Comic Book Review: Civil War: The Initiative

Civil War: The Initiative is a one shot issue pimping Marvel’s new titles in the wake of Civil War. I’m not going to review this issue per se because it merely offers a sampling of the various new titles as well as the new direction for titles like New Avengers/Mighty Avengers and Iron Man. I just want to touch on each preview and decide if The Revolution is going to give that title a try or not.

Omega Flight: Bendis pulled off one of the worst deaths in comic book history when he turned in that absolutely pathetic mass death of Alpha Flight. Yeah, I am an Alpha Flight fan. I’ll admit it. And I certainly think those characters deserved much more than the off panel cursory death that they got.

So now we get Omega Flight which is the replacement to Alpha Flight. And let me tell you, after seeing the cast of losers, I mean, characters that this title has I am confident that I’m not going to bother getting this title.

Now, the little teaser in this issue deals with the only surviving member of Alpha Flight, Sasquatch, informing Michael Pointer, the guy who killed Alpha Flight, that he is going to be the new Guardian. Michael is going to wear the outfit of James and Heather Hudson and do honor to their memory.

Wow, how amazingly unappealing is that? The idea of Alpha Flight’s killer being the new Vindicator is crap and most definitely doesn’t work for me. The rest of the team consists of Sasquatch, Beta Ray Bill, Archaine, Talisman and U.S. Agent.

I dig Sasquatch and that is about it. Beta Ray Bill is just a Thor rip off and I never liked him even when he hi-jacked Thor’s title. U.S. Agent is just a poor man’s Captain America. Talisman is a lame imitation of Shaman. And Archaine is something completely mind-boggling: a derivative character from a derivative character. Does that make her a derivative-derivative character?

At any rate, none of these characters appeal to me. This entire roster, with the exception of Sasquatch, is nothing more than a bunch of rip off or cheap imitation characters. I’ll pass on this title.

The Thunderbolts: This is the next title that Bendis pimps. The teaser that we get involves the Thunderbolts brutally taking down an unregistered super hero named Hurricane. The roster for the new Thunderbolts consists of Moonstone, Swordsman, Bullseye, Venom, Radioactive Man and Bondage Boy, I mean, Penance. Eh, there are too many “mad dogs” in that line up.

A team title needs diversity (I don’t mean in terms of race, I mean in terms of personality) in order to be an enjoyable read. The magic of a good team roster is when you have enough different style heroes and you get to see how these personalities co-exist and form the type of chemistry needed to be a well functioning super team.

All of these Thunderbolts have the same kind of personality and it will make all the characters read pretty much the same. A team can have only but so many tough guys and psychos and this team has too many. Since none of these characters grab my attention, The Revolutions will be passing on getting the new Thunderbolts.

Mighty Avengers: The Revolution has already reviewed Mighty Avengers #1 and this is definitely a title that has been added to The Revolution’s pull list.

Now, what was interesting about this preview is the conversation between Spider-Woman and Ms Marvel. Carol tries to convince Jessica to join the pro-registration side. Spider-Woman refuses to join them and is upset over Captain America’s death. Spider-Woman then says that Tony Stark killed Captain America.

Ms. Marvel responds that Captain America is not dead. That Captain America is tucked away safe on the Raft. No one knows. That the government is trying to save Captain America’s life even as they speak.

That is all that is really of importance from the advertisement for the Mighty Avengers. I have to say that I am missing how Tony Stark is to blame for the Red Skull’s long term plan to kill Captain America. But, what is really interesting from this preview is that Captain America isn’t dead.

Wow, there is no way that Marvel is bringing back Captain America that fast. We all know that Marvel is going to bring back Steve Rogers at some point, but I pretty much thought Marvel would milk this death for at a year.

This could be a total red herring that S.H.I.E.L.D. has given pro-registration heroes like Ms. Marvel. I suspect that is the case.

We do get some preview pages from The Avengers: The Initiative that features War Machine. It looks pretty cool and The Revolution will probably give this title a try.