Iron Man’s holographic technology in Captain America: Civil War came back to menace the MCU’s heroes in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it can return in an eventual X-Men adaptation. Created by Quentin Beck for Stark Industries, BARF (Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing) is a highly advanced holographic technology system with seemingly unlimited applications. Tony Stark modified BARF to use in trauma therapy, but the system could easily reappear in the MCU’s inevitable X-Men properties as a reimagined iteration of iconic X-Men lore.
Despite Tony Stark’s altruistic intentions for BARF in Civil War, the technology fell back into the hands of Quentin Beck in Far From Home, allowing him to manipulate Spider-Man, SHIELD, and the world as a whole as Mysterio. Despite Mysterio’s death at the end of Far From Home, BARF can easily resurface in the MCU via Marvel Studios’ first project dedicated to the X-Men.
Tony Stark’s BARF Technology Could Become The MCU’s Danger Room
BARF could work as the basis for the X-Men’s iconic training room: the Danger Room. Modern X-Men comics depict the Danger Room as an advanced holographic simulator, making it a perfect place for Stark’s BARF technology to return to the MCU franchise.The Danger Room debuted with the X-Men themselves in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s first X-Men issue. In its initial incarnation, the Danger Room challenged the X-Men members with various robots, ranged weaponry, and traps, albeit with failsafe mechanisms to avoid killing or severely injuring anyone.
In newer X-Men stories, the Danger Room has become far more advanced, using lifelike holograms and artificial intelligence to create a virtual reality-like training simulator. Modern depictions of the Danger Room are uncannily similar to the BARF technology used by Tony Stark and Mysterio, making its potential MCU counterpart a natural evolution from the previous iterations of BARF. Tony Stark and Mysterio are both dead, but BARF likely remains part of Stark Industries, which means it could be brought back if Pepper Potts secretly lent an updated version to Charles Xavier to train up-and-coming mutant superheroes. This would be a clever way to tie Marvel’s first X-Men movie to the legacy of Iron Man, the hero who started the MCU.
The X-Men Would Continue Tony Stark’s MCU Legacy
As the superhero who initiated the MCU itself, Tony Stark’s legacy weighs heavily on the franchise’s installments following Avengers: Endgame. This arguably did a disservice to the Spider-Man franchise, with Tom Holland’s iteration of Peter Parker only becoming an independent superhero by the events of his third movie (and losing his Stark Industries suits by the end of said film), but this would not be the case for the MCU’s X-Men. The MCU’s mutants would remain at a reasonable distance from Iron Man but by using his BARF technology in their version of the Danger Room, the X-Men would have a natural connection to Tony Stark and the events of Captain America: Civil War.
