Superior Iron Man

NOTE: This article is only about Tony Stark's villainous role as the Superior Iron Man in Marvel Comics, not his original heroic self.

Superior Iron Man is a villainous version of Tony Stark who would debute following the events of Axis and became the titular villainous protagonist of the Superior Iron Man comic book series and as a major antagonist for his run in Marvel Comics, unlike the original Iron Man, this version is the darkest possible qualities of Tony Stark merged into a single being and unlike many versions of Stark was designed to be a full-fledged "bad guy" rather than morally dubious.

Superior Iron Man would be opposed by several heroes, the most notable being Pepper Potts, Daredevil and (for a short while) the original Tony Stark's memory, which had lived on as an artificial intelligence.

Biography

The origins of Superior Iron Man would begin in the Axis event, in which the morality of Earth's heroes and villains was reversed by magic. While the spell was undone the now corrupt Tony managed to shield himself and thus retained his evil personality even as most of Earth's heroes reverted back to their usual selves.

This would allow a new, darker Tony to infiltrate society and build an empire for himself, growing into an egotistical monster he would ultimately show himself as a true villain by releasing the Extremis 3.0 virus to the public as an app, addicting people to the substance and then depriving them of any further "upgrades" until they paid his fee of 100 dollars per day.

This caused social unrest and panic, as well as great suffering as a large section of society became in effect drug addicts enslaved to Tony's will, all the while Tony played things off as a game and spent much of his time indulging himself in parties and social events while the world around him suffered.

Tony wasn't stupid, however, he knew that he had to balance his cruelty in order to prevent the world rising up against him and thus he engaged in hostile take-over of many companies, forced people to promote his Extremis Apps positively (via blackmail) and even went as far as unleashing an army of advanced drones to act as a personal police force - in essence becoming a tyrant.

Appearance

While identical to Tony Stark this version is noted for his suit, which is white with glowing blue - without the suit he is basically the same man Tony Stark was, physically, the only difference laying in their personality.

Personality

As Superior Iron Man, this version of Tony displayed an array of vicious personality disorders such as malignant narcissim, a deep love of power and wealth, a complete lack of care for the suffering of others and a willingness to engage in unspeakable acts of treachery and deception in order to claim criminal gains.

Some of the most striking examples of his new, twisted personality are when he gets a large portion of the population addicted to the Extremis 3.0 virus for profit, betrays Pepper Potts and gives Daredevil his eyesight back (but only on a temporary basis), when an enraged Daredevil called Stark out for playing God he simply claimed he was not playing God, rather he "had been playing human", showing he has a God Complex.

He can be seen, more or less, as the Hyde of Stark, his darkest inner personality that he has kept repressed for years, unleashed by the Axis spell and unwilling to die off like the others. This makes him one of Marvel's most dangerous villains, with the full intelligence of Stark but none of his morality to keep him in place.