Iron Man Villain #9: The Ghost

THE TOP 10 VILLAINS OF IRON MAN

Intangible, And Very Destructive

To many of the Iron Man fans who have followed him since his "golden" years, The Ghost, or "Ghost", has been around for awhile. His first appearance was Iron Man #219 (1987) wearing a fairly archaic looking opaque outfit that didn't appear to have all the bells and whistles of armor. And while his villainy was originally in question, Stark has learned that this conspiracy theorist has moved far ahead of the typical trouble-makers for his company and his suit.

The origin of The Ghost is shrouded in mystery; we've only received hints to his beginnings. What is a fact, though, is that he is the source of Ghost Tech flux-processors from Omnisapient, a company who took all the credit for his work. With his technology, the chips could activate intangibility. Somehow, this ended up in an attempted assassination (which failed) and evolved him into his present form. Practically insane, he's a Corporate Assassin with Ghost Tech processors embedded in his skin. His hatred of Stark seems to stem from Tony's success mostly as a Corporate Wizard of Wall Street.

If you're looking at the old Ghost Suit, that's a thing of the past; so is the Ghost that we originally knew. What makes him one of Iron Man's greatest threats is his ability as a master-level programmer, security analyst, and data thief. Perhaps one of the highest skilled at his craft, Ghost uses his tech to get close enough to servers and databases to extrapolate data and destroy the evidence; he's also done this with his own records, wiping out his existence completely. Everybody knows that Stark has upgraded his own body with tech, including the infamous Extremis research; this only makes him a more vulnerable target, which we saw in Iron Man #20-24 (2010).

Nowadays, Ghost represents the most elevated level of dangerousness as a villain. Iron Man has stolen and incorporated Ghost Tech, but is still unable to catch the thief as he worms his way into Stark systems and slowly nibbles away at the very thing making him a hero.

They may be tough, they may be rough, but boy do they hate Armored Superheroes! This is The Top 10 Villains of Iron Man, a Countdown of Stark's Greatest Foes provided by The Superheroes List, in tribute to the Iron Man 3 movie. Want to see who put him on the map? Read The List!