Iron Man Just Discovered the Perfect Weapon Against His Armor

Warning! Spoilers for The Marvels #8 ahead!

It appears that Iron Man has encountered the perfect weapon against his power suit, and it marks a worrying development for the armored superhero. Iron Man is the alias belonging to Tony Stark, a genius billionaire playboy who fights crime in a mechanized suit of armor. His power suits are able to ward off most attacks, but in a recent fight he is exposed to a substance that makes his defenses moot.

Tony Stark relies heavily on his power suits to fight crime and other threats. While he has had many different versions of his armor over the years, they generally share some key characteristics. In terms of offensive capabilities, most versions of his armor enable him to shoot repulsor beams from his hands and can fire a uni-beam from his chest. Iron Man’s suits also give him the ability to fly using rockets spread throughout. The armor certainly lives up to its name, providing a strong defense against most attacks. However, recently this defense was easily bypassed by the forces of Lady Lotus.

In The Marvels #8 by Kurt Busiek and Yildiray Cinar, Iron Man and a ragtag group of other heroes confront the evil Lady Lotus after she seals the nation of Siancong off from the world with a giant magical dome. While the battle initially seems to be going well, Lady Lotus and her forces are eventually able to get the upper hand, defeating the heroes. While she beats many of the different heroes herself, Iron Man is taken down by some of her nameless henchmen, who douse him in a black powder that disrupts his armor’s refractory coating and disables his repulsors. The ease with which this substance shuts down his armor is very threatening for Iron Man, as he essentially has no way to stop it once it hits him. The henchmen can fire the powder at long-range using a sort of bazooka, which means that this substance represents a simple way to take down Iron Man without even coming into close contact with him, making it perfect for a potential sneak attack on the hero.

There is still a lot unknown about the black powder. Lady Lotus and her allies have been researching the mysterious dragonbloom flowers that have been the source of her powers for decades. Given that these flowers are also black, the powder is likely related to them in some way. Since dragonbloom flowers are a rare commodity outside of Siancong, this could make the powder hard for most of Iron Man’s enemies to come by. However, given the simple nature of the weapons used to deploy it, it is likely that the powder can be mass produced. So, if Lady Lotus ever decides to sell it to outside forces Iron Man could be in a lot of trouble.

The existence of a substance that can completely shut down Iron Man’s suit is a debilitating blow to his ability to fight. While Tony isn’t a terrible fighter outside of his suit, unarmed combat is certainly not his forte so disabling his suit essentially renders him powerless. This makes Lady Lotus’s black powder not only the perfect weapon against Tony Stark’s armor but also the perfect weapon against Iron Man himself.