Improving Civil War (Spoilers)

[13_CBS]

Alright, so everyone here seems to think that the Civil War series was blasphemy.

I, however, thought that the Civil War series had potential. One of the irritating problems that I encountered was that the Civil War laid down some interesting questions (freedom vs security?)...and then answered them in a fairly heavy handed fashion.

Imagine, though, if the Civil War series raised some really good ethical questions and then left the readers to decide who was right.

So, how would YOU improve upon Civil War? Anyone who suggests that it never should have existed shall be shot by the Commisar.

[Gundato]

I don't think anyone thought the premise of the Civil War was bad (even if it is arguable that DC had already done it with Identity Crisis).

Personally, I think it would have been a LOT better if Cap had stayed neutral. They had a really good idea with the whole "Brother Vs Brother" by having Cap vs Iron Man. But let's put it this way:

Captain America: He is freaking Captain America
Iron Man: He was an alcoholic, he is a bad guy in half of the What If?s (and almost every Exiles arc :p), and he is "the man" as far as the story goes

As a result, Stark was instantly painted as the bad guy. If they had maintained the Shades of Grey motif, it would have been epic.

Same with World War Hulk. While it wasn't as blatant, it quickly became apparent that it didn't matter who was right or wrong, what mattered was stopping Hulk.

[Jerthanis]

I, however, thought that the Civil War series had potential. One of the irritating problems that I encountered was that the Civil War laid down some interesting questions (freedom vs security?)...and then answered them in a fairly heavy handed fashion.

My biggest problem was an obvious lack of communication within Marvel as to where their storyline was going.

The main title was about how Registration is the Only Way, Frontline was about how unbelievably EVIL the very idea of Registration was. Captain America was about how noble, but outdated Cap's ideals were, and how America could perhaps stand to return to its core ideals. X-Men was about stuff blowing up (to distract from the fact that they've done this plot like, four times), Spider-Man was about how much siding with the Man went against Spidey's personal ethics, and how hard it was adjusting to the idea of being public, and how eventually his principles forced him to give up absolutely everything to join the resistance.

As a result, strange things happened, like in the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man before the final showdown issue of Civil War, Captain America imparted unto Spidey what he claimed was one of the core aspects of his personality, a quote from Mark Twain IIRC about how the essential strength of Democracy was to have its people take their opinions, dig in and resist, damn the torpedoes, to be told to move, and tell them "You move", even if they're wrong...

...Right before Cap surrenders.

To make Civil War better, Millar and Joephisto needed to sit down with every writer on any book dealing at all with Civil War and tell them, "Okay, seriously, we're going for Moral Ambiguity here... none of you are allowed to portray either side as inequivocably right or irredeemably wrong. Also, Registration is going to win this, so don't paint it so bad that people can't accept it as the new status quo."

That way Registration would've emerged as the "Right" side eventually, and it wouldn't be painted up and down the universe as the bad guys winning. If they had kept moral ambiguity in all comic titles, and kept the most villainous things from happening, even the anti-reg readers would grudgingly accept that it was right and okay to have registration.

Instead, we're now given books where heroes form resistance cells, and suffer as criminals, and all I can say is that as someone who was anti-reg from the beginning, I read these comics about fighting Tony Stark and I can only think, "If I lived in this world, and had superpowers, I'd fight with these heroes against Tony Stark. And if not, I would nonviolently resist, sitting down with a mask on in a Superhero registration office and refuse to move." Because Civil War painted him as just that evil.

How am I supposed to enjoy a comics universe when the #1 most influential hero is now someone I would risk my life to oppose? It's like making a comic universe about a Super Heroic version of the Paranoia Computer... who fought in the name of liberating the people mainly by putting seditious influences down. It just doesn't work!

[Kaelaroth]

Without trying to sound crazy, I honestly think that they should've killed off more characters. Civil War, although it changed the Marvel Universe, didn't quite seem to be bursting with force. I imagine they treid to reinforce how important the event was when they killed Goliath, but in reality, if you didn't read Avengers, you'd never have known that Goliath existed, let alone died. In my opinion. at least one major Marvel icon should've been killed.

[Moogle0119]

Doesn't Captain America count as a major Marvel icon?

[Kaelaroth]

Cpt. America is a major Marvel icon, but wasn't killed during Civil War, and I'm still grumbling over the fact that he's basically been rezzed in Bucky form...

Permanent Deaths People!

[Gundato]

Cpt. America is a major Marvel icon, but wasn't killed during Civil War, and I'm still grumbling over the fact that he's basically been rezzed in Bucky form...

Permanent Deaths People!

I am going to have to argue with you there. The Bucky thing is actually playing into the history of the character.

Read up on some Cap. Post-WWII there were a lot of Cap imposters (who almost all went insane), because while Steve Rogers is a person, Captain America is a concept.

I wouldn't say that Steve Rogers is being ressurected by Bucky. I would say that the torch is being carried on.

I mean, do you complain that there are ninety million Giant Men/Ant Men running around? :p

[Kaelaroth]

I mean, do you complain that there are ninety million Giant Men/Ant Men running around? :p

Yes! filler-me-up....

[Piedmon_Sama]

I, actually, had only one problem with the Civil War story:

Cap's surrender. Everything else in Civil War I found believable. Yes, Tony Stark and Reed Richards totally would do this. They have always had paternal, smarter-than-thou attitudes and this is just a logical extension of that pattern. Cap giving up was the only thing that stuck in my craw as unfathomable.

So here's what I'd do:

Cap's team loses the final battle outside the Baxter Building. Cap, Luke Cage and their respective allies manage to escape, however, and remain underground for a time. But eventually Cap gets caught, and as in the regular Marvel universe is assassinated on the steps of his courthouse.

Tony Stark creates a new Captain America identity. Everyone around him reacts with disgust, refusing to believe he is genuinely trying to honor Steve Rogers and thinking he's acting for base political motive (but Stark is trying to respect his friend, in his own ****ed-up way). Stark approaches the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes to wear his new Cap-suit, but Bucky refuses and becomes the new Cap as a rebel. A new character, one trained in the Initiative program, becomes the "official" Cap with advanced Stark-Tech and weapons. Bucky, having stolen Cap's shield from its memorial location, is the "rebel" Cap.

Honestly, that's all I'd change. Everything else was palatable... of course, I'm not much of a Spiderman fan. =p

[TheEmerged]

I have to admit I bailed on this series early. It's a writ rule of the Marvel Universe that if Cap is on one side and Iron Man on the other, Tony's the bad guy. So I lack any real emotional investment in it.

[Dalenthas]

The best suggestion I've seen (I think it was on this forum actually) was have the text of the SHRA spelled out exactly (like as a bonus at the end of issue 1) so that all the writers and readers were on the same baseline.
Also, some cleaner continuity wouldn't hurt, there were several crossover points where the events in the tie-ins didn't quite line up with the main book.

[Elliot Kane]

The premise was great; the execution was diabolical. Everything from the Amazing Vanishing Diamondback to the inventor of Pym Particles' inability to shrink Goliath's body back to normal size was absurd - and that's leaving out that any small child has superior understanding of politics...

Characterisation was ludicrous and many people on both sides seemed to be there to make up the numbers rather than out of any real thought.

First thing I'd do is the one thing Marvel never did - make sure I knew exactly what the Act said, so I could work out who would reasonably object to it and why.

Then I'd have the main mini script entirely in the can so I could send copies of that and the Act to every writer involved, so everyone is on the same page and knows what they are working towards.

Cap and Iron Man would still lead the two sides. That I'd keep. Beyond that... pretty much most of it goes.

[Eita]

Anyone who suggests that it never should have existed shall be shot by the Commisar.

Ready and waiting colonel.

[LordVader]

Wish Iron Man came off as less of a bad guy, he is my favorite superhero after all. :smallfrown:

Also, the way Steve Rodgers died just SUCKED. "Oh, I surrender and am utterly humiliated, oh, and now I die!" SUCH a good send-off for Captain America. :smallyuk:

[Piedmon_Sama]

Dude, guys, come on, let's not forget; Reed Richards deserves our hatred also. XD

[Finn Solomon]

They should have made it bigger. The last time America was in a Civil War the entire world changed. The same sense of scale and vastness should have been played up. You not only have Americans fighting each other, you have super-powered, godlike Americans fighting each other. There should have been a hell of a lot more blood, rubble and desperation.

I agree about the moral ambiguity. Neither side is totally right, so painting one side as heel from the beginning is ridiculous. But really, it should have been bigger than what it was. The entire country should have literally been torn apart, when you think of the firepower that was being brought to bear. Maybe they didn't like that idea, but at least raze a state or something. Have Cap's resistance fighters be few in number, scattered, less access to weapons and tech, but willing to take a bullet for the big guy. At the same time, play up the cult-like overtones of the entire Cap America concept in order to address the doubts. Stark on the other hand should be a stone-cold sober President-by-proxy whose areas of America under his control would be the only ones secure and worth living in.

[13_CBS]

Interesting post, Solomon...

To piggy back off of that, would it have been better if, assuming moral ambiguity:

1) Both sides were painted as heroic and good in their own way

2) Both sides were, as Solomon said, painted with darker shades, with one side being a cult-like, almost terrorist organization, while the other is a dark, controlling Empire under Stark.

[king korath]

I liked the actually series but all the tie-ins killed it. The Civil War series was ambigious but all the tie ins were saying that Stark is evil. I aactually like Iron Man, and marvel tried to demonize him.

[Emperor Tippy]

1) As has been said, publish the full text of the SHRA
2) As has also been said, more moral ambiguity
3) As has also also been said, make the thing a real war. To the point where NYC is just a rubble wasteland. Or maybe DC.
4) Kill people. As was shown with Cap's death, a bullet through the brain brings down even some super heroes. A lot more Punisher esk on the resistance side.

I mean Captain America is fighting for freedom. He is willing to die for it. He should also be willing to kill for it.

5) The X-Men's neutrality. They should have been fully on the side of the resistance (they have been opposed to mutant registration for years but don't actively oppose the SHRA?)

6) Wolverine would not have come back from his skeleton.

[Blayze]

How to make it better? Simple.

Let the guys behind Nextwave handle it all.

[JessSoccer]

I'm running behind on my comics, so I just got to the What If: Civil War one shot that Marvel put out a couple weeks ago. I thought it was fantastic. I wasn't much a fan of the first outcome, but the second was brilliant. (I won't say much more because I'm too lazy to make spoiler boxes).

Also, I love that Bucky's in the suit. And that he has guns. I think he will be a much more interesting and enigmatic Cap, besides, Bucky's got more going on inside his head. With Cap it was always the same argument over and over (don't get me wrong, Cap can argue for as long as he darned well wants, but Bucky is more troubled, and has more "real" feelings.) I guess it's kind of like how I liked the "rebel" Supergirl better than whats going on right now, when she was in Kandor and had the short hair ^_^

[kpenguin]

Quite frankly, I couldn't see why the fighting had to happen on such a scale. The SHRA, whether or not you agree with it, just didn't seem awful enough to have large-scale super conflict. The more reasonable anti-registration heroes would have organized large-scale instances of civil disobedience. See how the public reacts when national icons willingly go to jail because they disagree with the SHRA.

[Jerthanis]

Quite frankly, I couldn't see why the fighting had to happen on such a scale. The SHRA, whether or not you agree with it, just didn't seem awful enough to have large-scale super conflict. The more reasonable anti-registration heroes would have organized large-scale instances of civil disobedience. See how the public reacts when national icons willingly go to jail because they disagree with the SHRA.

This is another thing I have to admit I didn't like about the series. Instead of attacking prisons and beating up police and so forth, if Captain America simply had called a press conference where he declared the SHRA to be against the ideals of the America he had fought for fifty years ago, and gave himself up at a well publicized event, with an unmasking in the form of an eerily opposite type of Spider-Man's unmasking, and wrote his own sort of "Letter from Birmingham Jail", he could have won the war right there at the beginning.

Instead we got shallow fisticuffs, and the very least of tiny moralizing debate.

The only good thing to come out of Civil War was when Ben Grimm went to France and had awesome adventures with silly, but awesome French heroes.

[The_Alec]

Quite frankly, I couldn't see why the fighting had to happen on such a scale. The SHRA, whether or not you agree with it, just didn't seem awful enough to have large-scale super conflict. The more reasonable anti-registration heroes would have organized large-scale instances of civil disobedience. See how the public reacts when national icons willingly go to jail because they disagree with the SHRA.

That was the entire point of the ending of Civil War. In the final battle Captain America looked out over the ruins of New York and realized that he had been fighting the whole war the wrong way.

His “Secret Avengers” didn’t matter. The negative zone prison break didn’t matter. Cutting off Iorn Mans head with his shield and kicking the asses of all the pro-registration heroes from one side of America to the other would not have mattered either. At the end of the day the only way of winning the war would have been to convince the common people that registration was a bad idea. For all the chaos and bloodshed that he had unleashed Captain America had not managed to change the mind of a single person. And that is why he gave up in the end.

In my mind that is where Civil War as a story fell flat. The tragedy of Captain America’s realization should have been the emotional highlight of the series. Instead it just fizzled out with a few vague panels that left ¾ of the readers scratching their heads wondering what happened.

[kpenguin]

I didn't like Cap fighting in the first place. I think Cap is wise enough man to understand the views of Tony and the government, even if he disagrees, and thus wouldn't resort to violence to express his disapproval. Civil disobedience would have been a more appropriate path that Cap should have taken.

That doesn't mean that there wouldn't be Secret Avengers or their equivalent. There would have to be a few Malcolm Xs to balance with Cap's MLK.

[sealemon]

I didn't like Cap fighting in the first place. I think Cap is wise enough man to understand the views of Tony and the government, even if he disagrees, and thus wouldn't resort to violence to express his disapproval. Civil disobedience would have been a more appropriate path that Cap should have taken.

That doesn't mean that there wouldn't be Secret Avengers or their equivalent. There would have to be a few Malcolm Xs to balance with Cap's MLK.

Agreed. What could have been a very thought provocing series degenerated into a cartoonish hero-vs-hero slugfest, with gross mischaracterizations (Yes, they tried to prove that Stark and Richards were actually messiah-like heros, willing to sacrifice their rep for the greater good. Too bad they failed to pull off that proof).

As it is, the Civil War we remember should have already been at least partially changed, thanks to One More Day and Brand New Day in the Spidey comics.

[Om]

They should have made it bigger. The last time America was in a Civil War the entire world changedWell the world within the American borders anyway. No one else paid all that much attention or was particularly affected

But I do agree with kpenguin in that having the Marvel Civil War collapse into a bout of "super-powered, godlike Americans fighting each other" would have been very, very poor storytelling. Coincidentally that's pretty much what occured until the ending finally brought some measure of redemption to the writers


I didn't like Cap fighting in the first place. I think Cap is wise enough man to understand the views of Tony and the government, even if he disagrees, and thus wouldn't resort to violence to express his disapproval. Civil disobedience would have been a more appropriate path that Cap should have taken.Cap a peacenik? I can't see that. Of course I can't see Cap the Terrorist either which really strikes to the heart of the Civil War and Cap's role in it. Either that or I have a really poor imagination

[Witchhunter]

I was loving Civil War...right up to the point in which clone-Thor or "clor" showed up. At that point, the series started to go downhill fast for me. I could totally see Reed Richards doing that, and thinking it would be fine...but when clor killed Goliath, I think Reed would have really been eaten up by that as well.

Also, up until that point, I think that Tony Stark was somewhat of a sympathetic character. I loved the moment in Civil War where he leans back and says to himself, "Please let this be the right thing to do." But then we lose that character somehow and he becomes a straight-up jerk.

Here's what I would have done

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Made the Registration side look much more sympathetic. Show Stark screaming and yelling at SHIELD folks and showing that he actually cares about the people he's capturing. Show Stark really feeling sick and terrible that he's fighting his friends.

Show more of the Registration reasoning. A friend of mine and I had a great conversation about this. Can an average person who has just a few years of martial arts training put on a suit and go fight crime in the U.S.? No, that's called being a vigilante. And that's illegal. So, why are superhero legal? Many superheroes have no superpowers at all. And if you have an extraordinary ability, why does that give you a right to be a police officer? Go ahead and dare to ask the hard questions!

I think the idea of Captain America being neutral would have been great. I never thought of that. If you had to have Cap be on the anti-registration side (which is where I think he would be)...then I would have had Cap lead the big break out just like they had it. However, I would have had Reed Richards come around and be the counter-mole. Basically, Reed wakes up and gets a clue. And I actually would have had Captain America surrender, but in a different way. At the end of the issue, he beats Iron Man, beats everyone and then tells Spider-Man to go and get everyone out of there.

Spidey says, "Hey, aren't you coming?"
And Cap replies, "No. That was never the plan. I'm turning myself in."
"What? Why?"
"Because as much as I oppose the Superhuman Registration Act. I'm Captain America. And Captain America obeys the law. The law was passed by our Congress, who was elected for, by, and of the People. So I'll abide by their decision."
"But what about the big breakout?"
"Well...I wasn't about to let all of my friends and colleges, people who have literally saved the world, rot inside an unconstitutional prison, either. Listen, it'll be all right. I knew what I was getting into. I made this choice at the very beginning. There's going to be trial. A public one. And I'll get to have my say."

At that point, Captain America hands Spider-Man his shield and tells him to lead the resistance. And we learn that Cap has been planning this as part of his agenda all along. So even in "defeat" Captain America is the winner. At the trial, he gives a rousing speech, proves the SHRA to be un-Constitutional (which is fairly easy if you think about it), and then people give him a standing ovation. The court, unable to keep everyone quiet or calm calls for a recess. On the way out of the court house steps, Captain America is shot. Right there in his moment of glory. The way a hero should go out.

[kpenguin]

That would be... awesome.

Damn Joe Quesada. That's how the Civil War should have gone.

[turkishproverb]

I was loving Civil War...right up to the point in which clone-Thor or "clor" showed up. At that point, the series started to go downhill fast for me. I could totally see Reed Richards doing that, and thinking it would be fine...but when clor killed Goliath, I think Reed would have really been eaten up by that as well.

Also, up until that point, I think that Tony Stark was somewhat of a sympathetic character. I loved the moment in Civil War where he leans back and says to himself, "Please let this be the right thing to do." But then we lose that character somehow and he becomes a straight-up jerk.

Here's what I would have done

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Made the Registration side look much more sympathetic. Show Stark screaming and yelling at SHIELD folks and showing that he actually cares about the people he's capturing. Show Stark really feeling sick and terrible that he's fighting his friends.

Show more of the Registration reasoning. A friend of mine and I had a great conversation about this. Can an average person who has just a few years of martial arts training put on a suit and go fight crime in the U.S.? No, that's called being a vigilante. And that's illegal. So, why are superhero legal? Many superheroes have no superpowers at all. And if you have an extraordinary ability, why does that give you a right to be a police officer? Go ahead and dare to ask the hard questions!

I think the idea of Captain America being neutral would have been great. I never thought of that. If you had to have Cap be on the anti-registration side (which is where I think he would be)...then I would have had Cap lead the big break out just like they had it. However, I would have had Reed Richards come around and be the counter-mole. Basically, Reed wakes up and gets a clue. And I actually would have had Captain America surrender, but in a different way. At the end of the issue, he beats Iron Man, beats everyone and then tells Spider-Man to go and get everyone out of there.

Spidey says, "Hey, aren't you coming?"
And Cap replies, "No. That was never the plan. I'm turning myself in."
"What? Why?"
"Because as much as I oppose the Superhuman Registration Act. I'm Captain America. And Captain America obeys the law. The law was passed by our Congress, who was elected for, by, and of the People. So I'll abide by their decision."
"But what about the big breakout?"
"Well...I wasn't about to let all of my friends and colleges, people who have literally saved the world, rot inside an unconstitutional prison, either. Listen, it'll be all right. I knew what I was getting into. I made this choice at the very beginning. There's going to be trial. A public one. And I'll get to have my say."

At that point, Captain America hands Spider-Man his shield and tells him to lead the resistance. And we learn that Cap has been planning this as part of his agenda all along. So even in "defeat" Captain America is the winner. At the trial, he gives a rousing speech, proves the SHRA to be un-Constitutional (which is fairly easy if you think about it), and then people give him a standing ovation. The court, unable to keep everyone quiet or calm calls for a recess. On the way out of the court house steps, Captain America is shot. Right there in his moment of glory. The way a hero should go out.

That..

:smalleek:

That..
:smalleek:

Was beautiful!
:smallsmile:


I want to have your babies. :smallredface:




:smallwink:

Seriously, though another big change would Have to be most of the X-men and mutants siding against the SRA.

[Zacharius]

Personally I believe that best opinion would have been to violently overthrow US Government.

Face the facts, in MU government is simply untrustworthy and corrupt.

They are always ready to create obstacles for Avengers: "You have to accept Falcon and US Agent into your ranks and we decide what you can do and how many members you may have etc."

Same goes for FF: "You can´t attack Dr.Doom, he is a valuable political ally"

It would better to just get rid of the government.


Can an average person who has just a few years of martial arts training put on a suit and go fight crime in the U.S.? No, that's called being a vigilante. And that's illegal. So, why are superhero legal? Many superheroes have no superpowers at all. And if you have an extraordinary ability, why does that give you a right to be a police officer? Go ahead and dare to ask the hard questions!

Well, if you believe that heroes should support laws.

AFAIK, heroes should act like Authority and put themselves totally above laws
and treat cops, federal agents and soldiers as their enemies and if necessary, kill them.


Originally by The Mandarin

At it's heart, comics are really a deeply archaic genre, owing much more to bardic tales and the like than to any modern politically aware form of fiction. It owes most of its way of thinking to Homer, and the rest to Jesus and Moses. The entire idea of the vigilante being right owes itself to old ideas of this demigod being given perfect judgement and power from on high, making his judgement greater than the peasants. The peasants in such stories are little more than extras, and if they dare to speak against the demidog/chosen of god they are automatically wrong.

Captain America is basically the answer to the question: "what if Jesus was an all-American star quaterback looking guy?"
Spider-Man is another Jesus type, forever crucified by the ignorant masses too stupid to understand that he is their savior.
Iron Man is more Prometheus than Jesus, but in the end he's still part of the same elitist genre.

Homeric type stories of characters like Achilles and Beowulf seem very different from stories of the meek Jesus or even the divine-messenger-boy Moses, but they share in common the central idea that the mass of peasants are always wrong and the divinely chosen one/demigod is always right or simply above the peasant.

The odd thing about comics is you will have heroes fighting ostensibly for democracy, yet they are deeply entrenched in an utterly anti-democratic literary tradition. Comics are simply a reworking of the bardic tales where the hero is all that matters and the masses are fools. Beowulf isn't going to fight for democracy. He's a greater general and warrior than all the voters put together. Moses isn't going to fight for democracy. He's right and the masses are wrong and he knows it because his wisdom and right to rule where given to him by the divine. Jesus isn't going to fight for democracy, he is the son of God and while he has great love and tremendous compassion for the masses, ultimately they are inferior and must accept his path without any voting silliness.

Primary problem with this genre is that many readers believe that heroes are supposed to be in the side of law and since the government makes laws, support the system and this is mostly thanks to Comics Code.

Personally I believe genre works better if it´s villains who are in the side of system and heroes act as Super-Rebels.


Originally by Q99

Convention: The heroes stand for law, order, and all that stuff. The forces they are opposed to stand for evil and chaos.

Breaking it: It's the evil sides that like to use the law and traditions to their advantage to oppress people. Most forces of good associate strongly with chaos, because the world needs a change.

Justication: Heroes are all about making things better, not keeping them the same. The law = good as a given brainbug is one that I don't think makes much sense to begin with, and the more proactive a hero is the more chaotic the good side is likely to be. Especially in a world that's been under the foot of evil for a long time, it's the forces of chaos that are logical to change things for the better.

[Sixscimitars]

I was loving Civil War...right up to the point in which clone-Thor or "clor" showed up. At that point, the series started to go downhill fast for me. I could totally see Reed Richards doing that, and thinking it would be fine...but when clor killed Goliath, I think Reed would have really been eaten up by that as well.

Also, up until that point, I think that Tony Stark was somewhat of a sympathetic character. I loved the moment in Civil War where he leans back and says to himself, "Please let this be the right thing to do." But then we lose that character somehow and he becomes a straight-up jerk.

Here's what I would have done

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Made the Registration side look much more sympathetic. Show Stark screaming and yelling at SHIELD folks and showing that he actually cares about the people he's capturing. Show Stark really feeling sick and terrible that he's fighting his friends.

Show more of the Registration reasoning. A friend of mine and I had a great conversation about this. Can an average person who has just a few years of martial arts training put on a suit and go fight crime in the U.S.? No, that's called being a vigilante. And that's illegal. So, why are superhero legal? Many superheroes have no superpowers at all. And if you have an extraordinary ability, why does that give you a right to be a police officer? Go ahead and dare to ask the hard questions!

I think the idea of Captain America being neutral would have been great. I never thought of that. If you had to have Cap be on the anti-registration side (which is where I think he would be)...then I would have had Cap lead the big break out just like they had it. However, I would have had Reed Richards come around and be the counter-mole. Basically, Reed wakes up and gets a clue. And I actually would have had Captain America surrender, but in a different way. At the end of the issue, he beats Iron Man, beats everyone and then tells Spider-Man to go and get everyone out of there.

Spidey says, "Hey, aren't you coming?"
And Cap replies, "No. That was never the plan. I'm turning myself in."
"What? Why?"
"Because as much as I oppose the Superhuman Registration Act. I'm Captain America. And Captain America obeys the law. The law was passed by our Congress, who was elected for, by, and of the People. So I'll abide by their decision."
"But what about the big breakout?"
"Well...I wasn't about to let all of my friends and colleges, people who have literally saved the world, rot inside an unconstitutional prison, either. Listen, it'll be all right. I knew what I was getting into. I made this choice at the very beginning. There's going to be trial. A public one. And I'll get to have my say."

At that point, Captain America hands Spider-Man his shield and tells him to lead the resistance. And we learn that Cap has been planning this as part of his agenda all along. So even in "defeat" Captain America is the winner. At the trial, he gives a rousing speech, proves the SHRA to be un-Constitutional (which is fairly easy if you think about it), and then people give him a standing ovation. The court, unable to keep everyone quiet or calm calls for a recess. On the way out of the court house steps, Captain America is shot. Right there in his moment of glory. The way a hero should go out.
That would be... awesome.

Damn Joe Quesada. That's how the Civil War should have gone.

Seconded!
Seriously, they shouldn't have made a long-time hero like Iron Man be portrayed as an unsympathetic *******. And that sounds just like something Cap would do. Also, take out that Wolverine thing. He's got a great healing factor. WE GET IT. It reminds me of a joke made that Wolverine's healing factor had become so overpowered that whenever he cuts his hair or bleeds, the leftover hair/blood turns into another Wolverine, which is why he's on every team at once. Oh, and take out clor. What kind of name is that, anyway?

[Om]

And that sounds just like something Cap would do.No, it sounds like something Jesus would do. The whole point of Civil War was that both Cap and Iron Man were humans and thus fallible!