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Captain America: Civil War – Who’s Battling Who And Why?

It’s all well and good cramming countless popular heroes into your movie, and then making your movie about those heroes being on two sides of an epic conflict, but it’s tricky to keep the individual plot arcs straight in the mind. With the exception of Black Panther and Spider-Man, each of the heroic characters in Captain America: Civil War is coming in to the movie with a history and plot that is already established in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s at least 11 threads to tie together in a coherent fashion.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man

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Spider-Man 2

Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is, essentially, a child – at least, in relation to the other superheroes engaged in this conflict. For this reason, it is almost to be expected that the web-slinger would come down on the side of Iron Man on this issue.

Spider-Man strives for justice, and fights for the people. His universally acknowledged origin story – though, technically, not yet told in the MCU – show us that he is as scarred by the death of his uncle as he is the spider that bit him, and he is determined to prevent others from feeling the pain of such a loss.

These elements make it all the less surprising to see him going against Captain America as that character argues against having more rules imposed. For Spider-Man, it is about regaining order amid the chaos, because that’s where safety lies.

Sharon Carter

Sharon Carter

She may not be a superhero, but Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) will be engaging in plenty of fisticuffs in Captain America: Civil War, if promotional footage is anything to go by. So which side of the fight will she settle on?

As the name, Carter, might suggest, this agent is strongly associated with Captain America. She was introduced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as an undercover agent posing as his neighbour while assigned to protect him. She was also seen in the S.H.I.E.L.D building in that movie, taking a stand against Hydra when their dastardly plan to attack was revealed. At that point, she defiantly showed her allegiance to Cap, who was trying to save S.H.I.E.L.D.

In Captain America: Civil War, however, Cap is taking a stand against authority – including that which employs Sharon Carter. Torn between the two, the optimistic hope would be that she fights for Cap once again. Not everything is the MCU is optimistic, however, and Sharon Carter could well surprise us.