Alright, look, let's be real here. The 2006 Civil War story was a pretty divisive story in more than just the context of the story. The fanbase is very split on its feelings about it, either loving it or hating it. Me? I kinda fall in the middle. The concept is interesting, sure. Splitting a team down the middle over a pretty intense issue.
The reason for it all is what kind of gets me. Forcing super-heroes to unmask takes away the main reason that they are a super-hero, and making them members of the government workforce, essentially, makes them agents of the FBI. On the other hand, forcing heroes like Captain America to become rogue is something that was kind of strange. It is good to see him stick to his guns but to see everyone else turn against him was pretty brutal.
The basis behind Civil War is that a group of C-list super heroes causes an explosion that blows up a school and leaves a lot of children dead. That is the last straw for the government, forcing super-heroes to start turning themselves in so that they can be monitored by the government, which also means they'll be revealing their secret identities. Heroes like Iron Man and Spider-Man side with the government while Captain America and Luke Cage decide to resist, to be Anti-Registration versus Pro-Registration.
It was a large event that had long-lasting effects in the Marvel universe. A big hero died and was replaced. Spider-Man made a deal with the devil (whouda thunk?), and the Avengers are pretty damaged because of their divide. And like I already said, fans were pretty divided on it.
Now, that's the comic history, let's look at the movie history. Obviously Tony Stark and Steve Rogers weren't the best of friends until the script demanded it of them in The Avengers. After that, we haven't seen them really do anything together since Avengers: Age of Ultron. But, we did see Cap willingly take down S.H.I.E.L.D. because of a distrust with the government, making him a vigilante in the eyes of the American government. Him, Falcon, and Black Widow, which probably means the government doesn't trust the supers already.
Top that with the inevitable demise of Iron Man's stride to help the world as the Ultron program is going to implode and the government is sure to not trust Stark and force him to turn himself in, while Cap is probably going to lose faith in Tony as well. Apparently there's a version of the script where at the end of Avengers 2, Cap says he is splitting with these Avengers and has his own team, and that they will show up. Perhaps it's folks like Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, and Black Panther, possibly Captain Marvel Carol Danvers? Thus, Civil War will begin undoubtedly in Cap 3.
This raises many, many questions. The first is obviously why they are doing this so early. So I'll ask: why? Just because Cap doesn't trust the government and has a rocky relationship with Tony Stark shouldn't really warrant a big movie event about it. Apparently, Tony is to feature in Cap 3 to kick off the event. Given that Cap is the first Marvel movie in 2016, this makes sense. Yet it also makes Ant-Man look even less credible, seeing as how Hank Pym is already not in Age of Ultron and will have probably nothing to do with Cap 3. Feel bad for the guy, in my opinion he got totally robbed by not being in Age of Ultron. But, I'm not part of Marvel.
Civil War also is a very random move considering what the MCU has been building toward since the Avengers: the Infinity Gauntlet. At the end of Cap 2 we saw Baron von Strucker possibly had the fourth stone in Loki's sceptre, as well as the Maximoff twins. And with Thanos already being featured along with three other stones...if they do Civil War, how will that be integrated?
This is all, by the way, speculation that Avengers 3 is going to deal solely with Civil War. What could be cool is if the movies break up the heroes and then the threat of Thanos brings them all together. Sounds good, yeah, but, uh...
If you think about it, it really doesn't make much sense. Let's think about it. RDJ is signed on for Avengers 2 and 3 and now Cap 3. That means he may, or may not, make an appearance in following movies. What's the point of Civil War if Iron Man isn't leading the charge and if Cap isn't leading the side opposite? Not only that, but Steve Evans is ready to put down the shield, only wanting to do Avengers 2 and Cap 3.
I have a spoiler theory here: given that Crossbones is obviously still alive and that Winter Soldier will probably feature heavily here, I thought that Crossbones was going to kill Cap in Cap 3. As Steve and Falcon go looking for Bucky, Crossbones follows them. When Winter Solider helps Cap defeat a new villain, say M.O.D.O.K. or something, Crossbones would kill Cap--as he does in Civil War--and then Bucky would take up the shield as he probably will because Sebastian Stan is supposed to be in a bunch more movies.
However, here is the issue: Cap is killed at the end of Civil War. If Cap 3 is meant to be the end of Civil War, then, if they kill him at the start...what's the point? In Civil War, Cap's death signals the end and forces everyone to wake up and see that what they've done has only hurt themselves (no duh). Bucky takes up the shield to avenge Cap and be the hero he would have wanted Steve to see.
But let's just forget the whole continuity issue here. If Avengers 3 is supposed to be the amalgamation of a whole bunch more Phase 3 movies, leading up to a movie in 2019, that is a lot of filming for just one story. And tying films such as Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, and obviously Thor 3 is going to be difficult. Plus there's the fact that everyone in the MCU has had their identities exposed thanks to Black Widow, who exposed all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s information, which means all the hero's information as well. So, their identities are already exposed. Which means the whole registration thing is basically going to be the government clamping down on super-heroes. It just seems like a lot of work for a story that many fans many not want to see on the big-screen.
Conversely, everyone has been looking forward to the major showdown against Thanos. I didn't mind at all that the heroes would go off and do their own thing in their own movies, even if it didn't directly relate to the other movies. That's the whole magic of it. Seeing these heroes go through their experiences and then come together after not seeing them together for a while is so cool. Having them in the same movie over and over again will wear off and take away the magic. Plus, Thanos is just such a big villain that the build-up to him could be easy. In Thor 3 you could have Thor fighting Ragnarock in space while hearing rumblings of Thanos. In Dr. Strange he could sense dimensional tremors of Thanos approaching Earth, and in Captain Marvel (maybe) you could show Carol in space possibly crossing paths with Thanos. The only movies that wouldn't really relate are Cap 3 and Ant-Man, but the fun part about those are that they are usually grounded and keep things down to Earth for us to keep the conflict local and interesting. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will feature Thanos definitely, that we know.
Splitting up the heroes just seems like a lot of complicated work, when you could just be building up to a fun battle against the Mad Titan like you've been teasing for years.
But then there's the subject that most of us are overlooking. See, a lot of the people who go to see these movies are teenagers or young adults, people who can watch a political drama and get what's going on. The cultural context and small nods are easier to grasp. Now, what about kids? Not to say kids are stupid, in fact they are very bright, but, let's say a child goes to see Cap 3 and they see Iron Man fighting Captain America because the government is making them fight? And then there are all these complicated laws for the Registration Act--which, by the way, the Marvel creators don't care to discuss they are so complicated--and I just think it's all going to fly over the heads of a kid.
Kids are there for the story and to see their favorite super-hero kick butt. But, if it's all about the politics and then there's turmoil and confusion over it, I mean, it's going to take away from the fun. The films will become too serious...
To make a comparison to Marvel's competitor, DC, let's look at the fan-dividing Man of Steel. It's been widely hated on because of the gritty, dark portrayal of Superman and all the deaths. But it's also got great action that shows what Superman is made of. So while this is the more adult Superman film, it's still very feasible for children to see because it's not too complicated in the story department and the action is more than enough for kids to love. With Civil War, it's a much more involved, rather dark story really, that has little exciting action as the heroes are forced constantly to hold back as they don't want to land the killing blow.
Also, Civil War can't work. Many heroes that were prominently featured aren't even in the MCU. Characters like Spider-Man, Wolverine, many of the remaining X-Men aren't own by Marvel and won't be in the foreseeable future. Bringing in Spider-Man to the MCU could also mean a One More Day movie...and at that point I will give up on Spider-Man films.
So, overall, I'm confused as to what Marvel is doing. Obviously it's no fun in revealing too much, but, you can't just drop a Civil War announcement on us without confirming future films to have the story-line make sense. I'm very excited for Age of Ultron, as it features my favorite Avengers villain, but, I'm not a fan of the characters going to war with each other. Partially because we have so few estbalished characters to care about, and partially because Civil War a pretty "meh" story that doesn't compare to the huge epic of the Infinity Gauntlet. If Marvel really wants to win the game, they'll use Thanos, not the Registration Act.
Which means there's only one thing to say: DC, ball's in your court.
Even though DC has won the game on television because, well...KOMODO ON ARROW!!!!
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