There are a lot of major movies yet to come out in 2015, so looking ahead to next year feels almost inappropriate. But when something as big as Captain America: Civil War is on the way, there’s always news and speculation to get riled up about.
As a Marvel fan who’s been a little disappointed of late, I’m worried they’re going to screw this one up. After The Avengers was such a master stroke of storytelling, seamlessly combining the narratives of four major superheroes, Age Of Ultron felt stretched and repetitive. It got too big, too silly, and too generic, all at once. By the sound of things, Captain America: Civil War may have even more heroes to include, so naturally it seems a bit ambitious.
But if it’s slightly cluttered, Marvel fans will deal with it. There are just a few things Marvel has to be careful about, lest they ruin one of the biggest superhero film projects to date.
If Iron Man Is Made Out To Be A Villain
For those who may not know, Civil War is going to be about fighting within the Avengers, and specifically between two factions led by Captain America and Iron Man. Evidently, the deal is that after everything went haywire in Age Of Ultron Tony Stark was humbled to the point of wanting government regulation of superhero activity. On the other hand, Captain America—due to his history with corrupt government control—wants independence. And thus, a schism is born.
IGN broke down the teams in this article, and here’s what we’ve got: Team Captain America features Cap, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Agent Sharon Carter, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and (possibly) Scarlet Witch. Team Stark features Iron Man, Black Panther (making his debut), The Vision, Black Widow, War Machine, and in some capacity Spider-Man. There’s also believed to be a double agent among that group, and Black Widow is the popular pick, so she may well end up fighting for Cap.
If one thing stands out about those groups, it’s that Team Iron Man has a distinct advantage in sheer power. The Vision pretty much won Age Of Ultron by himself, so that about settles it. And that of course sets up Team Cap as the underdog—and possibly the “good” side. What Culture pointed out the dangers of this setup here, noting that it would result in Iron Man as a “villain,” and I couldn’t agree more. Marvel may want to parade Captain America around as the Avengers’ moral compass, but Stark/Iron Man is the fan favorite—period.
If Hulkbuster Returns
Some people enjoyed the Hulkbuster suit Tony Stark busted out to try to contain the Hulk in Age Of Ultron. I thought it threatened the very concept of Iron Man, as well as the action style of the Avengers films. Does that sound a little bit dramatic? Let me explain.
First off, the entire point of Iron Man’s suit is that it provides power and energy disproportionate to its own size. That’s why Stark makes it smaller and more streamlined than the makeshift garage version he initially builds in a cave in Iron Man. It’s why the War Machine suit comes armed with Hammer Tech’s “ex-wife,” a cigar-sized weapon with epic damage potential. It’s why even in gaming, Iron Man produces a bizarrely powerful punch. Gala Bingo’s Iron Man slot, which is available on their site, invites players to “shoot down missiles“. Even in a slot machine using the Iron Man character to enhance its image, it’s understood that this man-sized piece of armor can handle military weapons.
But Iron Man needs to size up to battle the Hulk? It just never really added up—not to mention it resulted in a generic city destruction battle sequence akin to the garbage in Man Of Steel or one of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies. Now, you may have noticed the Hulk wasn’t mentioned for either team, and in fact it’s still up in the air whether or not Mark Ruffalo will even be in Civil War, so this might be nothing to worry about. But International Business Times suggested in an article that Ruffalo and his Hulk will indeed find their way into the film to battle a rumored Red Hulk, and possibly, once again, the Hulkbuster. This would pretty much guarantee 15 more minutes of random urban chaos, as well as further belittling of the original Iron Man concept.
If Character Introductions Are Distracting
I mentioned before that Age Of Ultron felt a little bit stretched out, and one reason for that was that it attempted to include back stories for a number of fringe Avengers who don’t have their own origin films. We learned about Hawkeye’s hidden family, Black Widow’s haunted past, and even where the mystical mutant twins Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch came from. I actually didn’t think any one of these stories was handled too poorly, but mashed together the overall effect seemed simultaneously lazy and distracting.
There are two problems with this moving forward. The first is that the skimpy nature of the origin material requires further fleshing out, which means we could be in for more flashbacks and side stories used to explain these fringe characters who seem to be becoming more relevant as key Civil War players. The second is that we now have even more characters being introduced in the midst of a collaboration film, rather than through their own origin movies.
Marvel appears to be conscious of these issues, at least. CinemaBlend has some information here about the introduction of Black Panther. It seems as if the character may actually be used as a necessary catalyst for the events of Civil War, with more of his own story being explored later on in a standalone film. Spider-Man, too, will reportedly be brought into the fold without much of a background. It’s rumored that he’ll be introduced as a sort of amateur crime fighter Tony Stark takes under his wing, with the Marvel team deciding that fans have already seen enough of Spidey’s origins in two previous film series. There are still a lot of characters to handle, but here’s hoping Marvel cuts it out with the origin vignettes.
There’s a chance this could be Marvel’s biggest and most impressive movie yet. However, if that’s going to be the case, the studio will have to avoid some of the issues that plagued Age Of Ultron. Knocking out problems like these would be a good start.
