Pedro Pascal's new movie - Netflix's We Can Be Heroes - tells the story of a retired superhero in what feels like an alternate universe take on the MCU, showing what might have happened if Tony Stark had survived Avengers: Endgame. Robert Rodriguez's entertaining family take on the superhero event movie is deeply aware of its cinematic counterparts, riffing on the MCU both in broad strokes and specific moments and using its final shot to take a potshot at Justice League's corny ending. And Pascal's heroic leader is definitely a nod to Robert Downey Jr's MCU hero.
We Can Be Heroes is essentially a Young Avengers movie without a Marvel license, presenting a heroic group of kids (called the Heroics, in fact), who are put together as a second-generation replacement for their parents when they're kidnapped by aliens. Managing to pull in references to Captain America: Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Young Avengers, it feels like the bridge between the MCU's past and its future that 2020 couldn't otherwise provide.
In amongst its surprisingly starry cast - most of whom are based on established Marvel or DC heroes like Superman, Iron Man, the Hulk, and The Flash - Pedro Pascal plays the leader of the Heroics, Marcus Moreno, who is a thinly-veiled homage to Tony Stark. Only in this universe, the hero retired from active duty to run his superhero team from behind a desk after promising his daughter he wouldn't go on missions anymore. Moreno is essentially a take on a Tony Stark who either didn't answer the call of the Avengers in Endgame or somehow survived Thanos' attack on Earth and stayed on the winning side. It tells the untold story of what Tony and Morgan Stark's lives could have been together with Iron Man given a compelling enough reason to retire from active heroism.
The MCU consciously isolated Tony Stark, making him obsessive about his need to protect the world from a threat he always believed to be coming. He made it so that he never had anything real to leave behind, which was why he temporarily sabotaged his relationship with Pepper Potts. Ultimately, Tony's sacrifice at the end of Endgame was all the more emotionally affecting because Stark had finally found something to live for (and consequently something to die for), but had Thanos not provided the catalyst for him to unretire, Tony would not have. His commitment to his family would have been as obsessive as his need to protect the world, because, in the end, Morgan and Pepper were his world.
While it's outside of the MCU, We Can Be Heroes offers a look at a world in which Tony retired for his daughter, despite the lure of heroism, and tragically, Netflix's new release ends up reiterating the idea that Iron Man could never end. Marcus Moreno might have turned his back on active participation as a hero, but when the aliens attack, he is drawn in again, breaking his promise and almost paying for it fatally. And Robert Rodriguez's take on this sort of character - as played with fraught subtlety by Pedro Pascal - tells the story cleverly, eventually offering a hopefully alternative future where Tony Stark's fears for Morgan and the universe could have been eased by her potential rise as leader of the Young Avengers. In that way, We Can Be Heroes actually makes for compelling viewing for any MCU Iron Man fans.
