Ezekiel Stane

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Publication information
Ezekiel Stane
Ezekiel Stane. Art by Salvador Larocca.
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Order #8 (April 2008)
Created by	Matt Fraction Barry Kitson
In story information
Alter ego	Ezekiel Stane
Abilities	Genius-level intellect Superhuman abilities derived from bio-upgrades

Ezekiel (Zeke) Stane is a fictional supervillain within the Marvel Comics universe, and son of Tony Stark/Iron Man enemy Obadiah Stane. Zeke Stane first appeared in Matt Fraction's The Order #8 (April 2008) and was drawn by Barry Kitson.

1 Character development
2 Fictional character biography
3 Powers and abilities
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Character development

Though Ezekiel is the son of the late Obadiah Stane, Ezekiel Stane's creator, Matt Fraction considers Stane to be the next generation of Tony Stark/Iron Man rather than Obadiah; often referring to the character as "Tony Stark/Iron Man 2.0"^[1].

Fraction states the similarities between the pair's characteristics with Ezekiel being evolution of Tony Stark's character; a younger, smarter, sharper futurist of a post-national supercorporate world moving into a future that Stark has no control over.^[1] 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 with Extremis, 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^[2]

Fraction often describes the contrast between the two characters using software terms, due to the characters technological basis.

“	Zeke is a post-national business man and kind of an open 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, but Linux and Stane want to destroy the desktop. He’s the open source to Stark’s closed source oppressiveness. He has no headquarters, no base, and no bank account. He’s a true ghost 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 evolved futurist.	”
—Matt Fraction^[2]

[edit] Fictional character biography

Ezekiel is the son of Obadiah Stane and has been building bioweaponry and manufacturing next generation weapons for terrorists and supervillians since he was nine.

Ezekiel Stane first appeared is in Matt Fraction's The Order #8 dated April 2008, where he was penciled by Barry Kitson^[3]. Within this critically acclaimed but short-lived comic book, Stane was revealed to be the behind-the-scenes manipulator pulling the strings of other villains^[4], including Black Dahlias, Maul and M.A.N. from S.H.A.D.O.W. Androids, who have set out to destroy The Order. The Order being Tony Stark's showcase Initiative team of California, Ezekiel target them as the first part of his revenge on Tony Stark for the death of his father.

In the final issue of The Order, #10, Stane meets Iron Man face-to-face for the first time. Due to Stane's life off the grid, Iron Man fails to realize who he is, and despite Tony Stark's resources as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Stane leaves California and prepares for the next stage in his vendetta against Stark.

Fraction would follow The Order with a new monthly on-going Invincible Iron Man title, with Ezekiel Stane appearing in its first story arc "The Five Nightmares" to further his vendetta against Tony Stark. Ezekiel Stane is first seen attending a meeting with the Board of Directors of a big tobacco company who had hired him to tweak their tobacco to produce a higher basal metabolic rate in the people that smoked it. Stane says he succeeded in doing it, but reveals he only took the job to use the tobacco company’s money to create bio-upgrades from himself, upgrading his own hypothalamus to utilize energy within the body which Stane swiftly uses to execute the board of directors with energy blasts from his finger tips. Stane is later updated by his girlfriend/assistant, Sasha, on his upgraded African suicide bombers who were the test subjects of Stanes biotechnology.^[5]

[edit] Powers and abilities

Ezekiel Stane's genius-level intellect and considerable fortune has allowed him to upgrade his own biology, most notably his hypothalamus. Stane successfully reduced the caloric energy consumption of his body from 70% to 9% leaving him surplus energy which he uses in blaster tips at the end of his fingers. Other upgrades have allowed him to survive a fall out of a 44-Story building and body to vastly repair itself.^[5]

This excessive use of the body's energy have 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]

When Stane went through a heavy security screening process before the meeting security teams see that he has a pacemaker^[5]. This seems to be an analogy of Tony Stark's heart condition, though it is most likely another upgrade.