Tony Stark’s Iron Man is always improving his iconic armor, with increased strength, greater durability and more bleeding-edge weaponry. However, Tony also has a long history of creating custom armor designed for one specific purpose – impressive suits which tend to only be used once.
These are the seven most unique single-use armors Tony has created so far. Each suit possesses at least one truly unique ability and is the rarest of the rare, only appearing in one comic story and in some cases, a single comic issue.
7
Iron Man’s Nanoparticle Armor, aka The Final Iron Man Armor
Debuted in Iron Man: The End #1 from David Michelinie, Bob Layton, Bernard Chang, Bob Layton, Mike Cavallaro and Artmonkeys Studios
In Iron Man: The End, Tony Stark finally retires from being Iron Man. As his replacement, Tony chooses his protégé Nick Travis, the heroic head technologist at Stark Universal. To represent the passing of the torch, Tony creates a suit made of nanoparticles that can form around Nick on a moment’s notice.
The suit’s most unique ability is that it can use nanomachines to deconstruct any technology or weaponry Nick can touch. In the ultimate realization of Tony’s dream, his final Iron Man suit is the ultimate anti-weapon, reducing whatever aggressive tech it touches to dust.
Alongside this disintegration power, the Nanoparticle suit includes holographic disguises, ultra-powerful hard air projectiles and restraint foam for low-durability targets.
6
Iron Man’s Temporal Armor
Debuted in Iron Man: Kiss & Kill #1 by Joe Ahearne, Brian Ching, Michael Atiyeh and Dave Sharpe
This suit may look like normal Iron Man armor, but it’s actually equipped to travel through time. Based on Doctor Doom’s technology, the Temporal Armor uses ‘true’ time travel, with the wearer able to change Marvel’s main timeline, rather than just creating offshoot timelines.
More recently, in the Ultimate Universe continuity, Tony Stark’s Iron Lad suit took time travel further. By installing the advanced Immortus Engine into his armor, Tony was able to pluck iterations of himself from the timeline, appearing in a dozen different places at once – an essential tool to fight the Maker’s worldwide regime and keep the Ultimates Network connected.
5
Iron Man’s Anti-Vibranium Armor, aka Mk. 21
Debuted in Black Panther #44 by Christopher Priest, Sal Velluto, Steve Geiger, Justin Thyme and Paul Tutrone
Iron Man has a bad habit of secretly creating suits to bring down his friends, and Black Panther is no exception. The Model 21 armor has absolutely no metallic parts, utilizing ceramics, polymer weaves and gel circuitry so that T’Challa’s Vibranium can’t degrade his systems on contact – something which the ‘anti-metal’ would otherwise do quickly.
However, the special ability that makes this suit so remarkable is that when it’s pierced by Vibranium, it releases superheated plasma. The energy blast is (according to Tony) so powerful, even Thor would be injured on contact.
Not only is this suit immune to Black Panther’s Vibranium claws, but it’s effectively boobytrapped against T’Challa’s weapon of first resort.
4
Iron Man’s Ice Age Man Armor
Debuted in Avengers #31 by Jason Aaron, Gerardo Zaffino, Geraldo Borges, Szymon Kudranski, Jan Bazaldua, Robert Gill, Mattia De Iulis, Rachelle Rosenberg and Joe Caramagna
When Tony Stark was hurled back to 1,000,000 BC, he had to create a suit of armor in a world with zero useful technology. Run on custom-made Vibranium batteries, the suit was actively in the process of melting down every moment Tony used it.
Despite this, the chest beam packed a serious punch – enough to shatter an Infinity Stone.
While this suit wasn’t particularly powerful outside its chest cannon, it allowed Tony to go up against Mephisto, and earns its place on this list because of the unique icicle cannons, with Tony taking advantage of the low temperature to fire shards of ice at the literal devil.
3
Iron Man’s Excalibur Armor, aka the Mk. 9
Debuted in Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #3 by David Michelinie, Ron Lim, Bob Layton and Artmonkeys Studios
This standard Iron Man armor got a huge upgrade when it fused with the scabbard of the mystical sword Excalibur. The magical upgrade made the armor totally invulnerable to all forms of harm, and used Tony’s will power as a power source, meaning his combined tech/magic blasts had no upper limits.
Combining with Excalibur itself (which involved Doctor Doom straight up stabbing Tony) unleashed a mystical explosion of staggering power.
2
Iron Man’s Cold Iron Armor, aka the Mk. 48
Debuted in Iron Man #24 by Kieron Gillen, Luke Ross, Guru-eFX and Joe Caramagna
Perhaps Iron Man’s most imposing armor of all time, the Cold Iron armor was created after Tony witnessed the horrific war crimes of the Dark Elf Malekith. Making good on Iron Man’s name, this suit is entirely constructed out of iron, making it immune to Dark Elf magic.
Since Dark Elves are effectively violently allergic to the substance, just Tony’s touch is enough to burn them in this suit. However, it also features gigantic claws, an iron grappling hook and cluster bombs of iron nails, allowing Iron Man to beat Malekith’s army so viciously, he became a Dark Elf legend in the aftermath.
1
Iron Man’s Jotunheim Suit
Debuted in Iron Man #25’s ‘Daddy’s Boys’ by Murewa Ayodele, Dotun Akande and Joe Caramagna
After Thor goes missing in the frozen realm of Jotunheim, Tony goes searching for him in a suit designed to operate in extreme conditions. The suit has color-changing camo, spiked feet to help Tony brave the otherworldly winds, and a hard-light shield which can handle dangerous conditions and fights with literal giants.
However, two features make this suit particularly impressive/bizarre. While the feature fails after Tony’s suit receives damage, the Jotunheim armor includes quantum tracking, allowing Iron Man to know his location anywhere in the multiverse (and track his fellow Avengers, who he secretly injected with tracking chips.)
Secondly, the suit extrudes tubes from its gauntlets that allow Iron Man to drain the nutrients from food without opening his helmet. It’s a minor detail, but one perfect for a suit designed to keep Tony alive in incredibly hostile territory. It’s really weird to see Iron Man simply hold a piece of fruit and drain it of nutrients – a minor ability that also speaks to the post-human nature of Tony’s technology.
Those are the 7 incredibly rare Iron Man suits most fans don’t know about, let us know in the comments below what other armors belong on this list, and what you think of our choices.
- Died
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2023 (in the MCU)
- Alias
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Iron Man
- RELATIONSHIPS
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Jude (biological father), Amanda Armstrong (biological mother), Howard Stark (adoptive father), Maria Stark (adoptive mother), Arno Stark (brother)
A
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