Iron Man and Batman? No, Iron Man and Green Arrow.

I see a lot of cartoon and memes comparing Batman to Iron Man. The biggest reason they seem to do this is because of the money factor. Both Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are billionaires. They have no superpowers, but they built their own gadgets. That is actually where their similarities end.

What if I told you that there is another DC hero that has more in common with Stark than Wayne does? Oliver Queen the Green Arrow is more like Tony Stark than people realize. I know what you’re thinking, “Green Arrow is an archer and he didn’t make any fancy gadgets. How is he anything like Iron Man?” Allow me to tell you.

Both Green Arrow and Iron Man didn’t decide to be a force for good until later on in life. Unlike Batman who from the moment his parents were killed vowed to bring justice to their killer. Oliver and Tony were billionaire playboys for real, not as a cover like Bruce. They both partied, shirked responsibility, and womanized like the selfish rich players they were. So while Bruce was traveling around the world training these two were living it up.

That it until tragedy struck forcing both of them to grow up in a hurry. Oliver fell off his cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, but managed to make his way to Starfish Island. There we was forced to learn how to survive teaching himself archery. Tony got caught in the middle of a war zone that put shrapnel next to his heart forcing him to use his intellect to create the Iron Man suit to save his life.

It was only after these tragic life changing events that both of these playboys smartened up and decided to do good in the world. They changed their companies to try and make a difference in the world instead of doing whatever brought the money in. They saw the error of their ways and became reformed men.

The biggest difference between Oliver and Tony is that Tony relies entirely upon his armor whereas Oliver can scrap pretty well even without his arrows. Oliver relies on himself and his physical abilities. Tony relies on his intellect and what he can build.

Of course another difference is that Tony is an alcoholic who remains single while Oliver married and had a couple of kids. Oliver passed on his legacy while Tony merely shared his with his friend Jim Rhodes. Then again that really is the difference between DC and Marvel anyway. DC likes to pass things on to the next generation while Marvel has their characters hold on to their legacy except in the case of an alternate universe.

So as you can see Oliver Queen and Tony Stark have much more in common than Tony and Bruce Wayne do. Sure Oliver doesn’t have all of the cool gadget that Bruce has, but his origin is very identical to Tony’s origin. Granted when it comes to matching abilities it’s Green Arrow vs. Hawkeye every time. However, as far as heroes who have the most in common it’s Tony and Oliver. After all, did you forget Oliver is a billionaire too?