Warning: contains minor spoilers for SWORD #6
Captain America has just revealed how Iron Man inspired him not to give up hope. The relationship between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark has often been a fractious one, with the two Avengers often finding themselves at crossed paths. It's an idea that has even been incorporated into the MCU, with the two clashing in The Avengers and going head-to-head in Captain America: Civil War. Despite this though, a new comic revealed that Iron Man actually inspired Captain America's modern heroism.
The two are, of course, more "best frenemies" than anything else; however many times Captain America and Iron Man use their fists to sort out their differences, they always wind up working side-by-side again in the end. Iron Man may find Steve Rogers' idealism frustrating, but he can't help but admire his bravery. Meanwhile, Captain America may question Iron Man's judgment, but he respects his keen intelligence. Marvel has released an official preview of SWORD #6, by Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti, that finally shines a light on how this unique friendship began - and, surprisingly, it was with Tony Stark inspiring Cap, not the other way round.
The preview sees Captain America share a surprisingly personal conversation with Doctor Doom, in which he recalls the days when he first emerged from the ice. Cap was a man out of time, exposed to a world unlike anything he'd ever imagined, struggling to deal with the fact everyone he'd ever known was long since dead. "I'd lost everything," Rogers recalls. "My best friend. All my friends. All I had. I didn't know what I could hang on to." And then, amazingly, Tony Stark showed him a newsreel - an image of a man walking on the Moon. Captain America watched that famous footage, heard Neil Armstrong's voice declare, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." And he surely noticed the American flag planted on the surface of the Moon as Armstrong spoke those words.
Stark is a futurist at heart, and no doubt he intended to convey a simple message; that humanity had advanced, that Steve Rogers had returned in an age of technological wonders, and that even greater wonders were yet to come. Captain America received that loud and clear, but that flag waving in the lunar breeze must have been helpful too, grounding this experience and assuring him some things hadn't changed. And, of course, soon Captain America would be traveling a lot further than the moon himself - and encountering countless alien races as well.
This conversation happened in Captain America's first week in the present day, with Iron Man giving Rogers something to believe in again. It's no surprise the two have always been able to bury the hatchet even after they've gone head-to-head because Captain America and Iron Man mean too much to one another - and each has inspired the other.