10 Iron Man Fates Worse Than Death

8. Realising You're Capable Of Being The Bad Guy - The Golden Child

Marvel Original Sin Iron Man Hulk
Marvel Comics

In the third edition of the Marvel Team-Up run of the 2000s - dubbed The Golden Child - a crazed version of Doctor Doom runs rampant, easily dispatching of a who's who of Marvel Comics' greatest heroes. Whether it's Captain America, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the entire Fantastic Four or numerous other heroic sorts, all fall to Doom.

The catch here, though, is that this vicious villain is not Victor Von Doom. Instead, it's actually an alt-world Tony Stark who's the menace under the metal mask.

For the 'real' Tony, he struggles massively with the concept that he could feasibly become an evil tyrant. In fact, this villainous rogue even dubs himself Iron Maniac as he warns our heroes of the impending Titannus War that will be turn the world on its head.

Of course, the kicker here, mind, is that this was all for nought. For whatever reason, Marvel Comics skewed away from making the Titannus War the major deal we were all promised, and the event would randomly be wrapped up in just three issues that ended up with the Titannus warmonger taking his own life.

On the other side of things, this wouldn't be the last time the concept of an evil Tony Stark was teased or outright delivered...

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.