Iron Man is frequently paid tribute by skilled costume makers (exhibits A, B and C) — some who, like Mark Pearson, may have never known they had a little Stark in them. Maybe that's because, as Pearson says: "…I like the fact that he is not really a superhero, he is just a man with a flying suit… But what a suit — it's the Ferrari of superhero suits."
Pearson, a 44-year-old repairman from the town of Bradford in the U.K., spent the last 14 months piecing together the suit you see here, covering 400 panels of cardboard with fiberglass. The end result is as good as any movie prop.
It was actually Iron Man's helmet that first attracted Pearson. After he was done with that, though, it didn't seem like that big of a leap to go for the whole shebang. Even Iron Man's iconic arc reactor had a humble beginning. "I've used a lot of household objects," Pearson said, speaking to The Sun. "The nuclear reactor in his chest started off as an ashtray."
The kicker: Pearson doesn't get to enjoy the fruit of his toil. At least, not the way you'd imagine a costume builder would want to. This from The Sun's Andrew Snell:
The suit also includes flashing lights in the eyes, hands and chest, but unfortunately for 5ft 6in Mark, the suit doesn't FIT him.He had to rope in friend Darren Higgins to spend half an hour donning the armour ahead it's unveiling at his local cinema in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Supermarket manager Darren, 24, greeted eager film goers before a screening of the new Avengers Assemble film, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.Mark added: "He is the only person I know who could fit in it. He is around 6ft 2in tall and has a 30in waist."
See the full suit and Pearson standing with his friend-turned-Iron-Man in the gallery below.
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