Ok, I just read Civil War #5.

Civil War #5

If you haven’t read it but plan to then you might want to stop reading. I’m going to try to avoid any spoilers, but I can’t guarantee it. (When I’m done writing this, I’ll probably be too lazy to go back and edit the spoiler alert, but it’s just that kind of unknown that makes these posts so exciting to read.)

First I want to gripe about the ads. It should be common courtesy to the fans that every comic book has more pages of actual, you know, STORY than ads. Marvel appears to have forgotten this little bit of etiquette. Fix this Marvel.

But I didn’t come here to talk about the ads. I came here to talk about the draft. The super hero draft, that is. When Civil War was first announced I really liked the idea. I saw a lot of potential in the story. But like many other readers, I’m not thrilled with the execution so far. The biggest problem is the characterizations. I recognize the names and the costumes, but nobody is acting like their histories suggest that they would. It is hard to accept all of these former best friend good guys turning on each other so quickly. As soon as the super hero registration act is passed into law, the different super heroes start punching each other in the head. So much of it doesn’t feel right. I’ve spent some time trying to figure out the individual motivations, and I tried to justify it by saying people often don’t act rationally in the face of conflict. But these are people who fight cosmic battles to save the Universe every other Tuesday. They can handle the stress.

So my question is should I have faith in Marvel? There are still two issues left to go. Will everything make perfect sense at the end? Will I look back and say that taken as a whole it is a great story? I have my doubts. So much of the story seems to be change and shock for the sake of change and shock and shoehorning a story around it.

I’m going to stick it out until the end, and I hope to write a piece on how great the story turned out to be. But if it doesn’t work out, Marvel will have a real mess to clean up, but I guess that’s the case in any war, secret or otherwise.

Ok, I just read Civil War #5.

Civil War #5

If you haven’t read it but plan to then you might want to stop reading. I’m going to try to avoid any spoilers, but I can’t guarantee it. (When I’m done writing this, I’ll probably be too lazy to go back and edit the spoiler alert, but it’s just that kind of unknown that makes these posts so exciting to read.)

First I want to gripe about the ads. It should be common courtesy to the fans that every comic book has more pages of actual, you know, STORY than ads. Marvel appears to have forgotten this little bit of etiquette. Fix this Marvel.

But I didn’t come here to talk about the ads. I came here to talk about the draft. The super hero draft, that is. When Civil War was first announced I really liked the idea. I saw a lot of potential in the story. But like many other readers, I’m not thrilled with the execution so far. The biggest problem is the characterizations. I recognize the names and the costumes, but nobody is acting like their histories suggest that they would. It is hard to accept all of these former best friend good guys turning on each other so quickly. As soon as the super hero registration act is passed into law, the different super heroes start punching each other in the head. So much of it doesn’t feel right. I’ve spent some time trying to figure out the individual motivations, and I tried to justify it by saying people often don’t act rationally in the face of conflict. But these are people who fight cosmic battles to save the Universe every other Tuesday. They can handle the stress.

So my question is should I have faith in Marvel? There are still two issues left to go. Will everything make perfect sense at the end? Will I look back and say that taken as a whole it is a great story? I have my doubts. So much of the story seems to be change and shock for the sake of change and shock and shoehorning a story around it.

I’m going to stick it out until the end, and I hope to write a piece on how great the story turned out to be. But if it doesn’t work out, Marvel will have a real mess to clean up, but I guess that’s the case in any war, secret or otherwise.