Marvel Unlimited, Marvel’s digital comics subscription service, is currently offering all fans free access to some of Marvel’s most iconic stories from recent years, including now-classic Marvel Comics events and critically acclaimed runs featuring the Avengers, Spider-Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and more.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a look back at these classic stories and maybe help you decide whether or not you would like to check them out. Our next series sees the Marvel Universe split down the middle with every one of our favorite heroes choosing a side. Will they choose to fight for Iron Man or Captain America in Marvel’s…
Civil War
When a group of young super-powered individuals with their own reality show decide to rush into a fight they weren’t prepared for, the result is catastrophic. An explosion kills 600 people in Stamford, Connecticut, including 60 children. The explosion shook the Marvel Universe both literally and figuratively, as it led the public to call for accountability in its superheroes.
Tony Stark sees no alternative but to compromise with the government and champion the Superhuman Registration Act, which would see all vigilante heroes receive proper training and become employees of the government. Steve Rogers on the other hand, sees this as an encroachment on freedom and refuses to hunt down the heroes who have fought to protect people for so long.
That disagreement leads to a split in the superhuman community, pitting two factions of our beloved heroes against each other in a Civil War. Tony is willing to do whatever it takes to win the fight, including some tactics that Steve and many others consider to be reprehensible, which causes some to switch sides. The fight sees mutant vs, mutant, Avenger vs. Avenger and even husband vs. wife. It’s one of the biggest fights the Marvel Universe has ever seen.
Marvel Comics have given us some huge crossover events over the years. Infinity Gauntlet, Secret Wars and Secret Invasion, just to name a few. But Civil War feels like something more. Not only are all of your favorite heroes involved in this story (well, almost all), but they’re not uniting to take on a common enemy. Instead, they’re split down the middle and force to fight each other. That raises the stakes to the point where each page is loaded with tension and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
On top of that, this series gives us dozens of iconic and extremely powerful moments. This series sees the unmasking of Spider-Man, several memorable shots of Iron Man and Captain America trading blows, heroes drawing battle lines against their former friends and teammates and, a personal favorite, this exchange between Cap and Maria Hill…
Of course, a lot of Marvel fans are familiar with at least the idea of this story thanks to the film adaptation, Captain America: Civil War. While the film was very enjoyable, it is very different from the comics in a lot of ways. For example, the fight in the comic is over something much bigger than the freedom of Bucky Barnes. I know, the Sokovia Accords were also a factor, but Bucky was Caps biggest motivating factor in the movie. The comics feel as though they have much more at stake.
Also, with the MCU only consisting of 12 movies prior, there weren’t a whole lot of characters that could be included in the fight. The comics are able to draw from a long history of establishing characters and their stories. That takes the six-on-six fight we saw in the MCU to a much bigger scale, and gives it more emotion as we know just how much some of these heroes have been through together.
You can read “Civil War” for free now. And be sure to check back as we look back the rest of these classic Marvel Comics stories over the next several weeks.