Warning! Massive spoilers for Marvel’s Aliens vs. Avengers ahead!
Marvel just killed offIron Manin spectacular fashion, as theAliens vs. Avengersminiseries concludes by giving Earth’s Mightiest Heroes a vital interstellar mission: seek out Xenomorphs and eradicate them, not just across the universe, but throughout the entire Marvel Multiverse. In addition to setting up a potential sequel, this also providesTony Stark with one of his most iconic demises yet.
Aliens vs. Avengers#4, written by Jonathan Hickman, with art by Esad Ribić, caps off the satisfying integration of the Xenomorphs into Marvel lore, and though the crossover ultimately proves fatal to Tony Stark, his final words are a hard-earned triumph for the grizzled, older take on the character.
“Avenge all of our fallen brothers and sisters. Avenge all our fallen worlds,” Tony tells his team in an emotional posthumous message,“And if you don’t mind it too much…avenge me.”
The Avengers Defeated Mr. Sinister’s Xenomorph Threat, But It Cost Tony Stark His Life
Iron Man’s death inAliens vs. Avengers#4 is tragic, but not in the same way that, say, his cinematic death inAvengers: Endgamewas. Both involve a heroic sacrifice, in order to snatch victory from the jaws of seemingly overwhelming odds stacked against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but while the MCU’s Iron Man was cut down in his prime,Alien vs. Avengers' Tony Stark is nearing the end of his life anyway, and chooses to go out on his own terms.
With his posthumous last words, Tony Stark calls on the surviving Avengers…to pursue the threat even further, taking the fight to theAlienfranchise’s notorious monsters “in other times, in other universes.”
Iron Man’s arc throughout the limited series has involved grappling with mortality, and while his death is fitting, it is his final message to his team that is truly striking.With his posthumous last words, Tony Stark calls on the surviving Avengers not to give in to “hopelessness and defeat,“and not to be satisfied with having seemingly eradicated the Xenomorphs from their galaxy, but to pursue the threat even further, taking the fight to theAlienfranchise’s notorious monsters “in other times, in other universes.”
If The Next Chapter Of “Aliens Vs. Avengers” Goes Multiverse, Iron Man Could Make A Comeback
One Tony Stark Falls, Another Rises
SomeMarvel readers were not sure how to feel aboutAliens vs. Avengerswhen it was first announced, but under thedirection of author Jonathan Hickman, the series proved to be an extremely entertaining admixture of the two legendary franchises' mythologies. Now, those same skeptical fans are already on-board for a sequel series,should Marvel Comics decide to follow up on the call to arms Iron Man gives the book’s surviving heroes at the very end ofAliens vs. Avengers#4, which seems likely given the success of the book.
As satisfying of a death scene as the issue delivered for Tony Stark, this was just one ofcountless versions of the hero in Marvel’s Multiverse, and should the threat of the Xenomorphs arise in an adjacent continuity, Iron Man will inevitably be one of the first heroes to seek to combat it. A futureAliens vs. Avengerscould honor itsIron Man’sdeath, while still bringing a new version of the character back into the story. Whatever the case ends up being, the hero’s striking death scene has given his version of the Avengers an entirely new purpose.
