Civil War I or Civil War II

[Xalfrea]

So the Second Civil War for Marvel has ended, and much like the first one, it has gotten a lot of ire from the fans. With both of the Civil Wars getting tons of criticism, I am rather curious now on how people feel on which between the two is the worst. Let's take a looksie.

Civil War I: National Security (Iron Man) VS Civil Liberties (Captain America), and written by Mark Millar. Was extremely politically charged and reflected a tumultuous time in American history, did not handle the subject matter very well, and badly portrayed the heroes in a negative light. So many horrible moments from the two main heroes of the book that one had to be mind-wiped of the events in order to salvage him, and the other was killed in the aftermath.

Civil War II: Determinism (Captain Marvel) VS Free Will (Iron Man), and written by Brian Michael Bendis. Made and released to seemingly tie into a critically & commercially successful movie instead of reflecting real world events, it had trouble finding a focus, meandered around, and didn't portray Captain Marvel in any positive manner. Was more interested in setting up a new status quo.

Both are bad in their own way, but as to which one is the worse?

[jbmasta]

Civil War II. As you mention the timing of the release, or intended timing of release, strongly suggests Marvel was trying to piggyback on the Civil War film. It had a promising, if cliched premise that was only used to get heroes to fight each other. All the actual exploration was done in a few monthly titles among all of them seconded to the Civil War II tie-in brand, with most of these tie-ins not contributing much and interrupting what was going on in those titles. Captain Marvel was character assassinated for the sake of the plot, which also put another spotlight on the Inhumans. You know when people come out of the last issue relieved it's finally over that it's not been a good event.

[Alan2099]

Civil War 1 was bad in pretty much all the ways a story could be bad. It was almost offensive how they messed everything up and ruined so many characters.

Civil War 2 was bad in a different way. It was bad in a "does anybody even care anymore" kind of way. "Look! We're doing shocking things! Shocking! This will change everything fore-hey! Get back here and pay attention to us!"

I remember in the first Civil War, there were constant heated arguements between people about how badly characters were being wrecked. If they people that don't likie this one are just sort of shrugging and saying "Ehhh... well, it's not every good."

[Hulkout42]

CW1 was terrible and II was just god awful boring period!

[Doctor Know]

The choice between a terrible Mark Millar comic, with this terrible interpretations of the characters (not so terrible if you imagine them as their Ultimate versions) that shaped the future of the MU for 4 or so years. Versus, an obvious cash grab, with Bendis' terrible interpretations of the characters, that was just boring.

Tough decision, but I'm going to have to say there is no worse one. No winners, everybody loses.

[Xalfrea]

Tough decision, but I'm going to have to say there is no worse one. No winners, everybody loses.

Precisely why I didn't include that option since that's the easy way out.

I'm going with the first CW as the worse. It had a premise that could legitimately be discussed and analyzed, but was pissed away by the utterly awfulness of bad characterization and stuff like the Negative Zone prison imprisoning fellow heroes, the Thor Clone, and the Thunderbolts, all of which was Tony's idea. Let's also not forget that it is politically charged as an allegory to 9/11, the Patriot Act, and Guantanamo. Considering the escapism of comic books, did we really need all that stuff? Again, it could've been done right, but Millar really botched it up big time, especially with the implication of Tony's side, the one that did all of those morally questionable things, was the RIGHT SIDE the whole time? Also there was the CWI aftermath with the death of Captain America, Tony being so ruined that he had to be mind-wiped, and Spider-Man's foray with Mephisto and One More Day.

CWII's dilemma, while possible to discuss, doesn't quite have a real world bearing, especially with the Inhuman since those are impossible in our world. Carol's character scarring also isn't quite as bad as Tony's character assassination. The CWII aftermath so far doesn't seem to be looking too bad. They certainly do look like they're on the right path to salvage Carol's character, and the new stuff is doing fine so far.
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On another note, I'm wondering if I may have made this too soon. I have a feeling that CWII is being voted simply because it's recent and fresh in our minds while CWI was a decade ago with most of its events forgotten by people.

[The Whovian]

I didn't think either one was particularly good, but CW II was really bad.

[Materiel]

Civil War II is notably worse for being nothing more than a vehicle to launch a few new books/characters. There was a damn blank slate after Secret Wars, why was this necessary?

[Doctor Know]

^ Because Marvel Now 2.0 is Marvel "DIVIDED".

[MindofShadow]

CW I actually felt like a war of sorts

CW II felt like marital dispute between 2 people with tempers

[Wind Rider]

It has some bad parts but liked Civil War I. CW II was just a mega flop for me.

[Username taken]

Civil War had problems but it had a conflict that made sense and you can understand the divide between the heroes. I actually liked the ending of Civil War with Captain America realizing that while he has a valid point the way he was going about it was wrong.

Civil War 2 was just ridiculous. Carol Danvers harassed an innocent woman, ignored clear evidence that her "seer" might not be 100% correct for the sake of plot and put Tony Stark in a coma and apparently people are cheering her on. In what world is this acceptable?

[Tycon]

Civil War I was easily the worst one. While I can see why most people don't like the event, many people just rag on it because it's cool to hate on Bendis. I mean, in Millar's event, Tony not only had his dead friend cloned, but he set up a superhuman prison in the Negative Zone. The dimension where monsters and demons roam because they were too dangerous to exist in regular universes. Oh, he also sent villains after his friends AND beat the snot out of Peter when he decided he didn't want to be apart of his "morally ambiguous" kill squad. In Civil War II, the sides are more balanced and no one is largely out of character, contrary to many people saying that Bendis "character assassinated Carol." The largest offender was easily Clint and that is a speck in compared to how Millar twisted Steve, Tony, Peter, Reed Richards, and many more to fit the storyline.

[Immortal Weapon]

CW I actually felt like a war of sorts

CW II felt like marital dispute between 2 people with tempers

Quoted for truth. CWII was not a war at all. Just Tony and Carol escalating their personal conflict over a plot device with the other characters there to fill splash pages. There were no stake for any character outside of those two and Miles.

[MagSeven]

I actually voted wrong, but Civil War I got me back into Marvel. Civil War II might just push me back out.