Saying Tony Stark has created quite a few different versions of his Iron Man armor over the years is a bit of an oversimplification, as the brilliant inventor has developed over 60 different suits that range from incredibly specific suits like his DeepSea Armor to more well-rounded versions like his transforming nanotech Model Prime armor.
However, Stark has also been forced to tailor his armor designs in order to deal with some of his deadliest villains over the years, which has resulted in some incredibly powerful and unique armors that followed his iconic Hulkbuster-style that we are going to take a close look at today.
10 The Squirrelbuster Was Designed To Deal With An Evil Clone Of Squirrel Girl
Allene Green was a clone of Squirrel Girl who was accidentally created by the High Evolutionary's duplication machines. She eventually decided that humanity had already had its chance as the dominant species, and it was the squirrels' time to rule. Allene and her duplicated army of over 60, 000 squirrels proved to be a serious threat that required a new armor.
The Squirrelbuster armor. It was designed to counter the powerful abilities of Squirrel Girl and resembled the Hulkbuster's design, though the faceplate featured a squirrel design that also served as a repulsor node. Unfortunately, the cloned Squirrel Girl was able to appropriate the weaponry of the Avengers and turn it against Iron Man, disabling his specialty armor.
9 He Wore An Iron Suit To Deal With Malekith During The Rings Of The Mandarin
While Tony Stark is one of the most brilliant scientific minds in the Marvel universe, he has frequently called in experts of other areas when needed. During Kieron Gillen and Luke Ross' "Rings of the Mandarin" storyline that saw Iron Man face-off with Malekith and his Dark Elves, Stark called Marvel UK hero Dark Angel who specialized in a unique blend of magic and science.
With her assistance, Stark created an oversuit made of pure cold iron and enchanted with various rituals by Dark Angel to make it a Dark Elfbuster that tore through Malekith's armies with low-tech weapons that had effective results.
8 Stark Created The War Machine Armor To Deal With The Masters Of Silence
The Masters of Silence was a group of mystical bushido warriors that were enhanced with technology. Ther were employed by a Japanese company to take vengeance on Tony Stark for his company's involvement in the sale of faulty parts that resulted in a near nuclear meltdown.
The Masters of Silence was easily able to take down a remote-piloted suit of Iron Man armor, so a weakened Stark decided to create a new heavy armor filled with firepower that he called the Variable Threat Response Battle Unit, but it became much better known as the War Machine armor.
7 The Ultronbuster Was A Powerful Prototype That Had Horrifying Consequences
The threat of Ultron loomed over the Avengers ever since the creation of the demented artificial intelligence by one of their own, though he became even more deadly after he merged with and killed his creator, Dr. Hank Pym. Dan Slott, Jim Zub and Valerio Schiti's Tony Stark: Iron Man featured the return of the villain as he attempted to terrifyingly merge humanity with machinery.
Tony Stark unleashed his powerful Ultronbuster armor that he had been developing over the years, though he was horrifically merged with it by Ultron Pym. Stark was forced to rework the armor's systems on the fly to keep himself alive, but he was ultimately able to defeat Ultron Pym and separate the machine components from his human body.
6 Tony Stark Created The Extremis Armor To Deal With The Enhanced Threat Of Mallen
Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Iron Man: Extremis series reimagined Tony Stark and his connection to the Iron Man armor after he was brought into battle with the Extremis-enhanced terrorist known as Mallen. Iron Man's armor wasn't able to match the speed and power of Mallen during their encounter, so Stark willing underwent the Extremis process.
This rebuilt his body to integrate with his Iron Man armor through a metallic second skin that was stored within his bones and formed over his body when needed. The Extremis process upgraded the man as much as it did the armor, making him more powerful than decades of previous versions.
5 The Fin Fang Foombuster Was A Voltron-Like Armor Designed For Kaiju Warfare
The powerful dragon-like being known as Fin Fang Foom is actually an ancient shape-shifting alien Makluan that has reappeared a few times over the years to cause serious problems for Thor and Iron Man and the rest of the planet.
The Fin Fang Foombuster was appropriately named as tony Stark designed the giant armor to deal with the kaiju-like monster the next time it attacked. The Fin Fang Foombuster was made up of separate limb attachments that were rocket-propelled towards Iron Man to form a giant mecha around hi Iron Man, making it almost his biggest armor.
4 The Phoenix-Killer Armor Was Another Powerful Failure That Caused Cosmic Problems
The cosmic being known as the Phoenix Force was capable of destroying entire galaxies and consuming stars, which made the Avengers leery of its return to Earth in order to find a new host. This put them in conflict with the X-Men as that new host was the mutant messiah Hope Summers, which led to the climactic Avengers vs. X-Men event.
Iron Man and a team of Avengers attempted to stop Phoenix on the moon before it arrived on Earth, and he created the appropriately named Phoenix-Killer armor to take it out. Unfortunately, the armor failed and the disruptor he used split the corrupting power of the Phoenix amongst five X-Men, who proceeded to take over the planet.
3 The Iron Destroyer Armor Was Built With Uru And Powered By Asgardian Magic
One of Tony Stark's most powerful designs was known as the Bleeding Edge armor, which was the first made from nanotechnology and fully powered by his repulsor technology. However, the Bleeding Edge armor got an even bigger upgrade during the Fear Itself event.
The War of the Serpent saw a number of villains empowered with dark Asgardian weapons, so Odin gave Stark access to the forges of Nidavellir to create equally strong weapons for the Avengers. Stark combined his Bleeding Edge tech with mystical Uru metal that was then powered by Odin's Asgardian magic to make him the short-lived but devastatingly powerful Iron Destroyer.
2 The Godbuster Armor Was Created Virtually But Replicated By Iron Man 2020
After Stark's company created an immersive virtual world known as eScape, Tony Stark discovered that it had been taken over by a corrupted artificial intelligence based on his mother Maria known as Motherboard. Given the unlimited potential of the virtual world, Stark was able to create the incredibly powerful Godbuster armor to take on the god-like Motherboard.
He even recreated the armor in the real world to take down an enhanced Controller, but he quickly destroyed it and the factory he built it in to destroy all evidence of one of his most dangerous armors. However, his brother Arno Stark attempted to recreate his Godbuster designs for his own armor as Iron Man 2020.
1 The Cosmic Godkiller Armor Was Designed To Battle The Powerful Celestials
While Tony Stark didn't design the original Godkiller armor that first appeared in the pages of Kieron Gillen and Matteo Scalera's Iron Man, he was believed to have been the pilot for the Aspirant-created armor due to genetic tampering from the malfunctioning Recorder 451 unit.
Stark wasn't ultimately able to pilot the Celestial-destroying suit of planet-sized armor, but he did create his own version called the Godkiller Mark II that he stored near Mars until it was needed in battle with the Dark Celestials. the armor was destroyed in battle but it proved it was one of his most powerful armors by far.