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blossomsinthemist) wrote2018-12-11 03:09 pm
Captain America and Iron Man Comic Book Starting Points
Anonymous said: Hi! So the Marvel fandom is pretty much the first fandom that I've stuck with for more than eight months, and I'm planning on sticking around for a lot longer but I got obsessed because I watched Avengers and proceeded to flip out over Steve and Tony (I was ridiculously happy when I found out they were a big ship) and I want to get in on the Earth-616 comic verse too after reading a lot of fic and wiki pages on the universe. I'm sort of confused on where to start though, so what do you suggest?
And I responded:
Ahhh, welcome to the comic verse, Anon! I’m super glad you’re sticking around! I MEAN STEVE AND TONY RIGHT???
Comics can be so confusing, though, I feel you. The tricky thing is that starting to read comics really does end up, eventually, feeling like diving into the deep end, no matter where you start, because there’s so much and it’s all interconnected. On the other hand, you don’t have to read too many to get the feel of it, I don’t think. So it goes both ways. My main advice is don’t worry if you’re confused at first—everyone is, and they can be confusing! Just latch onto the parts that interest you the most or that seem most fun, and follow those. And seriously, I’ve been heavily reading Marvel comics for years now (whoa, when did that happen), and I’m always finding out stuff I didn’t know about and going THAT HAPPENED???
So, since you’re into Steve and Tony, my overall advice is to focus on the Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers titles in general. Sometimes compilations of issues through the years can be really useful, and there is, handily, this one:
Iron Man / Captain America, which covers a lot of their appearances together. Namely: Tales of Suspense #58, Iron Man #172, Iron Man #228, Tales of Suspense one-shot 1995, Iron Man/Captain America Annual 1998. You might have seen the panels about staring into Steve’s “azure eyes” and their general mutual admiration society, that’s from the 1995 Tales of Suspense one-shot. Tales of Suspense #58 is the one where the Chameleon takes on Steve’s form and tricks Tony into thinking the REAL Steve is the Chameleon, who’s beaten him up, hijinks ensue. Iron Man #172 is in the middle of Tony’s drinking arc, when Steve confronts him and it goes badly, pushing him down further, and Iron Man #288 is their confrontation in the middle of Armor Wars. The Iron Man/Cap Annual from 1998 involves Tony wiping people’s minds of his secret identity and Steve being angry with him over it, then they go to a tropical island together, fight AIM, and make up. Very fun.
More follows under the cut!
Other good moments for them, most of which can be found in trade paperback or hardcover compilation form, include:
New Avengers vol. 1 (this happens after Avengers Disassembled, which basically means: the team fell apart, in this, Steve comes to Tony about putting a new team of Avengers together, this is pre-Civil War)
Captain America and Iron Man (this takes place in the middle of another storyline, but it’s still enjoyable on its own, I feel like! The other storyline can be followed in Captain America and Bucky, Captain America and Hawkeye, and Captain America and Black Widow)
Of course, there’s also the whole Civil War conflagration, which you hear a lot about in fandom, Steve and Tony ending up on opposite sites of the issue of superhuman registration and the conflict over it, VERY EMOTIONALLY. A good reading order for that and the following events shakes down like this:
Captain America: Winter Soldier arc (comes in a handy omnibus edition)
Amazing Spider-Man #529-531
Civil War (the event title itself)
Civil War: Frontline vol. 1, vol. 2
Casualties of War (Steve and Tony fight in the ruins of the Avengers Mansion)
The Death of Captain America (this comes in another handy omnibus edition, perhaps predictably, given the title, Steve dies and Bucky Barnes takes over as Cap)
The Confession (which should be collected in some of these other compilations, but I’m listing it here just because it’s so formative for Steve and Tony’s relationships to many readers, Tony sheds tears over Steve’s dead body and explains why he’s done what he’s done)
Civil War: Fallen Son (various characters, including Tony, react to Steve’s death, this includes Steve’s funeral, where Tony breaks down publicly)
Iron Man: Director of SHIELD: With Iron Hands
Secret Invasion (the Skrulls invade)
Secret Invasion: New Avengers vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3
Secret Invasion: Mighty Avengers vol. 1, vol. 2
Then comes Dark Reign, which involves Norman Osborn taking over Tony’s job as Director of SHIELD, and Tony having to go on the run and delete his brain to protect the registered superheroes from him, which leads to:
Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted vol. 1
Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted vol. 2
And then we have:
Captain America: Road to Reborn (setting up Steve’s return!)
Captain America: Reborn (Steve comes back!)
Tony comes back in: Stark Disassembled
Siege (Norman Osborn attacks Asgard and gets removed from power)
this is where Avengers Prime comes in, directly, and I mean DIRECTLY, following Siege
After this is the Heroic Age, where Steve is Commander Rogers, Bucky is Cap, and the Avengers get put back together. This continues until the event Fear Itself, where Bucky goes back to being the Winter Soldier and Steve becomes Captain America again.
That’s BASICALLY the run-through of that series of events. A lot of those don’t have to do with Tony and Steve SPECIFICALLY, that’s just the overall run through of the major storylines concerning them during this time period. These storylines get referenced a lot in 616 Steve/Tony fandom, so just knowing the sequence of events there can be helpful for fic-reading purposes (you can use a wiki to follow the chronology and skip around, too, of course).
Let me just leave you with a brief series of recs for the two characters and Avengers comics in particular!
Relevant early issues include, along with the aforementioned Tales of Suspense #58
Avengers #1 (self-explanatory)
Avengers #4 (the Avengers find Steve in the ice!)
Tales of Suspense #39 (Tony Stark’s first appearance)
Tales of Suspense #45 (first appearance of Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan)
For these, I recommend: Avengers #1-30 Hardcover Omnibus and Iron Man Masterwork Collection Volume 1.
For Iron Man, major issues and arcs are:
Iron Man #118, Rhodey’s first appearance
Demon in a Bottle (the first drinking arc, featuring Bethany Cabe)
Obadiah Stane and the second drinking arc (issues #163-#200, partly collected in Iron Monger, issues #193-200, this is the one where Tony really hits rock bottom and is homeless for a while, and also the one where Steve confronts him, in issue #172, as mentioned above)
Armor Wars (Tony becomes paranoid about the theft of his armors and hunts them all down)
The beginning arcs of Iron Man vol. 3, which basically returns Tony after a reboot and reset of the universe (in vol. 2), the details of which it’s really better not to worry about:
Skipping ahead a bit, you get the iconic Extremis, where Tony shoots himself up with an experimental biotech retrovirus, and the fallout from that:
I personally would also recommend this miniseries, involving Tony time-traveling through his own past:
Iron Man: Iron Age (Alpha, Iron Age #1-3, Omega)
For Captain America, I’d recommend:
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (also here in hardcover)
Captain America #177, the first issue with Sam Wilson (collected in various compilations)
The Secret Empire (though this arc contains the unfortunate and racist retcon about Sam’s past, it also is the first story about Steve defying the government and stopping being Captain America for a while because of it, which leads to—)
The Death of the Red Skull (contains a lot of really enjoyable early comics about Steve, in my opinion, and offers a good taste of volume 1 Cap comics)
And the beginning of Mark Waid’s volume 3:
This era has a few really good interactions with Tony in it, too, and a lot of good Steve character stuff.
As well as this retelling of his being unfrozen, which features a lot of interaction with Tony: Man Out of Time (the hardcover of which also includes Avengers #4!)
For the Avengers, there’s always some of their big story arcs:
Operation Galactic Storm vol. 1, vol. 2 (this has a lot of good Steve and Tony VERY feelsy interaction)
And various assorted Avengers issues:
Avengers vol. 1 #16 (The original Avengers take a leave of absence, Steve remains and recruits new members, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch)
Avengers vol. 1 #216 (These two issues cover the story where Tony’s identity as Iron Man is revealed to the team, including his underwear choices)
Avengers vol. 1 #221 (the Avengers recruit a new roster!)
Those are what I feel are some of the easiest comics to just pick up and start reading, out of the titles I mentioned.
I hope overall that’s not too confusing, and really, you can just pick any of the above and start reading! Sort of shop around until you find something you enjoy reading, you know? I hope this is helpful. I know it’s a lot! Good places to start might be the Iron Man and Captain America TPB I mentioned first, Man Out of Time, Extremis, and Avengers Prime (if you ask me). Sorry if that was too much info! Also, I know a lot of the ones I linked are on backorder from the site, but once you know what you’re looking for, it’s fairly easy to find them elsewhere online, I feel like (whether for sale or not).
no subject
1. go to Cap-IM slashy moments list
2. browse slashy moments & pick one you like
3. read that comic
4. ?????
5. You have falled down the comic rabbit hole and you can never get out.
no subject
(Also it's 100% how I started with them tbh.)