It’s 1987 and Tony Stark’s technology has been stolen. His technology is now being used by a roster of armored villains. It’s Tony’s worst nightmare: his technology being used to hurt people again after he made an effort to stop dealing weapons. Now, he seeks to destroy all the armored suits based on his designs, but he also has to fight his own internal demons.
Armor Wars is a critical storyline to understanding Tony Stark in Marvel Comics and a dramatic journey of one man’s battle with guilt and responsibility. It’s an underappreciated storyline with some amazing art by Mark D. Bright and Barry Windsor-Smith. However, with Stark dead in the MCU and Don Cheadle’s Rhodey up to bat for the upcoming Armor Wars movie, the question is how all that will change given how specific Armor Wars is to Tony’s comics storyline. In the interest of understanding the upcoming movie, which lead Don Cheadle says will be true to comics lore, here is a break-down of the Armor Wars Marvel Comics storyline and some theories for how it could fit into the MCU.
Armor Wars Comics Storyline
Marvel Comics
Armor Wars is a classic self-destructive Iron Man storyline. His technology is stolen by a figure known as the Spymaster and then sold to various villains who used their own armored suits. These villains then integrate Stark’s designs into their own technology. For Tony, someone who originally became Iron Man because of his guilt at being an amoral arms dealer, this is exactly his worst nightmare: his own technology being used to hurt people on a large scale. Stark subsequently decides to go on what can only be described as a rampage, attacking these armored villains and then destroying their technology with special circuit packs.
Armor Wars effectively put Stark into conflict with an array of colorful armored villains, from Stilt-Man to the Russian Crimson Dynamo. However, it also put him in conflict with the superhero side of the world. His attack on the US Agent Stingray led the Government to want to shut down Iron Man. Furthermore, he fought S.H.I.E.L.D. and destroyed several suits of armor he created for them. Tony also ends up starting a fight with Steve Rogers that temporarily destroys Captain America’s trust in him. The entire situation leads Tony into a self-destructive spiral. He is even kicked out of the West Coast Avengers and then eventually nearly killed by an employee of Justin Hammer. Eventually, he comes back to defeat that employee, named Firepower, but much of the damage from the events of Armor Wars is already done.
Armor Wars Epilogue, Explained
The most effective moment of the Armor Wars comics storyline is an epilogue in which Tony seemingly has to fight a metal monster. It is slowly revealed that the monster is a symbolic stand-in for Tony himself, and that he is dreaming. The section deals with a lot of Tony’s demons, his alcoholism, his guilt, and his own terror that he becomes the monster of his own story.
Ultimately, Armor Wars is an unhappy tale. Tony faces what is his worst nightmare, and goes so deep into his fight against the machines he created that he ends up alienating many of his friends and allies. In the end, despite disabling all the suits based on his technology, it might have all been for nothing. The epilogue makes it clear that he can’t really fight the monster he’s created and the guilt that comes with it. He has to accept that his inventions have claimed lives.
How the Comics Storyline Could Fit Into the MCU
Marvel Studios
We should get the elephant in the room out of the way first: Tony Stark is dead. Iron Man sacrificed himself at the final battle of Avengers: Endgame to kill Thanos and stop his marauding army. This is a bit of a problem for Armor Wars, which is wrapped up so much in Tony’s guilt and self-destructive habits. If Tony were alive, Marvel Studios could adapt Armor Wars straightforwardly into a fourth Iron Man movie. However, now the mantle of lead role in this film has been passed to Don Cheadle’s War Machine.
This is concerning, but also very exciting. One problematic possibility is that Disney adapts the premise of Armor Wars, essentially of people stealing Tony’s invention, but not entirely the themes. Armor Wars could work as a straightforward storyline of Rhodey beating up all the people who stole from Tony, but fundamentally that would be a waste of an incredibly emotional story. A more interesting possibility is that Rhodey begins to go down a spiral of self-destruction. Exploring Rhodey’s character, much like Sam Wilson in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, could be very interesting. It will be a challenge to find what could make Rhodey go down a similar spiral, as he is a lot more level-headed and straight-laced than Stark, but it is critical to the adaptation to capture the tone. Whomever is the main character of Armor Wars has to grapple, on some level, with the guilt and suffering from Tony’s legacy of invention.
There is plenty of opportunity for cameos in the storyline too. The West Coast Avengers, led by Hawkeye, appear briefly in the storyline. Steve Rogers appears, so if they wanted to do an homage to that, they could have a fight between War Machine and the new Captain America, Sam Wilson. It’s also an opportunity to see a whole roster of different villains. A return of Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer could also be really great to see. One of the villains mentioned who may have used Stark Technology but didn’t end up actually in the comic was Doctor Doom, whom the MCU is likely going to include in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Whatever Disney does, hopefully they realize that this storyline is not your usual comic book storyline. Someone has to suffer throughout the movie. A typical happy marvel movie isn’t really going to capture the spirit of the comic book Armor Wars.
