STEEL Talk presents to you interesting stories of Science, Technology, Energy, Environment, Life — and of course STEEL!

Here we have another cute question at POSCO Newsroom. It’s asking who’s stronger, Iron Man or Superman (aka Man of Steel). Well, this is a tough question to answer. The child who wrote this must have sent it here because both characters have ‘Iron’ and ‘Steel’ in their names. So first, let’s take a look at the two characters in the movies.

▲ Source: Naver Movies

Remember the line “I am Iron Man.”? This line marks the beginning and the end of the Marvel Universe. Tony Stark made the Iron Man suit and became Iron Man himself to survive from a serious chest injury. The Iron Man suit was pure science itself. It had built-in weapons that enabled combat and was strong enough to endure a crash with a fighter plane, go underwater, and even fly into space.

▲ Source: Naver Movies

Then what about Superman — the original super hero? Superman was born on the planet ‘Krypton’. He’s also called ‘Man of Steel’ because he is strong and powerful just like steel. Even when he was still young, he drew up a school bus that had crashed into the river to save his friend. Now you know why he has ‘Steel’ in his name, right?

Perhaps the two characters got their names because both are as tough and strong as ‘Iron’ and ‘Steel’. But who would win if they fought? Well… Don’t you think it’s unlikely for two superheroes to fight each other? If they meet, they’ll probably work together to defeat the villain. Just like the Avengers!

[A quick question!] Isn’t iron and steel the same thing?

At POSCO newsroom, we’re going to talk about the ‘Iron’ and ‘Steel’ in the names of the two heroes. Some might think iron and steel are the same. But actually, they are two very different words. POSCO Newsroom visited a researcher at POSCO Technical Research Laboratories to find out more. Shall we listen to the explanation?

The atomic number of iron is 26, and its element symbol is Fe. Strictly speaking, pure iron would be an accurate expression for iron since it describes a state of pureness — without any impurities or other metals. But it is hard to find this pure iron directly around us because most of it exists in a form mixed with various impurities. Iron ore is a typical example. When carbon (element symbol C) is added to this iron (Fe), steel is born.

As seen above, steel is born when iron meets carbon. The type of steel produced varies, depending on the amount of carbon and the added elements. However, most of the material — made of iron — that we see in our daily lives is steel.

Where is this iron used? Iron — in the pure state — is too soft and weak to be used in everyday life, but instead widely used for experimental or electrical use. Then, is Iron Man made of iron? The answer would be ‘No.’ If the Iron Man suit was an iron 100% suit, Iron Man would probably have ended with the first movie — being unable to survive for the next one. So it would be safe to say that the Iron Man suit might be made of steel or some other material.

The materials for an Iron Man suit should not only be strong but also fit for other purposes as well. Have you seen the jet engine on the palms and feet of Iron Man? To be able to fly with those jet engines the hands, and feet of Iron Man must be of heat resistant steel. POSCO produces ‘heat-resisting steel’ by adding a variety of alloying elements to steel. So this would be appropriate for the Iron Man suit. Another POSCO product GIGA STEEL could be applied too since it’s light yet durable.

There are also some opinions that the Iron Man suit is made of nickel and titanium alloy. Titanium is a much stronger material than steel and POSCO produces and sells titanium products as well. Well, let’s leave the suit story here for now!

Iron Man and Superman are both superheroes saving the planet and protecting us, so let’s hope that they’ll never have to fight each other, ever. We saw today that the ‘Iron’ in Ironman and ‘Steel’ in Man of Steel are not the same. Don’t forget that! And also remember the iron material we see around us is not pure iron, it’s actually steel!

* This article was written with help from researcher Jong-Hoon Kang of POSCO Technical Research Laboratories.

Most people wouldn’t dare attempt making a life-size iron man suit for real – only in movies perhaps. Anyone can daydream about it, but building an Iron Man from scratch is a mission impossible for most. POSCO Newsroom sat down with the man who took on the unthinkable.

Meet Min-Soo Kim. He has his own YouTube channel called NAKK where he illustrates his work process in detail. He recently quit his job to go all in: dedicating his time and energy to building a collection after collection with iron and steel. What brought him to this project and why?

┃“Drawing Connections Between Iron and Life”

From a very early age, Kim had a knack for making things. He was dexterous and didn’t mind getting his hands dirty while creating things with his bare hands. During his university years, he studied Automotive Engineering, enthusiastically involving himself with such extracurricular activities like building cars and fixing broken stuff. After graduation, he worked in a field closely related to his university major, maintaining ship machinery.

“The more I work with iron, the more I find myself drawn to the material. With iron, it’s hard to predict the outcome as it’s always different. The whole process feels incredibly similar to our life. In life, everyone looks as though they’re living a life almost identical to each other, but deep down, each of them is living a life of their own. I’m not that talented – I just happen to be slightly more dexterous than others, and I enjoy building things out of nothing, especially with iron.”

To build these life-size Iron Man models, he is exclusively working with 1.2T steel plate. T denotes the thickness of a steel plate in which 1T equals 1mm. He uses 1.2T-steel because, when considering all the procedures to finish the model, the plate requires a certain level of thickness. 1.2T steel plates also have just the right amount of weight, so it is the best material to work with, he says.

“Any thinner than 1.2T will leave too many holes during the welding process. I am not yet adept at handling various sizes of plates. That’s why I’m sticking to 1.2T steel plates for now. Aluminum is the most difficult to work with – it’s expensive, and I would also need a different welding machine.”

┃The Mark VII, Seven Months of Hard Work

Kim’s workroom is filled with the collections he’s worked on so far. Among them, Iron Man Mark VII and MARK I stand out the most.

It took Kim nearly seven months to complete the Mark VII. He recalls, “I still had my day job then. I remember having the hardest time trying to get the right balance between left and right, especially on the calves of the Mark VII. When the proportion is off, the mistake is really visible, and it looks ugly. So I tried very hard to make the whole piece as symmetrical as possible.”

“As for the Mark I which appears in the first Iron Man series, I wanted to revive the original ruggedness of the iron, so I didn’t paint it and made the welding lines more prominent. Making a life-size Iron Man is challenging of course, but that’s where I get tremendous joy out of – building it the way it was meant to be” he continued.

Besides the Iron Man, Kim also built several other collections: bust art sculptures of both male and female, and other pop icons like Gundam from the Japanese animation series. It was while assembling these series that he decided to go all in. Kim eventually left his day job to horn his craft further and dedicate to his passion projects 100%.

“There is a tremendous joy in working with steel plates, through which my imagination becomes tangible. I know there are many others out there who really know their crafts, and I would like to put my skills to good use creating things that are one-of-a-kind. There is a part of me who wants to live a unique life and be extraordinary. Just recently, a TV crew from SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) came over to film my studio”, he chuckles.

┃The Journey to Build Superheroes: To Be Continued

When Kim first started building Iron Man, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Even as he printed out free design templates off the Internet and started the actual work on the steel plate, he wasn’t sure whether he could pull it off. The uncertainty led to vexation, but he didn’t stop.

“I can feel my skill improving each day at every step. If the opportunity arises, I would like to take on bigger projects. Personally, I like working with big chunks of material where the scale is so vast the end product literally wows me. The bigger the piece, the more energy I feel.”

The title of Kim’s YouTube channel, NAAK, is his nickname, which means joy or delight in Korean. Why? Because he wants to create his own NAAK.

“The idea of ‘fitting-in’ isn’t all that appealing to me. I want to be extraordinary. I don’t pay too much attention to what others think because I create my own NAAK.”

Kim, a young man of 29 years old who grew so attached to iron and didn’t think twice before jumping into the opportunity to go all in to create his own destiny. What’s next? Only time will tell. As he mentioned, his skill is growing at every step of his creative process, and he’s not stopping. His journey continues.

Iron Man in Hong Kong (Photo Courtesy of roy so)

From Iron Scraps to Superhero

Since the character’s debut in 1963, the one constant in the Iron Man series is Tony Stark’s ability to innovate and adapt. The first model was “bulky, battleship gray, and most definitely, low-tech,” at least compared to the more recent suits. Trapped in a prison cell with limited resources, Tony only had heavy scrap iron at his disposal to piece together the very first Iron Man suit, giving it a very crude and unrefined appearance. Tony drastically improves upon these flaws in the Mark II by stripping down the bulky and rudimentary design to a lighter, stronger, and more flexible armor, which in turn took his flight capabilities to another level.

Over time, further adjustments and improvements were made in material, color, and function – allowing him to fly further, dive into the oceans, and enter deep space. He even began to use a technology that could store the suit in his bone marrow, making portability a much simpler affair. Through each series, each battle, and each villain, Tony customized the suit to make it stronger, more advanced, and more resilient.

Since the 1960s, Iron Man has transformed from a comic book character breaking free from prison to a Hollywood superhero grabbing missiles in mid-air. His ability to adapt and innovate his suit has made him one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Universe.

The Iron Man Hall of Armor at Innoventions, Disneyland (Photo courtesy of HarshLight)

Similarities between Iron Man & POSCO

If there is one thing Tony Stark and POSCO have in common, it’s their obsession with innovation. POSCO was founded in March 1968, almost 5 years after Tony Stark emerged from a Vietnamese prison wearing his first Iron Man suit in Marvel’s Tales of Suspense (#39). Both began with some basic iron and steel, and both continued to advance with hard work, innovation, and some high-tech metal alloys. It is that continuous innovation that also drives POSCO forward.

Also, like Iron Man, POSCO’s world premium products are already used to fly the skies, cross the seas, and withstand crushing pressure. POSCO’s PosMAC is built to improve upon galvanized steel and strengthen specific areas by adding materials such as magnesium and aluminum – making the steel lighter, stronger, non-corrosive, and, like Iron Man, self-healing.

Other innovations include the award winning, and vibration resistant, PosCozy, which combines manganese Z-clips with continuous galvanized steel plates. PosCozy has higher resistance to vibrations than general steel, “making the sound of children running on a floor sound like noise heard in a library.”

With its eyes on the auto industry, POSCO has made advances in automotive steel with PosM Steel, a “dream material” five times stronger than conventional automotive steel and which has excellent impact absorption qualities – a quality that (SPOILER ALERT) Howard Stark would have appreciated.

Even though POSCO has yet to develop its own freeze-beam or arc reactor that can power an entire building and give people superpowers, here at POSCO, our researchers, engineers, and specialists continue to take steel technology to the next level. POSCO is already one of the top steel producers in the world and consistently recognized for its advanced tech steel products & sustainability programs. Used in buildings, cars, planes, and even the day-to-day objects lying around the house, POSCO’s steel might not be able to protect mere humans from supervillains but it sure makes the world a stronger place.

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With the emergence of fighting robots taking center stage in the beginning of the seventies, special effects, animation and overall excitement grew around giant machines battling in epic melees of iron and steel.

From the Drawing Board to the Big Screen

Early on, Japan and South Korea released animations featuring large robots, “Gundam”, “Mazinger Z” and “Robot Taekwon V”, forged from super strong alloys. The machines were built as weapons against forces of evil, and over the course of several seasons, had many successful campaigns against evil-doers.

Popularity for enormous robots built for combat took off not only in Asia, but also in the US, where different adaptions were created. While Voltar the Invincible, Iron Man and other man-made machines kept the world in check, dramatic clashes between Transformers’ Autobots and Decepticons were leaving cities in ruins.

During that same time, robots were being incorporated into Hollywood’s sci-fi and futuristic movie plots more often. The Star Wars saga, Robocop and Blade Runner, all had robots that were built for one purpose – to destroy.

Steel Warriors

Entering in the new millennium, fighting robots continued to thrive. Robots were not only fighting in fiction, but also in reality. The hit 2000 TV show, “Battle Bots”, had engineers from around the world designing and building real-life robots to ravage their competition.

In 2007, director Michael Bay completely reimagined and reinvented the Transformers series into a larger-than-life action-packed film – winning global acclaim and nominated for three academy awards, including best visual effects.

In Roger Ebert’s review of “Transformers”, he says that “the robots, created by Industrial Light and Magic, are indeed delightful creatures; you can look hard and see the truck windshields, hubcaps and junkyard stuff they’re made of. And their movements are ingenious, especially the scorpion-like robot in the desert.”

Building on the momentum of the Transformers series, the 2007 movie, “Real Steel”, soon took the spotlight for sparring robots. In the future, human boxers have been replaced by robots, who just like the Ali’s and Sugar Rays of our time, duck and jab at each other with their human operators, controlling their movements.

The heroic protagonist of “Real Steel”, is not only the former boxer-turned robot operator, but also the almost-forgotten steel robot itself which became a winning success in the underdog story.

Machine’s Last Stand

Giant, earth-saving robots piloted by humans more recently took their stand against even larger prehistoric-looking alien invaders in Academy Award-winning director, Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”.

In the film, the gargantuan robots, called Jaegers, were built by the world’s military and are piloted by an elite group of individuals that must connect not only with their partner, but also the machine to defeat their enemy.

Each Jaeger is built differently, and each has a unique ability that will help it bring down the giant alien monsters. After several Jaegers are destroyed in hard-fought battles, the remaining two are victorious against the enemy – with their steel structures largely to thank.

Stories films involving colossal fighting robots will most likely continue to entertain us for some time to come. With space exploration and technology being the main theme around much of the movies that are coming out, there will always be space in the script for an epic giant robot battle.

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In fact, some of heavy metal’s most notable acts have found inspiration in the world of steel, an industry that helped form their identities and define their sound.

Metal Movers

An offshoot of rock music, heavy metal captivated teens and twentysomethings when it emerged in the late 1970s. In fact, with its distinctive grinding, feedback-heavy guitar riffs and powerful drum beats, it was less a musical movement and more a force of nature. It grabbed a hold of music fans and sent them into a trace, their heads moving up and down, fists thrown high into the air – creating a generation of self-styled “head bangers” and “metal heads.”

Along with the music came loud and outrageous clothing, hairstyles and even behavior – and the genre’s popularity grew, eventually spawning dozens of sub-genres of its own. Several decades later, the steel-inspired musical revolution is still going strong, with legions of metal heads still enthralled by its hard-edged sounds.

Early Influences

The first notable mention of heavy metal in a song was in American act Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” released in 1969, and famous for appearing on the soundtrack of seminal motorcycle road movie Easy Rider.

However, the term “heavy metal” had already entered parlance. Popular (although probably apocryphal) legend has it that the expression was first coined by a music critic who dismissed Jimi Hendrix’s influential guitar-led rock as sounding “like heavy metal falling from the sky.”

Forged in the UK

Although there had already been talk of “heavy metal” in the United States, the genre was shaped in the Midlands of the United Kingdom, the heart of the country’s then-booming steel and iron trade. Its founding fathers were the likes of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, bands whose entire lives were formed by the steel trade.

Black Sabbath’s frontman, the gregarious Ozzy Osbourne, famously worked in a car factory by day and performed with his band in the evenings. The band debuted in 1968, but it was not until it released its sophomore album “Paranoid” in 1970 that the rock world sat up and paid attention.

Already there was a prominent metal theme to the music, noticeable in the album’s anthemic “Iron Man.” The track was so named because, in Osbourne’s words, it “sounded like a gigantic iron man walking about” and its rhythms recalled the sounds of the metal factory floor – hardly surprising considering most of his Black Sabbath bandmates were also factory employees.

Despite the success of Black Sabbath and fellow Midlands rockers Led Zeppelin, it was not until the early 1980s that heavy metal’s popularity would really start making waves.

Some felt this 1970s genre needed something more to avoid becoming a mere flash in the pan. So in the following decade, acts like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden would go on create lasting legacies and identities for this exciting style of music.

Metal Mania

Judas Priest singer and founder Rob Halford explained to the Guardian in 2010, “When [the rest of the band and I] were kids walking to school, we’d walk past these metal foundries and see the molten metal coming out of the big vats. We were literally breathing in the fumes from these metal works, breathing in metal before heavy metal had even been invented. I’d be at school trying to do English literature and the classroom would be shaking because of the machinery.”

Guitarist Glenn Tipton added, “We really did grow up in a labyrinth of heavy metal – huge foundries, big steam hammers.”

With their flamboyant clothing and distinctive sound, Judas Priest were one of the first British heavy metal acts to break into the American mainstream. It was then perhaps fitting that the band’s sixth album, “British Steel,” released in 1980, was the LP that skyrocketed them from underground club popularity to international super-stardom, selling out arenas and even breaking into the American Billboard Top 40 albums chart.

The album was nothing if not an ode to the act’s steel roots. Opening track “Rapid Fire” is replete with lyrics that speak of “forging furnaces” and “hammering anvils,” while the album’s finale is the fittingly named “Steeler.”

Second Wave

In the mid-1970s, the genre found its second wind the form of the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

Prime movers in this new movement were Iron Maiden. Unlike the act’s predecessors, Iron Maiden hailed from London, rather than from the steel-producing Midlands. By this point, though, steel and iron were so firmly entrenched in the genre’s DNA that there was no way the link could be broken. The band’s name itself was a nod in the direction of heavy metal’s origins, and the group recorded a number of tracks that made reference to both steel and iron.

And although most of their original members were Londoners, Iron Maiden’s success peaked when the group recruited Bruce Dickinson, a singer from Sheffield, the traditional heart of the British steel industry.

Global Passion for Metal

By the mid-1980s, heavy metal was a global phenomenon, with North American artists like KISS, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Van Halen borrowing heavily from the British sound and look.

Steel, however, kept its significance for heavy metal bands from all over the world, even those without a direct link to the metal industry.

Metalworking themes have become impossible to shake off, with artists like America’s Metallica, Steelheart, Anvil and parody act Steel Panther, as well as Sweden’s Steel and Germany’s Steeler, all very obvious examples.

Countless other heavy metal acts, meanwhile, have made reference to steel in some form or other, including albums such as Pantera’s “Reinventing the Steel,” Saxon’s “Wheels of Steel” and Manowar’s “The Triumph of Steel” to name but a few.

Although the Midlands of England is no longer the epicenter of the world’s steel trade – or the heavy metal movement – it remains the spiritual home of both. And it appears that for metal heads the world over, heavy metal and steel symbolism will forever go hand-in-hand.

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But if you think about it, steel and superheroes aren’t really all that different, as the two possess very similar characteristics. Which is probably why the metal has been a common thread in comics and superhero stories throughout the past century. In fact, references to steel can be found in the gadgets, in the names and in the iconic costumes of the world’s favorite comics. Read on to find out about a few of them. 

It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… No! It’s Steel!

Perhaps no other superhero has as much of an association to the metal as the Man of Steel himself: Superman. Often referred to as the greatest superhero of all time, Superman is faster than a speeding (steel) bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and can leap tall buildings in a single bound. He may be, for all intents and purposes, indestructible.

However, the Man of Steel gets his nickname from his unwavering resolve. When he is put in a situation and must choose between absolute power and absolute servitude, he doesn’t bend in the same way that steel doesn’t bend under pressure. It is altruism that makes Superman, well, super. (Image: http://on.fb.me/1HL2qYI) 

From Irons to Steel

John Henry Irons first appeared in The Adventures of Superman in 1993. Originally a weapons engineer, Irons became distraught and faked his death after a cannon he had designed fell into the wrong hands and was used to kill innocent people. Later on, he was saved by Superman when he fell from a skyscraper and was inspired to “live a life worth saving.” During Superman’s fatal battle against Doomsday, Irons attempted to return the favor, though unsuccessfully, by fighting the villain with a sledgehammer.

He was eventually likened to a reincarnation of Superman and was nicknamed “Steel” by Superman himself. He appeared in his own solo series, battling the gangs that used the weapons he created. Traits of the character, who is often portrayed wielding a hammer, are inspired by the African American folk hero John Henry. (Image: http://bit.ly/1KmbdBA)

Pedal to the Metal

Unlike other superheroes, Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, has no super powers. Instead, he relies on his mental and physical excellence, martial arts mastery, detective skills and criminal psychology expertise. Additionally, he uses his Batsuit to prey on criminals’ fears and utilizes an arsenal of high-tech gadgets. Among these, the Batmobile is probably the most well-known. Bulletproof and fireproof steel armor plates envelop the body and cockpit of the car, which has been customized over time, both in comic books and movies, into a sleek metal mobile. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is expected to premiere in 2016, illustrates the power of the Batman suit, complete with steel knuckles and steel-toed boots. Take a look for yourself. (Image: http://bit.ly/1Lwc4me)

Blue Steel

The Mark 30, also known by its codename “Blue Steel”, is a Silver Centurion Suit, and was one of several new Iron Man Armors created by Tony Stark as part of the Iron Legion. The armor, which utilizes blue and silver plates as well as a triangular shaped Unibeam in its design, was created sometime after the Battle of New York.

It was featured in Iron Man 3, and made its debut in the Hollywood hit when Tony ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to initiate “House Party Protocol”, in which it was activated to assist Tony in his battle against Aldrich Killian. (Image: http://bit.ly/1eirzj2)

Fictional Steel Gets Real

Adamantium is a practically indestructible fictional steel alloy that appears in a number of comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is best known as the substance that was bonded to the superhero Wolverine’s skeleton and claws during an experiment carried out by the Japanese scientist Lord Dark Wind.

Wolverine’s mutant healing factor allowed him to survive the process and generated a molecular change in the metal, transforming it into Adamantium Beta, an entirely new metal that does not inhibit the biological processes of bone. As a result, Wolverine ended up with some incredibly sharp claws that allow him to cut into durable materials, block attack and projectiles, as well as dig into surfaces allowing him to climb. This impressive mythical metal is even inspiring new, real developments in materials science. (Image: http://bit.ly/1Km7EeA)

It doesn’t seem that the world’s passion for comics will fizzle out anytime soon. In fact, as stories and characters develop and redevelop over the years, the number of superhero fanatics only continues to grow larger. It is certain that steel, a symbol of strength and indestructibility, will continue to play a part in these inspiring stories.