Back in 2006, Marvel debuted what would go down as one of their best events to date: Civil War. The death of civilians during a super-powered battle forces the government to create a superhuman registration act, in which registered super-powered beings in America would become paid government employees. However, they would also have to reveal their secret identities. Tony Stark ended up being for the act, while Captain America stood against it. The story forced heroes, villains, and readers to take sides: are they for registration or against it?
Civil War was a huge story that had 7 main issues and over 100 tie-ins. It involved characters throughout the Marvel universe. That's too much story for one film, so its big screen counterpart won't be able to hit all the points the major points the comic mini-series could. Here are some key moments from the comic that won't appear in the film.
Warning: There are spoilers for the Civil War comic ahead.
Nitro's Explosion
The New Warriors, a superhero team with their own reality show, were filming an episode, when they came up against Nitro, a supervillain who can explode. During the battle, Nitro decided to take out the team by letting off a large explosion right in front of a school, killing heroes and civilians. Captain America estimated 800 to 900 casualties. There's a lot to introduce just to get this moment off the ground. None of the New Warriors exist in the Marvel cinematic universe and neither does Nitro. However, the events of Age of Ultron, with Ultron trying to destroy all of humanity by crashing a city into the planet, may be more than enough reason for a registration act to come into play.
Uatu the Watcher Shows Up
Uatu the Watcher is a being that lives alone on the Moon. He is a member of an alien race that records knowledge by watching events unfold but never interfering. He's tall, he's bald, and he rarely talks, except for the few times where he breaks his "no interfering" rule. If Uatu shows up, something big is about to happen. It's a really bizarre concept to introduce to a movie with potentially a complex story about morality and heroes punching each other. More than anything, Uatu is an indicator to comic fans that what's coming down the road is going to be huge, but it's not necessary to the plot for the feature film.
Anything Involving the X-Men
Civil War embraced every corner of Earth in the Marvel Universe, even stretching into Wakanda, where Black Panther is from. Mutantkind, including the X-Men, were a larger part of this story. Wolverine and Cyclops were at ground zero after Nitro exploded. Eventually, Wolverine ended up fighting Nitro during the event, as Wolverine's healing factor could take on the blasts dealt by the villain. Fox owns the rights to Wolverine, the X-Men, and pretty much anything that's a mutant, except for a few instances like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Fans should expect anything involving mutants to be missing from the film.
Anything Involving the Fantastic Four
While a lot of the focus of Civil War was on Tony Stark's team hunting down Captain America's team, one of the most interesting side stories took place with the Fantastic Four, mainly between Sue and Reed Richards, a married couple that didn't always see eye-to-eye. Reed was working closely with Tony Stark, but Sue didn't always believe in what Reed was doing, which led to some incredibly riveting moments during the story. Much like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four are owned by Fox, which is a real bummer considering that the team being included in this film would have been awesome.
Spider-Man Revealing His Identity on Television
During the Civil War story, Spider-Man joined up with Tony Stark and did the unthinkable: he revealed his identity on live television to show support for the Superhuman Registration Act. This is Spider-Man's first venture into the Marvel cinematic universe. Revealing his identity could easily be considered a bit "too soon" for the character, especially since this Peter Parker just became Spider-Man. In addition, while the moment was cool, it took a lot of silly plot devices to "undo" that moment, including a deal with the devil, Mephisto. While Spider-Man being a part of this story is important, this moment can be cut without taking too much away from the story.
Robot Thor AKA Ragnarok
Prior to this story kicking off, Thor had died, so the heroes of the Marvel Universe were surprised to see the god of thunder return during Civil War, and they were more surprised to see him take Tony Stark's side. However, it turns out this Thor was actually a robot known as "Ragnarok." While this would be really cool to see in the May film, Civil War wasn't a part of Chris Hemsworth's contract, so he won't be in it. Tony Stark may have a few tricks up his sleeves, but this won't be one of them.
All the Deaths
One of the biggest moments from Civil War, early on, was the death of Goliath. That wasn't the only death though. A whole slew of villains died as Punisher blasted his way into a room of bad guys who recently joined Captain America's cause. Because the Marvel cinematic universe doesn't have a plethora of characters that can be used as cannon fodder, don't expect much in the way of death in this film.
Maria Hill's Team of Villains
Maria Hill and S.H.I.E.L.D. felt they needed a little bit of help putting down the resistance against the Superhuman Registration Act, and there is no one better to recruit than a whole bunch of villains that are looking for redemption. Their first task was to take down Spider-Man, who turned on Tony Stark after the death of Goliath. It's pretty simple why this won't happen: there simply aren't enough villains kicking around for Hill to use. Could she employ villains like Crossbones and Zemo to take on Captain America? Most likely, but we will not be seeing the bad guy turned hero team known as the Thunderbolts.
Negative Zone Prison
What did Tony Stark and Reed Richards do with those who were against the Superhuman Registration Act? They locked them in the Negative Zone, which is a parallel antimatter universe. Heroes like Daredevil got to spent a stint in this jail for not registering as super humans. Obviously, that's a whole lot, concept-wise, to throw into the new film. Even more importantly, the Negative Zone is originally a Fantastic Four concept, so it's most likely a property of Fox.
Daredevil and Punisher's Involvement
The heroes and villains of the Marvel cinematic universe reach further than just the films. ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exists within that world, as well as all the Netflix series. Both Daredevil and Punisher play pretty big roles in the Civil War comic but don't expect them to pop up in the May film. Daredevil, Punisher, Jessica Jones, and the rest of the characters from the Netflix series are all contained within their own little pocket, like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so expect a preexisting Marvel movie character to fill their roles.
Bonus Moment We're Unsure About: The Death of Captain America
Many people consider then end of Civil War to be the death of Captain America, even though that moment happened a month after the conclusion of the story. Steve Rogers turned himself in after realizing how much damage the battle had caused and ended up getting shot by Crossbones while heading to trial. While everything in this list has to do with things that can't possibly happen in the upcoming film, Steve Rogers' death is a bit of a puzzler. Will Marvel go so far as to kill off the character? We're leaning towards no, but this is something that could possibly happen.
63 Comments