By Andrew A. Smith

Tribune Content Agency

Captain America: Civil War, premiering May 6, pits Iron Man against Captain America, two characters that the movies have established as having both philosophical and personal differences. But surely, you say, that wasn’t true in the comics, where squared-jawed heroes are always best buds!

Annnnnnd: No. Iron Man and Captain America have been teammates off and on going back to 1964, when the Living Legend of World War II was thawed out of his iceberg and joined the Avengers. But they haven’t always gotten along. In fact, they’ve often come to blows – sometimes by mistake, but more often because …

Tony Stark is a jerk.

Yes, it’s true! He’s always been an arrogant, laws-are-for-little-people elitist! Even in his early days, he did pretty much whatever he wanted, like dating Russian spies and making tons of money off defense contracts and creating international incidents. And when U.S. senators and got all up in his business, he’d tell them to go swallow a repulsor ray.

Talk about wish fulfillment! Flying and heat vision are all well and good, but rich, famous and above the law are the super-powers we’d probably rather have.

Now, in light of Civil War, it should be noted that whenever someone in the comics called Stark on his behavior, it was almost always Captain America. I don’t think there was any master plan; I think they were just such polar opposites that many writers on many books over many decades all arrived at the same idea, to create drama by having Winghead and Shellhead explore their philosophical differences in a deep and meaningful way.

Which, in superhero terms, means punching each other in the face a lot.

And it always works! It’s ultimate man vs. ultimate machine! Greatest Generation vs. Me Generation! High-minded morality vs. situational ethics!

Also, it’s really glitzy to look at. It’s a battle of the primary colors, between a guy in mostly blue and a guy in red and yellow. Man, that’s comics all over!

So, to celebrate Civil War, let’s take a look at the highlights of this long and bumpy relationship:

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

You have to admit, that is one colorful cover.

1964:The Chameleon (a villain who is a master of disguise) dresses up as Captain America, and tells Iron Man that he is the real Captain America, and the one at Avengers Mansion is The Chameleon in disguise. Result: Many pages of the Star-Spangled Avenger and the Armored Avenger mixing it up. OK, this is a classic case of mistaken identity, not a real fight. It's unfair to ascribe any personality conflict between the two, because back then superheroes were all square-jawed good guys. Hey, the cover blurb even refers to them as "two gallant allies." Yes, heroes were gallant back then! And well-groomed! And polite! But still: “I was too easily fooled by The Chameleon’s story,” muses Stark at the end. “It was unpardonably careless of me.” Almost as if he wanted an excuse to punch Cap in his perfect, white teeth.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Man, that has got to be hard on Cap's knuckles.

1978: Back in the days when everyone thought Iron Man was Tony Stark’s bodyguard, Cap became irritated that the Golden Avenger – despite being chairman at the time – was often absent or delayed on Avengers missions. Irritated enough, evidently, to “KANG!” him right in his armored face. “You low-life mercenary!” Cap shouts. “Don’t the Avengers pay enough for your services?” Ouch.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Worst. Intervention. Ever.

1983: Tony Stark hits bottom in his battle with alcoholism, which results in him losing his armor (to Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes), his Avengers membership (Rhodey resigns for him), his girlfriend of the time (name long forgotten) and, oh yeah, his company, which becomes “Stane International.” In this issue, Rogers gives Stark a serious chewing out for letting the bottle beat him. Cap gives up at the end, though. “A man must want to be saved,” he concludes. “Let me know when you do.” Ouch again.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

I think this is the one where Cap finds out Tony Stark booby-trapped his new shield.

1988: Tony Stark discovers that some of his technology has been stolen and is being used by various peacekeepers and criminals around the world. Amazingly, Stark decides he has the right to take it all back from everyone by force in a storyline titled “Armor Wars,” breaking all kinds of U.S. and international laws, even accidentally killing a couple of people along the way (one of whom was Soviet supervillain Crimson Dynamo, but still). Somewhere in the middle of this he battles Steve Rogers, who is protecting innocent prison guards wearing Stark armor. That was pretty much it for the two being pals, according to the omniscient (and florid) narrator: “No words are spoken, none are needed. For both men know that a bond has been broken today … a bond as old as their friendship … a dear and precious link that may never be whole again.” Sniff.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Can you really pull rank on Captain America because you joined the team three issues earlier? That means the Hulk can overrule Cap, too, Tony.

1992: After defeating the Kree Empire in “Operation: Galactic Storm” (well, with some interstellar help), the Avengers capture the creature behind it all, the Kree’s Supreme Intelligence, a conglomeration of the greatest Kree minds. Several Avengers want to kill it/him. Captain America, who is moral man, says no. Iron Man, who tends to ignore the word “no,” does it anyway. (That resulted in Iron Man leaving the team and forming his own for a while, with the almost too on-the-nose name “Force Works.”)

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

I actually don't remember which Cap/Iron Man fight this is from. They start to run together after a while.

1993: Did you know that Tony Stark once pretended to be dead, fooling all his teammates, friends and loved ones? Oh, he had his reasons, but you can imagine how angry they all were. Jim Rhodes put it best: “You got jerkin’ people around down to a science … and I’m tired to death of it.” That has nothing to do with Captain America, but man, that Tony Stark is a real piece of work!

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

I remembered this story readily, but it took me the better part of a day to find where it appeared!

1998: After Cap and Iron Man defeat a telepath who uses a satellite network to control minds, Stark ‘fesses up to Rogers that he used the network before dismantling it to make everyone on Earth forget Iron Man’s secret ID. An outraged Cap tries, and fails, to explain to an uncomprehending Iron Man why this is wrong. They agree to disagree.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

You know when two friends break up and they force all of their friends to pick sides? Like that.

2006: The comics version of “Civil War” is different in a variety of ways, but the bottom line is that Cap and Iron Man not only beat the ever-living snot out of each other for months, they recruit other heroes to beat each other up, too. The Star-Spangled Avenger actually wins the fight in the end, but surrenders when he realizes how dopey and irresponsible it all is. Better late than never, I guess.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Cap clearly won the fight, but lost  the war.

2014: Remember how Iron Man doesn’t understand that mind-control is wrong? In the “Time Runs Out” storyline, Captain America finds out that he has been mind-controlled by Iron Man and his “Illuminati” allies to forget that they’ve been blowing up alternate-dimension Earths to prevent our Earth from blowing up. (No, I’m not going to explain that.) At the end of “Time Runs Out,” Stark and Rogers are crushed by a helicarrier from a parallel world while in mid-combat. And, while I’m not explaining that, either, I will note that they get better.

Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Man, that's gotta hurt. But not as bad as having a helicarrier land on the both of them.

2016: In fact, they get a lot better. There is a new Marvel Universe these days – it was kinda-sorta re-launched last year – but it keeps most of the elements of the old one. Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are back, and once again Avengers.

Which probably means a whole lot of stories to come where they hit each other in the face.

 

Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (captaincomics.ning.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).

 

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  • As many here know cw1 nearly caused me to stop collecting comics at all and with cw2 coming up I decided to try and split from marvel comics completely.  Ignore them as much as possible, something I find easier since they canceled the FF.  Today I put all my Iron Man comics for sale on Ebay (1975 to 2000 with gaps here and there and a long gap in the 1980' and 1990's when I couldn't afford comics).  Maybe it's me as I have trouble with guys like Tony who seem more villainous at times than the foes they fight.  Or maybe it's just the forgiveness rate for Tony is so high and I find that really wrong.  There is almost nothing the character can't do that can't be swept away after a few years.

     At any rate I'm trying to make a clean break from the guy in the comics at least.  The movie looks better.  But as I read through your history Cap I have to wonder how two supposed friends can come to blows so often and do so many rotten things to each other and still be friends and how Tony can cross so many lines so often and still be welcomed back.  Does Cap have a short memory or a masochistic streak that just enjoys the abuse Tony gives him?  It's a bit naive of me perhaps, but that's how I feel.  Guys like Tony in both fiction and real life don't puzzle me as much as the people who put up with them.

  • It's a story, Mark. And like all great stories, the details may change, but the basic story doesn't. It's a myth. Myths come into being because we want them to. And we tell them around the campfire over and over again.

    Tony Stark and Steve Rogers will always represent certain things to us. Things that represent us. We all want to be Steve Rogers, but more often we're Tony Stark. And we tell stories to justify this, or explain it, or just entertain us.

    And we always will.

  •   I know its myth Cap and I know I'm on dangerous ground here, but bear with me for just one more post.

     At a certain point myth becomes cliche and Steve and the rest of the friends that Tony's walked over stop being friends and start being enablers.  In story Tony knows he can treat them like dirt and get away with it because after a while and maybe some bruises they'll all come back to him, implicitly telling him that he's right even if they don't actually say it.

      Out of story there is the problem of the writers constantly seeking to top each other.  Scroll down the list of stories you've listed.  The conflict goes from an imposter, to Steve's disappointment about Tony being late for a meeting (though I think that was an over reaction on Steve's part), Tony deliberately manipulating Steve during Armor Wars, Tony killing the Supreme Intelligence, Tony tampering with every mind on the planet, Tony's actions in cw, Tony and The Illuminati tampering with Steve's mind and blowing up a planet...  See the pattern?  Every crisis in friendship has Tony's actions becoming worse and worse.  Once he's done what ever he's done Steve and the rest throw a hissy fit and a few months later go back to him.  Given this pattern and how long it's held up I see no where for Tony to go but down and this pattern also says to me that there is nothing Tony can't do that he can't get away with.  

  • Well, from my point of view, even before "Secret Wars", I never thought of all of Marvel continuity as taking place in the same timeline. To my mind, the Marvel stories of the 1980's simply do not take place in the same timeline as the stories of the 1960's or of the early 2000's. Even if Marvel never admitted to it, they're three different worlds.  To put it another way, the Spider-Man who was around at the same time as the Ed Sullivan Show cannot be the same one as the Spider-Man who was on Saturday Night Live with John Belushi, and neither of them could possibly be the same person as the Spider-Man of today. (Heck, today's Spider-Man was almost certainly born after Belushi died!) 

    Thus, what we have here is not a decades-long series of betrayals  in a relationship between one Tony Stark and one Steve Rogers. No, what we have are several similar but distinct relationships between several similar but distinct Tony Starks and Steve Rogers on several different worlds. Marvel may pretend that they depicted one world in one timeline in one continuity, but that never worked for me.

  • Did you ever notice that the real bad blow-ups between Cap and Iron Man usually have little or no involvement from Thor (the real one)? That he somehow keeps the peace with these two very different yet similarly stubborn men.

    And that the Avengers keep having to pick sides!

  • Seems like most of these problems between them happened after Stark developed a drinking problem. Don't remember any problems before that except Iron Man losing his temper around Gyrich, and everybody hated Gyrich, Cap just held it in a lot better.

  • The heroes that died in Onslaught aren't quite exactly the heroes that came back in Heroes Return. The heroes erased when 616 was destroyed aren't quite the heroes they have now. That's three different realities just there. Perhaps the Hulk is somehow sensitive to these changes and that's why his intelligence and personality keeps changing so often. He's feeling the reboots the others are ignoring or not noticing.
     
    The Baron said:

    Well, from my point of view, even before "Secret Wars", I never thought of all of Marvel continuity as taking place in the same timeline. To my mind, the Marvel stories of the 1980's simply do not take place in the same timeline as the stories of the 1960's or of the early 2000's. Even if Marvel never admitted to it, they're three different worlds.  To put it another way, the Spider-Man who was around at the same time as the Ed Sullivan Show cannot be the same one as the Spider-Man who was on Saturday Night Live with John Belushi, and neither of them could possibly be the same person as the Spider-Man of today. (Heck, today's Spider-Man was almost certainly born after Belushi died!) 

    Thus, what we have here is not a decades-long series of betrayals  in a relationship between one Tony Stark and one Steve Rogers. No, what we have are several similar but distinct relationships between several similar but distinct Tony Starks and Steve Rogers on several different worlds. Marvel may pretend that they depicted one world in one timeline in one continuity, but that never worked for me.



  • Ronald Morgan said:

    Perhaps the Hulk is somehow sensitive to these changes and that's why his intelligence and personality keeps changing so often. He's feeling the reboots the others are ignoring or not noticing.
     

    You may have something there. Someone -- I think it was Bill Mantlo -- established that the Hulk was sensitive to magic, and could see ectoplasmic forms when nobody else could. (Truth be told, though, a number of writers don't seem to realize ectoplasmic forms are invisible, and in those stories everyone can see them.) It was never really explained; it just was. So maybe Hulk's senses reach beyond ordinary ones.

  •   The way I've always figured it the major parts of the heroes lives stay the same as reality shifts around them.  Those events are anchor points.  Peter and Gwen dated, she was killed on the bridge.  That happened no matter what the exact year.  There are milestones in the characters lives that can't change because they are so defining.  It doesn't matter what year it happened, Rogue did try to murder Carol Danvers and in the process stole most of her mind and soul, Armor Wars did happen, Galactus did show up, Doom did scar his face when he tried to use science to contact the after life... No matter how the reality shifts beneath the characters some points in their lives are solid.  Solid enough at least for the writers to have some foundation to work with.  The form of how these events happened can shift. from the spider being simply radioactive to being genetically modified, the ship that the FF first took off in can go from a pocket rocket to a 1970's era space shuttle, but the events happened.  After all if you don't have these events then with each story aren't you basically starting from scratch as far as characterization goes?   

  • Yeah, we have to be flexible or nothing works.

    In the specific case of Steve and Tony, the omniscient narrator told us during Armor Wars that the two men would never be friends again. But with the next issue of Avengers (and subsequent ones), they worked together fine, and appeared to be friends. So it behooved me to ignore the story, since Marvel was.

    Then the next time Stark and Rogers had a tiff, it was the first one again. And so on.

    But, as you said, Mark, some things remain relatively solid. And the idea that there's a natural fault line in the Avengers between Captain America and Iron Man is an idea that one writer after another has exploited for drama. But whenever time these two have a disagreement, it's treated as if it's the first one (or close to it), so I do, too.

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