Comics: Marvel Civil War: The Confession

(AKA me thrusting my OTP upon anyone foolish enough to read this. This is a half-joke. But seriously, I would have written about Casualties of War [which I'm pretty sure I will eventually] if I wanted to prove the ship to you, haha.)

Before anything else, I should come clean and say that I have been a devoted Captain America/Iron Man shipper since around late 2012. My fandom origin story is pretty weird. I think it was when a friend of mine on Facebook posted a really gorgeous piece of fanart following the release of The Avengers, and I couldn't get it out of my mind, so I started reading fic and liking it. Eventually, I read all the comics related to understanding the relationship between Steve and Tony, and found myself unable to stop reading about them in fanfiction.

Part of my required reading was, of course, the Civil War arc. Civil War, as a Marvel comics event, is known as The One that Turned It All Around for Marvel. At a time where DC was not only outselling Marvel, but more or less beating it into a bloody pulp, Marvel was able to avoid bankruptcy through Civil War. 

Civil War focuses on the romantic break up conflict between Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Iron Man (Tony Stark) following a disagreement regarding the Superhero Registration Act (SHRA). This Act basically required superheroes to register in the government so they can be held accountable for their actions and so the government can call on them to fight for the nation if need be. Something most Team Cap (in real life) supporters seem to forget is that Tony was actually anti-SHRA in the beginning, but following an incident in Stamford where over 600 civilians were killed because unpoliced superhero activity, Tony was more or less forced to re-evaluate his stance once public opinion on superheroes plummeted.

This, in addition to an instance in the past wherein a drunk Tony Stark almost seriously injures his employee, leads Tony to support the SHRA. On the other hand, Steve Rogers distrusts the government (with good reason, given its track record) and is sure that the SHRA can only lead to the government using superheroes and dictating who the villains are for personal gain. Steve believes that superheroes should be trusted to be accountable for themselves. The two become the poster boys for opposing sides of the Registration Act and so they bang fight.

Reading CW broke my heart, and it took me a while to read through it because I felt my mind just trudging through and flipping each page was a chore because it just made my heart bleed. Some people find it ironic, but CW was really what cemented the Steve/Tony ship in fandom, largely because they take each other so seriously and to such lengths, that many could argue that the sheer scale of their fight could only really be justified by a pre-existing romantic relationship. Even some of their most notable comic book writers are in on it. Jonathan Hickman has compared Steve and Tony's relationship to that of a married couple's, and Brian Michael Bendis wrote Avengers Prime as a sort of follow up to CW where Steve and Tony go on an adventure to remind them "why they love each other so much."

In any case, CW is both the divorce and strength of Steve and Tony's relationship. In fact, an actual universe in the comics exists where everything is peaceful and amazing solely because Steve and Tony's female counterpart in that universe (Natasha Stark) got married. Let me say that again: the marriage of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark prevented Civil War. So, thanks Marvel, it's now pretty much canon.

In the past, I have always said (and my friends can attest to this) that I honestly believed that CW would never happen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU was simply too different - how would they justify the radical, liberal Tony Stark, who has always literally and figuratively given the government the middle finger, eventually being pro-SHRA? How would they justify straight-laced, we-have-our-orders-let's-follow-them Steve Rogers being against it? After the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I could see Steve being against it, but even Age of Ultron wasn't enough to make me see Tony being pro-SHRA.

Still, they're apparently doing it, and it's being released next year, so I thought it would be good to do a review on my favorite Civil War tie-in: The Confession. ♥ The title is as shippy as it sounds. Haha. SPOILERS ABOUND, proceed with caution!

The Confession deals with the aftermath of the death of Steve Rogers (who dies at the end of Civil War - he is shot by a brainwashed Sharon Carter, or Agent 13 as we currently know her in the MCU). Tony Stark is named the new director of SHIELD, and has to oversee and lead people into the next chapter of their lives with the SHRA.

In the comic, Tony goes into a room, sits down, and starts talking about the events that transpired during CW. He even talks about never having had a drink during all of this, something I interpret as a small reference to why he was pro-SHRA in the first place, among other things. This all eventually leads into a very distraught Tony, tears streaking down his face, confessing to Steve's corpse the one thing he can "...never be able to tell anyone now. Not my friends or my co-workers or my president... The one thing!! The one thing I should have told you. But now I can't..."

The final spread is of Tony crying and staring at Steve's dead body. He confesses, "It wasn't worth it."

And that's just it, isn't it? They were both so stubborn, fighting it out, almost killing each other and their old friends more than a handful of times, splitting up literal families, breaking relationships that can probably never fully heal again, all to fight for the thing they so firmly believed in - for something they both believed was right, because as superheroes, they knew it was their duty to do what was right. But at the end of it all, after having won the battle, Tony is left with possibly the most heartbreaking sentiment to have ever graced a comic book (this is not an exaggeration!): It wasn't worth it.

The Confession does two things: first, it proves that with and despite CW having torn apart not only the superhero community, but even the fans of Marvel, there is no clear cut answer. Steve dying doesn't make Tony right, Tony saying it wasn't worth it doesn't make Steve right. They were just two people who fought for what they believed in. Steve definitely had a point against Tony regarding the selfish intentions of the government, but Tony also definitely had a point against Steve in that they should be held answerable to a group (the accords, as they apparently will be calling it in the movie). After all, not every superhero has Steve's moral compass - really, probably no one else does. Really, what made CW so unique was that both sides had equally solid arguments. Most fans actually seemed to end up siding with whoever their favorite hero was, not with who they actually thought they agreed with. Just like in real life, there are shades of gray.

Second, The Confession humanizes Tony Stark, who for some reason always ends up suffering in two ways the hands of comic book writers: he literally suffers because he's always going through something bad, and a lot of the time, his character suffers because he's portrayed as someone who's asshole-ish and unlikable. The Confession humanizes him by exploring how Tony deals with Steve's death, not as an enemy and not even as someone he disagreed with, but as someone with whom he's had a very deep and meaningful relationship with, whether or not it was platonic. 

This horrible heartbreaking ending, juxtaposed with the alternate ending where Steve is alive, held in a prison cell and ends up shouting at Tony, "Was it worth it? Tell me, was it worth it?!" really only goes to show how deep Steve and Tony's friendship was in the beginning to have them be as sore as they were in the end.

The choice of the leaders for each side in CW was not a coincidence. These two polarized fans as much as they did the fictional superhero community precisely because in as much as this is a battle of principles, it is in the nature of being a superhero to be judged for your identity - and the two leaders, Steve and Tony, could not be more different and simultaneously eerily similar. One symbolizes the past, one is the future; one is conservative, the other liberal; one is open and honest with what he does and believes strongly that what he's doing is right, the other is more cautious around people and more prone to putting up walls. and is prone to self-doubt about his own beliefs and convictions. Both are proud to a fault, hard-headed, vocal, and most of all, they are fans of each other and really good friends. You'd have to be to trust someone with your life on a daily basis for the past x years (as fans have picked up on). It is precisely their deep friendship that makes CW 3948752030 times more heartbreaking, and therefore, more effective as a story.

They love each other, and the whole superhero community knows it.

I am still doubtful as to whether they can translate this hurt that well in the MCU (Steve and Tony aren't even overly close in the MCU - in the comics, they have literally called each other beloved, not to mention the fact since it's a Captain America movie, there's a very, very real chance they would frame Tony as a villain), but until I watch the end product, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

EDIT SEPT 28:
Apparently, Chris Evans initially sided with Tony when he first read the Civil War script:

"Tony actually thinks we should be signing these accords and reporting to somebody and Cap, who's always been a company man and has always been a soldier, actually doesn't trust anymore. Given what happened in Cap 2, I think he kind of feels the safest hands are his own," Evans told the rapt crowd (via The Salt Lake Tribune). "And these are understandable concerns, but this is tough, because even reading the script, you think I think I agree with Tony in a way, and I do agree that to make this work, you do need to surrender to the group. It can't just be one person saying this is right and this is what we're going to do."

 This gives me so much hope I want to cry. God bless Marvel. In the Russos we trust.