Ah Iron Man, the lynchpin of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the best dressed man in superhero comics. Tony Stark has already been given a vast swath of costumes and armors in the films. Let's see. In Iron Man, there's the clunky Mark 1, the shiny Mark 2, and the iconic Mark 3. Iron Man 2 brings the red-and-silver suitcase armor and that good triangle chested boy that is the Mark 6 (and the Mark 4 but the Mark 4 is just sorta there). Avengers has the Mark 7 and it's weird silver thighs. Iron Man 3 has"¦ okay well a lot of armors but the key one is the modular Mark 42 and its gold tummy. Avengers: Age of Ultron's Mark 43 rebalances the red and the gold and the Mark 44 Hulkbuster is memorable as hell. And then the Mark 45 shifts a little more red-wards but still looks good. Civil War given us the Mark 46, my personal favorite. Homecoming's Mark 47 is fine I guess? It's just the Ultimate armor so it's too grey but whatever. And of course the Mark 48 nanotech armor which is friggin beautiful and it's shapeshifting is rad. And now I've talked about every important Iron Man armor in the films. But what about the ones we haven't gotten too yet?
Source: twitter.com
10. Plastic Ghost Armor
Hey! Here's one that would make sense!
Wakanda's been discovered, Shuri's still around, Tony Stark always loves a new idea, it all clicks together! Plus, after Civil War, it would only make sense for Tony to take some precautions. This armor, dubbed the Plastic Ghost in the comics, AKA Model 22 AKA The Pantherbuster, was designed to be immune and invisible to Vibranium and it's effects.
As such, it was designed to go toe to toe with the Black Panther himself. True, T'Challa's not still around in the MCU (for now) but Tony's a smart man, and there are a lot of people in Wakanda who know how to weaponize Vibranium for devastating effects. Be afraid of them, Tony.
Stark loves being on the cutting edge of tech and there's no doubt he'd engineer a way around the new power source in the tech game. Plus, pink and white is a good look for Iron Man, not one I would have predicted, but one that's totally appreciated.
Source: gizmodo.com
9. Thorbuster Armor
Look, MCU Tony Stark is all about disaster preparedness.
He made Ultron to prep for a crisis scenario, he built the Hulkbuster before the Hulk went bad, he probably has an ice cannon hanging out somewhere in case he needs to turn Steve Rogers back into a Capsicle anytime soon. So why wouldn't he have a Thorbuster chilling in the back room somewhere?
The Thorbuster existed to, well, fight Thor. It is visually reminiscent of the Destroyer and can siphon power from Thor himself and turn it on his enemies. Now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thor is a pretty chill dude and probably won't go evil anytime soon, but having an armor that can siphon Thor's power is a pretty awesome idea.
Especially now that Thor has way more control over his lightning, he could just charge the hell out of Tony and then we'd have two founding Avengers hurling god lightning around and that sounds incredible.
Source: comicvine.gamespot.com
8. Stealth Armor
This one's a little more vague because there are a bunch of stealth armors!
My faves are the original blue boy, the super sleek Marvel Now stealth suit, and the skull and crossbones dead man Stealth Suit. The blue one (which I think is supposed to be black but coloring of the time rendered it as blue so that's how it's usually depicted) would be a fun way to do some callback stuff. We haven't had a monochrome Iron Man armor since the original movie and it could be cool to see.
But if they wanted to do a more lightweight stealth focused, non-weaponized suit, that would also be interesting. Having to balance power levels devoted to stealth with limited combat is a fun story challenge. Also Tony having to scrap together a bare bones armor that can get around Thanos's cosmically aware senses would be super cool.
The stealth armor is always most fun in the few scenes where Iron Man has to fight in it, as it drastically limits the powers we're used to seeing him display.
Source: thecomicbookaddicts.com
7. Silver Centurion Armor
Oh what could have been.
I mentioned earlier how much I love the Mark 5 suitcase suit from Iron Man 2 and all of that comes from a warm nostalgia for this sweet armor. The Silver Centurion armor lasted a brief period of time in the "˜80s and was the suit used in the all time classic Armor Wars AKA maybe the best classic Iron Man story. That's right Demon In A Bottle, I said it!
Anyway the red and silver just looks so good together, they play off each other beautifully. As well, pretty much all the main Iron Man suits have similar designs and the same profile. Having Tony in something that's a little more bulky and cuts a different figure would be really fun. Those triangle shoulder pads are cool as hell.
Shellhead hasn't really lived up to the nickname in recent memory and we need to get a little more of that huge gritty metal into the Iron Man armor.
Source: marvel.wikia.com
6. Deep Space Armor
I mean, if there's one armor Tony actually needs right about now, it's this one.
Stuck on Titan with Nebula and no way home and some broken armor and a crashed spaceship. More than anything, the dude needs some deep space armor for extraterrestrial adventures. Maybe the classic space suit from the comics with it's mouthless look? Or the Marvel Now version that he used while palling around with the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Yeah, Tony was on that team and sported a pretty weird looking armor while he was. Thing looked like a bug ate Iron Man and sort of half spit it out. Maybe a clunkier, more broken down suit would be more appropriate.
I mean, if Tony had to pull a suit together out of a bunch of tech he was unfamiliar with that is all waaaaaay more advanced than his normal stuff, it would not be as polished as the normal Iron Man armors. Ain't no focus groups in space, folks.
Source: pinterest.com
5. Symbiote Armor
I mean, it's out of left field for sure but anything's possible.
In the comics, this armor came about in the aftermath of the Axis crossover. Tony Stark had his brain re-aligned from good to evil and made an armor using symbiote tech so it could liquify and reshape as needed. He was also very evil and flaunted it non-stop.
But when he went good again he shed the symbiote armor for something a little more like the suit he sported in Infinity War. And this is about on par.
Infinity War already gave us a shapeshifting armor that could refit its needs and uses as Tony saw fit but that one wasn't as liquid as this would be. Plus it gives us some fun story ideas. Maybe Tony gets the symbiote from some off-world market and builds it into his suit. Maybe he doesn't know it's alive and just stores it after the adventure is over. Maybe a young protégé like Peter Parker starts messing around with Stark's old toys and maybe we have an MCU Venom on our hands all of a sudden. Probably not, but a guy can dream.
Source: marvel.wikia.com
4. Malekith-Fighting Armor
I mean, not much use for this one anymore I guess, now is there?
This armor came about in a storyline from the Marvel Now iron Man run. In that story, Malekith the Accursed got bored of messing with Thor and decided to take a crack at Iron Man. After the first fight went badly for our tin terror, he realized something: pure Iron burns magical creatures. Like dark elves. Which Malekith is one of. So he built this big hulking knife monster of a suit made of pure iron and went to town on the dark elves.
In a brutal, show of absolute badassery. I've always loved this armor and Tony might need to fight magical creatures at some point in the MCU. I mean, Asgard may be gone, but the other eight realms are alive and kickin', including Svartlheim, land of the Dark Elves.
Might be a mighty need for some Iron boots to go ass-kicking sometime soon.
Source: dadsbigplan.com
3. Marvel Now! Armor
We've had a lot of red and gold in our iron men so far.
Which I've previously addressed but I'd be incredibly down for something totally different. The Marvel Now! armor, nicknamed the bumblebee, took Iron Man in a different direction. That direction being yellow and black.
There's something that you wouldn't think would work about yellow and black but it absolutely does on Iron Man. There's a nice subtlety to it that completely changes the way Tony stands out in gatherings and how he mixes in with the other heroes. Also, Yellow's kind of an underrepresented color in the MCU Avengers.
And that thing's a primary color! It's one of the big three! Maybe worth giving that suit a shot.
Source: marvel.wikia.com
2. Phoenix Killer Armor
Look, the X-Men are coming to the MCU in some capacity at some point (even if not fully) and if that's the case, Tony's going to need to break out this old beauty out and give it a spin.
Originally, this suit was designed during the Avengers vs X-Men event so Tony could fly into space and punch the phoenix force away from earth. This did not work.
It split the Phoenix Force into five pieces and led to a bunch of BS we're not going to talk about right now. But more importantly it's a big suit of space armor that exists to punch a space bird god made of fire. That's pretty rad as hell.
Admittedly, Phoenix wouldn't be the first thing to cross into the MCU but Tony needs to be prepared, what with all the other space-born threats bouncing around out there.
Source: geek.com
1. Modular Armor
The Modular armor comes in many forms and we've seen a very specific take on it from the films.
Iron Man 3's primary suit, the Mark 42, was a brand of modular armor that could assemble itself on the fly. However, the comics also had the 90s modular armor, which was a more lightweight suit that could allow for pieces to be swapped out with others in order to better prepare for the mission at hand. Going underwater?
Switch out those jet boots for turbines! Space is where it's at? Get that helmet with it's own air supply. Need to take on a big challenger? Maybe swap out the gauntlets for ones with more firepower. Now the Mark 48 can shapeshift to have a similar effect, but it's not as satisfying as the action figure parts swapping that could be happening with a movie accurate modular armor.
And there you have it, a rundown of some incredible suits of Iron Man armor, all of them ready for Avengers 4.
