- Hi, everybody.
My name is Mike Greenberg from ESPN.
I'm the host of our morning show, it's called "Get Up,"
and I'm delighted to be here with you today as we
will read a book together.
You know, so many of us are spending so much time at home
right now, and I hope that you're spending at least some
of that time reading.
I've loved books all of my life.
Both of my parents were writers, and they
actually owned a bookstore when I was a little boy.
So books have always been a very important part of my life,
and I hope that they are a part of your life too.
So we're going to read a terrific book today.
It is from a larger book called "5-Minute Marvel Stories,"
and we're going to read a story about
my personal favorite character from the Marvel Universe,
Iron Man.
And I hope you like it as much as I do.
Here we go.
As a boy, Tony Stark dreamed that technology could change
the world for the better.
Tony was just 19 years old when he started designing
cutting edge machinery for his family's
company, Stark Enterprises.
"This has got to work," Tony declared
as he built new gadgets, but to create them
Tony would need money, space, and resources.
The United States Army was happy to give him everything
he needed as long as Tony would give
their soldiers better weapons.
The army commanders asked Tony, already the head of Stark
Enterprises, to teach their soldiers how to use his weapons
to keep evil forces at bay.
"All you need to do is put your hands like so, point it
toward the bad guys, and grin ear to ear because you're
about to make the world a safer place,"
Tony told the soldiers to raucous applause.
As much as the troops loved Tony for making their job safer,
the warlords on the other side of the mountains hated him.
Without warning, an attack broke out.
The soldiers defended Tony well, but one of Tony's own devices
exploded.
He was blasted off of his feet and felt
a sharp pain in his chest before he slammed into the ground.
"Argh," he said.
The last thing Tony remembered was a loud ringing in his ears.
When Tony woke up, he was surprised to see a smiling
face looking down at him.
"My name is Dr. Ho Yinsen," the smile said.
"You're safe for now, but the explosion lodged
shrapnel close to your heart."
Yinsen had created a powerful magnet
that would pull on the shrapnel, preventing
it from killing Tony.
Tony was confused.
"I-- thank you, Yinsen, he said."
Tony wasn't used to thanking other people,
but before the two men could continue
getting to know each other several warlords
barged into the cave where Tony and Yinsen were trapped.
"Stark and Ho," one of the warlords
bellowed, "two of the world's smartest men.
You will build weapons for us, and maybe
we will let you live in return.
Ha, ha, ha."
After the warlords left the room,
Tony turned to Yinsen, "What do you say?"
Tony asked as he smirked.
"Should we give them new weapons?"
"Yes," Yinsen said.
"I think we should, but I don't think
they're going to like it."
They set to work right away gathering supplies
from the tools and equipment that the warlords
had brought them.
It took weeks, but both men worked very
hard, eager to be set free.
Large pieces of gray metal were coming together,
and they had a power source to run the behemoth.
When their time was up, they sprung their plan.
As the warlords approached, Tony strapped
himself into his weapon.
It wasn't some kind of ray gun or rocket,
it was a powered-up battle suit.
Yinsen took cover as Tony smashed
through their prison door and declared, "I am Iron Man!"
The warlords weapons hardly made a dent in the gray armor.
Iron Man was invincible.
"Hey, guys,"
Tony joked.
"I've got a few ideas for upgrades
on your weapons systems.
Too bad for you I used them on this armor instead."
He charged toward the warlords and they
turned, fleeing in fear.
But escaping wasn't all that Tony wanted to do.
He couldn't go home without stopping these men
from hurting anyone else.
He pulled rubble down from the caves,
smashing all of their weapons.
But as he did, he noticed a label on the crates
that set him reeling.
"Those crates, they're from Stark Industries.
They're from my company."
Tony felt ashamed that his work was being used by warlords,
but along with his shame, Tony also felt something new.
There was just a spark of it, a hint of pride
that at least in this one instance,
he had taken weapons away from bad men.
Tony made it out of the cave, but Yinsen didn't make it out.
"You saved my life, Dr. Yinsen,"
he said.
"I can't be a part of hurting more people.
I see now that my work creating weapons
has hurt a lot of people."
Upon returning home, Tony made a public promise.
He said, "Stark Industries will never
sell weapons to anyone again.
And not only that, I'm pulling all of my engineers
and scientists and myself to work
creating things that will make the world better, smarter,
and safer."
Tony believed that just stopping the creation of new weapons
wasn't enough.
So we kept working in secret to refine and redesign his Iron
Man armor, so he could protect the world from the weapons
he wouldn't be able to stop.
Tony continuously upgraded his armor
over the next several years.
He fought tirelessly to keep the world safe.
Eventually, he became a founding member of the mighty Avengers.
Tony Stark wouldn't be remembered for his time
creating weapons.
Instead, the world came to know him for his red and gold armor.
The world soon called him a super hero, the golden Avenger.
He was Tony Stark, the Iron Man.
That's the story of how Iron Man became Iron Man from this book,
"5-Minute Marvel Stories."
I hope you liked it, and I hope you
will read this and other books as we all spend a bunch of time
at home.
And I hope you'll keep reading for the rest of your life.
I'm Mike Greenberg.
Thank you for spending this time with me, and I'll see you soon.