Introduction

Michael Turner's variant cover to "Civil War" #7

First off I'd like to discuss my policy on spoilers for comics going forward. In my last column I wrote about "Spawn" #164, but I purposefully talked around the reveal of the issue. That isn't going to happen anymore. By the time this column comes out, any spoilers are already a week old. If you haven't read your comics from last week by now, you shouldn't buy those titles anymore. Now then, let's get to it.

Last week Marvel's best-selling "Civil War" event chronicling the struggle between two superhero camps at either end of a political issue came to an end. Like many of their big events, I found the end to be disappointing. Is it that hard to write a good ending to these stories? In the beginning of "Civil War" some interesting questions were being asked of the superhero community and both sides of the fight had compelling arguments. Should superheroes be trained employees of the government? What about people with powers who don't want to be superheroes? How can the government protect the friends and families of the heroes with secret identities? Those arguments persisted through six issues of comics and neither side was willing to back down in the least (well, except for that flip-flopper Spider-Man). Yet, in the space of two panels, Captain America is convinced that he's not only in the wrong, but that he's been wrong all along. I'm supposed to believe that he's just now noticing the collateral damage caused by superhumans fighting? But...isn't that what started the Civil War in the first place? All it takes to change Cap's mind is a couple fireman and an EMT tackling him when he's poised to kill his best friend? The fact that the Heroes of 9/11 have to subdue Captain America (a superhuman with the stress on "America") from killing the de-powered Iron Man (a normal guy) is not lost on me, but it seems like a stretch that he would just throw in the towel in a matter of seconds. Not only that, it isn't very dramatic. Captain America dying at the hands of Iron Man would have been a strong ending (this is comics so he wouldn't stay dead long). The only characters that died all through Civil War were some scrub bad guys and Goliath (who?). Lately, it feels like both Marvel and DC are afraid to kill anyone who has their own book. I wonder how the Ultimate version of Cap would have dealt with the Civil War. I have a feeling it would involve kicking Ultimate Hank Pym's ass again.

"Civil War" #7 is not a complete let down. Most of the issue is a giant fight with some fantastic art by Steve McNiven. Sometimes comics these days can take themselves a little too seriously, and what they need is a supervillain to crash through the window and start punching people. "Civil War" has a lot of that, but with superheroes instead. I liked when Hercules destroyed the Thor clone so much that I may start shouting, "THOU ART NO THOR!", whenever I start losing an argument in the office. Another scene that stood out (these are such quick throw-away moments) was when Sue Storm seeks instant vengeance on Taskmaster for shooting Reed Richards, although it's really Taskmaster that sells it. I can't decide if I liked the bit where Spider-Man jumps from person to person punching and kicking all the while evading Reed's arms. Reed says, "Amazing," and Spider-Man retorts, "Spectacular," before kicking him. I half expected an insert panel where Wolverine winks at the reader and says, "Astonishing!" It's good to show that these comic book characters can still surprise or impress each other, but they'd better be doing something damned impressive. Spider-Man being Spider-Man should not amaze the man who saved the world from Galactus and runs around the Negative zone. He's very agile, Reed. You know...like a spider. Now if The Thing was jumping around punching and kicking people like Spider-Man, that would be amazing.

Now that "Civil War" is over, what's next for these characters? The post-Civil War books are going to be run under "The Initiative" banner (the term used to describe Tony Stark's plan to implement a government sponsored superhero team for each state) and will run the gamut of the major books. I'm hoping that the Marvel Universe makes a return to villains being villainous, and letting the heroes be heroic. All this hero in-fighting and moral waffling has been great, but can we just have the good guys beat up on the bad guys for a bit? I'd also like a little more explanation than, "Because I'm sad," as to why Spider-Man opts to break out the black costume. I know it's because "Spider-Man 3" comes out this summer and it features a black costume story, but at least take the time to come up with a reason in the context of the comics.

Here are my picks for today:

Dark Horse

"Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic" #14 - The first arc was good but I'm starting to fade on this one.

DC

"Action Comics" #846 - More Richard Donner Superman please, thank you.
"Green Lantern" #17 - Geoff Johns writes Hal Jordan.
"Justice" #10 - The Alex Ross art is beautiful, but I'm not a fan of the Jim Krueger writing.
"Ninja Scroll" #6 - Comic "Ninja Scroll" is not as good as movie "Ninja Scroll", but I'll give this another chance.

IDW

"Clive Barker's Great and Secret Show" #10 - I forgot how the book ends so I'm in for at least two more issues.
"Transformers Prime Directive Movie Prequel" #1 - It's a glimpse into the summer movie.

Image

"Walking Dead" #35 - Kirkman loves him some zombies.

Marvel

"Dr. Strange: The Oath" #5 - Brian K. Vaughan makes The Sorcerer Supreme fun again.
"Iron Man" #15 - "Tony Stark, you just won Civil War and are the new Director of Shield. What next?"
"Runaways" #24 - this is the last Brian K. Vaughan issue before Joss Whedon takes over.
"Wolverine" #51 - Wolverine fights Sabertooth. In other news, the Sun rose today.