Civil War #1

Civil War #1
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Steve McNiven
Ink by Dexter Vines, Colorist Morry Hollowell

Marvel is desperate to compete with DC. What Marvel refuses to embrace though is that it's universe isn't as dark as that of Batman and the Justice League. Never has been in my opinion. There is a huge difference between characters in these two worlds, so the superheroes should in theory react to a similar situation very differently.

Apparently though, when you're trying to compete with DC, you have your Marvel superheroes act completely out of character just so they can be "dark" like Batman. And that is why I absolutely hated Civil War.

First off, the premise is old. A "superhero" villain explodes a whole town killing hundreds of innocent civilians, causing politicians and us regular humans to decry a superhero registration system to help monitor their powers. Uh....been there done that with the X-Men how many times? Just because you substitute the word "superhero" for "mutant" doesn't make this story different. So I have an issue with that because it should be addressed that mutants have been fighting a registration act for a long time. Millar tends to rush a storyline or make it a tad bit crazy to get to his major character kicking ass (read his run in Wolverine for example). So I'm a bit disappointed he resorts to his same tricks in this book.

So who is the major character serving up a can of whoop ass? Captain America. Except he isn't fighting bad guys, he's suddenly fighting SHIELD agents. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??????????????????

There is no way super soldier Captain America, who has served this country since WWII and beyond, would ever oppose super hero registration. Captain America is no liberal! He's an all-American brain-washed conservative soldier who would gladly embrace the opportunity to make sure no more innocent civilians get hurt by out of control superheroes. He's never hid his identity from the American people and I'm sure he would agree no one else needs to either.

Instead though, Captain America is for no good reason opposed to the registration. He goes on this violent rampage (!) and thus starts the "Civil War." Ironman Tony Stark is somehow the voice of reason (also out of character) and states after the rampage,"You idiot, we were trying to save lives." Somehow Captain America is the Hulk now? An "idiot?" No way.

So, I hated it.
Do NOT recommend it to comic book fans. Somewhere I read the line "If you like Identity Crisis, you'll love this." My response to that? No you won't. This isn't written by a novelist who knows how to write a tight story. This is written by a guy who writes his stories around splash pages of Captain America surfing on a fighter plane. BIG difference.

And if you want to read some fantastic Captain America, may I suggest the Ultimates 1 & 2, also written by Mark Millar. That is a really great read, and obviously where Millar puts his best ideas. Civil War is sensationalist crap, meant in to bring in the suckers who fall for fanboy junk.

Oh yea, I should mention the art? Pretty good. Seen better. The coloring isn't as crisp as it should be and I believe the colorist is to blame. Plus McNiven gives Captain America high watered bell bottoms which is kinda stupid considering how impractical they are in a fight. Not as polished as I expected and hopefully all the issues come out on time to make up for the rush job. Doesn't matter to me though. I will not be reading another one.