Another Sign That Tony Stark Is Marvel’s Designated Jerk

I’ve mentioned on this site in the past that Iron Man is and always has been my favorite Marvel super hero. But man, is Marvel making it hard these days.

Tony Stark obviously has some trust issues, possibly stemming back to his relationship with his own father, Howard. It’s not that he lies to his friends, he just finds it perfectly acceptable not to tell them things. It goes back to the first “Armor Wars,” when he couldn’t even bring himself to tell Captain America and the other Avengers about his quest to ensure his technology was eliminated from the hands of bad guys, and it’s continued on up through the entire existence of the Illuminati.

Chronologically speaking though, Original Sin #3.1 has provided us with an even earlier example of Tony’s innate ability to be a jerk.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Framed by a fight between Hulk and Iron Man in the present after the demolition of the Orb’s “truth bomb,” this issue takes us back to a time when Stark and Bruce Banner were both buddies and rivals. When Banner helps invent the gamma bomb, he wants to use the technology to benefit the well-being of mankind. Tony, like the good weapons manufacturer he was back then, sells Bruce out in front of his military backers.

And that’s not even the jerk part! The final pages sure make it look like Stark tampered with the gamma bomb, ostensibly to embarrass Banner during the test for the brass. Thanks to some comic book science, Tony and Bruce are experiencing each other’s memories, meaning that Banner knows his friend was responsible for the “accident” that cursed him to a lifetime as the Hulk.

Oh boy. Mark Waid and Kieron Gillen have a few more issues to give us additional twists and turns in the plot, but if it stands the way it looks right now, Tony may have gone lower than he’s ever gone before — and that’s saying something.