Throwback Thursday: Iron Man 3 is better than you think
By Mark Lynch
Tony Stark’s PTSD
This is something we don’t talk about enough. Tony Stark isn’t built like the rest of the Avengers. He didn’t want to be a hero. He was thrown into this life and tried to cope.
Meanwhile, Steve Rogers, Black Widow, Nick Fury, and Hawkeye are all soldiers. All of them know and have fought in wars. They’ve already been through their traumatic moments. If they haven’t they’ve found a way to deal with it.
Steve Rogers in the beginning of The Avengers went to a punching bag and unloaded on it. Thor has been a warrior for centuries and comes from a family and people who fight wars almost weekly; he knows how to cope, and even then, he became a shell of himself after feeling like he failed the universe when he didn’t kill Thanos. Bruce Banner has taken years to learn how to deal with becoming the Hulk. In some ways, he’s still dealing with it.
We know all of this, yet we don’t appreciate what Tony Stark went through.
Tony Stark almost died three times saving the world. Being thrown out of a window by Loki, guiding the nuke into space, and then falling who knows how far to, thankfully, be caught by the Hulk. Also, did he really deal with being captured and tortured in Iron Man? Probably not.
Iron Man 3 showcase his journey to finally dealing with his trauma, highlighting all the negative and positive aspects of that journey, while providing Robert Downey Jr. with some deeply authentic and compelling material.