The Marvel Universe is full of amazing characters, both heroes and villains, and has become one of the biggest franchises in pop culture. Marvel has rode its characters to the bank, and one of the most famous is Iron Man. The story of Iron Man is one of the more interesting stories in Marvel history. Iron Man rose to prominence back in the days of Marvel’s Cold War exceptionalism, back in those days when being an arms dealer was a noble profession. His struggles with alcoholism humanized him to an insane degree, and Iron Man became one of the most important Marvel characters of them all, a linchpin character that would allow Marvel to become the biggest name in pop culture with 2008’s Iron Man.
Iron Man is one of the best MCU characters, but he hasn’t always been the most heroic character in comics. In fact, one of the funniest thing about Iron Man’s movie success to comic fans was the fact that in the comics at the time, Iron Man was a character that nearly everyone hated, and was one of the biggest villains in comics. Things have changed a lot since then, however, I’m going to say something that most Marvel fans wouldn’t agree with — Iron Man not only joined the ranks of the greatest Avengers villains of all time, but also has become Marvel’s greatest villain. That may seem impossible, but one only needs to look at everything that Iron Man has done to see how true it is.
Iron Man Was More Damaging Than Any Villain
Civil War was a major turning point in not only the history of the Marvel Universe, but also in the history of Iron Man. Iron Man went full fascist in the story, and despite Civil War writer Mark Millar’s protestations, Iron Man was the villain of the story. He teamed up with the government against his friends, he created a prison in the Negative Zone for superheroes, he helped create the Thor clone Ragnarok that killed Bill Foster, and he deputized any supervillain who wanted to join the Thunderbolts. He was able to break the superhero community in two, and was so busy going after his former compatriots that he missed the Skrulls taking over SHIELD and the Superhero Initiative. Iron Man did so much damage to the superhero community, and no other villain has ever been able to do what Iron Man has done. Let’s look at Spider-Man, for example. Iron Man convinced Spider-Man to publicly reveal his identity, knowing how hard Spider-Man worked to keep his identity secret. He knew he was making Peter Parker’s life harder, but he did as part of this overall plan to “fix” the superhero community. Aunt May was almost killed and Peter Parker had to trade his marriage to Mephisto to fix the whole situation. Iron Man’s defeat of Captain America led to Red Skull being able to more easily kill Captain America. Iron Man almost wrecked the marriage of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.
Now, Iron Man fans out there will try to point out that he never meant for any of it to go wrong, and that if everyone would have went along with him and his ideas, then it would have all been okay. However, just think about that second. Does that sound like anything you’d say about a superhero or a person in the right? Also, everything I’ve mentioned above doesn’t even bring the Illuminati into the equation (or Superior Iron Man). Iron Man created a secret society that made all of the big decisions without asking for anyone else’s opinion and almost doomed the Earth multiple times. Then, there was the Incursions, with Iron Man leading the charge to destroy the alternate Earths before they destroyed Earth-616, giving Iron Man a body count that few villains outside of Thanos and Galactus can reach. He was also part of the mindwiping of Captain America. Iron Man’s refusal to try and think of the situation like a superhero, instead of a pragmatic genius, allowed Doctor Doom of all people to come up with a much better plan to save the multiverse, allowing Doom to become a god. Iron Man’s actions for years were villainous acts of the highest order, and it’s about time that we admitted that Tony Stark was Marvel’s greatest villain.
Iron Man Hurt the Heroes in Ways Most Villains Could Only Dream Of
Iron Man has done a lot of god for the Marvel Universe — the Avengers wouldn’t exist without him — but that doesn’t mean we should hand wave his wrongdoings. A lot of Iron Man fans will talk about how Civil War and the Illuminati stories butchered Iron Man, but that’s untrue. Iron Man is an arms dealer who once attacked his friends because they were using technology based on his without paying him. Iron Man has always been something of a villain, and it all took to push him over the edge was power.
Iron Man has done things that villains wished they could do. He’s a genocidal monster of the highest order, but the worst part about Iron Man is that he was trusted. The heroes trusted Iron Man, and paid for that trust with him committing vile acts against them and the world.
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