u know what really pisses me off… i was just thinking about all the jokes about peter’s youngness in CACW and somehow i only just now remembered the part where rhodey says ‘how young is this guy’ or something and tony says “i don’t know, I didn’t carbon date him”
tony lies to rhodey about how old the child he brought to this big ass super hero fight is.
not only does team cap not know they are fighting a 15 yr old… team iron man doesn’t know either. tony does not tell anyone. what a fuck head. unbelievable.
It’s quite literally child abuse and he manipulated Peter, like, do you think he would have chosen Stank knowing what the fuck was actually happening? Hell, do you think he would have involved himself at all seeing it was a petty fucking tantrum on Tony’s side?
Peter actually felt like he was responsible of these people, and the running gag was that it was all to impress Tony while given half information, and it’s never addressed, it’s irresponsible, manipulative and the fucking kid got trashed and hit, it was just disturbing, BECAUSE HE WAS A KID, it wasn’t his choice at all, he was led there.
Fair warning: this is gonna be seriously long. I did not realize how long it would become when I started it, though I did try to crop it somewhat, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if nobody read all of it.
“Petty tantrum”? Tony was told that a special ops team is gonna target Steve and Bucky and they’ll probably be shot down, so Tony asked to bring them in himself to avoid that. He was trying to save their lives - Bucky’s arm might be bulletproof, but not other parts of him, and Steve for sure ain’t.
Also looking at the dialogue in CA:CW, I’m pretty sure Peter knew why Tony and Cap were fighting:
“Cap- Captain. Big fan.” (why would he fight someone he’s a fan of without a clear explanation?) “Hey, Mr. Stark, what should I do?” “What we discussed, keep your distance, web ‘em up.” (meaning they had a strategy session) “Mr. Stark said you’d say that. He also said to go for your legs” “Stark tell you anything else?” “That you’re wrong. You think you’re right. It makes you dangerous.” (the confidence he says it with implying he’s not just parroting someone else’s words)
Peter may not have had a clear idea of what was going on when he was arriving in Germany, but it sounds like Tony and him had some sort of debriefing somewhere between the hotel and the airport.
At this point I’d like to put it out there that I don’t condone adults recruiting minors into possibly hostile situations in the real world. Tony’s decision to do so was definitely dubious, as he himself points out in SM:HC (which I will expand on further below). But fact is, if Peter Parker wasn’t out superheroing at 15, we wouldn’t have Spider-Man at all. As far as initiation fights go (though we don’t even know if this was Peter’s first-ever fight - by the way he moves, I’d think not), a disagreement between supposed colleagues and friends and heroes (which they hoped wouldn’t turn into a fight and where Peter had no combat obligations) is not the worst case scenario.
Anyway. Reminder: Peter had been a superhero for around 6 months. It’s been stated that Tony has systems in place keeping tabs on crime levels around the city, which is how he gets alerted to new heroes emerging. Spiderman’s suit is also completely packed and ready to go a day after Tony meets Peter. From this we can deduce that Tony has known about Peter’s vigilantism for long enough that he was able to design and build a nearly battle-ready suit, with a whole bunch of hidden protocols as well, and have it ready to go. Tony must have regarded Peter with a great deal of respect, he doesn’t trust just anyone with his tech. At most, last-minute-configurations could be made to the suit in one night, but not a whole suit. Tony was going to offer Peter an upgrade eventually, probably sometime soon, which is why Peter was the first person to pop into his mind when he and Natasha were talking temporary additions.
So Tony recruited Peter after the dude had been superheroing for six months in nothing but sweats, stopping a speeding car from hitting a bus (I think he was in more danger then than during the whole airport fight tbh) with his bare hands. Tony assessed him and considered him up for the task, which was “keep your distance, web ‘em up”. Tony didn’t want the kid to get in the middle of the fight, he just needed him for his webbing.
I tried to count the amount of times Peter got “trashed”, or in general fell or got hit by something. I got 6 times - once when Antman kicked off Cap’s shield, once taken through a window by Falcon’s drone, once smacked by Cap’s shield, once kicked by Cap, once when Cap dropped a jet bridge on him, and for the last time when he swung into Antman’s giant hand. He also got tackled by Falcon twice, but I didn’t count them in because he barely even reacted to those. The only time that seemed to really affect him was when Cap kicked him, because he landed on a metal beam, and when he swung into Antman’s hand.
Peter’s also got super-strength and super-agility and though I don’t know how fast his healing rate is in the MCU, it’s safe to assume the Spider-Man suit is made out of something tough enough to protect him from a considerable amount of injuries. To most of those attacks, he barely even flinched - 4 times out of the 6 that someone else managed to even touch him, he got up like it was nothing, less than one second later. After getting kicked by Cap, he only got up a little bit slower than earlier, and then immediately held up a hugeass jet bridge. During the rest of the entire fight, he was webbing himself around like a champ, straight-out grabbing the full force of Bucky’s metal arm with no difficulty, and sending both Falcon and Cap flying with his kicks. Kid didn’t get as trashed as y’all think, and he gave as good as he got.
Assumably that very same evening, Peter was doing backflips for no reason, so whatever pain or damage he sustained from Antman’s backhand was gone by then. He also seems excited and happy with how it went every time it’s relevant afterwards, so no significant negative memories there.
“But he was blackmailed and kidnapped!” one might say. Firstly, someone who’s blackmailed and kidnapped isn’t that excited to be there and do stuff and remember it fondly with sunshine in their eyes later. Peter’s 15 not 5, if he doesn’t have the emotional maturity and rational thinking skills to at least recognize when he’s being manipulated, then he shouldn’t be a superhero at all. Secondly, “I can’t go to Germany, I’ve got………….(one longass fucking pause)…. homework….” This was clearly built up to be an excuse he thought of on the spot, not something he was actually that worried about, which is why Tony also scoffed at it. Once again, Peter’s not weak and he’s not an idiot, as shown in SM:HC several times, he can and will argue with Tony and disregard his advice if he disagrees with him. If he was swayed with barely any effort, then he never believe in his excuse in the first place.
So yeah, it was his choice to agree to go and have a great time, instead of keeping Tony stuck to his door and reasoning with him, or even trying to, even once. (And personal interpretation, Tony wasn’t actually going to tell aunt May, but there’s no way to prove it without hypotheticals and generalization, so I won’t try to.)
And finally, they knew Peter was a teenager. Team Cap may not have known his exact age during the fight, but it was painfully obvious he was way younger than them. Also, here’s a quote by Tony from SM:HC - “Do you know that I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a 14-year-old kid.” Everyone else said. Crazy to recruit a 14-year-old. “Recruit” has been used in direct reference to the airport battle extras - ex. Team Cap’s new recruit, Tony recruits Spiderman. Tony most likely discussed the addition of Peter to the team with the rest of Team IM. And realistically, he would; realistically, he wouldn’t throw in a random kid without introducing him and including him in a strategic meeting for the entire team (that would throw off the whole fight); realistically, his teammates would ask beforehand just how old that kid is and either argue with Tony’s decision or not. It’s likelier that Rhodey knew how old Peter was and was cracking a joke, which Tony went along with, than it is that Tony didn’t tell anybody how old Peter was and nobody even thought to ask.
P. S. For the whole of SM:HC, Tony had been attentive and protective of Peter, remembering the little details of Peter’s reports to Happy (like the lady who bought him a churro), trying to keep him from getting involved in high-stakes incidents, and sticking more to the friendly neighbourhood kind of crime, and taking away the suit when Peter showed he might not be able to handle it after all. Peter also displays a lot of independent thinking, despite the rawness of his emotions (cursed hormones, amirite), even while he’s still really looking up to Tony and trying to impress him - because what’s always been more important to Peter than any kind of personal glory or enjoyment is what the right thing to do is, and he wouldn’t and didn’t let even Tony sway him on that matter.
I probably won’t be responding to this further, simply because I feel like I’ve said all I wanted to say. Seriously, I wrote so much I think I’ve beaten my personal record for longest rant. I’ve rewatched and broken down Peter’s part in CA:CW, I’ve brought up meta from SM:HC, so there’s nothing left except: MCU Tony Stark is not and never has been the kind of person to purposely abuse and hurt a child, ever.
You know the antis will break their own arm off just to use it with the other arm so thwy can reach beyond their limits to paint Tony as an evil abuser. They don’t have concept of fact or reality, only hatred.
Rebloging for @theungay addition to the post.
Tony was so worried about Peter the entire time. He installed a fully functioning A.I system in Peter’s suit to help him when he’s out being Spiderman. Over 500 web combinations. A heater. A tracker. He thought of every possible thing that could go wrong and built something into the suit to help prevent it.
And the moment Peter looked like he was unfit for battle at the airport? “You’re done. Or I’m calling Aunt May.” He didn’t push Peter beyond what he thought Peter was capable of. Remember, he didn’t think it was going to escalate, he just thought he could have Peter web them up without ever having him in the line of fire.
And the first time Peter messes up immensely? He takes the suit back. “And if you died, I feel like that’s on me.” Hell, he knows how young Peter is, but he also knows Peter has a heart of fucking gold and will stop at nothing to help other people. Tony knows this but he still feels like Peter’s death will be on him if he dies.
I’m more reading between the lines here, but you can tell Tony cares about Peter so so much. I haven’t even gone into Infinity War yet.
I just?? It baffles me?!? That people say Tony doesn’t care??! About this kid?! From Queens?? And reads his voicemails?? Anywho yeah thanks for coming to my Ted talk about why Tony cares about Peter
oh my god, i literally cannot follow the mental gymnastics required to turn “recruiting a literal teenager to fight a bunch of superheros whilst giving him incomplete info about the situation” into an example of protective super!dad tonka stank
Okie boomer uwu
