A gigantic purple genocidal maniac with the intention of wiping out half of all life in the universe may have eventually gotten the band back together, but it looked like the Avengers were over for good following the events of Captain America: Civil War, where former friends Steve Rogers and Tony Stark had seen their relationship fractured by the Sokovia Accords before being blown apart by the revelation that Cap knew that Bucky was responsible for the murder of Tony’s parents.
Of course, we all assumed that they were going to kiss and make up eventually, but that didn’t stop Civil War from becoming one of the most highly regarded entries in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the major selling point was undoubtedly the epic scrap between Team Cap and Team Iron Man, which also served as Spider-Man’s introduction into the franchise as he sided firmly with his newly found mentor.
Now, an interesting fan theory explains why a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist would recruit a fifteen year-old kid to battle against some of the world’s most famous superheroes, claiming that Tony does it deliberately because he doesn’t want to cause serious harm to the opposing faction as many of them are his closest friends, and he knew full well that Captain America wouldn’t go out of his way to injure a teenager that was so far out of his depth.
As ScreenRant explains:
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.
They may have had a clear difference in opinion and even knocked each other senseless during Captain America: Civil War‘s third act, but despite all of the tension between them that dates back to Tony’s daddy issues and his father’s hero worship of Captain America, there was always a strong sense of mutual respect between the two, meaning that Hawkeye and Black Widow weren’t the only ones pulling their punches in the film.