The last fantastic element of the Iron Age story is the fact that Tony's original plan fails, and he's forced to suffer years of tragic seclusion as a result. As a fan fiction writer, I find such a concept absolutely irresistible!

Tony gets so emotional about his friends. I love it! (Iron Age)

Here's another fantastic moment from Iron Age in which Tony heroically resists the temptation to, essentially, murder baby Hitler. Like I keep saying, while Tony tends towards pragmatism, he still has a strong moral core -- at least when he's being written correctly.

---

---

Iron Age has its flaws (which I discuss here), but one thing that really touches me about this story is the number of times Tony risks damaging the timeline just for the sake of encouraging other people. What a good, compassionate bro!

Poor Tony. Naturally, I don't blame the Avengers for being skeptical of Tony's claims given his physical state and the time period, but still: it must really suck to discover you don't have the trust of your old friends. Like I said on Facebook, I'm sure Tony's also thinking, "Crap. Guess this is what I deserve for being an absolute human disaster." (Iron Age)

Yes: I'm continuing with my captures from Iron Age. Here, Tony meets a younger, drunker version of himself. This, of course, touches off some high-quality angst and self-hatred.

Thus begins the Iron Age story from 2011: Tony is forced to watch the utter destruction of the world -- and is then thrown back in time by the blast.