Iron Man Fan Art Honors Tony Stark’s Biggest MCU Moments

Forum 3 years ago

Iron Man Fan Art Honors Tony Stark’s Biggest MCU Moments

New Iron Man fan art pays tribute to Robert Downey Jr's performance as Tony Stark by combining his most significant moments in the MCU. Downey's stellar performance as Stark began back in 2008 in Iron Man, the movie that started it all. At the time, Marvel was seen as the poor cinematic cousin of DC, given the fact that Spider-Man was the only character that had been successfully portrayed on screen. That all changed with visionary director Jon Favreau's film, though, introducing the non-comic book-reading world to the maverick billionaire superhero.

Favreau's film combined Downey's dramatic range and charm with a fun, engaging, and action-filled story, leading the movie to become a box office smash. The rest is history, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched out of Iron Man to become the most successful and popular movie franchise ever. Downey was a major part of the first three phases of the MCU, appearing in three solo movies and showing up in Captain America and Spider-Man's solo outings. His narrative arc as Stark ended spectacularly in Avengers: Endgame, which appropriately became the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Digital artist abgrafix paid tribute to that arc with a new piece of fan art combining all of his greatest moments in the MCU. From the "snap" in Endgame to building his crude and bulky Mark 1 suit in the first film, the art covers every phase of Downey's Tony Stark journey. The incredibly detailed piece even includes a glimpse of the Benatar, as seen at the beginning of Endgame. You can see the art below:

The art isn't just a reminder of the impact Downey Jr's performance had on the MCU, but also of just how difficult it will be to replace him. With Phase 4 ramping up and set to introduce several new characters, Marvel will have to work hard to create a new cinematic icon as famous as Iron Man. This is doubly so, given that Chris Evans' Steve Rogers has also been retired from the universe. Thankfully, though, Marvel has an extensive back catalog of characters to draw from to capture the attention of audiences.

It'll take some time, though, to build up the kind of admiration fans had for Iron Man; Even fans as far away as Nigeria have come up with ingenious ways to cosplay as Iron Man. Perhaps Marvel will never be able to replicate the success it had with the original Avengers. Still, it's certainly going to try with the upcoming slate of releases, which includes Eternals, and the continued adventures of Captain Marvel.