Your Civil War Week – 8/30/2006

While Civil War’s main titles take the month off, the peripheral tie-ins chug on dilligently, making sure we don’t forget the big-important-event still exists.

This week, Young Avengers & Runaways #2 is a decent read, warranting a B-/C-. Super bonus points earned for bringing in the fantastic Marvel Boy. Sweetness. And Cable & Deadpool #31 kind of… just… exists I guess, getting a C-/D. Find out why after the jump, and impress everyone at the watercooler tomorrow with your geekery.

Cable & Deadpool #31
Written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Staz Johnson

Overall grade: C-

Civil War grade: D

When I last picked up this book, I was enjoying it. Now that I’ve picking it up again… I’m missing Patrick Zircher. The art in this issue isn’t horrible, but it’s not good. The first page of story we get is a double-page spread showing Deadpool attacking the Anti-Registration underground, and not only do a lot of the poses look awkward, but Deadpool looks awful tiny if he’s actually supposed to be above Hercules… who may well be in a hole, unless he’s extremely short.

In terms of story, there’s some strange characterizations going on. For example, Deadpool assaults Captain America’s team, but Cap takes the whole thing very much in stride, even while Deadpool’s shooting tranquilizer darts at him from behind his back. Then, later, when Cable teleports Deadpool and himself into the Oval Office, the President is very much unimpressed at what should be seen as a considerable threat to him. Then, Cable wastes everyone’s time by lecturing the president (with a thinly veiled lecture aimed at Bush), who is, unsurprisingly, not convinced. It’s amusing to see a politician say, “Well, you’re talking about something that is FIFTY YEARS away. Those aren’t votes we have to worry about this November.” But the idea of politicians being more concerned about elections than the reality of issues is not new, and it’s not explored very deeply here at all.

To sum up – Deadpool attacks Cap & Co., but he gets stopped. So Cable takes him and visits the Oval Office, where he can lecture at someone who doesn’t care about what he has to say. (And I don’t just mean the reader.) And that’s it. I just gave you the whole issue right there.

Ultimately, this book does very little, and it doesn’t do it very well.

Young Avengers & Runaways #2
Written by Zeb Wells, art by Stefano Caselli

Overall grade: B-

Civil War grade: C-

Seriously though, enough with the lectures, comic books. A good book will tell you a story, and that story will tell you the concept or idea. A poorly written story will have one character lecturing another, in a thinly veiled attempt at lecturing the reader. Fortunately, we only waste two pages on that, before we get the bomb dropped on us that is Marvel Boy. Not only does this plant him firmly in continuity, but it also shows his head getting messed with BADLY, in fitting form with his series. Of course, for those of you who never read the series, this not an exciting reveal. But he’s definitely portrayed as powerful and super-creepy, so he’s still a strong sell as an opponent for the two teams.

Throughout the book, there’s a nice set of character moments where the two teams find little matches with each other, most relevantly with the Vision and Victor, and most entertainingly with Hulkling and …Xavin? I don’t know. There’s not a lot of name dropping in this issue, and I have a hard time keeping the names straight on all the characters. Code-names are much easier to remember. Advantage: Young Avengers.

In the end, we spend too much time on the two teams fighting each other, as it’s the end of issue 2, and we’ve only just now got them talking about why the Young Avengers hunted the Runaways down. And of course, that’s all about to get derailed by Marvel Boy. The one Civil War talking point comes when Patriot’s telling the Runaways that they can only go to Captain America for medical help, as Pro-registration heroes won’t help any of the unregistered. (See previous entries, re: The Pro-Registration side is full of tools.) The Runaways balk at the idea, and say they don’t want to “just pick a side and jump in”, as it would make them “no better than (the warring adults)”. It’s a good point, and one worth thinking on, if you ignore the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. JUST assaulted them in issue 1. So long ago, so hard to remember… Though, at this point, the conversation gets interrupted, so not only is the reply never mentioned, the initial interesting idea is pushed off the edge of the table and brushed under a rug.

Maybe Patriot got to mention it in an alternate universe where there were no interruptions. Anyway, these teams have some great characters, so if we could spend less time on the senseless running-around-and-hitting-each-other, and more time on the actual story, that’d be great.