Civil War Files #1

Written & Illustrated by Various

Cover by Steve McNiven

 

Programs, programs! Get yer Marvel Civil War programs right here! You can't tell Mr. Fantastic from Mr. Immortal without a program!

 

That's essentially Marvel's pitch with this fact-filled prose work disguised as a comic book. It's half Cliffs Notes of Marvel history, half Who's Who; as a guide to the dozens of characters popping up in the pages of Civil War and its many tie-ins, it's a pretty invaluable purchase, particularly to newcomers jumping on board for the political allegory or the unmasking of Spider-Man.

 

But more importantly, particularly for regular readers who already have a pretty good grasp on the current state of the Marvel Universe (or even Marvel experts who recognized Bantam and Typeface in Frontline), it makes for an enjoyable reading experience unto itself.

 

I tend to be pretty resistant to these sorts of non-comic book comic books: Technically, this isn't a comic book—there's not a single panel or dialogue bubble within—but a work of prose. At least with DC's equivalent, the recently discontinued ‘Secret Files and Origins’ special, they kicked off the books with a short comic book story, and included original pin-ups along the statistics and write-ups. Here, we don't even get any original art, other than the cover. The little head-shots that illustrate the various ‘Wanted’ posters and Superhuman Registration Act ID cards embedded in the copious text is simply repurposed Marvel art.

 

But head writer Anthony Flamini and his seven collaborators deserve major props for turning this non-comic comic book into a compelling read on its own terms.

 

The conceit, as laid out in an introductory letter written by the acting chair of the Presidential Super Hero Task Force, Tony Stark, is that this book is actually part of the president's daily intelligence briefing. This makes the book something like an artifact from the Marvel Universe that’s somehow made it into readers’ hands. What they'll find is 40 short essays written about various superheroes, villains and other players in the current Marvel Universe, all written from Stark's point of view.

 

Obviously, that slants things towards his side in the conflict, but only slightly (and that's actually preferable; most of the Civil War stories seem slanted to position the rebels as the heroes and Iron Man and his side as morally corrupt lackeys of the government). Stark seems to know more about Marvel continuity than even famed Marvel savant/editor Tom Brevoort, and lays out tons of continuity in a straightforward manner that's easy on new readers.

 

The writers never really break character, and we hear the same arrogant prick of a hero behind the writing that we've been seeing flitting around Marvel Comics lately. Stark shares his personal histories with the characters, his analyses of their powers and weaknesses, the roles they've played in the conflict thus far, and the roles they could have played.

 

He clears up a lot of confusion. How did Flag-Smasher appear in Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways after dying in the pages of Cable/Deadpool?

 

"Not to be confused with an apparent impersonator of his running around Los Angeles these days."

 

Isn't the Superhuman Registration Act just a rip-off of the old Mutant Registration Act from X-Men comics?

 

Yeah, obviously. Check out the lengthy passages in the X-Men and Commission on Superhuman Activities entries.

 

What about Reed Richards' apparent flip flop on Registration?

 

Doom's attacks on Reed’s children have reinforced Reed’s family first priorities.

 

All in all, it makes for a pretty fascinating read, whether you're catching up with Marvel history or trying to make sense of the characters' most recent actions. As a character study, it's probably the best Tony Stark story in a long, long time, and it's not without its humor (I admit I laughed out loud repeatedly during the Atlantean history, although I don't think it was meant to be as hilarious as it reads).

 

If I had to nitpick—and I do have to nitpick, this being an Internet comic book site—I'd complain that the excellent cover by the Civil War art team of penciller Steve McNiven, inker Dexter Vines and colorist Morry Hollowell—is rather misleading to the contents. Many of those appearing on the cover—Hulk, Union Jack, Captain Britain, Black Panther, the Inhumans, Black Cat, Chewbacca (or is that supposed to be Sasquatch?)—don't get their own entries within, and some of them never even get namedropped, like Ghost Rider. I know why they did it of course, as I'm sure Ghost Rider moves more comics than say…Phoneranger, but it might have been nice to see write-ups explaining that it's a good thing Hulk is off-planet, or clarifying the political positions of the British and Canadian heroes on the cover.

 

Nicer still would have been McNiven art on the inside (the vast majority of the characters appear either within the first three issues of Civil War, or on the cover, meaning McNiven wouldn't have even had to produce all that much original art), or at least assigning a single capable artist to provide all the headshots within.

 

There's an incredible discordance in the art, owing to how dramatic the styles of so many Marvel artists vary these days, and it sacrifices the veracity that the writers obviously worked so hard to achieve, an honesty that's one of the stronger selling points of the book. For example, the page on Atlantis features ten different head shots but art from such stylistically individual pencilers as Erik Larsen, Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos, along with highly realistic head shots that seem to come from the '70s or early '80s, back when the company had more of a house style.

 

Rating – 7