Recently, Marvel Comics has actually been in the news for its comic books instead of for its movies. There is a huge event going on in the "Marvel Universe" called "Civil War", which pits longtime friends in the superhero community against each other. The basic premise is that a young superhero group's attempt to apprehend some bad guys (in the pursuit of ratings for a reality TV show) resulted in the deaths of over 600 civilians, most of them children.
The backlash to this event was the creation of the "Superhero Registration Act", which meant that anyone who wanted to put on spandex and fight crime had to register with the government and work for a sanctioned security organization. One of the problems with this act is that if you had any super-powers, it amounted to a draft. Half the superhero community is going along with it and half is against it and is now on the run. This saga is unfolding in not just one comic book title called Civil War, but in over a dozen other monthly titles, showing the wide-ranging effects of this legislation.
This entire storyline is obviously a reaction to what is currently going on in the United States with the war on terror. Comments from Marvel editors and writers before the story began was that it would be an even-handed portrayal of both sides of the issue. However, the story has been replete with phrases like "unregistered combatants", comparisons of the regsitration act to slavery, and portrayals of (so far) everyone in government who is behind this act having some dark agenda.
In particular, this month's issue of Cable & Deadpool (one of the monthly titles crossing over into the storyline) really pushed me over the edge. In an exchange between superhero Cable and the President of the United States, Cable (who is fom the future) says that the consequences of the Registration Act will be that years down the line the U.S. will turn into a totalitarian state and that there will be a world-wide civil war.
The President's response? "Well, you're talking about something that is fifty years away. Those aren't votes that we have to worry about this November."
So much for any even minor semblance of a "balanced" story. That comment was ludicrous and disgusting and in my opinion is the "jumping the shark" moment in this saga.
So far, no one on the pro-registration side been portrayed in a positive way that actually carries some weight. Tony Stark/Iron Man has been reduced to parroting "It's the law. It's the law." and Reed Richards (of the Fantastic Four) has come across as an ivory tower, clueless-in-regard-to-the-real-world, yutz. That's basically it and it's beyond weak.
Article comments
1 - Disneymarvel
Thank you for a 'dead-on' article! I couldn't agree with you more. The potential for great stories coming out of Civil War is vast, but this isn't happening.
As you said, favorite heroes of mine - especially the Fantastic Four - are not acting in character. Reed Richards may be preoccupied with his scientific take on the world, but his is by no means clueless to how things work. And with the Thing's history, I would've expected him to be on the Registration side. Instead, the Thing is being described as a 'patriot,' but unable to choose sides of 'their war' and has run off to France to avoid it all. This is absolutely ludicrous!
I read Marvel comics for escapism and to revisit old friends. If I want an inaccurate, liberal take on the world, I can pick up the New York Times for a lot less money and about the same level of frustration.
For now, I'll keep reading. But, if my favorite heroes continue to not give a believable portrayal of both sides of this "ripped from today's headlines" story, then it may be time for me to stop a 35 year habit!
Again, thanks for pointing this out to others!
2 - Adriel
You make it sound as if Marvel is totally against anti-government. This is nothing new, the entertainment industry (comics, movies, TV, and what have you) has always been taking pot shots at political figures and their related institutions for years.
But in Marvel's defense it has also used the federal government support and sponsor various superhero teams in its works of fiction. This has been true in several series over the 30 years, but most recently in X-Factor Investigations, Captain America and updated version of the Avengers known as The Ultimates.
And its nothing new either to think that Marvel has not gone on to attack the government before. Why do you think the X-Men are constantly at odds with the federal authorities over past 4 decades?
You can't simply ignore 40 years of history!
3 - Joe
I just started reading comics and started with civil war and i think that it is a great comic. Maybe the charictors are more like the ones in the marvel movies and not like the old comic book so i gess maybe its more for younger generation comic readers.
4 - Grievance
Are you sure this is a problem:
The President's response? "Well, you're talking about something that is fifty years away. Those aren't votes that we have to worry about this November."
So much for any even minor semblance of a "balanced" story. That comment was ludicrous and disgusting and in my opinion is the "jumping the shark" moment in this saga.
There comes a time when you have to begin to seperate your partisan allegiances from reality. In reality, our President has expressed exactly that sentiment when he was asked how history would view the Iraq War. You remember that? Remember what our great leader said in reply:
"We don't know. We'll all be dead." How is this much different than the depiction of him in the comic book? It's not. the comic book POTUS exhibits the very same character that the real life one does.
I'm also not sure how they could show the pro-registration crowd in a better light. It's really hard to show people for draconian expansion of government power in a positive light.
One thing I've noticed about the people complaining about this is, they don't really have anything compelling to offer in the way of putting it in a good light. How is it a good thing? How? In what universe would any sane or rational individual want superhumans under the authority of politicians? Anyone who would knee jerk react and say they would, have not thought carefully about the "other" side that they most certainly would not want to have that kind of power.
The whole concept of a super hero is that they're someone who rights wrongs that could not otherwise be righted. Given that so many of the wrongs in our history have been done by governments, if there were such a thing as super heros, just imagine how much worse the crimes of governments could get if they were under the command of politicians.
I'm not one of those who hates Bush(I'm an independent with a strong conservative streak), but I don't like him either. I didn't like Clinton either. It's bad enough they got to be in charge of our military in real life, I am dead set against them being in charge of my heros in my entertainment.
As for jumping the shark, I had always thought that the term was for things that had become so popular, that they get marketed and written to target the largest possible number of people including and especially little kids. The reference is of course to the famous episode where the fonz jumped over sharks on water to satisfy all the little kid fans. Civil war is far from having done that. I don't know too many little kids who would think it's a k-rad kewl storyline to have the POTUS say such a thing, but then, I'm not anyone's partisan so I see things differently.
5 - Niall
To be fair, Marvel Bush did say that he was only trying to rise Cable during the next issue and explained his reasoning in a more balanced way.
6 - Screen Rant
Yeah, I love when the following issue blows my main premise out of the water. :-)
Having said that, I still believe that this storyline is utter crap. If it was an alternate reality story it would be great, but as a story that takes place within the established Marvel universe it stinks.
Vic