So, Civil War is over – or as over as any mega-event is in the Marvel Universe these days – and we’re left with a ton of changes. Now, ignoring the more obvious ones (superteams in every state of the USA, heroes required to register if they plan to use their powers, etc.), there are a few things that are fairly intriguing and worth talking about. It’s not a list of good things or bad, just some observations I’ve been noting over the last week or two. Make of it what you will.

1 – Tony Stark’s a total ass, Captain America’s “dead,” and Reed Richards is an emotionless supercomputer
OK, raise your hand if you really and truly believe that Cap’s gone for good. We all know that one way or another Steve Rogers will be back in the red, white and blue inside of 3 years, if not sooner. Reed’s also already back on track to normalcy with Dwayne McDuffie’s first issue of FF, so that’s another change returning to the status quo. Tony Stark’s a bit of a pisser, though, with years of character growth thrown out the window along with recent continuity totally disregarded. The guy resigned from a government position in disgrace what, a year ago? And now he’s named head of S.H.I.E.L.D. after losing his shit on his friends and essentially causing public mayhem in the course of hunting them down? That’s gonna take some serious Kurt-Busiek-Teen-Tony sleight of hand to undo any time soon, which kind of sort of leads to the next item on the list…

2 – Hulk is gonna ki-ill you….
After being shunted off-planet for the last year (or 17 days, Marvel time), the Jade Giant’s gonna come home pissed. And if innocents don’t die in the crossfire, then someone in editorial’s gonna have some serious ’splaining to do. For all his pledge to keep the populace safe with his actions, it’s going to be interesting to see how the public reacts to the Hulk situation once it gets out that Tony, Reed and others are essentially responsible for Banner’s latest and greatest path of destruction. A year ago people were rolling their eyes at the thought of Planet Hulk, but now I think most Marvel fans are practically salivating at the idea of a sword-laden Hulk meting out his vengeance on everyone stupid enough to stand in his line of vision.

3 – The X-books have become irrelevant
Go on – tell me I’m wrong and then explain to me why. Use pie charts and graphs if you must, but the fact of the matter is, after dominating virtually every mainstream headline about Marvel and being the go-to franchise for guaranteed sales numbers, mutants are practically passé in the current climate. Sure, they’re still popular enough, but aside from the X-Men titles proper, there’s nothing special about them sales-wise. With the rise of Civil War and its accompanying major tie-ins, the tide has finally ebbed for those who once were Marvel’s undisputed rulers. Of course, that’s not to say they won’t be back on top in 12 months once people get sick of everyone else, but for now, muties don’t mean squat.

4 – Bendis is hacking it out
I sincerely hate to say this because Brian Michael Bendis may well be one of the five nicest guys I’ve ever met in comics, but if the premiere issue of The Mighty Avengers is meant to be him bringing his A-game, the poor guy really needs to take a break. The whole thought balloon experiment made readers worldwide want to claw their eyes out or at least take a freakin’ Sharpieâ„¢ to the comic. It’s the age old cycle – awesome writer gains popularity, takes on some more projects, becomes more popular, more projects, writing suffers due to being stretched too thin. Seriously, sir, learn to say “no” to Quesada before your reputation becomes too tarnished to recover from.

Of course, the editors on his books bear some responsibility for allowing things like the thought balloons to get through to the final product. And, come on – Brussels, France???

5 – The Punisher
Frank Castle as he’s currently being handled is fascinating to me, because Marvel really seems to have decided to let the Ennis version play in the regular MU, sans the foul language of course. Couple this with Castle’s strange obsession with Captain America during Civil War (when Cap was letting the Punisher kill people without much more than blinking – WTF?) and the whole Reign of the Supermen/Captain America storyline that looks to be launching if we are to actually believe the images Marvel’s leaking. Quite frankly, Captain Punishmerica looks like one of the more bizarrely interesting things to spin off out of the whole Civil War mess (after World War Hulk, natch).

To show just how weird the 616-verse currently is, the entire post-CW gameplan that’s been announced is full of ideas that would have been more at home as fodder for What If just a few years ago. Evil Iron Man more or less taking over the world, different characters taking up a fallen Steve Rogers’ mantle, the return of the black Spider-Man suit, the Venom symbiote bonding with the Scorpion, etc. In fact, I’m pretty sure a few of these things were What If stories! I’m strangely intrigued and more than a little stoked to see what the hell Fraction, Pak and the rest of the current Marvel crew have in store.

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