***SPOILERS FOR THE CIVIL WAR COMIC BOOK AHEAD***
By now, I think we are all aware that Marvel Studios is planning to adapt their controversial
Civil War storyline. The film version will span across their Phase 3 films and will begin in the appropriately titled
Captain America: Civil War. But as all comic book fans who own a television are well aware, storylines never play out in the film exactly like they do in the comics, which inspired me to do a break down of ten different moments from the Civil War comic that are safe to say will
NOT be happening in the movie arc. These are not listed in any rank or particular order. Some of these are relatively obvious while others are less so. Without further a do, let's begin.
1. SPEEDBALL V. NITRO: DAWN OF PENANCE
In the comic books, the Civil War began because of the recklessness of a group of teenage superheroes called the New Warriors. The New Warriors tracked down various super-villains, including a rogue named Nitro, to a house near a school. Speedball (one of the New Warriors) corners Nitro and Nitro (who is more powerful than usual thanks to a growth hormone) releases an explosion that destroys the entire neighborhood and kills the entire school of children.
This sparks a massive controversy in the Marvel Universe's fictional United States and the government passes the Superhuman Registration Act that states that every single hero, villain or person that happens to have superhuman abilities (regardless of whether or not they plan to use them) must register and work for the government. This divides the superhuman community and starts a Civil War. One side of heroes, led by Captain America, decides to revolt for freedom. The other side, led by Iron Man, works for the government and must force Captain America and his team to surrender.
Long story short, Nitro attempts to flee but is tracked down by Wolverine, who beats the living snot out of Nitro. Speedball becomes the most hated man in the Marvel Universe and is sent to prison. In prison, Speedball becomes so guilty and depressed that he gets someone to make him a suit of spikes so that he will constantly feel the pain that he placed on those who died. He then decides to work for the government as the brooding anti-hero known as Penance.
Now you are probably wondering: if this is what started the Civil War and since Speedball is probably going to appear in
Agents of SHIELD soon, why won't this happen in the movie?
The reason I believe this won't happen in the film is because Marvel Studios seem to have made it very clear that they are doing their own version of
Civil War rather than just copying and pasting what happened in the comic. I think they have made it clear that the Civil War and Superhuman Registration Act will occur for very different reasons in the movie than it did in the comic and I believe something that happens at the end of
Avengers: Age of Ultron will spark the events of the
Civil War storyline in the Phase 3 films.
Even with the Netflix shows, it's a no brainer that the Nitro/Speedball storyline won't be used in the kid friendly films as it gets very dark. This is especially true considering Speedball's transformation into Penance.
2. JUST ONE MORE DAY...
A big part of the
Civil War comic book involved Spider-Man being torn between both sides of the war, initially being on Iron Man's side as the Iron Spider. Captain America eventually convinced Spider-Man to join his side, which led to him switching his Iron Spider persona to a costume that looked similar to his symbiote costume before switching back to his classic suit. But Spider-Man switched sides a little two late...
In one of the more iconic moments of
Civil War, Iron Man had convinced Spider-Man to reveal his secret identity to the public in order to encourage other superheroes to register their identities to the United States government. When Spider-Man switched to Captain America's side, this put him in a dilemma as not only did Captain America eventually loose the war but his loved ones were now in danger with his secret identity made public and he and his family no longer having government protection.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, literally one of the worst Spider-Man stories of all time was published titled
One More Day. Essentially what happened was an assassin working for the Kingpin murders Aunt May, and Spider-Man suddenly blames himself for it and develops a creepy obsession with saving her no matter what the cost (and I mean that very literally). So Spider-Man makes a deal with (I kid you not) the devil and gives up everything, including his marriage with his pregnant wife, Mary Jane Watson, just to save Aunt May's life. The devil rewrites the Spider-Man part of Marvel continuity, resulting in a reboot titled
Spider-Man: Brand New Day in which Spider-Man never gave up his secret identity and Aunt May never died.
What amazes me is how many people believe Spider-Man will give up his identity in one of the
Civil War movies (probably
Captain America: Civil War or the
Spider-Man reboot) simply because that's what happened in the comics. There are a number of reasons why it wouldn't make since for Sony and Marvel Studios to do such a thing, especially if they are going for a younger Peter Parker in the films.
While Joe Quesada may have temporarily ruined Spider-Man, he did make a good point (even if he will never be able to justify
One More Day). Quesada said that Iron Man convincing Spider-Man to give up his identity to the public worked to an extent because Spider-Man has full into adulthood at that point in Marvel comic book continuity and is still an adult even after the
Brand New Day reboot. Tony Stark convincing a minor to give up his secret identity wouldn't have worked at all and would've made Stark look really bad.
Another reason why it wouldn't make since for Spider-Man to give up his identity in the movies is because Spider-Man's new and freshly rebooted series is just starting. If he reveals his identity before or during the first movie of the series, Marvel and Sony would have to either keep that for the remainder of the franchise or risk a repeat of
One More Day. It simply wouldn't be a smart move for Marvel and Sony to start a brand new series of
Spider-Man films with Spider-Man's identity out in the open.
3. MEET IRON FIST...THE NEW DAREDEVIL
In the
Civil War comic, Matt Murdock refused to register his identity to the US government, resulting in his arrest. To convince Hell's Kitchen that Daredevil is still there, Danny Rand (usually known as the Iron Fist) took up Murdock's position as Daredevil.
While I don't doubt the Netflix shows will tie in to
Civil War in some way, the Netflix characters would have just been introduced by the time the Civil War starts in the MCU, so I don't see Rand taking up the position of Daredevil and Matt Murdock getting arrested this early in the game.
4. SEND THESE HEROIC CRIMINALS TO...THE NEGATIVE ZONE!
With so many super-powered beings being arrested, the US needs a strong enough prison to hold these people in which there would be no escape. The American government found this solution in the form of the Negative Zone.
The reason this won't be able to happen in the films is simply due to film rights issues with Marvel and Fox. Considering the Negative Zone (or the N-Zone, as it is known in the Ultimate Universe) is set to play a key part in the upcoming
Fantastic Four film, it's safe to assume that Fox owns the rights to this location. With that being said, it will be interesting to see how Marvel Studios tackles the issue of where to put so many super-powered characters.
5. MEET THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN
A key character to come out of the
Civil War comic was Eric O'Grady, the successor to Scott Lang as Ant-Man. Grady is often called the Irredeemable Ant-Man do to his immoral behaviour that makes Scott Lang look like Steve Rogers. Similarly to the reason why we won't see Danny Rand become Daredevil, Grady won't become Ant-Man because it's too plain early. While this certainly doesn't mean Grady won't eventually debut in the universe, we can't expect him to appear in
Civil War because the
Civil War event starts immediately after Scott Lang takes on the role in this year's
Ant-Man film.
Though I must say, in a film universe inhabited by the Guardians of the Galaxy and a criminal Scott Lang, Grady would feel right at home.
6. THE MUTANT PROBLEM
I think everyone on this site knows the reason why this can't happen but for those who don't, I'll give you a hint: what does Marvel
NOT own? With that being said, I wanted to address what I believe Marvel will use as their solution: Inhumanity.
Spoilers if you haven't seen the last two episodes of
Agents of SHIELD. The most recent episode of the show involved Raina getting attacked by authorities for simply being Inhuman and Daisy Johnson being afraid of what she has become. From the looks of it, there is already a large prejudice against the Inhumans in the MCU similar to the mutant prejudice from the comics and, considering the
Inhumans film isn't set for release until 2018, I don't think Marvel would introduce the characters this early if they didn't have plans for them beforehand.
I
won't be surprised if Inhumanity occurs during the course of the show and the prejudice and fear of becoming Inhuman contributes to the push for the Superhuman Registration Act. Both the movies and
Agents of SHIELD would undoubtedly deal with this and it would undoubtedly lead to the
Inhumans movie and the intervention by the proper Inhumans (Black Bolt, Madusa, ETC).
7. UNDERWORLD AND THE INCARCERATION OF WILSON FISK
In
Civil War: War Crimes, we get to see a criminal's transformation into a super-villain called Underworld. We also get to see Tony Stark try to make a deal with an incarcerated Wilson Fisk in exchange for his freedom, only for Fisk to decline because he controls the criminal activity inside the prison.
In a comic book event with numerous upon numerous tie-ins, you can do little standalone stories such as this but in video media where you are limited to only film and television, there is little room for such things. I'm also pretty sure Netflix has plans with Wilson Fisk, anyway.
8. SKRULL CONSPIRACY
During the Civil War period in the Marvel Universe (Earth-616), there was a Skrull conspiracy in which many of the characters in this time period were actually Skrulls. Some of these characters include but are not limited to Elektra Natchios, Spider Woman and Hank Pym.
The Skrulls may be owned by both Marvel Studios and Fox, and we may have been introduced to the Chitauri but considering we have only been introduced to so many characters in the MCU, I don't see Marvel doing a big reveal like this unless it somehow ties into
Infinity War.
9. THE PUNISHER KILLS [SOME] OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
Those who have read Civil War know that the Punisher seemingly kills a LOT of villains in this story. Some of these characters include Stilt-man, the Plunderer, the Rhino and even an entire bar of super-villains.
Considering only so many characters exist in the MCU, there is no way Marvel Studios would even consider allowing this to happen in the films. I'm wondering if they regret killing so many villains in the solo films...
10. FALLEN SON: DEATH OF AN ICON
This is another event that I see people just assuming is going to happen just because of the comic, despite the fact that the Russo's already addressed this. Back when people were speculating that the
Winter Soldier sequel would be titled
Fallen Son and that Steve Rogers would be replaced by Bucky Barnes, the Russo's stated that Rogers would not be killed off and that they were not in a hurry to kill him off. And why would they be? Captain America recently received a boost of popularity thanks to the breath of fresh air that was
Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Chris Evans still has films left on his contract, plus there are still so many stories left to tell with the character (not to mention a little old two part event by the name of
Infinity War coming up). As for the sources that claim to have received a "scoop" that Captain America will die, you can tell they are fake because most of them (and by "them," I actually mean Latino Review and those who ran with Latino Reviews's story) claim that he will die specifically in
Captain America: Civil War. Why would he die in
Captain America: Civil War when it's only the first film in the
Civil War storyline that's supposed to stretch out across Phase 3?
And just because Captain America lost the Civil War in the comics doesn't necessarily mean he will lose in the films. For all we know, Robert Dawney Jr.'s character could end up being killed by Crossbones (though I doubt they'll go that far, even if Iron Man loses).
Do you disagree with any of my choices? Is there any moment I didn't even begin to think of that you don't think will happen in the film? You can let me know below, as I always try to read all of the comments.