Miller/McNiven's Marvel Civil War by Dylan Perkins

 1.               For being a novel about superheroes, Civil War is drawn in a very realistic way. All of the characters and backgrounds are drawn with a large amount of detail, and even the characters that are of mutant/alien nature look believable. Even the fight scenes are realistically detailed, with injuries remaining consistant from panel to panel, as well as rips and tears to character clothing. Overall, this has to be the most realistically drawn superhero novel I have read.

2.               I don't believe this story would work in any other format for the simple fact that there is just too much going on in many of the frames. Without the ability to take your time and look at each individual frame, an enormous number of detailes would be lost. Not to mention how difficult it would be to cast so many different superheroes and villains. And as far as translating it to a purely written format: I wouldn't even want to begin describing a battle between 30+ superheroes with words alone. It would be nearly impossible to keep track of!

3.               There is no real narrator for this story. Different scenes focus on different characters, and while some are featured more prominently than others, you never get to see what the characters are thinking, only what they say out loud. The only exceptions to this are the notes left by Susan Richards and Reed Richards to each other at different points in the story, where they each narrate their inner thoughts and feelings about the conflict that is occuring. For a story with so many different characters and so many different viewpoints on the central topics, this is a very interesting narrative style that allows the reader to always be in the know while never quite knowing what is going to happen next.

4.               To me, the most significant scene is where Thor kills Goliath, causing Susan Richards to betray her comrades in order to help the rebels escape. This scene greatly emphasizes the central moral conflict the characters face throughout the novel: Just how far are they willing to go to fight for what they believe is right, and if it causes others to die, is it really right in the first place? Artistically the scene is very cinematic, with rain pouring down as Dagger, Cage, and Daredevil watch in shock and horror as Goliath slowly falls to the ground. This scene also occurs almost in the center of the novel, which I think is fitting since it completely changes the way many of the characters view the conflict.