Avengers: Endgame: An obituary for a fallen hero

**SPOILER WARNING: This story contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.**

In the wake of Avengers: Endgame, SYFY WIRE will be writing up obituaries to the fallen. Given fans' long-standing relationship with many of the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a franchise that's marked 22 movies over the course of 11 years, it only makes sense to honor them. 

**SPOILER WARNING: This story contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.**

Tony Stark, best known to the world as the suited superhero Iron Man, died on April 25, 2019. Stark, 53, succumbed to injuries sustained in the year 2023 in a battle with Thanos while wielding a makeshift Infinity Gauntlet and using the Infinity Stones to save the universe. He is survived by his wife, Pepper Potts, and their 4-year-old daughter, Morgan Stark.

Stark was born on May 29, 1970, to Howard and Maria Stark. A wunderkind, Stark graduated summa cum laude from MIT at the age of 17. After his parents died in 1991, Stark became the CEO of Stark Industries, a chief weapons manufacturer for the U.S. military. At the age of 21, it made him the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history. Under the younger Stark’s leadership, Stark Industries enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth and success.

Fortunes changed in 2008 when Stark was kidnapped in Afghanistan by a terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. After undergoing torture, Stark escaped and announced upon his rescue that Stark Industries would shift its attention away from weapons manufacturing. During a press conference at the time, Stark cited the horrors he witnessed in Afghanistan as his prime motivator. Stark Industries began focusing on developing clean energy technology; internal struggles at the company unfolded in an explosive fashion. In a subsequent press conference, Stark outed himself as the red-and-gold-suited superhero Iron Man.

In 2010, as Stark Industries board members began to question Stark’s ability to run the company, Stark signed his position as CEO over to his then-personal assistant, Pepper Potts. The move, while questioned at the time, has since been applauded by industry insiders.

In 2012, Stark, as Iron Man, began working with a group of superheroes, including Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, the Hulk, and Hawkeye. They were prime participants in the Battle of New York against the Asgardian god Loki’s invading army. The group went on to greater heights still. In conjunction with the ultra-secretive Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.), Stark and his team, codenamed the Avengers, worked to infiltrate various Hydra bases around the world.

After the Avengers thwarted a villainous A.I. in 2015, which resulted in the destruction of Sokovia, Stark would go on to support the Sokovia Accords. The Accords, however, split the Avengers team, with Stark leading one faction opposite Steve Rogers, known as Captain America. The team didn’t reassemble until the cosmic alien Thanos, who planned to use six cosmic gems known as the Infinity Stones to destroy half of all life in the universe, arrived on Earth in 2018. Stark and his protege, the anonymous Spider-Man, were taken off-world during this time on an alien spaceship and when half of all life disappeared after Thanos’ attack, they were presumed dead.

Stark returned under mysterious circumstances a month after his disappearance and announced his retirement from the superhero business. He married Potts, and the two had their only child, Morgan Stark.

The reasons behind Stark’s return to the Avengers fold five years later in 2023 remains a mystery, as does his part in bringing back the world’s vanished population. Rumors of time travel have pervaded the internet, and while the remaining Avengers refuse to comment, details of Stark’s death as a result of using the Infinity Stones to destroy Thanos’ army have been made public. He is remembered as an innovator, leader, and hero. His life and legacy were celebrated over the weekend in a private ceremony for family and friends.