Civil War!

Well, this just has to be said. Iron Man is a jerk.

This Civil War storyline from Marvel has got to be the best thing to come out of the House of Ideas in a very, very long time. I was just beginning to lose hope, too. It was starting to look like anything except for the Ultimate stuff (and anything by Bendis) was bound to suck. Hard. But, in walks Civil War, and all the tie-ins, and I’m completely blown away.

In case you’re unaware, the basic premise is that the powers that be in the US government in the Marvel Universe (Marvel “616”, to be exact) have decided that all practicing superheroes need to either register themselves with the government (thereby revealing their identities to various agencies, and essentially become government employees themselves), or they need to hang up their tights for good. No one pays much attention to this initiative until the New Warriors are involved in the destruction of a schoolyard full of kids while trying to bring in some bad guys for a reality show. Iron Man agrees the measure needs to be pushed through, and Captain America disagrees. A deadline passes, and Cap and the rest of the heroes who refused to register become criminals.

I can’t reveal too much more without ruining the story, but just know that Iron Man is indeed a huge jerk. And as of this writing, Spider-Man isn’t too far behind.