With the recent announcement that your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man would be swinging his way into the MCU, one has to wonder how this acquisition will shape the landscape of the Marvel’s Civil War saga.
The “Web” Effect
For those who don’t know: Spider-Man played a pivotal role in the comic book Civil War crossover, by first siding with Tony Stark’s pro-registration heroes, and then siding with Captain America after realizing the negative ramifications that the superhero registration act had on society.
Black Panther was slated for a prominent role in the Civil War films but the inclusion of Spider-Man may make things a bit murky. Will Spidey have a minor role due to his late acquisition or will the whole script of Civil War be re-written to amp up his role at the expense of other supporting characters like T’Challa?
These are some of the questions that come to mind when thinking about all the possible story arches for Captain America: Civil War.
What Will Happen to Steve Rogers’ Buddies?
After the widely successful and critically-acclaimed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I have been anxiously awaiting further development of Steve Rogers’ adjustment to the modern world as well as the exploration of his relationships with supporting characters like Falcon, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier and Black Widow.
With the addition of Black Panther and Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, my expectations are tempered now. Sure, the Russo Brothers, who are slated to film the next Cap film have shown a keen ability to develop characters, but how will they be able to further develop Cap’s relationship with Bucky Barnes, Falcon and Black Widow with two more major players added to the plotline?
In reading and engaging in a lot of discussions about Captain America: Civil War online, many fans seem worried that jamming too many characters into the film will lead to lax character development, poor pacing and uneven storytelling. Disappointing comic book movie sequels, like X-Men: The Last Stand and Spider-Man 3 came to mind. So, many share my aforementioned concerns!
When you add too many characters to a superhero movie, you may get more action figures and video game play sets, but you will not necessarily get a good viewing.
I sincerely hope Captain America: Civil War proves me wrong.
Good points. I’m curious how they’ll balance character development versus the need to have enough characters for the story to actually feel like a “Civil War.”
Here are some of my other concerns:
A huge part of Stark’s proposed Registration Act is that people with abilities can’t have secret identities. This led to rifts in the superhero community and some interesting pairings of heroes allying themselves with villains.
The problem is the MCU as it exists now is in really poor shape to accommodate those pivotal plot points to the Civil War storyline. No current characters have a secret identity (except *maybe* Hulk…this is a little unclear), and they’ve made a point of killing off the villain at the end of each film.
I will admit that I want to see a villain live (sans Loki of course).
I feel like Captain America 2 was, in some ways, a fluke. You had the quality Brubaker source material to draw upon, but another thing that helped was the constraints (3 days in DC). That created a space for character development and relationships. My concern for Captain America 3 is that it’ll be like the other movies – lots of explosions, characters, but no lasting depth, especially given that it’s an “installment” in a broader arc (vs the stand-alone story of Cap 2).
Dude, wholeheartedly agree with you. The scope of this story might be too much for the Russo brothers smaller character-centric approach to storytelling.
I sadly tend to agree unless of course they make the movie like 3.5 hours! 🙂