I haven’t been following Marvel’s Civil War – I’m not an “event comic” kind of guy — but this Miami Herald article seems like a pretty good overview of the miniseries.
“What makes Civil War intriguing,” Leonard Pitts writes, “is its pointed, albeit allegorical, exploration of a question that very much faces the country in the present era of surveillance, detention and the Patriot Act.”
Pitts touches upon some key scenes from the miniseries — the destruction of Stamford, Conn., weighty political exchanges, the unmasking of Spider-Man — and reader response, but the focus is on the allegory.
And on that point, one local retailer wonders whether some younger readers are grasping the concept:
Jo Minieri, manager of Tate’s Comics, Toys, Videos and More in Lauderhill, says the series is also popular with her customers, though she wonders if some of the younger readers really understand the analogy. “Many of the older fans, people 25, 26 and up, they all seem to get it. The people more my age [23] and down, they don’t get it as much.”
I’d like to read more about that because, really, the allegory isn’t that complicated; some may argue heavy-handed, but the parallels are pretty obvious. So what’s not to get?
I wonder if that apparent gulf between older and younger fans has more to do with nostalgia than complex concepts. Are those younger readers not understanding the political allegory, or are they not getting the appeal of sweeping crossovers? The second scenario makes more sense, I think.
July 31st, 2006 at 3:08 pm
So that’s the official point that society dumbed down - people now aged 25 and up are smart enough. Anyone younger is, however, thick as sh!t.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
The metaphor-rich Civil War struck me…let’s see… Either in Civil War #1 or the unmasking of Spider-man in Amazing Spider-man. What suprised me what that the storyline has expanded BEYOND the Patriot Act (via Registration) and tackled numerous ideas hitting Americans. We have ties to an explosion in a town, setting off the events, with is the essential 9/11 (or perhaps Pearl Harbor). Removal of civil rights and jailing of “Speedball.” The imagery ties directly to prison abuses in Iraq and Gitmo. Then there is the race card, which is being addressed in Black Panther. It was Goliath who was killed, and he was buried in a tarp, rather than a casket. Secondary-class treatment for African Americans, and it hits on issues similar to Hurricane Katrina. While people take sides there is also the question of who profits–war-profiteers. The Haliburtons of the world.
So why don’t people in their teens and early twenties fully understand this? Because they do not fully understand the news and the world around them. You need to be aware of what has been going on since 2000 (or 1999) in order to fully appreciate the comic. It’s a good storyline in itself, but it also requires social and political awareness, and not enough people read newspapers.