Heroes and the Creation of Myth: Iron Man 3

Superheroes occupy a nearly-unique position in the history of human character creation. They are creatures of myth, but at the same time people with the concerns of human beings, even when they are themselves alien. This puts them in a position to not only be the subjects of myth, but to interact with and in some cases control the creation of the mythology which surrounds them.

In this series I set out to analyze the different ways heroes participate in the creation of their own mythology. I've decided to begin with the largest single continuity ever attempted in film, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the time leading up to the release of The Avengers: Infinity War I'm going to watch or rewatch the eighteen existing MCU films in order to look at them specifically from this perspective. Today we're looking at Iron Man 3, the first film of Phase Two in the MCU.

Who is Tony Stark? That's always been our question, but now it's also Tony's question. After committing his act of self-sacrifice at the end of The Avengers, and yet somehow surviving, Tony is seeking answers to his trauma in the question of his own identity. But not directly. Tony can barely face Tony. Instead he's chosen to ask the question not of himself but of his myth. Not "Who is Tony Stark?" but "Who is Iron Man?"

Iron Man as he was, you see, was not enough. Not enough to maintain Tony's brashness. Not enough to allow him to defeat the Chitauri with only photogenic wounds, as every previous opponent had been defeated. Not enough to allow him to sleep at night. It must, indeed, have been some insufficiency in Iron Man that put Tony in this state, and so it is Iron Man that must be fixed.

And it's not one new version of Iron Man that Tony makes, but forty, in his pursuit of one that can answer his question. He seems to have done nothing else between The Avengers and this film but construct new visions of Iron Man in hopes that one of them will be the one that can relieve him of his trauma. Of course none of them have worked.

It's only when Tony's home is destroyed and he is restricted to a single, heavily-damaged suit and a ten-year-old assistant that he begins to make progress. Harley, understandably curious about the alien invasion of New York, continually pushes Tony to face it. At the same time, relieved of his fancy lab and thousands of options, Tony is forced to get down and dirty with the fundamentals of the Iron Man suit, rebuilding it out of spare parts in much the same way he constructed the original.

All the other suits, of course, come in useful, operated by J.A.R.V.I.S. in the final battle of the movie, with Tony moving in and out of them with varying levels of comfort. Many of them are destroyed with Tony in them, while he narrowly escapes into a different one. Metaphorically he passes through and discards many of the potential identities he had envisioned. In the end he defeats the villain not by being Iron Man himself, but by forcing the villain to be Iron Man and self-destructing the suit with him inside. And that's not enough. To prove to Pepper that things have changed, he has J.A.R.V.I.S. destroy all of the other suits as well.

Why has it changed? Because Tony finally understands the answer to his questions. Who is Iron Man? Iron Man is Tony Stark. Who is Tony Stark? Tony Stark is Iron Man. They are inseparable. It's not a matter of what suit or what abilities. Tony is the hero of the Chitauri War, and also the man who did not survive the Chitauri War unscathed. He is the man, and the hero, who must go on. One man, one identity, no easy way out.

Previous entries in this series:
Part 1: Iron Man (2008)
Part 2: The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Part 3: Iron Man 2 (2010)
Part 4: Thor (2011)
Part 5: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Part 6: The Avengers (2012)

_{All images in this post are from Iron Man 3, copyright 2013 Marvel, used in this post under Fair Use: Criticism. Provided courtesy of Movie-Screencaps.com.}