Avengers Infinity War was the culmination of over a decade of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We saw the entire cast of the MCU come together to fight the might of the Mad Titan. April 27th, 2018 was the day that the earth’s mightiest heroes came together to oppose the tyrant of the dark quadrant, the day they used all of their might to go against Thanos, and it was the day that they failed. The day that our heroes fell from grace.
The day that Iron Man was stabbed by a piece of his own armor, the day Dr. Strange could not fulfill his duty as the sorcerer supreme, the day that loss of one lived one lead to the death of half of all life in creation, and the day we lost more than just a war. Thanos and his ideology triumphed over that of the Avengers. The universe was balanced by a Mad creature, a cosmic child of the stars trying to bend nature to his will, not realizing that he was breaking the wheel of life while he claimed to simply grease the gears. Although like any other Marvel fan I’m a little bothered by the motivations of Thanos to collect the infinity gems in the movie, I would still love to have him in another movie after Infinity War and Avengers 4.
Because unlike traditional Marvel Cinematic Universe villains Thanos is actually someone who has the tact of battle. His actions have consequences and he’s more than just an obstacle for the hero to triumph over. His way of operations is precise and lethal and his actions are deadly at best and world ending at worst. He has immense power and heroes are barely more than minor inconveniences to the Mad Titan. He knows what he’s after and has a substantial amount of might to control and use his weapons and the resources (the singularities and the infinity gems) to the best and utmost of their abilities.
On the other hand, Tony Stark has been one of the oldest success stories in the pages of Marvel comics. We have seen the character go through countless iteration, we have seen some major setbacks when it comes to the story of Tony Stark and Iron Man. We have seen the character establish itself as a firm presence in the Marvel comic multiverse alongside classic heroes such as Spider-Man and Marvel’s first family (fantastic four). All because of a simple reason. The suit of Iron Man. The character originated from the idea of logical extreme of technology.
Like what If man could build anything conquer anything by using the creativity and innovative capabilities of one’s own mind. What if we could research and create wonders of technological Marvel so sound and so powerful that we don’t need to worry about the physical limitations of our bodies anymore.
What if a man could create exoskeletons of metal coated and filled with weaponry to take down any threat that might come to humankind. That is what Iron Man represents. He’s a force of nature, a man who can control technology on a whim and create wonders to rival the Gods themselves. He challenges species and organisms far above human limits and capabilities and he chooses to take them down with amazing precision for the good of humankind. This man and mind over matter is the premise Tony Stark has lived his life on.
Even his armors like the Thorbuster / Uru armor or the Hulkbuster were mere products of this man’s brilliant mind. He creates exceptional technology to fight monsters who are a threat to our way of life.
Thanos and Tony Stark are essentially two sides of the same coin. They both have n ideology and an unrelenting spirit to fulfill their sense of purpose that conforms to this ideology. The duality here is uncanny, but it is not a couple incidence, not by a long shot. If Avengers Infinity War feels like an Iron Man story to you then you are not entirely wrong because according to this new theory, you are not too far from the truth. It seems that the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe has just been about the development and the story of one single character, yes you guessed it folks, Iron Man.
Now I realize that the premise does kind of sound like that it’s blown out of proportion but I’ve got a couple of movies here that will showcase the evidence and compel you to agree with me, I’ll start off slowly and with the most obvious ones first and then we’ll move to the more complex references and how the writers have chosen to develop the character of Robert Downey Jr over all else.
Let’s start with the obvious one, Captain America: Civil war. Although it was claimed that civil war was a fitting end to the trilogy of Captain America, it feels much more like an Iron Man movie. I mean think about it for a moment. Not only Robert Downey Jr Trump’s Chris Evans in the terms of screen presence and story plot importance in the civil bar but it is, in fact, Tony who loses a friend in battle and the ultimate reveal is much about Stark than Rogers. The revelation, in the end, was concerned with the past of Iron Man, not Captain America. No matter how much they tried to humanize the character of Captain America by showcasing his loyalty and relationship with Bucky Barnes there was never truly a connection between the captain and his audience. We were watching the entire movie from the perspective of Iron Man, not Captain America.
The second evidence I have today to put in front of you is Age of Ultron. Every person who has ever read a comic knows that Ultron was created by Hank Pym and not Tony Stark. Although I don’t condemn Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal and I would never ever say that Tony Stark is not a capable scientist. But the mechanic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has nothing on the genius that is Hank Pym aka Ant-Man. It was arguably the greatest mistake of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when they decided to treat Ultron the way they did.
The only reason Ultron has such a strong presence in comics is that the billing is notoriously known for coming back, again and again, no matter what the Avengers do to put him down. The watering down of Ultron was unforgivable and all for what? So that Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man can save the say and set up the events for civil war. Give me a break. The narrative was weak and the watered down villain was worse than what happened to the antagonist in Iron Man 2.
This brings us to the final piece of the puzzle and here I would like to talk about the inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Marvel movie-verse owes it’s existence to four words at the end of Iron Man (“ I am Iron Man”). Robert Downey Jr was the one who started all this. Even Stan Lee has come out and publicly admitted that this man was born to play Tony Stark. He was the one who was destined to Lea the Earth’s mightiest heroes in a battle against all odds to save the universe and going by Infinity War ending maybe he was destined to fail. We don’t know, we’ll have to wait for Avengers 4 to know more.
But one thing is for sure, no matter who dies and what cataclysmic events that take place in the next Avengers movie Iron Man will survive to foster the next generation. That will be the role of the Iron Man as the godfather of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe we will even find out who will take over the mantle of Iron Man after Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Avengers 4 will come out on May 4, 2019.
The cast is impeccable as some of the biggest names are part of the project including Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Chris Pratt (Starlord), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Idris Elba (Heimdall), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Dave Bautista (Drax), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Samuel Jackson (Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (Mariah Hill), Jeremy Reiner (Hawkeye), Benedict Wong (Wong), Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange), Tom Holland (Spiderman), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlett Witch), Paul Bettany (Vision), Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon), Vin Diesel (Groot), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Josh Brolin (Thanos).
