Civil War Kicks Ass!!!

Three issues into Civil War, the twists and turns just keep on coming. So as to avoid spoilers for anyone planning to read issue three after this post, all I will say is that, following Spider-Man's unmasking in issue #2, things get seriously ugly as the pro-registration and anti-registration heroes have their first real confrontation.

In only three issues, this miniseries has given us enough iconic images and jaw-dropping moments to keep fans talking for years. Whether or not the events from this story will become a permanent fixture of the Marvel Universe, Mark Millar and Steve McNiven are definitely going to leave a permanent impression on comics storytelling as we know it. Just as Millar and Bryan Hitch had redefined the superhero genre a few years earlier with "Ultimates," Millar and McNiven are now redefining the "event miniseries," showing the likes of Bendis and Coipiel and Johns and his rotating battalion of artists how it's done.

As bold a proclamation as this may seem, I feel that Mark Millar is this generation's Alan Moore. In the last five years, no other single writer, at Marvel or elsewhere, has given fans quite as much subversive, balls-to-the-wall storytelling as this guy. It's a wonder Quesada et al kept him confined to the Ultimate Universe for as long as they did before finally unleashing him on
the hapless Marvel Universe.

He did a brilliant twelve-issue run on Spider-Man, respecting tradition while at the same time introducing a brilliant concept: that a conspiracy of businessmen and capitalists originally created supervillains. This does not offend Marvel canon and opens the door for a heck of a lot of story possibilities. Not long thereafter, he did an incredibly engaging run on Wolverine, a character I don't even like, which culminated in what I feel was easily one of the best single issues of 2005: the World War II issue.

Civil War, however, is something that stands head and shoulders above his prior work.

Back in 2004, when most fanboys were drooling over Jim Lee's work in Superman and Michael Turner's work in Superman/Batman, a much smaller cult of fans were being treated to the work of a then somewhat obscure but much more talented artist named Steve McNiven, who was half of a team originally meant to supplant Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo on Fantastic Four following a falling out with then-President of Marvel, the egomaniacal Bill Jemas. After Jemas was fired, McNiven and his writer already had several issues in the can, which became a new series, Marvel Knights 4. Waid predicted that McNiven would be comics' next superstar, and what do you know, he was right; McNiven became Marvel's most sought-after artist.

McNiven's style is hard to pigeonhole. Suffice it to say that it's incredibly detailed, albeit without cross-hatchings, and in some instances even virtually photo-realistic, without being static. In Civil War #2, he gave fans an iconic Spider-Man swinging pose...without sacrificing anatomical feasibility. He draws beautiful women, without falling into the trap of having them all look the same. And he draws kick ass action sequences.

Probably most amazingly, he is able to do all of these incredible things and still put out a book ON TIME!!! The only time his books had scheduling problems was when writers were playing tug-of-war with his talents, with that bald prick Brian Bendis snatching him off Warren Ellis' Ultimate Secret to do a rather lame run of his New Avengers. It was nice to know that McNiven was later snatched off a second run on New Avengers after completing just one issue in order to do his greatest work to date: Civil War.

With Civil War dominating the sales charts for its first two issues, and, I hope, throughout its entire run, Millar and McNiven are finally getting the recognition they both truly deserve as two of the medium's greatest talents.