Maybe it's the corners of the Internet I wander through, but there's a definite segment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe fanbase that would canonize Tony Stark if they could. That he's such a selfless guy, so unfairly maligned by the rest of the fanbase and the other characters. I'll grant Movie Tony Stark isn't as much of a pain in the ass as Comic Book Stark, but that isn't saying much.
I saw a post recently gushing about what a wonderful, protective mentor Movie Tony Stark is for Movie Spider-Man. How he checks in with him, pep talks him, gives him suits with cool features to protect him. I'm generally of the opinion that giving Spider-Man a sugar daddy to do all this for him, rather than him cobbling his own solutions together on a budget, entirely misses the point of Spider-Man. Also, the idea of Tony Stark, the man who piloted his armor while drunk at his birthday party, lecturing Peter Parker about responsibility is a bad joke.
(Iron Man 2 may have been a garbage movie, but it still counts.)
Allowing the ship has probably sailed on the "Stark as Peter's mentor figure" thing, there was one thing I couldn't abide. The statement that Tony brought Peter with him to the big airport fight in Captain America: Civil War hoping they wouldn't have to fight at all, but that Cap wouldn't fight a teenager if they did fight.
I say if you don't want the teenager to fight Captain America, you don't drag him off to an airport in Germany where you plan to confront frickin' Captain America. A Captain America hellbent on protecting the last person he has left from before he went into the ice, a person whose fate he feels responsible for. But sure, he'll definitely surrender and hand over said friend to a bunch of guys who already tried to execute Bucky on sight, rather than arrest him. No way Tony could have anticipated Steve would opt to fight.
It's definitely questionable to assume Cap won't fight back if the person doing the attacking is a teenager. I'm sure Steve fought people in World War II who weren't that much older than Peter. But it isn't a new development that Tony doesn't understand Steve.
The whole recruitment scene with Tony and Peter in CA: Civil War has always bugged me. Tony spends much of their initial conversation ridiculing Peter. The computer he rescued from a dumpster, the costume he's cobbled together. Because Tony can't fathom someone doing this without having millions of dollars at their disposal. Admittedly, everyone else he knows has powers or weapons that came from crap loads of money, either private enterprise or military bucks*. Sam's wings, the Super-Soldier serum, Banner becoming Hulk, Stark and his 700 variant armors. Natasha and Clint less so, but I'm sure their respective governments invested a lot of funds in training them.
Still, the mockery is irritating, especially considering Stark is supposed to be asking for help. You could argue that's Tony's way, always shit-talking people. Fair enough, but most of the people he does that to are other adults. He can jab at Clint or Rhodey, and they give it right back. Peter is awestruck, there's no chance of that. This is "Mr. Stark" he's talking to, not "Tony". They don't know each other well enough to banter, or have an equal relationship. Tony has every upper hand, and he leverages them to his advantage.
Except he has no idea how Peter's powers work. Impressed with the webbing, but not realizing Peter made it. Doesn't realize the wall-crawling is an actual ability rather than some device Peter came up with. He mocks the goggles Peter wears because he doesn't understand they help Peter deal with information overload from his enhanced senses. It seems like a bad idea to bring an untrained person whose powers you don't understand, and throw them into a fight against a guy you know is dangerous, and his friend who you think is a brainwashed assassin. Alongside a bunch of other people who don't know what Peter's powers are either**.
The whole thing sums up Movie Tony pretty well. He thought it was a good idea to bring Peter along on this fight, until the moment Peter actually gets hurt, never mind, sending him home. The same way he was entirely in favor of the Avengers following the Sokovia Accords and having oversight. . . until he decided to run off solo to track down Steve and Bucky in Siberia. Any idea he has is a good one, even if it runs contrary to the idea he was so sure was good five minutes ago. You think he'd start to take more time for deliberation, but I'm not sure that happens.
* Except Thor, I guess. Unless we consider Mjolnir as technology, in which case he probably got it because Daddy Odin had big bucks.
** Granted that Captain America could be said to have done the same
getting Scott Lang involved, since I'm not sure how much anyone
understood about Pym Particles. But I got the impression Scott helped
because he wanted to, rather than because Clint and Wanda threatened him
with something. Ant-Man and the Wasp certainly didn't give any
indication Scott was coerced. And Scott had at least gotten some combat training from Hope in the first movie.
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Captain America:Civil War is my least favorite Marvel movie, mainly because it makes so very little sense. I went to see it, as a Cap fan...and came out of it a Tony fan.
However, him bringing Spder-Man along was really a terrible idea, and I can understand your feelings about it. It really was some poor writing I think, on the part of the script to even put him in that fight at all.
On the other hand...Cap's side wasn't holding back at all, and really seemed to be going for blood...which didn't seem to be the case with Iron Man's team. And I'm not even sure Ant Man even knew...or cared what they were even fighting about in the first place.
I don't love Civil War, but there are a lot of Marvel flicks that rank below it for me. Iron Mans 2 & 3, Thors 1 & 2, Age of Ultron. . .
Clint at least told Scott they were heading for Siberia to stop Zemo, because they thought he wanted to wake up those other Soviet sleeper assassins Bucky had warned them of. Scott mentions that when Steve asks if he understands what they're up against. I don't think Scott knew anything about the Sokovia Accords, or the pissing match between Steve and Tony, though. Although he did understand he'd be considered a fugitive if he helped them, so maybe he did.
And Steve's team is pretty outmatched in raw power. They're up against 2 Iron Mans, plus Vision, the only heavy they know they have is Wanda (since even Scott wasn't sure he could do the Giant Man thing effectively). If they held back, they'd get rolled.
And I think Steve is determined to keep Bucky out of custody, because he figures Bucky won't survive that, and to catch Zemo to clear Bucky of T'Chaka's death, at least.
I get why Tony wants to kill Bucky at the end, and why he's pissed at Steve for getting in his way, but the way he constantly flips sides just pisses me off. Oversight is good! Except when I want to run off and do whatever, then I'll lie to Ross and run to Siberia alone. Screw oversight!
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