Warning! This article contains spoilers for Iron Man #15
Tony Stark's Iron Man is one of the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe, though the Avenger does have a dark side that oftentimes rears its ugly head, and after the events of his latest comic, Iron Man no longer deserves to call himself a hero. Iron Man has been responsible for saving the world on countless occasions, however, after being granted the power of a cosmic god, Iron Man extinguished all life on an entire planet and then didn’t give it another thought.
In Iron Man #15 by Christopher Cantwell and Ibraim Roberson, Iron Man is imbued with cosmic energy granting him the power of a god. The issue sees Iron Man battling it out with an equally powerful Korvac and the two are hitting each other with relentless amounts of world-ending blasts of energy. In their cosmic battle, a planet filled with intelligent life is destroyed, but Iron Man doesn’t seem to care at all In the middle of the fight, a number of cosmic entities including Death, the Living Tribunal, and Eternity show up and deem Korvac guilty of creating a cosmic unbalance but let Iron Man go free. Iron Man returns to Earth, not giving the death of an entire world another thought.
The issue is in part chronicled by the sole survivor of the planet Iron Man destroyed, who would die of his injuries by the end of the comic as a way of showing the fallout of Iron Man’s indifference. Not only did Iron Man kill billions of lifeforms, he made no effort to fix his mistake when the fight with Korvac was over. Korvac, who had the same godly powers as Iron Man, wanted to use his abilities to reshape the universe in his image. If Korvac was capable of doing that, Iron Man could have used his gifts to restore the world he destroyed, but instead he gloated to Korvac about his victory then went back to his homeworld, leaving the cosmic desolation behind him.
The destruction of an entire world wasn’t the first time Iron Man exhibited signs of villainy. As a member of the Illuminati, he was instrumental in the banishment of the Incredible Hulk to the planet Sakaar, an event that sparked the nearly world-ending event World War Hulk. Not only did Iron Man betray his friend and fellow Avenger, but he nearly helped destroy the whole planet as he had to take a portion of the responsibility for the Hulk’s destructive return.
Iron Man is, for the most part, a hero. His intentions are usually for the greater good of the planet, but sometimes his narcissism leads him to make the wrong decision because he believes he knows best. Sometimes it leads him to not care about a critical situation at all. Iron Man let his narcissism and lack of concern for his actions' consequences blind him in this latest issue. Because of this latest act, which cost the lives of billions of lifeforms, along with past Iron Man should no longer be able to call himself a hero.
