One of the most shocking moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was when Iron Man sacrificed himself to save the world. One thing that most movie fans don't expect is for one of the top-billed heroes to die at the end, but the sacrifice for Tony Stark fit the character perfectly and it was a great ending for the hero. For comic book fans, it wasn't anything new.
Tony Stark has actually died more than once in the comics. Some of his deaths were not as honorable or tragic as the one in the movie. There is even a chance that the Iron Man in Marvel Comics today is not the same Tony Stark that debuted five decades ago.
Armor Wars - Iron Man 'Dies' To Protect His Identity (1987)
Disney+ is bringing Armor Wars to the service with James Rhodes's War Machine in the role of the armored hero. If it plays like the comic book stories, War Machine is likely on a rampage, trying to retrieve all Stark weapons and armor from anyone who has it.
When Marvel did this in the comics, it was Tony Stark. He also targeted the government who had his tech they used for armor and became a wanted criminal because of his attacks and what the government considered theft of their property. Since no one knew Tony Stark was Iron Man, he had Iron Man "die" and left a note from a fictional man named Randall Pierce, admitting he was Iron Man.
Tony Stark Dies To Save His Own Life (1989)
Following Armor Wars, Tony Stark met a new woman that he began to date named Kathleen Dare. The problem is that Tony is a playboy and he can't stay monogamous. This causes Dare to get more and more unhinged and leads to her shooting Tony in the chest in Iron Man #242.
Tony ended up paralyzed and this went on to cause severe nerve damage. Tony realized he needed something drastic so he "died" in order to go into cryostasis. He remained there until scientists could save him and even his closest friends believed he was dead.
The Infinity Gauntlet - Thanos Kills Iron Man (1991)
The entire Avengers: Infinity War storyline came straight from the comic books with one major change. In the movie, it was the Avengers slated to save the world, or at least the members who survived the snap. In the comics, not as many Avengers survived and it was Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock that resurrected the dead.
Not only did different people die with Thanos's snap, but Iron Man was killed even before that. In Infinity Gauntlet, Terraxia ripped Iron Man's head off his body and presented it to Thanos.
The Crossing: Tony Stark Dies Betraying The Avengers (1995)
One of the most controversial Avengers plots came in 1995 with The Crossing. In this storyline, Iron Man was revealed to not only be a traitor but was revealed that he was a sleeper agent placed in the Avengers lineup since the beginning by Kang the Conqueror.
This undid over 20 years of heroic actions by Iron Man and made him one of the Avengers' greatest villains. He even murdered a few people along the way. The Avengers had a teenage Tony Stark time travel to help and the adult Iron Man finally sacrificed himself to stop Kang, dying and leaving the mantle to his teenage self.
Onslaught - The Death Of Earth's Heroes (1996)
Marvel rebooted almost the entire 616-universe in 1996. This started with the devastating X-Men storyline with Onslaught, a being created after Professor X shut down Magneto's mind. No one on Earth was strong enough to beat him, so all Earth's heroes had to team up to battle the monster.
A rage-filled Hulk finally opened Onslaught's armor, making him vulnerable, and the Avengers and Fantastic Four flew into him, killing him but at the cost of their own deaths, Iron Man included. This led to a complete reboot of the Avengers and Fantastic Four on an alternate Earth in Heroes Reborn.
World's Most Wanted - Iron Man Dies Battling Norman Osborn (2009)
After Norman Osborn became a national hero when he killed the Skrull Queen in Secret Invasion, the former Green Goblin gained more and more power. He then took over in Dark Reign, created his new team of Dark Avengers. Tony wanted to save America's superheroes so he deleted the identities from the Superhero Registration Act, storing them in his brain.
This made Tony Stark the World's Most Wanted criminal. However, Stark began to delete the information while Osborn was after him, and this caused him to begin to wipe his own brain as well. Eventually, he slipped into a coma with his brain technically dead. Luckily, a backup of Stark's brain was in a computer and this was uploaded into his body, bringing him back to life.
The Incursion - The Destruction Of The World (2015)
In 2015, everyone died as the entire Marvel Universe fell apart in the Incursion. This event saw all the different Earths in the multiverse die one by one, and all the characters who lived in those universes died along with it. The last two were Earth-616 and the Ultimates Earth-1610.
The heroes from each Earth tried to fight to save their own world, and it was all for naught. The Earths finally converged in Time Runs Out and everyone died except for a select few who escaped in a lifeboat. Right before he died, Iron Man admitted to Captain America that he knew the Incursion was coming but there was nothing that could save them.
Civil War II - Captain Marvel Kills Iron Man (2016)
In Civil War, Iron Man was on the government's side, wanting everyone to register and work for the United States. In Civil War II, Captain Marvel wanted to arrest people before they committed crimes based on an Inhuman precog named Ulysses, and Iron Man was against it.
Iron Man fought Captain Marvel to stop her from arresting Miles Morales and both went full force against each other. In the end, Captain Marvel hit Iron Man with everything she had and Iron Man fell, dead. In the comic, Tony was never declared dead, but in later issues, it turns out he died and his brain's backup was put into a cloned body.
Avengers: Endgame - Tony Stark Dies To Stop Thanos (2019)
The Iron Man death that everyone knows about is the one that came in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this case, Thanos had already destroyed half of all living beings, but unfortunately for him, Iron Man was still around. Doctor Strange knew that Iron Man was the piece of the puzzle that ensured humanity's survival.
That came in the final fight in Avengers: Endgame. Thanos was about to snap out all life but realized too late that Iron Man had stolen the Infinity Gauntlet. With a snap, Iron Man destroyed Thanos's entire army, but the power was too much and Tony Stark died making that ultimate sacrifice.
Iron Man 2020 - Iron Man's AI Life Dies (2020)
Iron Man 2020 was a comic book that dealt with artificial intelligence and the debate about what is considered a living being and what is considered a computer that someone could turn off and on. The biggest thing about this is that Tony Stark was not a living human anymore, and was instead a clone with Tony's mind inserted in it.
The main villain here was Tony's brother, who wanted to create a utopia, but was going about it in a ruthless and dangerous manner. Tony gave up his life and became an AI to fight his brother, which came at the expense of his artificial body. Luckily, by the end, both Tony Stark and James Rhodes returned with new artificial bodies.