WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Iron Man #2 by Christopher Cantwell, Cafu, Frank D'Armata, VC's Joe Caramagna, and Alex Ross, on sale now.

Tony Stark has no idea how he ended up in a boxing ring with Carl Creel aka the Absorbing Man. His inner monologue only offers "something, something Arcade..." before he realizes he is in another of the villain's Murder Worlds fighting for a Pay-Per-View audience that is betting on the fight. Iron Man manages to cut the fight short, but that isn't the only battle he's dealing with. The more difficult fight is with himself, and an old friend is there to help him get through it by knocking him down a peg or two.

After the fight, Tony retreats to his brownstone home to meet with Patsy Walker, Hellcat. Patsy is intent on getting Tony to meditate and calm his mind, but his thoughts are going a mile a minute and he can't shut them out. When he asks her for reassurance that he could have beaten Creel in the ring, Patsy tells him that as far as she could tell he was getting losing the fight. This, of course, is a huge blow to Tony's ego.

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Patsy tells Tony that she believes he knew that Arcade would be coming for him and that he let it happen anyway. When Tony asks why everyone seems to be rooting for the bad guy these days she asks what he thinks he needs to prove to anyone. Tony is focused on reminding people that he is a hero, but Patsy wants to dig deeper and discover why Tony is fixated on proving that he is fighting the good fight to the people who have decided he is no longer the hero they want.

Their conversation is ended abruptly when Tony gets a call through his helmet alerting him to several Stark Pharmaceutical employees being kidnapped by the vigilante Cardiac. Cardiac says he is going to kill his hostages because of Tony Stark and the mass manipulation of the American healthcare industry. Not willing to let that happen, Tony suits up and asks Patsy to do the same and join him on the rescue/takedown mission. Hellcat is successful in taking down Cardiac and buying Iron Man time to rescue the hostages.

This act of heroism saves the day, and also lands Tony in the hospital with one collapsed lung and over a dozen broken bones. From his hospital bed Tony watches the news footage of the event, featuring an interview with Cardiac, who claims that while he and Tony have both lost their hearts, only one of them still has a soul.

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As Patsy and Tony discuss his condition, he laments that he will be paying out of pocket as he has been deemed uninsurable, which Patsy scoffs at. He tells her that he's had his chops busted enough already, but Patsy isn't done with their earlier conversation, and asks him point blank if he has ever had to look past his own privilege. When Tony replies that he has spent his life devoted to helping people as Iron Man, she cuts him off, telling him that he has "given yourself more power than you already had... enjoy more legal leeway than most people on Earth and you answer to absolutely no one." When they get to the bottom of things, it's Tony's search for martyrdom that is the crux of the issue.

Tony is, as Patsy puts it, "another white guy with a God complex." He is so determined to leave behind a golden legacy that he can't stand to see it tarnished in the present. Patsy is convinced he is trying to end his own life in such a spectacular way that will reduce all of the complexities of his reputation and history to "one commemorative memorial statue in Central Park." And it's probably true. Tony Stark has had a rough life, and while much of it has been of his own doing, having a close friend to give him the tough love he needs just might save his life.

KEEP READING: Hellcat: Why Patsy Walker Never Leaves Home Without Her Costume