Avengers: EndgameFor Marvel's Big Three, was the end of an era. Captain America grew old and retired a happily married man thanks to time travel, while Thor headed off to space with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man didn't get the same happy ending. He sacrificed himself using his tech-Gauntlet to snap Thanos and his legion away, saving Earth one last time. But while Tony Stark's gone, some of his lifelong enemies from the comics still exist in the MCU. With that in mind, CBR is taking a closer look at where we left them.
JUSTIN HAMMER
Following the events of Iron Man 2 where Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) tried to co-opt Stark's tech via his Hammer Drones, Whiplash and a hijacked War Machine, the tycoon was thrown in Seagate Prison. There, he was seen in the All Hail the King one-shot short film, jealous that Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery was commanding respect, since the inmates thought the latter was the real Mandarin from Iron Man 3.
Hammer was involved in a documentary shoot at the prison, and when last we encountered him, he certainly had fallen from grace, and was seen reading a Forbes with Pepper Potts on the cover. He was as bitter as ever things didn't work out the way he wanted to. He always wanted to one-up Stark and if he gets out, he may have his chance in a world without Stark. We don't know if Hammer, due to his power and influence, has been up to shenanigans secretly, especially since the Ten Rings know exactly where he is in the jail and know his knack for creating weapons of mass destruction.
THE REAL MANDARIN
All Hail the King was helmed by Scoot McNairy's Jackson Norriss. He wanted insight into Trevor via an interview, but he was really an agent of the Ten Rings. The short ended with him attacking Trevor and his bodyguard, Herman, revealing he was sent by the real Mandarin to kidnap the actor.
The Mandarin didn't like how Trevor imitated him for Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and A.I.M., and given how Stark had shut down the Ten Rings before, the Mandarin wanted to make sure his organization remained feared and respected by the criminal community. Trevor thought he wasn't real, but now we know he (or she) really is, amd operating in the shadows. It's just a matter of time before the villain comes into the light, which studio president Kevin Feige has said is on the cards.
GHOST
While Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost was the villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp, her comic book counterpart is almost always an Iron Man villain. In the MCU, Ava Starr lost her parents following a quantum reactor accident. This allowed her to turn intangible and S.H.I.E.L.D. eventually hired her, weaponizing the young girl to become Ghost. She went rogue in due time, working with Laurence Fishburne's Bill Foster aka Goliath to try to jack energy from the Quantum Realm to stabilize her own condition as she was dying from her exposure.
Janet Pym (Michelle Pfeiffer), however, returned and transferred energy to Ghost, temporarily healing the sympathetic villain. She'd end up going on the run with Bill, with Janet vowing to help find a cure. However, Team Pym was snapped away by the Mad Titan, leaving Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) trapped in the Quantum Realm. This meant Ghost had Bill alone to try to heal her, although we don't know how that turned out. Since Bill wasn't successful in the past, Ava hopefully didn't die without Team Pym's services for over a year