Captain America: Civil War - 15 Obscure Easter Eggs You Probably Missed
7. Iron Man's War Machine Switcheroo
The fact that Rhodey was going to end up being cannon fodder shouldn't have come as any surprise given the foreshadowing in the trailers, but it was surprising that he a) didn't die and b) was left with permanent damage in the form of paralysis.
Him being shot down actually mirrored a major comic book arc that we've already seen heavily referenced in Iron Man's MCU run.
In In Iron Man Vol.1 # 243, Tony Stark's former lover Kathy Dare went unstable and shot him, rupturing his spine and paralysing him. A case of someone driven to instability by romance shooting a hero down (aherm, Vision).
In the comics, Tony uses technological augmentations to allow himself to walk again, and becomes so dependent on his suit that it is eventually the only thing keeping him alive. This was the same arc that saw Stark give Rhodey the War Machine armour.