Hi! just read your thoughts on Marvel’s Civil War, (I was like you similarly disappointed in the approach and execution of the comics though that doesn’t include the artwork). I think your critique hit some really good points, but I do wonder if you had any thoughts on how the writers should have approached the comics and how you think it should’ve played out? (if that isn’t too heavy an ask)

boiledleather:

Not too heavy at all! If I were the editor I’d have asked for the following:

1. Distribute the fan-favorite characters more evenly (again, this was pre-Iron Man movie) so readers’ sympathies are split

2. Don’t make the pro-registration side outright fascists

3. Don’t make the anti-registration side Civil Rights Movement analogues

4. Don’t avoid the fact that registration simply means alerting the government to your ability to kill at will, and that rejecting registration is embracing vigilantism

5. No cheap stunts you know you’ll undo within months, if they even last that long. Make all the big moments actually matter.

6. Don’t be Mark Millar

Sean, while I agree with some of your criticism of Civil War (and indeed it was the event that made me quit Marvel comics), I’m not sure this works. 

Haven’t you essentially recreated the problems with Civil War, but on the other side? If the Superhuman Registration Act is essentially equivalent to gun registration, but for people who can blow up large chunks of the planet, doesn’t opposition become just as irrational as the pro side in OTL? And wouldn’t that create problems with fan-favorite distribution and characterization?

Also, given the legacy of the Mutant Registration Act from the 80s/90s, I’m not sure it’s possible to avoid a fascistic vibe.