Marvel's Partisan War

Now that Marvel's Civil War crossover series is roughly halfway finished I thought it would be a good idea to review it at the midway point, so for those of you who are not caught up THIS IS A SPOILER ALERT. DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

There have been some pretty huge events that have taken place in Civil War. So far, Iron Man beats up Captain America, the ressurrected clone Thor kills Goliath, the Fantastic Four break up, and biggest of all, Spider-man reveals his secret identity. However,for all it's interesting plot developments, Marvel is ultimately failing in the overall premise of the Civil War.

My problem is that writer Mark Miller has made one side clearly wrong (Iron Man) and one side clearly right (Captain America). This is a major mistake. The Super Hero Registration Act is more interesting and complex than to simply say there is a right & wrong. Miller is not completely guilty of failing to look at the registration act as a two sided issue, but only pays lip service to the supporting side in passing (apparently the American public is behind Iron Man). Yet, overall the message has been the registration act is wrong.

If you don't believe me, lets review the facts:

1. Iron Man's side kills goliath.
2. Iron Man's side inlist supervillians to hunt down the opposition.
3. Iron Man's side just lost and nearly killed Spider-man, their most popular supporter.

Now Iron Man's side is left with some dreadfully lame characters like Mr. Fantastic and She-Hulk, while all the best characters are on the other side. So you have to ask yourself, Why would any comic reader want to support Iron Man at this point?

This is really unfortunate because both sides have relevent points that could make some awesome new innovations to the marvel universe. What is even more worrysome is that there is rumor that Marvel might even back out on some of the major changes that have already taken place, primarily Spider-Man revealing he is Peter Parker. If Marvel wasn't willing to make any real changes they have a series to do that in, its called What If Spider-Man reveals his identity?

To clarify, I'm not saying Civil War isn't good, in fact it has been an awesome read, it just not living up to its potnetial. If Marvel and Miller would take the risk of not writing right & wrong it would even have lasting potential, like Alan Moore's Watchmen. Yet, there are still 3 issues left for the main series and Marvel is promising a huge change in direction for the next issue, so we will see what happens. But if Civil War keeps reflecting the partisan political climate of the day the series will remained closed minded to a two sided issue, and what message does that send?

-Jon