The Man Inside the Suit
Case History: Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, is a man who has dedicated his life to battling evils that threaten Earth. While this task seems overwhelming and impossible, Tony has frequently proven that he is the perfect person for the job. Tony Stark has saved countless lives by putting his own life in danger and doing what is necessary to protect the innocent who are not able to protect themselves. Unfortunately, it seems as though Tony has also proven that he is not as successful when it comes to battling his own inner demons. He has shown signs that his experiences as Iron Man have fundamentally changed his personality and caused him to experience symptoms that resemble that of an anxiety disorder such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Anthony Edward “Tony” Stark was born to Howard and Maria Stark on Long Island, New York. His father was a wealthy and very intelligent industrialist as well as head of Stark Industries. Tony was an incredibly gifted child who was always trying to understand how machines worked. His desires for knowledge lead him to become regarded as a child genius and by the age of 15 he entered the undergraduate electrical engineering program at MIT. By the age of 19 he graduated with two master degrees. Tony went on to work for Stark Industries but showed more interest in living a millionaire playboy lifestyle rather than putting his talents to good use. Tony would later inherit his father’s company after his parent’s death following a car accident and while demonstrating his company’s new Jericho missiles to the US military in Afghanistan, he was critically wounded and kidnapped by a terrorist group. An electromagnet was implanted in his chest to keep shrapnel embedded in him from reaching his heart and killing him by a fellow captive, Yinsen. Together the two are instructed to build a Jericho missile in exchange for freedom but both know they will not be set free so in response Tony creates the first version of the Iron Man suit. In the process of escaping, Yinsen is killed and his death dramatically effects Tony. Up on returning home he shuts down Stark Industries weapon department so his technology can never be used to hurt people again. Tony realizes that he has not taken responsibility for his company’s actions and he decides it time he does. He decides to change his ways and mature so that he can properly put all his focus into developing various new Iron Man suits to allow him to fight threats such as the terrorist group that killed his friend and thousands others ("Biography for Iron Man."). Tony publically announced that he is Iron Man and with the aid of the suit, he defeated various criminals and handled crisis that threatened to kill millions. Tony had become convinced that he could handle anything and his record reflected that until his reality was warped by an extraordinary series of events. He discovered that there are such things as Gods, aliens and dimensions when the Asgardian, Loki invades New York with an army of alien warriors to enslave humanity. Iron Man is recruited into the Avengers Initiative, a group of super heroes who together defended against the attack. During the battle, Tony has a near death experience that results in him having extreme anxiety. After Earth is saved, Tony becomes unsure of his abilities to defend those he cares about due to his knowledge that there are forces out in the universe waiting to attack and he may not prove able to defeat it. Tony displays to everyone a strong, confident persona to hide that in reality he fears for his life and the safety of his loved ones. To try to fight these fears he constantly builds new Iron Man suits as a way to feel that he is ready for anything. He also develops a problem of not being able to sleep. He frequently experiences nightmares of the battle against Loki and how he almost died. His nightmares prevent him from sleeping and it causes him to develop a fear of thinking