The Age of Ultron has passed, and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have survived. We’ll be hearing from Ant-Man in a couple months, and Captain America: Civil War is around the bend. What is in store for Cap and the Avengers team? Will we see figures rise from Captain America’s past? And who the heck is Martin Freeman going to portray? Let’s see if we can answer these questions.
The Heroes
Based on the cast list that Marvel released recently, its safe to say that the beginning of Civil War will be Cap training in a team of new Avengers. This actually follows closely to the comics arcs where Iron Man, Hulk (who actually just quits) and Thor take leaves of absence, leaving Cap in charge of maintaining a team filled with Avengers who are not quite as powerful, which fits Cap’s strategic mindset.
At the end of Age of Ultron we see most of the new team. Cap and Black Widow are in charge, Hawkeye’s status is ambiguous, and the new folks are the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, and War Machine. With Ant-Man and Black Panther also confirmed, its looking like Cap is going to be recruiting new teammates. Bucky/Winter Soldier will also be back, although I’m not convinced 100% that it will be as an Avenger, at least to start. This is further backed up by the conversation that Cap has with Falcon at the Age of Ultron “revels.” Falcon mentions that he’s been following cold leads in “our missing person case.” This has got to be Bucky. And Bucky doesn’t want to be found.
The Villains
Tony Stark is going to “kind of” be a villain here, but the main two are Crossbones and Baron Zemo. In the comics, Cap has two Baron Zemo villains, Heinrich, from his WWII days and the other, Helmut, a decendant of Heinrich. Helmut is the one we speak of here.
The Plot
We know this much: there’s going to be some sort of incident (I’m guessing that Scarlet Witch loses control) that leads to Tony Stark implementing a program for super-hero registration. This pits Stark against Cap, of course, but it may also lead to a Nick Fury/Maria Hill disagreement. But here’s where things get interesting. We know (pretty much) what tears the heroes apart, but there also has to be a big event that brings them back together again, and its going to have to be something besides one side winning. Stark is obstinate, and Cap is stubborn. Neither is going to wave the white flag, and neither is going to be killed (at least by the other). Therefore, there has to be an occurrence outside the “civil war” that brings a halt to the heroes in-fighting, and establishes a common enemy. Here’s my theory.
In the comics, the Red Skull hires Crossbones as part of his plot to assassinate Steve Rogers. I’ll avoid going into too much detail here, but Cap is put out of commission for a good amount of time. In his absence, Bucky emerges as a new Captain America, taking Rogers’ place to keep the banner flying. I think we’ll see something very similar to this, perhaps along these lines (these are general plot points which may not occur immediately after one another, but still in chronological order):
1) In the midst of his Avengers recruiting drive, Rogers searches high and low for Bucky, hoping to bring him aboard the team. Cap may find Bucky at this point, he may not, but regardless, Bucky won’t join the team at first.
2) Civil war occurs.
3) Baron Zemo (not Red Skull) hires Crossbones to participate in the assassination of Captain America. This is probably Zemo’s revenge for Cap taking out his father/grandfather/however they decide to play this in WWII.
4) The assassination attempt is successful to some degree. Either Cap is killed (which I doubt), or seriously wounded. This draws the heroes together. Perhaps even Stark attempts to lead them against Zemo, only to find that none of the Avengers trust him. They need a tactical mind, a leader to follow into battle. So…
5) From the shadows, Bucky emerges. Shedding his Winter Soldier persona, he assumes the mantle of Captain America and leads the Avengers in a final showdown with Baron Zemo, Crossbones…and maybe one other villain.
Martin Freeman…who is he playing?
Marvel has not revealed just who exactly Martin Freeman will be portraying. This screams “spoiler alert.” Some folks have suggested that he’ll be Everett Ross, a government liaison to Wakanda, Black Panther’s home. This is such an obscure character, and I doubt that Marvel would keep us in the dark about him if this was the case. We already know Black Panther will be around, and we also know that Thunderbolt Ross will be back. Generally, Marvel will only keep a characters identity secret (such as Andy Serkis’ Ulysses Klaue) if its hiding an important plot point.
Another suggestion has been Norman Osborn, which I just don’t see, and yet another, the Red Skull. Martin Freeman is 5’6″. Hugo Weaving is 6’2″. Yes, Weaving wants out, and I still don’t think Red Skull is dead, but the new Red Skull is not going to be that much shorter. Plus, Freeman isn’t known for being fierce and intimidating, he’s known for being friendly and easy to approach. A good friend. Which, of course, is a perfect disguise for actually being someone sinister. So who is Martin Freeman going to play? How about this guy?
Ok, so the tricky part about this is that the “real” Dr. Faustus has already appeared in the MCU, in Agent Carter. And of course, he’d be dead by now. However, at the very end of the first season of Agent Carter, it is revealed that the captured Dr. Faustus (Johann Fennhoff is the real name) must share a cell with a certain Dr. Zola, who apparently has plans for Fennhoff’s methods. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA has developed the “Faustus Method” for hypnotizing their enemies, which leads me to believe that Martin Freeman will play a “modern-day” Dr. Faustus. After all, the actual name hasn’t been used yet, and Dr. Faustus plays a critical role in the Assassination of Captain America story.
If Freeman does indeed play a Dr. Faustus character, his likely backstory is that he is serving in the new S.H.I.E.L.D. as a psychologist or psychiatrist, someone who asks a lot of questions (much like an interrogator would), and someone with access to super heroes. I really can’t go into more detail without potentially spoiling the story but…you heard it here first!
So what do you think? Where will Captain America: Civil War take the MCU?
The Marvelologist 