My Thoughts on Civil War (comic book) by Mark Millar

This month, I'm revealing my thoughts on the Marvel Universe Events comic book volume, Civil War, which is comprised of issues #1-7. I'll admit, I read this because I'm excited about the Captain American: Civil War movie coming out next month (BIG Cap fan!), so I wanted to see how the original story panned out. I can already tell many things are different from what I've seen in the movie's trailers.

This volume is more of an Avengers story than a Captain America story, which is fine. That is how this story was originally meant to be. I expect one major difference in the movie will be a greater emphasis on Cap himself, over anyone else. In the comic book volume, no one character steals the limelight too much, but you do have a lot of panning back to Tony Stark (Iron Man), leading the pro-government faction, and Steve Rogers (Captain America) leading the pro-independence faction.

The story begins with an inciting incident called the Stamford Incident in which a man with superhero abilities blows up a large area of residential homes, including a school while it is in session, with his powers. Congress decides to pass the Superhero Registration Act, which forces all superheroes to reveal their identities and become employees of the government.

Tony Stark has never been coy about being Iron Man, so he's okay with every superhero going public about their human identities. Alternatively, Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, has never let anyone know who he really is in the public sphere and he is not about to now. He can see this is dangerous for superheroes because the attitude toward superheroes is not always positive. He cops a "fight me" stance against the Registration Act and a lot of the Avengers follow him, also not wanting to give up their true identities.

We see reasons why both sides have good arguments for their positions. One superhero, who has been publically open about his true identity all along, gets jumped and beaten to within an inch of his life at a nightclub one night, turning him and his superhero sibling into anti-Registration supporters. Tony Stark gets a lot of influence from a woman who lost her young son in the explosion that sparked the Act into existence. Some of the heroes stay completely out of the fight, like the X-Men.

What we see is how far each side is willing to go to win and when Avengers turn against one another, things get really ugly. Pro-Registration folks turn to hunting down their old friends like dogs, even cloning other superheroes in order to shift the balance of power in their favor. Anti-Registration folks have to resort to trickery and backstabbing to stay afloat because they are the underdogs in the fight.

In the end, things get cleared up, but it feels too neat and tidy after everything they go through, trying to and actually succeeding in killing each other. I wish the series had lasted for more than only seven issues because it was just too dang short. I wanted to know more about why Tony was willing to become a government lap dog and why Cap was so staunchly opposed to any sort of superhero regulation whatsoever. We never explore their feelings, and theirs mattered more to me than the other characters' feelings.

My other peeve with this comic book is that the action scenes aren't really drawn in a way that makes me feel like the characters are even fighting each other. I'm used to reading Japanese comic books for boys (shonen manga) with loads of fighting that looks like the real thing, but this volume makes everybody look like when the group fighting begins, they're all just having a dance party. It's kind of unintentionally hilarious, but annoying when I want to see just one person drawn actually landing a punch on someone's face.

Despite these niggling irritations, I liked the story, but if it had had more issues, it would have been more believable how things get resolved and would have allowed for more insight into the main characters' actions. I know the movie will differ in that the law being enforced is a United Nations treaty, and Cap is trying to help his old friend Bucky, who does not appear in the comic book at all. I hope the movie is more to my liking and, while I know their reasons will differ from the comic book's version, I also want to see a deeper delving into why Tony and Cap are taking their respective sides on this issue.

Anyone else excited to see the movie?