Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.
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Stark Family and Household
The Stark Family
Howard Stark
Howard Anthony Walter Stark
"What is and always will be my greatest creation... is you."
"Technically, we're not even sure it works, but— well, let's face it, I invented it, so it works."
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Affiliation(s): Stark Industries, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Portrayed By: John Slattery, Dominic Cooper (young), Gerard Sanders (Iron Man)
Voiced By: Héctor Emmanuel Gómez (Cooper's Howard), Raúl Anaya (Slattery's Howard) (Latin-American Spanish dub); César Lechiguero (Iron Man 2), Txema Moscoso (Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War), Manuel Gimeno (Captain America: The First Avenger), Guillermo Romero (Agent Carter) (European Spanish dub), Hirofumi Nojima [Cooper's Howard], Yutaka Nakano [Slattery's Howard] (Japanese dub), Claudio Galvan, Gutemberg Barros [Cooper's Howard], Samir Murad [Slattery's Howard] (Brazilian Portuguese dub)
Appearances: Iron Man note | Iron Man 2 note | Captain America: The First Avenger | Captain America: The Winter Soldier note | Marvel One-Shots: Agent Carter | Agent Carter | Ant-Man note | Captain America: Civil War note | Avengers: Endgame
"Let me tell you, you don't get to climb the American ladder without picking up some bad habits on the way."
The founder and CEO of Stark Industries, Tony Stark's father, and Steve Rogers' and Peggy Carter's friend. During World War II, Stark was America's biggest military contractor, and one of the leading scientists behind the Super-Soldier project. He occasionally assisted Rogers in several missions during his tenure before returning to Stark Industries.
Alongside Carter, Stark later became a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D., which he remained loyal to until an untimely car accident took his life along with his wife's.
- Abusive Parents:
- Howard's son, Tony, said that his dad never told him he loved him (or even liked him, for that matter), and that the happiest day of his life was when he shipped Tony off to boarding school at the tender age of around seven years old. A flashback in an Iron Man 2 prelude comic also reveals Howard was both verbally and physically abusive on top of that (he hit Tony for leaving his toys on the floor, cursed loudly at him for it, and then berated him for "wasting his time" playing with toys). Civil War took it a step forward and had Howard do nothing but mock and scold Tony for being lazy and sleeping around in the single flashback scene he appeared in (though that was a BARF recreation of Tony's memories, so the validity is questionable). While the tape he left behind for Tony to find in Iron Man 2 suggests parental love (he calls Tony his "greatest creation", see image quote), it's fairly obvious that he saw Tony as a project instead of a child.
- His own father is one to him as well. When he met time-traveling Tony in Endgame, Howard mentions that his father used to hit him with a belt.
- Ace Pilot: The best civilian pilot in the USA during WWII, skills he used to fly Steve Rogers 30 miles behind enemy lines.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- In the comics, he and Steve Rogers aren't really close as Howard was not involved whatsoever in Steve's origin story. Here, the two are close friends as Howard helped turn Steve into a Super-Soldier and made him his iconic vibranium shield, to the point he continued to mourn Steve until he died.
- Prior to the MCU, Howard never interacted with Peggy Carter in the comics and the two were never close friends as a result. The two only started interacting with each other in the comics after the MCU had established their relationship.
- The Alcoholic: Howard is seen drinking numerous times throughout his appearances, even being seen nursing a hangover with an alcoholic drink and seen drinking in his old tapes. It's Played for Laughs but becomes more heartbreaking and sinister when one takes into account his Parental Neglect and abuse (mentioned above) of Tony.
- All for Nothing: Howard's attempts to prevent his weapons from getting into the wrong hands and do good in the world are ultimately futile. Iron Man 1 establishes that Stark Industries will double deal in illegal weapons trading after his death until Tony shuts down the weapons department entirely. S.H.I.E.L.D. will be infiltrated by HYDRA and Howard will die at the Winter Soldier's hands.
- Alternate Self:
- In Endgame, Tony runs into his past self while stealing the Tesseract which was stored in Camp Lehigh in the year 1970.
- What If…? also introduces two variants of Howard: One in a reality where Peggy Carter is the one who gets injected with the Super Soldier Serum and another where The Avengers assembled in 1988 due to the threat of a Celestial invasion. Tony's other variants also mention their Earth's Howard.
- Always Someone Better: In the second film, it seems Tony thinks his father was this to him. Quite aside from Howard's apparent lack of parenting skills, he's been "dead for almost twenty years...still takin' [Tony] to school".
- Ambiguously Bi: Mentions in Agent Carter that he can relate to Peggy's mourning for Steve because he feels the same way. Peggy, who for the record is Steve's explicit love interest, returns the favor when she attempts to help him overcome his grief, pointing out that the both of them loved Steve.
- Ambiguously Jewish: In the fourth episode of Agent Carter, Howard relates several details of his background that hint at this. He also uses Yiddish in the second season.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: He definitely shows shades of this in Agent Carter, especially season 2, much like his son in the present day. However, it's arguably more impressive in Howard's case, given that he's a relatively young man in the series and founded Stark Industries (as opposed to Tony, who's also a brilliant engineer but inherited the prosperous company from his father on top of that).
- The Atoner: Eventually, he got fed up with all the destruction his more dangerous inventions caused and sought to have them destroyed. It's implied he founded S.H.I.E.L.D. as way to make amends.
- Bigger Stick: Working on a Super-Soldier project either led to this kind of thinking or is his reason for being there in the first place. In any case, he eventually said, "peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy".
- Bludgeoned to Death: The Winter Soldier killed him by punching him in the head with his cybernetic arm until he died.
- Bungling Inventor: Zigzagged. Howard was a brilliant scientist and genius inventor, that can not be disputed. But Agent Carter shows that he had a vault filled with what he called "bad babies", inventions of his that didn't work how he wanted and several of them had very dangerous flaws. First Avenger and Iron Man 2 imply that some of his more ambitious and fantastic ideas couldn't be achieved due to being limited by the technology of the time. While Howard was an incredible inventor it's still shown that he had plenty of misfires as well.
- Brainy Brunette: He built Stark Industries on technology and arranging military contracts.
- Break the Cutie:
- Strongly implied - in The First Avenger, Howard's cheerful, optimistic, and outgoing, as opposed to the bitter, emotionally-distant drunk he's shown to be in other films. Steve's "death" was likely a Cynicism Catalyst - Tony claims Howard couldn't stop talking about him decades later.
- Having to confront all the destruction his inventions caused also helped him along the way.
- The reveal in Winter Soldier that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been taken over from within by HYDRA, and Howard knew about it, may have also had a lot do with his emotional turn later in life. Being hunted down and assassinated by HYDRA may also have a hand in it if he knew they were planning on doing so beforehand.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: An odd example. Even he can't remember every woman he's gone out with. Exaggerated in Agent Carter Season 2: He doesn't even remember Dottie Underwood as the woman who held him hostage in the previous season's finale. Apparently, a woman kidnapping him by gunpoint isn't a very significant incident for him.
- Butt-Monkey:
- To some degree, inventions wise. His hover car appears to work until it falls down to the ground, and when he's studying the Cube, he's Blown Across the Room.
- He's this In-Universe as well, as Peggy and even Jarvis will often take jabs at his various vices (with or without him actually being around), though all in jest.
- The Casanova: During The '40s at least.
- In Captain America: The First Avenger, he kisses one of the showgirls helping him demonstrate the early repulsor car at the fair, and later suggestively invites Peggy for fondue in Switzerland when flying Steve behind enemy lines to rescue the 107th.
- In the Agent Carter short film, he explains bikinis to Dum-Dum at the end.
- In the Agent Carter show, his tomcatting is expanded upon and has several women hanging around his Los Angeles mansion's pool.
- Casual Kink: In Agent Carter, Peggy finds a closet of female fetish clothes Stark uses to add a "theatrical element" to his private life in his... personal penthouse.
- Chick Magnet: Like his future son, Howard was a well known ladies' man.
- Chivalrous Pervert: He's genuinely trying to do some good in the world with his inventions and can be all-business when the situation calls for it, but Agent Carter shows that he'll also bed anyone in a skirt, with very few exceptions like Peggy.
- Composite Character: Takes the role of Dr. Myron McLain as the guy responsible for creating Captain America's Shield.
- Cursed with Awesome: His technical genius becomes this when he sees the destruction his inventions can cause, especially the ones that weren't even supposed to be weapons.
- Curtains Match the Window: He has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not quite as snarky as his son, but he's no slouch.
- In Iron Man 2:Howard: I'm Howard Stark... and on behalf of everybody at Stark Industries, I would like to show you... my ass.
- In Ant-Man:Hank Pym: I formally tender my resignation.
Howard: We don't accept it. Formally.
- In Iron Man 2:
- Depending on the Writer: The movies proper are pretty consistent on the fact that while Howard was never going to win World's Best Dad, he's merely emotionally distant and snarky with Tony, but does genuinely love him. Some tie-in material for Iron Man 2 portrays him as outright physically abusive (which could be dismissed as Early-Installment Weirdness).
- Dude, Where's My Respect?:
- In Agent Carter, it appears Peggy is the only S.S.R. agent who doesn't jump to believing the frame job on him.
- During WWII, he had to contend with officers who thought they knew how to use his inventions better than he did. Many innocent people died because of it.
- Dramatic Irony: Howard is this trope packed into a single person. Iron Man and Iron Man 2 establish much of Howard's later personality and legacy. So it can be difficult to watch a happy, even idealistic hero knowing he becomes a drunken, neglectful parent whose death leaves a scar in his son's life.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Back in the 40s, Howard Stark was an opportunistic lech who takes pride in using his influence and wealth to do great things and work with many potential business partners. That said, he absolutely refused to accept the Arena Club's membership offer due to its racist and misogynistic tones. When he goes in with his harem of girls to buy time for Peggy to snoop around, he wastes no time expressing his hatred of the place, and outright tells the manager that he's never coming back to it.
- While Howard might have been a ruthless and unscrupulous S.H.I.E.L.D executive who tried to secretly replicate Hank Pym's shrinking particles without his permission in the late 80s, he was thoroughly disgusted with Mitchell Carson mocking the (supposed) death of his wife, Janet.
Howard: [after Mitchell gets punched by Hank] Don't look at me, you said it. - Expy Coexistence: Subverted. There was talk of having The Rocketeer team up with Peggy Carter in the What If... episode, What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger? but with Howard Hughes being a mentor to the Rocketeer. It was scrapped because the creators thought it would be awkward having Hughes and his Expy Stark existing in the same universe.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: In the Iron Man 2 prelude comic, he viciously berates (and even strikes) his seven-year-old son for playing with toys, calling it “nonsense” and demanding that Tony do something more productive during his time over the weekends.
- He Knows Too Much: One of the reasons why HYDRA sent the Winter Soldier to assassinate him is because he was starting to catch on to their infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Howard Hughes Homage: Especially in his younger years, as an engineer/inventor/pilot with a very active love life. He even gets into filmmaking, one of Hughes' other ventures, in Agent Carter.
- Hypocrite: In his sole flashback scene in Captain America: Civil War, Howard berates a young Tony for slacking off and sleeping with women in foreign countries. Agent Carter had previously established that Howard himself did all of those things to a much greater extent than his son ever did.
- Insufferable Genius: Like father, like son, though with a strange sense of modesty.Howard: Speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country, but I do not know what's inside this [HYDRA submarine] or how it works.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tony may not know about this until after he's dead, but he's very loyal and benevolent to Steve Rogers, not that it helps Tony's case. In fact, this is one of the main factors that causes no shortage of tension between the two. Although Tony's able to finally reconcile with his dad in Endgame.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Hinted at in Winter Soldier. When Natasha questions why S.H.I.E.L.D. never caught on to HYDRA's infiltration, Zola smugly remarks, "Accidents will happen." News clippings of the Starks' deaths then appear onscreen. His death is finally shown in Civil War, where it turns out he was killed to acquire the Super Soldier Serum he'd synthesized.
- Ladykiller in Love: Howard was a famous playboy but settled down after finding love with Maria.
- Like Father, Like Son: Technological genius and playboy with a streak of showmanship who dresses very well and becomes involved with superheroes. Additionally, both Tony and Howard eventually become disillusioned with the weapons business after seeing all the chaos it causes and wish to make amends by doing something good (Tony became Iron Man, Howard founded S.H.I.E.L.D.) while still having to deal with politicians and General Ripper characters who keep wanting them to make weapons. Both are prone to snarky comments and witty barbs too.
- Mad Scientist: He's got the tendencies, even if he doesn't have the attitude.Howard: Seems harmless enough. Hard to see what all the fuss is about.
[touches energy bit, massive explosion blows him back]
Howard: [dazed, yet unconcerned] ...Write that down. - Make It Look Like an Accident: In The Winter Soldier, it's revealed that the car accident that killed him and his wife was in fact an assassination arranged by HYDRA. Civil War elaborates on this by showing that they were killed by Bucky for the Super Soldier Serum that Howard was taking away from HYDRA.
- May–December Romance: Implied between him and Maria, since he would have been 51 when his son was born in 1970 while Maria's actress was 49 when she portrayed the character dying in 1991. It's likely the age difference between Howard and Maria ranged from ten to twenty years, though in real life there was only a two year difference between Slattery and Davis.
- Millionaire Playboy: When he's not working for the U.S military to defeat the Nazis or trying to run S.H.I.E.L.D alongside its co-founders, Howard loves nothing more than to spend gratuitous amounts of money, hang out with beautiful women and show off his inventions to other people. That said, he has used his hedonist lifestyle to occasionally assist the likes of Peggy Carter during important missions, such as distracting the men-only Arena Club by waltzing in with a harem, or assisting in building machines to contain zero matter.
- Mr. Alt Disney: Richard Sherman (who with his brother Robert composed and wrote songs for Walt Disney) wrote the Stark Expo Jingle in Iron Man 2. Compare the video footage of Slattery's Howard in Iron Man 2 with episodes of Disneyland, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and The Wonderful World of Disney, particularly ones about "The Florida Project" and "Epcot". The resemblance is deliberate and eerie.
- My Greatest Failure: Not finding Steve after he crashed the Valkyrie into the Arctic. It was how Ivchenko was able to put him under hypnosis.
- Nice Guy: Before devolving into Jerk with a Heart of Gold, he's genuinely nice to just about anyone he meets. He gets along with Peggy enough to ask her if she'd like some fondue and when Steve misinterprets it for them having an affair, Howard takes the time to explain him what fondue is. He even takes Steve's contributions to the uniform to heart when showing him his new shield. When Captain America sinks the plane and is missing, Howard is hellbent on finding him, to the point where S.H.I.E.L.D. agents loyal to his cause make finding Captain America their first priority.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- In Agent Carter, his inventions end up causing mass death and destruction once Leviathan finally gets their hands on them. In many cases, his inventions were actually not weapons and were intended to be used as defensive equipment for soldiers, but severely flawed prototypes meant that they could end up accidentally causing a great deal of death. Much more vile characters then make use of these "weapons". Even Jarvis called his inventions "Mr. Stark's bloody inventions" while losing most of his usual Servile Snarker tone in his voice, indicating even he's horrified with his boss' work.
- A flashback in Ant-Man shows that he attempted to replicate his S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague Hank Pym's shrinking technology behind his back for use in other weapons and technology. When Hank, who had kept the tech to himself to ensure it wouldn't be misused by others, discovers this, he is furious, resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D., and cuts off all contact with Howard. Hank is so bitter about it that he refused to reach out to Howard's son Tony and the Avengers to share his technology in the modern day.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Doing your patriotic duty to help your home country defeat the Nazis by becoming a military contractor? All well and good until a General Ripper steals one of your untested dangerous prototypes and it causes nothing but innocent deaths when it turns out it induces a Hate Plague.
- Non-Action Guy: He's an excellent pilot and a genius weapons designer, but no fighter.
- Parental Favoritism: The fact that Howard, always a distant and hard-to-please dad, "never shut up" about Steve Rogers is a thorny point with Tony by the time The Avengers rolls around, fueling his initial dislike of Steve.
- Parental Neglect: Howard was proud of Tony and left him the map to creating a new element, but it sounds like he was as bad at communicating his feelings as Tony.Tony: He was cold, he was calculating, he never told me he loved me, he didn't even tell me that he liked me, so it's a bit hard for me to digest that he said the whole "future is riding on me" thing. You're talking about a man whose happiest day of his life was shipping me off to boarding school.
- Parents as People: He definitely could have done a better job as a father but at the end of the day, he still loved Tony dearly even if he was terrible at showing it. His video message in Iron Man 2 has him state outright that Tony was his greatest creation, and when Tony goes back in time in Endgame, Howard reveals to Tony (who is hiding his identity) that he's overjoyed that he's about to be a father, but is also terrified about his child turning out like him and just plain not knowing how to raise one. It's this open conversation about the fear of failing their children that helps Tony finally accept that his father truly cared about him in his own way, even if he never realized it. Tony even tells the past Howard that by this point, all he really remembers are the good times with his father instead of the bad.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Deconstructed with Peggy. Howard genuinely respects her skills (unlike most men in the time period) and Peggy is one of the few women he doesn't flirt with (aside from friendly teasing). However, because of his history as a notorious playboy, many people (including Peggy's co-workers) assume that they have a romantic relationship or Peggy is attracted by the playboy's sex appeal.
- The Pornomancer: Much like his son, Agent Carter shows this is a running trait; especially in the episode "A Sin to Err", where his list of his paramours in the last six months is at least three pages long and Jarvis still comments that it seems rather short. He's even had more of his escapades shown than Tony has, though that might have to do with Tony being in a stable relationship in most of his films while Howard hasn't met his future wife yet.
- Posthumous Character: Averted in The First Avenger, Agent Carter, the one-shot he appears in and his cameos in Ant-Man and Avengers: Endgame, due to their taking place in the 1940s through the 1980s, but in the modern-day setting of most of the films, Howard has been deceased since December of 1991.
- Rags to Riches: He was the son of parents who did menial jobs for money. He became a Self-Made Man who would make millions.
- Really Gets Around: We can see where Tony got it from. Best shown when Peggy hides him in The Griffith, where he spent most of his time having sex with the residents there, leading Peggy to call him disgusting.
- Redemption Equals Death: Stark shows shades this in Agent Carter, believing that setting himself up as bait in a trap is the best way to make up for the damage done by his weapons. "This is the only way to redeem myself!"
- Reed Richards Is Useless: He invented a lot of stuff that far outpaces even today's technology that never made it past the prototype stage. Justified in some cases, as he intentionally kept them that way for fear of them being used as weapons.
- Related in the Adaptation: In the mainstream comics, Tony is Howard's adopted son. The movies, however, take a cue from the Ultimate comics and have Howard be Tony's biological father.note
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: While on the run in Agent Carter, he calls his butler Jarvis for assistance in preparing his favorite drink.
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder: When he gets an idea for an invention, no matter how dangerous, he can't not make it. That's why he has a vault for his "bad babies".
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Howard develops weapons for the military, which is why he wasn't punished for helping Steve with his Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!.
- Self-Made Man: Howard claims his parents were working-class people from Manhattan's Lower East Side, so he had to fight his way to the top and his millions.
- Silver Fox: He aged pretty finely.
- The Smart Guy: In charge of improving Cap's shield and costume as well as other high-tech devices for the Allies.
- So Proud of You: Posthumously to Tony. After digging through his father's research, Tony finds a hidden message.Howard: "Tony, you are too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you, and some day you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is, and always will be, my greatest creation... is you."
- Stepford Smiler: Underneath his cocky, showy persona, he harbors deep-seated feelings of guilt for his failure to to find Steve and all the death and destruction his inventions bring.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Played by a total of three actors corresponding to the different ages at which the character appears: by Dominic Cooper in the 1940s, by John Slattery in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and by Gerard Sanders in various flashback photos in Iron Man. This even applies to voice-acting, as Dominic Cooper voices Howard's younger variants while John Slattery voices his older variants in What If…?.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Howard became this over the years, especially when he started to become a father for Tony. He didn't exhibit any real jerkass tendencies during World War II; only a very mild dig at Rogers not noticing the radioactivity of a cube fragment. By the time of the early seventies and onwards, Howard has become a significantly more unpleasant person, having conspired to try to replicate Hank Pym's shrinking formula behind his back, and being dismissive of his own son's shortcomings and Upper-Class Twit-like antics. He was somewhat aware of this though, as he admits to an undercover time-traveling Tony in Endgame (though Howard isn't aware of that fact) that he's worried about his child turning out like him, and that he's terrified about not being cut out to be a father, no matter how happy he is about being one.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A number of his early weaponized or weaponizable inventions end up in the hands of very nefarious individuals right after World War II and are used to devastating effects, and it's up to Peggy Carter and him to ensure they don't cause more harm than they already did.
- Upper-Class Twit: He very much acts like this in Season 2 of Agent Carter. While he does spend a lot of his time trying to shoot movies and drink away his problems with many gorgeous women, he immediately drops everything to help Peggy when it comes to resolving the Zero Matter crisis.
- What You Are in the Dark: For all he postures as a hard-partying womanizer, Stark cares deeply about the people of the world and his inventions are intended to help people. He also goes out of his way to help people in other ways, such as saving Jarvis from charges for treason and rescuing his wife, Ana, from Nazi-occupied Austria. Tellingly, he never publicizes acts like those.
Maria Stark
Maria Stark
♫ Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green... ♫
When grass was green... ♫
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Affiliation(s): Stark Industries
Portrayed By: Hope Davis
Voiced By: Talía Marcera (Latin American Spanish dub), Catherina Martínez (European Spanish dub), Yuko Izumi (Japanese dub), Lina Rossana (Brazilian Portuguese dub)
Appearances: Captain America: Civil War note | The Falcon and the Winter Soldier note
"Say something. If you don't, you'll regret it."
Howard Stark's wife and Tony Stark's mother.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Maria in the comics was traditionally portrayed as a brunette. In the movies, she's portrayed by Hope Davis, who has blonde hair.note
- But Not Too Foreign: Her maiden name "Carbonell" is Spanish/Catalonian, implying that at least one of her parents was from Spain/Catalonia, but she never gives any indication of being foreign to America or of recognizing Spanish/Catalonian culture.
- Despair Event Horizon: Implied, given when the Winter Soldier moves to kill her, she doesn't even try fighting back, or even screaming.
- Elegant Classical Musician: The first time she's seen, she's playing and singing on the piano.
- Good Parents: By all indications (and the fact Tony never complains about her the same as he does his father), she was this for Tony.
- Last Girl Wins: After Howard Stark gained a reputation of being a notorious playboy, it seems that he settled into a happy marriage once he met Maria.
- May–December Romance: Implied between her and Howard, since he would have been 51 when his son was born in 1970 while Davis was 49 when she portrayed the character dying in 1991. It's likely the age difference between Howard and Maria ranged from ten to twenty years, though in real life there was only a two year difference between Slattery and Davis.
- Muggle: She was just an ordinary person, with no particular scientific expertise or genius. She still seems capable of dealing with both Howard and Tony, though.
- Out of Focus: She appears and is mentioned much less than her husband, Civil War being the first time she was shown onscreen.
- Parental Neglect: Played with. While Maria was an exponentially better parent than Howard Stark was and openly affectionate toward her son in Civil War, Tony mentions to JARVIS in the Iron Man 2 tie-in comic that whenever he came home from boarding school, the "only person happy to see him was you (Edwin Jarvis)", implying that she was at least somewhat distant as a mother. It's potentially justified in that she was simply too busy with work to make time for him, though it does beg the question as to why she couldn't plan ahead for her seven-year-old son's sole weekend at home.
Tony Stark / Iron Man
- See his page
Pepper Potts
Virginia "Pepper" Potts / Rescue
"Tony, trying to get you to stop has been one of the few failures in my entire life."
Click here to see Iron Man Mark: XLIX "Rescue"
Species: Enhanced human (formerly), Human
Citizenship: American
Affiliation(s): Stark Industries
Portrayed By: Gwyneth Paltrow
Voiced By: Yotzmit Ramírez (Latin-American Spanish dub), Alicia Laorden (European Spanish dub), Hiroe Oka (Japanese dub until Infinity War), Sayaka Kobayashi (Japanese dub since Endgame), Silvia Goiabeira (Brazilian Portuguese dub), Mélanie Laberge (Canadian French dub)
Appearances: Iron Man | Iron Man 2 | The Avengers | Iron Man 3 | Spider-Man: Homecoming | Avengers: Infinity War | Avengers: Endgame
"You know, there's only 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about."
Tony Stark's faithful personal assistant, later CEO of Stark Industries, and eventually his Love Interest.
- Action Girl:
- Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow requested she become this in Iron Man 3. She does, briefly, first when she temporarily gains control of the Mark 42 armour during the attack on the Malibu mansion, then again in the finale as a result of getting pumped full of Extremis by Killian.
- Endgame takes this a step further, as she joins in the final battle as Rescue.
- Action Mom: She's Happily Married to Tony during 5-year-Time Skip in Endgame and has a daughter. She also joins the final battle in her Rescue armor.
- Action Survivor: One becomes this when working for a superhero. She becomes a full-on Action Girl after donning the Rescue armor in Endgame.
- Adaptational Context Change: In the comics, her nickname "Pepper" comes from her red hair and freckles. Here, Stark gave her the nickname due to their first meeting involving her threatening to use pepper spray on his security.
- Adaptational Dye-Job:
- Pepper's hair progresses from her natural red in the comics, to Paltrow's standard blonde in her final MCU appearance.
- In Endgame, the Rescue armor has a blue-silver color scheme (likely to compliment Tony's standard red-gold), instead of the usual red-silver colors from the comics.
- Age Lift: Pepper is at least ten years younger in the comics.
- All There in the Manual: She's not officially referred to as Rescue in Endgame, but toy packaging
◊ released after the film identifies her as such. - Alliterative Name: Her nickname and last name both start with a P.
- Babies Ever After: She and Tony have a daughter, Morgan, after the five-year Time Skip in Endgame.
- Bash Siblings: Becomes this with the Avengers in Endgame.
- Battle Couple: She and Tony fight as Back-to-Back Badasses during the final battle against Thanos in Endgame.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Best example is her first scene in Iron Man 2 when she's trying in vain to get Tony's attention for 8,011 things and he's walking away from her while talking about something unrelated.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Sweet, charming, graceful... And she's killed several villains, including landing killing blows on the Big Bad characters of two of Iron Man's own movies! She fries Obadiah at the end of the first film, and Killian at the end of the third film.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- In Iron Man 3, she's the one who steps in and saves Tony from Killian when the latter comes back for one last scare.
- In Endgame, she joins The Cavalry (donning the Rescue suit Tony built for her) to combat Thanos and his army in the Final Battle.
- Blue Is Heroic: In Endgame, she wears the blue-colored Rescue suit to combat Thanos.
- Brought Down to Badass: Despite no longer having Extremis, she instead suits up in her Rescue armor in Endgame.
- Brought Down to Normal: The closing narration of Iron Man 3 mentions that she was cured of Extremis.
- The Cameo:
- In The Avengers, she appears in three scenes and only one with speaking lines.
- She also makes a brief appearance at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
- In Avengers: Infinity War, she only appears for one scene towards the beginning and doesn't reappear afterwards (aside from her calling Tony a few moments later).
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: As Tony's personal assistant, it's her job description to keep him focused and on task, no matter what weird thing he has cooked up or how far he spaces out.
- Combined Energy Attack: In a similar way to what Tony, Thor and Vision did to Ultron Prime in the climax of Age of Ultron, Pepper combines the Rescue armor's repulsor beams with The Wasp's energy bolts and Shuri's sonic blasts to repel Thanos during the final battle of Avengers: Endgame.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: The name "Rescue" is never used for her armor, though the reasoning for that specific codename doesn't exist in the MCU (the comics version is explicitly a pacifist who does actual rescue work and avoids combat when possible, while her MCU gear is fully weaponized). Pepper only wears the suit during a Big Badass Battle Sequence where there's not a lot of dialogue to spare to make the reference anyways. However, merchandise based on the character does use the name Rescue.
- Composite Character: She has the general appearance of her comic book counterpart, as well as being a Love Interest for Tony, but several aspects of her personality (particularly her hyper-competence) borrow a lot from Bambi Arbogast, the older woman whom Tony hires as her replacement after she's Put on a Bus in the comics. (Bambi herself — in a much younger incarnation — briefly appears in Iron Man 2 and has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as Pepper's new PA in Iron Man 3, presumably having replaced Natasha Romanov).
- Cry Laughing: In Avengers: Endgame, she forces herself to put on a smile after Tony used the Infinity Stones to Snap a 2014 version of Thanos and his army out of existence and is mortally wounded as a result. Pepper assures him that she and Morgan will be fine and he can rest now. After Tony dies, the smile instantly drops and she starts crying in grief.
- Cursed with Awesome: Being infected with Extremis grants Playing with Fire and Healing Factor.
- Damsel in Distress: Deconstructed. Though Tony has obviously saved Pepper a few times, at least two Big Bad's downfalls were directly down to dismissing her as this role in their plans. Both Obadiah and Killian saw Pepper as a mere collateral damage or lure in their vendetta against Tony, enabling her to set about their destruction while they fought against him.
- Deadpan Snarker: "Taking out the trash" is the best example of her polite and low-key insults.
- Demoted to Extra: During Phase 1, Pepper Potts was arguably the main female character, appearing in 3 out of 6 films and having a major role in two of them note . In Phase 2, she only appears in the first film, but at least she plays an important part in it. In Phase 3, she is reduced to brief cameos in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War, and has a slightly larger but still minor role in Avengers: Endgame.
- Disney Death: In Iron Man 3, Tony watches her fall from a great height into a pillar of fire. Since she was pumped full of Extremis earlier, she survives.Tony: You just scared the devil out of me. I thought you were...
Pepper: Dead? Why? Because I fell two hundred feet? - Do a Barrel Roll: Blink and you'll miss it, but for an inexperienced pilot of the armor, Pepper certainly pulled one off well right before destroying the necrocraft and joining her husband in a Back-to-Back Badasses moment.
- The Dog Bites Back: Related to the above, Killian infuses Pepper with Extremis, and then causes the explosion that appears to kill her. Once she turns out to be alive, Pepper beats up Killian, grabs one of Tony's repulsors and disintegrates the poor sap.
- Dude Magnet: Tony falls for Pepper and quits his playboy act to be with her.
Word of God confirmed that Happy was in love with her for some time. Killian took an interest in her during Iron Man 3. - Fiery Redhead: Zigzagged. She's certainly strong and outspoken, but too calm and level-headed to fully fit the trope.
- Genocide Survivor: Endgame reveals that she survived the Snap.
- Girl Friday: "I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires." This includes sneaking into her boss' company and downloading files for him without alerting anyone else. She's not the page image for nothing.
- Good with Numbers: Tony relies on her to do the number thing. He doesn't even know his own SSN. In fact, Pepper was hired after she corrected a minute error Tony made on some financial projections, which no one else caught.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her Rescue armor is primarily purple with silvery accents.
- Happily Married: Pepper and Tony make it official in Endgame, and she proves herself to be a devoted wife to him and a loving mother to their daughter Morgan.
- The Heart: Gwyneth Paltrow has credited Pepper's popularity with the fans to her fulfillment of this role as part of her relationship with Tony, and she agreed to a cameo in The Avengers because of it.
- Hidden Depths: The Iron Man novelization reveals she was a model in her youth. Tony alludes to this in Iron Man 2 when he asks if Pepper modeled in Tokyo like "Natalie Rushman".
- High-Heel Power: A hyper-competent Girl Friday, later a CEO, and can rock a pair of pumps.
- Honest Corporate Executive: As CEO of Stark Industries, she refuses to accept the Extremis project because it could be easily weaponized.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: She runs Stark Industries for Tony when he's busy or bored. By Iron Man 2, Tony recognizes this and names her the CEO of Stark Industries.
- In-Series Nickname: Her birth name is hardly ever brought up.
- Irony: Throughout the movies, her relationship with Tony struggled because his dedication to being Iron Man kept getting in the way, and Tony tried to retire (several times, actually) to be with her. In Endgame, however, it was Pepper more than anyone else who convinced the initially reluctant Tony to don the Iron Man armor once again and rejoin the Avengers in order to restore the other half of the universe.
- Kaleidoscope Hair: She was originally a redhead, but gradually shifted to her actress' natural blonde hair.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: In the finale of Iron Man 3, she demonstrates her badass cred by disabling an Iron Man suit, ripping off its arm, and then uses its repulsor to finish off Killian.
- Like Parent, Like Spouse: The little we see and know of Maria Stark suggests that she and Pepper are quite similar. Both are blonde women (although, Pepper's hair starts off as more red) with a more elegant and grounded perspective, who ultimately manage to get their husbands to quit the playboy act and start a family with them.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Tony states Pepper is "the one thing that [he] can't live without".
- Mama Bear:
- When Pepper gets her own Powered Armour during the Final Battle in Avengers: Endgame, she definitely has shades of this towards Spidey, which makes sense considering her husband's own Parental Substitute and Papa Wolf relationship with Peter. She also didn't object to Tony returning to heroics in a bid to bring back a Snapped!Peter, either.Pepper: Hang on, I got you, kid.
- Her participation in protecting the entire universe from Thanos also extends to keeping her daughter Morgan safe.
- When Pepper gets her own Powered Armour during the Final Battle in Avengers: Endgame, she definitely has shades of this towards Spidey, which makes sense considering her husband's own Parental Substitute and Papa Wolf relationship with Peter. She also didn't object to Tony returning to heroics in a bid to bring back a Snapped!Peter, either.
- Masculine Lines, Feminine Curves: Pepper's Mk. XLIX Rescue Armor suit is aesthetically designed to appear feminine in contrast to the suits Tony wears; while Tony's face masks typically have straight-edged and angular jaw and brow lines, the one on Pepper's has more smooth and rounded edges.
- Meaningful Name:
- Virginia "Pepper" Potts. Silk hiding fire.
- The Iron Man novelization reveals Tony gave her the nickname after she threatened to pepper-spray a couple Stark Industries security guards when they tried to remove her from Tony's office as she confronted him about an accounting error.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: A variation. In Civil War, Steve Rogers asks Tony Stark where Pepper is during their discussion in the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre, and Tony struggles to answer. Steve assumes that must mean she's pregnant, but Tony reveals that what he actually meant was that they have broken up.
- Morality Chain: Tony's mood and attitude take a notable dip during his and Pepper's separation in Civil War.
- Morality Pet: Downplayed. Tony does become nicer by the end of the first movie and onward, but can still be quite arrogant and obnoxious. Pepper is the one he's the nicest to. She also doubles as his Living Emotional Crutch.
- Motor Mouth: In the first two Iron Man movies, she usually manages to counteract Tony's own fast-talking and wall of sarcasm by just talking over him. Though sometimes even Tony can't get a word in edgeways.
- Nice Girl: One of the easiest to get along with in Stark Industries.
- Non-Action Snarker: She doesn't fight — most of the time — and sass is one of her ways of dealing with things.
- Non-Protagonist Resolver: Pepper is the one who kills Obadiah Stane in Iron Man and Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3 instead of Tony.
- Offscreen Breakup: By the time of Civil War, she has broken up with Tony as he couldn't stop being Iron Man. They're back together from Spider-Man: Homecoming onward.
- Oh, Crap!: Throughout Iron Man 2, Tony repeatedly tried and failed to tell her about how the miniature reactor in his body was now killing him, including one incident where Pepper refused to hear him outright because she was still steaming over a quarrel they'd been having. After spending the whole movie annoyed and angry at him, Tony finally manages to drop the bomb on her, and she's absolutely terrified at the thought.
- One True Love: Pepper becomes this from Iron Man 2 onward, with Tony devoting himself to her completely, and not even seriously looking at another woman during their brief separation. In Avengers: Endgame, Tony tells Pepper that even if he dies adrift in space and this message reaches her somehow, he wants her to know that he would die dreaming of her.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Everybody calls her Pepper instead of Virginia.
- Only Sane Woman: In Tony's life. She (tries to) keep him focused.
- Out of Focus: In Endgame, she is notably absent from most of the scenes set at her cabin with Tonynote , allowing him quality time with Morgan before he perished at the end of the movie.
- Powered Armor:
- During the attack on Tony's house in Iron Man 3, Tony transfers the Mark 42 armor on her to protect her from the collapsing house.
- In Avengers: Endgame, Tony has made a blue and silver armor as an anniversary gift for Pepper, although he doesn't expect her to wear it. Pepper does wear it for the final battle against Thanos.
- Punny Name: A "pepper pot" is another name for a pepper shaker.
- Put on a Bus: In Captain America: Civil War, Tony says they're taking a break. It is a possible Actor Allusion to Gwyneth's "conscious uncoupling" with her husband Chris Martin.
- Relationship Upgrade:
- To Official Couple with Tony as of the end of Iron Man 2. They broke up with each other sometime between Iron Man 3 and Civil War, due to Tony breaking his promise to retire as Iron Man, but are back together by the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
- It's heavily implied they went through another Relationship Upgrade at the end of Homecoming. When Peter backs out of the press conference they had planned at the last minute, Pepper pressures Tony as to what "big announcement" they are going to tell the 50 reporters gathered in the next room, to which Tony and Happy produce an engagement ring they had been carrying since 2008. The couple's first scene in Infinity War confirms that they are now engaged.
- After the Time Skip in Endgame, she and Tony are now married and have a child.
- The Reliable One: To Tony. He wouldn't ask just anyone to remove the prototype arc reactor and slot in the new one.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She almost does this twice, in the first movie when she discovers Tony is risking his life as Iron Man and in the sequel after the pressure of running the company and having to deal with Tony's erratic and irresponsible behavior become too much. She doesn't go through with it, though.
- Servile Snarker: She's an expert at the Passive-Aggressive Kombat and Stealth Insults. She never loses her sweet smile or polite demeanor during the following:Pepper Potts: I got your clothes here; they've been dry cleaned and pressed. And there's a car waiting for you outside that will take you anywhere you'd like to go.
Christine Everhart: You must be the famous Pepper Potts.
Pepper Potts: Indeed, I am.
Christine Everhart: After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the dry cleaning.
Pepper Potts: I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking out the trash. Will that be all? - Sexy Secretary: Ironically, not what Tony hired her for.
- Short-Lived Leadership: Tony promotes her to CEO of Stark Industries at the beginning of Iron Man 2. She tries to resign at the end of it, after what can't be more than a few weeks at most. Subverted when The Avengers confirms she's still running SI.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Downplayed; less 'subtle manipulation' and more 'semi-aggressive nudging'. Getting a concept into Tony's head when he's thinking about something else is not a job for subtlety.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Pepper doesn't begin a romantic relationship with Tony unless he was willing to take it seriously, and she wouldn't be another one of his many flings. It's best evident in her refusal to kiss him in the first Iron Man. She eventually makes Tony a honest man who becomes completely devoted to her and sheds his playboy ways for good.
- Slut-Shaming: Justified; Consummate Professional Pepper has a low opinion of Tony's childish behavior and especially of his oversexed lifestyle. During her introductory scene, she appears to give Christine Everheart a free escort anywhere she wants to go. Christine, realizing Tony just used her for another one-night stand, takes it out on Pepper, who politely offers a Stealth Insult and maintains a low opinion of the reporter throughout the rest of her appearances. Perhaps anticipating a similar experience, all she has to say to Maya is "you saved yourself a world of pain".
- Spanner in the Works: Had Pepper not kept Tony's first arc reactor and given it back to him, he would've been without a power source for his armor/pacemaker after Iron Monger took his new one, leaving him to die and allowing Stane to go unopposed.
- Territorial Smurfette:
- Averted with Christine Everhart in Iron Man. Pepper is perfectly civil to her after Christine slept with Tony. It's only when Christine is pretty rude to her that she snarks back. Moreover, the dialogue suggests that Pepper's had this situation with Tony's one-night stands before and thus averts the trope as a rule.
- Subverted in Iron Man 2. Tony Stark expects this to happen with Pepper and the new aide Natasha, but the two of them get along fine (barring one moment where Pepper blames Nat for Tony's erratic behavior). Pepper takes it as a sign of Tony's arrogance that he'd assume another Love Triangle would form over him.
- Three-Point Landing: In Endgame, she does this on her arrival at the final battle in her armor, followed by the signature Iron-Man mask lift.
- Took a Level in Badass: In Iron Man 3, she successfully operates a suit to save Tony's life. At the end of the film, she becomes even more powerful and finishes the mastermind off with the powers derived from Extremis. She takes another level in Endgame, wearing her own suit of armor for the final battle.
- Undying Loyalty: To Tony. When it comes down to it, Pepper had every reason in the world to leave Tony, and no doubt had several opportunities over the years. She never did, and it's clear it's because she loves him and would do anything for him. She's fully aware of his faults and refused to start a relationship with him until he became a better man.
- Villain Killer: Surprisingly, until Endgame was released, she had the highest personal kill count of Big Bads. She was the one to activate the arc reactor and actually kill the very first Big Bad of the MCU, Obidiah Stane. She then kills Aldrich Killian with her Extremis powers, much to her own shock.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: She was always protective of Tony; in the third movie, she gets to prove it physically instead of just by calling S.H.I.E.L.D.. Killian finds this one out the hard way, and won't be coming back to learn from his mistake of messing with her and Tony.
- Wet Blanket Wife: Downplayed. While at first Pepper seemed fine with Tony's Iron Man alter ego, following his near-death in The Avengers and the destruction of their home, she urges him to quit. When he doesn't due to his compulsion to heroism, she ends their relationship. They have gotten back together and are engaged by the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, though Avengers: Infinity War shows that she's still trying to convince Tony to give up superheroing. Avengers: Endgame, however, reveals that Pepper has since given up on trying to get him to stop, instead encouraging Tony to help the Avengers as he has the time travel theory in his mind and it will come back to haunt him if he doesn't.
- Xenafication:
- In part thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. insisting on it, Pepper has her own action scene in Iron Man 3. As she's usually so peaceful, her sudden aggression surprises even herself.Pepper: [after killing Killian] Oh my God... That was really violent!
- In Avengers: Endgame, after spending much of the Infinity Saga running Stark Industries and retiring to a peaceful life with her husband and daughter, Pepper wastes no time donning her own Rescue suit in order to participate in the final battle. And in spite of not using Tony's armored suits at all since 2013, she fights just as effectively as her husband does.
- In part thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. insisting on it, Pepper has her own action scene in Iron Man 3. As she's usually so peaceful, her sudden aggression surprises even herself.
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Morgan Stark
Morgan Howard Stark
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Affiliation(s): Stark Industries
Portrayed By: Lexi Rabe, Katherine Langford note
Appearances: Avengers: Endgame
"I love you three thousand."
The four-year-old daughter of Tony Stark and his wife Pepper. Born during the five-year Time Skip in Avengers: Endgame, Morgan is debuted as an adorable, stunningly intelligent little girl primed to someday follow in her father’s footsteps as a superhero.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Morgan Stark was actually the supervillain Brass and the older cousin of Tony, whom he felt inferior to and resented because Tony was chosen over him to run the company. The movie version is a sweet and innocent four-year-old girl whose worst conflict with the heroes is extorting Tony into giving her a juice pop so she'll stop using the word "shit" and, according to her father, being tempted to use Captain America's shield as a sled.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Four years old and already tinkering with her mother's Rescue helmet.
- Affectionate Nickname: "Maguna", used by her father as a pet name when he's being particularly playful.
- Affirmative Action Girl: She is a girl genius clearly interested in her father's work (and STEM in general, if Tony's remarks about her are anything to go by) as well as his suit and former role as Iron Man (as seen by her obsession with Pepper's Rescue helmet).
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: See above.
- Age Lift: Comic!Morgan is an adult, whereas this one is a kid.
- Brainy Brunette: Just like her old man, Morgan has brown hair and shows tremendous intellectual potential.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Tony is determined to do better by Morgan than Howard did by him. He succeeds immeasurably. The fact that he was able to do so at a time when he walked away entirely from the superhero scene, his business work and all his workaholic ways means that he's able to devote himself to her completely during her early childhood.
- Cheerful Child: Thanks to Tony’s and Pepper’s good parenting, Morgan is a sweet-tempered and playful Innocent Prodigy with a good sense of humor. Subverted at the end of Endgame, when she acts much more withdrawn after her father’s death.
- Child Prodigy: Downplayed. However, there are still multiple examples scattered throughout her scenes and Tony's dialogue about her that make it abundantly clear Morgan isn't your average four-year-old:
- When Tony tells her that he loves her a ton, she replies that she loves him three thousand. A ton is two thousand pounds, so in order for Morgan to one-up her dad, the next logical conclusion would be to add another thousand to that. This becomes even more impressive when one considers that most four-year-olds can barely even count to twenty, according to child psychologists; the fact that Morgan can not only conceptualize such large numbers but incorporate them into logical arguments at her age is astounding.
- Morgan's interest in technology already sets her apart from your average four-year-old; while most kids that age would be playing with stuffed animals or stumbling through a jumbo puzzle, Morgan tinkers with the Rescue helmet, watches Tony as he works, and regularly explores the garage.
- Morgan's vocabulary, syntax, and self-awareness all mark her as gifted; she strings together sophisticated sentences, listens and speaks to adults as if they were equals, and is advanced enough to tease her dad, a well-known Troll himself, about him accidentally saying "shit" in front of her. The fact that Tony talks to her as he would another adult, without dumbing down his words, using baby-talk, or excluding his witty sense of humor, says a lot about what he thinks of her intellect.
- Constantly Curious: According to Tony, Morgan is eternally fascinated with the workshop/storage area in the garage. She also seems to make a regular habit of "borrowing" her mother's Rescue helmet to tinker and play with, and she sometimes sneaks out of bed to watch her father work.
- The Cutie: She is absolutely adorable.
- Daddy's Girl: She and Tony are very close, far closer than Tony and his father were during his childhood. In Tony's Video Will, he addresses what he plans to be his last words to her.
- Dead Guy Junior: Her middle name comes from her long-dead grandfather Howard Stark.
- Gender-Blender Name: When Tony first brings up having kids to Pepper, he describes a little boy named after Pepper's uncle Morgan. Since Morgan is a gender-neutral name in real life, they keep the name when the baby turns out to be a girl.
- Her middle name is also Howard.
- Gender Flip: In the comics, Morgan Stark was male. Luckily, "Morgan" is a unisex name (or rather, two distinct male and female Celtic names which came out identical when Anglicized).
- Generation Xerox: Like Parent, Like Child
- Morgan possess Tony’s precocious love of technology — he built circuit boards and engines when he was her age, and she tinkers with the Rescue helmet, explores the garage, and watches Tony when he works.
- Morgan takes entirely after Tony in terms of physical characteristics. She has his brown eyes and brown hair and looks almost nothing like her mother, who is a Fiery Redhead with Icy Blue Eyes.
- Morgan seems to have the beginnings of Tony’s lifelong sarcastic streak and talent for trouble — even at four years old, she excels at banter, gleefully repeats a swear word she heard Tony say, steals the Rescue helmet to wear for herself, and apparently considered using Captain America’s shield as a sled.
- As a nod to the first Iron Man film, she's seen getting hungry for cheeseburgers near the end of Endgame.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: When we first see Morgan, she's dressed in a pink swan cardigan, along with the mask that her father is creating for her mother's "Rescue" suit while imagining that she's a superhero in her tent (just like her father). She also shows an innate curiosity in her father's technology at a very young age!
- In Name Only: The comic version of Morgan Stark was Tony's vengeful adult male cousin, who sought revenge on Tony due to feeling he'd been cheated out of the Stark fortune. In the films, Morgan is Tony's adoring four-year-old daughter.
- Innocent Prodigy: Morgan has her father’s sense of humor, is completely unaware of the tension between Tony and Steve when the Avengers visit Tony’s house, and is exceptionally cute thanks to her unusually attractive parents. She’s also an established Child Prodigy with a promising future in engineering, science, and superheroics. Just like her dad.
- Innocent Swearing: After overhearing her father exclaim, "Shit!", she repeats it after him, much to Tony's chagrin.
- It Runs in the Family: Like her father and his father before him, Morgan is a dark-haired, dark-eyed tech prodigy with attitude and a gift for trouble.
- Last Episode, New Character: Born during the Time Skip about half an hour into Endgame.
- Lineage Comes from the Father: Brown hair and brown eyes? Check. Precocious interest in technology? Check. Talent for banter and trouble? Check. Taste for cheeseburgers? Check. Blatant Foreshadowing about her taking up the Iron Mantle someday? Three thousand check.
- Little Miss Snarker: Downplayed, but it's still clear where she gets her sense of humor from.Tony: [who just figured out time travel] Shit!
Morgan: [behind him] Shit!
Tony: [startled; turns around and makes a scolding motion] What are you doing up, little miss?
Morgan: [cheekily] Shit. - Meaningful Name: Morgan's middle name is Howard, undoubtedly after her grandfather. It's a subtle way of Foreshadowing the meeting Tony will eventually have with his dad in Avengers: Endgame, though it does leave one to wonder why her middle name isn't Maria after Tony's mother, as it's a feminine name more appropriate for a girl.
- Related in the Adaptation: Morgan Stark has no relation to Pepper Potts in the comics. Here, Morgan's her daughter.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: "Morgan Stark" is still related to Tony, but in different ways. In the comics, Morgan is Tony's cousin, while in the films, she's his daughter.
- Ret-Gone: The possibility that this could happen to Morgan is the main reason Tony is initially hesitant about the Time Heist. Tony is against using the Infinity Stones to pull off a timeline reset that completely undoes the Snap since doing so, as he points out, would remove her (and by extension, other children like her) from existence. As an alternative, he suggests simply bringing the snapped population back into the present day, which is what the Avengers eventually end up doing. Changing the past itself through Quantum Time Travel isn't possible anyway, but could be possible through the sheer eldritch power of the Infinity Stones, which Tony doesn't want to risk.
- She Is All Grown Up: In one of Endgame's most infamous deleted scenes, an adult version of Morgan meets her father in the Soul Stone shortly after his death. Suffice it to say, she has matured a lot from the mischievous, innocent little four-year-old Tony remembers, confusing Tony tremendously.note
- Small Role, Big Impact: Appears for all of three scenes, but her existence is the reason the objective of the Time Heist was to resurrect the victims of the snap in the present day rather than alter the past entirely, which has massive implications for the MCU as a whole. As a result, any time the MCU explores the ramifications of restoring half the Universe after five years can be traced back to Morgan being born.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Had Morgan been a boy as Tony initially proposed to Pepper, she would have been almost identical to him when he was a little kid.
- Tomboyish Name: Not so much her first name as her middle name; Howard is a strictly male name and Morgan is very much a girl.
- Troll: Continually repeats a swear word her dad accidentally let slip in front of her in order to goad him into giving her a popsicle and tucking her into bed again. Looks like It Runs in the Family.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Morgan has tremendous intellectual potential to become just as revolutionary and world-changing as her dad, but as she’s only four years old, she hasn't really had the time or chance to master the sciences or don the Iron Man armor. Not yet anyway.
- Walking Spoiler: Her entire existence spoils the fact that Tony, after years of struggle and a ten-year on/off relationship with Pepper, finally managed to retire and build the family he always wanted, and provides a justification for why the Avengers simply undo the Snap rather than prevent it from ever happening in the first place.
