When Spider-Man first swung into Captain America: Civil War, he did so while representing Team Iron Man, but it would have changed everything had he joined Team Cap. It was a massively consequential decision for the character, one that had a huge impact on Peter Parker's story throughout the rest of his MCU tenure. However, there’s still the question of how things might have gone differently if Spider-Man had instead fought alongside Captain America.
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The question has a foundation in the Civil War comic storyline. There, Spider-Man initially sided with Iron Man for a number of reasons. However, he wound up changing sides during the course of the event due to a crisis of conscience. It was a move that had a long-lasting impact on the character, predictably leading to Spider-Man’s loved ones being attacked by his enemies. The movie had no time to let the entirety of Spider-Man’s arc for that storyline play out, however, and chose to let him stay on Iron Man’s side.
However, if Spider-Man had joined Captain America in the MCU instead, the impact on the events of the MCU would have been seismic. The significance of Spider-Man’s secret identity would have been considerably enhanced, to the point that his relationship with the majority of his supporting cast would be extremely different. Not only that, but the absence of Iron Man’s shadow looming over Spider-Man would be so glaring that two of his movies would need to be almost entirely rewritten.
Spider-Man Would Be An Outlaw After Civil War
Perhaps the most immediately obvious change would be Spider-Man’s legal status as a hero in the MCU. Until the events of No Way Home, Spider-Man was presumably a properly registered hero. That or he was given special permissions by Iron Man for his earlier cooperation. Neither would be the case now, making him officially a criminal in the eyes of the Sokovia Accords.
Some details of Civil War’s own story may have to change to facilitate including Spidey on Captain America’s team, seeing as the Star-Spangled Avenger wouldn’t be likely to peer into Spider-Man’s identity, unlike Iron Man. Perhaps the battle would get moved to a more convenient location for Cap to bring him. Whatever the case happens to be, the story would have to engineer a way for Peter to get out of that scenario without getting caught. Otherwise, his secret identity would be forfeit before his own series even began, and he’d be branded a criminal even as Peter Parker. It’s for this exact reason that Peter couldn’t start with Iron Man and change sides like the comic.
Spider-Man's Bad Reputation Would Set In Sooner
As a knock-on effect of this new criminal status, Spider-Man’s traditionally low approval rating would have good reason to rear its head much sooner in the MCU. In the existing trilogy, this began with Mysterio framing Spider-Man for his demise, effectively presenting himself as a martyr. After that, a series of extremely unfortunate happenings in No Way Home, combined with the hounding of one J. Jonah Jameson, caused Spider-Man’s reputation to plummet.
In this new scenario, being officially recognized as a criminal would start him off on rocky terrain. If his involvement with the anti-registration side of the debate were made public, many more citizens may be vocally concerned about his perceived interference. The matter with the ferry wouldn’t help, as there’d be little reason for that to go any differently. As a result, Jameson could have latched onto the story much earlier and begun pushing the premise of Spider-Man being a menace, rather than a help.
Spider-Man And Captain America Would Interact More
On the upside for the MCU, this would allow Spider-Man to interact more with Captain America. This would allow for a more comics-accurate depiction of the two, given enough time. In the comics, Spider-Man traditionally respects Captain America at least as much as he does Iron Man, if not more. Giving them more than one bit of small talk in a movie where they’re on opposing sides would create the opportunity to see more of that.
At the same time, Cap’s influence wouldn’t become as suffocating to the Spider-Man franchise as Iron Man’s. Tony may have factored heavily into the Spider-Man franchise, but he was the one in the best position to do so. He was also the most popular individual hero among the original Avengers and the most likely to draw an audience. Using Captain America as Spidey’s mentor would have possibly prevented Spider-Man from being in Iron Man’s shadow for as long as he was.
Spider-Man Wouldn't Have Stark-Enhanced Costumes
Another pretty evident difference would be Spider-Man lacking Stark-tech suits. Without Iron Man’s cooperation (or the use of his tech in Far From Home), Spider-Man wouldn’t have access to the same high-tech suits he sported throughout his trilogy of films. This would almost certainly have an impact on Homecoming, in particular, where the capabilities of the suit were instrumental in shaping much of the earlier developments.
Each of the three movies did go well out of their way to establish that Spider-Man’s suits didn’t define him. He lifted that debris off of himself in Homecoming without one, and Far From Home played up his Spider-Sense, which the suits don’t interact with at all. Finally, No Way Home had him ditch the Stark-Tech suits entirely at the end. But their improved technology definitely helped in the larger scales of those movies.
Iron Man Would Be An Antagonist, Not A Mentor In Homecoming
Notably, Iron Man could still be a featured player in Spider-Man: Homecoming, maybe even alongside an appearance by Captain America. However, given Spider-Man’s swapped alliance during Civil War, it wouldn’t exactly be on friendly terms. In this scenario, the main plot of the Vulture stealing Chitauri tech from Iron Man and the Department of Damage Control would be more than capable of ensuring Tony a role in the film.
Spider-Man could tepidly try to warn Iron Man about the danger, which would almost certainly result in a clash between the two. Spidey would have to escape, which the lack of a Stark-Tech enhanced Spider-Man suit that Tony would know the ins and outs of may actually help him to do. With that warning now planted in his head, Iron Man could appear to help Spider-Man with the ferry, similarly to how he did in the actual film. Spider-Man would, of course, need to make a hasty retreat for a second time as Iron Man would once again try to detain him, now with more immediate cause to do so.
If the final act plays out in more or less the same fashion, Spider-Man would stop the Vulture from pulling off this heist. Afterward, he’d make himself scarce, just to be safe. Upon learning about Vulture’s capture and Spider-Man’s involvement in it, Tony may opt to extend the young superhero a bit of goodwill and leave him alone, at least for the time being.
Spider-Man Wouldn't Have Fought Thanos In Infinity War
Come the time of Infinity War, details of the story would begin to undergo some far more radical changes. Spider-Man followed Iron Man into space during that adventure. It was there that the two of them, along with Doctor Strange and half of the Guardians of the Galaxy, fought Thanos. Suffice it to say that Spider-Man would have had absolutely no presence in this portion of the movie.
Without the Stark-Tech suit to help him breathe in space, Spider-Man couldn’t help fight Thanos on Titan because he wouldn’t be physically able to go. Spider-Man wouldn’t have had much of a reason to go in the first place, as he wouldn’t have been close with Tony’s character at all. Instead, Peter would need to find a way to get involved in the ground war against Thanos’ forces in Wakanda. With him having a more established relationship with Captain America, however, that wouldn’t be terribly difficult to achieve.
Far From Home's Story Would Be Completely Different
Even if Iron Man had begun to warm up to Spider-Man, their relationship would be nowhere near the point where Tony would deem it appropriate to leave Spider-Man something as powerful as EDITH. As a result, the entire plot of Far From Home would have to be totally altered. There would be no drone assault on the bus, Mysterio wouldn’t trick Peter into giving him the glasses, and the climax would have to be changed entirely.
SHIELD could likely remain in the movie, but details would have to change. Happy would also be omitted as Peter’s relationship with him was merely an extension of his relationship with Tony. More likely than not, SHIELD would have just been revealed to be keeping tabs on Spider-Man after Avengers: Endgame and contacted (or abducted) him independently for his help with Mysterio’s elemental problem.
It wouldn’t be terribly complicated to detach Mysterio from Stark. Beck could rely entirely on his own expertise with illusions and trickery as Mysterio to make himself look like a hero, endangering lives until Peter stops him. The escalation of Mysterio’s plan could be entirely self-driven as he simply works on creating more of his illusion technology, rather than needing to arbitrarily use Stark tech to upgrade himself. From that point, the climax could pan out similarly, using all of his tricks to try and kill Spider-Man and framing him for murder while revealing his identity in much the same way.
Peter Wouldn't Have The Same Relationship With Ned & MJ
The crucial dynamic between Spider-Man, Ned, and MJ might look very different. In fact, this could all play especially well into the theories and speculation that Ned will become the Hobgoblin in the MCU at some point, aligning with his comic book story. Notably, Ned may not ever actually learn that Spider-Man and Peter Parker are the same person. With Peter now a criminal, he’d have reason to be even more careful with his secret identity. The lack of the advanced suit would likely trim down the usefulness of the “guy in the chair” as Ned was the one who unlocked the suit and the tech in the suit is what allowed Peter to even work with Ned.
MJ figured out that Peter Parker was Spider-Man through pure deductive reasoning, but Peter may be inclined not to confirm it if only to protect her. Peter and MJ may still end up dating, but without her knowing that he’s Spider-Man, which would be something different from either previous iteration of Spider-Man. She may not find out until the rest of the world does, which could strain their new relationship, going into the next movie. With her and Ned both likely feeling some level of betrayal at the revelation, the third movie may have to dedicate time to Peter’s efforts to repair his relationships with them both before getting on track.
How Aunt May's Story Would Be Different
Then there’s Aunt May, whose unique position of knowing Peter was Spider-Man may be undone by the change. Without Tony sending Peter the Stark-Tech suit again, she wouldn’t find out. Considering that, there’d also be no Happy for her to develop a relationship with. If she doesn’t learn the truth until everyone else, she might have been even more present in No Way Home in the traditional Aunt May role of Peter’s emotional support, especially if the problems with Ned and MJ would leave him with no one else to turn to. This might, in turn, make her untimely demise even more gut-wrenching, if it still happens.
Even seemingly simple changes can have monumental consequences for the trajectory of a character in a shared universe like the MCU. This is absolutely the case of swapping Spider-Man’s allegiance in his first MCU appearance. Iron Man’s presence wouldn’t loom quite as large over the series, but many of the relationships that made the series what it was would be radically different. If Spider-Man had been on Cap’s side in Captain America: Civil War, then his entire franchise would look nothing like what it does now.