There may be spoilers below: Read at own risk!
When I heard that Marvel was going to take the Civil War plot line and turn it into a "Captain America" movie I was, to say the least, not happy. Let's be clear, I'm not a massive comic book nerd. I don't know every detail about every comic, but I have read my fair share of comics and have developed quite an attachment to some, like many my age who are not exactly "physically fit." Civil War was not one of the comics that I had developed an attachment to. That being said, I understood that the story was supposed to be a double-sided war between Cap and Iron Man and was horrified to learn that they were turning this two-sided argument into a movie centered around one side of the argument. I thought for sure that they were going to present Tony as the antagonist who just can't see that Cap has the right idea.
Well, this past weekend I saw "Captain America: Civil War," and I was delighted to find myself wrong. I definitely think Marvel skewed it so that the storyline fit with Cap a little more, but any viewer could easily see where Tony was coming from. But I still fear that some may only see Captain America's point of view. So here's why I'm #TeamIronMan.
1. Oversight isn't a bad thing innately.
Throughout the movie, Cap's side kept making the case that the committee that the Accords made would stop them from doing the good they should be doing. That, however, is a faulty assumption. Who is to say that the committee wouldn't be as just, if not more so, than Captain America? Who is to say that the committee would bring an added advantage of many of the best minds in the world coming together? We all saw what happened when there was very little oversight of S.H.E.I.L.D., Hydra was able to infiltrate at the highest level and take over the operations entirely.
But, OK, let's say the committee that was formed was super slow and ineffective (because that is a potential outcome). Well, who said it had to stay that way? As Tony said in the movie, amendments and changes could be made to the system so that it works effectively! They might not get it right the first time, but they can change it. I know, some of you are thinking, "Well, in the meantime, bad guys are going to be killing people!" But the flaw with your argument is that the Avengers were killing people, too. Lord knows how many people the Hulk killed because Tony and Cap decided he was needed in a fight, without any regard for the surrounding environment or any confirmation from anyone higher up. If nothing else, oversight would give credibility to the decisions that were made, if loss of life occurred because of the actions of the Avengers.
2. Just because Cap was right in this case, doesn't mean he always will be.
Okay, I'll admit that in this one instance that the movie shows, Cap was right. Bucky didn't plant the bomb in Vienna, the doctor caused him to lose his cool in the containment cell, and the commandos that would have been sent in to collect him would have either been killed in the process or ended up killing Bucky. All of these things are true, but that doesn't mean that they'll be true next time. Captain America is not a faultless person, he makes mistakes and has the capability of making poor choices. What happens if one day he decides that he sees good in someone, gives them a second chance, and they end up murdering another thousand people before the Avengers can capture them again? Or, what happens if, as we've already covered, Cap decides the Hulk is necessary to take down an enemy, who turns out to be much weaker than they expected, and the Hulk goes on a rampage? I'm not necessarily saying that these scenarios would be completely eliminated with the addition of oversight, but they would be far more limited and now the blame wouldn't fall to one man, but rather an entire branch of the United Nations. Cap said in the movie (I'm paraphrasing) that the safest place for power to be was in his own hands, but that's just about the same argument that most dictators in human history have used.
Furthermore, just because Cap was right about this one scenario, doesn't mean that his course of action was the best. When the Falcon and Cap talk to Bucky and realize they have to stop the doctor, they say that Tony wouldn't believe them and, even if he did, there's no guarantee that they'd be able to get the committee to act. Yet, later in the movie, it was rather easy to get Tony to believe in the story Bucky told. It just took evidence that didn't come from a former Soviet assassin who isn't exactly the most mentally stable human. Their second point about the committee is, yet again, a faulty assumption. Did they really think that if they came to the committee with concrete evidence that five super soldier assassins were going to be released into the world, they wouldn't do something to stop it? In fact, it would've been the perfect trial run for the committee, since the doctor was the one that blew up the embassy in Vienna! If only they hadn't blown off the Accords from the very start.
3. Tony proved his own point and was right about everything.
Remember how Tony went off the reservation and nearly killed both Cap and the Winter Soldier? Yeah, that kinda proved his own point. When an enhanced human gets the mind to do something, what is to stop them from doing it without oversight? Now, in this instance, Tony found out in the field and took immediate action. But, imagine for a second, that Tony had found out the Big Secret at the Avengers bunker. What if he immediately ordered the Avengers to find and eliminate Bucky. It wouldn't be that hard for someone like Tony to make up some story about how Bucky was back under the control of Hydra or some other criminal organization. Now, imagine that the Accords were in place. Tony would still very likely go after Bucky, but the other Avengers would immediately know that Tony was up to something when he said he didn't want to make it official. If Tony went after Bucky on his own, the other Avengers would be able to stop him on their own.
He was also right from the beginning. Tony said the Accords were happening, whether the Avengers liked it or not. That turned out to be true. Tony said that he was trying to protect Scarlet Witch by keeping her in the bunker, or else she would end up somewhere worse. That turned out to be true. Tony said that Cap was going to rip apart the Avengers because he was too stubborn to sign. That turned out to be true. The only thing that Tony didn't foresee was Cap betraying him.
4. Team Iron Man has the Vision and Spider Man.
I rest my case.
