I was in sixth grade when Iron Man released in 2008. I hadn’t picked up a single Marvel comic book, didn’t know who Robert Downey Jr. was, or even listened to a Black Sabbath song before I followed my classmates’ unanimous endorsement and hit the theater with my cousin. While I never became a Black Sabbath fan, Tony Stark opened my eyes to a universe millions of us would come to love deeply over the next decade of trips to the movies. But part of the journey is the end; and 2 presidents, 15 iPhones, and 22 Marvel Cinematic Universe installments later, we have finally arrived at Avengers: Endgame.

When the mad titan Thanos snapped his fingers last year, and half of all life in the universe was extinguished, the Avengers lost. In some ways, it was the best thing for them. Avengers: Infinity War’s notoriously crowded poster depicted Thanos lording over 22 heroes; Endgame’s has only 12. With characters like Spiderman, Black Panther, and the Guardians of the Galaxy turning to dust, Marvel mortgaged their future in order to pay tribute to their past. Even post-snap MCU inductee Captain Marvel barely plays a role (Though I bet she hopes she could go back in time to prevent that haircut). The crew remaining, along with a few Phase 2 & 3 stragglers, consists of the original Avengers; Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Iron Man.

While both Captain America and Captain Marvel have boasted the title over the course of these films, Iron Man was truly the first Avenger. Tony Stark was the foundation upon which this entire universe was built, and did all of the heavy lifting through a critically deficient Phase 1. Per IMDb, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and first Captain America all rate within the bottom five MCU films (along with Thor: The Dark World and the criminally underrated Iron Man 2). In a period plagued by a reptilian Tim Roth, bleached eyebrow Chris Hemsworth, and 5-foot-3 bobble headed Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr’s masterful performance as Tony Stark would come to define the franchise. Where every other superhero universe failed, Downey found the balance between witty levity and weighty drama necessary to remain playful whilst beating back forces of imminent doom. The world followed, and as Tony Stark defined the MCU, his place in it defined him. The eldest child of a disappointing family, he took the fate of the world in his hands and succeeded; for a time. “I have successfully privatized world peace”, he proclaimed while throwing up his signature peace signs in Iron Man 2.

Then Avengers happened, and the MCU went intergalactic. World peace was no longer threatened by Middle Eastern terrorist cells, or spurned Russian ex-colleagues. Loki came knocking, with two infinity stones and an army of Chitauri soldiers; all under Thanos’ command. Tony Stark once again took it upon himself to save the world, flying a nuclear missile up to their warship and nearly sacrificing his life. The two of them have been on a crash course ever since, and Tony had to evolve.

Captain America and Tony Stark have always pulled at opposite ends of American identity. The scrawny kid from Brooklyn who dreamed of joining the army versus the billionaire playboy philanthropist who dreamed of putting the army out of business. Captain America represented everything America thought it was, and wanted to be. Iron Man represented what America really is. Cap spent his first tour surrounded by backup dancers preaching Uncle Sam’s gospel and punching Nazis. Tony spent his watching weapons he invented kill innocent people in the name of justice. Every superhero struggles with the duality of their existence; Batman versus Bruce Wayne. Superman versus Clark Kent. Spiderman versus Peter Parker. For Tony, there was never any space between them. “I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one”. Captain America was the same way. But while Cap rested easy knowing he fought for the right side regardless of the consequences, Tony characterized success and failure by collateral damage. In trying to erase it, they fought bitterly.

Tony: “We’re the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day but that? That up there? [ points to space ] That’s the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?

Cap: “Together”

Tony: We’ll lose.”

Cap: “Then we’ll do that together too.”

Years later, when the Avengers finally lost, Cap realized what he couldn’t see. Having never lived a real life himself, he was unequipped to dictate the acceptable cost of saving them.

Endgame did more than just clear space for our original heroes to shine. Every fan theory about what the leftovers were going to do went out the window as they killed Thanos 10 minutes in. The film instead takes us through a tour of the Marvel Cinematic universe, sending the characters to past films in pursuit of the infinity stones that have played such pivotal roles in every turn of this epic. Is time travel in movies ever bulletproof? Of course not. In a world where Stone Cold Josh Brolin uses magic rocks to defeat a floating wizard, a talking raccoon, and a green rage monster with performance anxiety, Endgame clearly delineates the rules they must follow and sticks to them. Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Ant-Man travel to Avengers. Thor and Rocket Raccoon travel to Thor: The Dark World (What a fan service moment to the one person I’ve ever met who enjoyed Thor: The Dark World). War Machine and Nebula travel to the opening credits of Guardians of the Galaxy, and Black Widow and Hawkeye go from there to collect the soul stone.

We should pour one out here for Black Widow, who sacrifices her life for the soul stone. Her and Hawkeye have been the butt of many jokes during the Avengers run, given that neither of them have any super powers. He’s Robin Hood with an alt-right haircut, and she’s an NRA member with a black belt. While Marvel at least attempted to give Hawkeye some depth with his secret family in Ultron (And opens Endgame with their dusting and his subsequent rampage), Black Widow has long gone by the wayside as a tragically underwritten one-dimensional assassin. Her two-scene romantic arc with Bruce Banner in Ultron felt unearned, and the Black Widow prequel in pre-production feels five years too late. Scarlett Johansson does deliver her most compelling version of Black Widow in Endgame as a distraught operative thrust into Nick Fury’s role in the organization, and trying to hold together what’s left of her work family while reckoning with the fact that she has no personal family to avenge in the first place. If only Marvel had been more invested in her life, we might care more about her death.

From the rest of these ventures, The Avengers trip is by far the most interesting. Fat Thor is a bit overwhelmed trying to keep his Ragnarok identity pure whilst entangled with Endgame‘s stakes and The Dark World‘s timeline, and War Machine and Nebula are, well, War Machine and Nebula. In 2012 New York, we are reunited with our favorite characters in our favorite team-up film before Thanos put his gauntlet on. Shenanigans ensue, and Tony and Cap are forced to jump back even farther in time and face the symbols of their pasts incarnate; Howard Stark and Peggy Carter.

Iron Man was always a suicide mission. Whether he had shrapnel creeping into his heart, palladium cores poisoning his blood, or the most powerful gauntlet in the universe driving cosmic energy through his veins, Tony Stark always had an end date to prepare for. “It’s not about me. It’s not about you, it’s not even about us. It’s about legacy. It’s about what we leave behind.” His words expound upon those of his predecessor and father, who spent his life building an empire on the pure faith that his 4-year-old son would eventually use it to change the world. Ever since he put on the suit, Tony Stark has been searching for a good enough reason to take it off. In Endgame his time runs out, and he decides to die making the universe whole instead of living in the half that’s left; finally entrusting the Avengers with keeping it that way.

So what is Tony Stark’s legacy? What does he leave behind? For one, he leaves the largest most successful filmmaking effort of all time, having grossed twice as much as Star Wars or Harry Potter worldwide. And while some of the Marvel properties are being parted out to Disney’s streaming platform, the MCU is far from finished. Spiderman, Iron Man’s direct successor to whom Stark was both a father figure and superhero mentor, has a movie coming out this summer. If his turns in Spiderman: Homecoming, Infinity War, and Endgame are any indication, he can take the weight. Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Guardians (Asgardians?) of the Galaxy sequels shouldn’t be far behind. Simply put, Tony Stark’s legacy is the universe itself.

There is no classic Marvel end credit sequence after Endgame. No teaser of what is to come. Instead, through the hushed darkness of the theater comes a metallic clanging sound. In a franchise dripping in raucous special effects, the note is instantly recognizable. It’s Tony Stark back in that cave in the desert, hammering out the Mark 1 Iron Man suit all those years ago. The heart of the MCU may have gone out, but he did more than enough to leave me, now in my twenties, both teary eyed over what he accomplished in his 11 years as a superhero and breathless in anticipation of what’s to come.