Iron Man Island is The Coolest Marvel Event Fans Will Never Get to See
Warning: contains spoilers for Iron Man #16!
A spectacular Iron Man event has just begun in Marvel Comics - but unfortunately, the company has decided that the most interesting development in Iron Man history isn't worth reading. The character's journey has been quite perilous as of late, fighting cosmic tyrants in new powerful armors and battling his own inner demons. But in Iron Man #16, Tony Stark gives a gift to the citizens of New York: his own intelligence. Now, every single New Yorker is a genius...and Marvel doesn't seem to care.
In current Iron Man continuity, Tony Stark has spent the last few issues battling Korvac, the incredibly powerful villain with an extraordinary God complex. Korvac actually manages to attain Godlike power - but so does Iron Man, and encased in an "Iron God" suit, the two battle across the galaxy, destroying entire planets during the fight. While Iron Man is ultimately successful and seals Korvac in a pocket universe from where he can do no harm, he's unsure what he should do with the Power Cosmic - a wellspring of near-infinite power in the Marvel Universe. He decides to return to Earth...and bestow upon his city a gift.
Iron Man lands in the middle of Washington Square Park and realizes that his fellow Avengers are naturally wary of a man with control issues like Tony Stark attaining Godlike abilities. But he puts his teammates' worries to rest: he's not here to impose order or control the governments of the world. Instead, with a simple thought, he gives every New Yorker his genius-level intellect. "Congratulations. You're all Stark-level geniuses...you're all as brilliant as I am."
This idea has never been seen before in the Marvel Universe. In an industry where the annual event usually comes in the form of a new, powerful villain attacking the Earth (or a long-thought-dead old powerful villain attacking the Earth), turning everyone in the city into a genius is quite refreshing. Spider-Island in 2014 gave Manhattan the abilities of Spider-Man, and now this "Iron Man Island" attempts to do the same with the mind of Tony Stark. Unfortunately, it's not marketed as an event - it's simply a one-off occurrence in the Iron Man comics line, which is a shame.
One only hopes that the mass-empowering event will persist for longer than a few issues; the possibilities are intriguing and only a few are explored in Iron Man #16. But it's more likely that the Godlike Stark will realize the error of his gift in the next issue. For Iron Man, this realization comes at the cost of a truly interesting story that, unfortunately, will most likely fade away while Marvel's requisite monster-of-the-year events continue onward.