Civil War is finally here! What an amazing week. What a fantastic time to be a comic book fan. Infinite Crisis ends in issue #7 while Civil War gets cranked up in issue #1. Can Marvel’s Civil War top DC’s Infinite Crisis? Let’s find out.
Creative Team
Writer: Mark Millar
Penciler: Steve McNiven
Inker: Dexter Vines
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10.
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10.
Overall Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10.
Synopsis: The issue starts with the New Warriors and their camera crew outside the house of four villains: Cobalt Man, Coldheart, Speedfreak and Nitro. Microbe tells Speedball that they are out of their league and that they shouldn’t take on these villains. Speedball disagrees saying that they need a big ratings boost since Nova left the team and they have only been fighting lame villains. The villains spot the New Warriors and it is a braaaaaawwwl!! During the fight, Namorita chases after Nitro who runs near a park. Namorita smashes Nitro into a bus and tells him to surrender. Nitro then tells Namorita that the New Warriors are playing with the big boys now. BOOOOOM!! Nitro explodes and takes out the park full of children and the entire area.
We then cut to a two page splash shot of the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men aiding firemen and rescue teams as they search for survivors in the rubble. Captain America is pissed that all these innocent children died for some “stupid reality TV show.” Iron Man questions why the New Warriors didn’t call the Avengers since they must have known they were out of their league. A mom tells her son not to worry about the Sentinels since they are the good guys sent to watch the X-Men (Yup. Public opinion about super heroes is about to get nasty.) Wolverine takes exception to that comment. Black Goliath (or whatever this Mort is called nowadays) says that this is going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. That the government isn’t going to watch just mutants anymore.
We cut to She-Hulk on the Larry King show saying that it is reasonable that Super Heroes be treated like police. That they should be trained and carry badges.
We then shift to the funeral service for all the dead children. The pastor asks for mercy upon the super heroes whose carelessness caused this tragedy. As Tony Stark is leaving the church, a mother of one of the dead children, Damien, spits in Tony’s face. The mother blames Tony for financing the Avengers and encouraging their reckless behavior and operating outside of the law. The mother says that the blood of her son Damien is on Tony’s hands.
We then cut to just outside a trendy New York club. Human Torch arrives to meet his date. The doorman lets Johnny and his date cut the long line and let’s them into the club. Before Johnny can enter, the rest of the people in line want to know why Johnny gets in with no wait while they have been there for hours. Johnny shoots back that once they save the world from Galactus then they can borrow his free pass. The crowd responds with what about the next time he blows up a school. What about the next time he kills some kids. Somebody then hits Johnny from behind with a beer bottle and knocks him out. Then the crowd proceeds to stomp away on Johnny.
We then cut to the Baxter Building where there is a super hero meeting consisting of Dr. Strange, She-Hulk, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, Young Avengers and some various other assorted super heroes. They all debate about whether to go along with a national Registration bill or to fight it. Dr. Strange is against it. The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Yellow Jacket, She-Hulk are for the Registration bill. Wolverine and Falcon are opposed to it. We see the split begin as Wolverine and Thing trade some verbal jabs over the issue. The fake Daredevil then tells everyone that this is the end of the way they do business.
We then cut to a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. Commander Hill asks Captain America if his super hero friends who are meeting at the Baxter Building will go along with the Super Hero Registration Act. Captain America says that he has no clue. Captain America says that this will split the super heroes down the middle and there will be a war between the two sides. Captain America says that most of the “rebels” will be the street level heroes like Daredevil and Luke Cage. Commander Hill asks Captain America that the rebels won’t be anyone he can’t handle. That the Avengers must support the Super Hero Registration Act and that Captain America must be on the front leading them. Captain America says that he will not arrest heroes risking their lives every day for their country. That Washington should not start telling us who the super-villains are. Commander Hill responds with super-villains are guys in masks who refuse to obey the law. Suddenly, the armored S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers cock their weapons and surround Captain America. Captain America tells the soldiers to lower their weapons. Commander Hill tells them to set their tranquilizers and get ready. Captain America loses it calling this insane. Commander Hill then orders the soldiers to attack Captain America and we officially have a braaaaaawwl! (And this is a sick fight.) Captain America opens up a huge can on the soldiers and ends up escaping by jumping out a window of the Helicarrier. At the same time a fighter plane is about to dock inside the Helicarrier. Captain America lands on the cockpit of the plane, smashes the cockpit with his shield to give him a good grip and tells the pilot to keep flying. And with that, Captain America makes his grand escape.
We then cut back to the Baxter Building where the Watcher is lurking in the background of the meeting. Dr. Strange says that his presence is an ominous sign.
We then shift to a protest rally outside the White House demanding for legislation to control super heroes. Inside the White House the President says that it is a real concern that Captain America is now the figurehead for the rebels. The President says that they need a figurehead. We then see Iron Man flanked by Mr. Fantastic and Yellow Jacket. Iron Man tells the President to push ahead with the registration as planned and that they will deal with Captain America. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: Mark Millar’s writing is excellent! Millar does a kick ass job getting this Civil War rolling with a bang. (No pun intended. Ok, well maybe a little bit.) Seriously, Millar does a great job getting this mini-series off to a fast and entertaining start.
I thought the New Warriors scene in the beginning was well done. Nitro is one evil man. When he tells Namorita that thy are now playing with the big boys and then lets loose with a wicked explosion was perfect. It reinforces Nitro as a major villain. People forget that this guy killed Captain Marvel. It also illustrates just how reckless younger super heroes with little training and supervision can be and how dangerous that is to society in general.
The funeral scene was well done and shows Tony Stark’s motivation to support the Registration Act. He must feel incredibly guilty. Even though Tony is written as a very Machiavellian person, deep down all he really wants to do is to help humankind.
The scene where the Human Torch gets jumped and beaten up perfectly illustrates the growing mob mentality that we are going to see over the course of the Civil War.
The debating between the super heroes about whether to support the act or not was also well done. Millar has an excellent feel for the characters. Each of the comments and reaction for the various characters is realistic and true to their personalities. Millar is doing a good job not making any of the opinions or choices that these characters make seem forced or unnatural.
Now, the Captain America/Commander Hill scene on the Helicarrier was the highlight of the issue for me. The fight scene was sweet and really showed off how much of a bad-ass Captain America is and this is necessary because he is going to have to go toe to toe with much stronger heroes like Iron Man. Millar is smart to try and build up Captain America to the reader to make him look like a serious threat. With the exception of Ed Brubaker, nobody writes Captain America better than Mark Millar. I love Millar’s Ultimate Captain America. He is a total ass kicker. Millar is writing this regular version of Captain America very similarly to the Ultimate Captain America. And the line where he takes over the fighter jet and the pilot yells out “JEEZUS!” and Captain America responds by tells the pilot to “keep flying, son and watch that potty mouth.” was classic!!
And the ending was perfect. It hooks the reader and makes you eager to get issue #2 in your hands immediately. The final shot of Iron Man flanked by Reed Richards and Yellow Jacket looked fantastic. What a great ending shot to the comic.
Millar writes very strong dialogue. He can handle humorous dialogue as easily as dramatic serious dialogue. But, Millar’s real forte is delivering one entertaining action packed joy ride. And he delivers that in spades in Civil War #1.
That art is excellent! McNiven and Vines turn in an incredible job in this issue. The book has a nice realistic look to it that fits the tone of Millar’s story perfectly. The splash shots look great, especially the one with Captain America on top of the fighter plane. Simply awesome. The art makes Civil War #1 an absolute joy to read.
The Bad: I have no complaints at all. This was an entertaining first issue that hooks the reader and makes you wishing that issue #2 came out tomorrow. I don’t expect this title to be the Watchmen, Kingdome Come or Crisis on Infinite Earths. I just expect it to be a fun entertaining action filled story.