16 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About Captain America: Civil War
15. There Aren't Enough Characters For A "War"
In the comics, the central Civil War takes in a significant number of characters aside from the Avengers themselves. The registration act and its aftermath have serious impacts on the X-Men and The Fantastic Four (even if the former group choose to sit on the fence), and the government brings in Marvel villains - including some of Spider-Man's foes - to help round up the anti-reg heroes.
At the minute, because of rights issues and the lack of pre-existing, compelling villains (other than Crossbones), there's precious little resources to call upon to actually live up to the "War" billed in the title. If anything, it's going to be a bar fight, even if they bring in some of the Phase 3 characters early to align themselves to either Cap or Iron Man.
And if that's the case, what stakes are there for those characters? They all clearly emerge unharmed, because they have their own films upcoming.
It just feels like the MCU isn't yet established enough to tackle something that should have united a lot of characters (including the TV properties) to pick sides. That would have done justice to the event status.