Civil War. We made it. Not since Secret Wars II has a crossover engulfed nearly the entire Marvel publishing line, but after the runaway success of this one, it will be the norm for several years. That’s right,almost every single mainline Marvel comic crosses over with this. Plus one-shots, miniseries, prologues and epilogues. I myself own 56 Civil War-branded books, and I barely scratched the surface, skipping major titles like Fantastic Four and Iron Man, the entire X-World, and so on. This event includes a Wolverine comic where he has all the flesh and blood burned off his bones, leaving nothing but a metal skeleton, and he regenerates from it, his healing factor being taken as far as it can. Stupidity abounds. And then the main book starts running later… and later… and filler material is commissioned on the fly to keep something on the stands, because you can’t publish the Spider-Man tie-in to issue 4 of Civil War if issue 4 of Civil War isn’t ready yet. This series is written by Mark Millar, so you could guess it sucks and is full of shock for shock’s sake, wildly out-of-character characters and a bad ending, and you would be right, of course. It is penciled by Steve McNiven, already very popular, and the biggest guy at Marvel after this. He’s joined by his usual cohort, Dexter Vines and Morry Hollowell. And while I think Civil War sucks, is a childish commentary on complex issues, and really should have been written by a professional, there’s no arguing with the numbers. It remains the best-selling event in Marvel history, and it has an impact like quite literally nothing before it, with ripples felt all over the line. None of them good! So, you know, I sure am excited to revisit this. This is not just how the first cover looks, but the official Civil War trade dress. They decided almost every comic tying in would have half a cover for the duration. I don’t know why. Strong branding is nice, but that’s a lotta wasted space. All the main series covers are wraparound. Here’s the back:
That’s the wrong Iron Man helmet. And so we begin. At this time, the New Warriors have been rebooted, and their gimmick is they fight crime on a reality show. So their superhero adventures are all recorded. And we start with them, converging on a house where 4 Raft escapees are holed up: Nitro, SpeedFreek, Cobalt Man and Coldheart. That last name is a wacky one. That’s the lady with the sword Howard Mackie and Tom Lyle introduced as a sort of anti-hero in SM 49 who never appeared in anything again… until now. We’re told all 4 of them are on the FBI’s most wanted list, which seems… highly unlikely for Coldheart, at least.
Namorita’s been through a lot since last we saw her. And there she is, Coldheart, her 2nd comic ever. Would you believe she appears in 8 more comics because of this? This random deep pull gave her an actual career for a bit.
The Warriors make short work of 3 of them, and we see the manufactured moments for their TV show. This leaves Nitro, and Namorita is in pursuit.
Tony Stark told the Illuminati that some event would happen, sooner or later, that would give the people behind the Superhuman Registration Act all they needed to pass it. The New Warriors fumbling Nitro into blowing up a school is that thing. Next, we see a 2-page spread of various bigger name heroes helping with the cleanup.
Some part of the post-House of M X-Men status quo is the government has assigned sentinels to the remaining mutants for their protection, as opposed to the usual hunting, or something like that. Which means Wolverine shouldn’t be surprised to see them, but that’s the least of the logic problems this series will present. Goliath is telling Ms. Marvel it won’t just be mutants the government hunts after this, and Carol says maybe they’re right, who could justify something like this? Weird to see Goliath in the big leagues twice lately, but as it turns out, there’s a very mercenary reason for that. Quick cut of She-Hulk supporting registration on Larry King, then we’re off to the funeral for the victims, and afterward, Tony Stark approached by someone off-panel.
They did a version of this scene in the movies. And, again, all the pro-registration arguments are “no, duh” obvious, but also nothing you’d ever want to happen in your Marvel Comics. Really a topic they should avoid, but here we are. Next, Johnny Storm meets a date at a nightclub, where an angry mob forms, smashes him over the head with a bottle and starts beating him while he’s unconscious. We have fun. Marvel Executive Editor Tom Breevort appears as a news reporter talking about it.
The Baxter Building doesn’t have a bigger room for this? They’re packed in there like sardines!
At this moment, Matt Murdock is in prison, and someone’s running around Hell’s Kitchen in a Daredevil uniform. Back in the latter days of Ann Nocenti’s sprawling run on Daredevil, she did a thing where Bullseye started wearing DD’s costume, running around killing people in it. He did a thing where he was playing with coins, much like this, and then threw them at people, killing them. That’s all I’ve ever seen when I look at that panel. Bullseye. But this isn’t Bullseye, it’ll eventually be revealed as Iron Fist. Weird choice. Meanwhile, Captain America is on a SHIELD helicarrier, where Director Hill wants to know what he thinks is going to happen.
There’s only 1 panel in this entire series where Captain America doesn’t look absolutely furious. He’s like a rabid dog.
The argument “anyone should be able to put on a mask and take the law into their own hands” is so absurd. Would you want to live in that world? We only like superheroes because we know they’re the good guys. In the real world, you wouldn’t know who any of these people really are, and in the real world, it sure wouldn’t just be good hearted, self-sacrificing people getting into the vigilante business. Captain America’s entire argument would also work as a justification of Geore Zimmerman killing Trayvon Martin. But that’s all we ever get out of him in this dumb trash. The more salient anti-registration points, like the safety of loved ones or the danger of the government getting to decide what superheroes do, are never part of his argument. He’s just arguing that you should be able to put on a mask and fight in the street. I hate this comic so much. Cap fights his way out of the helicarrier and escapes, in a sequence that would later be done 100% better in the 2nd Captain America movie, both in terms of action and motivations. In this version, he jumps on top of a fighter jet and forces it to ferry him away. Then we see the Watcher appear at the Baxter Building gathering, which Dr. Strange notes does not bode well.
And we’re off. And I have to finally make a decision about what comics to include in my re-read. For example, the New Avengers tie-ins each focus on a specific team member, and Spider-Man’s not one of them. But I kinda feel like including them, anyway. The tie-ins more or less connect to the main book to tell one giant story, and New Avengers has already been part of the blog, so… next post is probably an issue of New Avengers about Captain America. Probably.