Marvel Officially Crowns New Iron Man, All Details

Published Oct 15, 2026, 10:01 AM EDT

Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. 

A new hero joins the Avengers as Marvel's new Iron Man. Tony Stark's closest ally is definitely James Rhodes, who originally piloted Iron Man suits before assuming his own heavy-artillery superhero identity as War Machine. While not a fan of superhero matters, Pepper Potts occasionally steps onto the battlefield wearing her customized Rescue suit, and Tony’s time-traveling relative Arno Stark pilots his own suit as Iron Man 2020. Engineering prodigy Riri Williams reverse-engineered Stark technology to construct her own high-tech Ironheart armor, while Victor von Doom briefly claimed the mantle as the heroic Infamous Iron Man to redeem his dark past.

Beyond his immediate inner circle, Tony Stark has custom-built sophisticated exoskeletons for various members of the Avengers to enhance their combat potential. Peter Parker famously donned the high-tech Iron Spider armor, complete with mechanical spider-arms, during his stint with Iron Man's team in Civil War. In a later global conflict, Frank Castle weaponized a modified War Machine suit guided to him by Nick Fury Jr. to carry out a brutal crusade as The Punisher. And when Steve Rogers' super-serum failed, he relied on an experimental Captain America exoskeleton.

As wealthy and generous as he may be, Tony Stark is very picky with the people he gives his technology access to, which makes every new Iron Man successor a very special hero.

Chef José Andrés Is Marvel's New Iron Man

Meals To Astonish: Avengers #1; Written By Steve Orlando; Art By Roi Mercado & Rachelle Rosenberg

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After proving his skills as a hero alongside Spidey in Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish, Chef José Andrés teams up with Iron Man and the Avengers to launch the World Central Kitchen, a system of automated sentries that send food to people in need all over the world. This world-changing initiative is interrupted by Ultron himself, who intends to hijack the system in order to take over the world. Tony Stark is prepared for this, however, as he gifted Chef José Andrés with a watch that transforms into an Iron Man suit of armor and allows him to become "the Iron Chef."

The Iron Chef stands toe-to-toe with Ultron, and Scarlet Witch uses Chef José Andrés' memories to force Ultron to experience hunger for the first time. After defeating Ultron, Chef José Andrés officially launches his World Central Kitchen initiative with the Avengers, and he keeps the watch Tony Stark gave him so he can be ready whenever the Earth needs the help of the Iron Chef on the battlefield. Besides, the World Central Kitchen also relies on a number of Iron Man drones who act as automated waiters and workers.

The Iron Chef Achieves Something The Avengers Rarely Focus On

The Avengers Rarely Shift Their Focus Towards Non-Combative Philantropy

Chef José Andrés' revolutionary disaster-relief organization, World Central Kitchen, deploys an army of culinary first responders directly into crisis zones, conflict areas, and natural disaster sites to establish immediate supply chains. In the Marvel Universe, Chef José Andrés serves hundreds of millions of new meals, much more efficiently, thanks to Iron Man and the Avengers' nearly limitless resources. Normally, Iron Man uses his technology and wealth to fight world-ending threats, which is a top priority, but this constant sense of danger prevents Tony Stark and Earth's Mightiest Heroes from fully focusing on purely philanthropic missions with no fighting involved.

Real-world issues like world hunger, resource scarcity, and global warming also exist in the Marvel Universe. But in Marvel lore, the Avengers almost always assemble at the last minute to fight supervillains into submission and protect the world and the universe from immediate risk of total annihilation. From a real-life standpoint, Marvel avoids letting heroes permanently solve realistic crises, as if the Avengers successfully solved world hunger and eradicated poverty, their Earth would quickly become a perfect utopia, unrecognizable for readers. In-universe, obstacles like corruption, bureaucracy, and global politics are problems that the Avengers can't overcome with punches and weapons either.

Do you like Marvel side stories like Meals to Astonish?

Meals To Astonish: Avengers #1 is now available from Marvel Comics