One of my greatest loves has always been the joy of reading comics and I would always find myself wanting more, so you can imagine how delighted I was when the first "Ironman" movie included Nick Fury telling Ironman he was to become part of a "larger universe," and that he was there to talk about an upcoming project called the Avenger Initiative. The little comic nerd in me giggled gleefully while I gushed to my parents who he was and what was to come.
Although I find both comics and the movies interesting and incredibly satisfying, I love to compare and contrast between the movies and my beloved comics, including the recent hit "Captain America: Civil War."
The Dilemma
Both the comic and the movie feature a fight over superhero registration, but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe there are no real secret identities on the Avengers team, so one of the most important parts of the comics is not as important in the MCU. The registration in the comics required the exposing of superheroes secret identity.
Enforcement
SHIELD enforces the Superhero Registration Act, but in the MCU, SHIELD was disbanded after the Hydra takeover in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The head of the movie’s Sokovia Accords is US Secretary of State Ross, who aims to enforce the new law with a UN committee.
Teams
In the comic, Team Iron Man recruits a team of “reformed” supervillains called the Thunderbolts led by Zemo, including venom! Side note: Black Panther and Spiderman actually side with Cap after the death of another superhero, Goliath.
As for Thor, he wasn’t in the movie but in the comics he played a surprising role as he appeared during a pivotal battle and began fighting for Iron Man’s side. Turns out it wasn’t the real Thor, but a cyborg clone that Iron Man created so it looked like Thor was on their side. Hulk was gone in both comics and the movie.
Teams cont.
Comics are almost never limited when introducing and randomly bringing in other characters, superheros and villians included, while movies have the limitations of budget, and intricate storylines. The movie had a total of 6 per team and while the comics had an epic war of hundreds of superheros.
Outcome
When it was all said and done, Iron Man’s side won and Cap’s side became fugitives, which is about the same as the comics. The only big difference is that this movie ends on a positive note because Cap is still out there fighting the good fight and freeing his friends and, whereas in the comic, it’s saddening because Cap is murdered on the way to his trial while the scum Iron Man "won" and has press conferences galore (if you read the comics, you would understand my raw pain).
A little fun fact, comic Ironman is a jerk who no one really likes, which is incredibly false when it comes to Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Ironman.
