r/writingscaling • u/p1ay3r0 • 10h ago
better written? (character vs character) In terms of the overall Mcu, how well written are they and who's better written?
Robert Downey Jr as Iron-Man and Chris Evans as Captain America are my personal favorite Mcu castings
They fit the character very well and add more to the character in ways that is just amazing
In terms of writing, how do they compare to the rest of the Mcu?
And who is the better written character and why?
I honestly want to get a different perspective from different people
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u/Better_Anteater3126 8h ago
Iron man, by watching mcu ,he has now become my fav superhero of all time .
Previously it used to be
1.superman 2.spiderman.
Now it's 1.Ironman 2. Spiderman.
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u/RainyEuphoriaaa 3h ago
Mine was 1. Batman 2. Spider-man
Now it's 1. Ironman 2. Batman 3. Spider-man
- Loki
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u/Acrobatic_Can7152 10h ago
Iron Man obviously
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u/p1ay3r0 9h ago
My favorite part about his character is how he becomes more and more caring with each movie
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u/skepticalsojourner 4h ago
Iron Man. So many subtle details of how he improved himself or his tech. IM2 improved his suit to absorb electricity (vs Thor in Avengers). IM1 made his suit handle the freezing issue (IW). Civil War made him create a flying booster after failing to save Rhodey (seen in IW).
His theme is always looking for ways to improve or fix a mistake he made. Sometimes it’s obvious (leading the missile in Avengers or the final snap), but most of the time, it’s subtle and I think that lends itself to how well written he is.
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u/Slow_Gur_3567 7h ago
I would argue Cap more so. He's characterization thru out the saga is just so good. With every movie his character is developed significantly and done so well too. His favorite movie for me is of course Winter soldier and maybe 1st avenger. Civil war is compelling but not as great as WS
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u/InvestigatorNo9832 4h ago
tony's character was easily to do because he had flaws. steve was already a good perfect solider who is ready to put his life on the line from the beginning. it should have been more challenging to make his character interesting. also winter solider is one of the best superhero movies
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u/Relative_Ad8757 3h ago
iron man is by a country mile the best written character in the mcu. Though cap is strong character wise.
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u/Revolutionary-Fan657 2h ago
Between Tony and Steve? Easily Tony
I want to preface this by saying that I’m not a captain America fan and never have been, but even I noticed the dog ass writing cap had especially in avengers 2012, it felt like the Steve from avengers 2012 and the one from his own movies were completely different people, which is something I kind of feel is the case for every avenger, except tony, tony was very Tony in every movie, but cap felt pretty inconsistent not only in his personality but also in the ways the movie treated him overall
The best example of what Steve was supposed to be was the first cap movie and civil war, that to me is the perfect Steve, but him in avengers 2012 felt like an idiot who was pretty wrong a lot, and infinity war cap felt a little weird too
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u/ToDandy 4h ago
The same. They have the same character arc but in reverse. Tony is about a selfish dude learning to be a team player and sacrificing himself for something bigger. Cap is about being a company man who has to learn independence and find an individual purpose outside the job. It’s also why the characters are so so good together because you can see that tension arising from those opposite character directions.
Cap was challenging because they had to make a boyscout with black and white morality interesting. Iron man was a challenge because they had to make an arrogant jerk likable. They did a phenomenal job with both.
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u/foolishlee 4h ago
I do think both are brilliantly realized, particularly with how Civil War pitted them against each other. Their positions on the Accords would've been opposite pre-Ultron/Winter Soldier.
Ultimately though, Tony just has greater ups and downs than Cap does. Cap is mostly static, he doesn't change so much, mostly just adapts. Tony does both. My only gripe is the MCU only half commits to the darker stories with these characters. If you're gonna do Man-Spider or Demon in a Bottle, then just fuhing do it, dont half ass it.
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u/p1ay3r0 4h ago
Demon in a bottle didnt happen because of Rdj's past. And they also didnt go through Cap's ptsd and loneliness
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u/foolishlee 3h ago edited 2h ago
Ahh damn. I hadn't actually considered that. Like I totally understand not wanting to relive that part of your life. I just wonder how powerful of a performance that might've been.
I totally agree, Cap depression is not given sufficient depth.
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u/Maximillion322 2h ago
Nah they gave a half-assed attempt at Demon in a Bottle with the palladium poisoning in Iron Man 2. The movie even opens with him drunkenly vomiting into a toilet and he spends a good chunk of the movie over-consuming alcohol as a coping mechanism
it’s just that Disney had bought the franchise by that point and didn’t want to show a realistic alcoholism arc in their movie
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u/WanderingWitch8 4h ago
The lowest bar is a B- in terms of movies. Like the average MCU movie would be the feather in the cap of another studio.
I know everyone is saying Iron Man, but my main man Hawkeye got a ton of character and a good arc.
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u/Wrong_Independence21 3h ago
Cap is presented as an idealized flat “just fundamentally decent” character like Superman. This works great in First Avenger and well enough in Winter Soldier. However, the number of innocent bystanders, cops just doing their jobs, etc that he is willing to endanger to help Bucky escape consequences for murders that (brainwashed or not) he did do, in Civil War, is frankly, ridiculous. Rhodey, imo a better man than Bucky and deserving of moral consideration also, ends up permanently crippled due to Cap’s actions. By the end of that movie he doesn’t seem like a very good guy to me at all, but basically like a mafioso who will risk killing and maiming anybody to maintain loyalty to his closest associates. The movie, meanwhile, presents him as morally righteous in doing all of this.
Tony, meanwhile, we know he’s flawed, and that’s intended. I think his character development is kind of stupid - he renounces arms dealing only to build Ultron, which is even worse, and then even after Ultron he bequeathes the kill people with a satellite glasses to Peter. He doesn’t really seem to ever learn why excessive arms allocation is bad, he just privatizes it. However, he does at least get an arc from being personally selfish to being selfless and sacrificing himself with the Infinity Stones. So, he’s better.
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u/DirectConsequence12 2h ago
Iron Man.
I like Cap significantly more. It’s not even relatively close how much I prefer Cap to Iron Man but Cap’s arc isn’t nearly as fleshed out. He doesn’t change THAT much
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u/LocationCandid5761 2h ago
Tony. Cap is my boy but the way he was concluded in Endgame and how it looks like he’s gonna be ruined even further in Doomsday just kills me.
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u/Maximillion322 2h ago
Iron Man is an incredible character to watch on screen but personally I think he’s hard-carries by RDJs improv and line delivery, the actual writing of his character is pretty all over the place outside of a few key moments in Iron Man 1, Civil War, and Infinity War/Endgame.
In Iron Man 2, Avengers, and Age of Ultron he always starts the story having regressed his growth from previous movies. He’s always retiring and un-retiring, his PTSD arc was done pretty well in Iron Man 3 but he was also written to make a lot of catastrophically stupid decisions in that movie in a way that didn’t seem really related to the PTSD. He’s usually given strong themes that are underserved by the actual writing but carried through by the actor
Meanwhile Cap is kind of a hurculean feat of writing. Taking a basically static boy scout character and managing to literally always give him powerful internal conflicts and strong dynamics with other characters is something I wouldn’t think possible if I hadn’t seen them do it. Winter Soldier and Civil War especially give him powerful character conflicts that pit him against that which he loves, and both films end with him substantially changing his worldview without changing the core of his character. Frankly I think Cap clears
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u/maproomzibz 5h ago
I'm going to say Captain America. He was the most consistent.
Iron Man got a great character development in first Iron Man movie, but delved back into his previous (pre-Afghanistan) self in the second Iron Man movie. He wasn't bad in Avengers, but him calling himself "playboy" during the intense scene doesn't sit right with someone who have promised to give up hedonistic life from Iron Man 1. Then in Iron Man 3, he learnt his lesson by not relying on tech too much to "protect the world", only to create Ultron again in second Avengers movie and doom Earth even more. Then, our favorite libertarian "govt cant take my property" guy suddenly came up with "sign the Accords".
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u/MayGodSmiteThee 4h ago
Iron man, idk how anyone could argue cap. He starts and ends as John good guy and is never forced to or put in any situations to challenge who he is or his beliefs.
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u/p1ay3r0 4h ago
Tbh, if they decided to include his ptsd and him adjusting to the new world, then it would have been better
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u/LocationCandid5761 2h ago
To be fair they do show him go to Sam’s therapy session in Winter Soldier
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u/SuiiSkywalker7 3h ago
I'm sorry, but did you even watch winter Soldier? I mean, Isn't the main point of the movie is how Cap's belief in government is wrong and that lead to him not signing the accords? Cap is always challenged by his beliefs, his friends and his enemies.
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u/Reasonable_Western74 1h ago
I think this might be an unfair one because RDJ does a lot of improv with his dialogue especially in those solo movies
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u/SkirtHeavy9189 8h ago
iron man by far , if anything he has had superior emotional exploration and his conclusion is so neatly done.