Everyone Wants Elon Musk to Be Tony Stark

Elon Musk likes to invent cool stuff, not unlike popular comic book superhero Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. But his latest invention takes the comparison a little far, perhaps, because Musk literally saw the tech in an Iron Man movie and worked to invent it for real life. 

The SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO announced Friday evening over Twitter that he would unveil a video next week depicting the ability to "design rocket parts just w hand movements through the air," as seen in this scene from the first Iron Man movie: 

Just to clarify, this is the fake Tony Stark handling the technology that inspired Musk's real life latest creation. Iron Man director Jon Favreau asked Musk over Twitter if he got the idea from the movies. "Yup. We saw it in the movie and made it real," Musk said. Musk will also allegedly be able to print the designs immediately with titanium. 

The latest announcement, taken straight from the scenes of a comic book movie, have done nothing to hamper the comparisons between the real life manic billionaire Musk and the comic book life of Tony Stark. They have appeared in countless headlines, and across social media: 

Elon Musk is even closer to becoming the real life Tony Stark http://t.co/Ci87IEEIzK

— Mat Yurow (@myurow) August 24, 2013

Elon Musk is not making a very good case that he's not iron man

— T.C. (@LaughingStoic) August 24, 2013

Elon Musk will reveal gesture-based rocket design program. This man is a real life Tony Stark! http://t.co/wmVatIUFAL

— Greg Rosen (@grosen) August 24, 2013

At this point the two are so intertwined Musk may start drawing cease-and-desist letters from Marvel. But if this promise plays out, when combined with the laterally moving rocket and the proposed Hyperloop, it will be hard to argue against the comparison being made. If Musk ever goes on a field trip to Afghanistan, well, someone make sure he's got an alert security team riding with him. 

Here is Musk's entire exchange from Friday evening: 

We figured out how to design rocket parts just w hand movements through the air (seriously). Now need a high frame rate holograph generator.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2013

Will post video next week of designing a rocket part with hand gestures & then immediately printing it in titanium

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2013

@Jon_Favreau Yup. We saw it in the movie and made it real. Good idea!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2013