The stakes of the Civil War

Civil War isn’t just the first movie of Phase III. It is also the movie that could change the way Marvel makes its movies. And that is because now we see on the big screen that all actions bring reactions, and the Accords bring the biggest reaction of them all.

This third installment in the Captain America franchise demonstrates that the heroes need supervision, that their power needs to be checked, and that they need to be held accountable for their actions, even if their actions have saved the world.

And it is something we haven’t really see in the big screen MCU movies thus far, even if the third act always included a fight that brought ultimate destruction. Until now we were made to believe that the world heals itself via various organizations (such as Tony Stark’s relief fund). But there was always someone watching in the background (even if, we presume, that someone is manipulated by HYDRA).

And now is the right time for the heroes to answer for their actions. What happens is an ideological disjunction between the heroes: Tony Stark believes that the heroes need to be kept in check (because this also means more resources, which falls in line perfectly with his dream of putting a suit of armor around the world), while Steve Rogers considers that those who supervise the superheroes are corruptible (as he saw during the Winter Soldier events).

But there is something else as well, something which will make the heroes fight even harder against each other. And this is an event which, according to Tony Stark, is an actual declaration of war.