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Hot Fuzz
British theatrical release poster
Directed by	Edgar Wright
Written by	Edgar Wright Simon Pegg
Produced by	Nira Park Tim Bevan Eric Fellner
Starring	Simon Pegg Nick Frost Jim Broadbent
Cinematography	Jess Hall
Edited by	Chris Dickens
Music by	David Arnold
Production companies	StudioCanal Working Title Films Big Talk Productions
Distributed by	Rogue Pictures (North America)[1] Universal Pictures (International) StudioCanal (France)[1]
Release dates	16 February 2007 (2007-02-16) (United Kingdom) 20 April 2007 (2007-04-20) (United States) 18 July 2007 (2007-07-18) (France)
Running time	121 minutes[2]
Countries	United Kingdom[3] France[3] United States[3]
Language	English
Budget	US$12–16 million[4][5]
Box office	$80.7 million[1]

Hot Fuzz is a 2007 action comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Nicholas Angel, a police officer who investigates a series of gruesome deaths in a West Country village. Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton and Jim Broadbent co-star.

Hot Fuzz is the second and most successful film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, succeeding Shaun of the Dead (2004) and followed by The World's End (2013). Over 100 action films were used as inspiration for the script.

Principal photography took place in Wells, Somerset for eleven weeks and ten artists worked on VFX, which involved explosions, gory gunfire scenes and a flip book. Released on 16 February 2007 in the United Kingdom and 20 April in the United States, Hot Fuzz received acclaim and grossed US$80 million worldwide on a budget of $12–16 million. In 2020, Empire named it the 67th-greatest film of the 21st century.^[6]

Plot[edit]

Metropolitan Police Sergeant Nicholas Angel is reassigned to the rural town of Sandford, Gloucestershire. Angel arrests Danny Butterman for drink-driving, but later discovers that he is the son of Inspector Frank Butterman, and a police officer himself. Angel is frustrated by the mundanity of the village, his incompetent colleagues, and Frank's and the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance (NWA)'s prioritisation of low crime statistics over law enforcement.

Angel and Danny stop the two lead actors of a local production of Romeo and Juliet for speeding. They are later murdered by a cloaked figure, and their deaths are staged as a car crash; only Angel suspects foul play. He and Danny discover an illegal weapons stash, including an old sea mine, and confiscate it. Angel warms to Danny, and together they binge-watch action films at Danny's house. That night, a cloaked figure attacks George Merchant, a wealthy land developer, in his home, and kills him in a gas explosion. Angel suspects that the deaths are connected to a recent property deal.

A local journalist, Tim Messenger, approaches Angel at a village fête, claiming to have information. However, a cloaked figure kills Messenger by dislodging masonry from the church's tower. Angel learns from Leslie Tiller, the village florist, about her plans to sell her land to Merchant's business partners. While Angel retrieves his notebook, a cloaked figure murders Tiller with her garden shears. Angel pursues the killer, but to no avail. Angel suspects Simon Skinner, a supermarket manager, as the property deal would have built a rival supermarket, but Skinner has an alibi.

After surmising that there are multiple killers, Angel is attacked in his hotel room by Michael "Lurch" Armstrong, an employee of Skinner. He incapacitates him and learns about a secret NWA meeting at Sandford Castle. There, the NWA, led by Frank, reveals that they committed the murders and staged them as accidents, as each victim threatened Sandford's chances of winning "Village of the Year". Irene, Frank's late wife and Danny's mother, put everything into helping Sandford win the first-ever competition, but travellers ruined their chances the night before the adjudicators arrived, driving her to suicide. Frank has since vowed to help Sandford win Village of the Year every year, whatever the cost. Angel flees but stumbles into the castle's catacombs, discovering the corpses of the NWA's victims, some of whom Angel had helped arrest or question. Danny suddenly appears and feigns murdering Angel and, pretending to dispose of him, unsuccessfully urges him to return to London for his own safety. After arming himself with the confiscated guns, he and Danny engage in a shootout with the NWA. When Frank orders the other officers to arrest them, the pair successfully convinces them of Frank's complicity.

Frank flees, and the officers besiege the supermarket, with Skinner escaping in a police car with Frank. After he and Danny engage the offenders in a high-speed chase and shootout, Angel corners Skinner at Sandford's model village. After a fight, Skinner is impaled on a miniature church steeple. Frank attempts to escape in Angel's car, but a swan that the pair had recaptured earlier attacks him. Angel's former superiors arrive and ask him to return to London as the crime rate has risen heavily in his absence, but Angel declines, electing to remain in Sandford.

While the officers are reviewing the paperwork of the many arrests, Tom Weaver, the last NWA member, enters the station wielding a blunderbuss. He shoots at Angel, but Danny takes the bullet. In the resulting struggle, Weaver accidentally activates the sea mine, killing himself and destroying the station. One year later, Angel has been promoted to Inspector, and Danny, having survived, has been promoted to Sergeant. After visiting Irene's grave, the two drive to their next crime scene.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

Director Edgar Wright wanted to write and direct a cop film because "there isn't really any tradition of cop films in the UK... We felt that every other country in the world had its own tradition of great cop action films and we had none."^[12] Wright and Pegg spent eighteen months writing the script.^[13] The first draft took eight months to develop, and after watching 138 cop-related films for dialogue and plot ideas and conducting over fifty interviews with police officers for research, the script was completed after another nine months.^[13][14] The title was based on the various two-word titles of action films in the 1980s and 1990s.^[15] In one interview Wright declared that he "wanted to make a title that really had very little meaning... like Lethal Weapon and Point Break and Executive Decision." In the same interview, Pegg joked that many action films' titles "seem to be generated from two hats filled with adjectives and nouns and you just, 'Okay, that'll do.'"^[15] While writing the script, Wright, as well as Pegg, intended to include Frost as the partner for Pegg's character. Frost revealed that he would do the film only if he could name his character, and he chose "Danny Butterman".^[16]

Preparation and filming[edit]

During the latter half of 2005, Working Title Films approached several towns in South West England looking for an appropriate filming location. Pegg commented, "We're both [Pegg and Wright] from the West Country so it just seemed like it was the perfect and logical thing to drag those kind of ideas and those genres and those clichés back to our beginnings to where we grew up, so you could see high-octane balls-to-the-wall action in Frome".^[17] Stow-on-the-Wold was considered amongst others, but after being turned away, the company settled upon Wells in Somerset, Wright's hometown,^[18] of which he has said "I love it but I also want to trash it".^[19] Wells Cathedral was digitally painted out of every shot of the cathedral city, as Wright wanted the Church of St Cuthbert to be the centre building for the fictional town of Sandford;^[20] however, the Bishop's Palace is identifiable in some shots (and was itself used as the setting for some scenes).^[21] While shooting scenes in their uniforms, Pegg and Frost were often mistaken for genuine police officers and asked for directions by passers-by.^[22] Filming also took place at the Hendon Police College, including the driving school skid pan and athletic track and at the Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre at Gravesend.^[23] Next to Hendon is Mill Hill where Finchley Nurseries is located which is where the flower shop scene was filmed.^[24] The final scenes were filmed at the surviving ruins of Waverley Abbey.^[25] Filming commenced on 19 March 2006 and lasted for eleven weeks.^[26][27] After editing, Wright ended up cutting half an hour of footage from the film.^[28]

Outside references[edit]

Self-references[edit]

Wright has said that Hot Fuzz takes elements from his final amateur film, Dead Right, which he described as both "Lethal Weapon set in Somerset" and "a Dirty Harry film in Somerset".^[19] He uses some of the same locations in both films, including the Somerfield supermarket, where he used to work as a shelf-stacker.^[19]

References to Shaun of the Dead are also present in the film. In one scene, Nicholas wants to chase a shoplifter by jumping over several garden fences; however, Danny is reluctant. Nicholas says, "What's the matter, Danny? You never taken a shortcut before?" He smiles assuredly before jumping over four in a row (according to the DVD commentary, Pegg vaulted over three fences, and a stunt man did a back flip over the fourth). When Danny attempts it, he trips and falls through the first fence and climbs over the second. This is almost identical to a scene in Shaun of the Dead, including the fall-through-fence gag, albeit with the pratfalling role reverse: in Shaun of the Dead it happens to Pegg's character rather than Frost's, and he falls over the fence rather than through it. The DVD commentary says that Frost purposely looked back at the camera after crashing through the fence, to show that he had done the stunt rather than someone else.

Frost's characters (Danny in Hot Fuzz, Ed in Shaun of the Dead) have a liking for Cornetto ice cream.^[29] Pegg and Wright have referred to Hot Fuzz as being the second film in the "Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy", with Shaun of the Dead being the first and The World's End being the third.^[30][31]

Other films[edit]

Various scenes in Hot Fuzz feature a variety of action film DVDs such as Police Story 3: Super Cop and scenes from Point Break and Bad Boys II. Wright revealed that he had to get permission from every actor in each video clip, including stunt men, to use the clips and for the use of the DVD covers had to pay for the rights from the respective studios.^[32] The film parodies clichés used in other action movies. On the topic of perceived gun fetishes in these movies, Pegg has said, "Men can't do that thing, which is the greatest achievement of humankind, which is to make another human, so we make metal versions of our own penises and fire more bits of metal out of the end into people's heads... It's our turn to grab the gun by the hilt and fire it into your face."^[17] Despite this, Pegg maintains that the film is not a spoof, in that "They lack the sneer that a lot of parodies have that look down on their source material. Because we're looking up to it."^[33] The film also includes various references to The Wicker Man, in which Edward Woodward had played a policeman tough on law and order.^[34]

Special effects[edit]

To illustrate the destruction of the mansion as a result of the gas explosion, gas mortars were placed in front of the building to create large-scale fireballs. The wave of fire engulfs the camera, and to achieve that effect, gas mortars were used again but were fired upwards into a black ceiling piece that sloped up towards the camera.^[35] When the sequence was shot at a high speed, the flames appeared to surge across the ground. For one of the final scenes of the film, the Sandford police station is destroyed by an explosion. Part of the explosion was created by using a set model that showed its windows being blown out, while the building remained intact. The actual destruction of the building was depicted by exploding a miniature model of the station.^[20]

Similar to the work in Shaun of the Dead, blood and gore was prevalent throughout the film. Visual effects supervisor Richard Briscoe revealed the rationale for using the large amounts of blood: "In many ways, the more extreme you make it, the more people know it is stylised and enjoy the humour inherent in how ridiculous it is. It's rather like the (eventually) limbless Black Knight in [Monty Python and the Holy Grail]."^[35] The most time-consuming gore sequence involved a character's head being crushed by a section of a church. A dummy was used against a green screen and the head was detonated at the point when the object was about to impact the body. Throughout the film, over seventy gunfight shots were digitally augmented; Briscoe's rationale for adding the additional effects was that "The town square shootout, for example, is full of extra little hits scattered throughout, so that it feels like our hero characters really do have it all going off, all around them. It was a great demonstration of [how] seemingly very trivial enhancements can make a difference when combined across a sequence."^[35]

Promotion[edit]

The first two teaser trailers were released on 16 October 2006. Wright, Pegg, and Frost maintained several video blogs, which were released at various times throughout the production of the film.^[36] Wright and Frost held a panel at the 2006 Comic-Con convention in San Diego, California to promote Hot Fuzz, which included preliminary footage and a question and answer session.^[37] The two returned to the convention again in 2007 to promote the US DVD release.^[38] Advance screenings of the film took place on 14 February 2007 in the UK and the world premiere was on 16 February 2007. The premiere included escorts from motorcycle police officers and the use of blue carpet instead of the traditional red carpet.^[39]

Release[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating with an average rating of 7.7/10 based on 204 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "The brilliant minds behind Shaun of the Dead successfully take a shot at the buddy cop genre with Hot Fuzz. The result is a bitingly satiric and hugely entertaining parody."^[40] It has a Metacritic score of 81 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[41] Olly Richards of Empire praised the chemistry between Pegg and Frost, saying: "After almost a decade together, they're clearly so comfortable in each other's presence that they feel no need to fight for the punchline, making them terrific company for two hours".^[42]

Philip French of The Observer, who did not care for Shaun of the Dead, warmed to the comedy team in this film.^[43] The film also received positive reviews in the United States. Derek Elley of Variety praised Broadbent and Dalton as "especially good as Angel's hail-fellow-well-met superior and oily No. 1 suspect".^[44] As an homage to the genre, the film was well received by screenwriter Shane Black.^[28] Despite being mostly praised, not all reviews were positive. The Daily Mirror gave Hot Fuzz only 2/5, stating that "many of the jokes miss their target" as the film becomes more action-based.^[45] Anthony Quinn of The Independent said, "The same impish spirit [as in Spaced] is uncorked here, but it has been fatally indulged".^[46]

In 2016, Empire magazine ranked Hot Fuzz 50th on their list of the 100 best British films, with their entry stating, "the second in their planned trilogy again nails the genre clichés, with everything from Point Break to Bad Boys II (both openly referenced) humorously homaged. Pegg's natural chemistry with long-time real-life pal Frost remains endearing as ever. Elsewhere, the Scooby-Doo-meets-Scream mystery is peppered with Britain's finest talent, playing up the English small-town clichés to great effect in a brilliantly incongruous meeting of sleepy rural life and stabby violent action."^[47]

Accolades[edit]

Box office[edit]

The film generated £7.1 million in its first weekend of release in the United Kingdom on 14 February 2007.^[49] In 20 April US opening weekend, the film grossed $5.8 million from only 825 cinemas, making it the highest per-cinema average of any film in the top ten that week.^[1] Its opening weekend take beat the $3.3 million opening weekend gross of Pegg and Wright's previous film, Shaun of the Dead. In its second weekend of release, Rogue Pictures expanded the film's cinema count from 825 to 1,272 and it grossed $4.9 million, representing a 17% dip in the gross.^[50] Altogether, Hot Fuzz grossed $80,573,774 worldwide.^[1] In nine weeks, the film earned nearly twice what Shaun of the Dead made in the US, and more than three times its gross in other countries.^[51]

Home media[edit]

The DVD was released on 11 June 2007 in the UK. Over one million DVDs were sold in the UK in the first four weeks of its release.^[52] The two-disc set contains the feature film with commentaries, outtakes, storyboards, deleted scenes, a making-of documentary, video blogs, featurettes, galleries, and some hidden easter eggs. The DVD also features Wright's last amateur film, Dead Right, which he described as "Hot Fuzz without the budget". Due to the above release date, the film arrived on region 2 DVD earlier than the theatrical release date in Germany on 14 June 2007.^[53] In the commentary with director Wright and fellow filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, they discuss nearly 200 films.^[54]

The US DVD and HD DVD release was on 31 July 2007. It opened at #2 at the American DVD sales chart, selling 853,000 units for over $14m in revenue. 1,923,000 units have been sold, acquiring revenue of $33.3 million.^[55] The HD DVD edition has more special features than the standard DVD release. A three-disc collector's edition was released on 27 November 2007 and a Blu-ray edition on 22 September 2009.^[56]

Soundtrack[edit]

The soundtrack album, Hot Fuzz: Music from the Motion Picture, was released on 19 February 2007 in the United Kingdom, and on 17 April 2007 in the United States and Canada. The UK release contains 22 tracks, and the North American release has 14. The film's score is by British composer David Arnold, who scored the James Bond film series from 1997 to 2008. The soundtrack album's "Hot Fuzz Suite" is a compilation of excerpts from Arnold's score.^[57] According to the DVD commentary, the scenes where Nicholas Angel is at a convenience store, while leaving Sandford, and his return to the police station while arming for the final shootout (found in the track "Avenging Angel"), were scored by Robert Rodríguez, who did not see the rest of the film while writing the music.

Other music from the film is a mix of 1960s and 1970s British rock (The Kinks, T. Rex, The Move, Sweet, The Troggs, Arthur Brown, Cozy Powell, Dire Straits), new wave (Adam Ant, XTC) and a Glaswegian indie band (The Fratellis).^[57][58] The soundtrack album features dialogue extracts by Pegg, Frost, and other cast members, mostly embedded in the music tracks.^[59] The song selection also includes some police-themed titles, including Supergrass' "Caught by the Fuzz" as well as "Here Come the Fuzz", which was specially composed for the fi

Bruce Banner Hulk
Cover art for the comic book issue The Immortal Hulk #20 (July 2019) Art by Dale Keown and Peter Steigerwald
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Full name	Robert Bruce Banner[1]
Species	Human mutate[a]
Team affiliations	Avengers Defenders Horsemen of Apocalypse Fantastic Four[2] Pantheon Warbound S.M.A.S.H. Secret Avengers
Partnerships	She-Hulk
Notable aliases	Joe Fixit, World-Breaker, Immortal Hulk/Devil Hulk, Jade Giant, Jade Jaws,[3] Doc Green, Guilt Hulk/Guilt, War
Abilities	As Bruce Banner/Doc Green: Genius level intellect Proficient scientist and engineer As Hulk/Joe Fixit: Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability Anger empowerment Regeneration Shockwave generation Gamma ray emission and manipulation

The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of The Incredible Hulk (May 1962). In his comic book appearances, the character, who has dissociative identity disorder (DID), is primarily represented by the alter ego Hulk, a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a limitless degree of physical strength, and the alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist, both of whom typically resent each other.

Following his accidental exposure to gamma rays while saving the life of Rick Jones during the detonation of an experimental bomb, Banner is physically transformed into the Hulk when subjected to emotional stress, at or against his will. This transformation often leads to destructive rampages and to conflicts that complicate Banner's civilian life. The Hulk's level of strength is normally conveyed as proportionate to his level of anger. Commonly portrayed as a raging savage, the Hulk has been represented with other alter egos, from a mindless, destructive force (War), to a brilliant warrior (World-Breaker), a self-hating protector (the Devil/Immortal), a genius scientist in his own right (Doc Green), and a gangster (Joe Fixit).

Despite both Hulk and Banner's desire for solitude, the character has a large supporting cast. This includes Banner's love interest Betty Ross, his best friend Rick Jones, his cousin She-Hulk, and therapist and ally Doc Samson. In addition, the Hulk alter ego has many key supporting characters, like his co-founders of the superhero team the Avengers, his queen Caiera, fellow warriors Korg and Miek, and sons Skaar and Hiro-Kala. However, his uncontrollable power has brought him into conflict with his fellow heroes and others. Despite this, he tries his best to do what's right while battling villains such as the Leader, the Abomination, the Absorbing Man, and more.

Lee stated that the Hulk's creation was inspired by a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.^[4] Although the Hulk's coloration has varied throughout the character's publication history, the most usual color is green.

One of the most iconic characters in popular culture,^[5][6] the character has appeared on a variety of merchandise, such as clothing and collectable items, inspired real-world structures (such as theme park attractions), and been referenced in a number of media. Banner and the Hulk have been adapted in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations. The character was first played in live-action by Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno in the 1978 television series The Incredible Hulk and its subsequent television films The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), and The Death of the Incredible Hulk (1990). In film, the character was played by Eric Bana in Hulk (2003). In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the character was first portrayed by Edward Norton in the film The Incredible Hulk (2008) and then by Mark Ruffalo in later appearances in the franchise.

Publication history[edit]

Concept and creation[edit]

The Hulk first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 (cover dated May 1962), written by writer-editor Stan Lee, penciled and co-plotted by Jack Kirby,^[7][8] and inked by Paul Reinman. Lee cites influence from Frankenstein^[9] and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Hulk's creation:

It was patently apparent that [the monstrous character the] Thing was the most popular character in [Marvel's recently created superhero team the] Fantastic Four. ... For a long time, I'd been aware of the fact that people were more likely to favor someone who was less than perfect. ... It's a safe bet that you remember Quasimodo, but how easily can you name any of the heroic, handsomer, more glamorous characters in The Hunchback of Notre Dame? And then there's Frankenstein ... I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Frankenstein monster. No one could ever convince me that he was the bad guy. ... He never wanted to hurt anyone; he merely groped his torturous way through a second life trying to defend himself, trying to come to terms with those who sought to destroy him. ... I decided I might as well borrow from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well—our protagonist would constantly change from his normal identity to his superhuman alter ego and back again.^[10]

Kirby also stated the Frankenstein inspiration stating, "I did a story called "The Hulk"– a small feature, and it was quite different from the Hulk that we know. But I felt that the Hulk had possibilities, and I took this little character from the small feature and I transformed it into the Hulk that we know today. Of course, I was experimenting with it. I thought the Hulk might be a good-looking Frankenstein. I felt there's a Frankenstein in all of us; I’ve seen it demonstrated. And I felt that the Hulk had the element of truth in it, and anything to me with the element of truth is valid and the reader relates to that. And if you dramatize it, the reader will enjoy it."^[11] Kirby also commented upon his influences in drawing the character, and recalled the inspiration of witnessing the hysterical strength of a mother lifting a car off her trapped child.^[12][13][14]

Lee has also compared Hulk to the Golem of Jewish mythology.^[9] In The Science of Superheroes, Gresh and Weinberg see the Hulk as a reaction to the Cold War^[15] and the threat of nuclear attack, an interpretation shared by Weinstein in Up, Up and Oy Vey.^[9] This interpretation corresponds with other popularized fictional media created during this time period, which took advantage of the prevailing sense among Americans that nuclear power could produce monsters and mutants.^[16]

In the debut, Lee chose grey for the Hulk because he wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group.^[17] Colorist Stan Goldberg, however, had problems with the grey coloring, resulting in different shades of grey, and even green, in the issue. After seeing the first published issue, Lee chose to change the skin color to green.^[18] Green was used in retellings of the origin, with even reprints of the original story being recolored for the next two decades, until The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #302 (December 1984) reintroduced the grey Hulk in flashbacks set close to the origin story. An exception is the early trade paperback, Origins of Marvel Comics, from 1974, which explains the difficulties in keeping the grey color consistent in a Stan Lee-written prologue, and reprints the origin story keeping the grey coloration. Since December 1984, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original grey coloring, with the fictional canon specifying that the Hulk's skin had initially been grey.

Lee gave the Hulk's alter ego the alliterative name "Bruce Banner" because he found he had less difficulty remembering alliterative names. Despite this, in later stories he misremembered the character's name and referred to him as "Bob Banner", an error which readers quickly picked up on.^[19] The discrepancy was resolved by giving the character the official full name "Robert Bruce Banner."^[1]

The Hulk got his name from a comic book character named The Heap who was a large green swamp monster.^[20]

Series history[edit]

The Hulk's original series was canceled with issue #6 (March 1963). Lee had written each story, with Kirby penciling the first five issues and Steve Ditko penciling and inking the sixth. The character immediately guest-starred in The Fantastic Four #12 (March 1963), and months later became a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers, appearing in the first two issues of the team's eponymous series (Sept. and Nov. 1963), and returning as an antagonist in issue #3 and as an ally in #5 (Jan.–May 1964). He then guest-starred in Fantastic Four #25–26 (April–May 1964), which revealed Banner's full name as Robert Bruce Banner, and The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964).^[21]

Around this time, co-creator Kirby received a letter from a college dormitory stating the Hulk had been chosen as its official mascot.^[9] Kirby and Lee realized their character had found an audience in college-age readers.

A year and a half after The Incredible Hulk was canceled, the Hulk became one of two features in Tales to Astonish, beginning in issue #60 (Oct. 1964).^[22]

This new Hulk feature was initially scripted by Lee, with pencils by Steve Ditko and inks by George Roussos. Other artists later in this run included Jack Kirby (#68–87, June 1965 – Oct. 1966); Gil Kane (credited as "Scott Edwards", #76, (Feb. 1966)); Bill Everett (#78–84, April–Oct. 1966); John Buscema (#85–87); and Marie Severin. The Tales to Astonish run introduced the super-villains the Leader,^[4] who would become the Hulk's nemesis, and the Abomination, another gamma-irradiated being.^[4] Marie Severin finished out the Hulk's run in Tales to Astonish. Beginning with issue #102 (April 1968) the book was retitled The Incredible Hulk vol. 2,^[23] and ran until 1999, when Marvel canceled the series and launched Hulk #1. Marvel filed for a trademark for "The Incredible Hulk" in 1967, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued the registration in 1970.^[24]

Len Wein wrote the series from 1974 through 1978, working first with Herb Trimpe, then, as of issue #194 (December 1975), with Sal Buscema, who was the regular artist for ten years.^[25] Issues #180–181 (Oct.–Nov. 1974) introduced Wolverine as an antagonist,^[26] who would go on to become one of Marvel Comics' most popular characters. In 1977, Marvel launched a second title, The Rampaging Hulk, a black-and-white comics magazine.^[4] This was originally conceived as a flashback series, set between the end of his original, short-lived solo title and the beginning of his feature in Tales to Astonish.^[27] After nine issues, the magazine was retitled The Hulk! and printed in color.^[28]

In 1977, two Hulk television films were aired to strong ratings, leading to an Incredible Hulk TV series that aired from 1978 to 1982. A huge ratings success, the series introduced the popular Hulk catchphrase "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry", and broadened the character's popularity from a niche comic book readership into the mainstream consciousness.^[29]

Bill Mantlo became the series' writer for five years beginning with issue #245 (March 1980). Mantlo's "Crossroads of Eternity" stories (#300–313 (Oct. 1984 – Nov. 1985)) explored the idea that Banner had suffered child abuse. Later Hulk writers Peter David and Greg Pak have called these stories an influence on their approaches to the character.^[30][31] Mantlo left the series for Alpha Flight and that series' writer John Byrne took over The Incredible Hulk.^[32] The final issue of Byrne's six issue run featured the wedding of Bruce Banner and Betty Ross.^[33] Writer Peter David began a 12-year run with issue #331 (May 1987). He returned to the Roger Stern and Mantlo abuse storylines, expanding the damage caused, and depicting Banner as suffering dissociative identity disorder (DID).^[4]

In 1998, David killed off Banner's long-time love Betty Ross. Marvel executives used Ross' death as an opportunity to pursue the return of the Savage Hulk. David disagreed, leading to his parting ways with Marvel.^[34] Also in 1998, Marvel relaunched The Rampaging Hulk as a standard comic book rather than as a comics magazine.^[4] The Incredible Hulk was again cancelled with issue #474 of its second volume in March 1999 and was replaced with a new series, Hulk the following month, with returning writer Byrne and art by Ron Garney.^[35][36] New series writer Paul Jenkins developed the Hulk's multiple dissociative identities,^[37] and his run was followed by Bruce Jones^[38] with his run featuring Banner being pursued by a secret conspiracy and aided by the mysterious Mr. Blue. Jones appended his 43-issue Incredible Hulk run with the limited series Hulk/Thing: Hard Knocks #1–4 (Nov. 2004 – Feb. 2005), which Marvel published after putting the ongoing series on hiatus. Peter David, who had initially signed a contract for the six-issue Tempest Fugit limited series, returned as writer when it was decided to make that story the first five parts of the revived (vol. 3).^[39] After a four-part tie-in to the "House of M" storyline and a one-issue epilogue, David left the series once more, citing the need to do non-Hulk work for the sake of his career.^[40]

Writer Greg Pak took over the series in 2006, leading the Hulk through several crossover storylines including "Planet Hulk" and "World War Hulk", which left the Hulk temporarily incapacitated and replaced as the series' title character by the demigod Hercules in the retitled The Incredible Hercules (Feb. 2008). The Hulk returned periodically in Hulk, which then starred the new Red Hulk.^[41] In September 2009, The Incredible Hulk was relaunched as The Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #600.^[41] The series was retitled The Incredible Hulks with issue #612 (Nov. 2010) to encompass the Hulk's expanded family, and ran until issue #635 (Oct. 2011) when it was replaced with The Incredible Hulk (vol. 3) (15 issues, Dec. 2011 – Dec. 2012) written by Jason Aaron with art by Marc Silvestri.^[42] As part of Marvel's 2012 Marvel NOW! relaunch, a series called Indestructible Hulk (Nov. 2012) debuted under the creative team of Mark Waid and Leinil Yu.^[43] This series was replaced in 2014 with The Hulk by Waid and artist Mark Bagley.^[44]

A new series titled The Immortal Hulk, written by Al Ewing and drawn by Joe Bennett, was launched in 2018 and ran for 50 issues. The series had a spin-off one-shot Immortal She-Hulk^[45] and a spin-off series about Gamma Flight in June 2021.^[46]

In November 2021, Donny Cates became the new writer of Hulk, with Ryan Ottley joining as artist. In May 2022, the series did a crossover with the Thor series, also written by Cates, entitled Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War. The series ran for 14 issues, with Ottley taking over as writer for the last 4 issues afters Cates left the book.^[47][48]

In March 2023, it was announced that a new volume of The Incredible Hulk would launch in June 2023, written by Philip Kennedy Johnson and drawn by Nic Klein.^[49]

Characterization[edit]

Fictional character biography[edit]

Robert Bruce Banner's psyche was profoundly affected by his troubled childhood, in which his father, Brian Banner, regarded him as a monster due to his seemingly unnatural intellect from a young age.^[50] These experiences caused Bruce to develop a dissociative identity disorder and repress his negative emotions as a coping mechanism. After Brian killed Bruce's mother in a fit of rage,^[51] Bruce lived with several relatives up until his high school years, when his intelligence caught the attention of the United States Army.^[52] Banner was recruited to develop nuclear weapons under the authority of General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, and soon developed a relationship with the General's daughter Betty Ross.^[53]

During the experimental detonation of a gamma bomb, Banner saves teenager Rick Jones, who was dared onto the testing field; Banner pushes Jones into a trench to save him, but is hit with the blast, absorbing massive amounts of gamma radiation. He awakens later seemingly unscathed, but he begins transforming into a powerful and destructive creature upon nightfall, which a pursuing soldier describes as a "hulk".^[53] Banner's attempts to cure himself of these transformations alter their conditions, causing Banner to transform as a response to rage or fear.^[54] The Hulk is a founding member of the Avengers,^[55] but quickly leaves the group due to their distrust of him.^[56] Banner maintains the secret of his dual identity with Rick's aid, but Rick reveals his secret following his assumed death, forcing Banner to become a fugitive.^[57]

Psychiatrist Doc Samson captures the Hulk and manages to physically separate Banner and the Hulk,^[58] allowing Banner to marry Betty.^[59] However, Banner and the Hulk's molecular structure destabilized and threatened to kill them, requiring Samson to reunite them with the aid of Vision.^[60] Samson is later able to merge elements of Banner's fractured psyche to create Professor Hulk, an intelligent but egocentric variation of the Hulk.^[51] Professor Hulk soon becomes a key member of the Pantheon, a secretive organization of superpowered individuals.^[61][62] His tenure with the organization brings him into conflict with a tyrannical alternate future version of himself called the Maestro, who rules over a world where many heroes are dead.^[63] The Professor Hulk construct ultimately proves unstable, and Banner's psyche eventually splinters once more.

In "Planet Hulk", the Illuminati decide the Hulk is too dangerous to remain on Earth and send him away by rocket ship which crashes on Planet Sakaar. The Hulk finds allies in the Warbound and marries alien queen Caiera, a relationship that bears him two sons: Skaar and Hiro-Kala.^[64] After the Illuminati's ship explodes and kills Caiera, the Hulk returns to Earth with his superhero group Warbound and declares war on the planet in "World War Hulk".^[65] However, after learning that Miek, one of the Warbound, had actually been responsible for the destruction, the Hulk allows himself to be defeated, with Banner subsequently redeeming himself as a hero as he works with and against the new Red Hulk to defeat the new supervillain team the Intelligencia.^[66]

Later, the Hulk turns to Doctor Doom to physically separate himself and Banner, with Doom surgically extracting the elements of the Hulk's brain uniquely belonging to Banner and inserting them into a clone body.^[67] Banner eventually re-combines with the Hulk when his cloned body is destroyed in an attempt to recreate his original transformation.^[68] Following this, Bruce willingly joins the spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D., allowing them to use the Hulk as a weapon in exchange for providing him with the means and funding to create a lasting legacy for himself.^[69] When Banner is shot in the head by an assassin, Tony Stark saves him with a variant of the Extremis virus.^[70] This procedure creates a new intelligent persona named Doc Green, who concludes that the world is in danger by Gamma Mutates^[a] and thus need to be depowered. He creates a cure and depowers A-Bomb, Skaar and Red Hulk. Eventually, Doc Green's intellect fades and his normal Hulk form is restored.^[71]

When the vision of the Inhuman Ulysses shows a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of many superheroes,^[72] Banner gives Hawkeye special arrows capable of killing him during a transformation, which Hawkeye accomplishes.^[73] The Hulk was first revived by the Hand,^[74] then by Hydra,^[75] and finally by the Challenger for a contest against the Grandmaster.^[76]

Personality[edit]

Like other long-lived characters, the Hulk's character and cultural interpretations have changed with time, adding or modifying character traits. The Hulk is typically seen as a hulking man with green skin, hair, and eyes, wearing only a pair of torn purple pants that survive his physical transformation as the character progressed. As Bruce Banner, the character is about 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) tall and weighs 128 lbs (58.05 kg), but when transformed into the Hulk, the character stands between 7 and 8 ft (2.13 - 2.43 m) tall and weighs between 1,040 and 1,400 lbs (471.73 - 635.02 kg). The Gray Hulk stands 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) tall and weighs 900 lbs (408.23 kg); the Merged Hulk stands 7 ft 6 in (2.28 m) tall and weighs 1,150 lbs (521.63 kg); the Green Scar stands 8 ft 8 in (2.64 m) tall and weighs 2,400 lbs (1.08 ton).^[77] The Immortal Hulk is roughly the same size as Sasquatch, standing around 9 or 10 ft (2.74 / 3.04 m) tall and weighing roughly 2,000 lbs (907.18 kg). Following his debut, Banner's transformations were triggered at nightfall, turning him into a grey-skinned Hulk. In Incredible Hulk #2, the Hulk started to appear with green skin,^[78] and in Avengers #3 (1963) Banner realized that his transformations were now triggered by surges of adrenaline in response to feelings of fear, pain or anger.^[79] Incredible Hulk #227 (1978) established that the Hulk's separate identity was not due to the mutation affecting his brain, but because Banner was suffering from dissociative identity disorder, with the savage Green Hulk representing Banner's repressed childhood rage and aggression,^[80] and the Grey Hulk representing Banner's repressed selfish desires and urges.^[81]

Identities[edit]

Bruce Banner[edit]

During his decades of publication, Banner has been portrayed differently, but common themes persist. Banner, a physicist who earned his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), is sarcastic and seemingly very self-assured when he first appears in Incredible Hulk #1, but is also emotionally withdrawn.^[4] Banner designed the gamma bomb that caused his affliction, and the ironic twist of his self-inflicted fate has been one of the most persistent common themes.^[9] Arie Kaplan describes the character thus: "Robert Bruce Banner lives in a constant state of panic, always wary that the monster inside him will erupt, and therefore he cannot form meaningful bonds with anyone."^[82] As a child, Banner's father Brian often got mad and physically abused both Banner and his mother, creating the psychological complex of fear, anger, and the fear of anger and the destruction it can cause that underlies the character. Banner has been shown to be emotionally repressed, but capable of deep love for Betty Ross, and for solving problems posed to him. Under the writing of Paul Jenkins, Banner was shown to be a capable fugitive, applying deductive reasoning and observation to figure out the events transpiring around him. On the occasions that Banner controlled the Hulk's body, he applied principles of physics to problems and challenges and used deductive reasoning. It was shown after his ability to turn into the Hulk was taken away by the red Hulk that Banner has been extremely versatile as well as cunning when dealing with the many situations that followed. When he was briefly separated from the Hulk by Doom, Banner became criminally insane, driven by his desire to regain the power of the Hulk, but once the two recombined he came to accept that he was a better person with the Hulk to provide something for him to focus on controlling rather than allowing his intellect to run without restraint against the world.^[83]

Hulk[edit]

The traditional Hulk, often called "Savage Hulk", was originally shown as grey and average in intelligence. He roamed aimlessly and became annoyed at "puny" humans who took him for a dangerous monster. Shortly after becoming the Hulk, his transformation continued turning him green, coinciding with him beginning to display primitive speech.^[78] By Incredible Hulk #4, radiation treatments gave Banner's mind complete control of the Hulk's body. While Banner relished his indestructibility and power, he was quick to anger and more aggressive in his Hulk form. He became known as a hero alongside the Avengers, but his increasing paranoia caused him to leave the group. He was convinced that he would never be trusted.^[79]

Originally, the Hulk was shown as simple-minded and quick to anger.^[84] The Hulk generally divorces his identity from Banner's, decrying Banner as "puny Banner."^[85] From his earliest stories, the Hulk has been concerned with finding sanctuary and quiet.^[9] He is often shown to quickly react emotionally to situations. Grest and Weinberg call Hulk the "dark, primordial side of Banner's psyche."^[15] Even in the earliest appearances, Hulk spoke in the third person. Hulk retains a modest intelligence, thinking and talking in full sentences. Lee even gives the Hulk expository dialogue in issue #6, allowing readers to learn just what capabilities Hulk has, when the Hulk says, "But these muscles ain't just for show! All I gotta do is spring up and just keep goin'!" In the 1970s, Hulk was shown as more prone to anger and rage, and less talkative. Writers played with the nature of his transformations,^[86] briefly giving Banner control over the change, and the ability to maintain control of his Hulk form. Artistically and conceptually, the character has become progressively more muscular and powerful in the years since his debut.^[87]

Joe Fixit[edit]

Originally, Stan Lee wanted the Hulk to be grey. Due to ink problems, Hulk's color was changed to green. This was later changed in the story to indicate that

Tony Stark Iron Man
Variant cover of Tony Stark: Iron Man #2 (July 2018) Art by Mark Brooks
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Tales of Suspense #39 (December 1962)
Created by	Stan Lee Larry Lieber Don Heck Jack Kirby
In-story information
Full name	Anthony Edward Stark
Place of origin	Long Island, New York
Team affiliations	Avengers Department of Defense Guardians of the Galaxy Illuminati Mighty Avengers New Avengers S.H.I.E.L.D. Stark Industries
Partnerships	Happy Hogan Ironheart Pepper Potts War Machine
Abilities	Genius-level intellect Proficient scientist and engineer Utilizes powered armor suit

Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 in 1962, and received his own title with Iron Man #1 in 1968. Shortly after his creation, Iron Man became a founding member of the superhero team, the Avengers, with Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk. Iron Man stories, individually and with the Avengers, have been published consistently since the character's creation.

Iron Man is the superhero persona of Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark, a businessman and engineer who runs the weapons manufacturing company Stark Industries. When Stark was captured in a war zone and sustained a serious heart wound, he built his Iron Man armor and escaped his captors. Iron Man's suits of armor grant him superhuman strength, flight, energy projection, and other abilities. The character was created in response to the Vietnam War as Lee's attempt to create a likeable pro-war character. Since his creation, Iron Man has been used to explore political themes, with early Iron Man stories being set in the Cold War. The character's role as a weapons manufacturer proved controversial, and Marvel moved away from geopolitics by the 1970s. Instead, the stories began exploring themes such as civil unrest, technological advancement, corporate espionage, alcoholism, and governmental authority.

Major Iron Man stories include "Demon in a Bottle" (1979), "Armor Wars" (1987–1988), "Extremis" (2005), and "Iron Man 2020" (2020). He is also a leading character in the company-wide stories Civil War (2006–2007), Dark Reign (2008–2009), and Civil War II (2016). Additional superhero characters have emerged from Iron Man's supporting cast, including James Rhodes as War Machine and Riri Williams as Ironheart, as well as reformed villains, Natasha Romanova as Black Widow and Clint Barton as Hawkeye. Iron Man's list of enemies includes his archenemy the Mandarin, many supervillains of communist origin, and many of Stark's business rivals.

Robert Downey Jr. portrayed Tony Stark in Iron Man (2008), the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and continued to portray the character until his final appearance in Avengers: Endgame (2019). Downey's portrayal popularized the character, elevating Iron Man into one of Marvel's most recognizable superheroes. Other adaptations of the character appear in animated direct-to-video films, television series, and video games.

Publication history[edit]

Creation[edit]

Following the success of the Fantastic Four in 1961 and the subsequent revival of American comic books featuring superheroes, Marvel Comics set about creating new superhero characters. Stan Lee developed the initial concept for Iron Man.^[1] He wanted to design a character who should be unpalatable to his generally anti-war readers, but to make them like the character anyway.^[2] Iron Man was created in the years after a permanent arms industry developed in the United States, and this was incorporated into the character's backstory.^[3] The character was introduced as an active player in the Vietnam War. Lee described the national mood toward Vietnam during Iron Man's creation as "a time when most of us genuinely felt that the conflict in that tortured land really was a simple matter of good versus evil".^[4]

Larry Lieber developed Iron Man's origin and wrote the first Iron Man story, while Jack Kirby and Don Heck were responsible for the initial design.^[1][5] Lee modeled Iron Man after businessman Howard Hughes, invoking his physical appearance, his image as a businessman, and his reputation as an arrogant playboy.^[6] Kirby and Heck then incorporated elements of the actor Errol Flynn's physical appearance in the design.^[7] When first designing the character, Lee wanted to create a modernized Arthurian knight.^[8] Kirby initially drew the Iron Man armor as a "round and clunky gray heap", and Heck modified the design to incorporate gadgets such as jets, drills, and suction cups.^[9][10] The Iron Man character was created at a time when comic book characters were first depicted struggling with real life problems, and his heart injury was an early example of a superhero with a physical disability.^[11]

Early years[edit]

Iron Man's earliest stories were published in the monster-themed anthology series Tales of Suspense. Marvel premiered several superheroes this way in the 1960s as superhero comics became more popular than traditional science-fiction and horror comics.^[9][12] Iron Man's first appearance, "Iron Man is Born!", appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date.^[12] Though the Iron Man armor was gray in its first appearance, Marvel changed it to gold because of issues with printing.^[5] Lee initially delegated the writing duties to other creators at Marvel, but he felt their work was substandard; as with his other characters, Lee reclaimed control of Iron Man so he could write the stories himself.^[13]

Heck continued as the primary Iron Man artist until 1965, as Kirby had obligations to other Marvel properties.^[9][10] As part of a shuffling to match artists with the characters they were most suited for, Steve Ditko became the artist for Iron Man.^[14] Ditko was responsible for only three issues in late 1963, but in this time he redesigned Iron Man's suit from fully gold to the red and gold color scheme that became the character's primary image.^[15] Iron Man's recurring nemesis, the Mandarin, first appeared shortly after in Tales of Suspense #50 (1964).^[16] By this time, the science-fiction and horror stories were phased out, and Tales of Suspense ran only Iron Man and Captain America stories.^[12]

Once Marvel's distributor allowed the company more monthly releases, The Avengers (1963) was developed as a new comic book series.^[17] Iron Man was one of the five characters who formed the titular superhero team.^[18] By 1965, the difficulty of maintaining continuity between The Avengers and the members' solo titles prompted Lee to temporarily write the original cast out of The Avengers, including Iron Man.^[19]

For the first five years of publication, Iron Man represented the United States in Cold War allegories.^[4][20] Growing opposition to the American involvement in Vietnam prompted a shift in Iron Man's characterization, which was part of a larger push by Marvel in the late 1960s to be more apolitical.^[4][21] Over the years, the letters to the editor column in several issues saw extensive political debate.^[22] Lee shifted the stories' focus to espionage and domestic crime, incorporating Marvel's fictional intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. He also incorporated the villains of other Marvel heroes, avoiding Iron Man's primarily communist rogues' gallery and rewriting some of Iron Man's communist villains to have personal motivations independent of their communist allegiances.^[23]

Iron Man was one of several characters whom Marvel gave a full-length dedicated series in 1968.^[24] Marvel combined the final issues of Tales of Suspense and the Sub-Mariner's Tales to Astonish into a one-shot special, Iron Man and Sub-Mariner.^[25] Iron Man then began its run under writer Archie Goodwin.^[26] Goodwin reintroduced political themes slowly over the following years, with a focus on domestic issues like racial conflict and environmentalism rather than geopolitics.^[27]

1970s[edit]

When Goodwin became Marvel's editor-in-chief, he assigned Gerry Conway as the writer for Iron Man.^[29] Conway was the first of several writers in a four-year effort to reform Iron Man, beginning in 1971, with stories that directly addressed the character's history as a weapons manufacturer.^[30] These stories were especially prominent during a run by Mike Friedrich, in which corporate reform of Stark Industries was a recurring subplot.^[31]

Iron Man was one of several Marvel characters who declined in popularity during the 1970s, and the series went a period of time without a dedicated writer until Bill Mantlo took over in 1977.^[32] The following year, David Michelinie and Bob Layton took charge of the series, beginning with issue #116.^[33][34] While inking the series, Layton used issues of GQ, Playboy, and electronics catalogues as visual references,^[35] which he and Michelinie used to stay informed on developments in real world technology so the Iron Man armor would always be a more advanced version of what existed.^[34] Layton was inspired by the vast collection of specialized outfits used by Batman when designing Iron Man's various armors.^[36]

In Iron Man #117 and #118 (1978), Michelinie and Layton replaced many elements that developed over the series' run: they removed Iron Man's romantic interest Whitney Frost and Stark's robotic Life Model Decoy doubles, and they had Stark move to a different home.^[37] They introduced Iron Man's new romantic interest, Bethany Cabe, as a feminist character who worked as his bodyguard.^[38] The largest change they made was to make Iron Man an alcoholic, an unprecedented move for a major comic book hero, which led to the "Demon in a Bottle" story arc that ran from issues #120 to #128 (1979).^[39] At the same time, they introduced the character Justin Hammer, who provided financial backing for several Iron Man villains.^[40]

1980s and 1990s[edit]

In the 1980s, writers for Iron Man focused on the character's role as a businessman, reflecting the economic changes associated with Reaganomics, and many of his challenges involved threats to his company.^[41] Denny O'Neil was put in charge of Iron Man beginning with issue #158 (1982). His run explored Stark's psychology, having him relapse into alcoholism and suffer at the hands of business rival Obadiah Stane.^[36] O'Neil wrote Stark out of the role entirely beginning with issue #170 (1983), having him temporarily retire as Iron Man and replacing him with his ally James Rhodes.^[42] Stark was relegated as a side character until he returned to heroism in Iron Man #200 (1985).^[43]

The 1987 "Armor Wars" story arc followed Iron Man as he reclaimed his technology, which Justin Hammer distributed to several villains.^[44] This story blended the character's superhero and businessman aspects more directly when Stark sought legal recourse against his rivals.^[41] Michelinie and Layton returned to the series with issue #211 (1986), and they again experimented with variations on the Iron Man armor.^[45]

In 1990, Michelinie and Layton handed the series over to John Byrne, one of the most highly-regarded comic book writers at the time. He wrote three story arcs across twenty issues: "Armor Wars II" (which had already been announced by Michelinie and Layton), "The Dragon Seed Saga", and "War Games".^[46] Byrne revisited Iron Man's opposition to communism but portrayed it as less of a threat,^[47] and he rewrote Iron Man's origin to remove references to communism and the Vietnam War. He lost interest in the series by 1992 as his collaborators John Romita Jr. and Howard Mackie had moved on to other projects.^[46] Iron Man's supporting character War Machine was spun off into his own comic book series in 1994.^[48]

By the 1990s, the Iron Man series rejected broader ideology, and individualist values replaced Stark's allegiance to American democracy for its own sake. He remained anti-communist, reiterating his support for democracy and refusing to do business in China following the Tiannamen Square Massacre in 1989.^[49] The absence of Cold War politics was not immediately replaced by another theme, and post-Cold War Iron Man stories often explored different ideas regarding technology for a short time before moving on.^[50] When terrorism became more prominent in the public mind, writers shifted Iron Man's symbolism from anti-communism to anti-terrorism.^[51]

As part of a company-wide reorganization in 1996, Marvel's major characters, including Iron Man, were given to former Marvel writers Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld in a profit-sharing agreement. Lee and Liefeld were given charge of the "Heroes Reborn" branding that renumbered Marvel's long-running periodicals at issue #1.^[52] This new Iron Man series, labeled volume two, was set in an alternate universe created during the "Onslaught" event. It ran for thirteen issues, written by Lee and Scott Lobdell and drawn by Whilce Portacio.^[53][54] The following year, Marvel introduced the "Heroes Return" event to bring the characters back from the alternate universe, which again reset characters such as Iron Man to issue #1.^[55][56] Kurt Busiek beamce the writer for volume three while Sean Chen was the artist.^[53][57]

2000s[edit]

When the Ultimate Marvel imprint was created with reimagined versions of Marvel's characters, an alternate Iron Man appeared in 2002 with the Ultimates, the imprint's adaptation of the Avengers.^[58] Marvel released a five issue limited series, Ultimate Iron Man, featuring this character in 2005.^[59]

Iron Man represented an attempt to define what a superhero was in the 21st century, following the September 11 attacks, implicitly likening the fear of terrorism to the fear of unregulated super-powered beings.^[60] In 2004, Iron Man was a major character in the Avengers Disassembled event and subsequently became a founding member of the New Avengers.^[61] Iron Man volume four began in 2005,^[53] with Warren Ellis as the writer and Adi Granov as the artist. Its first story arc, "Extremis", saw Iron Man upgrade his body directly through the Extremis virus, giving him direct control over a biological armor.^[59] The volume's first 14 issues carried the Iron Man title, while issues #15–32 (2007–2008) were titled Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.^[53]

Iron Man led the pro-registration faction during the 2006 Civil War crossover event by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.^[62] In an allegory for the Patriot Act and government surveillance, Iron Man's pro-registration faction represented conservative support for government surveillance in the name of security and stood against Captain America's anti-registration faction that represented individualism and liberal opposition to government surveillance.^[63] Iron Man believed in pragmatically choosing the lesser of two evils, whereas Captain America held an idealist approach, and both held these positions at great personal cost.^[64] While Marvel was neutral between the characters, readers overwhelmingly saw Iron Man as the villain, being the stronger force that the underdog had to overcome.^[65][66]

Iron Man appeared with the Mighty Avengers in 2007,^[67] and his characterization in this era leaned into his identity as a futurist.^[68] Marvel restarted Iron Man's comic book run with Invincible Iron Man in 2008, written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Salvador Larroca.^[69] This series launched around the same time as the film Iron Man premiered,^[70] and the Marvel Cinematic Universe developed while this run was in publication.^[69]

2010s and 2020s[edit]

The Iron Man series reverted to the original numbering in 2011, when the overall 500th issue was published as Iron Man #500.^[53] A concurrent series, Iron Man Legacy by Fred Van Lente, launched in 2010 leading up to the release of the film Iron Man 2.^[70] Iron Man was then one of several characters whose series was relaunched at issue #1 with the Marvel Now! branding following the 2012 Avengers vs. X-Men event,^[71] written by Kieron Gillen.^[72] The 2014 "AXIS" event led into the Superior Iron Man series by Tom Taylor, featuring Iron Man with a new reversed personality.^[73]

A new Invincible Iron Man run written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by David Marquez began in 2015.^[74] A simultaneous Iron Man series, International Iron Man, ran for seven issues in 2016 under Marvel's All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, also by Bendis. This series was meant to ensure Iron Man's status as a major character as All-New, All Different developed.^[75] A second Civil War event in 2016 portrayed Iron Man as an advocate of free will against Captain Marvel's determinism.^[76]

As part of a broader trend by Marvel Comics to substitute its main characters with a diverse cast of original characters in the 2010s, Iron Man was temporarily replaced by Ironheart, a teenaged African-American girl who reverse engineered the Iron Man armor, in 2016.^[77] At the same time, the series Infamous Iron Man began publication with Dr. Doom as Iron Man.^[78]

The series Tony Stark: Iron Man premiered in 2018 with the Fresh Start branding, written by Dan Slott and drawn by Valerio Schiti.^[79] In 2020, Iron Man was relaunched in a new series, written by Christopher Cantwell and illustrated by CAFU, following the "Iron Man 2020" event. This series moved away from the developments and deviations made to Stark's character introduced over the previous years—including the more extravagant science fiction and soap opera plots—creating a clean slate for new story arcs in a traditional superhero setting.^[80] The character was relaunched again in 2022 with Invincible Iron Man, written by Gerry Duggan and illustrated by Juan Frigeri.^[81]

Characterization[edit]

Fictional character biography[edit]

Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark was born in Long Island, New York. As a child, he inherited his family's business, Stark Industries, when his parents were killed in a car crash.^[82] Developing equipment for the U.S. military, he travels to a war zone to conduct a weapons test when he triggers a booby trap. His heart is critically injured by shrapnel, and he is captured by the communist Wong-Chu, who demands Stark build him a weapon. Stark instead builds a suit of armor that sustains his heart, becoming Iron Man.^[15][9] The war zone Stark visited was changed retroactively multiple times by different writers to correspond with the character's age, which is explained by a "sliding scale of continuity" in which the timing of significant events in the world of Marvel may change. This conflict was the Vietnam War for the first decades of Iron Man's publication history.