I Can"t Believe The MCU"s Best Iron Man Replacement Has Been In Front Of Us All Along

:0:1

I think it"s time to admit that the MCU"s best replacement for Iron Man has been right in front of us for years. When Iron Man departed the MCU (and this mortal coil), he left behind a void that the MCU has been struggling to fill since the Multiverse Saga began. Still, Robert Downey Jr."s recently announced return to the MCU as an entirely different character, Doctor Doom, has triggered suspicion that Marvel may be attempting to inspire the same level of enthusiasm for upcoming Marvel releases that was present throughout his tenure.
I don"t think the buck stops at Iron Man, however. No Avengers have assembled since Avengers: Endgame, leaving the supposedly interconnected stories of the MCU"s newest heroes feeling more disparate than ever. Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic, but I find it hard to believe that the entire MCU rests on his shoulders alone. Instead, the MCU timeline has a succession problem, as the void left in the wake of Tony Stark"s death should have been filled almost immediately within the movie that directly followed Avengers: Endgame.
Spider-Man Has Had The Most Solo MCU Movies Since Avengers: Endgame Spider-Man 4 Is Confirmed And Adds To That List Close One of the Multiverse Saga"s sticking points is the slightly overwhelming wealth of new content and characters it has introduced. This has now been addressed by Disney as it pivots to a "quality over quantity" ethos, but there is no undoing the gulf that has been left between the solo movies of the MCU"s veteran Avengers. As the Multiverse Saga debuts new characters like the Eternals and Shang-Chi, returning Avengers who have previously been afforded solo cinematic outings have suffered a downturn in output. This is to be expected, but there is one notable outlier.
Veteran Avengers
Number of Solo Movies (Released and Confirmed)
Solo Movies After Endgame
Spider-Man
4
3
Thor
4
1
Ant-Man
3
1
Doctor Strange
2
1
Captain Marvel
2
1
Captain America (Sam Wilson)
1
1
Hulk
1
0
Spider-Man"s solo MCU debut was in 2017"s Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was followed up two years later with Spider-Man: Far From Home. Though his second movie technically fell within the Infinity Saga, it was the first to release after Tony Stark"s death and the one movie that focused heavily on its repercussions. The recent announcement that Spider-Man 4 will begin filming in early 2026 has compounded this, making him the most prolific Avenger in the Multiverse Saga.
Iron Man was afforded the same number of solo movies in the Infinity Saga as Thor and Steve Rogers" Captain America, but his centrality to the plots of every Avengers movie made him the de facto main character of the franchise. Over halfway through the Multiverse Saga, only one MCU character boasts the same number of solo movies. Spider-Man"s presence is now as central to the MCU as his late mentor, yet he is not nearly as prominent in the Multiverse Saga as the character that should, at this point, feel like his predecessor.
Spider-Man SHOULD Have Been The MCU's New Main Character After Endgame He Has Been Set Up As Tony's Successor From The Beginning Close Iron Man"s popularity is unassailable and may be the reason for Marvel"s decision to bring Robert Downey Jr. back into the fold. Yet I"m struggling to overcome the notion that Marvel wasted its opportunity to supplant Tony Stark with Spider-Man: another character that has proven to be just as popular. Since his debut in Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland"s Spider-Man has been lauded as a near-perfect casting, and an exceptionally likable addition to the MCU cast whose desire to do good is just as strong as Stark"s, but comes with a novel approach.
Concerning his popularity, the proof is plain to see. Spider-Man"s solo franchise is more financially successful than Iron Man"s, raking in an average of $983.5 million for the MCU compared to Iron Man"s $808.4 million. While it could be argued that the most successful franchise, the Avengers, are points for Iron Man as he was their de facto star, it"s impossible to ignore the collective impact of his co-stars. Even then, the MCU"s two most successful movies, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, featured both characters.
Financial Ranking
Iron Man and Spider-Man Solo Movies
Global Box Office
1
Spider-Man: No Way Home
$1.9 Billion
2
Iron Man 3
$1.2 Billion
3
Spider-Man: Far From Home
$1.1 Billion
4
Spider-Man: Homecoming
$1.1 Billion
5
Iron Man 2
$621 Million
6
Iron Man
$585 Million
Granted, turning their box office take-home into a competition is a little unfair, given Iron Man was responsible for launching the MCU, while Spider-Man arguably flourished from the fruits of that labor at the height of the franchise"s popularity. Nevertheless, in the face of the MCU now being devoid of any main character, it"s plain to see that Spider-Man was best placed to assume the role. Yet instead of making Spider-Man the glue to assemble a new Avengers team at the start of the Multiverse Saga, like Stark in the Infinity Saga, Spider-Man is now completely anonymous.
What"s more frustrating is that the MCU went to great lengths to establish Peter Parker as Tony Stark"s protégé, despite there being no such comic book precedent. As a consequence, the frustration that some fans have felt over turning Spider-Man into a sidekick hasn"t exactly borne fruit, instead laying the groundwork for Spider-Man 4 to finally explore Peter Parker making his own way outside of Avengers involvement. Ultimately, however, there is a behind-the-scenes reason for Marvel stopping short of turning Spider-Man into the new Iron Man.
Why Spider-Man Couldn't Really Be The MCU's Multiverse Saga Main Character Marvel Doesn't Own Spider-Man's Film Rights Close The MCU"s Spider-Man is the most successful live-action iteration to date, but he does not belong to Marvel. Sony still holds the distribution rights to Spider-Man, and his involvement in the MCU is only possible with Sony"s say-so. Making Spider-Man the MCU"s main character would therefore be reckless, as Sony holds at least most of, if not all, the cards. Thankfully, the studio"s permission to incorporate Spider-Man in the MCU has proven to be exceptionally profitable, thus prudent, for both parties involved - but it is also an impassible obstacle for Marvel.
Sony"s possession of Spider-Man"s distribution rights has given rise to its Spider-Man Universe, a currently Spider-Man-less series of movies focusing on peripheral Spider-Man characters.
Details about the deal struck between Sony and Marvel aren"t public knowledge, but what is certain is that Marvel takes home a smaller fraction of Spider-Man"s box office success than Sony. This makes turning him into the MCU"s flagship character unreasonable when Marvel also sits on a host of other Avengers from whom it can take 100% of the box office profits. It may be a hard pill to swallow, but I can at least find solace in the fact that Spider-Man is still involved in the MCU and can still step into Stark"s shoes in another way.
How The MCU Can Still Make Spider-Man The Perfect Iron Man Replacement The Avengers Still Haven't Reassembled Close While I can lament the fact that Marvel hasn"t turned Spider-Man into a central figure in the MCU akin to Tony Stark, there is another, narrative reason why this hasn"t happened yet. The first three MCU Phases that comprised the Infinity Saga were punctuated by Avengers movies in which Tony Stark took center stage. MCU Phase 5 will end with Thunderbolts* while MCU Phase 6 will kick off with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The only two Avengers movies of the Multiverse Saga, meanwhile, will take place in its final phase.
One theory posits that Thunderbolts* is a secret Avengers movie, with the mysterious asterisk hiding the fact that it will be a Dark Avengers adaptation.
With that in mind, there is still time for Spider-Man to embody Iron Man"s pivotal Avengers role. While Iron Man may have been the Infinity Saga"s main character, he did not lead the Avengers, a position that instead went to the just-as-important Captain America. This role will presumably fall to the new Captain America, Anthony Mackie"s Sam Wilson, in Avengers: Doomsday, a theory supported by the fact that President Ross is tasking Wilson with reforming the team in his debut movie, Captain America: Brave New World.
This is where Spider-Man can finally live up to being Iron Man"s protégé, providing the brains of the outfit while Cap takes the lead. I"m very hopeful that this is Marvel"s plan, as Tom Holland and Anthony Mackie have already demonstrated exceptional chemistry off-screen comprising banter that fittingly surrounds the number of solo movies they both boast. This, taken with the question of how Spider-Man will react to an arch-villain that looks identical to Iron Man makes Spider-Man"s role in the next two Avengers movies, at least, an incredibly exciting prospect.

Iron Man Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark, AKA Iron Man, is a Marvel Comics superhero who has enjoyed several years of the spotlight and has become a mainstay in several Marvel media franchises. After suffering a critical injury, Tony creates a specialized armored suit powered by an arc reactor, which keeps him alive. Egotistical but good-hearted, Tony utilizes his super intellect and inventions to fight to protect humanity from various threats, eventually becoming a founding member of the Avengers. In 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was kicked off with the film Iron Man, which starred Robert Downey Jr. as the superhero.
Created By Steve Ditko , Jack Kirby , Stan Lee , Don Heck , Larry Lieber Cast Robert Downey Jr. First Appearance Iron Man Movies Iron Man , Iron Man 2 , Iron Man 3 , The Avengers , Avengers: Age of Ultron , Captain America: Civil War , Spider-Man: Far From Home , Avengers: Infinity War , Avengers: Endgame TEAM The Avengers Upcoming MCU Movies