Marvel fans know what I mean; Tony Stark, or Iron Man, is one of the main members of the helpful hero gang, the Avengers. His niche is being a rich kid grown up and matured into a snarky yet good-deed doing philanthropist.
Even though Iron Man is widely regarded as a hero overall, many of his endeavors led to the empowerment and even creation of some of the biggest problems and villains superheroes have to face, often cleaning up Stark-flavored messes.
What does that have to do with Elon Musk? Nothing, and everything. Come on, let’s get into it!
In this article:
Comparing Actions & Consequences
While the comparison has been made with billionaires Elon Reeve Musk and fictional character Anthony Edward Stark before, it’s a good analogy for a few reasons. He spent just over a year crowned as the richest person in the world until he lost that title to Louis Vuitton CEO Bernard Arnault this past December. Additionally, Musk’s renown for his technological genius and innovations, his money, tech, outspoken nature, questionable actions, and penchant for making snarky remarks keep his name making headlines on a daily basis. If you don’t know his name by now, I Musk ask–how is that possible?
Terrible wordplay aside, these are all qualities that lend to why putting Musk and Stark side-by-side makes sense.
Alienating tendencies
Stark: A habit of diminishing people he works with is a common theme in the Marvel Universe, motivating those he underestimated and belittled to seek their own ways through vengeance. Stark’s attitude and actions contribute to his unwitting push of relatively small-scale villains into bigger stakes, like with The Vulture.
Musk: Under the guise of “freeing the bird” and freeing speech with his overtaking of Twitter, in his own way Musk has unleashed and empowered the voice of hate resulting in a positive influencer exodus and brain-drain from the platform. In addition, the social media site has been bleeding out advertisers who are nonplussed with the new scaffolding and rising hate speech-filled tweets.
Arrogant habits
Stark: Tony often thinks he’s the only one with the answers, and this line of thinking has led to truly tragic consequences. As his most fatal flaw, pride gets in the way time and again. Withholding pertinent information from the other Avengers, underestimating the power and conviction of characters who would later come into their own and wreak havoc upon the world, and putting well-intentioned solutions into motion while ignoring the counsel of well-respected friends and experts are just a few ways Stark’s ego gets in his own way. He loses out on the wisdom of others to follow his own ideas, which leads to extreme complications and wide-spread consequences.
Musk: A man of unchecked pride: who can penalize the man who can buy his way out of any sticky situation or poor choice without batting an eye? Arrogance can and has given a leg up to Elon, as ignoring nay-sayers and haters is a vital part of the road leading to success. But taken too far, it quickly can go from boldness to self-aggrandizement. Although his action motifs often reject input, the results can fall to opposing sides of the morality scale. A Tesla mission to create clean cars that put a dent in carbon emissions? Good, sorta. A Twitter mission to protect free speech? Harmful to the cause, mostly.
Instruments of war
Stark: As the head of Stark Industries, Tony Stark’s mission was to make his company profitable. Developing and distributing arms and ammunition was a big part of the company’s profits, and the discernment-free selling of these weapons led to this superior tech falling into the hands of a criminal organization. Because of this, the story unfolds of many innocent and heroic lives coming to an end indirectly by Stark’s business practices.
Musk: Making the big bucks is the air that Elon breathes. So you may find the reason he claims to have refused Starlink access to Ukraine surprising: in a move that some call the biggest snub to Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s president, Musk calls it a thoughtful, anti-war consideration.
Billionaire whimsy
Stark: When funding isn’t an issue, the ability to invest in anything lacks the normal monetary barriers that take time to develop. Providing backing before really having a chance to do in-depth investigation of potential outcomes means both great and terrible ideas alike get accelerated. Some of these include subpar armor designs, weird upgrades, and equipment additions that add little to no value to the final products.
Additionally, having the power behind the money makes Iron Man feel entitled to being in charge, despite not being a very effective and a somewhat unscrupulous leader. Being rich contributes to a false sense of skill; because one can does not mean that one should, or is even qualified, to do or say.
Musk: Having money to waste, he too can bring into reality pretty much anything that crosses his mind. Like buying Twitter at a huge mark-up to “turn it around,” for example. Musk aims to make the site “by far the most accurate source of information around the world,” yet is treating it like a failing news company simultaneously promoting debunked, inaccurate articles and removing misinformation protections.
Musk is regarded as an expert-generalist by some (including himself), which he says means one who deconstructs knowledge into fundamental principles, and then reconstructs those principles in a new field. With billions of bucks to indulge any interest without limit, it makes sense he can familiarize himself with as many things as he does. However, does he actually have expertise? Yes, in some areas. But maybe not as many as he may believe.
Wonky Company Leadership Styles
Stark: More than once, Tony loses massive amounts of money and at one point, his family company. However, he keeps becoming CEO of various companies and making the decisions that lead to the businesses failure. Stark falls prey to the money-first mindset: since he’s the rich one, he should run things when he would be wiser to delegate to someone more knowledgeable.
Musk: Despite saying that he doesn’t want to be a CEO, Elon sure holds that title often, and in multiples–because it means people have to listen to him. Like any resilient entrepreneur, he has run a few endeavors into the ground and is no stranger to failure. With the most glaring example once again being Twitter with his gutting of the soul of the platform and evacuating the majority of the staff, there are some undertakings that have room to either fail miserably or could bounce back. Guess we’ll have to wait and see!
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Pack Opinion
With blurred lines, it’s hard to say if Musk’s overall impact is good or bad, or simply chaotic neutral. Some things are for certain: he is often praised, criticized, blamed, and encouraged by the general public. One thing is clear, however: he definitely rubs people the wrong way and marches to the beat of his own drum, and heralds his intelligence as one of the highest in the world. And there are those who admire that. In our opinion, his attitude has both positive and negative attributes.
So, would he get further if he played nice? Is he a genius with a few loose screws (as most have, it’s part of the package)? Or does his demeanor and money keep him shielded and out-of-touch with real-world people and consequences?
Blunt and aggressive, or confident and direct? It depends on who you ask. Either way, his style of venture in part has made him a highly successful and high-profile individual. This raised popularity or infamy opens him up to be subject to massive scrutiny from the media and the public. Receiving hate mail every day may be a contributor to his brusqueness. Additionally, the stress of keeping tabs and directing so many projects and companies surely adds pressure that could contribute to occasionally acting out. Impatience with those he feels are holding him back or annoying him might trigger an outburst, if not simply ignored or taunted for.
When you boil it down, there is no telling from today’s vantage point to know exactly how the powerful billionaire’s actions will overall impact the planet and the future of technology. It will do something, but what? Will his tech fast-forward us into a future we aren’t prepared for or save us from a bleak tomorrow?
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Conclusion
Stark and Musk: similar, but different. In the end, Iron Man sacrifices his life to stop supervillain Thanos once and for all. His courage and bravery saved an entire universe in the process.
It may be more than a stretch to say Musk is cut from the same cloth. /s
So where does Musk fall, with all of his outrageous, petty, helpful, progressive pursuits, ideas, and comments? With some Batman-eque good-for-society initiatives and a pocketful of Loki trickster and mischief energy, the debate is far from settled: Is Musk a modern, somewhat misguided, hero, or an up-and-coming villain of the people?
If you came here for the answer to that question, sorry, but you’ll leave disappointed. I KNOW, how awful. I hate it when an article explores something but doesn’t tell me what to think at the end. ?
Tune in next time for more news from the Wolves’ Den!
