Iron Man shouldn't come back

The perfect character arc

Ironheart, Marvel’s latest television series, ended recently with all the mixed reactions people have come to expect from Marvel projects. As someone who hasn’t seen anything MCU-related in years, I can’t comment on how much of the criticism was genuine and how much came from the kind of people who hate on any piece of media that isn’t completely male, white, and straight. However, whenever this type of project comes out, there’s always a call from certain fans to bring back older, more popular characters from the MCU’s heyday, particularly Tony Stark as Iron Man.

Personally, I think this is a terrible idea. I made this post to track Tony’s character arc through the MCU, from his very first film to his very last, and to convince you that his character arc ended perfectly.

Iron Man (2008)

Iron Man was the classic superhero origin story. Tony started out as a billionaire selling weapons to the highest bidder. He didn’t care about the death and destruction his weapons caused — until one of them nearly killed him. The entire event was a wake-up call for him. He saw the weapons he had created to defend America being used by terrorists. The shrapnel lodged in his chest was a living reminder of their danger. Ho Yinsen’s last words were for him not to waste his genius, to do something better with his life. And so he did. He stopped manufacturing weapons and focused on improving the Iron Man suit: something he could use to protect people by himself.

Obadiah Stane, the villain of this film, is the perfect foil to Tony. He was everything Tony used to be: hungry for wealth and power, uncaring about the damage his weapons inflicted. By defeating him, Tony defeated his past self.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

This movie was a bit of a mess narratively speaking. It had two main antagonists who both challenged Tony in different ways: Justin Hammer, a military contractor who wanted to replicate the Iron Man suit, and Whiplash, whose father had been cheated by Tony’s father and wanted revenge. Tony was also being poisoned by his arc reactor. He spent this movie reconciling with his father’s memory, which allowed him to create a new arc reactor that wasn’t poisonous. Tony also learned how to use the Iron Man suit responsibly, and he allowed his friend Rhodey to use a suit.

The Avengers (2012)

Tony learning to work together with Rhodey was setup for the Avengers, where he learns to work within a team. He initially clashes with his teammates, especially Thor and Captain America. The latter called him out on his selfishness, telling him that even though he might enjoy the glamor of being a superhero, he would never be willing to sacrifice his own life to protect someone else. Still, they managed to work together to protect the Helicarrier, and agreed to stop Loki as a team. At the end of the film, Tony proved Cap wrong: he carried a nuke into outer space to protect New York, believing that it would kill him.

While he survived, what he saw would shape his worldview for the next six years: he saw Thanos’s grand fleet, ready to launch their invasion of Earth. He realized that there was a much greater threat out there than anyone could imagine, and someday, it would come for Earth. Tony dedicated the rest of his life to trying to protect the world from that threat.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

This film primarily dealt with Tony’s trauma after the events of The Avengers. Tony built dozens of new Iron Man suits as a coping mechanism and pushed away everyone who cared about him. His recklessness put Pepper’s life in danger, but he worked together with Rhodey to save her and stop the villains. At the end of the film, he decides to step away from his Iron Man persona, focusing more on the people in his life. To this end, he destroyed all the suits he’d built since The Avengers and underwent surgery to remove the shrapnel in his heart, finally abandoning the arc reactor. As the movie ends, Tony says that Iron Man is more than the suit, and even without it, he’d always be Iron Man.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Tony’s retirement was short-lived. The Avengers reformed to take down HYDRA, and in the process, they found Loki’s scepter. Tony was still obsessed with his vision of Thanos’s army. He wanted a security measure to protect them from what he knew was coming. He wanted, as he put it, ‘a suit of armor around the world’. This led to his creation of Ultron, an AI that went rogue and tried to destroy humanity.

This film shows the cracks forming between the Avengers. The clashes between Cap and Tony foreshadow their eventual falling out. In the end, the Avengers manage to defeat Ultron, but they cause massive amounts of collateral damage in doing so. Due to his role in creating Ultron, Tony feels personally responsible for these deaths. Tony decided to step away from the Avengers, choosing to fund their activities but not otherwise involving himself with them.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

This film sees Tony struggle with guilt for Ultron’s actions. He realized that public opinion was turning against the Avengers, that the UN would soon force restrictions upon them. He believed that if those restrictions could prevent future collateral damage, then they would be to the benefit of everyone involved. Furthermore, he was still focused on the distant threat of Thanos. He knew the Avengers needed to be united to face that threat, that they couldn’t fight Thanos and the world governments at the same time. He was willing to accept government oversight to keep the team intact.

I made a dedicated post on this film last year, so check that out if this interests you.

The Civil War devolved into something much more personal when Tony realized that Bucky had killed his parents, and that Steve had known. It didn’t matter to him that Bucky had been brainwashed by HYDRA; Tony just wanted revenge, and Steve only made himself complicit by hiding it. This drove the final nail into the coffin that was their relationship, finally ending the Avengers.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Having enlisted Peter in Civil War, and having built him a new suit, Tony now felt responsible for the younger superhero. He tried to mentor him, teach him the lessons that had taken so long for Tony himself to learn. When Peter acted irresponsibly and put lives in danger, Tony took back his suit. He told Peter what he himself learned in Iron Man 3: ‘If you’re nothing without this suit, then you shouldn’t have it.’ Peter learned the lesson, defeating the Vulture and the Shocker without any fancy technology. Tony was so impressed that he offered him a place in the new Avengers, and even more impressed when he refused.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Infinity War is when Thanos finally made his move, sending his minions to Earth to retrieve the Time and Mind Stones. Tony realized that it was Thanos who had sent the Chitauri to Earth, and whose forces he had seen when he flew the nuke into space. Intending to put an end to the threat once and for all, he took the fight to Thanos’s home planet. Even with the help of Spider-Man, Dr Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, Tony was completely outmatched. Thanos nearly killed him, and then achieved his plan of killing half of all life. Tony had to watch, helpless, as Peter and Dr Strange died in front of him.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

After his battle with Thanos, Tony was a wreck both physically and mentally. Grieving for the people he lost, he lashed out at Cap and the others, calling them out for not taking Thanos seriously and for betraying his trust. Tony walked away from everything, starting a new life. Together, with Pepper and his daughter, he found a modicum of peace. But it was clear, even years later, that he hadn’t truly moved on or stopped grieving. He was initially too scared of losing what little he had to even try when the Avengers first approached him.

But Tony’s fatal flaw was his inability to walk away from the superhero life. He had tried, multiple times before, but he always came back. He figured out time travel and used it to reassemble the Infinity Stones. In the process, he met his father and was finally able to say his goodbyes. Later, when the plan worked, he finally reunited with Peter. I loved this small detail from Endgame: Tony was able to say his goodbyes both to his father and his adoptive son. You know what happened next; Tony realized the meaning of Strange’s prophecy. Just before Thanos could perform a second snap, Tony wrested the stones from him and sacrificed his life to destroy Thanos and his army.

Conclusion

I believe that bringing back Tony Stark as Iron Man in the MCU would be an incredibly stupid decision. Not because I hate his character, but because I loved his story. He went from a selfish, narcissistic billionaire to a hero who gave everything he had to the world. Following MCU projects show how his shadow looms over every other superhero. Over the course of nine films, Tony Stark had one of the best character arcs in superhero cinema. Bringing him back might get more people into theaters, but his conclusion was so satisfying that anything more that they do with him would only make him worse.