Iron Man 2 is coming out soon, so we get yet another opportunity to see Tony Stark kicking some major ass, drinking until he can’t stand, and generally having a hand in supplying his own super villains with weapons. Of course, to combat the bad guys (of which there are many in Iron Man 2) Stark has stepped it up a notch and has upgraded the Iron Man suit several times. Oddly enough these upgrades have pretty much followed the canonical upgrades that we have seen in the comics themselves. So, that means we can take educated guesses about what we might see in future Iron Man movies.

The Past

Mark I: The Original

We all remember this armor from Iron Man 1. In the comics it had early proton beam and repulsor technology, but in the movies it had more traditional weapons. It was little more than a last ditch effort by Stark to escape from capture. As a last ditch effort (especially a last ditch effort that comes in the shape of a giant robot suit) it works out just fine.

Mark 2: The Golden Avenger

We never actually got to see this suit of armor in action, but it is briefly mention in the movies before stark paints over it. The Golden Avenger armor was a suit of solid gold armor, except it wasn’t actually made of gold, it was made of a lightweight alloy that was easy to move around in. This model was armed to the teeth and was able to project holograms, fire magnetic beams, and even use fast reacting chemicals to turn fire into ice. It was like a Swiss army knife of robot suits, but it looked kind of dorky.

Mark 3 Models II and III: The Proto-Classic and Post Proto-Classic Armor

This is as far as we ever got in the movies. These armors were the first incarnations of Iron Man as we know and love him today. Decked out in red and gold, this armor had most of the weapons the Golden Avenger had, but with most of the kinks worked out. For example, at one point Stark built rollerblades into the feet. Needless to say, this was a bad idea. At this point Stark had come to rely on beams and repulsors almost exclusively, with the exception of an odd off-hand drill, so this was basically the birth of modern Iron Man as we know him.

Mark 4: Flexi-Armor

Something we really haven’t seen in the movies, partially because it became obsolete so quickly in the comics. The Flexi-Armor increased Stark’s weaponry once again adding mini-explosives, tasers, and a sound-duplicator (to make yet more realistic holograms) to Iron Man’s already impressive weapons array. Unfortunately, the power source for this armor went out of style very quickly. So Stark went back to the drawing board.

Mark 5: The Classic Armor

This is the armor that we will get to see in Iron Man 2. Stark has figured out a way to make his armor fold into an attaché case that he carries with him at all time. This suit of armor was outfitted with basically every weapon from the previous armor type sand then some. He could change the frequency on his chest beam to fire infrared or ultra violet lasers. This suit had tractor beams, magnet bombs, and even a freeze grenade that produced temperatures cold enough to freeze the air. Sure we may not see half of these capabilities in the movie, but hell it’s good to know that they exist.

The Present

Iron Monger

We saw Iron Monger in the first Iron Man movie. A revamped version of the original Iron Man suit, Obadiah Stane used the Iron Monger suit to battle Tony Stark physically, while simultaneously battling Start economically through a hostile takeover of his company.

War Machine

Now War Machine is certainly a fan favorite. Originally titled the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit, the War Machine armor was a variant of the Iron Man armor that had a focus on traditional weaponry. While it still had access to some of the Iron Man suit’s beam and repulsor capabilities, War Machine was more well known for its fire-arms and explosives. It had a chain gun mounted on its right shoulder, several retractable weapon pods and heat-seeking missile launchers, a flame thrower, and much much more. Heck it even featured a plasma blade and EMP generator. We aren’t sure if all these capabilities will make their way into Iron Man 2, but we will be sitting in the theaters with our check list ready.

The Future

Modular Armor

Stark’s Modular Armor was an Iron-Man suit that could have different weapons and parts switched out on the fly. It was a great idea, and we are already seeing elements of this in the movies. However, we are particularly hoping that the Modular Armor makes an appearance in The Avengers, because two of its most well known variants include the Hulkbuster and Thorbuster armor types. Since both of these Marvel Super Heroes tend to go insane more often than not, Stark has these variants on standby to put them down. The Hulkbuster variant included thick armor plating and several layers of strength enhancing circuitry to put Stark on par with the green giant. The Thorbuster armor actually combined Starks high technology with magic in an attempt to reign in Thor when he foolishly decided to attempt to rule all of Eath.

Stealth Armor

Originally, Stark built these armors for the purpose of espionage. The first stealth armor variants had no weapons to speak of, with later versions only having limited fighting capability. Eventually, Stark developed the Silver Centurion armor, a battle armor capable of projecting a 3-D force field and using a sonic emitter as a weapon. Combining both of these allowed him to create a chameleon effect, which allowed him to blend in with his surroundings much like the Steal Armors, except with far higher battle capabilities. Unfortunately, the amount of light and sound bending required to produce such an effect caused Tony Stark to have massive headaches so it wasn’t used much in that way.

Space Armor

Well, this is self explanatory. What is cooler than Iron Man? Iron Man in spaaaaace! The space armor had a life support system that could keep Tony alive in the vacuum of space no problem. In fact, without recharge, Tony could easily stay out in space for a good 48 hours. In fact, the only downside this armor had was the fact that its self contained nature made it bulky and thus hard to handle in normal gravity conditions.

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