 As
with the last two months, we catch up with editor Tom Brevoort on
the occasion of Civil War #3 hitting shelves this week.
Given that
this week is going to get pretty busy, and the fact that this issues
last page reveal hit many readers like a…well, we won't say it…we
wanted to move our Civil War Room up a day, and get Brevoorts answers
early.
That said,
and of course THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD, onward with Brevoort.
Newsarama:
Tom, let's start at the beginning of the issue, Reed's meeting with
T'Challa. Is T'Challa's response to Reed's pitch and ideas typical
of how the Pro-Registration Act is being seen worldwide?
 Tom
Brevoort: I think the Registration Act and the goings on in
the States are being reacted to in assorted ways by the other nations
of the world. Readers will get to see some of these reactions both
in some of the Civil War tie-in issues and just in the books
in general as Civil War rolls on. I think the Panther speaks
for his own point of view, as one who's shared a long and complex
relationship with both Cap and Iron Man, and who's got the political
and cultural savvy to have a sense of foreboding about where this
is all headed. But I don't think he speaks for anybody other than
himself and Wakanda.
NRAMA:
Just so we're clear on why Reed is there, from T'Challa's response
- Reed was asking, on behalf of the President, for a foreign national
to come to the US to help enforce US law on US soil. Uh - isn't
that a bit unprecedented?
TB:
Reed has been sent as an envoy by the president to attempt to recruit
the Panther to the Pro-Registration stance because of his presence
and visibility as an Avenger and as a hero who's spent a lot of
time being active on American soil. More specifically, they realize
that Cap and his underground heroes are looking for allies, so they're
trying to cut him off at the pass by removing certain figures from
play, and pre-emptively bringing them into the fold. I don't know
that anybody expected the Panther to leave Wakanda and come to the
US and start hunting down heroes-I expect that what they were hoping
for was his general support, and an acknowledgement that he wouldn't
lend his assistant to Federal fugitives, some of whom were close
friends of his.
NRAMA:
Are there underlying reasons why the Pro-Reg side needs/Wants T'Challa?
After all, as Reed pointed out, he does sit on top of a huge
pile of technology and resources…
TB:
See above. T'Challa has a nation all his own, and commands respect
in the eyes of the world. He's the last person the Pro-Reg forces
want providing aid and assistance to Captain America.
NRAMA:
Moving through the issues - the newspaper headlines - for those
who may not be following in all the other titles, what's the super
villain activity been like since the Super-Human Registration Act
was announced and the resultant turmoil erupted? Obviously, Cap
has been busy with some major bad guys, but can we assume that the
Pro-Reg heroes are doing their part as well? Has there been an upswing
in supervillain activity?
TB:
As we saw in Civil War #2, Iron Man and his crew have been
putting a priority on keeping a lid on super-villain activity while
all this is going on, in an attempt to regain some of the public
trust that was lost after Stamford. But certainly, when half of
the super heroes in the world are chasing and fighting with the
other half, this offers an opportunity that some nefarious players
may rightly take advantage of.
 NRAMA:
Take us inside Dr. Strange's head a little - why has he taken himself
off the table as a player - or has he? Editorially speaking, did
Strange (or other heroes/characters) have to be taken off the table,
so to speak, given their powers?
TB:
Despite the fact that he wears the trappings of a costume, Doctor
Strange really isn't a super hero at all, but a sorcerer, specifically
the Sorcerer Supreme, which is a position that entails a defined
set of responsibilities. Sure, he came to the meeting at the Baxter
Building because he was invited, and he has friends on both sides
of the argument, but he doesn't really believe that the Registration
Act applies to him, or impacts him. So he's chosen to simply withdraw
to his Sanctum, go about his duties, and remove himself from the
conflict. It wasn't really a question of his powers, no more so
than with the Panther, than with the unique position Strange occupies
on the landscape. The Panther is neutral because he's not a citizen,
Strange is neutral because he's not a super hero.
NRAMA:
Speaking of powerful players, where's the Sentry during all of this?
It seems that whoever could get Bob on their side…wins, but at the
same time, the turmoil the Registration Act can bring about in one
person's mind might not be the healthiest thing for him to experience…
TB:
The Sentry's location, mental state, and where he ends up on the
paying field of Civil War are all revealed in New Avengers
#24.
 NRAMA:
Regarding Tony's meeting with Emma - the X-Men are going to try
to be Switzerland? Really? Tease X-Men Civil War a little
here…is there any way the X-Men can effectively not take a side?
TB:
I think the X-Men feel that they have taken a side over the years,
and it's been their own side-the side that nobody's been fighting
for. On a very basic level, all Civil War means to them is
that the other Marvel heroes get to walk a mile in their shoes,
and feel what it's like to be publicly distrusted, to have governments
arrayed against you just for being who you are-for some of the x-characters,
this feels like a long-overdue comeuppance. And they're already
all defacto registered, in that the O.N.E. already has the list
of the 198, most of whom are occupying the shantytown on the outskirts
of the Xavier Academy. So the X-Men have plenty of issues of their
own to concern themselves with. By the same token, this is a very
opportune moment for both Pro- and Anti-mutant forces to make a
move, with mutantkind fielding the lowest numbers in years and most
of their potential superhuman allies fighting with one another.
NRAMA:
And Bishop meeting with Tony…can you give some indication, or at
least food for thought on which side he'd come down on? After all,
he was a hunter before, but at the same time, he's a mutant, and
the Pro-Reg side has anti-mutant overtones…
 TB:
Bishop is a cop, so he understands the need for regulations, and
for superhumankind, as well as mutantkind, to police their own.
We've seen this in the past, in X-Treme X-Men and in District
X, among other places. And he comes from a future timeline where
barely-controlled mutant activity led to a mess of a world, and
he's willing to do whatever it takes to avoid that kind of outcome.
NRAMA:
Speaking editorially - Bishop and Tony's conversation. Will readers
see that payoff in further issues of Civil War, or is that
going to be resolved in Civil War: X-Men?
TB:
Both. Bishop's story threads over to Civil War: X-Men, but
he and the other X-characters aren't done in the main Civil War
book just yet-not by a long shot.
NRAMA:
The identities that Cap and the others are using - were they picked
by Nick for them specifically, or are they just a database of names
and identities? After all, Hercules as an I.T. consultant? It's
kind of doubtful he could figure out how to play Minesweeper…
 TB:
Fury's still well underground, so the help he provided to Cap and
his crew amounted to a cache of cover identities and documents,
and the whereabouts of a string of safehouses he'd set up for his
own use. So as Cap says, it's very much a catch-as-catch-can sort
of an arrangement-he and the underground heroes have to make the
best out of what they have. But since their actual goal is to be
able to do their jobs just as before, the new secret identities
simply provide them with cover, with hidey-holes they can crawl
into to get a few hours rest out of the line of fire. It's not as
though Hercules is ever going to be called upon to service a computer.
NRAMA:
Maybe a minor point of order, but why do Cap and others refer to
the Pro-Reg troops as "cape-killers" when a) barley anyone in the
Marvel Universe wears, or has worn a cape; and b) the Pro-Reg troops
haven't killed anyone? Is this a case of both sides playing a little
propaganda to the point of hyperbole?
TB:
The Superhuman Restraint Unit of SHIELD-those guys in the swell
Howard Chaykin-designed body armor-have adopted the nickname "cape-killers"
as the moniker for their unit. So when anybody is referring to Cape-Killers,
they're specifically making reference to the specially-trained and
commissioned SHIELD troops.
As to why they
use the term when so few heroes in the Marvel U have worn a cape,
hey, it's a convention-same as with the use of the term super hero.
Even in the Marvel Universe, the typical picture the average person
envisions when asked to visualize a super hero is a guy in a skintight
outfit with a cape.
NRAMA:
Fair enough… So who was that in the diner with Cap and the rest
going by the name Cooper Peyton who was putting the Daredevil mask
by the end? After all, he's not blind (given his expressions, and
the ways his eyes are shown), and not Matt Murdock…
TB:
Read Daredevil by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark! Big reveal
coming any day now!
NRAMA:
But again, and taking a macro view, is DD's identity important in
Civil War? When it's all said and done, and Civil War is
collected, Daredevil: Devil in Cell Block D won't be a companion
volume to Civil War, so is it the plan to have a DD in there
who kind of looks like Matt Murdock, and his identity not played
up?
TB:
Before Civil War is over, the identity of the person who's
been running around in the Daredevil costume will be revealed in
Civil War as well, so people who eventually read the collected
edition aren't in the dark. But this is Ed's and Michael's story,
so we're not going to be touching on it until their reveal is made
- unless you count the shell-game in the Civil War Director's
Cut. That's a whole lot of baggage that the novice readers who are
potentially picking up Civil War don't need to have to deal
with until the moment it becomes a story element.
NRAMA:
But at the same time, in deference to the storyline Ed is playing
out in Daredevil, no one's going to be referring to "Cooper"
by his other name, are they?
TB:
Yes, eventually in the pages of Civil War, "Cooper's" real
name and face will be seen.
 NRAMA:
Johnny Storm is still in the hospital - timeline things for us here
- how long has it been since the explosion in Stamford? Is this
all still relatively a short time frame, or was Johnny's beating
that severe?
TB:
It's been something on the order of three weeks since the Stamford
Disaster at this point, so everything's still pretty fresh. And
hey, give the Torch a break, he was in a coma.
NRAMA:
It's been mentioned that Cable isn't necessarily there because he's
Anti-Reg, so can you take us into his head a little? Why is he throwing
in with Cap?
 TB:
Cable's another figure, like the Black Panther, who's in a unique
position to provide support to Cap and his underground forces. However,
as you'll see in the Cable & Deadpool tie-in issues, Cable
himself isn't really intending to get so deeply involved with the
events of Civil War himself. He just happens to be on-site
to present an offer to Cap and his crew when all of this goes down,
and so he gets drawn into events. As with most of the tie-ins, though,
we're trying to keep everything as streamlined as possible for the
main Civil War book, while allowing the tie-ins to provide
you with more insight as to what's driving the characters. So if
you only read Civil War, all you really need to know about
Cable is that he's a big cyborg soldier guy with a gun who's hanging
around with Cap, while in Cable & Deadpool you'll get a fuller
sense of what Cable is doing there, how this ties into his plans
for Providence and what this all means for him.
NRAMA:
Likewise, while we're on head tours, let's check Peter's. Okay -
unmasking due to pressure (albeit not fully realized on Peter's
part) from Tony is one thing; but commanding soldiers who have guns
trained on his friends? No offense to the larger story here, but
this seems like "With great firepower comes great ability to bend
others to your will…" Is Peter, well…forgetting his core beliefs,
or is he still thinking he's doing the right thing?
 TB:
I think Peter is there in the same spirit that Tony is there-in
an attempt to set up a truce with Cap, and to convince him that
he's in the wrong, and bring the conflict to an end. He doesn't
want to fight his friends, and he believes that Tony is doing what
he thinks is best, so he's there to throw his support behind the
man. And the firepower's in place because, well, you hope for sunshine
and you plan for rain.
NRAMA:
Given Tony's firm stance with Peter on the issue, is it safe to
assume that the heroes on Tony's "team" are all known publicly,
despite their continuing, in some cases, to wear masks?
TB:
Tony's not insisting that every registered super hero go public
with their secret identity. In the case of Spidey, because Peter's
been his protégé and employee in the months leading up to Civil
War, Tony felt the need for Peter to come clean to show that
he and his were behaving above reproach. That said, most of the
heroes on Tony's side maintain no civilian identity-the Fantastic
Four, She-Hulk, Yellowjacket and the Wasp, the Thunderbolts, Ms.
Marvel, etc. So while some of them may possess costumes that include
masks or helmets, they're not actually being guarded about who they
are for the most part. This is a very public assemblage of heroes.
NRAMA:
Something that was mentioned in the discussion between Cap and Tony
which has been bubbling around the internet as a point of discussion
as well - "The public doesn't want masks and secret identities…"
yet even on Tony's team, there are heroes with masks, specifically
Peter. Taking Peter as an example, why does he still wear a mask,
let alone a costume? In all of this, wouldn't it be a stronger
show of Pro-Reg support to fully de-costume and adopt new uniforms,
say with insignias?
 TB:
I think Peter continues to wear a mask because that's the only way
he can continue to operate as Spider-Man. Doesn't matter whether
everybody knows who he is or not, wearing that mask gives Peter
the ability to do and say things that he'd be too reserved to say
and do without it. It all comes back to the fact that, on some level,
Peter is still that science nerd who used to get picked on and beaten
up every day. The mask gives him a psychological advantage, not
by intimidating his enemies, but by putting a barrier between himself
and the world that allows his inhibitions to go down.
NRAMA:
That last page - buh-hu-wha-huh? Is it safe to make the leap then,
that things progressed rather rapidly from where we last saw them
at the end of the latest issue of Fantastic Four, when some
"DB" guy was hustling to grab the hammer?
 TB:
A few things have moved along, definitely.
NRAMA:
So don't leave us hanging here Tom - you can't just walk away here
after that ending - got a few teases for issue #4?
TB:
Okay, we've already said that issue #4 includes a death, a funeral,
a betrayal and a team reborn. So somebody's not making it out of
the book in one piece, and you're about to see a major status quo
shift for both a team and a book in the Marvel U.
And Thor is
the fifth tease.
TB:
And here are two visuals that we can now show, the unexpurgated
mock-ups to the covers to Civil War #4, McNiven and Turner
versions.
Civil
War Room #1
Civil
War Room #2
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