Retraction
Some time ago, I naysaid (is that a word?) Marvel's Annihilation and Planet Hulk events while expressing high expectations about Civil War. My reasons were that Marvel's focus has always successfully been with mortal characters with human failings in larger-than-life human conflict, and that all of their various space operas always seemed out of place.
Boy was I wrong.
Everything I heard about the two space events and everthing I saw when flipping through them was absolutely spectacular, while Civil War was pointless and had a million plot holes in it. In all fairness, I like the regime which has arisen since Civil War, and the bullcrap about the X-men in space was as dumb as it always is when the X-men go into space. I suppose that the X-men are the foundation for my otherwise unsupported notions about the theatre of space, and besides, anything involving Thanos kicks ass by its very nature.
The problem with Civil War and Frontlines, to a lesser extent, was lateness and retardation in the writing. I've seen pirated outlines from the early phazes, before it was handed off to the writers, and it was stuff worth reading. The books themselves devolved into a motivationless brawl of "let's you 'n him fight", which were chronically behind schedual. Meanwhile the good writers with their regular titles had to scramble and make things up in order to keep their respective books on time. They filled in plot holes and colaberated with each other in a way that could make sense out of the event if only you ignored Civil War itself. I first began reading comics during Secret Wars, which is the most blatant case of "let's you 'n him fight" ever penned, but the plot was fantastic, the pathos was great, and the motivations were well executed. I still reread it once every couple of years. No one will ever say that about Civil War, but Annihilation and Planet Hulk were two for the ages.
Boy was I wrong.
Everything I heard about the two space events and everthing I saw when flipping through them was absolutely spectacular, while Civil War was pointless and had a million plot holes in it. In all fairness, I like the regime which has arisen since Civil War, and the bullcrap about the X-men in space was as dumb as it always is when the X-men go into space. I suppose that the X-men are the foundation for my otherwise unsupported notions about the theatre of space, and besides, anything involving Thanos kicks ass by its very nature.
The problem with Civil War and Frontlines, to a lesser extent, was lateness and retardation in the writing. I've seen pirated outlines from the early phazes, before it was handed off to the writers, and it was stuff worth reading. The books themselves devolved into a motivationless brawl of "let's you 'n him fight", which were chronically behind schedual. Meanwhile the good writers with their regular titles had to scramble and make things up in order to keep their respective books on time. They filled in plot holes and colaberated with each other in a way that could make sense out of the event if only you ignored Civil War itself. I first began reading comics during Secret Wars, which is the most blatant case of "let's you 'n him fight" ever penned, but the plot was fantastic, the pathos was great, and the motivations were well executed. I still reread it once every couple of years. No one will ever say that about Civil War, but Annihilation and Planet Hulk were two for the ages.