.Marvel Comics has released some excruciatingly horrid flops. However,Iron Manand the Avengers’Crossingstoryline is just about one of the worst stories the publisher ever went through with. Plagued by backward character progression, convoluted time-traveling nonsense, and a general melodramatic feel, this controversial storyline bookmarked an already tumultuous time for Marvel. Even now after 20 years,Crossingremains a black stain most readers like to forget.
For those unfamiliar,Avengers Crossingwas a multipart saga that spanned across ongoingAvengersseries,Iron Manseries, andForce Workseries. Like Spider-Man’s ownClone Saga,Crossingrequired readers to follow along every series to keep up with the plot, causing incredible readability issues on top of its difficult plot. While the story officially began inAvengers: The Crossing #1 (1995),its prelude unofficially began a few issues prior inIron Man #319 (1995). And whileCrossingis heavily focused on Tony Stark, it takes Iron Man in the worst possible direction.
Iron Man Instantly Becomes A Villain
Avengers: The Crossing #1 (1995),Written by Bob Harras & Terry Kavanagh; Art by Mike Deodato Jr.; Color by Marie Javins; Lettering by Richard Starkings
Crossingbegins with a time-displaced Yellowjacket flailing through the timestream all while trying to return to the present. Along the way, the heroine appears in a possible near-future where Iron Man has turned on the Avengers, and the team is labeled as outlaws to be killed. When Yellowjacket returns to Earth-616’s present, she rushes tothe Avengers Mansionto warn the team of Stark’s betrayal. Unfortunately, the Avenger is intercepted by Stark, who already knows of the future she just saw.Iron Man promptly kills Yellowjacketto keep her silent before dragging her corpse into the mansion.
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Meanwhile, the Avengers are all gathered to celebrate the return of their old base while investigating a mysterious door that has also appeared inside. Later that night, Marilla, the Inhuman nanny of Luna Maximoff, discovers that Tony is able to open the mysterious door on his own. Marilla is quick tocelebrate with the Avengerfor his feat, but it ends when Iron Man begrudgingly kills the nanny, claiming she saw too much.
Tony Learns He Is the Killer, Which He Knew All Along
One of the major issues thatCrossingfaces from the beginning is that thereaders know, to some degree, who the villain is.While we already know thatIron Man is now somehow a killer, the Avengers are left to investigate the sudden and mysterious deaths of their friends. By the timeAvengers #391 (1995)comes in,the Avengers are struggling to keep up with these rapid disasters. We find Gilgamesh at death’s door, and he is later killed by a mysterious figure who appears out of nowhere. Vision discovers residue from Marilla’s murder, and Giant-Man even finds Yellowjacket’s DNA signature in the mix.
Later, after reviewing the Avengers Mansion’s security footage, Stark learns that he is the killer, revealing that he had supposedly blacked out during each previous kill.
With a startling three deaths in one night,Iron Man demands that the Avengers leave the mansionand any curiosity about the mysterious door behind. InIron Man #321 (1995),Stark and Hank Pym continue trying to open the door. Meanwhile,Hercules checks inand lets Tony know that a young blonde woman had recently approached the demi-god with a warning, prompting a panicked response from Stark. Later, after reviewing the Avengers Mansion’s security footage, Stark learns that he is the killer, revealing that he had supposedly blacked out during each previous kill.
Iron Man Turns The Avengers On Another Ally
The Lies Are Beginning to Crack
Despite Tony’s self-believed innocence, inForce Works #17 (1995),Iron Man convinces everyone who will listen that Hawkeye is Marilla’s killer. Hawkeye’s closest allies,US Agent and Black Widow, can’t believe Clint would ever kill their allies and launch an independent investigation. They discover that the footage of Marilla’s and Yellowjacket’s deaths were doctored, leading them to believe that either Tony Stark or Reed Richards is to blame. With War Machine’s help,Hawkeye’s allies start to further believe that Iron Man is the true killer.Meanwhile, Tony continues experiencing severe blackouts, waking up in random locations in his armor.
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Whilethe rest of the Avengersslowly start to build their case against Iron Man, the hero himself continues to flounder around in his day-to-day existence. The blackouts have started to take a deep mental toll on the “hero,”who acts as if he doesn’t know what is going on.At some point, Tony even encounters the mysterious figure who killed Gilgamesh, but no Avenger is willing to answer his call when he calls out for help.
Tony Stark Calls For The Death Of The Avengers
His Secret Is Exposed by a Baby
By the timeForce Works #18 (1995)hit shelves,Tony’s lucidity was back, and he is seen asking his hidden “master” toorder an attack against his investigators and fellow Avengers.Later, inIron Man #323 (1995),Iron Man and Hawkeyefinally confront each other, but both claim that neither believes the other killed Marilla and Yellowjacket. They both return to the Van Dyne estate, where the Avengers are currently housed. Hank Pym uses an “Image Inducer” to visualize Tony’s recent memories, but everything seems normal until Pym next uses the device on baby Luna.
Stark sinks into a deep pit of regret, not for what he has done but for what he is about to do, before boldly proclaiming, “You must all die…”
At the beginning of this whole ordeal, baby Luna witnessed Tony kill Yellowjacket but could never vocalize her fear, instead repeating “Bad Man” around Tony. In an instant,the facade of ignorance, blackouts, and confusion that both the Avengers and the readers were led to believe fades away.Stark sinks into a deep pit of regret, not for what he has done but for what he is about to do, before boldly proclaiming, “You must all die…” With both the heroes and readers now totally lost toIron Man’s motivations, the story prepares to jump into its true plot.
After Months Of Teasing, Crossing Teels Us What We Already Knew
This Is Apparently Just Who Tony Stark Is
Crossingforces us to endure 15 grueling issues, spread across four different series to get to its climax. The entire time, Marvel hammered at unnecessary plot point after plot point for little payoff. After all, we arefinally told the one thing we knew the entire time: Tony Stark is the killer.This reveal doesn’t even consider the run’s sub-plots including the sudden disappearance of Vietnam - seriously.
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After months of trailing along a story,Crossingfinally completed the prelude. Just the prelude, not even the actual event itself. The series is no better as its complicated narrative eventually reveals the version of Tony Stark we have been reading about this entire time is actuallyan older version of Tony from the future who had become disillusioned with his work.The future Iron Man admits he teamed up with Immortus,masquerading as Kang, to replace his younger self and destroy the Avengers.
The Avengers Pit Tony Stark Against Tony Stark
From Hero to Villain to Hero All Over Again
So how do our heroes fight back?The Avengers go on to recruit a younger teenage Tony from the pastwho can face his evil older self. While the Avengers do gain some traction against their time-traveling foe, fate turns against the Avengers once more inIron Man #325 (1995) asfuture Iron Man rips the heart out of his younger self, leaving him to die.
In a complete heel-turn from his character’s progression throughout this entire debacle, the day is suddenly saved by the very villain who began this whole journey.
The Avengers clash with Immortus and his forces, but they fail to overcome the might of an entire army. In their darkest hour,the future Iron Man returns to sacrifice himself for his old friends after having a change of heart… for some reason.In a complete heel-turn from his character’s progression, the day is suddenly saved by the very villain who began this whole journey. Using the future Iron Man’s suit, the Avengers successfully resuscitate young Tony, who became Marvel’s primary Iron Man untilMarvel’s Onslaught eventin mid 1996. Complicated, right?
CrossingCompletely Tarnished Iron Man’s Character Growth
The Avengers Were Left Physically and Emotionally Broken
So, what really makesCrossingso bad? Is it thenonsensical and irrelevant plot points, needlessly hollow character developments, and a cheap deus ex machina solutions?It is all of the above.Crossingcompletely obliterated one of Marvel’s most beloved heroes in the slowest way possible. The villain of this story isn’t some far-future Tony Stark turned warlord; He’s a version of Tony from not too far into the future who let complacency rot him out. Marvel wants to make it clear that evil was inIron Man’s nature.
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Long-standing character arcs and relationships were destroyed in a matter of months and for what? Iron Man was once again a troubling alcoholic.War Machine and Hawkeyeboth turned their backs on the Avengers. Even most of the Avengers distrusted each other after this story.Earth’s Mightiest Heroes had been reduced to a neurotic, misshapen mess.There was no character growth for anyone, just decay and disillusionment. Marvel spent months trying to ham-fist together multiple different plots in a time-traveling epic but only succeeded in tearing down the pillars of its best heroes.
Marvel Retconned The Story Months Later
CrossingWas a Desperate Attempt at Survival for the Publisher
Crossingis one ofMarvel’s worst storiesthe company has ever told, if not the absolute worst. It ultimately served no purpose and didn’t work toward generating any character growth. The writing was all over the place, and its rapid scene changes made the plot points difficult to follow. Characters and sub-plots were added for the heck of it. So to be completely honest,it feels as ifCrossingwas intentional filler.
Crossingis nothing more than a shameless stain on Marvel’s history that everyone has collectively agreed to forget.
At the time of its release, Marvel was facing imminent bankruptcy and was desperately trying to throw what it could out there, hoping something would stick. Obviously, this event did not do the trick. Within a few months,theOnslaughtstoryline effectively retconnedCrossingcompletely, thanks to Franklin Richards’s Counter-Earth resurrections. Now,Crossingis nothing more thana shameless stain on Marvel’s historythat everyone has collectively agreed to forget. So while Marvel has certainly dropped other controversial stories over the years, thisIron Mandisaster is just about as bad as they come.
