Warning: SPOILERS for Invincible Iron Man #1
Marvel's Iron Man is repeating a deadly Civil War mistake, and it's cost him everything (literally). Tony Stark has major character flaws that define his time as a comic book hero, and unfortunately, one of them is repeating his classic mistakes. Invincible Iron Man #1 proves this by pointing out one of Iron Man's biggest failures over a decade ago - and insinuating that he has learned nothing from the experience.
Iron Man had an incredibly difficult 2022. During Christopher Cantwell's Iron Man run, Tony Stark became stranded on an alien planet with a morphine addiction, as well as a devastating injury that forced him to keep his helmet on at all times. While he eventually escaped the planet, he fought the Godlike Korvac, obtained the Power Cosmic for himself, and proceeded to increase the intelligence of every citizen in New York. The "gift" blew up in his face and nearly destroyed the city, and Iron Man relinquished his power, only to nearly succumb to a morphine overdose. At least he still had his resources - but his vast fortune was quickly eliminated.
In Invincible Iron Man #1, written by Gerry Duggan with art by Juan Frigeri, Iron Man flashes back to the events of his battle with the arms dealing company Source Control. The group has an astounding amount of exotic weapons and devices of mass destruction, and Tony cannot allow them to continue operations. Posing as a buyer, he uses his entire fortune to procure the stockpile. Tony succeeds, but Iron Man is officially broke, having used his billions to buy up every weapon imaginable. Unfortunately, he didn't dispose of the weapons...he kept them all.
Iron Man Can't Help Stockpiling Power - And Failing To Protect It
Iron Man, perhaps more than any other Avenger, cannot help but stockpile power himself - but has no idea what to do with that power once acquired. When Tony Stark became the director of SHIELD in the aftermath of Civil War, he created numerous teams across America, and every single one of them used Stark technology. Come the Secret Invasion crossover event of 2008 and the invading Skrulls were able to hack said technology, all thanks to Stark and his misuse of power. Iron Man ended 2022 with hundreds of powerful weapons in a warehouse - but he should have destroyed them long ago.
It appears Iron Man has hit rock bottom thanks to his spending spree on exotic weapons, but his real failure is his inability to communicate with his team. This entire affair would never have happened if Tony Stark simply told the Avengers his plan regarding Source Control. Now Iron Man can only wait until those weapons are used against him, thanks to his own paranoid nature.