Last year we celebrated 10 Years of Steve/Tony. So far this year, we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the

cap_ironman community and next month it'll be time to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A lot of time has passed, a lot of fans have shared their love for the Steve/Tony ship with us and put in work to share the love for this ship.

In July, it will be ten years since elspethdixon posted her Captain America/Iron Man (Marvel Comics) Ship Manifesto in the

ship_manifesto community on Livejournal: an essay and overview of the Steve/Tony ship that aided the start of our fandom and the still active Steve/Tony community.

Ten Years Later

Much has transpired during those ten year in Marvel Comics canon, the Marvel multiverse, and in the Steve/Tony fandom. But not least of all, the MCU has given shippers an accessible and immensely popular Steve/Tony universe, and brought in so many new members to our community in the past decade. Just look at all the brilliant Steve/Tony moments everyone voted on during our Best of Steve/Tony 2018 votes.

Steve/Tony and the Marvel multiverse go hand-in-hand. And that's why it is time to for the community to come together to continue on the legacy of the Steve/Tony Ship Manifesto, and help create the...

The Steve/Tony Multiverse Ship Manifesto

What is a Ship Manifesto?

To quote the original

ship_manifesto community, a ship manifesto is a "a public declaration of fannish love for a particular pairing or ship". The idea was to provide "readers with a detailed listing of pairings, insight into the characters behind the pairings, and contextual understanding of what makes the pairing work" and "provide newcomers with a starting point for further exploration."

People signed up to write detailed essays of 1500 to 5000 words to give people unfamiliar with ship a good reason to check it out and fall in love!

What is the goal of this post?

The goal of this post is to give the Steve/Tony ship an updated ship manifesto, one that not only acts as a sequel to the original essay — we don't want to reiterate the original essay, we want to expand on it and branch out into the different Marvel universes we have come to enjoy. A new place to point newcomers who may want to learn about the multiverse versions they're unfamiliar with, a place that answers the question "Why do Steve and Tony belong together?" and a place for an ongoing discussion about the ongoing canon versions and the fandom.

To achieve our goal, we want to explore the following points for versions of Steve/Tony across the multiverse:

Small character studies that allow the uninitiated reader to get to know the characters and understand who they are.

Canon or subtext evidence for why Steve and Tony work as a pairing.

Your own interpretation of the pairing and why you ship them.

Some background information on how you became involved with the fandom, and why you were first attracted to the pairing.

Meta/insight into why the reader should be following Steve/Tony.

Short fandom/universe guide (information on how to get into the canon, fanwork recs, useful sites etc.; resources that will help a newbie find their way around fandom and the Steve/Tony ship)

To make it a ship manifesto for everyone, we want to crowdsource and discuss everyone's thoughts on Steve/Tony. Everyone's shippy view of the pairing is welcome, everyone can share their opinion. (Please, remain positive and be nice to each other! You don't need to hate on other characters or ships to justify your love for Steve/Tony!)

This post will remain open indefinitely, so that shippers old and new can come back here in the future and talk about new developments and give new fans a chance to see Steve/Tony fandom as it progresses. By next year, we'll archive everyone's thoughts, meta, and links into a new community Steve/Tony ship manifesto index.

Please promote the post. We want to have diverse viewpoints and opinions!

How do I help and join the discussion?

The mods will make top level comments with a subject line that indicates what part of the multiverse the thread will be for. You can comment there with your thoughts on all or some of the points listed above.

If you want to write an essay and post it in your own space, please do so and leave a link to it here on the post so that everyone can find it. Please indicate that it was written in answer to this post and link back to it, so that new people coming across it will find the main discussion easily. On Tumblr you can use the #capimmanifesto tag. We also encourage you to link to meta you've written previously or existing meta you think is relevant!

If you're new to

cap_ironman please read through our community information and posting guidelines before you get started!

The Cap-Iron Man Slashy Moments List

The Cap-Iron Man Slashy Moments List has been curated by different fans and

cap_ironman mods over the years and is closely connected to the answer of "Why do you think Steve and Tony are the ship?"

It's currently hosted on the

cap-im tumblr blog. The current overview post is here.

After months of discussion, preparation and work, we are now finally going to update the slashy moments list again with about a moment per week starting next week — and usher in the long overdue inclusion of the non-comic multiverses with MCU, animated universes and video game moments, as well as missing comic moments. (Expect us to do some reorganizing of tags and update the index as soon as the anniversary gives us a breather!)

As you're discussing why you love Steve/Tony across the multiverse, please let us know your favorite moments in canon and why you ship them. We'll be reading through everybody's comments and will include any moments we've forgotten as we're updating the Slashy Moments list!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This is where you can make a manifesto for the Marvel Cinematic Universe Steve/Tony. Tell us why you ship them in this universe and why everybody should!

I ship them in MCU because their relationship and confrontation has such a romantic tinge to it. There's a lot of putting people on the pedestal and a lot of very unspoken feelings and tension that's just roiling under the surface.

I also really like that Tony often responds to Steve on a purely emotional level. A good example of it is that time when he tells Steve he doesn't deserve to carry the shield, it's him trying to hurt Steve as much as Steve has hurt him, and that's not logical, it's a purely emotional outburst. A lot of their side-glances at each other, the way Tony actually listens to Steve's "together" speech in AoU, the way he looks at Steve when Steve talks about whether they're all monsters, all these moments of Tony paying 100% attention to what Steve is saying is unlike anything we see him do with anyone else, and I like that.

As for Steve, I don't think we ever see him as upset and disappointed as he looks in the final confrontation in CW, and I don't think I remember him ever tearing up about anything since he woke up in this century, so seeing him near tears there was a big punch in the gut and what tipped me over from friendship to shipping them. Because I could finally see him having a well of unspoken (very tender) feelings there in a way I hadn't completely seen before.

Edited 2018-03-18 20:13 (UTC)

I have kind of a personal ship manifesto for their MCU versions. I'm a 616 person first and foremost, but then CACW happened to me and yeah, two years later and the feels are still strong.

I love your manifesto! I felt the same way <3

That manifesto sums it all up so perfectly!

It really does. It also kind of twists your heart out and stomps it flat, but we're kind of used to that.

I love your manifesto. Spot on re Tony really trying for Steve all through out CACW and finally realising it’s one-sided with “..so was I”. Not Steve-bashing but I felt like he was really immature with his decision to fight his way through but then again .. he hasn’t been alive as long as Tony has.

That trailer from Civil War got to me, Tony's expression and response to Steve telling Tony that he's sorry but Bucky is his friend and Tony's simple. "So was I." I loved their dynamic, starting out on rocky territory with each other upon first meeting, and then growing to admire and respect each other.

There are just so many telling moments between the two of them. Tony doesn't let people tell him what to do, he is notoriously argumentative with authority figures. He doesn't let just anyone play the boss of him. We see Tony openly admit that Steve is the boss, the leader of the team. That coming from Tony is him showing his respect for an individual. We only see Tony do this with Pepper. Additionally he does back down from Senator Ross, but only because he knew what was at stake and being stubborn wouldn't have helped the situation. His main worry was getting Steve back and getting on Ross' good side was the only way to ensure that Tony himself would be allowed to do so.

We also all know, Clint's little quip to his wife when she states that their guests would have to double up, implies that Tony and Steve were gonna have to bunk together. A shame that it was never confirmed, that could have been for a good moment.

The ending of Civil War shows that Steve genuinely cares about Tony. Of all the people that Steve could have written that letter to, of all the people to give that phone to he chose Tony. Yes it could be argued he wanted it in the hands of someone who could rally the Avengers, but the letter held deeper meaning than just that. He states specifically. "If you need me." Steve could have sent that phone to Sharon seeing as she had helped him in getting to Bucky, she never doubted him from the very beginning. All in all it would have made sense for him to write to her, but Steve contacts Tony instead and ensures that there is way that Tony can reach him.

Edited 2018-03-18 21:47 (UTC)

I think we as fandom have no doubts about Steve and Tony bunking together :D

(also yesss to the phone, OF COURSE STEVE SENT IT TO TONY BECAUSE HE'S PINING GUILTILY AWAY SO MUCH)

Yes, I love that not only does Steve say he's sorry and that "if you need me, I'll be there" he also takes care to make sure Tony knows Steve forgives his role in the debacle by saying "you were doing what you believe in", meaning that he understands Tony had the best intentions no matter how wrong things went. For such a short little letter he says so much. I love that!

Overall, their relationship in the MCU is really nuanced, with RDJ and CEvan's acting giving us so much to read into.

Right off the bat, there is so much between them with Steve's connection to Tony's father and Tony's less than stellar relationship with him, made more complex but the admiration Tony has for Captain America. Despite the friction between them, they worked together so well, both to repair the helicarrier and to fight off the chitauri. Then there was that smile at the end of Avengers, when Steve tells Tony they won, Steve looks so happy to see Tony alive.

Then in Age of Ultron? In Tony's vision of the Avengers dying, he focuses on Steve and he just looks so distraught. Steve is so upset with Tony during the log splitting scene, he was actually hurt that Tony didn't tell him about Ultron. Then at the end of the movie they are almost playful with each other, leading up to Steve's "I will miss you" line.

Then you get to Captain America: Civil War and the two of them say so much to each other with just their eyes. Tony's trying to hard to keep the team together, to stay on the same side as Steve. And Steve's obvious relief when Tony shows up in Siberia to help him? Everything gets angsty from there with Tony taking Steve keeping the truth of his parent's death from him as a betrayal and it just hurts so good. The letter though, it was one of the worst apology letters I've ever heard, but it makes it so clear that Steve cares and wants to repair his relationship with Tony and Tony shows signs of wanting to repair that relationship too.

The Steve/Tony Multiverse Ship Manifesto & the Cap-IM Slashy Moments List

Ten Years Later

The Steve/Tony Multiverse Ship Manifesto

The Cap-Iron Man Slashy Moments List

Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Re: Manifesto: Marvel Cinematic Universe