Industrialist and tech genius Tony Stark, better known as the Marvel Superhero Iron Man, is notable for the nature of his “super powerâ€, a hi-tech suit of armor. As Stark/Iron Man were conceived by Marvel as representing the positives of high technology, it’s reflected in how his armor gradually evolved.
The first Iron Man suit was a bulky little number, though it was quickly replaced by a sequence of slimmer, leaner and more advanced suits, reflecting the march of technology both in-universe and in real life. This concept carries over to the live-action MCU, with Robert Downey Jr. as Stark.
Now we get to list the varieties of armors Tony designed in his career as Iron Man throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For brevity’s sake, we’ll focus on the ones that stood center stage during his MCU appearances, mainly because he actually wore them.
- Mark I – built in a cave “with a box of scrapsâ€; reversed-engineered to build Obadiah Stane’s Iron Monger armor
- Mark II – silver color; ices up in high altitudes; later modified into the War Machine armor, and briefly the Iron Patriot armor
- Mark III – main armor for the first movie
- Mark IV – used only during Tony’s entrance at the Stark Expo in Iron Man 2
- Mark V – the “suitcase suitâ€
- Mark VI – main armor for second movie and initial suit in Avengers; has one-use wrist super-lasers
- Mark VII – main armor for Avengers; remotely launched and can link with Stark by locking onto his locator bracelet; not space-proof
- Mark XLII – main armor for third movie; has more gold than red; can be operated remotely
- Mark XLIII – initial suit for Avengers: Age of Ultron; can act as unmanned sentry gun or combine with the Mark XLIV “Veronica†Hulk-buster add-on armor
- Mark XLV – final armor used during Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Mark XLVI – used during Captain America: Civil War; heavily damaged by Cap and Bucky
- Mark XLVII – used during Spider-Man: Homecoming; can remotely control drone armor parts
- Mark XLVIII – “Bleeding Edge†armor used during Avengers: Infinity War; made fully out of regenerating nanomachines; heavily damaged, possibly beyond complete regeneration by Thanos
Stark also made various other armors between Avengers and Iron Man 3, numbered VIII-XLI and collectively called the Iron Legion, each specifically designed for particular situations. They can be remotely controlled and self-destructed as needed.