Pfft, as a writer, i torture my favorite characters. This holds true even for the ones I create. My lead character in my novel is so fucked in the head and twisted and the world seriously has never done a single good thing for him. And I do it all because it's that much more interesting. ;p Marvel & DC totally work the same way. Why show love with candy and roses? We show love with guns hidden behind the roses as we pull the trigger and cause spinal damage. :D Now that is love~~

No, srsly. I think that to write Tony, Marvel makes it's writers sign a contract that no matter what, they cannot seriously make him happy for more than a couple of panels. He always gets beaten up and tortured and generally abused. The only one who gets crapped on more than Tony is Deadpool, I swear.