The Marvel Civil War storyline is now being published in the UK Marvel Collectors Editions from Panini Comics.Now I'm not a regular comic book reader but I had heard a lot about this reconstruction of the Marvel universe when it took place a couple of years ago.
I picked up the information from the Around Comics podcast which I still listen to. It's a great forum based show that is both amusing and informative. I'd promised myself that I'd catch up o the story one day.
Now I know these multi-book crossover storylines are really a marketing ploy but this story which is set in post 911 American sounded enticing.
The story kicks off in Avengers Unconquered issue 1, which is a repackaging of Avengers united (another marketing ploy). Still it's a 100 page issue and I do love these UK editions. They are better constructed than the US originals - in that they come with a soft card binding and the quality of printing is excellent. Course they'll never have the collectors value of the US originals but they are excellent for archiving.
I intend to follow this entire story arc, across however many different books, simply because I was so impressed by this issue.
The story starts with a group of heroes, created for a super hero reality TV show - anyway things get out of hand when one super villain effectively turns himself into a nuclear bomb and explodes himself.
What follows is the new America sick of costumed freaks doing more harm than good. And there is even talk of banning the costumed crime fighters - in the end it is made law that all costumed heroes must sign a disclosure of powers and identity and then take a wage and work for the government.
Captain America is the first rebel and he soon finds himself not only at war with heroes who had once been allies
but with the country he loves. And he's not the only one as others are forced to take sides.Almost every major character in the Marvel universe takes part in the storyline. The illustration on the left features all the characters involved in the war.
The artwork is moody and the writing generates an intense feeling of paranoia. This is a story with genuine depth and relevance to the real world.
...a world that could do with one or two super heroes.
But besides all that - many years ago me and my mates always used to wonder what would happen if hero x met hero y. Now Marvel are answering that boyhood fantasy.
This issue features the issues Civil War 1 , Disassembled 1The Decision
Choosing Sides
Disassembled 2
The storyline then continues in other books on sale this month.
It's hard not to be cynical of these multi comic book storylines but when the quality of story and art is up to this standard that fact becomes acedemic. This is high quality storytelling with truly adult themes presented in the fantastical and much loved comic book super hero universe.
3 comments:
I'm not a big fan of multi comic book heroes, all thrown together, when it becomes bigger than say The Avengers or The Invaders. However, this does look interesting and I will check it out this weekend.
I'm not much of a comic book person, but....my dh is... Thanks!
David and Barrie - the storytelling in the first part which was first published in Civil War 1 is top quality. As I say I don't read comics regularly but I do listen to the Around Comics podcast merely because it's so bloody good. So I was aware of the Civil War storyline but, until now, had never read it.
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