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albertico66's review
4.0
Serves exactly what I want (if not more) from a "WHAT IF" book. Charles Soule mixes fast-paced action, spot-on character interactions, and world-building very well. Leinil Francis Yu also kicked all kinds of ass in this one.
daileyxplanet's review
3.0
I enjoyed the Secret Invasion being referenced as the reason why the Civil War continued.
allmadhere106's review
5.0
I pulled this because I thought that it was tied to Marvel's Civil War event and I just found out (after reading it) that it's really not. This book is part of a separate event, the Secret Wars, and I will have to hunt those down and read them later. I absolutely loved this book! I'm a sucker for parallel universes and What Ifs, so this was something I could definitely get behind. I liked the time hop and seeing what could have happened to all the characters if they kept living in war. I'm sure certain things will make more sense as I read the others in this event, but overall I found the book entertaining, compelling, and an excellent character study. Lovely.
For: fans of superheroes and action adventure; readers that can appreciate a parallel universe imagining.
Possible red flags: violence and fighting; references to sex and sexual situations; language; conspiracies; war imagery.
For: fans of superheroes and action adventure; readers that can appreciate a parallel universe imagining.
Possible red flags: violence and fighting; references to sex and sexual situations; language; conspiracies; war imagery.
captwinghead's review
3.0
3.5 -ish stars?
I'm one of like 5 people that puts Civil War in the top 5 Marvel events. Not the main trade because yikes, that sucker was awful but the tie-ins, especially The Confession and Frontline were some of the best Marvel has to offer. They made several parallels between the war between Pro SHRA and Anti-SHRA and wars throughout US history. They also pulled from Steve and Tony's history to make the war more meaningful. I don't know if you guys know this but Steve and Tony used to be best friends? I know that gets a little lost in Marvel making them fight in every single comic and movie they've shared since 2004. It's getting quite ridiculous.
That being said... it's really easy to tell when the writer of a comic is leaning towards the good old "Cap was always right" mentality. Why? Because even when presented with evidence that Tony and Steve were manipulated by outside forces, Soule tells us that Cap was innocent and Tony was still guilty. Yeah, okay.
So, this starts when, during the Negative Zone battle, someone activates the self destruct system. Cloak and Dagger think it's Tony, Hill thinks it's Cap. This leads to Cloak trying to teleport everyone out before it explodes and several people die. (Jan, T’Challa, Cloak, Matt Murdock). Both sides blame the other and there's a huge divide in the US.
After years of war, everyone’s belief system has been reduced to the simplest terms:
The Iron: rules by law and order. There are schools for the gifted; seemingly they all get a warning? Not clear if they have to leave their families but they are educated on how to safely use their powers. Militant heroes watch over the east.
The Blue: Kind of the outlaw state. Cap rules with 2 rules: Hurt no one, and help when you can. Seems great right? Except Cassie comes across a kid using his abilities to blow something up and is 100% fine with that? Also his Avengers come if you try to break his rules. If you succeed, he sends the Punishers after you. So... if you break Cap's rules, you die? Also, glad to know he's willing to compromise with killers but not Tony. Cool.
The Blue is considered a rogue nation and outside countries refuse to trade with them... which makes sense, actually. Of course, Cap blames this on Tony and says Tony is manipulating the other countries to keep resources from the Blue. I should mention, this is tossed out by Peter and Steve without any evidence that it's actually Tony's fault.
Miriam Sharpe has been running a bridge over the divide, presumably to allow people to travel between both places. She hosts a sit down to try to end the war and I'm not sure why? I guess after years of war, she felt bad? Cap comes because they need resources. Tony comes because they need more space. Anyway, they sit down, a large even happens and the war between them gets worse.
The characterization in this book is fine. I can't quite put my finger on why it seemed wrong? I guess it's hard because the main trades for Civil War were off in characterization for several people anyway?
For example, Cap has always been unwilling to compromise. That's something that's been consistent throughout his comics and when faced with the world making choices he hates, he turns his back on them and goes his own way (Nomad). So, it makes sense for him to disguise himself and try to fight secretly during Civil War. However, I've always had a hard time imagining he just went from retreat to backstabbing and EMP handshakes with someone who used to be his best friend and "gave him a home".
Tony's always been the thinker and has several contingencies in place for unexpected threats. That's something that's always been true of him seeing as he's been betrayed by nearly everyone he's known save maybe Rhodey and Happy. So, it makes sense he'd have a plan in case the superhero community ever found themselves against the general public and the general public needed to be protected. It doesn't add up why someone who's been so staunchly against people stealing his technology would keep Thor's DNA to clone him if the need arose? I just can't see him doing that, particularly because Thor was one of his best friends. But Millar wrote it and now it's canon and people use that to say Tony was always a fascist. (Which is what happens when you don't touch an Iron Man comic pre-2004).
Here, Cap is the rebel leader who's all military all the time. He has his doubts that Tony would straight up assassinate him but still dives head first into a fight with the Iron because he'd rather take himself out fighting them. His goal becomes to fight for resources and to keep his land.
Tony is doing surprisingly well mentally. Doesn't quite mesh with the image Peter and Cap are painting of him. He's President, dating Jen (which was an adjustment for me) and just trying to protect the people in his area. It appears most non-super people are in the Iron because they feel safe there. (Gee, Cap, I wonder why.) Honestly, most of the "evil" things he does in this book are told to us in comments from Cap and Peter. We never see him actually do anything evil.
Anyway, spoilers below:
This ends with Tony telling Cap the truth as they go into the divide to tale out the Skrull queen. Cap is a little distraught but no apologies from either of them really. He can't believe he was manipulated by Skrulls and Tony blames himself for not seeing it. Do you see a pattern here? At least they kinda work together to take out the Skrull queen. The last shot of them is them looking up through the divide at their friends as they blow the bomb and admiring what kind of heroes they are. Unfortunately, this would hold more meaning for me if there was more of a reconciliation here.
The ending is Jen and Peter meeting to discuss the transfer of resources from the Iron to the Blue. The Iron is helping send food and the Blue offered up some space to the Iron. No sign if they'll ever truly be one country again. The end, I guess.
So, it's not quite what I wanted. I wanted more of a reconciliation and more of a two sided apology from both Steve and Tony. I wanted a little more interaction from the others. What I wanted was a fix on the original event, which I was never going to get. The truth is, of all the Secret Wars books, this and 1872 were the only ones I wanted a lot more from? There was real potential here to get into a longer story. More of what life was like in the Iron and the Blue. More on the politics behind Cap working with the Avengers and his Punishers and this much darker version of Peter Parker. More on Tony working with Jen and Carol and Bucky. I was actually way more interested in this than the original trade because there were more intricacies going on behind the fighting.
So, it's a recommend if you're interested in what the Marvel Universe would look like if Civil War had continued. The art is pretty great (Tony looks amazing!).
If you're a Team Iron Man fan like me, it's frustrating. If you're Team Cap like 98% of Marvel readers, you'll probably enjoy it just fine.
3.5 stars.
I'm one of like 5 people that puts Civil War in the top 5 Marvel events. Not the main trade because yikes, that sucker was awful but the tie-ins, especially The Confession and Frontline were some of the best Marvel has to offer. They made several parallels between the war between Pro SHRA and Anti-SHRA and wars throughout US history. They also pulled from Steve and Tony's history to make the war more meaningful. I don't know if you guys know this but Steve and Tony used to be best friends? I know that gets a little lost in Marvel making them fight in every single comic and movie they've shared since 2004. It's getting quite ridiculous.
That being said... it's really easy to tell when the writer of a comic is leaning towards the good old "Cap was always right" mentality. Why? Because even when presented with evidence that Tony and Steve were manipulated by outside forces, Soule tells us that Cap was innocent and Tony was still guilty. Yeah, okay.
So, this starts when, during the Negative Zone battle, someone activates the self destruct system. Cloak and Dagger think it's Tony, Hill thinks it's Cap. This leads to Cloak trying to teleport everyone out before it explodes and several people die. (Jan, T’Challa, Cloak, Matt Murdock). Both sides blame the other and there's a huge divide in the US.
After years of war, everyone’s belief system has been reduced to the simplest terms:
The Iron: rules by law and order. There are schools for the gifted; seemingly they all get a warning? Not clear if they have to leave their families but they are educated on how to safely use their powers. Militant heroes watch over the east.
The Blue: Kind of the outlaw state. Cap rules with 2 rules: Hurt no one, and help when you can. Seems great right? Except Cassie comes across a kid using his abilities to blow something up and is 100% fine with that? Also his Avengers come if you try to break his rules. If you succeed, he sends the Punishers after you. So... if you break Cap's rules, you die? Also, glad to know he's willing to compromise with killers but not Tony. Cool.
The Blue is considered a rogue nation and outside countries refuse to trade with them... which makes sense, actually. Of course, Cap blames this on Tony and says Tony is manipulating the other countries to keep resources from the Blue. I should mention, this is tossed out by Peter and Steve without any evidence that it's actually Tony's fault.
Miriam Sharpe has been running a bridge over the divide, presumably to allow people to travel between both places. She hosts a sit down to try to end the war and I'm not sure why? I guess after years of war, she felt bad? Cap comes because they need resources. Tony comes because they need more space. Anyway, they sit down, a large even happens and the war between them gets worse.
The characterization in this book is fine. I can't quite put my finger on why it seemed wrong? I guess it's hard because the main trades for Civil War were off in characterization for several people anyway?
For example, Cap has always been unwilling to compromise. That's something that's been consistent throughout his comics and when faced with the world making choices he hates, he turns his back on them and goes his own way (Nomad). So, it makes sense for him to disguise himself and try to fight secretly during Civil War. However, I've always had a hard time imagining he just went from retreat to backstabbing and EMP handshakes with someone who used to be his best friend and "gave him a home".
Tony's always been the thinker and has several contingencies in place for unexpected threats. That's something that's always been true of him seeing as he's been betrayed by nearly everyone he's known save maybe Rhodey and Happy. So, it makes sense he'd have a plan in case the superhero community ever found themselves against the general public and the general public needed to be protected. It doesn't add up why someone who's been so staunchly against people stealing his technology would keep Thor's DNA to clone him if the need arose? I just can't see him doing that, particularly because Thor was one of his best friends. But Millar wrote it and now it's canon and people use that to say Tony was always a fascist. (Which is what happens when you don't touch an Iron Man comic pre-2004).
Here, Cap is the rebel leader who's all military all the time. He has his doubts that Tony would straight up assassinate him but still dives head first into a fight with the Iron because he'd rather take himself out fighting them. His goal becomes to fight for resources and to keep his land.
Tony is doing surprisingly well mentally. Doesn't quite mesh with the image Peter and Cap are painting of him. He's President, dating Jen (which was an adjustment for me) and just trying to protect the people in his area. It appears most non-super people are in the Iron because they feel safe there. (Gee, Cap, I wonder why.) Honestly, most of the "evil" things he does in this book are told to us in comments from Cap and Peter. We never see him actually do anything evil.
Anyway, spoilers below:
Spoiler
Turns out Skrulls worked to keep the war going. It's clear both sides were manipulated and kept fighting but the narrative leans on Cap saying "It's all convenient." and "I don't believe you were entirely innocent" (or something to that effect) to Tony which pisses me off. Especially when Tony apologizes after? I don't understand why this reveal gets Cap off the hook but not Tony, as well? Skrulls didn't make Cap fight his former friends. Skrulls didn't make the public afraid of superhumans on their own. But yeah, this whole war was still Tony's fault. Got it.This ends with Tony telling Cap the truth as they go into the divide to tale out the Skrull queen. Cap is a little distraught but no apologies from either of them really. He can't believe he was manipulated by Skrulls and Tony blames himself for not seeing it. Do you see a pattern here? At least they kinda work together to take out the Skrull queen. The last shot of them is them looking up through the divide at their friends as they blow the bomb and admiring what kind of heroes they are. Unfortunately, this would hold more meaning for me if there was more of a reconciliation here.
The ending is Jen and Peter meeting to discuss the transfer of resources from the Iron to the Blue. The Iron is helping send food and the Blue offered up some space to the Iron. No sign if they'll ever truly be one country again. The end, I guess.
So, it's not quite what I wanted. I wanted more of a reconciliation and more of a two sided apology from both Steve and Tony. I wanted a little more interaction from the others. What I wanted was a fix on the original event, which I was never going to get. The truth is, of all the Secret Wars books, this and 1872 were the only ones I wanted a lot more from? There was real potential here to get into a longer story. More of what life was like in the Iron and the Blue. More on the politics behind Cap working with the Avengers and his Punishers and this much darker version of Peter Parker. More on Tony working with Jen and Carol and
Spoiler
being manipulated bySo, it's a recommend if you're interested in what the Marvel Universe would look like if Civil War had continued. The art is pretty great (Tony looks amazing!).
If you're a Team Iron Man fan like me, it's frustrating. If you're Team Cap like 98% of Marvel readers, you'll probably enjoy it just fine.
3.5 stars.
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