The New Epics, Part 3: Marvel's "Civil War"

As the third part of my series on the "new epics," I'm going to focus on the graphic novel Civil War from Marvel.

Last time, we looked at Harry Potter. To remind everyone, here is the criteria I've been using to set the parameters of "epic":

1.) The work(s) must possess scope, depth, and/or creative ambition.
2.) There should be a persistent cultural influence on other creative works.
3.) It should interact with and draw upon previous creative works.
4.) The work(s) must comment on the dilemma of being human.

There are many graphic novels that could fit this definition, and I'm going to list some runners-up toward the end, but I'll highlight Civil War in this post due the complexity of its political message, the wide number of characters involved, and the depth of the philosophical issues it evokes. As a fairly obvious comment on the cultural climate of America immediately post-9/11, the series also makes a substantive -- and ambitious -- connection to real historical events.

There has been a sequel - with which I am much less familiar -- and, of course, the 2016 movie Captain America: Civil War, that has only a tenuous connection to the graphic novel. Other significant comic crossover events preceded Civil War (such as 1984's Secret Wars) but those did not dip as deeply into the philosophical or political.

For those unfamiliar with the story, an accident involving rookie (and cavalier) superheroes results in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, especially schoolchildren, and the government demands that everyone with superpowers register and work for law enforcement. Heroes take sides for and against this registration act: Iron Man heads up the forces of law and order who support the act, while Captain America leads a group of rebels. Calamitous and bloody confrontations between the two groups become inevitable.

Though villains play a slight role in the story, the main conflict resides between characters otherwise classified as "heroes," making it plain that this is a tale of a society tearing itself apart from within. This is a perfect metaphor for the political climate that has obtained in the United States since (at least) September 11th. Broader than that, in their arguments for their beliefs, Iron Man and Captain America put classic philosophical schools into relief. By asserting that the Registration Act is just because it protects the greatest number of people at the lesser cost of civil liberties, Iron Man becomes a spokesperson for the ethical theory known as utilitarianism. Captain America, on the other hand, argues that the consequences are irrelevant and that Freedom is a good that should never be exchanged for any sort of perceived benefit, situating him firmly in the Kantian deontological camp.

The tagline for the series was, "Whose side are you on?" Indeed, how one answers that question might suggest which philosophical school he/she most closely fits. The series admirably muddies the waters, though, as it progresses as heroes switch sides, both groups commit heinous acts, and there is compromise of respective codes of ethics. The epic is thus a parable not just for the tension between freedom and security in our society, but also how, as any conflict deepens, even those of good conscience can descend to barbarism. Thousands of years ago, Aeschylus is supposed to have said, "In war, the first casualty is truth." Marvel's Civil War may be a perfect illustration of that maxim.

Therefore, for its incisive political and philosophical commentary, I nominate Marvel's Civil War as a "new epic." Other graphic novels could have made the cut in my estimation, particularly two Batman stories. Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns was an epoch-changing contribution to the comic world, and gave us an unforgettable portrayal of a older (not to mention even more brutal) Batman. (Plus, the Batman/Superman fight in the last section makes infinitely more sense than what you get in the film Batman vs. Superman.)

For its fascinating exploration of the psychological contrasts and overlaps between Batman and his arch-villain the Joker, Alan Moore's The Killing Joke has to at least be mentioned. Students from my 2016 "Evil in the Myth and Literature of World Religions" might remember this book from the syllabus.

Finally, I want to mention a multi-part comic story that was originally printed in the 1960s. I first encountered it in the mid-1980s as part of a Marvel retrospective series called Marvel Saga. It is the tale of the Fantastic Four's first encounter with the space god "Galactus," who eats worlds for sustenance.

Spanning three issues, the Fantastic Four's bid to stop Galactus is only successful with an even heftier dose of their usual heroics, plus the intervention of the other demi-god like beings, the Watcher and the Silver Surfer. This rebellion against the will of a practically divine tyrant has shades of Prometheus against Zeus, or the Buddha against Mara, tapping into a timeless human impulse to test our mettle against even the most powerful entities and seemingly intractable boundaries.

Next time, in the last edition of this series, I stretch the discussion even further by entertaining if certain works of music, or even particular bands themselves, are worthy of the title "epic."

Until then, take care.