I have a feeling DC was highly influenced by Marvel's Iron Man character for Steel to be DC's answer to Iron Man.

I mean John Henry Irons is much like Tony Stark in some way and a genius too plus his Steel ID is much similar to Iron man if you think about it.

uhhh no he's inspired by the folklore hero John Henry.

@TheCrowbar said:

uhhh no he's inspired by the folklore hero John Henry.

The badass laborer who beat the machine for setting up rail posts, the man used two hammers but his heart gave out at the end

love that story

He only uses armor because Superman is the "Man of Steel". So real world John Henry, and DC world Superman inspired him. Not Iron Man.

@Jakesully1981 said:

I have a feeling DC was highly influenced by Marvel's Iron Man character for Steel to be DC's answer to Iron Man.

I mean John Henry Irons is much like Tony Stark in some way and a genius too plus his Steel ID is much similar to Iron man if you think about it.

Yeah, of course Iron Man helped to inspire steel. They're too similar to ignore that fact and the longer steel's character has existed the more like Tony he has become.

However, Tony was very much influenced by the original Metallo, right down to the mustache.

@Jakesully1981: Not exactly, They are similar in modus operandi,but the name and personality were shaped on the mythical John Henry,he isn't selfish and bossy,he created the armor to rely on Superman's powers, I do not believe it to be based in Iron Man..because Iron Man isn't soo original,already there were heroes of using armors or robots bodies, since the 40

I'm not sure you could say that Iron Man inspired Steel as you could say that they were both inspired by the idea of a modern interpretation of medieval armor.

how does Steel fly?

@kasino: Depend of the armor. tThe first and second armor,fly because of the jet boots...later he created an third armor (used in Morrison's JLA) that fly because of the jet boots and because was capable to create a limited anti-gravitational field

@TheCrowbar said:

uhhh no he's inspired by the folklore hero John Henry.

Wow, I can't believe I never realized that before... @__@

Oh yes i know the folklore hero but not only him but also Marvel's popular hero as DC was influenced by both sources. And who thinks Irons is as cool as Stark?