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Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man is a good side plot that explains what the wall crawler was up to during the events of the main story line.
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It's been quite a while since I've picked up a comic book, let alone a Spider-Man comic. My curiosity got the better of me, and I purchased this product on a whim. And I must say, the artwork and the coloring is absolutely gorgeous! The story was also emotionally involving. You could feel the pain that everyone felt (superhero, civilians alike), how one superhero's decision affects other people's lives. Kudos goes to the inker as well as the artist(s), as well as the writer. Brilliantly executed, it left me wanting more!
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Marvel's Civil War series has almost single-handedly revived my interest in some of the characters I followed when I was a kid. I was more of a DC than a Marvel fan when small, but I spent my time with the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, and the others. But as the years went by I mainly just kept up with the X-Men but no others. While the Marvel heroes were always more complex and tortured than the DC characters, they had undergone less revision than had such DC greats as Batman and Superman. But when Marvel finally got around to shaking their world up they pulled no punches. Everything you thought you knew about the Marvel universe was about to change.
Talking with others about this series, the first question that pops up with anyone who wants to read the books is: Where do I start? Apart from a couple that should be read first, there is really not much of an answer to that one. The various books cross and criss-cross each other to such a degree that you can almost start anywhere. The only two that I think definitely fall into the "Me First!" category are THE ROAD TO CIVIL WAR and then CIVIL WAR. But after that almost any order is OK. This is the first one that I read after CIVIL WAR and it does strike me as perhaps a bit more at the heart of the story than most of the others. Peter Parker's unmasking himself at a Washington, D.C. press conference is one of the most important events in the larger narrative as well as his response to all that goes wrong afterwards. It also casts Tony Stark in a somewhat poorer light than some of the other volumes. For instance, learning that he gets feedback from the Spider-Man suit he has given Peter makes him look like he believes he has the right to intrude into the lives of others.
I enjoyed the story overall, but especially involves the dilemmas facing Peter as he almost instantly regrets his decision to side with Tony. They do a great job of presenting his growing doubts as to the correctness of doing what they are doing in fighting those who resist registration. And it has a heck of a cliffhanger ending.
One thing I like about the various Marvel comics involved in this event is the way they almost conduct a dialogue with one another. No one comic presents the definitive point of view on the events involved. One will present the deep background that another sees only a portion of. Sometimes they will simply refuse to repeat the events covered more fully by another comic (they tell you which issues tell the missing bits).
I will add that if you are a Spider-Man fan but don't want to get involved with the rest of the Marvel Universe, this may not be a very satisfactory read. This is not much of a standalone story; it is fully integrated into the rest of the other books in the Civil War series. Even if you want to plunge into the Civil War books, you can't get to the end of it all at this point. Not all of the comics have been collected into volumes yet. Many key issues have not been collected, including the biggest event in the whole series, though I won't mention that on the off chance someone has not heard. If one finds this series of stories compelling I recommend going for the heroes one most enjoys. Not all of the books are at the heart of the story. The Wolverine, for instance, isn't a major part. Nor is the Young Avengers and the Runaways volume (I'm a huge Runaways fan so that was the appeal for me). But I would recommend that if you read more than a couple of books in the series then to make this one of them. It will be on a short list of the best books dealing with the Civil War.
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This story tell's the inner war in Spiderman's soul about what is right and what is wrong, about superhuman registrstion, and in this book spiderman fooled by Iron Man's lies and strange actions, he unmasked himself and say to the world that he is Peter Parker, and the consecuences are too big and too dangerous to Spiderman and his family, if you like Spiderman character, you should buy this book.
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When the New Warriors battle a group of super villains in Stamford, Connecticut as part of a reality television show, things go horrible wrong and over 600 people are killed. Peter Parker flies with Tony Stark to the site of the disaster, where the survivors look at Spider-Man and Iron Man as it they were responsible. Congress passes the Super Human Registration Act, Tony admits to the President that he is Iron Man, and now everybody in a mask is going to have to take it off, reveal themselves, and register with the government. Anybody who remains anonymous will be considered a bad guy; those who refuse to comply will be hunted down and arrested and imprisoned, along with anyone who aided or abetted them in keeping their identities secret. Tony Stark will stand behind registration and the big question is whether Spider-Man will finally take off his mask in public and stand by him.
"Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man" collects issues #532-38 of "The Amazing Spider-Man," and focuses directly on how Spider-Man is caught in the middle of Marvel's "Civil War." The story arc is more about Peter Parker living with his decision than it is about making it, because the fateful decision is made by the end of the first of these six issues. Aunt May and Mary Jane support Spider-Man unmasking because they want the whole world to know why they love him so much, but then Tony Stark announces that Spider-Man, along with Reed Richards ("Mr. Fantastic") and Hank Pym ("Yellowjacket"), are part of the initial strike force that will go out and bring in those who refuse to register. That means Spider-Man might have to fight Captain America, the leader of those opposing the SRA, and Aunt May is not along in being unable to imagine something that terrible actually happening. So, of course, that is actually what happens and what makes Peter question what side he should be on.
The seven issues collected here take place against the main stage of what is taking place in the "Civil War" limited series, and while it can stand on its own for the most part, what happens between issues #537 and #538 is not going to be clear unless you pick up that other trade paperback. In this one writer J. Michael Straczynski is now working with penciler Ron Garney and inker Bill Reinhold on "Amazing Spider-Man," and in the wake of John Romita, Jr.'s departure from the title this artistic team is proving to be a decent replacement (Just like when John Romita, Sr. stopped being Spider-Man's artist it takes a while for the art of others to look right to me). But it is Stracyznski's take on the situation that Marvel has put our hero in that is the strength of this small part of the bigger picture and why I round up on this collection: Peter's decision to support registration is just as well reasoned as his decision to change his mind.
In my Introduction to Popular Culture class my students read "Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 1," and create a model for the five key defining elements in Spider-Man comics. They then compare a current issue of a Spider-Man title to their model to see how well it stakes up, so having Spider-Man reveal his secret identity to the world was a major shock and most of them had only been reading comic books for about a month. For those of us who harked back to the 1960s (issue #62 to be exact), this is a monumental change and I have to say I just do not like it, because no matter how interesting things are in the short run, in the long run I think it will change things way too much. The sight of J. Jonah Jameson finally learning that Peter Parker is Spider-Man is a priceless moment, but after that the reality of this strange new world starts settling in, which means protesters, lawsuits, idiots with guns, and a professional hit man sent by the Kingpin who has more than Peter Parker on his hit list.
The great irony here is that by changing everything and having the world knowing Spider-Man's secret identity, the character is actually getting back to the old days when the cops were always trying to capture our hero. Of course now it is not just the police but also a lot of other superheroes, with Iron Man at the top of the list, that after Spider-Man. It is way too early to know how this is going to play out, but what with a "new" secret identity, worrying about the health and safety of his loved ones, and the whole "Back in Black" bit going on this summer, it is going to be quite interesting for a while. Fortunately readers of "The Amazing Spider-Man" have Straczynski at the helm to guide us through these new waters and make the new journey a lot more palatable.
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