Interlude time yet again. I thought I’d put it between the 2 other Spidey series. Throughout Civil War, what Cap and Iron Man were doing in their own titles seems like it would be required reading. If you really wanted to know what the leaders in this debacle were thinking, where better to look than their own comics? But, as we’ve seen, the Cap ones didn’t give you much of Cap’s perspective aside from his chat with Sharon, Brubaker presumably just trying to stay out of the way. And Iron Man? Iron Man only had 2 tie-ins, and they both came out between Civil War 4 & 5. So, if you wanted Tony’s take, well, you were getting it from ASM, and that’s no place to get a read on that character. So, now, let’s see what his 2 tie-ins are like, then take a look at a couple more one-shots. Much like FF, I wasn’t reading Iron Man during this. I bailed on FF after Waid/Wieringo did the same. Their run was long and an all-time great, I couldn’t imagine anyone doing better, especially when they were to be followed by Mark Millar. I skimmed his run years later, when digital was easy, and felt good about my choices. As for Iron Man, Warren Ellis and Adi Granov totally redefined him in their 6-issue “Extremis” story, but then both of them left the title, replaced by writers I’d never heard of (From TV, of course) and mediocre artists (Sorry). I read Extremis in trade and felt no need to be buying Iron Man, a title, I’d sampled little of in the course of my comics collecting life. It’s funny what an inessential character Iron Man was before 2008. Always important as an Avenger, but on his own? His book was never required reading. Sometimes it was really good… The fabled David Michelinie/Bob Layton/John Romita, Jr. run, for instance… but never essential. I bought a smattering of Romita’s brief return in the 90s, then tried Iron Man during Heroes Reborn (Bad), and Heroes Return, as it was Kurt Busiek at the helm (As we saw in IM 21), and he was reliably great. But even he couldn’t get me to care much about Iron Man. And, honestly, that’s kinda continued, even after he became the cornerstone of the movies. I buy two runs of Iron Man between 1998 and today, and the first one’s comin’ up a year or so after Civil War. And Spider-Man’s in it a little, so we’ll see. But, thanks to the magic of digital, I can see what these tie-ins were like now.
The 2 writers I’d never heard of are Daniel Knauf, then of TV’s Carnival, among others, and his son Charles. Art is handled by Patrick Zircher, Scott Hanna and GURU eFX. Zircher is sort of a perpetual also-ran, never doing unappealing work, but never really becoming a big name, either. These days he’s one of the guys tracing 3D models, and that’s never good news, but in 2005, he draws. And what he’s drawing here is Tony Stark narrating a public service annoucement about the Stamford disaster. This takes place before Civil War 5, so meanwhile, Spider-Man, She-Hulk and Doc Samson are fighting… some kinda big cyborg monster or something and asking him where he is via comlink.
Iron Man manages to take down whatever that is while Tony is still narrating. Multitasking! When he’s done narrating, Tony, Happy & Pepper leave the studio…
That conversation references the Extremis storyline, very, very loosely adapted in Iron Man 3. Tony as head of SHIELD, eh? Well, now we’re in Sweden, with Dr. Karim Mahwash Najeed, Chairman of the World Islamic Peace Coalition who, despite his name and title, looks exactly like Reed Richards. Even if the colorist had given him an olive complexion, he still wouldn’t look particularly like a “Karim Najeed.” Very strange. He’s being interviewed about his work to broker peace in the Middle East when he gets a phone call from a shady seeming operative searching for someone. They decide to hire classic Iron Man villain Spymaster to help in their search. Who knows what any of that’s about. Meanwhile, Tony is hanging out with Dr. Sal Kennedy and Dr. Maya Hansen (Who made it into Iron Man 3), two old friend we’d never seen before who appeared in the Extremis story, and who I didn’t know appeared in any comics after it.
Doubt. Worry. Human emotion. A far cry from JMS’s scheming supervillain. Pretty much as I expected. Iron Man simply can’t be the mwu ha ha bad guy of this event, it’s not good for Marvel’s business. Tony is slipping into a funk about the whole thing, becoming withdrawn until Happy comes to fetch him.
Happy’s appraisal of Tony’s position in the superhero community is, uh, not one I’d make. “You, super genius rich person, are the only one who’s one of us and one of them.” You’re not “one of us” if you’re so rich you could bankroll the Avengers as a lark for all these years. Well, next page, Happy’s alone at the airport, telling Pepper about Tony on the phone, when he’s attacked and brutally beaten by Spymaster, who makes sure Pepper hears what’s happening, tells Happy he’s going for her next, and leaves him for dead. Yikes! Happy’s been in and out of Iron Man since the beginning, originally the Foggy Nelson to Tony’s Matt Murdock. That’s a big cliffhanger for the Iron Man reader.
This month, Tony’s in Avengers Tower, meeting with the motley crew of Mariah Hill, Reed Richards, Ms. Marvel, Radioactive Man and Bishop, of all people, and they’ve just figured out that Cap’s team has been able to evade them so long in part because they’re using ancient analog communications that they can’t track very well. Reed thinks he can decode it and start listening it. Then we move to the new superhuman training grounds in Virginia, where Stature and Araña (Don’t ask) are training with Batroc of all people under Wonder Man’s supervision. Then he’sa t the “Criminal Rehab Unit” of the Commission on SuperHuman Activities with Thunderbolts leader Baron Zemo. Yes, that Baron Zemo. Then he’s at the hospital.
He knows because Extremis lets him tap into basically any digital tech, and he’s monitoring Happy himself. Pepper tells a story of (former boxer) Happy taking her to a place where old boxers hang out, and how one of them was mentally damaged from being hit too much, and Happy made her promise he’d never end up like that, and then she more or less asks Tony to pull the plug on him. Which is wild. When he refuses, she leaves. And he goes to an electronics store and buys what he needs to cobble together a way to call Captain America, violating his own order that no one let the resistance know they’ve figure out their comms, telling Steve they need to talk.
He wants to know if Cap had anything to do with Happy. Of course he didn’t, sheesh. Then he asks of the Punisher did it, which, again… Was Happy shot in the face? Punisher has pretty well defined methods. Then the resistance shows up and attacks Tony, maybe without Cap’s knowledge? And they now include Spider-Man in their ranks, so we’ve moved past Civil War 5.
Never a fan of people doing stuff like this with the Spider Sense. Hey, what just happened? Was that just an excuse to get a fight scene in this comic? Why did any of that occur? Well, who knows, I guess. Later, Tony’s so down he pours himself a drink. The spectre of his alcoholism is always brought up in moments like this. Then the blue captions that’ve been narrating this issue are revealed to belong to Sue Storm, shadowing Tony invisibly, hoping to catch him alone. Which doesn’t fly for me at all, both that she was able to go so many places with him and that Mr. “I made my own Spider Sense” didn’t know she was there. She accuses him of manipulating Reed into all this and then slaps him and yells that he destroyed their marriage. So dramatic!
Did Tony just kill Happy? Good grief! What a happy fun time we’re having! I don’t feel too bad about not buying this series. But, there you go. Tony’s mental state via his own writers, for a change. Next up, we have Winter Soldier: Winter Kills.
Bucky’s return was still relatively new in this moment. About a year since his first arc in Cap. He was very much a Captain America character. Like Venom at first, he was instantly popular, but used with restraint. This was his first starring thing ever. Ed Brubaker’s still the only person who’s written him. Here, he’s joined by the great Lee Weeks, back on the blog again. Weeks is inked by Stefano Gaudiano & Rick Hoberg, with colors by Matt Milla, who was just everywhere at this time. It opens with a flashback to Christmas Eve, 1944, Bucky and the Human Torch’s sidekick Toro going to a celebratory dance in London. We see Cap & the Torch too busy to attend, and Namor going to a different celebration, so Bucky & Toro are on their own.
Bucky’s return allowed Brubaker to try a very different take on the well-trod Captain America “man out of time” thing. That Torch/Namor fight is a major comic from the 40s, one of the few from back then that’s been repeatedly referenced in the modern era, where Namor flooded New York. Bucky rides the subway, laments the state of things, and wishes it was 1944 again until Fury contacts him and says it’s time to do him a favor. But, surprisingly to me at the time, Bucky’s not the only star of this book:
As I mentioned before, the Young Avengers were a solid hit, and people were looking for more of them. Their minor roles in the main Civil War book weren’t much, and their tie-in mini looked unappealing enough that I didn’t buy it, but here the anti-members of the team are. So that was cool.
Fury wants that base intact so he can monitor who goes in and out, something he says is about to pay off. So Bucky has to go confront the kids. The original Young Avenger from before there were even Avengers vs. the new kids. A nice setup. And here, in the midst of Civil War, we get an actual, classic “heroes fight over a misunderstanding” for a couple of pages, Bucky keeping the kids on the defensive but trying not to hurt them until he drops Nick Fury’s name and gets them to stop fighting him for a minute.
Great stuff from Weeks. Bucky’s so new on the scene that the kids don’t know who he is yet, and they’re adamant they won’t kill anybody, but they decide to help him blow the place up, at least. So, the lot of them make with the thrilling heroics, Bucky thinking they are pretty good, and soon…
Bucky’s off into the night to visit the grave of Jack Monroe, aka Nomad, fka the Bucky of the 1950s, who was killed by the Winter Soldier in his first story. Now free of all that, Bucky wants to pay his respects. He didn’t know Jack, but is sorry he killed him, and also sorry Jack’s life was so messed up from spending it trying to be like Bucky. But his reverie is interrupted with the kids arrive. Bucky can’t believe they followed him without him knowing, but he didn’t count on the ethereal Vision. Who has figured out who he is and told the kids, who apologize for intruding, but Patriot says they know who he is.
Then we flashback to 1944 again, as Bucky forces Toro to go talk to a girl he’s been pining for, and they dance. And then Cap comes down, deciding to take the night off after all.
Then, back in the present, Namor arrives. This is the favor Nick was calling in earlier. I don’t remember what Jim Hammond’s deal is in this moment, but Namor might be the only person Bucky knew besides Cap who’s still alive. After some pleasantries…
Obviously, there wasn’t much reason to cover this. But as Bucky crept into our previous interlude, and we saw the Young Avengers a little, I thought, why not? It’s a good issue. Brubaker was really on fire in this Cap run. Finally, it’s time for Civil War: Casualties of War, a desperate attempt to fill shelf space as the main title fell off the racks.
But you can’t have randos come in and do something of substance with these characters in such a pivotal moment, so it’s totally filler. Not a great place to be for Marvel. But, you know, their decision to stand by their creative team is pretty cool, actually. Any time before the 2000s, Civil War 4-7 would’ve been drawn by a hastily assembled list of whoever was available, most likely with a couple pages each by Steve McNiven. They would’ve made deadlines, but would Civil War be the best selling collection they’ve ever made 20 years later? I’d guess not. I don’t know who was to blame for the blown deadlines, Millar, McNiven, or both, but the decision to wait them out only hurt Marvel for 8 months, and the sales of that trade certainly outweigh that. But, that means we’re looking at this filler comic. And I hate to be mean, I think I’ve said this before, and I legit hate to be mean, but if it’s gonna be a filler comic, it’s gonna be written by Christos Gage. I don’t think that’s a commentary on him as a person. Except maybe a commentary on Marvel trusting him to turn things around very quickly without them being terrible. He is joined by penciler Jeremy Haun and regular Civil War finishers Mark Morales and Morry Hollowell, which is nice for them. A paycheck while they wait for their more famous coworkers to get it together. This came in 2 covers by Jim Cheung, each showing your preferred guy winning the fight. I don’t remember if I picked this one on purpose or it’s just what my comic shop held for me. I think I probably would’ve preferred a cool picture of Cap, but who really cares? We set our scene at Avengers Mansion, what’s left of it, as Captain America warily sneaks inside to find Iron Man sitting at a table, saying “Glad you could make it.”
If Tony could get ahold of Cap like this, why’d he build that gizmo in Iron Man 14? Answer: Too many connected comics to manage properly. That little flashback to Civil War 3 is basically how this comic works. Next page, Tony compares their situation to the 80s Iron Man story Armor Wars, which found IM and Cap at odds. That time, Tony was the one breaking the law, trying to steal or destroy any of his tech that had fallen into the wrong hands, and Steve (As “The Captain,” when John Walker was Cap) was stopping him. But talking about that doesn’t get them anywhere. Tony tries to apologize for Bill, but Steve won’t hear it. Then Tony asks if Steve remembers him coming through this wall, and Steve smiles.
This flashback is to Tales of Suspense 56. A handy guide to all the flashbacks is in the back of the book. What can you do when you can’t do anything? A clip show. Tony tries to use the death of Gwen Stacy as an argument for training heroes, Cap counters with the murders of Hector Ayala’s family (In TAC 58) and USAgent’s parents when their identities were made public. Tony says no one has to go public if they don’t want to, Cap lists a bunch of villains who can hack a database. Cap references becoming first Nomad and then The Captain when he couldn’t follow orders, and cites the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII.
Tony talks about getting in a pointless fight with Machine Man when he was off the wagon (In the famous 80s material that made him an alcoholic). How he almost killed 2 of his employees, saved by Machine Man himself. Cap says he doesn’t think registration would’ve stopped that, but Tony says while it can’t stop every tragedy, it can provide accountability. Cap counters they’ve always policed their own with the example of when Hank slapped Janet and ended up in jail, and Tony notes Hank is on his side. Cap offers times he and Iron Man were both framed for murder, and wonders what happens if someone had been policing them (Booooo to that argument!). Tony says police and firefighters are regulated, Cap says superheroes are bigger targets.
Tony argues that not nearly so many people would be resisting if not for Cap. They spar over what’s happened to Spider-Man. Cap says Tony’s a good person, but has always acted in his own best interests, and offers some pretty damning examples from the past, including bringing it back to Armor Wars when Tony incapacitated Cap to destroy the Guardsmen’s armor from the Vault.
When more arguing doesn’t get them anywhere, Tony asks if Steve knows what the alternatives to registration were, because he saw them. He mentions Project Wideawake, a thing from X-Men which would have seen sentinels hunting all mutants in the US, and mutants getting neural implants to remove their powers, and how that would’ve been applied to all powered people. Cap says they would’ve stopped it. Tony says that’s what he’s trying to do.
So Tony drops his armor, and Steve drops his shield, and the two dummies start beatin’ on each other, and this leads to a flashback of Tony Stark first asking Cap to train him in hand-to-hand combat, and then it cuts back and forth between Cap training Tony and the two of them using the moves he learned against each other.
Tragic and such. If only they didn’t find themselves trapped in such a stupid story this time. Well, there you go. Filler, but well done filler.