Civil War: Casualties of War - Iron Man/Captain America #1

Civil War continues from Black Panther (vol. 4) #22…

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In the middle of the superhero civil war over the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA), Captain America (Steve Rogers) receives a message from Iron Man (Tony Stark) to meet on neutral grounds to talk it out.[1] This neutral ground is the ruins of Avengers Mansion.[2] It isn’t a trap and Steve came because he knew that Tony wouldn’t cause a fight on such hallowed ground. Stark agrees that all he wants to do is talk. Before something like the death of Bill Foster happens.[3]

This instantly angers Cap, who blames Tony for the death. Tony reminds him that all he wanted to do then was talk, but Steve used an electronic scrambler to short out his armor. Rogers defends that decision because Tony had led him into a trap and incapacitated his teleporters so they couldn’t escape. Realizing that things are already getting heated, Cap pauses to recompose himself and re-commits himself to talking.

Iron Man starts by pointing out the irony of the situation, recalling back to the Armor Wars. Tony had gone rogue and started deactivating all unauthorized use of his Iron Man technology that had been stolen over the years. This put him at odds with the government, who employed some of this stolen tech, and a conflict with Captain America at the time.[4] Steve stops him there, saying he wants to talk to Tony Stark, not Iron Man. Upon request, Tony flips up the face plate of his armor so they can look each other in the eye.

Tony then tries to continue apologizing for what happened to Bill, but Steve tells him to start somewhere else. Looking around the room, Stark points to a wall and recalls that was the one he tore through during their first ever fight against one another. Steve remembers it well, at the time, Iron Man had been tricked by the Chameleon into fighting Captain America.[5] The two reminisce over the old days when they could nearly beat each other to death over a misunderstanding until teaming up and stopping the real bad guy like nothing happened.

Steve then changes the subject to the here and now and how things have changed. Tony still can’t understand why Steve is against the SHRA when not that long ago he was against the formation of the Young Avengers.[6] His reasoning at the time was that they were too young an inexperienced to be superheroes and that someone could get hurt due to their lack of training. He also points to how inexperience gets people killed, pointing to when Spider-Man (Peter Parker) was indirectly responsible for the death of his girlfriend Gwen Stacy when she was targeted by the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn).[7] He then points out that everyone who turns 18 has to register with the government, how is registering to be a superhero any different.

Tony retorts by saying that ordinary people don’t have the problem of a psychopath like Osborn, who targeted Peter’s girl because he knew who he was under the mask.[8] He also points to the original White Tiger (Hector Ayala) and US Agent (John Walker), whose parents were murdered after their identities were made public.[9] Tony counters this by saying that registrants can choose to keep their identities a secret to the general public. Cap reminds Tony that any number of supervillains are smart enough to hack the databases. He also worries what will happen if they end up with less favorable government administration in the future. Steve points to the two times when he gave up the Captain America identity because over the governments of the day.[10] He warns that the SHRA will take away the autonomy of heroes in operation. He also is concerned about superhumans being treated as Japanese-Americans were treated in World War II.

Iron Man thinks that this is part of Steve’s problem, he keeps looking at the past and that the future keeps looking more like internment camps will be the future if they keep doing things Cap’s way. He believes this because of the Stamford Disaster, because the New Warriors caused it chasing ratings for a reality TV show.[11] Steve admits that the Warriors weren’t smart or saints, but they were trying to do the right thing. Stark counters this by pointing out that going after Nitro in a populated area was irrespondisble.

Deciding to change the subject, Tony asks Steve if they can go outside because he wants to pay his respects to the newly restored memorial statues.[12] As they go, Steve can tell that Tony really believes in the new law but can’t understand why. Tony explains that it could have easily have been him responsible for something like Stamford. Steve finds this ridiculous until Tony says that it could have happened had he been drunk.[13] Tony then tells Cap about one of his most shameful moments. How, during one of his worst drinking binges he got into an ill advised fight with Machine Man that nearly killed some of his employees. He missed the disaster by an inch thanks to Machine Man’s quick actions.[14] Steve remembers this period well, and said that it all could have been prevented had Tony been more open about his drinking problem.

Stark uses this to prove another point: They have always policed their own, pointing to the time that Yellowjacket (Hank Pym) hit his then wife, the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), and his fall from grace that landed him in jail for a time.[15] He points out that Hank is now on his side of the conflict.[16] He says that heroes need oversight, just like police, soldiers, and first responders. However, Cap thinks that putting this into the hands of the government, pointing out that they have often been subjects of false accusations in the past, including Iron Man.[17]. They are bigger targets and could end up in jail for something they never did.

This frustrates Tony, who says that Steve can’t see things from his perspective because Captain America never makes mistakes. Thinking about the day that Bucky seemingly died, Steve disagrees.[18] Instead of that, Cap brings up the time he lost his cool during the Korvac affair, and how he took a swing at Tony for no reason.[19] Iron Man then suggests that Cap is using his status as a living legend to influence people to fighting on his side, even if unintentionally. Cap accuses Tony of the same thing, pointing out how he has been using Spider-Man’s need for a father figure to manipulate the wall-crawler.[20] He the accuses Tony of using his intellect to get what he wants. Steve points to Operation: Galactic Storm when he unilaterally decided to execute the Supreme Intelligence without trial,[21] or how he romantically pursued the Wasp during her problems with Hank without telling her that he was also Iron Man,[22] then when Steve was operating as the Captain, Tony gave him a replacement shield made of Vibranium with a failsafe that he used against Steve during the Armor Wars.[23] Cap says that Tony can be the nicest guy in the world, but at the end of the day what he wants trumps everything else, a quality that Steve sees in a lot of alcoholics.

This makes Tony remember that Steve once confided that own father was an alcoholic — which is impressive to recall, as Tony was loaded at the time — and takes it personally. Steve gets annoyed that Stark is making it so. But Tony can’t take it any other way, especially coming from a man who is physically perfect. The two start sniping at one another until Tony explains what would have happened if he hadn’t backed the SHRA. He brings up Project: Wideawake, a program the United States government was planning to deal with the perceived threat posed by mutants, that would have seen an army of Sentinel robots being deployed to control the mutant population.[24] Steve insists that would never happen because they’d fight it. Tony says that’s exactly what he is doing and points to how this war is tearing their community apart. He wants to stop things from escalating further and asks Steve what he should do.

Cap tells Tony that he needs to denounce the SHRA and join his side. Tony explains that he can’t just do that as Reed Richards or Hank Pym would continue the program without him. As for the resistance, Cap is the only driving force and pleads with him one last time to stand down. However, Steve refuses to surrender because he doesn’t want to go to jail for his convictions. Seeing that they are just going around in circles, Steve turns to leave. Tony grabs his arm to try and get him to stay and this causes the two men to hit their breaking point. Seeing that this is turning into a fight, Tony removes his armor so they can have a fair fight. Steve follows this by tossing aside his shield.

As the two fight, they both think back to the time when Tony — who had not yet revealed to Steve that he was secretly Iron Man — had asked Cap to teach him how to fight after a recent assassination attempt.[25] At the time, Tony thanked Steve for teaching him and the two express their mutual appreciation for one another, Cap specifically thanking Tony for giving him a home and purpose when he was revived in the present day after years in suspended animation. They remember how after that training session, Cap had told Tony that he would always have Iron Man’s back.

Suddenly, the two men stop fighting and both agree that they should have talked to one another sooner. With nothing left to say, both men leave to rejoin their respective sides of the on going civil war.

… Civil War continues in Captain America (vol. 5) #24.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Captain America

Continuity Notes

This story takes place after the passage of the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) in Civil War #2. This has put Iron Man and Cap on opposite sides of the conflict. Cap is against the act, while Iron Man supports it. This law will remain on the books until Siege #4.
At the time of this story, Avengers Mansion was left in ruins after the OG Avenges were attacked by the Scarlet Witch in Avengers #500-503. It will remain shutdown until it is repaired and re-opened in New Avengers (vol. 2) #1.
Bill Foster, aka Goliath, was part of Cap’s Secret Avengers team resisting registration. He was killed by a clone of Thor that was created by Iron Man in Civil War #3-4. As of this writing (November, 2024), Foster remains among the deceased.
The original Armor Wars took place in Iron Man #225-232 and Captain America #340.
The Chameleon tricked Iron Man and Captain America into fighting one another way back in Tales of Suspense #58.
Iron Man and Captain America both were against the formation of the Young Avengers. Unfortunately, neither were able to convince the youths to disband. See Young Avengers #1-6.
The infamous death of Gwen Stacy took place back in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
Norman Osborn famously discovered Peter Parker’s true identity back in Amazing Spider-Man #39 and often used this to mess with Parker’s life. This is a contentious issue being brought up here because, in Civil War #2, Peter revealed his identity to the public as a show of support for the SHRA. Everyone (including Osborn, Stark, and Rogers) will soon forget Peter’s secret identity thanks to a magic spell cast shortly after this story. See Amazing Spider-Man #545 and 610 for the skinny on that.
When the White Tiger’s identity was revealed in public, his parents were murdered by the criminal known as Gideon Mace, see Spectacular Spider-Man #50-52. US Agent’s identity was publicly exposed in Captain America #341, this led to the terrorists known as the Watch Dogs murdering his parents in issue #345 of that series.
Steve Rogers has either given up or stopped being Captain America for brief periods for political reasons. They were:
- The first time was when Steve discovered that the President of the United States was secretly the leader of the Secret Empire in Captain America #175. This disillusioned him that he gave up the Captain America identity and became Nomad in issue #180. Rogers maintained this identity until the Red Skull murdered his would-be successor in Captain America #183.
- The second time around, Cap gave up being Captain America when he refused to follow the administration’s mandates in Captain America #332. Steve then operated as simply “The Captain” starting in issue #337 until the Red Skull led to Steve reclaiming the role yet again in Captain America #350.
Prior to the start of Civil War, the New Warriors had reinvented themselves as reality TV stars starting in New Warriors (vol. 3) #1. As they are talking about this, Cap picks up a photo of Firestar and Justice, two former New Warriors who graduated to the Avengers back in Avengers (vol. 3) #4.
Iron Man mentions how the memorial statues to fallen Avengers have been fixed by the Young Avengers. They were damaged during the Scarlet Witch’s attack on the Mansion, and later repaired in Young Avengers #12.
Tony has had a long history of struggling with alcoholism. This was first addressed back in Iron Man #128.
The incident that Tony is referring to here is was when his business was being targeted by business rival Obadiah Stane starting in Iron Man #163. Stark’s drunken fight with Machine Man was in issue #168. Cap remembers that period, recounting the time he had to save a sloshed Tony Stark from a burning building, that was in Iron Man #172. Tony eventually got sober again after hitting rock bottom in issue #182 of that series.
Yellowjacket hit his wife in the infamous Avengers #213, this led to Hank getting kicked off the team. He was then manipulated by Egghead into committing a crime, leading to his arrest in issue #217 of that series. After serving some jail time, Hank was able to expose Egghead’s plot and redeem himself, as seen in Avengers #228-230.
The person that Tony thinks is Hank Pym is actually a Skrull spy named Criti Noll. Per Mighty Avengers #15, Hank was replaced just prior to House of M #1. This is ahead of a planned invasion of Earth that will take place primarily in Secret Invasion #1-8.
Cap mentions how he used to be a cop. Steve Rogers became a police officer in Captain America #139, a position he held until issue #159 of that series. He also mentions the time that Justin Hammer framed Iron Man for murder, see Iron Man #124-127.
As per Avengers #4, Steve blamed himself for the seeming death of his wartime partner, Bucky. This went on for years, until he discovered that Bucky had survived all those years as a Russian assassin called the Winter Soldier, see Captain America (vol. 5) #11.
The Korvac Saga took place from Avengers #167-177, Cap took a swing at Iron Man in issue #168 of that series.
Tony Stark started taking personal interest in Peter Parker and took him under his wing in Amazing Spider-Man #529-531.
Operation: Galactic Storm saw the Avengers in a the middle of an intergalactic war between the Kree and the Shi’ar. It took place in Captain America #398-400, Avengers West Coast #80-82, Quasar #32-34, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #7-9, Avengers #345-347, Iron Man #278-279, and Thor #445-446. Iron Man convinced a group of Avengers to execute the Supreme Intelligence despite Cap’s objections in Avengers #347. The Intelligence survived by transferring its consciousness to a different location.
Tony’s ill advised romance with the Wasp was in Avengers #224.
Tony later gifted Tony an Adamantium shield during the period he was “The Captain”, as seen in Captain America #339. Tony used it against him in Captain America #340-341.
Project: Wideawake was first in operation in New Mutants #1. However, the idea of having an army of Sentinels policing mutant populations has been a long standing fear of the X-Men after learning a possible future where this nightmare scenario game true, as seen in Uncanny X-Men #141-142.
Tony went to Cap for fight training in Iron Man #125. Although it is implied here that Cap deduced that Tony Stark and Iron Man were the same guy, Steve wouldn’t get confirmation of this until Avengers #215-216.