#199999

I guess I'm coming from a bit of a directors stand point here. MCU specific, I love movies, but I have like absolutely no clue what happens in the comics aside from like two arguably one shot stories and everyone gave me the impression that the Avengers were more like family in the comics. In some comics. It makes very little sense to me for the suits up at Disney to have gone the direction they did, considering how the found family stuff would've been a damn good marketing thing, ykwim?

sorry for ranting lol. you just got me thinking about it

Hello there! No need to be sorry, rant all you want. I love talking, in fact I’m about to write you an essay! Feel free to ignore it, of course, if it’s too much. You just happened to stumble upon one of my weaker points, lololol. Disclaimer: Usually I would put more comics screenshots but I’m not avid Avengers or Iron Man reader. If I pick up books it’s mostly Spider-Man, also I’m knee deep in Ultimate. Ultimate Spider-Man not Ultimate Ultimate… (Cap: But they’re siblings *sad puppy eyes*) really, I fear the rest of this universe for a reason. ANYWAY:

Tony's a bit of a mixed bag hero. He wants to be good but he's going about it like a business man. In both cases, though I'd argue that in the movies Tony does in fact turn a bit of a family man by the end of it. (supporting the MCU’s fandom love for Avengers Family). Something that is for the most part Pepper’s fault! While in the movies we don't see any other romantic interest post Iron Man 1 (war flashes of Tony's party days) and I'm not counting flirting with Natasha in IM2 comics Tony (even during his Iron Man era) is a massive womanizer. He's not a person that settles down. He, like most of the heroes, has been around plenty. 

[Full List] if you want to take a look! - Reddit can be oddly reliable place.

First and foremost Tony’s arrogant and selfish person. From the get go he's an alcoholic, who fights with himself at every turn, who has everything he ever wants at the snap of his fingers. He’s one of the smartest people alive, the type who believes he is absolutely right, the one who believes that something needs to be done for the betterment of the world he will do it, at any cost. And that happens all the while he’s already knee deep in his super-heroing career.

Speaking of his alcoholism problems, because I' haven’t touched up on that'd like that touch up on that: Tony is, and I mean it, a hardcore alcoholic. And it destroys him. It’s beautifully shown in the famous Demon in a Bottle arc. His problems are the reason behind him eventually leaving the Avengers, at least for a time.

His ego is enormous, and wearing that mask Tony believes himself even more right than he did without it. He is after all, a genius, a billionaire, a man wanted by every woman and also a hero. He’s also a bit of a paranoiac, and a beat-yourself-up-about-your-every-little-mistake type. He is, under all that metal, just a regular human after all. Tony wants to be prepared for everything; he's a bit similar to Batman in that regard. What do I mean by that? Hulkbuster, Thorbuster? Armor made specifically in case one or the other turns bad? Not really too far-fetched, because we did get an evil clone Thor during the whole Civil War event (Marvel and their clones, am I rite?)

On the subject of Civil war, there are many things that happened during the whole event that could rub someone the wrong way; he, firstly, didn’t have any issues buying people over to his side. (Logan with beer, and Peter with money.) Secondly, he hired a hitman on Peter. Now digging a little bit into the Civil War conflict Tony wasn’t entirely wrong by siding with the Registration Act; their fights were and are ending, more often than not resulting in massive casualties but it’s hard to keep a hand on those kinds of things when there are so many supers running around. (It is especially different speaking of comics where at every turn you get a villain or a hero.) He starts the whole drama because of guilt. And there’s also the mutant's vision. An unreliable mutant’s vision, a mutant he didn’t even know before all of this mess. He wants everyone to take responsibility, and he doesn’t care much about the consequences. All he cares about is fixing whatever happens in that vision, because that’s what heroes do. They fix things. Let me side-track a bit! While we’re on CW. I’d like to point something out:

Hehe… Civil War? More like Parking Lot Beat Up, am I rite or am I rite? [Major reason why the dynamic is different btw! More characters = more conflicts]

There's also the point of Illuminati. Their little group was exactly what you think it was. Superheroes who decided on the fate of the world. Reed Richards, T’challa, Stephen Strange, Charles Xavier, Blackbolt (No I don’t remember his name), and Tony Stark. I’m sure I forgot some other members but I’m not going to go on about Illuminati today. Those. They weren’t really a good idea, that “team” if you can even call that. Amongst their more famous deeds was shooting Hulk into the cosmos (Planet Hulk, which is referenced in Thor: Ragnarok movie). This event should be, Incredible Hulk (2000 - 2008) #88 - 90 

There’s a lot we could dig out on Tony Stark. I would also like to point out a lil one shot from the “What if…” series; Tony and Victor swap their bodies and live each other's lives. Becoming Doom he becomes a hero like he always would, and also proves his own words (like he did many times in other issues), that he’ll always be able to work back into his fortune.

The Avengers Family is an MCU exclusive phenomenon—or well, that’s what always comes to mind, at least for me. We could argue that ultimate verse cartoons could have factored into the whole thing but I don’t see Avengers series ever mentioned in the fandoms on AO3 (or any show related events brought up in the works). Comic-wise the team is very corporate. It's especially hard to make them a “found family” since the team changes so much! Original squad, iirc was: Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Thor (Fact checked!.) Speaking of which. Generally Tony and Steve are both considered co-leaders of Avengers! We know that Hank Pym (The only other person I could see fill out the leader’s shoes) had eventually left the Avengers as well. So Tony would be the longest leader-figure in the team.

And while on the subject of Hank Pym! Hank and his wife Janet, could go for the more family feel of the group if not for the fact that… Janet likes to flirt. Now of course I’m not going to defend Hank, since he’s had a bit of dirt behind his ear (His son Ultron for example) as well but that amongst those there were many other things that happened between Hank and Janet that were also the reason for Hank's departure from the Avengers (Which by the way: Tony and Janet were, at one point, together). 

But, either way it all shifts and changes as the issues keep coming. We know that characters like Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Falcon eventually join the team, all in different times of their activity but that's not all. You can hardly go about marvel characters and their history without having them be part of the Avengers at some point. Fun fact is that General Ross (This Ross!) was also part of the team. So was Jessica Jones, so was She-Hulk, and Spider-Woman, and Black Panther and Moon Knight and Wolverine… You get the idea. Avengers is not, and never was an exclusive team of Superheroes. It's a bunch of supers from other teams who sometimes get together to defeat a bad guy. They come and go, like literally. Also I want to point out that multi-teaming isn’t rare either, especially if you’re famous amongst the readers! Best example: Wolverine! That guy’s been everywhere, trust.

It's especially something you see since each and every one of the Avengers have their own series that concerns them and their group. Captain America will be more involved with S.H.I.E.L.D in his comics, Iron Man and for example Spider-Woman mostly fly solo, Luke Cage used to have Heroes for Hire (Along with Danny Rand who may or may not have been an Avenger at some point as well). If we're talking superhero team and family Avengers is not what comes to mind at all! It would be the Fantastic Four/Futuric Foundation! See in this case even when we're focusing on a specific member they're still part of the FF. I think Peter's words sum it up quite well:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

(199999) PETER BENJAMIN PARKER

august 10th, 2001

Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes

Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes