Marvel To Feature Civil War In New Tales To Astonish Documentary Series

At SXSW this past weekend, Marvel Comics announced a new series of original short documentaries called Tales to Astonish.The series is said to examine various Marvel Comics and discuss what the comics have to say about the real world.”So many of Marvel’s stories and characters were created by storytellers—editors, writers, pencilers—who like all great artists are often influenced by events happening in the real world,” asserts Marvel VP of Content & Programming John Cerilli on Marvel.com. “In ‘Tales to Astonish,’ we now have the opportunity to explore all of these influences and, in turn, entertain a wider swath people who may or may not have known about these things, but are interested in entertainment with really compelling narratives.”It was the perfect medium to take a comprehensive look at the impact Marvel characters and stories have had not only on the Marvel Universe, but to real world itself.”Tales to Astonish will begin by taking a look at Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s best-selling crossover event miniseries, Civil War.”[CIVIL WAR] leapt to the top of the pile when we realized that it really had everything in it that we were looking to accomplish, plus it featured two of Marvel’s biggest super heroes on opposite sides and at each other’s throats,” reveals Cerilli. “Extremely compelling stuff.””The whole concept of the super hero registration act was something that was clearly influenced by the Patriot Act that was in the news constantly while this story was being created and ultimately being published in 2006,” he continues. “Then what happened was completely unpredictable. While we started working on the documentary [with] Eric Drath of Livestar Entertainment being our chosen director for this, the NSA spying scandal broke. All of the sudden, CIVIL WAR seemed more prophetic than ever.”Marvel hasn’t yet determined what other stories they will spotlight in the future, but everything in Marvel’s history is on the table.”They will bounce around,” Cerilli says. “We will tell tales from all eras of Marvel storytelling, from the earliest Captain America comics up to the modern era. Everything Marvel is fair game.”No release date for Civil War has been given yet, but you can check out the trailer below to see what’s in store.