Warning: contains spoilers for Marvels #2!
While Iron Man has worn many versions of his famous armor, few contained anything as dangerous to their wearer as the Silver Centurion suit’s chameleon circuit. This advanced tech used holographic projectors to turn the suit functionally invisible, disguising Iron Man from enemies until he was ready to unleash the suit’s impressive combat capabilities. Of course, Tony Stark is always pushing the bleeding edge of technology, and has since advanced past the Silver Centurion’s advanced weapons, force-field protection, and suborbital flight capabilities (however impressive they were at the time.) But despite the advances made in these areas, the chameleon circuit has been all but retired since its creation, chiefly thanks to the danger it poses to anyone who uses it.
The Silver Centurion armor first appeared in 1985’s Iron Man #200, and signaled Tony Stark’s return to the role of Iron Man. James Rhodes had served as Iron Man during Tony’s relapse, and Obadiah Stane had committed his sizable resources to destroying Stark’s life, both personally and professionally. Tony took the initiative by developing a new Iron Man suit with never-before-seen capabilities, taking the fight to Stane. The Silver Centurion armor heralded a hardcore new era for Iron Man, remembered today for the ‘Armor Wars’ arc, in which he went against the US government to hunt down villains who had stolen aspects of his technology.
The armor just appeared again in The Marvels #2 – from Kurt Busiek and Yildiray Cinar – as Kevin Schumer uses the Silver Centurion’s discarded chameleon circuit to pick over a crime scene without being arrested. Kevin is the creator of KSHOOM – a service which guides tourists around superhero hotspots – and uses outdated superhero gadgets to impress his customers and also, the issue reveals, to scavenge for advanced tech for his uncle, the Marvel villain known as the Tinkerer. In this issue, Kevin rejects Ant-Man’s jet pack in favor of an old glider of the Green Goblin’s and the pauldrons of Iron Man’s Silver Centurion suit. But even Kevin knows to be wary of Tony’s chameleon circuit, asking Tinkerer for a bonus since – as Tony eventually discovered – the tech damages the nervous system of its user.
Superhero stories are all about powers and limits, with heroes finding creative ways to overcome obstacles related to their abilities. But even the notoriously reckless Tony Stark drew the line at using tech that was damaging his nervous system, removing the chameleon circuit from his Silver Centurion armor once he discovered its sizable downside. In the intervening years, the enterprising Kevin Schumer has commandeered Tony’s rejected invention, using it in those cases where Tinkerer requires his services at crime scenes of which the police are already aware. Thankfully, Schumer is at least smart enough to get his money’s worth for wearing part of a suit that’s constantly threatening to electrocute him, fail at a crucial moment, or permanently damage his nervous system (though Tinkerer claims to have fixed this major defect, even if Kevin doesn’t totally believe him.)
While the chameleon circuit was likely given its huge drawback to explain removing a power writers didn’t want Iron Man to keep for long, it’s also a cool piece of Iron Man lore that not all of Tony’s inventions work out. The Marvels’ mission statement is to borrow from every corner of the Marvel Universe, past and future, in order to tell ambitious, wide-reaching stories that no comic focused on a single hero can handle, and bringing back Iron Man’s most dangerous suit tech is exactly the kind of detail that makes it such a fun read for fans. While the chameleon circuit may have been too dangerous for Iron Man to use full-time, it’s exactly the kind of high-risk gadget that gives Kevin the edge he needs to make a living in a world of marvels. Hopefully, Kevin will get lucky with Iron Man‘s rejected suit tech and stay healthy long enough to contribute to the larger mystery currently taking shape in this series.
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