MCU: Tony Stark [Iron Man] (ENTP)

Tony Stark, or Iron Man, is almost always identified as an ENTP personality type. In this particular instance, we agree with popular consensus. (Robert Downey Jr. usually plays ENTPs, and his Iron Man appears to be no exception to this.) As a pretty clear-cut case for ENTP, we had no other significant theories surrounding this character, but of course, we tried to do our due diligence and present a strong case. Feel free to share your thoughts!

Ne:

“You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?”

“I have a plan. Attack.”

“Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.”

“Make a move there, reindeer games.”

“This is a pinata for a cricket. I’m kidding. This is a very powerful weapon.”

Tony Stark is a fairly evident dominant extraverted perceiver. He does whatever he wants to do on a whim, whether that means skipping out on an award ceremony in order to gamble or taking over the PA system in a fellow Avenger’s ship for no reason. He’s usually running late, and he encourages Pepper to live in the moment. He’s impulsive, and known for it. At one point, Obadiah Stane tells him to quit doing “ready, fire, aim”.

Stark demonstrates classic Ne speech patterns, which are especially exaggerated since, as an ENTP, he has dominant Ne. He’s extremely quippy, and always has something creatively sarcastic to say. He’s also constantly making references. For instance, he references “Point Break” when speaking to Thor, and calls Loki “reindeer games” because of his antler helmet. When speaking to Captain America in Avengers, he strings together four jokes, throwing out one after the other in response to Cap’s earnest attempt to discuss why capturing Loki had been so easy. Stark calls him “rock of ages”, then says that he’s rather spry for an older fellow, then asks him if his secret is Pilates, and then finally calls him Capsicle, referencing the time he spent frozen in ice. Stark is also prone to inventing stories or creative explanations for things, like when he starts making up a story about James Rhodes when Rhodes is speaking to a group of pilots or when he explains to a kid that the tiny dangerous weapon he is holding is a piñata for crickets.

Stark gets excited by new ideas. When on a mission with the Avengers, Iron Man says, “Please be a secret door, please be a secret door… Yay!” Of course, whenever he has an idea for a new invention, he gets completely immersed in it. He and Bruce Banner link up over the idea of Ultron, taking an incredible risk in the process.

Ti:

“Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables.”

“Iron Man. That’s kind of catchy. It’s got a nice ring to it. I mean, it’s not technically accurate. The suit’s a gold-titanium alloy, but it’s kind evocative, the imagery, anyway.”

“I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution…”

“I don’t trust a guy without a dark side.”

Stark adheres to his own logic and authority, ignoring all others. He’s prone to disregarding rules, which we see over and over again. He gets behind the Sokovia Accords out of guilt, but of course, there are members on the team that fully expect him to ignore the Accords when it’s convenient for him. Later, he admits to Captain America that if he just signs the Accords, they can amend the documents later to something more acceptable. Of course, Stark does things like hack S.H.I.E.L.D, and tap into energy lines in the ocean that don’t belong to him. He’s rather flippant about breaking rules, and possesses little respect for any kind of authority or structure.

Stark is cynical and inquisitive. He’s shown questioning Fury’s motives for calling them in, wondering what variables he is missing. It bothers him. He’s also bothered by someone’s lack of a dark side, saying that he can’t trust someone without one. That’s a common high Ti user’s mentality, because they desire to see consistency in others, but it’s impossible to have all the pieces of the puzzle if their dark side is hidden. (After all, everyone has one.) We see his subjective/relative Ti logic when Stark likens turning in his Iron Man suit to indentured servitude or prostitution. He reasons, “I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution…” He essentially twists the logic behind what they’re saying to fit his subjective perspective on the matter.

Of course, Stark is prone to being sharp and insulting. He can’t usually give a compliment without following it up with something more insulting or embarrassing. He does this to Bruce Banner upon meeting him in the first Avengers movie.

Fe:

“That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did.”

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

Stark displays classic, unhealthy tertiary Fe. He likes to make people feel uncomfortable, and does it often. After calling Bruce Banner brilliant and paying him an earnest compliment, he has to slip in a comment of being a fan of how Banner turns into a ‘green rage monster’ which is a sore spot for Banner. As a result, Stark’s insensitivity tends to drive others away. He also uses his tertiary Fe in combination with dominant Ne to deflect from answering questions honestly or earnestly. He does this with a reporter in the first Iron Man movie, until she finally asks for a serious answer.

Stark does use Fe terminology, focusing on the group. In the first Avengers movie, he calls out that someone is playing Galaga instead of working, but he uses the collective “we” terminology, rather than making it about his individual observation. It seems like an attempt to distract and refocus the group after he utters some commands to the agents in the room, and they ignore him. Later, when Captain America asks him what he is without the suit, Stark responds by listing off a few words that were more than likely descriptors of him from newspapers and tabloids, which speaks to Fe’s tendency to describe themselves as how other people view them.

In Iron Man 3, Stark buys Pepper a ridiculously huge stuffed bunny, and then seems bothered when he can’t get any positive comments from her about it. He keeps probing as a result, looking for validation.

Si:

“Who put coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?”

“The old days. I never thought they’d come back to bite me. Why would they?”

“I pulled something from dad’s archives. Felt timely. FDR signed the Lend-Lease bill with these in 1941.”

There are various indications of Stark’s inferior Si, the most basic being his tendency to act without considering the consequences (a tendency that applies to both inferior Ni and Si). Although in spite of this, he occasionally references the past in a physical way, like when he pulls special pens out of his father’s archives for Captain America to use to sign the Accords.

Other, more telling examples can be seen in his tendency to use hyper-specific language, like telling Pepper that she deserved 12% of the credit. He’s also seen getting nitpicky under stress during Captain America: Civil War.

While discussing the potential Sokovia Accords, Natasha Romanov points out that he’s being uncharacteristically quiet which further points to the fact that he isn’t much of a silent observer and by extension demonstrates his lack of Si use in normal circumstances. Stark then proceeds to pace to the other side of the room, complain about the coffee grounds in the disposal, and then shares what is causing him guilt.