Rating:  -
Sounds like an interesting story plot. Sounds like an interesting direction. Too bad though that Marvel had to make this such an expansive cross over. Personally, I would have liked one book, one story line, one long running series of this as a possible "Future Event", like X-Men # 141-142 "Days of Future Past".
OK. So I'm old school. I DON'T like MAJOR MULTI-ISSUE cross overs. But not something that tears apart every team or charactor that we care about, and leaves a MESS in the end.
So by this, no more Fantastic Four. No more "True" AVENGERS. Spider-Man is screwed up. A Marvel ICON is left dead. And in my opinion, it was done to SELL BOOKS.
EVEN MORE SO IT DOESN'T MATTER! Because in a few years, they'll start the charactors with new beginnings or origins ALL OVER AGAIN.
THESE ARE COMICS. HOW MANY TIMES HAS THIS HAPPENED ALREADY???
Only problem with this whole thing, is that there are too many books, too may cross overs, and for those who collect comics, six months of having to buy EVERY Marvel comic put out to get the real story. And I'd imagine it was pretty expensive, just like if I decided to buy/collect EVERY CW TPB tie-in book. There are just too many.
I may end up buying the COMPLETE story line in 5-10 years IF this storyline and ramifications from all this still have an impact. It is an interesting idea. MIXED REVIEWS from everyone THOUGH.
Mine is, don't bother.
Until Marvel decides this is the way it's going to be and STICK TO IT FROM HERE ON OUT!
It's just a shame that it had to be done in such a manner that you have to buy 20 some different books and titls (to increase the sales of the ones doing poorly) to understand it all, everyone's side, and what the heck is going on. Marvel should have kept it in ONE(!!1!!) book, even if they'd have to do it in an expanded COMIC version, using various titles writers/artists to do their story lines, and left out the cross over books. Maybe have had published a new story/comic every week since everyone would have been collaborating. Makes more sense numbering Civil Wars # 1 - 150 (OR WHATEVER) if needed, but left out the cross overs.
As you can tell, corss overs are my BIGGEST complaint. I HATE them. They seem like they try to raise sales by being cross overed in comics who's sales are lagging.
I dunno'. This is alot to grasp. I'm old school. I think I'd rather buy Marvel Masterworks reprints, then this new stuff. Not as complicated.
And besides that, we all know, that somewhere, some time down the road, they'll RE-START the series and charactors again (for the umpteenth dozenth MILLIONTH time) and things will go back to normal. I mean, Aunt May died in the Amazing Spider-Man # 250 or 350 ( One or the other, I'm not going to pull it to be exact. ), yet, she's been back for quite a while. As happened a long time ago in Ultimate Spiderman.
So this is a big PUT-OFF to me.
Reason: No matter how bad Marvel screws this up, and does this or does that, they can, and usually DO, start all over again ( just like DC has TOO MANY TIMES WITH THEIR CHARACTORS ) from scratch, from the beginning, with everyone ALL with a clean slate.
So what is the point of getting excited or involved with this knowing that in a few years, there will be a new origin or something, for all the heroes and teams, or that it happened in an Alternate Universe, and this most likely will be forgotten by the heroes, kept in a Parallel Universe, or something along those lines???
~Yawn~
Which has happened too many times in comics period. Kind of ruins them and their credibility.
So 5-10 years down the line, if this story line is still the direction Marvel is going, and hasn't turned back, and ramifications are still being dealt with, then maybe it would be worth it. Maybe it will be a classice worthy of buying EVERY cross over for my Personal Collection.
But I don't see it happening.
Old schoolers like me think of the Avengers as Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America.
And the FANTASTIC FOUR SPLITTING UP??? C'mon. Give me a break.
So much for a FF 3 movie.
Seems like too many books, too much money, and (probably) not enough conviction by Marvel to keep this storyline alive forever, and make it the way things are, were, should be (because they wrote this story line), and will be a mainsty for the future of the Marvel Universe.
But it ain't gonna happen.
Just a story, yes. But does it make any sense if it's passed over and not a factor years down the road?
Not to me.
At least they didn't butcher the X-Men. They left them out of it pretty much. Smart move. Don't trash your best selling book.
But it's only a matter of time, before Peter Parker goes back to being Spider-Man w/o J Jonah Jamison knowing his identity, Aunt May not having a clue, and SOMEONE changing the Marvel Universe to where the Civil War NEVER happened and everyone's minds are wiped clean of the events, and life goes on as we knew it.
Interesting story line, true. Just should not have been so drastic with too many cross overs, and so many books done for (PROBABLY) NOTHING.
All in the name of making MONEY for MARVEL....
I'd rather stick to the "CLASSICS" Marvel books, like Marvel Masterworks. And if this turns out to be a classic and impact story line on the future of Marvel comics in 5 - 10 years, then I'll have to buy it. But not now.
CLASSICS ARE ONLY GOOD IF THEY STAND THE TEST OF TIME AND REMAIN A PART OF MARVEL LORE FOREVER.
Dang. Imagine if Stan Lee and Joe Kirby took back some of their work 5 years after doing it. Thank goodness, they had the common sense not to do or try something like this.
No wonder Stan left Marvel for Disney....
Smart move Stan!!!
Too bad most of the charactors you created are hurt by this. It is a shame...
I gave it one star just for the ART. If it wasn't for the story, and based on ART alone, I would have given it a HIGHER review.
So at least the art is excellent!!!
Rating:  -
This trade paperback collects a New Avengers one-shot, two Fantastic Fours (536-537) and three Amazing Spider-Mans (529-531). Brian Michael Bendis wrote the 'New Avengers: Illuminati' issue and J. Michael Straczynski wrote the rest.
The conversational New Avengers story starts with a meeting between Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Namor, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt of the Inhumans, Professor X and Black Panther in Wakanda shortly after the Kree-Skrull war. Later there is a second present-day meeting with five of the aformentioned figures who debate shooting the Hulk into space after his assault on Las Vegas. Afterwards Iron Man unveils an advance copy of the Superhero Registration Act, the focus of the Civil War conflict.
Besides a short recap of the events of 'Illuminati', the Fantastic Four issues seem to connect less with the central Civil War plot but feature a good story featuring Dr. Doom and Thor's lost hammer.
In Amazing Spider-Man #529-531 Peter Parker's boss Tony Stark creates a liquid metal nanofiber Spider-Man costume and later persuades Peter to testify in the Senate about the Act. Issue 531 ends with the Stamford accident to lead into the Civil War mini-series.
Rating: -
This collection brings together a one-off Illuminati issue with short Fantastic Four and Spiderman arcs to provide background to the current Civil War raging in the Marvel superhero universe. Most of these stories were written by BABYLON-5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, who along with Joss Whedon has brought a lot of recent attention to Marvel given their high profiles on TV. Luckily, both of them have proven to be absolutely first-rate comic writers and I look forward to anything either of them does in the genre. Having said that, I wish both of them would get out of comics and back to TV. There are a lot of really good comics writers, but fewer people capable of doing truly exciting work on television. Most great comics writers couldn't create and produce a television series so we'd still have the vast bulk of good writers continuing to work on these arcs. Having Joss Whedon do the X-Men or the Runaways or Straczynski do Spiderman just seems like a waste of talent. Yeah, the comics are great, but wouldn't you rather see a new Whedon or Straczynski television series? OK, rant over.
These particular stories don't fit together that nicely. The Fantastic Four issues are somewhat out of place with the others though they do feed into other arcs in subsequent collections. Still, as a standalone collection they simply don't mesh well. But the point of the issue is to provide background for other books. These stories, while not necessarily great on their own, provide a preface for things to come.
In particular, the volume provides good insight into Tony Stark's position. Most of the characters we love end up opposing Stark, but one of the really nice things they have done is manage to not make Stark seem absurd. In these stories the actual split that occurs later is only on the horizon. Here Stark is still trying to discourage the passage of the super hero registration act, though it is obvious that he is going to fail. The inescapable split between Stark and his would-be protégé Peter Parker is palpable.
The one thing I did not like in the story was the fiddling with Spiderman's costume. I don't mind the updating of the look of his costume but the excessive number of gadgets made me feel like Stark was trying to transform Spidey into Batman. Now, that is great for Batman, but Spiderman has never been distinguished by his gadgets. It just felt like an off chord.
All in all, a decent volume, albeit a necessary one for anyone working their way through all of the Civil War issues.
Rating: -
I loved this compilation. It is a fantastic way to start this story and you don't need the backstory to enjoy. I am just now reading through new avengers and it's great. I think this was a brilliant idea and they are doing an amazing job. Bravo to everyone at Marvel.
Rating:  -
I started reading the Civil War comics before the issues collected in this trade paperback. I was actually driven to pick up this trade because of the Amazing Spider-man issues of the Civil War, and those parts of the book were very good at setting up the events that would follow. The Illumanati issue was interesting in that it sets up an interesting background to the Marvel universe with the "powers behind the scenes." I was not that impressed with Fantastic Four section because it seems only loosely related to the events of Civil War. All in all, it is a good read, especially for fans of Civil War.
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