Tony Stark May Have Saved The Universe, But He Is The Source Of Many Problems In The MCU
We all know him by now: genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, not to mention superhero. Tony Stark has been an essential part of the MCU for years. He’s done a lot for that universe, both good and bad, and all of it has had a lasting impact. Today we’re going to focus on the bad.
One undeniable example of his impact would be the creation of Ultron. While Bruce Banner had a hand in his creation, the A.I. was still created primarily because of what Tony saw when dealing with the attack on New York. Tony using Loki’s scepter for studying and eventually for building Ultron, led the A.I. to become sentient.
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After New York, he had become a lot more paranoid. This led to the construction of more suits and droids, including the Iron Legion collection. Ultron took pieces of this squadron to armor himself, even taking their visage for his physical form. Essentially, Tony inadvertently provided sentience, protection, and power to the A.I., further worsening the situation.
Another issue that lingered because of him was the continued creation of Stark weapons. Before he discontinued the weapons program at Stark Industries, the weaponry was getting into the wrong hands. That wasn’t inherently Tony’s fault, of course, but his inaction let it happen. Not only did it lead to internal company corruption, but it caused damage to real people.
This includes Sokovia; much of the trauma the Maximoffs harbored came from an S.I. bomb blowing their home up. The Scarlet Witch did a lot of mental damage to Tony, making him more paranoid and causing him to make bad decisions. She did a lot of damage to the world and universe as well, the events of Multiverse of Madness being one example of many. Maybe the damage would’ve been done to Wanda no matter what, but you can’t deny that Tony had a hand in her creation and that she, in turn, caused him to make paranoid decisions.
There was a consistent issue with Tony and job snubbing on a less galactic, earth-shattering level. One prominent example is Mysterio and the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home. The primary antagonists were people who, in some way, were snubbed or inadvertently wronged by Tony. Not only did their actions cause extreme property damage and strife for Peter, and Spider-Man’s secret identity was revealed. This triggered further issues, eventually snowballing into the events of No Way Home.
Earlier in the Spider-Man franchise, we learn that Tony ended up putting a lot of people out of a job post-New York. So he took over the cleaning job to have more control over the alien tech, putting in a new crew. This led to the origin of the Vulture, the first Spider-Man antagonist for Tom Holland’s take on the character.
Spider-Man villains aren’t the only ones that he is responsible for. Other villains, like Aldrich Killian from Iron Man 3, can have their origins at least semi-linked back to the man. With Killian in particular, while Tony isn’t responsible for his future actions, he could have treated the villain nicer than he did initially. Unfortunately, that rude and flippant attitude frequently got him into trouble.
Finally, taking it down further, Tony didn’t have the best relationship with the government. His history of a flippant and disrespectful attitude gave him a reputation. Then, he worked with the government and agreed to sign the Accords over siding with and listening to Team Cap. That’s not inherently bad, but it caused a lot of strife with the other heroes.
Tony can be traced back to many issues in the MCU, even though he wasn’t causing them maliciously. He wasn’t perfect and did what he thought was right, but bad things still happened. Ultimately, he gave up his life to save the universe, but it makes you wonder if that outcome was truly inevitable or if it could’ve been avoided. Of course, this isn’t an all-encompassing list; is there any other problem you can think of that ties back to Tony?
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Source(s): Iron Man MCU Wiki, Ultron MCU Wiki