Earlier today, the trailer for Captain America: Civil War dropped. It is the 3rd Captain America movie (though most people are calling it the third Avengers movie since most of the other team movies feature prominently), it is also the 1st movie of Marvel’s Phase 3.
Civil War is the second movie of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) to be directly adapted from a specific comic storyline (after Age of Ultron), and much like Age of Ultron, the story has been altered significantly, due to both the changes between the MCU and 616 comic universes, and movie rights and monetary limitations (ie. no X-men in civil war even though they are the main characters in the comic story arc).
This is going to be a long post, so be ready. I’m going to talk about the trailer, the official posters, the official synopsis, predictions, comparisons of what we know to the comics, talking about different characters, and the implecations of earlier movie and tv show events and how they will affect the movie, at least according to my best guess.
Possible spoilers for Civil War the movie, definite spoilers for the comic.
The Trailer:
Captain America: Civil War Official Trailer #1 (2016) – Chris …
Things we’ve learned/thought from this trailer:
- Bucky remembers Steve, and possibly the rest of his past.
- Everyone in the world seems to be after Bucky.
- Cap is now an enemy of the state (because he’s helping Bucky)
- Tony is the one tasked with bringing Steve in.
- Black Panther seems to have a personal vendetta against the winter soldier.
- Rhodey will get hurt.
- We will all cry because: Steve: “I have to do this, he’s my friend”. Tony: “So was I”.
- Everyone is fighting, but they don’t really want to be.
- Wanda can fly now.
- Vision sides with Tony!!!
- We still know nothing of how SHIELD factors in.
- I don’t think they know Coulson’s alive.
- The SuperHuman Regristration Act is called the Sovokia Accords.
- This definitely doesn’t follow the comics too closely.
- Everyone will make me very sad.
The Posters:
All three posters focus on the fight between Captain America and Iron Man, though the story focuses on Bucky’s rehabilition and the SuperHuman Registration Act at large, the posters show Cap and Tony because not only are they the most recognizable, but the are the faces for their respective sides of the arguement.
I really like the change in the tagline, originally it was “which side are you on?”, which implies there is a right and wrong side, which implies we are meant to root for one of them over the other, which we aren’t.
The new tagline “Divided we fall” is indicitive of the true spirit of the original comic story, that the war is between friends who once stood united, that the war could have been avoided if it weren’t for a failure to communicate, and the shortcomings of both sides. Because neither side is completely in the right, but neither is wrong either. They are both acting with the best intentions, but the same differences in personality that have had Steve and Tony at each other’s throats since the first Avengers has come to a head, leading to a Civil War.
Steve’s Side of the story:
Being that Captain America is the titular character of the movie, I think we’ll see more of Steve’s side then we will of Tony’s. Steve’s side is the one against the SuperHuman Regristration Act, supposedly called the Sovokia Accords in the movie, presumably because of its destruction during the events of Age of Ultron.
It’s odd to see Steve being the one against the government, after all, he’s the one who joined the army, who has always had faith in the system, who willingly followed SHIELD. He is Captain America and he trusts his government. Except for when that some trust is betrayed when the government comes after Bucky, his oldest friend.
Steve sees this in black and white, he is a strong moral character, but he also has his own sense of justice. He was the kid who beat up (or tried to beat up) bullies twice his size. He lied on his enlistment forms multiple times to join the war, disobeyed direct orders to try and save Bucky from the Germans Etc. For Steve, trust is all or nothing. The system has broken his trust my going after Bucky, so in his eyes they cannot be trusted at all.
Had Bucky not been involved, Cap likely would have uderstood that those with powers need a system of accountability, but because they wanted to try Bucky for the crimes of the Winter Soldier, he was biasedly against it. Because despite the serum, he is just a man, and his is clinging to defend his best, oldest friend who he knows can be saved from himself and his past.
Tony’s side of the Story:
Just like how no one expects Steve to side against the government, few people expect Tony Stark to side with the government. The same Tony “I’m not a Soldier” Stark who doesn’t trust anyone, least of all the government. Who keeps his tech away from everyone, who makes a joke out of senators for fun. Who only begrudgingly listens to SHIELD and only seems to do so when it suits him. Who often acts on his own. That Tony Stark sides with the government and it’s accords.
But, it makes sense when you think about it. After all, Tony famously tries to fix his mistakes time and time again, he holds himself accountable even when things aren’t his fault, even when he only has the best intentions. He feels guilty for his mistakes with Ultron, when Pepper is in danger, for the dirty weapons dealing her had no knowledge of, and for Yinsen’s death, among other things. He wants to be held accountable. He wants to know where to find other heroes and villains. Tony is constantly taking in strays, he’d want to help other heroes so they don’t make mistakes. And, he’d want to be able to justify his version of justice by finding those that break the accords with ease.
The Accords are about accountability, but Tony and Steve but have biased views of what that means, only seeing them from one side, refusing to concede to the point of the other. The accords are a serious thing, but personal investment screws their perspectives.
If the accords are anything like the SHRA, they won’t go very well (have you seen X-men: Days of Futures Past? The dark alternate future is pretty much the one after the Civil War, at some point givng rise to the Dark Avengers).
This is of course speculation, founded mostly with a limited knowledge of comics and their MCU personalities. But its as close to truth as were going to get before the movie comes out to prove me right or wrong.
Whose who on which side:
We know which heroes fall on whose side because of the promo images.
On Tony’s side, we have: War Machine, Black Widow, Black Panther, Vision, and Spider-Man as well if rumors are true.
On Steve’s side we have: Hawkeye, Sharon Carter, Falcon, Bucky, and (if you look at Clint’s shoulder) Antman.
Most of these siding seem pretty obvious, save for one depressing exception: Clint and Natasha, for the first time since they meet, are on different sides.
Natasha is on Tony’s side because, like him, she beleives in being held responsible, because she carries her guilt of her past misdoing with her. If they have a registration, they can catch the bad guys faster. Though, in the trailer we see her helping Steve by warning him over the phone, because he isn’t one she’s working against, and he is one of the few people she trusts.
Clint sides with Steve because he’s seen prejudice first hand, and the cruelty even normal humans can do while he was growing up, and he knows having a public list of powered humans will only lead to discrimination.
Inciting Incidents:
As near as I can figure, we have two inciting incidents, besides the Accords/Registration act that lead to a Civil War between Team Iron Man (Pro-accords) and Team America (Against-accords). Of course, this is all speculation, but speculation based in evidence.
- The Death of the Starks (and Jarvis)
As most of you probably know, Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark and Maria Stark were killed when Tony was 17 (in one comic I read, they died the day he graduated from MIT).
What you might have missed is, the accident was staged, they were in fact killed by The Winter Soldier on orders by Hydra to eliminate their biggest threat (Howard was a founder of SHIELD), though they didn’t know that Tony wasn’t in the car, which is why he survived.
We learn that this is true in MCU canon in The Winter Soldier when the computer program of Baron Zemo tells Cap that Hydra had his old friends killed.
When Tony learns this, it will be a catalyst against the Winter Soldier, further driving a wedge between him and Steve.
2. The Death of Peggy Carter
You might be saying “but she isn’t dead, she just has dementia”. But listen, he death would be a catalyst for both Steve and Tony. Steve, because they were old sweethearts, and she is like last living reminder besides Bucky of his past. Tony, because, if we follow comic canon, she is his godmother, which doesn’t seem far fetched for MCU canon, seeing as Peggy and Howard stayed close friends up until his death, which we know because if we follow the MCU timeline, the scene with Peggy, Howard and Hank Pym in Antman takes place shortly before Howard’s death.
Aside from its convinence as an inciting incident, it also gives Cap a way to learn the relation between Peggy and Sharon, and incites proper aggression and sadness in each of them.
Though I’m loathe for Peggy to die, look at the evidence:
- There are always causulties of war.
- Peggy is 94
- She has dementia
- She must often mistake Tony for Howard, and still thinks she and Steve are in a war, which they are, its just a different war.
- Her death would be suitably sad, without killing a major hero.
- And the last and most compelling evidence: Early in shooting of Civil War, we got stills of a funeral.
There are more pictures, but this is the most obvious one, after all, who else would have a british flag on their casket?
The Winter Soldier vs Bucky Barnes:
Steve is fighting to defend Bucky, but virtually everyone after him is after the Winter Soldier, Iron Man’s team and the government because of his affilication with Hydra and his crimes. Hydra, because they want thier best assassin back.
The Winter Soldier is a brainwashed Soviet assassin working for Hydra who, among other things, is responsible for the deaths of Jarvis (the original), Howard and Maria Stark. Which explains why Tony so desperately wants to catch him.
Bucky Barnes is not a villain but a victim. He did not remember who he was until late in the Winter Soldier (that whole “who the hell is Bucky” line ring any bells?). He is Steve’s best friend for nearly a century, and now that he’s remembered, he is going to have to reconcil those memories with the ones of who he has been for the past 70 years, and figure out how to come back from it.
This is important to the plot of Civil War, at least MCU wise. Which is a major difference from the comic, as the comic focuses mainly on the SHRA (SuperHuman Registration Act) and how to effects mainly ther mutants and the X-men, and how if will begin a civil war based on prejudice and intolerance, just like the American Civil War.
The new faces of the civil war, (and the faces we wont see):
They are a couple of new faces in the trailer, Black Panther who is appearently siding with Tony, though we know very little about him in the MCU. We also know that we will be seeing Spider-Man, though we didn’t see him in the trailer, we know that he too is on Iron Man’s side.
According to the trailer, we will see Natasha, Clint, Vision, Wanda, Bucky, and Rhodey. We may or may not see Bruce, and it’s been confirmed that we aren’t going to be seeing Thor as he is still on Asgard for the time being.
I would love to see Pepper, we haven’t seen her in a while, but I doubt we will.
Haven’t Seen You in A while:
In the trailer, we see a couple of faces in the background that we haven’t seen in a while.
Crossbones:
Also known as Brock Rumlow aka the blond Hydra dude who was Bucky’s handler and tried to kill Steve in Winter Soldier. He has become his comic book persona of “Crossbones” complete with uniform and mask. And from the look of things, he’s out for blood. He, along with the rest of Hydra probably have to main goals, to get the Winter Soldier back into his brainwashed state, and the put an end to Captain America once and for all.
He isn’t important to the war, but he will exacerbate the problems Steve and Bucky are having.
Ross:
Next is a face we really haven’t seen in a while, General Ross aka Betty Ross’s father aka the man who wants to kill the Hulk, and by extension Bruce Banner. Though we don’t see Bruce in the trailer, we see Ross in the background of a few scenes, though we don’t know the angle he’s working, or how he’s working with. Considering we haven’t seen him since The Incredible Hulk back in phase 1, nothing good can come from his presence.
Sharon Carter:
She’s the big one. Sharon Carter is, of course, the niece (or maybe they’ll make her the granddaughter, not sure how in works in MCU) of Peggy Carter, as well as Steve’s new love interest if the comics and the end of Winter Soldier are anything to go on.
Though she features more prominently in the comcis then Peggy does, we’ve seen very little of her in MCU. You may remember her as the nurse in The First Avenger when Steve first wakes up in modern day. She is also the neighbor who is a SHEILD agent watching over Steve in Winter Soldier. Though, we don’t know her name until the end, when Steve asks Natasha for the name of the girl she tried to set him up with, and she says Sharon.
As far as I recall, they haven’t yet said her last name, nor does Steve yet know her relation to his war-time crush, but she will obviously be important to the Civil War, not only because of her role in the comics, but because in the promo images, she is shown to be a prominent member of Steve’s team.
Theory: The death of captain America?
In the comic arc, the Civil War ends with Sharon Carter’s mindcontrolled (by Hydra) shooting and subsequent killing of Captain America, which stops the fighting long enough for the heroes of both sides to talk it out and end it. This leads into the next story arc (The Death of Captain America), which, as far as I remember, has a reformed Bucky Barnes taking up the mantle his best friend left behind because “the world needs heroes more than ever”.
I want to see if they are going to go in this direction in the movie, because they said Captain America would be in Infinity Wars, but nothing of Steve Rogers. And if they don’t go in this direction, how will the fighting stop. Because even Reed Richards (in the comic side stories) couldn’t find a way to stop the war once it had started, only universes in which it never got to that point (my favorite alternate universe being the one where Tony was born a girl named Natasha Stark and thus averted the war through her marriage to Steve Rogers, meaning that in at least one universe, Stony is real).
How will this effect Infinity Wars?
In the Infinity War Part 1 teaser that was recently released, we see that Thanos (the purple guy at the end of Avengers) has all of the infinity stones, which means something happens in Phase 3 that lets him get a hold of them. The ending of Civil War will heavily effect Phase 3, because it will make or break the relations between the Avengers. For the Avengers (and Guardians of the Galaxy) to defeat Thanos, they must band together and trust one another implicately, and Civil War may just break the tentative trust they have built over the first two phases.
Civil War was a turning point in the comics, the beginning and end of an era, and I fear it will be the same for MCU, though exactly how we won’t know until May 6, 2016 when we can finally see for oursevles how the Civil War goes done.
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