All of us fans were eagerly waiting for Endgame and the movie delivered on most of our expectations. The Avengers pulled off a next to impossible time heist. They managed to save their universe but lost their greatest warriors. And this is the part which most fans hated, and even cried about. I was one of them. Iron Man snapped and wiped out the entire army of Thanos and him. But, when he said those words and the next scene when his armor is damaged and Tony isn’t breathing was too difficult to watch. But one question still pertains. Why did he die? The answer probably lies in the comics.
Apparently, Endgame’s time travel won’t work in the comics. In the comics, time travel only takes heroes to alternate timelines. The heroes only believe that they’re going to their own timeline. So, any changes they make in these realities, don’t affect their own timeline. It’s similar to what Bruce explained in the MCU – changing the past doesn’t change the future. He explains this to War Machine when they are tasting Pym particles for time traveling. And Ant-Man’s concept of time travel based on Back to the Future is completely shattered!
But it’s different because changing the past creates an entirely new reality in the MCU. Whereas in the comics, that reality was always different. But for the movie they had to drop it, due to so many complexities. Another major difference in the comics is the Infinity Stones. Infinity Gauntlet from an alternate reality doesn’t work in another reality. With that logic, the Avengers in the MCU brought Infinity Stones from 4 different realities. These were namely, Reality Stone from Thor’s old reality, Space Stone (Tesseract) from Cap’s old reality, Time Stone from The Ancient One’s reality (during battle of New York), Power Stone from Star Lord’s reality, Mind Stone (Loki’s staff) from their own reality during the Battle, and Soul Stone where Black Widow had to die. So, they shouldn’t have worked when the heroes brought the stones to 2023.
Because Marvel established that the MCU is Universe 199999. It exists parallel to the comic book universes. But the stones did work, and the loss was huge. Tony lost his life. Hulk lost his arm even though he was as strong as Thanos. How? Well, Screen Rant has a theory.
Because these Infinity Stones came from different realities, they were mismatched. Their incompatibility was firing even more energy than they normally do. That’s why Hulk fried his arm when he just put on the Gauntlet. But since he used them, the stones probably got used to it. Remember the stones have their own consciousness? That’s why Thanos & Tony were able to put on the stones rather easily.
But since the energy was still too much, Tony Stark died even with his best suit. He may not have died if it were the Infinity Gauntlet from MCU’s own timeline. And perhaps Thanos would have also died if he used these stones from different timelines. Thankfully, we didn’t have to find that out because Iron Man had to be given a hero’s farewell.
The ultimate sacrifice!
Though many might say that Iron Man had to be killed off because of RDJ’s hefty fee and he took home approx 100-150 million dollars. But if we look at the large picture, Disney has a lot of money and they wouldn’t have any problem with it.
Do share your views in the comments on this possible theory and your reactions to Iron Man’s death in Endgame even months after the movie was released! Because as a big Iron Man fan, it’s still tough for me to get over it.
His fan following is so huge that, he will play cameos or appear in future MCU movies. In an alternate ending, Iron Man survived. Here’s more on it:
Iron Man Survived in This Avengers: Endgame Alternate Ending
Another Leaked Image of Robert Downey Jr.’s Cameo in Black Widow Revealed
