Iron Man’s omnipotent upgrade through the Power Cosmic has him compare himself to Jekyll & Hyde. Here’s if the Armored Avenger is right.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Iron Man # 18, now on sale from Marvel Comics.
Everyone has their own personal demons and even the Invincible Iron Man has his fair share of anxieties and a dark side to his outlook in the Marvel Universe. This volatility has been magnified ever since Tony Stark was imbued with the omnipotent potential from the Power Cosmic, transforming into a god. And while Tony may be one of the most powerful figures in the Marvel Universe, his flaws have similarly been amplified with his cosmic upgrade. This had led Iron Man to admit that he is something of a Jekyll & Hyde figure; a saint and a sinner all at once capable of wild mood swings.
This confession comes in Iron Man #18 (by Christopher Cantwell, Lan Medina, Frank D’Armata, and VC’s Joe Caramagna) after Tony used his powers to lash out against his friends who planned to strip him of his cosmic powers. Realizing how far he has grown out of control after embracing absolute power, he broke down and revealed his inadequacies and longstanding personal issues to Hellcat. The drive to defend the Marvel Universe, either as Iron Man or working with the Avengers has fueled the distinction between the two sides to Tony’s personality, including just dangerous Tony’s dark side can be.
Prior to creating the Iron Man superhero persona, Tony was an arms dealer and war profiteer, developing advanced weaponry and selling them to the highest bidder around the world. More than just a means to escape captivity, Iron Man was forged as a means of redemption for Tony. He continued to operate as Iron Man and an Avenger to spread peace and quell the violence he had benefitted from financially for years. However, as much as Tony focused his efforts on being a better person through his superhero activities, his personal life continued to descend into shambles through neglect.
This parallels Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1886 novel The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, with Jekyll obsessed with separating his darker impulses from his personality completely. This leads him to develop a serum to ostensibly remove this hidden volatile side only for it to cause him to transform into the uninhibited Hyde. Hyde was an alter ego that pursued his most violent urges unfettered across Victorian London. Interestingly, the Marvel Universe has two visible twists on the Jekyll & Hyde dynamic, both with the Hulk and the longtime supervillain Mister Hyde, with mad scientist Calvin Zabo inspired by Stevenson’s novel to unleash his bestial form through his own serum.
Tony is being hard on himself in his evaluation of his entire life, plagued by lifelong feelings of inadequacies informed by an estranged relationship with his father, but the parallels are there. Both Jekyll and Tony were striving to improve upon themselves though Iron Man became a figure for atonement while Jekyll was literally trying to conquer his own inner demon. The Power Cosmic has indeed corrupted Tony and brought out his worst impulses but he is far from the only character in the Marvel Universe to break bad when imbued by omnipotence.
In many ways, Tony Stark will always be his own worst enemy, obsessively working to please a disapproving father who is no longer in his life. The Power Cosmic has exposed Tony’s deeply held flaws but the Armored Avenger does need to give himself more credit as someone that has actively defended the world for years. Iron Man is not without his faults, but he needs to remember that there is a man under the iron mask, and one just as nuanced and complicated as any human being.
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