Marvel: Here’s Who (& Why) Bought the New Avengers Tower

Since the dawn of the MCU, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark has been a household name in the franchise and one of those old-school fan-favorite characters. He constructed the famous Stark Tower, which ultimately became the Avengers Tower, towering across Manhattan, New York (pun intended). However, the Tower was sold once the team moved to the Avengers Compound. But to whom was the Avengers Tower sold, and why?

In Marvel Comics, the Avengers Tower changed ownership numerous times, from the Fantastic Four, Norman Osborn, all the way to a Kang variant. In the MCU, however, the new owner hasn’t been confirmed, but rumors from trusted sources suggest that the New Avengers Tower owner is none other than Mephisto.

It’s unclear whether Tony Stark knew who he was making a deal with or if Mephisto was disguised in a human form, but there’s actually a lot more to it than meets the eye – and we could learn a lot more about the whole deal sooner rather than later when Disney+’s ‘Ironheart’ drops later this year. Let’s investigate this subject and cover all bases, theories, and possibilities.

What happened to Stark Tower after Avengers?

Let’s go through the Tower’s MCU history to answer what happened to Stark Tower after the ‘Avengers’ films. When the tower was built, it was actually known as Stark Tower. Tony Stark built it for the purposes of his company, Stark Industries, and only later did the Avengers team start using it as the ‘Avengers Tower.’

Stark Tower was (and is) located in Manhattan, New York. What’s special about the building is that it’s completely powered with its own arc reactor – another brilliant Tony Stark invention – meaning it’s completely self-sustaining without costing anything.

That kind of power, however, was the reason why Loki chose the Tower to open the portal/wormhole with the Tesseract and get the entire Chitauri army to invade Earth. The tower was severely damaged during the Battle of New York, and only the ‘A’ from the ‘Stark’ logo remained standing.

After the Tower was rebuilt and repaired, the ‘A’ stood tall, and Stark Tower became Avengers Tower. It was the Avengers’ base of operations and the place where both Ultron and Vision were created. Ultimately, the Avengers left the Avengers Tower after ‘Age of Ultron’ and relocated to Upstate New York in the well-known Avengers Compound.

The tower remained Tony’s property, and we saw glimpses of it in numerous movies (not counting ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ which heavily featured the Avengers Tower, but in the past, as the team traveled through time to get all the Infinity Stones).

Ultimately, in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ we learn from Happy Hogan that Tony eventually sold the Avengers Tower, but it was never disclosed who the buyer was. We also see them carrying out Avengers technology from the tower, which was the basis of the entire film, as the Vulture tries stealing the transported equipment, and Spidey tries to stop him.

The fact that Tony sold the old Avengers Tower might’ve sounded like an irrelevant plot point, seeing that the Avengers had already relocated to the Avengers Compound before ‘Homecoming.’ 

We once again saw the Tower in ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ – and although it was still referred to as Avengers Tower, it was completely redesigned, with a gap right in the middle of the building that was used as a garden/lounge area.

However, the fact that it was once again brought up in a conversation and reiterated that ‘Tony sold [the Tower] a few years ago’ (in the ‘Hawkeye’ series, in a conversation between Kate Bishop and Clint Barton) made some fans wonder – was Tony selling the Tower more important than we initially thought? If so, who was the buyer?

Who bought the New Avengers Tower?

In the comics, the Avengers Tower changed ownership several times. It was Tony Stark’s building at first, which was then used as the Avengers Tower. In ‘Dark Avenger’ #1, Norman Osborn took over the Tower after claiming and rebranding S.H.I.E.L.D. as H.A.M.M.E.R. The Avengers eventually defeat him and reclaim both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Tower.

Next, in ‘Avengers’ Vol. 5 #35, S.H.I.E.L.D. claimed the Tower and used it as the ‘Golgotha Station.’ In ‘Avengers’ Vol. 5 #44, the Tower was destroyed by the Children of Tomorrow before Reed Richards managed to restore reality and the Avengers Tower along with it.

Finally, in ‘Avengers’ Vol. 6 #0, Tony Stark struggled with his income, so he sold the building to a Chinese company called Qeng Enterprises. Mr. Gryphon – the CEO of Qeng Enterprises – eventually turned out to be a Kang variant who used the Tower for nefarious purposes. Again, the Avengers defeated him, but the Avengers Tower’s status and ownership are unknown.

In the MCU, the Tower didn’t change hands so many times, but there are several possibilities when speaking about who bought the Tower before ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming.’ 

The ‘Norman Osborn’ angle seems the least likely to be true. Fans have also speculated that Moon Knight could be the buyer, but after the ‘Moon Knight’ show on Disney+, there’s nothing to suggest that he bought the Tower from Tony Stark.

Then there’s the Fantastic Four angle – some fans believe that they bought the Avengers Tower from Tony and that they plan on using it as the famous Baxter Building – their headquarters from the comics. After all, the Fantastic Four is getting an introduction into the MCU soon, so it wouldn’t be a crazy idea.

The most likely angle would be the Mr. Gryphon angle – a Kang variant buying the tower. However, it seems that the MCU is going in a completely different, refreshing direction, with a character that has long been rumored to appear in the MCU but never has so far.

According to The Cosmic Circus, their trusted sources confirmed that the buyer of the New Avengers Tower is none other than Mephisto, known among fans as the ‘devil of Marvel Comics.’ Mephisto isn’t Satan, per se, but operates similarly – making deals with humans and other beings to claim their souls.

The report suggests that Mephisto ought to appear for the first time in the upcoming Disney+ show, ‘Ironheart’ – where the premise of the show will be a battle between technology (Riri Williams) and magic (Red Hood & Mephisto).

It’s hard to speak of the details about the show before anything is officially confirmed, so take this with a grain of salt. That being said, it would work masterfully for the show’s theme and the overall connection to the bigger picture of the MCU.

Now, Mephisto usually uses magic to do his nefarious bidding but is fascinated by the use of technology to wreak havoc and cause catastrophic consequences. After all, evil is all that Mephisto cares about, and you know how badly things can go when high-tech ends up in the wrong hands. Which hands could be worse than the hands of a devil?

Why did Tony sell the Avengers Tower in the MCU?

It’s unclear whether Tony knew who he was dealing with when he sold the Avengers Tower. Although, I highly doubt that he would do such a thing without checking the background of the person he was dealing with. Perhaps Mephisto portrayed himself as someone else, making Tony believe him. Or, maybe the whole Mephisto rumor turns out to be untrue.

One question remains: why did Tony sell the Avengers Tower in the first place? It’s not like he lacked proper funding as he did in ‘Avengers’ Vol. 6 #0, so why would he choose to leave that place behind and sell it?

Well, to me, the answer is quite obvious. The Avengers Tower was the home to not one but two of Tony’s worst traumas. One being the Battle of New York and the other being the creation of Ultron. Tony likely wanted to get rid of the Tower to leave that part of his life behind.

Also adding to that theory, the Avengers grew bigger as a team – hence, they owned a bigger residence, being the new Avengers Compound in Upstate New York. The Avengers Tower became a surplus – an asset the Avengers didn’t really need. Selling the building made sense, both practically and emotionally, for Tony.

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