Captain America vs. Iron Man: Which MCU Sub-Franchise Is Better?
MCU has given us the two most loved characters – Iron Man and Captain America. In a nutshell, Iron Man was the one who kicked off the franchise and Captain America was the one who introduced the world’s first Avenger. If it wasn’t for these two superheroes, MCU wouldn’t come to be. So it is natural that we ask the question – which sub-franchise is better, Iron Man or Captain America? While they are both really crucial to the Cinematic Universe, maybe the readers can decide after checking out some points. Check it out!
Which Movie Ranks Better?
We will let the audience and critics speak. Iron Man came out in 2008 and kicked off the MCU for all of us. In the post-credit scene, Nick Fury crawls out of the shadow and enlightens Tony about the Avengers initiative. The movie ended up scoring a strong 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and earned almost $590 million on the box office. Not only that Iron Man also gave us one of the most important Avengers too, i.e., Tony Stark.
Captain America: The First Avenger was released in 2011 and was a strong addition to the MCU roaster. The movie gave us Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, aka America’s Ass. In comparison to Iron Man, the movie earned $370.6 million at the box office and sits at a cool 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie gave us a good highlight of Captain America’s past and his becoming which was crucial for his future endeavours.
Characters Introduced By The Franchises
Both the franchises introduced a lot of characters and we can say that in this aspect, they tie. Iron Man franchise gave us some recurring characters who ended up becoming important. Some of them were Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Natasha Romanoff, James Rhodes, and JARVIS. Pepper managed to find her all the way till the end of Phase 3, Hogan became an important part of Spider-Man’s adventures, Natasha went on to become an Avenger and sacrifice her life, Rhodes is now getting his solo series, and JARVIS ended up becoming Vision.
The First Avenger gave us some important villains and characters. Characters like Peggy Carter, Red Skull, Zola, HYDRA, Sharon Carter, Sam Wilson, and Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier, only made the MCU a better place to be. Peggy remained Steve’s one true love, The Red Skull ended up becoming the guardian of the Soul Stone at Vormir, Zola managed to stay relevant up until What If…?, HYDRA too managed to stick around for longer than expected, Sharon became the Power Broker, Wilson is the new Captain America, and Bucky is now the White Wolf. Overall, both the franchises contributed equally and the characters are straight-up awesome.
Which Franchise Got Better/WentDownhill?
When we speak of the Iron Man franchise, we have got three films – Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), and Iron Man 3 (2013). The first two movies were somewhat similar were two villains were trying to copy Tony’s technology and somewhat succeeded. But the third movie focused on Tony’s deteriorating psychology after knowing that there is an extraterrestrial threat lurking.
Speaking of Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is still considered the best movie in the MCU. And for all the right reasons. However, Captain America: Civil War got really negative reception because for the comic book fans the MCU wasted a strong storyline that really didn’t have an action-packed plot. so, according to you, which sub-franchise is better? Let us know in the comments below!
