Every Major MCU Hero Death Ranked From Worst To Best
1. Tony Stark
In 2008, Tony Stark kicked off the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in 2019 he ended the story that had been told over the last 11 years with a snap of his fingers. Hulk had already brought everyone that Thanos killed back to life, but Tony used the power of the Infinity Stones to kill the Mad Titan and his entire army.
Iron Man had become obsessed with protecting Earth from other-worldly threats after Loki invaded in 2012, something that had driven him to his misguided Ultron peacekeeping initiative. This almost ended in global extinction, but Tony still felt the weight of keeping seven billion people safe on his shoulders.
When this extended to protecting the entire universe rather than just one planet, he took action and once and for all proved Steve Rogers’ first impression of him wrong, as he made the sacrifice play. At the end, he couldn’t have been any more selfless.
The Avengers lost to Thanos five years earlier, but it fell to Tony Stark to make sure they didn’t lose twice. He sacrificed everything to save Morgan, Pepper, Peter, and everyone else in the universe, and there couldn’t have been a more fitting end to both Tony’s story, and the Infinity Saga itself. Earth's best defender indeed.