Hey guys!
Welcome back to Top 10 Nerd, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Iron Man is insanely popular nowadays; he’s super cool and it seems like Marvel can do
no wrong with him.
But there are certain things that not everyone knows, sometimes because it’s obscure and
sometimes because it makes Marvel look bad.
So let’s talk about some of these things you might not know about him!
Now of course, the big comic fans might know some or all of these; if you do, good on ya!
But keep in mind that not everyone’s as smart as you!
Now get ready, it’s time for the Top 10 Iron Man Secrets that Marvel Doesn’t Want
You to Know About!
Number 10: Tom Cruise was almost Iron Man.
Hoo boy, I bet he’s kicking himself for this one.
Before Robert Downey Junior was selected to be Iron Man, Tom Cruise was slated to be taking
on the mantle.
Unfortunately for him, he decided to turn it down because he didn’t think it would
be anything special.
I’m gonna go ahead and say he was wrong on that one, but frankly I’m glad he didn’t
take the part because Robert Downey Jr. is the absolute perfect casting.
Number 9: Tony was once the Secretary of Defense.
In the comics, Tony Stark spent some time working for the US government as Secretary
of Defense.
Really, he’s kinda the best man for the job, having defended the country in more ways
than anyone ever has.
It was a rather short-lived tenure, but it was pretty cool to see.
This was even referenced in the film Iron Man 2; when Tony was at a congressional hearing,
he told Senator Stern that he’d be happy to take a position as Secretary of Defense.
While we’ve yet to see it actually happen in the films (and by the looks of things,
probably won’t) it was a nice bit of fan-service, and gave us nerds something to chuckle at
and feel superior.
Number 8: The meaning of Jarvis.
If you’re an Iron Man fan, you’ll know the good ol’ AI Jarvis, who would later
become part of Vision.
I mean he doesn’t exactly BECOME him but you know what I mean.
It’s complicated.
But one thing that was never really said outright in the films was what exactly JARVIS stands
for.
Well, prepare to be disappointed.
Or give a slight chuckle.
Because it stands for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System.
Apparently Tony’s creativity doesn’t extend to naming things.
Fun fact, Paul Bettany didn’t actually know what film he was working on while recording
the voice for JARVIS; he just did it as a favour to Jon Favreau.
Good call Favreau.
Number 7: He fought his teenage self.
Well, his teenage self from an alternate universe fought him when he was hypnotized and working
for a supervillain.
Then he sacrificed himself.
Then he merged with his teen self.
Yeah, there’s a reason not many people know about this.
In the Crossing storyline, it turns out Tony was under the control of the evil Kang/Immortus,
so the Avengers had to fight against both Kang and Tony.
And they go “Well, let’s just get another Tony!” and get his teenage version from
Earth 96029.
The two end up fighting it out and old Tony breaks out of the mind control and sacrifices
himself to save the day.
And later he and Teen Tony were merged by Franklin Richards into one Iron Man.
This is the kind of thing that Marvel would love to forget about, but it’s fun to laugh
at the less awesome storylines.
Number 6: Mr. Doll.
Look, Iron Man has some pretty lame villains, but Mr. Doll is definitely one of the worst.
He uses a little voodoo doll thing that he can shape to look like someone, then he can
use the doll to control that person.
Can you think of why he’s crap?
Well, for one, he needs to change the doll when he sees you, so if you just attack quickly
he’s just a guy in a stupid hat.
But even if he does get his doll created in time, he just has the one.
So like, if he’s attacked by TWO heroes… or even just two regular people… he’s
pretty useless.
Marvel tends to keep him on the down low, not using him anymore, and I think it’s
safe to say that they’d be happy if he disappeared forever.
Number 5: Ultimate Iron Man.
Man, this whole thing was just weird, and a pretty low point for Marvel.
The Ultimate comics certainly had some redeeming qualities, but they went super weird with
Tony Stark.
In this reality, Tony was born with his brains strung throughout his body, causing his skin
to be extremely sensitive.
So his father decided to blue him.
By which I mean, of course, he gave him a blue armour made of computronium that made
his skin look blue.
Why, what did you think I meant?
This was stupid not only because it looked really dumb, but because it could be washed
off with antibacterial soap.
It pains me that it’s dumb because it was written by Orson Scott Card, who also wrote
one of my favourite books of all time, Ender’s game.
But maybe it’s just karma getting him back for the ridiculous stuff he’s said.
I’ll just stick with Ender and Bean.
Number 4: Originally, he had to keep charging himself.
While many people nowadays are used to Iron Man being powered by the arc reactor like
we see in the movies, in the comics he had to keep charging his suit to keep himself
alive, something that almost killed him a few times.
This was a pretty dumb mechanic that has since been removed, and it won’t be coming back
soon.
And thank goodness, because it was just silly.
It wasn’t even a special charger.
Just a regular power cord plugged into the wall.
Yeah, definitely glad the movies didn’t take that route.
Number 3: The sexy Riri incident.
Here’s one thing that Marvel really doesn’t want us to know about, because it caused them
some problems in the past.
When Riri Williams, or Iron Heart, was introduced, some fans were upset at how sexually she was
drawn, considering she’s just 15.
I kinda understand both sides of this one, on the one hand the guy did keep it pretty
close to the image he was given, but on the other hand she IS 15 and she could probably
look a bit younger and a bit less sexualized.
My question is, have these people not heard of anime?
If they think this is bad, they’d explode if they watched an episode of High School
DxD.
Number 2: Tony Stark is Based on Howard Hughes.
You may not know about Howard Hughes, considering he died well before most of us were even born,
but the dude was basically Tony Stark minus the heroism and shiny metal suits.
Hughes was a handsome playboy billionaire inventor and adventurer.
Now who does that remind you of?
Hughes also showed some pretty eccentric behaviour, obsessed with sorting peas by their size and
even living in a screening room for four months straight without leaving.
He’s basically Tony Stark personified, and based on his face and name it really looks
like Marvel continued this trend by basing Dominic Cooper’s Howard Stark on Howard
Hughes himself.
Pretty neat.
Number 1: Rocket Skates.
Here’s one that Marvel would definitely hit the delete button on if they could.
Because hoo baby is it dumb.
I can’t imagine I have to explain why it’s stupid to you.
I mean, first of all, roller skates just look stupid, and they look even stupider on a heavily-armoured
Superhero.
Second, IRON MAN CAN FLY!
Why are you going around on roller skates when you can just frickin fly?
The funniest part is that apparently Tony built these to be used in the military, and
the idea of a bunch of commandos scooting along the road on roller skates is just too
much.
That’s it for today!
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10 Nerd for more videos!
Who do you think would be a good replacement for Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man?
Let me know in the comment section down below!
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Top 10 nerd.
Later nerds!