Tony Stark/Iron Man's suit in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming contains a hidden nod to the Ultimate Iron Man comics.
On Instagram, artist Phil Saunders, who has worked on such Marvel Cinematic Universe films as 2008's Iron Man, 2012's The Avengers and 2021's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, shared a look at a concept for Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) in Spider-Man: Homecoming. In the caption, explained that this look is just a recolor of the MK XLVI from 2016's Captain America: Civil War, as Sony didn't have the budget for a new suit. This resulted in Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige requesting a "nod to the Ultimate Iron Man in the repaint."
Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Allred, Ultimate Iron Man first appeared in 2001's Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #4. Based on the character of the same name created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby in the pages of 1963's Tales of Suspense #39, Stark is a wealthy industrialist who creates a suit of armor that allows him to stand toe-to-toe with some of the Marvel Universe's greatest heroes and villains. The character hails from the Ultimate Marvel universe, an alternate world that re-imagined and modernized some of Marvel's most popular heroes. Marvel published books in the Ultimate universe from 2000 until key characters were folded into the regular Earth-616 reality during 2015's "Secret Wars" storyline.
In 2008, Marvel Studios brought Stark to the big-screen in Iron Man. The film proved a massive success and launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe in its current form. After starring in two more solo films and several other projects, Iron Man died in 2019's Avengers: Endgame. There's no indication at this time Downey will reprise his role at any point in the future.
Set after Civil War, Homecoming was the first Spider-Man movie set explicitly in the MCU. The story saw Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland) looking into a series of destructive weapons making their way around New York, much to the chagrin of his mentor, Iron Man. At the box office, Homecoming proved a massive success for Sony and Marvel Studios' burgeoning partnership, earning more than $880 million against a budget of around $175 million. Homecoming was also a hit with critics and the movie holds a 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the better-reviewed MCU films.
Homecoming is available on home media now. The latest movie in the trilogy, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is in theaters now.
Source: Instagram