Obadiah Stane is known in the MCU as the first-ever villain in Iron Man…however, he didn’t just have something to do with Iron Man but also with The Avengers. Obadiah was the man who took over Howard Stark’s place after he passed away, with Tony Stark being alongside him for most of the journey. However, Obadiah and Tony often had very different opinions about how the company should be run.
Obadiah Shaped The Iron Man We Know And Love
This villain died at the end of Iron Man, but the thing is, he did move a lot of the MCU forward not only for just creating Iron Man, but also really establishing the heroic side of Tony Stark, which then led on until Avengers: Endgame. Obadiah Stane was a man that believed war was good for business, which is something Tony Stark then disagreed with after he found out the weapons he designed were being used for killing innocent people when he was kidnapped and tortured.
Obadiah Stane wanted to do whatever it took the keep Stark Industries going as strong as possible, even if that meant killing him off. He knew that the company would thrive off of warfare by continuing to sell weapons to the military and also to other countries that needed them. Obviously, with conflict and war, these weapons wouldn’t be needed. Obadiah had done many things that were illegal in order to continue having the company sell its weapons in high demand. He was supposed to be a father figure to Tony, and a co-businessman, but this quickly turned bad when he tries to kill Tony toward the end of the movie.
It was obvious that in order for The Avengers team to happen, they needed Stark, and that’s what Nick Fury set out to do when it came to later movies. Iron Man had an obsession with protecting the earth and those he loved, especially after seeing how much damage his own creation of weapons had caused those around him. He felt guilt for what he’d done which went all the way up until the end of the series in Endgame. Obadiah Stane definitely created the Iron Man we all know and love today, making him purely hate bullies of all kinds, which only makes the death of Tony Stark more true to his character.