[Quora Answer] Tony Stark vs Bruce Wayne (Compare and Contrast)

I swear I occasionally write about things that aren't comic books. Trust me. It happens. Very, very rarely, but it does happen.

Some spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War ahead.

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Is Iron Man Now a More Depressing Character than Batman?

While Tony’s certainly lost a lot (his parents, his mentor figure, the closest thing he had to a son, etc), he still has had a much better support network than Batman tends to have. Tony’s closer to the remaining members of the Avengers than Batman tends to be to the Justice League, or even the Bat Family.

Now, as of Infinity War, you could make an argument either way. I think a lot of it will revolve around how Tony reacts to these losses. Typically, when Tony loses something, he attempts to fix things, not break things.

This could be pretty important, because Batman, as we’ve seen, tends to deal with loss by punching it away.

He’s got a lot more anger in his system than Tony’s really ever had (with the possible exception of that one scene in Civil War). While Batman focuses on destroying and intimidating the criminal element in Gotham, Tony tends to focus on building suits, designing drones, AI, armor, support equipment, what have you. Batman needs to take out his anger and guilt issues on the criminal element. Tony needs to atone for his mistakes by building something better.

With Spider-Man, we see this take another form. He essentially views Peter Parker as his next project, as well as a surrogate son. He wants to make Peter a better version of himself, so Peter won’t make the same mistake, but also so that Peter will be able to do the job better than Tony ever could.

Batman cannot rest as long as there is crime, because he feels he is needed. Tony is trying to create a world where he, himself, is no longer needed.

With Peter gone, Tony could very well sink into a mire of depression and misery.

Or.

He could try to fix things.

Build something better.

Make it so no one will ever have to go through what he just endured.

Batman’s character is, to a certain extent, based around pessimism. Batman can’t really win. Not finally. He can’t rest or retire. It’s heavily implied that Batman is a destructive force, not only to crime in Gotham, but to Bruce Wayne as well, and everyone he cares about. Because Batman is working out his anger and guilt on all the individual petty criminals in his path, as well as the supervillains. And each act of violence he commits tends to create or inspire a new antagonist. Most of Batman’s villains exist because of Batman’s own obsessions. He essentially creates his own monsters. And so the cycle continues.

While Tony has created his own fair share of monsters, I think he’s got a hopeful streak that Bruce never really had. He believes he can make something better, so long as he just keeps trying.

As long as he keeps trying in Avengers 4, I don’t think Tony will ever be quite as depressing as Batman. Because Batman knows he’s going to die alone, having either driven away or ruined the lives of the people that he cares about. But Iron Man truly believes he can fix anything.