Civil War # 1, Wolverine # 42 (until page 27), Civil War: Frontline # 1, Amazing Spider-Man # 532 (until page 21), New Avengers # 21, She-Hulk # 8, Black Panther # 18, Captain America # 22
The New Warriors head to Stamford, Connecticut to film the second season of their reality TV show. They track down Coldheart, Cobalt Man, Speedfreak, and Nitro to a suburban house across the street from an elementary school and battle with them during, well, recess. Nitro then explodes, killing the New Warriors and some 600 people at Stamford, including school children.
The heroes respond, but there is a backlash. Rallied by Miriam Sharpe – mother of one of those killed in the blast – thousands are demanding super-hero registration. What would registration mean? Revealing your secret identity to the government, getting training in use of your powers, and licensed. During an informal meeting at the Baxter Building, the rift between those who agree and disagree begins to grow. When SHIELD Commander Maria Hill tells Captain America he’ll have to hunt down those that don’t comply, Cap refuses and is attacked. Captain America then goes underground and Iron Man – who is in support of registration – tell the President he’ll hunt Cap down.
During this, we’ve got Wolverine, who feels as though everyone is getting too cluttered in the post-Stamford event and instead should be concentrating on finding Nitro, who managed to escape.
Sally Floyd and Ben Urich are asked to take a side by their respective publishers, which eventually leads Sally into an interview with Spider-Man and Ben arguing with Jameson. Spider-Man gives Sally a tip – to see Iron Man’s Washington Press Conference, where Tony reveals that he’s not only Iron Man, but also an alcoholic as a way to of “coming clean.” Oh, and it turns out Speedball survived and is secretly arrested, his powers having saved him and burned out from the explosion.
As this is all occurring Tony allies himself with the government and asks Peter to fully disclose himself to the government and the public as a rallying symbol. Peter is left uncertain of this.
SHIELD manages to track down Cap, who confronts an alive Dum-Dum Dugan before escaping and meeting up with the Falcon. The pair then goes to recruit Yellowjacket, who holds them until a unit of the newly-instated Capekiller soldiers arrive to take them down. The pair escape, of course, to bring more to their cause.
The New Warriors not involved in the Stamford incident go to She-Hulk for help in their legal battle with a website that is making their names known so that angry lynch mobs can attack their friends and families. After a brief court battle, Iron Man gives She-Hulk the name of who is behind it – former New Warrior Hindsight Lad. The New Warriors take him down. Meanwhile, John Jameson (Man-Wolf) is confronted by Cap, but turns him down and instead proposes to Pro-Reg She-Hulk.
In Wakanda, there is a cease-fire issued when Black Panther and Storm marry. Iron Man and Captain America have harsh words, but it doesn’t take too much away from the wedding. Storm’s very spirit is tested before she is deemed strong enough to marry T’Challa. Man-Ape turns out to have been invited, Doom sends wedding gifts, and despite the tension, everyone seems to have had a good time.
Finally, Sharon Carter gets a psychological evaluation after messing things up. SHIELD tried to use her feelings for Cap to bring him in, but she sent the Capekillers to another location while she tried to convince Steve to change his mind. She’s okay to return to duty, but it turns out that the evil Doctor Lukin is working with the Red Skull and is messing with her mind.
Whew! And this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Civil War itself brings the problem right up in front and is among Millar’s best single issues. Everything is really well done, from the opening scenes to Cap’s leaving of the Hellicarrier. The best moment, however, is the meeting at the Baxter Building. It really brings the large Marvel Universe together in such a strangely informal way. The Avengers, Young Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and a number of B and C-listers are all there, discussing what’s going on. And when the Watcher arrives, you can just feel the already tense situation take a grave turn. It’s a great scene that pulls the issue together.
Wolverine is a good start. I like to see someone actually making an effort to track down the real killer. I’ll cover more Wolverine ground later.
Frontline presents a nice start and it’s good to see a more ground-level, human-eye look at the events taking place. The scene with Sally and Spider-Man is fantastically awkward and Iron Man’s “coming out” would have been far more dull if not the “and I’m an alcoholic” part. Good beginning.
Amazing Spider-Man is pretty straight-forward. Not sure why Tony is pushing Peter to reveal his identity to the public, but I can see why Tony needs Peter to at least register. The Tony/Peter dynamic is a great aspect of this book and really comes through nicely.
New Avengers gives us a decent look at the inside of Cap’s head as he’s dealing with recent events. The art is a strange match, but I loved seeing Cap and Falcon working together, as well as Cap starting up the rebellion.
She-Hulk is a treat. It’s good to see an issue dedicated to dealing with the New Warriors not involved in Stamford. I wish there had been more Civil War tie-ins, including one dealing with the details of the Registration Act.
Black Panther is good. I like the blend of realism and Marvel fiction in terms of the guest list. Needed more X-Men. We saw Nightcrawler, Professor X, and the Astonishing team, but where was Rogue, Cannonball, Warren, Bobby, and the others? Even New Excalibur were shown! A better spotlight on the X-Men would have been great here, but Kitty and Professor X both get nice little moments (unlike Cyclops, who gets the dull line “I wonder what kind of impact this will have on her responsibilities as an X-Man?” BLARGH!). Cyclops has a personality. Hudlin finally starts to get the hang of Storm, which is about time. The spirit world/Panther God scene is nicely done and overall, the issue is pretty good. I placed it here instead of later mainly because I put it later, it would have hurt the Luke/Jess separation. Furthermore, it serves as the only other time that Cap and Iron Man are somewhat non-violent with each other.
Finally, we have Captain America. It was cool seeing this story from Sharon’s POV and seeing her struggle with everything going is a nice and needed touch. Cap’s determination really shines through. Brubaker has Cap nailed here. And the scheming by the Red Skull is an excellent scene.
~W~
No comments:
Post a Comment