Marvel Universe (Thar be spoilers ahead.)

[Lantyssa]

And isn't half that x-team dead or slated to be dead?  I'm confused by these pictures.

[jgsugden]

Spider-Man revealing his identity then switching to the anti-reg side and Reed Richards providing the scientific future prognostications that caused Tony Stark to double down on registration wasn't integral? Not to mention the whole creating a Thor clone who killed Black Goliath thing?

Those two characters were pretty integral to the Civil War story.

They can easily be ignored or reworked.  Spider-man was in a lot of comics, but was superfluous to the actual core conflict.  Him 'coming out' was big comic book news, but in the storyline, it could have been a lot of other characters and had the same effect.  

The mere fact you reference Stark 'doubling down' shows that Reed's formula wasn't necessary.  You can't double down on something unless there is already something there... something providing extra motivation is not a core element of a story.  And the clone?  You don't need a Thor clone to be the killer to get to a breaking point in the storyline.  You don't even need a hero death to be the breaking point.  

As I said months ago, the core of Civil War is that heroes come into conflict over government regulation of people with powers.  Having Cap and Iron Man be the key characters that the story drives around is iconic, but you could have Banner fill the Stark shoes and tell essentially the same story.  

Clearly, with only a few hours to tell the story in film, Civil War is going to be abbreviated.  Without the rights to the FF, X-men and Spider-man (although Spidey could be in the fold by then and the 2 existing ASM movies ret-conned into the continuity - talks are apparently ongoing and the delay on some of the Spidey properties point towards it being serious), they'll clearly need to make changes.  However, I could see the story unfold like this and be pretty darn on track with what I consider to be the core of Civil War:

MAoS 2014-2015: We see more Superhumans being created and wider knowledge of superhumans in the world.
Avengers: AoU: We see a calamity that Superhumans get blames for - namely Stark making Ultron and the disaster that follows.  This replaces the disaster that starts Civil War in the Comics.
Cap III: We see the battle lines for Civl War of Reg vs. Non Reg. drawn and Stark and Cap come to blows.  There will likely be a secondary villain that brings the two together initially - perhaps the Mandarin?  Ends with Cap on the run?
A few years of MAoS, Defenders, etc... dealing with being on the run from the government forces trying to regulate them....
Avengers III: Civil War - the big conflict (perhaps with nearly everyone in the Marvel pantheon taking at least a small part) and resolution of the storyline - maybe resulting in the death of Captain America, Bucky/Falcon taking his place, etc...

[Lantyssa]

Yeah, but Stark isn't a superhuman.  He's just a brilliant guy.  That story is more properly about letting individual citizens build, play, and use what should be restricted weapons.  While I suppose a superhero second amendment story could be done, I'm not sure it'd be any good.

[Lakov_Sanite]

So basically it'll be civil war expect not, except it will be but, not really.   

[jgsugden]

So basically it'll be civil war expect not, except it will be but, not really.   

Just like Avengers was Ultimates except not, exit it was, but not really.

Let me put it this way: If you asked someone for the elevator speech (the quick summary or pitch you could deliver to someone while they go from one floor to another) summary of Civil War, I think the key elements you discuss from the comics will appear on film.  Here is a plot summary that popped up on a quick Google search:

Plot Summary

After the super-villain Nitro sets off an explosion in Stamford, CT, killing the New Warriors and hundreds of innocents, the American Government, blaming the super-hero community for these deaths, enforces a Super-Human Registration Act that forces super-heroes to reveal their secret identities and work for the government, labeled as weapons of mass destruction. This doesn't sit well with some heroes and the Super-Hero community is divides into sides: Iron Man's Pro-Registration Act team enforced by S.H.I.E.L.D. and its new director Maria Hill, and Captain America's Anti-Registration Act team called the Secret Avengers. This separation causes a super-human Civil War that pits the two teams against each other physically and morally.

Quick version: Heroes blamed for disaster, government forces regulation of heroes, hero community divided, IM is the face of pro-registration, Cap is anti-registration face, conflict comes to blows. 

If you want to argue that the storyline, that will undoubtedly be called Civll War, is not a film version of Civil War because they use Armin Zola's algorithm instead of Reed Richard's formula, because they do not focus on heroes taking off masks (and instead focus on heroes being forced to work for the government), or because they don't kill a character named Goliath in the big conflict with a robot Thor... well, you'll be in the minority.

 

[HaemishM]

Why would they use Civil War, even in the broad strokes you keep mentioning? Why, when they've clearly gone to the trouble of setting up Thanos as a big bad villain through 2 different franchises (Avengers and Guardians) while doing pretty much nothing to even plant the seeds for the pro-registration momentum? I mean, as has been said in this thread just recently, Stark has had 3 films where he's attempted to keep his tech out of the hands of government and those he felt wouldn't use it correctly. All of our heroes and I mean ALL OF THEM have shown no willingness to "toe the line" - Stark with his Congressional hearings, Black Widow and Captain America with the SHIELD initiative of Pierce's. I mean, if I squint hard I could see Stark feeling guilty about Ultron but I can't think he'd take that to the "everyone should be registered with the government" sort of argument that is just a wee bit necessary for Civil War to make sense. It would be more likely for him to set up his own kind of Authority as opposed to relying on the very corruptible government he's already seen.

And again, the whole Thanos thing really shits all over that argument.

[Maven]

I could see Civil War as isolated to Cap 3, where Cap 2 already setup government anxiety of the Superhuman Threat, and leaving Thanos for some far-flung Avengers III, or even a GotG-focused movie for Thanos with Avengers guest-starring, though this creates the problem that there's only so much life in the actors on the current roster. An Avengers III would have Robert Downey at, what, 55 years old?

[Nevermore]

What Superhuman Threat was there in Cap 2?

[Maven]

The Helicarriers were a response to New York. New York was a game-changer for the MCU and made Earth governments realize the world of shit they're in should another invasion take place. Arms escalation.

I'm a bit more fuzzy on this, but the Helicarrier targeting systems were meant to identify potential threats i.e. superpowers, but it was turned on anyone who didn't sympathize with HYDRA.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Yeah if they do anything remotely civil war it will be self contained in cap3 which can still make for a good storyline but it will still be civil war "super lite edition"

[Nevermore]

The Helicarriers were a response to New York. New York was a game-changer for the MCU and made Earth governments realize the world of shit they're in should another invasion take place. Arms escalation.

I'm a bit more fuzzy on this, but the Helicarrier targeting systems were meant to identify potential threats i.e. superpowers, but it was turned on anyone who didn't sympathize with HYDRA.

Nothing about that has anything to do with 'we must register all superhuman people' though.  New York was an alien invasion.  Cap 2 was a hidden conspiracy/military force.

[jgsugden]

Regarding Thanos - there is no guarantee the payoff is in Avengers III.  They have talked repeatedly about how Thanos is a villain best used as a threat out there in the shadows, mostly off screen...

... but it entirely possible they could do an abbreviated Civil War that just puts Cap against Iron Man in Cap III.  They could have the registration act into the last bit of Avengers II, the play it out in MAoS (if not canceled by then) and the Netflix series.... and then resolve it in Cap III...

Regardless, time will tell.

[Threash]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By4e12DxrjXQZ3FUaE0yVFlTSlU/view?pli=1

Age of Ultron trailer.

[Trippy]

Not anymore.

[Threash]

http://io9.com/our-best-look-yet-at-ultron-plus-the-hulkbuster-from-a-1649586887

This one works for now.

[Evildrider]

Looks pretty awesome to me.  Can't wait for a newer trailer though.  I think that's mainly the stuff from Comic-Con.

[Threash]

Dunno how much newer it can get, this is the one they are showing next week during Agents of SHIELD.

[Maven]

Links are dying fast.

Edit: Youtube seems to be going nuts as everyone scrambles to upload their reactions (who gives a shit how someone ELSE reacts?!) and low quality copies of the trailer. I would actually want to wait for the real thing given just how shitty the feeds have been.

[Fordel]

Links are dying fast.

Edit: Youtube seems to be going nuts as everyone scrambles to upload their reactions (who gives a shit how someone ELSE reacts?!) and low quality copies of the trailer. I would actually want to wait for the real thing given just how shitty the feeds have been.

An enormous chunk of the population? Another persons reaction to things is like, the majority of media content that isn't scripted.



Ultron looks fucking amazing, as does the Hulkbuster armor.

[Nevermore]

Here's the official one.

[01101010]

Still can't wrap my head around hearing Spader again right alongside Downey Jr. Too much nostalgia.

[Nevermore]

Heh, the Marvel response to the trailer leaks before they went ahead and officially released it: https://twitter.com/Marvel/status/525071656306626560

[Threash]

People are slowly starting to realize they can't take something out of the internet.

[HaemishM]

AWESOME OVERLOAD.  

[DraconianOne]

Welp, watching Pinocchio is never going to be quite the same again.

[Lakov_Sanite]

All I can say is it looks like they got it right.

[Ceryse]

Trailer was awesome.

I want that version of the song, too, but can't seem to find it anywhere.

[Maven]

Trailer was good, but I wasn't blown away. The whole thing was a funeral -- which I suppose makes sense. There was some clever meta-awareness ("This is the end of everything that I started."). The Hulkbuster fight was the most eye-catching element.

I just thought of something though -- Cap II built off the events of Avengers 1, so with Rogers and Stark both in Cap III, I can see the movie building off Ultron. Stark created Ultron, so the government is obviously concerned with private industry working on weapons of mass destruction, which (and here's my point) the movie will be focused on Public Sector (Rogers) vs. Private Sector (Stark). Not very Civil War, but it's what I foresee as either what it will be or what the script writers are considering.

[Threash]

It would also give a good reason for Stark to take the government side after what he caused.

[eldaec]

Though surely the lesson of Ultron is that the people without superpowers, such as Stark, are the ones who need to be regulated?

The trailer had great explosions, but also felt like a film I've seen before.

[Velorath]

Looks good, although I find myself not as excited for it as I was for Guardians of the Galaxy.

[Threash]

Looks good, although I find myself not as excited for it as I was for Guardians of the Galaxy.

Trailer needs more hooked on a feeling.

[Fordel]

It's because of the serious business trailer vs. the "Hey, who wants to get some beers!" trailer.

[Velorath]

Cap 2 was pretty serious and I was really excited for that as well. I think it's more just they focus heavily on Ultron in this trailer, who I don't really find that interesting in the comics. I'm sure in future trailers if they show more of the Avengers just interacting with each other more my hype meter will start to build up.

[Evildrider]

They needed to add the part where the Avengers were hanging out and trying to lift Mjolnir.  I believe that was the opening that from Comic-Con we don't see here.