Books : Civil War (Marvel Comics)

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Rating:

- Grand restart for the marvel universe...
This event is brilliant, the art is even better...truly the best art ever seen in a mainstream comic. Steve McNiven deserves a lot of credit for this, eventhough it did cause some delays in the event slowing it down somewhat and lessening anticipation. Now that it is combined in a single collection it reads like a charms though. Also I like the clever ending, credits to Joss Whedon for that one! Mark Miller delivers a great story, although it feels slightly less cohesive then most of his other work. This might be because it had to work with a lot of tie-in issues taking some of the spotlight away from this series.

The most important part though is that this story leaves the marvel universe in a changed state, opening the door for lots of new and fresh stories. Great jumping on point for new marvel readers.

All in all though, a must read!

p.s. Read captain america civil war aswell, it puts the final touches on this story...

Rating:

- Terrible story filled with unlikeable characters
This is one of the worst excuses for storytelling I've ever had the misfortune to slog through. In the wake of a super-villain-related disaster, the US Government passes an incomprehensible "Superhero Registration Act" that is alternately portrayed as (a) no more intrusive or unreasonable than licensing doctors or training police officers and (b) so significant that "failing to register" (even if you're retired) is now the worst possible crime imagineable, justifying immediate incarceration courtesy of dozens of heavily-armed government agents.

Needless to say, nobody in the story comments on this bizarre dichotomy, and instead, characters who have fought side-by-side for decades as friends and teammates immediately begin assaulting each other using all the deadly force at their disposal. There's no attempt to explain why these superheroes are suddenly acting (and speaking) like sovereign nations at war -- the fact that the word "War" appears in the book's title is, presumably, justification enough (how metatextual!) -- and at the drop of a hat, the heroes are pounding on (and killing) each other as surely as if half of them had been hypnotized by a Magic Space Wizard out of some '60s JLA/JSA crossover.

Worst of all, though, virtually every character in this book is uniformly dislikeable. Characterization was once considered Marvel Comics' strong suit, but everyone in this book acts like a jerk from the first panel to the last. Throw in some truly ham-fisted attempts to relate the story to current events ("The Stamford disaster is like 9/11! The Negative Zone prison is like Guantanamo!") and wince-inducingly bad dialogue straight from the Big Book of Action Movie Cliches ("This is the nightmare scenario!" "What are you waiting for? Finish it!", etc.) and you have one of the most mind-bogglingly awful works of "graphic fiction" ever inflicted upon an unsuspecting public.

Rating:

- the war to end all wars
civil war is the blockbuster event by mark millar and steve mcniven. the artwork is amazing in this book and so is the story. civil war pits hero aganast hero all culminating in a amazing final battle. we all know what happens to captain america so lets give him a moment of silence............................................. a must have for all marvel fans. only one question left whoes side are you on?

Rating:

- This piece of bad writing deserves no stars
Marvel's latest "event" Civil War is one of the WORST story ideas I've ever seen and it confirms my belief that DC and Marvel comics writers are an elitist bunch who are writing the characters out of character and the editors are allowing that to happen because it makes money in the short run. However, they are pandering to the younger readers who probably haven't read the older stories, while slapping the collective face of the older fans who actually read those stories.
In Civil War, due to an incident involving the New Warriors, a lot of kids are killed and the government passes the Superhuman Registration Act, which means that all superhumans have to register with the government. However, some of the heroes, led by Captain America, refuse to register and face off against the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man.
Now Civil War fails for several reasons, but the two most important ones are the behaviors of Spider-Man and Iron Man. In Spidey's case, he has kept his identity secret for most of his career because he has seen what happened to his friends at the hands of his enemies who knew his secret ID, particuarly Gwen Stacy, so why would he reveal his double identity to the world when it could have remained just a government secret. Meanwhile, Iron Man had trouble in his series in Tales Of Suspense when the government was giving him trouble because they wanted the secrets of the armor and he was willing to go up against the government's armored agents during Armor Wars, so why would he become a government yes-man in this matter.
In any case, Civil War is a failure and has cemented my abandonment of Marvel because it represents a dumbing down of Marvel. And the damage isn't over yet with the asassination of the original Captain America and the threat that Mary Jane Watson might be killed so that Joe Quesada can get his wish to get rid of her because he doesn't want Spider-Man married.

Rating:

- Great Story And Great Action!!!
The government mandates that all superheroes register and join in officially sanctioned superhero action, thereby revealing their identity.
Some love the idea, some hate it. Marvel madness ensues! Iron Man leads the government sanctioned heroes while Captain America leads the anti-government heroes. A great story with decent drama and lots of action. Although, it's been bloated into a comic book "event", the story by itself is great fun for any comics fan.

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