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In the Marvel Comics series Exiles, which follows a group of X-Men-related heroes banding together to protect the multiverse, many alternate universes have been explored with strange variants of iconic heroes. Exiles #23 focuses on the team’s darker counterparts, Weapon X, who are sent on more morally gray missions. For their latest mission, they encounter the most evil Iron Man variant in the multiverse: Emperor Stark. The storyline “With an Iron Fist” centers on this malevolent Iron Man and how he became a worse version of Doctor Doom. This variant could potentially inspire the Doctor Doom character in Avengers: Doomsday.
How Iron Man Became His World’s Doctor Doom
Even though Emperor Stark is a variant of Iron Man, over time, his actions and appearance transform him to be more like Doctor Doom. “With an Iron Fist” takes place in the dystopian world of Earth-42777, where the age of heroes has long since passed. Although this Tony variant started as a hero, he was cruel and ambitious with plans to save the world by ruling it. By secretly funding Magneto and his Brotherhood, Iron Man helped trigger a Mutant War that cost countless heroes and civilians their lives. To win public favor, Iron Man then took on the role of humanity’s savior by killing Magneto.
After successfully killing off most of the superhero and mutant population by engineering the Mutant War, Iron Man set in motion a series of tragedies to force humanity to beg him to become their ruler. The corrupted hero caused various plagues, famines, and natural disasters, and then “solved” them to make himself to appear as an even greater savior. By that point, humanity had been beaten down and tricked so thoroughly that they willingly made Iron Man their emperor. Of course, Doctor Doom wasn’t about to let anyone other than himself rule humanity, so he battled the newly appointed Emperor Stark. In the end, Emperor Stark killed Doctor Doom. He took Doom’s cloak as a trophy, but not before the villain managed to disfigure his face horrifically.
Even though Emperor Stark hid his disfigurement behind a holographic projection of his younger face, he had, for all intents and purposes, become the new Doctor Doom and ruled over the world with an iron fist. However, like every version of Doctor Doom, Emperor Stark’s reign came to an end. When Weapon X arrived on Earth-42777, they offered to help the tyrant destroy the resistance movement against his regime, namely Black Bolt and his wife, Invisible Woman. However, Weapon X covertly set into motion Emperor Stark’s downfall. Black Bolt sacrificed his life to annihilate Emperor Stark’s armies, while Invisible Woman killed the tyrant by slitting his throat. In the end, Earth-42777 was liberated from the Armored Avenger, who had transformed into the next Doctor Doom.
