While Iron Man might be arguably the main character in most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, he’s also one of the most controversial. He’s loved by many fans, but there are others who have many issues with him. This is also the case within the world of the MCU. While many people love Tony Stark, he also makes a lot of enemies on the way.
While Tony goes through a lot of character development and tries to be a hero and a good person, there’s no denying he makes some big mistakes and has many flaws. We’ve put together a lot of Iron Man’s best and worst decisions.
In the first two Iron Man movies especially, it’s made clear that Tony turns to things like hooking up and alcohol to deal with his inner demons. This is an interesting aspect to the character, but it’s also overall a mistake.
It takes him a lot of years to realize that he needs to rely on people close to him, such as Pepper and Rhodey, instead of turning to harmful vices.
This is obviously a great decision, so because it’s so obvious, it’s not higher up on the list. While it would have been ideal if someone else with actual superpowers could have snapped the gauntlet in Avengers: Endgame, there wasn’t any time.
Tony had the gauntlet, so he had to make the sacrifice in order to save the universe. This was the correct, albeit heartbreaking, decision.
One thing in the MCU that often gets made fun of is how many people don’t like Tony Stark. It’s a little overplayed that people who got annoyed or hurt by Iron Man end up becoming villains in the universe, but Killian was one of the first of this pattern.
While Killian still is responsible for his actions, it does show that Tony could have been kinder and less dismissive of others when he was younger.
While fans often talk about how big of a deal it was that Tony Stark sacrificed himself with the Gauntlet, the truth is that he showed he would make the sacrifice play all the way back in The Avengers when he took the nuke up into the wormhole to save the lives of millions of people.
While he had more of a chance of surviving in this instance, it was still quite slim. Tony showed all along that he was willing to be a hero by sacrificing himself.
Captain America: Civil War is a movie that still divides many fans. The fact is that both Captain America and Iron Man had some valid arguments, but they were both wrong in how they handled the situation and escalated the problem.
While Steve also lied to Tony about things, and that was wrong, Tony should have told Steve and their others about the Accords ahead of time since he knew.
For many years, Tony Stark isn’t really a great boss at all. Pepper had to put up with a lot from him on a business and then eventually a personal level.
So, when Tony finally gave her the title and leadership role she deserved, it was definitely the best decision he could have made. She was a much better person for the job than Tony or anyone else.
Probably one of the most obvious mistakes that Iron Man ever makes is to create Ultron. Despite not really consulting any of the other Avengers, except for Hulk, he makes a decision that has disastrous consequences.
This was a rash and reckless choice that put way too much power and control into Tony’s hands, and while he didn’t foresee Ultron becoming what he did, it was way too risky to make an AI like that.
While this decision happens pretty early on in Iron Man’s story in the MCU, it’s still a very notable one.
Unfortunately, it took Tony going through something traumatic at the hands of his own weapons to do something about this, but he at least finally made the right decision. He also at least tried to make up for all of the bad he had done in the world even if he’s not always a perfect hero.
While many fans still seem to be at odds about this point, the fact is that it was the wrong choice in many ways to try to kill Bucky. Tony knew he had no actual autonomy over his own body when HYDRA forced him to do this, and he realized he was a victim.
It makes sense that Tony would act irrationally but trying to kill him made Tony wrong in this situation. He also should have realized that Steve Rogers would never allow this, and it ended up further ruining any chance of them making up.
While both Steve and Tony made many mistakes in Civil War, they were right to finally forgive each other and work together again. It might have taken them years to get to that point, but it was rewarding to see them become friends again and help lead the Avengers to defeat Thanos.
It was the right decision for the world, the Avengers, and for their friendship.
