Iron Man’s a bit of a prick, isn’t he?

Typically, superheroes are humble. They hide their identity and lead a normal life outside of their superhero persona. Iron Man does not.

Well more accurately, Tony Stark doesn’t. Stark was a self-centred rich playboy long before he created his Iron Man suit and was given another reason for his ego to expand. He even heroically announces ‘I am Iron Man’, at the end of his first film. But both versions of him are well loved despite his arrogance and attention seeking.

In all the films in the Iron Man franchise along with his appearances in other Marvel films, he uses witty one liners and flaunts his tech knowledge which we love to watch. Even encourage.

Some theorise that we like Stark because in many ways he is like us. He suffers from anxiety, struggles to deal with the problems in life without the vices of drugs and alcohol as well as to maintain a healthy relationship with Pepper. Despite being a superhero, he is heavily flawed. His humanity remains one of his most valuable characteristics.

Posters from each film in the Iron Man franchise.

Other fictional characters that are loved for their arrogance are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr Gregory House from TV Series House. These characters along with Tony Stark are driven by logic and science in everything they do. People who are often around these characters tend just to accept their behaviour as just the way they are. So potentially with Iron Man both in the comics and films we just grew to expect and enjoy Stark’s ‘Textbook narcissism.’

Interestingly this courtesy is only extended to fictional characters. Simon Cowell, who is the harshest judge on X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, comes across very arrogant but is nowhere near as loved as any of these fictional characters. Although his harsh judgement on TV could give contestants a realistic insight into the entertainment industry he is still often booed for his opinions.

A still of Tony Stark and Peter Parker from
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

 However, he doesn’t exhibit a scientific way of thinking like Stark so in that vain his rudeness is less justified, but his celebrity status and wealthy is equal to the fictional hero. Perhaps, we enjoy the behaviour of Tony Stark because we know he’s fictional and we don’t expect people in real life to be like that.

Although, Iron Man does go on a somewhat of a journey of maturity during his time in the Marvel universe; taking on a fatherly role to the young Peter Parker, but that’s not why we watch him. We seem to enjoy rude characters that are rooted in science and logic. People whose selfishness is seemingly justified by their intellectual prowess. Characters whose high level of intelligence we aspire to have, potentially believing that if we were as smart as them, we would be the same. 

So Iron Man isn’t just a prick, he’s an enabled one.