Whoops it's still one of my favorite quotes though tbh like especially if you think about it how many times does Tony legit refer to himself and Iron Man as one no matter what universe? Generally there's a disassociation. As if Tony Stark the man could never be as gallant and good as Iron Man as if he were to act like they were one he'd taint Iron Man. Even in that comic with Carol he says "Iron Man stops bad things" as if Tony isn't good enough to say he and Iron Man are one and the same

oh my god i know 

there’s the way tony stark is regarded

then there’s the way iron man is regarded

and honestly no matter what happens and despite any faults anyone can possibly concoct, extremis is still one of my fave modern arcs exactly because it summarizes that dissociation + tony’s desire to end it, and be iron man, a desire that's visceral enough to land him on a bed undergoing an experimental procedure that will biologically fuse him to the armor oh my god

the progression that goes from this

to this

and then finally this after the extremis procedure

just like, masterfully depicts everything about that conflict, the fucking gut-wrenching irony of the fact that tony’s single road to possible self-esteem so far has been to chain himself to the armor like the thing is intrinsically valuable in ways he he himself, the person, isn’t

oh my god the fucking ironies in this story

“i went from being a man trapped in an iron suit to being a man freed by it” he says a few issues before he literally fuses his body and consciousness to the suit

forget tony stark/other people dynamics for a moment tbh because tony stark/himself/his tech is like the most intensely dysfunctional threesome that has ever existed