2. Demon in a Bottle
Every Iron Man fan read the title to this article and they knew this was coming. After all, Demon in a Bottle, which began in Iron Man #120 and culminated in issue #128, has been regarded as the quintessential Iron Man story. But its also not a tale that you can do in the first movie, its something that needs to be built up to. And weve gotten glimpses of Tonys alcoholism throughout the films hes appeared in. In the story, Iron Mans armor begins malfunctioning, culminating in a public ceremony where, in armor, the suit malfunctions and kills a foreign ambassador. After explaining that his armor malfunctioned, the authorities allow Iron Man to go free, but demand to inspect his armor. While the inspection goes on, Tonys drinking increases significantly. Kidnapped by Justin Hammer, Tony discovers Hammer is responsible for the armor malfunctioning. Hammers reasoning is that he was angered at losing a lucrative bid to Stark and sabotaged the armor in order to ruin the reputation of Stark Industries. After escaping, Tony returns home and begins binge drinking. He yells at his butler, Jarvis, who resigns and sells the shares of Stark Industries he owned, which allowed S.H.I.E.L.D. to get a controlling interest in the company. With the help of Bethany Cabe, a sometime-lover, Tony admits to his drinking problem and agrees to let her help him through his withdrawal. Tony then manages to get back a controlling interest in his company from S.H.I.E.L.D. Like Armor Wars, Demon in a Bottle picks up on numerous threads that have already been introduced in previous movies. Once again, we see the return of Justin Hammer, although in this case his anger against Tony would be more personal as opposed to business reasons. Jarvis also wouldnt work because, as we all know, Jarvis is an artificial intelligence in the movies. But the roles served by Bethany and Jarvis could easily be filled by Pepper and Happy. The only question is how would this all end? With Armor Wars, theres an out for Marvel to stop making Iron Man movies for a bit. But what if they still want to make more following Iron Man 4 even without Downey? Well, it just so happens Ive got a solution for that as well