Iron Man in the MCU is an iconic leader and member of the Avengers. The first Iron Man film started the entire MCU as we know it, and Tony Stark has been an extremely popular character ever since. While Iron Man has many great qualities and inspiring moments, there are also some things about the character and the Iron Man movies that haven’t aged well.
Whether it be outdated tropes about gender or important issues that weren’t handled correctly, here are the ten things about Iron Man that haven’t aged well.
The idea that being a jerk is somehow irable
One of the overall personality traits of Tony Stark, at least in the beginning, is that he’s a bit narcissistic and flippant. He doesn’t always treat people with respect, and he enjoys ribbing people or messing with them.
While he does have more comion deep down than it might seem, the idea that being abrasive or a jerk is a good thing isn’t a positive trope. It’s also troubling because this trope usually only applies to straight white male characters.
That he had too much power in the world
While in the films you’re meant to side with Tony over the government, and this does make sense in a lot of ways, there’s no denying that at points Iron Man has way too much power. He can fly all over the world and has nearly infinite resources at his disposal.
While he might be a good person overall, any singular person being able to have the power that he has is a dangerous thing. While this is brought up at times in the films, it’s not questioned enough.
The reality of how rich Tony Stark is
Going hand in hand with how much power Tony has is the fact that he’s a billionaire. He is rather flippant about this fact and proud of it even though his money largely came from the fact that he inherited great wealth.
Given discussions these days about income inequality and disparity between the rich and the poor, the fact that IronMan is a member of the 1% is a little harder to take as a casual thing.
The true horrors of his weapons manufacturing
Most of Iron Man's wealth comes from the Stark Industries weapon’s manufacturing. While he might not realize exactly where his weapons are going, the very idea of making so much money off of creating deadly weapons of mass destruction is hard to ignore.
It seems highly unethical, and it definitely is troubling that it took Tony having a horrible experience of his own for him to think about the horrors of the weapons he created.
He was quite hypocritical about the Accords
During Captain America: Civil War, the issue of how much power superheroes have is brought up, and it’s definitely an interesting and important point to address in the MCU. While Tony clearly has a lot of guilt from his past over killing innocent people, he is rather hypocritical with the Accords.
While he might them in theory, he clearly never really intends to follow any government oversight. He still wants to do what he wants at the end of the day, and he’s powerful and rich enough it would be hard to stop him.
The troubling relationship between Tony and Howard
While the MCU doesn’t get into too much detail about the relationship between Tony and his father Howard, the moments it points to aren’t very promising. There’s an undertone of neglect and possibly abuse there, but it’s never really explored.
While it’s clear that Tony gets a lot of his self-destructive tendencies and anxieties from how he was brought up, the MCU ignores all of this and turns Howard into a seemingly wonderful parental figure in Endgame, and this feels irresponsible.
How the films ignored his issues with alcohol
In the first couple of Iron Man films before Disney took over the rights to the MCU, it was clear that Tony had some issues with alcohol.
This was an interesting addition to the character that has a basis in some of the comics, and the fact that this thread was dropped entirely wasn’t great. It could have been handled on a mature, realistic level, but instead, this fact was sanitized to fit in with Disney's more family-friendly audience.
How Tony objectified and used women
Another thing that Disney mostly got rid of, but this time for the better, was how objectifying Tony Stark could be toward women. He was at first shown as quite the player, and he wasn’t that respectful in how he hit on women.
Even hitting on an undercover Natasha in front of Pepper in Iron Man 2. The story was also problematic because his redemption in this area seemed to be predicated on finding a good woman to tie him down, and this is an outdated trope.
When he abandoned his friends after the Snap
So much of Iron Man’s story arc in the MCU revolves around him trying to find family. He is clearly invested in the other Avengers as a found family and is devastated when he loses that. While he does also find a family in the form of a spouse and child, the fact that he is so quick to ignore his close friends doesn’t make a lot of sense.
He pretty much seems to completely distance himself from all of them and doesn’t participate as an Avenger. He also is reluctant to help them try to undo what happened. The message that the only people that should matter in your life is a more traditional family unit is definitely an outdated one that needs to go.
His relationship with Pepper Potts
While Tony and Pepper are one of the most popular canon MCU ships of all, there are things about their dynamic that could have used some updating. In their early relationship, Tony was her boss and didn’t treat her well as a boss by any means. This power dynamic in and of itself hasn’t aged super well, but what’s even more troubling is that he wasn’t a great partner to her even after they started dating and he promoted her.
He didn’t pay attention to her enough to even know she was allergic to strawberries. Their dynamic definitely feels outdated with Pepper cast as the nagging woman who wants her boyfriend to settle down.
