It’s a new day for Tony Stark, as he officially ditches his iconic Iron Man codename. Tony has used the name since 1962, fighting alongside the Avengers in a cutting-edge suit of his own design. However, a major transformation has redefined Tony’s place in the Marvel Universe.
Tony Stark Has a New Codename, Ditching ‘Iron Man’
In a Dark New Era, Tony Stark Rules
In today’s Iron & Frost #1 – from Cavan Scott, Ruairí Coleman, Roberto Poggi, Yen Nitro and Joe Sabino – Marvel lore jumps ten years into the future. Part of the Age of Revelation event, the comic shows how the villainous Revelation’s forces attacked the Avengers, plunging Avengers Mansion into a literal pit. When Emma Frost revisits the scene of the attack a decade later, she discovers a transformed Tony Stark, now calling himself the Iron King.
Tony has been turned into a mutant by the X-Virus that has ravaged America, apparently spending the decade afterwards working on a cure for those affected. With his X-gene forcibly activated, Tony is now a literal Iron Man with metallic skin. However, with the Avengers gone, he’s associating with a very different organization – one which demands a king to lead it.
Is Tony Stark’s Iron King Still a Hero?
As the Iron King, Tony has resurrected and taken over the infamous Hellfire Club – a syndicate of felonious mutants who made a fortune via their criminal empire, traditionally ruled by a Black King. The new Hellfire Club is based out of the sunken Avengers Mansion, acting as a secret base for a new group who oppose Revelation’s regime. As an unauthorized force within Revelation’s mutant kingdom, Tony is automatically a ‘criminal,’ but is he a ‘villain?’
In the attack that destroyed the Mansion, Emma Frost was badly injured, forcing her to remain in her diamond form despite it cutting her off from her telepathic and telekinetic powers. When she eventually revisits the scene in hopes of getting help from Tony, she’s warned that, “The man you knew is gone, Emma.”
Ten years is a long time, and with a villainous mutant taking over America and killing most of his friends, it isn’t clear how different Tony is in this new era. ‘Iron King’ is a name the hero would never have taken under normal circumstances, but it’s possible that Tony’s outlook has changed as much as his body.
Our Take on Iron Man’s Transformation into the Iron King
Age of Revelation promised some huge changes to Marvel’s status quo, with a ten-year time jump to justify some truly gigantic twists. In the case of Tony Stark, Marvel is telling a story it never could in the mainstream, with his transformation into the Iron King turning him into a rebel hero who is standing against the most powerful nation on Earth. It’s a thrilling story to tell, and one that’s only possible in the specific context of this event.
Future issues will expose how far Tony has truly fallen, but it’s clear that the Age of Revelation is a place where the outright heroic Iron Man could never survive. Facing an enemy who it may be impossible to bring down, Tony has become a guerrilla operative, and his new codename signifies his loss of idealism and his embrace of darker tactics. Alongside the Avengers, Iron Man could afford to be a hero – but in the Age of Revelation, an Iron King may be humanity’s only hope.
Iron & Frost #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.
- Died
-
2023 (in the MCU)
- Alias
-
Iron Man
- RELATIONSHIPS
-
Jude (biological father), Amanda Armstrong (biological mother), Howard Stark (adoptive father), Maria Stark (adoptive mother), Arno Stark (brother)