Hopefully by now you've seen the latest Marvel Studios film Captain America: Civil War, a sequel to both Captain America: Winter Soldier and Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron. If you haven't? Ah, don't worry too much about it. No spoilers beyond what's in the trailers. And no spoilers for the comic either, even though you've had nearly ten years to read that piece of garbage.
Oh, I'm sorry, was that too forward? Sorry. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the original Civil War story. It's mean-spirited, nobody is in character, and the plot goes south after a pretty decent first issue.
But, it inspired this movie, so I guess looking at the two makes a little sense. I'm going to refer to the film "Civil War" as "Cap 3" just so we don't get to the two confused, also. Despite the fact that Cap 3 does have several moments focused outside of the "Civil War" subtitle, there are also moments in the comic that don't have too much to do with the Registration Act, like the big moments with Peter, the Fantastic Four, or the Punisher.
Right off the bat, I should say that I like Cap 3 way more than I like Civil War. All of the characters and their motivations made sense (plus they were way more likable), there was actual humor infused in it, and the focus was not on the external but the internal struggles they had with each other. There were some elements that I had to roll my eyes at, but those are also in line with why I don' like the original Civil War.
The basic premise of both is that the government wants to restrain superheroes. In the comic, this occurs after a school is destroyed because of a group of C-list superheroes and super villains squabbling with little control, and there have obviously been decades of other catastrophes. In the film, some events at the beginning of the film, on top of the events of the previous films, have forced the United Nation's hand to try and limit superheroes.
Morally, I have a huge problem with both acts. While the Sokovia Accords isn't technically the same thing as the Superhuman Registration, I do get why there is a Superhuman Registration Act. In the comics, S.H.I.E.L.D. still existed and most of the heroes worked within the organization already. Under the United Nations, you have many more voices speaking up on how to handle these super beings and trying to voice how they can be used. The core of these--the limiting of superheroes in battle--is where I have a problem. For some reason it feels like the writers have this oversight of: if the heroes weren't at the scene in the first place, things would have ended up far worse.
And this is where the film starts to move away from the comic for the better. While in the comic Captain America does say some of these things, he is far more aggressive and it doesn't make you want to side with him. In the movie, he's very calm and very sure of himself that he's right. And he is. If the heroes are relegated to assignments and there is a major threat somewhere, how will they all be able to react in time to limit the damage? Or what if they're brought somewhere as a distraction and therefore away from the actual danger?
A key element of both stories is the struggles that the heroes have with each other. I dislike heroes fighting heroes off of principle, but if you're going to make them fight, it has to morally make sense. For example: Batman and Superman butt heads all the time because they have very different ideologies. It's why the fight at the end of The Dark Knight Returns makes sense. Similarly, Iron Man has an ego the size of Jupiter and Captain America is very arrogant about what he believes and the two naturally have to collide. While their natural inclination isn't to fight, it feels in the film more so than the comic that they have to do fight. This is mostly because of the Captain America 3 plot elements going on, but in the comic, Tony just fights Steve because Mark Millar wrote it that way.
Cap 3 also did a much better job of showing that while the heroes are fighting each other, there is still massive respect between each of them. They haven't served with each other as long, but they've still fought and nearly all died together. They're only fighting their friends because they feel they have to for the greater good, not because they're frustrated. In the fighting I never got the feeling that anyone hero hated another. Quite the opposite, actually. There was a lot of regret in the fighting that I really thought delved into their character.
Civil War had people switching sides and just wailing on each other for the sake of action. Spider-Man is the biggest one of all, and the only time I really felt some sort of connection was when the Fantastic Four had to make their decision on what side they were on. In that situation, it really did feel like a family was going to be divided and this time it might not get better. The problem, though, is that one side had the correct answer with legitimate backing while the other was being split because there needed to be conflict. Cap 3 doesn't do that. It divides the line but in such a way that the heroes have to talk about why they've made their decision and how.
The biggest sin of Civil War, which was what I feared most out of this movie (and thankfully that fear was not realized), was that no character really felt comfortable, or in place. Captain America and Tony Stark are at their worst here. It's similar to Jeph Loeb, and subsequently Joe Kelly's, Supergirl run. Sure it's Kara and there are some things right about it, but my goodness is she out of character and just outright disgusting sometimes. Thankfully, we have a good live-action adaptation of the Girl of Steel's early adventures just as we have a good live-action adaptation of a conflict between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. Steve and Tony have been built for years in their type but they have changed quite a bit (Steve more than Tony, I feel). I still don't have that much care for Tony and his argument but given how close he's been to many of these events it makes sense why he would jump to the side of the Sokovia Accords so quickly without putting too much thought like Steve does.
While I'm sick to death of superheroes fighting each other (as if we don't have enough super-villains) I would suggest that if you were to experience one of the two "civil wars" you have to go with the one in Cap 3. Civil War is an incredibly flawed story that has some interesting elements that, by the end, are forgotten along with the purpose of the movie. Cap 3 stays with its themes throughout and stays true to the characters and makes a bit more sense regarding why superheroes need to be reined. Plus it's actually a pretty good movie and only takes two hours, so there's that.
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