Marvel mainstay Iron Man is desperately in need of a reboot. Since his MCU counterpart achieved an all-time great superhero death scene in Avengers: Endgame, it has felt like the comic book version of Tony Stark is stuck in a rut, spinning his wheels, and, as a character, being used to tell the same story again and again.
Marvel is normally averse to full-stop reboots of its heroes, but it is the simplest, best solution for Iron Man.
Why? Because Marvel has arguably lost sight of what made the character an icon in the first place. It seems like dialing him all the way back to his origin story presents the greatest opportunity to truly reconnect with Tony Stark.
A “Hard” Reboot Would Be A Bold Choice For Marvel’s Iron Man, But It’s The Right Move
Marvel Comics’ Tony Stark Needs A Reset
First, it’s important to define “reboot,” because it can mean different things, and come in different forms. Generally speaking, though, there are two categories: “soft” and “hard” reboots. “Soft” reboots offer a new paradigm for characters, and a new starting point for readers, while not necessarily negating the stories that have come before.
Current examples of this in Marvel Comics include the new Mortal Thor series, in which Thor is reduced to the status of an ordinary human being, and the latest volume of Captain America, which gives the hero’s post-WWII origin story a 21st-century update. In fact, Marvel’s last several Iron Man books have been “soft” reboots of sorts.
By contrast, a “hard” reboot wipes the slate clean and puts a character, or in some cases, an entire fictional universe, back at square one. This is the bold decision Marvel needs to make in order to revitalize Iron Man: to make the hero tabula rasa again, a blank canvas on which his definitive story can be painted.
Marvel Has Made Iron Man A Perennial Underdog, But It Doesn’t Fit Tony Stark’s Character At All
Marvel’s Iron Man Comics Have Lost Touch With Their Hero
There is a common bit of storytelling wisdom which says it is easier to write underdog characters than it is to depict characters at the top of their game. It’s not unreasonable; stories, especially superhero stories, are about struggle, and it is generally more compelling when a hero has all the odds stacked against them, and valiantly overcomes them in the end.
The last several volumes of Marvel’s Iron Man have all taken this approach, finding ways to divest Tony Stark of his wealth, his resources, and even his armor whenever possible. These stories have invariably made Stark’s arc a matter of being outgunned, but not outwitted. It is a classic superhero formula, but it strikes a dissonant chord with Iron Man stories.
That is, Tony Stark was never an underdog. And he was never meant to be. That doesn’t mean he can’t occasionally be at a disadvantage, far from it; rather, it highlights how Marvel has increasingly struggled to find stories for Stark in his natural milieu, as a high-tech industrialist who doubles as a superhero.
Tony Stark’s Best Hope For A Renaissance Is To Cast Aside Decades Of Lore And Start Over
What Iron Man Can Learn From Marvel’s Latest X-Men Reset
For sure, Marvel could rediscover Iron Man’s roots with a soft reboot. So why advocate for a hard reboot? And what would that look like? The simple truth: continuity is a double-edged sword. When past storylines influence present ones in the right way, it can be narrative magic. Again, look to Mortal Thor, and the Immortal Thor run that preceded it.
Often, though, the character’s past can also manifest as weight that puts undue pressure on the current story. For an example of this, look to the last year or so of X-Men storytelling, which has often felt very much like a soft reboot that wants to be a hard reboot.
X-Men‘s current slate of titles have generally excelled when establishing their own new paradigm, yet faltered when connecting too closely to the previous Krakoan Era. Tony Sark’s lore has become burdensome, and as such, his stories would benefit greatly from a full reset, even if that means killing off the “original” Iron Man.
Marvel “Canon” Isn’t What It Used To Be, So It Shouldn’t Be A Burden On Iron Man
Tony Stark Deserves A Clean Slate
Marvel already has a proven track record with a hard reboot of Iron Man, in the form of the current Ultimate Universe incarnation of Tony Stark. But again, this character feels the weight of Marvel’s Multiversal history, and of other versions of himself, upon him, in a way that dictates his story.
Alternatively, Marvel could give the “present” version of Stark another classic hero’s death, and focus on stories set in his past. These might take cues from classic Iron Man lore, but they would be better suited creating new canon for the hero, rather than elaborating on what has already been done.
Comic readers know that “canon” doesn’t mean what it used to in Marvel Comics anyway. As such, fans’ priorities should always be to get the best stories, and the best versions of their favorite heroes, as Marvel can possibly deliver, rather than worrying about how those stories fit into an existing picture.
For Iron Man, that might mean detaching from the character’s lore and returning to what made Tony Stark a unique hero in the first place. That is to say, it is a matter of looking back to the character’s history as inspiration, without letting it be a limitation, which is what Iron Man needs to thrive.
- Movie(s)
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Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3
- Character(s)
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Iron Man, Pepper Potts, War Machine, Iron Monger, Whiplash, Aldrich Killian
