EDITORIAL: How I Would Adapt The Civil War Storyline In The MCU

   Last week comic book fans experienced one of the most glorious days ever when Marvel Studios announced the movie lineup for Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Personally, the moment that excited me the most was when it was announced that the third Captain America is titled Captain America: Civil War, because Captain America is my all-time favorite comic book character and Civil War is one of my favorite comic book storylines. 
      Despite my excitement over this news, and despite my faith that the Russos can give us a movie as glorious as the last one if not more so, however, I am a little concerned for the quality of this movie for a couple reasons. First, I am worried that Bucky and Cap's quest to find him will be put on the backburner because Cap has to deal with the Superhuman Registration Act and Iron Man. To me this would be a serious letdown to me and other fans that were looking forward to the story of Bucky to come to a resolution. Second, I am worried because the Civil War storyline that involved most of Earth's heroes with the exception of the Hulk and the X-men. In other words I think the Civil War storyline is too big to just be contained in one single movie.
      Therefore, if the Civil War storyline is to be adapted properly I think it should stretch out over a phase or two in much the same way that Marvel has built up the Infinity Gauntlet storyline over three phases. This can be done in one of two ways. First, one could have two or three phases in which there are just new characters introduced and the new characters are recruited by either Captain America or Iron Man in the post-credit scenes. The other way is that you just condense it to one phase and include TV shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, etc. into the buildup as Cap and Tony expand their teams. Either way the arc would end in a single movie in which the two sides battle it out until there is a decisive winner. Then the consequences of the war could be explained in a phase all its own.
      Now am I opposed to Captain America and Iron Man fighting in the former's third solo outing? Heck no! Those two battling would make the two fights between the Winter Soldier and Cap in Captain America: The Winter Soldier look like a girly slap fight. However, I think Captain America: Civil War should be a very loose adaptation in which Cap and Iron Man fight, but not over the Superhuman Registration Act like in the comics. In the place of the SHRA I would make Bucky the primary reason these two fight. This can happen by having Tony finding out through reading SHIELD's and HYDRA's secrets that the Winter Soldier killed his parents. Thus Iron Man would make it his goal to make Bucky pay and Captain America would be protecting his best friend because he believes that the Winter Soldier is innocent of his crimes due to the brainwashing. Not only would this make the feud between these two more personal and more epic, but it would show great characterization for Bucky as he has to deal with his conscience after finding out the truth about himself and the fact that two Avengers are fighting for him.
     Lastly, I think this movie no matter what direction it decides to take is a great opportunity for a new feature to be introduced to movies. This feature would be that the audience gets to decide how the movie should end. This would be carried out in much the same way books and video games carry it out with the Russos filming three separate endings. Then at some point in the movie the viewers would vote using their phones, or a specially designed remote, on whether Iron Man should win, Captain America should win, or the fight end in a draw. The ending that gets the majority vote would be the ending that the audience in that specific theatre would see. Then when the DVD and Blu-Ray come out three versions would be released that would each contain one of the three endings and the customers can buy the version they desire.