Drunk Iron Man is like one of the Three Stooges: “Oh, the old boomerang leg trick, eh? Wise guy, eh?”
This is the beginning of the James-Rhodes-Becomes-Iron-Man arc. Machine Man tries to bond with Iron Man (he thinks he’s a robot), but Tony is a belligerent drunk so they fight. Machine Man flees rather than risk hurting innocent bystanders. It’s kind of a throw-away incident, but it’s cool to see the battle and it establishes how far gone Tony is.
And the ending is very solid. It’s just like an alcoholic to have a horrendous day behind drinking and then do it all over again…
This is one of my all-time favorite Marvel stories by Denny O’Neil. The full top 10 is here.