So Civil War has come to an end this week and naturally almost everyone’s talking about it. Some are happy with the ending, some aren’t, but the question at the core of the series is still getting some pretty interesting answer: which side are you on?
Point
While he has problems with the execution, 4th Letter guest blogger Mark Poa is actually pro-registration:
Excerpt:
Why is Superhero registration necessary?
1. People with superpowers are similar to special skills. CPAs, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals are registered so that their skills can be monitored and standards could be set for their use. I see superheroes as going through this route… registering as professional superheroes.
2. Registering would mean having standards. Training, education, special tests… all to ensure that activities would be regulated and that special provisions can be made for the use of special skills.
3. It’s a failsafe in case a superhuman goes rogue. Real names are registered.
Counterpoint
Amy Reads, on the other hand, is very adamantly anti-registration:
Excerpt:
Why, you ask, Gentle Reader? Or perhaps, you don’t ask, but merely nod your head and agree that indeed, Registration is many things: anti-hero, anti-American, anti-freedom. Yes, all of those things are true, but even more so, I read the Registration Initiative as the early stages of Forced Removal, or Ghettoization, or other such government initiatives to forcibly remove–or mark –certain racial, religious, etc. groups from the general public. First, they mark them, those superheroes. Then, when they refuse to be marked, they are imprisoned. When they do register, they are forced to work for the government, regardless if they want to or not, or are even relocated away from their homes and families. All in secret, mind you. But even when Prison Number 42 is revealed to the public, as it is in #7, Reed Richards remarks that the public met the Negative Zone Prison with resounding applause and support.
What do you think?
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:04 am
I think it’s not real; it’s a half-baked story element that was squandered so there could be scene after scene of people yelling and crying and punching.
And I’m with Cap.
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:37 am
Agreed Kevin.
Spoilers
I think the real reason Cap surrendered is that he couldn’t stand for the damn comic to drag on any longer and he wanted out. It was a Morrisanian moment of fourth wall awareness, very subtle of course you have to look at Cap’s eyes. This was the story point that Whedon suggested “Cap has too much integrity to allow such a crappy story to continue and when he realizes how he’s been portrayed he sacrifices himself to end it all”.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:14 am
I also wholeheartedly agree with you Kevin (about your first point at least).
I will admit straight off that I’m far more of a DC fan than a Marvel fan, and Civil War highlights the reason why - no matter how much you may want to think otherwise, you can never, ever make super heroes realistic. At BEST you could believe in a Batman or a Black Panther, but the moment somebody flies or shoots energy from their eyes, you’re no longer in a realistic world. And the simple fact is, as soon as that happens, we’re no longer in OUR world, which is something I feel DC has always recognized a bit more than Marvel has, in that DC makes their main pantheon mythic in scope and perhaps unidentifiable in that way. However, I LIKE that, I like looking up to these heroic standards, and at least it’s a reasonable way of portraying an unreasonable universe.
Marvel, however, has always had this feeling to me like it’s trying to be relevant, by making super-heroes exist in a real world setting. The truth is, though, that you CAN’T make a superhero world like the real world, unless you’re willing to sit down and figure out how every little detail of that world is going to fall out from the very first moment something breaks from the way the world has always been. That’s part of what was so new about Watchmen, that it did this, and the world WAS different from ours down to the details.
In Marvel, there’s supposedly a pre/post-Stamford just as there is a pre/post-9/11 in our world. But why wasn’t there a pre/post-Genosha? Or even a pre/post-Galactus? Wouldn’t that event in and of itself, a godlike creature coming to devour the earth, completely change how everybody on the planet views pretty much anything?
You can’t shoehorn academic arguments about registration issues using real-world logic, because it’s NOT the real-world, and an endless amount/vareity of issues would come into play that simply have not been addressed in any of the comics.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:40 am
Wow, thanks for the link!
Actually, that article was written by a buddy of mine named Mark Poa. It’s a guest dealie.
I, of course, am with Cap.
Down with the Iron Fascist!
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:42 am
Gosh! I’m sorry David! Thanks for correcting me, I can’t believe I missed that!Â
I’ll fix that and credit the right guy!
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:46 am
Hey, I don’t mind. Attention is one of the four food groups!
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:48 am
I’m with Alan Moore. Is it too late to state that?
February 24th, 2007 at 3:44 am
I’m with Kirby. Or Ditko.
Maybe both.