The super-secret boyband

I don’t know why I thought it, but I thought what if it was somebody in a suit of armor and what if it was iron armor. He would be so powerful. I have always been fascinated by Howard Hughes. I thought I would get a hero like Howard Hughes. He’s an inventor. He’s a multimillionaire. He’s good looking. He likes the women. But I’ve got to make something tragic about him.

Then it occurred to me if he —somehow when he got his iron armor —it’s a long story — but he gets into a fight, and he gets injured in his chest. And his heart is injured, and he has to wear this little thing that runs the iron armor. He has to wear that on his chest because it also keeps his heart beating. And that would make him a tragic figure as well as the most powerful guy. So I thought the readers would like him even more with that little bit added to it.

I wanted him to be a playboy, so he has this gorgeous assistant secretary named Pepper Potts. And he’s in love with her, and she’s in love with him, but he won’t admit he’s in love with her because he figures he could die any minute with his bad heart. And he loves her too much to make her a widow, and so he never admits to her how he feels about her, which again is a little touch of pathos for the series.

-Stan Lee on Iron Man