Iron Man: Worst Things Tony Stark Ever Did. Like all long- running superhero characters, Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, has seen his fair share of ups and downs. First created in 1. Stan Lee, Tony Stark was conceived with the idea of turning an unlikable archetype – that of a wealthy, capitalistic industrialist – into a relatable hero for fans of all ages and ideologies. He largely succeeded, although the character remained something of a “B- tier” hero until his game- changing appearance in the 2. Iron Man film, starring Robert Downey Jr. Today, Iron Man is a cultural icon, right up there with the likes of Superman and Luke Skywalker in terms of recognition and universal adoration. ![]() Dunhuang Chen is a concept artist and illustrator from China. Over the years, Tony has done a lot of great things, but he’s also made some really bad calls. To put it mildly, he’s made some big mistakes! For this list, we’re solely going to look at decisions made in the realm of comic books; we’re not including movies, animated series, or video games. For some of his most cringeworthy moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, check out this other story. For now, though, let’s take a look at Iron Man: The 1. Worst Things Tony Stark Has Ever Done. Created A Clone Of Thor That Went On To Kill Goliath. Marvel’s first Civil War was not Iron Man’s finest hour, to say the least. Tony Stark’s myriad poor decisions during that conflict alone could fill up a larger list than this, and there will be several Civil War (and Civil War II) entries on this story. First, and perhaps most obviously, he played God, and his friends paid the price. As it went, Stark and his pal Reed Richards used a sample of Thor’s hair to create a clone of the Asgardian God of Thunder, since the real Thor was currently MIA, presumed dead. The clone of Thor, called Ragnarok, went on to fight alongside Iron Man, but quickly went out of control, and killed Bill Foster, AKA Goliath… All because Iron Man thought he could control the power of Asgard. Kidnapped Ulysses. Civil War II brought Iron Man into conflict with Captain Marvel, AKA Carol Danvers, over what to do about Ulysses Cain, an Inhuman with the power of precognition. When one of his visions leads to the defeat of Thanos, everybody is happy… Except that the battle came at the cost of the life of James Rhodes, AKA War Machine. Upon learning of his friend’s death, Tony freaks out and insists that the battle never should have happened – despite the fact that Thanos was defeated, an untold number of lives were saved, and Rhodes was a soldier, trained to fight and die in service of the greater good. A grief- stricken Stark kidnaps Ulysses Cain in an effort to study his power, while earning the wrath of the Inhumans and escalating the tensions, ensuring that the budding conflict explodes into a full- blown Civil War. Goes Rogue In Armor Wars. Who could forget Armor Wars, the storyline in which Tony Stark takes copyright protection to a whole new level? This tale sees Justin Hammer stealing some of Stark’s equipment and selling it on the black market to villains like Stilt- Man and Titanium Man, severely upping their damage potential. Stark embarks on a one- man mission to take back what’s his, which sounds like a good idea, except he takes things way too far, even attempting to disable and destroy armors which he legally gave to SHIELD, and even some which he didn’t even design, like Stingray. During the conflict, Iron Man busts up a lot of rip- off armors, but also gets himself thrown out of The Avengers and blacklisted by the US Government. Maybe he should have just sent a cease and desist letter. Faked His Death Without Telling His BFFIn a 1. Tony went up against The Masters of Silence, a trio of magical Japanese samurai assassins. Comic books are awesome!) Anyway, even the “Invincible” Iron Man is powerless to stop them, so he does what he always does: goes into his workshop and uses science to come out with something that can fix the problem. He creates a modified, heavily armed version of his armor and uses it to kick their butts, but his ongoing health problems got the better of him. Combined with the stress of battle, it was all too much for poor Tony, and he died – or so James Rhodes was led to believe. Tony had actually faked his death, but he didn’t tell his best friend, and their trust was broken. Upon discovering the truth of Stark’s survival, Rhodes broke up with Tony and joined the West Coast Avengers. Killed A U. N. Ambassador While Drunk. Demon in a Bottle is arguably the most famous Iron Man story ever written. Alcoholism is no joke, and this story dealt with the sensitive topic in a way which was critically acclaimed and became one of the seminal comic book tales of the 1. In the story, Stark’s addiction to the demon alcohol leads to his beloved Jarvis resigning and selling his stock in Stark International, with SHIELD taking a “controlling interest” in the company and stealing Tony’s own company from under his nose. However, even worse than this humiliation is when he is literally used as a weapon to assassinate a foreign diplomat. His armor is hacked by Justin Hammer’s forces and used to commit murder, which sends Tony on a downward spiral of depressive drinking. It’s not his fault, but if he wasn’t boozing, he likely would have been able to prevent the tragedy. Built Roller Skates Into His Armor. Okay, this is a bit less dramatic than faking his death or descending into a vicious cycle of whiskey and self- pity, but…roller skates are built into Iron Man’s armor. It’s true! Apparently, when flight is impossible, due to a loss of power or…other reasons, the Iron Man suit offers another way to move, and it’s with roller skates built into the shoes of the armor. Why would Tony do this? When would he ever need to roll down a hill with all the grace of a shirtless frat boy in Venice Beach? There is only one rational explanation: the skates were put in for storage purposes; instead of having to carry these heavy suits whenever they have to be moved, the maintenance crew can just roll them around and not throw their backs out. Turned Evil Under Kang’s Influence. Kang the Conqueror is one of the most nefarious villains in Marvel canon. He may even pop up in Phase 4, if Fox and Marvel could only agree to share the rights, since Kang is actually Nathaniel Richards, a distant descendant of the Fantastic Four. Anyway, Kang is not a fighter, and he has no physical superpowers. Instead, he is a genius, tactician, and time traveler. He used his gifts to tremendous effect on none other than Iron Man, turning him evil through artfully subtle manipulation, and Tony finds himself a pawn of Kang without even realizing it. Sadly, the whole The Crossing storyline was universally reviled for having little in the way of internally consistent logic and its utter derailing of Tony Stark’s characterization. Ultimately, the decision was made to softly reboot the character in the Heroes Reborn story. Speaking of which…8. Heroes Reborn. After the disastrous events of The Crossing, Marvel used the omnipotent powers of Franklin Richards to rework the origins of members of the Fantastic Four and The Avengers in his own pocket dimension before returning to their original 6. When it came to Tony Stark, he was subjected to cosmic meddling, essentially becoming a whole new character with memories and experiences of Tony Starks from multiple dimensions. This type of admittedly loony plot development is fairly commonplace in the realm of comic books, but it usually doesn’t happen to a (relatively) grounded character like Iron Man. Following Heroes Reborn, the changes to Tony Stark were generally ignored and quickly forgotten. Basically, it was a really complicated way of restoring the character to status quo after The Crossing. The best way to put out a fire is to light an even bigger fire next to it… Heroes Reborn was big, messy, but a whole lot of fun, so Marvel succeeded in their mission to reboot Iron Man. Considered Ending The Civil War By Starting Another War. Once again, Civil War failed to bring out the best in Iron Man. In fact, it had the exact opposite effect, showing how quickly a hero can become a tyrant who believes that the ends justifies the means, regardless of how much blood is shed. In Civil War: Front Line, it’s revealed that Tony Stark came dangerously close to uniting both sides by staring a war with Namor and the kingdom of Atlantis, using Green Goblin to sow discord and build tensions to the breaking point. What Was the Point of Marvel's Secret Empire? There was something very telling about Marvel’s decision this past Monday to announce to The New York Times how its Secret Empire event would end. It felt like the publisher was trying to get ahead of yet more problems coming from the series’ conclusion. Now that the final issue of its primary series is in stores today, we know that’s right—and how thoroughly Secret Empire failed. The core concept that Marvel’s blond- haired, blue- eyed living symbol for American patriotism could actually be a sociopathic fascist with a plan to remake the world in his image was a disturbing one, to be sure. But Secret Empire had the potential to become an iconic story about the dangers of blindly buying into a dark, warped form of American exceptionalism that, given enough time, became the base ideology for Hydra’s oppressive, authoritarian society. This potentially powerful story’s importance was only further heightened by the major political events that defined 2. D- list comic book supervillain managed to become President of the United States. Marvel insisted that Secret Empire wasn’t meant to be a piece of political commentary, but the series launched at a time when its plot eerily echoed the social and political anxieties plaguing the country. Political or not, Secret Empire had every chance to become the kind of seminal story that defined what a flagship comic book event could be in the 2. But by Monday, when Marvel spoiled the ending to its own major comic book event, the writing was already on the wall: Secret Empire was about to end poorly and damage control was necessary. Having read the issue, we can say that calling it a series of predictable, unfortunate, bad events is too charitable. Even if you’re able to completely divorce yourself from the many controversies associated with Secret Empire, you can’t deny the fact that today’s issue #1. Or, at least, lazy and not at all the kind of well thought- out issue a publisher would want to end an event with. After months of brutal battles and painful deaths, Earth’s mightiest heroes all finally get a chance to take on Steve Rogers himself, newly in possession of a nearly- complete Cosmic Cube and a Hydra- themed suit that allows him to harness its power. As the heroes all dive at Steve, more than prepared to bring the world’s suffering to an end, it’s obvious that even now Secret Empire’s more interested in “shocking” plot twists than trying to actually say or do anything interesting with its story. The Avengers, X- Men, and Champions converge on Steve only to be effortlessly erased from existence because Steve’s wearing a suit that’s literally powered by a macguffin. What are a few humanoids in spandex to a man with the ability to bend reality itself to his will? But this is a comic book event, which means that the Good Guys have got to win, and they’ve got to win thanks to a clever plan that nobody, not even a man with cosmic omniscience could see coming. After Steve erases all of the physical devastation he’s inflicted upon the world, he’s surprised by a visit from Sam Wilson, the current Captain America, who just so happens to have the final piece of the Cosmic Cube that would turn Steve into a god if he managed to get his hands on it. At this point in the story, there’s nothing much that Sam can really do to fight Steve. He’s outgunned and his friends are all dead, so he does the sensible thing and bends the knee to Steve, offering his piece of the Cube as a show of good will. But it’s a trick! Though the piece of the Cube is real, buried deep within it are Ant- Man and Bucky Barnes, shrunken down so small that they’re in the microverse within the Cube itself which, it turns out, is a place we’ve seen before. All of the dreamy flashes to the land bathed in white where an amnesiac alt- Steve has been encountering his friends and loved ones during all of Secret Empire? That’s all happening inside the Cube where Kobik—a living embodiment of the Cube’s powers who’s taken the form of a little girl—has been hiding from the mess she’s made of the world. Through some comics weirdness that’s never adequately explained, Bucky travels into Kobik’s pocket universe, grabs her and the Good Steve by the hand, and manages to make his way back into the larger universe all within a matter of seconds. While all of this is happening, Evil Steve is standing there like a moron, looking at his suit wondering why his god powers aren’t working anymore. Evil Steve’s horror at the fact that he’s been outsmarted immediately intensifies when he comes face to face with Good Steve who, because of the way that the Cosmic Cube works, is now a real flesh and blood person. As Kobik undoes all of the changes to reality that Evil Steve made and the Avengers are resurrected, the two Steves face off Civil War- style and proceed to beat the shit out of each other in classic comic book fashion. I’m being rather glib about all of this because there’s absolutely nothing about any of these sequences that at all feels novel or truly creative, especially when you consider the sorts of ideas that big comics events have tried to tackle in the past. No one watching the two Steves fight questions them or unpacks the symbolism of their clash, and that feels like a major mistake. It’s a sorely missed opportunity for Spencer to at least try and have Secret Empire’s characters say something meaningful or lasting about Steve, a living concept at this point, and the ways that he’s put them all through hell. Sure, one of these men is ostensibly supposed to be good and the other bad, but both of them are beings who wouldn’t exist without the Cosmic Cube. Secret Empire wants you to feel as if Captain America is a person redeeming himself for the sins of his darker half, but in reality he’s just a physical construct going through the narrative motions of a predicable hero’s narrative. Even that wouldn’t be all that bad if it weren’t for the heavy- handed, coded language of resistance scattered throughout the panels. Even though Secret Empire isn’t about politics, multiple pages of the issue are dedicated to conveying the basic idea that pseudo- Nazism (Hydra are Nazis; deal with it) is bad and that punching a Hydra figurehead is a good thing. That’s a lovely sentiment to espouse, but it comes at a point in Secret Empire when readers have had to watch as Captain America murdered thousands and sent minorities to internment camps. To lazily pile on the “punching Nazis is good” imagery without actually taking the time to unpack the psychological and emotional impact the story’s had on its characters is outrageously bad. This is what Secret Empire’s been building up to for months now and it’s a disappointment of the highest order. Secret Empire closes with Good Steve defeating Bad Steve and the entire world deciding to just go along with the idea that everything’s going to be all right now that the bad Hydra bogeyman is no more. There’s a milquetoast epilogue involving an important Inhuman character being released from an internment camp that entirely glosses over what it means to live as a minority in a community of people who were literally just calling for your extermination. The Inhuman returns home to find his home covered in “Hail Hydra” spray paint messages, but by the next day his home’s gleaming like it’s new thanks to his neighbors coming together to clean the graffiti off. Isn’t that nice? Isn’t that nice? It’s difficult to say what Marvel was trying to accomplish with Secret Empire #1. But that’s honestly understandable when you look back at just how much of a mess this has been for a while now. For all its grandstanding and shocking headline grabs, in the end Secret Empire was little more than your typical big superhero event: good guys fighting bad versions of themselves instead of each other, for once, but still a story that superhero comics have told a thousand times before. The lackluster reveal tells readers that the “absolutely- totally- real” version of Captain America Marvel has assured us we’ve been following for over a year at this point is nothing more than a Cosmic Cube- created evil clone, one who’s had the real Cap sitting in his soul all along. That convoluted mechanic speaks to the grand aimlessness of the series.
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