Contributed by Mike McDermott
Doctor Toni Ho is a brilliant scientist who had earned 3 PhDs by the time she was 20 years old. She is also the daughter of Doctor Ho Yinsen, the scientist who helped Tony Stark create his very first Iron Man armor.
Roberto DaCosta recruited Doctor Ho when he started looking for non-evil scientists for his new incarnation of Advanced Ideas Mechanics supporting his New Avengers program, and she became the head of his engineering department. In this role she worked closely with Aikku Jokinen, the Avenger known as Pod who was bonded with a sentient alien armor, and the two women soon fell in love.
When Sunspot’s team formed an alliance with the United States government as the U.S. Avengers, Toni stepped out of her support role and joined the team as the new Iron Patriot. She used an armor of her own design, armed with an array of non-lethal weapons such as force-fields, sonics, concussive beams, gas, etc. Although the team’s government liaison General Maverick originally mocked Toni’s non-lethal weapons choices, he did come to see that the suit still packed quite a punch.
Toni grew up blaming Tony Stark for his role in her father’s death, and eventually got to put those demons to rest when she ended up in a similar situation to her father after she and the critically wounded Sunspot were both captured by Hydra, and Toni had to improvise a way to save Sunspot’s life and allow him to escape even if it meant sacrificing herself.
Toni eventually chose to give up being the Iron Patriot and took over as the new head of the non-evil Advanced Idea Mechanics, which she renamed as R.E.S.C.U.E. and continues to use her engineering genius to help save lives and fight evil.
Toni Ho was created by Al Ewing and Gerardo Sandoval and first appeared in New Avengers vol.4 #1, although an alternate reality version of her appeared prior to that in Captain Britain & The Mighty Defenders #1 #1 by Al Ewing and Alan Davis.
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