Iron Man IS The Soul Stone
We’ve saved the most high-concept theory until last. What if Tony Stark is actually the embodiment of the Soul Stone?
What kickstarted this idea is this intriguing piece of promo art for the film that gives us a big hint as to who’s connected with the Soul Stone. While the rest of the hero-Stone pairings in the piece make sense with what we’ve seen in the MCU so far, it’s a bit of a revelation that Iron Man has something to do with that enigmatic sixth gem.
One idea has it that the Arc Reactor is powered by the Soul Stone, but another theory goes even further than that and suggests that the man himself is the gem. Think back to Howard Stark’s comment to his son in Iron Man 2: “What is and always will be my greatest creation, is you.” So what if he wasn’t being sentimental here and was hinting that Tony was artificially created from the Stone? The thinking goes that, just as S.H.I.E.L.D. got their hands on the Tesseract, they also came into contact with the Soul Stone, which the genius Stark Sr. experimented on.
Other bits of evidence include the fact that Howard and Maria Stark had Tony fairly late in life. Likewise, Howard – either the young playboy portrayed by Dominic Cooper or John Slattery’s workaholic – never seemed like he was interested in becoming a father. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Tony recently learned he was adopted in the comics.
Likelihood: Thematically, this revelation would be perfect as what is Tony Stark if he’s not the soul of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Logically, though, this theory is just plain bonkers and would probably leave us all scratching our heads. But, hey, it has a nice ring to it and there is that promo art to consider. Stranger things have happened.