KamikazePotato posted...
Civil War (the comic storyline, not the movie) pushed Iron Man's notoriety a lot. Although perhaps not for the best reasons...
TRUTH. Yeah, he and Cap were DEFINITELY back up to A-List with comics readers by then, but outside of comics he had minimal presence.
The Avengers were the B-Tier when the MCU started because Marvel didn't have the X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, or even Hulk rights (and still kind of sort of don't at least as a headliner). Iron Man, Cap, Thor? They were firmly B-Tier by virtue of other studios not purchasing their rights in the nineties.