Iron Man’s Greatest Weapon is Officially Too Deadly to Use

Spoilers for Iron Man #10!

Whether they’re constructed in a dank cave from scraps or designed in a lab with the world’s greatest supercomputers, Iron Man’s suits are some of Earth’s most impressive weapons. In a recent tussle with an interstellar big-bad though, readers also learn that the suit may hold the most deadly weapon—one that may be too big of a threat to safely use.

Tony Stark’s recent battle with Korvac has left him injured, suffering a broken neck and a great deal of pain. Worse yet, his Iron Man helmet is the only thing keeping him alive. Before he had an opportunity to care for himself, however, he was yanked from his home on Earth and dumped without explanation on a remote planet. The planet is populated by a small, diverse community of people who have all been pulled from their own planets and abandoned on the otherwise empty world. The people have cobbled together a small town and share what they have communally. Tony, the eternal capitalist, doesn’t quite understand. 

In Iron Man #10, by Christopher Cantwell, Cafu, and Frank D’Armata, Tony finds himself struggling with whether to try and escape his new community or stay and enjoy the relative peace and tranquility that the town of Meggido offers. The community-run by retired Kree colonel, Yar, and Stilt-Man—seems idyllic and pastoral, but there’s a definite problem: giant, man-eating robots. Their remains, scattered across the empty planet, provide plenty of juice for Tony’s suit, and plenty of problems for the locals. Towering Ultimos are destroying the town and not just killing its citizens, but eating them and using the organic matter to fuel their robotic bodies. 

The “juice” Tony siphoned from the ruined bodies of the behemoths not only powers his suit, but gives his weapons a little extra boost of “oompf”. It’s so much of an oompf, in fact, that it is dangerous to wield. Not only is the power too much to be used in a blast from his palm-mounted weapon beams, but it may also even be too much for the uni-beam in his chest. While, as Tony puts it, the armor is a “new set of clothes”, he is forced into a decision to test out the mega power of the Ultimo when the fight gets nasty and, in one scoop of its massive hand, the Ultimo captures Yar and consumes her in a gruesome spray of blood. Seeing the destruction, Tony lets loose his uni-beam. The force of the uni-beam in Iron Man’s chest, coupled with the power from the Ultimo corpses, is enough to blow a hole clean through the chest of the attack Ultimo.

In the past, Ultimo was shown to consume an enormous amount of energy not just from people, but from natural elements like magma. With the ability to grow seemingly infinitely, the potential for that power to cause massive harm to Iron Man’s already relatively battered body seems more than likely. What does practically infinite energy crammed inside a tin can look like when fired, exactly? And what will the tin can look like afterward?

The power is astounding, reinforcing not just the threat that the Ultimos pose, but also the power of Iron Man’s armor to concentrate enough energy to take one down in a single blast, with just a little extra juice. But, it begs the question, how destructive could it be and if such a powerful weapon could even be used safely by Iron Man in future battles without risk to civilian life.

About The Author

Bug Norman
(127 Articles Published)

Bug Norman is writer, reader, and lover of popcorn television. A current ESL educator, she’s answered phones, scrubbed toilets, worked as an intern on a film set, and now writes comic news for Screen Rant. She currently travels the world teaching English, and video chats with her elderly cat, McGonagall.

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