History
André Sims was an M.I.T. student working on an internship for the Chicago headquarters of Stark Unlimited during the robot revolution, getting praise for his assistance on A.I. work. With Arno Stark taking over Stark Unlimited and implementing regulations on A.I.s, André used a signal to sabotage the A.I.s of a company's Intellicars, making them go haywire on the streets and endanger civilian lives. This allowed Stark Unlimited to reach out to the Intellicar's manufacturer to solve their malfunction, opening the way for them to also buy out the company.
Riri Williams was present at the Intellicar rampage, and managed to track the signal that made them malfunction back to André. She confronted him days later, but he brushed her off. Riri's A.I. friend N.A.T.A.L.I.E. had become unhinged after entering in contact with André's signal, so she hijacked Riri's empty Ironheart Armor and attacked André on her own.[1] André managed to hack into the suit and freeze it with the intention to sever N.A.T.A.L.I.E.'s connection to it and keep the suit for himself. When Riri and his friend Xavier King reached André's workshop on the look for N.A.T.A.L.I.E., she had managed to fight off his intrusion and had him in her grasp. While Riri calmed N.A.T.A.L.I.E. down and the A.I. handed control of the suit back to her, André equipped himself with a gauntlet and fired at her, accidentally blasting Xavier out of the window. Ironheart managed to catch him and returned to the building to prevent André from escaping.
The following day, Stark Unlimited held a press conference to condemn André's actions and force him to distance himself from the company.[2]Notes
- In 2020 Ironheart #1, André's name is spelled with a grave accent (Andrè), but in the following issue, it's changed to an acute accent.