The What If? Festival, Conclusion: What If the Avengers Had Never Been?

In their earliest days, the Avengers fail to stick together as a team, leaving Tony alone to face down Namor and the Hulk:

Initially without backup, Tony is - of course - beat to hell:

But the other Avengers, feeling guilty, come to Tony's aid in the armor he designed:

At a critical point in the fight, Hank is disabled -- and Tony uses his remaining strength to boost his fellow hero's power:

This drains Tony's chest plate, and his weak heart fails:

Thus, we have another What If? in which Tony performs an act of gratuitous self-sacrifice. 

As we've seen, these alternate universes aren't that different from the 616 -- at least where Tony's concerned. No matter the timeline, he's always ready to lay his life down for his friends.