A metals specialist for the military, John Henry Irons, creates an alter ego, a super-hero known as "Steel," to combat an evil street gang. After a weapons test goes horribly wrong, Irons quits the military for a quiet life until a gang begins to commit crimes in his neighborhood. The gang, after stealing top-secret defense weapons that Irons helped to produce, has committed a series of high-tech robberies and, in the process, is threatening to become a worldwide danger. Irons decides to combat the growing evil by building a suit of armor with a built-in array of weaponry. Layered in his fantastic, magnetic metal sheath and armed with his powerful weapons, John Henry metamorphoses into a mythic alter-ego--STEEL.