Okay, here is my long-winded set of thoughts:
I was initially torn on expectations for the series - the concept has potential, but could easily be a rehash/heavy-handed mess - hence I read most of the interviews/reviews and looked at the previews before deciding whether to buy in or not. So I picked up the first issue with a pretty good idea of what was going to happen, and who would be on what side and why, and wasn't really expecting much in the way of surprises.
Even knowing what was going to happen, though, so much happens in this first issue that it was still an interesting and attention-gripping read. I've been pretty vocal in my criticisms of
Disassembled and
House of M, but
Civil War, to me, shows how large-cast events should be handled. You really get the feeling that every character has something to say about what's going on and intends to tell you ALL about it in future issues. If anything the pace of this issue is almost TOO fast, with far too much happening and being skimmed over, but that effectively sets the groundwork for what is to come when, presumably, the pace slows down and spins into other minis/crossovers.
There are still some things I don't quite buy - one is that the events of
House of M had a single thing to do with developing the public issues with this. Maybe if Wanda's insanity and re-structuring of the world were publicly known I could see a generalized anger at the "hubris" of masked crusaders. But right now only a handful of people know that truth, so the idea that the New Warriors incident fueled some sort of "climate of fear" is something that doesn't make any sense. The general attitude toward mutants seems to have always been "the fewer the better" and a massive mutant depowering and die-off doesn't seem likely to spark this kind of reaction.
I get the general idea that Tony Stark is not exactly enthusiastic about the Registration Act - more than he seems to see some of the upsides and is resigned to the inevitability of the Act passing. Unfortunately, to know that, you need to have read the "Road to" issues of
Spider-Man and
New Avengers: Illuminati. Otherwise, just reading this issue of Civil War, you'd get a different take on it, I think you'd think that Tony is a staunch defender of the Act and I don't believe that's quite true. It's certainly played up that way on the last page of CW #1, but I don't think that's the whole truth. Will that be significant down the road? Perhaps and perhaps not, but that doesn't bode well for Marvel's promise that you don't have to read the tie-in issues to understand what's going on. Grasping the motivations of the major players is a huge part of following the concept.
In the same way, the time scale in the issue seems rushed. Things build too quickly without the hindsight of the prequel issues. CW #1 seems to cover about two and a half days. Maybe that is the point - things are happening so fast that people are not taking the time to stop and think things through. I say about double the story pages would have been nice...
If you've been reading the Daredevil series, you might think that what happens in CW #1 is either a mistake or a spoiler - after all, in his own title, Matt Murdock is in jail, denied pre-trial bail. How then can he be in costume for Civil War? Well, there is a copy-cat Daredevil running around right now - an unknown person, mimicking Daredevil for unknown reasons (as of last issue, out a couple weeks ago, so that's not a spoiler). It's most likely that copycat that shows up in Civil War. But Daredevil's real identity is known to several people at the "superhero summit" in the Baxter Building, and hence they'd know that the person there is a copycat. So is that a spoiler that the copycat is known to them as well, or that the copycat is someone familiar? Since I read internet spoilers (oh me of little spoiler restraint), I know that the identity will be revealed in a future DD issue, but was this an advance hint or not?
I've read quite a bit of chat about the portrayal of the New Warriors, but since I've never read the title (and don't even know who most of the characters are), the opening scene in CW #1 were at least reasonable and internally logical.
Millar is not exactly known for treating non-major characters well, but most everyone seems fairly in-character. He handles the "majors" fairly well. Captain America seems a bit Ultimate-ish, but I guess I can be charitable and say he's under a bit of stress right now and somewhat ticked. In the scenes with SHIELD, the Registration Act has not yet been passed - it's NOT a law yet and might not even be one, and Hill has no business trying to detain Cap in any way - and Hill just feeds Cap's distrust of the pro-registration groups. Sue Storm's comments seem somewhat out of line, considering that she and her family live in the fortress that is the Baxter Building and they are regularly unable to prevent havoc there - I'd also have expected her to be commenting on her brother's injuries. And, sigh, yet again Hank Pym fans are treated to an odd version of him. This does not bode well - and, given Janet's comments, will Hank and Jan end up on opposite sides?
All of this aside, the mini seems to have gotten off to a good start. There are lots of issues raised, and I expect that Millar will be switching back and forth to try to get us to really feel the motivations of the characters on both sides of the fence.
As for me?
(thanks to Jeb on MillarWorld)
