Iron Man should be vying for most powerful Avenger these days...

[Ziggy Stardust]

He's usually been touted as second only to Thor over the years, yet he continually upgrades his armor.

And with today's tech, Tony should be giving (a non-Odin powered) Thor all the thunder god can handle, right?

[XPac]

The thing is, his armor upgrades almost never amount to anything more than a cosmetic difference.

It's very rare this his armor seems more tangibly more powerful than his classic red and gold. Starks most impressive strength feat to date is arguably knocking out the Hulk... and that was in his classic red and gold. He's never really been able to duplicate that in later suppossedly more advanced suits.

Outside of extremis, most of Starks upgrades have made a negligible difference in regards to his overall raw power on the battle field.

In specific regards to Thor... Tony simply isn't in his league. Never was, and likely never will be.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Don't forget the time he rocked Nefaria.

[SquidSquod]

Actually he's one of the most powerful Avengers, if you don't see him in the power category alone. Tony Stark has the mind, resource, guile, initiative to do things that few can do solo. He can become spymaster, tactician, strategist, melee bruiser, long range backup, tracker, scientist, engineer that very few in the history of the team could replicate.

BTW, he just rocked Graviton. RIP (but Tony didn't kill him).

[FlintEastwood]

I'd like to refer you to this picture of Thor vs. Iron Man.




Not. in. the. same. league.

[MichaelChen]

The time Thor tried that without JMS in soapbox-mode, he powered Iron Man up and got punched around for his trouble.

[SquidSquod]

Yeah, yeah Thor is Marvel's Superman so very few can beat him in power category. But can he beat Tony in multi-chess game or defusing a nano bomb? Doubt it. Thor can't even fix his own Mjolnir.

[MichaelChen]

Anyway, I'd be satisfied if Iron Man went back to being a physical rival to Namor. You know, the way he was for decades before Bendis suddenly decided Namor could yank off his helmet without breaking a sweat? Iron Man vs Namor was a classic rivalry, one that Bendis destroyed for a shocker-moment.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Originally Posted by FlintEastwood

I'd like to refer you to this picture of Thor vs. Iron Man.




Not. in. the. same. league.

And with today's tech, Tony should be giving (a non-Odin powered) Thor all the thunder god can handle, right?

Asked and answered

[XPac]

Originally Posted by MichaelChen

The time Thor tried that without JMS in soapbox-mode, he powered Iron Man up and got punched around for his trouble.

Thor said himself... this time Thor wasn't holding back.

Thor can generate enough juice to drive off Galactus (or power him up). I don't think it's that huge a stretch to assume Thor can generate more than Tony can handle if he chose to.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Originally Posted by XPac

Thor said himself... this time Thor wasn't holding back.

Thor also had access to an undefined amount of the Odin Force, too.

Unless you think classic Thor could recreate Asgard years ago.

[XPac]

Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust

Thor also had access to an undefined amount of the Odin Force, too.

Unless you think classic Thor could recreate Asgard years ago.

No... but I do think Classic Thor can blast the crap out of Iron Man. That's all he did there.

[XPac]

Originally Posted by MichaelChen

Anyway, I'd be satisfied if Iron Man went back to being a physical rival to Namor. You know, the way he was for decades before Bendis suddenly decided Namor could yank off his helmet without breaking a sweat? Iron Man vs Namor was a classic rivalry, one that Bendis destroyed for a shocker-moment.

Namor is a physical rival to Hulk when Namor is in the water... that's the key point to remember here.

Namor should own Tony in the water... we've seen indications of that the last couple times Namor and Tony have confronted each other in Namors element regardless of the writer.

[MichaelChen]

No, that's not the thing to remember. The thing to remember is that Iron Man and Namor were routine rivals for decades and that rivalry was very cool. That trumps anything anything ANYTHING else you could say on the matter.

[bigbluntz]

I'm confused last I read about Tony his IQ was slowly decreasing and he was traveling around and his armor kept regressing to older versions