Source: marvel.com

5. Long Way Down

(Invincible Iron Man #516-520)

There is always a fall before the rise. And as such, this penultimate story arc sees Tony Stark’s great fall.

Pursued by the U.S. Government for getting drunk during Fear Itself, hunted by the Hammers on a professional stage, forced to give up being Iron Man, Stark seems done for.

This is also the arc that gives us payoff for many of the longer set up plot threads from earlier on. Honestly, this is pretty much entirely on here for the payoff to the Spymaster story, which is haunting and unpleasant and darkly sweet in the most messed up way imaginable. Like, easily the best Spymaster story of all time.

But in addition to that, this is where The Mandarin rises back to prominence after his appearance in a story we’ll talk about later on. Here we start setting him up to be the big bad he truly is. Which makes his actions later pay off even harder.