Iron Man Is Exploring Tony Stark's Addiction in Ways the MCU Didn't Dare
Warning: spoilers forIron Man #19 ahead!
The current arc of Iron Man from Marvel Comics is coming to a close as Tony Stark must defeat his «Final Enemy,» his addiction to the opiate morphine, showing that the comics are able to handle Iron Man's addictions better than the MCU ever did. After relinquishing the Power Cosmic, Tony Stark is back to being a normal human in an iron suit, and his vulnerabilities are laid more bare than every before.
Iron Man's alcoholism, and his tendency towards addiction in general, has long been a central part of his character development in comics, explored in the famous «Demon in a Bottle» story arc from 1979's Iron Man, which saw Tony struggling with his alcoholism after a series of major defeats. The MCU attempted to adapt part of this story in Iron Man 2, specifically the scene where Stark got incredibly drunk at his birthday party, but this plot was not carried forward in future MCU movies and lacked the depth of the original comic, stopping short of actually discussing addiction.
Related: Iron Man is Trying to Fix the MCU's Most Controversial Villain
Tony Stark's alcoholism has been a central aspect of his character for decades now, and while he has fallen off of the wagon throughout his publication history, he always re-enters a period of sobriety eventually. Stark's battle with alcoholism humanizes the Iron Man in a way that many superheroes don't get, making it so that Stark is always battling internally, while also fighting external forces — a relatable and common experience for anyone who has experience any kind of substance use disorder. Iron Man #19 — written by Christopher Cantwell with art by Cafu and Frank D’Armata — is the finale to the «Books of Korvac» arc, which has seen
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