Who's Side Are You On?

A Civil War is coming!

...to the Marvel Universe, home of Spiderman, the X-men, Hulk and countless other superheroes. As recently reported in the New York Times:

"Civil War" provides problems in spades. The story opens with a reckless fight between a novice group of heroes (filming a reality television show) and a cadre of villains. The battle becomes quite literally explosive, killing some of the superheroes and many innocent bystanders. That crystallizes a government movement to register all super-powered beings as living weapons of mass destruction. The subsequent Registration Act will divide the heroes into two camps, one led by Captain America, the other by Iron Man. Along the way, Marvel will unveil its version of Guantánamo Bay, enemy combatants, embedded reporters and more. The question at the heart of the series is a fundamental one: "Would you give up your civil liberties to feel safer in the world?"

Now, generally, I'm not a big fan of crossover events in comics. And also, I'm not a huge fan of when superhero comics try to tie real world political events into their storylines. But, for some reason this whole event has me really excited. I'm not sure if its the adult part of me, or the fanboy kid, but I'm just really interested to see how this all plays out.

And, I hope som really entertaining stories spin out of it. But, for those of you who are think that the subject matter will be too heavy for the spandex set, I offer this last quote from the Time article:

Are these stories getting too heavy for comics readers looking to shut out real-world tensions?

Not really, say the Marvel writers. "Civil War," Mr. Millar said, will work on two levels: "At the core, it's one half of the Marvel heroes vs. the other half." But, he added: "The political allegory is only for those that are politically aware. Kids are going to read it and just see a big superhero fight."

I'm on Wolverine's side!