THE FUTURIST. independent & private TONY STARK / IRON MAN of marvel comics’ earth-616. adventurer of the multiverse. engineered by claudia. 𝙴𝚂𝚃. 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟺. formerly ironarmored.
hey guys, i hate to do this, but i need a bit of help. we had to take my cat to the emergency hospital. needless to say, it’s going to cost a lot for all the tests they need to run. we put down a deposit for half, but will still need several hundred dollars to cover the rest of it. if you can spare anything at all, i would so appreciate it.
❛ Fiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled round their shores. ❜
❛ If only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes! ❜
❛ There’s a part of me in you. ❜
❛ The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very very brightly. ❜
❛ I’m surprised you didn’t come here sooner. ❜
❛ Okay, bad joke, I’m sorry… No, really, I made a bad joke. ❜
❛ I’d quit because I’d had a belly full of killing. But then I’d rather be a killer than a victim. ❜
❛ All I could do is sit there and watch him die. ❜
❛ I watched him die all night. It was a long, slow thing… and he fought it all the way. He never whimpered, and he never quit. He took all the time he had, as though he loved life very much. Every second of it… even the pain. Then, he was dead. ❜
❛ Talk about beauty and the beast — she’s both. ❜
❛ The only way you can hurt me is to kill me. ❜
❛ I’m not in the business. I am the business. ❜
❛ It’s not an easy thing to meet your maker. ❜
❛ We’re stupid, and we’ll die. ❜
❛ Death? Well, I’m afraid that’s a little out of my jurisdiction. ❜
❛ Gosh, you’ve… really got some nice toys here. ❜
❛ Nothing is worse than having an itch you can never scratch. ❜
❛ I’ve had people walk out on me before, but not when I was being
so charming. ❜
❛ Shakes? Me too. I get them bad. It’s part of the business. ❜
❛ Milk and cookies kept you awake? ❜
❛ You’d better get it up, or I’m gonna have to kill you! ❜
eyes peel from the point of his shoes to the crease in his slacks & jacket - ❝ so, out of need-to-know curiosity, how much did your suit cost ? ❞ / @futurise.
A LIGHTNING - FLICKER OF AMUSEMENT dances across his face, playful, a pas de deux of suave politesse and irreverent teasing. ❛ well, as long as it’s on a need-to-know basis roughly 283 thousand benjamin franklins. it helps if you know a genius engineer with access to patented proprietary tech. ❜
tony st ark absolutely has an unlimited supply of star wars / star trek / avengers themed bandaids that he rotates on a regular basis for workshop accidents and mission-related injuries. so u can bet the official avengers first aid kit also looks like an avengers merchandise store lmao
Why do u dislike Howard Stark? I know he is not the ideal father but isn’t that all fathers in media .. not all but most.
this ask is making me lose my mind................. “why do u hate the man who emotionally and physically abused your fave their entire childhood, gave them alcohol at the age of 5 thus causing his lifelong struggle against alcoholism, and regularly features in their recurring psychological trauma and most haunting nightmares........ isn’t that what all dads do”.
listen . there are shitty fathers in media and then there’s howard fucking stark.
not only was howard stark a disgusting, awful, abusive pos to his wife and son, the majority of tony’s specific mental issues can be traced back to things howard said, did or instigated. his alcoholism, his feelings of inadequacy, lack of self-worth and horrifying self-loathing, his struggle with masks and perceptions of himself / his strength / his masculinity, his habit of self-isolating and pretending everything is perfectly fine rather than having to rely on anyone else, and a whole plethora of other traits directly related to growing up as a child of an abusive household.
there’s also a lot of gross homophobic undertones to his use of the word ‘ sissy ’, his insistence on trying to make tony a ‘ man ’, and his constant mockery of tony’s seemingly effeminate behavior — namely having emotions, liking books, and preferring reading and fantasy to sports. tony grew up in an environment ruled by constant fear, relentlessly disparaged for literally everything he did, and was made to feel like he was a coward / worthless / nothing / etc. here’s a summary of flashback quotes to his childhood:
“You don’t want to be a sissy, now do you? Stark men are made of iron!” (Iron Man v1 #286)
“I was seven when my father decided I was a disappointment to him.” (Iron Man v1 #287)
“Stop being such a coward, boy. You’ve been coddled by wealth, and it’s made you weak.” (Iron Man v1 #287)
“You listen to me, boy! You’ll never amount to anything! If you don’t put some iron – into that spine of yours. You have to push yourself. Be tough! Be strong! Work harder! Be a man!” (Iron Man v1 #300)
it’s popular knowledge that tony is a recovering alcoholic but i don’t think many people know that his alcoholism is directly tied to howard and was catalyzed by howard forcing him to drink bourbon at five years old. and he did it because a ) he had no choice and howard would likely have laid hands on him if he tried to turn down the drink but more importantly, b ) he was so desperate for howard’s approval he would have drunk the whole bottle. like... what an incredibly fucked up situation for a child to be put in and what an incredibly fucked up thing for a child to have to think in the first place. not to mention what he sees in his mother’s reaction afterwards where she now’s afraid for her own son and the destructive cycle he’s repeating because her pos alcoholic husband forced their five year old child to drink.
HOWARD: You want him to stay a sissy little boy forever? He’s got to learn, if he’s going to make anything of himself. To be tough. Strong. To be a man. Son, this is fine single-malt bourbon. Drink up. It’ll put hair on your chest.
TONY: Yes, sir.
HOWARD: Not like that, boy! Don’t sip it, throw it back!
[ TONY’S INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: I’d never tasted liquor before. It was horrible. But I knew not to swallow would be a disgrace to my father. I would have drunk down the whole bottle if it’d win me more of his approval… so precious for its scarcity… And then, I happen to look into my mother’s eyes — And saw not pride, but sadness. She’d seen what’d become of my father over the years … and now she feared for me. ]
also, comic writers are perfectly aware of howard being the worst father in the known multiverse because he’s frequently brought back as a nightmare vision, literal demon from hell, or straight-up villain. the below passage is from when demon!howard is summoned by mephisto to fight howard, the writer, bob layton, has since confirmed at a convention that this wasn’t just a minion of mephisto pretending to be howard but actually howard. with new homophobic subtext and slutshaming insults for an older tony.
HOWARD: Losing again, eh, boy? You always were a wimp. Never had the stones to do what had to be done!
TONY: I... I always tried to do... what was right!
HOWARD: [...] You’re weak. Nothing but a fancy-boy. You’re no son of mine.
[ TONY’S INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: I’d heard it all before. But the pain was still enough–to distract me from the physical threat at hand. ]
HOWARD: You were my greatest shame, but I’ll make a man out of you yet! I’ll beat it into you, you prancing gigolo! Every... single... day... for eternity!
[ TONY’S INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Still, his most powerful weapons–were words. ]
HOWARD: Weak! Namby-pamby! Vacillating when you should act! You always were a disappointment, both to me–and to your mother!
then there’s cantwell’s tragic attempt at an iron man run where in the current storyline howard sold tony’s soul to mephisto.
MEPHISTO: I spoke the truth with your father’s tongue, Tony. He promised you to me. Or well, he will. Someday many many years from now. I’ve seen it in the stone.
MEPHISTO: There must always be an Iron Man, I’m afraid.
HOWARD: Well then, I suppose it’s a good thing you’ve got his greatest enemy by your side. No one knows my boy like I do. How to build him. And how to break him.
so yeah i don’t ‘’’’’’’’’dislike’’’’’’’’ howard stark i hate him and hate everything he stands for because he’s disgusting excuse of a human being and anyone that thinks otherwise should choke.
panels for the above quotes below the cut.
iron man v1 #286
iron man v1 #287
iron man 2: public identity #2, the mcu tie-in comic, which shows howard being openly physical with him and tony begging to go back to boarding school. he’s probably 5 or 6 years old here.
wide eyes can’t help but stare back at the face before them, whole body feeling numb and mind off kilter. the words sound muffled to their own ears, DISTANT even if they can see the man’s lips move from only inches away. heart races in their chest, there’s a wetness to their face that they can’t place. oh, shit, they’re crying.
there’s a shake in their hands that they can see in their peripheral. why are they doing that? brow crinkles, eyes darting around the room. that’s when they notice; the sheets thrown off the bed, table side lamp broken, and a hole in the wall, about shoulder size; all on his side of the bed. back presses more FIRMLY against the wall, knees pulling up to their body, all but curling in on themselves.
A NIGHTMARE THEN.
eyes move back to tony again, shaking hands reaching out to hover next to the man’s face, careful not to touch. there’s a fear coursing through them, one they can’t shake. what if all of this resulted in tony being hurt, damaged, all because he couldn’t sleep peaceful. this is HIS FAULT. ❝ did i — ? DID I HURT YOU?please, tell me you’re okay. ❞
THROUGH THE LOOKING - GLASS AND NEVER OUT OF IT; trauma has a way of manifesting in refractions of skin, flesh and self-recrimination. this intimate dance of horror mirrored in steve’s thousand-yard stare, the strangehold of panic, the bloodless fear of WHAT HAS BEEN DONE / WHAT HAS BEEN SAID without conscious permission. to find your own body betraying you without a moment of remorse, your ribs and spine become a cage, a skeletal terror permeating the air struggling in and out through shipwrecked lungs. the urge to comfort, to soothe, to whisper lullaby into tenderness, rises hard and fast in his throat, a thickness anchoring tight between his breaths. the bruising blooming across his jaw, an accidental strike of match to flame to bone, is a mere afterthought.
❛ i’m fine. i’m fine. i’m more worried about you right now. ❜ darling, foolish man, how could concern for himself supercede his worry for you ? how could anything come before your comfort, your peace of mind, the safety that slips from your fingertips every time you close your eyes to sleep. tony’s hand isn’t shaking when he slips it around steve’s — a herculean effort concentrated in the apex of a fingertip; a tidal wave of monumental strength conjured from a vast, unrelenting protectiveness — cradles his hand like he might just shatter if he applied any more pressure. ❛ listen to me, just listen to my voice. i’m alright. i’m okay. you had a nightmare, sweetheart. that’s all. you’re safe. i’ve got you. ❜
gifts tony a pair of dad jorts and a fanny pack. and yes, the fanny pack is iron man themed. “happy father’s day. enjoy that.”
❛ THEY’RE PERFECT. ❜ they’re hideous. but perfect. he clutches both jorts and fanny pack to his chest with a flair of theatrical affection worthy of the actor’s seal of approval, eyes going suspiciously shiny in a way that even he isn’t sure is entirely banter. ❛ thank you, brandon. i will treasure them for life. ❜
2087
tangentwithtanner
gracieabrams
snowghoul
titsay
