New Avengers: The Illuminati, Fantastic Four 436-437, Amazing Spider-Man # 529-531
Okay, okay, I know, I know. What in the world is Civil War doing here? Well, I figured we’ve got some time to kill since we’re looking to get this completely up-to-date by the time “Messiah Complex” is over, so let’s do it like this. I’ve broken down every single portion of Civil War into a gigantic chronological read order. You can check it out over here. I figured, since we’ve got this time to kill, why not focus on that? I mean, while the X-Men aren’t the stars, they do have a role to play and there are repercussions in their little corner of the Marvel Universe. Plus, I'm a big fan of "Civil War." It's actually among my favorite Marvel stories, so . . . yeah. You'll get an up-date today, then some in the middle of the week (I'm thinking Wednesday-ish), then next week. Ready? Good. Here we go!
After the Kree/Skrull War, Iron Man called together Mr. Fantastic, Black Panther, Professor X, Namor, Black Bolt, and Doctor Strange in the hopes of forming an uber-team. Everyone turned it down. So, it was decided by everyone but Black Panther that this group would meet every now in secret to share information and to tackle “secret” issues. Recently, with Professor X missing, this group decided to launch the Hulk into space. This created a rift in the group as Namor greatly disagreed. He rushed off. Now, Iron Man has called them together again in regards to some legislation he was secretly handed. Turns out that the government is nearing it’s wit’s end as far as super-human recklessness is concerned and wants to propose an act that will force super-heroes to register with the government. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic want to get behind it, Strange and Black Bolt disagree, and Namor laughs and leaves.
When Reed gets home, he and the rest of the Fantastic Four are called to Okalahoma, where Doombots are attacking a research facility that’s been built around the fallen hammer of Thor. Doctor Doom himself arrives, as it was the hammer than freed him from Hell and he thinks he’s worthy of it. Well, duh, he’s not, but he did “activate” and a mysterious ‘DB’ is on his way to retrieve it.
Meanwhile, Iron Man gives Spider-Man an Iron Spider-Man Armor and makes Peter his right-hand man. They head to Washington to argue the registration legislation. Conveniently, Titanium Man shows up. Spider-Man fights him, they continue to debate, and then they leave. It then turns out that Titanium Man was hired by Stark to show lawmakers that heroes are needed.
Okay, so let’s get to it, shall we?
First of all, the Fantastic Four story is great. It’s short, it’s fun, it’s exciting and energetic. Between JMS script and Mike McKone’s art, it’s rather good.
Illuminati is pretty good too, but this is where I start to have a problem. Now, let me state that I like the idea of the Illuminati. It’s one of those “I thought of this idea ten years ago!” things. It just makes sense to me, y’know? Overall, the script works and Alex Maleev’s art really fleshes it out nicely.
Amazing Spider-Man is good too, but it gets a little long-winded. It’s funny, don’t get me wrong, and both Tyler Kirkham and Ron Garney do good work here, but the dialogue is very, shall we say, Claremontian? But I can look past that, I suppose.
Here’s my beef though – why introduce the legislation now? It doesn’t make any sense. What’s the point? Because a bad thing is going to happen? Gah, the wheels are showing. Even a line saying that “it’s been in the works for years, sometimes getting shelved and sometimes getting dusted off when crazy things are happening” would have worked. The scene that kills me is when Iron Man talks about exactly what happens. I know, I know, futurist. But still . . . it stretches even my suspension of belief.
Seriously, if this portion was toned down, it would have been better.
You know, if you couple this with the first few pages of the Civil War Sketchbook, it actually really feels like you’re about to get swept into something huge gigantic. Which really works for this story.
~W~
No comments:
Post a Comment