Facing down this event, I originally thought about reading through it, and then chopping it up and trying to cover the events in real time. Like, I coulda chopped up ASM 535 and FF 541 and merged them. But that woulda been a lot harder. Still seems like an interesting approach to one of these, tho. It would’ve been cool if Marvel collected the event in a huge book that way, going scene by scene to make Civil War and its tie-ins present in chronological order. But, then, that would’ve only magnified the continuity errors. Tony saying “This is permanent!” only a few pages away from saying “This is temporary!” in one volume. Maybe they could’ve edited for things like that. But probably not, because after a page of 2 random dudes at a hot dog cart discussing the musical Wicked (A whole page!) Spider-Man comes smashing to the ground, having been punched into a crater by a pursuing Iron Man, despite what was shown in Civil War 5. You just kinda gotta throw up your hands. And that’s what Spider-Man does, standing up and belting Tony.
Indeed, buddy, you really screwed the pooch on this one. Well, this is when things completely fall apart. Cooooompletely. Because on the page turn, we jump ahead to material that is meant to be happening during Civil War 6…. Somehow, with a footnote saying to “Pick up Civil War #5 & 6 to fill in the gap!” Which, first, incredibly lame to the ASM reader, and 2nd, makes this impossible to place. Civil War 6 ends on a cliffhanger. And guess what? There’s 6 issues of SSM and FNSM that preposterously take place during Civil War 6, also. And Spider-Man is prominently featured in that book, there’s no chance for him to slip away and do all these things. I mean come on. Suffice to to say he’s recovered from his beating at the hands of those jobbers and goes to see MJ & May.
So… the idea here is Peter & MJ’s finances wouldn’t be frozen? That no one is watching the school he APPARENTLY still teaches at, in theory, despite being a fugitive? Come on, man.
Good luck with that! Next, Peter spends an absolutely insane 3 pages having an imaginary conversation with his teenage self out on the playground, and if that kind of filler sounds egregious, believe me, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Well, then, Peter has just checked his family into a fleabag motel, and they meet up and move in. May tells Peter she grabbed him something before she left Avengers Tower.
And despite everything, it’s actually kinda thrilling to see the red & blues again. I can’t speak for Garney, but I sure would’ve been glad to get back to the real suit after the stupid Iron Spider. Poor Ron… Well, Spider-Man winda up in a TV news studio, saying into the camera that he wants to confess that he made a mistake.
“It was putting on a mask and beating up whoever you wanted that made this the greatest nation in history!” I don’t even feel like unpacking it. Spidey’s in trouble now. Well, I have 6 issues of SSM and FNSM featuring him in the red & blues. And like I said, Civil War 6 leads right into Civil War 7, so… I guess they go here. Or, more likely, nowhere, but… here they will go.