Iron Man: Why Tony Stark Faced Off Against the X-Men's Deadliest Villain

In the Marvel Universe, the Avengers' world doesn't typically overlap with that of the X-Men. Excluding the obvious Avengers/X-Men crossovers and battles, it's unusual for Earth's Mightiest Heroes to become involved in the issues of Marvel's mutants.

One overlooked Iron Man storyline, however, pits Tony Stark against one of the deadliest X-Men villains: Omega Red.

Born Arkady Rossovich, Omega Red is a Russian mutant who became part of a Soviet-era super-soldier program. The procedure implanted Arkady with carbonadium tentacles, allowing Omega Red to drain the life-force of his enemies. Omega Red has most frequently clashed with Wolverine, developing a bitter rivalry with the most popular X-Men.

In Iron Man #295-297, by Len Kaminski and Kevin Hopgood, Omega Red's path intersects with Tony Stark's in a unique manner. During this story, Stark prepares to confront A.I.M. after they purchase Stane International's nuclear materials. Simultaneously, Omega Red is on the hunt for a Russian intelligence operative, Olinka Barankova. Discovering that Barankova has defected to A.I.M., Red also sets the organization in his crosshairs.

The stage is set once Iron Man charges onto A.I.M. island, assaulting their forces and confronting MODAM, a female MODOK. Stark's battle takes an unfortunate turn when MODAM uses her psychic implant to neutralize Iron Man. Suddenly, Omega Red appears, claiming that MODAM is, in fact, Olinka Barankova, transformed by A.I.M.

While Stark recovers from the psychic blast he received, MODAM and Omega Red begin to fight. A.I.M. asks Iron Man to stop Red for them, which Stark only agrees to if A.I.M. returns their nuclear materials to Stane International. Iron Man then arrives on the scene right when Red is about to finish off MODAM.

Stark blasts Red with a repulsor and punches him in the face, which the mutant shrugs off. Red scoffs that Tony is just a man in a metal suit, while he is a mutant. The villain gets the upper hand on Iron Man, penetrating his armor and wrapping him in Red's carbonadium tentacles. Stark surprises Red, however, by grabbing his tentacle and crushing it in his hands.

Iron Man then sends 50,000 volts of electricity from his suit straight into Red's body. The armored Avenger finally grabs Red by the tentacle and slams him on the ground, finishing the fight. Afterward, Stark dispatches MODAM quite easily, ripping out her psychic implant.

Although this tale was written in the '90s, it's still oddly evocative of the early Iron Man stories of the '60s. Specifically, Omega Red serves as a callback to the type of Cold War-era villains that Stark faced, including Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man and even Black Widow. These foes were created mainly to perpetuate the anti-communist Cold War sentiment.

Much like these villains, Red is a product of his country, designed as a Soviet nationalist weapon to compete with the Americans. Indeed, just as Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man were created to compete against Iron Man, Omega Red was part of a super-soldier program to create a Soviet equivalent of Captain America.

This story, however, is still quite different from those early Iron Man features in Tales of Suspense. Characters like Titanium Man were the main feature of the story, and Stark's main concern was defeating them. Omega Red, however, is simply a distraction while Iron Man tries to stop A.I.M. Even so, it's fun to see how times have changed, with less of a focus on Cold War tensions and more of a concern with evil think tanks like A.I.M., unattached to any one nation.

It's not often that there is a natural bridge between the worlds of the X-Men and the Avengers. On the rare occasion that the two areas meet, they fit together quite nicely.

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