What If...Civil War Had Been Written By Folks Who Understood The Characters?

In Iron Man/Captain America '98, Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern (plot) and Mark Waid (script) set up the following situation:

After thwarting a plot by Mentallo to take over every mind on Earth by using his telepathy and the "World Wide Web" (hey, it was 1998), Tony Stark takes advantage of the failed plot to...

So, he erases knowledge of his secret ID from every mind on Earth.

Captain America, however, is not pleased:



Well, they bicker back and forth throughout the entire annual about freedom and civil rights and such, while battling A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.K., until Cap is forced to make a similar decision vis-a-vis giving a group their freedom of choice or letting them die (long story):


So, tough decisions are made, bad guys are thwarted. And the result of Iron Man and Cap's contentious political debate over rights and freedom is a 7-issue miniseries with long battles, heroes murdering other heroes, and heroes acting out of character, right?

Uh...no:





5 panels?? They put their differences aside, decided they were "on the same side," shook hands--in just 5 panels?!? No protracted event?? No "this changes everything" series? No 11-issue companion series to show how this affected everyone else in the Marvel Universe?? No decompression, no attempt to milk us for as much money as possible?

Geez, Busiek, Stern and Waid...no wonder you're not "Marvel Architects."