Marvel Civil War

Those of you who don't care about comics, just sit this one out.

Those of you who are diehard DC fans, you take a hike too.

Those of you who want more ammo to make fun of me with, well, today is your day, sir. Or madame. Whatever.

So Marvel has introduced a new storyline. A group of schoolchildren were killed in a battle between metahumans (a new term that now covers aliens, heroes, mutants, gods, etc.), and the government introduces the "Superhuman Registration Act". The question literally becomes, "What side are you on?", which is the tagline for the series.

I'm not going to tell you the whole series. If you want to read about it, you can get a good synopsis from wikipedia here. I'll give you a moment to do so.

...

Welcome back. Now, here's the questions I have about all of this:

* Captain America is against the registration? Really? I don't think so. "Glory Boy", as Logan likes to call him, is just that. Captain America is going to toe the company line, and if S.H.I.E.L.D. and the American government say that you have to register, he would be behind it.

* Iron Man is for registration? Really? I don't think so. The lone billionaire? The man who kept his identity secret for years? The Playboy? I don't buy it. The only way this makes sense is if...

Iron Man has been demasked as Tony Stark (this has happened). As such, I can somewhat him saying to himself, "Okay look. I no longer have a secret identity as Iron Man. And let's face it: there are way too many metahumans running around here; there's one on every block now. So if I no longer get my release from being the billionaire running my multi-national company by being Iron Man, I'm going to run this like I do my company: the right way. So I'm in charge, we're all going to fall in line, and that's it."

This does make sense as Iron Man already founded The Iluminati, which was basically with a similar goal in mind. However...this is a bit of a stretch for the character of Iron Man.

* You have a Thor clone who has his godlike powers? I think not. MAYBE you can clone Thor and have his superstrength, but ability to command lightning? He is a god. At some point the supernatural kicks in and the science steps out.

* I think the Spider-Man dilemma was handled perfectly. The entire character of Spider-Man has always been a Greek hero; Parker always tries to do the right thing, but something bad always happens in spite of that. Here he is faced with a dilemma from both sides, and wants to do the right thing, but truly doesn't know how. It's a well done character study and fits him perfectly.

* Here's my biggest problem with this. How in the Hell are the X-Men neutral? Neutral? Are you fricking kidding me? How is this any different from the Mutant Registration Act? Isn't that almost what the X-Men were founded off of? How can they possibly not be against something like this? That's just insane.

Furthermore, Storm has joined with the Anti-Registration heroes. How did the X-Men not team up with them when that happened? How has Wolverine--who has already let known his opinion that he is vehemently opposed to this, but has said he will remain neutral because he doesn't want to break rank with the rest of the X-Men--not jumped ship when Storm did? He was already toeing the line--the second she made that choice, he would have been gone.

* Finally, what are all the Super Villains doing during this? Doctor Doom doesn't see this as a major opportunity? Apocalypse doesn't have another trick up his sleeve after fighting the X-Men? Mephisto doesn't want to try to take the Earth again? The Mandarin's got nothing? Red Skull doesn't want to make a play?

I just see a lot of opportunity here for a big bad guy to step up, and they all seem strangely quiet.

Don't get me wrong. I like the premise behind Civil War. And I also think they'll kill off a bunch of heroes (and villains), as the Marvel Universe has become too bloated. That's a good thing. It's an interesting question to ask oneself: whose side are you on? I see the point of the general population that the metahuman population has become large and destructive enough that the "lone wolf" ways of doing things are no longer acceptable. However, I respect the right of this heroes to want to keep their privacy.

At the point it's at now--the Pro-Registration side is using Supervillians to hunt heroes down, and imprisoning them in the Negative Zone--I would definitely be against it, as it is confirming the Anti-Regses worst fears. However, I might have been talked into it at the beginning. The way things are working right now aren't working, and change is needed. We'll see what that change will be.