muchymozzarella:

Some people have mentioned that there seem to be more Tony stans than Steve stans in the MCU and have questioned why Tony seems to be more beloved as a character despite his fair share of screwups

And I have to point out that it’s because, from intro to present, Tony as a character has only gotten better. Steve… has not. 

The progression of Tony Stark’s character has shown him learning and growing from mistakes and becoming a better person in the process. I think the one movie that sort of failed this was Iron Man 2 and Age of Ultron, but even in AOU there was some kind of character progression in that Tony is clearly more at home working with a team than in the Avengers. 

Iron Man 1 showed Tony as a war profiteer who was either too greedy to care about the effects of his weapons or too apathetic. Then he went through trauma and proceeded to do two extremely life changing things: 1) Stop Weapons Production, which is his literal livelihood, and 2) Use his technology to help and save others as Iron Man

Avengers showed that Tony didn’t work well with others at first, but would later learn to work with a team to save people. It also showed that Tony was willing to die for the greater good. Not as a result of self destructiveness and ego, but because he was one of the few who could really do it, and was willing to despite wanting to live. 

Then we go on to Iron Man 3, in which Tony learns to deal with his issues and PTSD from Avengers, and learns to accept help and accept that he has a problem, starting with fixing his heart and not relying on the arc reactor. 

This wasn’t given the proper gravity in AOU, but AOU in comparison to the Avengers shows how well Tony really works with a team now, even when the world isn’t technically in mortal peril. 

And finally, Civil War, in comparison to Iron Man 1 and 2, shows that Tony is no longer so flippant of regulatory oversight. Shows he is willing to compromise, where he was previously against any sort of deal with outside elements. His ego no longer gets in the way of reason. He knows he’s not infallible. 

These are largely positive or sensible progressions in character. Tony goes from egotistical greedy apathetic warmonger to humbled hero who tries to make up for all his mistakes and focuses solely on helping others. 

Steve, on the other hand… 

Steve was already good from the start. Which means his progression is a little less positive. Also he has fewer films than Tony, so Tony already has an edge. 

Steve started out a good man, already. He didn’t like bullies, he was willing to fight and die to protect others, all from when he was a skinny kid from Brooklyn. He was the kind of guy we all admired and could look to, long before he even became Captain America. 

His progression in Avengers is that he learns to work with a team as well, and that he learns he’s still needed in a world he thought left him behind. Which is why he’s working for SHIELD in Cap 2. 

In Cap 2, he learns not to trust in the government, while also still feeling lost and alone in the modern world and then obsessively holding onto what he once knew. This part of his development isn’t particularly positive, despite being reasonable and sensible in terms of the story. He’s becoming jaded. Which, while okay from a storytelling perspective, degrades his character somewhat. 

A positive progression would be Steve learning to live in this new world. Learning to love it and be happy with it, even as he learns that not all of it can be trusted. Part of what made Steve in the comics so appealing was learning to make the present his home, bringing his old fashioned but relevant values into a newer context. 

But Steve Rogers of the MCU has so far only clung onto his past, felt bad about it, never got the time to know the present, never found anything to live for in the present, never had any real life to speak of after waking up from the ice. 

His motivation in Cap 3 was literally ‘save Bucky, save world’, but we never actually see anything in his life that would justify him even caring about the world beyond heroism and a habit carried over from his days as a skinny kid from Brooklyn. 

With all the complaints about Joss Whedon, his attempt to address Steve’s arc as a guy trying to actually live in the present in Avengers might have actually fixed this problem. 

If we took all the “moping about the past and not feeling the future” scenes from Cap 2 and saw it in Avengers, Cap’s character arc would have been so much better. He could have saved Bucky without it seeming like Bucky is literally the only thing he’s surviving for. Having your protagonist center all his motivation on one character for two movies straight means his own character is gonna suffer. And that’s what happened to Steve when Cap 2 and 3 became the “find the Bucky” show. 

Tony Stark’s arcs in the films have been largely character driven, leading to a character who is well developed and easier to sympathize with. 

Steve Rogers’ arcs in the films have been largely plot driven, sacrificing his positive growth as a character to move the story along. 

I love the Cap films, don’t get me wrong. But of all the things the MCU has dropped the ball with, it’s Steve’s character. His character may have fleshed out since its first incarnation, but he hasn’t really gotten… better. 

It’s like if Superman went from chill kind hearted hero to nihilistic and jaded with a god complex. It might be character development, but it’s not positive. 

Steve went from a determined, kindhearted, good man ready to fight the good fight, to a jaded, untrusting contrarian who doesn’t seem to know how to compromise, who is obsessed with what he’s lost and only fights because he has nothing else. 

I just… 

I just want Steve to be happy. Come on, Marvel. 

So yeah anyway tl;dr 

It’s easier to sympathize with Tony because

• he has more films and film appearances to flesh out his character
• his films are more character driven
• his progression has largely been positive

In comparison with Steve: 

• he has fewer films and film appearances
• most of the films he’s in are plot driven and not as focused on his character
• he either doesn’t progress, or his progression as a character isn’t necessarily positive