On the 16th of December 1991, a car accident in the Bahamas did not merely kill Howard and Maria Stark; it erased the future of a genius child who had already graduated from MIT at age 17. The tragedy was not an accident but a calculated assassination orchestrated by the Winter Soldier, a mind-controlled agent of Hydra, who sought to steal the Super Soldier Serum Howard had been developing. This event left twenty-one-year-old Anthony Edward Stark as the sole heir to Stark Industries, a company that would become the primary weapons manufacturer for the United States military. Growing up under the watchful eye of family butler Edwin Jarvis, Tony had always felt the weight of a cold and affectionless relationship with his father. Howard Stark, a famous inventor and businessman, constantly tried to inspire his son by talking about his own role in creating Captain America, a gesture that only embittered Tony, who felt his father valued his creations more than his family. This early emotional void would later manifest as a desperate need to prove his worth, driving him to become a brilliant inventor and a playboy who lived life on the edge.
The Cave And The Iron Man
In 2010, during a demonstration of the Jericho missile in war-torn Afghanistan, Tony Stark was critically wounded and imprisoned by the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. It was here, in a dark cave, that his life changed forever when fellow captive Ho Yinsen implanted an electromagnet into Stark's chest to keep shrapnel shards from reaching his heart. Together, they secretly built a small, powerful electric generator called an arc reactor to power both the electromagnet and a suit of powered armor. When the Ten Rings attacked the workshop, Yinsen sacrificed himself to divert them while the suit was completed, allowing the armored Stark to battle his way out of the cave. He found the dying Yinsen, burned the Ten Rings' weapons in anger, and flew away, crashing in the desert before being rescued by his friend Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. Upon returning home, Stark announced that his company would no longer manufacture weapons, a decision that sparked a coup by Obadiah Stane, who had been engaging in arms trafficking to criminals worldwide. Stark, in his new armor, flew to Afghanistan to save the villagers and then defeated Stane, who had stolen the arc reactor from his chest. The next day, The Chronicles newspaper dubbed his alter-ego The Iron Man, a name Stark liked for its catchy sound, even though the suit was made of titanium gold instead of iron.The Palladium And The Poison
Six months later in 2011, Stark's fame had grown, but his life was slowly being poisoned by the palladium core in his arc reactor, which kept him alive and powered his armor. Growing increasingly reckless and despondent about his impending death, he appointed Pepper Potts as CEO of Stark Industries. The situation escalated when Ivan Vanko, wielding electrified whips powered by a miniature arc reactor, attacked Stark during the Monaco Historic Grand Prix. Stark donned his Mark V armor and defeated Vanko, but the suit was severely damaged. At his birthday party, Stark got drunk while wearing the Mark IV suit, leading to a fight with Rhodes, who had donned Stark's Mark II prototype armor. The fight ended in a stalemate, so Rhodes confiscated the Mark II for the U.S. Air Force. Stark discovered a hidden message from his father, a diagram of the structure of a new element, which he successfully synthesized and integrated into his arc reactor as a non-toxic replacement for palladium. At the Expo, Stark's rival Justin Hammer unveiled Vanko's armored drones, led by Rhodes in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor. Stark arrived in the newly-built Mark VI armor to warn Rhodes, but Vanko remotely took control of both the drones and Rhodes' armor and attacked Iron Man. Stark and Rhodes together defeated Vanko and his drones, and after narrowly saving Pepper Potts from a self-destructing drone, they started a relationship.The Battle Of New York
In 2012, when the Asgardian Loki arrived and began menacing Earth, seizing the Tesseract from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, Fury activated the Avengers Initiative. Agent Phil Coulson visited Stark to have him review the research of Erik Selvig on the Tesseract. In Stuttgart, Steve Rogers and Loki fought briefly until Tony Stark appeared in his Iron Man armor, resulting in Loki's surrender. While Loki was being escorted to S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor arrived and freed him, hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard. After a confrontation with Stark and Rogers, Thor agreed to take Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying aircraft carrier, the Helicarrier. The Avengers became divided, both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to harness the Tesseract to develop weapons. Agents possessed by Loki attacked the Helicarrier, disabling one of its engines in flight, which Stark and Rogers must work to restart. Loki escapes, and Stark and Rogers realize that for Loki, simply defeating them will not be enough; he needs to overpower them publicly to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Loki uses the Tesseract to open a wormhole in New York City above the Stark Tower to allow the Chitauri fleet in space to invade. Fury's superiors from the World Security Council attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at Midtown Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile, and in an apparent sacrifice of his own life, takes it through the wormhole toward the Chitauri fleet. The missile detonates, destroying the Chitauri mothership and disabling their forces on Earth. Stark's suit runs out of power, and he falls back through the wormhole but the Hulk saves him from crashing into the ground. Stark and the other Avengers capture Loki and Thor takes custody of him.The Vision And The Guilt
Stark develops PTSD from his experiences during the alien invasion, resulting in panic attacks. Restless, he builds several dozen Iron Man suits, creating friction with girlfriend Pepper Potts. Seven months after the invasion, Happy Hogan is badly injured in one of a string of bombings by a terrorist known only as the Mandarin, Stark issues a televised threat to him, who destroys Stark's Malibu home with helicopter gunships. Stark escapes in an Iron Man suit and crashes in rural Tennessee. His experimental armor lacks sufficient power to return to California, and the world believes him dead. Stark traces the Mandarin to Miami and infiltrates his headquarters, where he discovers the Mandarin was just an actor named Trevor Slattery. Aldrich Killian reveals himself to be the real Mandarin and captures Stark. He escapes and reunites with Rhodes, discovering that Killian intends to attack U.S. President Ellis aboard Air Force One. Stark saves the surviving passengers and crew but cannot stop Killian from abducting Ellis and destroying Air Force One. Killian intends to kill Ellis on an oil platform on live television. On the platform, Stark goes to save Potts , who had been kidnapped and subjected to Extremis , as Rhodes saves the president. Stark summons the Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by J.A.R.V.I.S., to provide air support. Potts, having survived the Extremis procedure, kills Killian. Stark orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to remotely destroy all of the Iron Man suits as a sign of his devotion to Potts, and undergoes surgery to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart. He pitches his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea, musing that he will always be Iron Man.The Ultron Paradox
In 2015, Stark and the Avengers raid a Hydra facility commanded by Wolfgang von Strucker, who has been experimenting on siblings Pietro and Wanda Maximoff using the scepter previously wielded by Loki. While the team fights outside, Stark enters the lab and finds the scepter, along with Chitauri artifacts from the Battle of New York. Wanda sneaks up behind him and uses her mind manipulation powers to give him a haunting vision: the death of all the Avengers except him. Stark awakens from the vision and retrieves Loki's scepter. Returning to the Avengers Tower, Stark and Bruce Banner discover an artificial intelligence within the scepter's gem, and secretly decide to use it to complete Stark's Ultron global defense program. The unexpectedly sentient Ultron eliminates Stark's A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S. and attacks the Avengers. Escaping with the scepter, Ultron builds an army of robot drones, kills Strucker and recruits the Maximoffs, who hold Stark responsible for their parents' deaths by his company's weapons. The Avengers find and attack Ultron in Johannesburg, but Wanda subdues most of the team with personalized, disturbing visions, causing Banner to transform into the Hulk and rampage until Stark stops him with his anti-Hulk armor. After hiding at Clint Barton's house, Nick Fury arrives and encourages Stark and the others to form a plan to stop Ultron, who is discovered to have forced the team's friend Dr. Helen Cho to perfect a new body for him. Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton find Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Romanoff. Returning to Avengers Tower, the Avengers fight amongst themselves when Stark and Banner secretly upload J.A.R.V.I.S., who is still operational after hiding from Ultron inside the Internet, into the synthetic body. Thor returns to help activate the body, explaining that the gem on its brow was part of his vision. This Vision and the Maximoffs, now on their side, accompany Stark and the Avengers to Sokovia, where Ultron has used the remaining vibranium to build a machine to lift part of the capital city skyward, intending to crash it into the ground to cause global extinction. One of Ultron's drones is able to activate the machine. The city plummets, but Stark and Thor overload the machine and shatter the landmass. The Avengers establish a new base in upstate New York, and Stark leaves the team.The Sokovia Accords And The Civil War
In 2016, U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross informs the Avengers that the United Nations is preparing to pass the Sokovia Accords, which will establish UN oversight of the team. The Avengers are divided: Stark supports oversight because of his role in Ultron's creation and Sokovia's devastation, while Rogers has more faith in their judgment than that of a government. Circumstances lead to Rogers and fellow super-soldier Bucky Barnes, framed for a terrorist attack, going rogue, along with Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton, and Scott Lang. Stark assembles a team composed of Natasha Romanoff, T'Challa, James Rhodes, Vision, and Peter Parker to capture the renegades at Leipzig/Halle Airport. However, during the battle, Rogers and Barnes are able to escape and Rhodes is paralyzed. Stark learns that Barnes was framed and convinces Wilson to give him Rogers' destination. Without informing Ross, Stark goes to the Siberian Hydra facility and strikes a truce with Rogers and Barnes. They find that the other super soldiers have been killed by Helmut Zemo, who plays footage that reveals that Barnes killed Stark's parents. Stark turns on them, dismembering Barnes' robotic arm. After an intense fight, Rogers finally manages to disable Stark's Iron Man armor and departs with Barnes, leaving his shield behind. Stark returns to New York to work on exoskeletal leg braces to allow Rhodes to walk again. Steve Rogers sends a mobile phone to Stark to keep in contact if needed. When Ross calls informing him that Rogers has broken the others out of the Raft, Stark refuses to help. Two months later, Peter Parker resumes his high school studies, with Stark telling him he is not yet ready to become a full Avenger. Stark rescues Parker from nearly drowning after an encounter with Adrian Toomes and warns Parker against further involvement with the criminals. When another weapon from Toomes malfunctions during a fight with Parker and tears the Staten Island Ferry in half, Stark helps Parker save the passengers before admonishing him for his recklessness and confiscating his suit. Parker realizes Toomes is planning to hijack a plane transporting weapons from Stark Tower to the team's new headquarters. After Parker thwarts the plan and saves Toomes from an explosion, Stark admits he was wrong about Parker and invites him to become an Avenger full-time, but Parker declines. Potts emerges from a packed press conference, called to make the announcement, and Stark decides to use the opportunity to instead propose to Potts. At the end of the film, he returns the suit to Peter.The Final Snap And The Legacy
In 2018, Stark and Potts are in a New York City park discussing having children, when Banner, who had disappeared after the Battle of Sokovia, crash-lands at the New York Sanctum. Banner relays a warning to Stephen Strange, Wong, and Stark that the mad Titan Thanos plans to use the Infinity Stones to kill half of all life in the universe. Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone, prompting Strange, Stark, Wong, and Parker to confront them. Although Cull Obsidian is incapacitated, Strange is captured by Maw. Stark and Parker sneak aboard Maw's spaceship to rescue him. After successfully freeing Strange and killing Maw, the trio proceed to Thanos' home planet Titan, where they meet members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. They form a plan to confront Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet, but Thanos overpowers the group and stabs Stark in the abdomen. Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Stark. Thanos takes the stone and departs for Earth, retrieves the final stone, and activates the Infinity Gauntlet. Stark and Nebula, stranded on Titan, watch as Parker and others are turned to dust. Stark and Nebula are rescued from space by Carol Danvers and returned to Earth, where Stark chooses to retire and raise his daughter Morgan, with Potts. Later, he constructs a secret beach house lab in Mexico for Banner to merge his two identities and spent some time with him including making a tiki bar. In 2023, when Scott Lang hypothesizes a way to bring back the fallen, the Avengers approach Stark, who initially refuses, considering the idea dangerous. Despite this, he examines the matter privately, discovers time travel, and agrees to help. The Avengers reassemble and plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones from the past to undo Thanos' actions. Traveling to 2012, Stark fails to retrieve the Space Stone following the Battle of New York and instead goes further back to the 1970s to steal it from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, where he has a meaningful conversation with a younger version of his father, Howard. The Avengers successfully obtain all of the Infinity Stones before returning to the present. The Stones are incorporated into a Nano Gauntlet made by Stark, which Banner then uses to resurrect those that were disintegrated by Thanos. However, they are followed by an alternate version of Thanos and his army, who are summoned to 2023 by an alternate version of Nebula. During the ensuing battle, Thanos obtains Stark's gauntlet and the two of them wrestle for control of it. Thanos is able to overpower Stark before attempting another snap but discovers that Stark has transferred the Infinity Stones to his own armor. Stark activates the Gauntlet and uses it to disintegrate Thanos and all of his forces and save the universe, but fatally injures himself in the process. He dies surrounded by Rhodes, Parker, and Potts. Eight months later, as the world continues to mourn Stark, Parker receives glasses that can access Stark's artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H., with a message that establishes him as Stark's chosen successor. Parker is however tricked by disgruntled former Stark Industries employee Quentin Beck into giving him the glasses, as Parker sees him as a more worthy successor. Beck, leading a team of other ex-Stark Industries employees such as William Ginter Riva, and angered at being fired by Stark, seeks to fill the vacancy left by Stark as Iron Man by using the software he developed for Stark, B.A.R.F., to augment illusions of creatures known as the Elementals, presenting himself as a hero known as Mysterio in defeating them. He uses Stark's glasses to conduct drone attacks in London, targeting Parker. Parker eventually foils Beck's plots and retakes the glasses, and he designs his own Spider-Man suit using technology from Stark Industries, in a similar manner to Stark designing his first Iron Man armor.On the 16th of December 1991, a car accident in the Bahamas did not merely kill Howard and Maria Stark; it erased the future of a genius child who had already graduated from MIT at age 17. The tragedy was not an accident but a calculated assassination orchestrated by the Winter Soldier, a mind-controlled agent of Hydra, who sought to steal the Super Soldier Serum Howard had been developing. This event left twenty-one-year-old Anthony Edward Stark as the sole heir to Stark Industries, a company that would become the primary weapons manufacturer for the United States military. Growing up under the watchful eye of family butler Edwin Jarvis, Tony had always felt the weight of a cold and affectionless relationship with his father. Howard Stark, a famous inventor and businessman, constantly tried to inspire his son by talking about his own role in creating Captain America, a gesture that only embittered Tony, who felt his father valued his creations more than his family. This early emotional void would later manifest as a desperate need to prove his worth, driving him to become a brilliant inventor and a playboy who lived life on the edge.
The Cave And The Iron Man
In 2010, during a demonstration of the Jericho missile in war-torn Afghanistan, Tony Stark was critically wounded and imprisoned by the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. It was here, in a dark cave, that his life changed forever when fellow captive Ho Yinsen implanted an electromagnet into Stark's chest to keep shrapnel shards from reaching his heart. Together, they secretly built a small, powerful electric generator called an arc reactor to power both the electromagnet and a suit of powered armor. When the Ten Rings attacked the workshop, Yinsen sacrificed himself to divert them while the suit was completed, allowing the armored Stark to battle his way out of the cave. He found the dying Yinsen, burned the Ten Rings' weapons in anger, and flew away, crashing in the desert before being rescued by his friend Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. Upon returning home, Stark announced that his company would no longer manufacture weapons, a decision that sparked a coup by Obadiah Stane, who had been engaging in arms trafficking to criminals worldwide. Stark, in his new armor, flew to Afghanistan to save the villagers and then defeated Stane, who had stolen the arc reactor from his chest. The next day, The Chronicles newspaper dubbed his alter-ego The Iron Man, a name Stark liked for its catchy sound, even though the suit was made of titanium gold instead of iron.
The Palladium And The Poison
Six months later in 2011, Stark's fame had grown, but his life was slowly being poisoned by the palladium core in his arc reactor, which kept him alive and powered his armor. Growing increasingly reckless and despondent about his impending death, he appointed Pepper Potts as CEO of Stark Industries. The situation escalated when Ivan Vanko, wielding electrified whips powered by a miniature arc reactor, attacked Stark during the Monaco Historic Grand Prix. Stark donned his Mark V armor and defeated Vanko, but the suit was severely damaged. At his birthday party, Stark got drunk while wearing the Mark IV suit, leading to a fight with Rhodes, who had donned Stark's Mark II prototype armor. The fight ended in a stalemate, so Rhodes confiscated the Mark II for the U.S. Air Force. Stark discovered a hidden message from his father, a diagram of the structure of a new element, which he successfully synthesized and integrated into his arc reactor as a non-toxic replacement for palladium. At the Expo, Stark's rival Justin Hammer unveiled Vanko's armored drones, led by Rhodes in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor. Stark arrived in the newly-built Mark VI armor to warn Rhodes, but Vanko remotely took control of both the drones and Rhodes' armor and attacked Iron Man. Stark and Rhodes together defeated Vanko and his drones, and after narrowly saving Pepper Potts from a self-destructing drone, they started a relationship.
The Battle Of New York
In 2012, when the Asgardian Loki arrived and began menacing Earth, seizing the Tesseract from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, Fury activated the Avengers Initiative. Agent Phil Coulson visited Stark to have him review the research of Erik Selvig on the Tesseract. In Stuttgart, Steve Rogers and Loki fought briefly until Tony Stark appeared in his Iron Man armor, resulting in Loki's surrender. While Loki was being escorted to S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor arrived and freed him, hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard. After a confrontation with Stark and Rogers, Thor agreed to take Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying aircraft carrier, the Helicarrier. The Avengers became divided, both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to harness the Tesseract to develop weapons. Agents possessed by Loki attacked the Helicarrier, disabling one of its engines in flight, which Stark and Rogers must work to restart. Loki escapes, and Stark and Rogers realize that for Loki, simply defeating them will not be enough; he needs to overpower them publicly to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Loki uses the Tesseract to open a wormhole in New York City above the Stark Tower to allow the Chitauri fleet in space to invade. Fury's superiors from the World Security Council attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at Midtown Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile, and in an apparent sacrifice of his own life, takes it through the wormhole toward the Chitauri fleet. The missile detonates, destroying the Chitauri mothership and disabling their forces on Earth. Stark's suit runs out of power, and he falls back through the wormhole but the Hulk saves him from crashing into the ground. Stark and the other Avengers capture Loki and Thor takes custody of him.
The Vision And The Guilt
Stark develops PTSD from his experiences during the alien invasion, resulting in panic attacks. Restless, he builds several dozen Iron Man suits, creating friction with girlfriend Pepper Potts. Seven months after the invasion, Happy Hogan is badly injured in one of a string of bombings by a terrorist known only as the Mandarin, Stark issues a televised threat to him, who destroys Stark's Malibu home with helicopter gunships. Stark escapes in an Iron Man suit and crashes in rural Tennessee. His experimental armor lacks sufficient power to return to California, and the world believes him dead. Stark traces the Mandarin to Miami and infiltrates his headquarters, where he discovers the Mandarin was just an actor named Trevor Slattery. Aldrich Killian reveals himself to be the real Mandarin and captures Stark. He escapes and reunites with Rhodes, discovering that Killian intends to attack U.S. President Ellis aboard Air Force One. Stark saves the surviving passengers and crew but cannot stop Killian from abducting Ellis and destroying Air Force One. Killian intends to kill Ellis on an oil platform on live television. On the platform, Stark goes to save Potts , who had been kidnapped and subjected to Extremis , as Rhodes saves the president. Stark summons the Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by J.A.R.V.I.S., to provide air support. Potts, having survived the Extremis procedure, kills Killian. Stark orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to remotely destroy all of the Iron Man suits as a sign of his devotion to Potts, and undergoes surgery to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart. He pitches his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea, musing that he will always be Iron Man.
The Ultron Paradox
In 2015, Stark and the Avengers raid a Hydra facility commanded by Wolfgang von Strucker, who has been experimenting on siblings Pietro and Wanda Maximoff using the scepter previously wielded by Loki. While the team fights outside, Stark enters the lab and finds the scepter, along with Chitauri artifacts from the Battle of New York. Wanda sneaks up behind him and uses her mind manipulation powers to give him a haunting vision: the death of all the Avengers except him. Stark awakens from the vision and retrieves Loki's scepter. Returning to the Avengers Tower, Stark and Bruce Banner discover an artificial intelligence within the scepter's gem, and secretly decide to use it to complete Stark's Ultron global defense program. The unexpectedly sentient Ultron eliminates Stark's A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S. and attacks the Avengers. Escaping with the scepter, Ultron builds an army of robot drones, kills Strucker and recruits the Maximoffs, who hold Stark responsible for their parents' deaths by his company's weapons. The Avengers find and attack Ultron in Johannesburg, but Wanda subdues most of the team with personalized, disturbing visions, causing Banner to transform into the Hulk and rampage until Stark stops him with his anti-Hulk armor. After hiding at Clint Barton's house, Nick Fury arrives and encourages Stark and the others to form a plan to stop Ultron, who is discovered to have forced the team's friend Dr. Helen Cho to perfect a new body for him. Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton find Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Romanoff. Returning to Avengers Tower, the Avengers fight amongst themselves when Stark and Banner secretly upload J.A.R.V.I.S., who is still operational after hiding from Ultron inside the Internet, into the synthetic body. Thor returns to help activate the body, explaining that the gem on its brow was part of his vision. This Vision and the Maximoffs, now on their side, accompany Stark and the Avengers to Sokovia, where Ultron has used the remaining vibranium to build a machine to lift part of the capital city skyward, intending to crash it into the ground to cause global extinction. One of Ultron's drones is able to activate the machine. The city plummets, but Stark and Thor overload the machine and shatter the landmass. The Avengers establish a new base in upstate New York, and Stark leaves the team.
The Sokovia Accords And The Civil War
In 2016, U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross informs the Avengers that the United Nations is preparing to pass the Sokovia Accords, which will establish UN oversight of the team. The Avengers are divided: Stark supports oversight because of his role in Ultron's creation and Sokovia's devastation, while Rogers has more faith in their judgment than that of a government. Circumstances lead to Rogers and fellow super-soldier Bucky Barnes, framed for a terrorist attack, going rogue, along with Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton, and Scott Lang. Stark assembles a team composed of Natasha Romanoff, T'Challa, James Rhodes, Vision, and Peter Parker to capture the renegades at Leipzig/Halle Airport. However, during the battle, Rogers and Barnes are able to escape and Rhodes is paralyzed. Stark learns that Barnes was framed and convinces Wilson to give him Rogers' destination. Without informing Ross, Stark goes to the Siberian Hydra facility and strikes a truce with Rogers and Barnes. They find that the other super soldiers have been killed by Helmut Zemo, who plays footage that reveals that Barnes killed Stark's parents. Stark turns on them, dismembering Barnes' robotic arm. After an intense fight, Rogers finally manages to disable Stark's Iron Man armor and departs with Barnes, leaving his shield behind. Stark returns to New York to work on exoskeletal leg braces to allow Rhodes to walk again. Steve Rogers sends a mobile phone to Stark to keep in contact if needed. When Ross calls informing him that Rogers has broken the others out of the Raft, Stark refuses to help. Two months later, Peter Parker resumes his high school studies, with Stark telling him he is not yet ready to become a full Avenger. Stark rescues Parker from nearly drowning after an encounter with Adrian Toomes and warns Parker against further involvement with the criminals. When another weapon from Toomes malfunctions during a fight with Parker and tears the Staten Island Ferry in half, Stark helps Parker save the passengers before admonishing him for his recklessness and confiscating his suit. Parker realizes Toomes is planning to hijack a plane transporting weapons from Stark Tower to the team's new headquarters. After Parker thwarts the plan and saves Toomes from an explosion, Stark admits he was wrong about Parker and invites him to become an Avenger full-time, but Parker declines. Potts emerges from a packed press conference, called to make the announcement, and Stark decides to use the opportunity to instead propose to Potts. At the end of the film, he returns the suit to Peter.
The Final Snap And The Legacy
In 2018, Stark and Potts are in a New York City park discussing having children, when Banner, who had disappeared after the Battle of Sokovia, crash-lands at the New York Sanctum. Banner relays a warning to Stephen Strange, Wong, and Stark that the mad Titan Thanos plans to use the Infinity Stones to kill half of all life in the universe. Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone, prompting Strange, Stark, Wong, and Parker to confront them. Although Cull Obsidian is incapacitated, Strange is captured by Maw. Stark and Parker sneak aboard Maw's spaceship to rescue him. After successfully freeing Strange and killing Maw, the trio proceed to Thanos' home planet Titan, where they meet members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. They form a plan to confront Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet, but Thanos overpowers the group and stabs Stark in the abdomen. Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Stark. Thanos takes the stone and departs for Earth, retrieves the final stone, and activates the Infinity Gauntlet. Stark and Nebula, stranded on Titan, watch as Parker and others are turned to dust. Stark and Nebula are rescued from space by Carol Danvers and returned to Earth, where Stark chooses to retire and raise his daughter Morgan, with Potts. Later, he constructs a secret beach house lab in Mexico for Banner to merge his two identities and spent some time with him including making a tiki bar. In 2023, when Scott Lang hypothesizes a way to bring back the fallen, the Avengers approach Stark, who initially refuses, considering the idea dangerous. Despite this, he examines the matter privately, discovers time travel, and agrees to help. The Avengers reassemble and plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones from the past to undo Thanos' actions. Traveling to 2012, Stark fails to retrieve the Space Stone following the Battle of New York and instead goes further back to the 1970s to steal it from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, where he has a meaningful conversation with a younger version of his father, Howard. The Avengers successfully obtain all of the Infinity Stones before returning to the present. The Stones are incorporated into a Nano Gauntlet made by Stark, which Banner then uses to resurrect those that were disintegrated by Thanos. However, they are followed by an alternate version of Thanos and his army, who are summoned to 2023 by an alternate version of Nebula. During the ensuing battle, Thanos obtains Stark's gauntlet and the two of them wrestle for control of it. Thanos is able to overpower Stark before attempting another snap but discovers that Stark has transferred the Infinity Stones to his own armor. Stark activates the Gauntlet and uses it to disintegrate Thanos and all of his forces and save the universe, but fatally injures himself in the process. He dies surrounded by Rhodes, Parker, and Potts. Eight months later, as the world continues to mourn Stark, Parker receives glasses that can access Stark's artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H., with a message that establishes him as Stark's chosen successor. Parker is however tricked by disgruntled former Stark Industries employee Quentin Beck into giving him the glasses, as Parker sees him as a more worthy successor. Beck, leading a team of other ex-Stark Industries employees such as William Ginter Riva, and angered at being fired by Stark, seeks to fill the vacancy left by Stark as Iron Man by using the software he developed for Stark, B.A.R.F., to augment illusions of creatures known as the Elementals, presenting himself as a hero known as Mysterio in defeating them. He uses Stark's glasses to conduct drone attacks in London, targeting Parker. Parker eventually foils Beck's plots and retakes the glasses, and he designs his own Spider-Man suit using technology from Stark Industries, in a similar manner to Stark designing his first Iron Man armor.