Why Marvel Needs to Stop Using the Classic Armor

In recent years, Marvel has seen fit to have Stark jump into his Classic armor on a semi-regular basis. And they need to stop. They find this act nostalgic or some kind of treat being retro, but they are wrong. Here are three reasons why it is nothing short of idiotic to keep using the Classic armor in the books.


3) There is no logic behind it.
Think about this situation. Your armor is trashed and you need another real quick to help your friends in battle. So what are you going to do? You are going to grab the next most powerful armor and go into battle with it. If this completely logical and common sense answer is your reply, you are wrong.

At least you are according to Marvel.

The correct answer was you are going to grab one of the least powerful and least advanced armors with the most wear and tear on it, mothballed for an extended period without use. For some reason this makes perfect sense to Marvel. To those that actually think things through, it is a head scratcher. The Classic armor cannot hold a candle to ANY armor that has followed it.

Here is a similar scenario. Let us say the Air Force has suffered heavy losses and are in need of fighters immediately. Constructing them would take too long, so they are forced to take planes out of mothballs and refurbish them instead. So which planes will they take? It would be an F-14, F-15, F-16 or some other more recent design made within the last few decades. However, if Marvel were in charge, they would be pulling the P-51 Mustangs from World War II out of retirement.

Why P-51 Mustangs? Because that is about the same the gap in technology between those fighters and the Classic and modern armors. The Classic is archaic and just like the Mustang if put onto today’s battlefield it would be trashed instantly. Go for an F-14, you may be out dated and a little outmatched, but you have a shot. Why use an armor that could make weak villains like Blacklash and Melter major foes instead of a later armor that made them cannon fodder?

I understand there needs to be a certain suspension of belief for comics, but for a company that has been hell bent on realism in recent years, they sure throw it out the window in this case.


2) It is the antithesis of Tony Stark
Tony Stark is a futurist. He is about cutting-edge technology and moving the world forward. Every new armor is (supposedly) more advanced than the previous design. So why then is he always so eager to take a monstrous step back to use an armor that he deemed unfit for duty years ago? It is only logical that Stark would grab the next most advanced armor, cursing the whole way how outdated it was compared to the newest model. But he knew it was his best bet so he went with it.

Yet instead, he keeps grabbing an outdated design for some nostalgic reason or other BS excuse. That is not Stark. If he knows the current armor cannot handle the situation he sure as hell is not going to don and older one that has technology he abandoned long ago. The Classic armor uses transistors and blinking lights instead of servos and digital readouts. That’s technology the real world stopped using years ago for combat purposes and I don’t see them digging up units that use that when in a bind.


1) The Armor’s time is over let it go
Seriously, the design is gone about thirty years now. It is outdated in every sense of the word, from the technology to power to aesthetics. Fifteen years ago, when Marvel designed a modern armor based on the classic there was massive backlash, and for good reason. The Classic armor is called that because that is what it is: classic. No one will deny that. The armor had its day and that day is long gone. It no longer has a place in stories other than a background image.