In addition to just realizing that Tony Stark is a supervillain mad scientist who doesn't want to do evil things thanks to @WearyKatie I now also realize he's an extreme hobbyist. How so? Think of it this way. He's had all his armors destroyed several times now.
But then, a year or so will go by, and someone will do a story where he's forced to wear an older suit and he's all "wow, this thing's so old and primitive" but we saw that armor get destroyed! How does he still have it?
He actually went and rebuilt it just for display purposes.
He actually went and rebuilt it just for display purposes.
And he didn't just do a suit that LOOKS old but has modern techniques in it -- he went to the trouble to remake the older transistor powered suits WITH THE TRANSISTORS IN THEM. He rebuilt the old grey suit exactly as it was. At least five times now!
Tony Stark is, in addition to a compulsive who is constantly designing new suits for niche uses, a complete armor hipster who will go back and rebuild an exact working replica of his nose faceplate roller skate armor exactly as it was, like that guy who cobbles hi fi turntables
"Tony, why did you..."
"Look, I thought it looked more approachable."
"Okay, but it got destroyed last year, why make it again?"
"Because there was a hole in my collection."
"Look, I thought it looked more approachable."
"Okay, but it got destroyed last year, why make it again?"
"Because there was a hole in my collection."
And let's not even mention the fact that he just KEPT putting Roller Skates onto the armor. This is the suit Rhodey wore for a while, and it STILL HAD ROLLER SKATES.
Or fins! He loves fins, and keeps finding a way to put fins on the helmet. He knows that it's silly, but he just keeps doing it. To be honest, the original fin head Iron Man armor is probably my favorite.
I honestly find Tony Stark a lot more fun if you imagine that he's this obsessive armor hobbyist who can't stop thinking about new armor designs, but also loving the old designs so much he just remakes them for fun.
I kind of regret the Armor Wars storyline because it makes him seem more a cranky Randian obsessed with his intellectual property, and I kind of love that he instead embraced Riri Williams when she started reverse engineering Starktech. I'd love it if Iron Man was an armor nerd.
"Tremble before Doom!"
"Yeah, okay, but first, how'd you solve the heating issue with gauntlet based lasers like that? I went with palm mounts but yours look like they're integrated through the gloves."
"I used a thermocouple in oscillating sequence..."
"To dissipate it! Yeah!"
"Yeah, okay, but first, how'd you solve the heating issue with gauntlet based lasers like that? I went with palm mounts but yours look like they're integrated through the gloves."
"I used a thermocouple in oscillating sequence..."
"To dissipate it! Yeah!"
There's a bit when Doom and Iron Man got sent back in time and they have to work together to cobble together a time machine out of their armor, and Doom says something to the effect of "If Stark's lackeys are this clever the man himself must be almost on my level."
