In a world obsessed with darkness and world-ending catastrophes, superheroes are supposed to be the answer to our feelings of despair: the few who can, through their own resilience, hold off the darkness in human souls. Marvel’s Iron Man is the perfect example of a normal guy (you know, minus the genius intellect and unlimited budget) with normal character flaws (alcoholism and douchiness) who can stave off the end of the world by nuking a sentient alien race like it’s nothing and then go back to his day-to-day activities of generating insane revenue and giving the US military-industrial complex several mild coronaries.