MCU is known for its teases, easter eggs, and long-running gags. Most of these hints are often in the background or mixed in conversations. However, one gag stretched almost a decade without much as someone addressing it. Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, worked as a superhero for more than a decade and went through great physical and mental trauma. And for some reason, his left arm is always the victim. It probably became the biggest weakness of Tony Stark.
He got this injury in the very first Iron Man movie back in 2008. He fell hard on his left arm wearing his Mark II suit. All his weight, plus the suit’s, came down to a single arm. The movie had a scene where Tony was using ice to minimize the pain. And despite every one of his tactics to protect himself better, this arm is a frickin’ punchbag for villains. Over the years, the injuries became more and more severe. Here are all of them listed chronologically.
1. IRON MAN 2
2010’s Iron Man 2 saw Tony Stark under attack at the Monaco Grand Prix right in the middle of the racecourse. During the constant whips by Whiplash, one of them caused a little fire on Tony’s race suit. And guess where?! The left arm. Even though this wasn’t much of an injury, however, it was the first of a series.
2. IRON MAN 3 (2 INJURIES!)
This movie featured his arm under duress twice! First, we see him fall directly on his left arm when he lands in Tenessee. Afterward, in the following scene, we see him using snow as an ice-pack for his shoulder. If this wasn’t enough for the developers, the arm suffers another injury when Aldrich Killian rips off the suit from his left arm.
With all the acres and joints in his armor, ripping off one of its arms would not have been good for the arm underneath it. By this time, this was just a gag. However, the creators took it too far when the recurring event occurred outside the trilogy.
3. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
During Tony’s attempts in stopping Hulk, he calls upon the Hulkbuster suit. And Hulk being Hulk, he smashes the hell out of that suit. And one of the notable bits during the fight was when Hulk rips out the left appendage of the armor. Even though he replaced the arm almost instantly, this could have easily been the end of his real arm.
4. CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
In this movie, the action directors took it too far in Tony ending up wearing a sling. This was during his fight at the Airport when Wanda made cars rain over Tony. We even see Tony referring to these injuries to Natasha. He says, “My left arm is numb, is that normal?” This might have seemed sarcastic at the time but after so many injuries, some nerve damage was bound to happen. Also, later in the film, during his fight with Bucky Barnes, he lands a little too hard on his arm. If it was my arm, it had been long gone!
After all these injuries, the directors finally decided to stop. Although, the past injuries did take a toll on him. During one of his scenes in Tom Holland-led Spider-Man: Homecoming, we can see him in an Indian wedding where his left arm was shaking as he drank from his glass. This would have been just coincidental, however, is anything really co-incidental in the MCU? In addition to this, he was also seen tending to his wrist when he gets out of his suit after the ferry mishap. You might not have noticed this at that moment but that’s why we are here, right?!
Tony Stark, in all his armor of glory, but beneath that, he is just a human-like any other. However, even in the suit, he couldn’t escape the problems of a common person. One could say that Steve suffered a whole lot more than him. However, Tony doesn’t have the luxury of super-healing. If something hard hits him, it sticks with him for a long time. Also, his injuries were more of a trophy to him than some penalty. These little things made him a more relatable character and I guess that’s why he was the most liked character of the MCU.
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