The first of the Atlas sword-slinging characters, Ironjaw roams the world in earth's distant, post-apocalyptic future. He's a violent, amoral wanderer who lives for battle. Hired by rebels to help overthrow a tyrannical king, Ironjaw discovers his true heritage.

When he was an infant, his mother's lover killed Ironjaw's father, the true king, and ascended to the throne himself. With the complicity of the queen, the new king ordered the infant killed, since he would inherit the throne and depose the usurper upon reaching adulthood. A soft-hearted stablehand abandoned the infant on a snowy mountainside, rather than kill him.

After killing the tyrant-king, Ironjaw, identified by a distinctive birthmark as the true heir to the throne, is crowned king. Upon discovering to his dismay that "...a king cannot fight, or hunt, or steal or chase wenches...", Ironjaw chooses to slip away in the middle of the night, abandoning his new kingdom to resume his wanderer's ways.

After a personality-altering interlude in The Barbarians #1, Ironjaw returns in his 4th and final issue with the first part of his long-awaited origin story; the tale of how the abandoned infant became the warrior.