Captain America: Civil War is one of the most beloved movies of the MCU. One could arguably say that it has the most intense and amazing battles of the entire MCU. Age of Ultron, Infinity War and The Winter Soldier’s fights would come close to the quality and number of battles in Civil War, but Civil War could even actually supersede them all. Why? Because right from the beginning, it had long drawn fights coming at us one after the other.
First the Avengers went after Crossbones in Lagos, then there was the whole Bucky chase sequence in Bucharest. After that, The Winter Soldier was unleashed by Zemo. That was followed by the very long Airport battle, and finally, the intense battle between Captain America, Bucky & Iron Man ended the movie. All in all, we got to witness 5 lengthy fights, and in between them, there was a short tussle between Wanda, Clint & Vision, and a Winter Soldier backstory.
This movie was great because it actually allowed us to witness multiple hero vs. hero battles. Iron Man fought Cap, Black Panther took on Bucky, and Marvel was able to come up with all sorts of fight combinations with heroes like Black Panther, Spider-Man, Vision, Ant-Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Wanda, Vision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier. All of them came through different connections and assembled into two teams. Some of them, had direct connections to the battle while others like Spider-Man & Ant-Man did not.
People have argued that Spider-Man in particular should not have been added to the fight since Tony was all in for stopping powerful adult superheroes and he endangered a 15-year-old kid by adding him among the ranks. But there was a good reason for drafting Spider-Man into the mix and Screen Rant has come up with a theory which perfectly explains it. Here’s what the website wrote:
“Iron Man’s decision to involve Peter stems from his complicated relationship with Captain America. When this issue was raised at the Civil War press conference, director Joe Russo explained that there were two connected reasons why Tony specifically sought Spider-Man for his team. Firstly, he didn’t want to lose the fight with Steve because Tony didn’t like losing, and at that point in his life, he did believe that superheroes needed some limitations after what happened in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Secondly, while Tony wanted to catch Team Captain America, he didn’t want to hurt any of them.
Spider-Man being the “greatest living non-lethal weapon” as he gathered from the footage he had of the Queens-native proved to be perfect for his agenda. By bringing Peter in, he increased his chances of bringing Captain America and his team in but without the intention of actually hurting any of them. At the end of the day, Tony wanted the Avengers back intact especially with the nagging feeling that something big was coming, which he was ultimately right about as proven in Avengers: Infinity War with the arrival of Thanos (Josh Brolin). Tony said this himself in his first encounter with Steve before Spider-Man even made an entrance. He appealed to the Super Soldier to come with them because of their existing relationship.”
Tony really didn’t want to lose Captain America as the whole team would have fallen apart if he went away. And as we saw, that’s exactly what happened. So, bringing a kid into play was a tactical move from his side because he knew that Cap or the others wouldn’t have gone hard on Spider-Man. He came prepared for a tussle, but a part of him actually thought that thing won’t lead to a battle.
Having seen Peter’s video, he also knew what the kid was really capable of. He knew that Peter would have been able to handle himself against the team Captain America. Sure team Cap really surprised Tony with their strengths & abilities, but his hunch was ultimately right. Peter was a great asset to the team and he became a good addition to the Avengers in Infinity War & Endgame. So, we’re all glad that Tony recruited Spider-Man during Civil War. Having seen what has happened since then, we wouldn’t want his inclusion to happen in any other way.
