As a grand architect of this dross, Mark Millar is one of the baldest opportunists in the business, who’s found a trendy flavor of nihilism that is utterly inhumane and disgraceful. Rather than respect these characters, he actively dispises them. How else to explain the foul strain that permeates WANTED and THE ULTIMATES? Heroism, in Millar’s view, must always be suborned by lust, anger or sadism. This sensibility may appeal to the Joe Qs of the industry, but it’ll always limit the popularity of not-so-funnybooks to the geek crowd. And there, I’m afraid, is where non-events like CIVIL WAR probably deserve to stay.

I’m still searching for a point where anyone but you did that… but thanks for sharing your opinion.

And please, everyone stop using “mainstream” and “comic reader” in the same phrase. It is a laughable oxymoron.

Civil War is impenetrable to normal people, unreadable by children for all sorts of reasons and everything that is wrong with Marvel. This is the 90s writ large. Get over the hype, stop trying to find positives in a diabolical excremental wreck and find a new hobby… Or at least, new comics.

Here’s the problem: Joe Quesada doesn’t understand the difference between GOOD storyhooks and BAD storyhooks, the same way my toddler is struggling to understand the difference between good and bad attention. He believes that there are more interesting stories to tell with an unmasked Spidey, an imprisoned Cap, and a smarmy asshat autocratic Iron Man. And, to be frank, there are… IN THE SHORT TERM.

But there certainly aren’t 46+ years of good stories in these altered characters, something that obviously existed BEFORE the changes. There are a lot of stories that COULD be told that would sell comics and draw criticism: What if Wertham was RIGHT about Batman and Robin? What if Wonder Woman were a transsexual? What is Superman decided to take over the world and run it right?

In recent years, the shift towards a more “cinematic” approach to comics (some would blame it on The Authority, but you have to take the blame back to where it really began: Jim Shooter) has made for a “Can we top this?” mentality, not just at Marvel, but throughout the industry. The Civil War and it’s fallout are almost certainly going to be a temporary change in the status quo, especially if enough of us stop buying. I’ve said it before: Vote with your dollars.

My four star rating for this book was based on several things: The art was pretty. The story gave us an ending to the Captain America/Iron Man battle (though not one that I liked), and the writing was more than competent. Moments like Hercules’ godly rage, the Invisible Woman’s complete devastation of Taskmaster, Captain America finally acting like Captain America really SHOULD (by protecting the innocents, no matter what the cost, albeit far too late), contributed to the ratings as well.

Most importantly, they didn’t go deux ex machina and have Miriam Sharpe be Loki/A Skrull/The Martian Manhunter, they didn’t immediately hit the reset button (though it’s still clearly in view for any and ALL of these developments), they didn’t kill Stark or Rogers (what would THAT prove?), they didn’t have the Annihilation Wave show up and have everyone drop their fighting to be bestest friends again, and they didn’t cop out by having one of the main characters disavow his obviously heartfelt and powerful convictions after some pretty speechifying.

It was what it was. As crossovers go, it was too big, too sprawling, too didactic, too complicated, and far too pervasive for my tastes, but it was better than many of its ilk. I still found more emotional resonance in that OTHER seven issue Mega-Crossover than in this one, but for it’s many flaws, CW got people talking, it moved product, and it honestly did leave the Marvel Universe changed in it’s wake.

The main question now is: For how long?