With San Diego Comic Con only weeks away, it looks like we may finally see what Marvel has planned for our hero, Steve Rodgers! No matter where you look around the web, everyone has an idea of who or what the next Cap movie will tackle, some is simple fanboy gushing, others are a bit more realistic.
Realistically speaking, whatever story or characters Marvel and the Russo Bros. want to introduce, it'll have to contend with the upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. So how do you combat a large DC film? By creating an even larger Marvel film, with Captain America at the helm.
What story has the ability to make Captain America 3 a hit on that weekend?
Yup! So before you write me off as a crazy lunatic, you should read the rest of the article as I lay out my argument.
(I) IT CONTINUES PRE-EXISTING THEMES
At the end of both
The Avengers and
The Winter Soldier, we found ourselves with two major themes relating to both Cap and the infamous Civil War stroyline. In
The Avengers we see a clash in ideologies between Cap and Tony, as it's made apparent that the two have a distaste for eachother. While their conflict never escalates to anything overly dramatic, we're never left with any resolution to that conflict either. For all we know, these two may still have resentment for eachother.
Also, throughout
The Winter Soldier, Cap is shown a world where freedom has disapeeared, and no one is truly free under
S.H.I.E.L.D. Hydra's program. If you look at Project Insight and The Registration Proram, they carry similar ideas of Steve having to reconcile his Government's actions with his own patriotism.
Whatever your views are on the scope of Civil War and how it would work without Fox's characters and Spider-Man, there's no doubt in my mind that for Civil War, it is a story of Cap fighting for freedom. Something he did in both
The Winter Soldier, The First Avenger, and
The Avengers (to a degree).
(II) IT'S EPIC AND BRUTAL
Upon the basic premise of Civil War lies an age old debate on freedom and liberty, and like any classic conflict, it will come with casualties on both sides.
While the MCU films have been lighthearted to this point, less we forget that we've seen some pretty dark stuff to this point. Everything from Banner's suggestion of suicide to the apparent death of Nick Fury. It would seem that Marvel isn't too worried about pulling the tradgedy lever when they need to.
The obvious ramification is of course the death of Steve Rodgers, the creation of Thor 'Ragnarok' Odinson, and many more are low-lights that these characters reach. While this brutality may be a bit much for the thus far light hearted MCU, it's also a great way to explore these characters far more then we would with a light hearted affair.
(III) S.H.I.E.L.D. IS ABOUT TO CHANGE
S.H.I.E.L.D. has already gone through changes in the last year as illustrated on both the large and small screen, and with undoubtebly more changes to come, we don't know where the institution will be by the time of Captain America 3.
Could S.H.I.E.L.D. go from the group we saw in the events of
The Avengers to what we see in Civil War? I don't doubt it.
The Winter Soldier already established a strong(er) distrust with the organization and that could change going forward as we see S.H.I.E.L.D. become an even darker organization. You may not see it now but we still have
Age of Ultron coming up and only time will tell how drastically S.H.I.E.L.D. could change in the next couple of years.
(IV) IT CHANGES TONY...FOR THE WORSE
While Robert Downey Jr. has brought a lot of charm, charisma, and humor to the role of Tony Stark, I think we see that he has a tendency to piss some people off as much as he does charm others. It's this trait that gets him the role of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
During this time he commits some really horrible atrocities, he even lets Happy die when he realizes that him and Pepper are back together. No doubt this would have to be changed for the movies, but it shows the effect the position has on Tony, and like they say, "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely". It's an age old story that ressonates to this day.
(V) IT CHANGES...WELL...EVERYTHING!
No doubt incorporating Civil War into the MCU would shift things immensely. We're talking an evil clone of Thor, a dead Steve, and so much more. There would have to be considerable alterations to the story, but even the idea of an ideological war between Cap and Iron Man would make for an interesting story worth telling.
CONCLUSION
There's a considerable amount of reasons why Marvel shouldn't adapt Civil War...
"It's a huge story to tell..."
"Marvel is just not ready to tell that story"
"Marvel should wait on the rights to these characters"
"It's too dark"
"Where does things go from there?"
Undoubtebly, Marvel could never do a straight adaption of Civil War. This wouldn't be Watchmen levels of devotion to the adaption, but rather it should be an adaption of an idea, and a continuation of the themes we've seen already in the MCU. The seeds have been planted as far back as you want to look, but I would think Marvel knows the value of this story and the potential it has to tell an engaging narrative.
Narratively speaking, it seems to me that the connecting threads are too apparent. Is it a red herring? Possibly. Is it a coincidence that
The Winter Solider comic arc lead into
Civil War when we've now seen a
Winter Soldier adaption? Marvel plays the long game, and my guess is that we wouldn't be seeing all of this unless they were dedicated to bringing this epic to the big screen.
The only question remains...