Iron Man is a communist

This is either an incredibly large coincidence, or Stan Lee may just be a master genius, an incredible deceiver and someone who was way more interested in current affairs of his time than we thought. The absurdity of even the idea that Iron Man could be a communist is unreal, but clues say otherwise.

Iron Man is a fictional superhero who first entered the market in the 1960’s. He is a man who goes by the name of “Tony Stark”, a clever engineer and talented businessman who runs his highly successful weapons manufacturing company “Stark Industries”. Tony Stark uses a titanium suit that gives him the ability to fly, an array of weapons, armor and much more. With this, one can easily tell that he spends and invests a large portion of his money into weapons, in order for his industry to function and for him to fulfil his duties as a hero. When it comes to one of the main characteristics of Tony Stark himself, it would definitely be his arrogance, which is obvious throughout almost all of his appearances.

With a basic understanding of Iron Man and Soviet History, one can see many links between him and the Soviet Union. His suit, made of titanium, can be a representation of a Soviet tank, a machine that is also used as protection and has a variety of possible ways of attacking. The Red Army did spend a lot of money on these machines, the same way Tony Stark spends a lot of his earnings on his suit. Iron Man’s arrogance can be seen as the Soviet bureaucracy, whose existence was arrogant in itself, and the fact that his franchise came out in the 1960’s, which was the peak of the Soviet era, is also quite a notable hint.

Iron Man’s notable colors, primarily red with yellow as his secondary color, also resembles the main representation of the Soviet Union as a country, her flag, which bears these exact features. His titanium suit, which was made in the 60’s, shares a unique part of Soviet history, where her engineers started pioneering titanium for military use in this exact decade.

Iron Man’s and the USSR’s origin story also share a commonality, which is how they both came to be due to war - Iron Man due to Vietnam and the USSR due to the Russian Civil War.

All of these do seem to hint at a connection between our famed superhero and the Soviet Union. But what comes next is something that many people seem to ignore: their similar rivalry. Namely, Iron Man’s rivalry with Captain America and the USSR’s rivalry with the US. In the movies, Iron Man has a notable rivalry with Captain America, especially during “Captain America: Civil War” just how the Soviets had an infamous rivalry with the United States during the “Cold War”, a geopolitical event whose scars can still be felt today.

With all this being said, all these clues seem to be almost guaranteed that Iron Man’s creation was influenced by the Soviet Union. But one aspect can’t be ignored: If this statement is in fact true, then why is Tony Stark such a capitalist, the opposite of a communist? This is an excellent question and I think that Stan Lee, his creator, purposely made it this way. He purposely tried to “mask” Iron Man, the same way he tried to “mask” Captain America. Iron Man is an arrogant capitalist that puts himself first, attributes which fit the US. While Captain America is a brave patriot who puts his nation and others first, attributes which fit Red Army values and Marxist theory.

The individuals’ attributes were just switched to provoke deception.

Lastly, both the franchise and history also share links. The “Civil War” between Captain America and Iron Man represents the Cold War between the Soviets and Americans, where Captain America and US won respectively (Captain America by putting his shield in Iron Man’s chest and the US by surviving and becoming the sole superpower of the world). And finally, at the franchise’s “end”, Iron Man sacrifices himself, leading him to meet death; a parallel of the USSR’s inevitable collapse.

These are some of the most notable links between Marvel and world history which hint to Iron Man’s creation having some sort of influence by the Soviet Union and communist ideology. Not only does his design hint to it, but also other aspects such as when he was made, the purpose and material of his suit, his personal characteristics, his origin story, his rivalry, and even the very plot of the franchise. And all this absurdity masked away by one single attribute: his arrogance. The same way that arrogance and other many negative characteristics mask away so much good in people.