Sunday: Open Discussions

[cap_ironman_daily]

Welcome to our Sunday open discussion thread! Every week we'll have either open discussions or miscellaneous activities that come up.

You can talk about anything to your heart's content, stony-related or otherwise! What's going on in your life? Excited about all the recent Infinity War news?

If you have any spoilers in your comments, you can use the following code to help censor them:
<span style="background: black">YOUR SPOILER HERE</span>

And on a community-related note...

• The Annual Rec Week has started today! We hope you spend this week gathering and sharing all your favorite works!


• Tuesday Themes & Prompts, Friday Fanwork Recs, and Sinful Saturday will be on break this upcoming week, but will continue next week!


• The Tiny Bang Round 3 has begun! Check out Timely and Winghead.

Have fun!

Comments

[chnks]

hi you guys! i'm fairly new in this fandom and since i'll have a lot of free time in the next month or so i have finally decided to catch up with all the amazing stevetony i've been missing from the comics, so! seeing a have a LOT of reading to do, i was wondering if anyone could give me a head start on what are the best/your favorite comics arcs for me to start from?
i'll take any recs that include steve and tony together or individually that you guys think that are rly just great!
(also i'm not sure if i'm posting this in the right place ;; please let me know if i should move it somewhere else!)
thank you~

[fluffypanda]

Hi! Welcome to the fandom!

I haven't read very many of the comics myself, just Iron Man: Fatal Frontier, Iron Age, Iron Man Noir, Marvel 1872, a few arcs from Iron Man vol. 3 and some of the Ultimates stuff, none of which were particularly strong on the stevetony content, but still pretty enjoyable. With the exception of Ultimates and Iron Man vol. 3, they are all short enough that you could read them in one or two sittings.

Here are some links with other people's recommendations re:stevetony content in 616:

http://wingheadshellhead.tumblr.com/comicsfaq
http://slaniasong.tumblr.com/post/41179185407/a-guide-to-616-comics-for-the-steve-and-tony-fan

[chnks]

!!! omg that's so very helpful i pratically ate up all the info in the second link and there's a lot of stuff i didn't know abt so i'll never be able to thank you enough!
all the recs i've seen so far put the new avengers + the ultimates pretty high on the list of fandom favorites so they're definitely on my list by now along with iron man vol 3, i'll definitely put the other ones on my list tho
thank you sooooo much for the help!

[magicasen]

Hi! Welcome to the fandom! I just wanted to pop in to say I'm so happy to see people get interested in the comics, there's so much Steve/Tony goodness in there!

I'd recommend against reading Ultimates to get into comics though: it's basically the dark, gritty AU that isn't really representative of the comics characters. It's fun to write in fic because it's so different from 616, but the actual verse itself uses a lot of shock-value violence that can be kind of off-putting.

My first rec is for New Avengers vol 1! The Avengers comics starting from there is where the vast majority of 616 fanworks is, so if you want to understand fanfic better and be subjected to the roller-coaster that is Steve/Tony, I'd say that is your best bet!

However, if you just want to start with some shorter comics, I'd recommend "Captain America and Iron Man #633-635" which is a self-contained mini-arc where they go on a mission together :) Avengers Prime is also a popular comic for Steve/Tony, at only 5 issues. "Captain America: Man Out of Time" is a retelling of Steve first waking up from the ice that is really well-written and has some nice Steve/Tony content in it, too.

[sineala]

*jumps in* Hi! Welcome!

I am going to dis-recommend Ultimates, and actually also v3, as a place to start.

I will let other people go into detail on why Ults is probably not the best universe to start with, but let's just say that I would really, really recommend you read another universe first and then come back to Ults if you're still interested. (Ults is the continuity that made me quit reading comics for a decade. And I love it now, but. Really, don't start here.)

I'm also going to recommend against v3. I know a lot of people really love Avengers/Cap/IM v3. I really love them too! But I think they -- or at least Avengers -- are designed as a deliberate nostalgia trip for people who already know 616. If you know 616, they're great! If not, they might get confusing. I tried to start with v3 like everyone told me to and I gave up partway through Avengers v3 #1 because it has literally THIRTY-NINE AVENGERS and you are expected to know who they all are. I didn't. And I came back when I did know who they all were and it was great, but it didn't work for me before then.

I will definitely second New Avengers v1 as a good starting place -- the team is much smaller, and, I mean, the majority of the team is Cap, Iron Man, Wolverine, and Spidey, and everyone knows who they are -- that also has the virtue of leading up into Civil War, which a whole lot of 616 fic is about. :D I would also second Magic's recs for the One Night in Madripoor arc (that's Cap #633-635), Avengers Prime, and Man Out of Time. If you can get your hands on it, there's a trade paperback called "Iron Man/Captain America" that reprints a bunch of older issues featuring the two of them; it's a lot of fun.

I actually started with Hickmanvengers (Avengers v5 & New Avengers v3), which is... divisive in fandom, and even the people who liked it generally agree that the ending was unsatisfying, but, well, it is an Avengers run that has a lot to do with what Steve and Tony feel for each other.

You might also enjoy Marvel Adventures: Avengers, an all-ages series that's a lot of fun.

As for solo comics that haven't previously been mentioned (Noir, Fatal Frontier, Iron Age), my favorite Iron Man run is Denny O'Neil's run containing the second drinking arc (#158-200); most of this is available in trade now -- the trades are The Enemy Within, Duel of Iron, and I think Iron Monger? (I don't have the last one, so I'm not sure.)

[navaan]

Oh, is Marvel Ults that popular now? It used to be the canon people didn't want to read, because it is so dark and puts a gritty twist on the characterization. I personally love it very much and highly recommend it, but I would also not recommend it as the introduction to the main comic verses. Although the Steve/Tony content is pretty contained to the issues relating to the Ultimates, so it can be read in one go pretty quickly and has some really crazy-good plots. I know at least one person who started with Ults and they seemed to enjoy it. ;)

If you want to get into 616/the main universe salmastryon put together a Introduction to Comics a few years back and it's a good start and most things on there are easy to get into when you're new to comics. It says nothing about newer canon, of course, but it's a good way to get started. :)

[chnks]

lmao i feel like you all saw me talking abt the ultimates and went immediately all "oh dear nOOOOOOO" it's rly cute
so the ultimates is a nono for me rn then, i'll get back to it when i'm done with the new avengers and the more basic stuff which i already have downloaded and ready to go!!
i rly appreciate the stevetony related recs bc i'm dying to see their bond in the comics and it's nice to have a place to start! i'm downloading one night in madripoor as we speak!
also! i'm including the man out of time and the iron man comics by denny o'neil's in my list too bc i'm dying to understand both steve and tony's characters outside of the ship too, i've been reading a lot abt 616 tony recently and the more i know the more my heart hurts for everything he's been through omg i'm in for a wild ride aren't i?
anyway thank you soooooo much for replying you guys, i did not expect such a warm welcome ;^; ❤️ i'm very happy i joined the group

[fluffypanda]

No problem! Magicasen, Sineala, and Navaan all know way more about comics than me, so their advice probably better than mine. (Seriously, those titles in my first comment? That's pretty much all I've read. I'm not the example to follow here.) (They are also probably right about Ultimates, it should only be read if you really know what you are getting into and have already familiarized yourself with the mainline stuff.)

[navaan]

Hi and welcome! :) I hope you have lots of fun on the community, in this fandom - and with discovering comics.

The nice thing about comics is that though they can be confusing with timelines and crossovers, you don't actually have to read everything to get into them. It's a good idea to look for some self-contained arcs or trade collections first and see what kind of stories you get interested in. I hope you get a lot of recs!

(also i'm not sure if i'm posting this in the right place ;; please let me know if i should move it somewhere else!)


No worries. There is no wrong and right place! The Open Discussion post is always a good place to ask questions. But you can also open a new post in the community at any time if there is something you want to ask about/discuss with the rest of the community. People are always ready to jump in and answer Steve/Tony related questions. ;)