Day 6: Civil War

Since “Captain America: Civil War” is opening today and most of my fourth graders are hyper-aware of everything and anything related to Marvel movies and characters, I took a survey during attendance this morning. Usually the kids check in by going up to our electronic white board and dragging their name into some kind of object I’ve placed on the screen, usually somehow related to something to do with the day. Today there were two choices, and they had to decide to move their name either to Captain America or Iron Man. 

Some were very fired up about it. One boy was heavily lobbying for Iron Man, while one girl took control of the board pen for awhile, and wasn’t ready to give it up unless the person who needed to check in was ready to commit to Team Cap. In the end, Captain America won by a 17-6 landslide. We had a number of absences today (on a Friday, in May? Imagine!!!) so we won’t know what the actual total would have ended at, but even with the whole class in attendance Cap had enough of a margin to win the day. But, is that how it will turn out in the movie?

I’ve written a few posts about how much I enjoy Marvel movies. Two came out last year, at least two from the overlapping Marvel Cinematic Universe: I didn’t think “Avengers: Age of Ulton” matched the original excitement of the first, but I really enjoyed the comic heist of “Ant-Man.” I plan on seeing “Civil War” tomorrow afternoon, earlier in the day when the lines are short and the theater is mostly empty and I can fly my introvert flag at full-mast. Everything I’ve heard and read about it so far has been glowingly positive and I’m very much looking forward to seeing it.

The problem is I can’t decide which side I’m on. 

Team Cap? Team Iron Man? 

Both of their first movies were origin stories, and great. Iron Man’s second and third movies weren’t as strong, but Cap’s second one was just as good as the first and, in some ways, even better. When it comes to the Avengers, Captain America is in charge, even if Tony Stark / Iron Man pays all the bills. 

Both characters have evolved. Tony Stark started out as a pretty horrible human being who turned a corner when he realized the weapons his company was producing were being sold to terrorists and used against American soldiers. Plus he almost died himself during the events when he first learned this. Steve Rogers was a scrawny little guy who proved himself brave enough and worthy enough to become what was intended to be a super soldier prototype, but then ended up as the only one.

Tony Stark has Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Steve Rogers had the ultimate star-crossed love story with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Cap wins this round for so many reasons, but this isn’t enough to pick a side. 

From what I understand, the conflict has to do with accountability. Iron Man believes that the super heroes in that universe should agree to a certain degree of oversight from the United Nations, even though he was completely against any government cooperation in Iron Man 2. Captain America was in the army during World War II, and was the ultimate red, white, and blue loyalist in that time. But now after being frozen in a polar aircraft crash for some 70 odd years, he’s had too many experiences which have taught him that the government isn’t always worthy of his trust and loyalty, and would prefer to only answer to the small group of people he super heroes around with, since they’re the few he feels he can trust. 

They both have too many pros and not enough cons for me to choose a side. I’m left in a position where all I can do is hope that somehow, the movie ends in some kind of truce without too much damage being done. One more day and I’ll finally know the answer to that. In the mean time, I think I saw there was a Thor movie on TV tonight….