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Quote1 In my experience, "Stark boy saves the world" has a good ring to it. It could suit you too, Arno. Quote2
Tony Stark[src]

History

Maria Stark suffered from severe problems during the conception of her child with Howard Stark. After being informed that the boy wouldn't survive birth, Howard traveled across the world desperately seeking for a way to cure his unborn child. He found himself rescuing the Rigellian Recorder 451 from the alien race known as the Greys, in exchange for means to ensure their child's survival.[3]

451 had seen potential in the Earth, but feared that the various cosmic empires would endanger the planet before humanity could even defend itself. In order to ensure humans could reach their peak, 451 intended to insert someone in society who could accelerate the technological growth of humanity and help defend it. 451 revealed its plan to the Starks, and told them that their unborn child was the perfect candidate. After considering their options, Howard and Maria agreed to comply with 451's terms.[4]

In the course of the five-month procedure during which 451 genetically modified the baby in the womb, Howard found a hidden genetic tweak, a kill switch that would endanger the life of his son after he reached maturity. Fearing that if confronted about it, 451 would simply better cover its tracks, Stark developed in secret a biococktail that would neuter it, and injected it into Maria.[5]

Arno Stark (Earth-616) from Iron Man Vol 5 17 001

Arno inside an iron lung

Some time later, baby Arno Stark was born healthy. 451 helped deliver him, and then left the planet.[6] The Starks were relieved with the final results, but their comfort was short-lived. Barely a few hours after Arno was born, his health quickly degenerated. When the Starks consulted with a doctor, it was determined the boy would never be able to live without medical assistance. Fearing the consequences if 451 ever discovered Howard's meddling, the Starks decided to keep Arno hidden in the Maria Stark Foundation Hospice and adopt a healthy son as a decoy. The adopted son became known as Tony Stark, whom the Starks would try to love like a real son.

Arno spent the following decades trapped in an iron lung, observing the world from his confinement and harboring resentment towards Tony.[7] When Tony was 21 years old, Maria and Howard died in a car crash. Tony inherited Howard's company Stark Industries, and years later became the armored super hero known as Iron Man. During a space voyage, 451 orchestrated an encounter with Tony, unaware that he wasn't Howard's true son. 451 told him about his supposed secret origin, and forced him to pilot the Godkiller, a giant suit of armor that only Howard's child could command due to the genetic modifications. Tony eventually returned to the Earth after finding himself unable to pilot the Godkiller, and decided to investigate why he wasn't able to do so. His inquiry led him to an old forgotten recording directed towards him, in which Howard explained to Tony the true events that transpired decades ago, and revealed the existence of Arno. Tony visited Arno at the Maria Stark Foundation Hospice, and the two brothers finally met. 451 had died during its final encounter with Tony, giving Arno the chance to come out of hiding. With a new lease on life, Arno set out to work together with Tony in helping change the world.[5]

Arno Stark (Earth-616) from Iron Man Vol 5 22 001 (cut)

Arno wearing his first armor

Arno and Tony began transforming the decrepit Mandarin City into a futuristic utopia called Troy.[8] But their plan soon found opposition in the form of the sentient Rings of the Mandarin, who started searching for hosts to destroy Tony and Troy.[9] One of the Mandarins, Lord Remaker bombed the Troy Central Control and Arno was seemingly killed.[10] However, Arno had deployed his own suit of armor with which he later helped Tony and the Trojan Guard fight the enemy forces. After realizing the city would never be safe as long as he was attached to it, Tony quit working directly on Troy, leaving Arno the position of the city's new custodian.[11]

For a brief time, Arno donned an exoskeleton to be able to walk.[12] He eventually developed a technology which allowed him to rewrite his own DNA and remove his congenital disease.[13] Arno further "hacked" his biological systems to discard the necessity to sleep. As the leader of the Maria Stark Foundation, Arno travelled around the world using his intellect and advanced procedures for charity work, though he only intervened in situations that caught his attention and not out of the goodness of his heart.[7]

At the end of the second superhuman civil war, Tony fell into a coma due to battle injuries.[14] He was placed in a bio-restructuring pod of Arno's design which reconstituted his body cell by cell.[13] When he woke up, Tony went into hiding until he fully recovered.[15] Arno was recruited into the search party that investigated Tony's disappearance,[16] and they later heeded Mary Jane Watson's call for help when she was helping Tony's biological mother, Amanda Armstrong, confront Tony's father, Jude, a terrorist backed up by Hydra soldiers.[17]

Arno Stark (Earth-616) from Iron Man Vol 5 23

Arno with his exoskeleton

During Arno's continued globetrotting endeavors, he made acquaintances with Sunset Bain, the unscrupulous CEO of Stark Unlimited's main rival, Baintronics, Inc.[7] Arno began colluding with Bain, assisting her efforts to steal data from Stark Unlimited.[18] During a crisis involving a virtual world of his own creation called the eScape, Tony confronted two rogue A.I. made out of the engrams of Howard and Maria Stark, Arsenal and Mistress, respectively. Arno hacked into the eScape's surveillance system and observed Tony's confrontation against them, during which he used the unfettered potential of his brain unrestrained by his physical body to conceive the ultimate weapon, the Godbuster Armor, which caught Arno's interest. Despite Tony erasing Arsenal and Mistress, Arno managed to salvage the digital engrams of Howard and Maria used in their creation as well as some data on the Godbuster Armor.[19]

Fueled by a desire to become more human, Tony's robotic ally Jocasta sought Arno's help to replace her body with synthetic organic organs.[20] Despite the procedure being interrupted by Ultron Pym to abduct Jocasta,[21] the experiment laid the groundwork for Arno to use the engrams of Howard and Maria and his bio-restructuring pods to create duplicates of his parents with all of their thoughts and memories.[22]

Arno Stark (Earth-616) from Tony Stark Iron Man Vol 1 5 001

Arno with his exoskeleton

Around this time, Tony came to terms with the apparent revelation that he was an artificial being due to his new body having been engineered from scratch, meaning he was only a simulation of the real, late Tony Stark. Arno helped delegitimize Tony as a human being, and seized control of Stark Unlimited, based on the postulate that Tony was his property because the bio-restructuring pod used in his creation was of his design. Arno merged Stark Unlimited with Baintronics and poured their resources into building his own Iron Man armor in an attempt to recreate of the Godbuster Armor. Assuming the monicker of Iron Man, Arno set out to save all life on Earth, declaring it was his destiny.[1]

Personality

When Tony first met Arno, he displayed a pleasant demeanor, and didn't appear to hold any resentment towards him or his parents,[5] possibly due to his principle not to dwell in the past and instead live for the future.[8] He additionally appeared eager to work alongside his brother.[5] However, Arno eventually showed vestiges of a darker side, working on reformulating the dangerous Extremis virus behind Tony's back and sneering at him when he protested, remarking that he was smarter than him. This exchange outright caused Tony to question if he really knew Arno at all.[23]

As time went by, Arno became more openly conceited, self-interested and acerbic. Arno has also displayed a lack of concern for others; when caught in an estampede of mutagenic bulls, he only worried for his own survival and was unfazed by the massacre surrounding him. It's also apparent that Arno has only repressed his negative feelings for Tony and his parents, having one time caught himself thinking bitterly of his brother.[7] Arno also became extremely judgmental and punitive; he has refused to assist people who ingenuously abused his methods to solve their issues despite undoing his solution; and one time purposefuly transplanted the arm of a dead woman victim of a negligent car accident to the person that caused it, causing his new arm to become possessed by traces of the victim's memory and haunt him.[7]

Arno is extremely concerned by the wellbeing of the planet Earth as a whole, having spent his entire life before coming out of hiding thinking on solutions for the planet's problems.[5] He considers himself a person motivated by ideas[24] and likes to dive into inspiration when it strikes. However, despite pouring himself into charity work to improve the world, Arno only assisted those cases that caught his attention.[7]

Due to Recorder 451, Arno is extremely apprehensive towards artificial intelligences.[25] When Tony Stark became convinced that he was an artificial being, Arno worked to delegitimize Tony as a human being, and even referred to him as an "it."[22]

Attributes

Power Grid[27]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Supersonic:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (75-100 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Genius

Powers

Super-Genius Class Intelligence: The Rigellian Recorder 451 used Kree technology, among others, to genetically engineer Arno when he was still unborn, in order to create the ultimate genius who would uplift humanity, by modifying his thought process and enhancing his intelligence, in order to make him think differently and more practically compared to other known geniuses like Black Panther, Mr. Fantastic or Dr. Doom.[4] Arno has claimed to be even smarter than his foster brother Tony.[23]

Enhanced Biology: Arno used his own variant of the Extremis to altered his own biology, rewritting his cells so his body could function much more efficiently. The exact extent of these enhancements is unknown, though he has remarked that got rid of his body's necessity to sleep. The alterations healed Arno and now Arno can also function and walk without any life support. Arno could also control his body to reach instant meditation.[7]

Weaknesses

Arno Stark couldn't formerly live without his life support.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Arno has worn a large suit of armor equipped with heavy weapons codenamed MMXX that helps him fight his own battles along with his adoptive brother Tony.[11] He also used to wear a special exoskeleton to help walk upright.[12]

Notes

  • Arno's first suit of armor read "MMXX," "2020" in Roman numerals.

Trivia

  • Arno's name is a reference to the Arno Stark from the divergent future Earth-8410, also known as the Iron Man 2020.
    • Unlike the 2020-version of Arno Stark, who was Tony Stark's first cousin once removed,[26] this version is the firstborn son of Howard Stark.

See Also

Links and References

References

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