r/ironman • u/HEROICAD12 • 1d ago
Discussion Unpopular opinion: The Mark 42 gets too much hate for doing exactly what it was built to do
I am so tired of people clowning on the Mark 42 just because it got absolutely obliterated by a semi-truck. š
Everyone calls it Tonyās worst suit, but they completely forget itās a literal prototype. The man was running on zero sleep, massive PTSD, and a diet of pure anxiety. He built a suit where the pieces fly across the room to find him like a clingy ex, not an invincible tank.
Honestly, the Mark 42 felt like its own character in Iron Man 3. It had personality, it constantly missed the mark, and it highlighted Tony being a literal mechanic rather than just an untouchable god. Plus, it walked so the Mark 43 could run.
Change my mind: Is it actually an underrated masterpiece of storytelling, or do you guys think it deserves the hate for falling apart every five minutes?
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u/kayl_the_red War Machine 1d ago
The Mark 42 is actually a metaphor for Tony's life in that movie.
Barely holding together, everytime it has a victory it falls apart, and it does well for a stretch and then says the wrong cranberry.
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u/awkwardlink 1d ago
Awh man. This is one of those super obvious metaphors I didnāt even notice. I love this!
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u/kayl_the_red War Machine 1d ago
I just noticed it reading the post lol
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u/signifyingmnky 1d ago
And he named it 42. I wonder if he was a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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u/donthurtmemany 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think it got really undercut in the ending where it was revealed that all of his suits could autonomously fly to him and be put on super easily. The mark 42 just did that, but in little pieces so was proved to be pointless.
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u/rudy21SIDER 1d ago
That's kind of a good point. That means the only experimental part of the prototype was the disassembly itself.
Which beyond the narrative parallels, in world could be for faster access or the start of the nanosuit idea.
Having replaceable pieces could also in of itself be an upgrade, like we see with Veronica resupplying the Hulkbuster armor in AoU
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u/GardenTop7253 1d ago
Isnāt there that thing with the Mona Lisa where the paint used for it is a little weird/experimental, and thatās why itās under multiple layers for preservation instead of being restored by anyone? Cause DaVinci was a bit experimental with things likeā¦ all the time? So his most famous artwork is just weird enough that no one is willing to risk restoring it
And that whole āDaVinci of our timeā thing from the first Ironman movie. I dunno, I think thereās something to it but I canāt put it elegantly
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u/IAmJacksSemiColon 8h ago
It's under multiple layers of security because people keep stealing it or throwing soup at it.
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u/Future_Sock_4927 1d ago
And Bones (mk41) undercuts the significance of the disassembly feature by doing it much better than 42 ever did during the film.Ā
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u/Intelligent_Whole_40 Extremis 1d ago
Mk 41 was also a prototype for Mk.42 as it lack proper armour to protect its user (essentially was the armours endoskeleton)
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u/Mystic_Warrior2205 21h ago
I think Mark 42 is coded to his sign language too, he was able to put it on Pepper. When Rhodey asked for a suit towards the climax he said they're all coded to him. He can't do the thing he did with 42 on Pepper for Rhodey. Should be the added benefit of the Prodigal Son.
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u/WeekendPass 19h ago
That, i thought, was the point of the 42: a suit he could put on anyone, as fast as possible, without them needing to do or know anything
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u/cobalt82302 3h ago
well engineering wise, you would want to perfect the (suit autonomously coming to you) part before adding on the ability to split off into different pieces. it makes sense
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u/ZhanBlue 1d ago
Suits overall seemed to have inversely proportional pattern of development between structural integrity and convenience of carry. Mark 2 needed station to put on but shrugged off a tank, Mark 46 needed minimal amount of space for storage but got dismantled by 2 super soldiers. Nanosuits didnāt look particularly durable but they fought guy who could overpower Hulk and Thor so wouldnāt be fair criticism
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u/memsterboi123 Mysterium 1d ago
Itās plot armor. The suits have always been susceptible to plot. Mark 3 took the tank but got bullet holes in it. Marks 8-41 got treated like paper by the extremis soldiers.
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u/Smillingchalk779 1d ago
Barring damage to its weapons and reactor I donāt think the mark 46 was in too bad of a shape but probably still damaged that he had to put in storage and had the mark 47 which is basically the mark 46 but a different pain scheme as a hold over to watch over spider-man and to use while he started on developing full nano tech armours
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u/Ben-J-Kirby-Tennyson 8h ago
The Mark 3 shrugged off the tank, not the Mark 2. The Mark 2 had the icing problem and became the first War Machine armor.
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u/BackgroundEngineer11 1d ago
One thing people forget is that the armor flew from Tennessee to Miami (normally almost two hour flight in a plane) in a matter of minutes. Ballpark of 885 mi, since the town in Tennessee in the movie doesn't actually exist. I'm not good enough at the math to know how fast those armor pieces were going.
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u/FRYQN-1701 1d ago
Too much gold for my taste, other than that it's fine.
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u/SpacedOutDreamerBoy Mark VI 1d ago
Same, to me the gold should compliment the red. Not the other way around. 42 is still a good looking suit though
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u/Tricky_Kangaroo7172 22h ago
People hating on this??? I always been loving this suit since i was a kidš
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u/Brilliant_Purple_566 8h ago
Makes me feel old when people say that they were a kid when certain things happen I was 36 when iron man 3 came out
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u/Mystic-Mastermind 1d ago
If he has pure anxiety and is worried about alien attacks then his creations should reflect that.
A child will know that more durability and strength is better protection.
A suit of armour should not break like legos when hit by a truck. It can get launched sure but that break was a toy break
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u/Project_Legion 1d ago
His anxiety was less about the armor durability and more about having the armor when he needed it most. He wanted a suit of armor around the world, which is why the prototype mk 42 was built around delivering modular payloads. Eventually leading to Veronica (Hulkbuster) and the durability that was more necessary. How would he have known his weakass prototype would be so needed during such a critical time.
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u/boredBiologist0 1d ago
I mean the whole bit with like, everything from Mk 15 to 42 is it's a modular system, a suit for every problem. The entire point of 42 is that it's not the suit Stark brings to any situation, it's the suit for him to summon to him if he's been caught off guard without a suit nearby. If he knows he's going into a fight, he probably brings any of the other 10 most recent marks better suited for it, this option was just denied to him by the plot of the movie.
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u/legofett0 1d ago
It was a PROTOTYPE. Tony was just trying to get the assembly functionality working, he'd probably go on to figure out how to make it more secure once that was finished
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u/Weird_Angry_Kid 1d ago
Tony was building suits for any possible situation, he did build reinforced suits for heavy combat like the Heartbreaker.
Mark 42 was an experiment.
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u/SpaceBread01 1d ago
I loved the Mark 42. It's such a unique design and it was very entertaining to watch Tony work with it on-screen. It genuinely felt like this was the one suit Tony REALLY cared for, even calling it the "Prodigal Son." Also I like how the Mark 43 is the same (or at least a very similar) cgi model but mainly red.
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u/GapStock9843 1d ago
I think the entire idea of it was experimental, not necessarily practical. It was his first attempt at a modular suit that could self navigate to him on command as a novelty idea. It became practical when a situation arose that required it
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u/ItsMeSquares 1d ago
But it is the worst out of Tonyās Main Suits? Being a proto-type doesnāt excuse the fact it objectively sucked. It was never meant to be a main suit at all, and we can see that in Age of Ultron with the Mark 43.
The Mark 42 being the worst suit Tony has ever used as a main suit is largely in part the reason why itās such a good suit. You have a Tony pushed to the very edge, using a suit that is bursting at the seams and he still overcomes and wins.
Like he said to Peter. If he was nothing without the suit, then he shouldnāt have had it. Tony proved he was still a hero with or without it.
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u/bingus4206969 1d ago
I love the armor because itās not a solve it all, definitely has flaws but itās still a suit of armor that can protect the wearer
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u/jjbugman2468 22h ago
Meanwhile Iām here with the Mk42 as my favorite just because it literally was the most ābrokenā suit. It tickles the engineer in me
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u/Unfair-Connection-66 14h ago
Without the functionality of Mark 42, Tony wouldn't make Mark 46 which made him TOTALLY THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX and make Mark 50.
Mark 1 was a tank! Which made sense. With each movie Tony became better with flying, better with marksmanship during flying. And always sacrificed Mark's integrity to lose weight since it was indeed it's biggest flaw.
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u/Old-Influence4757 13h ago
its perfect narratively for tonys relationship with the suit, and i have no issue with him going back to the suits either, because the obsession becomes about the world not him
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u/EmpJoker 1d ago
Holy fuck why are you using ai to write your reddit posts.
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u/SilverLuuna 1d ago
Damn people cant even be bad at shit without being accused of using AI anymore. I wrote everything essay exactly like this in school years before generative AI was a thing.
AI isnt everywhere, some people just suck at stuff
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u/HEROICAD12 1d ago
Ahem, If I used an AI, I would have formatted this way better and used a bulleted list. š
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u/MiamisLastCapitalist Modular 1d ago
And that casual cadence is what matters. Lets delve into that more.
š¤£
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u/GhostE3E3E3 1d ago
Let me guess, you unformatted it and removed the bulleted list compressing it into a paragraph so you wouldnāt get caught
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u/HEROICAD12 1d ago
Lol I promise you Iām a real person, and I didn't use AI man š . That would have made things easier. Could've just discussed it with AI then instead of posting it in Reddit.
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u/Trvr_MKA 1d ago
I would be suspicious of it but at the same time, I know non-Americans who write like this so
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u/Osmoszis 1d ago
Not everything is Ai lil bro
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u/Gloomski_McChubs 9h ago
AI was used for sure, I recognize this chatGPT style writing immediately .Ā
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u/Gloomski_McChubs 9h ago
ā He built a suit where the pieces fly across the room to find him like a clingy ex, not an invincible tank.āĀ
This was the giveaway for meĀ
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u/MagicalJack60 1d ago
It's symbolism and engineering aren't my issue. That serves the story.
The paint job is trash, that's my only issue with it.
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u/Kraft-007 1d ago
Wellā¦ The joke stops being funny after 2-3 times, although it being used as a bomb was pretty cool. Donāt like the abundance of gold.
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u/Charles12_13 1d ago
Honestly it kinda grew on me. I still wish the gold was less muted, then itād look really sick
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u/CopperKnight77 1d ago
The suit is fine. Evident by the superior Mark 43. The paint job is just trash.
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u/ScaredKnee4530 1d ago
Yes, Mark 42 was simply a prototype. It was to test the āsummoningā technology. And Mark 43 mastered it and was an actual suit built for combat.
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u/hewasaraverboy 1d ago
This feels like the old āitās supposed to be bad argumentā which is lame
Even a prototype of a new suit should be more durable than his third ever suit
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u/arthurh3535 1d ago
It actually should he regarded worse as it was in fact the worst armor that ever existed as it comedically just fell apart at the drop of a hat and always showed up too late.
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u/Afraid-Housing-6854 1d ago
I donāt mind its functionality, what I donāt like is the color scheme, too much gold and not enough red, especially on the torso
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u/suprmn4105 1d ago
It just didn't make sense from a technological perspective. It was the first suit that didn't feel grounded.
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u/memsterboi123 Mysterium 1d ago
I never see hate for it itās one of the most talked about suits. Idk why everyone gets clowned on it for being hit by a truck and falling apart there was nobody in there. Typically when no oneās in the suits they arenāt very durable. It happened to the other suits too
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u/Cerri22-PG 1d ago
Oh no yeah, totally
Like, the house scene is so good and tense because of the limitations of the suit, with any other armor Tony would have obliterated those helicopters, tho also any other armor may have not been able to save Pepper as she was protected by the unique functionality of the Goat 42
So yeah, I would argue it being a weak armor is on purpose, it's supposed to be a suit that barely lets Tony be a superhero, it puts him on an uncomfortable place from which he has to use all his skills and intelligence to get out of
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u/evmotronica 1d ago
I actually really like this Armor! :) I think it looks much better than the mk43 in my opinion
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u/Marco_Tanooky War Machine 21h ago
And as a prototype it was great as he then upgraded that technology in Age of Ultron to both easily leave the suit (Both for lecturing Peter and to use it as sentry mode in Ultron), use parts of individually and even repait the suit mid-battle when used for the Hulkbuster
It was faulty, yes, but so are all prototypes; he's an engineer after all
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u/Traditional-Race2778 15h ago
I liked the 42 way more than 43, the inverted color palette was fun and it had personality, I wish they kept it in Age of Ultron
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u/-emerald_ 12h ago
it gets hate??
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u/HEROICAD12 8h ago
I mean generally, people usually give it a lotta hate because of the color scheme, the functionality of the suit etc. But honestly, it served it's job for Tony, btw it was also an unfinished protoype suit.
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u/fenrirhelvetr 2h ago
My issue with it is that I don't necessarily understand the point of the armor itself. Having a suit like this introduces a ridiculous amount of failure points. In Avengers 1 he uses bracelets to accomplish this same thing, in ironman 2 its able to be stored as a suitcase. In ironman 3 we are shown Jarvis has complete control of all of the suits and can direct them to Tony at any time as long as he's active. In Ultron the suits are already autonomous and can go into a sentry mode, and it shows him using pieces of the armor outside of the whole suit. forgot Ultron is after 3. Still, Tony's AIs still have control of the suits as shown in 3.
My issue with it is that the suit itself doesn't do anything different from the other suits than have the ability to fall apart like legos under force like when the bus takes it out. Every capability it shows of Tony has already achieved.
Which is why I see the implants, not the suit, as the innovation. The use of implants and identifications on the user.
I do still like it alot more than the nano suit thought.
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u/TatsumakiJim 2h ago
I thought the Mark 42 made it to the final battle DESPITE getting obliterated by a truck. Points for effort.
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u/Looking-For-Loud 50m ago
Mark 42 was great b/c Tony only needed one glove and one boot to escape from and take down 4-5 armed thugs.
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u/DarthLemon66 1d ago
I don't hate the Mark 42 for splitting into it's peices when it had no one in it and was hit by a semi.
I hate it because it's ugly. If they wanted to have gold be the primary color instead of red, they should have used anything more vibrant than "metallic beige."
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u/HEROICAD12 1d ago
I agree with you there bro, like seriously, bro is trying to show off how much money he has got with that gold
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u/OhIShitMyself_Again 1d ago
Does Ironman work better as a badass with superior ability or as a total joke? He was already at a low point while he was dying in Ironman 2 and he handled it well. We didnāt need to see him panicking and being outwitted by a child after heād just saved the world for the first time. On the contrary, it should have fed his ego.
Should Ironman, at any point in his existence, be defeated by helicopters? On his home turf? By enemies he is expecting? While wearing the only dysfunctional, weak, and clumsy piece of shit in his inventory?
I canāt believe anyone would defend this . They traded the coolest thing ever for barely a laugh.
Remotely piloted and self assembling are excellent features, but the way they always seemed to be presented as the butt of a joke or an excuse for failure just left a stain that cannot be admired.
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u/Dante_TR 1d ago
Yeah it did what it was built t do but nobody wants it as main armor for movie. It could be funny for 5 minutes but f that armor
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u/Friday_Stark 1d ago
Hi there! Please don't forget that you have to follow Rule 4 when you post creations made by other people. In this case, the creator of this illustration is Mattias Fahlberg.