A MASSIVE Spoiler alert is in effect for this article for Avengers: Endgame.
As I've watched the MCU from beginning to end, I've learned something of how Marvel tells its stories that seperates it from other comic book movies, or franchises: Marvel’s cinematic success comes from taking a man and literally turning him into a god. This story fits into one of two main tropes of the superhero genre, and if you're into this stuff for storytelling, we'll get into both. Don't worry.
One of those two stories involve a “fish out of water” story that has since been altered to a “God among men” story.
GODS TO MEN
DC Comics began the superhero genre with the very first superhero: Superman. The character of Superman was created by two men subscribed to the Jewish faith that wanted to create a fictionalized Messiah, an Emanuel, or literally, “God among us.” This trope continued with several of their biggest characters, including Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter.
"Boys to Men, Men to Gods"
But the “Gods learning to be men” story began to dwindle off, and I feel it was because readers felt it was hard to relate to a person of such enormous power. Enter Marvel and the silver age of comics. Their main storylines included individuals who were humans that developed abilities and became powerful, almost as an antithesis to DC’s stories (a “men to gods” story).
In fact, many of Marvel's most powerful characters like the Sentry were NOT released until later in Marvel’s run. This helped people bridge the gap between the human reader, the meta human hero, and the Uber/superhero god-type.
The Monomyth
The monomyth is an ancient form of education and storytelling, describing what it meant for a human being to progress through life, becoming better and better until he literally can’t improve anymore. By all intents and purposes, he has become a god.
Side note: The monomyth exists in religious rites and ceremonies, and because of its antiquity, it’s also a pervasive theme in narratives today, referred to in modern times as “the Hero’s Journey.”
Does this sound familiar? Jump into your memories of 2008. I was in middle school, doing whatever I could to avoid bullies and get homework done on time. Narratively, this was the same year that Iron Man released in theaters. As we watched, Tony’s initial armor is clunky, but functional, but he continuously improves it until he is basically invincible. In 2012, Marvel’s The Avengers released. And every film in which Tony Stark appears literally pushes him, in some way, to become like a God through his intellect and innovation. This is embodied by the advances made on his suit.
Here's how his character growth pans out. In storytelling, this is refered to as an "arc."
Iron Man and its sequel set up his selfish, playboy nature, and the seeds of his potential change to selflessness through his love for Pepper Potts.
The Avengers and Iron Man 3 directs all of his anxieties away from his own mistakes and lays them at the feet of Thanos, a being of supreme evil in search of the all-powerful MacGuffins, the Infinity Stones.
Avengers: Age of Ultron develops Tony’s drive to defend the earth from something sinister. In his own flawed way, he attempts, and fails to do this.
In Captain America: Civil War, Tony faces the fallout for his unwise decisions. He seeks others to put accountability on him. But part of Tony’s transition from man to demigod is realizing that true selflessness means accepting the consequences of your actions to put things aright, even if it means putting your own life on the line.
Thanos: Tony’s Parallel
Enter Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Thanos finally arrives, blitzing through the cosmos in his acquisition of all six Infinity Stones, each of which gives him control over one facet of existence. He raves about his plan, claiming he is the destiny of the universe, and that his culling of life (1/2 of all life, much like the Reformist Christian “Rapture”) will save it from destroying itself, as what he'd hoped would happen on his own world. In the end, Thanos succeeds and snaps his fingers. With the full control of all the universe at his knuckles, he has the full power of a god. The act of snapping, even holding all of the gems together unleashes so much power that it can kill an ordinary mortal, and Thanos survives not one, but two snaps of his own. He’s a powerhouse.
We should make mention of the strong parallels between Thanos and some Judeo-Christian understandings of God. This is because the monomyth, as it was used anciently and why it pervades so many stories today, stemmed from the Judeo-Christian understanding of man's place in God's plan.
Thanos wants to kill half the universe, which could be compared to premodern understandings of the doctrine of the Rapture.
Thanos has six stones, six different fronts to face as he pursues his goal, much like the six days of creation, and ONE day of rest, which he repeatedly says he will do once he’s done with his task: “I [will] finally rest, and watch the sun set on a grateful universe.”
But contrary to the Christian themes his character follows, Thanos is narcissistic, and psychotic, most likely enduring his mental injuries watching his home world destroyed.
Even worse, he even kills his own daughter to possess one of the Infinity Stones.
Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers in Endgame literally travel back in time to undo what Thanos did. But they inadvertently allow Thanos to travel from the past back to the present. At the last second, when Thanos has all six Stones in his possession, seeing that there is literally no other way for Thanos to be stopped, Tony Stark does the most selfless thing he can: he steals the Infinity Stones, and snaps his own fingers, eliminating Thanos and his forces.
This explosion of power scorches a lethal wound into Tony’s body, and he succumbs to his injuries on the battlefield. In this way, the writers not only fulfill Tony’s arc of becoming a truly selfless person: they enable him to become so with the literal power of a god, as the six Infinity Stones permit. And as a symbol to his character progression, Tony’s armor, the reason for his escape and his new lease on life in the first Iron Man, has become so advanced that there was literally nothing else he could have done to improve it. The armor itself adapts and becomes whatever Tony wills it into being. The only thing left for his character, as it stood in the MCU, was to have the power of a deity, but all power comes at a cost, as shown by Tony’s death.
So what?
This type of storytelling is one where we get to see a man become a god, but the trick is: what is godhood? Is it having the powers of the Infinity Stones at your back, and snapping away at the universe? Is it having the strength to punch dimensions apart, or to break the light speed limit of the Universe? The MCU says no. The Mega-MacGuffins of the Infinity Stones are the means for which Tony’s pinnacle act of godhood could be revealed: his sacrifice. It’s sacrifice, a selfless and merciful sacrifice that causes the entire universe to be saved. This is also in keeping with the ancient monomyth, in speaking of a “Savior of the World.” Yes, Tony's arc is fictionalized, and this storyline is based purely upon the principles of Christian sacrifice, but any who sacrifice in the way Tony did offer a parallel to Jesus Christ that other monomythic characters don’t. Tony, and Christ, both embody a type of standard that places individuals into a realm of godhood, one that comes through great personal sacrifice, regardless of creed or race.
Tony shows the ultimate spirit of what it means to progress through life, to start your story at a low point in character, and to end it in the most powerful way one can: true, personal change.
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