Marvel"s Phase 5 Subtly Insulted Iron Man 4 Years After His Death

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Warning: This post contains spoilers for Secret InvasionEven after his death in Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has insulted Robert Downey Jr. Secret Invasion’s Super Skrull storyline depends on an Iron Man mistake few may have even noticed. But think about the Skrull's “harvest” reveal and the evidence is all there.
Secret Invasion episode 2 introduced Gravik’s plan to take over the Earth. The harvest of DNA from Groot, a Frost Beast, Cull Obsidian and the Extemis virus set up the MCU’s version of the Super Skrull. In doing that, Secret Invasion replaced the Fantastic Four from the comics backstory, by replacing each of Marvel’s first family’s powers:

Mr. Fantastic's stretching powers - replaced by Groot's DNA
The Thing's super strength - replaced by Cull Obsidian's DNA
The Human Torch's fire powers - replaced by the Extremis virus
The Invisible Woman's powers - replaced by the Frost Beast's DNA

Related: MCU Phase 5 Tears A Confusing Plot Hole In The Avengers' Thor Story
Secret Invasion's "Harvest" Proves Iron Man Sucked At His Job

The decision to replace the Fantastic Four with the “harvest” is a logical one given the former’s missing status in the MCU, but it comes at a cost. The Skrulls being able to gain access to super-powered “artifacts” suggests a fundamental failure of the system set up to clean up the aftermath of superhero battles. The system, as revealed in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was set up by Tony Stark himself.
In the wake of the Battle of New York, Stark worked with the US government to set up the Department of Damage Control. While that would evolve into something else by the time of Ms Marvel, the team existed to ensure that nothing valuable could fall into hands of nefarious parties. The Frost Beast was caught after Thor: The Dark World, Cull Obsidian’s hand was left behind during Infinity War and Groot’s DNA came from his vines in Endgame.In each case, Stark’s fail safe of safely and securely removing dangerous tech and artifacts clearly failed. And worse, the fact that the presumably stabilized Extremis virus was stolen from within Stark Industries and under Iron Man’s nose looks like an even more significant embarrassment.
Related: Marvel Finally Solved A Huge Iron Man 3 Mystery 10 Years Later
The MCU Has Ruined Iron Man's Legacy In Multiple Ways

Since his death, Iron Man’s legacy has been changed and scrutinized in several ways. Spider-Man: Far From Home painted him as an abusive boss, and revealed he developed a robot defense force, even after almost destroying the Earth with Ultron. Then what started as Damage Control became a superhero oppressive force, and Doctor Strange revealed there were actually other ways to defeat Thanos. As a final insult - or at least let's hope it's the last - Stark’s tech will end up in the hands of his enemies in Armor Wars.
Even reversing the Blip at the end of Avengers: Endgame created a humanitarian crisis, as if Marvel wanted people to question whether Thanos was actually right. As if undoing global genocide wasnt somehow always the right thing to do. It’s like Marvel has a weird agenda to turn the founding member of the MCU and The Avengers undone in his afterlife. Secret Invasion, after all, is just one insult among many.
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