CIVIL WAR

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

CIVIL WAR #3 REVIEW

Reviewer: Kerry Birmingham, birmy@juno.com

Iron Man vs. Brett Hendrick, Mall Security Guard

Writer: Mark Millar
Penciler: Steve McNiven
Inkers: Dexter Vines with Mark Morales & Steve McNiven
Colorist: Morry Hollowell
Letterer: Chris Eliopolous
Assistant Editors: Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson
Associate Editor: Andy Schmidt
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Variant Cover by: Michael Turner & Aspen
Published by: Marvel Comics

On the surface, Civil War #3 hangs together just fine. Hot off the signing of the Superhero Registration Act into law, Iron Man and his supporters begin with process of shoring up support and racking down Captain America and his "Secret Avengers," who continue to do their thing with new identities despite being newly minted outlaws. All of this leads to a confrontation between the two sides. Things go badly.

Mark Millar’s story holds your attention from start to finish with big fights and snappy dialogue, and Steve McNiven’s art captures everything with nary a missed beat or awkward frame. On the surface, this issue is rock solid perfect; given the slightest scrutiny, though, the cracks begin to show.

Civil War may be only three issues in, but it’s feeling a lot longer, thanks to the seemingly endless tie-ins. Indeed, reading this issue, there’s the distinct feeling that more is going on off the page than on. This is fine if, as here, you’re trying to portray epic scope in a limited space. Where this is a problem – and Infinite Crisis was just as guilty of this – is if it detracts from your story as its own entity. Having personally read a significant portion of the spin-offs and tie-ins to this series, it’s relatively easy to parse the significance of Bishop flagging down Tony Stark as he leaves Xavier’s, or to excuse virtually ignoring last issue’s Spider-Man reveal, and dismiss them as events explored elsewhere (and in Spidey’s case, across a handful of other titles). The problem is that it does nothing to service the story the reader is in the midst of reading. For example, there are multiple instances this issue of characters ominously alluding to the whereabouts of Sue Richards. If this presumably alludes to Sue’s misgivings about the Registration Act, it’s hard to take it as direly as presented when, a few pages later, Sue is seen smiling and fighting alongside Tony’s forces. If it’s something explored in the pages of Fantastic Four (which I don’t read), its impact is lost here and comes off as little more than a series of portentous non-sequiturs. Civil War’s greatest strength – its epic, inclusive scope – is also its greatest challenge. This is, thus far, not a story. It’s a story about other stories, a big tease.

Other flaws are more negligible, but irritating. The saintliness of Captain America and his crew in opposition to the Act is thoroughly overstated, here and in the other tie-ins. Even if I were to essentially agree with the Anti-registration side , which I do, being Pro-registration isn’t nearly as indefensible as Millar is presenting it; reader sympathies are clearly being rallied for Cap and his team, a somewhat wasted gesture given the audience is already pre-disposed to support secret identities as a plot device and a reasonable way to conduct your life while wearing spandex and stopping bank robberies. Labeling the Pro-registration side with all kinds of historically loaded terminology – Emma Frost refers to the O*N*E-controlled Xavier Institute as a "reservation;" Nazi allusions abound, and it’s a safe bet that the previously mentioned "Area 42" will be directly or indirectly referred to and portrayed as an internment camp – does little to humanize characters with decades of characterization under their belts whose only crime here is the collision of guilt and politics.

Of much less weighty significance: the out-of-costume Daredevil is strangely drawn to resemble Matt Murdock, despite it being explicitly NOT Matt Murdock (unless ol’ blind Matt suddenly has "favorite movies"); hedging bets since this issue would ship before the reveal in this month’s Daredevil? The first surreal Spidey-with-no-secret-identity moment for me came in this issue, with the sight of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents taking orders from Peter ("Ready when you are, Spider-Man. Just give the word.") Also: while it makes some sense given the circles those characters used to travel in, I’m weirdly disappointed in Emma for having used Tony Stark for "friends with benefits."

Regarding the final page reveal (at this point common knowledge but I’ll leave it unspoiled anyway), I can only say that it’s neither particularly surprising nor unexpected, even inevitable. It works fine, however, as a moment and as a cliffhanger.

If the story doesn’t hold up, McNiven’s art goes a long way towards glossing over the flaws and inconsistencies in Millar’s script. McNiven’s art is absolutely beautiful here, aided in no small part by Morry Hollowell’s excellent coloring, sharp from explosions to flesh tones. McNiven is developing into quite the superstar, and has progressed exponentially from his earliest work at CrossGen (I still regret not buying his original Meridian art dirt-cheap back then). This series will undoubtedly make a beautiful collected edition next year.

There’s every chance, with more than half of this series remaining, that Millar will live up to the promise of the premise and the strength of both the characters and his collaborators. As it stands, Civil War is struggling to keep everything together under the strain of its lofty mandate and the weight of its own internal logic. The flaws are evident, but it’s at the very least a good looking mess.

OVERALL:

Hit Counter