Iron Man vs Vision: Why Tony Stark's Mark 85 Armor Wins This Avengers Showdown More Often Than Not

Iron Man and Vision are two of the most powerful Avengers out there, and if they ever butted heads, I put my money on Tony Stark. It would be an extremely difficult fight, but more times than not, Iron Man wins.

For this matchup I am giving Iron Man his suit from Avengers: Infinity War and throwing in his Avengers: Endgame feats too, because those two suits are so similar. Vision's phasing ability is the real question mark, and I will get to how Tony could deal with it further down.

Tony Stark's Mark 85 was the most advanced armor he ever created

Tony Stark is a genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist, and the former head of Stark Industries. He made his fame and fortune crafting weapons for the United States military after inheriting his father's business, and he lived a playboy lifestyle until he was captured by the terrorist organization the Ten Rings. With his life on the line, he designed and built an armored suit to escape. From then on he became known as Iron Man, and he went on to become a founding member of the Avengers.

In Avengers: Endgame, Tony built his 85th and final Iron Man suit. It was an upgrade of the Mark 50 armor from Infinity War, which had been destroyed by Thanos during the battle on Titan. The Mark 85 uses the same nanite technology as the Mark 50, giving it incredible strength, durability, versatility and efficiency. Where the Mark 50 had a more external muscle design, the Mark 85 combined a typical armored concept with the idea of external muscles. It forms separate sections of hardware and armor plating on the torso, gauntlets, boots and mask to increase durability and carry more weaponry, while the external muscles grant superhuman strength to the arms and legs.

The suit is strong enough to hold up in a struggle with Thanos for the Infinity Gauntlet, and it is the most durable suit Stark ever created. It stood up to Thanos's attacks a whole lot better than the Mark 50 and remained functional until the very end. Like all of Stark's armors, it comes with powerful repulsor blasts and can fire energy blasts directly from its central arc reactor. Because it is built from nanites, the Mark 85 can presumably create every weapon the Mark 50 managed, and possibly even more. Tony created energy blades to battle Thanos, repulsor cannons to launch back Cull Obsidian, and even a lightning refocuser that took Thor's lightning, redirected it and amplified it.

Vision's vibranium body and the Mind Stone make him a powerhouse

In the other corner is Vision, an artificial intelligence created by the villain Ultron and Helen Cho. His synthetic vibranium body was fused with the Mind Stone, and it was supposed to be Ultron's perfect form before the Avengers stripped it from him and integrated JARVIS into it, making the android a powerful ally and Avenger.

Being made of vibranium, Vision is superhumanly strong. He easily overpowered Hawkeye, fought Corvus Glaive, took down numerous Ultron sentries, and even made Giant Man stumble backwards with a mighty blow. He is also superhumanly durable. A bus split in two just by hitting him, and he survived being fired through multiple floors and deep into the earth.

Among his primary powers is the ability to increase or decrease his own density and weight at will, either boosting his durability or becoming completely weightless. That power lets him phase directly through solid objects, and while phasing he can increase his density to destroy those objects from the inside. He has flown through Giant Man, torn up Ultron sentries and even phased his fingers through Ultron's vibranium shell. Finally, Vision can draw raw power from the Mind Stone to fire beams of intense cosmic energy from his forehead. That beam is powerful enough to slice down an airport tower in seconds and even damage Ultron's most powerful vibranium body.

Iron Man is the stronger of the two in his nanotech suit

In his new suit, Iron Man is a powerhouse rivaling the likes of Hulk and Thor in strength. He slammed a spaceship the size of a building down on top of Thanos, although it should be noted that some parts of Titan have weaker gravity than others. He overpowered an electric restraint from Star-Lord, and he completely stopped an overhead blow from Cull Obsidian with just one hand. Cull Obsidian directly compares to the new Hulkbuster armor.

Tony also blocked hits from Thanos, staggered him with attacks and actually caused the Mad Titan to bleed. That is even better than how Hulk did in his fight, although there are definitely factors at play there beyond just strength. On top of that, Tony put up a fight for the Nano Gauntlet long enough to steal the Infinity Stones and transfer them over. "That's like Captain Marvel or Thor type strength." Obviously he is not quite on par with them, but one or two steps below, and that is still insanely impressive.

Vision, for his part, effortlessly overpowered Hawkeye like he was nothing, ripped apart Ultron bots, crushed them in the palm of his hand, and caused Giant Man to lose his footing and stumble backwards with a mighty blow. All in all, though, I think Iron Man is stronger here, based on how he matched up against Cull Obsidian and how he fought Thanos and made him bleed, something even Hulk could not do.

Tony's armor survived Thanos, a meteor and the Infinity Stones themselves

Iron Man has been launched thousands of feet away and through a building by Cull Obsidian, and he immediately started fighting again. He survived multiple blows and beatdowns from Thanos, including some Power Stone enhanced punches, and he took a direct blast from the Power Stone itself, an attack that had Thor yelling out in pain. He was even hit by a massive meteor and slammed into the ground, yet Tony was back up and joking about it just a few moments later.

The Mark 85 should technically be more durable than the Mark 50, since it stood up to Thanos's attacks a whole lot better and stayed functional to the very end, while the Mark 50 was shattered beyond belief. Most notably, it was able to contain all the Infinity Stones and let Tony use them, despite a whole lot of energy leaking out of the stones and into the suit. To put that into perspective, when Hulk got the stones he was severely injured and his arm was left pretty much useless, and Hulk had the massive advantage of absorbing the gamma radiation from the gauntlet.

Vision has his own durability feats. He was blasted into a wall by Ultron, took Hawkeye's electrical arrows, and survived being fired through multiple floors and shot deep into the earth. He also once jumped in front of a bus, and the bus split in two on impact just by hitting him. Speed is not really an important factor in this fight, since neither of them is so fast that they cannot tag the other.

Iron Man definitely has the most versatility thanks to his nanites

Iron Man definitely has the most versatility here. His armor fires repulsor blasts, has a unibeam, can create and fire missiles, can produce very powerful blasts capable of sending Cull Obsidian flying, and is even able to absorb Thor's lightning and project it at Thanos.

Then there is nanite manipulation. Tony can control and reconfigure the nanobots that make up his armor to form pretty much any weapon he wants. He can create energy blades and a massive cannon that enhances his repulsor blasts, and he can repair and reform the armor as it gets damaged and broken over the course of a fight.

Vision's phasing and Mind Stone are what this fight comes down to

I think this fight all comes down to Vision's phasing ability and his Mind Stone, how they stack up against Iron Man, and how, or even if, Iron Man can overcome them. Vision can walk through walls, he has flown straight through Giant Man, and in his battle against Hawkeye he really showed his amazing ability in combat by consistently phasing through all of Clint's attacks. He has stuck his arms through an Ultron bot to tear it apart and put his hands through Ultron's vibranium head. In theory, Vision could just place his hands right through Iron Man's chest, as concept art has shown.

With the Mind Stone, he cut through an airport tower like it was nothing, blew up Ultron bots and even melted Ultron's vibranium body with the help of Iron Man and Thor. Most pertinent to this fight, he blasted through War Machine's chest piece with just one shot, knocking him out of the sky and nearly killing him. So Vision definitely has the potential to take Tony out with either of these attacks, but there are a couple of things to consider.

Tony can likely withstand the Mind Stone, but phasing is the real worry

First, Iron Man's armor is going to be more durable than War Machine's, and Tony would take a Mind Stone blast a whole lot better than Rhodey did. He has been blasted back by the Power Stone and easily stood up to it with his shield. He has also been launched back by a blast from the Reality Stone, a blast that appears to be a whole lot more powerful than anything we have seen from the Mind Stone, and Iron Man was still just fine.

So if I were Tony, I would not be super worried about the Mind Stone blast. He has taken blasts from Infinity Stones before and did not go down, and I do not think Vision is necessarily going to take him out with it either. What I would really be worried about is the phasing ability, because how in the world is he going to counter that?

Hawkeye's electric arrows suggest Vision's phasing can be stopped

For the answer, we have to look at Hawkeye. When Clint was trying to get Wanda out of Avengers headquarters, he launched two electric arrows and caught Vision in that electrical field. It actually restrained Vision for a good little while, and apparently Vision could not phase his way out of it. He had to destroy the arrow with a blast.

It looks like there are some kinds of energy attacks that can hurt or restrain Vision, and phasing cannot save him from them. If Hawkeye has that kind of attack, you can be sure Iron Man has it too. We have also seen that Vision can be taken by surprise and caught in traps, whether by Corvus Glaive or by Hawkeye, and Tony is both a smarter and a better fighter than Vision, so I believe he has the potential to do it too.

Infinity War and Endgame established the gap between Iron Man and Vision

Then there is how they both performed in Infinity War. Yes, Vision was a dead man walking throughout most of that movie, and the stab wound he received from Corvus was nasty. But I think that movie and Endgame after it really established the gap between Iron Man and Vision. Vision could do nothing against Thanos, while Iron Man fought him on several occasions, even when Thanos had four Infinity Stones. Both of them lost their fights, but Tony looked so much more impressive.

This would be an extremely difficult fight, one I really wish we could have seen in the MCU, but from what we have seen throughout the MCU, Iron Man worked his way up to operating on a higher level than Vision. He can take attacks from the Mind Stone, he has shown he can fight against and even help melt vibranium, and he should theoretically have some counter to phasing if Hawkeye could temporarily restrain Vision and stop him from phasing. As I put it, it "definitely won't be an easy fight but i gotta give it to iron man."

Do you agree that Tony's Mark 85 beats Vision more often than not, or do you think Vision's phasing would be too much for Iron Man to overcome?