Iron Man is one of the original Avengers, a veteran of the team that’s even more impressive when you consider he doesn’t even have any superpowers. With his infinite pool of resources, his brilliant mind, and his sheer will, Tony Stark stands toe-to-toe with super soldiers and Norse gods.
But with the pressure that comes with being an Avenger, comes the risk of losing your way. And while he may have believed he was acting with good intentions, there have been numerous occasions where Iron Man has done things that could only be described as downright cruel.
9 He Locked Up Fellow Heroes In The Negative Zone
The Civil War event of 2007 was a landmark moment in Iron Man’s history. A decision that some have described as completely out-of-character, Iron Man decided to side with the American government when a bill was proposed that forced superheroes to give up their secret identities and register with the government. Waging war on all heroes who opposed the Super Human Registration Act, would pit Iron Man against many of his closest friends.
In order to keep track of all the unregistered heroes they managed to capture, and also to keep them safe from regular prisons filled with supervillains, Stark and Reed Richards developed a new maximum security prison built inside the Negative Zone, a place in-between time and space. Iron Man was the one who put some of his closest friends in jail in a pocket dimension and threw away the key.
8 Cloning Thor, killing Bill Foster
Another standout moment from the superhuman civil war, Tony Stark helped create a clone of the Norse God of Thunder and original Avenger, Thor. After arranging a cease-fire with Captain America’s anti-Registration forces, a fight broke out, but things quickly turned dire once a clone of Thor emerged, and viciously killed the anti-registration hero Goliath.
It was later revealed that Tony had been holding onto a lock of Thor’s hair since the early days of the Avengers, in case a contingency was ever needed for the Thunder God. A huge betrayal, when the original Thor returned and met with Tony Stark, he beat him to a pulp and warned him to never ask for his help ever again.
7 He Helped Create The Illuminati
In the 2000s, it was revealed that some of the most influential heroes in the Marvel Universe had been operating in secret for decades. Iron Man had brought together Professor Charles Xavier, Reed Richards, Doctor Strange, King Black Bolt, and Namor in order to discuss several world-ending threats in the Marvel Universe such as the Kree-Skrull War, the Beyonder, and the Infinity Gems.
Considering themselves the smartest individuals to handle the problems at hand, the Illuminati would meddle in these affairs in secret, usually creating more problems than solutions, even sowing the seeds of the Skrull Invasion that would occur in 2008. The Illuminati would continue to act in secret for decades, but their biggest calamity wouldn’t come to light until Marvel’s 2015 Secret Wars event.
6 He Destroyed Planets In Other Realities
Iron Man’s work with the Illuminati only became more troubled in the Time Runs Out event. It was the Illuminati who discovered that there was a problem with the different timelines in the Marvel Universe, and that planets from different universes were going to eventually come into fatally close contact with each other, in events called incursions. This would mean the destruction of whole planets.
In order to save the Earth, Iron Man and the Illuminati devised a plan to destroy a different planet from a different timeline in order to stop the incoming incursion. However, while they did successfully destroy a planet, this didn’t stop the incursion from happening, forcing Iron Man to deal with the moral implications of the heinous act he had committed.
5 Brain-washing Captain America
With the incursion events occurring, Tony sought out the advice of his most trusted friend, Captain America. Steve Rogers completely disagreed with the Illuminati’s plan, and fully rebelled against it. In order to prevent his interference, Iron Man got Dr. Strange to brainwash Captain America into forgetting their interaction ever happened.
As expected, this memory tampering wasn’t permanent. Captain America began to remember bits and pieces of his conversation with the Illuminati, and by the time he fully recovered his memory, the incursion was already incoming. This led to Captain America chasing the Illuminati all across the planet, declaring them criminals, and even ending in a brutal fight with Iron Man.
4 He Gave Daredevil His Sight Back
Marvel’s AXIS event speculated what would happen if the moral alignment of heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe was suddenly swapped. In the AXIS, villains like Doctor Doom became a force for good, meanwhile Tony Stark became a sociopathic egomaniac, declaring himself a god amongst men.
Calling himself the “Superior Iron Man”, Tony Stark went about solving any problem before him, regardless of the ethics or morals of the issue. He even went and restored the vision of Matt Murdock, better known as the blind hero Daredevil. After losing his sight in an accident as a child, Stark managed to restore Daredevil’s vision, but only for a small amount of time, without consulting Murdock at all.
3 Trying To Replace Captain America
In the aftermath of Civil War, Steve Rogers was killed on the front steps of a courthouse as he was awaiting trial. Ed Brubaker’s The Death Of Captain America showed the unanimous grief the entire Marvel Universe felt over the murder of an icon, and no one took it harder than Tony Stark. Feeling overwhelming guilt due to his role in the civil war, Stark was unable to cope with the loss of someone he considered to be one of his closest friends.
In order to appease his guilt for his role in his friend’s death, Tony offered the mantle of Captain America to Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye. After giving it a try, Hawkeye refused the role, acknowledging that it would be wrong to wear the flag and that Tony had to find a different way to deal with his guilt.
2 His Infamous Womanizing
Tony Stark is known for many things, and apart from his staggering intellect, his business savvy, and his heroic endeavors, it’s probably his social proceedings that garner the most attention. A well-established bachelor, Stark is complicit in a number of high-profile flings, with everyone from supermodels to foreign dignitaries.
And while Stark doesn’t seem to be bothered by the number of women he’s seducing at a time, his fellow Avengers have come to expect it to some degree. But it’s the people closest to Stark who seem to be bothered most by his actions. In the case of Pepper Potts, one of Stark’s closest friends, coworkers, and long-time romantic interest, to constantly have front-row seats to see Tony Stark expend all his attention and resources on a different woman every night must be emotionally exhausting and hurtful.
1 Limits his technology to himself
When Tony Stark was captured by terrorists and threatened with his life, he built the Iron Man in order to escape captivity. Once he returned stateside, he committed Stark Industries to better the world instead of helping destroy it. But after seeing how his technology could put people’s lives in danger when in the wrong hands, Stark became incredibly careful about who could get their hands on Stark tech.
While this cautionary decision was born out of very real consequences, Tony’s continuous policing of his advanced technology can be seen as a hindrance. Many have made argued that if Stark worked to share his technological advancements with professionals, he could greatly impact the fields of medicine, infrastructure, and global defense, instead of choosing to spend his time in a flying W.M.D.
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