At the Battle of Earth, Tony found another way.
When Doctor Strange raised a single finger, Tony didn’t snap — he rewired. Using his nanotech interface and knowledge of the Stones’ energy flow, he redirected their output through the armor’s containment field instead of his body. It nearly killed him, but he lived — fractured, burned, and forever altered.
He retired soon after the victory, retreating to a quiet coastal home with Pepper and Morgan. Yet peace, for Tony Stark, is temporary.
When the next wave of threats rose — Kree incursions, multiversal rifts, the absence of key Avengers — Tony returned, not as the front-line hero, but as the builder. He trains a new generation: Riri Williams, Peter Parker, and even a young mutant prodigy he funds anonymously.
He doesn’t wear the suit every day anymore. But he never stopped being Iron Man.