The year of my daughter’s birth saw the publication of the interesting one-shot Iron Man 2020 by Walt Simonson and Bob Wiacek. That’d be 26 years before the year carried by the character’s name, but what you may not know that this Iron Man, Arno Stark, actually debuted in print a full decade earlier.
It was a fun time back then — imagining a possible relative of Tony Stark taking up the mantle of the Golden Avenger (but why would he use the year in his name like below? When it turned to 2021 would he add that?). Alas, as time went on, we knew the character would have to be relegated to another world of the multiverse. Or worse. More on that later.
In his original appearances, it is never explicitly revealed if Arno is related to Tony Stark; although the character’s debut in 1984 takes place in the year 2020, in Marvel chronology it is not the first story about this particular Shellhead. IM 2020’s first appearance actually takes place in the year 2015 in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #20 (it’s literally is mentioned in the first narration bubble below). Arno, head of Stark Industries, has been named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” (the title of the Spidey Annual, by the way) in part because he’s created the world’s first time machine.
In an early panel of this issue, Arno thinks to himself “investing my father’s fortune in [Tony] Stark’s designs was the best move I ever made.” Given Arno’s last name is Stark, one might assume his father is a relative of Tony … but nothing concrete is offered to back that up.
Nevertheless, like his possible-relative Tony did back in the 1960s, Arno is working with the U.S. military on weapons development, including “Weapon MK-3,” also known as the “Planet Buster Bomb.” During a test of this device, Arno is informed that a terrorist named Robert Saunders has infiltrated Stark Industries and has armed the bomb. Only Saunders’ retina patterns can activate the disarm code. Unfortunately, while IM 2020 attempts to capture Saunders, the latter is blasted to smithereens. The only hope of turning off the Planet Buster device now? Using Arno’s time machine to nab Saunders’ retina patterns when he was a kid in 1986.
However, after Arno successfully locates the young Saunders (who happened to be in the clutches of the villain Blizzard, who is subsequently vaporized by IM 2020), a black-uniformed Spider-Man snatches Arno’s retina scan device from his grasp with his webbing — just as he’s about to get Saunders’ patterns to disarm the bomb. Not being able to waste a second, IM 2020 tells Spidey to back off and, of course, a fight ensues. During the scuffle, the young Saunders is inadvertently injured by an IM 2020 disruptor blast:
Unbelievably, the (non-symbiont-powered) Spider-Man manages to best Arno, who is suddenly whisked “back” to 2015 in the midst of his pending defeat. Screaming “I HAD MORE TIME!!!” as he fades away, Arno rematerializes in the middle of a massive bomb crater. His time machine wasn’t defective — but his MK-3 bomb was — its arming timing sequence had a “fatal flaw” and thus detonated prematurely, destroying the time machine … and the city around it.
Given that this Annual came out two years after IM 2020’s actual first appearance in the Machine Man Limited Series, there was no way for writer Tom DeFalco to take these events from five (Marvel) years prior into account. Thus, there’s no mention of these disastrous events or their aftermath. In this story (later republished as Machine Man 2020), corporate bigwig Sunset Bain hires Arno to help defeat a recently reactivated Machine Man. But, like Spider-Man (Marvel chronologically) before him, Machine Man beats the snot out of IM 2020 despite the latter clearly being more powerful.
On the other hand, Simonson’s 1994 Iron Man 2020 graphic novel has no such excuse when it comes to what happened in 2015. Nevertheless, while we do see a two-page spread featuring Arno pondering his defeat by Machine Man, there’s absolutely nothing about the events in Spidey Annual #20. The only connection to that story at all is Arno’s brother-in-law Bill haranguing him about his new mission: the rescue of business rival Marcus Wellington’s daughter from terrorists. (Bill is black, which means he’s likely the brother of Arno’s now-deceased wife Cynthia, killed when the MK-3 bomb detonated.)
This makes zero sense, in all seriousness. A two-page retrospective about IM 2020’s humiliation by Machine Man … but nary a mention about destroying an entire city, his wife and son included? At any rate, the Machine Man defeat has Arno pondering his “hero” role as Iron Man, and ultimately he has to become a hero in order to save the planet from Wellington’s machinations — a deadly computer virus for which only he has the cure.
The climax of Iron Man 2020 has Wellington in his own suit of armor taking on Arno (why are Iron Man’s business rivals’ armored outfits always so large and ponderous? Remember Obadiah Stane’s Iron Monger in Iron Man #200?) and he has him on the ropes until Stark manages to infect Wellington’s suit with the villain’s very own computer virus. With Wellington’s subsequent death, his daughter (who informed Stark about the computer virus in the first place) ends up controlling her dad’s company … and she forms an alliance with Arno — professionally and, perhaps, romantically.
The kicker at the end is the reveal that Wellington’s right-hand man “Howard” is actually … an aged Tony Stark. He predicts an eventual merger of Wellington’s company and Stark Industries, and that Iron Man (2020) finally will become the hero he was destined to be.
As might be expected, all the attempts at making historic/continuity connections were for naught; as time progressed and we actually arrived at 2020, the world of Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020, became what is considered Earth-8410 in the Marvel Multiverse.
Of note, 1993’s What If? #53 features a brief story in which Arno remains trapped in 1986 following the events of Spidey Annual #20. He is portrayed as much more evil here, conspiring with Tony’s cousin Morgan Stark to take over Stark Enterprises and even killing Jim Rhodes as War Machine. However, Tony eventually bests Arno in battle, which leads to the latter’s death. The ending tantalizes readers as to Arno’s origin: Morgan escapes to a South American country and has a son we’re led to believe is … Arno.
In addition, Iron Man #250 by the classic team of David Michelinie and Bob Layton features another possible Tony Stark relative/ancestor: Andros Stark, the Iron Man of 2093 and “direct descendant” of Arno. Which makes sense as Andros’ armor looks almost exactly like Arno’s.
I won’t even mention the absolute garbage that Dan Slott and Kieron Gillen made of not only Arno but Tony, too, much more recently. Our good friend Avi Green has already taken care of that quite well (as he always does) here and here among others.
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