Marvel Studios: The Infinity Saga – The Art of Captain America: Civil War is the 12th release in the 24-book Marvel Studios: The Infinity Saga series, which is republishing previously released art books as a resized matching set. Based on the Civil War miniseries by writer Mark Millar and illustrated by Steve McNiven, this film marked the start of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which saw returning characters receive updates to their outfits and brought new characters into the fold as the Avengers assembled one more time, only this time it was to fight themselves.
Buy The Art of Captain America: Civil WarThe book opens as the movie does with the “Showdown in Lagos,” and it is revealed that “production designer Owen Paterson and directors Joe and Anthony Russo approached the world of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War with a grounded, real-world eye.” Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding, designer of Cap’s uniform since First Avenger, talks about how the tastes of the Russo brothers affected his approach and how he adapted the “iconic chain mail from the comic books into a practical design.”
The book moves through the rest of Cap’s Lagos team. “Falcon’s military tech has been replaced with Stark tech,” Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Deleeuw explains in the changes, including his Redwing drone. Costume designer Judianna Makovsky wanted to find “a blend of undercover tourist while still being chic,” for Natasha/Black Widow and Christian Cordella’s concept art tries out different styles of jackets and haircuts. Wanda/Scarlet Witch’s costume evolved from conceptual artist Andy Park’s designs to what Makovsky’s team created.
The chapter also focuses on the villains. Concept artist Rodney Fuentebella’s variations of Crossbones and his gauntlets led to Makovsky’s team fabricating the former and video production company SCPS Unlimited fabricating the latter. Although the sequence is short, the book delves into Institute for Infectious Diseases theft sequence and resulting fight.
First seen in Age of Ultron, the Avengers Compound is expanded, and for its caretaker are various plain clothes options for Vision for whom Makovsky feels has “a certain Cary Grant feeling…so [they] chose simple, classic looks that weren’t distracting but rather exemplified his personality.”
As the book progresses, readers get to see the approaches concept artists took to costumes and weaponry of Bucky Barnes / The Winter Soldier, T’Challa / Black Panther, James Rhodes / War Machine, Sharon Carter / Agent 13, Scott Lang / Ant-Man, Clint Barton / Hawkeye, and Tony Stark / Iron Man. Oddly, not much Spider-Man concept art.
“Even before the lineups for Captain America and Iron Man’s sides were finalized, the Visual Development team had begun conceptualizing moments of these iconic characters going head-to-head,” which is why the art for the Leipzig/Halle Airport Battle shown in “Civil War” differs from the movie by showing Captain America fighting Ant/Giant-Man and Vision disrupting Iron Man’s armor.
There is artwork for locations (Taskforce Headquarters, which features the Containment Chamber, the Raft, and the Hydra Base), storyboards for “The Bucharest Chase” and “Wanda Compound Breakout,” and before the book series’s traditional concluding chapter on marketing material is a focus on the monumental fight of “Iron Man vs. Cap and Bucky.”
The Art of Captain America: Civil War highlights the talented artists who helped bring this superhero epic to the silver screen by presenting some of the marvelous imagery they created. Fans of the movie will be fans of this book. There seemed to be more passages where white text is on light/white backgrounds, making it tough to read, and while the quotes are informative, the work speaks for itself.
