Marvel's Civil War

TEHRE R UTHER MUTNATS B-SIDES WOLFERINE

The photo + the title have me ph34ring some Infinite Crisis sadface.

I was under the impression Bendis's Illuminati led up to Civil War, too, but I'm not sure.

Before this thread is subsumed in IC-esque vitriol & pith, let us remember the original Civil War thread, started by the late, great Tom. Here is a link. In case you're joining us late, Tom was chosen as the newest herald of Galactus. He is now ... THE CONCATENATOR. Godspeed, Tom, and, please, when the G gets the munchies, make sure those meeping Martian bastards get it first.

Spidey/Human Torch was very good, though.

The tone here is definitely po of face, O NOES blood on the shield! And "A Marvel Comics Event in 7 Parts" has an ELP triple-album vibe to it too, whatever happened to "#1 in a 7 issue miniseries" in that nice font across the top?

That said the way it's been talked up makes it seem like it's going to be metaphorisin' a real world situation (civil liberties/Patriot Act/etc.) in the Mighty Marvel Manner. As opposed to DC, where the divisive situation is completely arbitrary and the real driving conflict is "DO WE RETCON CRISIS?". You would think that the real-world dilemma would make for better stories, but on the other hand clearly it's going to motivate fans less.

(Also I get the definite feeling that Joe Q has cried wolf a few times too often about the Huge Importance of these various events.)

I mean, Spidey & Wolvie on the same team, c'mon, they're not gonna have them be in the wrong.

Anyway, yeah, the initial thing that turned me off of all this junk even as disposable ha-ha crap was finding out Bendis was putting his Illuminati gag -- which I'd been reading as a gag, anyway, you know, "oh yeah, of course a few of the more influential Marvelites get together for tea and arguing once in a while, it's the 21st century take on the Thing's old poker game with Dr Strange" -- to work as a serious comic with Ooh! New! Revealed! Secret! History! (more than a one-shot, I thought? a series or handful of one-shots? Maybe that was folded into Civil War, in actuality or in my head). It would be dumb enough even without recycling the Illuminati name -- is there anyone in the world with matching shoes who isn't sick of the factory-issued set of conspiracy theories by the end of their freshman year, if not the conspiracy theory genre in toto?

And on Marvel Civil War.

Dan, go read my X-Factor joke.

SCIENCE VERSUS VIGILANTES, WITH AMERICA IN THE MIDDLE

Dom Mariani has a band called The Majestic Kelp, if that helps?

Also, other than USAgent and Iron Man, I think you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find any record of political conservatism in the FF or Avengers. I don't think law enforcement or cooperation with the government are inherently conservative, politically, but Civil War's been written as if there's a direct correlation between the former and the latter. The results are just silly and cartoonish.

2) I think the same about CIVIL WAR, tho.

3) You're being kinda glib about what IC actually brought about; even if IC concerned itself, ultimately, w/ fleshing out the fringes of the DCU, CIVIL WAR seems deadset on giving the core of the MU a nice wedgie.

4) Your last post makes a whoooole lot of seemingly off-base presumptions. (hi Ward!)

5) Sore throats blow.

From the preview I spied - this guy.

These were the brands and properties which lost heat while the X-Men gained it, but after 3 movies, countless games etc. the X-Men are a pretty exhausted brand and so the company's pulling back and widening the focus. Like Claremont never happened!

Also I think the storytelling tone now is more 70s than 80s - a bit edgy, a bit anti-establishment and paranoid, more Gerber and Englehart than Shooter and Harras - and Civil War is a key step in moving Marvel back in that direction.

Reading back again this all seems rly obvious, but I'm posting it anyway!

WE WANT BROTHER VOODOO (tho I think he showed up in a book, too)! I MEAN NIGHT NURSE! I MEAN DEVIL DINOSAUR!

I would suspect some of this was coincidental before it became part of a deliberate strategy -- a natural consequence of writers coming up who'd grown up with certain characters and styles (Bendis's affection for Luke Cage and Jessica Drew is the most obvious example).

I'd be all for a revival of Marvel's wacky, mystical, and monster properties, especially these days when I don't think too many of them would be done Vertigo-style.

xpost; seriously, I had a Stegron proposal that I never got around to reworking after House of M made it impossible

Englehart's 'Secret Empire' storyline in Captain America (wherein it's strongly hinted that Richard Nixon is the evil mastermind out to discredit Cap) was obv. a response to post-Viet Nam blues/disillusionment, and Civil War is equally a post 9-11 comic

Even if THE RETURN is by most accounts a right turkey.

Marvel Monster Line to thread! (I think only David and I were reading this in floppies)

http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Monsters-TPB-Steve-Niles/dp/0785118934/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_txt/002-7037895-0280817

BTW, there's MORE Monster fun coming soon - Man-Thing, Werewolf By Night, & MORE(bius)!

Even all the cosmic shenanigans going on of late (& an actualy new NOVA series) prob. have their root in this 70s revival, as (IIRC) the 70s were Marvel's most cosmic times (FINALLY all that LSD kicked in - thanx, Mantis).

PWJ is a lot of fun though, particularly Cap's unreserved admiration for him.

Hasn't this been kind of true forever? Or at least for a half-decade up until the first movie/Grant Morrison's New X-Men.

[xpost]

Yeah, I'm liking ANNIHILATION lots, but the Nova book was the one that disappointed me the most, tho I can't really pinpoint why. Maybe it was all the Richard Rider / computer in his brane interplay bugging me, I'm not sure. Abnett & Lanning could def. do something fun w/ this (see LEGION), but they've been meh-ing me of late (see MAJESTIC & some awful fill-in work), so I'm actually going to abstain. Unless the 4-page preview changes my mind. Or, you know, the sun rises. (Also, "superstar Sean Chen"???? From the pages of RAI & THE FUTURE FORCE? Come on, folx!)

(Also this was the era of the successful cartoon, wasn't it?)

I liked the computerbrane stuff least in Nova, but I don't know, something about it I just dug. Though Drax was better, Drax was kind of awesome.

As for X-movie synergy / revitalization: back when Marvel was fond of the 25 Cent Issue gimmick, they discounted an issue of Chuck Austen's X-Men to coincide w/ the release of X2. Said issue was first part of the fiasco where Nightcrawler was supposed to destroy the Catholic Church, I believe, which I think says it all (tho, like Andrew, I'm not really sure what it says).

This is going to be the first line in my Jim Thompson pastiche novel.

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Uatu or Dr. Strange created the anomaly to bring Mar-Vell to the present because he'd change Hari Seldon's Reed Richards' equations. With the new info, Reed will be able to claim "oh ok, now that Marv's here, the world's not going to end after all. Call off the legislators!"

Well, it's a little of both. They definitely used a bit of the strength from the X-books (ie, Wolverine) to launch New Avengers and make House Of M what it was. But it seems like Marvel is making an effort to build up its other franchises in order to make them ripe for film adaptations, spin-offs, etc. I think they were spending so much time pimping Spidey and X-books for so long that they had underdeveloped a whole bunch of characters who have a lot of potential for success in the comics marketplace, and in licensing, which is where the company gets its big money. Quesada and Bendis have been pretty open about the fact that the company is making an effort to build up new and pre-existing characters with an eye towards making them fixtures of the universe -- Echo, The Sentry, The Runaways and New Avengers, that whole deal with The Hood.

CIVIL REPERCUSSIONS:

- Warren Ellis has Penance ineffectually banging his head against a brick wall while Bullseye gets sonned by D-list superguy (awesome)
- Punisher's (temporary?) new outfit cheeses off internet dinks (awesome)
- Spider-Man + JMS = WHINY LIKE CANNED HEAT SINGER (not awesome)
- Iron Man abuses terms like "pardon" and "registration" the way 24's Jack Bauer whips out "perimeter" & "damn it" (nooooooo)
- Captain America: STILL DEAD (yeah, sure)
- Black Goliath of Ebon Largess: STILL DEAD (lucky bastard)
- Captain Marvel: NO ONE CARES (w00t)
- Hulk & his warbound FTW (oh hell yes)