US military tech firm Raytheon Sarcos is living the dream.
As long as that dream is to don a mechanical suit, smash through bits of thick pine and press a hundred kilos just for fun.
Since the Marvel superhero's arrival in cinemas, progress toward recreating his exoskeleton has been, well, steady.
And Raytheon Sarcos itself beat them all to the punch with its original XOS 1 back in 2008, which, unfortunately, required plugging in if it was required for any longer than 40 minutes.
All of which were mildly impressive, but not exactly giving soldiers the capacity to blast of to the rescue of poor villagers terrorised by rogue warlords at a moment's notice.
Raytheon Sarcos, to its credit, looks like sticking to the job at hand, although the lure of millions of dollars in funding from the US military no doubt makes it more attractive.
Yesterday, it unveiled to the world XOS 2, the upgrade that it says confines XOS 1 to the "proof of concept" bin.
XOS 2, it says, is lighter, stronger and faster than its predecessor, "yet it uses 50 per cent less power and its new design makes it more resistant to the environment".
It's actually come up with two designs, one of which is strapped to the lower body and does away with the power cord.
For proper heavy lifting - and back injuries are apparently a genuine problem for soldiers - the power cord remains, but the flexibility and power has been ramped up several-fold.
"People wonder if I feel like Iron Man when I suit up," Raytheon Sarcos test engineer Rex Jameson said.
"I can’t speak for Tony Stark, but when I’m in the suit I feel like me, only a faster, stronger version of me.
Raytheon Sarcos vice president of Operations Dr Fraser Smith said that military interest in exoskeletons is at the stage where getting them deployed is "inevitable".
"They are desperately needed," he said.
"With a sustained commitment, they could be in place within five years."
