Summary

• Iron Man unleashes his Sentinel Buster armor, taking on an army of Stark Sentinels.
• The gigantic mech was created with Mysterium - an indestructible metal which is immune to magic and a perfect energy conductor.
• Tony calls it "my most powerful creation ever," but he still has to beat his nemesis Feilong, who's bringing his own mech to the fight.

As Iron Man debuts his "most powerful creation ever," fans get to see the true firepower of Tony Stark's epic Sentinel Buster armor. As the Armored Avenger rains down hellfire on an army of Sentinels, Marvel is finally paying off months of planning, as Tony was forced to build this supreme armor in secret, all to unleash it in this one decisive battle.

In a preview of Invincible Iron Man #16, the Sentinel Buster mech unleashes on an army of Stark Sentinels - the creation of Orchis member Feilong. Feilong recently stole Tony's company and designs, creating a new wave of mutant-killing robots using technology that Tony never meant to see the light of day. While Tony has been playing possum ever since, he's secretly been working towards this confrontation, tricking the vast majority of Orchis Sentinels to the Australian Outback for a staggering battle royale.

Tony unloads epic repulsor blasts and explosives in the first moments of this fight for the future, as well as simply crushing Stark Sentinels in the mech's hands. The armor is so powerful because Tony is using the new Marvel metal Mysterium, leading to a game-changing chance at victory.

Each Stark Sentinel is five times more powerful than Tony's human-sized Iron Man suits, showing just how much power the Sentinel Buster is unleashing...

Iron Man Unleashes the Sentinel Buster Suit

Tony Stark's Mech Battles an Army of Gigantic Iron Men

Over the past few months of Iron Man comics, Tony has risked everything to gain some edge on Feilong. Stripped of his resources and with his most trusted ally James Rhodes, aka War Machine, locked up under Orchis' watch, Tony had to pretend to give up the fight. However, he was secretly making plays alongside the X-Men - including his new wife Emma Frost - and his former protégé Riri Williams (aka Ironheart), who was able to slip off-world and create the Sentinel Buster armor.

It's worth noting that each of the Sentinels themselves are the size of a building, and far, far more powerful than the models Marvel fans are used to. These aren't just Sentinels with Iron Man enhancements - in X-Men #23 (Gerry Duggan and Joshua Cassara), it was confirmed that each Stark Sentinel has the power of Iron Man's best armors, but scaled up to match their increased height. That means that with each Sentinel being five times bigger than Tony's armor, they're also five times more powerful than his human-sized suits. With that in mind, Tony blazing through an army of the robots shows how wildly powerful his new suit is. However, it has yet to meet its biggest threat - Feilong has built his own mech suit and is heading to the Outback to take on Tony directly.

Iron Man has repeatedly called the Sentinel Buster his most powerful suit, but is that actually true in Marvel lore?

Is This Really Iron Man's Most Powerful Armor Ever?

The 'Sentinel Buster' Name Downplays This Suit's Power

Fans may be asking if this suit is really Tony's most powerful suit, and it's a fair question. Tony recently built towering Celestial armor and before that developed the Godbuster suit, which wielded off-the-charts offensive power. There are also suits like the Hulkbuster armor, Thorbuster armor, and anti-Carnage Dragon-Slayer armor that were designed to take on Marvel's most powerful beings. However, most of these can be dismissed in context: Tony's Thorbuster and Hulkbuster suits have rarely actually managed to beat their intended targets, while the Celestial suit was a prototype that didn't accomplish everything Tony wanted.

In contrast, Iron Man has repeatedly called the Sentinel Buster his most powerful suit, and only last issue called it "my most powerful creation ever." However, there are two suits that are inarguably more powerful. The first is his Godkiller armor (not to be confused with the Godbuster), and the second is his recent Iron God form, which manifested after he claimed the powers of Galactus. Both these suits were planet-killers, but they also come with heavy caveats. Most importantly, Tony didn't create either of them: the Iron God appeared through the near-magic of the Power Cosmic, while the Godkiller suit was designed by ancient aliens and Tony wasn't even able to pilot it. So while Tony has been more powerful than he is in the Sentinel Buster, it hasn't been because he actually built a better suit.

However, this still leaves the question of his Godbuster suit, which at the time was suggested to be the ultimate expression of Tony's genius. While that suit was wildly powerful, it was likely far, far more vulnerable than the Sentinel Buster armor, all because of one secret ingredient: Mysterium.

Iron Man's New Mysterium Material Is a Game-Changer

Immune to Magic and Too Tough for Wolverine's Claws

Only recently debuting in Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti's SWORD #1, Mysterium is a compressed form of Kirbons - a rare type of energy from the White Hot Room, which is the home of X-Men's Phoenix Force. Mysterium is the distilled essence of all that's unique and impossible about the Marvel Universe, and it's incredibly versatile as a material. Over the last few months, Iron Man has used a Mysterium cane to test what the metal can do, discovering that it's immune to Doctor Strange's magic, invisible to Spider-Man's spider-sense, and can't be bent even by Captain Marvel's cosmic might.

Tony built his Mark 73 armor out of Mysterium and faced a final, lethal test when one of Orchis' Sentinel X units attacked, using adamantium taken from Wolverine's corpse. Not only did the unit's adamantium claws bend against the armor, but Tony then crushed the robot's skull, showing how powerful his new suit is. In a jaw-dropping twist, he then revealed that even the Mark 73 armor is only the flight suit that lets him control the Sentinel Buster. Mysterium is also a perfectly efficient energy conduit, explaining how the Sentinel Buster could sur the Godbuster armor - that suit was Tony's greatest armor using materials that existed at the time, but with the introduction of Mysterium, he's capable of going even further.

Even With the Sentinel Buster Armor, Iron Man Expects to Go Down Fighting

Tony Still Has to Face What He's Called "The Most Dangerous Armor on Earth"

While the Sentinel Buster armor is a jaw-dropping showcase of Tony's genius, it's not a guarantee he'll succeed. Tony Stark has invited the full wrath of Orchis down on his head, not knowing what Feilong has built in the months where he's had access to every one of Tony's designs and former ideas. Tony has secretly been referring to the Mark 73 as the armor he may die in, showing that even with godlike power, he doesn't know if he'll make it home from this final, devastating fight. Indeed, in last issue's narration - taken from Tony's autobiography - he itted that Feilong's mech is "without question, the most dangerous armor on Earth."

To reclaim everything he built and safeguard Earth's mutants, Tony Stark has done the impossible, reaching a new ceiling of power that previously wasn't even possible in Marvel lore. Now, Iron Man has to make sure he holds nothing back, otherwise the Sentinel Buster armor won't just be his masterpiece - it will also be his coffin.

Invincible Iron Man #16 is available now from Marvel Comics.