Iron Man's Overload Armor Was Marvel's Perfect Magneto Stopper
To stop Magneto from destroying all human life, Iron Man's Overload armor managed to stop the villain before he ripped apart a world overcome by dangerous technology. In a What If...? Marvel Comics story, Tony Stark's massive Overload armor was one of the last lines of defense as Magneto threatened to wipe out humanity after seeing an arms race develop in a world where Stark sold his Iron Man technology to the highest bidder. With the mammoth suit of armor, Iron Man showed how to stop Magneto and prevent his powers from destroying him.
Magneto is Marvel Comics' master manipulator of metal, whose powers are the perfect counter to some of the stronger heroes in the universe. For example, the villain's ability to manipulate metal made powerful characters like Wolverine look weak, as Magneto can rip his adamantium bones off and tear his body to shreds. Another hero Magneto has been super effective against is Iron Man, as his metal suits have made him vulnerable to the X-Men bad guy's attacks. While Stark has developed anti-Magneto armor before, his greatest defeat against him came within one of his most ridiculous suits ever, his Overload armor.
In What If...? (#64) Iron Man Sold Out by Simon Furman, Geoff Senior, Sarra Mossoff, and Richard Starkings, the comic imagines a world where Tony Stark patented his Iron Man technology. However, the advanced weaponry and armor fall into the wrong hands and starts an arm's race across the globe. Heroes are replaced by Iron Guard soldiers, the Fantastic Four are killed by Doctor Doom using his tech, and powerful Sentinels are made to wipe out mutants. Saddened and ashamed by what his tech has done, Stark goes into hiding - where he ends up building a suit capable of taking down Magneto and stopping the arm's race in the process.
Iron Man's quest to take down Magneto, as well as the armors and tech that fell into the wrong hands, nearly leads to him sending the Marvel Comics universe into the dark ages. If his Overload armor exploded, it would have nullified technology across the globe. Magneto tries to stop Iron Man, but the advanced polymer construction of his suit makes the villain useless against the giant armor. Stark stops Magneto, which leads to a feel-good ending where the hero's reemergence causes the Sentinel program to be shut down.
While things wrap up quite neatly, given the story is contained in a single issue, Iron Man's Overload armor proved to be the perfect Magneto stopper. The villain's attacks proved ineffective, while Stark was able to stop him and prevent the world from falling into further chaos. Iron Man might be weak against the X-Men antagonist in most scenarios, but in this Marvel Comics story, his armor was built to be the perfect counter to Magneto's powers.