Captain America Vs. Iron Man Memes

When we last left the MCU, Thanos (as implied by the arrival of his giant spaceship at the end of Thor: Ragnarok) is poised to claim the Infinity Stones, and we're now less than one year away from Avengers: Infinity War. This spells trouble for earth and the rest of the universe, although earth is already having problems. The last few movies haven't touched on it much, but the world is still feeling the effects of Captain America: Civil War. Earth's Mightiest Heroes are split into Team Cap, currently a group of escaped prisoners and fugitives from the law, and Team Iron Man, a bunch of Avengers now constrained by the Sokovia Accords and strict government oversight.

From what we've heard about Avengers: Infinity War, it's going to take a while before either team can see eye-to-eye. That's not surprising when you consider all the tension we've had between Captain America and Iron Man (even before the Civil War made things so complicated). It's been a while since all the drama started though, so we've found 16 hilarious Captain America vs. Iron Man Memes to jog your memory. And don't worry, we promise they don't all say Civil War at the bottom.

16 MY BEST FRIEND IS JAMES

Captain America: Civil War and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice came out less than two months apart, and they had quite a few common elements. They both involved an evil mastermind pitting heroes against each other, featured a billionaire playboy, and introduced a new character to their universe that completely stole the show. The real difference came in the ending, as Batman and Superman ended up on the same team, and the Avengers are still split in two.

As this meme hilariously points out, Marvel could have kept the endings the same too, since Cap's best friend Bucky and Tony's best friend Rhodey are both named James. All that Team Cap and Team Iron Man nonsense could been avoided, and all they needed to do was talk about their besties!

15 STEVE ONLY WON BECAUSE I LET HIM

While Iron Man's face is fabulous here and the caption is completely something he would say, this meme also brings up a great question about the end of Civil War: how on earth did Captain America beat Iron Man? Sure, Cap never quits, is freakishly good at strategy, and had his super soldier best friend to help him.

But at the end of the day (and we say this as total supporters of Team Cap), Iron Man is physically WAY stronger and should have beaten the crap out of Captain America and the Winter Soldier, even with his armor damaged. Maybe Cap is just that amazing or Iron Man didn't want to kill him and pulled his punches. Either way, this meme is still fantastic.

14 PEPPER SAYS NO

Pepper Pots wasn't in Civil War, and after looking at this meme, maybe now we know why (completely ignoring that whole taking a break nonsense here, since it didn't stop them from getting engaged at the end of Spiderman: Homecoming). In previous movies, Tony Stark has made some grand gestures to his assistant and now fiancé Pepper, including buying her a giant stuffed animal (it was hideous, but he tried, right?) and even destroying all of his Iron Man suits.

There isn't really anything he wouldn't do for her (except stop being Iron Man forever), and if she had been in Civil War, the conflict wouldn't have lasted long. All that drama and division, and it could have been stopped with a simple "no" and some shawarma. No wonder she didn't make an appearance!

13 A SKINNY, ASTHMATIC KID

If you're going to go head-to-head with Iron Man, then you had better be prepared to defend yourself. Without his armor, Tony Stark is still rich, smart, dashing, powerful, philanthropic, and decently strong. He also has the face of Robert Downey Jr. to boot. Without the Super Soldier serum, Steve Rogers is a nice guy with a head for tactics...and a short, skinny kid from Brooklyn with asthma and a whole slew of other medical problems.

Cap asked Tony what he was without his suit in The Avengers, and he's lucky Iron Man didn't throw his words right back at him, or he would have been in the same boat as he is in this meme. Sorry, Steve, you walked right into this one, and Thor agrees.

12 BURN

This meme is another classic example of why you should be very careful before saying something snarky to Iron Man, especially if you happen to be wearing a less-than-epic costume. It also reminds us of how much Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have changed since 2012. Iron Man may have hated playing by the rules then, but now he's leading the Avengers under a tight set of rules dictated by the government.

And Steve, apart from updating his uniform a few times, has also relinquished his role as Captain America. This means his look should be getting yet another remake, and this one will have notably less stars and stripes (he also went from being a soldier to a wanted criminal, but the outfit is what's important in this comparison).

11 I'M RICH

When you have two giant superhero franchises, there's bound to be a little overlap. Naturally, there will be a few similar characters...and movies, and release dates for these movies, but we're not going to get into all that since we have memes to discuss. As we see here, Iron Man has so much in common with Batman, that you can swap Cap's memorable question about what Iron Man is without his armor with Flash's question to Batman about what is superpowers are, and their answers will still their fit their characters perfectly.

Both Iron Man and Batman don't have superpowers but are very rich, and both have super-powered suits, but are still geniuses, billionaires, playboys, and philanthropists without them. With so much going for them without superpowers or fancy tech, it's not surprising that both universes have someone like that.

10 DON'T BE LIKE STEVE

We've all been there. That time when you studied the flashcards, looked at the PowerPoints, actually read the textbook, and were ready to ace that test. You were so ready, you felt like a genius, like Tony Stark even. It was gonna be a piece of cake, and you acted like it. Then you glance at the first problem or essay, and you're wondering if this stuff was even on your study guide.

You try and answer what you can, but your answer is the subject's equivalent of "It seems to run on some form of electricity." Captain America is pretty a awesome guy, but every once in awhile, being compared to him isn't exactly a compliment. In this meme, it is way better (for you and your GPA) to be like Tony Stark.

9 I LOVE CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America may have backed Superman and Iron Man may have sided with Batman, but support from another superhero is apparently not an obligation to show similar loyalty. While we don't see Superman's view on the matter in this awesome meme, Batman is definitely Team Cap -- and we're talking like, hardcore Team Cap.

Batman doesn't just think Captain America is right or better or whatever, Batman LOVES Captain America! In fact, he's so Team Cap, that he's even willing to set the Boy Wonder straight with a good old slap in the face. Too bad we don't have Superman's opinion here to see if he'd even the score. Of course, Robin is clearly Team Iron Man, but really, who would you rather have on your side?

8 THE DRESS

Anyone remember that time the internet decided to go crazy over what color a dress was? Normally, we try to limit internet debates to important issues like politics, celebrities, and the like...and then there was that time someone posted a picture of a dress on Tumblr and millions of people decided they would argue about it for a while. Conflict is a pretty normal thing in the Avengers, so it's not surprising Captain America and Iron Man had a disagreement about it.

This meme is pretty great, but it shows that Cap is the one who thinks the dress is white and gold. This doesn't quite make sense, as the dress was confirmed to be blue and black, and Captain America has perfect/enhanced vision. Wouldn't he have been the one to perceive it as the correct color? Regardless, it's a hilarious reason to start a civil war.

7 UNFRIEND CAPTAIN AMERICA

You know things are bad when people start unfriending and blocking on social media. It's not enough that Iron Man signed the Sokovia Accords, that he's running the Avengers instead of Cap now, or even that he busted up the Winter Soldier's metal arm. Now he's cutting ties on Facebook too. He didn't even do it himself, he just told his AI to do it (although if we're talking MCU, it would have been F.R.I.D.A.Y. instead of J.A.R.V.I.S., but whatever).

We guess that nice note Steve sent at the end of Civil War didn't do too much to help Iron Man forgive and forget. Maybe Tony hasn't gotten over that kiss, or he's still upset that Batman is Team Cap. Either reason would certainly be understandable.

6 WHICH ONE IS THE ALPHA?

Captain America and Iron Man may have divided the world's superheroes into two sides with Civil War, but we have a few heroes in Avengers: Infinity War, who haven't even made it to earth yet (or made it back, in Star-Lord's case). In a way, Civil War has put us in the same position as the kids from Jurassic World; we're looking for the Alpha, but maybe we aren't looking in the right spot.

We're looking for right side, the best hero, etc., but the picture is a lot bigger than Team Cap and Team Iron Man, as we'll only fully see in 2018. At any rate, in this meme Cap and Tony (and Thor) are not the Alpha; It's Peter Quill. So maybe we should all be Team Star-Lord?

5 A BETTER HUMAN TORCH

The great thing about memes is that there aren't that many rules. Universes aren't that important, as long as we know what's going on. Since Chris Evans portrayed Johnny Storm in the 2005 movie Fantastic Four, it is perfectly acceptable for Iron Man to insist that he's a better Human Torch than Captain America, even if that particular Human Torch isn't actually in the MCU.

While the Fantastic Four movie in questions (or any Fantastic Four movie for that matter) really didn't live up to its potential, it certainly wasn't because of Chris Evans. Also, Iron Man with one arm on fire makes for a great insult, but he still isn't the Human Torch by a long shot, so we're giving this one to Cap.

4 TELL ME NOBODY KISSED ME

Ever wonder why the Civil War really started? At the end of the Battle of New York in The Avengers, Iron Man's main concern was to make sure no one had kissed while he was out cold. He was VERY worried about this -- like, the guy just survived a nuclear missile and an alien incursion, and this is what he wanted to know.

In the movie, he wakes up and Cap tells him they won the battle, but in this meme, Iron Man finds that an apparently deep-seeded fear has come true. And if you're still not convinced that this would prompt Tony to start a superhero war, just remember that Cap's decades older than Iron Man and used to work with his dad. Not cool, Cap. Not cool.

3 BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN

Batman Vs. Superman is old news now that Justice League is out, but we certainly know what side Cap and Tony were on. We've already touched on some of Iron Man and Batman's striking similarities, and while Captain America doesn't have anything close to the amount of superpowers that the Man of Steel possesses, they certainly have a lot in common.

They're both leaders with a strong sense of patriotism, they have a similar color scheme, and while Superman is a lot stronger, they are both super-powered beings. So when people started choosing sides, it's only natural that Cap would be on Superman's side and Tony would root for Batman, as they saw enough of themselves in the DC heroes to feel confident about their success.

2 EXPECTATION

There are several ways we could go with this meme, so we'll pick three. First, there's the idea that Civil War was great and all, but it didn't have as serious consequences as the comics did. You know, big consequences, like, Steve Rogers dying and all that. Other expectation vs. reality memes will point out that Civil War should have had a lot more characters, so the thumb wars could point to the fact the conflict is smaller than hoped for.

Finally, we could take it to mean that some things just aren't what you expected, and leave it at that. Regardless, we still get to see Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. thumb wrestling with thumb puppets, so it's a win no matter how you choose to look at it.

1 THEY JUST STOLE OUR MEME

Sometimes you have to put your differences aside to fight for what you hold dear. You can be hard and fast rivals, you can have bitter disagreements, and you can hold vastly different convictions, but there comes a time when you have to weigh your options and decide who your friends and enemies really are. And then you have a day unlike any other, where Earth's Mightiest Heroes find themselves united against a common threat.

It could be a threat of galaxy-wide destruction from an alien with infinite power, or it could be something really important...like if a rival superhero movie stole your meme. Either way, when things get serious, even Captain America and Iron Man can put their differences aside for the greater good.

Which of these memes did you enjoy the most? Let us know in the comments!