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As Iron Man contends with being trapped on a faraway planet, he battles his most insidious, personal enemy without his usual support system.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Iron Man #11, on sale now from Marvel.
As one of the Marvel Universe’s leading futurists, Tony Stark has prepared for virtually every contingency and threat, constantly innovating in anticipation of new dangers looming on the horizon. And while Tony may always have an eye to what’s coming in the future, the Armored Avenger’s greatest enemy has always been an internal one, as a man in recovery and persistent battle against his inner demons from overtaking him once more. And with Iron Man exiled to a faraway planet without his usual support system and no discernible means of returning home, he slips back into his battle with addiction and substance abuse once again.
While pursuing the cosmic supervillain Korvac, Iron Man was intercepted and brought to a remote planet, leaving his makeshift team to carry on without him. Injured from his earlier skirmish with Korvac and his men, Iron Man struggled to gain his bearings as he learned that this strange planet was populated by ravenous Ultimos who preyed on a local village. And while Tony Stark relied on his Iron Man armor’s supply of morphine to fight the pain from his injuries as he acclimated to his new normal, his use of the potent painkiller eventually becomes more than clinical as noticed by his girlfriend Hellcat when she communicates with him long-distance as revealed in Iron Man #11 by Christopher Cantwell, Angel Unzueta, Frank D’Armata and VC’s Joe Caramagna.
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Shortly after arriving on this faraway world, Tony began exhibiting signs that he was falling for the cult-like community led by the low-level supervillain Stilt-Man, who fashioned himself as a tribal leader on this backwater planet. Instead, Patsy Walker notices that Tony hasn’t been indoctrinated by a cult but has quietly deactivated the regulator controlling how much morphine flows into his system. Confronted by this, Tony admits to Patsy that he is particularly intoxicated by the effects of the powerful opiate as he slumps down in shame.
Tony’s battles with substance abuse have been a prominent part of his character since David Michelinie, Bob Layton, John Romita, Jr. and Carmine Infantino’s classic 1979 Iron Man story “Demon in a Bottle,” running through Iron Man #120-128. As Tony faced pressures, both in his superhero career and while heading Stark International, he quickly descended into alcoholism, straining virtually every personal relationship in his life at that time. Tony would nearly relapse due to the stress of fighting his friends in the 2006 crossover event Civil War while he would temporarily sacrifice his sobriety to gain Odin’s attention during the 2011 crossover event Fear Itself before quietly resuming his recovery and has remained sober ever since.
Tony Stark’s issues with substance abuse have exemplified the extent of his battle with his inner demons, a man who ostensibly has everything but still facing the insidious temptation of addiction. And while Tony appears to have stopped abusing the morphine stored in his armor, the threat of relapse remains as constant as ever, demonstrating just how much Tony’s battle against Korvac and impromptu exile lightyears away from Earth has begun to take a toll on his psyche. While Tony has allies on this new world, no longer having the support system he needs has made his demons that much stronger. And while Patsy Walker was able to bring Tony back to his senses, the incident is a reminder that Tony’s sobriety demands constant vigilance to maintain.
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