Well, since Shake mentioned Spider-Man, I guess it's time for me to bring best engineer
Iron Ma for the High 6-A spot:
I can create a world without war. I can make a world without alcohol or drugs. Without hate or jealousy. But then it wouldn't be the world we live in. Nothing would be learned, nothing would be gained. We wouldn't advance as species. | | |
| ~ Avengers Vol 4 #12 | |
Anthony Edward Stark is, for the lack of a better word,
complicated. During his early days of success, Stark was a man who only cared about fame and wealth. He had no sense of responsibility or humility, always rubbing his success in the faces of everyone he met. This all changed when he was captured by terrorists. After building the first Iron Man armor and escaping captivity, Stark had realized the kind of person he really was and engaged in a life of heroism to atone for his past mistakes.
Plagued by many vices, Stark is prone to womanizing, pride, and most of all -alcoholism- the latter being an addiction developed as a consequence of the abuse from his father and his social status. This lifetime of troubles has caused him to develop a cynical view of the world.
Despite this, Stark is devoted to truly make the world a better place. This desire has sometimes caused Stark to resort to morally questionable methods, as long as the end justifies them, including his crusade to safeguard his technology (leading him to confront heroes such as Stingray and the Captain), and the superhuman Civil War, during which Iron Man was hell bent on implementing the Superhuman Registration Act, because its failure would have led to a harsh response from the government. However, Iron Man has shown to be ridden by guilt over this type of course of action, which developed into self-hate. Tony Stark has been described as "man enough to do what needs to be done, even knowing full well what it will cost him." Stark's self-hating tendencies have also led to Stark being suicidal, and undervaluing his own life, specially in favor of others'.
According to
Reed Richards, Tony Stark is "a future man trapped in the now. A prisoner raging against the slow crawl of human evolution." Stark's relationships, morality and ethics are highly adaptable and malleable to what he would consider the greater good of mankind's necessary survival and progress. Tony has also been described as "[A person who] really cares. He's been on the top and he's been on the bottom and he's done all 12 steps and a few more. He knows what it's like to have a habit that eats you from the inside, like worms. And he knows there's no easy answer, but every solution to every problem has to start somewhere. He's just trying to help."
Tony has also been shown to loathe taking other people's lives, and resorting to killing people only as a extreme measure, and explicitly stating he doesn't kill, and having claimed that's "not the way we work."
A
Genius, billionaire, playboy, philantophist, pseudo-nihilistic with bad habits of arrogancy, alcoholism and egoism. But at the end, however, he is a hero, who will risk his life to save others, and will do whatever it takes to protect the universe from threats, even if that means dehumanization.
Everything I've done, everything I'll do today, everything I'll ever do, I do to protect this world. [...] When I put on this armor, I took on more power than any human was ever intended to have... and maybe more responsibility than my heart can truly bear. But today... I will do my job. I will protect you. No matter what it takes... | | |
| ~ Invincible Iron Man Vol 1 #19 | |