Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane is a tech ethicist and the son of the late Obadiah Stane, who worked as a black market dealer under the name Joe McGillicuddy. Stane briefly worked and befriended Riri Williams until she accidentally revealed his identity to the public and incriminated him. While incarcerated, Stane was recruited by Hood, who upgraded his bionics to grant him superhuman abilities and ordered him to kill Williams. Though Stane spared her and urged her to leave Chicago, he soon discovered that Hood had secretly rewired his bionics to control him. After a confrontation with Ironheart, she was able to free him from Hood’s influence, though Stane’s resentment toward her endured.