Arno Stark’s dark predictions for the future of the Marvel Universe were right – and it might be too late for Iron Man to do anything about it.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Iron Man 2020 #5, by Dan Slott, Christos Gage, Pete Woods and VC’s Joe Caramagna, on sale now
Despite very few people knowing of its plans, The Singularity is one of the most deadly threats in the history of the Marvel Universe. Knowledge of The Singularity caused Arno Stark/Iron Man 2020 to start prepping for the threat’s arrival in some pretty brutal ways. This led to Tony Stark/Iron Man working to stop Arno, but it turns out Arno had a point. The Singularity has just reached Earth — and unless the rival Iron Men can come together, it could destroy the entire world.
Also known as The Extinction Entity, the Singularity is a massive alien creature that has spent an unknown amount of time traveling through the cosmos. It has been slowly making its way to Earth with the intention of taking control of all artificial intelligence on the planet and using it to force organic life into subservience — at which point, the Singularity will assimilate all life into itself. Becoming aware of that possibility, the Rigellian Recorder 451 rebelled against his basic state of observation and tried to help Earth defend from the threat in the hopes that the world would be able to meet its potential and bring peace to the galaxy.
451’s actions included constructing the Godkiller armor, a suit of robotic armor powerful enough to stave off planet-wide threats — as well as helping Howard and Maria Stark finally conceive a child. Impacting the DNA of the child and influencing it with Kree technology to advance its intelligence, 451 personally designed the child to be capable of outthinking and devising a way to defeat the Singularity. This child was Arno Stark. However, due to Howard Stark’s interfering with the child’s DNA while in utero, Arno was born with a genetic fault that left him forced to use machinery to even breathe. Arno grew up becoming a brilliant inventor readying himself for the coming of the Singularity.
Arno eventually even began to have dreams of the monstrous force approaching Earth, dedicating himself to saving the planet under any circumstances. This included taking over Stark Unlimited from Tony and combining it with Baintronics, using their newly combined wealth to create new technologies meant for combatting the Singularity. All of his less-scrupulous actions have been done in pursuit of helping protect the world from this threat, building to him attempting to take mental control of both human life and artificial life in a bid to unite them in battle against the Singularity.
The restored Tony Stark did his best to bring down Arno for how dark his actions have become in pursuit of this eventuality, at points doubting that the Singularity is even real. This makes it all the more surprising when Tony and his allies quickly overwhelm Arno but are shocked to find themselves confronted by the Singularity as it approaches the Earth, claiming it has come to consume all life on the planet. The gigantic being might even be capable of following through on this threat if given the chance.
Considering the potential galactic potential humanity has showcased — especially in the recent century of technological innovation — the Singularity is clearly poised to be one of the most sudden and dangerous threats to the planet yet. It might take the Stark brothers finally putting aside their differences if they want any hope of saving the world from the monstrosity before it destroys everything — or at the very most, it may take Tony embracing Arno’s darker impulses to if they want any real chance of bringing down the Singularity.
