Iron Man The One Thing The MCU Never Properly Resolved

Iron Man: The One Thing The MCU Never Properly Resolved

Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark is widely beloved, but there’s one key aspect of his history that the MCU never dove into.

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Iron Man The One Thing The MCU Never Properly Resolved

Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe never touched upon one key element of the character. Beginning with 2008’s Iron Man, Downey’s performance as the egotistical but undeniably brilliant Tony Stark was a superhero movie game-changer. Owing significantly to Downey’s electrifying charisma in the role, the movie simultaneously kicked off the MCU into the phenomenon that it is today while completely reinvigorating Downey’s career. Over the span of eleven years, Robert Downey Jr. would become to Tony Stark what Hugh Jackman was to Wolverine, concluding his arc with a heroic sacrifice in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

Though Downey is rumored to return in some capacity in the upcoming Black Widow, the longevity of his time as Tony Stark and the sense of fulfillment the totality of his performance brought ensures that his time as Iron Man will remain a hallmark of the superhero genre for decades to come. However, despite the widespread adoration for his portrayal of Marvel’s arrogant but lovable tech-savvy Avenger, the MCU overlooked a key aspect of his comic book origins: the MCU never took a real dive into Tony Stark’s alcoholism.

There were hints early on that the MCU would go in this direction, specifically in Iron Man 2 when Tony drunkenly throws a birthday bash that draws its basis from the famed “Demon in a Bottle” story, in which a slew of bad events drives Tony to drink. However, by the time of Iron Man 3, the MCU had become a wing of the Disney banner, effectively leaving Tony’s drinking in the comics a no-fly zone for the movies. To be sure, Tony still faced plenty of emotional challenges, with the MCU covertly transitioning him into the role normally filled by Uncle Ben in his relationship with Peter Parker (Tom Holland), and Tony becoming a father himself in Endgame would also drive his strategy of undoing the cosmic-scale genocide wrought by Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War. However, a full exploration of Tony’s drinking and hard-living ways never received full play in the MCU.

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The absence of Tony’s alcoholism still leaves a significant corner of his story unexplored and one that now never will be after his death in Endgame. Viewed in the context of his complete MCU story now, due to what Tony’s thinks are the final days of his life from the palladium poisoning, Tony’s drunken meltdown in Iron Man 2 is more of a hastened mid-life crisis than a true example of alcoholism. As with the side effects of swapping Edward Norton for Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, the MCU’s family-friendly approach under the Disney umbrella has seen the franchise make numerous trade-offs in the kinds of stories it’s been able to tell, and sacrificing Tony’s alcoholism is unfortunately among them.

The lack of Tony binge-drinking doesn’t undercut the effect that Robert Downey Jr.’s performance has had on the MCU. In fact, Downey was such a pillar of the MCU for so long that the franchise is undoubtedly in uncharted waters with his retirement. Nevertheless, the fact that Tony Stark’s alcoholism was never truly integrated into his story will always be the biggest element of his history that the Marvel Cinematic Universe never explored.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/iron-man-mcu-story-alcoholism-demon-bottle-story/

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