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The Sokovia Accords broke up the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, but they’re all but forgotten in the current MCU.
While there are some serious contenders, we don’t know what the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next Avengers-level threat will be. However, while fans wait for the team to re-assemble, Marvel Studios is setting up its next ambitious crossover by introducing its new generation of heroes.
The world that potential new Avengers like Shang-Chi enter is defined by Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, with the aftermath of the Snap and the Blip forming the cornerstone of Phase Four. But one major event the MCU has moved beyond is what divided the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War — the game-changing Sokovia Accords. That may be surprising, given how consequential the stakes seemed at the time, but there’s good reason for it.
An agreement signed by 117 nations to regulate the activities of enhanced beings, the Sokovia Accords been referenced only once so far in Phase Four, on WandaVision, when FBI Agent Jimmy Woo pointed out that S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward’s attempt to reactivate Vision violated them. Conspicuously absent was any mention of Wanda Maximoff as the reason the accords were drafted in the first place.
The Sokovia Accords should have had huge consequences for many of the characters active so far in Phase Four. Two heroes who sided with Captain America, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, almost certainly violated the accords when they freed Baron Zemo, fought John Walker, and partnered with fugitive Sharon Carter, who’s also Power Broker, the criminal ruler of Madripoor. All of that flagrantly violates the accords’ mandate that superheroes act only with government approval.
Sam Wilson taking up the mantle of Captain America at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in the wake of John Walker’s disgrace might explain how he evaded the consequences of the accord. His, and Bucky Barnes’, involvement in saving members of the Global Repatriation Council might have also helped get them off the hook. Two other Phase Four characters didn’t have that going for them, however.
Clint Barton reluctantly ended his retirement to team up with Kate Bishop in Hawkeye. Their public battle with the Tracksuit Mafia and the Kingpin surely made waves with law enforcement (outside of the LARPer community), including government bodies monitoring superhero activity. An Avenger fighting gangsters at Rockefeller Center shouldn’t have been something he could wave off by retiring again and passing his mantle to Kate, who would also be subject to questioning by authorities.
The aftermath of Spider-Man’s battle with Mysterio had serious consequences, for Peter Parker and the MCU’s multiverse. They should have included him being prosecuted for breaking the accords, and causing an international incident, by a group with more power than Damage Control. While Matt Murdock may be a really good lawyer, even he wouldn’t be able to talk Peter Parker out of a trip to the Raft.
There are two ways to explain the lack of teeth to the Sokovia Accords in Phase Four. One is in a compelling in-universe reason that they simply fell to the wayside: Thanos’ invasion of Earth, and the catastrophic effects of the Snap, left the world’s governments with far greater concerns that monitoring what few superheroes remained.
The return of half of the Earth’s population following the Blip gave governments another priority higher than policing superheroes, even though Wanda and Hawkeye’s misadventures make good arguments for the accords. With resources taxed by trying to reintegrate people who were dusted yy Thanos, the world’s governments will have to leave policing superhumans like Wanda to Doctor Strange.
The other reason the accords have fallen by the wayside is that they already served their purpose on a storytelling level. While Civil War was a huge event that set up years of stories in the comics, it wound up having far less significance to the MCU than Thanos’ quest for the Infinity Stones. Splitting the Avengers in half made them more vulnerable to his invasion, which was reason enough to adapt the story’s central conflict, even if it didn’t have the comic’s impact.
It’s likely the next incarnation of the Avengers will face government pushback, which could include conflict with the Dark Avengers. The Sokovia Accords might be used to justify that conflict. Its utility as a plot device means it could still be an important part of the MCU in the future. Its origin as a bureaucratic solution to superhero collateral damage explains why it hasn’t remained a central part of the franchise in a post-Thanos world. At the end of the day, no one needs to see superheroes battling red tape.
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