MCU Officially Confirms Iron Man's Long-Awaited Replacement

The MCU no longer has Iron Man, for now at least, though a new hero has stepped into his shoes (boots?), for better or for worse.

Now I’m sure when you think of heroes to replace Iron Man you probably think of Rhodey, aka War Machine or perhaps Riri Williams who recently starred in her spin-off series Ironheart.

While those choices make sense given their connection to Tony Stark it’s believed the real replacement for Iron Man is actually Yelena, leader of The Thunderbolts…

If you watched the film you’ll know that by the end once this unlikely band of heroes saves the day they’re rebranded into The New Avengers, a separate team to the one Sam Wilson has been assembling off-screen.

It’s believed Yelena is the leader of The New Avengers and several comparisons between herself and Iron Man have been drawn to better fit the role.

One such comparison is how interconnected she is with the wider MCU. Not only was she a Black Widow she’s now part of the New Avengers, is rumoured to be partnering with Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and will have a prominent role in Avengers: Doomsday apparently.

Personally I think she has more in common with her sister Natasha, because you know she’s a Black Widow too…

I’ve also never really considered Iron Man to have ever been the leader of The Avengers. He funded most of their operations of course but as he said himself in Avengers: Age Of Ultron when referring to Captain America: “Actually, he's the boss, I just pay for everything.”

Nevertheless Yelena is indeed the leader of The New Avengers and it’ll be interesting to see how she adapts to her new team life when the events of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars kick off.