The Story of Civil War in 30 Minutes | Marvel Recap

0:00 In 2006's Marvel Comics' Civil War,

0:03 every American hero was faced with a devastating choice:

0:06 join Iron Man's pro-Super Hero Registration Act team,

0:10 reveal their identity, and become a government agent...

0:14 Or join Captain America's anti-registration team and become a wanted fugitive.

0:19 A decade later, Civil War's popularity inspired

0:22 the Marvel Cinematic Universe to tell a similar story,

0:26 where Iron Man and Cap faced off in Marvel Studios' Captain America: Civil War.

0:31 But even twenty years after the original comic event,

0:34 readers are still debating who was on the right side: Cap?

0:38 Or Iron Man?

0:40 Which side would <i>you</i> choose?

0:42 This is Marvel Recap:

0:44 Civil War With a special shout out to the Official Handbook of the Marvel

0:48 Universe Research Team and the Marvel Studios Story Team for their help!

0:57 The legislation that would become the Superhuman

1:00 Registration Act was based on the earlier

1:02 "Mutant Affairs Control Act," or as it would come to be known,

1:06 "The Mutant Registration Act." The law required all Americans

1:10 born with superhuman powers to register with the government.

1:14 Its architect, Senator Robert Kelly,

1:16 argued that there were too many superhuman mutants being born

1:19 and that they posed a threat to national security and humanity itself.

1:24 Early on in Kelly's crusade to curtail mutants,

1:27 the X-Men sensed the threat that mutant registration could pose to them,

1:32 so they used a sophisticated virus program to erase

1:35 all evidence of their existence from government computers.

1:38 Years later, Congress would propose expanding

1:41 the act to include all superhuman beings,

1:43 seemingly to recruit them into their military forces.

1:46 But the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic,

1:49 otherwise known as Mister Reed Richards,

1:52 dissuaded them by saying that government regulation would slow heroes down

1:56 and pointing out that several congressmen tested positive for mutant genes.

2:00 Oh— and that he might just reveal that during an election.

2:05 However, that didn't mean that support for the act disappeared.

2:08 Years later, a new "Superhuman Registration Act" was proposed,

2:12 and Tony Stark was called to testify.

2:17 Stark told his protege Peter Parker (the alter ego

2:20 of Spider-Man) that while he thought the senators had a point,

2:24 he felt compelled to speak against the bill.

2:27 The senators justified the proposed law, saying that the U.S.

2:31 had suffered almost two hundred billion dollars

2:34 in damages from superhuman battles since 1946,

2:37 while Stark presented evidence that the super

2:39 heroes had stopped North America from being "vaporized,

2:43 conquered or nuked back to the stone age" 47 times.

2:48 The hearing was interrupted by the Russian mercenary the Titanium Man,

2:52 who sought to kill Stark.

2:54 But Spider-Man was able to drive him away using his new "Iron Spider" armor.

3:00 Stark used the attack to argue that America's

3:02 enemies wanted super-powered citizens to be disarmed.

3:06 While he didn't defeat the bill,

3:07 Stark felt that they'd bought a year or two to come up with a plan to stop it.

3:11 What Stark didn't tell Peter Parker was that he

3:14 hired the Titanium Man to crash the hearing.

3:16 And that while Stark might have

3:18 delayed the Superhuman Registration Act slightly,

3:21 it would take a real tragedy to make this bill become a reality...

3:29 That tragedy began in Stamford, Connecticut,

3:32 when the New Warriors attempted to capture a group of super

3:35 villains that they'd tracked to a suburban neighborhood— all while on camera.

3:39 They were filming an episode

3:40 of a reality show following their crime-stopping adventures.

3:44 During the battle, the super villain Nitro— a human bomb— exploded!

3:48 The blast killed most of the New Warriors,

3:51 along with over 600 civilians, including 60 school children.

3:58 Even though other super heroes soon arrived to help rescue survivors,

4:02 public opinion quickly turned against superhumans.

4:05 One of the first casualties was the Fantastic Four's Human Torch, Johnny Storm,

4:10 who was brutally beaten by an angry mob outside of a nightclub,

4:14 leaving him in a coma.

4:17 Soon, the government revived the idea of the Superhuman Registration Act,

4:20 and the super hero community was split into two camps.

4:24 Some, like Tony Stark, supported registration.

4:27 While he'd fought against the legislation before,

4:30 he'd had a change of heart after a grieving

4:33 mother spat on him at the Stamford memorial service.

4:36 According to him, becoming public employees made perfect

4:40 sense if it helped people sleep a little easier.

4:43 However, others felt differently.

4:45 When S.H.I.E.L.D.

4:46 director Maria Hill ordered Steve Rogers, alias: Captain America,

4:50 to lead the Avengers in capturing unregistered heroes, he refused, saying,

4:55 "You're asking me to arrest people who risk their lives for this country

4:59 every day of the week." When Hill's hit squad turned on Cap,

5:03 he jumped from the Helicarrier onto a nearby plane.

5:06 Then, he took the pilot out for a burger and fries,

5:09 because he's Captain freakin' America.

5:12 But as the Registration Act moved towards ratification,

5:15 Iron Man stepped forward to champion it

5:17 with the help of Reed Richards and Henry Pym,

5:20 who was using the codename Yellowjacket at the time.

5:23 And to prove his support, Tony Stark held a press conference where he

5:28 revealed his identity as Iron Man to the world.

5:35 As the act moved towards becoming law,

5:37 Tony Stark worked to recruit more heroes to his side.

5:40 Meanwhile, Reed Richards began to work on a mysterious government project

5:45 known only as "Project 42." While Peter Parker remained Stark's closest ally,

5:50 their friendship started to become strained after

5:53 Tony pressured him to publicly reveal his identity.

5:56 Concerned about the threat to his family,

5:58 Peter turned to his wife Mary Jane and Aunt May for advice.

6:02 May advised him to reveal his identity,

6:05 saying, "Some things are worth the risk, Peter.

6:08 You're one of them." And so,

6:11 despite his concerns, Spider-Man unmasked himself to the world.

6:15 This revelation shocked his friends and colleagues.

6:19 The newspaper where he worked, the <i>Daily Bugle</i>,

6:21 even served Peter with a lawsuit, accusing him of committing fraud by selling

6:26 them photos of himself as Spider-Man.

6:29 And Peter's fears were justified, as one of his greatest enemies, Wilson Fisk,

6:34 the crime boss called the Kingpin,

6:36 secretly hired an assassin to kill Peter's family.

6:41 When the law was ratified,

6:43 the government began rounding up any unregistered heroes,

6:46 starting with Patriot and the other Young Avengers:

6:49 Wiccan, Hulkling, Stature, and Hawkeye.

6:52 However, they were rescued by Cap's team of "Secret Avengers," who'd set up

6:57 a secret base in an underground bunker that had belonged to former S.H.I.E.L.D.

7:01 director Nick Fury.

7:03 To stay underground,

7:04 Cap's team adopted new secret identities (and some impressive mustaches),

7:09 while they continued to help people in need.

7:11 But not every super hero chose a side,

7:14 as Tony Stark was unable to convince the X-Men to publicly support the act.

7:19 The X-Men believed hunting down rebel heroes

7:21 would go against everything they stood for.

7:24 And when Tony tried to convince the mutant Emma Frost

7:26 to back the bill by mentioning the loss of life in Stamford,

7:30 she simply asked, "Where were the Avengers when Genosha died,

7:34 Iron Man?" She was referring to the mutant

7:37 nation that was destroyed by anti-mutant Sentinel robots,

7:40 an attack that killed 16 million mutants in one day.

7:45 However, the desire to protect mutants from similar

7:48 attacks led some X-Men to break their neutrality,

7:51 with mutant law enforcement officer Lucas Bishop joining Iron Man's

7:55 side and the time-traveling freedom fighter Cable aligning with Cap.

7:59 As the Fantastic Four waited for the Torch to come out of his coma,

8:03 they discovered that they too were divided over the act.

8:07 While Reed Richards supported it, his wife,

8:09 Sue— the Invisible Woman— was against it.

8:12 Ben Grimm, the Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing, remained on the fence.

8:17 When a protest broke out on Yancy Street, where Ben grew up,

8:20 he told the protesters that he didn't support the law,

8:23 but he also wasn't going to be fighting in the streets about it, either.

8:27 But when those protesters attacked a government convoy of captured superhumans,

8:31 one of Ben's friends was injured.

8:33 Ben turned on both sides, saying he was "checking outta the country" and he

8:38 "may not come back." He ended up emigrating to France,

8:42 where he joined the French super team Les Heroes de Paris.

8:46 One of the most surprising anti-registration

8:48 heroes turned out to be Robbie Baldwin,

8:51 better known as Speedball, the sole surviving member of the New Warriors.

8:55 While his ability to absorb kinetic

8:57 energy allowed him to survive Nitro's explosion,

9:00 Speedball soon found himself arrested for his part in the Stamford tragedy.

9:05 His attorney, Jennifer Walters, the ex-Avenger She-Hulk,

9:08 managed to get him community service

9:11 on the condition that he register— but Speedball refused.

9:15 We soon learned what Reed had been

9:17 working on when Speedball and other unregistered

9:19 superhumans were transferred to a prison located

9:22 in the other-dimensional "Negative Zone." Its codename?

9:27 "Prison 42." Tensions between the two sides finally erupted into violence

9:36 when Cap's team arrived to help stop a refinery fire,

9:39 only to be ambushed by Iron Man's team.

9:42 Cap agreed to a truce— and then used a S.H.I.E.L.D.

9:46 Electron Scrambler to disable Tony's armor.

9:48 The two sides brawled until a blast of lightning revealed a new combatant:

9:52 Thor, the God of Thunder.

9:55 However, this Thor was far more brutal than his usual self.

10:00 And when Giant-Man Bill Foster fought back, Thor killed him.

10:05 Sue Richards' force-field stopped Thor before he could

10:08 kill anyone else and allowed Cap's team to escape.

10:11 Reed Richards used a codeword to shut Thor down,

10:14 revealing that this Thor was actually a clone created and controlled by Reed.

10:19 Sue stormed off, refusing to speak to her husband.

10:23 The rest of Tony's teammates were left in shock,

10:26 with Spidey wondering if they'd picked the wrong side,

10:29 saying, "I thought you knew what you were doing Tony.

10:33 I thought we were doing this so no one else got hurt."

10:37 Bill Foster's death had a huge impact on both sides of the war.

10:41 On Cap’s side, several team members,

10:44 including Stature, Nighthawk and Cable, left the team,

10:47 saying they'd joined up to fight villains, not cops and other super heroes.

10:52 But they also gained some new members, as after Johnny woke up from his coma,

10:56 he and Sue left the Fantastic Four to join Cap's team.

10:59 Bill Foster's death also caused some

11:02 pro-registration forces to leave Stark's side.

11:05 To bolster the ranks, he assembled a new team of former super villains,

11:10 the Thunderbolts, to track down Cap's Secret Avengers.

11:14 S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Sharon Carter, codenamed Agent 13, was caught in the middle,

11:19 as she was also tasked with hunting down the Secret

11:22 Avengers while secretly in a relationship with their leader, Captain America.

11:26 She was unaware that her therapist was actually the criminal Dr.

11:30 Faustus in disguise.

11:32 He used that position to secretly manipulate Sharon's feelings,

11:36 sowing the seeds for her to betray S.H.I.E.L.D.

11:39 for Cap's longtime foe, the Red Skull.

11:47 As the war raged on, many

11:49 of the combatants found themselves questioning their chosen side.

11:52 Spider-Man visited the Negative Zone prison,

11:55 where he found captured heroes begging to be released.

11:58 He was horrified to learn that this wasn't just a short-term solution,

12:02 as those prisoners would be held there for life if they didn't register.

12:06 Peter tried to flee with Mary Jane and Aunt May, only to be tackled by Tony.

12:10 Peter argued that Tony was in over his head,

12:13 while Tony maintained that all of this was just a temporary measure.

12:17 But as S.H.I.E.L.D.

12:18 agents arrived, Peter fled into the night.

12:21 Maria Hill sent the Thunderbolts after him,

12:24 and soon Peter was being chased through the sewers

12:26 by two of the super villains on Iron Man's side: Jester and Jack O'Lantern.

12:31 But just as they had a wounded Peter cornered,

12:34 they were suddenly shot by a mysterious figure...

12:36 who turned out to be the Punisher.

12:40 The Punisher revealed that he'd been secretly helping Cap's

12:43 team from the shadows ever since he learned that S.H.I.E.L.D.

12:46 was recruiting criminals to their side.

12:48 And while Cap was uneasy about the Punisher's

12:51 shoot-first-and-never-bother-asking-

12:53 questions-because-they're-criminals philosophy,

12:55 he reluctantly accepted the vigilante onto the team.

12:59 But just as Cap's team gained a member,

13:01 they lost Daredevil, who was arrested and brought to Prison 42.

13:05 As he was sealed away, he gave Tony Stark a silver dollar,

13:09 saying, "Guess that's only thirty-one pieces of silver you've got now, huh?

13:14 Sleep well, Judas." Although,

13:17 we should add that this Daredevil wasn't Matt Murdock.

13:20 This Daredevil was actually Danny Rand,

13:22 who Matt hired to swap the Iron Fist uniform for the red

13:26 suit and pretend to be Daredevil while Matt was behind bars,

13:28 in a story we don't have time to get into right now.

13:32 The stress of the war continued to weigh on Tony,

13:35 who started to show some signs of instability.

13:37 During a visit to the White House,

13:39 Iron Man attacked Wakanda's King T'Challa and Queen Ororo,

13:43 the royal titles of Black Panther and Storm,

13:46 when they wouldn't support registration.

13:49 Soon, Tony, who was a recovering alcoholic, was ready to start drinking again.

13:54 But before he could take a sip, he was confronted by a furious Sue Richards

13:59 who blamed him for the collapse of her marriage.

14:02 After Stark punched a hole through a glass wall,

14:05 he poured out the bottle and sat alone in his apartment, praying.

14:09 Despite Iron Man's breakdown,

14:11 the pro-registration side continued to grow as S.H.I.E.L.D.

14:14 began training super heroes to join teams they established

14:17 in every state in what they called their "50-State Initiative." Meanwhile,

14:22 Cap sent the Punisher to infiltrate the Baxter

14:25 Building in search of more information on Prison 42.

14:28 Realizing they'd need more bodies to attack such a protected position,

14:32 Steve sent Sue Richards to try and convince the Atlantean prince Namor,

14:36 the Sub-Mariner, to join their side.

14:38 While planning a mission to free the captives from Prison 42,

14:42 Cap was approached by two super villains,

14:44 Goldbug and the Plunderer, who wanted to join up.

14:47 They were immediately gunned down by the Punisher,

14:50 who refused to work with criminals.

14:53 Cap responded by beating up the Punisher,

14:55 but the vigilante refused to fight back out of respect for Cap.

15:00 Ultimately, Steve Rogers threw the Punisher out of the base.

15:04 But Cap's team went ahead with the mission and infiltrated Prison 42,

15:08 only to find themselves face-to-face with Iron Man's team.

15:18 The two teams squared off against each other in Prison 42,

15:21 where Iron Man revealed to Captain America that one of Tony's defectors,

15:26 Tigra, had been a mole.

15:27 But Steve upstaged Tony by revealing that Yellowjacket

15:30 had been replaced by the shapeshifter Hulkling.

15:33 Oh— and since he could mimic Pym's vocal patterns,

15:37 he also released all of the prisoners.

15:39 The two teams attacked each other.

15:41 S.H.I.E.L.D.

15:41 was quick to seal all portals to the prison,

15:44 but Cloak used his teleportation abilities to transport everyone into Manhattan,

15:48 where the battle continued.

15:50 The Thunderbolts attacked Captain America and captured him,

15:53 only to be stopped by the sudden arrival of Namor and his Atlantean army.

15:58 But just as it seemed Cap had the upper hand,

16:01 Iron Man's Initiative team arrived with Reed's Thor clone,

16:05 who received a mighty punch from Hercules.

16:08 Ben Grimm returned to help protect civilians,

16:10 bearing witness to Reed taking a shot from Taskmaster in order

16:14 to save Sue— who then smashed Taskmaster with a force-field.

16:19 Hercules battled the Thor clone, saying, "I knew Thor...

16:22 Thor was a friend of mine..." and "Thou art

16:26 no Thor!," while destroying the clone with its own hammer.

16:30 Meanwhile, Steve had managed to incapacitate Tony,

16:33 who told his former ally to "finish it." But just

16:37 as he was about to deliver a final blow,

16:39 Steve was tackled by a group of emergency workers.

16:42 They forced Cap to realize the damage he and his allies were doing.

16:46 He was brought to tears, saying, "We're not fighting for the people anymore...

16:52 We're just fighting." He unmasked himself,

16:56 saying they weren't arresting Captain America, but Steve Rogers.

17:00 And with that, he ordered his side to stand down.

17:05 After heroes from both sides worked to clean up the city,

17:08 the 50-State Initiative moved forward as planned.

17:11 Tony Stark was made director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,

17:14 saying that he couldn't let anyone else guard his friends' secret identities.

17:23 While the war was over,

17:25 the consequences of it would shake the Marvel Universe for years to come.

17:30 When Spider-Man returned to his loved ones after battle,

17:33 they were targeted by the Kingpin's assassin, who shot Aunt May.

17:37 Peter brutally beat down Kingpin in revenge, as May fell into a coma.

17:42 Peter's desire to cure Aunt May would lead

17:44 him to strike a deal with the demonic Mephisto,

17:47 who granted him his wishes in exchange

17:50 for erasing Peter's marriage to Mary Jane,

17:52 something that would cause Spider-Man great suffering

17:55 and advance the demon's long-range plans for the wall-crawler.

17:59 Reed and Sue Richards decided to reconcile

18:02 and left the Fantastic Four to repair their marriage.

18:05 They brought in Black Panther and Storm to take their place on the team,

18:09 and turned part of the Baxter Building into a Wakandan embassy,

18:13 as the original had been destroyed during the war's final battle.

18:18 The Commission on Superhuman Affairs assembled

18:20 a new Thunderbolts team to capture unregistered heroes.

18:24 One of the new members was the former Speedball,

18:27 who'd decided to sign the registration act.

18:29 He took on the name Penance and donned armor with one

18:33 spike for each civilian who died in the Stamford incident,

18:36 spikes that constantly injured him, triggering his kinetic powers.

18:41 And as director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,

18:43 Tony organized a new Avengers team led by Carol Danvers in her capacity as Ms.

18:48 Marvel, which would be known as the Mighty Avengers.

18:52 Cap's underground heroes were offered amnesty if they registered,

18:55 and many took up the offer, becoming members of the Initiative.

18:59 However, others remained underground,

19:02 including Luke Cage's fugitive "New Avengers." But the most shocking

19:07 outcome occurred when Captain America was brought to his arraignment hearing.

19:10 In the middle of the crowd of protesters, reporters and law enforcement,

19:14 Steve was shot and killed by Sharon Carter— who was still brainwashed by Dr.

19:20 Faustus.

19:20 Afterwards, Tony confessed to Steve's corpse that while

19:24 he believed he was right in being pro-registration,

19:28 it wasn't worth the cost of losing his friend.

19:32 Steve Rogers was buried with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery,

19:37 however, that body was only a replica.

19:40 Three days later, Tony and a few friends, including Namor,

19:44 gave Steve's real body a burial in the Arctic,

19:46 giving him the solitude and peace he'd experienced while

19:50 being frozen in the ice after World War II.

19:54 But that left one big question:

19:56 who would carry Cap's shield and the title of Captain America?

20:01 Tony revealed that Cap's final wish was for Bucky Barnes— Cap's former

20:05 sidekick and brainwashed Soviet assassin

20:07 the Winter Soldier— to become Captain America.

20:11 Bucky agreed on the condition that Tony used S.H.I.E.L.D.'s

20:15 technology to ensure he couldn't be mind controlled again.

20:19 Tony obliged and created a new Cap suit for Bucky,

20:22 who officially became a brand-new (and very shiny) Captain America.

20:27 Afterwards, it was revealed that Cap wasn't

20:30 actually killed but flung out of time.

20:33 He was eventually brought back by the Red Skull,

20:35 who intended to place his evil mind in Cap's perfect specimen of a body.

20:40 However, Cap's spirit was too strong and the skull was driven out of his mind,

20:45 leaving Cap back in his own body and among the living again.

20:50 Much later, Tony and Cap mended fences and resumed their deep friendship.

21:00 In the MCU, the Civil War played out very differently.

21:03 To begin with, in Marvel Studios' Captain America: Civil War,

21:07 the conflict wasn't started by an American Superhuman Registration Act.

21:11 Instead, "the Sokovia Accords" was a worldwide agreement by 117 countries

21:16 to regulate "enhanced individuals," in response to the destruction that had

21:21 followed Avengers missions in New York and the Eastern European

21:24 nation of Sokovia— and to a recent Avengers mission in Lagos,

21:28 Nigeria, where Wanda Maximoff accidentally destroyed part of an office building,

21:32 killing eleven aid workers from the neighboring country of Wakanda.

21:36 The Avengers were presented with the accords

21:38 by Secretary of State Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross,

21:41 who explained that under the accords, the Avengers would only be able to respond

21:47 to emergencies when approved by the United Nations.

21:49 "For the past four years,

21:51 you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision.

21:54 That's an arrangement that governments of the world can

21:56 no longer tolerate." He gave the members a choice:

22:00 either sign the accords or retire.

22:02 While Captain America was skeptical,

22:05 Tony supported it— "We need to be put in check.

22:07 Whatever form that takes,

22:08 I'm game." —partially because he had been approached by the mother

22:12 of a young man who had been volunteering in Sokovia,

22:15 and was killed during the Avengers' battle with Ultron.

22:18 Meanwhile, Cap's former partner and best friend Bucky Barnes was framed

22:23 for murder and hunted down by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

22:27 Cap went to help him, violating the Sokovia Accords.

22:30 Cap and the Falcon helped Bucky escape, becoming fugitives in the process.

22:35 When they discovered that this was all

22:37 a plan by former Sokovia intelligence officer

22:39 Helmut Zemo to gain access to a group

22:42 of Soviet Super-Soldiers in suspended animation,

22:45 Cap recruited a group of heroes to take them down,

22:48 including Hawkeye, Wanda Maximoff, and Ant-Man.

22:52 "Wow, this is awesome!

22:53 Captain America!

22:54 I know you too, you're great!" But when

22:56 Cap’s team tried to leave a German airport,

22:59 they were confronted by Iron Man's team:

23:01 War Machine, Black Widow, the Vision, Black Panther and...

23:06 "Underoos!" Spider-Man.

23:11 This led to a giant battle...

23:13 in more ways than one.

23:15 While Cap and Bucky escaped,

23:17 the Vision accidentally shot down War Machine, resulting in him being paralyzed.

23:22 The rest of Cap's team was locked up in the underwater prison known as the Raft.

23:26 After seeing his former teammates in captivity,

23:29 Tony had a change of heart and secretly tracked down Cap and Bucky in Russia—

23:34 not to capture them but to help them

23:37 stop Zemo from whatever he was working toward.

23:39 That's when Zemo revealed his true plan to turn Iron Man

23:43 and Cap against each other by revealing that Bucky had murdered Tony's parents.

23:49 "This isn't going to change what happened." "I don't care.

23:53 He killed my mom." This led to a battle

23:56 between all three that severed Bucky's mechanical arm,

23:59 and left Cap on the verge of killing Tony with his shield.

24:03 But Cap decided to walk away, leaving his shield with Tony.

24:08 Cap rescued his teammates from the Raft, and they went on the run.

24:12 It would take Thanos snapping half the population of the universe

24:15 from existence to reunite Cap and Iron Man in Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame.

24:22 And that is our abridged summary of Civil War.

24:25 Want to learn more?

24:26 Sign up for Marvel Unlimited, where you can read the whole thing.

24:29 Or check out the Marvel Premier Collection of Civil War,

24:32 on sale now at your favorite comic and book stores.

24:35 If you're curious, here's the full list of comics referenced in this video.

24:38 And you can watch Marvel Studios' The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron,

24:42 Captain America: Civil War, Avengers:

24:44 Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame on Disney+.

24:48 This has been Marvel Recap: Civil War!