Tony Stark has been aware since birth that he is intelligent and special. Not the way most children are told these things: by loving parents who, if not outright lying, certainly gently massage the truth. Tony was told he was special and intelligent by numerous professors, tests, and algorithms designed to determine that very thing. Like many boys, he liked robots and building things. Unlike many boys his age, he was able to combine these interests by successfully designing and building robots, and was able to build his first working motor at the age of six. His intellectual gifts, however, were not the sort of thing that impressed preteens, and Tony was bullied mercilessly by his classmates until his mid-teens. His dizzying intellect and extraordinary achievements never seemed to impress his father, Howard Stark. Howard, a skilled scientist and businessman, was an alcoholic who exposed Tony to grain alcohol, violent mood swings, and emotional abuse in Tony's early childhood. At best, he expressed only a passive interest in his son. And at worst, he attempted to turn Tony into an emotionally crippled exemplar of '60s masculinity through unexpected rages, iron-backed aphorisms, and denied affection. His mother, Maria, attempted to protect him from this, but because she was also a victim of Howard's volatile temper, her efforts were often ineffective. (Since his father was little more than the asshole who paid for things, Jarvis became a parental figure to Tony, and would serve as Alfred to his Batman for years to come.) Without the praise, approval, or his father's affection, he sought confirmation from other sources. In college, despite... mid-paper... he wasn't willing to apologize for his actions, so they didn't really decide anything, but they decided to disagree for the sake of working together . Tony joined the Avengers and fought alongside Cap, but it wasn't the same. Where the rest of the team had forgiven him because they hadn't been put into temporary comas, there was a lingering tension between him and Steve. Cap was especially annoyed after Tony tried to pretend he wasn't Iron Man anymore to get the government off his back. The public may have been fooled, but Steve didn't believe it. As time passed, Tony finally came to recognize the depth of his betrayal and invited Steve to a bar - a testament to how much he was in control of his actions now - to apologize. Steve obviously forgave them and they made peace, restoring the balance between both their friendship and the Avengers. Well, at least for a while'..