During a sitdown interview with Mark Millar about his comics Jupiter’s Circle and Chrononauts -- keep an eye out for the full interview soon -- IGN asked Millar about next year’s Captain America: Civil War movie. Millar wrote the Civil War comic book (with art by Steve McNiven), and while he isn’t a creative consultant to Marvel Studios like he is for Fox’s X-Men/Fantastic Four movies, he still gave us some insight on how he thinks the story would best be translated to the big screen.

What Civil War Is (And Is Not) About

But What About the Part Where Spider-Man Reveals His Secret Identity?

Can It Work Without Fox’s Marvel Characters?

“The important thing really is the Superhero Registration Act essentially. It has nothing to do with secret identities. Weirdly, people get really hung up on the whole secret identity thing. When I was writing that book, I was thinking about having the superheroes having to expose their identities and get brought under government legislation, and then I said to Marvel, "Who's got a secret identity?" and they said, “No one.” There's basically Spider-Man. Everyone, even Daredevil, had given up their secret identity at this point. I was like, alright, so I made it about something else.“What it's about is Iron Man feels anybody who is walking around with a nuclear reactor on their back or whatever should be under government control of some kind. They should be maybe working for the government the same way cops work for local government. And it's sensible when you think about it. It totally makes sense. You have a license, you make sure this guy is okay, you make sure he doesn't have a criminal record and all this kind of stuff. And it's sensible but Captain America's against it because he comes from a simpler time and he feels superheroes should be autonomous and not be involved in politics. It's an ideological argument between the two, and that's all that matters. That's what Civil War is -- it's Iron Man vs. Captain America, and they're both right, they're both good guys. Because the moment you demonize one of them, then the story loses its power. You've got to like both of these guys, they're both correct, and that's why guys we like go to either side with them, too.“People remember that because it was such a good stunt. It's a seven-issue series, which is 150 pages or something, and Spider-Man appears it it for three pages, one of which is a splash. It was such a tiny part of it. To be honest, it was just a way of boosting up our sales. We were just sitting there thinking, what can we do with Spider-Man for three pages? And that worked.”“I think if you have too many characters, it would be really confusing for that same reason -- comic fans will get it, but the regular viewers can handle maybe eight, maybe ten characters on screen. Avengers 2 almost had the problem, it was so many characters it was hard to keep up. So if you have 30 characters fighting, people are going to be lost.”

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Lady Gaga are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN