Iron Man from Marvel Comics is synonymous with armored superheroes. Indeed, with his immense brilliance and vast wealth, the Armored Avenger has created countless suits that let him stand amongst superhumans and gods. However, he’s not the only hero who suits up in power armor to fight the forces of evil. In DC Comics, there are plenty of ordinary humans who make up for their lack of superpowers by donning in powerful battlesuits that are armed to the teeth and virtually indestructible. Many of the armored heroes in DC Comics have suits so advanced and powerful that they can even rival Iron Man’s strongest suits.
Iron Man’s plethora of high-tech armors makes him a force to be reckoned with. Not to be outdone, DC Comics has made heavily armored heroes of its own and many of these could defeat the Armored Avenger or, at the least, the fight of his life.
When Superman died protecting the world from Doomsday, a new Man of Steel emerged to continue the hero’s legacy. John Henry Irons was a former weapons engineer-turned construction worker who, like Iron Man, sought to atone for the many people who died because of the weapons he had created. To make up for his lack of Kryptonian powers, Irons created a powerful suit of armor and became Metropolis’s new protector, Steel. Over the years, Steel has made several suits, each more powerful than the last. Steel’s suit is more than tough enough to tackle some of Superman’s strongest villains, including Cyborg Superman and Metallo. Steel’s armor is also outfitted with high-power rocket boots and a cannon. Steel’s trademark weapon, the Kinetic Hammer, can knock over a series of buildings like a line of dominoes. The hammer can also deliver more force the farther it’s thrown and can instantly be summoned to Steel’s hand with a voice command. With this suit and hammer, Steel is essentially DC’s combination of Iron Man and Thor.
What allowed Jaime Reyes to become the most powerful hero to take on the Blue Beetle mantle was his bond with the Scarab. Originating from the alien race known as the Reach, Khaj Da, aka the Scarab, is a biomechanical device and artificial intelligence that latches onto its hosts’ backs, granting them extraordinary powers. When the previous Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, lost the Scarab, it found its way to the teen Jaime, and the two combined. The Scarab can cover Jaime in a powerful biomechanical suit of armor that greatly enhances his strength to the point that he can even match the intergalactic conqueror Mongul in combat. The suit’s most notable function is that, like Iron Man’s nanite suit, it can create a wide variety of tools and weapons, including wings, swords, maces, blasters, and even nuclear weapons. When working together, Jaime and the Scarab are a well-oiled fighting machine that can take on all extraterrestrial threats.
