The absolute best...
...comic book of the past year 2006 was by far and away Marvel's epic Civil War. Hate it or love it, the 7-part series was a commercial (if not altogether a critical) success for the house of ideas with its premise of a superhero registration act which polarized the Marvel universe into two camps: those favoring registration under Iron Man and the rebels who opposed it guided by Captain America. Though I wasn't too crazy about Steve McNiven's artwork at first, the Ultimates' artist managed to turn in some spectacular visuals insuring that the main series at least looked impressive. Was it perfect? Not by any means, nor was it altogether original, the premise of superhero registration had been presented before in such seminal works as Watchmen but writer Mark Millar manages to insert enough new wrinkles into the story to keep it interesting.
What can't be denied is that the series Wizard called "the event of the year" boosted sales of every other book with some very good tie-in issues, the best of which was Amazing Spider-Man. I recall going into the store and asking the clerk if Ms. Marvel's CW tie ins were best sellers and he responded, "Everything related to Civil War sells."
There were also slugfests, surprises (Peter Parker unmasks in issue #2 and the Thunder God Thor makes a return later in the series, well sort of) and cliffhangers a plenty. No other series kept me as riveted in 2006 as this comic did and unlike last year's House of M,CW promises to have some far reaching repercussions for every character in the main Marvel U. For this alone, Civil War deserves the title of best comic book of 2006.
