From the perspective of Brock Rumlow, a suicide bomber, Steve Rogers is the reason he's scarred, and exists without a country. In Civil War however, the first villain the Avengers face has a personal grudge against Captain America. In the first three of these films, global military conflict was framed either a status quo for American forces to respond to, or as flames stoked by outside actors for selfish motives, rather than something America had a hand in.

Military-funded Marvel movies like Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain Marvel were each made from scripts approved by the U.S. That legacy is complicated, and Civil War finally grants the series an element it had been missing for nearly a decade: deeply personal drive behind political ideology. Debates about military intervention rage on in the real world, and as of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers' legacy finally began to stand in for America's. It's a harrowing watch at times, despite building on its predecessors' confused politics. The series' long-term personal and political narratives finally boil over, clashing with one another for reasons both idealistic and petty, opposing impulses that are (rightly) framed as a continuum.

While no Avengers lose their lives in Captain America: Civil War, the team tears itself apart from within they may as well have lost their identity. Last year, after having been scattered by the events of Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers were finally defeated. From scrappy 'real world' solo films, to fun, landscape-shifting crossovers, to alien family dramas, the series has been laying track for its two-part finale - Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming Avengers: Endgame - for quite some time.Ī decade of narrative investment in the superhero genre, especially in a series that aims to be so political, can't be achieved without a feeling of loss. The Marvel Cinematic Universe tries to re-invent itself every few years, albeit within a limited narrative formula.

(Welcome to Road to Endgame, where we revisit the first 22 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask, 'How did we get here?' In this edition: Captain America: Civil War pays off years of build-up by injecting politics with personal impulse.)

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