Captain America: Civil War Review - 10 Reasons It’s A Near-Perfect Comic Book Movie

10. Comic Book Storytelling On The Big Screen

When I say Civil War is a better comic book film than any of Nolan's Bat movies, that's not a slight against any of them - they were what we needed and deserved in the late naughties - but merely a comment on how the director was more interested in taking story elements from key graphic novels and realising them in the real world, rather than transplanting the ethos and style of comics onto celluloid.

And with that in mind, there is stuff in Civil War that would have quite frankly been unthinkable when The Dark Knight came out. That same year we got Iron Man, which feels quaint in comparison; the conflict amounts to the hero against Jeff Bridges in another Iron Man suit; Captain America's shield was an easter egg for obsessive fans to spot; the universe focus was a single, obvious (if still cool) scene. Having Tony Stark as one hero amongst many wasn't just impossible to wrap your head around; it felt pointless.

Civil War shows how wrong we were, realising many elements unique to comic book storytelling with overwhelming assurance. If The Avengers was the last major step forward for the superhero genre, proving that heroes could share the screen, Civil War is the next; showing that you can use these tropes to tell a fresh story with unique ideas without it being a major crossover event.

Which is impressive enough as it is before you consider that, well, this is what Marvel's been building to all along...