark’s designs for their own. Either way, there’s little doubt that without Iron Man and the variations on that design, the Marvel Universe may not have survived some of the threats that it has.

9 Tony Stark/Iron Man

Tony Stark was obviously the first and most prolific wearer of his own armor, which let him escape imprisonment in Afghanistan and later take on massive threats like Hulk, Aldrich Killian, and Thanos. From one design to the next, the possibilities of Iron Man armor seem almost limitless. Basic functions like flight are almost taken for granted as the suits later enabled Stark to create shields, blasters, and jet boosters on the fly with nanotech. Despite their fantastical capabilities, the early Iron Man armors are particularly notable as their pseudo-grounded bulkiness lend a level of realism to the early MCU that is, in part, later lost.

8 James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine

James “Rhodey” Rhodes is one of Tony’s few friends in the US government, first introduced as a sort of “inside connection” that ensured he wasn’t instantly shot out of the sky in the first Iron Man movie. Though Rhodey teases a suit-up in Tony’s debut film, it isn’t until Iron Man 2 that War Machine debuts in full. Similar in look to the Iron Man armor, War Machine’s blacks and grays are made more intimidating by the increased traditional firepower present. Iron Man may have more lasers and advanced tech, but War Machine has the bullets and explosives.

Stark Tech becomes even more important to Rhodey after Captain America: Civil War. After being shot out of the sky by Vision, Rhodey loses the function of his legs. A smaller Star-Tech brace allows him to continue walking and functioning after a period of rehabilitation. Rhodey will have to deal with Stark Tech once again soon as Armor Wars seems poised to deal with the fallout of what happens to Stark Tech in a post-Tony Stark world.

7 Pepper Potts/Rescue

Though Pepper Potts starts as Tony Stark’s personal assistant, she eventually becomes CEO of Stark Industries and, later, a wearer of her own Iron Man armor – Mark XLIX, aka Rescue. Debuting in Avengers: Endgame, Pott’s Rescue is shown to have all the classic Iron Man capabilities. Colored purple instead of the traditional hotrod red, Rescue’s signature difference is her use of drones, which increase offensive output with their own laser repulsors.

6 Peter Parker/Spider-Man

The MCU sees Peter Parker and Tony Stark build a mentor/mentee relationship, and one of the perks is that Peter’s Spider-Man suit is filled with Stark Tech. Early upgrades included technologically advanced eye lenses and an onboard AI assistant, and the Iron Spider gave Peter four mechanical limbs, increased armor, and access to nanotechnology. However, the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home shows Peter on his own, sporting a more classic and presumably less tech-filled Spider-Man suit.

5 Sam Wilson/Falcon

Sam Wilson’s first EXO-7 Falcon suit was developed by the US government, and his most recent Captain America suit was a gift from Wakanda, but, in the middle, he has a suit made by Tony Stark. Sam’s first on-screen suit suffers massive damage in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and it’s redone by Tony for later films. With Sam Wilson getting another new suit in Captain America: Brave New World, he may see even more technology embedded to help him in lieu of any real superpowers.

4 Bruce Banner

Bruce Banner may be synonymous with Hulk, but the brilliant scientist dons an Iron Man suit in Avengers: Infinity War when he can’t get Hulk to emerge. The scene originally had Hulk burst out of the suit during Infinity War‘s climax, but it was later changed to avoid another Hulk deus ex machina. It’s a bit ironic that Banner finds protection in the Hulkbuster suit, which is later destroyed in the Battle of Wakanda.

3 Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger

Iron Man may have seen Tony Stark develop his first Iron Man suit, but it also saw his one-time ally, Obadiah Stane, don one as well. After learning what Stark created, Stane uses his Arc Reactor tech and the plans from the original suit to build a bigger, stronger Iron Man – though not without some of the suit’s early flaws. With its bigger silhouette and strong weaponry, the Iron Monger design may have led to the eventual War Machine suit, though Stane’s build is destroyed in Iron Man‘s climax.

2 Steve Rogers/Hydra Stomper

Marvel’s What If…? explores alternate timelines that twist traditional MCU stories, and one episode explores what would have happened if Peggy Carter had taken the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. In this timeline, in lieu of becoming Captain America, Steve gets an Iron Man-style suit from Tony’s father, Howard Stark. The suit, dubbed the Hydra Stomper, is powered by the Tesseract and has many of the capabilities of Iron Man, albeit toned down for the 1940s.

1 Ultron

After the alien invasion and Battle of New York in The Avengers and his own troubles in the Iron Man movies, Tony Stark grows weary that neither he nor the Avengers will always be able to protect the Earth. To fix that, he develops an AI system and army of autonomous Iron Man suits capable of assessing threats and keeping peace without direct human involvement. Of course, the project goes awry, and Ultron determines that the biggest threat to the planet is humanity itself. While he later upgrades himself with a stronger body, the villain initially appears in the partially functional shell of one of Tony’s Iron Legion drones.