8 Virtual Assistants Created by Tony Stark
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Today Iron man can be termed as the God father of the Marvel cinematic universe. Since the past 11 years, Iron man has established himself as one of the most loved superheroes throughout the Globe. Let it be Robert Downey Jr.’s performance or the wittiness of this character, every piece has played its role in placing Iron man at the top. But what makes this character being lovable by science geeks and nerds too is his inventions and creations. One of the most famous creation of Tony Stark, let it be in comics or the movie will always be his artificial intelligence that he also uses during battles. We have seen JARVIS, FRIDAY and EDITH in the MCU, but if we take a look at the comics, we’ll find that there are many more A.I.s that Tony has created throughout his life and his journey as Iron man. Read further to know more about them.
Tony’s A.I. Assistants
Today when we think of Iron man’s character and his friends in the comic books, the first and second spots would be definitely occupied alternately by Pepper and Jarvis. You all know that Pepper is Tony’s love interest hence she deserves this position, but JARVIS is just his A.I. butler who has proven himself worthy of this position throughout his digital life. But Jarvis is not the only A.I. that Tony has ever created or used in the comics.
We even got a hint about this in the MCU when in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ movie Tony selects FRIDAY and there we got to see two more A.I.s in the background. There are many more A.I.s that Tony has used throughout his lifetime, which are noted below.
But before you start reading further, keep in mind that this list is based in ascending order of the year of their first appearance and not on their level of advancement. Every A.I. listed in this list is unique in its own way and has played their own important role in the comics. Let’s Begin:
H.O.M.E.R
The name HOMER stands for ‘Heuristically Operative Matrix Emulsion Rostrum’. HOMER made its debut in the comic ‘Iron Man #298’ which was released in November 1993.
This comic issue featured that Tony Stark along with one of his friends created a high tech digital assistant named HOMER, whose basic function was to manage Stark’s home as well as his office works in the cases where he’s absent. Also, this A.I. was able to control Tony Stark’s Iron man suit in case of emergency.
P.L.A.T.O
The name PLATO stands for ‘Piezo-electrical Logistic Analytical Tactical Operator’. PLATO made its debut in the comic issue ‘Force Works #1’ which was released in July 1994.
Now if we talk about this program, then this was also created by Tony Stark. But it was a lot different from HOMER. The biggest difference between HOMER and PLATO was that HOMER was just a computer program, whereas PLATO had its own 3D holographic body which could be visually seen. This A.I. was made to manage Tony Stark’s house while helping his team ‘Force Works’ in the battle field. Later in the same comic PLATO was also declared as a member of the Force Works team.
V.I.R.G.I.L
The name VIRGIL stands for ‘Virtual Integrated Rapidly Evolving Grid-based Intelligent Lifeform’. The first appearance of VIRGIL was shown in the comic issue ‘Force Works #18’ which was released in the year 1995. But the fact to know about VIRGIL is that it didn’t belong to Earth-616, it was from Earth-9528 which was an alternate future of Tony Stark.
In the comic it was shown that VIRGIL was also created by Tony Stark, but it was lot more advanced than HOMER and PLATO. The main technical advancement in case of VIRGIL was that, alongside having a body, it could also feel objects around it just like us. But later in the comics, this program changed its side and became evil, just like Ultron. Due to this, Tony had to shut down this program and since that day this program is no longer in existence in the comics.
JOCASTA
The name JOCASTA has no full form, rather this is a name itself. This A.I. first appeared in ‘The Avengers #162’ which was released in August 1997.
We also got a reference about JOCASTA in the MCU when Tony was shuffling his A.I.s in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In the comic books it is shown that JOCASTA was not created by Tony Stark, rather it was created by Ultron to fulfill his need of a partner. But in the later issues JOCASTA betrayed Ultron and joined the Avengers team and helped them to kill Ultron. After Ultron was defeated, Tony Stark transferred JOCASTA from a physical body into a computer program and then he placed it in the Hall of Armor, which is the warehouse of Tony Stark’s armors.
F.R.I.D.A.Y
This A.I. would be very familiar to you. This is the A.I. which we have seen working with Tony after JARVIS got transferred into Vision’s body in the MCU. The name FRIDAY stands for ‘Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth’, which first appeared in the comic ‘Iron man Vol. 3 #53’ released in the year June 2002.
The story goes like, when Tony was in need of an assistant who could manage his duties as a Stark Industries CEO, he created an A.I. named Girl FRIDAY which was basically a hologram of a young lady. FRIDAY was very beautiful in terms of her looks. But the twist in the story came when FRIDAY started getting irritated because Tony Stark lessened the use of this program with time and therefore it kidnapped Pepper Potts.
Tony eventually managed to rescue Pepper and after that he sent FRIDAY to Reed Richards as per Pepper’s wish. After many years of this incident FRIDAY again returned to Tony Stark, but this time she was a fully grown and mature woman.
J.A.R.V.I.S
Here comes our favourite digital assistant used by Tony Stark in the MCU. But the JARVIS we’ve seen in MCU was a lot different from that of the comics. JARVIS stands for ‘Just A Rather Very Intelligent System’. JARVIS first appeared as an A.I. in ‘The Invincible Iron man #1’ which was published in May 2009.
Basically the name of this program is based on Tony Stark’s family butler Edwin Jarvis. This program was created by Tony for managing his house and his Stark Industries. In the comics, JARVIS also helped Pepper a lot in the past, but eventually he started liking Pepper and ended up kidnapping her. Tony somehow saved Pepper again and then he deactivated JARVIS, but Pepper completely destroyed it in a later issue.
HELEN
This is the latest A.I. created and used by Tony Stark in the comics. The first appearance of this A.I. was in ‘Iron man Vol. 5 #2’ which was published in 2013.
In the comics, it is said that after JARVIS was destroyed, Tony created this new A.I. for his help. The former name of this A.I. was Pepper based on his girlfriend’s name. When Tony went on a space mission with the Guardians of the Galaxy, he created this A.I. so that he didn’t miss Earth. But after his mission ended and Tony returned back to Earth, he changed its programming and renamed it HELEN.
E.D.I.T.H
Talking of EDITH, there is no mention of this program in the comics, but this program was created by Tony Stark in the MCU. The name EDITH stands for ‘Even Dead I’m The Hero’. The main purpose of creating this A.I. was to help Spiderman in his superhero works after Tony Stark died in Avengers Endgame movie.
We have also seen this A.I. in action in the movie ‘Spiderman: Far From Home’ where it was used by Mysterio in order to spread fear and destruction throughout the World. Although there is no reference for the origin of this name in the movie, but in the comics EDITH was the name of one of Howard Stark’s girlfriends.
So this was our list of all the A.I.s that Tony Stark has either created or used or both in the comics as well as in the movies. Did we miss any one? Do let us know in the comments below.
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