Maria Hill Is Marvel's New Iron Man (and Has Failed)

Maria Hill is officially Marvel's newest Iron Man - and within seconds of donning the helmet she's already down, even more so than Tony Stark.

Warning: SPOILERS for Secret Invasion #4

Marvel's new Iron Man is officially Maria Hill - and she's even less capable of being a superhero than Tony Stark. Hill is often a background character, supporting the solo adventures of other characters like Captain America and Nick Fury. In Secret Invasion #4, Maria Hill finally had her own character-focused event, but made so many bad decisions that becoming Iron Man was practically inevitable.

Maria Hill's greatest claim to fame in the comics is her infamous actions during the Civil War, in which she supported Captain America and his band of anti-regulatory superheroes. While she eventually reconciled with Steve Rogers, Hill hasn't seen a character-centric narrative in a while. That changes with Secret Invasion 2022, which revolves around the Skrulls invading Earth - but the main villain of this work isn't the Skrulls, but paranoia, suspicion, blaming others, and an inability to trust. In short, the main villain is fear, and Maria Hill succumbs in the worst possible way.

In Secret Invasion #4 by Ryan North and Francesco Mobili, Maria Hill relentlessly attacks the Skrulls who side with the humans; a race of skeletons Working with Tony Stark claimed their innocence, but Hill refused to believe them. She puts on the Iron Man suit and fights Tony Stark one-on-one, but the armored Avenger has been fighting in the Iron Man suit for decades; he easily rips out the arc reactor on the enemy plane's chest, and Hill is fighting The fight is lost immediately after a few seconds of starting.

Maria Hill Is Iron Man - And Loses To Tony Stark In Seconds

Maria Hill's loss could be attributed to a lack of experience with Iron Man's armor system, but the real reason for her loss was again fear. Maria scrambles to declare all Skrulls evil, which blinds her to Stark's attacks; even warriors without armor know how to protect their chests in battle. What's more, Hill hinted that the government had contingency plans for Stark, meaning the armor was built specifically to stop him - but she still lost. Hill was exasperated, exasperated, and apparently let the paranoia go to his head.

At the end of the issue, Maria is captured and imprisoned by the Skrulls - a fate that would not have happened had she only listened to Tony Stark. But this Secret Invasion series clearly has a point: Hill and It's impossible for someone like her to win if she sees the besieged on all sides. Of all people, Iron Man is the most rational guy in the room, which is a rare day indeed.