WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Iron Man #11, available now from Marvel Comics.
In his illustrious crimefighting career, Iron Man has teamed up with some of the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe. Though best known for his time with the Avengers, he’s also worked with everyone from Spiderman to Hellcat. But in Christopher Cantwell, Angel Unzueta, Frank D’Armata and VC’s Joe Caramagna’s Iron Man #11, Tony Stark is recruited by one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe, the Living Tribunal.
After he and Avro-X stop Stilt-Man from terrorizing the people of Meggido with remote-controlled Ultimos, Iron Man is surprised to find himself face to face with the Living Tribunal, who addresses him with an urgent message and a dangerous mission. The cosmic entity warns of a potentially cataclysmic imbalance in the universe being caused by Iron Man’s enemy Korvac, and tells Tony that he must travel to the Worldship of Galactus immediately to restore balance to the universe. Of course, Stark was already trying to stop Korvac from taking over the universe, but the presence of the Living Tribunal underscores just how high the stakes are.
Aside from the One-Above-All, the Living Tribunal is the most powerful entity in the multiverse. Tasked with maintaining order in the universe, the ancient god-like being only intervenes when all three of its faces agree that the situation is severe enough to merit its involvement. The Living Tribunal first appeared in Stan Lee, Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe’s 1967 Strange Tales #157 when it decides that the Earth must be destroyed in order to eradicate all of the potential evil it contains. Luckily, Doctor Strange is able to convince the Tribunal that the planet had enough good in it to balance out the bad. Since then, the Tribunal has appeared occasionally to keep everything in order.
Despite its God-like stature in Marvel’s cosmic hierarchy, the Living Tribunal is mortal – as evidenced by its death at the hands of the Beyonders in 2013’s New Avengers #8 by Jonathan Hickman and Mike Deodato. Fortunately for the universe, Adam Warlock stepped in to become the new Living Tribunal in Jim Starlin, Ron Lim and Andy Smith’s 2016 Thanos: The Infinity Finale. Warlock accidentally blinks the entire universe out of existence, but he and Thanos make a deal with the One-Above-All to restore their universe on the condition that Warlock becomes the new Tribunal.
The new Warlock iteration of the Living Tribunal must have its reasons for recruiting Iron Man to fight Korvac, but at first glance, Tony Stark doesn’t seem to be in any position to battle the powerful villain. After all, the hero is still recovering from his last run-in with Korvac and has become addicted to morphine. That being said, the Living Tribunal didn’t say Stark needed to defeat Korvac, only that he needed to face him on Galactus’s Worldship, so it could be that the guardian of the multiverse has something else in store for Earth’s mightiest hero.
Regardless of the Living Tribunal’s plans for Iron Man, the fact that all three heads of the cosmic judge have determined that it needs to involve itself in Stark’s battle with Korvac proves just how dangerous Korvac is. The fate of the universe is at stake and Iron Man is in the unenviable position of taking orders from Marvel’s most powerful entity.
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