Iron Man is one of the founding Avengers and one of the smartest people alive in the Marvel Universe. When he's not busy saving the world, Tony Stark can be found enjoying the luxuries that come with being a successful businessman.
Despite the seemingly perfect life, Iron Man has made his fair share of enemies. In addition to a core cable of villains like Mandarin and Iron Monger, Iron Man frequently has to face evil from all corners of the Marvel Universe.
We may be used to seeing the hero come out on town, especially since he's survived three solo movies and looks set to guide the Avengers into battle against Thanos on the big-screen, but even Iron Man gets his butt kicked every once in a while.
We've already covered the times Iron Man crossed over into villainous territory or when he was defeated by his fellow heroes, but now we're ready to share with you the 15 Supervillains You Didn't Know Defeated Iron Man.
15. Godzilla
Godzilla may not be a Marvel villain, but through a series of licensing agreements he's come face-to-face with both the Fantastic Four and Avengers. Between 1977 and 1979 Godzilla starred in his own Marvel comic, but he wasn't depicted as a protector of nature. Instead, Godzilla is a savage beast that, every once in a while, displays some compassion for humans.
In the series' final arc, Godzilla is on a rampage across New York City. The Avengers are forced to stop their game of Monopoly and head to into town to try and stop the beast. Godzilla shows the world why he's king as he handily swats down each of the Avengers. Tony's lasers are worthless against the radiation-powered monster.
As the Avengers stand there facing insurmountable odds, Rob Takiguchi was able to reach Godzilla, persuading him to leave the city alone and return to his life underwater.
14. Norman Osborn
Tony Stark isn't the only billionaire tech tycoon in the Marvel Universe. In fact, he's not even the only one who puts on a costume to live a double life. Norman Osborn, aka Green Goblin, didn't even need his costume to inflict real damage on Iron Man. After the events of Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn successfully positioned himself as one of the key fighters in the struggle to save humanity. With his new golden-boy status, Osborn was given Stark's job as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Under Osborne's control, S.H.I.E.L.D. re-branded itself as H.A.M.M.E.R.. Since the Skrull invasion took place under Tony's nose when he led S.H.I.E.L.D., he was considered responsible for the atrocities of the attack. Osborn directed all the resources at his control to hunt down and arrest Tony.
Desperate to keep his data secure from Osborn's clutches, Tony ended up wiping his own mind. Not only did Tony end up incapacitated as a result of wiping his own mind, but he wasn't able to stop Osborn's goons from brutally attacking Stark Industry personnel around the world as they hunted down Tony and his precious information.
13. Alcoholism
Alcohol destroyed Tony's body in a different way than the rest of these villains on the list. When writers David Michelinie and Bob Layton wrote the story that is now known as "Demon in a Bottle", they looked at alcohol as another traditional villain of the week. While the story arc may show Tony facing villains like Whiplash and Justin Hammer, the real thing holding him back is his dependence on alcohol.
After an armor malfunction resulted in Tony Stark killing a foreign ambassador, he turns to the bottle to forget his problems. Similar to what happens in Iron Man 3, Tony sits around in his home for a while and stews in his misery. His motivation is gone and his desire to right his wrongs seemingly disappears.
Luckily, Tony has friends that try to pull him away from the brink, but his love of booze always hovers over his head in stressful moments.
12. Living Laser
The Living Laser was originally introduced as a full-fledged Avengers villain, but he was quickly relegated to being just a repetitive thorn in Iron Man's side. Originally, Arthur Parks only used his wrist-mounted lasers for small criminal outings.
As silly as this may sound, everyone suspected Living Laser died in a freak, space explosion. In actuality, he was embedded with a massive amount of energy that transformed him into a living photon.
In Iron Man issue #260, Parks attacks Stark harder than ever before. Stark was used to a less impressive Laser, so he is quickly overwhelmed by the intensity of his attacks. He is thrown around the room and shoved into crystalline walls before he makes his final move.
Parks allows Iron Man to get close and believe he has the upper-hand so he can unleash a final move that leaves him in a coma. At one point, Iron Man is even classified deceased by a doctor due to his injuries!
11. Count Nefaria
Luchino Nefaria is a successful aristocrat, a leader of the Maggia, and Madame Masque's father. Unlike his daughter, he has powers like superhuman strength, flight and the use of energy blasts. He's a consistent problem for the Avengers and is one of the founding members of the Lethal Legion, a group of villains who work together for a higher success rate.
In Tales of Suspense issue #67, Nefaria attempts to stealthily take down Iron Man in the hopes it would cripple the Avengers. Thanks to a device he developed, he was able to locate Iron Man's exact location and enter his dreams while hiding in a Nazi bunker in Norway. In the dream,Nefaria summoned copies of the Unicorn and Crimson Dynamo to distract him.
While Tony thought it was just a dream, in actuality all of the injuries he received transferred over the next day. Nefaria concluded the test a success, especially since Iron Man didn't suspect a thing, and began plotting his next move.
10. Venom
The menacing symbiote may be more associated with Spider-Man's corner of the Marvel Universe, but Venom has set his sights on quite a few heroes in his twenty-nine year history.
Eddie Brock turns his sights on Tony Stark in Iron Man #302 because he thinks his corporate nature is a menace to the working class. Venom has misled himself into believing that he is the hero here and that Iron Man is only making society worse.
Due to previous injuries, at this time Stark was essentially stuck in a wheel chair, whipping around his house in a hover-chair. While he may have got in a few good sonic blasts, he was still pretty much a sitting duck when Venom arrived at Stark's house.
Stark thinks a reinforced elevator shaft will keep him safe, but Venom easily rips the lift to shreds and sends it crashing down with Stark still stuck inside.
9. Black Widow
Before Black Widow was an Avenger, she was a Russian intelligence officer willing to do anything to get the mission done. In the Ultimate Universe, her allegiance to a group known as the Liberators never came to a close. Her "allies" on the Ultimates, especially Iron Man, didn't suspect a thing.
Black Widow single-handedly revealed Hulk's identity and framed Thor and Captain America for anti-American behavior, dismantling the public's trust in the superhero community.
After seducing him over a period of months, Natasha accepts Tony Stark's marriage proposal. He even gives her a black Iron Man suit with a set of nanites that are bound to her skin so she can remotely control the armor as an engagement present.
Despite all their time together, she has no problem turning against him once the Liberators are ready to invade the U.S.. After killing Jarvis, she kidnaps Tony and holds him at gunpoint in an effort to extort his fortune from him.
8. MODOK
MODOK, an acronym for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing, means business. There have been multiple people shoved into the goofy armor, but a constant for the character is an affiliation with AIM, an terrorist organization that distributes futuristic weaponry around the world.
In addition to his psionic powers, MODOK's extreme intellect is a perfect match for Tony Stark. He may look goofy with his oversized head and floating chair, but MODOK has proved over and over again that he should not be messed with.
In Iron Man issue #74, MODOK is forced to deal with Iron Man's suit after the Thinker took over his suit. Anger pushed MODOK forward in that moment and he was able to defend himself and even land a few blows.
Upon learning that the Thinker set the armor on his tail, MODOK takes control of the fight, grabs Iron Man, and tracks the suit back to where the Thinker is hiding, dragging Stark along for the ride.
7. Madame Masque
If Tony Stark is the James Bond of the Marvel U, Madame Masque might as well be his Pussy Galore. Well, she doesn't lead a gang of lesbian cat-burglars, but she is one of the key leaders of the Maggia, a mafia-esque group that dominates crime on the east coast. After an accident on a mission to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D., Giuletta Nefaria's face was severely scared, forcing her to wear a mask.
While MM and Iron Man have exchanged blows quite a few times, her hardest hit came when she broke poor Tony's heart. While disguised as his executive secretary Krissy Longfellow, Masque lived a double life.
Part of her truly loved Stark and the life they shared, but when her father's life was at risk she had no problem snapping back to her criminal nature. She kidnapped her lover and tried forcing him to save her father.
Tony was unwilling to save her father due to his evil past, compelling Masque to use some Stark tech to lay the smack-down on her former lover.
6. Doctor Octopus
Otto Octavius is a hateful, jealous man. When he sees that Tony Stark is able to develop technology that is more advanced or praised than his, his rage bubbles to the surface. The fact that Tony is well-loved by the public only makes Octavius hate him even more.
In Marvel Fanfare issue #22, Octavius was able to remotely control a pair of his tentacles to break him out of prison. This caught Iron Man's attention, who quickly went to the prison to try and stop the break-out. After being bombarded by a few other villains, Doc Ock finally makes his move against Iron Man. His adamantium tentacles shred Stark's suit and rip it off his body. Stark is forced to crawl off, defenseless, as he struggles to think up a new way to stop the breakout.
Years later, in Invincible Iron Man #503, Octavius forces Stark to grovel at his feet and call him master as he struggles to stop a bomb rigged to destroy New York City. Yuck.
5. The Ghost
If Iron Man is a living computer, Ghost is a living virus, able to influence technology. After the company he worked for killed his wife because she was about to reveal the fact they forced her to be a call girl, he spiraled into a deep depression. His anger led him to develop a suit out of the state-of-the-art GhostChips he developed for the company so he could have his revenge. Ever since then, Ghost has become a thorn in the side of big Marvel corporations like Roxxon and Stark Industries.
During "The Big Bang Theory" story arc, Ghost was hired by AIM to dismantle the competition. Iron Man, who at the time was working undercover in one of the companies to learn what was happening, tried stopping Ghost but wasn't able to pin him down. Not only did Ghost whip his butt pretty badly, but he escaped without a problem, confident he would kill Iron Man on their next confrontation.
The only thing that saved Stark during their second battle was the fact he had an artificial heart that was able to short-circuit and fry Ghost when he made his final move.
4. Magneto
The Master of Magnetism has come face-to-face with heroes outside of the X-Men on more than one occasion. Sure, Iron Man has a few suits that are non-magnetic, which make Magneto's powers essentially useless, but he's not always prepared to fight someone like Magneto.
Speaking bluntly, though, anyone who's seen X2 knows that Magneto can just rip the iron straight out of someone's blood stream, so it really doesn't matter what suit Stark is wearing.
In Iron Man: Armored Adventures season two, episode 17, Magneto strikes at Tony with everything he's got. Magneto is on the hunt for Annie Claremont, a new, young mutant with intense psychic abilities. When Stark first discovers Magneto accosting Claremont, Magneto has no problem quickly smacking Iron Man down.
Not only is he constricted by pipes, but Tony's even dropped in a dumpster at the end of the fight and laughed at as Magneto makes his escape. In fact, later on in the episode, he easily takes down Iron Man and War Machine simultaneously, showing just how powerful Erik Lehnsherr really is.
3. Fin Fang Foom
Fin Fang Foom may look like a traditional dinosaur-monster-thing, but he's actually a Makluan, a shape-shifting alien. He and his crew crash landed in China during the 8th century. While his crew shifted into humans to try learn about society before attempting their conquest of Earth, Foom transformed into a beast and entered into hibernation under a tomb in case his team needed assistance.
He's been awaken multiple times, but the first time he came face-to-face with Iron Man, it was the Mandarin that pulled him from his slumber. He used Foom to threaten the Chinese Government as he attempted to claim power for himself. Iron Man arrives on the scene to stop his rival, but is quickly taken down by Foom.
If it wasn't for a change of heart from the Mandarin, who combined the power of his ten rings with Iron Man's suit to defeat the beast, Foom might have destroyed China and continued to rampage across the Marvel Universe.
2. Hulk
Bruce Banner and the Hulk may be a hero now, but there are multiple instances where he seems more evil than incredible. His most destructive attacks came during World War Hulk, when he led a team of galactic warriors against the Earth's Mightiest Heroes on a revenge-fueled quest to take down the heroes who voted to exile him in space.
Iron Man doesn't have multiple variations of his suits for no reason; each one is specifically equipped to handle certain threats. Some allow him to travel in the deepest reaches of space while others let him go toe-to-toe with the Hulk. The heavy duty armor allows him to survive some of Hulk's strongest punches, but it isn't enough for him to come out on top. Not only did Hulk quickly and handily defeat Iron Man, but he even destroyed Stark Tower in the process.
The Hulkbuster armor can be seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron as the team - mostly Iron Man - tries to incapacitate Hulk as he rages across South Africa.
1. Doctor Doom
Let's be real, to anyone who has read Secret War it's pretty obvious that Doctor Doom can (and technically has) beat every hero in the Marvel Universe. Not only are both characters technological geniuses, but they both wear suits of armor that can defend them against most types of attacks. In fact, Doctor Doom's armor is even capable of blocking Stark's scanning capabilities.
The two have crossed paths multiple times, and even had to work together to build a time-machine to escape Camelot, but Doctor Doom's mystical abilities usually gives him the slight edge needed to win.
The best skirmish between the two of them comes from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode titled "Infiltration." Doom easily breaks into Iron Man's base and toys with him as he sends him flying across the room. He's even able to easily repel all of Iron Man's attacks with the simple wave of a hand.
At the end of the fight, it was revealed that Doom needed Stark's help to track down the Skrull invaders. For a man who needs some help he sure doesn't know how to ask nicely!
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Are there other unexpected supervillains who've defeated Iron Man? Let us know in the comments!