Civil War: Fantastic Four

As I really enjoyed the main Civil War TPB, I decided that it would be worth while to collect the whole crossover event, or at least as many as I could easily find fairly inexpensively.  So I grabbed a handful of them and got to reading, little did I know that some of them would suck and even lie in contradiction with the main TPB book they were meant to support, or was it the other way around.  Regardless, continuity in a crossover event is key and in this book at least, Marvel missed the boat.

As one might expect after having read the main book, this book starts in the hospital with the Fantastic Four looking over the concussed form of Johnny Storm after he was viciously attacked on the city streets after the Stamford incident. Almost immediately the conflict between Reed & Sue Richards starts.  Reed is one of the three people instrumental in the designs and plans not only for the enforcement of the Registration Act, but also for the Fifty States initiative and the prison called 42 located in the negative zone.  Susan on the other hand can’t imagine trying to capture and imprison heroes that have not only done a lot of good, but are also friends of theirs.  This rift comes to a head and Sue and Johnny actually leave Reed and the children to come to the aid of those following Captain America, the freedom fighters if you will.  Ben Grimm on the other hand makes his own decision and it’s a good one that I’m surprised more heroes didn’t think of or act on.

show spoiler

In the end, Sue and Reed reconcile but she says something to the effect that things can never be the same again.  I don’t imagine that’s a surprise to any Fantastic Four fan who would have known by now that the two aren’t divorced or separated.

I’m pretty disappointed in this book and I’m keeping my finger’s crossed that not all the Civil War books are not as bad as this one or two of the other’s I have read but haven’t reviewed yet.

Civil War

The thing to ask yourself before going into Civil War is ‘do I like change?’.  I figure most readers of Trade Paper Backs do enjoy change.  They enjoy villains rising from the dead, characters changing powers and even super-heroes getting killed.  Not all the time mind you, but once in a while to shake things up.  Well that’s exactly what Civil War does to the entire Marvel universe, and things will never be quite the same.

This is important for you TPB readers and I can’t emphasize this more, if you want to understand what Marvel’s Civil War was all about, buy this TPB first! I have read many of the other Civil War TPBs and some of them are downright confusing and most add nothing substantial to the main plot.

Long story short and a minor spoiler– chances are anyone knowing even the slightest about Marvel’s Civil War probably knows all of this anyway — the New Warriors which include Speedball and Namorita are starring in a reality TV show about super-heroes and to boost their ratings they raid a hide out for super-villains.  Unfortunately they aren’t up for the challenge and things go wrong when the villain named Nitro uses his exploding power to kill everyone in a two block radius which just happens to include an elementary school.  There’s major repercussions from this tragedy as the American people demand accountability from their super-heroes and in this case, accountability means un-masking.

What really sets things off in this book is the horrible way the current Director of Shield Maria Hill handled the situation in her briefing with Captain America which forced him to take a stance.  In fact Cap took a stance to an extreme that he probably never would have  if cooler minds had prevailed.

So here’s the synopsis.  Half of the Marvel super-heroes led by Tony Stark agree to register with the government, get trained in how to use their powers responsibly and even draw a government paycheck.  The rest of the heroes following Captain America believe the registration act is a violation of their civil rights and refuse to arrest and imprison super-heroes who don’t feel that they need to register.  So of course, the two sides must clash.

Perhaps if the rebellious team led by Captain America had just buried themselves and hidden out things wouldn’t have turned violent, but these are still heroes, people who feel the need to be where the public needs them most, making them easy targets for Tony Stark’s team of heroes and the entire Shield force.

This is a great book as far as TPBs go because with minimal knowledge of the Marvel Universe you can easily understand what is going on yet fanboys will enjoy the more subtle references that aren’t integral to the storyline.  That’s the other great thing about this book as a read, it’s completely self-contained and meant to be just that.  There’s a beginning, we see how and why the conflict began, there’s a middle filled with conflict and loss and finally there is an ending that offers closure, not hinting at what’s going to happen in the next book.  This is obviously a result of Civil War covering a limited series and the end result is a very enjoyable experience.

show spoiler

You’ll notice that this review has a ton of tags.  I actually limited the character tags to those characters that actually contributed significantly to the action or the storyline.  The number of tags would be double if I had merely included anyone who made an appearance in this book.  So yeah, just about everyone in the Marvel universe picked a side, fought for it and had their lives changed by all that happened.  So to me, this TPB is a must have for any Marvel fan, the companion books…not so much.