Civil War was Pretty Good
Civil War is over. After ten months, multiple delays, countless tie-ins, plot twists, and online fanboy whimpering, the most popular crossover in comicdom over the past several years has come to its conclusion. Was it satisfying? Did it live up to the enormous amounts of hype behind it? Will it really change anything in the Marvel Universe? Maybe, probably not, and most definitely. Let’s talk about it. If you haven’t read it yet, I’m going to be fast and loose with spoilers, so be warned.
First off, from a sales standpoint, Civil War has been nothing short of a gigantic success. Even if people only bought the issues to cry about how poorly they characterize Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, they’ve still flown off the shelves. Last month, Marvel owned the top five slots in the sales charts, with three of them coming from Civil War and its tie-ins. Civil War #6 held the top spot, selling more than twice as many issues as Civil War: The Return, which took slot number two. Make no mistake: I hated The Return. People have started getting into comic books again because of this series. It’s gotten tons of main-stream media coverage, and, more importantly, it’s gotten comic nerds everywhere talking. This series and nearly everything with a Civil War logo on its cover, has profited a great deal for Marvel Comics. But, there’s much more to the success of a series than sales figures, so let’s ask ourselves the real question here: Was Civil War good?
Yeah, it was.
The war ends in issue seven after Captain America sees the damage that’s being caused to New York because of this superhero infighting, and he realizes that he’s lost sight of what’s important; that is, protecting the innocent. He drops his shield and surrenders. I’ve given this ending a great deal of thought. At first, I was somewhat peeved, as I thought it was a move that didn’t line up with Captain America’s character. I figured that if Cap’s going to fight for a cause, he’s never going to give up. Before throwing a punch, he’s thought everything through to a point where he’s absolutely certain that what he’s about to fight for is entirely just and right. It’s just the way the dude is: He’s Captain America. So, how could this have happened? How could he have been wrong? I mean, the other side is guilty of murder, and they’ve been using known supervillains to help in their cause. They’re wrong, right? Wrong. Both sides are equally justified in what they’re trying to do; Iron Man just took it further than Captain America and the anti-registration group thought they’d go. Things got out of hand, and it took a strong man to say, “Enough of this fighting. Let’s just be heroes again.”
That’s really the only part of this entire series that Marvel had to knock out of the park. They had to make us believe that Captain America would surrender. My biggest complaint about this series is that they hit a homerun here, but it didn’t leave the stadium. They could’ve given that moment another page, and it would’ve been justified. Instead, it was rushed. Maybe just barely, but it was. And that’s why we’re seeing such outrageous levels of fanboy hatred spewing forth on the Internets right now. The powers to be gave every geek with a Captain America t-shirt just enough room to spew out from their cheeseburger filled mouths, “Hey, waitaminute, I know Cap better than these guys, and Cap wouldn’t do that! BLARG!” It’s really unfortunate, because if everybody would just give this a day or two to sink in, they’d realize it’s quite a touching moment, and it’s really the only satisfying conclusion that could end the war without completely throwing away the idea of registration and acting as if nothing happened. Something did happen, and its effects are going to be felt for a long time.
Think about it. Every state will have a registered superhero team to defend it. Captain America’s in jail. Iron Man’s got a long road ahead of him to regain the respect of the superhero community. Spider-Man’s unmasked. Goliath’s dead. The Fantastic Four is splintered. The Punisher’s got Cap’s mask. Every superhero’s secret identity is fully known to S.H.I.E.L.D, and, more importantly, its new director, Tony Stark.
DC advertised that Infinite Crisis would change everything. Civil War actually has.
Great blog.
I was pretty disappointed with issue #7. I actually re-read it because I was like “I must have missed something.” But for all its faults, this blog nails the important part.
Want to know a crap issue? The new Amazing Spider-Man. I never buy that comic but I figured hey, something big is going to happen.
That book might as well be called “Civil War #7’s annoying worthless little buddy.” All it did was piggyback Civil War #7 without actually revealing anything so that it could build up to the last page. Just charge me a dime and give me that page, why don’t you.
I especially liked the line in ASM, where the guy in jail’s like, “Hey, wow, betcha didn’t see that guy coming!” It reminded me of that Simpsons episode that aired after the Superbowl, where Homer and Moe talk about the outcome of the game by covering their mouths and dubbing in the team names later.
Only, it wasn’t trying to be funny.
You are wrong about Civil War #7. The ending was bad, and I plan to write about it over the weekend. And my argument against it doesn’t involve Cap acting out of character, because he didn’t. You’re right on that point.
When he says “I plan to write about it over the weekend,” what he means is “I hope everyone else writes about it in the comments in the meantime so I don’t have to write a blog post.”
Screw you.
In the end, all Civil War did for me was make me drop a couple more Marvel titles. It’s getting to be a damn endangered list.
Now I’m just getting ready to ignore DC’s next big event. Gee, I love comics.
the end of civil war was interesting for at least 2 reasons:
1) at different points in captain america’s history, he’s stepped off his beaten path to rediscover “what america is” and all that. having him in jail gives him — and ed brubaker, who’s pretty kickass — an opportunity to explore that darker world, with cap as a stranger in a strange land, which is pretty cool if you think about it. some really good stories could be told there. however, some really godawful ones could be told as well
2) when i finished the book i realized that, interestingly enough, the ending of civil war echoes some of the most important comic book works ever printed; however, where “miracleman,” “the watchmen,” “kingdom come,” “the authority,” and almost every post-superhero pseudo-utopian society type story that’s ever been told zigged, “civil war” zagged. in those other great stories the writers took a world with superheroes to its logical conclusion: because of their powers, their superiority, superheroes would inherit the earth. if the anti-registration side of civil war had won, you could make the argument that the next logical step would be to take over the rest of the world because by winning they would be breaking federal law, arguably the first step in disregarding whatever human law they deem unjust or untenable. instead, captain america chose to follow the law, which was kind of a cool choice in light of where the other stories went. it keeps normal people relevant in a superpowered world, which, in turn, allows marvel to keep making books with dudes in tights.
despite all this potentially interesting stuff, civil war was kind of a shitty disappointment because the middle three issues felt like watching a movie on fast forward. you understood which beats the story was hitting, but it went by so fast the characters made no sense and there wasn’t much to enjoy.
yeah, well, the bottom line for civil war overall is one of missed opportunities. it could have been so many rad things considering how many talented creators were involved. instead it was like an all-star band trying to make jaw-dropping shit and putting out a jefferson starship covers album instead.
i recently downloaded (shh) the entirety of avengers: disassembled and house of m, of which the main books were the best parts, and they both set up the big stuff civil war was supposed to provide really, really well. which is funny, considering the civil war peripherals were way better than the main title, and the big stuff was an anticlimactic battle that made no sense.
and, yeah, what the fuck was up with the clor thing? i still can’t figure out how that was supposed to be a good idea. personally, i choose to remember the mark millar who just started writing the ultimates. i like that mark millar a lot more.