It really did have an amazing political subtext. Who watches the watchmen? That's a question we're asking more and more in RL. In an era of Iphone cameras capable of streaming video directly to the internet, amongst all our other nifty gadgets. How much do you trust the powers that be? How much do you trust cops? Now in RL, that's a sticky wicket, even for me. But in Earth 616, I trust Steve Rogers implicitly. And I guess personally I'm kinda libertarian-y. Against government interference and trusting Steve to ALWAYS do the right thing, that's why I was anti-reg.

Plus, Tony came off like a smug @$$! Always acting like he knows what's right for everybody...grumble grumble.

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This was the world that I had created. I know what I have to do to fix it...to make things right. There's no problem that can't be solved.

I really enjoyed Civil War, but I think since then (Schism made me realize this) almost all of the events seem forced. Like manufactured drama and tension in stead of letting the story progress through there. It's like a bizarro side effect from the decompression movement, they'll take for ever to tell a short ass story (hello Secret Invasion) but will rush every bit of the lead up. Civil War made a valid and realistic point in regards to super human accountability and made it well. Since it was triggered by a tragic event pretty much all of Marvel's continuity fed into it.

Should also note I didn't have a horse in CW.

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In Seige the even used a similar event, though that was the point of Osbourne manufacturing it.
Incidentally, the public moved on pretty quickly from a football game being nuked. Especially considering the way they crucified Speedball.

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Do not bore me with such trite cliches. For I have you in my clutches, and should I choose, I could snuff out your insignificant lives in an instant.

Civil War made me really take notice of Cap for the first time. I was completely anti-registration, even though Tony Stark's reasoning and Mr. Fantastic's theories about the growing number of super heroes almost had me swayed. The dichotomy between Iron Man and Cap got me interested in the characters in a way I had previously only felt towards the X-Men. The combination of the CW story, Brian Bendis' New Avengers and Brubaker's run on Cap minted a fan out of someone who had previously given up on the glut of X-Books and Spidey's clone debacle.

You should check out some of the Cap stuff from the 80s. His on/off relationship with shield, sting as nomad and the Captain. For me, CA has an interesting history, almost as much as Spidey.

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I've never liked the idea of CA it just seems too propaganderish but maybe that's because I'm an Australian.

Well, he was a product of his times and it was definitely propaganda. You have to realize, though, that at the time propaganda wasn't a dirty word/concept like it can be today. I think what makes Captain America interesting is the fact that he is a symbol of American patriotism. This has meant very different things over the years and the best writers have been able to reflect this through Cap and his stories. It is interesting to get a foreign perspective on Cap as a symbol of American propaganda, though, as the US's global presence has been, shall we say...polarizing, in the many years since Cap's creation.

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If I were a superhero, I would probably have found myself in Spider-Man's shoes. In theory, I'm in favor of superhuman registration, but it has to be executed properly, and the government isn't going to do it perfectly. I'd recognize this, and accept the way it plays out because I know there is no perfect solution (I always find it funny when some group or another works against some bill that promotes their own cause just because it isn't perfect ... guess what, "perfect" is impossible in just about everything, especially in legislation). But when it came down to fighting other heroes, I would know I was on the wrong side.

For one, the anti-registration side is standing up for the very idea of superheroes, and as a superhero, that has to mean something to me. And secondly, as Reed has pointed out, Steve Rogers is probably the one man in 616 whose judgment I would trust implicitly. He doesn't have the arrogance of Xavier or Stark, or the hyperopia of Reed Richards (Reed's heart is always in the right place, but he often loses sight of what's in front of him by being distracted by the horizon).

As I was reading Civil War, the moment I instantly knew I was on Cap's side was when he jumped out of the helicarrier. Dude's got balls.

Interestingly, having read halfway through 1966 in the CMRO, the one person in the Silver Age I would say is the best leader is Nick Fury. I can see how Captain America will grow into who he was by the Civil War, but in the Silver Age he is very unsure of himself and is very easily drawn into squabbles with Hawkeye and Quicksilver. Sure he's a great tactical leader, but so is Fury, Summers, Richards, etc.

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Regarding Australians not enjoying Cap: Back then, I don't think they even imagined selling comics to a global audience. Nowadays, they'd probably strip him of his gear and give him some generic name like The Captain or something...wait, what?

Cap does have an intricate and interesting history with Nomad and what not.

Civil War wise, you had to know these guys wouldn't go for it, b/c if they thought they could superhero legitimately, they would've joined the police force and then been like, "oh by the way, I shoot webs". Seems to me like one of those things. No character in big 2 publishing has ever "come out of the closet" and joined a police or military. You'd think at least one would've, somewhere. Closest I can think of is someone like the first Blue Beetle, but he was a cop by day and secretly a superhero at night. I think maybe Top 10 did a super police force title, but again, not the same thing as say NYPD now has a jumpy web guy and an orange rock monster working down in Brooklyn.

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This was the world that I had created. I know what I have to do to fix it...to make things right. There's no problem that can't be solved.

I was with Dr. Strange and The Watcher.

I hope it's not a sacrilege to say around here, but I didn't enjoy the event as a whole that much. It wasn't bad and there were some scenes I found pretty cool, like



but overall the writing didn't stand out significantly IMO. I only read a handful tie-ins along the way, so maybe I was missing out cerain highlights on the sidetrack and maybe therefore I'm not on the same page with the other comments in this thread.

Question for Spidey-readers:

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