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This is a conversation between Captain America and Spider-Man from the movie Captain America: Civil War:

Captain America: You got heart, kid, where are you from?

Spider-Man: [Straining] Queens!

Captain America: [Chuckles in mild disbelief] Brooklyn!

I don't understand the real meaning of this conversation. Is it supposed to be funny? Is the "Queens" and "Brooklyn" means anything different here?

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    In NYC it's always a battle between the five boroughs. Each Borough thinks they're the best. ( lived in queens my entire life)
    – user34400
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 13:36
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    You people are reading too much into this. It's just two people who were fighting a moment ago and come to find out they're from the same hometown. Cap's reaction simply means "Oh yeah? Me too." That's all it is.
    – user35359
    Commented Jun 3, 2016 at 15:22
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    So...im from Queens and i moved to NC 20yrs ago. One of the 1st persons I met here was from Brooklyn. For some reason we could tell we were from NY. As we greeted we asked each other what boro you from while laughing. We were just happy to see another new yorker and rejoiced in the brotherhood. We are still bestfriends to this day...even though i have to constantly remind him how Queens is better and vice versa
    – user38392
    Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 5:09
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    I thought that it was because Cap'n America is super old and Spiderman is super young, so they feel for a second that they come from the same place but obviously Captain's New York is hella different from Spidey's. Commented Jul 29, 2016 at 15:07
  • It is quite simple, the dialog before Cap asks where are you from, he said, "You got a heart", means you are a good superhero, hence Cap just asking casually that where are you from.And Spidey says from Queens, i.e NY, so he smiles and replies, from Brooklyn, same NY. Maybe NY superheroes have good heart..!!
    – Alexis
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 7:39

8 Answers 8

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Although the other answers may be right when they say that it's a reference to the longstanding Brooklyn/Queens rivalry, as a native New Yorker, I think it is simpler than that.

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In the geography of New York City, Brooklyn and Queens are neighbors. They're both located on the western tip of Long Island.

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As we can see, Peter1 and Steve2 have lived most of their lives less than 10 miles apart from one another.

It sounds like Steve's reaction to hearing that Peter is from Queens is simply a "Hey, we're neighbors!" kind of thing, not a reference to any deeper significance.


Update: My mother was born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and my dad was born and raised in Long Island City, Queens. I ran the scene by them and asked them to explain why Cap chuckles - they both agreed: "Because they're neighbors".


1 For those who are interested, here's 20 Ingram Street, Spider-Man's house. A family named Parker lives there in real life, and their next-door neighbors are the Osbournes

enter image description here

2 Unlike Spider-Man, Marvel never gave Captain America a real-world address. We know he was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, but we don't know where. He later moved into an apartment in Brooklyn Heights, but the apartment address - 569 Leaman Place - doesn't actually exist.

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  • This is a much insightful answer :)
    – ABcDexter
    Commented May 22, 2016 at 6:23
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    Not just "hey, we're neighbors", but "we're two of the worlds few superheroes, we're ten thousand miles from home, and we grew up 10 miles apart!" Commented Jun 8, 2018 at 22:47
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It's just to show us that Steve and Peter have a natural rapport, even when fighting on opposite sides. This is likely just intended to be set-up for a later film when they will be required to work together; establishing a common ground (such as the fact that they both come from New York) early on helps that relationship build naturally.

It also plays into a joke in the second post-credits sequence;

When asked by Aunt May how he got a black eye, Peter replies "From Steve". Aunt May asks if it's a Steve she knows and Peter says "No, he's from Brookyln. And his friend was huge. Like, huge". The joke here is that Peter is 100% telling the truth, even if Aunt May can't possible know what really happened from his line.

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    So you mean to say it have nothing to do with superiority complex rivalry between Queen and Brooklyn ?
    – Ankit Sharma
    Commented May 9, 2016 at 8:32
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    @AnkitSharma I have no idea if there is or isn't a rivalry between those from Queens and those from Brooklyn; I certainly didn't read that scene as if there was. It just felt like Steve being curious about this new kid showing up, and was mildly amused when it turned out they were bought up in close proximity to each other. The scene exists for the purpose of showing us that despite being on opposite sides of a "war", they clearly don't dislike one another, and could realistically end up good friends in the future. Commented May 9, 2016 at 8:34
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Lived all my life in Queens. There's a bit of rivalry/respect between Queens and Brooklyn. Kevin Smith pointed out in his podcast that Cap most likely recognized Spidey's New York/Queens accent even amidst fighting all the way in Germany.

I saw the movie in Astoria, Queens. It was definitely a crowd-pleaser moment.

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enter image description here

I found this on instagram and was amazed to see the reference (backward compatibility).

Adding to all the good answers and as @michael also mentions, it's a reference to the first Captain America movie.

Another example is the last fight scene between Cap, Bucky and Iron Man, in which Captain says,

I can do this all day.

This exact same line was said by Steve (he wasn't Captain America yet), when he was being bullied in the first movie.

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You got to be from New York City to understand that reference. I'm from New York and that's my favorite line in the film; in fact in the entire MCU. It's a very local thing, specially if you were born or raised in New York City. For example if you grew up in Brooklyn, you never hung out in Queens, etc.

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It's very simple. Stop reading too much into it.

I'm from New York. If I'm in an airport in Germany, and I ask someone where they're from, and they reply "Queens", the odds of meeting another NYC resident would be rare, so a chuckle and disbelief would be about the right reaction. So Steve is basically acknowledging the innate New York brotherhood and Spider-Man's heart, basically saying, "Hey you kick butt. Oh you're from Queens? That's cool. I kick butt too, neighbor, I'm from Brooklyn!".

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In Captain America: The First Avenger Steve Rogers asks the doctor where he was from and he said Queens. Then the doctor asked Steve where he was from and he said Brooklyn. Maybe it was a reference to the first movie.

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It's not about "superiority", Brooklyn over Queens, so much as it is about the rivalry and the fact that they're fighting (Queens and Brooklyn) literally on the OTHER SIDE IF THE WORLD and the rivalry STILL rears its head. That's what makes it funny.

But if you didn't perceive that then it's probably "a New York thing".

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