The Dumbest Decisions Iron Man Ever Made In The MCU

When a new Mandarin incident injures Happy in Iron Man 3, Tony sort of loses it. Reporters confront him as he's leaving Happy's hospital room and ask if he's going to take down this new extremist. Tony responds by telling the Mandarin that his days are numbered. Then, in a completely illogical move, Tony gives his home address on TV. He tells the Mandarin to go ahead and come after him because he'll be ready. 

The problem is, he isn't ready. He tells JARVIS to put the house on lockdown, but it's unclear what that actually means since it doesn't do any good when the Mandarin's three helicopters shoot at Tony's home. Since he's somehow entirely unprepared for this expected strike, Tony hasn't sent Pepper away. In fact, he doesn't even have his Iron Man suit within easy reach. Pepper nearly perishes, and Tony's entire house falls into the sea. By some stroke of luck, he barely manages to escape. 

Why would he tell the Mandarin that he's ready and then not be ready? You simply can't ask people to come after you at a specific place and then be surprised when the bad guy does exactly as you ask. 

After Tony Stark is captured by the Ten Rings, his entire attitude towards his company changes. Much to the displeasure of his business partner, Obadiah Stane, Stark returns home and announces that he's shutting down the weapons division of Stark Industries. As you can probably guess, Stane is very unhappy with this development. He first convinces Stark to take a step back from the company so he can deal with the backlash of his decision, but he later reveals that he filed an injunction against Tony. Not only that, but he's also the one who is selling Stark Industries' arms to the extremists. 

While Stark is upset by Stane's decision, he doesn't actually do anything about it. He simply returns home angrily and decides to rectify the situation himself. However, he never reports Obadiah. He never bothers to tell anyone in power, even Rhodey, that his business partner is supplying the Ten Rings with advanced tech. Had he come forward and reported Obadiah, he might have stopped the confrontation at the end of the film before it even started. Instead, he allows Obadiah to run free, which leads to more problems for poor ol' Tony. 

Throughout all of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker only has one goal: to be a superhero. While Iron Man is tracing him and trying to keep him safe, Peter continually proves that he's not going to stay out of trouble. When Peter tells Tony about the Vulture's weapons, Tony pretty much tells him to stay out of it. His lack of interest causes Peter to go after the Vulture on the ferry, leading to a disastrous situation that nearly takes out everyone on board. 

Iron Man swoops in to save the day, and Peter angrily tells his mentor that he should have listened to him about the Vulture. At that moment, Tony finally reveals that he did listen, and that he sent the FBI after him.

Why didn't Tony just tell Peter that in the first place? If he's trying to protect the kid, why not assure him that everything is being taken care of? Peter has proven time and time again that he isn't going to quit this mission, no matter what Iron Man says. If he had simply been honest with Peter, Tony could have both kept him safe and ensured that the Vulture was caught. While Peter's impulsiveness certainly plays a role in this mess, Tony's decision to keep things from Peter is also dumb.

In the airport fight during Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man plans to detain Cap and his team. During the ensuing fight, Cap and Bucky manage to escape in the Quinjet. However, they're pursued during their flight out by War Machine, who is pursued by Falcon. Seeing that the fight might be lost, Iron Man throws caution to the wind. He orders Vision to take down Falcon, and Vision complies. He shoots at Falcon, but the hero manages to dodge the energy beam. The blast hits Rhodey instead, who falls to the ground, brutally harmed and barely alive. 

When Falcon arrives at Rhodey's side to express his regret, Stark hits him with a blast from his repulsor. But is he conveniently forgetting that he ordered Vision to shoot in the first place? Had Sam not dodged the blast, it would have been him on the ground fighting for his life. Tony made a decision and it backfired. Instead of taking responsibility, however, he gets angry at Falcon, which is just plain dumb. 

When Tony Stark joins the rest of the world's greatest heroes in The Avengers, his signature egotism continues to get the best of him. Stark struggles to get along with other members of the team, particularly Steve Rogers. He does have a decent rapport with Bruce Banner, though he quickly puts a wrench in their friendship when he tries to anger Banner in order to turn him into the Hulk. 

Since Stark knows about Banner's alter ego, he should also know how destructive and unstoppable the Hulk can be. Why would he try to prompt a transformation in the close quarters of the helicarrier? Doesn't he realize that he's only putting himself, the other heroes, and the entire mission at risk? It's only a half-hearted attempt, but it's still a dumb decision. Stark has no idea how sensitive the Hulk is. His gentle prodding could have easily released the monster, and what would he have done then? 

Over the course of Iron Man 3, Tony Stark jumps through hoop after hoop trying to catch the Mandarin. He baits the Mandarin to come after him at his house and pursues an interesting, possibly unconnected lead in Tennessee that might give him some answers. Later, he decides to finally confront the Mandarin. How does he do it? He tracks the IP address to a sweatshop in the Middle East. 

Now, Stark's confrontation of the Mandarin proves to be fruitless. All he finds is a British actor named Trevor Slattery who has no idea what's actually going on. But Stark had no idea what he would find, and he still took a massive detour before actually confronting the enemy. If he could simply track the IP address and stop the guy, why didn't he start with that? Why does he allow the attacks to continue before he decides that he should stop them at the source? The entire logic behind his decision doesn't exactly make sense, especially since tracking the Mandarin was apparently as easy as tracing an IP address.