Thinking about witches began to change in the Fourteenth Century, particularly in the wake of the Black Deathof 1347-1350, after which Europeans became increasingly fearfulof conspiracies by maleficent underground forces, mostly imaginary.
In Iron Man 3, Tony is obsessed with being Iron Man and building Iron Man armor, because confronting death and a world-threatening menace has made him perpetually fearfulof the danger to Pepper Potts.