CIVIL WAR is a story that pitted hero against hero and villain against villain, which is going to be the basis for the next Captain America film. While the book ended with some pretty bummer repercussions, this newest SECRET WARS tie-in poses the question: What if the war kept going?
Writer Charles Soule teams up with penciler Leinil Francis Yu, inker Gerry Alanguilan, and colorist Sunny Gho to take on this world and turn it into the ultimate "What If" book. What if the war never ended? What if the United States was split right down the middle between those who sided with Steve Rogers and those who sided with Tony Stark?
Let's break down some of the major points within the issue.
The Iron
"The Iron" is the realm that Tony Stark has taken control of, the eastern United States. The Superhero Registration Act is in full effect and anyone displaying any sort of super-human abilities is met by an authority. Here, that authority is Colonel Danvers and her armored agents, who stop a young girl,named Heather, who just started flying. She explains why super-humans need to be registered, but all-in-all, it feels like a police-state for anyone who happens to have any form of powers.
Tony Star made The Iron safe by establishing laws and asserting order.
The Blue
To the west is "The Blue." It's much more relaxed there, or so it seems. Super-humans are allowed to use their super-powers when and where they want, and a young boy, named John is stopped by Stature as she tells him that he can do what he wants with his powers, so long as he uses them for good. What if he uses them for evil? Well, the Avengers could come after you and if you break one of his two laws, Steve's Punishers will take you down.
The two rules of The Blue:
1. Hurt no one
2. Help when you can
Two Worlds Divided
Steve Rogers, who looks like he hasn't aged a day, and Tony Stark, now gone completely grey, still don't see eye-to-eye on how things should be done. The war still rages on and the two leaders of "The Blue" and "The Iron" decide to have a sit down to discuss reunification of the two sides of the country. As you can expect, Tony has some demands and Steve isn't into them.
Tony Wants What Steve Has
During the meeting between the leaders of their two nations, Tony lets Steve know that he needs land because "The Iron" is filling up and Steve, whose population isn't as heavy as Tony's, has a lot of land that he could spare. The problem is that Steve doesn't want to keep it up. He leads what he considers to be a free nation, and Tony sees "The Blue" as a bunch of gun-toting, lawless, nutballs. However, "The Blue" doesn't have the resources that "The Iron" has. So what is going to happen next?
Well, we could tell you, but we won't. There's a lot more to this book than just this battle between Iron Man and Captain America. There's terrorist organizations and something going on with Peter Parker as well. The ending of the issue takes the book in a very different direction than you may think it's going in. Check out CIVIL WAR #1 to find our for yourself.