<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Civil War is a major crossover series at Marvel Comics. A crossover series usually has its own limited comic book series, as well as "crossovers" which take place in other regularly comic books published by the same company. Civil War drastically affected the storylines in many of the Marvel Comic series, especially The New Avengers, Iron Man, Black Panther, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and all the Spider-Man books. This story, bookended by two great tragedies, splits the Marvel superhero community down the middle in a way that continues to effect the Marvel heroes to this day.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

There is a disaster in Stamford, Connecticut involving the superhero team the New Warriors and the super-villain Nitro. Hundreds of people are killed, including most of the New Warriors. The public is outraged, and "costumed vigilantes" in general are blamed. Congress passes the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA) which now requires all costumed heroes to register with a government agency (including their secret indentities), and be trained, licensed and regulated. It is hoped that this will help hold superheroes accountable for their actions, like police officers are. The heroes are reassured that their identities will be kept secret by the government.

The superhero community is split down the middle by this. Some register and reveal their secret identities, some refuse. Those that refuse don't want to be government controlled and/or don't trust the government to keep their identities secret. The ones that register are then expected to track down and arrest the ones who do not.

As a result of the events of the storyline, there are now two groups of heroes, one sanctioned by the state, and another operating underground, fugitives due to their unwillingness to comply with the new SHRA. Iron Man leads those who register and support SHRA. Captain America decides to oppose the act, and goes underground with others who feel the same.

Iron Man (Tony Stark) comes out publicly in support of the SHRA, and reveals his identity to the world. Later, he convinces Spider-Man to do the same. Peter is influenced by Tony Stark, having just joined the New Avengers, and having taken his family to live in Stark Tower. After years of protecting his secret identity, Spider-Man reveals his true identity to the public in a spectacular news conference. Now the world knows that he is Peter Parker.

Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four also decides to support SHRA. He, Tony, and Hank Pym (the hero formerly known as Ant-Man) build an escape proof prison in the Negative Zone (a parallel anti-matter universe discovered by Reed years before) to hold all the new meta-humans that they hope to arrest. Ben Grimm decides to remain neutral and leaves the country for a while. Sue Richards, after much deliberation, decides to come out on the opposite side of the issue of her husband, and eventually joins the underground heroes.

Iron Man and the other pro-registration heroes, try to capture their old colleagues to force them to comply with the new law. Captain America is the underground group's leader. There are many skirmishes. In one, Bill Foster, the hero known as Black Goliath, is killed. The Black Panther, who had previously remained neutral in this fight (not wanting to get involved in a foreign countries internal dispute) now comes down on the side of the anti-SHRA heroes, having particularly liked Foster. One of the consequences for him will be the destruction of the Wakandan embassy in New York.

Spider-Man realizes he cannot continue to support the act. As much as he hates to betray Tony, who has begun to feel like a surrogate father to him, he publically pulls his support from the cause, and takes his family out of Stark Tower and goes underground. He soon joins Captain America and the resistance.

Finally, there is a big showdown between the two groups. Captain America, at last feeling the cost of this battle is too high, surrenders to stop the violence, intending to oppose the act through legal and peaceful means. Cap is assasinated by an agent of the Red Skull while in custody. It is with this new tragedy that Civil War comes to an end.