One of several characters added to the Man of Steel mythology in the 90s, John Henry Irons is perhaps the most interesting of them all. The character’s relation to the John Henry of American fables, the so-called “steel-driving man,” has captivated writers in love with the idea of a modernized version of a character from American myth. However, he’s more than that: a man who not only decided he would step in Superman’s shoes but did a pretty good job of filling them. Steel’s done everything from join the Justice League to taking down Lex Luthor himself.

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Of late, the Superman books haven’t had much use for the larger Metropolis cast, but this list will serve to help fans brush up on DC’s own armor-clad super-scientist. Just how much does he have in common with Tony Stark? More than people might think...

10 A VICTIM OF GUN VIOLENCE

Initially, Irons was a young man who lost his parents to gun violence. Believing the best way to insulate the rest of his family from that was becoming rich, he used his body to land him a sports scholarship at Yale University, and his brain to get him hired by Amertek Industries. Along the way, he wound up selling gun technology to people, using his resources to help his family. It was only later he would discover these weapons would be used by a terrorist group overseas, causing him to quit.

9 A DANGEROUS HAMMER

The most iconic weapon in Steel’s arsenal is the hammer he uses, which is also his connection to the original John Henry story he’s based off—it’s what makes him the “steel-driving man”. But unlike that version, this version’s hammer is special too. For one thing, it can store the energy it gathers along its flight. The further it goes, the more it’s kinetic damage is—at distances above sixty yards, it’s capable of power on par with Superman.

8 HAD HIS OWN VERSION OF THE ARMOR WARS

Steel BG80 Toastmasters

When we first meet Irons, he’s going under the name Henry Johnson and he’s working a more “normal” career as a steelworker. This is because once he learned what was happening with his weapons, John Henry destroyed all the prototype BG-60s he’d created and even destroyed the data containing the BG-80, a more powerful gun.

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He remained under cover until one day some children he mentored were gunned down in a drive-by, using the exact weapons he’d created to do so, causing him to decide to create the Steel identity to rid Metropolis of his legacy as a weapons manufacturer once and for all.

7 WAS ONCE MADE OF STAINLESS STEEL

Several times writers have decided to use the “Steel” name quite literally, turning John Henry into actual steel. The first time was during the weekly series 52, after Luthor unlocked a way to activate a metagene in all of humanity. This power was short-lived but lasted long enough for Irons to take Luthor down. Then later, in the era of New 52, John activated a stainless steel solution he covered his body in to avoid being infected by the Doomsday virus. This version allowed him to control his vital signs completely, even masking his own emotions from himself.

6 WAS KILLED ONCE

During the Imperiex War, things got pretty serious. With so many massive sides battling one another, it was no surprise there were casualties—Wonder Woman’s mother Hippolyta, and Steel himself were both brought down by the war eventually. Though the New God of death, the Black Racer, attempted to take Irons’ soul, it was instead placed inside Darkseid’s powerful Entropy Aegis armor. It took Natasha draining the armor’s power and Superman throwing down with Darkseid to set him free.

5 HIS NIECE IS A GENIUS

Natasha Irons as Steel fighting with Nightwing in DC Comics

When Natasha was introduced, she came off as much younger than she actually was. But when her creators finally settled on who she was meant to be, Nat was a sixteen year old genius who was taking after her uncle in the best of ways. She briefly worked under a U.S. Senator, but eventually wound up following Steel to Metropolis.

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She helped Superman get Irons out of the Entropy Aegis armor when Darkseid trapped him by creating a version of armor on her own. Without her uncle’s experience, she designed multiple sets of armor, and eventually was even briefly passed the title of Steel.

4 A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WHITE RABBIT

When Irons was still making weapons, he worked with a woman named Angora Lapin. Angora would later go on to be the one responsible for retaining the remaining BG-60s, redubbing them as “Toastmasters” for when she debuted them on the streets of Metropolis, making her money selling them to street gangs. By this time, Lapin was going by the name of the White Rabbit, and while their relationship together caused a bit of friction each time they dealt with each other, ultimately both of them wound up trying to prevent the other from achieving their aims.

3 ENGAGED TO LANA LANG

During the New 52, John Henry finally found himself experiencing the touch of love from a very familiar face: Lana Lang, Clark Kent’s childhood ex-girlfriend and best friend. The two worked together in the Rebirth book Superwoman, where Lana had gained her own powers and they fought crime together alongside Irons’ niece Natasha. The direction of the world of Superman hasn’t led us to see how they’ve developed, but the two served as quite the power couple with both of them being superheroic geniuses. Hopefully we’ll get to see their part of Metropolis again.

2 THE WHITE ZONE

Less than a year into Steel’s ongoing, he developed a strange ability: his armor could disappear and re-appear whenever he asked it to. Though he initially couldn’t control it, over time he figured out exactly how it worked, using it to help him make quick changes as the adventures got too hot. Eventually, Steel would learn that his armor existed in an area he called “White Space”, something he could teleport himself inside of, but couldn’t exist in long because there wasn’t any atmosphere. Steel lost the use of this after he was attacked by a strange “demon armor”--a negative manifestation of his fears, which Irons trapped inside of the White Space and never returned to.

1 BUILT A FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

Irons finally found his destiny when he created Steelworks, a place where he could design non-lethal weaponry for use by Metropolis’ Science Police. Having worked alongside the Man of Steel for years, Irons had developed enough trust that Superman asked him to help out with something impossible: designing a new Fortress of Solitude after his was destroyed. This time they embraced the technology of Earth and Krypton, making a containment sphere which held a tesseract with theoretically infinite space within that only Superman could open.

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