A currently ongoing review of the Marvel Civil War comic series
Weird story, but I think I might try reading a lot of Marvel Comics next year. I was lent about 100 floppy books that are supposed to be the entire Civil War arc. For every floppy I read, I’ll try to sum up what I understood what happened in it and how I imagine it would be told if an Asian wrote it.
A few years back, Marvel comics was getting a new Editor-in-chief, and the word on twitter was that he had spent some time in the 2000s pretending to be a Japanese man named “Akira Yoshida” to get a writing job for Marvel. Akira Yoshida was described as a Japanese man who grew up reading Marvel Comics, which already off the bat was incredulous since the comics are barely distributed outside of the United States. It was both a surprise but not a surprise when it was revealed that “Akira Yoshida” had been a fursona a white man created to hog job opportunities.
While I was disappointed, on the other hand I thought the idea was cute: The idea that there exists some magical Asian in Japan that enjoys Marvel comics, and that that Asian can read and write in English enough to want to write new comics for Marvel. If this magical Asian existed and if he was “Akira Yoshida”, maybe Wolverine’s comics would not be so racist. Maybe instead of Wolverine having a wife that’s Asian, Wolverine himself can be the Asian.
This vaguely summarizes the motivation that‘ll help me through reading over a hundred floppy comics, which if I assume each floppy is about 30 pages long, and if a volume is about 200 pages long, if I disregard how Marvel comics tend to have a higher story density, then the entire Marvel Civil War is like a regular comic book series that’s about 18 volumes long, which is exactly how long the Sailor Moon comics is. What a fun coincidence.
12/14/2020
001 “The New Avengers Illuminati”
Summary: Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Prince Namor, Professor X, Reed Richards (fantastic 4 leader?), Black Bolt, and Black Panther meet in Wakanda where Iron man says “Aliens almost destroyed earth before, so let’s find a way to work together to defeat the next alien better”. Black Panther nopes out immediately and Namor says “mmm idk, Hulk is scary, and Scarlet witch is scary, and nobody can defeat them” so Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Reed Richards conspire together to send the Hulk into space indefinitely. But then at the next meeting, Iron man says to the group “ooh let’s register ourselves with the government to show we’re not the bad guys” and everybody but Reed Richards nopes out.
My reaction: ???????????? They sent the Hulk who has been suicidal into space indefinitely and it’s only worth a page and a half? Hulk being launched into space forever should have been the central event of this entire floppy, since it’s essentially a character death. I think in the movies, the factions were not Iron Man and Namor (This is a completely new character to me since I’ve only seen the movies) but Iron Man and Captain America, though Iron man in the movies was still pro-registration while Captain America was anti-registration. If I was drawing this comic.. I would focus on how much the Hulk is suffering and how torn Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Reeds Richards were about being unable to help him, and their struggle to go forward with the decision to blast him into space. Maybe have Namor and the Black Panter try to stop them from sending him into space because it benefits them to have a big distraction like the Hulk around Iron Man and Dr. Strange.
Definitely a really strange way to handle a character death, so I’m expecting the Hulk to come back later when it’s convenient for Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Reed Richards. Whether or not the story will touch on how messed up it is to lock up a character in space until they need them like a tool in a toolbox — is unknown.
12/16/2020
002 “The Fantastic Four 536”
Summary: This floppy reviews the characters of the Fantastic Four and brings Thor’s hammer into the storyline. There are also some robots named Doom? It’s confusing.
My reaction: I feel like I should know what the names and powers of each of the Fantastic Four members should be, but I don’t know their names. There’s a orange rock-like char, a pretty looking white guy, an older dude that I think is Reed Richards, and a lady. I don’t know any of their names, but it looks like the pretty looking white guy’s power is flying and fire, Reed Richards is like a male Elastigirl, the orange rocky guy is strong, and I don’t know what powers the girl character has.
I think if this chapter was written for the same audience as My Hero Academia, it should have tried harder to repeat the character names and made the chapter longer by spending a few pages on humanizing the girl and the pretty looking white guy.
12/16/2020
003 “The Fantastic Four 537”
Summary: Doom escapes hell and he bring his Doombots with him to get Thor’s hammer, which fell onto earth from space. Reed Richards and Benjamin Grimm want to stop Doom from getting the hammer, and Reed Richards has a history with Doom where he left him in hell, so I’m guessing they’re enemies. The girls’ name is Sue. I don’t know the name of the pretty look white guy with the fire powers. The chapter ends with a mysterious blond male character boarding a bus.
My reaction: I think that doom escaping from hell is the most important event, so I think the chapter should have started with him escaping from hell and almost touching the hammer several times. I don’t know why he was left in hell, so as far as I’m concerned, the Fantastic Four have wronged Doom, and Doom is the victim who was left in hell (similar to Hulk being left in space?)
12/16/2020
004 “The Amazing Spiderman 529”
Summary: Iron Man makes Spider man a cool new superhero outfit that’s bulletproof and can glide. In return, Iron Man tells Spider man to come with him to Washington DC.
My reaction: I rather liked the youthful characterization of Spider man in the last few movies, so it’s a bummer to see he’s a grown rich white dude in these comics. This sorta ends like the start of a BL (like Brokeback Mountain!) since both Iron Man and Spider man are grown men, and they’re going to travel together. I don’t know what’s the point of the first two pages other than for Iron Man to sexually harass Mary Jane, so if I was writing this comic, I would leave out those two pages. Those two pages could have been used to characterize Spider man’s relationship with Mary Jane, as in: is their relationship strong? weak? Are they mostly a romantic couple or are they best friends? What kind of future do they hope to have together? In this chapter, it felt like she didn’t care about him.
12/20/2020
005 “The Amazing Spiderman 530”
Summary: Iron Man makes Spider man a new superhero outfit that’s invisible. Spider man functions as Iron Man’s bodyguard to protect Iron man from Titanium Man.
My reaction: I feel like Iron Man made some interesting points at his meeting with the politicians, but I can’t remember any of it because it was all exposition. I wonder if there was a more memorable way to include that. I don’t like that Iron Man let Spider Man make an ass of himself in front of the politicians. It kinda feels like the entire chapter was written to elaborately say “spider man got a new outfit that can be invisible”.
12/23/2020
006 “The Amazing Spiderman 531”
Summary: Iron Man argues that America would be defenseless against foreign superheroes and that’s why the government should be happy to work with superheroes by allowing them to register with them. Spider man is relieved he didn’t destroy any federal monuments in DC while fighting Titanium Man.
My reaction: I’m sorry but everybody’s faces are so ugly, and Peter Parker looks like a grown man rather than a teen or a young man. I wish somebody in this chapter looked cute, because it’s distracting the way they all have really similar male faces. I’m not sure it’s appropriate to equate the US civil war (and slavery) to superheroes (who aren’t slaves) being required to register the way guns are registered. That and I don’t remember Lincoln being concerned about keeping the states united because he was afraid of an invasion from an outside force, the way Iron Man is concerned about aliens coming in to invade earth.
12/23/2020
008 “Civil War 1”
Summary: A superhero fight blows up a school, and due to the anti-superhero sentiment, the Human Torch gets jumped while trying to go to a night club. The superheroes gather with Dr. Strange, Spider Man, Fantastic Four, and Spider-woman to discuss how the US government wants them to register to continue to be superheroes. Captain America runs away from his government handlers by jumping out of a building, and a giant bald man named “The Watcher” shows up at the end.
My reaction: First the grieving mom argues that cops have to train before they patrol the streets, unlike the superheroes. Then the book has a group of random Black guys beat up a white guy who is the Human Torch on the street. I have to wonder if this comic book read better before Black Lives Matter because it’s coming off like softcore pro-cop propaganda, since nowadays it’s known that cops aren’t trained to be anti-racist or will intentionally turn off their bodycams and do other stuff that ignores their training. Also the optics of a group of Black guys beating up a white dude due to anti-superhero sentiment poses a white person as a victim of oppression (which misses the point of street xenophobia the way it manifested against South Asians after 9/11 or against East Asians in the 70s and 80s — in both cases, it was white people being violent towards people of color) and the optics of portraying Black people as being violent is bad. In good news, the page layout is a lot calmed down compared to The Amazing Spiderman 530 and 531, which makes it a lot more easier to follow. Also nice: Varied faces! Dr. Strange has a big nose. Hulk has a wide face. There’s at least two distinct faces for women. It’s basic stuff that’s typically not praiseworthy in a comic book… You’re supposed to draw characters in a way that they can be told apart when the story requires it, but the Spider man floppies, compared to this floppy, did not do that.
1/1/2021
010 “She-Hulk 08”
Summary: She-Hulk regains her ability to phase between her un-super human form and her hulk form with the help of a wizard. She also helps take down a hate website not as a lawyer but by using personal information provided from Iron Man who hopes to have her in his court.
My reaction: I’m familiar with She-Hulk. She doesn’t need to have a boyfriend.
1/2/2021
011 “Wolverine 42”
Summary: Wolverine, a Canadian, defends a bank getting robbed, and then goes to the exploded school to help search for survivors. He is against the superhero registration idea. Somehow he also goes to Japan or something for sushi? Confusing.
My reaction: As an Asian American, I did not appreciate Wolverine drawing parallels between non-super humans to Superheros as to Nazis to Jews or white people to Black people. It’s completely reasonable for people without superhero powers to be afraid of superheros since they’re known for causing massive property damage and costing people their lives, which is not the case at all for Jews and Black people. Wolverine is definitely white, and he probably has no friends of color. It was racist of Wolverine to ask a Black person how he’d feel if someone was burning a cross on their yard, like why remind someone of that kind of trauma??? Especially if you’re white and have never experienced it? It’s disgusting behavior.
1/3/2021
012 “Amazing Spider Man 532”
Summary: Iron Man asks Spider-man to join him in the superhero registration. After some debate with his wife and auntie, Spider-man decides to do that.
My reaction: Nice, Spider-man is a actually drawn in a different body type than Iron man, like a slighly less stocky, faintly slim-macho look. So far my feeling on this is that all the superheroes should not register and all of them should simply operate as criminals. I don’t think the public thinking they are criminals has any bearing on their operations since a lot of them can’t be policed nor jailed.
1/6/2021
013 “Civil War Frontline 1”
Summary: Iron Man reveals his true identity. Story about Japanese Americans at the end where Spider-man agrees the camps were a responsible thing for the government to do.
My reaction: The story at the end argues that Japanese American Internment during WWII was justified, when it is in fact really racist and not justified. Once again, nobody writing for this arc seems to understand that while superheroes are a minority since the majority of people in their world don’t have powers, superheroes are not marginalized the same way people of color or queer white people are. This detail is so distracting that I don’t remember why Iron Man coming clean with his true identity was important to the plot.
1/10/2021
013 “Thunderbolts 103”
Summary: Iron Man asks the Thunderbolts to detain the “bad” superheroes. The Thunderbolts agree to do so but they’ve also been doing so for weeks.
My reaction: I don’t know who the Thunderbolts are to understand if they’re good or bad. The coloring is jarring, like way too many saturated primary colors.
