We're not fighting for the people anymore, Falcon... Look at us.
We're just fighting.
The first Civil War is a prime example of subtext done right in comics. At its surface, it is an all-out brawl between superheroes, a fan-service to finally show what would happen if teams like the Avengers and Fantastic Four were to split right down the middle and fight one another. This premise works well, it's easy advertising for one. 'Whose side are you on?' became as synonymous with the Civil War run as the name itself. It featured two of Marvel's biggest stars: Captain America and Iron Man. A reader coming in blind could pick their favorite and cheer for them like one would a football team as they read seven issues packed to the brim with superhero slugfests. But the story itself delivered so much more than just pages of people in spandex getting beat up over and over again.
It is easy to write good action in a comic book. In fact, with Marvel and DC, that really is their main attraction. Big, flashy powers and cool costumes. Comics can and have become very popular by establishing action-packed premises that required very little narrative backing. See: Avengers vs. X-Men, which did not present much in terms of deep, contextual writing but was just a fun read. Readers could finally see the prospect of which team would win in a fight come to life in front of them. At the end of the day, sometimes that is all that matters.
Mark Millar took the story beyond this, instead utilizing the timing of the run to further explore the direction Marvel Comics, particularly the Avengers, had been going in. When Brian Michael Bendis came aboard Marvel and was given command of the Avengers, he immediately turned heads by tearing the team apart and killing off several prominent members in 2004's Avengers Disassembled.
Thus began Bendis's slow process of breaking down and building back up the Avengers, a process that required them to lose not only their core team but the faith of the public and their trust in each other as well. The team was forced to face their own demons and personalities, both introspectively and in the form of external threats, and it was a long yet rewarding run that ultimately allowed several heroes to break common tropes associated with them and truly grow in character.
The effects of the internal turmoil crippling the Avengers leeched its way into other teams, like the X-Men, and this became most apparent in Civil War. The heroes were too focused on themselves and each other, and it allowed the Skrulls to take advantage of the fracture and gradually infiltrate Earth's ranks, as Bendis slowly set up the Secret Invasion crossover that ran in 2008. Civil War takes place right in the middle of Avengers: Disassembled and Secret Invasion, in 2006-07.
After a reality television team of superheroes' mishap causes the deaths of over 600, including an entire school of small children, the United States begins to question the impunity of heroes. A motion is put on the floor for a Superhero Registration Act. All powered individuals would have to register themselves with the government and fall under government jurisdiction, an action strongly favored by Iron Man and strongly opposed by Captain America. Other heroes fall into line behind one of the two based on their own personal views. The law forced everyone to pick a side or retire, and as such, the event was wide-reaching across all currently ongoing runs.
The ideas Civil War grapples with are not only reflective of the timing of publication via events within the Marvel Universe, but also in real-life American society. The struggle of freedom versus security that was so prevalent during the height of counterterrorism efforts. The Patriot Act had just been extended by President George W. Bush, bringing up questions of how much the government was allowed to monitor its citizens' lives in the name of their safety.
Captain America asked the same question, and in doing so became a foil of the figurehead he once was. The sentinel of liberty and American values was on the opposite side of American law. It took Cap the entire run of the series to realize this, that he was no longer the people's champion. He wasn't fighting for the American populace, he was fighting for himself and other heroes. His ideology was shattered, and with victory well in hand, he instead surrendered.
Cap's downfall was not unique. Millar craftily wove the downfall of heroic morals throughout the story, showing just how low both Cap and Iron Man would go to gain the upper hand on the other. Both are surprised when they struggle to control the villains and vigilantes they indoctrinate into their fold. When the Punisher is making a debatably better moral call than Captian America, it's a sign of just how much of a toll the war has taken on the flag-bearing leader. Some might see this as heroes behaving out-of-character, but it is more so a projection of individuals who are already stretched thin trying to keep a level head in a messy situation. Marvel heroes are, for the most part, human, and they are prone to committing errors every once in a while. These lapses of judgment add real stakes to the conflict, as several characters perish, and many of them remain deceased long afterwards (a much-mocked rarity in Marvel).
That said, many of these deaths occur not in the main seven-issue run itself but in one of the dozens of tie-in series written to accompany Civil War. This is a recurring problem Marvel Comics has had for around the past 15 years or so. Their yearly 'epics' are frequent and, in the case of many, require a lot of extra reading to acquire the entire context of the story. Tie-ins can be done well, when they are optional add-ons that might shed some light on the actions of side characters and maybe reveal some information about motivations or why a certain figure does not appear in the main story. When done poorly, they fill in essential gaps and all but force the reader to consult them in order to fully comprehend what is going on. Civil War, unfortunately, leans towards the latter.
This could be one of the reasons why criticism towards Civil War was middling, despite the run becoming one of the best selling series of all time. Fan reception, it appears was a lot more positive than the reviewers' consensus. The premise itself would sell well, pitting heroes against one another is an intriguing prospect, no matter how well or poorly written the final product ends up being. Mark Millar provides his blend of down-to-earth, snappy dialogue here. Every line is written with a punch, and the grittiness of the character interactions lend themselves well to the epic showdowns taking place on panel.
From an illustrative standpoint, Steve McNiven adds his touch a hyper-detailed illustration, a style of the era. Some characters and their costumes, like Iron Man's armor and the scales on Captain America's torso, come across as amazing, but the facial expressions can occasionally break the reader's immersion. The characters routinely have these facial expressions that come across as looking like they were stumped by a math equation, and the mouth takes on a frequent lip-biting pose that comes across as comedically overdramatic in a couple of instances. McNiven draws his settings well, although the larger fights tend to wind up with little more than brown rubble in the background. for such a large cast of heroes he has to juggle and an even larger number of cameos appearing in the background of panels, he does an excellent job making each character's appearance unique.
Civil War is flashy, over the top action. It's also a gritty, character-driven drama about the necessity of surveillance and the individual liberties granted to the common American. It's a read that is not only fun but also relevant to modern times, and a display of how pure intentions can lead down dark paths. In all, it is probably one of Marvel's best series ever, and, even with the unnecessary amount of tie-ins pulling information away from the main story, is an essential must-read for any comic book fan. As a bonus, it introduced the world to the Iron-Spider.
After a reality television team of superheroes' mishap causes the deaths of over 600, including an entire school of small children, the United States begins to question the impunity of heroes. A motion is put on the floor for a Superhero Registration Act. All powered individuals would have to register themselves with the government and fall under government jurisdiction, an action strongly favored by Iron Man and strongly opposed by Captain America. Other heroes fall into line behind one of the two based on their own personal views. The law forced everyone to pick a side or retire, and as such, the event was wide-reaching across all currently ongoing runs.
The ideas Civil War grapples with are not only reflective of the timing of publication via events within the Marvel Universe, but also in real-life American society. The struggle of freedom versus security that was so prevalent during the height of counterterrorism efforts. The Patriot Act had just been extended by President George W. Bush, bringing up questions of how much the government was allowed to monitor its citizens' lives in the name of their safety.
Captain America asked the same question, and in doing so became a foil of the figurehead he once was. The sentinel of liberty and American values was on the opposite side of American law. It took Cap the entire run of the series to realize this, that he was no longer the people's champion. He wasn't fighting for the American populace, he was fighting for himself and other heroes. His ideology was shattered, and with victory well in hand, he instead surrendered.
Cap's downfall was not unique. Millar craftily wove the downfall of heroic morals throughout the story, showing just how low both Cap and Iron Man would go to gain the upper hand on the other. Both are surprised when they struggle to control the villains and vigilantes they indoctrinate into their fold. When the Punisher is making a debatably better moral call than Captian America, it's a sign of just how much of a toll the war has taken on the flag-bearing leader. Some might see this as heroes behaving out-of-character, but it is more so a projection of individuals who are already stretched thin trying to keep a level head in a messy situation. Marvel heroes are, for the most part, human, and they are prone to committing errors every once in a while. These lapses of judgment add real stakes to the conflict, as several characters perish, and many of them remain deceased long afterwards (a much-mocked rarity in Marvel).
That said, many of these deaths occur not in the main seven-issue run itself but in one of the dozens of tie-in series written to accompany Civil War. This is a recurring problem Marvel Comics has had for around the past 15 years or so. Their yearly 'epics' are frequent and, in the case of many, require a lot of extra reading to acquire the entire context of the story. Tie-ins can be done well, when they are optional add-ons that might shed some light on the actions of side characters and maybe reveal some information about motivations or why a certain figure does not appear in the main story. When done poorly, they fill in essential gaps and all but force the reader to consult them in order to fully comprehend what is going on. Civil War, unfortunately, leans towards the latter.
This could be one of the reasons why criticism towards Civil War was middling, despite the run becoming one of the best selling series of all time. Fan reception, it appears was a lot more positive than the reviewers' consensus. The premise itself would sell well, pitting heroes against one another is an intriguing prospect, no matter how well or poorly written the final product ends up being. Mark Millar provides his blend of down-to-earth, snappy dialogue here. Every line is written with a punch, and the grittiness of the character interactions lend themselves well to the epic showdowns taking place on panel.
From an illustrative standpoint, Steve McNiven adds his touch a hyper-detailed illustration, a style of the era. Some characters and their costumes, like Iron Man's armor and the scales on Captain America's torso, come across as amazing, but the facial expressions can occasionally break the reader's immersion. The characters routinely have these facial expressions that come across as looking like they were stumped by a math equation, and the mouth takes on a frequent lip-biting pose that comes across as comedically overdramatic in a couple of instances. McNiven draws his settings well, although the larger fights tend to wind up with little more than brown rubble in the background. for such a large cast of heroes he has to juggle and an even larger number of cameos appearing in the background of panels, he does an excellent job making each character's appearance unique.
Civil War is flashy, over the top action. It's also a gritty, character-driven drama about the necessity of surveillance and the individual liberties granted to the common American. It's a read that is not only fun but also relevant to modern times, and a display of how pure intentions can lead down dark paths. In all, it is probably one of Marvel's best series ever, and, even with the unnecessary amount of tie-ins pulling information away from the main story, is an essential must-read for any comic book fan. As a bonus, it introduced the world to the Iron-Spider.
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