The 5 Dumbest Ways Iron Man Has Been Taken Down in the Comics

Tony Stark is well-known as the “Invincible” Iron Man. However, there have been plenty of times in the comics when Tony doesn’t live up to that name. With his vast array of heavily armed suits of armor and his long history of battling evil, Tony is one of the strongest members of the Avengers. Yet, despite his many astounding triumphs, there have been times when Tony has been severely beaten. Some of Tony’s defeats stand out as being more embarrassing and nonsensical than others, often the result of Tony’s suit failing at the wrong time or being bested by lame villains. These are the dumbest times Tony has been outwitted or overpowered by his foes. 

From underestimating opponents to faulty suits, these are the worst and most humiliating losses Tony Stark has ever suffered.

5) Beheaded by Thanos’ Girlfriend

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the climactic battles between Iron Man and the Mad Titan Thanos are legendary. Their clashes feature some of the best action and drama in the entire franchise. However, in the original Infinity Gauntlet comic, Thanos didn’t even bother fighting Tony himself. In the comics, Thanos attempts to win the heart of Lady Death, who scorns his advances. In a vain attempt to make Lady Death jealous, Thanos created a girlfriend for himself: Terraxia. Thanos designed Terraxia to resemble a female version of himself and to be eternally loyal to him. When the Avengers, including Tony, arrived to get revenge on Thanos for killing half of the universe, the villain treated their battle like a game. Instead of an epic struggle between Tony and Thanos, the Mad Titan had Terraxia deal with the hero instead. Tony is easily defeated off-panel, with Terraxia parading his severed head mere moments later. However, the events of the battle were undone when Nebula stole the Infinity Gauntlet and turned back time to erase the battle from existence. Still, an off-panel death to a one-dimensional henchwoman is a pathetic defeat for the genius and powerful superhero. 

4) Having His Extrembiote Suit Overtaken by Carnage

In the comic series Extreme Carnage, Carnage gains the ability to manipulate the symbiote hivemind and bend the alien parasites to his will. To face a villain who has the power to control symbiotes, Tony picks literally the worst suit possible for the job: the Extrembiote Armor. In the earlier comic series King in Black, Tony used the nanotech super-soldier serum Extremis to infect and control a symbiote, which he then transformed into a suit of armor. Tony decided to use this armor against the rampaging Carnage, with predictable results. Carnage immediately took control of the symbiote that made up Tony’s armor and turned it against him. The hero Agent Anti-Venom managed to save Tony by forcing the corrupted symbiote off his body. Nevertheless, Tony nearly got himself killed because he underestimated Carnage’s power.

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3) Getting His Pants Melted Off by the Melter

One of Iron Man’s most frequent villains is Bruno Hagan, aka the Melter. As his name implies, the Melter uses a melting ray to liquify any material. With this power, the villain can turn Tony’s suits into puddles of mush. Although this sounds like a nightmarish ability, the Melter has been portrayed mainly by Marvel as a C-list villain whose power is more often used for comedic effect. One of the best examples of this is when the Melter became a member of the new Masters of Evil team and fought the Avengers. When most of the Masters of Evil retreated, they left Melter behind to face the wrath of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Tony faced off against the Melter, and the villain proceeded to melt the lower half of Tony’s armor, leaving him in his briefs. While Tony awkwardly shambled back to his lab to make a new suit, pantless, the rest of the Avengers quickly apprehended the Melter. This is one battle that Tony wants everyone to forget ever happened.

2) Running Out of Energy While Fighting Angel

The idea that Tony Stark, the rocket-powered Invincible Iron Man, lost to a guy whose only superpower is a pair of wings, sounds too ridiculous to be true. However, this humiliating defeat is all too real. Warren Washington, aka Angel, is a founding member of the X-Men, whose wings grant him the power of flight. The high-flying mutant turned evil when exposed to radiation from a nearby atomic blast. Tony tried to fight the corrupted X-Man, but when he launched after Angel, his rocket-boots immediately ran out of power,hurling him to the ground. Although Tony’s armor protected him from serious injury, he fared even worse when he attempted a rematch with Angel. Angel managed to trick the genius inventor Tony into getting himself locked inside a storage building. Upon breaking free, Tony ventured once again to chase Angel into the air. However, having apparently not learned his lesson from their first encounter, Tony’s rockets failed him yet again, and he started falling towards the Earth. With fortuitous timing, Tony’s second plunge to the groundmanaged to snap Angel out of his evil trance, and he swooped down to save the armored hero. Lesson learned, the hard way: from then on, Tony made sure to use rockets that lasted longer than a few minutes. 

1) Getting His Teammates Stuck to Him by Squirrel Girl’s Evil Clone

It’s a long-running gag in Marvel Comics that Doreen Green, aka Squirrel Girl, can defeat Marvel’s strongest characters despite only being able to control squirrels. This plot armor became an issue when Doreen’s evil clone, Allene, tried to take over the world. To steal some of Tony’s tech for her plans, Allene had her squirrels tear off Tony’s armor like it was cardboard and kidnapped him. After Doreen helped Tony escape, the billionaire hero hastily built the Model 53 armor to counter Allene’s squirrel-controlling abilities. He also brought the Avengers as backup, but that’s what Allene counted on. The team walked right into Allene’s electrified floor trap, and all the Avengers but Tony were instantly incapacitated. Allene then grabbed and fired Hawkeye’s sticky putty arrow at Tony, covering him in adhesive goo. Once Tony was all sticky, Allene threw his unconscious teammates onto him. With the Avengers stuck to his suit, any move Tony made risked injuring them. Unable to move, Tony was left at the mercy of Allene. She removed his helmet, knocking him out with a single punch. Doreen eventually defeated Allene, but, let’s be honest, getting turned into a giant glue trap is a particularly humiliating – and sticky – way to be defeated.