What is going on in Marvel Civil Wars?

Question

I used to read comics but with five kids cannot anymore. I heard they unmasked many heroes (including Spiderman) Now this defeats whole purpose for having a secret but none the less. What is happenning (beginning to current status) and how will they fix things with so many heroes being outted?

Answer 1

I don't really believe that there is a way to correct the situation, not without really screwing over their continuity by having someone like Eternity magically reverse everything. Could it turn out to be a dream, a hoax, an imaginary story...? No, I think Marvel has painted themselves into a corner on this one.

As you can see from the answers give here, together with the Wikipedia article, Civil War is just a thinly disguised piece of political propaganda by Marvel's writers and editors.

It is an attempt to sway public opinion on the treatment of enemy combatants of indeterminate national origin being held at Guantanamo Bay, the treatment of illegal aliens, and our civil rights.

For example, the registration of super heroes parallels the requirement for immigrants to get a green card to be in the country legally.

The imprisonment of people with super powers who refuse to register in the Negative Zone without trial parallels the imprisonment of foreign fighters who entered Iraq in order to participate in jihad against US forces.

The loss of the secret identities (which, as you correctly pointed out, defeats the purpose of having those identities in the first place) parallels the domestic telecommunications espionage which has enabled our nation to identify some terrorists and prevent their deadly plots.

By engaging our feelings for characters we admire, those with whom we are emotionally involved, the writers hope to bypass our faculty of critical thought and lead us to the assumption that what the US government is doing is wrong, without presenting any of their arguments in verbal form-- which could then be debated and refuted.

This is political indoctrination of our nation's young people, and subverting their minds!

This is why I have called upon everybody to make it clear to Marvel that we don't want our entertainment politicized. They say that they write stories "because you, the reader, demanded it!" Well, this is not what we asked for. If I wanted the news, I would read the headlines or look at it on line, and make up my own mind about what I read and saw.

We must communicate to Marvel in the only way they will understand, with the only message that gets their attention: their sales figures and profit margins.

Please, everybody, until Civil War ends, STOP BUYING MARVEL.

7 DEC 06, 0534 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

This is a very good question and wish I had the answer or at least some inside information concerning the thinking at Marvel.

The best that I can figure is that they're trying to make the comics more realistic. In today's world, power and controlling power is the basis for much of what happens - good or bad...

It's a reasonably logical leap to deduce that *if* we lived in a world with beings of such incredible power, the ultimate power in our lives (government) would try and do something to control it. If the governing power did nothing, they themselves would lose the power to command.

Every hero, at one time or another, has commited acts of destruction - sometimes leveling a complete city. They should be as responsible as any other humans for actions taken against anti-social behavior. This provides a vastly more realistic portrayal of the world these characters live in and perhaps Marvel feels it's time to move the comic genre (or if you prefer Graphic Novels) into this area.

I have been reading some older comics in the 2099 series (non-canon) and at one point Spiderman was unmasked which required bringing Aunt May into protective custody. Initially I railed against the unmasking but the story did teach me something... Spiderman (and Peter Parker) was forced to work with the government, security agents... Normal everyday folks where brought into the story and for the first time their characters became important. His identity was revealed to the government and one villian only (Aunt May never found out). The fact that the government now knew his identity and could work with him, gave them the power they needed over this hero.

The unmasking served to deliver a story that was full-featured and realistic. It involved and would continue to involve many more characters - most of whom had no super powers of their own, save the contributions they bring to everyday life.

Unmasking a hero to the whole world, is a different matter entirely.. it serves no useful purpose and is itself unrealistic to the umpteenth degree. It is short-sighted and essentially takes the greatest power a superhero has and turns it against them. This leaves Marvel with a simple money-making gimmick... a hero vs hero contest.

cdf-rom is correct when he says they may have painted themselves into a corner. Bluto Blutarsky is also right when he identifies Captain America's uncharacteristic behavior in all of this. These points, I think, further illustrate the gimmickry nature of this series - which isn't altogether bad...

I recently responded to a question "Whats up with comic book industry?"

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmId4GhctMQLvQRNCP9sTsMjzKIX?qid=20061201151051AAXl5hE

It's my feeling that the comic industry is trying to find ways to generate income using the old brick and mortar method and not embracing the internet. Marvel Civil Wars is a gimmick... I read it because I (like many readers) find it hard to resist the hero vs hero stuff (it's way cool:-) but there's a long term picture marvel needs to look at and the solution (transition to digital) is staring them in the face.
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Answer 3

Well what they did was unmask tony stark and spiderman and all the heroes have to register thier identities with the government as a group of young heroes (the new wariors) caused the death of 100+ school children in stamford when they attacked a group of super villians that was way out of thier league in order to get ratings for the reality show they were involved with.

The new warriors were all killed except speedball when nitro blew up stamford.

From here things spun off into the government passing the super human registration act to give some accountability to super heroes for thier actions.

Iron Man supported it along with reed richards.

Captain america opposed it, went rouge and became a criminal.

Spiderman revealed his identity publicly, then turned traitor to side with the now criminal captain america.

Speedball is bieng put on trial for his crimes and role in the deaths of the people in stamford.

Wolverine tracked down the killer, nitro, which led him to a plot by the clean up crew damage control selling drugs to make unstable people more powerful so they could have more work and get more money. Nitro was captured by atlanteans and was tortured to death (if memory serves) as namorita (namor's cousin) was one of the new warriors who died.

The major flaws in the story are that captain america's reaction to the law is WAY out of character for him. Rather than go through legal channels like he would have done traditionally, he chose instead to just become a criminal and violate the law.

Sue storm left richards and presumably will be getting a divorce.

The way the comic is supposed to read is a parralell for the guantanamo issue. however because of poor writing, there really is no way to legitimately argue against the pro-registration act camp except for the "nostalgic" argument of "we dont want things to change even though the public does".

Marvel tries to make it seem like that is the "right of freedom" side but they don't put across that no one has the right to commit assault and run around like a vigilante in spandex to begin with.

The writing and premise has many many plot holes and people acting out of character, but it is an enjoyable storyline overall despite these glaring flaws and total misuse of certain characters.

Answer 4

It's a prelude to the next series Marvel Sectarian Wars - where they all battle it out in the Iraqi desert

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_War_%28comics%29

Here you go.