[Comic]: Civil War, reviewed by ShannonA, Rating: 3

[Xenagia Reviews]

http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/archive/0/9.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

Though Marvel's Civil War crossover seemed to have everything going for, it was ultimately let down by poor storytelling and a bad transition to trade paperbacks.

Go to the full review (http://www.xenagia.net/reviews/archive/0/9.phtml) for more information.

[ShannonA]

I'd love to hear any comments, agreements, or disagreements. That's what these review threads are for!

[Devin Parker]

Thanks for reviewing this series, Shannon. I don't read much more superhero material than my work requires, but since this was hyped as such a big deal (and took a lot of awards at the Wizard Reader's Choice Awards or whatever they're called), it's good to know how it all turned out.

3. A failure of direction. Mark Millar thought that Iron Man and the fascist government were the good guys. Just about every other author thought that Captain America and his brave rebels were the good guys. This hurt the believability of the entire story quite a bit and harmed some Marvel characters (particularly Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic) almost beyond redemption.

When I initially heard the idea for Civil War, I thought it would make for some very interesting stories simply because it would be hard for the reader to take sides - that the reader might find both factions sympathetic, so that even if the reader disagreed with, say, Iron Man and Spider-Man's position, they could at least respect them for their integrity or good intentions. But, if I understand you correctly, that potential was pretty much chucked out in favor of a traditional "bad guys-good guys" take on the story? That's what disappoints me most, I think.

[ShannonA]

When I initially heard the idea for Civil War, I thought it would make for some very interesting stories simply because it would be hard for the reader to take sides - that the reader might find both factions sympathetic, so that even if the reader disagreed with, say, Iron Man and Spider-Man's position, they could at least respect them for their integrity or good intentions. But, if I understand you correctly, that potential was pretty much chucked out in favor of a traditional "bad guys-good guys" take on the story? That's what disappoints me most, I think.


Yes and no.

The premise is definitely there as you suggest, and it seems pretty clear that the authors were given their opportunity to pick sides.

However the actions of the registration side of things spoke louder than any words, and so the vast majority of both writers and readers, in my experience, decided they were in the wrong--to the point where the Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic characters look unsalvageable to most of us.

Just to offer an example: the registration folks set up a prison in the Negative Zone where they sent all the resistors to ... a prison that literally sapped their spirits, leaving them depressed and sad.

[Bob_Cram]

Interesting. I've been out of reading comics for a while, but got sucked into buying the main Civil War story by my brother ("Dude, you gotta read how they're screwing up the Marvel Universe.") The main mini-series was the only one that I read and I agree with your assessment - and only want to add that not reading any of the others gave the whole proceedings an added level of disconnecton - lot's of "how the hell did that happen?" moments. I also thought many of the characters motivations and powers were written as though the author had no clear sense of their back-story.

Looks like I might have to pick up Frontline and Spider-man, though. I'm interested in a more - coherent - treatment of the consequences of the mini-series.

The thing that I was most saddened about though, is the characterization of Tony Stark. I'd always liked Iron Man and the actions of Stark throughout the series just rang as wrong time and time again. ("Skrull," I kept thinking, "Gotta be a Skrull - only way it makes sense.")

Strangely enough, the upshot is that I'm now buying a few more comics. I've been reading the World War Hulk stuff (in part to see Tony get a deserved beat-down) and a few others here and there. I'll probably pick up Gaimen's Eternals when that hits paperback. So in the end they pulled me back in, I guess, even if the series that did it was extremely sub-par (IMHO, of course).

Thanks for the reviews (and reading the bad ones, so I don't have to!).

[ShannonA]

Sadly, you read the worst.

If you're going to read the Spider-Man, I suggest starting back at the beginning of the current JMS arc. Things were a bit rocky at the start, but he's had some absolutely terrific trades, including the last several.

I'm afraid most of it's going to get rebooted after JMS's story finishes this year or next, but still it's been a great ride.

[Patrick]

I actually thought it was not so bad as far as cross overs go but they just ended it really badly I thought. The problem with Marvles cross overs for Civil war was that they had so many and like 25% of them had nothing even to do with the Civil War. When it comes to Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic I did see there side of it and this story made me more interested in Iron Man and made me start to read his comic just to see how he was going to get out of this mess. I never liked the Fantastic four anyway and my feelings about them remain the same.