Iron Man Gets The Spider-Man Treatment In His New Series

Spider-Man knows what it's like to be bullied by the very civilians he's been trying to protect, and now Iron Man gets a taste of the same lowly pie.

Warning! Spoilers for Invincible Iron Man #1 ahead!

It's no secret that Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most downtrodden suits, but now Iron Man's new series puts the armored Avenger in the public eye, with some humorous results. The comics show that while superheroes are beloved in our world, they often face the highs and lows of popular opinion within their own universe.

Tony Stark knows better than most that sometimes you need to peel back and rebuild better. That's why Gerry Dugan, Juan Frigeri, and Bryan Valenza's Invincible Iron Man #1, after draining his vast fortune to purchase all of the world's most dangerous weapons of mass destruction and store them in secret locations that only he Best friend James Rhodes, who just squatted in the basement of an apartment complex, knew. Meanwhile, he's doing his best to remain the city's defender, but he's really taken aback when an unknown enemy hacks into his device and sets off an explosion that levels the entire building. Several of his neighbors are injured, one dies, and Tony pays for the bodily damage - but those whose name is in his honor don't disappear with the check.

Iron Man Finally Knows What It's Like To Be Spider-Man

Iron Man is one of the most notable qualities of a superhero In fact, he never has to wear the same outfit twice. But here, his famous pantheon of armor has been pared down to just one: the Mark 70, which blends vintage aesthetics with the latest technology. That means when it gets damaged like in an explosion, he just has to stitch it back up and make it work - something Spider-Man has struggled with throughout his career and only recently got Norman Orth Ben's encouragement. Of course, just one piece of armor wouldn't kill Tony, after all he only had one when he started his superhero career. But navigating this dangerous chapter with half the city thinking he's an unstable lunatic while the other half is figuring out ways to prosecute him? That's a different story.

There is a great deal of debate about what responsibility superheroes must take to mitigate collateral damage during their epic encounters. Hulk can level a town in an hour, whether or not he's with the good guys that day. Who's going to pay for the minivan he used to smash Juggernaut in the head? For some opportunistic Manhattanites, the answer is red, gold and rich people everywhere. When Iron Man fell through an office window, he asked employees if they saw him get punched, and one employee replied, "I looked up, and all of a sudden, you screwed up my office!" Despite your efforts Protecting it, yet it is underappreciated by the public is a paradox that Spider-Man knows all too well, having been labeled a menace since his teens. Tony even says to himself about the dynamic: "You know things aren't going well when you start to feel like Spider-Man in New York City."

But one key difference is that Tony's identity isn't a secret. While hostility towards Spider-Man may affect Peter emotionally, Tony would immediately feel any threat or difficulty directed at Iron Man, and vice versa. So in a way, he might actually be worse than a webhead. But seeing how he now lives not far from the city, maybe Iron Man can get some advice from Spider-Man on how to be a friendly neighborhood hero.

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