While Iron Man’s story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is mostly over, at least as far as fans know, he’s always going to be an influential character to that franchise. Given that the first Iron Man film started the MCU as we know it, and that he featured so heavily in many other films, he’s a character that many people love.
However, even though he’s a leader of the Avengers and hero, he’s also rather flawed. He makes many mistakes, and there are many fans who don’t like him much. Whether he’s one of your favorite or least favorite characters, there are moments where he made fans cheer and others where he let fans down.
Hate: When he was callous about Stark Industry weapons
When Tony Stark is first introduced in the films, he’s still the rich, snarky playboy who doesn’t really care about anyone other than himself. He’s rather unlikable in his disregard for his impact on the world, and he could care less that he’s creating weapons that hurt other people.
Obviously, this introduction is essential to his arc of becoming a hero, but he definitely wasn’t admirable in these moments.
Love: Looking out for Peter Parker
Tony Stark might be a privileged and extremely rich individual, but he didn’t necessarily have an easy childhood. Depending on which backstory you go by, his father was neglectful and critical at best and abusive at worst.
However, Tony did always want to be better than his father, and he started showing that he could be a good mentor when he looked after Peter Parker. This relationship definitely helped humanize Tony even further.
Hate: When he created Ultron
While Iron Man often means to make things right and save the world, he often makes some big mistakes in how he goes about this. His own guilt from the past got the better of him when Tony, with the help of Bruce Banner, created Ultron.
This was a dangerous and risky move even if Tony didn’t anticipate the outcome. For fans as well as the other Avengers, dealing with Tony’s arrogance in this movie was frustrating.
Love: When he was a great father
While Tony Stark might not have seemed like a person who would make a good parent for a long time, he changed a lot over the course of the films. He was a very involved and loving father, and his scenes with Morgan were quite endearing.
It was great to see Tony be able to create a happier, healthier family for himself and to have a child that he wanted for a long time.
Hate: All the times he was sexist
Many early MCU films struggled with sexism, and while the franchise still isn’t perfect, they’ve at least come a ways past this. In early films, Tony was the worst offender of all.
He was a womanizer who saw women as objects, and he made plenty of inappropriate remarks about many different women. While some fans might have thought these comments were funny, they were really just gross and outdated.
Love: Taking the warhead into the wormhole
Avengers: Endgame tries to make a big deal out of Tony’s sacrifice, but the truth is that Iron Man showed he was willing to sacrifice himself to save others a long time before this.
The conflict between his ideology and Captain America’s was a big part of that film, and when Tony took the warhead up into the wormhole, he was risking his own life because he knew it was the right thing to do.
Hate: Not talking to Cap about the Accords
In many ways, the conflicts and relationship between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark is more compelling than conflicts with the actual villains. These two are friends, allies, and sometimes close to enemies. While both of them made mistakes in Captain America: Civil War, Tony messed up when he knew about the Accords and didn’t talk to Steve or the team first.
He clearly was thinking with his own guilt here over Ultron, and he handled this very poorly. It’s also frustrating because he really had no intention of ever following any rules that anyone else set out for him, so he was being hypocritical.
Love: Sacrificing himself to save the universe
While Iron Man was actually willing to die to save others for years, this was still a great moment in the MCU. It was heartbreaking to see Tony die, but he had no other choice if he was going to save the entire universe.
Fans definitely understood at that moment that Tony Stark was a hero who had become admirable in many ways even though he messed up along the way.
Hate: Not wanting to help the Avengers with time travel
While luckily and not surprisingly, Tony does agree to help, and somehow invents time travel in the blink of an eye, it was still annoying when he didn’t want to help. While Tony might have gotten the family he had always wanted, and he of course wanted to protect them, he was pretty callous about his friends who had lost people, too.
It seemed out of character and like an attempt for the MCU to focus only on heterosexual families as opposed to found family narratives.
Love: When he saw the Avengers as a family
While pulled away from the Avengers in Endgame, he was often the member of the team who cared the most about the other Avengers. He clearly saw them as a family in a way, and even Steve Rogers pointed out how much the Avengers meant to Tony at the end of Civil War.
So, while the last movie might have tried to walk back on this, it was still one of the most endearing things about him.