‘Captain America: Civil War’: Who Got Into the Most Fights?
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier square off in one of the many brawls between heroes in Marvel’s ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (Photo: Disney/Marvel via AP)
In his 1978 fantasy novel, The Battle of the Dun Cow, author Walter Wangerin Jr. asked: “How many battles make a war?” It’s intended to be a query without an obvious answer, but in the case of Marvel’s latest blockbuster, Captain America: Civil War, we have one: 47. By our unofficial count, that’s the total number of physical altercations we see in the movie between the colorfully clad partisans who form Team Cap and Team Iron Man. And how many scraps did each individual superhero get into in the on-screen Civil War? Refer to Yahoo Movies’ handy hero-by-hero breakdown:
Cool, right? Some points of interest (note: spoilers from this point on):
* Not surprisingly, no one answers the bell for more fisticuffs than Civil War’s titular hero, Captain America, who’s tied at 12 with both his fellow World War II veteran-turned-contemporary super fighter, the Winter Soldier, and Marvel’s biggest star, Iron Man. Their final three-way fight alone—which Cap “wins,” though he takes little pleasure in his victory—is worth the price of admission.
* Civil War launches two new heroes into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who get a number of chances to mix it up in their new surroundings. Wakanda’s champion, Black Panther, is central to the action, participating in nine battles. Spider-Man, the teen wall-crawler from Queens, N.Y., only has six hand-to-hand (or web-to-shield) bouts. He makes each of them count, though, particularly with his Empire Strikes Back-inspired strategy to bring down Ant-Man in his Giant-sized form.
* Speaking of Ant-Man/Giant-Man, who would have thought that Marvel’s smallest—and largest—hero would be central to so much of Civil War’s action? The endearingly goofy Scott Lang (played by the endearingly goofy Paul Rudd) ties with Black Panther for the second-highest number of battles. For a little guy, he’s a big scrapper.
* Need further proof that it’s tough to be a woman in the Marvel workplace? Super-spy Black Widow finishes dead last in terms of the fight count, taking part in a mere five brawls. (This is why she needs that long-promised solo movie.) Newcomer Scarlet Witch, meanwhile, gets into the action six times, but she’s still overshadowed in that group by Spider-Man, Vision, and Hawkeye.
* Before his potentially career-ending spinal injury—caused by an errant blast from the Vision—War Machine had fully emerged from Iron Man’s shadow, racking up an impressive eight battles. Thanks to a Stark Industries-brand pair of robotic legs, he’s currently learning to walk again. But will he be back in fighting shape in time for the looming Infinity War? We’re guessing yes.
‘Captain America: Civil War’ clip: Watch Team Cap meet their new recruit, Ant-Man:
