Marvel: Civil War

The Core Media Forum
1

Hey guys! Remember when I was reviewing Marvel and DC’s major event stories over the years? Well I’m going to continue, but instead of doing it in chronological order, I’ll go only for the most meaningful ones from now on.

Let’s start with 2006’s “Civil War”. This crossover is truly rare in that it REALLY changed the Status Quo for Marvel’s superheroes for several years (in fact, the changes it made still apply today, though the current storyline, “Dark Reign” seems to be headed to resolve them soon.)

Civil War is very controversial, mostly due to having many heroes written out of character (the scene where reporter Sally Floyd berates Captain America, pretty much blaming him for the whole mess, will probably forever live in comic book infamy) and because the points made in the main series seem to be contradicted by the events in some of its tie-ins. In order to be as fair as possible, I’ll describe the events (in the main, 7-part miniseries) without comments, and then I’ll analyze it afterwards. (Spoilers ahead, obviously)

The story begins in the town of Stamford (which is real, btw) where a group of supervillains (recent escapees from prison) are hiding. The New Warriors, a group of young superheroes, decide to capture them, with the battle being taped for the Reality TV show that they star in (not, as it might seem later, broadcast live.)

Unfortunately, one of the villains turned out to be Nitro, the Exploding Man, who possesses the power to explode himself and then re-form, a fact the Warriors did not find out until the last minute. During the battle, Nitro explodes, killing all but one of the New Warriors, his own allies, and hundreds of people, including children from a nearby school.

All of this gets broadcast nationally, and a wave of anti-superhero sentiment results. The government proposes a new law, the SHRA (Superhero Registration Act) spearheaded by a female senator who lost a son in the explosion, to prevent such disasters from happening again. This would require all superbeings to register their powers (and identities) with the government, and heroes would only be able to operate with government authorization. Several heroes get together to discuss the situation but cannot reach a decision; some are in favor of registration -mainly those who have no secret identities or already work for the government- but most are not.

Johnny Storm (the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four) whose ID is public, is assaulted at a nightclub by a bunch of punks (who knock him out with a bottle before he can use his powers). He is badly beaten and ends up in a hospital. Captain America is asked by the espionage agency SHIELD (which he has long been allied with) to help round up any heroes who refuse to register. Cap refuses, calling the Act inconstitutional. SHIELD then tries to arrest Cap, technically for disobeying orders, in reality because Cap is such a major influence among heroes that they feared he would end up leading them against the government. Cap escapes from them. (Note that all of this happened before the law came into effect.)

Meanwhile, Iron Man (Tony Stark) comes to the government and makes a deal for him (and the heroes who did register) to handle the rogue heroes for them. Stark had several plans put into effect. These began with a campaign promoting trust in superheroes, including revealing his identity in a press conference (note: the SHRA apparently only required the government, not the public, to know the heroes’ ids.) Stark even convinced Spider-Man to reveal his secret identity as well, with promises of taking care of his loved ones (his wife and aunt) by moving them to live at his high-security tower. He also gave Spidey his own suit of Iron Man-like armor!

Cap would indeed go around helping other heroes escape being captured by SHIELD’s agents (including a specially-equipped unit known as “capekillers”) and then taking them underground, complete with new secret identities for himself and others. Included in this group were Johnny and his sister Susan (The Invisible Woman) but not Mister Fantastic, another member of the Fantastic Four, who not only joined the “Pro-Regs” side but was assisting them with his scientific skills, such as by creating a prison in the dimension known as the ‘Negative Zone’ to hold the arrested heroes (who apparently would be held there until they agreed to either register or retire.) The final member, The Thing, chose neither side, instead exiling himself to France. (Other heroes, such as the second Spider-Woman, would also emigrate to Canada and other countries as well.)

Eventually, Cap’s group went to help evacuate a factory that had caught fire. Only too late did they realize the factory belonged to Tony Stark: it was a trap. They were surrounded by SHIELD’s forces, Cloak (of the hero duo, Cloak and Dagger) who was acting as the team’s teleporter was knocked out, and Iron-Man and the heroes on his side also appeared; however Iron Man claimed that he only wanted to talk. He offered Captain America a handshake, which he accepted… but only because it allowed him to plant a specially-prepared device on Iron Man’s glove, shutting down his armor and leaving him helpless. A fight then breaks between the two groups of heroes, and the government side decides to unleash their secret weapon on the rebels: Thor, the God of Thunder, one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes!

Well, it was actually a clone of the then supposedly-dead god, created by Stark, Mr. Fantastic and Yellowjacket (Dr. Henry Pym) the three big scientist heroes on the government’s side. It turned out to be controlled by a brain implant. But something went wrong; “Thor” went too far, and killed the rebel hero Giant-Man! Iron Man rebooted his suit and then shut down “Thor” with a special codeword; the by-now recovered Cloak then teleported his allies out. But this incident was a critical one; the Anti-Regs now realized how far the Pro-Regs were willing to go, and that they could actually die in this conflict. This caused several heroes to switch sides (mostly heroes disillusioned with Stark, including Tigra of the Avengers.) Stark paid for Giant-Man’s funeral, which required a giant-sized grave.

Short in members, Stark was forced to recruit villains into his team. He made a deal with several imprisoned villains (such as Venom) to allow them out of prison in return for their helping capture the unregistered heroes. However, to make sure they wouldn’t betray him, Stark implanted “nanites” (microscopic robots) in their brains, which could be used to limit their behavior.

By this point, Spider-man felt very uneasy working on Stark’s side; in particular he felt detaining the other heroes indefinitely was wrong. So he decided to leave Stark’s tower. This resulted in a fight between him and Iron Man (note: it isn’t clear who started the fight, as the versions given in Civil War and the Spider-Man series differ) in which Stark deactivated the armor he gave Spidey- only for Spidey to re-activate it (he had added his own password!) Still the fight ended with a wounded Spider-Man chased by villains in New York’s sewers, until he was rescued by- The Punisher!?

Punisher took Spidey to the resistance, and also told them that he had found a way to break into the Fantastic Four’s base, where the portal to the super-prison was located. Despite his distaste for working with the killer vigilante, Captain America accepted. Well, they worked together long enough for Punisher to bring them the means to reach the portal; at the time, the rebel heroes were talking to two supervillains who were trying to make a deal with them (the SHRA was also hunting them down) and the moment he saw them, Punisher gunned them down- right in front of Captain America, who of course proceeded to pound the crap out of him, until he realized Punisher wasn’t fighting back. He left the vigilante behind to be arrested by the authorities.

Later, the resistance heroes mounted an attack on the Negative Zone prison. They find Stark and his group (including the villains) waiting for them; Tigra was actually a mole, informing him of their plans. But, it turned out that Cap knew it all along, and he in fact had his own mole on the Reg’s side: Yellowjacket, who was actually the superhero Hulking (of the Young Avengers) who can shapeshift. Apparently he caught Pym by surprise and replaced him shortly before, and had learned the access words to the prison’s systems: he then releases all the imprisoned heroes. Thus begins a HUGE battle between the two sides.

Cloak teleports everybody back to New York city. During the fight, a lot of damage is done to the area. Cap again gains the upper hand in his fight with Iron Man, only to be assaulted by three normal human rescue workers. While they were no threat to him, the pause made him realize the destruction being caused. He then orders his allies to stand down, and allows himself to be arrested. The battle ends; the government gives the resistance heroes amnesty. (Most of them continue to act without authorization to this day.) The villains however were arrested, presumably for having caused the deaths of bystanders. The series technically ends with the announcement of Captain America’s coming trial, while Tony is made head of SHIELD.

(In reality however, the big event of the series was the death of Captain America, assassinated in route to his trial by a SHIELD agent brainwashed by an old enemy of his, Dr. Faustus. This was shown on the tie-in issue of Captain America, rather than the main CW series.)

Next Time: my analysis of all the main story, plus other important events in the tie-ins.

(Comments and corrections are welcome.)

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OK, let’s discuss some of the tie-ins:

-Frontline: This was a miniseries that explored the events of CW from the POV of the people in the street. It starred two reporters for the Daily Bugle (Ben Urich and Sally Floyd, both previously established characters.) Basically this series focused on the arrest of Speedball, the only member of the New Warriors who survived the Stamford blast; and on Norman Osborn, the former Green Goblin, who was one of the villains who got shanghaied into helping the government capture the heroes. Speedball, who is just a teenager, is dragged thru the mud both physically and emotionally, as he becomes the focus of hate by everyone, even himself, and he ends up working for the government under the new identity of “Penance”- wearing a costume with spikes on the inside, one for every person who died in Stamford. Osborn, meanwhile gets manipulated by some mysterious figured (apparently Tony Stark, but I’m not sure if that’s correct) into almost causing an international incident with the Kingdom of Atlantis. The series ends with the infamous speech that Floyd gives the arrested Captain America, telling him he was out of contact with the real America, who cared more about Myspace than their civil rights.

-Wolverine: Wolverine sets out to track down Nitro, and finds out that his explosive powers had been artificially augmented by the company called Damage Control, which profits from repairing cities after superhuman battles. Wolverine kills the owner of DC (after the guy tried to kill him to cover up the fact) and then tracked down Nitro to Atlantis (they had captured him because Prince Namor’s cousin Namorita was one of the heroes who died in Stamford.) Ultimately Wolverine decides to leave Nitro to the Atlanteans rather than bringing him back for trial, or just killing him (which he wanted Wolverine to do.)

-Fantastic Four: We find out that the reason Mr. Fantastic sided with the government is than an old uncle of him had suffered for resisting during the days of the McCarthy persecutions. Except, that was a lie, his real reason was that he had calculated that the relations between civilians and superhumans were going to reach an explosive point in the near future and asserting control now was the only way to prevent an even bigger catastrophe. He actually went to his enemy, the Thinker (an expert in calculating probabilities) to verify this. Oh, and the Thing joined a French superhero team. Yes, really. The team re-forms after the war is over, tho.

-Iron Man: This series doesn’t really add much, other than showing Tony in a more sympathetic light. It should be noted that Stark himself had nanites in his body, in this case they came from a virus created to take over his mind but he took control over them and instead gained the power to control machines (first time Stark ever had superpowers of his own rather than from an armor) though that was before Civil War.

-Spider-Man: Here (and in Frontline) we see the otherdimensional prison (named “42”- yeah, that has to be a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference) and it’s MUCH harsher than it looks in the main Civil War series, more like a gulag. It’s also hinted the Negative Zone affected the prisoner’s psyche, and one hero (Digitek, don’t worry if you never heard of him, he’s very obscure) actually committed suicide there. After Tony explains the prison is not just a temporary place to hold the heroes until trial- it’s PERMANENT until they relent- Spidey decides to quit, but is attacked by Iron Man (the reverse of what happens in CW.)

After the events in the main series (where Spidey escapes and joins the resistance) his wife and aunt are at a hotel, but the Kingpin (who is in jail at the time but still has contacts outside) orders them killed. Aunt May is shot and left dying, which led to the even-more-hated One More Day storyline where Spider-Man makes a deal with [STRIKE]Satan[/STRIKE] Mephisto to save her life at the price of removing his marriage to Mary Jane from history. Oh, this also causes everyone who had learned Peter’s identity to forget it… somehow.

-Captain America: You’d think this title would also feature a lot of CW related events, but the current writer was engaged in his own storyline and couldn’t be bothered to do more than mention that Cap was now an outlaw. So other than Cap getting shot in the way to his trial (by his own lover, Sharon Carter- ouch) and dying there is no real connection to the “War”.

-The Punisher: I didn’t see it, but supposedly it explains his motives to help the heroes, why he didn’t fight back against Cap (turns out he’s a super fan of his- since when!?) and what happened afterwards (he escaped). If anybody (Gallo?) knows more, please fill me in.

-Thunderbolts: The hero group formed of reformed villains was turned on its head, being now under government control, and filled with truly vicious villains under “nanite control.” Oh, and led by Osborn.

-Avengers: The Initiative- This series basically shows Tony’s plans for how superheroes would operate under his reign: they would be trained to avoid causing incidents like Stamford, and then distributed so that each state would have its own Superteam. Most of the characters here were brand new, however, and under the leadership of Dr. Pym.

-Captain Marvel: This legendary Marvel hero who died in the 80s (of cancer!) suddenly reappeared alive (due to some time travel accident) and stayed in the present. For some reason, he was made the warden of 42, while he angsted about the fact that he would have to return to the past and die at some point. …except it was later revealed (during “Secret Invasion” two years later) that he was actually a brainwashed Skrull spy. Way to tease us, Marvel.

-Daredevil: Like Cap, there was no real connection to CW because at the time, Matt Murdock was in jail after being framed for murder. (The Daredevil seen in the main series was actually Iron Fist in disguise, to prevent Matt’s identity from being found out.)

Those are all the important tie ins I can think of right now. I’ll update this later if necessary. Next time, my analysis of the whole mess.

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Hey gang, sorry it’s taken me so long to finish this. I’ve been terribly busy. Besides, every time I tried to write the final part, it ended up being TOO damn long- there’s just too much stuff in Civil War, I now realize, that is either plain wrong, or that I feel I needed to comment about. I’ve decided not to go that way.

Instead, I’m going to post here my feelings about the whole event, and -if necessary- cover details later.

I have to start by saying, that I’m NOT opposed to the basic premise of the series: that is, that superheroes should be regulated by the law. That may surprise those of you who know my love for traditional superheroes. But it’s a matter of tradition versus logic.

Comics have always reflected the times they were produced. The earliest comics were from simpler times: just as few people wondered how superpowers could possibly work, nobody stopped to think about the legality of having superpowers and using them to stop criminals without authorization.

But just as people are better informed about the sciences now, we’re also more conscious of the legality of things. So really, a story like Civil War was just meant to happen sooner or later; and the Marvel Universe, where the heroes aren’t always respected, was perfect for it. Some folks even said that “it was about time” that the non-mutant heroes got the same kind of crap the mutant ones did. (Ironically, the X-Men themselves basically sat out Civil War, mostly because they had their own big problems at the time.)

The problem, as I see it, was the way the event was handled.

The main writer, Mark Millar, basically came into Marvel from writing on the company’s “modern update” of their own universe, the “Ultimate Marvel” comics line. There he and others had the freedom to do pretty much what they wanted with Marvel’s characters. Millar is also known for the sociological and political stuff he injects in his stories. So, while it is possible that he may have genuinely meant to write this series to fit in with the “old Marvel” he simply didn’t do enough research, or felt that it was OK to tweak things his way to get his point across.

But simply put, in the world that is the “real” Marvel Universe, things didn’t work the way he thought.

Some are technical errors, from Nitro never having had enough power to destroy an entire city before (this guy used to fight Spider-Man) which was then simply allowed to be explained in the Wolverine series and was never alluded in the main series again, which left many people thinking “what happened to the guy who did kill everyone in Stamford?” to the simple fact that most superheroes have learned the hard way that they cannot trust the government, having been screwed by them (or by villains infiltrating it- the Red Skull, a freaking NAZI, had once actually posed as THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE!) several times before. About the only Agency the heroes trusted was SHIELD, and that was only because its head, Nick Fury, had earned their trust. (Btw, Fury was at the time in hiding, and was replaced by a more hardline leader.)

Others were assumptions about how certain characters would react that actually made little sense given how they have behaved in the past. Heroes splitting up over a disagreement and fighting? Happens all the time. Heroes doing blatantly immoral things to win? Now THAT is harder to swallow. Cloning Thor? How the hell did they think that would be a good idea? (and WHY did “Clor” as the fans call him, go rogue? Never cleared up, that I know.) And imprisoning heroes without trial? Brainwashing people? These are things villains do. I can see they going along with the government up to a point, but they should have realized how wrong things were sometime and stopped. Perhaps the biggest wallbanger of all is the idea that heroes would fight each other in a way that would recklessly endanger bystanders, especially when you know that The Avengers and the Fantastic Four have specifically trained to avoid that from happening. Supposedly, people like Iron Man DID have their reasons to justify their acts, but they were never made clear, and that hurt the credibility of the story.

It didn’t help that the crossover suffered from poor coordination. By reading some of the tie-ins, you got the impression that the writers had different understandings of exactly what the SHRA was about, of how the super-prison worked, and even whose side was supposed to be right (the main series itself apparently meant for the pro-regs to have been right all along!)

Still, I think Civil War was a good idea, and I applaud Marvel for seeking to change the Status Quo and providing new situations to be explored in their stories. But they fumbled the ball in too many ways. Even now they’re still writing up explanations for them. (The fact many heroes had been secretly replaced by alien Skrull agents, as revealed in Secret Invasion, including Dr. Pym, helps a bit, but not entirely.)

Currently, the governments’ superhuman forces are under the control of Osborn, who is definitely evil, so (predictably) all the heroes will join forces to expose and defeat him, and hopefully afterwards, the public and the government will realize how having mistrusted the heroes who had saved the world multiple times wasn’t exactly a good idea.

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Well done, Wil. I feel like this makes for good reading when I read all about comic book stuff. The whole Civil War arc sounds well done, but I can see where there’s some stuff that doesn’t really make that much sense (then again, it’s comics…).

5

The Depression, World War II, beginnings of the Cold War, and the early 60s (height of the Cold War/Civil Rights Movement) were hardly simpler times. Those times, particularly the Depression and the Great Society are quite well known for starting the regulatory state. Those times certainly would know to think about the legality of superpowers.

But just as people are better informed about the sciences now, we’re also more conscious of the legality of things.

The Law is not something that can be divined from the ether as a Great Truth in the same manner science. The Law is what Philosopher Kings think make sense given a wide variety of factors.

What explains Civil War is not some change in society from a simpler time to a post 9/11 world (best way to refer to this era, I guess). What explains Civil War is that in those other earlier times, comic books, particularly super hero comic books, were meant more for children. A medium meant totally for children would not really look into regulating super heroes.

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The Depression, World War II, beginnings of the Cold War, and the early 60s (height of the Cold War/Civil Rights Movement) were hardly simpler times. Those times, particularly the Depression and the Great Society are quite well known for starting the regulatory state. Those times certainly would know to think about the legality of superpowers.

Definitely- if they had to actually deal with them. But in the comics? Those were for entertainment, and precisely because of how things sucked in reality was that the superhero fantasy was born. It started with the concept of the Masked Vigilante, someone who could go out and do what people wished they could, that is, to go get those who did bad things, protected from the consequences by something as simple as a mask. Definitely unrealistic, but hey, it was cathartic (and no, it wasn’t just children’s stuff, though it certainly was produced for them; it had plenty of adult fans, in the same way cartoons do today. Characters like The Shadow were very popular on Radio, for example.)

The Law is not something that can be divined from the ether as a Great Truth in the same manner science. The Law is what Philosopher Kings think make sense given a wide variety of factors.

In the old days, most people did not even question the law. They were told, trust the government, they are honest and know best. It wouldn’t be until Vietnam that America at large would start to realize that not only they COULD question things, but that they were SUPPOSED to. Cue TV shows about corruption, which in turn taught new generations to be more cynical about what they saw in their entertainment. Doesn’t mean the average Joe could write a treatise on law today, but they are at least familiar with the basics, like the Miranda Rights.

Returning to the topic, it occurs to me that just saying, “all that stuff was wrong” by itself is not fair. There’s an unspoken “Well, how should it have gone about, then?” in there. I’ll try to answer that -as fairly as I can- next.

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I don’t really know if that’s necessarily true. I don’t know how many people really have any idea about a significant number of their rights, ever pertaining to basic interactions with police officers.

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Whoa, dude- let’s stop right there. Focusing just on America for one moment: the Revolutionary War, the ACTUAL Civil War, Women’s Suffrage, et cetera et cetera. All of them were acts of rebellion in their own way, right or wrong. Violent or not. Hell, Prohibition wasn’t that far behind, and people CERTAINLY questioned that and thought that the government was wrong. And if you want to get into the whole “entertainment before a period of time didn’t question the government” argument I’m going to just say “Paradise Lost” and end that argument. :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Yeah, I mean, Tolstoy? Dickens? Cummon.

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Geez, guys, I’m not saying ANYBODY in America ever mistrusted the government until recent times. I’m saying the general cultural atmosphere of the people in the old days (certainly during the 50s) was far more trusting than it is today. The general media did NOT automatically took the position that everything should be questioned- quite the opposite in fact. This is why things that are so obvious to us today -like equal rights for women or minorities- were such a controversial concept back then. There was a definite pressure to conform socially. And while there was certainly activity against it, it just didn’t affect the comics much until the 70s.

(And that’s the last thing I’m going to say on that topic. I really want to cap off my Civil War review, I don’t want the thread to get derailed.)

My version of how the Civil War should’ve gone next post.

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It’s not a derailment. You made a point about Civil War. Some of us are not agreeing with it. That’s how discussions go. We don’t all just sit around singing kumbayah and agreeing with each other. We’re being civil and disagreeing with a point you made.

In fact, real literary criticisms get critically discussed. Papers are written on papers written on papers written on papers written on books. Get used to it.

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A forum is a medium for discussion. The expectation is that the original poster will provide a topic and the rest will extrapolate from that. It is not generally considered off topic if one comments on a post that the originator of the thread created. Indeed, in the media forum it’s a general expectation that people give feedback on the work within the thread.

Also, 984 is correct about literary criticism. When one presents a point of view, it is out there for other scholars to critique, expand upon, refute, et cetera. By creating a thread that is somewhat of a critique, it is folly to assume that we should just read it and be done with it. To keep criticism alive, it must be discussed. And thus it is not only on topic for us to discuss the salient points of your posts, but it should be expected of us.

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And I’m being civil and telling you guys I’m not interested in branching off that way; I don’t feel this is the thread for it. Sociopolitics on the real world can get very controversial very fast. But hey, you can keep discussing the topic here if you want. I just won’t anymore, except as regards my analysis of Civil War.

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I would agree that discussion of the socio-political environment surrounding a work are undeniably on topic when discussing the work; as Foucault argued, statements depend on the conditions of the discourse in which they arise, and cannot exist outside of the statements which precede and follow them. As such, the Civil War not only cannot exist outside of the “Post-9/11” America in which it was created and conceived, but also cannot exist outside of the Reagan '80s, Vietnam, or even the Revolutionary War and the enlightenment principles on which America is founded. The role of the Hegelian dialectic is especially key in any consideration of superhero comics. The masked vigilante trades in a human visage and identity for a more generalized appearance; Daniel Rand takes up the mask of Daredevil, in lieu of Matt Murdock, and becomes Daredevil by virtue not of any verbal declaration (he does not have to announce “I am the Daredevil”), but rather by the performative act of wearing the mask which confers the heroic identity.

When discussing a politically-oriented Marvel comic, Captain America is absolutely key to consider from this standpoint. His generalized, abstract appearance is not simply that of a vigilante, but that of a nation. Captain America becomes the personification and facial representation of the entire imagined community of a nation state. Consider the “Nomad” identity Captain America briefly takes up when he becomes disillusioned with the United States Government in the 1970s with regard to Hegel’s dialectic; initially, Captain America is the Abstract (being an abstract representation of America and its values), but when he sees this abstract is flawed, he turns to the Negative (the “Nomad” identity, in which he rejects Americanism in favour of becoming a nomad, a man without a country), before arriving at the Concrete in returning to his original identity with the understanding that he can represent America without standing for its government.

The Civil War Captain America is no different, and the Civil War Iron Man exists within a similar dialectic. What Captain America is to America, Iron Man is to transnational capital and globalization. While Captain America has the righteous, yet rebellious streak many have noted as common among American heroes (Priscilla Wald describes it quite eloquently in the context of “outbreak narratives” in her book Contagious), Iron Man’s personal moral convictions are less strict (Tony Stark is an alcoholic and womanizer), but he sides more strongly with the government and social norms, since the capital (and capitalism) he represents necessitate the Hobbesian sovereign state for which he fights. As such, either individual may be seen as an abstract and as a negative, in reference to the other. The resultant synthesis/concrete phase in the dialectic is perhaps less hopeful in Civil War than it has been in the past, with Captain America realizing that what is easy and convenient will more often be chosen than what is right, in a symbolic victory of capitalism and the state. In fact, while the legality of superheroics is a more central theme than in the past, the government is arguably brought under less scrutiny than in the past, and is shown as the winner not only in a practical, but largely in a philosophical sense.

The assertion that legality has not been dealt with before is hardly true, though; Spiderman and the X-Men both had numerous legal issues throughout their career, with Spiderman frequently a wanted “criminal” and government attempts to regulate mutants being frequent topics. Political questioning was still quite common in the artistic world of all the eras the 984 mentioned, as well. the villains Casablanca are Nazis, and its hero is an American, but Rick fought with the loyalists (and thus on the same side as communists) in the Spanish Civil War, and cannot return to America. Another Bogey movie, Key Largo, features Bogart’s character lambasting claims that he was a war hero with the phrase “I believed some words.” In the western classic The Magnificent Seven, a hero argues that a contract no court would enforce is “Just the kind you have to keep.” John Ford’s Westerns abound with anti-establishment sentiment. Beat poetry aligned itself heavily against capitalism and militarism. More strict censorship forced these themes into undertones or the works into obscurity, in comparison with today, but they were heavily present in art for a long time. The issue, I feel, is largely as the 984 argued, and the difference is less in the discourse surrounding comics, but the place of comics within that discourse; it is a more recent phenomenon that comics have attempted to place themselves in the canon of more serious Art. The child/adult audience is less key than the change from attempts to entertain to attempts to make serious, meaningful statements about the world.

15

I would still say that is a result of the shift towards a more adult audience. Superhero comics of old pandered mostly towards children, and they were bought mostly by children. Sometime along the way, children kept buying them as they got older. I don’t know if this is the result of slight maturation which kept them hooked or the collecting mentality or what. (I concede that it may very well have been prompted by the Spider Man/Green Arrow drug stories of the 70s). But it happened. As adults kept buying them, it allowed comic book authors to tackle more serious subjects and make the more meaningful statements you mentioned. See generally The Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Kingdom Come.

Eventually, the conflict of the post-9/11 world and independent liberties would come to the forefront. Superhero registration just didn’t make as much sense or wouldn’t have as weighty a message when the idea of liberties being curtailed for the sake of safety wasn’t as prominent in the American psyche. The 90s couldn’t breed such a message because that was vapid, fatuous decade. The 80s bred it in its own regard with the aforementioned The Watchmen and V for Vendetta, but it was nowhere near as prominent and real a dialogue as it was after 9/11. Even then, notice that comic books did not tackle the subject until 2006. That coincides quite well with the public questioning of various actions under Dubya; it wasn’t really until that time that the public had more dissent over the issue rather than limiting the hatred for The PATRIOT Act to “a few wacky hippies.”

But, whatever it may be, such an issue never would have been broached without adult consumption of comics. You may point to the X-Men and its civil rights parallels, but I think the idea of preaching the equality of humanity and human decency is more approachable and teachable to children (notice that Sesame Street and other puppet shows will tackle that issue for four year olds) than the idea of a government subservient to the people and the wickedness of restraining liberty.

16

So: How should Civil War -or just a storyline dealing with the legality of super heroes in general- have gone about? (Please note that I’m not trying to write a better story than Civil War here- just a more logical one.)

First, it’s important to point out that this kind of thing had already been tried before in Marvel Comics, though not as extensively. During the 90’s there was the “Mutant Registration Act” in the X-Men comics; the American government instituted the Commission On Superhuman Activities (who tried to force Captain America to work only for them and then replaced him when he refused) and Project: Wideawake, which created the infamous mutant-hunting Sentinel robots. The thing with all these stories is that they never really tackled the issues at hand. Those who were in favor of restraining superpowered activity always ended up manipulated by villains and looking like idiots in the end, while the heroes looked good in the eyes of the public, so the matter would always be dropped without truly exploring it.

Still, this being the Marvel Universe, it isn’t that hard to believe that the public would eventually approve of a law such as the SHRA- all that it needed was the proper catalyst and handling. Did Civil War have it?

First, a scandal would be needed to bring attention to the matter. The Stamford incident would qualify… except it kinda pales in comparison with other events, such as the rampage of Magneto (or somebody pretending to be him, it’s complicated) on New York, which according to a Marvel editor resulted in thousands of deaths. Why THAT event didn’t result in harsher government action right away is the real wallbanger here. (According to CW, Stamford was just the last straw the public would tolerate. I don’t quite swallow it, but let’s ignore that one for now.) More than the number of deaths, it’s the fact that one (or more) heroes directly cause a disaster that is important- and that the public becomes aware of it the moment it happened. (Again, Stamford fails here because a) the cause of the disaster was a villain who turned out to be unexpectedly more powerful than usual, and b) it was NOT broadcast live- you can tell from the New Warriors’ dialogue.) If the explosion had been caused by a hero tampering with a bomb against other people’s instructions, the fact that it was the fault of superheroes not being careful enough would have carried more weight.

Next comes a problem of focus: you need to show the reactions of the people on the street, both for and against the proposed law. The series did not did do this enough, not even in CW: Frontline where it WAS supposed to be the point. In particular, I would’ve liked to see more people speaking in defense of the heroes; judging from the main CW series you’d think EVERYBODY suddenly assumed no superhero (even those who had nothing to do with the New Warriors) was trustworthy.

The main series should also have had The Commission present the law, since you know, this IS their job, but I think they only appeared in one of the tie-ins (smells of poor research to me.)

OK, now let’s assume the law is passed. I actually find most of its (basic) requisites believable: if you have dangerous powers, the equivalent of hidden weaponry that can’t be taken away, society has a right to know it. Similarly, in the real world vigilantism is illegal because only properly trained (both on the strictures of the law and the use of violence) police forces are supposed to deal with criminals- and let’s face it, most superheroes, being average Joes who suddenly gained powers and then went around beating punks, are not skilled in either facet. (Though the Avengers and Fantastic Four are exceptions, possibly the X-Men as well.) Note that The Avengers, due to their having made a deal with the government in order to operate freely in the US (and at one point, internationally) ALREADY have authority and training, in exchange for being identified by retina scans instead of by name or fingerprints- again, did Millar know this?) Note also that the SHRA could NOT force heroes to work for the government- only make them accept training if they want to be active, but they could also just retire.

Still, as I mentioned earlier, most “heroes on the street” would be very leery of trusting the government, MUCH less with their secret IDs. Too many bad experiences. Most notably, Spider-Man had just had a storyline where a villain learned his secret ID and went around psychologically torturing him by threatening his loved ones. Spidey simply would NEVER be convinced to reveal his identity, even if Stark watched over May and MJ 24/7. What about the REST of the people close to him? Even his boss, J.J. Jameson, who hates Spider-Man, would be a target! So basically, the Avengers and FF might accept the ruling, but most other heroes would not (The X-Men would definitely refuse due to their history with the government.)

Then comes the point of enforcing the law. Technically, if an unregistered superhero captured a criminal, he’d be breaking the SHRA. But, you know, it’s kind of hard to believe most people would react as badly as they did to people who are helping or even SAVING others. (I would write in at least one case of “______, you’re under arrest for violating the SHRA… oh darn, he got away. Clumsy of me, eh?” :wink: Would’ve been cute. Civil War however never even attempted it though.)

Of course, at SOME point the government would need to get serious and begin arresting heroes. An agency like SHIELD would definitely be involved… except SHIELD is actually an independent, INTERNATIONAL Agency (Marvel’s writers, in recent years, have been using it as a sort of super-CIA, answerable only to the U.S., not realizing that an Agency as visible as SHIELD is couldn’t operate out of American territory without causing international incidents.) We could, of course, get past this by simply having the US Government ask SHIELD for help. Of course, Fury would never hunt the heroes he’s trusted for years, but at the time of the series he wasn’t in control anymore. And of course, the registered heroes would be asked to help too. Sentinels would only be used as a last resort, given the troubles and bad PR they have caused in the past.

Any arrested heroes would be put in the same super-prison where the villains are kept. (No need for the dangerous negative Zone thing, ESPECIALLY since there had already been a prison there -for villains- and it ended disastrously. Again, how could Marvel miss this?) There they likely would be registered against their will (their powers examined and their identities sought out) thought that would be a field day for lawyers claiming civil rights abuses. Famous Marvel lawyers like Matt Murdock (secretly Daredevil) and She-Hulk would then come in. (In Civil War though, Murdock wasn’t available and Shulkie actually sided with the government!) Free heroes might then try to rescue the arrested ones (which would actually BE illegal, but as I said they don’t often think with their heads.) Of course, SHIELD and the Avengers would be waiting for exactly that.

From here on, the situation would logically carry on as both the people and the heroes try to adapt to the new status quo. Certainly there would be people (including notable heroes like Captain America) working to try fix things, possibly by arranging a deal similar to the Avengers’ for the arrested heroes, talking about things on talk shows, etc.

However, there’s a factor here we can’t just leave out: the villains. Bad guys fall in two camps: crooks with super powers, and the smarter kind who prefer to manipulate things from behind the scenes. The first kind would laugh at the heroes, but they too would be targeted by authorities, who might actually be more effective if they depended on trained agents and heroes- on the other hand, the arrested or retired heroes would not be around to help. (Note also that SHIELD is an anti-terrorist Agency; while they might help for a time, they couldn’t devote their full forces to arresting costumed characters.) The “Master Villains” would definitely see this as a moment to strike, while everyone is distracted. This might lead to some incident where the public begins regaining trust, since, as we know, they would beat the bad guys in the end. It should not be an immediate thing, though; the law may stay on but slowly lose its power as it becomes apparent that there will always be unregistered heroes- and that most of them CAN be trusted.

And this isn’t even mentioning the stuff that even the authorities would be at a loss to deal with- alien invasions, demons, etc. Such stuff ALWAYS happens in Marvel, sooner or later. After all, if they could handle everything, would there even had been a need for individuals to turn into supervigilantes in the first place?

…And that’s it, basically. Oh, you can pepper it with superbattles and what have you to make it more interesting, but that’s how I think the actual SHRA events would’ve turned out if more research (and more common sense) had been included. The most extreme stuff- like the nanite brainwashings- would never even be considered.

OK, your turn. Agree? Disagree? Other ideas?

17

I think the fact that it was a school, full of children, that was destroyed is pretty important, as well. I think the public feeling on the subject was that it was partially caused by the New Warriors’ careless handling of the situation, and the fact that they chose to battle a villain unnecessarily right near a school full of children.

It was passed pretty quickly and easily, so there was a decent amount of in-universe public support. If we consider the allegory to legislation like the Patriot Act that Civil War was trying to make, the extremely high approval rating of Bush and public support for measures like the Patriot Act immediately following 9/11 were the same way; as the 984 put it, anyone against the Patriot Act was dismissed as a crazy hippie for a while.

Actual vigilantes are arrested for doing just that in the real world, I see no reason why the comics universe would be any more lenient, especially in a story specifically about laws on vigilantism being more strict.

It seems like a lot of the things you said should happen (heroes trying to break their friends out of the prison, lawyers getting involved, Captain America talking to the media, villains trying to take advantage of the situation, an alien invasion) did happen.

18

Did they know they were near a school? In fact, in the comic Nitro runs from his hideout towards the school. Namorita tries to stop him before he gets there but then he “goes off” (and note, even if the heroes had intel about Nitro before the fight, the fact his powers had been boosted tremendously was unknown to anybody -except the Damage Control people). And let’s not forget that Nitro WAS going to blow up places intentionally so DC could benefit- if it didn’t happen in Stamford, it was going to happen elsewhere, perhaps even in a more populated area. Yet nowhere is this pointed out.)

It was passed pretty quickly and easily, so there was a decent amount of in-universe public support. If we consider the allegory to legislation like the Patriot Act that Civil War was trying to make, the extremely high approval rating of Bush and public support for measures like the Patriot Act immediately following 9/11 were the same way; as the 984 put it, anyone against the Patriot Act was dismissed as a crazy hippie for a while.

Oh, the Patriot Act parallels are intentional, no doubt. And I do not doubt that a lot of the public would support it- but certainly not EVERYBODY, particularly the (presumably) numerous people saved by heroes over the years. Yet in the whole event, I can only think of one story in which a civilian Anti-Reg demonstration took place (in Fantastic Four, and it devolved quickly into a clash of mobs). One of CW’s biggest criticisms was that it asked us (the fans) to choose a side, so we expected a better argument for both options, but we basically only got the Pro-Regs beating up on the Anti-Regs… and then declaring that “the right side won” despite the blatantly immoral acts they committed.

Actual vigilantes are arrested for doing just that in the real world, I see no reason why the comics universe would be any more lenient, especially in a story specifically about laws on vigilantism being more strict.

You’re missing my point. Can you imagine what would happen if, say, a man helped save several people from a burning building or a robbery… only to be then arrested for operating without a license? Technically correct, but morally controversial. I wanted to see at least something like that (or a Pro-Reg person “failing” to capture an Anti-Reg Hero, out of last-minute misgivings) to remind us of that not everyone had lost their morals or common sense all of a sudden.

It seems like a lot of the things you said should happen (heroes trying to break their friends out of the prison, lawyers getting involved, Captain America talking to the media, villains trying to take advantage of the situation, an alien invasion) did happen.

Not exactly. The ‘heroes trying to free the imprisoned ones’ wasn’t an impulsive thing done by heroes who failed to see the other side’s points; it was an actual rescue from what was effectively a gulag (by this point, even the fans agreed it was the right thing to do). The only lawyer involved was She-Hulk, and she was there mostly to “help” Speedball (which resulted only on his going crazy with guilt); Cap never got to talk to the media because the writer sicked SHIELD on him so he would become a leader of the resistance, but that would only happen if he had been truly convinced that the government had overstepped its bounds, which was NOT evident until later in the story; villains FAILED to take much advantage of things, and the alien invasion only came two years later (real time, about half a year in the comics) and it failed to improve things much (in fact, it ended with Osborn in power.)

19

I think the whole point is whether or not they are near a school is the sort of thing they should check and be careful about. There’s a good chance he wouldn’t have started running if he didn’t see a superhero team about to capture him. I think it’s pretty fair to argue that the way they handled it was at least somewhat negligent, which, the argument was made, is too negligent for people who can cause serious damage if they make a mistake.

I think the attempt was to show that public opinion was pretty strongly on registration’s side. Average Citizens didn’t really weigh in too many opinions, at all, and if most were for the registration side, I don’t see why we would see many civilians protesting against it. The two reporters in Frontline were supposed to kind of represent the Civilian arguments from each side. I really don’t remember many Pro-Registration arguments that weren’t from heroes or SHIELD/government people, either. People were shown to be on that side more often, but more people were.

I’m not missing the point, at all. I’m telling you that people who saved others from robberies have been arrested in the past. There’s a lot of moral to-do about vigilantism in fiction, but, usually, nobody cares that much in real life.

I guess I just don’t get why you’re being so critical about slight differences from what you claim you would have done. Also, I’m pretty sure Osborn coming to power counts as the villains taking advantage of the situation, just a little. The demand of wanting huge villain plots and alien invasions within a relatively brief crossover event is sort of ridiculous; they arose in the environment created by the event as appropriately large events. A full-scale invasion or a villainous plot getting resolved in half an issue or in a side book without most of the characters even being there wouldn’t exactly be ideal, either.

20

I agree there was a fumble on the Warriors’ part, although it seems more the fault of the producers of their TV show, who only revealed the IDs of the villains to them at the very last minute; also the kids were in hiding, and they were arguing whether to go ahead when one of the villains happened to spot them. And don’t forget, with or without them Nitro WAS going to blow up the town, or another one. Bad situation, but all in all, not the kind of event that I’d consider truly damning; a good investigation of the events (Consider: THE ENTIRE EVENT WAS RECORDED) could even have cleared them of much guilt. (Then again, exactly what did the audience see? We don’t know. The tape could have been altered by third parties to make them look guilty. That’s why I would use a live broadcast instead).

I think the attempt was to show that public opinion was pretty strongly on registration’s side. Average Citizens didn’t really weigh in too many opinions, at all, and if most were for the registration side, I don’t see why we would see many civilians protesting against it. The two reporters in Frontline were supposed to kind of represent the Civilian arguments from each side. I really don’t remember many Pro-Registration arguments that weren’t from heroes or SHIELD/government people, either. People were shown to be on that side more often, but more people were.

There were quite a few incidents showing the public as being on the “pro” side, including the (rather narmy) attempt by three rescue workers to stop Cap from beating up Iron Man (instead of, you know, doing their jobs of rescuing civilians.) But where were the equivalent, “Hey, we trust you guys” incidents? After over a decade (In Marvel time) of being saved nearly every week by the heroes, NOBODY even comes out to say, “I trust them?” This IS a big flaw in what was supposed to be a balanced argument, Arac.

I’m not missing the point, at all. I’m telling you that people who saved others from robberies have been arrested in the past. There’s a lot of moral to-do about vigilantism in fiction, but, usually, nobody cares that much in real life.
And I’m telling you, I just wanted to see some people on the pro-side show inner conflict over arresting people they KNEW where heroes. That’s my point.

I guess I just don’t get why you’re being so critical about slight differences from what you claim you would have done. Also, I’m pretty sure Osborn coming to power counts as the villains taking advantage of the situation, just a little. The demand of wanting huge villain plots and alien invasions within a relatively brief crossover event is sort of ridiculous; they arose in the environment created by the event as appropriately large events. A full-scale invasion or a villainous plot getting resolved in half an issue or in a side book without most of the characters even being there wouldn’t exactly be ideal, either.
Those were not “slight differences”, Arac, though I guess you’d need a deeper understanding of the Marvel Universe to see it. Oh, and I never asked for the invasions and such to happen ‘within Civil War’- but at least some kind of climatic event (other than the poorly thought out final battle between the heroes) needed to happen. Also, this being Marvel, you’d think Dr. Doom or something would’ve showed up at some point. But as I said earlier, I suspect the author was just too engaged in his moral tract to care.