'Picking up where the blockbuster hit Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, Captain America: Civil War sees Steve Rogers leading the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. Filled with exclusive concept art, production stills, and commentary from cast and crew, this book is a prize for any fan.
'Here is everything you need to know about the making of the movie from all the key players—including returning directors Anthony and Joe Russo, and producer Kevin Feige, along with all the talented special-effects gurus, concept illustrators, visual-effects designers, and storyboard artists who worked on the set and behind the scenes to create the art of Captain America: Civil War.'
Civil War was a divisive event at Marvel Comics. It was a headline, universe spanning initiative that appeared in most of the books being published, and even derailed a lot of stories, changing the way characters interacted with the world and the projection of their planned stories. Add onto that, there were fans who felt that certain characters were handled poorly, or had their personalities and character changed to fit with the plot that they barely felt like who they were supposed to be. As such, when it was announced that the MCU would be doing their own version of the story there were many fans, myself included, who saw this as an attempt to right some of those wrongs, and to craft a much better version than the source material.
The MCU benefitted from having a smaller world, and a smaller pool of characters to draw from, and as such were able to create a much tighter story. It also helped that they pushed the Registration Act/the Sokovia Accords to the side and made a more personal story the key reason for its two leads, Captain America and Iron-Man, come into conflict. Titan Book's latest entry in the Marvel Studio's Infinity Saga art book series goes into the making of the movie, showing readers how this iconic story was adapted to the big screen.
As with previous releases, this one breaks things down into nicely sized chapters that take readers through the film in chronological order after a brief introduction that discusses the comic inspiration for the film. The first chapter is 'Showdown in Lagos' and deals with the opening sequence of the film, as well as some costume changes for some of our returning heroes. Beginning with the titular hero, we get some designs for the new Captain America costume, alongside an abandoned concept of a more undercover look that honestly fits the secret agent vibe that Cap has at times that would have been pretty cool to see on the screen.
This chapter also shows off the new looks for the other new Avengers members teased at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, giving us new looks for Falcon that want to try to be as realistic as possible but also convey some of his comic book roots, and the small tweaks to Black Widow, whose design had mostly been fairly unchanging since her introduction in Ironman 2. The character who seems to have gone through the most design changes since their last appearance, however, is Scarlet Witch, whose new costume as seen at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron gets abandoned for a more realistic outfit. It's a shame to hear that the Russo brothers wanted to scale back her look and make it more 'grounded' as out of the returning cast she seems to be the one who lost out the most; and even the few rejected designs here that feature her headband look much better than what we got on screen.
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| ©2025 MARVEL |
We also get several pages dedicated to the Crossbones, the new villainous identity for a supporting character from the previous Captain America film. It's interesting to see how the film toyed with giving him a more grounded design, with the white cross that's painted on his chest almost being made with straps and suit components. I like that the film went with the look they did, as it's the much better design, though some of the helmets in the concept art push the skull motif more than what we ended up with, and had a much creepier result. The chapter rounds out with several pages of concept art for the fight that happens in Laos, designs for the lab equipment, and the tragic final moments.
The second chapter is 'The Sokovia Accords', and deals with some of the more mundane designs in the book, focusing on the Avengers compound. Despite being home to a group of fantastical people, their facility is fairly normal, and we get artwork showing us the look of their conference room, offices, and kitchen. There's a two page spread that shows some costume designs for Vision's civilian attire that remind you that it's about super heroes, but for the most part it's one of the most grounded chapters in the book, and whilst interesting will likely be the section most people revisit the least.
Much more interesting in comparison is chapter three, 'Cat and Mouse', which deals with two of the more important supporting characters, Bucky Barnes, and the newly introduced Black Panther. Both of them get several pages given over to their new designs, with the main focus on Bucky being his civilian attire, making sure that he's able to blend in, but able to quickly stand out with the removal of his left sleeve. It's interesting to see how much work actually goes into making 'man with a metal arm' works, as there's definitely a few ways of doing that that end up looking a bit less serious than it should. There's much more attention given over to the look of Black Panther, who was newly added to the MCU with this film, I was hoping that we'd get more designs for him, perhaps ones that showed off some of his more unusual looks from the comics, but it seems that the film had a pretty clear idea of the kind of look they wanted for him, and focused instead on how to make his suit feel real, rather than the look of the suit itself.
Most of the third chapter is given over to the extensive chase sequence that takes place in this part of the film, going from an apartment building to rooftops, and then to a vehicle chase. The sequence gets broken down into a lot of detail here, and the book shows off a number of storyboards that showcase how each moment has to be carefully planned out and crafted, even down to the angle of the shot. Whilst interesting in its own right, when read in conjunction with watching the scene it becomes a lot more interesting as you're able to see just how the art was translated onto the screen, able to follow the moments along and comparing the two pieces.
The fourth chapter, 'Mind Games', is similar to the second in that it deals more with environmental design, this time covering the facility where a captured Bucky and Captain America are taken to following their daring escape attempt. More interesting than the Avengers compound, this chapter at least goes into more detail as it shows off designs for the cell that holds Bucky, the machines used to try to subdue his enhanced body, and a storyboard of Hawkeye fighting Vision to break Scarlet Witch out of custody which was much bigger and more intricate in the initial plans.
The fifth chapter is probably the one most people reading the book will be eager to get to, 'Civil War'. The chapter opens by rounding out the character designs for those who've not yet had it, including Ant-Man and Hawkeye. Little gets changed for most of the characters, though there are a few designs for Hawkeye that draw more heavily from his Ultimates look that feel a bit like a misstep, so I'm glad we didn't end up going that route. After these character pages, we get a couple dozen pages of gorgeous two page spreads showcasing various artists concepts for the airport fight.
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| ©2025 MARVEL |
It's interesting to see these segments as they show off that early stages of the script hadn't finalised which size heroes would be on, so there are some match-up's here that never make it to the final movie, such as Ant-Man fighting Hawkeye, Captain America fighting Ant-Man, and Vision fighting Ironman. Whilst the content of the images don't always line up with the final movie the feel of them certainly does, and it feels like the art team were having a lot of fun coming up with concepts for the iconic battle. This is also the only chapter to feature any art of Spider-Man, with him appearing on about five images fighting other characters. I understand that there are certain rights issues surrounding the character that likely lead to him only being able to be used sparingly here, but it's a shame that we didn't get better looks at costume designs as we did the others.
Chapter six, 'Original Sins', takes us to the final stages of the film, and includes designs for the super soldier facility, as well as the clearest looks at the group of super soldiers that we have; certainly more than we see in the final film. It's nice to see more details like this, as this part of the film felt a little light on details when it actually came to watching it, so seeing how the place worked and what the super soldiers were like here certainly feels like it fills in a number of gaps for me. The latter half of the chapter focuses on the fight between Cap, Bucky, and Ironman, and much like the airport fight art, seems to be concerned more with finding the right kind of tone and style for the scene, rather than necessarily trying to depict moments that would end up in the final product.
The final chapter deals with the marketing for the film, and there are some interesting looks at how the artwork for the films advertisement gets broken down and crafted stage by stage.
As with other releases in the series there are things that I really loved about this book, such as seeing the various costume designs, and artwork that shows us the way the team tried to craft a tone rather than detail. However, there are moments that are a little less exciting to read, such as seeing how the Avengers kitchen were designed. I've notices with this series that the titles that deal with the more grounded movies will have these ups and downs as they have to convey both the normality of this universe, as well as the fantastical qualities; and whilst this might not be to everyone's tastes it certainly doesn't detract from the overall quality of the book.
For those who are collecting this series this marks a fantastic addition to the collection, and for those who haven't picked one of these books up before but are tempted by this one I think that there's certainly enough here to grab your attention and make you interested in reading more.
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