Earlier this week, Marvel Studios announced that the third Captain America movie will adapt the 2006 crossover limited series, “Civil War” by writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven. In “Civil War,” Captain America and Iron Man infamously found themselves on opposite sides of the Superhuman Registration Act as the superhero community rallied behind both men and events pit them and their respective followers against each other.
Going in, Captain America: Civil War has a few disadvantages that will have to be overcome. For starters, Marvel can’t use Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four despite the large role that those characters played within the original story. The “Civil War” comic book was also built upon the years of friendship between Captain America and Iron Man. But in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark barely know each other. They don’t have the same history between them. And the biggest challenge of them all is the fact that the MCU is only sparsely populated with superheroes compared to its comic book counterpart.
None of this means that Captain America: Civil War can’t do the story justice on the big screen. Marvel Studios signed Robert Downey Jr. to an additional film just to give Tony Stark a large role in this movie. They’ve even got Chadwick Boseman ready to make his debut as Black Panther within the film.
Keeping in mind the limitations of the characters that can be used within the film, we’ve assembled a list of the “10 Moments We Want to See in Captain America: Civil War.” Be aware that there are some potential spoilers ahead if the movie sticks to the important events of the storyline, but if you’re current with Marvel Comics then nothing here should be a surprise to you.
THE STAMFORD INCIDENT
Every story needs an inciting incident. In Civil War, it’s the devastation of Stamford, Connecticut. Marvel’s New Warriors had recently been re-envisioned as Reality TV superheroes who allowed a camera crew to film their adventures. In Stamford, the New Warriors got too cocky and most of them were killed when the supervillain known as Nitro triggered a massive explosion.
Several hundred civilians were also killed, including school children. The aftermath of the Stamford incident turned public opinion against the superheroes and it led to the creation of the Superhuman Registration Act. For all of the political hand-wringing behind it, the Superhuman Registration Act was largely about the politicians seizing control of the superheroes. Tony Stark actually had good reasons to endorse the SRA and get behind it, as he was able to mitigate some of the damage.
But even Iron Man couldn’t prevent the superhero Civil War that followed.
