#fvzzyelf

this is much later, during a time period (i've said this before, i know) that i believe tony was having frequent panic attacks and not recognizing them for what they were, after an experimental tissue transplant to repair his heart, but the core concept is the same: just slapping the chestplate on wouldn't do shit, it had to function as a pacemaker.

or that time that experimental spinal chip he was implanted with after being shot by kathy dare turned out to be a virus that overtook his entire nervous system and ultimately killed him.

or the time tony, cryofrozen at the point of death, ended up deciding he was going to be the one to reprogram himself from the inside, so to speak.

the mechanical heart that got shoved in his chest by the sentient armor that eventually overtook his own, and that he had to periodically charge by electrocuting himself.

extremis, which his own personal cocktail he programmed not only rewrote his body from the inside out, but he gained a couple of upgrades, like, oh, technopathy. also extreme paranoia and rage issues.

that time he erased his whole ass brain to keep norman osborn from getting his hands on the only copy of the superhuman registry database in the world-

and rebooted, with a bonus fun new implant called the rt that ran all the automatic bodily functions his (exceptionally damaged) brain could no longer remember how to do. plus the really nifty iron man suit that lived in the hollows of his bones for a while. and some bonus upgrades to things like his eye lenses.

and that, really, is where the tony stark upgrade machine really stops. why bring all of this up? because what needs to be understood about tony stark and transhumanism, is that it's his quick fix. guffaw if you want, but for the majority of his time as iron man, he's been a disabled superhero, due to heart damage and neurological issues that truly defy logic. like, my guy, if this job fucks you up this badly why do you keep doing it?

(we know why.)

transhumansism, for tony himself, is a fix. it's a hail mary play. he reaches for it when he's literally dying, though he does admire it in others.

and basically answers the question for us (which is why i wanted to dig up all these panels). he, and literally half the people he knows, have been modified in some way, and have, at various points, come against the brick wall that is questioning that choice, or their purpose because of that choice. steve volunteered for a government experiment and lost the world he knew. bucky's wasn't a choice, but when the soviets used tech to enhance him and program him, it brought up all those fun ethical questions, on whether or not he could be held accountable for his actions considering it wasn't really his choice.

(there are still people debating this, but tony hangs out at his house on the weekends, so i can tell you where he stands.)

jan has bio implants for her wings. unethical experimentation on prisoners gave luke his unbreakable skin. jack hart spent half his life in a concrete room so he wouldn't explode. bruce made a mistake with his gamma bomb and gave himself the hulk, and then passed that condition on accidentally to his cousin jen. doom literally wants to be god (but doom is...well...doom).

point is, there's a point and a purpose to advance humanity through technology, and tony is on board with it, because it's what he does. he sees the problems and his brain jumps to solutions. but just because it's possible doesn't mean it should always be a solution:

what are the infinity gems, after all, but ancient, alien tech?

i hesitate to bring slott's run into this, because it was the second worst iron man run of all time, but it did touch on the idea that if you replace all the parts - body re-engineered, brain from a digital backup - is there anything left of you? considering 616 tony is literally the amalgam of three tonys - original 616 tony, the kid tony the avengers snatched from another universe, and the tony that existed in the pocket world franklin richards created with onslaught - i think the answer is yes, because while tony doesn't remember he's technically three of him, when it comes down to it at the end of the day, he's still just tony. sometimes he has metal on him. sometimes the metal's inside of him. but fundamentally these things don't change who he is - extremis notwithstanding, and even then, it was an amplification of his natural paranoia and temper.

i think what it boils down to is that tony understands why people would do it, but that it's also really hard to predict the ramifications of forcing evolution - either genetically or technologically - and it's really hard to make informed consent because of that. something like felicia's claw augmentations are one thing, but if you can do that, why not go further, right? and then the whole host of questionable decisions start coming into play. at the end of the day, tony's augments have never actually been because he wanted them. to a one, literally everything he's done to himself or had done to him is a life-preserving measure. i don't think the idea of forcing that change is necessarily something that appeals to him, at least anymore? when he was younger and dumber, maybe, but he's been through the shit more than once at this point with it, and he's survived an opposite day version of himself that literally tried to force the world to evolve with extremis, so i think he finally, finally understands the pitfalls, because at this point in continuity, he's just a squishy guy again.

so...when you realize all of this, see all of this, and know all of this, you come to understand why various tonys who are...we'll say detached from their bodies eventually view their inevitable death as a release. ai tony had so many issues, being the consciousness of a man that had a physical body, suddenly made of data. it never really settled in for him, because he had phantom sensations, and the disconnected feeling led him down what could have quickly become some dark roads. i think tony is very aware - especially now - of how important the physicality of a human body is to the human experience, after experiencing it himself, seeing its effects on people he cares about. otherwise why would he keep trying to fix his own body instead of doing what we are well aware of what he can do, which is maybe transfer his consciousness to a suit and be done with it?

i think tony's transhumanism through tech, specifically, comes from a place of not wanting to think of himself as a broken thing - it's some dysmorphia, really, because for the majority of his superhero career he's been the guy with the heart problems surrounded by pinnacles of human perfection and literal gods. if there's a last ditch effort to save himself where he can improve the body he has, he takes it, and comes to regret it. and after this song and dance being repeated enough times, i think he finally gets it. that this is body, this is what he has, and it, like him, is unique and trying to force it to fit a mold it just can't leads to nothing but misery.

i mean, he could have written the alcohoism right out of himself and chose not to. so i think, overall, he sees the value finally in that human experience of living and making use of what you've already got.

so, last point here, with the soul thing: tony's a funny critter. he literally does not believe in a higher power, he doesn't believe in the idea of god or an afterlife or anything like that. but he does believe in the human soul. at some point it kind of becomes unavoidable when mephisto keeps trying to get his hands on it, right? things like souls and magic and literal hell vex him, because they don't make sense. they don't have a place in the ordered natural universe. they break rules. but he can't deny their existence, because he has first hand experiences of all of these things. and i think that just vexes him more. i think maybe once upon a time he'd have said that all anyone is is a collective firing of neurons and once it's gone, it's gone, but at this point he's seen so much, been so much, experienced so much, even if he doesn't believe in god, he knows there's some higher form or animus to humanity, and, ultimately, i think he thinks it's mostly good.