this iron man storyline is something that really, really harkens back to the original purpose of tony stark (and identifies something a lot of modern comic writers could stand to remember). and that’s that tony was never meant to be an accurate representation of a rich person. he’s an entirely fictional dream of what a rich person could be. and that was always supposed to be part of what drew people in; that he’s loaded and he’s brilliant, but his life is still a goddamn mess. the fact that they managed to make a multi-millionaire relatable; simply because his life is so goddamn weird; is what makes him compelling.
and that’s something that’s so apparent in this storyline because in real life, this does not happen to rich white men! in real life, men like that have access to luxury treatment options others could only dream of. they don’t get in trouble with the cops; often they don’t even have to pay anyone off and can get by on clout alone. their reputation doesn’t have to get completely trashed; they have pr people to handle that.
men like that don’t end up homeless for months on the streets of new york. that’s not a thing that happens! men like that don’t experience harassment from cops and doctors just for a. existing and b. being an addict. men like that don’t have to suffer from the fact that any social programs that could possibly help them are nonexistent or severely underfunded. that is not the reality of rich white men.
but it is tony’s reality, because he’s fictional. because he’s this weird little “what if” dream of what an ethical rich person could be. because iron man writers up to that point had all simultaneously understood that a hero isn’t interesting if you can’t relate to them; and that means tony has to get dragged down with the rest of us.
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