Snap Into Marvel: Iron Patriot Snaps In & Suits Up

First Appearance: Dark Avengers #1 (March 2009)

First Multimedia Appearance: Iron Man 3 (2013)

Powers & Abilities: The Iron Patriot has similar abilities and functions to other suits of Iron Man armor, including granting the wearer flight, super-strength, and invulnerability, as well as a wide array of weapons like repulsor rays and traditional armaments. 

Comic Book Chronicles

Iron Patriot dates to a specific time in Marvel history, falling in the midst of the company’s second wave of annual linewide crossover events. Following the events of Civil War, Tony Stark was placed in charge of SHIELD. After the events of Secret Invasion, Tony was saddled with the blame for failing to stop the Skrull invasion around which that event was built. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn, longtime Spider-Man baddie, was celebrated for his Thunderbolts team having turned the tide against the Skrulls.

Osborn segued that cache into taking over as the director of SHIELD. From there, he formed the Dark Avengers, his own personal team of Avengers composed of villains masquerading as established heroes (like Moonstone as Captain Marvel, Bullseye as Hawkeye, Daken as Wolverine). To lead the team, he donned the Iron Patriot armor, taking for himself a role that represented both Captain America and Iron Man (the leaders of the two opposing sides in the earlier Civil War event).

Norman continued to operate as Iron Patriot for the majority of his “dark reign” as director of SHIELD (which he renamed to HAMMER), until he was ousted as a result of the events of Siege (the linewide crossover event which followed Secret Invasion). After overreaching and launching an assault on Asgard (which, at the time, hovered in the skies over Broxton, Oklahoma), Osborn was defeated by the real Avengers, and exposed once and for all as a megalomaniacal villain. 

After Osborn’s fall, the Iron Patriot armor continued to pop up from time to time, most often inside the pages of the espionage-tinged Secret Avengers titles (as well as the Al Ewing-written, Sunspot-led US Avengers, where it was adopted by Dr. Toni Ho, the daughter of Ho Yinsen, the scientist who helped Tony Stark build the first Iron Man armor).

Along the way, it’s been worn by such Iron Man and Captain America-adjacent characters as James Rhodes (and, believe it or not, his dad) as well as Sharon Carter. It also featured in the plot of Iron Man 3, where Rhodey wore the armor as a US government representative before having it stolen and used as part of Aldritch Killian’s evil scheme — and according to the script for Avengers: Endgame, the final armor Rhodey is wearing when he emerges for the big battle at the end is meant to be a space-ready Iron Patriot armor. 

Fit & Finish

Iron Patriot releases with just two cards, the main Season Pass card and a Pandart variant that comes when you hit level 50 on the season ladder. As such, there’s not a ton of variation, as both cards present the same general take on the character. The main card taps into the character’s patriotic roots (or at least Norman Osborn putting on patriotic airs for his own ends), while the variant shows off its modular weaponry. 

Form & Function

Given that, while operating as Iron Patriot, Norman Osborn is also the head of SHIELD, his card follows the same general convention of SHIELD-related cards in Snap, generating a new card in your hand. Squint, and you could make the case that the Iron Patriot card’s twist on that effect — forcing you to be winning the lane it’s played into by the end of the next turn to earn the discount — speaks to both Norman’s transactional and villainous natures, adding an element of control alongside the standard SHIELD card generation effect.