In light of everyone blaming him for being underwhelmed, Joss Whedon explains exactly what he contributed to the end of Civil War #7:
I walked into the infamous Marvel meeting, where they pitched me civil War. Cool enuf, sez I. Then they pitched the end they were currently going with, wherein the woman whose son is killed breaks up the fight between Cap and Iron Man, much like Joanne Dru in “Red River”. Not cool enuf, sez I. If the whole thing rests on Cap and Tony’s conflict, and they’re gonna fight, I sez sez I, somebody’s gotta win. I just pitched that Cap got past Tony’s armor and started beating the poo out of him — thus becoming exactly what Tony had called them all: a superpowered guy taking it out on a powerless human. Cap realizes this and lay down his arms. (But he wins. Eat that, Stark.) That is literally the tale. I said looking around at the destruction of Manhattan didn’t have much resonance — these guys destroy Manhattan all the time! It was the personal act of putting his fist into the face of his powerless one-time friend that would Make Cap feel like a bully, a monster, a Nazi and kiddies, I didn’t say much else. (Except that a fight between titans broken up by the ‘voice of reason’ before it ends is a lame fight indeed.) I didn’t know Civil War was gonna envelop the whole universe for a year. I didn’t know the entire face of Marvel was changing, and though I heard pitches of what’s to come, I don’t know what stuck. I think I’ve been given too much credit for all this. Which is sweet, but I wanted to save you all endless speculation.
Aaaand… none of that really came over in the final product, did it? I mean, it almost did – there’s the moment of pause where Cap is about to deliver the final blow, but… it’s hardly what is described above. In fact, the final version seemed to include the destruction of Manhattan take… Interesting.
(Via Paul O’Brien.)
February 26th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
“a superpowered guy taking it out on a powerless human.” …Cap has no powers. And I didn’t buy it, but didn’t they already throw down hand to hand in that Gage one-shot?
February 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Captain America has powers from that Super Soldier Serum
February 26th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Yeah, Cap’s borderline super powered. He’s human level, but he’s at the edge of human level and he got that way through super science.
So it’s kinda murky. I can see where Whedon is going, but I can see why that message isn’t terribly clear.
February 26th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Having Cap decide on his own, as opposed to having a bunch of people attack him and look at him fearfully would have been both better and worse.
February 26th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Peyton on Paul O’Brien’s review:
“Which Paul messes up and manages to miss Miriam Sharpe at the end.”
http://forums.millarworld.tv/index.php?showtopic=68361&st=340
February 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Mark Peyton is missing the point. Of course I can see that she’s there in the final pages, but she doesn’t DO anything. Once she was written out of the climax, she ceased to serve any function beyond issue #2 – so why does she keep showing up?
February 26th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Heavy-handed McGuffin reminder?
February 26th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
But you don’t need her for that role; characters already have ample reason to talk about Stamford.
February 26th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
In Extremis is in continuity. Stark has superpowers.
Apart from that, for Iron Man, losing his armor in battle equals krytonite, so it’s a bullshit argument anyway. He doesn’t get to cry “I’m a helpless peasant see how I’m being oppressed” once the thing that allows him to level city blocks is taken from him in battle.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Paul O’Brien yet again does a great service for internet comic fandom. Thanks for dropping the info, Paul.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Cap is one superhero was made to be a guy with superpowers beating on a powerless person.
Also, the Iron Man suit is still body armor, even without power.