Warning: Spoilers for Iron Man #5 below!
It's no secret that Marvel's Tony Stark's development wouldn't be nearly as compelling. His toxic desperation to be the world's savior has left a blaring mark on his reputation in both the MCU and the comics, but Tony's ego has arguably been more out of control than ever in Christopher Cantwell and Cafu's current Iron Man series.
The first few issues of this fresh new take on Iron Man have seen Tony upgrading his trademark superiority complex to an all out god complex. Not unlike Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan, Stark's been experiencing a real disconnect from humanity, questioning whether or not people are even worthy of his saving anymore. It's all in response to the public's recent turning on Tony, as they criticize his life of privileged luxury and lack of ability as a billionaire tycoon. In issue 3 of the series, Iron Man eerily hovers above the skyline as he looks down on the world and ponders to himself, "I don't have to play by your rules, you know. I could just do what I want… See if you make it on your own." For a chilling moment, it seemed Tony was taking the first steps into full-blown supervillain territory.
Luckily, the recent return of the nefarious Korvac brought Tony back down to earth some. With his consciousness now ed into a new android body, Korvac's been one step ahead of Iron Man as he follows through on his mysterious plans to save everyone, or at least that's how he sees it. Korvac may be influenced by intentions of saving the universe, but Tony knows from first hand experience that when any one person takes on the responsibility of "fixing" the world, it always ends in disaster. It takes Tony being outwitted and outmatched by Korvac to finally realize they're more alike than he'd care to outwardly it.
In the most recent issue, a one-page layout shows Tony standing on a New York City rooftop in the rain as he contemplates Korvac's immeasurable intellect and arrives at an epiphany. "I have to it, a small part of me…wonders if he really does know better," Tony thinks to himself. Up until now, Tony's been seeing himself as above everyone else, with his frustrations stemming from the fact that the public lost their trust in him despite his belief that he knows best. Like a vengeful god, Tony was lashing out, but now he sees the error of his thinking reflected in Korvac. "I can't count how many ideas I've had about how to save the world. How sure I've been. And how I've been wrong basically every time," Tony concludes.
What scares Tony most is the thought that Korvac might be smarter than him, that he may have actually cracked the code on how to save the entire universe. But it's precisely this fear that anchors Tony back to reality enough to recognize how often his own ego has misled him. This insight will undoubtedly be what triggers Tony to dig deep and thwart Korvac before the end, but the rest of world will just have to hope Iron Man's latest lesson in humility sticks around for good this time.
