Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

What would you do if you had a super power so great that you were able to help many thousands of people survive the everyday viciousness, cruelty and the malevolent? To be able to walk the streets in safety with no fear attached to their daily routine knowing that there was a hero out there looking out for them. This power is so great though that it frightens others and forces you to come clean, to reveal who you are and there by jeopardising your own safety as the criminals and the ones with evil intent come after you and those that you love. Would you, could you, sign up to act that required you to disclose your true identity?

Such is the premise in one of the finest crossovers of Marvel Comics’ long and illustrious history, the superb Civil War. Excluding the abundance of X-Men crossovers, there hasn’t been an exciting boundary blurring set of superheroes in one place since The Secret Wars of 1984. Then the sides were easy to define, The Beyonder had set some of Earth’s mightiest legends against the likes of Doctor Doom and Doctor Octopus, the idea was to see who could work together and who would come out on top in a comic book fan fest akin to a wrestling free for all. Mark Millar’s story Civil War though changed the idea of who you would root for in a fight, in a moral fight where there was no right or wrong just the notion of what was right for the Government to impose and where you stood for individual expression and liberty.

In the aftermath of a tragic accident in which saw the death of 600 people including many children, the American Government bows to the inevitable pressure and changes the law which requires all superheroes to register their name or be treated as outlaws. Lines are drawn, sides are taken and the two power houses of superhero standard bearers, Captain America and Iron Man find themselves on opposing flanks. Captain America on the side of liberty and freedom, Iron Man, also known as Tony Stark on the side of registration, It all boils down to the same question that has been posed many times in the U.K. about having identity cards, the argument being if you have nothing to hide then why would you worry about proving it or conversely why should someone you don’t know and have never met be able to ask for your papers at the drop of a hat. It is a question of liberty.

It seems odd that the subject of registration of a Marvel hero had not been raised before this aggressively outside of the X-Men, the exposing of heroes such as Spider Man and Luke Cage, the latter levelling the passionate accusation of slavery in the face of Tony Stark, is a far cry from the days when the mask was a sign of comfort that anybody could be a hero, no matter if they valued their identity such as Spider Man or Falcon or if they had always been open about their true personality as Tony Stark, Sue and Reed Richards or even Captain America.

Civil War pushes people to the extremes; the fight becomes one of honour and freedom from either oppressor and is the template for other shadow like governments and nations to join in the fight covertly for their own agenda. In the end no-one wins but the side with the biggest backer and from there the slippery slope to further integration becomes clear.

Mark Millar’s storyline and the artistry involved by Steve MvNiven, Dexter Vines and Morray Hollowell is simply divine and catches the character of every Marvel Universe to their absolute core, none so more than in Captain America and Iron Man, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark; two men who have been as close as brothers during their entire time in The Avengers and as bitter as enemies which resulted in the big fall out of the group in the 1990s. These two heroes are the figureheads in which sides are drawn and it becomes an intriguing consideration to who you would fight beside.

In any Civil War, civil liberties are the first thing to be taken away, whether it a superhero registration act or in real life in which people have to be accounted for and their movements curtailed, there must be only one winner.

Marvel Comics: Civil War is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall