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Since essentially reinventing the superhero genre in the early '60s with titles such as The Fantastic Four, and The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel has introduced all manner of ideas that have gone on to become cornerstones of the genre: Superheroes who are unlucky losers in their personal lives? Heroes who are hated and feared by the people they’re trying to protect? Villains who are benevolent dictators of fictional European countries and have a collection of robot duplicates to protect themselves from danger from any ungrateful whelps? (Okay, that one might be a bit more specific than other examples, I admit.) All of them come from Marvel.

Above all of those, however, there’s an innovation when it comes to superhero stories that is 100% a Marvel creation and something that needs to be applauded at every given opportunity: the superhero vs. superhero slugfest.

Prior to the dawn of the Marvel Universe, superheroes were… well, respectable, professional adults. Whether or not they liked each other was neither here nor there; they shared a common goal— to keep the world safe from crime, obviously — and they would work together to reach that goal. It was reassuring and comforting for kids to see their heroes act like grown-ups and get the job done, sure, but was it… exciting? The answer came with the arrival of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee’s take on the genre, in which almost any given superhero would have anxieties at least as strong as their inhuman abilities, and an ego as fragile as any brick wall standing in the Hulk’s way.

Whether it was the internal bickering of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers hunting down the Hulk (a founding member!), the rivalry between Spider-Man and the Human Torch, or Thor starting fights with Hercules and any other mythical figure he could run into, it really felt like Marvel’s superheroes were a hair trigger away from brawling with anyone who looked at them funny — which, of course, made them easier to empathize with for the young readership the comics were aimed at.

To be fair, the idea of superheroes who fight each other actually predates the dawn of the Marvel Universe: the original Human Torch was fighting the Sub-Mariner back in the '40s, although the latter was a morally ambiguous anti-hero even back then. Nonetheless, Marvel being the home of the hero-versus-hero fight was an idea that Marvel eagerly embraced, and it’s since formed a significant part of the company’s comic book DNA, with series including 1982’s Contest of Champions, 2006’s Civil War, 2012’s Avengers vs. X-Men, and so on. (Civil War II! Inhumans vs. X-Men! Avengers/X-Men/Eternals: Judgment Day! The list really does go on.) Even one of Marvel’s biggest characters, Wolverine, was introduced in a comic book story where he’s… fighting the Hulk. That’s so Marvel.

What’s been particularly fun to watch is seeing this tradition be eagerly picked up by the MCU. It only took until Marvel Studios’ third movie — 2010’s Iron Man 2 — to get a superhero vs. superhero fight, as War Machine and Iron Man faced off against each other. By the time the first team formed in 2012’s Avengers, the group was already bickering to drive up the dramatic tension, so of course it took less than a decade to reach the point of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, where the heroes of the MCU split into two ideological sides that wouldn’t come together again until literally reality itself was at stake in Avengers: Endgame.

All of this infighting isn’t a bug; it’s a feature. Whether onscreen or on paper, Marvel’s superheroes are, honestly, kind of argumentative jerks who just want to fight, and that’s kind of what makes them them. When Batman and Superman come to blows, it feels awkward and forced, but when it’s Captain America and Iron Man, we’re all completely onboard and ready for the next round. Can’t we all get along? Well, sure, but… where’s the fun in that?

Want more? Make sure you've read our list of all the best Marvel Comics stories of all time, and the most powerful Marvel Comics characters (yes, you can debate in the comments!).