10 Iron Man Fates Worse Than Death
9. Destroyed By Alcoholism - Demon In A Bottle
To some, constantly having to fight personal demons and addiction issues could be viewed as a fate worse than death. That persistent battle, that ongoing inner conflict, that regular urge to do what you know is not good for you... it's a true torment that has ruined the lives of many.
For Tony Stark, he's long had his problems with alcohol. Whilst the MCU pulled back on Tony's alcoholism once the cinematic rights to Iron Man switched from Paramount Pictures to Disney, the comic-book Shellhead has long been plagued by his battles with the bottle.
The first major way that this issue reared its head, was in 1979's Demon in a Bottle arc.
After Iron Man's armour shoots and kills a government ambassador, Stark pleads that his tech malfunctioned and that he didn't intend to fire off that shot. Asked to step down from the Avengers as a result of this, Tony hits the bottle to deal with this whole situation.
Even after Stark finds out that Justin Hammer had tampered with the Iron Man suit to make it malfunction, he still carries on boozing hard; to the point that his angry, drunken behaviour causes his butler Jarvis to quit. Years later, Demon in a Bottle would be retconned, but Tony Stark would still battle alcoholism - with it now retconned so that alcohol problems run in the Stark family.