The Tony PTSD stuff, while always tempered by humor, was well done. Granted, it wasn't saving private Ryan, but it being a super hero who was exhibiting such fragility, especially given (or maybe because of) the way most of us look up to the super-hero archetype, was pretty unsettling.
It seems like after "New York", Tony began to obsessively build dozens of armor variants for every conceivable situation due to the revelation that there are other beings and gods out there which are so much more powerful and a subsequent devaluation of his human ability to adapt with only the normal suit. After his armor gets just as fucked up as his psyche Tony has nowhere to hide and has no choice but to persevere with none of his suits, only his intelligence and ingenuity. After the kid tells him "You're a mechanic, just build something", we see the separate success of both "Tony Stark" with limited or no use of the iron man suit and the autonomous "Iron Man" suit(s) without Tony.
Granted, Tony and Iron Man being separate entities ultimately ends in failure when, despite the myriad of autonomous suits flying around, Tony is unable to save Pepper from falling and then gets his ass-beat due to his specialized suit variants being unable to finish the job and the Mk 42 being on its last leg. He pretty much gets lucky when Pepper rises up like a sexy phoenix and saves him (after destroying the iron man automaton which attacks her).
A 'Hero's split personality is repaired and the hero saves the day' style climax for the ending might have been more satisfying but I appreciate what they went with. I think it did a good job of reinforcing the fact that human adaptability combined with quality tech is much better than having specialized autonomous tech for every situation. In other words, it's not the suit which makes Iron Man, it's Tony which makes Iron Man (which is mirrored in the ending monologue when he chucks the magnet in the water).
Picture tangentially relevant.
