2008: I have not read comics for years. No Marvel since the days of "Strange"! Then I discovered "Civil War", which everyone speaks: This is a sensible major event upset forever the world of Marvel superheroes in a highly event-seller principle: "Nothing will ever be before ". And for good reason: A Census law passed so that the supermen reveal their identity to the US government and work for it, Spiderman who agrees to disclose his own as an example, and Captain America who, having rebelled against his country, then so is the standard, ends up being murdered. I, naive, I thought it would all be irreversible ... It was without counting on a form of "Sisyphus" clean the superhero world: Nothing is final!
Anyway, I love this mini-series. It is highly iconic, allows me to dive back into the mythology of these characters that I had lost sight of for ages and reconcile myself with certain figures in this universe that I was too silly and childish.
And then, the writer Mark Millar has a real genius idea: By making Captain America the leader of the resistance, making him reject the law passed by his own country he considers unworthy of the values of freedom he conveyed up here, and making him a true martyr, it reverses the vapor and gives the once naive character, propagandist and somewhat ridiculous, beautiful modern aura along with an unexpected political discourse on a universe far very Manichean . "Captain" becomes the mirror of an America that, after 11 September 2001, continued to rock the "American dream" to enter a depressive phase where values of yesterday now have a cost. More question, now, to relive a "witch hunt" and fall back into the wanderings of the past. In addition, he recalled that the Western countries are not anthills where individuals are subservient to the community, but on the contrary have their free will ... On arrival, superheroes, through this single character out grow the business.
The end, atypical, is particularly successful and pulls up what could have been a great event fight.
After reading this, I tell myself that superhero comics entered a new golden age under the leadership of a new dream-team of exceptional writers and I can start reading them!
2011: I read "Civil War." For three years, I plunged into the "Marvelverse" and I read a lot. In terms of events, I read the masterpiece "House of M. As for the characters in this mythology, I read the whole series, especially since 2000 and the advent of the era Quesada, who will remain the editor of ideas home throughout the decade ...
This time, "Civil War" does not seem as successful as me my first reading. Compared to "House Of M", which was the previous event, it sacrifices much action and abandons the relationships between the characters. Looking back, all these old friends who hate overnight to come to fight and destroy a part of New York, I think it is not so much the road ... more dialogue and staging more introspective could deepen rivalries and make it more consistent rupture. In truth, all these relationships are infinitely developed in other series of the time featuring the same characters (Captain America, Iron Man, Spiderman, etc.) and offering the "long version" dedicated to the various interactions between protagonists of this miniseries. Thus, the editor has ensured that, if the reader wants to know more deepening his reading, he has to buy the mountain of comics related to this event!
Compared to "House Of M", yet, it has an almost vulgar tone. Where the previous miniseries opted for a dreamlike and poetic atmosphere, "Civil War" gives nags tunes by stigmatizing his "new villains." Whether Iron Man or Mr. Fantastic, we really have trouble believing their trickery. Ridiculous ideas such as cloning of Thor or Captain Marvel are frankly "two much", and the intervention of a team of Thunderbolts in this case is rather inconceivable (since when superheroes ask villains help ? Since when have they lost their ethics and their pride?). The character becomes a caricature of Cdt Hill, not to mention some humor notes "redneck" frankly limits.
Finally, the aesthetic part may be, for me, the biggest disappointment. If I liked the style of Steve Mc Niven the first time (compared to my memories of comics Silver Age ...), I found it much worse in the second reading. I could not help but compare it to other sizes of the current Marvel production. Designers like David Finch, Mike Deodato, Brian Hitch or Olivier Coipel ("House Of M") manage to give a sense of their boards dose much higher than that of Mc Niven. Their faces shaped "Greek marble statues" are enough body to breathe with the subject in an iconic narrative and mythological dimension that allows certain naivety inherent in superhero comics to keep the road. I find Mc Niven is not at this level, so I found some rather ridiculous passages.
At the finish, and although I still hold in esteem the work, I find that "Civil War" has lost its luster. The pitch has since been superseded by the many statuquos: The census law was abolished, Spiderman has regained his secret identity (!!!), Captain America has risen, some of the "pro-census" were Skrull infiltrators and everyone has come to terms! To make a totally unnecessary event, while we promised readers that "nothing would ever be the same", it does not get much worse! Knowing that all series of the Marvel Universe were, for a year or two (or more) associated with this background, there has something cringe!
Now, if I read again this mini-series, I would take more in the second degree, like a good old entertaining comic and naive, and not, as I had originally thought, as a step taken in the emancipation of this medium.
The minie-series "Civil War" consists not in truth that half of this album "deluxe". The other half includes the series "New Avengers": These are the episodes 21-25 (bow "Separation"). Each episode comes on the Avengers and tells more or less how the character has had to choose sides. The screenplay is by Brian M. Bendis, but each episode is designed by a different artist.
The series "New Avengers" is available in deluxe format from The New Avengers: Volume 1, which also proposed "disassembled Avengers". But as volume 1 "Civil War" published episodes 21 to 25, it is inserted in the middle of The New Avengers, Volume 3: Revolution (episodes 16-20 and 26-31). Five other volume "Civil War" exist: They propose, essentially, the arches of the "stars" series (Spiderman, Wolverine, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc.) related to the event (Civil War, Volume 2 : Vendetta, Civil War, Volume 3: The Death of Captain America, Civil War, Volume 4: War Journal, Civil War, Volume 5: Choosing camp and Civil War, Volume 6: How I Won the War) but are not essential to the reading of "Civil War" itself ...
