My thoughts after issue 5
No. Im sorry but this is just stupid. This miniseries, wich started out with a pretty good premise has now proved itself to be about nothing more than putting our favourite characters in dramatic fight poses with each other. The road to get the characters in those positions, called the story, doesn´t seem to bother itself with being straight, logical, intriguing, or even atractive.
Am I supposed to feel excitement when Spiderman gets second thoughts about fighting against his friends, decides to leave the Avengers, and suddenly BECOMES A CRIMINAL? Did I miss something? He´s already registred and with his identity known (public, no less). When did SHIELD and Iron Man get the authority to tell him where to go and how high to jump? Sanctioned heroes not allowed to quit? Or is this one of those "subtle" plot points where I am supposed to notice how the registration act is bad for everyone and results in a dictatorship? This title is about as subtle as a plane crash in a backyard. And not in a good way.
The registration act itself seems very reasonable to me, and every argument for it so far in the comic has ben valid. But everyone embracing it, Iron Man, Mr Fantastic etc, are somehow depicted as ignorant bastards, who suddenly looses every moral standard they´ve had since the beginning of Marvel time and starts cloning thundergods, building superprisons in the negative zone and enlists SUPERCRIMINALS. Every now and then we get a panel with one of them saying something like "We don´t like this, but this is what it will take". And I just sit there and shakes my head in utter disbelief, and thinks to myself: "No it isn´t, stupid".
For all the faults this plot has, I think it could have been a better series if only the pacing had been done differently. So far, every one except the first issue has been nothing but a collage of different action scenes, glued together with the occasional scene where some people in a room somewhere talks very dramatically. Other than that, its all action. Boom! Some guy in a fight on a rooftop. Next page: Bam! It´s three months later and some other guys are being chased by thugs. Next page: A fullside splash of someone punching another guy. Next page: Another fight. And so on and so on. There is actually not much story at all, and I constantly get the feeling that I should have read all the other minis and titles in the Civil War-thing if I wanted to understand whats going on. Or maybe there are no answers there, and Millar just thinks its good drama to have people randomly switch sides between every issue.
This is what they call "widescreen comics"? I liked the concept in the Authority, and Millar also did this very good in his first Ultimates run. But this just plain fails. It feels sloppy, and no matter how many people Iron Man punches in the face, I can´t seem to care about the story. They say nothing will be the same after this, and they´re probably right. Unfortunately.
And on the other end of Marvel, in the Ultimate Universe, Mary Jane Watson has been transformed to a red hairy monster. Enough said. At least I have Alan Moores new The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-book to look forward to...
