10 Inappropriate Stories You Won't Believe Marvel Comics Published

During The Crossing storyline, a mysterious assailant seemingly broke into the Avengers' mansion and killed Yellowjacket and the nanny. Upon investigation, Tony Stark learned the perpetrator was none other... than himself! It turns out the avenging tin-man had been a sleeper agent for the time-travelling tyrant, Kang, for years.

Now, having a superhero revealed as a sleeper agent sounds a bit gimmicky but can work if done right. (I mean just look at the Winter Soldier.) But this revelation wasn't just shocking, it was downright non-sensical. For decades, Iron Man has stopped Kang's schemes umpteen times. If he was going to interfere with his "master's" plans, why didn't Kang activate him sooner?

But it gets worse. The Avengers time-travelled to the past, located a 19-year-old Stark, and encouraged him to battle his evil future-self. The saga concluded with Tony breaking free from Kang's mind control and sacrificing himself to defeat the devious despot.

Although the younger Stark was meant to take over as the official Iron Man, readers weren't having it. After Marvel were bombarded with angry letters for over a year, teenage Stark was killed off, the original Iron Man was brought back, and Marvel pretended this storyline never happened.