History YMMV / IronMan

** Even the criticisms that she got into heroics for less-than-noble intentions (which is a ''creative'' interpretation of her character) seem to ignore how many other superheroes, including successors, had less-than-heroic origins. Tony Stark himself was ''intentionally'' a prick when first introduced, [[ComicBook/AntMan Eric O'Grady's Ant-Man]] was a genuine sociopath who only used the Ant-Man suit for selfish gains, ComicBook/BoosterGold was a glory hound only seeking fame, ComicBook/{{Stargirl}} was a teenaged brat trying to spite her step-dad, ComicBook/WallyWest spent his early days as Franchise/TheFlash charging people for saving them, etc. Like, in comparison, her abrasive personality is pretty tame.

** ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' and the aftermath. Before ''Civil War'', there was his FaceHeelTurn during the terrible "Crossing" storyline that led into Teen Tony and Heroes Reborn. Thankfully, much of that was retconned out in ''Avengers Forever''.

%%** The less said of his [[FaceHeelTurn horrendous]] [[LawfulEvil portrayal]] in ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', the better.

** Tony's alcoholism, although his actions in ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' are catching up in their effect on his reputation.

** ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' and the aftermath. See StrawmanPolitical, below. Before ''Civil War'', there was his FaceHeelTurn during the terrible "Crossing" storyline that led into Teen Tony and Heroes Reborn. Thankfully, much of that was retconned out in ''Avengers Forever''.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: As mentioned frequently here on this page, Riri was an extremely polarizing character upon her introduction, with the main criticisms being her often abrasive personality and inadequate set-up as a decent hero. Under the direction of other writers (including the aforementioned Jim Zub and Eve Ewing), opinions toward her softened considerably, with some former detractors stating Brian Michael Bendis just didn't do the best job with setting her up.
* RonTheDeathEater: This is very common in fanfiction because of the "Invading Latveria" story arc. It's often pointed out that in her intent to both arrest and embarrass Lucia von Bardas, she conquered a sovereign nation without thinking anything of the potential ramifications. Naturally, fanfiction interprets her as some iron-fisted ruler.
** Also notably a lot of the aforementioned issues noted about; as written, she's an awkward and somewhat abrasive kid who's too smart for her own good but not mature enough to use it, so the interpretation she's a sociopath is a ''massive'' case of this.

** As discussed in the StrawmanPolitical section, they could have had an interesting plot in which Tony is forced to go to more and more extreme measures to enforce an act that would hold responsibility over all other things, something he believes in due to his own shortcomings. Instead, they decided in some books to turn Tony into a power hungry fascist and decided accountability = slavery. Also he's a war criminal now. Apparently believing in responsibility is akin to amorality.

** ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' and the aftermath. See StrawmanPolitical, below. Before ''Civil War'', there was his FaceHeelTurn during the terrible "Crossing" storyline that led into Teen Tony and Heroes Reborn. Thankfully, much of that was retconned out in ''Avengers Forever''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Iron Man 258.1-258.4, also known as ''Iron Man: Armored Vengeance'' in trade paperback format, reunited David Michelinie and Bob Layton to tell a non-canon story based on Layton's original ''Armor Wars II'' plot that didn't see the light of day due to John Byrne taking over the comic and running his own oddly named ''Armor Wars II''. While a fan favorite in its own right, Byrne's version had nothing to do with the original ''Armor Wars''.

** Creator/BrianMichaelBendis' run, which is naturally the case due to Bendis' controversial reputation among Marvel fans. The fact it leads into [[ComicBook/CivilWarII a particularly controversial event that lead to a company-wide]] DorkAge probably doesn't help, though some felt that Tony's book was one of the better parts. An especially ''major'' factor was introducing Riri Williams, not to mention expanding on the already-controversial Gillen plot point about Tony being adopted and the 'mystery' of who his birth parents are.

* DorkAge:
** ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' and the aftermath. See StrawmanPolitical, below. Before ''Civil War'', there was his FaceHeelTurn during the terrible "Crossing" storyline that led into Teen Tony and Heroes Reborn. Thankfully, much of that was retconned out in ''Avengers Forever''.
** The [[http://www.againwiththecomics.com/2008/05/things-you-wont-be-seeing-in-iron-man_01.html Iron Nose]]. It was hated so much that the comic had fans at a convention wearing armor replicas without the nose and telling Tony Stark how hideous it looked.
** Riri Williams taking over as the lead character, under the moniker of ComicBook/{{Ironheart}}, while Tony is in a coma. Crosses into BrokenBase as quite a few liked Riri, but it's hard not to argue it was an odd direction to take, not helped by the fact it was set-up by ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'', a story ''more'' infamously controversial as the first one, as its predecessor at least had the benefits of ''some'' good tie-ins.

* NightmareRetardant: In ''Tony Stark: Iron Man'', Tony struggles with the idea that, since he cheated death by growing a clone of his body and downloading his consciousness into it, there's a distinct possibility that he isn't the true Tony Stark, [[TomatoInTheMirror just a copy.]] After all, he doesn't share a single cell with the pre-death Tony. This would be somewhat compelling... [[CriticalResearchFailure except the human body does the same thing naturally.]] Because of constant cell death and replication, your present-day body does not share a single cell with the you from, say, five or ten years ago. Fantastical, roundabout way of it aside, Tony is absolutely the original and is kind of being an idiot.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Following Civil War, there was an arc where Tony voluntarily wiped his memories to stop Goblin, turning himself into a vegetable. While recuperating, he insisted on finding out what he did against a revived Steve Rogers's wishes. Cue a huge MyGodWhatHaveIDone as he reads about what he did to enforce the Registration Act, which resulted in Steve's arrest and death. Even though Tony logically concludes he would have made the same decisions as his memories return, the guilt doesn't leave him.
** When Marvel did a sequel Civil War story to capitalize on the MCU film based on the original, Tony was made the leader of the pro-freedom side.
** Ironheart's often-callous behavior was a major source of derision for her character. When writer Jim Zub took over for ''ComicBook/Champions2016'', he reframed Riri as having NoSocialSkills and being InnocentlyInsensitive, with other characters also taking note of her behavior.
*** Her... [[NeverLiveItDown insensitive]] behavior was also examined in her solo, where Riri worries that she might be evil and cites some of her past actions. It becomes a source of angst for her, especially when she finds out [[spoiler: her biological father]] is evil.

* UnfortunateImplications: When Rhodey returned to life after ''Civil War II'', he suffered a clear case of PTSD relating to dying in the War Machine suit. As a result, he refused to don the armour again, instead piloting the Manticore mech with regular pilot controls. It was later revealed that his PTSD was a result of a defect in how his body was recreated, and it was ironed out completely so that he could be War Machine again. As can be expected, the implication that a veteran's completely legitimate PTSD from '''being killed''' is just something that can be ironed out and is a "defect" [[https://screenrant.com/marvel-iron-man-tony-stark-ptsd-comic/ did not go over well]].

* CompleteMonster:
** [[SociopathicSoldier Wong-Chu]] started off as Iron Man's [[StarterVillain first major villain]], but later [[FromNobodyToNightmare became something worse]]. In the original version of Iron Man's origin, Wong-Chu was an Asian warlord who ran a POWCamp. After Tony Stark was injured while visiting a war zone, Wong-Chu captured him and brought him to his camp, so that Stark could make weapons for him. Stark instead made the Iron Man armor, not before Wong-Chu's men killed Yinsen, the kindly scientist who helped Stark create the armor. Wong-Chu was about to order his men to kill all the prisoners in the camp, but he was seemingly killed during a battle with Iron Man. Wong-Chu managed to survive and reappeared in in 2000's "The Sons of Yinsen" storyline. Deciding to become a drug lord, he opened a more brutal camp in a remote Asian jungle and kidnapped villagers to work as [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slaves]] and produce narcotics for him. The Sons of Yinsen, a group that revered the original Yinsen, informed Stark of Wong-Chu's camp. Iron Man and his allies attack the camp, discovering that Wong-Chu also uses children as slaves. When Iron Man and his allies confront Wong-Chu, Wong-Chu is sitting on a [[NothingButSkulls throne made of human skulls]]. Wong-Chu threatens to murder two dozen slaves if Iron Man and his allies don't surrender. When they do surrender, [[ILied Wong-Chu executes them anyway]], then [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures]] Stark and his allies, before planning to execute them, taking them to a pit filled with thousands of corpses of murdered slaves.
** [[MadScientist Basil Sandhurst]], better known as "the Controller", is a recurring foe of Iron Man's with a penchant for mentally tormenting countless innocents. Left crippled by a lab accident caused by his own malicious ego, Basil reacted by blaming the world and turning his own brother and hundreds of innocents into living batteries as he became the Controller. The Controller seeks to [[MindControlDevice enslave the minds]] of millions over the years, happy to leave his victims as zombified puppets for him to leech off of, and engages in copious amounts of MindRape, PsychicAssistedSuicide, and enforced GladiatorGames for his own amusement, his victims often aware of their fates but unable to stop the suffering. After a scheme in which he threatened to have dozens of mothers kill their own children fails, the Controller returns for his grandest scheme yet, using VR [=eScape=] to transform swathes of people who believe they're in a video game into mass murderers and suicide bombers, with countless innocents dying in the bloody conflicts that the Controller masterminds through [=eScape=] in his quest to see every mind in the world under his control.
** [[ManipulativeBastard Obadiah Stane]], AKA Iron Monger I, after seeing his father shoot himself during a game of RussianRoulette, reached two conclusions: that life was a game you had to win at, no matter the cost, and that his father was a weakling who left too much to chance. During a childhood chess match, when paired against a boy who was his equal or better, Stane [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals slit the boy's pet dog's throat]] to make sure his mind wasn't on the game. Becoming a CorruptCorporateExecutive, Stane defeated Tony Stark in a corporate buyout, and engineered his psychological breakdown, reducing Tony to living on the streets as a homeless, alcoholic vagrant. When Tony returned as Iron Man, Stane wasted no time in kidnapping his friends and loved ones, going so far as to try and brainwash one of Tony's former girlfriends into becoming his lover, not out of interest, but to drive in the fact that he had won; he then set off a bomb at the Circuit Dome to kill Tony with no compunction about collateral damage. When Tony arrived to confront him, Stane revealed he'd set up a chamber with Tony's loved ones subject to receiving electric shocks should he take a step to free them, intending to force Tony to starve to death in the room. When Tony beat Stane's game, Stane played his last trump card: Tony would surrender or Stane would use his own suit to [[WouldHurtAChild crush a baby's skull]]. [[SoreLoser Once beaten]], Stane opted to hurt Tony and deny him victory the only way he could: [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]].
** Vol. 3 (''The Invincible Iron Man'') issue #50 ("Tin Man"): [[InsaneAdmiral General Milos Radanovich]] is a [[RenegadeRussian genocidal Russian war criminal]] who [[WarForFunAndProfit stokes a race war]] between Christians and Muslims within Siberia after the fall of the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain. A raving sadist who has innocent people massacred entire streets at a time, Radanovich once crushed the hands of a man for playing music, then [[ForcedToWatch forced the man and his young daughter to watch]] as his wife was raped and tortured to death. Meeting the aforementioned daughter years later as a grown rebel, Radanovich boasts that with a hundred women like her, he could breed the imaginary, perfect Russian race of his dreams.

* Tony is capable of doing questionable things trying to help people, and a lot of his ''Civil War'' appearances have him doing this (the cloned Thor and Negative Zone camps being the most notable of them), but some fanworks ''really'' like to play up Tony as a reprehensible dictator who would cross more lines than the Punisher to enforce what he calls justice, even after it all came to an end.

** The current run seemed to have made a RunningGag out of Tony [[http://whatjanesays.tumblr.com/post/132547184608/tony-no-dont-you-really-shouldnt-this-is repeatedly mentioning how handsome Victor von Doom's restored face looks like.]]