Tony remains unconscious until Hulk’s roar seemingly brings him back to life, awoken to superheroes surrounding him. The Hulk then catches him and breaks his fall onto the pavement.

In the last possible second, Iron Man is seen hurtling through the narrow hole, back down to earth, unconscious. There is a notable moment where we’re held in suspension–like the rest of the Avengers, we see glimpses of the wormhole mouth, the sky, but no Iron Man. While in space, his suit loses power, and he descends back toward the rift, watching the nuclear explosion obliterate the entire alien mothership. But when he leaves Earth’s dimension, we realize Tony never gets through to her.

Through JARVIS, he phones his beloved Pepper Potts using the suit’s technology, ostensibly to say goodbye. As he is shooting up to the sky, Captain America informs him, “You know that’s a one way trip,” implying that the task will be fatal. Tony decides to carry a nuke through the portal in order to destroy the entirety of the alien battalion. To summarize “what happened in New York:” Black Widow is ready to shut the portal down using the Tesseract in order to keep the alien ships from entering Earth’s atmosphere through the space wormhole. What did it mean to Tony? What made it different from other traumas Tony has already experienced up to that point in his life? I don’t necessarily mean what we experienced in the wormhole or how we interpreted the event. I’d want to know what the hell happened in that wormhole. I’d want to know what provoked his first episode of anxiety and helplessness. If he were my patient, I’d want to know what makes each situation different. In the practice of clinical science, we explore the possible risk factors as well as protective factors that might make some individuals more vulnerable– or more resilient– when it comes to psychological functioning after a crisis. Why didn’t Tony begin to break down psychologically after his torture and captivity in Afghanistan? Why did Tony continue to pursue threatening and dangerous environments (e.g., joining S.H.I.E.L.D.) after nearly losing his life in his first experiences as Iron Man? How is he able to take on new threats such as facing the Mandarin while suffering from seemingly debilitating anxiety episodes? If he were my patient, I would explore all these case specific events. Second, in my field, while it is important to assign and “rule out” diagnoses, it is also important to determine why the symptoms are present in the first place and establish the course of illness. As explained by The National Center for PTSD, the current PTSD diagnosis often does not fully capture the severe psychological harm that occurs with prolonged, repeated trauma. As it turns out, exposure to multiple life-threatening environments, especially war zones, leads to complex psychological presentations not well represented or captured by one disorder. I don’t work with absolutes. I won’t give you a black-and-white, yes-or-no answer. One reason is that, among the patients I’ve seen who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with physical and psychological injuries (my nonfictional comparison to fictional superheroes), a rare few have clear-cut diagnoses. If you simply want to know whether Tony Stark has this mental illness, this article may leave you unsettled. Since the movie’s release, some have already started to ponder about the psychology of Tony Stark, asking whether or not he has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a real mental disorder mentioned in the movie by his 10-year-old companion, Harley. PHOTOS: ‘Iron Man 3’ Premiere: Robert Downey Jr.

Iron Man 3 marks the first time in the entire “Marvel Cinematic Universe” when we see a hero suffer undeniable instances of a significant mental disturbance. Tony has been suffering from these anxiety attacks since the alien invasion in New York City (depicted in The Avengers, when Iron Man essentially launches himself into space on a nuclear bomb Slim-Pickens style to destroy the alien ship and thereby save Earth). Throughout this film, Tony experiences recurrent panic attacks: sudden, intense, debilitating episodes of anxiety that cause him significant distress. If you have not yet seen the film, you should know that this article contains spoilers. If you have seen Iron Man 3 you may have already started to think about Tony Stark’s mental functioning. This is a psychological case conceptualization of a singular character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Tony Stark.

It’s not even a review of all three Iron Man films.

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