7. Consequences
Superheroes frequently find themselves in life-threatening situations. In many cases, they throw themselves right into danger in order to save others. The bumps, bruises, cuts, and scars are typically shown in order to communicate whatever peril the heroes have endured.
Iron Man 3 stands apart from its predecessors with its emphasis on the adverse effects of battle on its title character's mental health. What happened in New York was fun to watch in
The Avengers, but make no mistake, it was war. Tony had not seen himself as a soldier before, only to learn that's exactly what we was by the end of that film. He actually accepted his own death when he grabbed hold of a nuclear missile and flew it through the Tesseract portal. Fans probably would have forgiven Black and his team for ignoring this, but it is a credit to the film for digging deeper and being unafraid to get ugly. Tony Stark suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder in
Iron Man 3. The mere mention of New York inspires anxiety attacks. He cannot sleep because he knows another nightmare is waiting for him. All he can do is hide from his pain and fear by building more armored suits in his garage. Only
The Dark Knight Rises has matched this level of emphasis on the mental and emotional costs associated with being a costumed hero.
Iron Man 3 differs, though, as it presents a mental health problem that could actually be happening to any hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It will be interesting to see if any other Avengers find themselves in a similar mental state in Phase Two. Cuts and bruises heal, as do broken bones, but Tony's emotional wounds will hurt for much longer. This increases his level of sacrifice, making his heroics that much greater.