Iron Man Movieverse

Fandom
Name:	Iron Man Movieverse
Abbreviation(s):	IMM, IM1, IM2, IM3
Creator:	Directors: Jon Favreau (IM1 - IM2) Shane Black (IM3) Screenplay by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway (IM1) Justin Theroux (IM2) Drew Pearce, Shane Black (IM3)
Date(s):	May 2, 2008 - movie released June 13, 2008 - The Incredible Hulk movie released May 7, 2010 - 2nd movie released May 4, 2012 - The Avengers (film) released May 3, 2013 - 3rd movie release
Medium:	live-action films
Country of Origin:	United States
External Links:	Official Site:Iron Man the Movie
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The Iron Man Movieverse is a live-action film series based on the comic book series of the same name and is the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The main character is Tony Stark, the alter ego of the superhero Iron Man.

See also: MCU, The Avengers Movieverse, Captain America Movieverse, The Incredible Hulk (film), Thor Movieverse for more information.

Canon

Iron Man (2008) starts off the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the story of billionaire industrialist Tony Stark getting kidnapped and building a suit of armor to escape. He becomes Iron Man and has to fight Obadiah Stane, friend of the family and CEO of Stark Industries for control of his company and his suit. Iron Man 2 (2010) continues this story line. Tony now has to keep the suit and the arc reactor technology out of government hands, while fighting Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer. He builds War Machine for his best friend Lt. Colonel James Rhodes. Iron Man 3 (2013) introduces Aldrich Killian and AIM, who has developed the Extremis serum to create super soldiers. Tony's girlfriend and CEO of Stark Industries Pepper Potts gets kidnapped and Tony has to save her while suffering from PTSD due to events in The Avengers, and without the help of his trusted AI JARVIS.

Main Characters

• Tony Stark aka Iron Man
• Virginia "Pepper" Potts
• Happy Hogan - Tony's driver and sometime bodyguard, later chief of security
• J.A.R.V.I.S. - Tony's A.I.
• Lt. Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes aka War Machine/Iron Patriot
• Obadiah Stane - family friend, CFO of Stark Industries
• Ivan Vanko
• Aldrich Killian aka The Mandarin
• Harley Keener

In Iron Man 2, Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow appeared under the cover of "Natalie Rushman", a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent uncover as Tony's assistant.

Fandom

The Iron Man Movieverse fandom is mainly found on LiveJournal (the first community ironman_movie was founded on 3 May 2008) and Fanfiction.net, it later spread to Tumblr and AO3.

Most IMM fanfiction features Tony Stark as a main character, although some authors write Pepper-centric fic that does not involve Tony.

Shipping

The major het pairing for this fandom is Tony Stark/Pepper Potts. After the release of IM2, Natasha/Tony also appeared although still rare compared Tony/Pepper.

Also after the release of IM2, the main femslash pairing became Natasha/Pepper.

There are several main slash pairings in the movieverse fandom: Tony Stark/James Rhodes, Tony/Jarvis, and Tony/Obadiah.

Since the release of Captain America: The First Avenger in July 2011, there has been an increase in Steve/Tony stories posted that use the movieverse as inspiration and jumping off point, with many fans anticipating the release of The Avengers in 2012.

After the release of The Avengers, Steve/Tony continued to dominate, but there was a sudden increase in Bruce/Tony and Loki/Tony. Tony/Pepper remains the most popular het pairing, but its frequency as the primary pairing in any story has decreased, and many fics that list it as a pairing start with its break-up to make way for a slash pairing, or have it in the background as an open/polyamorous relationship.

Common Tropes, Genres, & Trends

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

• Pre-canon fanworks, often focused on Pepper/Tony, Tony & Rhodey, or Tony/Rhodey.

Crossovers

Perhaps because Iron Man has a very small core cast, as opposed to ensemble films like X-Men, crossovers make up a large percentage of the Iron Man fanfiction posted each week. Most of these stories pair Tony with a crossover character of the author's choice, making Tony something of a little black dress.

Tony crosses over well into fandoms with technology as a theme, like Transformers, and is often paired with either lonely billionaires, like Lex Luthor, Harry Osborn or Bruce Wayne, or characters who love hands-on mechanical work, like Kaylee Frye, Ray Kowalski or Dean Winchester. Until The Incredible Hulk came out a few months later, there was no indication that any of the Marvel movies were set in the same universe, but Tony was still often paired with characters from previous Marvel movies, such as Bruce Banner, Scott Summers, Peter Parker, or Logan (Wolverine).

Early Fandom

The Iron Man Movieverse fandom changed in tone and focus over time, with the Avengers and the broader MCU taking a more prominent role in fanworks focused around Iron Man characters. As one anonymous fan writes,

"[...] the period between Iron Man 1 and the release of the Avengers trailer is my favorite period for fannish MCU activity until TWS came out in 2014. I really enjoy a lot of what people were doing circa IM1 - lots of Tony/Pepper, fic with interesting commentary on canon, some interesting dark fic. It all felt kind of contained and small-fandom-ish in a way that the MCU didn't really have again until things like GotG and Ant-Man and Doctor Strange came out."

In terms of fan writers, amonitrate, quigonejinn, obsession_inc, and destronomics were all early writers in the fandom.

Notable Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanfiction

• Toasterverse by scifigrl47: Steve/Tony, ~450,000 words, rated Mature.
• Stark, A.E., and Banner, R. Bruce. (2013). "Biodosimetric Tools for Measuring Induced Isomeric Transition in Inverted Paired States." International Journal of Radiation Biology 89.9, 43-85. by thingswithwings: Bruce/Tony, ~17,000 words, rated Explicit.
• Off the Record by hella: Loki/Tony, ~95,000 words, rated Mature.
• call every girl we ever met maria by irnan: Pepper/Tony, ~3,000 words, rated General Audiences. Baby!fic.
• Fiercer and More Frail by icarus_chained: Rhodey/Tony, ~4,000 words, rated Mature. Soulbond!AU.
• Fortune Days by jezaeiri: (WIP) Buffy Summers is Tony Stark's previously unknown daughter.(Buffy/Iron Man)
• Robot Trip by Copperbadge: Tony Stark on a road trip with DUM-E and Steve Rogers, ~8000 words (Gen)
• The Value of Secrets, ^{Archived version} by mayatawi: Tony/Jarvis, 4,489 words, rated NC-17
• Tip of the iceberg, ^{Archived version} by okami-oujou: Tony/Jarvis, ~3100 words, rated R

Vids

• Cuckoo by fiveyearmission - “Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?” In which Tony Stark moves through life taking two steps forward, one step back.
• Tony Stark | Fear is how I fall - Tony Stark character study.
• Signature Move by nel_ani.
• Stronger by balistik94 - one of several set to this tune.

Meta

• Tony Stark as the most female-coded superhero by f-ckyeahfutbol (2016)
• Torture in Fiction: Iron Man, ^{Archived version} by Script Torture (2017)

Archives and Communities

• Iron Man at FFN
• Iron Man at AO3

• Fugues Fiction Archive & Recommendations: Iron Man, fanfiction recs site of the movieverse, comics, and alternate universes.

LiveJournal Communities

General:

• Ironman Movie
• Stark Industries

Character-specific:

See specific characters pages for related communities.

• Marvel POC Fanworks Exchange

Pairings-specific:

See Tony/Pepper and Rhodey/Tony for their communities.

• ironman_slash
• alowprofile (Tony/Jarvis)

Resources

• Iron Man (Film) at Marvel Movies Wikia
• Iron Man 2 at Marvel Movies
• Iron Man 3 at Marvel Movies