Your Civil War Week – 8/16/2006

Ignoring their recent delays, let’s go ahead and look at what Civil War brought to us this week: Thunderbolts #105, and X-Men: Civil War #2.

Thunderbolts was a pleasant read, and it seems like it’d actually be accessible to a new reader, which is a rare find in a Thunderbolts book. This crossover is an excellent time for such things. It gets a B+ / C. Then there’s the underwhelmingly pointless X-Men. It gets a D / D. Read on for the hows and the whys.

Thunderbolts #105
Written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Tom Grummett

Overall grade: B+

Civil War grade: C

Fun fact – Tom Grummett drew one of the issues from the “Death of Superman” story. Just realized that when I reread it on the crapper last weekend.

So this issue, as the cover appropriately tells us, deals vastly with Baron Zemo and Captain America’s rocky relationship. Cap of course sees Zemo for the man he’s been for years, but the reality is (as real as comics get, anyway), Zemo’s been doing good acts for quite some time now. At least, his motives seem good, though his acts tend to come out a little more domineering than good. And here we get a good character story of Zemo trying to convince Cap of his good intentions, as a few moments of deviousness show through – such as the little lie about his appearances being permanently damaged.

This of course leaves the reader debating Zemo’s true intentions – Is he as honest as he claims, and has he truly reformed? This sort of conflict of course has been the heart of the Thunderbolts book, and it continues to make a good read. As a Thunderbolts story, it’s excellent stuff.

That said… As a Civil War tie-in, obviously Cap’s situation relates directly to the events of Civil War, but the situation isn’t required for their conversation, with the exception of the references to the super-jail Zemo’s helping to build. (Guess this is in addition to the Negative Zone one from Frontline. Poor editorial work, or high prisoner count expectations? You tell me.) But overall the themes and ideas of Civil War aren’t deeply unexplored, save for the fact that once again, people are questioning the logic of the Registration Act. Though it is interesting to see the questioning coming from people who so clearly benefit from it, as the Thunderbolts do. In the end though, that tells a lot more about these characters than it truly does about the ideas of Civil War, reaffirming my enjoyment of this book as taken by itself.

X-Men: Civil War #2
Written by David Hine, art by Yanick Paquette

Overall grade: D

Civil War grade: D

This is issue 2 of a 4-issue series, and it’s even LESS clear what the real point of this odd little book is. Last issue, the 198 (AKA, the remaining mutants after the House of M) busted out of Xavier’s Institute and took off. Bishop agreed to help track them down, because he’s a law man (I guess); and Iceman, Cyclops, Beast, and Angel head off to find the 198 before Bishop and the government do. Why? In this issue, (in a bit of research work that might have been better done at the mansion than in a car) Cyclops tells Captain America that “if we don’t find them first, we’re going to be picking them up in pieces.” Because of all the X-Men, Bishop would be the one to help the government hunt down and slaughter mutants.

If you don’t know his backstory, he’s from a future where mutants were badly persecuted. The M on his face is a tatoo to mark mutants, and is to remind us he’s super against such persecution and mistreatment of mutants. So basically, this is either a nonsense idea, a nonsense characterization, or a nonsense story.

Oh, and there’s another mutant that can control people (a la the FF enemy the Puppet Master, but even more weirdly), and he’s controlling Cyclops, so some corrupt military guy can make the mutants fight. I don’t know the real benefits of that. I guess he’s not a big fan of them.

OH, and the government is going to provide amnesty to the 198, so they can be hunted down as unregistered superheroes instead of just as mutants. Is this a vague reference to immigration legislation discussions? I don’t know. There’s no reasonable correlation to be made, and it’s not a good deal for them anyway, since they’ll still be hunted down. Why change the status of these mutants if the end result is the same? I mean, obviously, other than to make this a Civil War issue.

PLEASE! ENOUGH! STORY! MAKE SOME SENSE!

Alright, I’m done.