Captain America: Civil War changed everything for the MCU heroes. In the wake of the Avengers’ disastrous Lagos mission, the United Nations instituted The Sokovia Accords. With a title referencing the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, these set out a legal framework to control and regulate the activities of people with enhanced abilities.
This split the superhero community down the middle. Tony Stark, still feeling guilty over his role in creating Ultron, supported the new rules. Steve Rogers bristled against what he saw as authoritarianism, saying that agreeing to them would mean they “surrendered the right to choose”. This led to Cap becoming an outlaw, and the Sokovia Accords have since been a plot point in Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ant-Man and the Wasp, WandaVision, Ms Marvel and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (among many others).
But now, as of She-Hulk Attorney at Law episode 8, they’re history. When defending his client from a legal inquiry into his superhero customers, Matt Murdock casually said, “May I remind you that the Sokovia Accords have been repealed”.
The relaxation of rules governing superhero activity may tie into the upcoming Thunderbolts, as if the government is putting together a covert superhero team of their own, they’d see the Accords as a potential hurdle. On a broader level, the removal of the Accords allows other heroes to operate more openly, which we imagine would be very relevant to Matt Murdock’s nighttime activities.
Either way, this was a plot point that had long run its course, so we’re happy to see that MCU has shuffled the Sokovia Accords into the trash can of history.
