It goes without saying that this has been a crazy year for everyone and even Iron Man isn't exempt from the madness. Of course, we're not just talking about Tony Stark's Iron Man. Iron Man 2020, aka the infamous Arno Stark, has been around since people still believed that by the year 2020 the world would be full of flying cars and sentient robots. An age of technology like no one had ever seen. And what better year to revamp the 2020 comics, than 2020 itself? Little did the creators know that shortly following its release, the country, and the world, would be blindsided.
Regardless of what happened outside of the comics, the issues persisted to be published, providing readers with an Iron Man 2020 like no one had ever seen. The main feature: the threat of a cosmic force coming to change all human and artificial life as they knew it. Unfortunately, Arno went a bit mad prepping for the oncoming invasion and his plans went from heroic to destructive very quickly. Luckily, the OG Iron Man, Tony Stark, gave his life to thwart Arno, only to be artificially resurrected just in time for the cataclysmic fight to end all fights. Of course, that's just the reader's digest version. If there's one thing this arc isn't, it's simple, and if you want to know the details you may have to do a little light reading.
All of the events of the past 5 issues come to a head in Iron Man 2020 #6. As the group faces off against this cosmic enemy, everyone, Arno included, must come together to stop it. Tony and Arno fight side by side in an attempt to defeat it as Tony calls in reinforcements. It looks grim until Arno saves the day and fulfills his life's destiny...or so it seems. As it turns out it was all a simulation to save the world from Arno's mental manipulation, and in turn, save Arno from himself. It's a bit chaotic, a bit confusing, and a bit twisted, but at the end of the day, Tony believes what he's doing is the right thing for Arno and the world. His brother's disease was going to take him by the end of 2020 and this was the only way Tony knew how to give him the ending he deserved.
As the issue ties up loose ends and readers get to see all of the character arcs they've been following come to a close, we get to see a very human moment from Tony when he tells Jan he really doesn't know what's next. None of us do really, especially with the year we're living through. One thing is for sure though, Tony is DONE with 2020. Who'd blame him? It was one whirlwind of a year for the Iron Man team and Tony is ready to move on. He's done living in the now, he will always be "the Iron Man of the future". There's no doubt that there are plenty of readers out there who can relate to that sentiment right now, and maybe, just maybe, the writers' are among them. At the end of the day, it wouldn't be so surprising if they let their own feelings towards 2020 play a factor in Tony's.