Warning: Contains Spoilers For Iron Man #18
In Iron Man #18 (by Christopher Cantwell, Lan Medina, and Frank D'Armata), it's clear that Tony Stark is still tied down by his past, despite everything he has accomplished, proving that Marvel Comics will never let him evolve as a character.
In recent stories, Iron Man stopped the villain Korvac from absorbing Galactus' source of Power Cosmic and thus becoming a vengeful god. To do that, however, Tony had to take the Power Cosmic for himself, which turned him into the Iron God. With unlimited power, Iron Man's perceptions of the world also changed, and he set himself on a path to "make a real difference". The first step of his plan was to turn every person in New York into a Stark-level genius, but when his closest friends confronted him for his abuse of power, things took a turn for the worse. Unable to see the errors in his ways, Tony killed friends and foes alike, leaving only his recent love interest Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat, alive.
After realizing the terrible thing he just did, Tony is pulled by Patsy into a "headspace", an imaginary scenario taken from his own memories of the summers spent in his family's estate in the countryside. Tony reflects on his legacy and past, how his great-great-grandfather worked the wheat fields before inventing the harvesting machine, and how his parents shipped him off to the estate during the summer, a privileged kid spending time alone in a six-hundred acres daycare. His father Howard's words ring in his head, reminding him that the line between friend and enemy is a thin one, as everyone sooner or later craves what they don't have and you do.
The Iron God saga showcases one of the major issues with the Tony Stark character. He is one of the smartest people in the universe, an accomplished businessman, a beloved hero who saved Earth many times, and yet, despite all that, he is still stuck in his past. He is constantly thinking about the influence his father has on him, the damage that a privileged childhood with cold, distant parents did to him, and as a result, he is utterly frustrated about his present. Thinking about his friends, including brilliant and inspirational people such as Captain America and Reed Richards, Tony correctly concludes that he always makes them enemies, because he feels that they "get in the way" of whatever he has to accomplish. It's hard to not connect this consideration to Howard's teaching to a young Tony that he should always be wary about his friends, and "strike first" if needed.
Iron Man is constantly burdened by the idea that he is somehow unable to reach his full potential. In Tony's eyes, he is and will always be a disappointment to his father, even now that he has become a god. While these internal struggles make the Tony Stark character more relatable, they become unrealistic when compared to his long and accomplished career as one of Earth's prominent superheroes. Marvel wants to keep Iron Man stuck in his past to make him more relatable to readers, but this also means that he will never fully evolve as a character. Perhaps the resolution of the Iron God saga will be the chance to do that, so fans should check out Iron Man #18 when it will be available starting from March 23.
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