Thursday, June 08, 2006

Civil War: Front Line #1

There's only one line from this that matters to me, and it's in relation to the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #533. Iron Man is having his little press conference, and he said that the Superhuman Registration Act does not require superhumans to reveal their identity to the public, merely to the federal goverment. Or SHIELD. I'm still not clear on that.

On the one hand, this gives me hope. Spider-Man doesn't have to tell the American public who he is, so maybe his press conference will just be a statement by Spider-Man that yes, he supports the Superhuman Registration Act. Sure, everything seems to be pointing to an unmasking, but it almost seems to be pointing too hard, you know what I mean? The same way that Cassandra's actions in Robin #150 seem fishy to me, so does this. It's like they're trying to lead us by the nose. . . right off a cliff. Or into a brick wall.

Of course, even if Peter only reveals his identity to the government (SHIELD already knows after New Avengers #19, thanks Bendis), his loved ones are still as good as dead. Look at our America, somebody gives grand jury testimony that's supposed to be sealed; next thing you know, it's being "leaked" that so-and-so said this. Whether that's deliberate by someone trying to affect opinion, or whether it's just some dumbass who can't keep their trap shut, information that isn't supposed to be made public is. And that's just in our world.

Marvel Knights Fantastic Four already demonstrated what happens when information is stored on goverment computers, and people know it's there. It took what, six hours for someone to hack Department of Child Welfare and find where they were supposedly keeping the Richards' children? Dr. Doom would have people's secret identities in three minutes, just to have them. Red Skull would get them, whether he's currently dead our not. Cable would have them, and I don't trust him. Doc Ock could get them (even if he's the one enemy Peter might actually not have to worry about, with the Aunt May connection and all). Arcade. The Mad Thinker. Alister Smythe, if he's still alive. Even if they have no desire to get revenge, can you say "bidding war"?

Hmm, that revelation didn't boost my hopes nearly as much as I'd hoped. Even if he only tells the government, it's still a mistake. Guess I just have to hope he comes to his senses and tells Tony "No dice".

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"even if Peter only reveals his identity to the government, his loved ones are still as good as dead."

a common speculation I have seen is thats the entire point of getting Spiderman unmasked is to get rid of MJ and turn Spidey from pro-registration to anti-registration in three easy steps:
1) Spidey gets unmasked after Tony assures him that he can keep MJ and May safe.
2) MJ gets killed by one of Spidey's enemies.
3) Spidey turns on registration side and finally brings upon victory to the anti-registration side.
and thus Joey gets his unmarried Spider-man,
we get a reason for why we should be anti-registration straight from marvel's biggest icon point of view,
the catalist for a clear end to the event is made,
and civil war can be claimed to have been a big "life changing, internet breaking, nothing will be the same again" event.

"Cable would have them, and I don't trust him"

well ofcourse Cable will have them, but he would probably have them regardless of whether or not they register or not.

CalvinPitt said...

anonymous: I really hope that speculation is wrong. I mean they could just have Peter talk to Dr. Strange about foing a mind-wipe on MJ and May, so they forget his identity, then we he goes on the run, they can't be accused of aiding a fugitive.

And if he's on the run long enough, it could almost be like he's unmarried, without actually having to kill off a character just because Joey Q is an idiot.

LEN! said...

I think the government, officially listing Spider-man's identity on any form, even if there is only one copy of it, is a recipie for disaster. It's nearly as bad for any other hero interested in having a secret identity in order to keep those close to them safe.

If a bidding war was to start, I think Cable would get involved to make the price skyrocket and to flush out anyone who might be interested. Everybody from Doom on, hero or villain, (except for Doctor Octopus) would get involved. Also, every one of them is going to use that information as part of some agenda, with death being one of the more pleasant responses.

frank said...

kill Aunt May!nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...........

Anonymous said...

Superheroes unmasking is an atrocious idea.

Short of the superheroes ruling the world in a post-apocalyptic future with an army of followers that think they are gods there is no way superheroes would ever think of unmasking.

I can understand if Captain America and Wolverine unmasked themselves, since just about everybody has known their real identities since their very origins, but Iron Man and Spider-Man has Marvel gone nuts?

Tony Stark would never ever want to unmask, the stock of his company would plumet to the bottom if his identity as Iron Man were revealed to the world. Further, every time someone has found out his secret identity it has cost him dearly, on several occasions he almost lost his life and he did lose his company because villains found out who he is.

Then with Spider-Man it is pure insanity for him to take off his mask. Every single time a villain has discovered that he was Peter Parker, his personal life has been destroyed. Has he forgotten that he lost Gwen Stacy because Green Goblin found out who he was. How about all those times that Mary Jane's life was in danger because a villain found out about Spidey's alter ego? Has Peter forgotten all those times that J.J. and Norman Osborn put out bounties on the capture of Spider-Man. How about when Norman came back and killed Spidey's clone, his baby and Aunt May. What are these guys thinking? Have some villains spiked their drinks.

Anonymous said...

spider-man unmasking is one of the worst ideas i have ever heard of.

sure, it may make the whole mini-series(marvel civle war) work, but this is still the worst idea they possibly could have come up with, Spider-man's entire character and who he is is defined by the fact that he has a secret identity, and that he cant reveal
it to anyone because he family to look out for, see, what the writers are doing are throwing that whole concept out the window. As far as killng May or Mary Jane didnt they both just die recently? Marvel usually waits a while before bringing back dead characters dont they?
(Spider-man: The other being an exception)
Anyway, my point is that even if this mini- series is a huge sucess, for a lot of life long spider-man fans (even the ones who managed to stick with the titles through the clone saga, "sins past" and The other)this may be the final straw