Surveillance and Registration and Politics, Oh My!
Historical significance of the Civil War comic event.
I have always had an interest in history, and recently I have been fascinated with early 2000’s American history. Particularly the politics and how pop culture evolved after the events of 9/11. One component of that change is reflected in the 2006–2007 Marvel comic run of Civil War, in which Iron Man calls for reform with the Superhuman Registration Act and Captain America goes underground to form a resistance movement.
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the Bush administration quickly declared war on terrorism and passed a bill called the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act essentially gave the government the power of surveillance to detect and deter terrorism. At the time, some citizens were privately worried that the Patriot Act was too much and that it would threaten their civil liberties, but in the aftermath of the shock and horror of the attack there was very strong support from both political parties.
The Marvel Civil War comics series explores this theme of surveillance and registration with lots of subliminal messaging and analogies.
The series starts with an accidental bombing of a school during a superhero fight which kills hundreds of innocent children. This causes outrage in the public and there is a demand for reform and structure in the superhero world. Tony Stark is an advocate for this reform and specifically the Superhuman Registration Act which requires supers to divulge their true identities to the authorities, submit to training and sanctioning in the manner of federal agents.
Captain America opposes this bill as he believes this strips the supers of their right to self-govern. He believes that heroes should have the option to keep their true identities a secret to protect the ones they love. In a special Civil War issue titled Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War he uses the example of Peter Parker and how his girlfriend Gwen Stacy was killed because his enemy the Green Goblin learned who Spider-Man was behind the mask.
Cap also makes the point in this issue that politicians are people with agendas and agendas can change. He fears if supers are put under control of the government then they will abuse that power.
What I found most interesting with this series was how fans find themselves rooting for Cap who is the underdog, but Iron Man eventually wins and implements his 50 State Initiative. This brought up the question for me, “Does Civil War support government oversight?”
The whole marketing for this series was “whose side are you on?” and there are still many debates online as to who was right. The comics never came right out and said they supported one side over another because keeping it evenly matched boosts sales and keeps fans reading.
However, Iron Man is the eventual victor of the war and in doing so Marvel may have unintentionally supported government oversight. In the political climate of it’s time, this outcome doesn’t surprise me. Everything in politics, music, television, and other media was anti-terrorism. Most prominently. the increase of security and surveillance in the United States. With this constant repetition in the news, T.V., and radio, it makes sense that this would also be a major factor in comics since they tend to reflect the politics of their time.
I believe this comic series has great historical significance as it illustrates a time when the world was fearful of larger threats and wanted to fight back both abroad and at home.
