There's a reason we won't stop harping on about The Crossing, y'know. And that reason is because it is truly heinous, one of the worst stories ever published in a comic book or potentially any medium, a catalogue of catastrophically idiotic ideas that they every nearly ruined not only one of Marvel's most enduring characters but also the team that he's the backbone of. Having acted a little odd for a while - including during his time with Force Works - it turns out that Tony Stark has been under the control of Kang The Conqueror since as long as the Avengers have been around, but it's only thirty years later that the villain decides to strike. And strike he does, using his brainwashed Iron Man to kill a handful of Avengers second-stringers that you don't really care that much about, but it's still a little upsetting to see a superhero murder. The blood on the traitorous Iron Man's hands is pretty apparent to his shocked colleagues, but they find themselves unable to take down the combined might of Tony and Kang. So obviously the best thing to do is to go back in time, pluck the teenaged Stark out of his bedroom and get him to talk some sense into his older self, right? Well, it's working for the X-Men right now, and if it's good enough for the X-Men... Turns out it's not good enough for the Avengers, as Old Tony pretty much ignores Young Tony and carries on being evil. It's only when Kang makes to kill the Young Tony - paradoxes be damned! - that his older self intervenes, breaking the mind control for just long enough to sacrifice himself to save...himself. So the Tony Stark that we'd been reading for decades was dead, leaving a kid in his place. Which Teen Tony literally did, taking the starring role in the now inexplicably-manga-styled Iron Man title and leading the Avengers. Despite being an actual child with no experience. This was such a mess that Marvel essentially cooked up the Heroes Reborn reboot specifically to undo this clustercuss. Another bullet dodged, nice one! Let's never speak of this again (we probably will, soz).
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
