hello! i wanted to know if you thought the conversation that steve and tony have about... registration... in empyre aftermath: avengers was weird or if it's just me? like... steve and tony joking about civil war? what universe is this in?
Before I answer this, I'd just like to make a request that people please not send me asks about Wednesday comics maybe until Thursday, or at least later in the day on Wednesday.
I would very much prefer to not be spoiled for the day's comics, and I usually don't get to read them until Wednesday afternoon. I deliberately try to avoid social media until then -- I don't check Tumblr (because people don't always tag their spoilers), I stay out of the #wednesday-spoilers channel on the 616 Discord -- but it's very hard to avoid asks that are being sent to me because they show right up in my email inbox, and in this case this ask was the first thing I saw in my email when I woke up Wednesday morning.
I know it wasn't on purpose, and you couldn't know because I haven't said it before, but hopefully it's something you all could kindly keep in mind for the future. Thanks!
(If you want to know when I have read the new releases, there will generally be a Wednesday Reading Meme post on my Dreamwidth when I've finished reading the day's comics -- or you'll probably see me up and about and reblogging posts on Tumblr.)
With that out of the way, an answer to your actual question.
Right. You're talking about this exchange:
I have to say that I actually really liked that exchange between Steve & Tony -- like, okay, sure, it was insensitive on Tony's part, but it also felt realistic for him as a character.
The way I think about it is this: any comments from Tony about Civil War should be primarily considered in light of the fact that he literally doesn't remember it. It doesn't seem like canon always remembers the fact that he has amnesia, but I feel like if anyone at Marvel does, I would trust Al Ewing to have it in mind.
So, yeah, Tony is certainly acquainted with the facts, but he doesn't know how other people are going to respond to discussion of the SHRA because he doesn't remember just how emotionally devastating it was for any of them. And I see this basically as Tony trying to broach the topic and see if it's okay for them to make jokes about, and when Steve and Thor are like, "yeah, no, don't," he doesn't bring it up again. He made a mistake. It happens. And I for one would much rather have a canon that remembers that events more than a couple years old still happened, and have characters bring them up, even if it doesn't go well, than a canon that doesn’t reference anything like this at all.
If Steve were joking about it, that would be different. Steve remembers. Steve's not going to think that's okay, and he shouldn’t think it’s okay, and I would be annoyed with a comic where he did. But he isn't joking. Tony's the one who's joking, because he doesn't remember, and Steve shuts him down, because he does remember. And that actually seems like a perfectly reasonable dynamic to me.
Tony is also a guy who has been established as getting into discussions about Civil War and/or the rest of the time that his amnesia covers even when he clearly doesn't remember what was going on and probably should have kept his mouth shut. The best examples of this are probably in Bendis' Avengers run, namely Tony's fight with Steve in Avengers Prime #1:
They go on even more angrily in that vein for a few pages, but, yeah, you can see Tony just being bewildered that suddenly here are all these things he had no idea he did and he feels terrible about them.
There's also their fight in the snow in Avengers vol 4 #9, which I think covers similar emotional ground even though the war isn't referenced, as far as I can remember, but it's clearly what's coloring their interactions there and fueling Steve's sense of betrayal at the fact that Tony has been doing things behind his back again.
And also there's One Night in Madripoor, specifically this moment in Captain America & Iron Man #634:
I think this is probably the most like Tony's comment in Avengers Aftermath. It's not quite the same sentiment, but it's also one of those things where I read it and I thought, "Wow, if Tony actually remembered the war there is no way he would have said that so casually."
But the difference is that in Madripoor Steve doesn't call him on that; in fact, he immediately backs down and apologizes for upsetting Tony:
Here in Aftermath he does call him on it, and, well -- I like that Steve does that. I feel like them not being afraid to tell each other when they think they're seriously wrong about something is an important quality in their friendship. It's a quality that has also gotten them into some major fights, but, well... it's who they are.
So on the whole I feel like it's an established pattern of behavior for Tony, even if it's not a particularly great one, and I like Steve's reaction, and mostly I'm glad that canon just hasn't totally forgotten that things have happened.
And, plus, Ewing had Thor bring Tony something non-alcoholic to toast with, which was sweet. So, yeah, overall I was very happy with that scene.
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