Civil War II

[The NZA]

eh, i still like the first one better

 

but no

[Keth]

Well damn, now I wanna read it out of morbid curiosity. I mean, Civ 1 wasn't good, but it was entertaining as hell (Character assassination is a fascinating thing). I'll read the cliff notes on wiki then.

[Newtype]

Well damn, now I wanna read it out of morbid curiosity. I mean, Civ 1 wasn't good, but it was entertaining as hell (Character assassination is a fascinating thing). I'll read the cliff notes on wiki then.

 

[The NZA]

you can...but let's get into this shit here

 

CV 1 took a big event (stamford) and used it to launch something that was long overdue/felt a bit weird for not having really happened before, but like a lot of Millar books, the premise started out interesting enough to forgive that. plus, the true prequel - JMS' contributions in Amazing Spider-Man going into it - really set the stage with the Peter/Tony dynamic.

 

the biggest weaknesses, i thought, were:

1) yes pro-reg people were corporate ballwashers, but they got comically villainous somewhere around "negative zone indefinite prison/detention"

2) we didn't really get a great feel for the people in the marvel U & their take. i know frontline or whatever did its part but still

3) a classic black avenger literally died for nothing

4) the ending was more of millar's proud tradition of choking

 

2's big problem is that the premise is semi-interesting? (minority report, basically) but maybe not so much to carry an entire event, much less a universe-wide one. it didn't help that the event dragged way longer than it needed to.

 

so even past that, weaknesses were:

1) it's hinged around a shorehorned Inhuman who essentially does a slightly (at first) better version of what Madame Web & others have done for a while

2) holy shit the decompression; there's like nearly an entire issue of a conversation on the side of a party that could've been either less exposition or more page count i guess. picture shows you enjoy that pad out their length way too obviously

3) SPOILERS! see the last # 3

4) the timing was shit. we were still year 1 of All New, All Different Marvel, right? so hey, many classic Avengers are off the board (or will be soon!) and here's newish ones like Kamala, Miles, Jane-Thor and relatively brand new ones like Viv and fresh-out-the-box Riri and instead of giving them a chance to grow, we literally start off our new universe with Assault on Pleasant Hill (...) and go almost right into this. it literally chokes the little momentum they were building.

 

i guess you can say this about many such events but this one literally establishes nothing, it takes a few big players off the board and nothing of merit is done. folks may not think much of, say, House of M these days but there were a small handful of character moments. This was more akin to say World War Hulk: way too long, nothing really mattered. it just proved we don't need these kind of events for a bit, and whenever we do, they don't need to be Bendis.

 

TL;DR id much rather you read the wiki than the book but it's your life m'man!

[Keth]

Haha, I did wiki it. From the looks of it you're right. I love the premise. But it sounded like there are more frustrating things in there than not. And especially not having read stuff like both Captain/Ms. Marvel/Miles/some other new players, Id be missing some bits too anyway. Pass.

 

Now, you mention House of M. That's one I've always heard was worth a looksee...

[Da Cap'n 2099]

House of M holds a special place in my heart because of one of those character moments Nick mentioned involving Peter Parker. I get choked up just thinking about it.

[The NZA]

^man, that was brutal.

 

in the near decade of bendis/millar events, there's so much forgettable stuff for me - Secret Invasion looked fun but basically happened to bring some folks back & setup Dark Avengers (a much better book/event), Avengers Disassembled was a bit of a mess but got the ball rolling etc...but House of M had fun moments cause it's basically a giant What If/Elseworlds. it also setup a lotta bullshit for the X-Universe but i guess i remember it slightly more fondly cause one issue made me take notice of Hawkeye in a way i'd not before, and i like when books do that.

 

you know what events were great? most of Hickman's. Infinity was fun, Secret Wars (following his amazing Time Runs Out avengers run) is easily the best crossover in forever. other writers i love don't carry them as well: Fraction's Fear Itself was ehhhh, Jason Aaron's Original Sin sucked on ice

[Iambaytor]

Dark Reign/Siege, Secret Wars, and (assuming it sticks the landing) Secret Empire are the only good mainland crossovers. Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest are good too but entirely space based, Conquest is considerably better.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Iambaytor

[Keth]

That's new Secret Wars right? That looked really cool. ANd yeah, Dark Reign was pretty awesome, from the parts that I read of it.

[Iambaytor]

Yeah I've not read any of previous secret wars (not even the newish one from the early '00s) you can pretty safely avoid all the tie-ins.

[The NZA]

^unless you're knee deep in a character's run or it heavily ties in (even then, sometimes...) i take it as a rule to not read tie-ins on events, yeah.

 

Annihilation & marvel cosmic run then was fantastic too, showed how minuscule Civil War was at the time. Siege could've been shorter but you're right, fun end to a fun event with Dark Reign.