Civil War paperback

Marvel Comics' big "event" this past year was its Civil War: the community of superheroes is divided over the issue of whether they should be registered with and regulated by the government. Things turn violent quickly as the pro-registration heroes and the government set out to arrest and imprison (in the negative zone!) all the dissenters. The interconnect universe of super-beings is torn apart in a war between heroes.

This big event starts when a group of amateurish superheroes battling supervillians cause an explosion that kills 600 school children.

The writer of the series, and other commentators, have noted that this can be seen as a political parable. That we more adult, sophisticated readers can see the analogy between this story and the American response during these post 9/11 years. Yet as I read this book it seems more like a metaphor of issues of gun control. Superheroes are vigilantes running around with loaded guns. The big incident in the comic, involving a school, makes me think more of the Columbine-types of tragedies rather than our war against terrorism. It's interesting that the writer Mark Millar lives over in Glasgow Scotland. Not being a resident of the US, perhaps he lacks much of a realistic perspective of issues in America. There are plenty of ways in which war against terrorism has effected things in the US, but the metaphor of a Civil War doesn't touch on these things at all.

This works as a minor parable concerning the right to bear arms without registering--but as a grand reflection of the effects of 9/11 on our society this one tells us nothing.