I'm enjoying Marvel's Civil War and Civil War: Front Line books, even under the nagging premonition that, like House of M, Civil War is likely to not actually end within the scope of the core miniseries. And when I say "end," I mean "return the Marvel U to the status quo, like most every other big name multi-hero crossover storyline." Betting man that I am, I think that Marvel is going to let the Registration Act stand so that all the books get the fun of dealing with the ramifications of the Act for a year or so, before formally repealing it in another big event To Be Named Later.
Similar to how DC is letting Infinite Crisis drain out into 52, the dangling "New Earth" question, and the One Year Later books. What can you do; it's a good business strategy. As a comics publisher, you'd have to be an idiot to NOT take the advantage of a heavily promoted, mega-popular crossover storyline and turn it into a spray of new series and minis.
Although, say what you will about Infinite Crisis, at least it did end. There is enough denouement in the final issue to happily wrap up all the major plot threads (and if you want to know more, that's what the semi-sequels are for). Compare that to House of M, which ends on a smegging cliffhanger. The feeling I got at the end of that one was that Marvel had crossed the line between Ending a Good Story and Tricking Me Into Buying Another Story.
But about Civil War. Started off great, with the New Warriors reality show that triggers the nuclear decimation of a US suburb... which leads to most citizens calling for a government-sponsored end to un-regulated super hero activities. Very classically Marvel, that. Average people hating the heroes has always been a Marvel bailiwick.
So after the government announces that they want to register all "powered combatants," it becomes a major internal argument as to whether this is a good thing or not. Iron Man leads the faction that approves of registration; Captain America goes underground with the resistance movement.
Emotionally, I'm against registration. But I don't want to just side with Cap's team simply because it feels slimy. I want to put some thought into the decision. I mean, if our world had people who could fly around and shoot energy bolts from their eyes, I have trouble believing they would be allowed to roam free. So I can see why Iron Man thinks registration is the way to go... although I don't buy his sob story about getting the public to believe in them again. The Marvel U gets blown up every other week and nobody ever cared about that before; that ship has sailed, Tony. They hate you. It is just rare that a writer bothers to include them in the story.
The trouble with registration is that it turns the heroes into government employees. And since there is not a fictional universe anywhere where the Government is a happy, benevolent, trustworthy organization, it seems obvious that the White House will quickly devolve into claiming full ownership of every registered hero.
This has already happened in Front Line, where Wonder Man finds himself being ordered to go do such-and-such by shadowy federal agents, simply because he has registered. So, assuming your government is bad... registration will end up a mistake. Why does Iron Man think that people trust their elected officials more than they trust the guy in tights who just stopped a plane from falling out of the sky.
And anyway, registration would not have stopped Nitro from blowing up Stamford, or wherever that was. Registration also is not likely to have stopped the New Warriors getting their own TV show. You can make a case that the government (via SHIELD) would have insisted that the New Warriors retreat... but that's pure Monday morning quarterbacking. Things are still going to explode after the Act's passing, so all of the "safety" concerns are pretty feeble.
Is it ironic that Captain America decides to fight the Act? Not really, but it's supposed to be. Having Captain America be at odds with AMERICA is one of the guy's recurring themes. Somebody should go do a count of the number of times a cover has screamed "Captain America VS AMERICA!!!" and then see if we're all still shocked that the ultimate patriot has joined the resistance.
The whole Spider-Man reveal thing. First of all, it sucks that Marvel press released it BEFORE anybody had a chance to read the damn comic. I can see them wanting to drum up business, but would it have killed them to do it the day after the issue hit stores? Secondly, although I don't believe in Peter Parker's newfound reasons for revealing his true identity (which aren't even discussed in Civil War proper, screw you again Marvel), I'm okay with the new stories this opens up. Sometimes, the cost of needing to do New Things is to change your lead character a little bit.
I found Mr. Fantastic's reasons for supporting the Act hugely disappointing. I was hoping he would give some reasoned, intelligent backing... something for me to chew on. But he just threw up a statistics extrapolation that suggested that metahuman incidents would eventually engulf the planet. Wha?
What he should have said is, "Look, my family has been public since Day One, and we're fine. Everybody knows our identities. We make a living selling off my fabulous patents and various FF merchandising. We do our best to save every life we can; we do our best to fix any damage we cause. We're not perfect, but we have found a way to be both responsible and powerful. Of course, my children have to live inside a fortified skyscraper with six-foot-thick steel walls, but there you go."
I do like Thing's solution. Unable to support the Act and equally unable to stand against his country, he just left!
