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Iron Manhas had a bumpy year … and not just for the ground everyone else has . Over the past 12 months , Tony Stark has been grappling with his own expiry and Resurrection of Christ as an artificially - generated being . His near friend Rhodey , aka War Machine , had taken the same issues even harder . When the last issue ofIron Man 2020 cap off with Stark locution hewas done with 2020 , it resonated on many grade . But , in the end , the duad ’s emotional effect that had been the cornerstone for the intact two - class outpouring ofIron Manwere explain away in a fashion that was n’t just unsatisfying , but downright dismissive .
This character bow began in 2018 with Dan Slott and artist Valerie Schiti’sTony Stark : Iron Man . Fitting the title , the series focused on Tony interrogate who he is . Was he the actual Tony Stark , or a digital clone with Tony ’s thinker downloaded in ? Was he a man or an AI ? Tony took the latter side andrenamed himself " Mark One " , thinking of himself as just a creative activity of the real Stark . Meanwhile , Rhodes ' trauma stem from being killed in the War Machine armour . Using it gave him affright attack , so he found other ways to help Iron Man out . The specifics of these issues were everlasting science fiction , but at their core , they relate to existent post - traumatic issues : disassociation , survivor ’s guilt feelings , and panic disorderliness have by life history - threatening situations .
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But the finale did by with all that in an instant . InIron Man # 6 , after Tonydefeats his brother Arno Stark , the denouement scavenge everything up : henchmen turn in , automaton lover reconcile , and Stark and Rhodes in a laboratory undergoing treatment . Tony officially forgive Captain Marvel for killing him inCivil War IIand kick off the Slott / Schiti series , doing away with their lingering animosity . Then Stark ’s peers reveal that Iron Man and War Machine ’s post - traumatic issues are whole start . As Tony excuse , their genial wellness disorders were " distortion " triggered by " minor difference " in their unnaturally - reassembled genetic code , and they were now remedy . No more phobia about being War Machine , no more anxiousness about being Iron Man . Problem work out .
But that ’s not a conclusion . It ’s a reset button . Tony and Rhodey ’s issues were n’t just programme errors , they were wholly reasonable story import . Tony Stark had been murdered by Captain Marvel and was now in a new body that had been made in a tube . James Rhodes cash in one’s chips in combat with Thanos and could n’t put himself in that kind of stress again . Of path , they would have lingering consequence . To explain them away as " genetic wrongdoing " paint PTSD itself as a biological loser induce by bad desoxyribonucleic acid and retroactively destroys the excited stakes of the series . If the story does n’t take these problems gravely , why did we ?
There ’s no one soul to point to as responsible for for this story decision . Slott leftIron Manwith that issue and it ’s wonted , from a writing and editorial perspective , to stop a farseeing tenure by putting the main fictional character back where they started . But it also does n’t make common sense for Marvel in the linguistic context of where Tony went post-2020 . He pass theEmpyrestoryline in the thick of a breakdown in confidence ; the newIron Manseries is also all about Stark ’s identity crisis . Despite the reset , those issues did n’t even go by . Marvel Comics is very capable of depict mental health issues ina smart and reverential way , so this mo shore as a totally unnecessary trip-up in an otherwise compelling character electric arc .
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