Rating:  -
This was supposed to be a great epic story. This collection features what was originally published as Civil War 1-7. This is the main book in this whole Civil War thing. The roles Millar has these heroes playing is completely ridiculous at times. I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. The action between the various characters is cool, you get a glimpse of bunches af heroes getting it on that you don't normally see in action together. But the writing is just horrible. The story jumps & starts, Millar just doesn't tell a good story. A well told story about how a dung beetle does what he does with dung might've been better. Best part of this book is quickly followed by the worst part. Bad Job!!!
Rating: -
Civil War really doesn't work too well as the all encompassing epic Marvel want it to be. These giant plot lines affecting all characters are genrally crappy, but this offers some good stuff with tremendous art and colouring to back average writing. That's not to say there isn't some ripper stuff in here- Captain America is excellent, well countered by Iron Man. The battles are well executed throughout.
Rating: -
This is the main Civil War story line so it is a must read for any Marvel fan. You should also read it if you follow any Marvel character who had a side-story during Civil War (I think every character did). Good info and overall good read. Not as dramatic and life-changing as it was hyped to be, but still a solid product.
Rating:  -
As a longtime Marvel fan (who has drifted away from and back to superhero comics several times in my life... ) I dutifully picked up a few of the Civil War titles and was planning on getting a couple more, to see you things pan out. The overall concept sounds interesting, and gosh, who doesn't enjoy the opportunity to see our favorite superdudes bash one another's brains out?
There are problems with this super-event, though, and I am forced to agree with nearly all the low-rated reviews -- this story really ain't all that. The main graphic novel, which collects the "Civil War" miniseries (issues #1-7) is ricketty and uneven. Because the "event" is spread throughout the entire Marvel universe, most of the interesting character work is in the regular titles -- Spider-Man's anguish at giving up his secret identity is better fleshed out in his book, the division of the Fantastic Four takes place in theirs, etc. The central story, then, plays like a highlight reel, with narrative jumps and storytelling shorthand that simply does disservice to the readers and the plot.
And the thinness is reciprocal: frequently the hero titles fail to compensate for the weakeness of the central book, most notably the paper-thin "Iron Man" graphic novel, which gathers several issues of Shellhead's mag that are written and drawn by different artists and feel disconnected from one another. Since Iron Man is the spearhead of the pro-registration forces, you'd think they might have done a better job planning his part of this saga out, and assigned these issues to one creative team, so that his side of the story had more cohesion and dramatic heft -- if Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, who do the last chapter, had been given the whole story, it might have been a real doozy.
I agree with other readers who criticize the lack of action, as well as the choppy plotting and weak characterizations. The 9/11-ish "horror" of the initial event (a grade school getting blown up in the crossfire of a super-battle) seems like the kind of thing that would happen all the time in a super-world. All those battles that take place in New York City and no one ever gets hurt? Galactus invading Earth? Sub Mariner and those giant sea-creatures of his, with the tida waves hitting the East Coast? No bystanders ever gets caught in the chaos? While a media and public opinion backlash does seem plausible, the way it is portrayed is paper-thin and stick-figurish, as are the actions and motivations of many top-level Marvel heroes. Reed Richards, in particular, is stripped of his own personality, and falls in line with Tony Stark's police state vision with astonishing docility. His motivation seems highly improbable -- Richards tells Spider-Man that he had an uncle who stood up to the McCarthy-era blacklist and suffered career damage, which left Reed fearful of the same sort of thing ever happening to him. Excuse me? Mister Fantastic is a timid little mouse who would rather sacrifice his sense of justice, rat out his friends, wreck his own family and help create a fascistic future rather than risk damage to his own career? Sorry, I just don't buy it... Or rather, I *did* buy it, but I wish I'd kept my money.
Anyway, the series is full of stuff like that, and it's disappointing. Likewise, the portrayal of the public anti-hero backlash seems kind of random and sketchy, particularly since there are never any pro-hero protesters seen anywhere: are American's really such sheep that they have only one set of opinions, and that's whatever the TV tells us to think? What a morbid, dismissive world view -- and what lazy storytelling. Every time I saw the mother of the slain school child who kickstarted the anti-superhero movement by yelling at Tony Stark and spitting in his face while the cameras were rolling, I kept expecting her to burst into flames and be revealed as an agent of Loki or Dormmammu, controlling the minds of the world and turning people against their heroes. That would have been hackneyed, but more satisfying.
This series has some interesting ideas and intriguing passages, but they seem hastily strung together and a bit flat and dramatically forced. The series is important in that changes the Marvel comics continuity... I just wish the saga had been more exciting and fun to read.
Rating: -
For as long as Civil War took to come out, it never escaped a hurried feel. Plot holes were left in, motivations were left unclear and unbelievable, and the general quality of writing was disappointing at least.
Civil War is a story of petty, stupid people fighting for...something. The two sides are Pro-Registration and Anti-Registration. The Superhuman Registration Act is fuzzy at best - no law this vague would realistically pass - but the reasons for supporting it are (in the rare instances where they're explaind) believable enough, ranging from blind obedience to base fear. The Anti-Registration people are unfocused, fighting to get a law repealed that was made to stop them from fighting.
The art for the series is fairly well done. It captures a lot of the action, but it also does a good job of capturing the emotions of the characters. There are a few slip ups during some fights, where the art feels static and lacks action, but for the most part the art is quite good, especially when it comes to 'character' shots - almost iconic images of the most popular heroes.
The dialogue...sadly, the same cannot be said. Everyone 'sounds' like writer Mark Millar. No one truly has a unique voice in the book. Something similar can be said of the attitude - the book is routinely dark and gloomy, with little reprieve offered.
Overall, a doom-and-gloom book with bad characterization but pretty art. Read it if you're a Marvel Comics completist, but don't expect much. Trust me - you'll enjoy it more that way.
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