8 Ways Captain America: Civil War Shows Marvel Have Learnt From Their Mistakes

1. The "Where Are The Avengers?" Problem Is Solved

Why don't The Avengers step in when the President's kidnapped? Do Earth's Mightiest Heroes not notice the entire universe is about to destroy itself over London? Surely S.H.I.E.L.D. being infiltrated by Hydra wasn't something to be just left to Cap? The question of why the standalone movies of Phase 2 were standalones was so ubiquitous that it even got a meta-reference in Ant-Man. To their credit, Marvel did throw in lines of explanation or otherwise craft scenarios where you could excuse it, but it was always a niggling problem in otherwise tightly constructed films.

Civil War directly addressed that by having most of the team turn up in what was essentially Captain America 3, immediately making the "solo" films as a part of the shared world as the team-ups and showing Marvel aren't going to stick to the well worn release formula (for all the successes of the films it contained, Phase 2 was basically Phase 1.5).

In fact, making every movie a major event looks to be the real push with Phase 3 - you have a bigger Guardians, a Hulk-Thor team-up, fresh outings for Spidey and Black Panther, Captain Marvel's debut, Ant-Man going double-act and, of course, the culminative Avengers. Here's hoping Captain America: Civil War is just the start of something special.

What do you think of the MCU's future after Captain America: Civil War? Share you thoughts all down in the comments.