Revisit Marvel’s big crossover event in Captain America: Civil War: The Art of the Movie

Review by C.J. Bunce

Nearly ten years ago Captain America: Civil War delivered a Marvel Comics crossover event that hadn’t been done right before. In one scene–the airport battle–finally Disney and Marvel Studios put on the big screen a giant-sized live-action sequence that matched the action of superhero comics. Marvel Studios’ The Infinity Saga – Captain America: Civil War: The Art of the Movie available now here at Amazon, is the twelfth of the 24-volume MCU library from Titan Books. In part taking over from where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, Captain America: Civil War finds Steve Rogers going head to head with Tony Stark, with the typical third party supervillain of the story pretty much hiding in the background all along. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo’s next superhero mash-up was just preparation for what would be two of the biggest movies ever received by audiences–Infinity War and Endgame. Dig into the Russos’ adaptation of the Civil War crossover of the comics with behind-the-scenes concept art, production stills, and commentary from cast and crew.

What do you remember from this strange Avengers crossover that was branded as the third Captain America movie? For one it might be the introduction of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to all the other superheroes. It also put both Spidey and Ant-Man on equal footing with the top Avengers from a storytelling and fan perspective–these two actually make this movie work. The movie further was a springboard for Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa aka Black Panther, who carried the real drama in the movie despite our “heroes” relegated to a fist fight. To be fair, that is what many kids flock to comic books to see. And the Russo brothers say as much in their introduction to this book.

Each page and chapter reveals the layers of scenes stuffed into this film: the pursuit of Bucky Barnes, the dispute over the Sokovia Accords, Scarlet Witch and Vision’s relationship, Black Widow’s role in prompting the Accords, Agent 13, Crossbones, and Helmut Zemo. But all of that is secondary to the head-to-head match up of Captain America and Iron Man, with Bucky Barnes close behind. Readers will find all of these characters presented via used and unused design renderings.

Fans of borg technology will appreciate close-up images of the Winter Soldier’s mechanical gauntlet and concepts for his upgraded arm thanks to the technology of Wakanda. Readers will get a good look at War Machine’s armor, too.

The book includes several pages of storyboard sequences from Tony Liberatore, Richard Bennett Lamas, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Darrin Denlinger. More than the prior 11 volumes, this book tells a visual story, with the artwork conveying a chronological look at the movie from beginning to end (plus a section on marketing the film). The book shines a spotlight on the work of concept artists Andy Park, Rodney Fuentebella, Josh Nizzi, and likely several other unnamed artists.

Contributors to the film interviewed in the book will be familiar to MCU fans, especially to those who have read the other books in the MCU library. They include the Russo brothers, head of visual development Ryan Meinerding (who wrote an afterword), executive producer Victoria Alonso, director of production Trinh Tran, production designer Owen Peterson, property master Russell Bobbitt, visual effects supervisor Dan Daleeuw, costume designer Judianna Makovsky, and many more.

Don’t miss our reviews of other books in the series: Iron Man: The Art of the Movie here, The Art of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2 here, Marvel Studios’ Thor: The Art of the Movie here, Captain America: The First Avenger–The Art of the Movie, here, The Art of Marvel Studios’ The Avengers here, The Art of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 here, The Art of Marvel Studios’ Thor: The Dark World here, The Art of Captain America and the Winter Soldier here, The Art of Guardians of the Galaxy here, The Art of Avengers: Age of Ultron here, The Art of Ant Man here, and Captain America: Civil War – The Art of the Movie here.

The next entry in the Marvel library we’ll be reviewing soon at borg is Doctor Strange: The Art of the Movie, available here.

The original editions of these books are hard to find, so this re-release is a great buy for fans of the MCU. For every fan of the Marvel Infinity Saga and this great crossover superhero movie event from 2016, don’t miss Captain America: Civil War — The Art of the Movie, just out from Titan Books and available here at Amazon. Captain America: Civil War is streaming on Disney+.