Reaction: Civil War (part 1?)

I'm one who wants to experience "the whole thing." With the trend in publishing now that where comics are frequently late (a chronic condition since the days of Image Comics back in the 90s), I find myself more often than not one of those "wait for the trade" types. And so it was with Avengers Disassembled, then it was with House of M, and then with last year's Civil War ...and very likely this year's World War Hulk.

Speaking of WWH, I'm going to kick of my Civil War post by taking a quick detour over to "Road to Civil War." It's important because it ties together a "floating backstory" in Marvel Comics that had been unwritten until very recently: Marvel's version of the Illuminati. In recent years, Marvel has been publishing a lot of retroactive continuity stories which reveal the "dark side" of their ficticious world. For instance, in Deadly Genesis, the second generation X-Men learn that they are actually the third generation X-Men after a failed second team were killed in action. The Illuminati stories likewise tell the untold tales about Marvel's most powerful characters forming a secret cabal who would direct the destiny of humankind from the shadows. And it's quite disturbing where their paths lead them.

Which in turn sets the stage to understand why characters like Mr.Fantastic, IronMan, and Namor (among others) behave in the radical fashion that they do in the pages of Civil War... these are men who've taken it upon themselves to decide the fate of the world because they feel only they are in position to do so... things like banishing the Hulk to another world for instance (a decision that will come back to kick them in the nuts later this year, if you know what I mean).

Back to Civil War: it's about the Marvel Universe taking sides after a catastrophic suburban encounter between a group of desperate third-tier super-criminals and the New Warriors (who've sunk so low they're filming a reality show)... well, things go bad as in "thermonuclear accident" bad. Which turns the human populace on superheroes once and for all. A few patriots like Iron Man side with the government and support a "super-hero registration act." Others like Captain America who claims to value freedom choose to go underground, fugitives from the law, but rallying like-minded vigilantes in a large scale blitz.

Other character caught up in the war are shades of gray. Spider-Man owing much of his recent authority to Tony Stark's employment, publicly sides with Iron Man. Susan Storm fed up with the obsessive behaviour of Reed Richard (and witnessing an accidental death caused by one of his mechanations) follows her brother Johnny to Captain America's fold, effectively breaking up the Fantastic Four. What's really sad is that ultimately our heroes come to blows and it takes a psychopath like the Punisher to make one realize things just aren't the way they were.

When Frank Castle executes two unarmed super-criminals off-hand, Captain America beats him to a bloody pulp while screaming, "fight back, damn you!" To which, the Punisher only replies, "not against you." It's a warped sense of justice and honour, but it's the only kind left in this world. And finally, as the war spills over into mid-town Manhatten... well. It's time for one side to realize they are fighting a pointless battle.

I'm amazed how smoothly the 7-part story read. I think a lot of the bad feelings towards this "event" was due to its horrendous publishing schedule. But I was able to enjoy it within 2 or 3 sittings. I read somewhere that the action was slow in building in the first few issues. This was back during the initial publication and the reviewer speculated that perhaps the story was intended to be read in rapid-fire succession... Lucky me ...even if I had to wait several months for it to be released as such.