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I never set out to like superheroes.

I didn't watch the first Avengers movie on a plane at the age of 13 because I cared much, or because I knew much about the characters, or for any reason, really. It was a movie I had never seen before. It looked interesting. My parents weren't particularly happy that I watched it so young, but then, what can you do?

That first time, I never connected with any of the characters. I watched Age of Ultron, the Winter Soldier, Avengers again. I feel like I remember, at one point, telling my mom, "Iron Man is funny, but he's so rude!" That was probably my first real impression of him. Funny, but rude.

Then I watched Avengers again. And I realized I liked this funny but rude philanthropist, genius, playboy, billionaire in the fancy suit. He cracked better jokes than Steve Rogers. He was more interesting than Black Widow. And then the scene at the end, with the nuke--he proved himself selfless in a time of great need.

I watched Age of Ultron again. I saw a man who didn't just want to stop crime. He wanted safety. He was so desperate for safety that he built a machine that destroyed everything, and he silently blamed himself, while still joking it off.

I watched Civil War and saw a man who was broken beyond repair, turned on by all his friends, left alone. A man who made a mistake and tried to fix it and only made a worse mistake. A man who was not out for renown, a man who was no longer arrogant.

I watched Iron Man and saw the backstory of this character--a man who had been horrible, and rude, and who grew into something better.

I watched Iron Man 3 and got my heart crushed by the weight of PTSD and sorrow and this man who decided that he could be a superhero even without his "powers".

And I watched Infinity War and saw a man ready to sacrifice himself to save the universe.

Credit to Nicole Dust for sending this one to me; photo from Pinterest

I'm not saying that Tony Stark is perfect. But I'm saying he never tries to justify the things he does. My apologies to Team Cap people, but Captain America is so self-righteous that even Ultron calls him, sarcastically, "God's righteous man." Captain America does the wrong thing and justifies it by saying "Well, I was doing it for all the right reasons!" I don't want this to turn into a bash-Steve-Rogers session, because I do believe that Steve Rogers is a good character in his own right.

But I do think that the entire MCU and the majority of the fanbase is biased toward Steve, and as a result, they have made Tony the villain.

Tony Stark is not the villain of the MCU. Tony Stark is, honestly, the hero. He takes fire in a way few others ever have, even within Marvel movies. The only one I can think of (and there may be others, but I haven't seen allll the MCU movies, i.e. Guardians and Ant-Man) who even comes close to Tony's level of sacrifice is, of all people, Doctor Strange.

Tony Stark fights off both his inner demons and the earth's enemies and he does so in silence. He cracks jokes and makes witticisms and everyone thinks it's because he's a shallow, arrogant jerk. He isn't. He uses it as a coping mechanism.

You can count on this--Tony Stark will be the one who defeats Thanos. I don't care about no Captain Marvel; I don't care about no newly-powerful Thor (although, goodness gracious, can we talk about newly-powered Thor? TALK ABOUT HOTTIE. *fans self*). I don't think it's going to be Steve who's the most important in the end; I don't think it's going to be Hulk.

I think it will be Tony.

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Tony Stark is a complex, deep, well-written character. He has been cast as the villain in movies like Civil War and Age of Ultron; he has been reviled by critics, fans, and other characters alike. He is not perfect. He has many, many flaws. But that's what makes him human.

He's a human who started out as an egotistical jerk and has had a character arc that brought him to that moment. You know the one in Infinity War. That's not the end of his character arc, either. He may well die in Endgame. I'm prepared for that. It seems very likely.

But you know what? That's okay. Because he's the hero.

And he'll live on forever in our hearts.