6 Times Iron Man Messed Up So Bad We Wonder Why He’s Still a Hero

Before Robert Downey Jr. began playing him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man was one of the most hated superheroes in comics. While a hero, Iron Man has made so many bad decisions and messed up so many times that it is a shock that anyone in the Marvel Universe still looks at him like a hero, and that he has any friends left at all. In recent years, Marvel has worked hard to get Tony Stark some redemption by having him as a self-loathing hero who knows he did bad and wants to improve. However, it barely scratches the surface of what he has done over his career as an Avenger and as one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

From his turn as a supervillain to his moments where he fought with other superheroes for his own selfish purposes, here are the times Iron Man messed up so badly that he almost stopped being a hero.

6) Crossing

Iron Man was in one of the most controversial storylines of the 1990s when Marvel released the Avengers event, “Crossing.” This somehow claimed that Tony Stark was never a hero, but was instead a double agent working for Kang for many years. This all started with the shocking moment when Iron Man murdered Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara) and the Inhuman Marilla, Luna Maxomoff’s nanny.

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He also killed the hero Gilgamesh, all to help Kang get into our world and conquer the planet. The Avengers had to get a younger version of Tony Stark to beat his older self, but fans never accepted this new teen Iron Man, and Marvel retconned everything with Heroes Reborn. However, as one of the worst Avengers event series in history, Iron Man barely recovered, even when the original returned as a hero again.

5) Armor Wars

“Armor Wars” was a tough Iron Man storyline to get behind. First, Iron Man was in the right here, but how he went about things was completely wrong. This is something that Tony Stark has become infamous for, going about things in the worst possible way. Tony Stark learned that his brilliant designs were stolen from him and used to armor-up several criminals, including Beetle, Crimson Dynamo, and more. He then set out to take back all the armor made with his stolen designs.

However, this included the U.S. government, and Iron Man even attacked heroes like Stingray, who had armor that later turned out not to have been created from his designs. It put him at odds with the U.S. government and Steve Rogers, who was known as the Captain at the time. He ends up stripped of his Avengers membership and even has the United States military gunning for him because he took matters into his own hands instead of doing things the right way.

4) Started the Civil War Storyline

One of the most controversial Marvel Comics storylines in history occurred with Civil War. This was a time when Marvel decided fans wanted to see their favorite heroes fighting each other, rather than villains. While the storylines were interesting, it turned off a lot of readers, and for many, it made Iron Man a villain, even though the United States government in the comics considered him a hero. It really took Iron Man in an opposite direction than he had ever been before.

In “Armor Wars,” he fought to keep his weapons out of the government’s hands, and here, he fought to give the government complete control over all superheroes. By the time he helped open a superhero prison in the Negative Zone, where he locked away his former allies, helped create a clone of Thor who murdered Bill Foster, and indirectly caused Aunt May to get shot, he was in no way the hero.

3) Ran The Initiative

It seemed that Iron Man was unlikable when he was on the government’s side in Civil War. However, after the war ended, Tony didn’t feel any remorse and got even worse. Tony started the Initiative and set out to take out the heroes who didn’t follow his every demand. The biggest problem is that he was the head of SHIELD, and this gave him all the power to do anything he wanted. This made him even less likable than ever. When Thor made his return, Iron Man sought him out to sign the Registration Act, and Thor destroyed Iron Man without breaking a sweat. Thor was in the right, since Iron Man used Thor’s DNA to help create a monster who murdered one of their friends. To understand how much readers had turned on him, that ended up as one of the biggest fan-friendly moments in Marvel Comics.

2) Exiled Hulk to Sakaar

The Illuminati did a lot of bad things for what they considered to be the greater good of all humankind. However, one thing that ultimately backfired was exiling the Hulk from Earth. They tricked him onto a space shuttle and then shot him into space, targeted for an abandoned planet where he could live in peace and solitude. Hulk ended up overshooting the planet and ended up on Sakaar, where he was forced into gladiatorial battles, eventually freed the enslaved people, and found love. It all ended in tragedy when his shuttle exploded and killed his pregnant wife, which led to World War Hulk. The Green Goliath returned to Earth and destroyed Iron Man, Black Bolt, Reed Richards, and more, as many people on Earth cheered Hulk on.

1) Ordered Doctor Strange to Erase Captain America’s Memory

Iron Man did something even worse with the Illuminati. Knowing the Incursions were coming, the Illuminati ended up destroying an entire Earth to save their own world. This did not go over well with Captain America, and he told his fellow Illuminati members they couldn’t do this again. Iron Man then told Doctor Strange to “do it,” and the Sorcerer Supreme erased Captain America’s memories of the event. When Captain America finally remembered his mind being wiped, it caused him and Iron Man to battle each other, even as the Incursion arrived and the entire world was destroyed. It proved, once again, that Iron Man would rather do things his way than work with anyone else.

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