Aside from the speed in which he had been outmatched by the Fire Dragon, his defenses and strength had also revealed major shortcomings in battle!
Defense was easier to address. Mainly because he had been constantly upgrading his suit lately, and the upgrades came too quickly, the armor materials being used were not the best. Once he further perfected the suit and got some Alpha Alloy—or even Adamantium—from his father, the defense issue would naturally be resolved!
But strength was not so easy to improve.
After being bitten by the Fire Dragon, Tony Stark had struggled with all his might, yet he had been utterly unable to budge those massive jaws. The immense strength he had once been so proud of had seemed childlike before the Fire Dragon, easily crushed!
This made Tony Stark, who had already been very satisfied with the suit's strength, once again clearly recognize its shortcomings. However, just like improving speed, aside from increasing the number and scale of the drive units, he could only research ways to boost their power output!
Increasing the number and scale of the drive units meant that the suit's size and bulk would have to change accordingly. At the thought of wearing an Iron Man suit as huge and cumbersome as Obadiah's Iron Monger from back then, Tony Stark was a thousand times unwilling!
It was not as though Tony Stark had never considered increasing the suit's size and adding drive units to gain greater strength. He had previously tried building larger armors, such as the Mark XXXVII armor, Igor!
However, while designing it, Tony Stark had abandoned any notion of piloting it himself. He had J.A.R.V.I.S. control it directly and classified it as Heavy Load Armor, with no intention of taking it onto the battlefield at all!
If not