616 To MCU: ‘Captain America: Civil War’ Comparison – Part I
Warning: Mild Spoilers
If you’re a comic book fan like myself then I’m sorry and we’ll hug as soon as we meet. Luckily, we have these really cool movies to give us something to look forward to. Over the years the blogosphere has had a reaction to comic book movies that can best be described as fickle. And then Marvel put their actual hat in the ring and the rest seems to be history. Every new film seems to be bigger and better than the last, with the prevailing question being, when will they plateau? The good news is likely never! Because the difference between Marvel and the rest of the field isn’t money, actors or even directors but instead its editorial brilliance that makes the difference.
Marvel Comics has been pretty transparent for decades in terms of how some of their biggest events and stories came to be. Knowing how much effort goes into what sometimes appear to be minor story changes is what gives me confidence in the company going forward. Watching how Disney and company have weaved all of the MCU together is an example of that very same editorial brilliance. We’re going to take a trip down MCU lane by looking at the films and the stories these creators have used, and for fun we’re going to do it in reverse!
The Sokovia Accord isn’t necessarily a reference to the Civil War comic
That observation might not sit well with certain MCU fans, but it’s still true at the end of the day. The Civil War comic does have a political document that is similar, however the differences do matter. The Superhuman Registration Act wasn’t even new to the Civil War comics. Captain America had resisted both attempts to pass the act which was how they explained his stance in the Civil War event. The Sokovia Accord has a minor stipulation that completely changes what it is in reference to the comics. The Accord stipulates that the Avengers would answer to the United Nations and that bugs Cap in the film. However that’s pretty much the status quo in the comics, the Avengers have answered to the UN for years. It’s how the comic book creators explained the team’s ability to operate all over the globe.
That doesn’t mean that Steve Rogers’ reaction to the Accord doesn’t make sense, it’s just that it’s housekeeping for a different purpose entirely. Martin Freeman plays Everett K. Ross, his announcement as a member of the cast was the original indicator that Black Panther would be in the film. He was literally created in those pages and hasn’t been seen really elsewhere. Ross isn’t so much a SHIELD Agent, but an attaché provided to T’Challa by the American government. So, how’d he end up in this role in Civil War? Mostly because someone had to represent Henry Peter Gyrich. Ross and The Accord fill that role.
There is a conversation in the film where the main characters mull over signing the Accord. The points they bring up basically cover 10 years’ worth of Avengers stories where they had to answer to Gyrich on those basic issues. It didn’t cause the same type of team dynamic but it did provide its fair share of drama. If you’re wondering why Martin Freeman was tapped, or why he didn’t play Gyrich outright, it could be because Mystique killed the guy in the first X-men movie when he was played by Matthew Sharp. You know the movie where Magneto turned a Senator into Hydro-Man? There is a scene where James Rhodes points out the Accord isn’t the various groups they had issues with in the past. In the comics, that’s exactly the problem the Avengers face. Gyrich is a member of The National Security Council and was appointed by the President to oversee the Avengers. Transitioning to UN oversite was how they eliminated Gyrich as an obstacle in the story.
There is also the matter of the heavy mutant influence in the pages of The Avengers. Did you that it was Spider-Man that initially vouched for the Maximoff twins? Quicksilver wanted to prove that he was a hero by bringing in the dangerous criminal Spider-Man. It didn’t go his way because it’s Spider-Man but, luckily for he and his sister, ol’ Spidey literally dropped them off at Avengers Mansion and told Cap that he should help them. But the twins were just the beginning, a longtime Avenger is The Beast of X-Men fame and there have been many back and forths between creators over who gets to play with everyone’s favorite blue team player. Even more recently Wolverine inexplicably became an Avenger, and after that the stories have almost become truly one. Henry Peter Gyrich was one of the attempts by Marvel to capitalize on the immense popularity of The X-Men, Gyrich was in the X-Men film in 2000 because he was also linked to the Sentinel project in the X-Books. That’s a lot of info to sort through, using events Marvel might want to shy away from. Martin Freeman as Ross gives you Gyrich’s presence and maybe a few lines to represent a major aspect of the original story.
It’s likely not as simple as all that, something else very important happened during that conversation. If you listen carefully several cast members give the viewers some seriously specific numbers. The amount years that Iron Man has been such, how long the Avengers have been Avenging and even how long it’s been since Tony Stark strolled up to Thunderbolt Ross in that bar. This is comic book universe building 101, creating a timeline that allows blanks to be filled in from start to finish. In the scene that begins with Thunderbolt Ross and ends with Cap getting the text message the rough timeline for events going forward is laid out. Thor wasn’t MIA at the end of Age of Ultron, and he told Steve he was just going to do some investigating. That combined with Tony’s vaguely explained injuries in the beginning of the film would suggest that future stories could be told out of chronological order.
When you consider the stakes at the end of the film, United Nations oversite could be something easily explained away as existing in the background and Cap just came around.
Aside from the official MCU films, the best Marvel movies have in my opinion been Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man films. What I liked most was how much of the history he managed to squeeze into the two stories. Civil War does that but with far more story to encapsulate.
I’ll close part one with this:
The Iron Man franchise is the Extremis Story, The Captain America franchise covers The Winter Soldier, Secret War, Agents of SHIELD and by extension Secret Warriors/Inhumans. The Thor films help bridge the gap between GotG and everyone else, and in turn the Guardians are bridging the gap between Space past and present. Ant-Man and all the other stories will also be examined as we explore how it all came to this.
That’s my time folks, until next time of course.
