Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,469
edits
Civil War (Comic Book): Difference between revisions
added new trope
m (update links) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (added new trope) |
||
| (10 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
[[File:marvel_civil_war_3500.jpg|frame|[[Iron Man]]'s ''pretty'' sure this is the right way to handle things. [http://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/article/746/746270/iron-mancaptain-america-casualties-of-war-20061115031019603.jpg Although, so is Cap]. ]]
▲The 2006''/''2007 Marvel [[Crisis Crossover]].
The [[New Warriors]], during the filming of a [[Reality TV]] program, unthinkingly start a fight with several fugitive supervillains (including Nitro) in the middle of a suburban housing development in Stamford, Connecticut. Demonstrating power well in excess of any he's ever shown before (due to secret drug treatments provided by a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]), Nitro quite literally explodes - killing all of the New Warriors (except Speedball) and 612 civilians, [[Anvilicious|including the entire population of an elementary school]].
Line 15 ⟶ 14:
* All registered heroes are potentially liable to be called up into active government service, at the discretion of the government, without the option of refusing
[[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] refuses to register and hunt renegade heroes, then forms the Secret Avengers, an underground organization that resists the Act. The [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] declare the whole mess [[
The crossover was similar to, but far more extreme than, previous [[Super Registration Act]] plots in comics. It is also notable for big changes in the status quo, including the death of [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] and the unmasking of [[Spider-Man]] (among several other heroes). Despite [[Joe Quesada]] (then-editor-in-chief of Marvel) promising that Spidey's unmasking would not be undone via a [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|"magic retcon"]] (those being his exact words), Spidey's unmasking was retconned as a part of Quesada's wildly unpopular pet storyline ''[[One More Day]]'' - by ''literal'' magic.
Most of the [[Marvel Universe]] was involved in this, including ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'', the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', the ''[[Runaways]]'', and many other heroes. The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' comics were, by and large, uninvolved in the crossover; this is because of the decimation of the mutant population that happened at the end of ''House of M''. However, two of them did join, both of them time travelers - Cable sided with Captain America, and Bishop joined forces with Iron Man.
Line 25 ⟶ 24:
In December 2007, a "What If" special was released; a stranger reveals two alternate versions of Civil War to Iron Man, who is visiting Captain America's symbolic grave at Arlington. The first is "What If Captain America led all the heroes against the Registration Act?" and the second is "What if Iron Man lost the Civil War?". Additionally, because of the times the stories take place ''What If: [[Annihilation]]'' can be considered a third alternate version of the Civil War, with the Annihilation Wave reaching Earth during the climactic battle of the war.
The event's plot is used as the story in the video game ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance|Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2]]'', as well the is the basis for the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe|Marvel Studios]] film [[Captain America: Civil War]], which likewise features Captain America and Iron Man in opposition to each other. {{spoiler|Initially}}.
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance|Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2]]''. Fans cringed when they heard it would be based on Civil War, but the results were notably better received than the series it was based on. It also, by the end at least, created a canon that didn't make [[Iron Man]] and [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Mr. Fantastic]] fans [[Properly Paranoid|feel the need to hide in underground nuclear bunkers]] directly after announcing that they didn't think either man was [[Satan|evil incarnate]].
** ''[[Captain America: Civil War]]'' borrows concepts from the series, while also focusing on story and character elements from the previous [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] films to conclude the trilogy.
* [[The Alcatraz]]: The captured superhumans are imprisoned in a large prison in the Negative Zone. Escape is [[Cardboard Prison|"futile"]] since it is in a separate dimension composed of [[Antimatter]].
* [[Bury Your Gays]]: How many
* [[Cape Busters]]: S.H.I.E.L.D. creates a new unit to capture heroes that refuse to register in defiance of the SHRA. In an amazing display of subtlety, they are named the "Cape Killers."
* [[Cardboard Prison]]
Line 39 ⟶ 40:
* [[Concepts Are Cheap]]: Which side are you on? It won't matter. We'll just have heroes take sides as though it was picking teams for sports.
* [[Crisis Crossover]]
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Formerly [[Fun Personified]] Speedball gets new, pain-based powers, [[Wangst|takes up an outfit lined with spikes on the inside]] (one for each person who died in the explosion) and dubs himself "Penance". The Internet [[Internet Backdraft|explodes]] with [[Narm|laughter]], disgust, and the [[Fan Nickname]] "Bleedball".
* [[Depending on the Writer]]: Up to and including whether holding American citizens in a concentration camp without trial after intentionally setting mass-murdering supervillains on them was a bad thing.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The first time the moment when
** The angry mother was basically Cindy Sheehan who protested the second Iraq war and became famous for doing so after her son was lost. Though in Sheehan's case, she was already politically active before her son deployed.
* [[Everything Is Racist]]: Luke Cage compares the Pro-Registraters rounding up those who haven't registered to the Jim Crow Laws.
* [[Evil Costume Switch]]: On the covers, and a few of the supers who switched sides.
* [[False-Flag Operation]]: In ''Prelude to Civil War'', [[Iron Man]] hired his old enemy the Titanium Man to make an attempt on his life in order to provide a cause for not passing the registration act (basically, America's enemies would take advantage of the division and wipe them all out).
* [[Fan Nickname]]:
** This is the storyline that led many fans to call Tony Stark 'Der Eisenfuhrer'.
** The Marvel brass really regretted not giving the Thor clone an official name right away, since the fans' decision to label it "Clor" seemed to irk them. Marvel later on named it "Ragnarok." Fans still call it Clor.
Line 54 ⟶ 55:
* [[Hypocrite]]: Iron Man tells the Anti-Reg side that the Pro-Reg side is superior because they take responsibility for their actions - and then promptly tells Cap that all of the kick the dog moments he (Iron Man) did were all his (Cap's) fault. Way to destroy the credibility of your argument when you can't even practice what you preach.
* [[Idiot Ball]]: Captain America first and worst, but he was ''far'' from the only one.
* [[Intellectually
* [[Ironic Echo]]: Hold him down! Hold him down!
* [[Issue Drift]]
* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: Both sides showed signs of this during the course of the series.
* [[Karma Houdini]]:
** Failed attempts by [[Executive Meddling]] to grant [[Iron Man]] [[Karma Houdini]] for his crimes during this storyline -- instead of admitting how wrong (or at least over-the-top) he was -- have only resulted in [[Flanderization]] and ruining an originally strong character.
** After getting shot, pretty much nobody ever called Cap on any of the shenanigans he pulled and was later pardoned by Obama. Also, Hill, who pretty much started the whole conflict in the first place, was merely demoted to ''Deputy'' Commander.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: It becomes fairly obvious that the only way the writers could keep the debate somewhat open was to give [[Iron Man]] as many of these as possible, regardless of how ludicrous and out of character.
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Probably the New Warriors (well, the ones involved in the Stamford incident
* [[Meaningful Rename]]: Speedball --> Penance
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Iron Man's reaction to the outcome of the alternate scenarios presented to him in the "What If" special. - [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider Man]] also goes through this after witnessing just what he's been helping [[Iron Man]] [[The Alcatraz|do with all those pesky heroes...]]
* [[Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering]]: The Illuminati, as it turns out: they split evenly rather than unify on the pro- or anti-registration side. Foreseen by Black Panther, who refused membership in the group because he saw this coming.
{{quote|
* [[Number Two]]: Spider-Man starts off as this for the Pro-Registration side, even being the first hero to officially register live on television. He eventually defects though when he disagrees with Iron Man's morals.
* [[Omniscient Morality License]]:
** Tony Stark and Reed Richards claim this, due to their status as "futurists". Whether or not people call them on this depends on the writer.
** On the anti-reg side, Cable, who takes the opportunity to give the President a lecture on how the Fifty States Initiative will only lead to tyranny while [[Deadpool]] is using the White House toilet.
** In a meta-example, most readers would have seen Captain America as in the right no matter what he did mostly because his name is Captain America.
*** Captain America has consistently been one of the two main moral compasses of the Marvel Universe,
** Averted with [[Doctor Strange]], who took himself completely out of the conflict other than to side with the Anti-Registration group on principle. When questioned by Uatu the Watcher, he claimed it wasn't his to decide how superpowered humanity was going to go, and all he could do was pray for the outcome that would be best for everyone.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: The crossover generated a big upswing in interest in [[Incredible Hercules|Hercules]] (kicking off what would turn out to be a few very good years for him), in a series of moments that amount to about six pages.
* [[Outside Man, Inside Man]]: Captain America was Outside, Iron Man was Inside.
* [[Put on a Bus]]:
** Before the bill gets passed, Johnny Storm is assaulted outside a club and left in a coma for much of the series. Hulk was entrenched in the ''[[Planet Hulk]]'' series, and trying to get him to pick a side was something both sides ''combined'' couldn't handle. Besides... [[Memetic Mutation|they were ''all'' fucked when Hulk got back to Earth]].
** Johnny recovered about halfway through the series just in time to go to anti-registration side along with Sue. They got [[Incestuous Casting|interesting cover-up identities, too]].
** All of the Cosmic Heroes, specifically [[Nova]], were all embroiled in the ''[[Annihilation]]'' event, an event, while traumatic to him, probably saved Nova from dying in Stamford with the rest of the New Warriors. So really this bus ride worked in his favor, especially for what followed for him...
* [[The Real Heroes]]: Pops up right at the end. Ironically, it's because of ''them'' that Cap surrenders, and we all know what happened later.
* [[Red Skies Crossover]]
* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: [[Fantastic Four|Ben Grimm]] decided this was a load of crap he didn't feel like dealing with due to the lack of care over civilians, so he skipped town and [[Mythology Gag|spent his time in France]].
* [[Smug Snake]]: The final scene of the series is Tony Stark, talking to a mother bereaved in the explosive opening, about how he's accomplished a great thing, and has even greater plans for the future. He has an immensely smug smile on his face. This is after two of his friends are dead, and another half are imprisoned or in hiding.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]:
** ''[[Dark Reign (comics)|Siege]]'' is thought of as ''Civil War'' without the moral ambiguity, with Norman Osborn and supervillains taking the place of [[Iron Man]] and other Pro-Reg characters.
** The [[X-Men|X-Family]] [[Bat Family Crossover|Crossover]] ''Schism'' is also compared to ''Civil War'' for being a morally grey conflict, this one seeing more success in making each viewpoint defensible (with their home under attack and only junior members around to defend it, Cyclops wants to make a stand, which the kids are willing to do even though they know not everyone will survive; while Wolverine doesn't like them getting mixed up in this and wants to retreat).
Line 90 ⟶ 91:
* [[Superman Stays Out of Gotham]]: Turned on its head when the X-Men [[Lampshade]] how anti-mutant sentiment was never on the radar of the heavy hitters in the superhero community (comparing the Stamford disaster to the Genosha massacre which no superheroes helped with) and declare they're [[Somebody Else's Problem|staying out of the whole mess]]. Likely due to the X-Books' constant theme of mutant registration being the first step to anti-mutant genocide not jiving with the "Pro-Reg is right" message.
* [[Super Registration Act]]
* [[Thirty Pieces of Silver]]: In issue #5 Daredevil invokes this trope to accuse Iron Man of betraying his friends and colleagues in exchange for power. Upon his arrival at the prison in the Negative Zone, he is found to be carrying a silver dollar under his tongue.
* [[To Be Lawful or Good]]: ''the entire superhero community'' is caught into this ethical dilemma, but the two characters that took most of the cake is [[Captain America]] and [[Iron Man]]. The [[X-Men]], however, [[Take a Third Option|took the third option]] and decided to stay out of this conflict because of the events of M Day.▼
{{quote|'''Guard:''' He said he's been saving it for you.
'''Tony Stark:''' A silver dollar. I don't understand.
'''Daredevil:''' Guess that's thirty-one pieces of silver you've got now, huh? Sleep well, Judas.}}
▲* [[To Be Lawful or Good]]: ''the entire superhero community'' is caught into this ethical dilemma, but the two characters that took most of the cake is [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] and [[Iron Man]]. The [[X-Men]], however, [[Take a Third Option|took the third option]] and decided to stay out of this conflict because of the events of M Day.
* [[To Catch Heroes Hire Villains]]: They empowered the ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' to go after heroes who refused registration. Thunderbolts under the command of [[Spider-Man|Norman]] [[Ax Crazy|Osborn]]. Including Bullseye, a [[Complete Monster]] whose personal body count is probably well in excess of those killed in the Stanford explosion.
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Iron Man.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Twice in the above mentioned ''Civil War: Frontline''. The [[Intrepid Reporter|intrepid reporters]] Ben Urich and Sally Floyd go to interview Captain America and Ms. Floyd proceeds to chastise him for his reckless superheroics. Then they pay a visit to [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]]
* [[What Did You Expect When You Named It?]]: With so many Marvel characters named "Goliath", it was only a matter of time before one was killed by a small projectile.
* [[Why Did You Make Me Hit You?]]: Technically, it's [[Moral Event Horizon|"Why did you make me imprison you without trial in an extradimensional concentration camp?"]], but otherwise, this is pretty much Iron Man throughout the arc.
* [[Writer on Board]]: If you have ''Mark Millar'' writing your superhero comic...
Line 104 ⟶ 109:
[[Category:Marvel Universe]]
[[Category:Civil War]]
[[Category:Comic
[[Category:Comic Books of the 2000s]]
| |||