Civil War 1

How could we not review it?

Civil War 1

There will be spoilers, as many as I can find, consider yourself warned.

So it begins. The first comic book event to have me excited since I was twelve and Alicia Masters was revealed to be a skrull. So how is it? A lot better than average but not quite perfect. After all is said and done, this issue is just to lay the groundwork and set up the story, and how exciting can you make that? The best thing I can say for it is that it leaves you wanting more, and what more could you expect from a comic that will probably introduce a whole new generation to marvel comics?

Before I get too far into the review, you all are probably going to want to know where I stand, so you can love or hate the rest of what I say based on whether my opinion coincides with yours. The truth of the matter is, I don't know. Is this a cop out? Maybe, but it has the virtue of being true. I was waiting until this comic to decide for myself. But I just can't yet. On the one hand, I don't trust these people to decide who the bad guys are. On the other hand, neither do I trust the American government or SHIELD to decide that. I don't think people should be able to take the law into their own hands, nor do I think people should be punished for helping others. There is one thing that I don't agree with. I don't like the idea of a government registering all people who posses powers at all. Don't be mistaken, that is what this is. From the New Avengers:Illuminati special.

"Anyone with powers- anyone in costume- any mutant- any of our kind is going to be required by law to reveal themselves to the United States government."

The bit that really puts me against this is the repeated use of "anyone". Why should "anyone" have to register with the government simply because they have a different ability. What if they never use it? What if their ability is effectively useless? Why should a person's civil liberties be removed simply because they have a particular genetic makeup? It is one small step away from putting people at the back of the bus due to skin colour.

And yet there is a very easy fix for this. Just require registration from those who wish to operate as an active superhuman. If you want nothing to do with any superhuman activity you should be left alone. If you want to be a hero, register. I wonder why Millar has taken this particular route with the legislation. Perhaps it is to strengthen the case against registration, because without this it would probably tip the balance in favour of registration for me.

On to the positives that tip the balance away from the mandatory registration and keep me undecided. Training, accountability and infrastructure. Training is something everyone needs for any profession. Especially for a job that will involve dead people if you fail. On the job training is just not an option in this particular case. I personally can't see a reason not to have training. It could well have prevented the massacre of school children that was the catalyst for the civil war. Accountability is also a big plus. If public property is damaged by a police officer then there are checks and balances in place to protect the public and the officer. The same system could easily be put into place for super heroes. Infrastructure is another big selling point. If training could not have saved those kids, infrastructure may have. Shield would have sent out the most appropriate super humans to apprehend the super villains, probably not the New Warriors. Even if they did send the New Warriors, it probably would not be on their own.

Now for the issue itself. It is well written. Very well written. Mark Millar really is a master of his craft. He writes and sets up his scenes very well. His dialogue is natural and manages to move the story without resorting to exposition. The best thing that Millar does though is hit the right notes at the right time. First we get the setup. The New Warriors are not portrayed as profesional heroes. They are shown as TV stars first and heroes second. I know that they were originally taking part in the reality TV to finance their heroing, but that is certainly not how they were shown. It is a nice little comment on society. People want to be a TV star more than they want to do the right thing. If they overlap then that is great, but the clear implication is that Speedball, repeating his lines for the sound engineer, is mostly concerned with image. Welcome to the twentieth century. Image is everything, and we can all see how that ends.

Following on is Tony Stark's emotional arc. Tony sees the misery first hand. He sees what it is that these image obsessed super heroes, who don't have training, have caused. Who could honestly say, that when confronted with a mother who has lost a child to super hero incompetence, they would not be moved? Who can say that seeing a mother burying their child would not spark sympathy? I can't. Neither can Tony it turns out. But that is to be expected, because as she so rightfully points out, some of that blood is on his hands. It is little surprise that Tony takes up the pro-registration position with enough vigor that he would be willing to go to war with other heroes.

Next we follow the public. They aren't happy either, and Millar picks a very good target for their anger. The poster boy of acting before thinking and also one of the most experienced heroes running around. In spite of that though, you would have to go a long way to find a hero more loved than the Human Torch. To show exactly how far turned around public perception is you have to take it to a popular figure. It was a very nice set piece, that Johnny took the brunt of.

So now we have seen the setup, the pro-registration and the public. Who else next but the heroes. Their meeting in the Baxter Building is the first chink in the armour of this issue. It just isn't handled very well. It is a very rare thing indeed that a conversation involving over a dozen people has any result. This whole scene would have been better served as perhaps a montage of several conversations. It would have been more personal and more directed. We could still have seen everyone's point of view without the mess. One reason for the conversation to have occurred with everyone may have been some foreboding with "Daredevil". Rolling a coin through his fingers is not a usual Daredevil shtick. It may just be a point that without registration anyone could be under the mask, but it may be more than that, or it may be nothing.

So now the only side we haven't really seen is the anti-registration. The scene with Cap and Commander Hill will be one of the ones that will stick out the most once Civil War is finished. If she wasn't such a sanctimonious blow hard, perhaps things would have gone another way. As it is, she simply illustrated as clearly as possible all the reasons against registration in a few pages. Quite a talent. The bill hadn't even passed and she was already treating Cap like a legally bound asset. This didn't make him happy, nor I. But then I saw Cap go postal on Shield, and I was happy again. I haven't seen a Cap action sequence that much fun in years. I started reading this comic undecided, saw Tony Stark feel a mothers pain, decided registration was necessary, saw Commander Hill treat Cap as an object and went back to being undecided. That is good writing.

Now I have harped on about the writing, and rightly so, but the unsung hero of this issue is the colorist. McNiven's art is beautifully cinematic. Whenever possible his panels are widescreen from one side of the page to the other. But they would have so much less impact if it was not for the colouring. It really is a work of art in symbolism. The issue starts with a bright day. Clear, crisp and full of promise. Then it all goes pear shaped. The clean up of the school happens with a blood red sunset. It sets the mood in a way that no words ever could. The issue progresses with the sun setting. Both literally and on the Marvel universe as we once knew it. All the way up to Captain America's getaway. That is the end of it. What time is it in the very next scene? you guessed it, night time. It is too late, the day has ended and it is done. Then, for the last two pages, the day is new and the world is bright again. What will this brand new day bring to the Marvel universe? I can't wait to see.