STUFF & THINGS 6

By Richard Early

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught.”

NOTE: If it’s not illegal, why would someone be trying to catch you?

GROWING UP MARVEL

I got into comics through school and Battlestar Galactica. I got a subscription to Marvel’s BSG comic series in about 1978 or so at the ripe age of 8 or 9. Then it was the Micronauts. Oh, I love the Micronauts. Then it was Spider-Man. And then it was the X-Men.

The X-Men had a crossover with the Micronauts or I never would have heard of them. That’s why Marvel does things like Transformers/ Avengers, by the way. It’s not because they’re good, it’s because they want to market their characters with a big property. Anyway, that crossover clued me in to the fact that there was a larger world out there than just what I was reading.

Those who don’t read comics need a little assist here. See, Marvel Comics has what’s known as the Marvel Universe, just as DC Comics has the DC Universe. Any book set in the Marvel Universe is in continuity with every other book under that banner. So when I first realized that something that transpired in a Thor comic might affect the X-Men or Spider-Man, my young mind was overwhelmed. The concept of such a fictional realm was amazing. Imagine if all TV shows on Fox or ABC or wherever were interconnected. The guys on Fringe might end up under care of Dr. Greg House. Or maybe a Doll could be programmed to enter American Idol. Crazy, huh? Now imagine being 10 years old and figuring that out.

Marvel also has a very unique identity. They try very hard to keep their universe ‘real’. It’s gritty, dark, and cutting edge. They want the world their characters operate in to emulate ours as much as possible. For example, they tied Spidey in to 9/11 and more recently had President Obama team up with him. It’s very attractive in your teens as you learn about the world you live in.

So I grew up Marvel all the way.

Over the years, my fandom began to fade. As I got into my 20s, a pattern began to emerge. A pattern that’s hard to see when you’re new into comics. Basically, about every five years or so Marvel likes to throw in the towel and start over. Everything old is new again. Storylines are rehashed, characters are revived from the dead, plotlines are redone, or villains reappear for yet another final battle. That’s OK. Really. I want young readers to feel what I felt about comics when I was growing up. And for the most part, Marvel did a great job of these re-launches. Most times, they stayed pretty true to the origin of the characters or they found a modern reinvention that made sense.

The best example of this technique is the Ultimate line. Again, a brief explanation. Ultimate Marvel’s premise is to imagine that there has never been a Marvel comic before. In other words, they do Spidey and X-Men and Avengers but they redo them from square one. In the case of Spidey, they very faithfully started Peter over from the beginning. They made him a little more emo than originally, but they didn’t have emo in the 1960s. It made sense. The X-Men got a more intense overhaul with Storm becoming a mall girl and Colossus becoming a Russian mobster. But that seemed to work to.

Skip ahead to 2006 and Civil War. Civil War in concept was one of Marvel’s best ideas of all time. The premise of the 7 issue mini-series was that the government wanted to pass a super-hero registration act. This decision split the heroes. So instead of hero vs. villain, it was hero vs. hero and both sides held to what they saw as legitimate beliefs. On one side, Iron Man supported the law and on the other, Captain America opposed it. The series still impacts the Marvel Universe even today. The pro-reg forces ultimately win but recently, Norman Osborne has come to power and the good intentions of the heroes have been corrupted by some of Marvel’s main villains.

So, here it is, the moment I stopped growing up Marvel. Civil War #7 featured the final showdown of the rebel forces under Cap. As the battle raged on in New York, Cap’s group is actually winning. But suddenly, Cap is attacked by firefighters and police officers – the heroes of 9/11. Cap realizes that he is tearing the country apart with his continued fighting and surrenders to Iron Man.

For my money, this is bar none the worst event in the history of Marvel Comics. First of all, Cap is the epitome of a soldier. He has fought in World War 2 all the way through Civil War. He’s fought in Secret Wars, Kree/Skrull wars, and a hundred other major conflicts. If anyone knows the consequences to war, it’s Cap. That means that going into Civil War, deciding to take up arms against Iron Man, he already calculated the costs. That would have to be part of his decision. If he was resolute enough to begin the engagement, he would not give up on that conviction at the very moment of victory. This brings up another point. The war was about to end. The damage was about to be over. Iron Man was at Cap’s feet. So the conclusion that the cost was too high is meaningless since the worst of it was already behind him. This is an absurd twist of character to service upcoming events. It’s a betrayal of the character and the ideas he represented to perpetuate conflict.

That’s just part of my complaint. That’s just the ruination of Captain America, one of my favorite characters. Let’s move on to the implications to the Marvel universe as a whole. Cap’s rebellion is based on his fundamental belief in individual freedom. Forcing people to register simply because they have powers is akin to Nazi Germany registering people for their religious beliefs. It also undercuts the concepts of privacy that should be fundamental to a truly free society. By having Iron Man win, Marvel is validating the opposite. They are thematically validating the power of the state over its citizens. They are validating fascism.

In the early 1980s, Chris Claremont and John Byrne defined the X-Men with “Days of Future Past”. In that story, the government comes to round up the mutants. Not only do the mutants fight back, so do the major heroes of the Marvel Universe. That defined the moral supremacy of our heroes and reasserted the inherent evil of oppressive rule. Now, over two decades later, the Marvel Universe has completely reversed course. The dark future is not only upon them, but the heroes are part of it. They don’t resist, they actively fight for it.

Oh, and also, if you disagree with your government, not only should you be jailed, as Cap was, but you should be shot, too, as Cap subsequently was.

I haven’t gone back very much. I own Civil War #1-6 but refused to pay money for #7. I have read some comics from Marvel, such as Old Man Logan or the Twelve. But those books are not in continuity. I will probably go back some day. Maybe not until the current editorial staff is gone. But some day. I love the characters way too much.

What’s my substitute? That’s a whole other blog. I’ll say this: I read as many or more titles than I ever have, be they single issue monthly books or trade paperbacks.

I want to end by saying that the purpose of this blog is not to sway anyone’s opinion on Marvel Comics. I have a life long love. In fact, I wouldn’t be so upset otherwise. If I didn’t care, it wouldn’t bug me so much. I also firmly believe that the current Dark Reign concept is fantastic and am interested in where they take it. Just from a distance is all. They have great creative teams and great product. I don’t want this blog to be about me shoving my opinion in your face. I just want it to be stories about me or Paradox and this is one that is squarely on my mind as a comic lover and a comic retailer.

In fact, I can remember being a kid and getting opinions shoved in my face. I hated it then and I hate it now. So please take it for what it is. Oh, and I’ll tell you about being a kid reading comics in Fargo someday, too.

WHAT’S NEXT

The record streak will continue. I know that much. I’m planning to catch Bruno and the new Harry Potter flick in the near future. I’ll definitely have something to say about Brett Favre, possibly by next week.

Thanks for your attention. Again, please let me know what you think. I’m pretty happy with the way this is developing. I’m feeling like I’m finding myself here as I go along. Each week’s posting has felt like a little improvement over the last. Going back and reading the first already seems silly.