Customer Reviews

Civil War

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

So what does it take to break up two of the greatest superteams of all time, make Iron Man and Captain America mortal enemies, and many other old friends pound each other into the ground in the Marvel Universe? How about reality television? After a young 3rd-tier superteam causes supervillain Nitro to explode (his power) and wipe out a school full of children while filming their "Cops"-style show, public opinion forces the passage of a bill in Congress. The bill is one that would force all superpowered beings to register with and work for the government. Naturally, this is a terribly unconstitutional move that eliminates the most American of all values, freedom, from every superbeings' life. Thus the Marvel Universe is split in two with Captain America siding against his own namesake and forming the Underground Avengers (featuring Dardevil, Luke Cage, and Spiderwoman among others) and Iron Man leading the pro-registration forces along with Mr. Fantastic in rounding up all of the heroes who resist, imprisoning them indefinitely. It's a great concept that brings to light many fascinating debates and ideas on the limitations of government among other things. The problems with the story are in the execution. Many of the great heroes with 40+ years of history and character development behind them do things that are way out of character and others, bizarrely, do nothing at all. As much effort as Marvel has expended in various side-issues trying to justify the actions of Tony Stark and Reed Richards, the fact remains that they behave more like megalomaniacal supervillains than the epitome of heroism that they've embodied for so long. That's not to say that there aren't consequences for both, what with the FF and Avengers essentially dissolved because of feuding members. The ever-sensible Ben Grimm even leaves the country. While Wolverine acts perfectly rationally (for him) in going after the real villain, Nitro, in his side-story (available in another TPB), the rest of the X-Men decide to remain neutral. This is particularly disturbing considering they have fought so vigorouisly against the Mutant Registration Act, which was essentially the same bill but much smaller in scope and with less teeth. I guess the writers knew that with so many heavy-hitters, a united mutant front would have tipped the scales too far in the favor of the rebels. Another big shocker involves a revamped version of the Thunderbolts, featuring many familiar but not-so-friendly faces, and let's just say that along the way sides are changed, long-standing relationships strained to the breaking point, and in the end, not everything will be as it was before. This is a cataclysmic comic event that certainly makes you want to tune back into the Marvel Universe if you've been tuned out for awhile like I have. This particular Trade Paper Back collects the essential events of the Civil War, but not necessarily the best. I'd highly recommend picking up the Civil War TPB's for Spiderman and the Fantastic Four because: a) they're highly entertaining and b) they offer a lot more perspectives on the events depicted in the main story. Also highly recommended are the Captain America and Iron Man TPB's since they are the two figureheads of their respective points of view. The ending, I think, is one that is unsatisfying in every possible way and really brings the story down. I know life ain't fair, but it just seemed like BS to me. Still, it's a journey worth taking if you're a comic fan who wants to see some of Marvel's finest go at it or if you're just intensely curious about how this huge event unfolds. There are plenty of great moments, it's just too bad that the story seems to dictate the characters' actions at times instead of the other way around.

I posted this as a response to the review by Art, but I thought it worth pegging it up on it's own, with edits:

There are a lot of mixed and negative reviews of this book. My review bounces off those, rather than the book itself, which I'll just say I thoroughly enjoyed.

If you are going to enjoy this book, first of all, don't take superhero comics too seriously. This isn't supposed to be "Palestine" or "American Splendor", this is the Fantastic Four we're talking about. It is goofy entertainment. If you are going to criticize fundamental genre conventions, do if from further back. That is, criticize fundamental genre conventions, don't roast this one particular manifestation of them as if it exists in a vacuum.

That being said, I think some reviewers are a bit off on some specific points. One major complaint some reviewers make is that this story doesn't fit into the relationships/characterizations/stories they have come to expect from these Marvel superheroes. That is only the case though if you haven't been keeping up with Marvel comics over the past few years.

Starting from "Avengers Disassembled/House of M", this story has been building in all the Marvel books for years. The tension between some heroes/groups over the registration issue, and over the nature of the heroes' relationships with conventional law enforcement/military, has been cleverly woven into many Marvel books. So to see it all finally come to a boil here is satisfying to those that have been following things. For those that haven't, you'll just have to fill in that gap with your imagination--that's the price of enjoying serialized entertainment.

The same must be said for the tensions between certain heroes/groups of heroes. Don't judge the actions of characters through the lenses of the relationships you remember from 10 years ago. Ever since Brian Bendis became the defacto director of the Marvel super-world, he and the other authors have been ratcheting up the tension from inside and in-between various groups. The characterizations here are totally consistent within the context that has been built up over the last few years within the "Marvel Universe".

The "ham-fisted attempts to relate to current events" have been a staple of comic books for years. The entire conceit of the X-Men (for example) is that being a mutant is analogous (in a fantastical way) to being gay (or Jewish, or some other persecuted minority)...they even cooked up "The Legacy Virus", a mutant equivalent to AIDS. That kind of attempt to inject a bit of current-event gravitas is old news. You kind of take it or leave it when you read Marvel comics.

I agree that a lot of the characterizations are...distasteful. It is a trend across the industry. In an effort to make characters more realistic and diverse, writers have really taken to making a lot of them just plain jerks. What makes this work for me is that there are still honest-to-goodness likable and "noble" characters out there. Taken as a whole, the entire cast of characters does seem a bit more "realistic" when not every superhero is some kind of saint with a cape, as in the old days.

For those that are deep into the current Marvel Universe, this is a great book, a cornerstone of the modern Marvel storyline. For those that are more casual readers, dipping occasionally into superhero books, you'll either have to take this as an opportunity to get to know the current Marvel Universe a bit better...or read it with the grains of salt I've just sprinkled here.

There ARE many other Marvel books out there that are less enmeshed in the current continuity of things and that should appeal more to general readers...

I ordered Marvel Comics Civil War in a hardcover edition. It included all seven issues of the series. What I wasn't expecting was the bonus Spider Man comic "Parker You're Fired" issue which is laid out like an issue of the Daily Bugle. Also another treat was the interviews with the authors and the behind the scenes of how the script was written. All in all it is the best purchase I have ever invested in. I hope this helps people when they don't know if they want to buy this item...

I love The Ultimates, and I think it's one of the best Avenger type stories around. I have the entire series, and Millar really gets those characters (whereas the new series by Loeb kinda stinks). That's why I was shocked to read Civil War in it's individual issues. I kept expecting it to become good, and it just got progressively worse and worse. No character in this storyline is consistent with their personalities throughout all of Marvel history. These characters are HEROES, and they are shown willing to kill each other over government sanctions??? What???!!?? A deadly tiff among superheroes? The artwork is the only thing that is worth looking at, and even that gets a little inconsistent at the end. What's really bad is how incredibly cynical AND manipulative this comic is. We are made to specifically dislike one "side," and they are the ones who win... cause... life's not fair??!??! Who knows? But what I do know is that these superheroes wouldn't pick sides in something this stupid. They would unite because that is what they have always done. This was a cheap ploy for sales, and they basically did this just to see how bad they could mess Marvel up so you would have to buy issues of these offshoots. Bad form. There has been SOME good out of the series: The Thunderbolts is a pretty good storyline now with Ellis writing it, and Captain America is still going strong (even without Cap?!) because of the talents of Ed Brubaker and Epting. These characters howevr are so inconsistent it makes you want to scream. The What If? Civil War storyline with the alternate version of the conclusion of Civil War is better and more accurate to who these characters are than this entire volume. Not worth the paper it's printed on.

Alright, I'll start out by saying what this book is about. Ok. so a bunch of school kids are killed because of a group of super heroes neglegence, so understandably the public wants action. The government puts out the super hero registration act. Some heroes are for it, others are strongly against. Basically the rest is just their stratigizing and fighting against each other.

THE GOOD
This book has some great artwork! Even if you don't like the story, WOW!! Me like.
To say the least this book keeps you on your toes. You'll want to keep reading trust me. It has some pretty good cliff hangers. I myself read them as they came into the comic shops, I kept getting mad when I would finish a book and would have to wait till the next month.
Battles= Excellent! Still, with even some of the problems w/ the book we all (Marvel fans) will enjoy the battle sequences. My uncle and I both as life long comic readers enjoyed the battles.

THE BAD
The real problem with this book is that it made it very clear which side they wanted you to root for. They made heroes into bad guys and don't get me started on spider-man. I am a spidey fan and they made him into a naive, errand boy for tony stark! Tony Stark, Reed Richards and Peter Parker are all supposed to be geniuses and they make them all out to be idiots.
Now the book might still have been able to still win fans hearts if not for the fact that they made the ending into a major cop out. It was like they couldn't figure out how to end it. (Won't spoil it for you if you already don't know).

Now, I still like this book though even with the problems. Now even for those who read and hated this story arc, you have to realize that that the writers had a purpose when writing this. Well, a couple really.
1) To cause controversy in the marvel fan base. For the past few months marvel fans have been sharing their opinions about this story and talking non-stop about it. It has succeeded in causing in controversy.
2) To get folks to read Tony Stark's book. Come on, who has been keeping up to date with Iron Man? He was boring, now we might all hate him but he is interesting. We will want to read about all the things he is doing during and after this civil war.
3) To help make stories to come more interesting. We got world war hulk coming up and wouldn't it be a bit more fun if when the heroes have to team-up against the hulk they're all like,"Hey, you really screwed me over in the civil war, how do I know I can trust you?" It was a set up to cause unrest in the marvel community.

Now you the buyer might be wondering, should I buy this or not? Now here are the following people who would want to buy:
Completists, they got it out there and no matter what you got to have it
Fans of good art, excellent my friends!
Those who are mucho fans of the marvel universe characters. This does some pretty good justice to some of the characters. Daredevil had pretty good things going for him this time around.
And finally those who like stories of betrayal and mistrust.
Also, just so you know if you want to keep updated with the marvel universe it's a good idea to buy this anyway

Look, if you're not among that group you probably shouldn't buy this to enjoy it. The story is rough around the edges, but the art was great and this unlike some stories was not just a ploy to sell action figures. *cough cough* secret wars.
I liked this book, and I hope that you do. But really you either like or you don't.

They tout this item as having around 516 pages of comic book content. In reality, less than half of that is actual comics. What you get is about 300 pages of interviews with the creators (I don't know about most, but I couldn't care less about the personal lives of them -- I just want to enjoy their product) and written scripts of the dialogue with notes on it saying what they wanted the artists to create. It saddens me that trees had to die to produce that drivel. The comics and story themselves though? Awesome!

I don't typically take Super Heroes seriously. I mean they live in worlds filled where nuclear radiation gives people super powers, freak accidents don't result in death, and their are also dozens of aliens races but Civil War made me angry, just like how it should anger any Marvel fan. First of all let me just say that the art by Steve Mcniven is fantastic. Everything on every character is detailed and unique.

However Marvel Civil War is a bad book for dozens of reasons. First of all Marvel was really subtle in the beginning of this book. I was blown away at how they managed to cleverly disguise how certain events in real life, were different from things that happened in Civil War.

Also, if the government wanted to have superheroes working for them why the hell didn't they created this bill decades ago? We call that bad writing.

Iron Man is awkwardly forced to be the villain in this story. Maybe its just me, but it doesn't seem to be in character for him to start a war with Captain America. He just seemed way too quick to turn on them.

I mean Captain America and Iron Man didn't even bother to talk to each other before they started fighting in a week before the bill passed. The two of them had been friends and teammates for decades but instead of having an issue of the two of them actually trying to sort things out or compromise we just have Iron Man act like a jerk and then fight Captain America.

I could go on about this book but I think I've said enough. Civil War is a terrible book, filled with plot holes and heroes acting like jerks for no real reason. Mark Miller is the Zack Snyder of the comic book world, he doesn't get a good grip on characterization and instead relies on violence to make his books sell.

This is one of the worst excuses for storytelling I've ever had the misfortune to slog through. In the wake of a super-villain-related disaster, the US Government passes an incomprehensible "Superhero Registration Act" that is alternately portrayed as (a) no more intrusive or unreasonable than licensing doctors or training police officers and (b) so significant that "failing to register" (even if you're retired) is now the worst possible crime imagineable, justifying immediate incarceration courtesy of dozens of heavily-armed government agents.

Needless to say, nobody in the story comments on this bizarre dichotomy, and instead, characters who have fought side-by-side for decades as friends and teammates immediately begin assaulting each other using all the deadly force at their disposal. There's no attempt to explain why these superheroes are suddenly acting (and speaking) like sovereign nations at war -- the fact that the word "War" appears in the book's title is, presumably, justification enough (how metatextual!) -- and at the drop of a hat, the heroes are pounding on (and killing) each other as surely as if half of them had been hypnotized by a Magic Space Wizard out of some '60s JLA/JSA crossover.

Worst of all, though, virtually every character in this book is uniformly dislikeable. Characterization was once considered Marvel Comics' strong suit, but everyone in this book acts like a jerk from the first panel to the last. Throw in some truly ham-fisted attempts to relate the story to current events ("The Stamford disaster is like 9/11! The Negative Zone prison is like Guantanamo!") and wince-inducingly bad dialogue straight from the Big Book of Action Movie Cliches ("This is the nightmare scenario!" "What are you waiting for? Finish it!", etc.) and you have one of the most mind-bogglingly awful works of "graphic fiction" ever inflicted upon an unsuspecting public.

In Civil War, Mark Millar does what he does best. He tells an intriguing and sophisticated story about super-heroes wrestling with complicated and morally ambiguous issues. His versions of many of Marvel's oldest super-heroes will seem slightly unfamiliar but ultimately the story and its heroes are very compelling.

Civil War begins when a group of young super heroes known as The New Warriors attempt to apprehend a group of super-villains while simultaneously promoting themselves on a reality television show. One of the villains (Nitro) explodes, levelling the town of Stamford Connecticut. The massive death and destruction wrought by the explosion leads to calls for the registration of all super-powered beings with the federal government.

Some heroes such as Iron Man and Reed Richards support the idea of superhero registration but others such as Captain America resist it. Ultimately this leads to a Civil War between the two camps which is filled with its own share of ironies and tragedies (including the death of the hero Goliath).

Millar does a good job of exploring the motives and thinking of the leaders of the two camps (Iron-Man and Captain American). The clear distinction between good and evil that is present in most comic book story lines is almost completely absent here. Both sides struggle to come to terms with how their actions will influence society and the super-hero community at large. Millar himself tends to let his characters speak for themselves rather than trying to lead the readers toward any particular judgment.

The story itself is tightly paced and has some very suspenceful action sequences. Overall, I would rate it is one of the best comic book story lines in recent years. I can understand why it would leave comic book readers who crave a more clear cut handling of moral issues a bit unsatisfied. But if you want a book that uses super-heroes to wrestle with some of the complex moral questions we face in the twenty-first century, this is a great read.

If I could give this book 0 stars I would.

Mark Millar's writing is terrible in Civil War. Throughout his runs on The Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men and The Authority Millar proved that he could only write charaters with a single voice: the same obnoxious personality over and over again that refers to people alternatively as "you idiot" and "honey". With Civil War he takes this tendency to the extreme. He abandons all recognizable character traits in the story leads and most of the supporting players. Captain America, instead of being the noble leader he has been portrayed as for decades, becomes an obsessive militia leader who pushes ordinary men through reinforced steel doors and onto a street from a moving vehicle just because of a snarky comment. Iron Man becomes a man entirely comfortable with taunting one of his best friends as he beats him up and who delivers a frankly chilling speech at the end which the author intended to be optimistic but ends up sounding totalitarian.

Millar's problem, in the end, is a lack of subtlety. The book's main conflict could have been a lot more interesting if one side had not been so terribly villified. Millar's dialogue was also laughable at many points, Captain America's rant about not being able to meet the "make a wish" kid literally had me laughing out loud. Had a better writer been in charge the story could have been far more satisfying.

The art is nice in the first few chapters. McNiven has a nice sense of anatomy, but as the story progresses the art gets more and more posed. McNiven is at his weakest in the action sequences. The scene in the first chapter where Captain America escapes the SHIELD helicarrier is the only action sequence with good motion and a logical kinetic progression. If you compare it to the panel in the final chapter where Spider-Man is shown taking out several Pro-Reg heroes at once you can see where McNiven, trying to catch up after not being given enough lead time, loses all sense of progression in the movement of the characters. I don't blame McNiven for being rushed towards the end, I believe the blame for that rests solidly on Marvel's editorial staff who rushed to get the first issue in stores the same month as the last issue of DC's Infinite Crisis to upstage its competitor. In the end this decision ended up causing massive delays to Civil War and a sizeable chunk of Marvel's line.

In the end Civil War has simply turned the Marvel Universe into the X-Men's Days of the Future Past dystopian future. This, as a story idea, is fine. The execution leaves much to be desired. Perhaps if Marvel wasn't so in love with Millar's simplistic writing then Joe Quesada's homilies about how this is supposed to be an optimistic step for the Marvel Universe wouldn't be such a bitter pill.