CONFESSION: The Closing Arguments of Captain America & Iron Man

Civil War: The Confession. (Bendis & Maleev.)

There are two stories in THE CONFESSION; the first features Iron Man confessing his role in Civil War to Captain America's corpse and the second is Cap chewing out Iron Man for that role. Unlike my earlier review of this week's New Avengers issue, Bendis' use of a non-chronological narrative works amazingly well here. In part, it's because he has two separate stories to work with, but he cleverly uses the Cap section to give the Iron Man confession additional power it wouldn't have had if the two stories were placed in chronological order.

Make no mistake - this is the ending we probably should've gotten in a book entitled Civil War 8, except that an issue like this, which is basically two separate monologues, isn't something Millar can write at Bendis' level. (And, conversely, Bendis' couldn't write Ultimates at Millar's level.) Civil War: The Confession is the ending to CW that we all wanted and needed and deserved to see - Iron Man and Cap going through what happened. This was the ending Paul Jenkins denied us in CW: Front Line 11 when he placed Tony and Steve on the whipping post and rendered them mute and impotent in the face of a PTSDing reporter.

Bendis relights the fire in Steve Rogers and the humanity in Tony Stark.

Perhaps if Bendis wrote Civil War this would have been the final issue, or maybe not writing the mega-event gave Bendis the perspective needed to write a perfect capstone for the event.

This is a great comic, displaying some of Bendis' best superhero work. His writing is emotional and poignant as both Tony and Steve display a complex array of logic and emotion. The issue also helps further cement Alex Maleev as one of the very best artists working on comics these days. His artwork here (about 2/3 digital according to one of his posts over at the Jinxworld Forums) is stunning.

Stark draws on both his personal historical adventure (from IRON MAN 150) in which he and Dr. Doom end up back in the time of King Arthur, and the actual historic King Pyrrhus of Epirus (from where the term pyrrhic victory originates). And Steve draws on Mark Twain's quote on war and humanity to rip into Tony's actions:

"Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood...to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out...and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel...And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man' with his mouth."

Bendis' depiction of Stark illustrates just how well he understands Stan Lee's foundational concept that the Marvel Universe was populated by heroes who were humans, not gods or archetypes or infallible. (Even if they were, in fact, gods or archetypes or seemingly infallible.) Stark, who has been Commander Cool for much of CW, has all the doubts and fears come out when he sits alone with Steve's corpse. He struggles with why he did what he did and what it's done to him and the world. In Bendis' hands, Stark is a guy who's going to show the outside world nothing but cool, calm, confidence (much like, tada, a shining suit of armor) but the interior boils now and again. He's not going to show you that interior if he can help it, though. Bendis' depiction of Stark here recontextualizes all of his actions during the war and makes Stark a much more sympathetic and human (though certainly not heroic) character. Stark's recontextualizing himself throughout his monologue - he gives himself credit for not falling off the wagon but condemns himself for failing to inspire the SHIELD troops while recognizing they're "Nick Fury's kids. They don't like me here and they don't want me here."

In Cap's sequence he first talks to a young soldier who tells Cap he's 22. Cap replies, "I'm 85." And the soldier's one-word response of "Whoa" overturns Sally Floyd's ridiculous "You're out of touch" speech to Cap in CW:FL 11. It's not that Cap is out of touch with America that's the problem (since he seems to have done a good job saving people and cities and worlds just fine) but that America is out of touch with its heroes. In Stark's sequence Tony talks about how humanity had started taking heroes for granted, how "they started seeing us as familiar. They started relying on us to help them instead of hoping we would." Stark saw the war coming but didn't see the Super Human Registration Act coming because what he saw as familiarity breeding contempt I see as familiarity breeding a desire for control. When hope turns to reliance a desire for control naturally follows; if humanity begins to count on heroes to defend them then humanity will eventually want guarantees and oversight on those heroes.

Bendis also recontextualizes Cap's death by assassin's bullet when Steve tells the young soldier, "I'm going to be tried for treason and hung." Death is clearly on Cap's mind and the potential outcome of a trial (which was likely negated by Bru putting Cap on criminal trial instead of in front of a military tribunal).

During the conversation the difference between the two heroes is illustrated by both claiming victory in the war. Stark's sees himself in command of SHIELD and Cap behind bars and comes to the obvious conclusion that he won. Cap argues that the anti-reg side "maintained the principles we swore to defend and protect. You sold your principles. You lost this before you started." Stark the realist has a claim on victory and so does Cap the idealist. Stark pauses and Cap rips him five or six new assholes before asking "Director Stark ... Was it worth it?? WAS IT WORTH IT?! TELL ME!"

Stark's response is to call Steve a sore loser, to which Steve replies, "You bet."

What makes Cap's "Was it worth it?" speech so powerful is that in the earlier section, Tony sits by the corpse of Cap, laid out on a slab, and offers his confession. After all of his rationalizing and explaining and confessing Stark delivers the final verdict on his actions during the entire Civil War event:

"It wasn't worth it."

Tony Stark has rarely been this interesting and never this important. Civil War: The Confession is an early contender (along with Captain America 25) for Best Single Issue of the Year and the creative team of Bendis & Maleev just keeps getting better.