10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About Iron Man

3. When It Turned Out Kang Had Been Mind-Controlling Him Forever

Not only is The Crossing considered to be one of the worst Iron Man stories ever published, but possibly one of the worst comic books published full stop. Taking place over the course of a year and dragging the rest of the Avengers into it, The Crossing retconned - that's short for retroactive continuity, when creative teams go back and muddle with a character's past - every single comic book issue to feature Iron Man by revealing that he had been under the control of Kang the Conqueror since the first Avengers story. That's quite a twist, that Tony Stark had been an unwitting double agent for a villain Kang, whose name is only matched by his stupid luminous pink-and-green costume. And for pretty much his whole time as a superhero, too, which included several battles against Kang, which makes you wonder why the Conqueror hadn't bothered to activate his sleeper agent before. Well, Kang eventually did decide to show off his control of Iron Man by making him turn full traitor, and the Avengers are unable to break the mind control that Kang has over him. Desperate and afraid, with Tony becoming totally evil and killing the female Yellowjacket, Amanda Chaney, and Marilla (Quicksilver€™s daughter's nanny; there was a lot of outcry about the decision to get rid of that treasured supporting character), the team decided they had only one choice...