| Zeke Stane | |
|---|---|
 Zeke Stane as depicted on the cover ofThe Invincible Iron Man (vol. 2) #4 (October 2008). Art bySalvador Larroca. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Order #8 (April 2008) |
| Created by | Matt Fraction (writer) Barry Kitson (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane |
| Species | Humancyborg |
| Notable aliases | Iron Monger, Iron Man 2.0 |
| Abilities | Genius-level intellect Superhuman abilities derived from bio-upgrades Accelerated metabolism |
Ezekiel "Zeke"Stane is asupervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as the son ofObadiah Stane and an enemy ofIron Man. Created by writerMatt Fraction and artistBarry Kitson, he first appeared inThe Order #10 (April 2008).[1]
Alden Ehrenreich portrays the character in theMarvel Cinematic UniverseDisney+ seriesIronheart (2025).
Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane first appeared inThe Order #8 (April 2008), written byMatt Fraction and drawn byBarry Kitson.
Zeke Stane is the son ofObadiah Stane who manipulates other villains who have set out to destroythe Order.[2] Stane targets the Order,Tony Stark's showcaseInitiative team ofCalifornia, while seeking revenge against Stark for the death of his father.[3] Stane subsequently leaves California and prepares for the next stage in his vendetta against Stark.[4]
Zeke Stane appears in the seriesThe Invincible Iron Man, where he furthers his vendetta against Tony Stark. Stane is first seen attending a meeting with a large tobacco company after being hired to create a type of tobacco that enhances metabolism, resulting in weight loss. Stane reveals that he only took the job to use the company's resources to upgrade the biotechnology he placed in his body. He swiftly kills the company's board of directors before being contacted bySasha Hammer about a group of Africansuicide bombers who were test subjects for his biotechnology.[5] Stane meets with Stark during a party moments before the suicide bombers attack, injuringPepper Potts.[6]
Stane confronts Stark with his own armor, while having terrorists armed with his technology attackStark Industries facilities around the world. However, Stark defeats Stane's plan with his control of all of his various Iron Man armors, allowing him to be in multiple locations and neutralize all of Stane's bombs at once. Stark then disables all of Stane's tech and both of their armors with electromagnetic pulses and defeats Stane in hand-to-hand combat.[7] Stane is imprisoned, but is paroled shortly afterward by theMandarin andJustine Hammer, Sasha Hammer's parents.[8]
Mandarin becomes increasingly discontent when Stane is unable to buildDreadnoughts and Titanomechs on a tight schedule and low budget. Mandarin begins affecting Stane with his ring, making him obsessed with the work and gradually damaging his brain. After the Mandarin brings Tony Stark under his control as well, Stark and Stane work together to produce the Titanomechs.[9]
After Mandarin uses three of his rings to power the first Titanomech, Stark and Stane convinceWhirlwind,Blizzard, andLiving Laser to join him in a rebellion with the final purpose of defeating Mandarin. After having theExtremis virus inside his body reactivated, Stark creates a mental link with the Swarm, a swarm ofmicrobots. Stark uses the Swarm to destroy Mandarin's weapons while Stane confronts and kills the Mandarin.[10]
In the seriesThe Mighty Thor, Zeke Stane represents Stane International while attending a meeting withTiberius Stone,Wilson Fisk,Sebastian Shaw,Darren Cross,Shingen Harada, Frr'dox, Wilhelmina Kensington, andDario Agger to discuss Agger's plan to exploit the ten realms ofAsgard.Exterminatrix arrives and knocks Agger out, declaring herself to be a new member of their assembly.[11]
Zeke Stane is the son ofObadiah Stane, and has been buildingbioweaponry and manufacturing next-generation weapons for terrorists and supervillains since he was nine. Though he is the son of Obadiah, as well as a supervillain rather than a hero, Ezekiel Stane's creator,Matt Fraction, considers Zeke to be the next generation of Tony Stark/Iron Man rather than of Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger: often referring to the character as "Tony Stark/Iron Man 2.0".[12]
Fraction states the similarities between the pair's characteristics, with Ezekiel being an evolution of Tony Stark's character: a younger, smarter, sharperfuturist of a post-national supercorporate world moving into a future that Stark has no control over.[12] Overtaking Stark and his Iron Man technology by not taking the route of armored suits but upgrading the human body itself.
No matter how high tech or evolved, even withExtremis, the Iron Man armor is still a guy in a suit, if you get between the man and the suit you can undo it. So Stane doesn't need a suit. That's the difference. That's what we start to see, the future of Iron Man is that there's no gap between Iron and Man. It's one being and Stane is quite literally evolving himself and people who pay him as we see in the book's opening.
— Matt Fraction[13]
Fraction often describes the contrast between the two characters usingsoftware terms, due to the character's technological basis.
Zeke is a post-national business man and kind of anopen source ideological terrorist, he has absolutely no loyalty to any sort of law, creed, or credo. He doesn't want to beat Tony Stark, he wants to make him obsolete.Windows wants to be on every computer desktop in the world, butLinux and Stane want to destroy the desktop. He's the open source to Stark'sclosed source oppressiveness. He has no headquarters, no base, and no bank account. He's a trueghost in the machine; completely off the grid, flexible, and mobile. That absolutely flies in the face of Tony's received business wisdom and in the way business is done. There are banks and lawyers and you have facilities and testing. Stane is a much more different animal. He's a much smarter, more mobile, and much quicker to respond and evolvedfuturist.
— Matt Fraction[13]
Zeke Stane's genius-level intellect and considerable fortune has allowed him to cannibalize and reverse-engineer Stark Tech from theblack-market to upgrade his ownbiology, most notably hishypothalamus. Stane successfully reduced the caloric energy consumption of his body from 70% to 9%, leaving him surplus energy which he uses in repulsor bolts at the end of his fingers. Other upgrades have allowed his body to vastly repair itself from injury.
This excessive use of the body's energy has shown that Stane must constantly keep his body's blood sugar level high to make up for its rapid consumption. Stane does this by eating a high (20,000)calorie paste.[5]
Ezekiel Stane appears in theMarvel Future Avengers episode "Secret Past of Iron Man", voiced byYōhei Azakami in the original Japanese version and byBenjamin Diskin in the English dub.[14]
Ezekiel Stane appears inIron Man: Rise of Technovore, voiced byMiyu Irino in the Japanese version and byEric Bauza in the English dub.[14][15] This version created the eponymousTechnovore. He andSasha Hammer utilize theRaiders viaA.I.M. until Ezekiel is confronted byIron Man. After Technovore takes over his body, Iron Man andWar Machine defeat it before Ezekiel is taken intoS.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
Ezekiel Stane appears as a boss inIron Man 3: The Official Game, voiced byTom Wayland.[14] This version's mother withheld information about his father and did not learn of this until after Ezekiel received his inheritance. He works with A.I.M.,MODOK, and theLiving Laser to capturePepper Potts until Ezekiel is killed by Iron Man.
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