Character Name: Anthony Edward “Tony” Stark AKA Iron Man (and a slew of dumb nicknames) Canon: Marvel 616 Canon Point: end of Iron Man Volume 4, issue 31: during the explosion. Background/History:wikia link
Personality: In a word? Complicated. Tony Stark has gained a widespread reputation for being arrogant, selfish, and too relaxed on the job, and that reputation isn't undeserved. He's a pain in the ass, and that's just being fair. Tony has that persistent, energetic personality of someone who has a lot of ideas and doesn't always understand when others don't see eye-to-eye with him. His response to discomfort is humor, which can lead to a lot of misplaced and ill-timed jokes when his life gets hard. He is, however, friendly and loyal to the utmost, willing to sacrifice himself for his friends and his cause, as well as anyone that happens to need him at the time. He takes the idea of being a hero seriously and acts on it. He'll go out of his range and ability to give others support because he wants to be of use.
A lot of the time, Tony is just plain contradictory as well. He comes from a very affluent background and a father who was just as noted for his innovations and business mastery in his day that Tony is in the present time. This leads him to be over-generous and careless, feeling that he can always rebuild or replace resources if it comes to that. At the same time, he has a lot of self-doubt. He's given to questioning himself and those around him, because he's learned that his convictions and assumptions are not always right. He's made his share of mistakes and then some, and he does tend to defer judgment to those he feels might be better qualified, even if his personal pride urges him to figure things out on his own. It's often a pattern of hurried implementation of new ideas, followed by awkward questioning and doubt, followed by unstable resolve once he thinks he has an answer (which may or may not be right). He's a man born and bred to pave the way, and he's used to having all the answers, yet problems over the years have proven to him that he's not always right.
If nothing else, Tony is stubborn and resilient. He can recover from a lot of near impossible situations just by sheer will and hard effort, and he exists on the core belief that no matter how bad things are, they can and will get better. Tony is a pragmatic optimist. He doesn't blindly trust in idealistic hope, but he maintains that as long as he keeps going and gives enough, he can eventually find a resolution to any problem. If the world allows it and keeps existing, Tony will keep trying.
And inevitably keep making mistakes, but he'll always attempt to learn from them.
He has grown over the years. In fact, as a young man he didn't even have the business acumen that he eventually gained note for and made a lot of amateur mistakes, with shady deals and corporate spies taking advantage of him while he remained ignorant. But after almost fifty years, Tony has come a long way. He's gotten through his childish, rebellious instincts (most of the time) and has actually become the charismatic, dedicated leader everyone expects a CEO to be. For a while, he was Secretary of Defense for the United States, and from this point has become the director of SHIELD, in charge of the largest security operation in the world. He's made some great innovations and great sacrifices, including sacrificing himself to save his friends and innocent people. Instead of running away from his problems, which he repeatedly tried to do early on in his superhero career, Tony tackles many things head on. Perhaps a little too head on at times, since he seems to be compensating for his past by driving people as far away from danger (and himself) as possible so he can take on everything alone. He's has problems recognizing that he can and should ask for help... which leads me to his most well-known trait.
Tony Stark is an alcoholic. A recovering alcoholic who has attended AA meetings and been on superhero probation several times throughout his career, this problem has become a key part of the way Tony defines himself. It also shows a lot of his temperament: he can be clingy, self-destructive when he gets overwhelmed, and defensive when he feels judged by others. He's also very receptive to outside input, having willingly undergone therapy to help overcome his personal faults as he tries to improve. Unlike the image that he's gained and portrayed to the public, Tony is human with all of the faults and strengths that entails. He empathizes with people around him, including his enemies, and sees problems as things to overcome rather than reasons to judge others, because he's been there too. He knows what it's like to be the bad guy. Tony's alcoholism has grown into a symbol of his continuous goal to improve and grow as a person, and while it is an obstacle that he has to constantly face, it's also a sign that he can learn and change over time for the best.
And while I'm on the topic of change, this is a great time to bring up Howard Stark. Tony has a love-hate relationship with the original former leader of Stark Industries, which is what his first company started as. Howard was an innovative master of his trade and a very hard man to live with. While Tony admired Howard, he had a shaky personal connection to the man, and struggled both to live up to his expectations and to deal with the troubled CEO's response to his own dirty business. There is a flashback that shows Howard grabbing a young Tony Stark by the arms and squeezing him, shaking him as he insists that they have to win, to provide death to the good guys so that they can beat the bad guys, despite the young man's protests about being hurt. Even after deciding he doesn't like the industry, Tony has an on-and-off relationship with producing weapons, and he’s contracted out even when he knows how bad it can get. His feelings for his father and admiration (and childhood fear) have a lot of impact on Tony's present choices. He's still trying to live up to that idea of perfection and making someone—even if it isn't his late father—proud, but he also actively wants to go against all of the things he didn't like in the way Howard Stark lived his life. He doesn't want to be the warmonger who's legacy is death. He wants to change that legacy, to break free while still being successful. He still wants to be a good, strong person that Howard and Maria would approve of, just in a different way than he originally started. And what he wants changes as new events enter his life.
While he has undergone a lot of change over the years, there are certain defining traits that stay the same in Tony's personality. He has a notably sharp wit--he's an engineering genius with the ability to adapt to impossible situations, such as building and then improving upon a metal chest plate to keep his heart from stopping (that is totally how medical science works)--and an equally sharp mouth. Even though he's gotten better at tempering his sarcasm and quick reactions to others, Tony is still the most playful and reckless of the Big Three of the Avengers (the other two being Steve Rogers and Thor). He blurts out his thoughts at inappropriate times, still cracks sarcastic jokes in the face of danger, and gets wrapped up in his own life so much that he tends to screw up other people’s lives as a result. He's always tended to snap back at people when they push him with passive-aggressive or accusatory comments, and this remains true today. Even when the stakes are high, Tony Stark can't help but run his mouth.
On the positive end, he's extremely loyal to his friends, giving, and still pragmatic. He knows when to cut his losses, and although his strategic plays run more toward the reckless maverick style, they almost always succeed. He's generous and protective, which comes from having too much material wealth and not enough emotional support in his time. If he has something within his power to give, he'll give it, hoping that expresses how he feels toward those around him. He's also one of the more open-minded heroes when it comes to gray lines and forgiveness. Tony understands that there are different points of view and the hard truth that all humans are flawed. As an alcoholic and the weapons designer who's been branded with every slur people can come up with, Tony Stark doesn’t usually judge others as being evil. He stands up to enemies and has no problem telling someone when he thinks they are wrong, but he doesn't equate actions with someone's worth. What you do does not make you evil, at least in his perspective. He's turned around and aided people that have tried to kill him repeatedly over the years, and that is a trend that continues in Iron Man's career. He's actually befriended enemies, in fact, and while he won't trust someone blindly, he does allow for changes in people's character. After all, if he can get better, than so can everyone else.
Tony Stark | Marvel 616 | reserved (Part 2)
Canon: Marvel 616
Canon Point: end of Iron Man Volume 4, issue 31: during the explosion.
Background/History: wikia link
Personality:
In a word? Complicated. Tony Stark has gained a widespread reputation for being arrogant, selfish, and too relaxed on the job, and that reputation isn't undeserved. He's a pain in the ass, and that's just being fair. Tony has that persistent, energetic personality of someone who has a lot of ideas and doesn't always understand when others don't see eye-to-eye with him. His response to discomfort is humor, which can lead to a lot of misplaced and ill-timed jokes when his life gets hard. He is, however, friendly and loyal to the utmost, willing to sacrifice himself for his friends and his cause, as well as anyone that happens to need him at the time. He takes the idea of being a hero seriously and acts on it. He'll go out of his range and ability to give others support because he wants to be of use.
A lot of the time, Tony is just plain contradictory as well. He comes from a very affluent background and a father who was just as noted for his innovations and business mastery in his day that Tony is in the present time. This leads him to be over-generous and careless, feeling that he can always rebuild or replace resources if it comes to that. At the same time, he has a lot of self-doubt. He's given to questioning himself and those around him, because he's learned that his convictions and assumptions are not always right. He's made his share of mistakes and then some, and he does tend to defer judgment to those he feels might be better qualified, even if his personal pride urges him to figure things out on his own. It's often a pattern of hurried implementation of new ideas, followed by awkward questioning and doubt, followed by unstable resolve once he thinks he has an answer (which may or may not be right). He's a man born and bred to pave the way, and he's used to having all the answers, yet problems over the years have proven to him that he's not always right.
If nothing else, Tony is stubborn and resilient. He can recover from a lot of near impossible situations just by sheer will and hard effort, and he exists on the core belief that no matter how bad things are, they can and will get better. Tony is a pragmatic optimist. He doesn't blindly trust in idealistic hope, but he maintains that as long as he keeps going and gives enough, he can eventually find a resolution to any problem. If the world allows it and keeps existing, Tony will keep trying.
And inevitably keep making mistakes, but he'll always attempt to learn from them.
He has grown over the years. In fact, as a young man he didn't even have the business acumen that he eventually gained note for and made a lot of amateur mistakes, with shady deals and corporate spies taking advantage of him while he remained ignorant. But after almost fifty years, Tony has come a long way. He's gotten through his childish, rebellious instincts (most of the time) and has actually become the charismatic, dedicated leader everyone expects a CEO to be. For a while, he was Secretary of Defense for the United States, and from this point has become the director of SHIELD, in charge of the largest security operation in the world. He's made some great innovations and great sacrifices, including sacrificing himself to save his friends and innocent people. Instead of running away from his problems, which he repeatedly tried to do early on in his superhero career, Tony tackles many things head on. Perhaps a little too head on at times, since he seems to be compensating for his past by driving people as far away from danger (and himself) as possible so he can take on everything alone. He's has problems recognizing that he can and should ask for help... which leads me to his most well-known trait.
Tony Stark is an alcoholic. A recovering alcoholic who has attended AA meetings and been on superhero probation several times throughout his career, this problem has become a key part of the way Tony defines himself. It also shows a lot of his temperament: he can be clingy, self-destructive when he gets overwhelmed, and defensive when he feels judged by others. He's also very receptive to outside input, having willingly undergone therapy to help overcome his personal faults as he tries to improve. Unlike the image that he's gained and portrayed to the public, Tony is human with all of the faults and strengths that entails. He empathizes with people around him, including his enemies, and sees problems as things to overcome rather than reasons to judge others, because he's been there too. He knows what it's like to be the bad guy. Tony's alcoholism has grown into a symbol of his continuous goal to improve and grow as a person, and while it is an obstacle that he has to constantly face, it's also a sign that he can learn and change over time for the best.
And while I'm on the topic of change, this is a great time to bring up Howard Stark. Tony has a love-hate relationship with the original former leader of Stark Industries, which is what his first company started as. Howard was an innovative master of his trade and a very hard man to live with. While Tony admired Howard, he had a shaky personal connection to the man, and struggled both to live up to his expectations and to deal with the troubled CEO's response to his own dirty business. There is a flashback that shows Howard grabbing a young Tony Stark by the arms and squeezing him, shaking him as he insists that they have to win, to provide death to the good guys so that they can beat the bad guys, despite the young man's protests about being hurt. Even after deciding he doesn't like the industry, Tony has an on-and-off relationship with producing weapons, and he’s contracted out even when he knows how bad it can get. His feelings for his father and admiration (and childhood fear) have a lot of impact on Tony's present choices. He's still trying to live up to that idea of perfection and making someone—even if it isn't his late father—proud, but he also actively wants to go against all of the things he didn't like in the way Howard Stark lived his life. He doesn't want to be the warmonger who's legacy is death. He wants to change that legacy, to break free while still being successful. He still wants to be a good, strong person that Howard and Maria would approve of, just in a different way than he originally started. And what he wants changes as new events enter his life.
While he has undergone a lot of change over the years, there are certain defining traits that stay the same in Tony's personality. He has a notably sharp wit--he's an engineering genius with the ability to adapt to impossible situations, such as building and then improving upon a metal chest plate to keep his heart from stopping (that is totally how medical science works)--and an equally sharp mouth. Even though he's gotten better at tempering his sarcasm and quick reactions to others, Tony is still the most playful and reckless of the Big Three of the Avengers (the other two being Steve Rogers and Thor). He blurts out his thoughts at inappropriate times, still cracks sarcastic jokes in the face of danger, and gets wrapped up in his own life so much that he tends to screw up other people’s lives as a result. He's always tended to snap back at people when they push him with passive-aggressive or accusatory comments, and this remains true today. Even when the stakes are high, Tony Stark can't help but run his mouth.
On the positive end, he's extremely loyal to his friends, giving, and still pragmatic. He knows when to cut his losses, and although his strategic plays run more toward the reckless maverick style, they almost always succeed. He's generous and protective, which comes from having too much material wealth and not enough emotional support in his time. If he has something within his power to give, he'll give it, hoping that expresses how he feels toward those around him. He's also one of the more open-minded heroes when it comes to gray lines and forgiveness. Tony understands that there are different points of view and the hard truth that all humans are flawed. As an alcoholic and the weapons designer who's been branded with every slur people can come up with, Tony Stark doesn’t usually judge others as being evil. He stands up to enemies and has no problem telling someone when he thinks they are wrong, but he doesn't equate actions with someone's worth. What you do does not make you evil, at least in his perspective. He's turned around and aided people that have tried to kill him repeatedly over the years, and that is a trend that continues in Iron Man's career. He's actually befriended enemies, in fact, and while he won't trust someone blindly, he does allow for changes in people's character. After all, if he can get better, than so can everyone else.