Real-Life Iron Man: The 1982 Case of Elias Core

He didn’t build a suit—he became one. In 1982, a man named Elias Core, 54, was found dead in his apartment. Night-shift at a metal recycling plant. No family on file. When the body was opened, examiners found metal inside—plates tucked behind ribs, bands around the forearms, a hinge fused to the knee. His skin showed a patchwork of attempts to hold it all together (non-graphic).

The apartment told the rest: an oil-stained workbench, mirrors on the ceiling, a strap bolted to the floor, and hand-drawn diagrams where bones were reimagined as steel. Tools lay in surgical order. In his journal, one line ran like a heartbeat: If I can survive, so can you. Taped inside the back cover: a