In this feature we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that. Here is an archive of all the When We First Met features so far! Check 'em out!
Reader Kevin wrote in with a great piece of information that he covered on his own blog last year here. Apparently, Iron Man and Captain America were in conflict with each other over the Superhuman Registration Act for nearly TWO decades before Civil War came out! Read on to see how it all went down!
The whole idea of registration first popped up in X-Men #141 (by John Byrne, Chris Claremont and Terry Austin), when Moira MacTaggert believed Senator Robert Kelly was going to push for the registration of mutants...
Forty issues later, in Uncanny X-Men #181 (by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr. and Dan Green), Moira's instincts proved correct...
It's a bit unclear precisely WHEN the bill passed. It seems somewhere around Uncanny X-Men #199, as Freedom Force goes to work for the government hunting down unregistered mutants.
Even in the pages of Captain America (#343 by Mark Gruenwald, Kieron Dwyer and Al Milgrom), Steve Rogers' replacement, John Walker (and his partner, Battlestar), hunts down an unregistered mutant...
In Fantastic Four #334 (by Walter Simonson, Rich Buckler and Romeo Tanghal), we see that there is talk of EXPANDING the registration act to including non-mutants, as well...
It's interesting that they have Alicia entering mentions of the act in newspapers into a database.
At the end of the issue, Reed is called to celebrate in front of a special Congress subcommittee...
In Fantastic Four #336 (by Walter Simonson, Ron Lim and Mike DeCarlo), Reed manages to squash the act in front of the Congressmen...
That was all that we saw in the comics themselves, but in a special year-end magazine, we got to see where Iron Man and Captain America stood on the issue! Check it out on the next page!
In Marvel's 1989 Year in Review, a special magazine put out by Marvel commemorating the major events of 1989, we see the full scope of the Congress testimony, which included testimony from Captain America and Iron Man, who ended up on pretty much the same side they ended up on in Civil War!!!
How cool is that?
Thanks again, Kevin! Everyone be sure to check out Kevin's website here!
If anyone else has a question related to comic book debuts, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com