10 Most Unforgettable MCU Fight Scenes
9. The Airport - Captain America: Civil War
Excitement bubbled when it was announced that the iconic comic storyline Civil War would be realised in the Marvel Cinematic. A lot of that may well have been the focus on the Stark v Rogers debate in the film’s publicity, which of course fed into the fandom as well.
Following the mass destruction in Avengers: Age of Ultron, international powers came together to discuss superhumans’ place in the world. Should they remain self-governing, or is it in the best interests of global safety to regulate their actions? Tony Stark’s identity as Iron Man had been public knowledge since his first outing in 2008, and at the head of Stark Industries he had seen the harm that unregulated weapon production could do.
His siding with the Accords makes as much sense as Steve “Captain America” Rogers’ libertarian stance: the downfall of SHIELD we saw in Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved that just because something is regulated, doesn’t mean it acts in the best interests of humanity. With the Avengers quickly divided, a face-off between the two sides was inevitable.
Thankfully, it paid off.
The fight at the airport gave us a lot of high points. We were graced with the awkward comedy of the previously allied heroes fighting amongst themselves to decide how those with abilities are best governed, and the now iconic scene with each side staring each other down in a line. There was also the literal high point of a gratuitous appearance from Giant Man, because why not, and the introduction of Tom Holland’s dork of a Spiderman. Of course, the higher you go, the further you have to fall - and no one learnt that better than our beloved War Machine.
His accident showed us how complicated Civil War had actually become - Vision taking down one of his teammates accidentally clearly hit the AI hard, while Sam Wilson showing genuine remorse that his dodge had caused the near-fatal hit demonstrated that, despite their internal disagreement, the Avengers still craved being a united front. Some felt played that Civil War basically became Avengers 2.5 rather than a Captain America 3, but after the bumbling nature of Age of Ultron, this more than made-up for what its predecessor lacked.
Besides, what’s the point of having the MCU if you’re not going to take full advantage of the pantheon of heroes?