From the very first Iron Man suit built with that box of scraps by Tony Stark in the MCU, it became pretty clear that Stark was one of the smartest human beings in the world. But, of course, to become a great inventor and a genius, you must always be innovating to improve your technology.
Stark didn't rest on his laurels and was constantly making changes to his suit of armor, some to improve its power, some to fix problems he faced in previous movies and comics. Some improvements have been absolutely genius and fundamental to him bringing down the bad guys while others have come close to being disastrous.
10 The Arc Reactor Is The Foundation To His Technology
Using an electromagnet in his chest was the key to saving his life and also helped him power up his Iron Man suit and most of his other technology.
He even developed this further using a new element called badassium which was actually discovered by his father Howard Stark a while ago. This was the perfect replacement for the palladium core that was actually poisoning his heart for all those years.
9 Stark's Biggest Upgrade Came With Nano Technology In Infinity War
The coolest and most amazing suit upgrade for the Iron Man suit was his Mark L armor, in which the entire suit could be stored in a little unit on his chest. Not only could it form around his body in an instant, but the suit could also transform into a number of different weapons of his choice.
From massive rocket boosters, a nano shield, a nano sword which was also used to stab Tony in the stomach by Thanos anyway, to boot repulsors so he could jet off to space at incredibly high speeds, the nanotech made Tony's suit even more formidable than before.
8 The Briefcase Suit Was A Clever Way To Carry Around The Suit
Sometimes, waiting around for the Iron Man armor pieces to fly around can take a little too long when in the middle of some action, so in Iron Man 2, Stark made the adjustment and came up with the idea to have the Iron Man suit take the form of a briefcase he can carry around with him at all times.
The suit featured in the opening encounter with Ivan Vanko in the middle of the Monaco Grand Prix and showed a significant improvement in the speed of his suit up from the first Iron Man movie. Of course, it is still fairly slow compared to later renditions, but it shows significant improvement from the last time we saw him.
7 The Extremis Virus Was Much More Useful In The Comics
In Iron Man 3, the creation of the Extremis virus led to the creation of his biggest threat in the movie when Aldrich Killian and Maya Hansen get their hands on the invention. In the comics, Tony had a lot more involvement in its creation and even used it to a much better effect. Somehow Stark was able to integrate the virus into his Iron Man suit which practically gave him perfect health and healed his heart.
In fact, Extremis was developed even further into an app called Extremis 3.0 when Scarlet Witch messed with Stark's head and convinced him to unleash it on the city of San Francisco, offering citizens perfect health, beauty, and of course immortality for free.
6 The Hulkbuster Armor Is Incredibly Powerful
When Scarlet Witch got into the minds of all the Avengers, things weren't looking good for the team as they all started to have nightmares, but the biggest threat of them all wasn't Wanda Maximoff, instead it was the raging Hulk.
It's hard enough to control the green giant normally, but when he was also under Wanda's influence, he was almost unstoppable. Thankfully, Stark had a backup plan, orbiting Earth was Veronica, which housed the Hulkbuster armor. This epic new Iron Man suit had built-in features to fight and capture the Hulk, showing just how innovative Stark was.
5 Not Many In The Universe Could Have Built Their Own Infinity Gauntlet
Perhaps his most impressive invention was the nano gauntlet built by Stark in Avengers: Endgame. Thanos' quest to find all the infinity stones was the main focus of Avengers: Infinity War, but one of the most difficult parts of the quest involved finding something to house all six stones.
This infinity gauntlet had to be constructed on Nivavellir using the power of a dying star and hasn't been replicated since, apart from when Stark, Banner, and Rocket all joined forces to create a new Gauntlet made from his very own nano-tech. To wield such great power, a great weapon is needed, and Stark built just that.
4 The Bleeding Edge Armor Was Exactly That
This incredibly insanely creative armor first shown in Invincible Iron Man #25 combined the world of engineering with biology as the suit was allowed to be stored inside his very own bone marrow.
Talk about discreetly hiding his armor and having it on him at all times, the suit could bleed out from his bones onto his body whenever he needed it. The only concern for the suit was that it essentially turned him into a cyborg with metal literally running through his bones, and so it was forced out of him after a while.
3 Stark Also Made A Suit With The Only Purpose Of Defeating Thor
Just like his insane suit that was only designed to combat the Hulk, in Iron Man #64, Stark had to do the exact same thing but this time for the God of Thunder instead. This time Thor attempted to go all-out against the nation of Latveria, which of course is the home and land of Doctor Doom.
Thanks to an Asgardian power crystal, Stark made a suit that was almost indestructible and somehow had the ability to control his hammer Mjolnir. For any armor to stop the force of Mjolnir, it must be pretty impressive.
2 The Remote Controlled Iron Legion Was Impressive
Iron Man 3 saw another huge development in his Iron Man suits, this time coming in the form of an array of different versions of the suit, all of which could be controlled by J.A.R.V.I.S. simultaneously, known altogether as the Iron Legion.
This awesome army of robotic drones was part of his plan to protect the world, and although it ultimately led to Ultron, it had huge potential to help defend the Earth, and showed off some pretty high-tech discoveries, given the enormity of the project.
1 Even Though They Seem Simple, His Repulsor Blasters Are Effective
His trademark weapon from the very beginning was his repulsor technology, or in other words, the high-density blasts of energy directed with the help of magnets to attack his enemies. They may have seemed simple and pretty boring after they were used for so many years, but they are still very impressive.
Tony also made many advancements to these, especially with the help of his nano-technology. This meant that he could form repulsor blasts in many ways from his suit, and following his attack by Thor in Avengers, could now absorb and harness the energy blasted onto him at will.