The Avengers are currently in their darkest era yet within Marvel Comics’ nightmarish cyberpunk future, one where Iron Man’s son has his finger on the proverbial pulse of the entire planet. James Stark, Tony Stark’s son, is one of the men behind the curtain, secretly controlling the world alongside his mentor, Kyle Jarvis (aka Red Skull). And now, this seemingly villainous offspring of Tony Stark is proving that he’s even smarter than his father with the debut of his own Iron Man armor.
In a preview for Avengers: Twilight #3 by Chip Zdarsky and Daniel Acuña, Captain America – now an old man fighting as a member of the underground resistance, the Defenders – is planning a mission to the Raft to obtain the artificially-revived severed head of Tony Stark. The powers-that-be have been using Tony’s brilliant mind to further tighten their grip on the world’s proverbial throat, though one person has refrained from ripping off Tony’s genius: his son, James – who made his own impressive suit of armor without Tony’s help.
While Red Skull and others may be tapping into Tony Stark’s mind to craft a technological future that only suits them, James Stark never does. As he said himself in this very issue, James only relies on his own inherent genius, and never steals from the mind of his father. In fact, in a desperate display of trying to prove he’d surpassed Tony, James brags to his father’s severed head about how he made an armor without Tony’s help, saying, “I’m as good as you, dad. As smart. Smarter even”.
This preview shows James Stark bragging about how great his suit of armor is compared to those created by Tony Stark, but fans haven’t exactly seen this new suit in action. The closest thing has been the artwork promoting Avengers: Twilight, but on-panel, fans haven’t seen anything yet.
So far, James Stark has been shown to be a puppet who thinks he’s a puppet master. Sure, his finger may be on the proverbial pulse of the entire planet, but only because Red Skull (Kyle Jarvis) put it there. Red Skull is using Stark to conquer the world, and if James really is as smart – no, smarter – than Tony Stark, then he’ll figure that out sooner than later. And when he does, James will finally – officially – show off this evidently groundbreaking suit of armor.
The preview for Avengers: Twilight #3 leaves off with Captain America on his way to rescue Tony Stark’s conscious severed head, which is exactly where James Stark currently is, taunting his barely alive father about his new Iron Man suit. That means the comic will either feature an epic showdown between Captain America and the new Iron Man (which will finally let fans see this suit of armor in action), or a meaningful conversation that ends with James joining Steve on his righteous mission of freedom and justice.
It’s too early to tell if James Stark will, indeed, join Captain America (as some promo artwork would suggest), or be a dangerous enemy too embedded within this villainous society to free himself from its clutches. Either way, fans are bound to see James’ new Iron Man suit in action very soon, just as they’ve seen it in the promo art for this series, at which point it will be revealed if Iron Man’s son truly is smarter than Tony Stark.
