So this year’s Marvel event has ended. Civil War, which was advertised as a pivotal event that would “change the Marvel landscape forever”, came to what many consider, a lackluster end. After reading the final issue a few times, I feel it wasn’t as terrible as I had expected it to be. These are my thoughts on the entire event.
First, the bad: this crossover was far too long for the story it intended to tell. Not only was the central arc (published in the Civil War #1-7 mini) almost unnecessary (man of the major plot lines were dealt with in other comics published by Marvel), but its schedule and massive delays forced Marvel’s entire publishing line to be delayed so that plot points were not revealed and spoiled. The story that was originally intended to be published in a 7 month period, dragged on for 11+ months.
And the truth is there wasn’t enough going on to warrant 11 months, let alone 7. Sure, we had the big Spiderman unmasking in issue 2, but other than that, we had a lot of characters talking about how bad this war was for 6 issues, all of it leading up to the inevitable showdown between the opposing sides of the Registration Act. Rather than having a Civil War mini that all books have to wait upon, it would have been smarter to have two one shots that could act as end caps to the series. They could have solved their publishing problems and not stretched out the event unnecessarily.
Second: I understand that Marvel has to hype their events to sell books, but they really need to find a more creative way to advertise then they have been for the last 20 years. Every event can not “shake the Marvel Universe to its core”. I mean, let’s be honest; most of these massive events are forgotten and washed away less than a year after their inception. I don’t necessarily fault Marvel for this, I would just like to see them find a more creative way in promoting their books.
But the point of this review is not to condemn Civil War outright; I felt the ending was suitable if not a bit anticlimactic. For those of you who didn’t pick it up (and there are spoilers ahead folks), Captain America and his team of anti-registration super heroes surrender when Cap realize that the public is overwhelmingly in support of the law that forces all super folks to register and train under the federal government. Cap sees that even though he does not agree with the ruling, it is what the Common Joe wants to see done, and he allows the police to take him to jail for his physical resistance to it. Iron Man takes over S.H.E.I.L.D (the big military group in the Marvel Universe), and the government takes over the training of any individual who wants to become a super hero. A bit of an odd ending (if you can really call it an ending, because this just sets up a number of future arcs. I would seriously doubt Marvel will maintain this Registration Act longer than a few years, and everything will likely return to the status quo it was before Civil War), but the ending was as good a one as they could pull out of this whole event.
Let’s be honest here: no one would have believed for a minute that Captain America, Iron Man, or Reed Richards would have stayed dead if they were killed at the end of the crossover. Those characters are all icons, and icons can’t stay dead for long (especially if Marvel plans to make movies and cross promote using their trademarks). The ending of Civil War will likely not become the new status quo, but it does make for an interesting landscape for a bunch of super heroes to run around in for a few years. They didn’t insult us with an unbelievable ending, and for that I have to thank Marvel. As for their poor understand of the serial format and holding to a publishing schedule, well that’s another story…
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