ASM 530

Still don’t like the suit, but Garney draws such a good Spider-Man, I don’t think anyone could do a better job selling it. Unfortunately for us, he doesn’t draw this issue, or the next one. I guess they wanted him fresh for the big event. And he took the whole team with him. In their stead, we have Tyler Kirkham, Jay Leisten and John Starr. Kirkham came up through the stupid “girly mag version of Grim’s Fairytales” line of books from Zenoscope. Not really his fault he came from such an odious place, but he never seemed to find much purchase in the mainstream.

That footnote sending you to New Avengers: The Illuminati is worth mentioning. In that book (By Bendis & Maleev), we saw the Illuminati’s first meeting, at Black Panther’s home, wherein he told them it was a bad idea to make a secret superhero leader club and it would blow up in their faces, and refused to join. But they did it, anyway. And then, a month ago, the Hulk destroyed Las Vegas, and the Illuminati met, and decided to shoot him into space. Because his condition can’t be cured and he’ll always be a danger. Namor bitterly dissented, almost killing Tony, then stormed off, and the remaining members… did it, anyway. And then we see the meeting last night, wherein Tony shows everyone, even Namor, who he invited, the first draft of a Superhuman Registration Act, mandating that all powered people register with the government and become members of a powered SHIELD peace keeping force, or go to prison. Tony said this will pass, one way or another, and their only option is to embrace it, to try to control and contain it, rather than fight it. Only Reed agreed with him. Namor left them to their surface business, saying to never contact him again. Dr. Strange refused. Black Bolt refused despite not being a US citizen. And so, Reed and Tony were left holding the bag. And that’s why we’re approaching an event called “Civil War.” But that’s not for another 2 months. First we gotta get through all the comics where Spider-Man was wearing this suit, but not yet in the event. Which, given the state of things, is a lot. And so, here we are.

I wasn’t reading Iron Man at this time. I’d be curious to. What with him privately supporting and publicly condemning the Registration Act in 2 comics written by other people, I wonder what his actual minders were doing. Over a page of really dumb “comedy” of 2 editors’ notes arguing about registration, they arrive in Washington, and Peter checks out the new version of his suit.

So many things here. The suit turning invisible is stupid, and as far as I know, never used. The suit looking like other suits is, as far as I know, never used, but if it can do that, why not just make it the red & blues? And then…

The suit has robot arms. 3 of them. Why not 4, for 8 limbs, like a spider? Joe Quesada said it was less predictable. It’s stupid, is what it is. The movies rightly changed it to 4, although the number I would prefer is zero. Makes him look like Doc Ock. And I won’t be the last person to notice that. As Tony & Peter head to the Senate, we see a guy in a very 90s power suit failing to get a bead on Tony and shoot him.

I skipped these issues when they came out, largely because I’d already dropped ASM and I didn’t like that new suit, but also, this is filler. Everyone knows the act is going to pass, the press for Civil War was endless. It starts in 2 months, anyone who buys comics knows it’s coming. And I have to listen to this debate? A lot of filler in the Spider-Man world lately. And more to come. But as long as we’re here…

I think the Senator’s point on the page ruins the entire thing. He’s 100% right. 100%. Registration makes sense if you’re approaching the concept of super people from a real world perspective. No one should have to live next door to a Hulk without knowing it, and Hulk shouldn’t be able to just walk away when he destroys an entire town. In the world of the Marvel Universe, it’s the only rational choice. But in the real world, no one reading comics would actually want the heroes to be registered, it would break too many things. So you create a no-win situation from out of nowhere. They try to balance this, to give the anti-registration side some leverage, but tacking on the nonsense about literally anyone with powers being forced to become a solider or go to prison. That’s bonkers, that’s obviously bad. But that’s not registration, that’s what comes after. Registration is categorically a reasonable idea, and the entire, endless Civil War story is about trying to act like there’s 2 sides to the debate. Great stuff. JMS tries to have Peter give a response:

The Senator you’re supposed to be rooting against here nails it again.

These 2 guys pretending not to be superheroes talking about this is very funny, but obviously not meant to be. Tony tells Peter he gave them way too much to use against them, but also that he spoke truth to power, and that’s good of him. Then Peter calls MJ for some comfort and is targeted by power suit guy, but then they go back in for more. We jump ahead 4 hours, to Tony pointing out that prohibition only created organized crime, and if you make powered people criminals, you don’t know where that will lead, and then they’re out of there. As they head to the car, Peter saves Tony from getting shot. Tony recognizes power suit guy as his old foe, Titanium Man, but I sure didn’t.