Homecoming’s Unexpected Civil War Connection

One of the villains in the new Spidey movie ties back to the Captain America sequel in an obscure but cool way.

By Scott Collura

Some spoilers for Spider-Man: Homecoming follow.

When I visited the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming last summer, co-producer Eric Carroll revealed that the film has a surprising if obscure connection to last year’s Captain America: Civil War.

While the main villain of the film is Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes/Vulture, Tom Holland’s Spidey will be facing off against other threats from his rogues gallery as well. That includes the Tinkerer (played by Michael Chernus), and the Shocker (played by Bokeem Woodbine). But the interesting thing here is that the Shocker’s dangerous gauntlet was actually scavenged from Brock Rumlow/Crossbones’ weapon in Civil War. It’s one of the devices the Frank Grillo character used to power up with in order fight Cap in that film.

The Shocker and Crossbones

“That Gauntlet you’ll recognize from Captain America: Civil War,” explained Carroll. “It’s what Crossbones was using to kick the s#!t out of Cap in the prologue! And they scavenged it from Lagos and they made a couple of upgrades so it’s not just a pneumatic punch machine. It’s also delivers a pretty hefty jolt when it connects as well.”

This is the Vulture’s modus operandi in the film, as he runs a salvage company that recovers and recycles old tech that’s left behind after superhero battles. While on the set of Toomes’ warehouse headquarters, the visiting press saw a bunch of discarded technology and weaponry (Dark Elf weaponry!) that is seemingly being taken apart and put back together by the Tinkerer. Even the Vulture’s wings in Homecoming were created from this discarded equipment.*

This “junk of the MCU” touch is a nice way for the new Spidey film to tie into the bigger Marvel universe but still stay relatively grounded. Director Jon Watts and his team seem to be saying, yes, we know all this stuff has happened in this world -- from alien invasions to gods descending from above -- but for the little guy down here, we’re just taking it all in and getting by day to day. For the Vulture, and the Shocker, that means making weapons out of junk. Though, of course, that’s where Spider-Man will come in…

*And by the way, if you’re wondering how the Vulture got Crossbones’ gauntlet even though he blew himself up in Civil War, don’t forget that Cap actually ripped one of the devices off his arm during their fight and dropped it on the street.

Spider-Man: Homecoming will be released in July.

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura.

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