I may read more books than comics but I am still a big comic book fan. Nothing beats the epic pop out fighting scenes in the comic. It is no wonder they used this story for Marvel’s Civil War. See how much they kept from the original source material!
Civil War Summary
A group of superheroes are fighting a group of villians while being filmed for a reality show. But things go wrong when Nitro, a superhero, explodes and more than 600 people are killed. All of the superheroes except one are also killed in the explosion.
The public is enraged and are angry with superheroes as a result. This leads to superheroes being attacked and creating a divide amongst the heroes. Iron Man uses his influence to get Congress to pass The Superhuman Registration Act which would require all persons with superhuman abilities in the U.S. to register as a superhero.
Captain America is against the new law and refuses to hunt any superheroes that are in violation of the new law. That leads to him forming his own resistance with other heroes who feel the same way and they become wanted fugitives.
Iron Man and his group hunt down Captain America and a fight breaks out. A superhero is killed in the battle and makes everyone think about their stance in this fight. Which hero will back down and how many people will die as a result of this new law?
Civil War: Commentary
I remember when the Avengers Civil War movie came out and was excited to see this play on big screen. And it was epic. There were a lot of superheroes in the same movie which was unheard of at the time. The amount of A-List celebrities in this movie was just ridiculous.
Nothing is perfect and that was true for the movie as well. Because of Marvel selling the rights to certain heroes in the late 1990’s, Marvel lost the right to use certain heroes. Disney ended up by Marvel and has been negotiating to get some of them back. Even Spider-Man making an appearance in MCU’s Civil War was a big accomplishment at the time.
It is much easier to write a big-scale novel then make a big-scale movie. There is a budget limit and certain limitations in general. That changed the script but I felt like it was still a great movie. And not just cause we finally got to see Spider-Man in the Avengers.
Conclusion
This novel is cinematic in its own right. The fight scenes are big and there are so many heroes in one setting. Everything felt organic and the tension in the novel was palpable. If you are a fan of Marvel, then this is a treat for you. Otherwise, I would say to avoid it. Superhero comics and novels only work when the reader is invested in the heroes.
I really loved that one. I read it all night long. I got a bunch of comics about the Civil War and was rooting for Captain America in this one.