The revelation that Tony Stark’s new nemesis is an X-Men villain proves that Iron Man still desperately needs better foes of his own.
Warning: SPOILERS for The Invincible Iron Man #3In a shocking twist, the person who is after Iron Man‘s life in his new ongoing series is revealed as Feilong, an X-Men villain. This revelation confirms that, after so many years, Iron Man still suffers from a lack of compelling villains, as he has to borrow one from the X-Men.
In Marvel’s new ongoing series The Invincible Iron Man, Tony Stark has been going through some hard times. After spending all his fortune to buy off the market an arsenal of high-tech weapons of mass destruction, Tony quickly discovered he has a target on his back. Someone behind the scenes is plotting to take him down, using every means from poison to bombing to hired assassins. In The Invincible Iron Man #3, by Gerry Duggan, Juan Frigeri, and Bryan Valenza, Tony finally realize that his mysterious persecutor is Kelvin Heng, aka Feilong, a Chinese billionaire who has clashed with the X-Men over the right to colonize Mars.
Feilong Is Iron Man’s New Big Villain, But He Is Originally An X-Men Foe
After becoming a tech billionaire, Feilong put his sights on aiding humanity’s conquest of Mars. However, this dream too was cut short when, at the first Hellfire Gala, the X-Men announced the terraforming of Mars and its new status as the mutant world Arakko. Blaming his failure on the X-Men, Feilong became a sworn enemy of all mutants, allying himself with Orchis, an organization devoted to their eradication. During the second Hellfire Gala, Feilong and Tony Stark had a brief exchange of opinions, which ended with an ominous warning: “I am looking for a worthy opponent, Stark.”
It’s hard to imagine how an empty threat like that could have escalated so much. Feilong is Marvel’s version of Elon Musk and a relatively new character, but he has always been connected to the X-Men and their stories. The vicious attacks against Iron Man, which ended up claiming the life of an innocent neighbor of Tony’s, seem motivated by a personal grudge, but the two characters don’t have any kind of history together. This proves that Iron Man still suffers from one of his oldest issues: the lack of interesting villains. Besides the Mandarin, it’s hard to identify any iconic villains in Iron Man’s “rogues’ gallery”, and he often has to borrow them from other heroes.
Iron Man Still Needs Better Original Villains
Iron Man’s most recent big villain, Korvac, was originally an Avengers foe, and the same is happening with Feilong, who at least fits the description of “evil corporate billionaire” that is common to many other Iron Man villains, such as Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer. It will be interesting to see how Tony’s new feud with Feilong will develop, but the fact that his new ongoing series immediately had to borrow an X-Men villain proves that Iron Man still needs better foes of his own.
The Invincible Iron Man #3 is available now from Marvel Comics.
