Many complaints have been made about “Iron Man 3” since its release in 2013, most of which include the liberties taken with the character of the Mandarin, the decision by Tony Stark of giving his address to the world and the fact that it did not feel like a normal MCU film. Most importantly, however, people take issue with the fact that Tony was not wearing the Iron Man suit for a chunk of the film. However, there are some that would contest that is the film’s greatest strength, proving Tony Stark does not need the suit to still be Iron Man.
First off, much respect to Shane Black for doing something different and, of course, for bringing his comedic senses he has become known for through the film’s insanely clever dialogue. One thing everybody can agree on at least is how charismatic Robert Downey Jr. is as the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Coupling these two together provides for not only hilarity but also surprising depth and character progression. The traumatic experiences from the alien invasion of New York have caused Tony to stay up for hours on end and lead to a lot of tinkering with new suits. When he seemingly does go to sleep, however, he wakes up in a terrible nightmare, thus causing his suits to come to his “aid,” potentially putting his love, Pepper Pots, in danger. Putting all of this time into this venture has led Tony to believe his suits are synonymous with his person, with him saying, “they’re a part of me.”
After his villa gets destroyed, his suit sends him to Tennessee, loses power and opts him to find a place to fix it up. Through these actions, Tony infiltrates the Mandarin and defeats a few of his cronies almost single-handedly, but most importantly, without his suit. Sure, he uses an abundance of Iron Man tech in the final fight against the actual Mandarin, but that is not what matters. It is how he got there by using an incomprensible level of intellect and reliance on other people to help him regain control of his suits, thus securing victory. Although some may think that Tony seemingly out of nowhere decides to get the regulator taken out of his heart at the end of the film, it really is clearly a decision brought about after an eye-opening journey by the character. Tony realizes that, despite the fact that the regulator led to the birth of Iron Man, he has grown far beyond that and Iron Man is synonymous with Stark not because of the what the suit did for him, but because of what he can do without it.
Sometimes audiences forget about how great the character work is in this film and how impactful it makes the line in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” when Tony tells Peter Parker, “If you’re nothing without this suit, then you shouldn’t have it.” That is character consistency at its finest and is incredibly important when building a universe filled with so many distinct characters. Perhaps audiences will see the effects of “Iron Man 3” carry over to “Avengers: Endgame.”
Image from Marvel UK via YouTube
