In the 70s and 80s, Iron Man's alcohol addiction led him to a horrific period of time in which he nearly destroyed his business, went completely bankrupt, and alienated his friends and family. Demon in a Bottle and Deliverance depicted Tony as a hopeless addict who would even sell his own jacket for a drink.
Tony's drinking addiction was overcome (mostly) at the end of the 1970s, in the quintessential "Demon in a Bottle," one of the best and most influential Iron Man stories ever (even if he would briefly relapse later).
Tony Stark used palladium as the core for his Arc Reactor, but it was increasing his blood toxicity. After searching for every known element, he still could not find one that would not get destroyed, so he had to remain with the palladium. Natasha Romanoff, aware of this problem, informed Nick Fury of his condition.
Overview. Tony Stark has a damaged heart from the plane crash that the Mandarin caused, and because of that, he has an implant made by Dr. Ho Yinsen that keeps it beating.
Why Iron Man is an Alcoholic as explained by Bob Layton
What condition did Tony Stark have?
In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark, suffering from heavy metal poisoning from the arc reactor in his chest, misses a solution that could save him - or could at least stave off further poisoning - in a plot hole that is explored within the same film.
Unfortunately, this approach intentionally skips one essential comic book element of Tony Stark's arc: his alcohol addiction. Spanning nine issues, Iron Man's "Demon in a Bottle" depicts how after a series of misfortunes, Tony Stark uses alcohol consumption as a dangerous coping mechanism.
While loved unconditionally by Maria, Tony suffered from a strained relationship with his father, both due to the contrast of Tony's sensitive and reclusive nature with Howard's glorification of physical prowess and Howard's ever-increasing drinking habits, which caused him to verbally abuse Tony and suffer from mood ...
Along with an exaggerated sense of self comes the tendency to overestimate his own abilities and accomplishments, as well as a preoccupation with being admired and a need to be the center of attention. This fits the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder.
He discovered an element that could fulfill his needs through a hidden message. He proceeded to re-create this new element (using the molecular structure provided by his father) and created another arc reactor that cured his palladium poisoning.
Direct Cybernetic Interface: The Extremis virus has fused Stark's armor to his body. Initially, the inner layers of the Iron Man armor were stored in the hollows of his bones, but later his entire exo-armor would be contained within carbon nanotubes.
After a fight for the gauntlet, Stark attached the stones to his armor, before snapping his fingers, disintegrating Thanos and his army, and effectively saving the universe. The action took a huge toll on his body due to the gamma radiation and the power of the stones, zapping him of his remaining life force.
"Tony Stark's story is far from over," Downey said. "Iron Man 4 will explore new dimensions of the character and his legacy through the eyes of Morgan. It's an honor to continue this journey and see where it leads."
"That seems like a more interesting arc to us to take a character who had an ego because to die for others, you have to defeat the rights of that," said Russo. "It seemed like the more compelling arc to us that it would be Stark who died. So that it would be a richer more complex arc, and that's why we chose him."
Even assuming Tony was the only one who could have killed the Mad Titan, it wasn't exactly impossible for him to be healed. The critical damage he received could have been reversed by Doctor Strange. Stephen has brought back people from the dead before, with a notable case being Wong in the Doctor Strange film.
In Iron Man 3 and later, Tony has panic attacks and sleepless nights whenever he is reminded of the New York incident. Getting a nightmare involving a second Invasion drove him to create Ultron. It's not really a fan theory. Tony's arc all but tells us he's dealing with a post-traumatic stress disorder.
Originally, the Ultimate version of Iron Man was established as a genius weapons designer who had an inoperable brain tumor – the equivalent of the MCU and mainstream Tony's heart condition.
As Tony Stark/Iron Man, the actor looks to be taking his life-saving, power-generating arc reactor out of that hole and placing it back in, and it sure looks real and therefore kinda painful. But that chest is all fake, prosthetics from the makeup artists as seen in the step-by-step illustration below.
The arc reactor keeps Tony Stark alive. In the different versions of Iron Man, Stark's group has been ambushed in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan. Stark sustained serious injuries as a result. He created the personal arc reactor to generate energy for an electromagnet keeping shrapnel away from his heart.
He recreated the element by using a Particle Accelerator in his basement and created a brand new Arc Reactor to utilize the new core and a new suit that could better utilize the higher energy output, as well as cure him of the palladium poisoning in his blood.
While Tony Stark tries to control his alcoholism, his more serious mental illness is PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). This manifests in one scene of Iron Man 3, where his anxiety makes him rush into his suit before his knees buckle under him.
Agent Carter fleshed this out in the final episode. Basically both Howard and Tony have OCD tendencies, most geniuses do. But Tony has a LOT of psychological issues at play.In Howard's case it was displayed with humor, that his gadgets were not stored right.
