Believe me, Civil War pissed me off, too. The political overtones were bad enough, but the narrative inconsistencies bothered me just as much: characters suddenly reversing long-held stands, devoted, compassionate family men like Reed suddenly turning into the worst "smart people are remote and scary and ethically unfathomable" stereotypes. I walked away from Marvel, and stated flat out that the Marvel Universe was dead to me now.
Civil War, however, was just one part of a much longer narrative. The broad strokes were planned out in advance, at the "story summit" Marvel had a few years ago: Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and Siege are all part of a single, ambitious saga, and the overarching theme is not at all subtle:
When you pass laws and take actions that ignore the rights and protections upon which modern civil society is based, no matter how necessary you think your actions are, it is inevitable that those powers will pass into the hands of those who will abuse them for personal gain, and undo everything you thought you were fighting for.
Civil War showed characters we'd long considered "heroes" use a flimsy pretext to impose fascist measures on the metahuman populace and the public at large.
Secret Invasion reveals part of the real reason for this sea change: shape-shifting aliens have infiltrated the Earth, and the metahuman community in particular. Major characters are revealed to have been replaced by aliens, some a very long time ago. They're not the main ones responsible for the "Registration Act", though: there's a core group of conspirators who've paved this road with the best of intentions.
And we know where a road like that leads, right?
Dark Reign shows how it all blows up in their faces. The main architect of the Registration Act gets booted out of his position of power, after the aliens sabotage his technology and disable much of Earth's defenses in the process. A "reformed" supervillain, leading a squad of other reformed villains, is the hero of the day after taking out the alien command ship -- and gets put in charge instead.
The Bad Guys win, the Good Guys are on the run -- and they have only themselves to blame.
Do you need alien invasions and supervillain conspiracies to make these points? Probably not. But these are superhero comic books. These are firmly-established elements of the setting. They are the tools in the toolbox, and the instruction manual says right there on the first page: GO BIG OR GO HOME!!
No, Marvel couldn't tell this kind of story with Cap around, because Cap is the moral compass of the Marvel Universe. Things were bad when he was killed, but after his death, they went completely off the rails -- and his return was one of the big emotional beats in Siege, the Grand Finale of this four-year epic.
As for Cap's "Cowardly Surrender" to Stark... I haven't read those issues, since I was still pissed at Marvel at that point. I tend to agree with scarfman's assessment, as depicted in the "Kingman" sequence of Arthur: King of Time and Space: Cap surrendered to get his day in court, appeal the fight all the way up to the Supremes, and get the bullshit Registration Act ruled unconstitutional.
no subject
Believe me, Civil War pissed me off, too. The political overtones were bad enough, but the narrative inconsistencies bothered me just as much: characters suddenly reversing long-held stands, devoted, compassionate family men like Reed suddenly turning into the worst "smart people are remote and scary and ethically unfathomable" stereotypes. I walked away from Marvel, and stated flat out that the Marvel Universe was dead to me now.
Civil War, however, was just one part of a much longer narrative. The broad strokes were planned out in advance, at the "story summit" Marvel had a few years ago: Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and Siege are all part of a single, ambitious saga, and the overarching theme is not at all subtle:
When you pass laws and take actions that ignore the rights and protections upon which modern civil society is based, no matter how necessary you think your actions are, it is inevitable that those powers will pass into the hands of those who will abuse them for personal gain, and undo everything you thought you were fighting for.
Civil War showed characters we'd long considered "heroes" use a flimsy pretext to impose fascist measures on the metahuman populace and the public at large.
Secret Invasion reveals part of the real reason for this sea change: shape-shifting aliens have infiltrated the Earth, and the metahuman community in particular. Major characters are revealed to have been replaced by aliens, some a very long time ago. They're not the main ones responsible for the "Registration Act", though: there's a core group of conspirators who've paved this road with the best of intentions.
And we know where a road like that leads, right?
Dark Reign shows how it all blows up in their faces. The main architect of the Registration Act gets booted out of his position of power, after the aliens sabotage his technology and disable much of Earth's defenses in the process. A "reformed" supervillain, leading a squad of other reformed villains, is the hero of the day after taking out the alien command ship -- and gets put in charge instead.
The Bad Guys win, the Good Guys are on the run -- and they have only themselves to blame.
Do you need alien invasions and supervillain conspiracies to make these points? Probably not. But these are superhero comic books. These are firmly-established elements of the setting. They are the tools in the toolbox, and the instruction manual says right there on the first page: GO BIG OR GO HOME!!
No, Marvel couldn't tell this kind of story with Cap around, because Cap is the moral compass of the Marvel Universe. Things were bad when he was killed, but after his death, they went completely off the rails -- and his return was one of the big emotional beats in Siege, the Grand Finale of this four-year epic.
As for Cap's "Cowardly Surrender" to Stark... I haven't read those issues, since I was still pissed at Marvel at that point. I tend to agree with