• The Road to Civil War (New Avengers: Illuminati, Amazing Spider-Man #529-531, Fantasy Four #536-537)
• Civil War (Civil War #1-7)
• Civil War: Front Line 1 & 2 (Civil War: Front Line #1-11)
• Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man #532-538)
• Civil War: Captain America (Captain America #22-24, Winter Soldier: Winter Kills)
• Civil War: Thunderbolts (Thunderbolts #101-105)
• Civil Wars: Young Avengers & Runaways (Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #1-4)

This review contains spoilers for the general, introductory plot points of the individual volumes, but not for any of the suprises and secrets within.

The basic premise of Civil War is an intriguing one: when a superhero incident goes disastrously wrong, the US government passes superpower registration legislation, helped by heroes Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic. However other heroes, led by Captain America, feel that this new legislation is a violation of their civil liberties; when the government has their heroes start to track down the resisters, a war erupts.

The Individual Volumes

Here's my thoughts on the individual volumes:

The Road to Civil War. This introduction to the Civil War is a pale marketing plot and little more. Within we have three stories: Illuminati is an actual setup of the problems leading to the Civil War; the Fantastic Four issues inexplicably detail a battle with Dr. Doom for Thor's hammer and don't seem to fit into everything else (until you're much further into the series); while Amazing Spider-Man details Peter Parker's growing closeness to Tony Stark, and thus to the inevitable legislation.

The writing is by some of Marvel's current stars, Brian Michael Bendis and J. Michael Straczynski, but it doesn't really cohere as a whole, and these stories would have been better told amidst their own comics' trades. Nonetheless, it individually rates a 6. I quite liked Illuminati and Spider-Man, while Fantastic Four felt like it was just a big fight.

Civil War. The core Civil War title, by Mark Millar, is unfortunately the weakest of the set. It depicts all the core movements of the plot arc, but any time things get interesting they're shunted to another Marvel title. Thus we end up with the core book being mainly a couple of big fights centering around an rapidly changing roster of heroes on either side. Individually it rates a 3 and is overpriced beyond that at $24.99, where the rest of the books ran from $11.99 to $17.99. I regret buying this book, and think I could have gotten along without it.

Civil War: Front Line. A set of two volumes that show what the core title could have been if it were structured better. These books, by Paul Jenkins, depict the effects of the Civil War on people. The core story is about journalists Ben Urich and Sally Floyd. There are also other stories of the sole survivor of the disaster that kicked off the registration and of an Atlantean invasion. I found some of the elements of these stories confusing, and am not convinced they reached final resolution, but nonetheless they were gripping and there was great characterization and a real thoughtful look at the effects of an event of this size. I rate it "8" out of "10".

Civil War: The Amazing Spider-Man. JMS has been writing Spider-Man for several years now, and at his best his Spider-Man is among the best that's ever been written; this is Straczynski at his best, and its very tightly tied to the Civil War. Peter has sided with Tony Stark to get heroes to register, and he must decide how far he will go. This earns a "9" out of "10".

Civil War: Captain America. Ed Brubaker is the current writer on Captain America, and he's had a good two-year run prior to the Civil War event. Unfortunately, Captain America barely plays a part in these stories which concentrate as much on his supporting cast rather than the Captain's major role in the war. The writing is good, the art is moody, but you feel like you're not getting to see the story you really want to, of the Captain's role as a resistance leader, and that's probably because he's such a focus of the main book. Nonetheless: "6" out of "10".

Civil War: Thunderbolts. I read this book by Fabian Nicieza out of order, without having read the previous volume of Thunderbolts. It focuses so much on the Thunderbolt's individual plots rather than the Civil War that it's practically unintelligible to a Civil War reader, and thus not recommended. Rating: "5" out of "10" for these purposes.

Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways. Finally we come to an attempt to bring two young teams of superheroes into the War, but without the writing team of either individual comic aboard. The result is predictable, with poor characterization and a story that doesn't fit that well into the continuity of either comic. Rating: "4" out of "10".

Final Thoughts

Civil War is a thoroughly modern Marvel cross-over with great writers, great art, and an engaging premise. However from there, it falls apart. Among the problems were:

1. A weak core book. Though I've liked some of Mark Miller's other books, this one fell flat because the core book didn't do anything, it just bridged the gaps between most of the interesting events happening in individual comics.

2. A story that translated poorly to trade paperbacks. As with many crossovers, this one was told in weekly comics, with events in one issue affecting everything in the weeks and months afterward. This didn't translate well to the trade paperback format where you couldn't easily tell what happened in what order and what connections individual volumes had.

3. A failure of direction. Mark Millar thought that Iron Man and the fascist government were the good guys. Just about every other author thought that Captain America and his brave rebels were the good guys. This hurt the believability of the entire story quite a bit and harmed some Marvel characters (particularly Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic) almost beyond redemption.

In general I'd have to call Civil War a failed crossover. Nonetheless, some of the writing was quite good, in particular the Spider-Man issues, but also to a lesser extent Front Line. In addition the results of the crossover are interesting if they're allowed to be a permanent change to the Marvel universe.

However, the way we got there felt haphazard and disappointing, and they've generally put me off of the next Marvel crossover, "World War Hulk".