MCU: 10 Real World Issues Addressed In Marvel Films
4. Iron Man: Bush-Era Warmongering (and Capitalism)
The film that started it all, the first Iron Man film came out swinging with extremely relevant real-world touchstones of weapons manufacturing and the war in the Middle East.
Tony Stark rejecting the money-motivated warmongering of his origins and looking toward saving the world in a frighteningly realistic fictional world was what made him one of the MCU'S greatest heroes.
This film took a capitalist inventor with strong ties to the USA's military industrial complex and turned him into a man who used his resources for good, who saw how his American weapons were used for terrorism, sold to terrorist cells by not a cartoon villain, but another American capitalist.
In the world we live in today, Tony Stark doesn't just feel like a superhero; he feels like a real human being, his power found largely in his riches, power he turns to helping others. This relevance to the modern world, plagued with war and run by capitalism, is what turned a Cold War business magnate into an icon of the 21st century.
In a world where war seems endless, the man who responds to it with selfless heroism is one many look up to.