After the first Iron Man (2008) starring Robert Downey Jr., Tony Stark soon became a household name. Iron Man’s genius intellect, charisma, witty one-liners, and his arsenal of suits undoubtedly makes him one of the coolest superheroes. But, what makes him truly relatable is his human side inside the suit of armour.
Despite all his intellect and experiences, Tony Stark is a mortal, like all of us. And as a human, it’s only natural that we commit mistakes and learn from them. In the comics, Tony Stark has faced real-life issues which most of us face in our lives. From crippling paranoia to alcoholism, even the genius Avengers is not immune from his own demons. As a result, Tony becomes prone to committing mistakes, which at times have become irredeemable.
Also see: 10 Most Powerful Versions of Iron Man
Though Tony’s human side makes him a relatable hero, sometimes, his actions have crossed the line and affected his teammates, both physically and emotionally. In some ways, he has hurt his fellow Avengers in a momentary lapse of reasoning. We have compiled a list where Iron Man became a savage towards his own teammates. Interested? Let’s hop in!
10. Cloning the Mighty Thor and Naming him Ragnarok
The friendship between Iron Man and Thor was perfectly captured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth. Even in the comics, the two Avengers are pretty tight, to the point that two of them merged together to become Stark Odinson in the Warped Universe.
Despite their friendship, Tony’s paranoia made him do something really nasty against the Norse God of Thunder. As a contingency plan, Tony had kept a strand of Thor’s hair from which he created a clone of him during the events of Civil War. To make things even worse, Tony named the clone as Ragnarok, based on the event which marks the end of Asgard. Ragnarok had the strength of Thor but lacked his moral compass and heroism, which made him do unthinkable acts against the allies of Captain America.
9. One-Punch KO of She-Hulk
Scarlet Witch, despite her incredible powers, can be extremely unlikeable at times. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, she hexed Bruce Banner to turn to Hulk and go on a rampage. Sadly, she did the same thing to the She-Hulk too in the comics.
The usually elegant, witty, fourth-wall-breaking She-Hulk went on a rampage, destroying life and property. With just Captain America and a few other heroes remaining, Tony decided to go ruthless on the raging green monster. Despite getting overwhelmed at first, he settled it with a single punch. Pretty intense, considering that Tony and She-Hulk were in a relationship for some time. At least, Saitama would be proud of him.
8. Sending the Hulk on a Space Vacation
As a precursor to the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk storylines, Iron Man along with the remaining members of the Illuminati took an extreme step to solve Hulk’s unpredictable violent outbursts.
The Illuminate tricked the Hulk and sent him to the planet of Sakaar. In Sakaar, Hulk did find solace as he defeated the tyrannical Red King and married Caiera. But, the spaceship which carried him exploded as per its self-destruct code and killed Caiera and their unborn child. And, from the ashes arose Worldbreaker Hulk.
7. Creating the Thorbuster
Batman is not the only hero who suffers from crippling paranoia. Iron Man suffers from the same as some of his actions have suggested in the past. That includes creating weapons specifically for your own team members to neutralize them when the need arises.
Also see: The Origins of Iron Man’s Arc Reactor
In Marvel’s Standoff event, Iron Man and Thor found themselves in the opposing teams. The Norse God of Thunder is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe, yet, underestimating Tony Stark is always a mistake. To neutralize Thor, Iron Man specifically created the Thorbuster. Powered by Asgardian magic, the Thorbuster also had the Asgardian Crystal embedded inside it, allowing Tony to access the Odin Force. The armour could stop a flying Mjolnir mid-way, and that’s saying something.
6. Home Run ft. Luke Cage
The Civil War storyline really brought out the worst in Iron Man in many aspects. Siding with the United States Congress for the Superhero Registration Act, Iron Man crossed many lines to prove his point.
One of these unthinkable acts was defeating Luke Cage. The Hero for Hire had joined Captain America to repel the Superhero Registration Act. In an altercation with Iron Man, Luke Cage was thrown across like a rag-doll by Tony Stark. Even Luke Cage’s unbreakable skin is no match for an enraged Iron Man.
5. Beating the Arachnid to a Pulp
This compilation is soon becoming a list of atrocities done by Iron Man in Civil War. In the storyline, Spider-Man had initially joined Iron Man to support the Superhero Registration Act. But soon enough, he saw the faults in Iron Man’s ideology and soon changed sides.
Also see: Iron Man’s 8 Lamest Villains, Ranked
After Iron Man savagely defeated Luke Cage, Spider-Man decided to fight his former mentor. Despite putting up a good show, a more experienced and cunning Iron Man gained the upper hand. Tony’s remaining morality stopped him from killing Peter Parker, thankfully.
4. Fighting a 90-year-old War Veteran
The foremost display of authoritarianism, Iron Man’s fight against Captain America in the Civil War storyline portrayed the darkness inside him.
If anything, Captain America: Civil War was barely able to scratch the surface of the much darker comic book. To prevent any future mishaps, Tony’s Superhero Registration Act was an authoritarian move masquerading as accountability. In his fight against Captain America, who led the rebel forces, Iron Man did not pull any of his punches, almost killing Captain America on multiple occasions.
3. Fighting a Woman, once again
Once again in Civil War II storyline, Iron Man found himself fighting against Captain Marvel. Despite being on the right side this time, Tony did cross a line when he kidnapped Ulysses.
Ulysses is an Inhuman who has the ability to predict the future using probability. His powers created a divide between Iron Man and Captain Marvel. To stop a Minority Report-style crime-fighting where criminals are apprehended before they commit the crime, Iron Man picked up arms against Carol Danvers. All was well until he decided to kidnap the Inhuman to prove his point. Alas!
2. Superior Iron Man
In the AXIS storyline, we witness a truly dark version of Tony Stark driven by greed and power. Tony Stark builds an all-white Endo-Sym armour for himself and creates a techno-virus named Extremis 3.0 which can grant people beauty, health, or even immortality.
Initially made free, Tony charged people an amount of $99.99 per day to avail the services of Extremis 3.0. As this forced people to resort to crime, Daredevil decided to confront Iron Man only to receive a savage beating.
1. Building a Concentration Camp
Once again in the original Civil War storyline, Iron Man alongside Yellowjacket (A Skrull impersonating Hank Pym), and Mister Fantastic created Prison 42 to imprison the heroes who supported Captain America.
Created in the Negative Zone as a concentration camp for PoW, its startling discovery by Spider-Man made him change sides. A literal manifestation of ‘End justifying means’, Tony’s inner fascist did come out in Civil War.
