Mother’s Day Weekend means that all the SportsAlcohol got together to watch and talk about Captain America: Civil War
Spoiler Warning: Lots of spoilers about this movie and the MCU in general
How To Listen
We are now up to SIX (6) different ways to listen to a SportsAlcohol podcast:
- You can subscribe to our podcast using the rss feed.
- I’m not sure why they allowed it, but we are on iTunes! If you enjoy what you hear, a positive comment and a rating would be great.
- I don’t really know what Stitcher is, but we are also on Stitcher.
- SportsAlcohol.com is a proud member of the Aha Radio Network. What is Aha? It’s kind of like Stitcher, but for your car.
- You can download the mp3 of this episode directly here.
- You can listen in the player below.
Rob is one of the founders of SportsAlcohol.com. He is a recent first time home buyer and it's all he talks about. Said home is in his hometown in Upstate New York. He never moved away and works a job to pay for his mortgage and crippling chicken wing addiction. He is not what you would call a go-getter. This may explain the general tone of SportsAlcohol.com.
Latest posts by Rob (see all)
- The SportsAlcohol.com Podcast: Best Music of 2023 - February 9, 2024
- The SportsAlcohol.com Podcast: Black Widow & Cruella - August 2, 2021
- The SportsAlcohol.com Podcast: Zack Snyder’s Justice League - March 22, 2021
Spoilers Ahead
Thinking more about it, the movie needed to do more in terms of explaining the reach of the Sokovia accords. When I was watching, I just assumed that Ross & Co. were after Bucky because they thought he planted the bomb that killed Black Panther’s dad, and then after Captain America because he helped Bucky escape and went on the lam with him. But if they were after Cap because, as Nathaniel said in the podcast, he was breaking the Sokovia accords that he didn’t sign, I need more policy wonkery! How many Avengers have to sign to ratify the accords? Two-thirds? A simple majority? It’s an international accord, but it only seemed to apply to the American-born Avengers (or nobody really seemed to be after Black Panther)–why?
I think 0 Avengers need to sign the accords to ratify them. It was international law as all those countries agreed to it.
The script really confused the situation when they mention the Avengers signing the accords as well, but in practice it more sounds like pro-accords Avengers signed a document agreeing to comply with the accords in order to keep operating (and those that didn’t had to retire).
In terms of enforcement, it seemed like they were easing into it. After the car chase, Tony was willing to futz with a little paperwork to backdate Steve’s signing on a first offense and pretend that everything he had done with Bucky to date was Official Avengers business, because they are friends. By the time they got to the airport, they were both breaking the accords and aiding Bucky, so double crime!
The accords seem to effect all superheroes, but The Avengers are the only superheroes in the MCU who are operating in public. I’m assuming they either gave T’Challa the same deal they offered Steve or can’t touch him due to his status as king. The Black Panther question also goes to the enforceability of the accords: how do you define a Superhero? The Black Panther is a head of state in traditional/ceremonial wakandan garb?
Another fun thing is the nationality of the Avengers. They aren’t all American born. Scarlett Witch is Sokovian and Black Widow was Russian. And what is Vision’s nationality? Ultron started created him in Korea but Stark finished him in NYC. Does he even count as a human since he is an artificial being? Your general point stands because there’s so much to dissect. I too, would have liked some more policy wonkery.
Totally did not get that from the movie! Thanks for clarifying.
Yeah, I got that they were violating the accords, but I wasn’t sure (a.) if those accords were actually ratified properly because the meeting was interrupted by the bombing and (b.) what the deal was with Avengers being expected to “sign” what Rob describes more clearly than the movie does. If it’s international law, I wouldn’t think that anyone would need to sign a pledge to comply. I mean, I see why they’d want that, but it seems like a weird distinction because the whole deal with the accords is that they want superheroes to be accountable to a government, so they really should be more worried about the people who *don’t* live in a compound together — your superhero freelancers, or even your Avengers who can’t be contained (like the Hulk, as Ross brings up).
I’m also not clear on Tony Stark’s administrative connection to the Avengers post-Ultron. Or why, in retrospect, Nick Fury was in Ultron (not really necessary) and not this one (seems like it would make more sense). I mean, if you’re going to stop pretending to be dead for one Marvel Universe event, this seems like the one.
You know who could help sort out this legal mumbo-jumbo? Yes, Rob, probably Matt Murdock, but you who could also do it? SHE-HULK.
I can understand having Avengers working within the accords to sign something as the Accords just say the Avengers answer to a UN Panel, I’m sure they’ve got a ton more very specific rules and regulations that that the Panel is empowered to make themselves.
As for Stark’s connection, he usually is the one funding the Avengers. I also assume that the US gov’t would use the accords to get him to hand over all his Iron Man tech and him wanting to retain control over it would be a believable reason for him to come out of his retirement Jay-Z style.
I gotta totally cop to She-Hulk being the best idea here. MCU Murdock hasn’t shown himself to be a good lawyer. His partner is doing the heavy lifting and when does he even show up to court on time.