The old registration story.
The overall theme here is one mined from several of the best comic works of the past, including :-
The Dark Knight Returns
Watchmen
Squadron Supreme
Kingdom Come
Powers
etc.
After a ludicrous superhero show decides that they can take on Captain Marvel level villains for ratings points ends up in little pieces of school children being scattered all over a block or two, the government bows to pressure to institute a registration act for superhumans, where they all work for the government.
That sounds good in theory, but the super geniuses involved, Stark and Richards have plans beyond that, although they don't go as far as the mind control techniques used in Squadron Supreme or kingdom come.
Super-gulags, clones, cyborgs, created armies, hit squads, etc., though, sure, no problem.
The interesting part is that it hinges on Captain America, a patriotic symbol for Americans, of course, and actually used in the past as a propaganda too. Here, though, he makes the decision to lead the left wing rebel group after the new Shield director gives him too much grief.
Part of what lets it done (apart from this having been done better in the past), is the lack of the X-Men - they are kept to their own little mutant reservation, apart from the odd conversation along the lines of 'hah, not so much fun when you are saving the world and the government is out to get you, is it'?
This leaves the most interesting and popular team out in the cold, as Marvel tries to pump up the status of the Avengers, as per New Avengers etc., some more.
It is quite pretty though, artwise.
Things spiral badly out of control, of course, splitting teams, spying, and even families, in the case of the FF.
You can see these in a classic panel or two where Captain America is shown to be crazier than the Punisher, of all people, given what he has gone through.
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Civil War (Marvel Comics) Books In Print, Audio Books.