Civil War: Iron Man

Civil War does a pretty good job of vilifying Tony Stark. This collection lets us see what's driving him. The Iron Man collection includes the "Casualties of War" 1-shot, Iron Man #13-#14, and "The Confession." Interestingly, the stories in these issues also provide a direct look into Captain America's view of the Marvel Civil War.

In Casualties, Tony and Steve meet in secret. The encounter is told using vignettes of their past relationship as Avengers team-mates. While the contexts are very different, the parallels are striking. We start to tie together all the flashback and retroactive stories and realize Tony sees the Super-Human Registration Act as the lesser of all evils. He may be a futurist, but he's also a pessimist. Supporting the Act is the only way he can see will set the public at ease over super-powered folk.

The Iron Man issues are introduced with a concise "summary page" bringing us up to speed on what's been happening in the regular monthly series. It's both a blessing and a shame since we find Tony is having a crisis of faith over a recent plot which turned him into a murderer. If this isn't build-up to his shaky state of mind in Civil War, I don't know what would be. The audience finds Tony struggling with issues of morality and responsibility. It's quite a powerful arc and it most definitely recommended reading.

Finally, the last part of the collection is "The Confession." This was published concurrently with the infamous Captain America #25 and is a spin-off from those events. Taking place after the conclusion of the war, Tony and Steve meet again: in the brig of a SHIELD Heli-carrier. Tony is there to finally lay out exactly why and how the SHRA came about. He reveals that his plans go back as far as the retroactive events depicted in Illuminati and that he knew all along he would lose his reputation and the respect of his peers. But that he stood for what he believed in: a responsibility to the trust of those whom super-heroes have sworn to protect. And he finally answers the most important question: was doing what he's done worth it in the end?

If there was one major tie-in collection that bookends with Road to Civil War, this is it. Highly Recommended.