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Tony Stark: A Heroic Genius

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One of the first avengers, in the comics, is a superhero with a scientific improbable suit named Iron Man. With his genius, he built a tool to use for the forces of good and saves the day with the weapon he has built. The man behind and inside the suit is billionaire, playboy, boy/man genius Tony Stark. He is constantly being praised for his intelligence and young genius. This all culminates with him being built up so high that nothing, seemingly, can take him down or out. The only problem is that, at least in the Marvel cinematic universe and in subsequent renditions of this character, Tony Stark has a strikingly blatant personality disorder. The Marvel cinematic universe began their long string of successful movies with the superhero Iron …show more content…

This idea that he should be the one to enforce the peace, going above the law of the land and even the local police department, shows that the thinker has an inflated ego. Most superheroes have this idea as most, if not all superheroes, do not answer to the police. They are, after all, sporting a vigilante justice system that they aren’t often called out one. However, this common delusion of grandeur shared by many superheroes does not end there as most other heroes do. With other heroes, this conceited attitude doesn’t carry into their ‘normal’ life. When one takes a look at Tony Stark’s general personality, one might call him ‘full of himself’ or, as this paper will define him, a narcissist. Iron Man shows all of the signs of a man suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Narcissistic Personality Disorder’s symptoms are described as a subject having an “Exaggerated sense of self-importance, exploitativness, [and] relationships [being] largely superficial” (Sue. 2006. Pg. 454) from …show more content…

As for treatment, there is no medication to treat such a disorder. The only treatment that would be available to treat Tony Starks Narcissistic Personality Disorder would be therapy. The problem with this is that People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder “are among the most difficult patients to convince to seek help. Indeed, the very nature of their ailment makes narcissists believe there is nothing wrong with them – they think they are smarter than everyone else, so why should they believe what others tell them?” (Marcovitz. 2009. Pg. 63). In the final scene in Iron Man 3 it is revealed that Tony has been telling the whole plot of the movie to Dr. Bruce Banner (aka: The Incredible Hulk), the entire movie being a flashback that Tony is narrating himself. The only problem is that Dr. Banner’s PhD is not held in the realm of psychology or medicine, but in the realm of science so visiting him would not be considered a treatment. At the end of the movie Banner says “I’m not that kind of doctor; I don’t have the…temperament” (Iron Man 3. 2013). Due to this lack of the proper PhD, his talk with Dr. Banner is less of a therapy session and more of him taking an opportunity to talk about

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