Tony Stark is the guy of guy who tends to bring out the extremes in people. He’s brash, arrogant and confident to a fault. Throwing that in the faces of his enemies as a distraction allows him to use his brilliance and technology to defeat them. It’s those same negative qualities that rub many of his allies the wrong way, too. There are those friends who have found a way to look past his faults and see the hero he truly is. But there are those who would just as soon weld his armor shut and leave him in there forever.
DESPISE HIM: Luke Cage
The hero formerly known as Power Man carved a name for himself on the streets of New York, fighting for the people. That’s why he has little or no respect for Iron Man. It’s not that Tony Stark looks down on average people but he certainly doesn’t get them. The man grew up rich and focuses on big ideas. Luke Cage didn’t and he doesn’t. His goal is to take care of people, keeping mind that he has been known to charge for his services in some situations. The man does have a family to feed, after all.
RESPECT HIM: Spider-Man
The nature of Spider-Man’s relationship with Iron Man is a day to day situation. There are times that Peter Parker has looked up to Tony Stark as a mentor and other times as an oppressor. But that has never changed Parker’s underlying respect for the founding Avenger, even when their relationship has been at its worst.
Their mutual love of science and technology has always been there, regardless of the situation. Iron Man is lucky to know someone like Spider-Man who can set aside their differences and work together.
DESPISE HIM: Namor
Two problems plague the relationship between Iron Man and Namor: specifically Iron Man and Namor. These men have two of the biggest egos in the entirety of comic books, and not just the Marvel Universe. When they meet up, they almost always butt heads, sometimes quite literally. But Namor’s animosity for Iron Man runs deeper than that. Much of what Namor does he does for Atlantis. While no one would suggest he is a selfless guy, he cannot respect Iron Man as he puts no thought into how his plans could impact the world outside of the most immediate results.
RESPECT HIM: Black Widow
Black Widow started out her career in the Marvel Universe as an Iron Man villain. She eventually found her way to being a hero and signed up with the Avengers but her relationship with Iron Man is a complicated one.
That’s in no small part due to the fact that he is the exact type of person her upbringing and training in Russia taught her to target and hate. But because of her time on the wrong side of what’s right, she has a lot more forgiveness for people’s flaws than most. To an extent. You really don’t want to test her patience.
DESPISE HIM: Hawkeye
Another former Iron Man villain turned hero, Hawkeye has been far less forgiving of Iron Man’s flaws than Black Widow. Hawkeye has his own regimented set of principles, though he often has a funny way of implementing them. It’s a nice way of saying the man is incredibly stubborn. Clint Barton has probably disagreed with Iron Man more times than he’s agreed with him on any number of topics. Sometimes people on opposing sides of an issue at least respect each other. This definitely is not one of those cases.
RESPECT HIM: War Machine
Few heroes in the Marvel Universe are as closely tied to Iron Man as War Machine is. James Rhodes has known Tony Stark since the Vietnam War when Stark escaped the Viet Cong in the prototype Iron Man armor. After the war, he started working for Stark and became one of his closest friends.
While Rhodey has been there for some of Stark’s biggest ups and downs, that relationship has led to some pretty huge downs for Rhodey, too. Still, he is one of Iron Man’s biggest supporters and that’s unlikely to change.
DESPISE HIM: Thor
If you need an idea of how strained the relationship is between Thor and Iron Man, you just need to look at Thor’s return after the first Civil War. After Ragnarok, Thor and all of Asgard were gone, so he wasn’t there when Iron Man and Captain America faced off over superhero rights. But the Thor clone Iron Man helped create was, and he was a hero killer. When Thor returned, flush with power, Iron Man tried to tell him what was what in the new order. Thor responded by brutally beating the crap out of him. Their relationship never really mended after Stark stole Thor’s genetic information and used it to create a horrible clone.
RESPECT HIM: Black Panther
The bond between Black Panther and Iron Man is subtle yet profound. Both are intelligent, powerful men with access to incredible technology and vast resources. The mutual respect between them has been important to each man in different ways.
But Black Panther is also quite a bit more humble than Iron Man. He doesn’t need to constantly assert himself in every situation the way Stark seems to. Black Panther is the moral compass Iron Man needs to remind him to use his gifts in the right way.
DESPISE HIM: Captain Marvel
No one in the Marvel Universe dislikes Iron Man more than Captain Marvel does. That includes the Mandarin, Whiplash and Justin Hammer. Civil War II was based on their less than subtle disagreement. Saying they don’t see eye to eye is a massive understatement, and that’s a huge problem since they are two of the most prominent heroes in their world. If they ever find a way to work together again, it will not last. These two will never be friends, and she will never respect him on any level.
RESPECT HIM: Captain America
Civil War was such a powerful story in the comics because of the rift it created between two of the biggest heroes in Marvel. The partnership between Iron Man and Captain America was a defining relationship throughout the Avengers, so much so that it ending tore the hero community apart. While they might not always be on the same side of every fight, the respect they have for each other is always there. On some level, Iron Man and Captain America are there for each other, even in the rockiest of times.
