Marvel’s Civil War is one of the biggest crossover events in the Marvel Universe. Its events shook the Marvel world and its repercussions stayed on for years to come. Being so huge meant that it was inevitable before the MCU would try to adapt it, and that’s exactly what happened. We got Captain America: Civil War. This article will explore the ways in which the movie and the comic differed.
1. The Reason of the Conflict
The Civil War divided Marvel into two, and the two factions went through various forms of conflict with each other, which first started with a difference in opinion, which eventually escalated to full blown war. The two sides were led by Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. In the source material, the war was triggered by an explosion caused by the supervillain called Nitro, killing many people, including many children, which led to intervention by the government, which sought to finally have a word with the superhuman community and regulate their actions. The government sought for all superpowered individuals, be them superheroes, villains or civillians, to register their names, powers, and other personal bits of information with the government, and for those who wish to use their powers for superheroics to enlist and be trained. Guided by Tony Stark, the government passed this law and it became known as the Superhuman Registration Act. Of course, there would always be those who disagreed with this notion, and Steve Rogers was chief among those who disagreed. The movie had a simple trigger for the events. In the movie, Wanda Maximoff raises Crossbones into the air in order for him to explode in a safe space, but he instead explodes just outside a building where Wakandan diplomats were because she couldn’t raise him quickly enough. The United Nations then writes up the Sokovia Accords, which are meant to regulate and control the Avengers’ activities. The Avengers would only be allowed to fight if the United Nations approved of it, essentially making them a super powered police force for the UN. Tony Stark, out of guilt for his past mistakes, agrees with this, but Steve disagrees with it.
2. The Scope of the Civil War
When we talk about a world-spanning event in the movies, it just applies to whatever characters the movie studio has the rights to…and that happens a lot with Marvel. It’s a different case in the comics, because the comics don’t have limitations like that. They can have stories with pretty much every single character in that universe, established even as far back as when the company was founded. In the source material, the Civil War encompassed most of the heroes, as most of the established ones were in the United States. Very few of them were outside the United States at the time. In fact, a lot of supervillains fled to Canada to avoid being persecuted for the simply act of existing without having necessarily having done anything. Do you know how wrong things have to go for villains to flee the country even without being beaten or intimidated?
3. The Rosters
It is no surprise that the movie didn’t have the same characters as the comics. The comics have the entire Marvel Comics roster available at all times, whereas the movie had to deal with actor contracts, budget constraints and following up the different storylines the characters had been through up until that point. As one can imagine, their on screen journey is not the same as the one in the pages of the source material. As such, not even half of the characters that were prominent in the Civil War comics appear in the movie. This led to some alterations when adapting the story to the big screen. Almost all the characters in the movies also behaved differently from what the comics show them to be like, save for some basic things. This led to some characters being on sides that they weren’t in, in the comics. Unfortunately, we cannot mention where every single Marvel character was in the comic story, but we can talk about the characters who were in the movie. The comics had Steve and Tony leading different factions. In the movie, Tony Stark had Vision, War Machine, Black Widow, Black Panther and Spider-Man. Steve Rogers had Falcon, Bucky, Wanda, Bucky and Ant-Man. In the comics, Black Panther remained neutral and left to Wakanda with his wife Storm, who was against the Superhuman Registration Act. We see in the movie that Black Widow wanted to be on Steve’s side and was only doing what she thought was best from a logical standpoint, but not something that she genuinely felt was right. In the source material, that was not the case. She genuinely sided with Tony Stark, and did not betray him to help Steve Rogers escape arrest. Bucky was not a major player in the Civil War, as it had not been too long since he was discovered to be alive. He did have some stories after Steve’s death, though, seeking revenge against Stark for his hand in his friend’s death. Falcon was the first to side with Steve in the source material. Wanda, even though she was a major player in the movie, was practically non-existent in the source material. Ant-Man is where the biggest discrepancy is. Although the Ant-Man in question is Scott Lang in the movie, the fact that he is used as a Hank Pym stand-in for reasons that date back to a single panel published in 1992, makes his placement a complete turn-around from the source material. Hank Pym sided with Tony Stark in the source material, but Scott Lang, the Ant-Man representative, didn’t in the movie. Vision was practically non-existent in the source material. The same goes for James Rhodes. Spider-Man is the most interesting one. He first sided with Iron Man, mostly because Aunt May and MJ thought that it’d be nice for him to finally gain recognition for all his hard work keeping New-York safe. He revealed his identity to the world on live television, and this led to Aunt May being shot. When Stark remained neutral regarding the situation, Peter Parker changed sides and joined Captain America. In the movies, he remains on Stark’s side until the end.
4. Tony Stark's Extremity
If you’re gonna start reading the comics and expect to see Tony Stark as the altruistic, kind but sarcastic guy that you’re used to in the MCU, you’re in for a big surprise, especially when you go into the deepest darkest pits of Marvel Comics lore that the most popular pages on social media aren’t aware of – or willing to explore much. Aside from the shocking revelation that Tony Stark was a villain the whole time and had been studying the Avengers and their weaknesses, working for Kang the whole time, and even dying in that story, then having a past version of himself replace the present version – (who is still dead, by the way), you will notice that there are various ethical boundaries that Stark crossed in this story. He was doing it all in the name of protection of the common citizen, but it was going overboard. Not only did he choose to invade people’s privacy by enforcing the SRA, but he also built a prison which was outside our dimension, called prison 42, where he would imprison pretty much anyone who went against him. The movie altered this and made it that the government built the prison known as The Raft, and Tony just happened to have a place to put his friends in if they disagreed with him and he managed to capture them. It takes away the guilt he should feel for having built such a place in the first place.
5. Spider-Man's Role in Everything
As mentioned before, Spider-Man had a big impact on the story. He had a much bigger role to play in the source material, compared to the movie. The movie just had him in there as an extended cameo and for fan service, simply to state that he’s in the MCU and will have further adventures. The comic had him front and center for many pivotal moments. The biggest one was when he revealed his identity to the world. This was uncharted territory for him. Even though it was something he had wished for, for a long time, it ended up turning against him in so many ways. The most hurtful way was the danger that it put Aunt May in. She was shot under orders from Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Luckily, she survived, but only barely. She was hospitalized and Peter went to Stark for help. Stark didn’t help him at all. This is where it all came to the attention to not only Peter but the reader that perhaps it was not the best thing to have the heroes register after all. This led to him switching sides, after showing the reader what it would really mean for those who have nothing. The movie had none of this. All Spidey got in the movie was an upgraded suit.
6. Captain America’s Fate
This one was a tough one to live with. Marvel fans know that Captain America was among the first ever heroes created for this universe, back before it was even called Marvel. It was called Timely Comics at the time. After WW2 ended, Cap’s popularity dropped, and he was killed off in the comics. There had been attempts to bring him back in the years that followed, but it wasn’t until the era of the Avengers that he was finally brought back into the comic book world. He was found by the Avengers after the Avengers had been through quite a bit and were tired of working together. Cap woke up just in time to lead the new recruits in what would be called Cap’s Kooky Quartet, due to how mismatched the team was. From there, he grew in prominence and popularity until he became a major player in the comics industry once again. His enduring legacy became the stuff of legends. Unfortunately, when it came to the Civil War, things got far more complicated for him, and he had to lead one half of the superhuman community against another. He was standing up for not only the good and innocent civilians, but even supervillains. The end of the physical conflict ended with him surrendering and going to court due to all the destruction that the fighting was doing. On his way to the trial, Sharon Carter, under mind control by Dr Faustus, shoots and kills Steve. She snaps out of it just in time to see what she had done. The death was so shocking that it even made the news in real life. Cap’s legacy transcended the pages and touched the hearts of real life individuals. In the movie, he becomes a fugitive and frees his friends from the Raft and they go on to become the Secret Avengers (even though they’re never named that in the movies).
7. The Consequences
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