Superhero Comics Are A Lot Like Soap Operas

With mild spoilers for comics fans and wild boredom for escapism-o-phobes.

The Marvel Universe is a sprawling mess of current fan favourites, has-beens and relaunches spanning sixty years of "it seemed like a good idea at the time". Marvel.com recently opened up its hero database (wiki-style) in case the public can remember more than the staffers. Take the picture of the cast of Civil War waiting for a big bus below: I can name twenty heroes with certainty - and me, a fan. Explaining Pat from EastEnders' family tree would take less effort.



Civil War was one of those annual blockbuster events that promised to change the Marvel Universe forever (again) but, for once, it lived up to the hype. Following a televised superhero tussle in Connecticut in which a school full of children becomes collateral damage, the U.S. Government passes the Superhero Registration Act forcing mutants to reveal their identities and undergo training. Many comply but as many refuse, to protect their families and their freedom.

For kids who wonder who would win if Iron Man fought Spider-Man, it's hero vs. hero in knock-down drag-out action. For the politically aware, The Neutral Zone is Abu Ghraib, the S.R.A. is the Patriot Act, and Steve Rogers is Michael Moore. Captain America leads the resistance, standing for the principles upon which the country was founded rather than siding with the current administration out of blind loyalty. Also, each issue of the Civil War: Front Line mini-series ends with a short story comparing the comic's events to real historical conflicts. (#3 reprints Futility by Wilfred Owen.)

Like soaps, comics rarely end. Successes spawn spin-offs (cf. The Colbys). Spider-Man has two or three ongoing titles each month because Marvel really pushes the limits of a Spider-fan's spending ability. "If we put Spidey and Wolverine in The Avengers then do you think it'll sell like hot cakes too?" It did and, somewhere online, a fan is trying to explain how Peter Parker does all these things at once.

A staggering twenty books carry the Civil War banner. The main story is told in bold strokes in one. For insight into why a particluar hero chose the side they did, you need to read that hero's own comic for the duration of the war. (In the soap opera analogy, the main book is a brouhaha in the Queen Vic pub on a Friday night. The other books are the "kitchen sink" scenes where Stacy tells the milkman she's been sleeping with Max and Tanya switches dairies so you know a storm is brewing because it's a bank holiday weekend and everyone will want an extra pint.)

For the full play-by-play, read the first issues of every title before all the second chapters, and so on. But that's expensive. Reckon I'll go about six books deep for now and end up buying The Mighty Avengers (ongoing) on top of The New Avengers because the team split during the war. It was a moral decision and not a strategy to double sales at all.