Every installment of this feature is about odd comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced.

Today, we look at Iron Man's secretive "real" reason for supporting the Superhuman Registration Act in Civil War.

The first time we see Iron Man discuss the Superhuman Registration Act was in Amazing Spider-Man #530 (by J. Michael Straczynski and Jay Leisten), when he goes to Washington D.C. with his new protegee, Peter Parker, to try to convince Congress NOT to pass the law...



While there, Tony testifies and Peter butts in...









Later, Tony testifies some more...



In the following issue (by J. Michael Straczynski, Tyler Kirkham and Sal Regla), Tony actually pays the Titanium Man to attack him so that he could trick Congress into not pursuing the Superhuman Registration Act, as Titanium Man clearly states that the bad guys would love for the government to register their superheroes...





However, the bad public relations of the Stamford incident clearly tip the law back in favor of the act.

In Civil War #1 (by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines), the mother of one of the victims of the Stamford incident berates Iron Man...





When heroes are discussing the issue later in #1, Iron Man seems to be down with the Act just as a matter of principle...



At the end of the first issue, Iron Man embraces the Act wholly with the government.

That support continues in the following issue...



For the rest of the series, Iron Man is pretty much gung ho on the Superhuman Registration Act being the right thing.

However, late in the series, one one-shot delivered an up-to-this-point hidden reason behind Iron Man's backing of the Act. Go to the next page to find out what it was!

In Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War #1 (by Christos Gage, Jeremy Haun and Mark Morales), Iron Man and Captain America meet up and Iron Man reveals his secret reason for supporting the Act...











It's basically an extension of his bit from Amazing Spider-Man where he talks about the inevitability of the Act, but the additional information about the Sentinels is pretty huge, I think. That makes his position sound a lot more reasonable, doesn't it? if the alternative is the government unleashing Sentinels everywhere to hunt down superheroes, then the Act is probably a relatively decent choice.

I am pretty sure that this the only comic withing the normal Marvel continuity (reader Michael M. wrote to me to remind me that the Civil War What If...? issue referenced the Project: Wideawake point) that specifically mentioned Project: Wideawake as being Tony's real reason, but perhaps I missed one!

If anyone has a suggestion for a similar plot point that really only popped up once, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com.