Iron Man's Missing 33 Suits Could Appear In The MCU Soon

33 of Tony's Stark suits could appear for the first time in the upcoming Phase 4 Disney+ show Armor Wars. Tony Stark's death has been felt by many MCU characters. The Avengers have lost their main sponsor, Spider-Man has lost his last father figure, and heroes like Hawkeye have lost their tech supplier. Another side effect of Iron Man's absence is that the void he leaves attracts villains who will try to either take Stark's place or reverse-engineer his technology for nefarious purposes.

Copying Iron Man is something that has been attempted several times before. Villains such as Obadiah Stane, Ivan Vanko, Justin Hammer, and Adrian Toomes all have used Iron Man technology for their own benefit, for instance. But now that Tony Stark isn't there to defend his creations, it will be much more difficult to control the potential copycats. This only gets worse with the fact that 33 Iron Man armors may be stored somewhere, ready to be acquired by the villains of Armor Wars.

Between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Tony Stark went from the Iron Man Mark 50 suit to the Iron Man Mark 85. It's known that he also worked on Pepper Potts' Rescue armor after Thanos' Snap. While Tony could have made 33 unfinished prototypes of the Mark 85 Iron Man armor in order to perfect his nanotechnology, those missing suits could still be used by people who don't have a similar set of morals. Unlike the 30+ suits of the Iron Legion that Tony Stark built before the events of Iron Man 3, it was never confirmed that Tony disposed of the Iron Man armored suits between Mark 50 and Mark 85, meaning they could appear in Armor Wars.

War Machine, Crimson Dynamo, and Tony Stark's Iron Man Armors

If those suits are still operable, the villains of Armor Wars could steal them, just like Vulture scavenged Stark tech in Spider-Man: Homecoming or how Echo acquired the mysterious Avengers watch in Hawkeye. Perhaps a private company could find a way to obtain them with the excuse of research, similar to how the government received Steve Rogers's shield from Sam Wilson and turned John Walker into their own Captain America. This would be a logical way to bring back the Iron Patriot, who would make the conflict even more personal for Rhodey Rhodes and would likely earn a spot alongside US Agent and Yelena Belova in the Dark Avengers.

Consequently, Riri Williams' debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could focus on setting up her desire to build her own Iron Man suit, while Armor Wars could pay it off by letting her get her hands on one of Tony Stark's missing Iron Man suits. Whatever she learns from the Wakandans can give her an edge when she dons the Ironheart suit, which could become the key to defeating the rest of the Iron Man copycats. After that, Ironheart and War Machine would be the last official Iron Man-inspired heroes standing.

Whether Tony Stark's missing suits are in shape to be transformed into brand-new suits is uncertain, but they present an opportunity that goes perfectly in line with the premise of Armor Wars. Iron Man continues to influence the MCU well into Phase 4, so it would be no surprise if Stark's attempts to build the perfect armor to face Thanos becomes the source of his best friend's biggest battle so far.

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