Marvel's Civil War was a landmark event for superhero comics in the 2000s and has become one of the most influential crossover events in recent years. The battle between heroes over the superhero registration act would change the Marvel universe forever and also set the tone for Iron Man and Captain America's future relationship. But despite its influence, the first Civil War was criticized by some for its lopsided portrayal of the conflict between heroes. Almost 14 years later and Marvel is redoing Civil War yet again and this time, they managed to fix the original story's biggest mistake.
Outlawed, 2020's successor to Civil War, begins in an eerily similar manner to the original conflict. When The Champions are involved in an explosive incident at a school that puts Ms. Marvel in a coma, it prompts new legislation to be passed targeting superheroes. But unlike the original Civil War this conflict is all about teen superheroes specifically, applying the first conflict's debate on liberty vs. security to the question of underage heroes who are put in danger by their own acts of heroism. By choosing to focus on just teen superheroes, Outlawed benefits from having more focus than Civil War, a comic where the full details of the Superhero Registration Act are never fully spelled out for the reader.
But the main reason why Outlawed succeeded so far while Civil War stumbled lies in the way the comic has treated its antagonists. The first Civil War claimed to be a neutral debate between opposing sides but in practice, it portrayed Iron Man as an unambiguous villain while still trying to claim his side had good points to make. The villains of Outlawed fixes this problem. Instead of having a war between heroes with different ideologies Outlawed instead pits its teenage heroes against C.R.A.D.L.E, a government task force that is tasked with monitoring and arresting teen heroes like Miles Morales and Kamala Khan. C.R.A.D.L.E works to the benefit of Outlawed's story because they are clearly made out to be the antagonists.
Civil War tried to present an equal debate on superhero ideals in order to metaphorically talk about real-life debate on the war on terror. But in doing so the comic makes the mistake of having Iron Man act too much like a villain while still trying to make him sympathetic. This confused the narrative of the story where the reader is told that Iron Man has some sort of point but his actions show him as evil - the same thing can be said about Captain Marvel in Civil War II. Outlawed, on the other hand, understands that you can have antagonists like C.R.A.D.L.E who have a point without pretending they're also good guys. This point is made explicit in the pages of The Magnificent Ms. Marvel, where C.R.A.D.L.E is treated as an occupying force and protested by civilians in a similar manner to real-life protests against police brutality.
While Civil War went on to become one of Marvel's most popular crossover events the comic was not without its flaws and the central debate of the story did not age well in the current year. But it is because of Civil War that newer comics like Outlawed have been able to fix the mistakes of their predecessors and showcase a more nuanced take on superhero laws that doesn't complicate its own message by saying the villains might actually be right.
