Justin Hammer is a wealthy, villainous industrialist and a primary business rival of Iron Man in Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is Tony Stark's business rival and the owner of Hammer Industries. When Stark leads him to lose his contract with the U.S. military, Hammer joins forces with Ivan Vanko to destroy Stark and his legacy. He also created the Judas Bullet that Diamondback attempts to use to kill Luke Cage. Justin Hammer is an egotistical industrialist and serves as Tony Stark's business rival. Hammer is overconfident, but he is also incompetent when it comes to the caliber of his technology. For example, an attempt to copy Tony Stark's Iron Man Armor results in the pilot's injury, the out-of-date software at Hammer Industries is referred to as "shit" by Ivan Vanko, and the Ex-Wife Missile, despite being marketed as a weapon of mass destruction Hammer Industries started engaging in legally questionable activities to finally get the upper hand over Stark after the media kept diverting attention away from Hammer Industries to Stark, especially after the revelation of Iron Man's identity and his subsequent humiliation. Hammer even broke the terrorist Ivan Vanko out of prison and convinced him to help Hammer. Although he calls himself a businessman, Justin Hammer lacks original ideas, as evidenced by his creation of the Hammer Expo a few months after Stark's own Expo, which he lined with drones (though Hammer initially requested suits instead), as well as his sale of the War Machine Suit despite the fact that Rhodes from Stark Industries gave it to him. As he did with Vanko, Hammer is also prepared to put up with constant criticism of himself and his business for a while in order to advance the cause. Hammer may, however, go into rage-filled, nearly temper-traumatic rants against someone who has mistreated him when pushed to the limit. Hammer, although not to the same level of Tony Stark, was still an exceptionally intelligent individual with superb engineering and business skills. This is shown by how he had developed weapons of sufficiently high level to impress the US Government and replace Stark Industries when they stopped making weapons for the government and even before that he had already been a strong rival of Stark Industries with several military and government contacts. a tailored, dark three-piece suit paired with a crisp dress shirt and a neat tie.

Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark was the son of Howard and Maria Stark, a billionaire industrialist, the former CEO of Stark Industries, and a founding member of the Avengers. A brash but brilliant inventor, Stark was self-described as a genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist. With his great wealth and exceptional technical knowledge, Stark was one of the world's most powerful men following the deaths of his parents and enjoyed the playboy lifestyle for many years until he was kidnapped by the Ten Rings in Afghanistan, while demonstrating a fleet of Jericho missiles. With his life on the line, Stark created an armored suit which he used to escape his captors. Upon returning home, he utilized several more armors to use against terrorists, as well as Obadiah Stane who turned against Stark. Following his fight against Stane, Stark publicly revealed himself as Iron Man. Fresh off from defeating enemies all over the world, Stark found himself dying due to his own Arc Reactor poisoning his body, all while he was challenged by Ivan Vanko who attempted to destroy his legacy. Following the Battle at Stark Expo, Stark reluctantly agreed to serve as a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D. where he used his position to upgrade their technology while he began a relationship with Pepper Potts. In 2012,In January 1992, the month after the death of his parents, Stark inherited Stark Industries and took over from Obadiah Stane, becoming the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history. Having built himself a custom mansion, Stark created an A.I. system that helped out in the house. He named the system "Just a Rather Very Intelligent System," shortened J.A.R.V.I.S., in tribute to Edwin Jarvis, whom Stark had often credited for helping to raise him.

Ivan Vanko was a Russian physicist and the son of the disgraced scientist Anton Vanko. When Vanko's father died penniless due to the actions of Howard Stark, Vanko swore to seek revenge by targeting Howard's son,Recreating an Arc Reactor based on his father's design and designing an armor similar to Iron Man's, Vanko attacked Stark in Monaco, under the moniker of Whiplash. Though he was incarcerated, he was subsequently broken out and recruited by Justin Hammer in order to use his skills to create a functional advanced armor to compete with Stark's The first Whiplash Armor was designed as a harness powered by an arc reactor with two electrified whips. He used the armor to ambush Tony Stark in Monaco, succeeding in cutting his car in half; however, he was eventually defeated and both he and the suit were taken away