Should have been the ultimate hero vs. hero showdown.
The New Warriors are still filming their reality TV show, where the group goes on a hunt for super villains at large. They come across a group hiding out with at least one completely out of their league. They attack with their complete arrogance on display and the results become disastrous. This leads to the US Government having enough and they begin to pass the Superhero Registration Act. -summary
Marvel continued their reliance on the crossovers with intentions on reshaping their universe. While some fans scoffed at this move since it meant spending more cash on various books, it's still something that should be respected for the most part since it meant changes were coming, despite the fact we all know that change doesn't always necessarily mean good. Well Marvel's Civil War event, which in my mind was their attempt to counter DC's Infinite Crisis back in 2006, continued those good changes with this mega event playing a huge role in Marvel's status quo. This was the event that set the tone for things to come, as it pitted the world's superheroes against each other and divided the community completely; lives were changed, teams were broken up, while new teams were formed. Originally I didn't care for this book and 50% of that reason was due to this event not standing too well on its own, and the rest was all due to Mark Millar's writing; I'll lightly get into those reasons soon. This event written by Millar with Steve McNiven behind the pencils contains Civil War 1 - 7.
Many newer fans may not know, but Civil War had been brewing for about 15 years before this story even saw the light of day. There was always mention about the Superhero Registration Act and in some way it was put on hold. For those unaware, the Superhero Registration Act is a bill that forces people with powers to register with the government in order to be operatives of SHIELD, and for younger and least experienced people to be properly trained in their powers. This is meant for them to not only save lives but also lower property damage. This also means that superheroes will have to reveal their identities to the government. Whomever chooses not to register will be labeled as criminals and they will be hunted and imprisoned indefinitely. On one front, Iron Man leads the Pro-Registration force and he's backed up by Mr. Fantastic, Hank Pym, and SHIELD. Captain America chooses to oppose the bill, because he feels superheroes need their mask for safety reasons plus it's a violation of their rights. He goes underground and allies himself with Luke Cage, Hercules, and several others. The result of this is one brawl after the next, with teammate vs. teammate, ally vs. ally, and friend vs. friend. Things really won't be the same.
Now as flawed as this story is, it definitely has the power to pull those thought provoking strings, because I really was torn on who to cheer for at first. The entire time I thought about this story, Spider-Man came to mind. Had he been properly trained on how to use his powers, he could have saved Gwen Stacy without breaking her neck when the Green Goblin threw her off the bridge. On the flip side, Gwen Stacy died because the Green Goblin knew who Spider-Man was underneath the mask. Venom is another one who was able to torment Spider-Man, because he knew his identity by always showing up to threaten Aunt May and Mary Jane. Daredevil's life also never would have been ruined had the Kingpin not found out who he was. While this argument can go both ways, this leads to one of the books main flaws. There just aren't enough debates going on. It's only focus is on the brawling aspect, as it relies too much on the crossover titles to clearly make its points; make no mistake, if you want the meat of this story then you have to track down some of the crossovers.
Mark Millar's storytelling is very flawed mainly due to his dialog, and how he just chooses to abandon years of characterization in regards to Captain America and Iron Man (especially), and this is something he has a bad habit of doing with Wolverine: Enemy of the State coming to mind ( I'll avoid going deep into that due to massive spoilers). Iron Man and Captain America are heroes, there should be no type of development here leading towards the good guy vs. bad guy formula; but this is exactly what he does by not only painting Iron Man as the villain, also the US government. He could have made his point towards change without making Iron Man into a totalitarian figure. This story, not the crossovers, needed more discussion to work the themes it so terribly mishandled, because at its core this is nothing more than two sides disagreeing. Some times I think people forget that the antagonist doesn't necessarily have to be evil.
Steve McNiven's artwork is fitting for such a high profile story. The character designs are awesome from Iron Man's highly detailed armor, to bullet ridden enemies after Punisher gets done with them. It feels like a high budget movie with vibrant and well detailed backgrounds. Some of the action panels are really fun to watch, with Iron Man landing vicious blows on Captain America tearing his mask apart. There's plenty of fun here to be found, so action fans won't walk away feeling their time was wasted.
At the end of the day, Civil War is a very interesting premise that was badly executed, and that's mainly because it relies heavily on its crossovers which is something that should never be an issue. Still, I can't bring myself towards disliking the story or even hating it for that matter; this is mainly because of the overall effect on the Marvel Universe. It's a very important story moving forward, as it effects the Avengers which leads to the New Avengers going underground in their book, then Iron Man forming a new team that debuts in The Mighty Avengers, along with the Avengers Initiative and many other things. Plus it directly builds towards the Death of Captain America and Spider-Man: Back in Black. Therefore, Civil War is a must read. It will appeal more to casual fans who aren't too familiar with Marvel comics, but the same won't be said for those who had been following these characters for years. There were things that definitely bothered me, but overall these changes were good for Marvel and I think it worked out in the long run.
Off the top of my head; these are the crossovers I recommend: Civil War - Spiderman and Iron Man. I have to re-read several others before I can actually recommend them, but I don't remember them being completely off topic like how those House of M crossovers were.
Pros: Excellent artwork and some good moments
Cons: Execution is off, doesn't stand well on its own.
