Civil War

[Paul faplad Finch]

As mentioned elsewhere, I'm taking a chance on getting into superhero stuff. A little digging about tells me that Civil War was the big storyline in Marvel a couple of years ago and that various big things happened like some heroes being unmasked and [spoiler]Captain America being assasinated[/spoiler]and suchlike. Did I need to spoilefr that? It surprised me when I read it.

Anyway, I figure that I should probably make an effort to read this if I want to get up to speed befoe diving in to the Pannini collections, which are currently in the Civil War aftermath phase.  Then I checked it out.  The comics with the CW banner on the cover are well into triple figures. They can't all be essential can they?

Bearing in mind that I am something of a completist, and therefore not inclined to skip too much, is there a concensus on anything that might have been CW branded as, shall we say, a milking ewxercise rather than an artistic one. I can't really be chewed to wade through 20odd pages at a time to find one throwaway line for example.

Any help would be appreciated cos I have the sinking feeling that this might put me off getting  into Marvel otherwise.

[Bhuna]

Civil War is a good read. Personally, I'd start with The Ultimates vols 1 & 2 and Astonishing X-Men

[Colin YNWA]

I really enjoyed the concept of Civil War and the execution was very good in places. One of the times when Millars style worked if a few of the pro-registration ideas were poorly defended and extremely employed to pamper to the easy arguement that pro-registration was the right wing side.

As for the necessity of all the cross-overs as ever with these things its very variable. I'm a little ashamed to say this hit me at the peak of my collecting and I actually have all of um (not the multiple covers I didn't get that bad!). I suggest getting the mini in whatever form and if you enjoy that having a nosey at the cross-overs.

[TordelBack]

I'd make some recommendations, but it's hard for me to judge the likely tastes of a man who likes Boyzone and hates Pat Mills!

[Emperor]

The comics with the CW banner on the cover are well into triple figures. They can't all be essential can they?

In the good old days you'd often have to buy half a dozen to a dozen comic books from different series to follow the story. Most events these days tend to have a core limited series and then satelitte titles that show the impact on various characters/teams. So if you want to get into the actual Civil War story then you can dive straight in with that collection and if there are any other characters that interest you then you can read up on them. Personally, with Civil War and Secret Invasion I only read the tie-ins where I was following the longer term story. I may well get arund to reading the main series for both if I stumble across them dirt cheap but I have no great yearning to read them (so mnay comics, so little time) and the way the peripheral titles are written means you usually only need a very brief overview of the wider action to understand why something is happening.

[Dandontdare]

Civil War is worth a read, it stands head and shoulders above DC's regular mulitiverse spanning yawn-crises. I was suckered into buying 17 different TPBs of Civil War (including the recent "What if" collection) but not all of them are vital. I'd pick up "the Road to Civil War" and "Civil War" itself to give you all you really need, plotwise. I've seen a bumper collection recently, but I'm not sure which volumes are in this.

The "Amazing Spiderman" and "Iron Man" volumes flesh out the main protagonists' stories, "The Punisher War Journal" is rather good too, and I'd also recommend the 2-part "Front Line" book, which looks at the whole saga from a fresh angle.

Also be aware that the shock ending you refer to does not actually take place in any of the Civil War books. You'll have to buy the 3-volume [spoiler]"Death of Captain America"[/spoiler] to get that story.

[Paul faplad Finch]

Thanks for the info fellas.  Will probably check out the core series and the Frontline story. My worry was that reading some of the tie ins might leave me floundering without a working knowledge of continuity within the individual series. I'll see how I go with these. Might have to make an exception for Iron Man and Spidey since they seem to be integral from what I gather.

After that, barring any characters really grabbing me I'll probably jump into the Pannini monthlies since I'm told they give a pretty decent overview of the Marvel Universe.

I'd make some recommendations, but it's hard for me to judge the likely tastes of a man who likes Boyzone and hates Pat Mills!

At least you're man enough to admit your poor taste. Like they say, the first step on the road to recovery... 

[Professor Bear]

The Civil War book, Frontline and Captain America #25 comprise all you need to know about the main story.  Everything else is either stuff you don't need explained (which superheroes were fighting with each other elsewhere during the event and why), or stuff that only goes into more detail about individual characters and what they got up to, though even the big stuff like the Amazing Spider-Man issues leading up to Spidey unmasking aren't actually essential, being mostly waffle about how earth-shattering events are and how they'll resonate forever.  Which is why superhero registration is still being enforced in the current books, Captain America is still dead and everyone knows Spidey's identity.

[SuperSurfer]

Sticking my nose in here, but I really can't remember when I last read a Marvel comic (despite being a total Marvel junkie up until my late teens). Comments like this make me realise why:

Captain America is still dead.

'Still' dead.

This someone important died but we expect to see them back caper got boring for me after the first time I came across it when Jean Grey died in X-men and then came back.

Rest in peace Cap. Hope to see you soon, buddy.

[Colin YNWA]

Well it hard to say this without being spoilery (but not about Civil War but Captain America [spoiler]isn't as dead[/spoiler] as he used to be.

[Richmond Clements]

I loved Civil War, and I'm even enjoying the button mashing that is Ultimate Alliance 2.

[TordelBack]

I didn't like much of what I read of Civil War beyond the core idea (although Captain America has been great for ages, even while dead), and completely missed the Skrull invasion thing that followed, but what I've been able to lay my hands on of successor Dark Reign is tons of fun.  

[Paul faplad Finch]

I didn't like much of what I read of Civil War beyond the core idea (although Captain America has been great for ages, even while dead), and completely missed the Skrull invasion thing that followed, but what I've been able to lay my hands on of successor Dark Reign is tons of fun.  

This post tells you everything about why I've put off getting into, or trying to get into, Marvel. Civil War, followed by Invasion and now this Dark Reign malarkey.

If this events are happening every year or 18 months or whatever the frequency is, when are the titles allowed to be themselves?

I mean, factoring in the build up to the event, the issues that tie in to the event and then issues dealing with the fallout from each event, when are the writers of the books allowed to just write their books and tell good little stories about their characters. Seems like there can't be all that much time. 

I'm all for ongoing narratives and multi issue (issue, not title) storylines but isn't there a point when you just have to think enough is enough?  I'm reading Civil War to get up to speed before diving into the regular titles but how long before I'm back asking  the same questions about this Invasion story, or whatever Dark Reign is?

I'm getting something of a sinking feeling about the whole thing if I'm honest. My enthusiasm is sharp waning.

[Colin YNWA]

This post tells you everything about why I've put off getting into, or trying to get into, Marvel. Civil War, followed by Invasion and now this Dark Reign malarkey.

I'm always surprised that DC gets more flack about lerching from event to event than Marvel. Now I'm not for one minute saying DC aren't guilty of this, and there are some views that Marvel's are easier than DCs to understand BUT at least DC have never started the next event in the last issue of the preceding event! However much Marvel tried to deny it its quite clear that Dark Reign is an event even if it lacks a core title.

[Professor Bear]

It's short-term marketing to draw in readers from an ever-shrinking core fanbase, and I don't think it's too contentious to suggest that sooner or later we'll hit a breaking point (recession, four dollar comics, neverending events with no payoffs, unrecogniseable characters, etc).

If you want fun and accessible Marvel books, Marvel Adventures are the way to go rather than the increasingly-impenetrable core titles like Spidey and Iron Man.