Marvel Starts Civil War. Iron Man Officially Off My Christmas Card List.

Marvel comics is super jumping into the political arena with a new miniseries entitled Civil War. The series is slated to be supplimented by several smaller runs of books as well as being worked into the main lines of many Marvel titles. The premise of Civil War is that during a super battle gone wrong, many innocent people are killed. This leads to a backlash in public opinion. The Bush administration passes a PATRIOT like act that requires all heroes to register themselves as Weapons of Mass Destruction. Some heroes resist, and are branded fugitives. They are lead by Captain America. The heroes that agree to work for the government to force heroes to register are lead by Iron Man.

What follows is a series of hero vs. hero battles. Civil War addresses political issues like Guantanimo bay, enemy combatants, and the exchange of safety for freedom. Marvel claims to be neutral on the whole security/liberty debate, and says that they will present both sides of the story. I think to really end the story line though, Marvel will have to come out one way or the other. I'll be rooting for the Civil Libertarians. I think the tone of the books is summed up very well in a snippet of dialog from Captain America. "Don't play politics with me, lady. Superheroes need to stay above that stuff or Washington starts telling us who the supervillains are."

I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. The first of the books should be hitting the shelves now. Even if you are not into comics, this is definitely one of those things to scoop up a copy of and tuck away for the grand kids. To pull out one day and either say them; "The country was a very different place back then." or "These are from back when that kind of social commentary was still legal." As Marvel puts it... Who's side are you on? [via Globe and Mail]