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Marvel's 'Civil War'.

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01:49 / 30.03.06

Be great if, after the dust cleared, Spider-Man was into science again. It smacks of wasted potential for the kid who invented his web-fluid and web shooters in his mid-teens
Tony Stark is trying to get Spidey to use his brain a little more. In New Avengers the team splits up to stop a supermenace and Tony tells Peter to meet up with SHIELD and use his negelected science mind to help figure out a solution.

Phex: Dorset Doom

03:58 / 30.03.06

Who is that Supermenace exactly? We've got a name, 'Michael', and we know he's human, but is this somebody I'm a stupidhead for not knowing about? Is it the third Summers-brother from X-men-Deadly Genesis (since we know there's a House of M connection and he seems au-fait with energy)?

05:28 / 30.03.06

Iron Man asks the Supermenace what his name is, and he kinda says something that sounds like Michael. Iron Man asks him if he means Michael Korvac, and I think he says no before being interrupted by Carol Danvers.

Korvac was a bit before my time, and I've never really read the issues, but he was a big time cosmic cube stealing time traveling ultrapowerful baddy from the late 70's Jim Shooter Avengers days.

Here's some info on him.
Michael Korvac info

Bendis seems to like late 70s Marvel stuff (Power Man, Spider Woman) and Korvac's name was thrown around different comic sites even before this issue came out.

Keith, like a scientist

12:34 / 30.03.06

I've gotta agree with Benjamin, I quite enjoyed that Illuminati special. I've been really apprehensive about this BIG SUMMER CROSSOVER EVENT OF THE CENTURY, but this special really nailed for me how well thought out it is. Tony's speech did it. They pulled the threads together and brought the Marvel universe into what I had been hoping for a long time: a level of maturity and reality. It makes sense.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

13:09 / 30.03.06

Yeah, it was when Tony laid it all out when I was like, "Yes. I want to read that."

15:00 / 30.03.06

Yeah, moi aussi. I dunno what it was, but I was fairly certain on Civil War anyway; having the premise expounded and exemplified in the comic, I'm certainly not any less so. (Although, that being said, the New Warriors more prologue bit looked pretty shitey.)

Really enjoyed Bendis after a wee break; not any real redundancy notable in the dialogue, chuntered along at voluble pace, really rather pleased with it. Maleev's Iron Man looked great, too.

16:17 / 30.03.06

Bendis, as much as I like him, often falls into the trap of writing every character with patented Bendis-y dialogue

I felt this way about his Dr. Strange dialogue. Particularly the "It's just wrong" bit. The weakness was particularly jarring after reading his Deadgirl romances.

Still, I found the historical inserts very enjoyable. This has certainly perked my interest in the Mini.

Keith, like a scientist

18:27 / 30.03.06

oh. oh and Hulk. I had been wondering what Planet Hulk was all about, but this was quite a wild idea for mainstream Marvel to do...was the entire thing related in another book? Because it happened in 3 pages of this one-shot...seems like it should have been a bigger deal event on it's own.

I don't think this is really a spoiler, but:

SPOILER MAYBE???

MAYBE????

also, in Wizard, they have an article about Civil War, and apparently the end of the mini is going to contain a major character revealing their identity to the world. who it was, was provoking heated arguments between Loeb and Bendis in particular, Bendis on the side of doing it.

also more talk of resurrecting someone that fans see as a symbol.

Spyder Todd 2008

19:36 / 30.03.06

But the only "symbols" still dead would never work. Gwen Stacey? I don't believe it. Same for Uncle Ben. Captian Marvel has been replaced by Genis, and he's not really a symbol much these days. Bucky's already back (Right? I haven't been paying attention much to Captain America). Jean Grey's deaths are meaningless. I mean honestly, who else is still dead?

19:47 / 30.03.06

>> was the entire thing related in another book?

In the pages of The Hulk for the past 3 issues, and with another approx. 6 issues to come of his adventures on the planet and presumably, how he eventually comes back to earth. In the Hulk, they have a 2-issue buildup where they show Nick Fury asking Bruce to go on this very special mission that only he can do, it's for the good of humanity, blah blah blah, and Bruce of course does it. Bruce goes onto a special satellite, fights some robot cyborg whatever thing briefly, and sees a videotape of the Illuminati saying 'sorry , dude, this is for the good of earth' and his satellite/spaceship flies off to the planet they've sent him to (which they thought was lifeless and of course is teeming with humanoids).

19:51 / 30.03.06

One nice touch is in the Hulk issue, they say on the tape "You always said you just wanted to left alone anyway, so we're making that happen for you, big guy" (well, not phrased exactly that way but they did you 'you always said you wanted to be left alone by humanity').

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:59 / 31.03.06

Yeah, one nice detail is that the ship the I11!uminati stick Hulk on has a course plotted for a planet that Reed Richards has identified as being devoid of sentient life, but rich in vegetation and game. The sort of place they genuinely think Hulk will be happy. However, once he sees their message, Hulk starts smashing things up inside the ship, fucks up the navigation, and it ends up somewhere very different.

I too enjoyed I11!uminati a lot more than I expected, largely because Bendis managed to make Tony Stark seem really sympathetic even when he's proposing all kinds of rubbish ideas. Namor is kind of a dick, but also the only person who seems to realise how events unfold in comics (i.e., the certainty that Hulk will be back, and angry). Plus, if part of the purpose of this was to make people want to know more about Black Panther and Black Bolt, consider my interest piqued.

This story had a really nice melancholy feel, that the fun times really are over: Xavier missing, lots of depressed ex-mutants, several missing/dead Avengers, Matt Murdock in jail, Nick Fury out of a job... Of course the reality is that the Marvel Universe is probably always in crisis like this, so well done to Bendis for making it seem genuinely worse than usual, without feeling too "it's a DARK TIME!" played-out. You can't help feel sorry for Stark, talking to his helmet like a saddo, clearly wishing for a very large whisky on the rocks.

(Although, that being said, the New Warriors more prologue bit looked pretty shitey.)

Woah, dude, how can you say that: Mark Millar's heard about this phenomenon called reality tv, and he's playing around with the idea of what if superheroes were, like, celebrities, and some of them were sort of b-list and were really concerned with their portrayal in the media? It's radical, bleeding-edge stuff!

08:11 / 31.03.06

Mmm. I'm kinda hopeful that'll be about it, really, explodo, Kingdom Come-style and then the big boys get involved. The New Warriors were pros too, as I recall, not this shower; not that I care to get caught up in 'characterisation' debates very often.

Black Bolt's great, definitely one of my top three favouritest Marvel characters; I'd recommend that Jenkins/Jae Lee Inhumans book for further reading, maybe not to buy, but defo for a read in the library if they have it. He's totally hardcore + lovely art, obvs.

12:34 / 31.03.06

I'm reading the Illuminati issue right now and so far Namor has the best line of the comic. They're all debating Iron Man's plan to send Hulk into space. Namor says
You used to have quite the drinking problem. Maybe we should throw you into the sun.

12:50 / 31.03.06

Just finished the issue. This is gonna be great. It already seems more promising than Infinite Crisis. The fight scene where Namor beats the crap outta Iron Man. Dr. Strange telling Tony and Reed that no matter how rational the Siperhero registration act is, it's still wrong and walking out.

I also liked Iron Man in this. Even though he's playing the government stooge, he's not being setup as the dick I thought he was going to be. He has his reasons for cooperating, and explains them. Also keeping Tony's futurist characterization that I saw in Ellis' run.

I liked that we got hard numbers on people (and animals) killed in a Hulk rampage. This may have been done in recent years, but I largely ignored Hulk for the last few years. I know in the older days casualties were never mentioned in regards to Hulk's rampages, even though it makes perfect sense.

I have high hopes for Civil War.

13:23 / 31.03.06

I like your delivery better than Namor's for some reason, Jack. Still, it is the best line, yeah.

Anyway, I like this: the Stamford Advocate reports...:

The cataclysmic destruction of a portion of the City That Works and the repercussions for Marvel Comics' superheroes is the subject of a seven-part comic book series titled "Civil War" debuting this spring.

"People are just shocked," said Salerno, owner of A Timeless Journey comic book store in Stamford, who has been telling customers about the event. "Everybody's trying to figure out 'Why Stamford?' It's just really cool."

13:57 / 31.03.06

Yeah, the New Warriors preview pages seem kinda lame, though nicely drawn by McNiven (the 'every panel is a long thin rectangle, 4 panels to a page' format annoyed me a bit, I got that in almost every issue of Ellis' Iron Man)....but I take comfort in Millar's pledge that he wants this to be his "Secret Wars", a really fun amazing crossover event (knowing that Millar was weaned on 80s Marvel).

14:47 / 31.03.06

I can't help seeing adult Spidey as a kind of sad, has-been figure-- the promising kid who could have gone on to do incredible things, but didn't (superheroics aside).

Not to stray too much from the Civil War topic, but I think this is key to modern-day Spidey's character. There's this sort of superficial thought among comics fans that Peter should be constantly miserable and have a shitty life. But what Spider-Man is REALLY about is mediocrity. He's a brilliant student BUT spends too much time as Spider-Man to get anywhere in the science world. He's a cool superhero BUT he's generally mistrusted by the public and considered a second-stringer. And, of course, he's been a freelance photographer since he was, like, 16.

Although Millar's Spider-Man run suffered from being a bit too dark and not nearly as fun as it should have been, I liked the function he assigned to Norman Osborn: he's there to prevent Peter from doing anything useful with his life, keeping him mediocre. Whenever it looks like Peter's gonna grow and mature (like during the clone ordeal when he was going to become a scientist with a child), Norman shows up to reduce Peter back to the status quo without just destroying him. It's one of those relationships that's been there all along but no one's ever put it so well before.

14:58 / 31.03.06

Supposedly by the end of Civil War a big name superhero reveals his secret identity (I know, I know, it'll be Dinah Soar or someone). What if it was Spider-Man? That'd be a real turning point for his character, and Marvel seems to be letting JMS have full reign over the character. Spidey as crowd adored weight off my shoulders superhero? In terms of the big 2, Spidey is kinda Marvel's Superman, people around the world know the character, good guy, doesn't kill people. I think it would shake things up as far as interesting new Spidey stories.

15:22 / 31.03.06

It won't be Dinah Soar; I'm cutting and pasting these 1 in 4 chance SPOILERS(!) which I think originated in horrible Wizard and I'll bold my guesses:

- Which pair of heroes will join the Fantastic Four after Civil War?

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, Human Galactus and Silver Surfer, Storm and Black Panther, She-Hulk and Hawkeye

- Which character willingly reveals their secret identity to the world during Civil War?

Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Daredevil, Iron Man

- Which hero will choose retirement over registration as a result of the events happening in Civil War?

Iron Fist, Firestar, Falcon, Wonder Man

- Which hero is arrested during Civil War?

Captain America, Punisher, Iron Man, Nick Fury

- Which two heroes will make their triumphant return in the pages of Civil War?

Thor, Captain Marvel (Mar'vell), Ant-Man, Hawkeye

- Civil War brings out the dark side of one hero. Which one will restort to brutal torture?

Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Namor

- Which hero gets beaten into a coma during Civil War?

Kitty Pride, Human Torch, Spider-Woman, Shang-Chi

- Which surprising character will join the Avengers at the end of Civil War?

Speedball, Ares, Iron Fist, Hyperion

- Which team will be reformed as a result of Civil War?

The Champions, Alpha Flight, X-Force, West Coast Avengers

- Which character will switch sides during Civil War?

Mr. Fantastic, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Invisible Woman

- Which team will be featured on "America's Most Wanted" during Civil War?

Runaways, Young Avengers, X-Men, Millar & McNiven

15:36 / 31.03.06

Falconator,
Agree with all of your picks except Iron Man as the one revealing his identity. Hasn't he done this already? I know he's claiming he isn't Iron Man anymore to evryone else but still...

15:41 / 31.03.06

Well, I dunno. He came out then was back in after 'Disassembled', and I think they'll just do it again; also, after Illuminati, he's saying everyone oughtta just do it, so you have to think he's going to. Could be Spider-Woman, i suppose.

15:50 / 31.03.06

- Which surprising character will join the Avengers at the end of Civil War?

Speedball, Ares, Iron Fist, Hyperion

Have you been reading any of the Ares mini? That guy is badass. There's a scene where they are battling an army of zombie samurai, and Ares sets himself on fire and then has Hercules throw him into the army of zombies, Ares blasting with twin guns on his way down. Ares would be fun on the Avengers.

15:52 / 31.03.06

Waitaminute, Bendis fucking loves all that 70's Marvel stuff. PowerMan, Spider-Woman, Iron Fist.

16:32 / 31.03.06

I think

more SPOILERS!

that Ares is actually confirmed as going to join the New Av's. Not reading his book, tho'.

Keith, like a scientist

17:08 / 31.03.06

- Which pair of heroes will join the Fantastic Four after Civil War?

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, Human Galactus and Silver Surfer, Storm and Black Panther, She-Hulk and Hawkeye

What in the world is Human Galactus? And why is he in a list of "heroes"? Please please please say this isn't actually happening.

17:16 / 31.03.06

A rather stupid idea from the Waid run on FF. Galactus lost his connection to his cosmic powers (the Galactus Force, if you can believe it) and became Galen again, hanging around New York for a bit before exiling himself from this reality to prevent his transforming back into such a menace.

That lasted about a week, before the big G was back in the saddle in the Stormbreaker mini.

Keith, like a scientist

00:08 / 01.04.06

that is...

sigh.

the stupidest...

sigh.

thing i've ever heard. glad i completely missed it.

23:16 / 02.04.06

Actually, it was pretty funny. Galen ate a lot, and was a bit mean. Comedy gold! He would make a shit addition to the FF though.

What's up witht these FF replacements anyway? Doesn't that kinda... negate the point of the FF being a family, and even having matching uniforms. Sounds like a pretty pointless stunt to me, and FF is the only 616 book I'm still reading. Oh well, there's still the Ultimate line I guess.

23:34 / 02.04.06

FF have had a history of replacement members (from Wikipedia

# H.E.R.B.I.E. - Humanoid Experimental Robot; replaced Human Torch in 1978 TV series
# Medusa - An Inhuman; filled-in when the Invisible Girl separated from Mr. Fantastic due to marital problems
# Crystal - An Inhuman and Johnny Storm's girlfriend at the time; left due to pollution allergies
# Luke Cage - Power Man - Replacement during the Thing's brief absence
# Nova - Mutant Frankie Raye; later became herald to Galactus
# She-Hulk - Jennifer Walters, first cousin of Bruce Banner, the Hulk; replacement for the Thing
# Ms. Marvel - Former pro. wrestler Sharon Ventura; gained powers and appearance similar to the Thing's
# Lyja - An undercover Skrull whom Johnny Storm married, believing her to be Alicia Masters
# Ant Man II - Scott Lang, reformed thief utilizing Henry Pym's shrinking particles; briefly hired when Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic was missing and presumed dead
# Kristoff - Doctor Doom's protege, mind-conditioned to behave as Doom. Attracted to Ant Man's daughter, joined team in last issues of series I

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

01:40 / 03.04.06

Woah, dude, how can you say that: Mark Millar's heard about this phenomenon called reality tv...

Well, to be fair, the shit "New Warriors have a Reality TV Show" status quo has been around for a while, now and doesn't have anything to do with Millar.

Using the NW as the fuckups probably just makes it easier to kill Speedball.

08:15 / 03.04.06

Iron Man dosen't have a secret identity... unless it's scooby doo style. I can just see nick fury ripping off Tonys face and saying "SO IT WAS YOUR SKELETON ALL ALONG", and tony being like "And i would have gotten away with it too..."

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:15 / 03.04.06

Ah, I was not aware of that. Apologies to Millar just this once, I suppose.

Spoilery speculation follows:

- The Fantastic Four are going to need new members because, as Reed Richards indicates wryly in the I11uminati special, he and his wife disagree on the issue of superhero registration. They disagree so much that they're almost certainly going to end up on opposite sides of the War.

- The advance solicitation for an upcoming Civil War related issue of FF says that one of the team gets horribly injured in the fighting, so I'm assuming the answer to "Which hero gets beaten into a coma during Civil War?" is Human Torch. Another reason for a replacement member...

- I agree that the 'new' team launched out of Civil War will be Alpha Flight, and I have a theory about how the miniseries will end based on this. We've already been told that there will be a winning and a losing side (rather than, say, reconciliation). So I reckon, at the end of Civil War, Iron Man's side wins, at least temporarily, in the sense that registration is enforced across the USA, and everyone either falls into line, ends up in jail, or... crosses the border. The Avengers becomes the official, US-sanctioned superteam, and an Alpha Flight that includes Steve Rogers and Logan in its line-up becomes the ongoing alternative, based in Canada, not engaged in open war but still pretty antagonistic to Stark's team. The main problem with this theory is that doing this would fuck up the status quo for so many books... but they still might do it.

11:52 / 04.04.06

see this illuminati one was ace - i don't mind comics that try to be twelve angry men, but to pull it off i really think it helps to have your earth shatteringly powerful types talking about the future of the earth, rather than just having jessica jones talking with cage about whether iron fist's back on the sauce or not.

so i'll be getting the civil war book and maybe one or two of the bigger spinoffs, but really i need some help with this: what's going on with the xmen at the moment? so there's only 198 mutants left? so who are the active x-guys? is magneto alive right now? and where is xavier?

12:11 / 04.04.06

Nah, the 198 are - I dunno - some kind of rebelly mutant rights group? Mutants have been reduced to - I think - 10% of their former numbers, making them a more persecuted and minor group, which is by my reckoning about 1.5 million. (I worked this out by going "Genosha had 16 mil population, which was just over half of the world pop. Ergo, say, 15 mil remain x 0.1 = 1.5 mil.")

Xavier has just resurfaced in Deadly Genesis, but like Magneto at the end of House of M, he has no mutant powers no more. He's also done a load of bastardy things, like form a mutant team between the original five and the all-new, all-differs and then have them disappear and do shit all about it.

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