One of the biggest surprises in Avengers: Endgame was seeing Chris Hemsworth’s Thor transform from a heavily muscled warrior into a depressed, overweight couch potato nicknamed “Fat Thor” by the audience. While Iron Man gets in on the name-calling, Tony may have second thoughts about picking on Thor if he knew what happened to him in the pages of Marvel Comics.
In What If --? #34, readers were given an all-humor issue that examined some of the goofier alternate worlds in the Marvel Universe. In one of these worlds, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) suffers a major blow to his ego and figure when he develops his own eating disorder.
The comic, titled “What If Iron Man Had An Eating Problem Instead of A Drinking Problem?” referenced the popular Iron Man comic storyline “Demon In A Bottle” which saw Tony Stark succumb to alcoholism. Although Stark admitted to his drinking problem and seemingly recovered in a relatively short amount of time, alcohol would be a continuing problem for Iron Man. Tony’s alcoholism was touched on in the MCU films (which showed Tony frequently drinking) but were not fully explored in the movies. In this alternate universe, however, Tony deals with the stresses of running Stark Enterprises by finding relief in food. Each panel of the single-page comic shows Stark sampling greater amounts of food while refusing to exercise. By the third panel, he actually orders an entire cow – medium rare – for his lunch. The fourth panel sees Tony – now looking suspiciously like Fat Thor – struggling to squeeze into his Iron Man armor by using a crowbar to hike his metal pants up.
By the end of the story, Tony modifies his suit to resemble the bulky Mark I armor that he originally wore while escaping his captors in Afghanistan (Vietnam in the comics). Unfortunately, Tony has become so heavy at this point that even these modifications don't help, his boot jets can’t support his weight, and he can barely hop in his armor. The final panel finds Tony, now morbidly obese – snacking on multiple McDonald meals and apparently done being a superhero as the ending caption notes, “It soon became obvious to all who knew him – that Tony Stark was a man with a Twinkie on his back!”
Mostly tragic than funny by today’s standards, “What If Iron Man Had An Eating Problem Instead of a Drinking Problem” shows the very real problem of dealing with stress in unhealthy, self-destructive ways – whether that be through drinking or overeating (or in the case of Fat Thor – both). Considering Tony had an appetite for cheeseburgers in the MCU, he could have gone down Thor's path under different circumstances. The comics and movies may deal with these issues comedically, but when Thor returns to the big screen for Thor: Love and Thunder, it will be interesting to see how the MCU ultimately resolves his issues with obesity.
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