I think Civil War was a failure only because it was touted as a status-quo changing beast, and really only changed things (pretty drastically considering, but still…) in the first two issues. It still showed many Marvel characters in ways they hadn’t been seen before, and it was pretty. World War Hulk was a fantastic, quick five issues, showing off an under-appreciated writer and his creations to Marvel readers who wouldn’t otherwise read the Hulk. It placed the Illuminati-tied characters in some trying situations, and showed off a lot of fun ideas.

I think these books have some value outside of one shocking story beat to the next. I’m not saying Civil War, and now Secret Invasion is Six Feet Under or Deadwood or something, but it might have done it good to be promoted, read, and written as such: a serialized story about some characters put into some tough situations, and seeing how they handle them. As long as the writing pulls some stronger underlying themes through, it really doesn’t matter who is and isn’t a Skrull in the end, or who won the Civil War.

Besides, when you read Revelations you aren’t looking at it from the standpoint of the time it was written. Everything in it can mean different things, however, most of it is regarded as a coded message to Johns followers about Ceaser, only later did people begin reading end times prophecy into it.

If you want to believe it, fine. If you don’t, fine. Just don’t think that you have the moral high road because you feel that something you believe (your OPINION, no matter what you or any pastor, preacher, minister, shaman, spiritual leader says) has been disrespected b ecause of a joke. Unless you are Catholic, then you have no reason to be upset and say you are made fun of since they are the whipping boys for jokes made about Christianity.

You know, maybe if people did a little research and studied history from something other than the Bible, they could understand where some of this stuff comes from…(See Avengers63, there is reason to believe that a lot of the so called “visions” that people had during biblical times were based on ingesting a type of peyote that caused an LSD type of effect. It was used a lot by the Essenes and the other mystery schools.)

Sorry if I seemed to be harping on you Avengers, I wasn’t. It’s just a lot of people never study the past and believe everything that is told to them without wanting to check for themselves. I had a student once tell me straight up that the Hollocaust never happened because their parents and family said so.

Anyway, like I said in my previous post, Secret Invasion was better than I thought it would be, but that doesn’t mean that the entire series will be good.

Although, remember how Iron Man said he didn’t care about the Registration stuff and now with Skrulls looming, he tries to arrest the New Avengers for not being registered. If it turns out Iron Man is a skrull in the story for a few months (Marvel time), that’s cool, but if not that kind of writing is why they have to have this Secret Invasion Crisis (yes, it is a Crisis no matter what Joe Q tries to say) to get everything to match up.

Ain’t that the truth, brother.

I call bullshit on that.

Nope, I looked it up: I was wrong…

I clearly recall a newscaster being disciplined because they were wearing an American flag pin days after 9-11.

I call bullshit on that.

And also on the “woe is me, the poor put-upon Christian” attitude. Not everyone who disagrees with my beliefs is trying to disrespect them or keep me down. An attack on Christianity is saying “Christianity is a lie and anyone who believes it is a fool” – an offhand, roundabout reference to a tenet of the faith in a less than glowing manner can only be an attack by the greatest stretch of the imagination, by someone who wants to be offended and made the choice to take it as such. The lack of a positive is not a negative – and trying to claim some slight where there is none demeans those cases where there actually is an attack.

If you’re the facilitator of a conversation, then you’re the leader. No, the facilitator on a comic book blog is not of any great significance (nothing personal), but it’s the leader role nonetheless.

It only makes him a “leader” in the sense that he stated a conversation – a conversation based on his own opinions, at which point it’s not only ENTIRELY appropriate to not be neutral, it’s a requirement.

Boy, this is the single dumbest tangent the Internet has ever produced.

Obviously you’ve never been to a Star Wars site.

I’m sick of seeing Christianity not get the same consideration as other groups. I’m sick of the double standard.

That’s a good point. (Insert name of group which you belong to here) is much more put upon then (insert name of other group that you have minimal understanding of.)

Poor, poor (insert name of other group that you have minimal understanding of) will never know the suffering and discrimination that (insert name of group you belong to) undergo.

you seem to be taking this a bit too far. you were offended. i can not argue that. and you have every right to be and make the slight known. i take offense that you that you deemed what greg said as hate speech. he did not vehemently attack anyone or group. he did not issue a call to action against anyone or group. he only opined what he sees as a possible reason for some time tested cases of revelation. hardly hate speech, and by calling it as such you have sullied the term and reduced the impact of it when in fact speech is used to orchestrate hate.

as for you getting on a soapbox. i say if you feel so strongly you might want to preach from a box that reaches more eyes and start your own blog (if you have not already), where you can point out the slights the world egregiously perpetrates on you.

as for your unfounded claims that christians are the only group that sees mocking without repercussion, um i suggest you might want to pay attention a bit more. and for a slightly comic related story to do so, look at the danish muslim cartoon scandal currently going on.

I don’t even have a problem the published list of tie-ins so far. IIRC, there are only 2-3 per month, including the SI series itself, that aren’t on my pull list anyway. I’m sure I’ll have to make my decisions about which extras to get, but again, it’s not such a big deal. I trust my shop to steer me away from the ones that really aren’t worth the effort.