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May 3, 2006
Civil War #1: No Split Decision Here, We Like It!
Now here's a surprise: I liked Civil War #1, a lot! The basic premise left me cold when I heard about it, and the hype machine is in overkill mode with Quesada getting quoted on NPR and various newspapers. I'm also not crazy about the Road to Civil War stuff in Amazing Spider-Man. J. Michael Straczynski seems like an idiot who thinks all corporate CEOs must be evil and so Tony Stark must be one, too. I can't buy Straczynski having Stark manipulate Peter Parker into supporting his position in Amazing Spider-Man.
One of the things that won me over in Civil War #1 is Mark Millar's portrayal of Tony Stark. He gives Tony a much better motivation for supporting the President's call to register all super-heroes. Tony feels a certain amount of guilt (the fuel that drives all Marvel Heroes) over the Nitro-schoolyard explosion. In the public eye, and especially in the eye of a parent who lost her son, Stark has been the biggest corporate sponsor of the Avengers. And the Avengers inspire countless wannabes like the New Warriors and the Young Avengers. I can buy that Stark may feel partially responsible for this tragedy, and that it could turn him against Steve Rogers. There are other little character bits with other Marvel players which make you wish that Millar will visit them as a regular writer soon. I love it when the Thing says to Wolverine: "Tell me about it, stumpy. You think Johnny would have ended up in the hospital last night if morons like you wasn't out there givin' us a bad name?"
Millar's script works very well with Steve McNiven's dynamic pencils. This man not only makes the action scenes come alive, but he makes the talking heads dynamic as well. Millar knows each chapter of a book like this needs some action, and the most rousing sequence involves Captain America fighting S.H.I.E.L.D. This is totally awesome-the freedom loving Captain from the Englehart years-fighting authority. Non-regular readers reading Civil War must be shocked at Cap's behavior.
Speaking of non-regular readers, Joe Quesada has prepared a special two-page promotional piece for them at the end of the book. I applaud this move, because they are making no bones about it, but keeping the promotional aspect separate from the story-unlike DC Comics! The books they have chosen to promote are all first class collections: New Avengers by Bendis\Finch, Captain America by Brubaker\Epting, Astonishing X-Men by Whedon\Cassaday. It's interesting to note that the Iron Man collection is "Demon In A Bottle" instead of anything more recent.
Let's hope the rest of the Civil War series keeps up this level of quality. Nuff said.
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