HOW THE CIVIL WAR WAS LOST

***HEAVY SPOILER WARNING***
IF YOU HAVE NOT READ #7 OF CIVIL WAR YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ ANY FURTHER!!!
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!

***CONSERVATIVE VIEWPOINT ALERT***
IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY VIEWS AND OPINIONS FROM A RIGHT WING POINT OF VIEW YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ ANY THIS ARTICLE BELOW!!!

            As a kid, I had a very simple benchmark for any comics that I bought due to the fact of the nature of collecting some 30 years ago. Not knowing if I could find the next issue, I would flip to the back of a prospective new comic before I added it to my collection to see if it was continued. If it was, I had a simple mantra: Put it back. That’s how it was before comic book stores were in the area. It was a tougher time to collect back then.
            These earlier experiences still affect how I read comics to this day. If I miss an issue of a new series, I’ll stop reading it or wait for it to come out in a trade or collected hardcover. I like a beginning and an ending in my comics…and somewhere in the middle… a well written and well drawn tale. These factors bring me to the point of this article. The Civil War was at the very least a mediocre crossover and at the very worst could be the greatest failure of any crossover event- ever. Paramount among the countless problems of the crossover is the continued march of Marvel’s greatest patriotic icon towards the far left of the political spectrum.

To fit in with the image Marvel is crafting for Captain America, maybe they should add the letters "CLU" to go with the "A"

            How bad was the series? After seven issues of the main mini-series, countless one-shots, a near infinite number of tie-ins, and several related mini-series the Civil War is over despite the fact that the motivations of Captain America and Iron Man have yet to be adequately explained to the readers. After 110+ comics dealing with the Civil War, we still don’t know why the two leaders were on the sides they choose to be on. The battle between the two camps ends with Captain America surrendering to authorities and ordering the troops loyal to anti-registration to stand down.
           Mark Millar decided rather than fill the final pages with something that made sense; he would have a montage of what has happened since Captain America surrendered. It seems that Tony Stark/Iron Man has become the Director of Shield and is overseeing the process of assigning super-teams to serve as the official team in that particular state. (Knowing Marvel Georgia will probably the rejects of the Great Lakes Avengers) All seems well for the pro-registration forces with only a small contingent holding out resistance led by the new members of the New Avengers. (Shouldn’t Marvel rename the book the New, New Avengers?) Here’s an idea for Mark Millar: How about pacing the story so you can tell us the effects of the Civil War in the actual story rather than a brief, annoying epilogue?
            Any of you that have had conversations with me on the Civil War have probably surmised I didn’t really like the idea of the Civil War and was almost pre-disposed to not like it. I know this might be true but I wanted so bad to like the series. Below are my major “beefs” with the series:

Beef #1:
            Captain America, the living legend of WWII and the Sentinel of Liberty, has been turned into a cry-baby traitor. Now, I know what you are thinking: “Mike, How could you call Cap a cry-baby traitor?” The answer is simple, because that is how he has been written in the Civil War. This pains me as Captain America is my FAVORITE book from Marvel. (See this link) Many years ago, before he went into suspended animation and before he became the icon of Patriotic feelings in the modern Marvel Universe, Steve Rogers took an oath…the same oath that the lowest ranked enlisted men in the armed forces to the person entering the highest office of the land…the Presidency… must take. You know…the one about upholding and defending the constitution of the United States?

"There are but two parties now, Traitors and Patriots, and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter . . . We have a government, laws and a flag, and they must all be sustained." – Ulysses S. Grant

     In breaking this oath, Captain America has basically said that he, not the duly elected members of our legislative branch which passed the Registration Act and not the President who signed it into law, knows best. He is, by his actions, trampling on the very ideals and morals put forward by the framers of the Constitution. He is no better than Benedict Arnold, Daniel Shays, or Jefferson Davis. In my opinion, he has commited an act of treason and sedition. He should be jailed for it.
     Now, I understand how much a provocative statement this is but I stand by it. But who watches the watchmen after all? We can’t voice our displeasure of Captain America (or Iron Man for that matter) by voting them out of office like we can unruly politicians. We can’t impeach them either. Who do they answer to? Marvel opened up this can of worms by posing this question to us. Instead of answering these tough questions they’ve posed, they treat us like we're pre-pubescent cartoon viewers on Nickelodeon and try to smooth things over with a quick fix. I’m sorry but when you’ve been diagnosed with kidney failure the solution isn’t to rub a little Neosporin on your side to make it better.

Beef #2
     Before Civil War was launched, Wizard and Marvel hyped up the fact that someone would be making their BIG RETURN in the pages of the Civil War. I was hoping for Robert E. Lee myself (but I digress). The speculation was almost anyone who was dead, banished, or powerless. Where was the $%^& return of anybody that was rumored to return? Thor…he was a *&@# robot! Hawkeye…he was in one issue of New Avengers but it wasn’t even a Civil War tie-in! Captain Mar-vell…Are you kidding me?!? You guys waited over twenty years to bring him back so he could appear in an eight-page story in Civil War: the Return and a panel in Civil War #7?!?  Without even so much as a word balloon in issue 7? Someone please go check on Jim Starlin and see if he’s ok. He probably stroked out…

Beef #3
            The seventh and final issue doesn't end so much as it sets up what is coming next. Like a crappier version of “Lost”, the Civil War doesn’t actually end as much as it signs a cease-fire. (And you thought the multiple twenty-year armistices during the Peloponnesian War were bad! At least, you could count on some ending! Go Sparta!!!) For the record, Marvel has spent the last ninth months (almost two years if you count the House of M and the Avengers Disassembled before this) doing this to us. In the end what they have managed to do is deconstruct their universe. What does this mean? Well, the innovative force in comic publishing that Marvel Comics used to be has been re-born. This version of Marvel (or what I like to call the Earth-Suck Marvel) seems to being following in the footsteps of others rather than making their own trails. De-constructing and having their heroes battle is something that DC has been doing for almost two years in such series as the Identity Crisis, World without a Justice League, and the Infinite Crisis. Here’s an idea for Marvel’s next big project: Why not just launch a weekly mini-series that lasts 52 weeks?

Beef #4
            Rather than to prime their biggest icon for the summer movie push by having Spider-man placed in familiar storylines with recognizable villains so that millions of movie watchers who might wander into a comic store to pick up a copy of a Spider-man comic and thereby cause the industry to actually grow, Marvel has taken the visionary step of having Pete pull of his mask. (Click here for more of my thoughts on that)

Beef #5
            IT WAS LATE!!! TWICE!!! This tardiness in publishing has caused almost each and every crossover part to be pushed backed from its original ship date. During this time, DC has been publishing its massive crossover, “52”. The daunting task of publishing a weekly mini-series with fifty-two parts still boggles my mind. With forty-two issues and counting, they haven’t missed a deadline. NOT ONCE!
            Well, I have rambled on about how I feel but what about you? Two weeks ago on the store’s website, I posed the following poll question:
With only one issue to go, Marvel Comics Civil War is almost over. With that in mind, which of the following is true?
The Civil War is the gold standard for crossover…no complaints at all.
36% of those polled found this to be true.
The Civil War was a massive mediocre series. I was left wanting more content.
36% those polled found this to be true.
The Civil War was a total failure. Crossovers like this are killing the comic industry.
28% those polled found this to be true.

            Those numbers don’t lie and they can not hide the dissatisfaction felt by most at the way it ended. Taking a closer look at the numbers you’ll see that only 36% found it to be a success while a whopping 64% found it otherwise!!  Has my constant griping had and affect? I don't think so.
            In the 90’s, there was a term used to describe the throngs of Marvel fans who couldn’t see the forest for the trees. They were called “Marvel Zombies” because the acted like mindless automatons skulking after whatever Marvel published next. These were the days of the ‘Spider-man Clone Saga’, ‘Onslaught’, and ‘Heroes Reborn’. Marvel should use these series as a reminder that they led to the company filing for bankruptcy. With series like the Civil War, they could be following the same path that they know all to well.