The Road to Civil War

Another group of solid issues, making the most out of the concept. I'm not a big fan of the Illuminati issue, which is forced to bend personalities of established heroes to work (although the Black Panther comes out looking great again, which is awesome), but the Spider-Man and FF issues are strong.

While working my way through the Marvel events, I found that each usually has some kind of prelude, or road to set-up book that collects some issues to help orient the reader to what’s coming. They set the stage. Of the few I've read so far, this is the best set-up collection I've seen, especially for newbies who don't follow the individual series.

I’m familiar with the basic premise of the Civil War event, but am just now starting to read the graphic novel collections. The most important aspect of this book is the Illuminati one shot. The greatest superhero geniuses (with one glaring omission, but he has anger management issues) have gathered and decided that they will meet in secret to try and determine a course of action should show more future Earth-level disasters emerge – the idea is to use their collective brilliance to help prevent events such as the Kree-Skrull war from devastating Earth. Only Black Panther is wise enough to see that this group has no right to set itself as Earth’s Protectors, and warns of what would happen should they disagree on a course of action. This bears out when Iron Man, after learning about the proposed Superhero Registration Act, envisions with perfect clarity just how “Civil War” would unfold. He literally prophesies what is to come, and so believes the group should embrace the Act. Black Panther’s warning becomes reality when Dr. Strange declares that they would be giving in to fear and ignorance and many of their peers would fight to the death to protect their rights. The group is at odds and the stage set. (An interesting side note is the Professor X has not been seen since the House of M failed).

After the one shot, a brief story wherein Dr. Doom tries to claim Mjolnir in the wake of the Asgardians’ final deaths in Ragnarok follows. I’m sure the hammer will play a role in the coming story arc, despite Thor’s absence. The rest of the collection is devoted to Tony Stark grooming Peter Parker as a protégé, giving him new armor and taking him to Congressional meetings where he tries to “dissuade” them from passing the Act. Only, is that really his agenda?

Overall, this was an excellent collection of issues that does set the stage for Civil War. Highly recommended. show less

Oh, dear. Maybe this is why I don’t read Marvel’s mainstream stuff, unless it’s Ellis or Whedon writing it. This is a grab-bag from several series, showing the stormclouds of war gathering, etc. etc. over the Marvelverse.

The essential idea was an ambitious one – take post 9/11 feelings of concern about increased surveillance of Americans by their own government and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and bring some of these contemporary events into the Marvel timeline. What would happen if the government sought to register and regulate superheroes? It was an idea tabled by Watchmen some years earlier, but it’s still a promising ground for drama and political commentary.

Still, this volume is a bit of a mess. show more The first few issues included in the TBP are about meetings of the leaders of various superhero teams, with an attempt by Tony Stark to get them working together, or at least comparing notes every year or two. The Submariner, relatively unknown to me, stalks around making haughty comments and professing complete indifference to the survival of air-breathers. Yes, apparently Atlanteans are the high elves of the Marvel universe. Stark is uncharacteristically tentative, rummaging through his notes and suggesting that they could have a team, or a club, and maybe have meetings with votes and agendas and minutes and…. Even Professor Xavier, who is in favour, don’t seem convinced that this thing is ever going to get off the ground. The art style is very old-school Silver age, to my uneducated eyes- lots of saturated, flat colours with gritty black particulate details.

Then, weirdly, the next issue included is about the exiling of the Hulk to a satellite, with further internal disagreements revealed. Hum.

There’s an awful Fantastic Four arc, which is chiefly remarkable for the miserably lame banter and the hilarious appearance of Dr. Doom’s doombots. Really? Doombots? What is this, Nextwave? How can we take doombots seriously after the H.A.T.E. Group’s Human Resources broccoli men? Dr. Doom, with whom I’m mostly unfamiliar, shows up and reveals himself to be a campy villain of the most hilarious kind, all monologues and self-aggrandizement and brass cape clasps.

The last half of the volume is in a much slicker and more colourful modern style (a little too flourishy for my tastes, but there you go). The bill for registration of superheroes is being tabled, and Stark is taking a rest from haranguing the metahumans so he can harangue the senate committee. He’s doing his best to get young Peter Parker’s buy-in (which comes with some totally gratuitous eye-candy visits from Mary Jane, presumably to give us someone to look at who doesn’t have shoulders as wide as a piano bench), but Peter is still a boy at heart, and interrupts Stark’s politicking by speaking impulsively and from his gut. There’s some nice shading of Tony’s character in this issue, but even the appearance of a big titanium bruiser can’t keep this story from getting talky. show less

The comics collected here were good, and I could just about see how they tied the story together, but it felt like it was taking some very big & unexplained leaps and just presuming we'd keep up.

Good for existing Marvel fans, probably, but for me (who's trying to learn more about the Marvel universe than just what's in the movies) it's a little lacking. Don't get me wrong; still very good... just not what I'd hoped.

This trade has three separate stories: a one-shot featuring the Illuminati (Black Bolt, Charles Xavier, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Reed Richards) being hosted by the Black Panther, a two-issue arc featuring the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom (and Thor's hammer), and a three-issue arc featuring Spider-Man and Tony Stark.

The issue featuring the Illumanti was by far my favorite. Namor's characterization was spot-on, and I was cracking up with some of the things he did and said (the best part was Namor punching Tony through the roof). The art was a little strange at first, but it ended up growing on me; it kind of reminded me of an older style. Not surprisingly, the Illumanti group splinters apart, although there's little debate over the show more merits of the Registration Act (everyone either agrees with it automatically or disagrees with it). The issue tries to garner a little sympathy for Tony Stark, but I am not buying it, especially considering his lofty ideas of his own importance later in this trade.

Honestly, I'm not sure why the Fantastic Four arc was even included in this trade collection. True, the first couple of pages were lifted from the Illumanti special, but other than that, the Fantastic Four were more concerned about beating Doctor Doom's robots than the upcoming Registration Act. I've never been interested in the Fantastic Four, although they have some great villains (Doom being one of them).

The Amazing Spider-Man issues weren't great either. Maybe it's because I already know how Civil War "ends," but I just kept rolling my eyes at Tony's naivete and his exaggerated sense of self-importance (I've never cared much for the character of Iron Man, to be honest). The arc is mostly set in Washington DC, and of course there is the I-hope-they-don't-go-there-but-I'm-totally-expecting-it "Tony Stark is just like Abraham Lincoln" comparison several times (uh, no, I don't think so). I don't see Abraham Lincoln hiring a "bad guy" to assassinate him to sway people to his side. Just saying.

Altogether, this book wasn't very good. The only reason I'm rating it three stars is because the New Avengers: Illuminati special was very good. The rest of the material is a solid two stars. show less

The comics collected here were good, and I could just about see how they tied the story together, but it felt like it was taking some very big & unexplained leaps and just presuming we'd keep up.

Good for existing Marvel fans, probably, but for me (who's trying to learn more about the Marvel universe than just what's in the movies) it's a little lacking. Don't get me wrong; still very good... just not what I'd hoped.

I haven't read the core Civil War books yet so this really seems like a good "behind the scenes" kind of starter. It was fun, but more informative than anything else.