Marvel. Civil War Ends. Super Powered Teams What?

Ok,

Maybe this is an incredibly stupid question. But I won't get an answer if I don't ask a question? Right?

So, I'm surfing along Blogger, trying to wrap my head around the collective' NooooooOOOOooooo' of Civil War #7 and I stumble across this phrasing:All super-powered folk have to be registered, and seemingly all of the registered folks are drafted into military service.

It seems to sum up Civil War in 30 secs and some generic things I've seen going: 'Cap gave up? What?!!' pretty well.

As a once upon a time X-man, fan, however, I'm curious. What's going to happen to the X-Men? They didn't want any part of the war. They've already been through this registration thing. What now? Has anyone been following along in their books? Were any of their books even tied into Civil War?

Is the school going to remain? Are military recruiters going to be given carte blanche to walk up in Xavier's Academy and tap on various teenagers with various powers they like?

Is Kurt Busiek gong to be working on any titles? Cause he's one of the writers I know would take a look at it from the perspective of some young person suddenly acquiring powers or having had powers on the down low for a while, but who decides to walk away from trouble, on purpose, because they don't want to be drafted.

What about Dazzler? Is she around outside of Ultimate X-Men? Either way, she's never wanted to be a team player/protector anything. She just wanted to sing.

Is Franklin Reed going to be drafted? How old is he in normal continuity anyway?

What happens if you want to be a normal person? Are you required to serve a term or two terms of service before you can use your heat ray to make the best damn pizza ever?

Are people going to want to run away to Canada and Wankanda?

Ok, maybe the blogsphere can't answer the last one, without seeing the stories that come out of the wrap up. But I'm very kind of wtf!huh, now. It's wrong when it's Mutant Registration and two steps away from Ghettos and Camps and stripped personal liberties. But it's ok if you just happened to fall into a vat of toxic waste and decided to do something positive with it?

If the super-powered humans are being used to protect each individual state, and they are now part of the military, then are they going to get like, National Guard or Police backup? Are the same uniforms who were just hunting down people supposed to guard their backs now?

I'm just... Am I just not getting the intrigue of the story? Because all I keep seeing is Sentinels, over and over again; knocking down regular people in order to capture mutants people with super-powers.

Randomly: Is there going to be a nice Kitty Pryde/Magneto one shot wherein both the mutant Jews that are well known in the universe, begin to ponder the phrase 'Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it'?

Also... Dude. Where's Magneto? Cause super powered, drafted military people sounds a lot like 'Super powered SS'. Or maybe that's just me.

ETA: And what about Sue Storm? She left her husband because she believed he was in the wrong and perhaps slightly crazy too (all wank about her sexing him first non-withstanding). Is she going to 'come home' now? And be all nice? And say 'But I screwed you real good, me love you long time?' Or will she stick to her guns? Which means is there going to be 'Civil War Extended' with people who rebel against this 'win' and it'll all still go on for more comics and tie ins than anyone with five hands could shake a stick at? Is this just further excuse for Marvel to feel Civil War and all associated with it, is an excuse/license to print money?

Cause people complain, but they still buy it.

Damn, even more so than before it looks like I should just get up to Issue $24 of Runaways and then forget Marvel ever existed. Manga here I come.

Never Say Never: Civil War - Again - Why It Upsets Me

I tried to explain my displeasure in Civil War to a friend today. I absolutely bombed. To me a conversation is someone stating their opinion and then a counter-opinion and going back and forth until both sides until understand each other, even if they don't agree. But I was everything but eloquent.

She's not a comics fan, and in fact looking at too many pictures in a row can send her to sleep. But the topic came up and we were having dinner and it's something she knows I'm interested in and I'd been having a rough day, so why not talk about one of my passions. It seemed like a good idea until I actually tried to do it.

First I tried analogies. It's partly how I communicate with the world and it's partly because she doesn't know what's happened and I didn't know how to include all the information that comes with the pictures in a comic, without me having to retell the whole story. But she got lost with the analogies and kept pressuring me to just tell her what happened and what I didn't like. So I tried again. But this time she said it sounded like my dislike for the plot was the issue and she couldn't figure out what about the story itself was bothering me. And as I do dislike the plot, I tried to find another way to go at it. So I tried a third time, trying to avoid all the little hotspots that make me want to go 'arrrgh!'.

And when I'd tried that third time, or maybe it was a fourth time, she said stuff like. "So Congress got scared and did something stupid that people don't like? Well duh, that happens." Followed by. "So Peter Parker was never one of their ideological equals and now they're suspicious of him? Well duh. It's a civil war, right? If he shows he's not down with them of course they're going to be suspicious." And then she said things like. "They're using unsavory tactics and they aren't really concerned about information? Guantanomo Bay anyone?" The only thing that made any impact on her was the government's side using villains. She found that just plain stupid.

I tried to explain that I found the story thin, that there was so much meat to it that just wasn't being used. But all the while I kept getting more and more irritated. Because my feelings before talking to her were that if Marvel was going to use a Metaphor, then it should be a Metaphor. And they shouldn't be trying to bend current situations into the Superhero world in some kind of morality play. And yet - she's right. And I absolutely loathe that. I still think the writing sucks, and the story has no depth, and the rush to get it out is ruining avenues of exploration. I still think that Tom Foss or Prok over in Blogger have some wonderful ideas for how things could have played out (Barring Prok's new theory that it's all about Wanda's mucked up mindfuck). But my friend was right.

The government does do stupid things. Ours does and theirs does. My own irritation that this is nothing more than a broader termed Mutant Registration Act is proof that they have tried stupid stuff before. And who says the government learns from its mistakes? Congress does use fear and paranoia to push through acts that limit the personal freedoms of its citizens. It's been done. We in America live there. And while what happened at the school doesn't seem to be enough of a big deal for such a huge public outcry. What happened in real life with the Towers shares one simple similarity in that the people in power should have been expecting it - there were signs. There could have been accommodations made.

Ironman and Captain America becoming so embroiled in fear and paranoia and mutual feelings of betrayal? It happens. Soldiers for a cause coming to the realization that they've been lied to and friends around them are dying for an unweighted cause? Search theinternet and you'll find the blogs.

I wanted to say to her that the Marvelverse isn't supposed to be like that. That the Superheroes should know better. That the real thing to come out of this should be a more formalized training system for young heroes; no more throwing the kids in the deep end and seeing how they swim. But I couldn't. Because what I wanted to say was that 'I don't want to see that in that world! I want things to make sense because it's fictional. Fictional chaos is part of a plan and a plot. There should be logic and reason to it when I take a step back.'

I do not believe that Marvel is purposely mimicking the irrationality of a fear state and loss of virtue of individuals as they obsess with their own self righteousness to the destruction of all else. I don't believe this has all been planned. I don't see the signs and cues that reassure me that Comic God is in his Heaven and all will turn out, if not right, at least fruitful - meaningful. I do not believe that Goliath's death was a meaningless death for the sake of a meaningless death. Because I can't believe they meant to make me feel this angry and this filled with the need to smack a bitch and talk to them about iconic images, black history in America and volatile emotions. And that I think is the biggest failure of all; that prickle in the mind that makes it all too real, too unscripted, too irrational and too far away from comic reality. I've lost trust.

A reader isn't supposed to lose trust in a story like this even if the characters themselves no longer know up from down. There are our heroes!

Why I'm Not Writing About Civil War

1) The Holocaust

2) Concentration Camps for: Gays, Gypsies, Poles

3) Japanese Camps in the US

4) The Shit List thrived arrests of members of the Black Panthers

5) Genosha

6) Wolverine's Adamantium Skeleton

7) The Mutant Registration Act

If the characters in Marvelverse haven't yet figured out that minority + list + numbers = great, stinking, suspicious, potentially explosive, pile of shit - that's their problem. I studied my history. If the smart ones can't tell the not so smart ones why it's a bad idea without making an 'event' out of it...

Yes, I know, writers and artists and high muckymucks thought this was a good idea. Well, sometimes people have brainfarts. You don't pay them for the chance to take a big whiff.