In today’s divided world where everything is about left vs. right, up vs. down, my country vs. your country, my dad vs. your dad, there is another war that has been going under the radar: DC vs. Marvel. While there is no well-defined metric scale to compare the two but fans have come up with ways to match them up; the box-offices, the TV shows, the comic sales, and even comic character fights. But it won’t be fair to match Superman against Captain America when he can take on Hulk or Thor or both at the same time.
So, let’s go with the masters of machinery of their respective universes:
Cyborg vs Iron Man
Origins
‘Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.’
Tony Stark was born to a genius billionaire Howard Stark with a silver spoon in his mouth. After being kidnapped by terrorists who tried to force him to develop weapons of mass-destruction for them, he made himself a robotic suit from scrap right in front of their eyes without them even realizing it. He escaped his captors and dedicated his life to making the world a better place using more improved suits in his superhero persona called Iron Man.
‘Human. Tech. I don’t choose sides, Grid. I’m the bridge between them. I’m a cyborg.’
Victor Stone was the son of Dr Silas Stone and Dr Elinore Stone. He was a college athlete before he met with an accident that left him mutilated and near dead. In order to save his life, his father attaches prototype medical prosthetics and, in some versions, a Mother Box, an alien sentient supercomputer of the New Gods but without Victor’s consent. Victor then uses his abilities and becomes a part of Justice League and most notably Teen Titans under the superhero name Cyborg.
Let the battle begin
On any given day, both can easily beat each other depending on the versions we are talking about. We will go with their most canon stories and feats from the comics. Both these characters have gone through multiple reboots and upgrades because of their tech-based background.
Round 1: Strength
Iron Man can lift over 100 tons in his most basic armor alone.
Cyborg’s physical strength has fluctuated over the years and has certainly gone up but it is nowhere near the physical feats of Iron Man, especially not his Hulk-Buster or God
Winner: Iron Man
Round 2: Speed
Iron Man has escaped a black hole, flew from Mars to Earth in about 5 seconds and fought Extremis enhanced soldiers who can react within picoseconds, which is basically one trillionth of a second. Basically, he is easily super-sonic to near light speeds fast.
Cyborg has dodged sonic attacks and outran Starfire who can fly at supersonic speeds. Although, Cyborg can teleport anytime anywhere he wants, thanks to his integrated Mother Box, but that is ability for another section.
Winner: Iron Man
Round 3: Durability
Iron Man has endured blasts from nuclear warheads and has gone head to head with some heavy hitter from Marvel Comics like Hulk and Thor.
Cyborg has endured blows from Wonder Woman and gone toe to toe with Shazam. But in all fairness, the DC counterparts are generally much stronger than their Marvel counterparts when it comes to attack prowess.
Winner: Cyborg
Round 4: Intelligence
To put things in perspective, an average man has an IQ score range of 90 to 110.
Tony Stark has an estimated IQ score of 270. He comes from genealogy of geniuses. He entered MIT at age 15 and later received his Master’s degrees in electrical engineering and physics. He also has three PhDs.
Cyborg has an estimated IQ score of 170. He might have an alien supercomputer attached to his brain which grants him access to vast pools of data but at the end of the day, his brain is that of a high school kid.
Winner: Iron Man
Round 5: Weapons and Arsenal:
Iron Man has a wide weapons integrated in his suit like Uni-beam, machine guns, repulsor rays, shoulder cannons, flamethrowers, energy shield, pulse bolts, laser, mini-missiles, explosives. He has a wide variety of armors like Hulkbuster, Thorbuster, Bleeding Edge, Anti-Magneto, Phoenix-Killer, God-Killer and most importantly the Endo-Sym Armor which resistant to both EMP and sonic attacks
Cyborg has an integrated Mother Box, White Noise Cannon, Laser Cannons, and most importantly he EMP bolts that can incapacitate almost all technology within 50 meters.
Winner: Iron Man
Round 6: Better Foes
Iron Man is used to fighting technologically advanced beings like M.O.D.O.K. and Ultron.
Although Cyborg has fought metahumans but not on a scale and magnitude that Tony Stark has been competing on.
Winner: Iron Man
Round 7: Tricks
Iron Man has stealth mode and can manipulate magnetic field. He can remotely control all his suits. It can take care of systems which Tony is not paying attention to while engaging in combat. Since the introduction of Extremis, Iron Man has become a technopath.
Cyborg is also a technopath by design but his best chance against Iron Man is his Boomtubes. If he is able to catch Tony in one, he can teleport him to Sun or distant space where Iron Man is vulnerable and can die.
Winner: Cyborg
Round 8: Fighting Prowess
Iron Man has trained under the tutelage of Captain America, one of the best hand to hand fighters in the Marvel Comics and has fought others with thousand years of combat experience like Thor using his armor.
Cyborg has trained with both Justice League and the Teen Titans and is known to constantly train with the team as part of their training regiment, which in itself a feat of its own.
Winner: Cyborg
Round 9: Hacking
Iron Man was able to hack Vision with a simple touch. Recorder 451, a highly advanced alien AI that tried to hack Stark’s suit but failed. In fact, he got hacked in turn by Iron Man.
Cyborg can technically hack anything since he is connected to every network. But he was hacked by Batman, who is not as accomplished as a hacker as Tony Stark.
The inconsistency in the comic books makes this one a controversial round, so let’s call this round a draw.
The clear winner of this match winning 5 out of 9 rounds is Iron Man.
Cyborg could hold his own in a fight against any technological-based character but he is not necessary the on par with many heroes in DC or Marvel universe. There is a reason that Cyborg is a supporting character while Iron Man is the main man of his own universe.
“Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.”~ Tony Stark
