They say money is the root of all evil but in comics, some of the most important heroes are rich. Take Iron Man, for instance. Tony Stark was born rich and that, combined with his prodigious intelligence, helped him created things that not only made him richer but also helped defeat loads of deadly villains. While Iron Man's brains have been a big factor in his success, without the money, he never would have succeeded the way he did.
However, his money has also been a huge detriment to him, separating him from the working world and allowing him to indulge his vices in ways that have hurt him.
10 His Wealth Helped Him: It Gave Him Time To Learn
Wealth buys a lot of things but one thing it buys is time. When one doesn't have to worry about how their bills are going to get paid or where their next meal is going to come from, they have time to learn all kinds of things. Stark was born brilliant but without money, he never would have learned what he needed to use his knowledge.
Tony Stark is a very learned man and without his wealth, there's a good chance he never would have learned everything he has. The skills he learned from the best universities have been crucial in his victories and accomplishments over the years.
9 His Wealth Ruined Him: It Gave Him Resources To Make Even His Bad Ideas Reality
Iron Man is known for inventing all kinds of great things but that doesn't mean that he's everything he's ever made has been great. There have been loads of subpar armor designs, weird upgrades, and equipment additions that make one question if Tony Stark is as smart as he seems. The reason for all of that? Money.
Tony Stark has the money to waste, so he can create pretty much anything that suits his fancy. So, if he decides that the Iron Man armor would be better with pop-out roller skates, then he puts them on there. This freedom to do anything can be as much of a detriment as otherwise.
8 His Wealth Helped Him: It's Freed Him Up For Intellectual Pursuits
Being smart is great but if one doesn't have time to think and brainstorm, then it's hard to come up with world-changing ideas. Stark's wealth gives him that freedom. He can just take a week off from being a CEO and brainstorm. He can go to the lab and just work for days at a time and everything is taken care of.
Money does a lot for people and one of the best things it does is give them freedom. Tony Stark's job as head of his companies can be delegated to other people and he can just create, which if he needed the money wouldn't be possible.
7 His Wealth Ruined Him: He Often Confuses It With Skill
Wealth can make monsters of people at times. Many of them conflate their inherited wealth with some sort of merit. They believe that it makes them better than others and while Iron Man isn't as bad as the worst examples of this, he still does it. He was born on third and has a belief that makes him a good hitter.
For example- Iron Man is not a good leader. There's a reason he's rarely if ever a field leader in the Avengers and yet he constantly puts himself into leadership positions, with often disastrous consequences. The biggest example of this is Civil War and beyond, when his side did terrible things to win and afterwards, when he completely missed the Skrull infiltration of not only S.H.I.E.L.D. but his own company as well.
6 His Wealth Helped Him: It's Allowed Him To Help Others, Making Him A Better Person
Iron Man has done a lot of good in the world and that wouldn't be possible without his wealth. However, helping others also helped him. Tony Stark, pre-Iron Man, wasn't the best person and his time helping others showed him how empty his old life had been. This made him a better person.
Poorer people than him have helped others but with his wealth, it's opened him up to helping people on a scale that he couldn't without it. As Iron Man, he has saved the world and that has made him a better person, something that wouldn't be possible if he wasn't rich.
5 His Wealth Ruined Him: It Helped Make Him Arrogant
Even though Tony Stark has become a better person since becoming Iron Man, one thing hasn't changed- he's arrogant. While one can make the point he's arrogant because of his accomplishments, without his wealth and family name, his accomplishments wouldn't have been nearly as great. His wealth is a big factor in his arrogance.
His arrogance is a lifelong thing, a feeling which was definitely fueled by being a part of a family of wealthy industrialists. He never had to be humble because he was a Stark- he could afford not to be.
4 His Wealth Helped Him: It Helped Him Pay For The Avengers, Making Lifelong Friendships
Before the Avengers, Tony Stark was a pretty lonely person. Sure, there was Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts, but they worked for him. In his eyes, he had no equals. Becoming Iron Man only compounded that, as he was suddenly a superhero, part of an elite group. The Avengers changed all of that and they never would have existed without his wealth in the way they do.
Tony Stark bankrolled the team, gave them a base, and made it possible for the members to concentrate on being heroes full time. He built himself a group of equals, friends who would always be there for him, even at his worst.
3 His Wealth Ruined Him: It's Made Him Think He's Good At Things He Isn't
Tony Stark has lost his money and company. A lot. It's gotten to the point that maybe he shouldn't even be allowed to run his own companies- he's terrible at it. However, he keeps making himself CEO and making the decisions that lead to his companies being taken over and failing. Why would he keep doing this?
Because he believes that he's the best for the job because it's his money. He's the rich one- he should run things. Instead of delegating, he's taken control and run things into the ground several times. Tony Stark has a great mind for some things but business isn't one of those things.
2 His Wealth Helped Him: All Of The Armors He's Built
While he built his first suit of armor from cast-off tech that terrorists brought him, he would improve upon it repeatedly over the years, using the best technology could buy or that he could invent with the best resources money could buy. Without his wealth, this wouldn't have been possible.
Money allowed Tony Stark the resources to create some of the most powerful suits of armor on Earth. Without it, he was able to create some decent armors, sure, but to really create the best, he needed the resources that only billions of dollars could get him.
1 His Wealth Ruined Him: It Allowed Him To Indulge His Vices
Tony Stark has had a rough go of things for a lot of reasons and one of those was because of his history of addiction. Poor people can be alcoholics as well but it's more detrimental to their lifestyle. For Tony Stark, his money gave him the freedom to drink constantly and not only did it not hurt his lifestyle very much but no one would stop him- he was paying their salaries.
Without his money, being an alcoholic would have been much harder and would have hurt his life way more. However, he was rich, so not only did he not lose everything but everyone was more willing to forgive his sins because of it.
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