Yeah I loved Civil War #1, I actually don't read much Marvel aside from Runaways, Young Avengers, New Avengers and the Ultimate line. But even still I was about to follow along pretty well. Good stuff, I hope the Runaway team makes an appearance myself.

Odysseus | May 07, 12:12 CET

So far I find Marvel's handling of the event more cohesive and straight forward than DC's Infinite Crisis. DC's huge event had too many titles feeding into it and in my opinion was all over the place with a huge emphasis on continuity that spanned over two decades. Saying that, the last page of Infinite Crisis #1 made my fanboy heart go "whoooah". But by issue 7 I was distinctly underwhelmed. The villain of the piece felt forced and I just really didn't care what was going on.

Anyhow back to Civil War, the first issue was a good set up allbeit very "Ultimised". And I look forward to where it's going.

Simon | May 07, 13:41 CET

Plus, while IC was supposed to be a celebration of DC's history, it was used to alter that same history in canon. The book itself had some powerful moments, but ultimately, it felt like an editorial tool to make the DCU fit a certain vision of it. Plus, they've now officially erased the 'Earth Angel' Supergirl, thus nixing one of the best long runs on a DCU book ever. Pretty much like they did with the Abnett/Lanning Legion run.

Whoah. Didn't mean to go off on a rant, there. :-)

Haven't read Civil War yet, but I am honestly excited, and whatever happens, I'm pretty sure the last decades of Marvel history will still have happened.

So, bestselling comic of the month--IC #7 of CW #1? My money's on Civil War.

Oh, and Odysseus--you know there's a Runaways/Young Avengers tie-in miniseries coming, right?

[ edited by Telltale on 2006-05-07 12:35 ]

Niels | May 07, 14:32 CET

Civil War #1 was a great kick off to the event and had a stronger start,I think,then House of M.I loved Infinite Crisis,me being a huge DC reader but I think Civil War will be more welcoming to non-hard core comic readers.It's an easier event to jump into where Infinite Crisis really required a lot of back round on the DC universe as a whole.Quite honestly,if you have not read,Crisis on Infinite Earths,then Infinite Crisis is probably confusing and loses a lot of impact.

I will say that,if you ever have any interest,now is probably the perfect time to jump into the Superman and Batman books with the One Year later jump.

They've been cut down to two monthly regular in continuity books and have two great arcs kicking things off.James Robinson's,"Face The Face in Batman and Detective Comics and Kurt Busiek & Geoff Johns's,"Up, Up, and Away" in Superman and Action Comics.

Plus if you want to get acquainted with Wonder Woman in preparation for Joss tackling the character on the big screen,next month,DC re-launches Wonder Woman with it's new creative team.

http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=5471



Again,this would be the perfect time to check the book and character out.

Buffyfantic | May 07, 16:26 CET

Well, I think you have to forgive them a bit of tweaking Telltale as with the first Crisis, the idea is to make the DCU a bit more coherent (and at the same time make a kind of meta-comment on how we see superheroes today as opposed to 50 or even 20 years ago). Must confess, though, i've never been massively attached to a particular continuity or 'age' so I don't mind big changes, so long as the books are still worth reading (and so long as criminals are still 'a cowardly and superstitious lot' ;).

Personally I thought IC was pretty good though a bit patchy and I agree with Simon that the lead-ins were less organised than they should've been (and the number of tie-ins was just crazy, especially given that DC didn't publish a 'bare bones' list of essentials AFAIK).

I think I may try Wonderwoman since it's being kind of rebooted and sounds interesting. I've also never read any Heinberg even though people rave about him so it might be a good opportunity in a few ways. Need to watch the cash though since i'm also probably going to try 52 and if it's good (and therefore worth staying with) that could get a bit pricey.

However, i'm really not much of a Marvel reader so i'm wondering what's the absolute bare minimum I can get away with reading and still have Civil War make sense ? I haven't even read 'House of M' so I guess that's probably where to start. Any suggestions after that (and how many, if any, of the HoM tie-ins do I need) ?

Saje | May 07, 16:52 CET

It's hard to say since it just started, but as far as bare minimum goes, I would start with the New Avengers: Illuminati issue. Most of what you need to know seems to be well-summarised there. I haven't been following most of the "core" Marvel titles (I only read AXM, Squadron Supreme, She-Hulk, Daredevil & Captain America), and I haven't had much trouble understanding Civil War. Recent issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, among others (basically anything with the "Road to Civil War" banner at the top), are setting up some things.

As for Infinite Crisis, I agree that it felt underwhelming at the end. There were definitely some great fanboy moments for me (mainly the Kal-L & Power Girl Earth-2 stuff), but it didn't have the kind of epic scope that the original Crisis had. There are a lot of things that felt contrived in the lead-up to IC, and I never really got the sense that the big threat was all that threatening.

That said, I'm looking forward to 52, the new Wonder Woman title, Shadowpact, Secret Six, Checkmate, and a lot of upcoming things from DC. I'm not happy that Matrix Supergirl has been erased, especially since Loeb's Supergirl is the most annoying character ever (though Rucka made her cool in his latest issue), but eh...in the end, it's not a big deal.

areacode212 | May 07, 17:18 CET

This looks like the right thread to ask this question. Didn't really want to pay to read Infinite Crisis, but I've heard it's going to "press the reset button for the DCU." And I am curious about that. So now that it's over, what was reset? In what way is the DCU significantly different than before InfCri?

batmarlowe | May 07, 19:22 CET

batmarlowe- I'm not deeply in the know, due to lack of funds, but I think the ways that IC changed the DCU are still being revealed in 52 and the One Year Later arcs. Which means it will probably be another year until we get a really clear picture of the whole thing (they get major points for scope in my book, I've changed apartments and jobs twice during the whole Identity Crisis/Countdown/IC thing).

I second the recommendation to check out Batman and Superman core books right now. These are the best takes on these characters that I've read in years!

Tycho | May 08, 01:15 CET

Basically,a new Earth has been created as a result of Infinite Crisis and it has created some continuity modifications as a result.For example,the Matrix Supergirl has been erased from continuity.

Buffyfantic | May 08, 01:59 CET

Is Matrix Supergirl different from Earth Angel Supergirl? Wasn't there one who was a Lex Luthor-invented protoplasmic blob who took the shape of Supergirl?

batmarlowe | May 08, 03:09 CET

Yeah, that is Matrix Supergirl. Well, the protoplasmic blob is. When that Supergirl merged with Linda Danvers, the result was the Earth Angel Supergirl. Presumably, both of them have been wiped from continuity, most likely because just explaining them is pretty complicated. I posted a message on Peter David's blog asking him about it, and this is what he wrote:



Other alterations to continuity include:

Wonder Woman was a founding member of the JLA.

Superman's super-career began before he first appeared in Metropolis.

The killer of Martha & Thomas Wayne was captured.

Power Girl is once again Kara Zor-L, cousin of the Golden Age Superman (her post-Crisis origins--that Atlantis stuff--turned out to be false memories, or something).

Some other characters remember Earth-Two (I guess the characters originally from there).

The Doom Patrol remembers all of their previous incarnations (including the Morrison run), even if they were retconned away by the Superboy-Prime "continuity punches" (don't even ask).


The first 4 of these just involve bringing back pre-Crisis/Zero Hour aspects to these characters' origins. Most of the changes haven't really been fully explained yet, just mentioned in passing. They'll probably be addressed in 52, in the "History of the DC Universe" backup feature.

[ edited by areacode212 on 2006-05-08 02:25 ]

areacode212 | May 08, 03:58 CET

Yeah, I'd really like to read that History of DCU thing. That would probably clarify a lot. I'd probably get it if it weren't for lack of funds. But right now comics are a luxury item.

batmarlowe | May 08, 09:28 CET

I think Superman being active pre-Metropolis was referred to as a rumour in the comic. It's probably to bring his story into line with Superman: Birthright which AFAIK is now the new canonical Superman origin (where he knew Lex in Smallville and also did some anonymous global superheroics as Clark before putting on the cape, hence the rumour status in the DCU).

The gist is that there's some re-appraising going on at the end of Infinite Crisis. Peter David's comment is apropos since the big 3 (Supes, WW, Batman) seem to have realised that they've become too dark (or disconnected from humanity) and are taking steps to change that (e.g. Bruce Wayne takes off around the world to revisit his training grounds though this time not alone but with Dick Grayson and Tim Drake so he seems to be kind of re-inventing Batman but from a less dark place, Wonder Woman is going to try and rediscover her inner Diana i.e. the human side of herself as is a temporarily de-powered Superman - though this is before i've read any One Year Later stuff so that might all change. Also, The Flash is Jay Garrick again and he seems to be disconnected from the Speed Force so that he maxes out at about the speed of sound.). Basically the idea seems to be to re-humanise the heroes of the DCU (maybe, dare I say it, 'Marvelise' them ?).

Saje | May 08, 14:36 CET

I didn't read any House of M, and it all made perfect sense to me. It's really accessible.

[ edited by UnpluggedCrazy on 2006-05-08 23:48 ]

UnpluggedCrazy | May 09, 01:48 CET