Here's a bunch of stuff I often hear about him, so I decided to make a take to say whether it's true or not.
1. He's the smartest Marvel character.
False. He's not even in the top 5.
This is debatable but I'd say that the smartest character in the Marvel universe is Thanos, but that's if we include cosmic-level characters. For the longest time, Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) and Doctor Doom were considered the smartest characters on Earth with Hank Pym (the first Ant-Man) coming in close. It's debatable that even Bruce Banner is smarter than him. Now Tony is arguably the best engineer in the Marvel universe but there are characters who are better scientists and master strategists.
Now I don't exactly agree with the above pic since I do think Tony is smarter than T'Challa but that's debatable too. Intelligence is relative.
2. He's the wealthiest Marvel character.
False. Black Panther has 5 times as much money.
Iron Man has $100B but Black Panther has $500B. He owns the most technologically advanced country in the Marvel universe and has a monopoly over the world's supply to vibranium.
3. His armors can easily be taken out with an EMP.
False. Most of his recent ones are EMP-proof and some of them have EMPs installed.
Honestly though, I'd say it's more of a plot device. It depends on whether the writer wants it to happen. There are times when EMPs have worked.
4. He can normally defeat the Fantastic Four.
False. He can't even beat any of them one-on-one (except Thing).
I'm only referring to the original four so characters like Franklin Richards and Ghost Rider don't count. And let's be real... All of the Avengers combined couldn't beat Franklin.
Let's start with Human Torch. He can literally generate the heat given out by a supernova. Hulk has managed to withstand this attack but Iron Man has never shown that he can. Johnny was also considered a genius when he was in high school. Now Iron Man would probably beat him if he was in character but he wouldn't last long against a blood-lusted Torch.
Invisible Woman would destroy him in more ways than one. It's funny how she was once considered the weakest character since her only power was that she could turn invisible. But for decades now, she's been the most powerful member after discovering her all of her abilities. She could even beat him when he's wearing some of his most powerful suits.
Now I could see him beating Mister Fantastic in a random encounter but give the dude enough prep and he would stomp. Reed Richards had the title of the smartest character on Earth for the longest time. Tony does specialize in suits but he's never created time machines and portals to other dimensions. If anything, Reed could quickly create a disintegrator ray and get him out of the suit.
The only character he can beat is Thing. Thing can lift around 70 tons with his bare hands but Iron Man can lift 100 tons with a standard fully-powered suit (and 175 tons with Hulkbuster). So he's indeed stronger. He's also a lot faster, can fly, and has energy projection on his side. Ben might manage to damage his suit a little, but that's it.
5. He was once the most powerful superhero on Earth.
True. It happened when he had the Bleeding Edge armor.
Now you have to keep in mind that many of the characters were not on Earth, some of them were dead, and some had given up being superheroes.
Either way, Bleeding Edge is one of the most powerful armors. With this, he managed to win against Red Hulk (which wasn't really a fight but a stomp) and held his own against a mind-controlled Thor.
Now the best part about this armor is how it actually works. This entire armor is inside his body. It's made of nano-tech that come out whenever he wants them to. So he can suit up whenever he wants to and it happens much faster.
This isn't his most powerful armor since I can name more powerful ones, but I'd rather have this than any other one because it's not useful only during fights but also for everyday use.
The nano-tech can be commanded to turn into any type of structure on his skin. The nano-tech can turn into clothes, other armors, or even different beings completely, by having the nano-tech change their properties into whatever Stark wants them to be. He could create a something like a lightsaber with it if he wanted to.
They also fight a lot of injuries and make him immune to all diseases. They helped him fight cancer at some point. While wearing this, he also challenged Wolverine to see who could heal faster from injuries.
6. He's the best at robotics and AI.
False. Doctor Doom and Ant-Man are better at it than him.
I'm not talking about Scott Lang but the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym. I'm just gonna point this out for people who get their knowledge from the MCU.
Fun fact: Ultron was created by Ant-Man in the comics; not by Iron Man.
Now Pym does have better feats since he created Ultron, but I still think that Doom is better since that's pretty much the field he specializes in. He has an entire army of doombots.
7. He can't fight without his armor.
False. He once defeated three shapeshifting Skrull aliens with his fists alone.
He's actually been trained by Captain America. He's not among the best Marvel fighters and would lose against someone with more rigorous training, but he's well above average.
He's also picked up skills from just looking at Black Widow, Black Panther, and Iron Fist.
8. Most of his "Busters" have been successful.
False. Only one of them was.
Even the Hulkbuster actually failed in the comics. I was disappointed when Hulk got defeated in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Here are all of the ones that I know of.
• Hulkbuster - Failed
• Thorbuster - Failed (Thor didn't even need Mjolnir)
• Anti-Transformer (in the Avengers/Transformers crossover) - Never used
• Hulkbuster Mark II - Failed
• Phoenix Killer - Failed
• Anti-Magneto - Successful
• Galactusbuster - Never used
9. He has an armor made using the same metal as Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
True. He has an Uru Armor that's enchanted by Odin.
He sometimes calls it the Iron Destroyer. It's basically an enchanted version of the Bleeding Edge Armor, enhanced with Asgardian magic and covered in Asgardian Uru metal.
The event he's referring to in this panel is Thor's death.
He did not design this armor per se; He simply plunged himself, armored-up, into a vat of molten Uru, which was then infused with the divine will of Odin. He emerged with the new armor complete and finished. In appearance, it strongly resembles the Destroyer - the invincible mystical armor created by Odin.
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