Captain America and Iron Man

Question I'm hoping someone has a good explaination for. Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen either movie (get in gear and go watch them, now!)

In Iron Man and Iron Man 2, it's revealed that Tony Stark already has Captain America's shield with him. It's subtly hidden in IM, and blatantly obvious in IM2. He's apparently been doing some modifications to it (as well as using it as a support for his miniature particle accelerator).

In Captain America, it's revealed that Cap's sheild is still in the ice inside the downed Hydra Flying Wing. At the end of Captain America, Nick Fury makes an appearance after Steve wakes up. I deduced that by this time, Nick has already met with Tony and begun the Avengers Initiative.

Are we to deduce that the opening events in Captain America (prior to the flashback) take place prior to the events of Iron Man, and that the end of Captain America (when Steve wakes up and escapes the hospital) takes place near the end of the events in Iron Man 2? Wouldn't that mean Steve Rogers had been discovered and been laying asleep in the "hospital" for a rather long time after having been discovered?

Seems far more likely that Tony Stark simply has some prototypes instead of the real deal.

Wasn't it stated that the metal was so rare that they used all of it to make the real shield? Or am I remembering that wrong?

WhiteBoy wrote:Wasn't it stated that the metal was so rare that they used all of it to make the real shield? Or am I remembering that wrong?

Yeah, Howard Stark said that the basic circular shield was one of a kind but lots of other prototypes were made...the one in IM2 was probably an old prototype from Howard Stark. As for the one in IM1 I'm not sure. Maybe that was just meant to be a fan service thing.