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[Ridley327]

At least we got the Mightygodking rewrite to show for it!

 

[DTJAAAAM]

I enjoyed it. The event made me a Cap fan when I was previously always indifferent to him. It also got a few of my then-coworkers back into caring about the comics. Still wish that they would reveal more scenes/ideas that were cut, like Captain America psyching out Sentry and the X-Men choosing a side.

 

[Fhtagn]

I've only read a few tie ins while catching up on comics with Marvel Unlimited, but I read up on the story around when it happened and the main plot is such a hamfisted overreach in an attempt to do something profound that it made me surprised to discover that there are good Marvel comics happening in that era. You have to be a sociopath to side with Tony.

Civil War is also why when I heard about Secret Wars, I braced for the worst, and yet that crossover was delightful.

 

[LordOfLore]

I enjoyed it. The event made me a Cap fan when I was previously always indifferent to him. It also got a few of my then-coworkers back into caring about the comics. Still wish that they would reveal more scenes/ideas that were cut, like Captain America psyching out Sentry and the X-Men choosing a side.

Here's the original idea:

Reprinted in the Civil War Script Book, we see Millar’s initial concept for a twelve-issue Civil War miniseries. Yes, twelve. It’s very different from the story we’d eventually get and comes with notes from Joe Quesada and Tom Brevoort (who is the far more critical of the two).

The big tipping point that sets off the demand for registration is when Speedball fights a villain and Happy Hogan’s son gets killed in the crossfire (as Brevoort is quick to point out, Hogan totally doesn’t have a son). This drives Iron Man into championing the cause and heroes have 28 days to unmask.

The broad strokes are mostly the same, though without everything relating to Goliath’s death. Instead, there’s an even more uncomfortable – and very Mark Millar – plot about a superhero being blackmailed into suicide to save his kidnapped son. Outside of that, once Cap gives up (quitting instead of turning himself in), the story simply keeps going.

A device is used to depower offending heroes and Speedball’s “execution” is done publicly. Thor shows up, but is disgusted at what superheroism has become. Then things come to a head when the Hulk returns from space with an army of five-foot-tall Hulk Babies because apparently Hulk has been boning THOUSANDS OF ALIENS as part of his scheme to get revenge. Cap comes back to help lead the fight against him and the senator behind the Super Human Registration Act goes full-on villain by trying to depower everyone on Earth.

Cap stops him at the cost of losing his powers and becoming a frail, old man. Then the son of that dead superhero from earlier shows up to give some tearful monologue that’s supposed to bring closure, though Millar doesn’t exactly say what the closure even is.

What’s interesting in all of this is that Millar is very open that although Rogers is depowered and there will be a new Captain America, that will only last for a year or so before Rogers is repowered in time for his movie. Even though that didn’t quite happen in the '00s, here we are after Steve Rogers has spent some time powerless, only to suddenly regain his status prior to a Captain America movie.

A movie about Civil War.

Also funny is Brevoort being 100% against Planet Hulk being derailed for Civil War, claiming that putting Hulk in Civil War would be an act of greed. Yet in the end, the reason he isn’t in Civil War is so they can do an entire event based on Hulk coming to Earth to fight the heroes, so... *shrug*

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

 

[BattleMonkey]

Every event since that one has been horrible if we go by the internet

 

[Fhtagn]

So, how did Mark Millar trick people into paying him to write comics? That reads like very bad fan fiction.

 

[Sesha]

Mark Millar licks goats.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

So, how did Mark Millar trick people into paying him to write comics? That reads like very bad fan fiction.

Not to mention that Captain America losing his powers wouldn't make him old. It's not his powers that make him young, it's the fact that he was frozen in ice for 50 years. Losing the Super Soldier serum wouldn't undo that.

Then they went and did that story again a few years later anyway SMH

 

[PhoncipleBone]

My personal opinion nobody suffered worse than Reed Richards. His character seemed destroyed to me. Complete Asshole.

Nah. Your eyes were just opened to how he always was.

 

[Parallax]

It's still pretty fucked up that the only people in marvel that remember bill foster is his family and Pym. They put his body in that lot and forgot about it

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

So, how did Mark Millar trick people into paying him to write comics? That reads like very bad fan fiction.

He teamed up with Grant Morrison in his early career. That would do wonders for anybody.

But Millar is not actually that bad. I don't care for most of his work myself (I'm French, how could I?) but he has written some decent stuff over the years like Superman Red Son. His comics are very much of their time and they don't age very well. Still, you can't judge a comic writer by their events. Otherwise, Bendis would be a completely talentless hack, but his work on Daredevil proves otherwise.

 

[Merriweather]

As a whole, it was your typical Marvel event series. The first 2 issues were interesting. The following 2-3 issues are just characters arguing to pad out the series. And the final 2 issues are a by the numbers battle with an anticlimactic end.

Frontline especially was a great book. The Death of Captain America stuff that followed was also generally pretty good (from what I'd read), but Civil War itself made a far better movie than a comic.

Frontline was a decent book but it lost me at the end when the plucky young reporter lectures Captain America about having the gall to decide what's right or wrong because he doesn't follow NASCAR and American Idol.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

He teamed up with Grant Morrison in his early career. That would do wonders for anybody.

But Millar is not actually that bad. I don't care for most of his work myself (I'm French, how could I?) but he has written some decent stuff over the years like Superman Red Son. But his comics are very much of their time and they don't age very well. Still, you can't judge a comic writer by their events. Otherwise, Bendis would be a completely talentless hack, but his work on Daredevil proves otherwise.

Well if you believe the rumors Morrison ghost wrote a lot of Red Son.

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

Well if you believe the rumors Morrison ghost wrote a lot of Red Son.

Uh, I never heard about that before. Maybe that would explain why I like it so much even though it still feels very much like a Millar story.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Not to mention that Captain America losing his powers wouldn't make him old. It's not his powers that make him young, it's the fact that he was frozen in ice for 50 years. Losing the Super Soldier serum wouldn't undo that.

Then they went and did that story again a few years later anyway SMH

"Cap - serum = old man" had apparently been canon since the 90s or so, though, so it wasn't like Millar was pulling it out of his ass.

 

[Parallax]

Uh, I never heard about that before. Maybe that would explain why I like it so much even though it still feels very much like a Millar story.

Seeing as how Millar hasn't written anything like that since, and red son feels like it could have been apart if multiversity, it's been my running theory for a while now

 

[deadscreensky]

Morrison didn't have to literally ghostwrite to have an enormous (and obvious) influence on Red Son. Just bouncing off ideas between the two could have led to that, or Morrison looking over some rough drafts for revision, etc. I haven't liked most of Millar's output for ages now either, but we don't need to come up with some counter-narrative that he could never write well at all.

Anyway, Civil War was pretty bad, and my memory is that a lot of people strongly disliked it even at the time. I don't think much of the criticism came about in retrospect, a lot of the characterization issues were widely noted immediately.

I don't even feel much of the blame should fall on Millar. Something like Civil War is more a large corporate machine than it is a story written by human beings, and while he could have probably made it better I doubt anybody could have made it good.

 

[Schweinehund]

Team Thor

I just bought a shit ton of marvel TPB's/Omni to get caught up to the modern era for the most part (no AvX, Axis, Fear Itself, plan to read those on Marvel Unlimited). Was pleased/disapointed to hear that Thor wasn't in the event, pleased because he didn't have to be mischaracterized or potentially be on team Iron Man, and disappointed because he's a major marvel character.


All I remember when the original Civil War came out is that

Spoiler

Captain America got shot by a sniper and died, which I thought was mostly stupid because everyone knew he would be back eventually.

 

[LordOfLore]

Team Thor

Was pleased/disapointed to hear that Thor wasn't in the event, pleased because he didn't have to be mischaracterized or potentially be on team Iron Man, and disappointed because he's a major marvel character.

Go out and pick up Thor by JMS. Thor shows Iron Man why he's the only founding Avenger who can stand up to someone like Superman.

 

[Escape Goat]

I was on Team IDontLikeEventSeries

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

"Cap - serum = old man" had apparently been canon since the 90s or so, though, so it wasn't like Millar was pulling it out of his ass.

The first time he loses the serum is during Gruenwald's run in the 90s and it doesn't make him old. It does eventually have adverse effects but it doesn't age him.

 

[Verelios]

The SUPERIOR Spiderman would never have stood for that grandstanding shit, too bad our savior came late.

 

[Schweinehund]

Go out and pick up Thor by JMS. Thor shows Iron Man why he's the only founding Avenger who can stand up to someone like Superman.

Yup I have the four (I think) tp's by JMS, and Aaron's run, still have to read them, want to do it chronologically.

So far I have but haven't read:

Kurt Busiek Avengers Omnibuses
New Avengers Omni, Avengers Disassembled Thor,
House of M, Civil War,
JMS Thor
Secret Wars, Secret Invasion, Siege/Siege Prelude TP
Thor God of Thunder 2 HC (Plan on getting the femthor one that was just released last week at some point)
Uncanny Avenger Omnibus

Waiting on them to collect Hickman's Avenger/New Avenger run in Omni's, could be a while though :/.

Currently reading Walt Simonson's Thor run, almost finished with it. Great stuff so far.

Also bought Ultimates 1/2 collection by Mark Millar, surprisingly cheap but used.

Lots of other Marvel stuff I'll probably read on Marvel unlimited. I prefer physical though and Marvel stuff is like cheapest in Omni's and hard to find in print compared to DC. They did just rerelease Morrison X-men, which I'll probably nab.

 

[Shaanyboi]

We got Bucky Cap tho

In Ed Brubaker's Cap run, but that wasn't part of Civil War. That was after Cap was already arrested.

 

[Sandfox]

In Ed Brubaker's Cap run, but that wasn't part of Civil War. That was after Cap was already arrested.

If people are going to blame CW for OMD, you might as well give it Bucky Cap lol.

 

[Boombloxer]

It is better than the sequel, which is telegraphing more than a few moves.

Team Iron Man. Cap was wrong here and in the movie.