Iron Man has a new suit of armor in Avengers: Age of Ultron (although technically, he debuted it in the MCU tie-in comic Operation HYDRA). It’s the forty third “main” suit he’s built so far, and in true Tony Stark fashion, it’s the flashiest one yet.
Let’s go over all of the crazy gadgets and weaponry Stark has built into this new suit. Spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron follow.
Infra-Red Scanners
The Mark 43 lets Iron Man scan the HYDRA base at the opening of the film, allowing him to find the shield generator through the walls of the structure. The scanners are also able to search for vital signs in a fairly large area, allowing him to minimize civilian casualties in a fight.
We saw this feature at work during the African throwdown with the Hulk, when Stark scanned an under-construction building for people before smashing it up.
Bunker Buster Missiles
The new Iron Man suit comes equipped with missiles capable of penetrating fortified structures, like the walls of Baron Strucker’s HYDRA base. They also prove to be very effective against Ultron’s pre-Vibranium body during their fight in South Africa.
Interestingly, this technology is similar to what Justin Hammer was advertising to Rhodey in Iron Man 2. It’s possible that Tony Stark took the idea and actually made it work after what a let-down it was in that battle.
Shoulder-Mounted Micro-Munitions
These new shoulder-mounted guns are similar to the one we saw in the original Iron Man (they even have the same tracking system). The Mark 43’s new version has guns on both shoulders though, allowing him to hit up to 12 targets at the same time.
Sentry Mode
This new addition allows JARVIS to control the suit while Tony Stark is out of it. As we saw after that opening battle, this lets Stark have an Iron Man suit watching his back at all times. With JARVIS out of the picture now though, it remains to be seen if this feature still works like before.
Additionally, like other recent suits, the Mark 43 is modular so Stark can easily step in and out of it. Unlike previous versions though, the Mark 43 can remain fully standing and operational in Sentry Mode while Stark is not in it.
Autonomous Prehensile Propulsion
Like the Mark 42 before it, Stark can summon pieces of the suit to him at will. He used this to call in a gauntlet to pick up Loki’s scepter in the HYDRA base. Unlike the Mark 42 though, this one actually works reliably.
Hulkbuster Integration
Codenamed “Veronica,” Tony Stark and Bruce Banner co-created the monstrous Mark 44 armor in case Banner ever Hulked out of control. To protect himself while piloting the Hulkbuster, Stark actually wears his Mark 43 armor while inside it, which interfaces with the larger suit to allow him to control it.
Tony had a lot of cool tricks this time around, were there any new ones I missed?
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