Summary

• Tony Stark's Iron Man suits are examples of technological genius, but there are future versions of Iron Man with even cooler armor.
• These future iterations of Iron Man include characters like Nick Travis, Rhodey Stark, and Nathaniel Richards, just to name a few.
• Every new take on Iron Man further proves that anyone can be Iron Man, so long as they have the skills to make such technologically advanced suits.

Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits are some of the greatest examples of technological genius in the entire Marvel Universe. With nothing more than his brilliant mind and cutting-edge tech, Stark is consistently able to design immensely powerful Iron Man suits that can match the strength, speed, and overall power of super-soldiers and even literal gods.

However, Tony Stark isn’t the only genius in the Marvel Universe with the ability to design and manufacture god-tier suits of armor. In fact, there are even some who can do it even better than the original founding Avenger (including alternate/distant future versions of himself). Here are the 10 future versions of Iron Man with cooler armor than the classic Tony Stark.

10 Nick Travis Helps Create & Inherits Tony Stark’s Final Iron Man Suit

Iron Man: The End by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and Bernard Chang

In the future of Marvel Comics canon, Tony Stark can no longer continue being the superhero Iron Man because of his ever-worsening health. So, he chooses someone to take his place, a fellow scientist/engineer named Nick Travis who works at Stark Universal. Together, they design a nano-particle suit that’s not only controlled by the wearer’s mind and can change its structure depending on the situation, but one that can also absorb other pieces of technology around it, especially those used by Iron Man’s tech-based villains.

In a highly-advanced, technological future, this suit stands above the rest, and it’s worn by Nick Travis who perfectly embodies the legacy of Tony Stark’s Iron Man.

9 Rhodey Stark Is Iron Man’s Granddaughter From The Year 3030

Avengers #24 by Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Salvador Larroca, Mike Deodato, and Butch Guice

There are few Marvel Comics characters who are even close to being as smart as Tony Stark, and even fewer who are smarter - but Rhodey Stark is one of them. Rhodey Stark traveled back in time from the year 3030 in her own sleek and impossibly high-tech Iron Man suit to help the Avengers of the past with a world-ending threat. Rhodey proved her superior intelligence by deg a machine far beyond the scope of what Tony Stark was capable of at the time, which all but eliminated the problem the past-Avengers faced.

Rhodey Stark’s time in Marvel canon is shamefully short, yet her impact was immense, as she was living proof that the Iron Man moniker would not only far outlive Tony Stark, but would even be improved upon by an even more brilliant technological genius.

8 Nathaniel Richards’ Iron Lad Is A Classic ‘Future Iron Man’

Young Avengers #1 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung

While the name Nathaniel Richards has become synonymous with another iconic Marvel Comics character, Kang the Conqueror, there’s a version of him from Earth-6311 who became the Iron Man legacy hero of the future, Iron Lad. Where Nathaniel stands apart, however, is that he came up with his suit’s tech independently, and didn’t need the direct involvement of Tony Stark to help design his gear. In fact, the Iron Lad suit was more of a precursor to the suit he’d eventually wear as Kang the Conqueror, making it immensely impressive on a technological scale.

Iron Lad would act as Iron Man’s meta-successor on the Young Avengers team when he traveled to Earth-616 in an effort to avoid his fate as Kang the Conqueror, and he quickly proves to be a more than worthy successor.

7 Sonny Frisco Became The Iron Man Of Marvel’s 2099 Continuity

Secret Wars 2099 #1 by Peter David and William Sliney

2099 is one of the coolest continuities in the Marvel multiverse, as it gave life to a number of alternate versions of iconic characters existing in a neo-tech future, all with their own names, identities, and backstories - including Sonny Frisco. A technological genius in his own right, Frisco was recruited to utilize his brilliance to design a new-age Iron Man suit for a resurgent Avengers team, and then take up the mantle as the Iron Man of 2099.

While the functionality of the suit is more-or-less identical to that of the classic Iron Man, the design itself is futuristic and edgy, as it essentially gave the iconic Iron Man design the 2099 treatment in the same light as Spider-Man 2099 and Ghost Rider 2099, just to name a few.

6 Mainframe Iron Man Is Tony Stark’s AI Successor In The MC2

A-Next #1 by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz

In the alternate reality designated the MC2 - one where all the classic Marvel heroes have retired, and their children took up their mantles - Iron Man’s successor is an AI he invented named Mainframe. Mainframe is like if Ultron wasn’t a murderous super-android, as he existed within a legion of Iron Man suits and used his disembodied form to help the new-age heroes in their missions.

While the character is clearly different from the original Tony Stark, Mainframe’s suits are also a departure in of aesthetic, as they are black and gold (though they do ittedly maintain the original overall look).

5 Stark-Self Is Another AI Iron Man Successor Extraordinary

X-Men #9 by Jeff Lemire and Humberto Ramos

Like the MC2’s Mainframe, the Stark-Self is an AI created by Tony Stark who was essentially a good version of Ultron. Stark-Self idolized its creator, and used the pieces of Tony’s own mind he implanted into the AI system to make decisions he would make on his behalf. For instance, when Stark-Self comes across mutants in need (during a time when leagues of them were being killed, Stark-Self helped them without a moment’s hesitation, as it ‘ed’ that Tony Stark allied himself with mutants, and therefore concluded that he would have helped them.

Stark-Self is a successor to Tony Stark in ways almost no one else is, as it’s literally an extension of Tony’s own mind in of both intellectual and emotional reasoning. Plus, Stark-Self’s body is a cool, sleek take on the original Iron Man. And, interestingly enough, this AI also went with the gold and black color scheme as opposed to Stark’s original red and gold (must be a robot thing).

4 Jako Krangsen Is An Alt-Universe Iron Man Hero: The Iron Mariner

Uncanny Avengers: Ultron Forever #1 by Al Ewing and Alan Davis

Jako Krangsen aka the Iron Mariner hails from the alternate universe of Earth-15061, and is a future version of Iron Man who can only live underwater. At least, unless he has his suit. Not only is Iron Mariner’s suit of armor more-or-less fully-equipped with every piece of tech that Tony Stark installed in his iconic designs, but it also acts as a life- suit that allows Krangsen to live on land.

Along with the added life functions, the Iron Mariner suit also has a really cool aquatic-look to it, as if the original Iron Man was merged with a robotic mermaid.

3 Secret Wars’ Technopolis Where EVERYONE Is Iron Man

Armor Wars #1 by James Robinson and Marcio Takara

When Earth-616 and Earth-1610 collided, the Marvel Comics continuity, as fans knew it, ceased to exist, and from its ashes, a new reality was crudely forged. Except this one was wrong in almost every conceivable way, and in their hearts, everyone knew it - and Technopolis was no exception. Technopolis was a city designed and run by Tony and Arno Stark that was incredibly advanced. There was only one problem: a disease broke out among the populace, forcing everyone to wear an Iron Man suit just to survive.

While the story surrounding this city goes deeper into its inherently hellish nature, the main takeaway is the existence of the city itself, as it showed that one version of Iron Man’s heroic legacy was to turn everyone into an ‘Iron Man’.

2 Tony Stark’s Transparent Iron Man Mask Is An Alternate Take On The Post-Civil War Hero

Civil War: Warzones! by Charles Soule and Leinil Francis Yu

As a part of the Secret Wars events, fans are given a glimpse into a possible reality where Civil War never ended. Instead, the United States was split between territories controlled by either Captain America or Iron Man, and the fighting continued until the two Avengers finally came together to fight their real enemy, the Skrulls. What’s most striking about this future isn’t the landscape, but rather the suit worn by Tony Stark himself. The mask was transparent, which was done deliberately to continuously express his overall mission, as the whole point of Civil War was for heroes to be held able for their actions, meaning no secret identities were allowed.

While this isn’t the most dramatic alternate change to Iron Man’s iconic suit, it may be the most significant, especially when considering how impactful Civil War was for Tony, and how much more so it would have been if the conflict continued to rage as it had in Civil War: Warzones!.

1 Future Iron Man Beats Kang the Conqueror’s Potato Chip Empire

Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #3 by Paul Tobin and Alvin Lee

This reality is set far beyond the main continuity of Marvel Comics’ Earth-616, and is instead a reimagining of the Marvel Universe in a way that is much more streamlined and kid-friendly. Marvel Adventures was a Marvel banner that told stories geared towards a younger readership, including this one, where Kang the Conqueror became the ruler of the world by launching a nano-tech infused, highly addictive potato chip brand - and it was up to a time-traveling Tony Stark of the future to stop him.

Despite the less-than-serious tone of this comic, the suit worn by this future Iron Man is no joke. The whole thing has a sleeker and more biological-looking aesthetic with a Nova Wave beam built into it that does some serious damage.

Every character who has either taken up the mantle of Iron Man or who has invented their own Iron Man-like suit independent of the original’s influence only further confirms the beauty of Iron Man as a legacy hero: anyone can be Iron Man. If one has the capability to push the limits of technological advancement as it relates to superhuman tech, they can become something akin to a cosmic god - as Tony Stark himself has done a number of times. And they’ll look super cool doing it, too, as these 10 future versions of Iron Man have arguably even cooler armor than that of the classic Tony Stark (even if some of them were alternate versions of Stark himself).