Review- CIVIL WAR

CIVIL WAR (Marvel, Twelfth Printing, 2015; softcover)

Collects Civil War #1-7 (cover dates July, 2006- January, 2007)

Writer: Mark Millar

Artists: Steve McNiven with Inking by Dexter Vines, John Dell, Mark Morales, and Tim Townsend

Colorist: Morry Hollowell

I bought this trade when it was originally released back in 2007 and loved it, so much so that I bought most of the crossover trades as well (Ms. Marvel, Punisher War Journal, Young Avengers & Runaways, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Front Line, Heroes For Hire, New Avengers, Road To Civil War, X-Men, Marvel Universe, and Spider-Man). This was one of the few crossovers that, for my money, actually worked. I have long since dumped most of these books on eBay to buy other books, as my collection swelled and I realized that I was never going to have time to reread them.

My son was a newborn when the original trade came out. Fast forward nine years later, and my son views this as a historically important Marvel event. He had never read this but has been fascinated by it, largely due to the fact that it has become attached to the third Captain America movie. He bought the True Believers line reprint of #1 for $1 at a local comic shop and asked me if I had the book because he wanted to read the rest. I informed my son that no, Daddy buys way too many books to keep them all. I checked this copy out my local library and read all seven issues in one sitting with my nine year old son.

He loved it. Absolutely loved it. While cynical me cringed at the endless, pointless swearing which added no value to the events, my son was pumped up and excited as things unfolded. I “edited” the cursewords out as I read it to him. Swearing in mainstream superhero comics makes me embarrassed for the medium, to be honest with you. It's a shame that my son cannot pick up mainstream Marvel Comics at age 9 like I did and read it without parental censorship. One cannot claim that Marvel Comics are intended solely for adults when their parent company pumps out endless toys and cartoons based on these characters to young children.

My son's favorite things about this story were, in his own words, that Captain America and Iron Man were fighting each other on two separate teams. His least favorite thing about it was all of the swearing because it makes parents look too closely at it. He particularly enjoyed it when Captain America fought Iron Man and Spider-Man in his Iron Spider armor.

I enjoyed this on the reread all of these years later. The writing and the artwork hold up, even if the overwhelming commercial and artistic success of this would help greenlight umpteen more lame crossovers, each one less interesting and more demanding of your discretionary income than the one before it. While those would go on to sour me on modern comics as a whole, I will take this opportunity to say that I did enjoy Civil War both then and now. I really enjoyed reading it with my son, who is budding into quite the little comic book fan himself. I understand that he is the future of the medium, so I will stand aside and make way for progress.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was a Twelfth printing. Marvel finally has an evergreen title to offer to the bookstore market.

Paper stock: Thick glossy coated stock.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover.