Firepower

Real Name

Jack Taggert 

Occupation

Mercenary 
 
Citizenship USA, with a criminal record 

Place of Birth
Unrevealed 

Known Relative 
Unrevealed 

Group Affiliation 
Mandarin; formerly Edwin Cord, Cordco, Incorporated 

Education
Military training 

Height 
5'9" (Armored) 15' 

Weight 
230 lbs; (Armored) 2 tons

Eyes
Brown

Hair
Black (shaved bald)

Powers 
None

Abilities 
Taggert is a skilled pilot and is capable of maneuvering the Firepower armor. Due to his military training, he is also a very skilled at hand-to-hand combat. Aside from his armor's weaponry, he is a very good marksman. In addition, Taggert is a skilled tactician and is capable of creating strategies in order to win. The Firepower armor grants Jack superhuman strength and durability.

Other Info 

Jack Taggert was the pilot of an experimental heavily-armed and -armored battle suit in Project: Firepower--a program created by Edwin Cord of Cordco, Incorporated (a rival businessman of Tony Stark). Project: Firepower was sponsored by the U.S. government to create a new generation of armored soldiers and to control rogue super-humans. The suit contained a particle cannon on it’s wrist as well as heat beams, lasers, mini-grenades and surface-to-air missiles. The suit’s main weapon is the high energy, low radiation missile know as the "Terminax." Taggert trained on a simulator learning to operate the suit and take down Iron Man. During a test run of the suit, Taggert took down two tanks and jet fighters with ease. (To learn about the characters above, just click on their highlighted names above.)
  
Later, in the deserts of Arizona, Firepower was confronted by Iron Man (who recognized that the Firepower armor was made from Stark technology). The two battled, and Iron Man fired everything he had; however, Firepower was unharmed. Surprised at this, Iron Man then hid in a canyon hoping that he could detect any attacks coming at him. Firepower, however, succeeded in a sneak attack by breaking through the solid rock of the canyon to approach Iron Man from behind. In defense, Iron Man placed a Negator pack (the device he used to disable his armor technology) on Firepower. But, it didn't work (the government had studied the Negator pack that Iron Man had attempted to use on Stingray, and found a way to shield Firepower's circuits from the pack's effects). So, a badly damaged and wounded Iron Man flew back to the Stark Enterprises helicopter hovering overhead (piloted by James Rhodes). Just as Taggert was ordered to fire at the helicopter, Iron Man flew away. Firepower then launched the Terminax missile and seemingly killed Iron Man as the armor fell to the ground in pieces. (Click the names above to learn about the highlighted characters and/or company.)

Afterward, Cord blackmailed the military into allowing him to keep the Firepower armor, threatening to reveal to the press the "true" purposes of the armor: riot control. During the next few days, both Firepower and Cord seemed determined to sabotage Stark Enterprises. They intimidated the Marsten Manufacturing group into not accepting a Stark contract bid, they blow up a shipment for Accutech Research and Development (a subsidiary of Stark Enterprises), and they even attacked Tony and his workers.

All of Firepower's actions led to Iron Man confronting Firepower once again. However, this time, Iron Man came to battle with an upgraded suit. With all of Stark's new upgrades, Firepower was defeated. However, in a last ditch attempt to win, Firepower set the Terminax missile to explode in thirty seconds, hoping Iron Man would try to stop it or redirect it, and be killed. But, the backpack that housed the missile was damaged and missile could not exit, threatening everybody in the vicinity. This resulted in Taggert pleaded with Iron Man to free him from the armor, but Iron Man told him that if the armor was magnetically sealed, there was nothing he could do to free him. Iron Man used an electromagentic pulse (a trick learned from Force) to disable the Firepower armor (and his own) for six minutes. This bought Iron Man enough time to find a way to shut down the missile's timer once their armors' systems came back online. Upon their armor rebooting, the missile's timer had gone down to just nine seconds left; Iron Man successfully stopped it in eight. Now, no longer fearing of being blow up, Taggert went on to tell Iron Man that there would be others just like him that would come to kill Iron Man just as he had and destroy Stark Enterprises. Iron Man then ripped the Firepower armor apart, stunning Taggert into silence. Afterward, both Taggert and Cord were taken into custody. (Click on the highlighted name above to learn about Force.)

Years later, Jack Taggert reappeared in a new Firepower armor. He was one of many Iron Man foes that were assembled by Mandarin to take down Tony Stark once and for all. (To learn about the Mandarin, click on his name above.)

To learn a little more about Firepower, click on the following link, http://marvel.com/universe/Firepower_%28Jack_Taggert%29.

In the comics, Jack Taggert is African American. However, in Iron Man 3 he is not. And in the movie, the spelling of his last name is "Taggart" rather than "Taggert."