What If Spider-Man Didn't Join The Avengers?
One of the most surprising things about Captain America: Civil War was seeing Spider-Man of all characters arriving at the airport battle, webbing up Cap’s shield and relieving him of it. Nearly no one saw this coming before it was revealed in the previews. Sony seemed so hell-bent on keeping the character away from Marvel that it really looked like we’d never get to see him join the great MCU experiment. As popular as Spider-Man is, it really would have been a shame. But he made it, and since he’s arrived, he’s played some pretty integral roles. So, knowing what we know now, what would have happened if Spider-Man never joined the MCU?
The Civil War Situation Would Have Been Worse
The outcome of Civil War turned out to be Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man in the final bout at the super-soldier facility. Black Panther made it too, but he didn’t bother getting involved with their brawl. So a death battle between only three of the Avengers is probably the best everyone could have hoped for, and Spider-Man is a really big reason for that.
Steve managed to gather six different members for his Avengers team. Tony managed to do the same, but only because he had been keeping tabs on Spider-Man for so long. Without him, Tony would have only had four members to work with. We say “four” instead of “five” because Black Widow ends up betraying Tony in the end. So, without Spider-Man, Cap’s team would have bulldozed Tony’s. Spider-Man was the reason Falcon and Bucky couldn’t just beeline right for the jet when the conflict started. He also put up a pretty good fight against Cap for a while -- at least he made a good distraction. Without his presence then, at the very least, Cap, Bucky, & Falcon, would have made it to the Quinjet. Wanda would have been more than enough to distract Vision; Black Widow was already doing a good job of holding back Black Panther. And War Machine and Iron Man would have been tied up by Ant-Man.
It’s possible War Machine could have pulled away from Ant-Man to go after the Quinjet and reenact the events that led to him being crippled, but then again, Ant-Man had thrown him at the plane before Spider-Man saved him, so who knows how much damage that would have caused.
This essentially means that when things hit the fan with Zemo, Iron Man would have been facing Falcon, Bucky, and Captain America. Now, between the three of them, this makes it sound like Cap’s new team would defeat Iron Man faster, and while that’s possible there’s no telling what Tony would have done when faced with two other interferences instead of one. Rather than just settling on knocking Cap aside, Tony may have just brought down the whole facility on top of Cap and Falcon so that he wouldn’t have to deal with them getting in his way. Either way, the whole situation could have turned out much worse than it did.
Thanos Would have Won Decisively
Spider-Man did fail to stop Ebony Maw from kidnapping Doctor Strange, but it’s hard to argue that he didn’t make up for it in the end. It was his plan that killed Maw and saved Strange’s life, after all. This act places a lot of significance on Spider-Man that may not necessarily be apparent at first glance. We mean, he’s a hero; he saves people, that’s kind of what they do. What’s the difference here? Short answer: well, the fact that he saves Doctor Strange and, possibly, Iron Man -- both of the key characters essential to stopping Thanos.
As for the long answer, well let’s break it down. Doctor Strange, powerful, reality-bending sorcerer that he is, still somehow managed to get himself captured by Maw and put under the threat of torture. Maw made him completely helpless without sustaining any major injuries. Maw’s psychic powers proved to be a worthy threat. So much so, that even Tony had to take a beat to figure out a way to approach Maw without getting Strange -- and possibly himself -- killed. It was obvious to him that Maw’s psychic abilities posed a danger of being able to manipulate and redirect any of the projectiles that Iron Man shot at him. And since Iron Man kind of gets off on shooting people that was kind of a big problem. Charging in wouldn’t help either if Maw just decided to toss him around with his mind.
Spider-Man had the wherewithal of pop culture knowledge to handle the situation efficiently. His solution made it so they didn’t have to worry about Maw killing Strange in the confrontation or throwing them around against their will. Because of Maw’s psychic abilities it’s possible that if Iron Man had gone in alone, he would have been restricted before he could do any real damage (it’s also possible that any stray rocket or repulsor blast from Iron Man would have killed Maw by blowing up the hull of the ship, but we won’t talk about that). Then Ebony would have tortured both Tony and Strange into giving up the whereabouts of the Time Stone and killed them.
Without Doctor Strange and Iron Man. Thanos would have gotten the Time Stone much faster than anticipated. The battle on Titan would have never taken place, and if it did, it would only be the Guardians of the Galaxy versus a five-stone powered Thanos, and his psychic Black Order member, Ebony Maw. The Guardians would have gotten destroyed. Thanos wouldn’t even need Maw’s help to do it. Maw’s presence would just serve to further illustrate how hopeless the situation is. With the Guardians dead, Thanos would storm Earth as he did before, and events would play out as they did in Infinity War. Only this time, the two key characters who stopped Thanos in the end, are already dead, and won’t be there to stage any future last stands.
Tony Would Have No Motivation To Create Time Travel
Tony actually came out of the Infinity War fiasco sitting pretty. Pepper survived; he got to marry her, and he had a kid. And, honestly, once he returned to Earth from the Battle on Titian, having yet another fallout with Steve turned out to be a good thing for Tony. It made it so that he could finally retire from being Iron Man with a clear consciousness. Tony was so fed up with Steve and the situation he had left him in that he just stopped caring. He felt no need to go back to the lab and tinker like he usually does.
The only reason he returned was because of Peter Parker.
Tony had no desire to help Steve or the rest of the Avengers with their idea of time travel. Not because he couldn’t (though that was one of his excuses), but because for the first time in a while he was happy. He had his family and had adjusted to the snap better than most. But despite all of that, he still didn’t have Peter, the kid he brought into the fold and failed to protect in the end. To Tony, if there was any reason he was going to try and get back into the game it was going to be to try and make things right by Peter.
Tony was the one who discovered time travel in the end. If Peter wasn’t a factor to consider though, he wouldn’t have bothered. That would have left Cap and his team tinkering around forever, watching Scott Lang soil his pants at a variety of ages. You know, until they got bored and decided to just wing the plan by jumping into a time vortex.
Vulture Wouldn’t Have Lost His Mind
Vulture had a nice gig going for him. Yes, it consisted of heinous criminal activity, but it kept his bills paid and his family feed. He was under the radar and had no one -- that he knew of -- looking for him.
Then came Spider-Man.
To be fair, some of Vulture’s men were kind of idiots and probably would have driven Vulture off of the deep end sooner or later, but because Spider-Man was a factor it is kind of his fault.
Vulture had never killed anyone up until the point of Spider-Man’s interference. His men -- again, idiots that they were -- had kept things under wraps for a fairly decent amount of years, and didn’t start slipping up until they had to use their super-advanced and conspicuous alien weaponry on Spider-Man. On top of this, because his men had never truly put them in danger, Vulture always turned down the idea of “the final job,” whenever his crew asked him to do it. Spider-Man changed the rules of the game though. So instead of holding off, Vulture not only decided to attack an Avengers’ aircraft -- and subsequently crash it -- he also settled on killing a highschool kid no older or younger than his own daughter, and not just any random highschool kid, but his daughter’s prom date. In other words, we’re being modern and blaming the victim for being nearly killed — damn.
Mysterio Wouldn’t Have Been a Threat
Mysterio's whole plot relied on Tony giving Edith to Spider-Man. It’s what made Spider-Man and “Nick Fury” his targets. He wanted an Avengers level threat to make himself into a “real” hero off of but didn’t have the resources necessary with the limited amount of drones he had. This would change whenever he got access to Edith.
The thing is, if Spider-Man wasn’t in the equation, Tony would have never left Edith to him. If he left it to anyone, it would have been Pepper, and there would have been no reason for Tony to go through Nick Fury for that. Mysterio would have to find a way to take Edith from Pepper, which probably wouldn’t be possible because Pepper was the CEO of Stark industries during the time BARF was invented, meaning she would know who Beck was the moment he approached her. She would probably know everyone else on his crew too.
Beck could try to pose as someone else, but Pepper isn’t an awkward, hormonal, self-conscious teen. There’s no way Beck is manipulating her into handing over Edith the same way he did Peter. Take into account the fact that she also just lost her husband, has a five-year-old girl to raise, and a multi-billion dollar company to run and she’s probably not going to be seduced anytime soon either. No matter how you look at, if Beck wanted the glasses, he would have to take them by force. He could stage an attack to try and steal the glasses, but again, Pepper knows who he is, and what the glasses are capable of. If the glasses were stolen, he’d be the primary suspect, especially considering the way he was dismissed from the company.
If he kills Pepper in order to try and avoid that little hiccup -- well, then he’s really screwed. Pepper murdered right after her husband just sacrificed himself to save all of reality would not be a good look. Everyone, from the Avengers to local police, to average citizens would be after Beck, and the real Nick Fury is not someone you want to have hunting you down. All in all, without Spider-Man, Mysterio has no way of getting Edith back without being openly villainous, which goes against the whole point of his original plan.
Wrap Up
Spider-Man’s been the cause of a lot of major events throughout the Avengers in the short time that he’s been around. Some are good and some are...questionable, but it’s always been fun seeing how things unfold. Now that Far From Home has gone ahead and revealed Peter’s identity to the world, (and tacted on the idea that he’s a murdering terrorist for giggles), the shenanigans he gets up to from here should definitely be something to see.
