"Captain America's Shield..." Topic

Being a bit of a Marvel geek, I have been enjoying the construction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and have, so far, no complaints.

However, as I am also slightly anal and was attempting to work out the in-universe chronology of the various threads of the MCU, I have noted something which potentially reorders the chronological order of the movies. And it all relates to Captain America's shield.

The first official movie in the MCU is Iron Man, in which we see the first appearance of Cap's shield, lying on a workbench in Tony Stark's workshop wehn he is discovered in armour by Pepper, which the film-makers deliberately put in there as an Easter Egg. The first acknowledged appearance of the shield, however, is in Iron Man 2, where Coulson notices it and Tony uses it to prop up his work. All well and good.

Chronologically speaking, the bookends of Captain America: The First Avenger appear to be AFTER the events of the first two Iron Man films, when Cap is discovered frozen in the ice. However, as shown in the events of CA:FA, Cap has his shield when he goes down and becomes frozen. As there was only one shield of that type created by Howard Stark (that we know of), this would suggest that SHIELD finding and recovering Cap in the Arctic occurred BEFORE the events of the first two Iron Man films and, for some reason, Tony Stark ended up with the shield, which was then returned to Cap after the events of Iron Man 2.

Which means, chronologically speaking, the first movie in the MCU is actually Captain America, rather than Iron Man.

Discuss.

(that we know of)

Being a fictional multiverse, it's whatever the scriptwriter says. It would make sense for a prototype to be made before the actual shield, and for that prototype to still be lying around.

Contrary to what's been said, the MCU was still in its embryonic stage when the first two Iron Man films came out. Very little was planned and details like Cap's Shield or Nick Fury were mostly easter eggs. It wasn't until, Captain America, Thor and Avengers that they realized the full potential of a fully integrated MCU.

The simplest explanation is Howard Stark made a second one after Cap was lost at a point where he was able to secure more of the metal. Or it's just a replica that daddy gave Tony at some point which is why it's getting such cavalier treatment.

Gosh, it's like they make this stuff up as they go along…

John T

Fair points all (even John's).

Regarding Patrick's comment, there must have been some planning involved, as the first two Iron Man films both had references to the Hulk's rampages in news reports playing in the background, which means that the majority of the events that occurred in The Incredible Hulk were occurring simultaneously/overlapping the events of the Iron Man films.

However, as the first appearance of the shield was a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" Easter Egg, specifically put in for the fans and the second was essentially the same thing, mainly utilised as a throwaway gag, I feel that I have to concur with both Patrick and John.

However, my fan-boy heart still wants a proper official explanation. Up until that is forthcoming, I think the idea of a non-vibranium prototype lying around fits best with my MCU worldview, so thank you Garrison!

Carrion Crow (who was a comic book geek before The Big Bang Theory made it acceptable.)

There were several shield designs and I'm sure that prototypes were kept by the Stark family. I think they were just hints as to what was coming or just make it more solid that it Stark's family was deep in the SHIELD network.

Maybe Marvel should re-instate the "no-prize".

Ron

In Age of Ultron, Captain America says to Tony Stark "I thought you bought all of it?" which I would think that Tony acquired more Vibranium and made a second shield amongst other things.

YouTube link

However, my fan-boy heart still wants a proper official explanation.

I do know exactly how you feel, sir: having spent an awful amount of time re-engineering background inconsistencies to make any sense of the author's (not surprisingly inconsistent) descriptions* (ahem… Slammers… cough…) I do completely understand the need for it to make some sort of sense in one's own head.

My problem with the Marvel (and indeed DC) universes is that they've made such a thing about 're-imagining' backgrounds (or whatever they call it) and turning the whole story back to zero that the inconsistencies within the canon material (ie the comics) is so vast that… I don't see how any of it can legitimately tie in to itself, ever!

John T

* Over 3 decades or so of writing the stories so I'm fairly understanding!

youtu.be/FIVeuYqjMlk

Yeah, that's not the shield. Looks more like a joke on the old movie

I seem to recall someone mentions the new "improved" shield, around the time they mention the new uniform.
That, or it's obviously meant to be one of the improvements Coulson mentions.
The one Tony has is an upgraded version.
It's not out of order.

The shield in the Iron Man movies is not the vibranium shield.

Clearly not Cap's.

Even the star is the wrong size, and not molded in.

It's either supposed to be a mold used to make the shield, or an attempt to "update it", or a reference to this monstrosity:

Perhaps I should have re-watched the movies before posting…

However, as can be clearly seen from the links and photographs above, whilst the shield featured in the first two Iron Man films is the same one, it isn't Cap's, so all is again right with the world and I can sleep easy.

Thanks all, although Parzival, shame on you for reminding me of the travesty that was the 1979 attempt at a Captain America movie…

For those of you that haven't seen it…don't. Just don't…

Here is another question about the shield:

The shield is made from adamantium/vibranium.

The adamantium makes it indestructible and the vibranium absorbs impact so that even if the Hulk punches Captain America if he gets his shield up it won't smash him.

More or less.

Anyway, if the vibranium part of it absorbs impact allowing Cap to do things like put it under his feet and jump off a building, then why would it hurt anyone when they got hit with it?

I seem to vaguely recall from the 1970s when I was reading the issues that the Marvel editors had something they called the "no prize" where they admitted that they had made a botch in the storyline.

if the vibranium part of it absorbs impact allowing Cap to do things like put it under his feet and jump off a building, then why would it hurt anyone when they got hit with it?

I would conjecture that the vibranium absorbs impact only in directions against the "flat" or "curve" of the shield's surface, but not against the edge. Therefore the edge can inflict damage or injury against Cap's targets.

Didn't Stan Lee actually send an empty envelope to the winners of the "No-Prizes"?

And Tony Stark, who loved futzing around with all kinds of stuff, probably was playing with a next-generation Cap Shield just for gits and shiggles.