For years, I had decided Marvel was not for me. I just couldn’t get into the ensemble antics
of the Avengers (aside from Marvel 1602, a
rare exception). Then recently, having
been pushed, I started reading Marvel titles that I enjoyed (Daredevil, She-Hulk), which led to Civil War.
And it seems I may have to eat all my words. I loved the first volume of Civil War.
The premise is far more arresting and compelling than Avengers vs X-Men, although in some ways
built along a similar divide in opinion.
Civil War is about civil
liberties, as I said in my She-Hulk review,
and invites us to put ourselves in the position of Marvel’s superheroes. In the wake of a superhero reality show gone
bad which results in the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, superheroes are
being vilified. In an attempt to redeem
the situation, some superheroes—principally Iron Man—are endorsing a
registration act. The opponents of the
act—led by a mostly-absent Captain America—decry the fact that by registering,
their identities become known, which can lead to the vulnerabilities of their
families. This is lovely stuff; this is
what good literature is supposed to do, interrogate the human condition.
There are many things to love in Civil War. I don’t know how
central to the plot they are at other times, but the fact that Civil War makes journalists Ben (of
Jonah Jameson’s Daily Bugle, and
therefore slightly more cautious, conservative) and Sally (of the more militant
The Alternative) two of the most
important characters is vastly in its favor.
Ben Urich and Sally Floyd can debate the intricacies of political theory
and government—“All of a sudden,” Sally says on page 5, “journalism was going
to take a backseat to jingoism, and the fight for a nation’s sentiment would be
on”—while at the same time being more than mere mouthpieces: I believe in them as characters. Their ups and downs are at least as
interesting as any of the superhero stuff.
(Sally’s encounter with
Spider-Man—though why is he wearing that weird costume?—was vastly
amusing—“Spider-Man was inside my apartment for three minutes and I just about
jumped inside his spandex.”) I admire
their courage, especially Sally’s as she mouths off to a S.H.I.E.L.D/NSA agent
and then gets arrested,
There’s also Speedball, a character of whom I had never
heard before, one of the New Avengers whose storyline strikes me as
particularly bold, with shades of a slightly sanitized version of Vertigo’s Scalped.
I find it very difficult not to admire the character’s
uncompromising political stance on refusing to register, despite the fact this
sends him to prison, makes him the scapegoat of the nation, loses him the
support of his parents, and—having somehow lost his powers—causes him to go
through a great deal of physical as well as psychological pain. I love an underdog, and I love this guy
Speedball. His lawyer is She-Hulk, who begins to look a lot less gutsy than she
did in her own title, compared to him. His
confrontation with Reed Richards is also classic. I was really impressed with this character’s
arc and am anxious to find out what happens to him.
“War Correspondence” is an interesting experiment, bringing
the struggles of the present day superheroes of varying stripes against the
backdrop of (mostly American) historical precedents in the form of poetry,
begun, audaciously enough, with the Japanese internment camps of WWII. These are opportunities for beautiful art
(and of course I applaud the use of poetry—Billy Joel counts as poetry ;-)) but
fall in to the law of diminishing returns.
(The fact that there isn’t a story to do with the American
Revolution—which, in my opinion, is the conflict most related to the questions
of individual freedom vs the safety of society which make up Civil War—suggests it’s coming up in the
next volume?)
I may be one of the few people in the world to say this, but
I haven’t seen any of the Iron Man movies. Yet I am convinced, by Civil War if not other sources, that I don’t much like him. (I would say Tony Stark seems like one of the
ideologically right wing of superheroes, and yet I love Batman, who you could
argue has a rather conservative agenda being from the socially elite and
maintaining his cover as Bruce Wayne.) He
claims to be conflicted about the way his allies in S.H.I.EL.D go after the
superheroes who refuse to register, but I find it difficult to believe. On the other hand, Spider-Man decides to
unmask himself (though the event itself must be covered in the relevant Spider-Man title; I wouldn’t mind
reading more about his reasons). There’s
an appearance from the Green Goblin (who looks rather like Peter Capaldi for
some reason) and an intriguing sleeper agent. Wonder Man fulfils the role of
unwilling stooge, entering the scene with one of the most amusing fake-outs
ever (“Who writes this crap?”).
I don’t know how Civil
War Front Line went down when it came out, but I was quite impressed
overall at its relevance and audacity.
With Speedball, about to be interned in an “undisclosed” location,
muttering, “ . . . God, where am I? Am I
even in America?”, it is refreshingly un-patriotic and would, I hope, engender
debate. It goes without saying that the art is quite
strong, holding its own against what are sometimes very wordy panels (my
favorite is Steve Lieber’s art for “The Accused”). Furthermore, all the writing here is from the
brain of Paul Jenkins, so my hat’s off to him.
