A Depressing Start
Civil War is a pretty bad title all things considered. I don't really like it after multiple readings, and to be honest, it was one of the first comics that I flat out didn't like. Regardless, it made the most money Marvel has ever seen out of a major event title in the history of the business, so obviously it was marketed pretty damn well and a lot of people thought it was good.
Most event titles are made or broken by their first initial issue. This is the turning point where the reader is either fully taken in and becomes invested in the story and the characters, or gets bored and gets something a bit more exciting. As such, Civil War's first issue tries to create a moral dilemma: while succeeding in this to a extent, it ruins about half a dozen characters in the process via PIS and other examples.
To start, we get the New Warriors, a established team with guys who have been superheroes for years at this point, tracking down another team of villains who are in hiding. After some pretty cringe and out of character dialogue (Speedball acts more like Booster Gold than the mature kid he was in every title before this) they attack, and Nitro blows up and kills like 70 people in the process. Big event with big implications right off the bat.
First off, the New Warriors are written to be complete jackasses here, caring less about the dangerous villains to be taken down and more about their slagging ratings from their TV show. First off, none of them have ever acted like this. Ever. Even in their worst moments, they've never put people at direct risk of harm for the sake of their own self interest. It's clear that Mark Miller has never actually done any prior research to the team and needed scapegoats, so he picked a fan favourite C tier team and turned them all into a on the nose critique of TV reality show culture. I get the point, but Miller's attempts here are vapid and uneducated.
Second, Nitro has never been as powerful as he was here. His explosives are usually pretty isolated and he's at best room level, so going from that to busting dozens of homes and a entire school in one shot is completely off character. Now, I know that another tie in comic retconned Nitro's sudden rise in power to abuse of MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone) but I shouldn't have to read a tie in to know this kind of vital information. Also, Nitro never appears again in the main title, despite his actions, which is jarring considering the heroes spend more time beating each other up than the guy who blew up a school and killed dozens of children. This lack of agency underlines the entire run for how silly it is.
During the aftermath, multiple characters come in to help with the excavation and cleanup. There's some establishment of tone, with Bill Foster discussing how other recent events have accumulated to a massive distrust in heroes, and how this will only tip them over the edge. I actually do like this small conversation because the Registration Act actually was a thing before the whole Stanford event occurred, but it didn't have a ton of support and was in consideration at the time. This helps to remind readers that may not read every title that extreme stuff like this in universe has happened a ton in a short amount of time, so they don't think "this one thing happened, now everyone is against them all of a sudden?" but rather that this is basically what broke the camel's back in terms of public image. Good work here.
Anyway, during the whole thing, a mother spits at Tony Stark and basically moans at him for supporting super hero groups (of course, we know he is one himself, but she doesn't have that information). Now, this woman is supposed to be given some form of sympathy from the reader because she's in mourning, but regardless, her comments are completely off. She basically critiques him because he publicly supports super heroes and they are a "sickness" because.....idk. It's a bit nonsensical considering she suggests cops have more responsibility than super heroes, despite the fact that they've saved the entire world dozens of times while cops....carry a drunk guy into a van and arrest a dude for taking drugs. There's clearly a big difference. This tries to make the reader think about the implication of pro registration already right off the bat, but these points aren't very good and turn them off the idea right off the bat.
Next, Human Torch gets glassed because some dumb dudes think he killed some kids. Next.
While everyone is in the Baxter Building, they openly discuss the implications of the Registration Act and what might happen, drawing up ideological sides already through dialogue. I get the existence of such a scene, but there's one small problem: we have no idea HOW the Act actually will effect these people, or even WHAT it will create with its existence. A classic writers technique is show, don't tell. Miller doesn't actually show the Act or explain it in any major way apart from "some people like it, and some really don't" and that's basically it. When you are writing something about a political issue, you have to have a solid foundation to do so. Here, there's nothing to go off, and as such, the reader is left scrambling for clues.
Now, I will say something good here- I like how the battlelines are drawn up. The guys who are pro reg are individuals like Tony, Reed, and Hank Pym, people who have had trouble in the past in controlling their actions, and have been quite unstable. They know perhaps more than a lot of people that superheroes aren't benevolent, and that the trouble of irresponsibility is a current and pressing issue. The people on the anti reg side are guys like Falcon, Daredevil, and Luke Cage, people who have trouble trusting authority due to prior events and are mostly not present in the public image. They like working independently and out of the spotlight where they can be the most effective. They also have a lot of self responsibility and are respectable figures of strong moral standing. Miller's placement of characters here is very understandable, and it actually works....for the most part.
Sigh.....this scene. This is the one where I was like "oh....this is.....dumb"
Ok, so Captain America is with Maria Hill on a Helicarrier. They discuss the Act (but just their reactions to it, not how it actually works smh) and the aftermath of it: Cap correctly predicts that a lot of people will refuse to follow with it, and then Hill basically demands that Steve go after and hunt them down. Yes, she asks a dude who fought alongside these individuals for decades, forming lifelong bonds with them to go and basically beat the crap outta them for refusing to follow the government's demands. Now, I don't know about you, but this is a pretty dumb decision in universe. You know Cap isn't going to do this, yet you ask anyway.....for what reason? To troll him? To get a reaction? It's silly. Hill loses like 40 IQ points in Civil War for some reason despite Nick Fury personally picking her out as Director and this comes off again as out of character and written for the sake of the plot moving forward and Miller yet again not doing his research.
So anyway, Hill gets even dumber by trying to arrest Steve using like 8 soldiers.....while he's armed. With his unbreakable shield. Next to a open window. While their non-lethal guns are within swiping range of his shield. It's pretty badly written, and it's clear that this entire part was written so Cap had to be
A. On the run and unable to communicate with Tony and actually, you know, sit down with him and discuss the Act, as if this occurred the main conflict would have likely never happened whatsoever
B. To end the issue with another action scene to break up the 90% of dialogue in the issue
It's fine to write characters in a certain way to get your desired effect, but this needs to be done in a more nuanced way than "I beat u up cuz u no follow commands" it's asinine, and makes the reader seem stupid for actually thinking about what is going on beyond the panel.
Anyway, as expected Steve completely disarms the squad and escapes easily (Maria Hill is seen with blood from her mouth and on the floor despite Steve never hitting her at all during the fight?) and in the process makes the successor to Nick Fury and SHIELD in general look incredibly stupid. Bad writing all around.
The Watcher appears as he is contractually obligated to do so in every major event so it can seem more important
The chick from earlier appears again and people talk about how "effective" she is as a political operator, of course we don't see this, just hear it as usual, so the woman who thinks superheroes are a sickness and police are more responsible than them is somehow big brained enough to push all of Congress with her pulling power
Comic ends with Reed, Iron Man and Hank (in his full Yellowjacket costume for some reason?) saying they will deal with Cap and his rebels. Yes, the ex alcoholic, the woman beater and Reed "my wife left me for a guy with wings on his feet" Richards are gonna take down the Greatest American Hero since Lincoln. Sure.
Overall, this first issue is.....pretty disappointing. If you were around when the first title came out, you know the hype behind it was insane, to the point where mainstream papers and such were viewing it as a amazing piece of fiction and worth the read. Picking this first one up and reading it fully, you don't get any of that. The comic relies on you not knowing any of the characters here at all and basically going in with cold feet and being swept up in the action scenes. For a established reader, you will enjoy just glancing through it, but if you know any of the characters here in detail, you aren't going to have fun with something like this.
Miller starts with good intentions, but his OOC behaviour for many characters and bad startup with shaky plot and characters acting massively stupid makes this barely worth reading outside of the decent art and the need to know what is going on for later issues. As I said in the title, it's a depressing start to a massively hyped event.
