Civil War: War Crimes by Frank Tieri

Civil War: War Crimes Reviews

• 
  Jim C

  This is a collection that is a side companion to the Marvel event Civil War. In this one, we follow Jackie Dio who is set to be released from prison. He is an old school type of guy and is having a difficult time adjusting to everyone having powers or gadgets.
  
  This probably deserves a rating of at least two stars but I feel like I was mislead into reading this. This only has one issue that deals with Civil War and it is barely a tie in. This is like watching your favorite show and they decided to do a back door pilot to a new series. That is fine for one episode but it decided to do this new series for the next five episodes. If I wanted to start something new let me decide. As for the story I did like the story and there are enough cameo appearances from known Marvel characters to keep even the average fan interested. I thought the artwork was good too.
  
  I am probably being a little biased right now because of how I was tricked into reading this collection. I am attempting to read all of the side pieces to this major Marvel event and that is why I read this one. The problem is that it doesn't belong in this event. This was a way for Marvel to get people to read this because they knew interest on its own accord wouldn't merit the same interest as a side companion to Civil War.
• 
  Sesana

  Calling this collection "War Crimes" is really a misnomer. The actual bulk of the collection is made up of the Underworld miniseries, which is only barely related to Civil War at all. This may be why it's one of the best things I've read in the Civil War line. It's about a guy named Jackie Dio, fresh out of prison and trying to get back into his life as a made man, now basically impossible without powers. And Dio hates powers. It's fun, solid writing, that owes more than a bit to Criminal.
  
  War Crimes is actually the title of the one-shot that closes the collection. Only after reading War Crimes does it become obvious why Underworld is included: Dio ends up playing a brief but pivotal role in the events, which are indeed integrally connected to the Civil War storyline. It revolves around the Kingpin, and the deals with the devil that both sides are willing to make. It's actually pretty good stuff. Overall, I'd give this collection more of a 3.5, and it's definitely the best thing in the Civil War line.
• 
  Eli

  That was kind of a rip-off. I'm just glad that I rented it from the library instead of paying for it. This collects Underworld (whatever that is) #1-5 and Civil War: War Crimes, which is like two or three issues. Underworld had literally nothing to do with the Superhuman Registration Act. Those last two or three issues with Wilson Fisk/the Kingpin featured Jackie Dio/Underworld for a very small plot point. I had my suspicions that (spoiler for
  Civil War: The Amazing Spider-Man) Underworld was the gunner hired by Fisk that killed Aunt May. But alas, that was confirmed to be someone named Jake Martino by the Marvel Universe Wiki entry for May Parker . So Underworld had almost nothing to do with the Civil War plot, but thanks a lot for throwing that in.
  
  I really would have given this at least three stars if it hadn't been marketed as a Civil War comic. Because the writing wasn't horrible, despite censored obscenities in at least one speech bubble per page. The artwork was not that bad. Seeing chipped and knocked out teeth so much made me cringe, but that's the point. These are underground criminals.
  
  The gist of the Underworld story is basically that Jackie Dio is released from prison after a decade and tries to pick up where he left off in the underground crime ring, only this time there are a ton of super-powered people, which he hates. He gets injected with some healing factor and super-strength stuff against his will, and I guess that's why he decides to get himself a villain name. A bad one at that. Underworld? Really? But there is a pretty interesting plot twist in his issues, even though I never asked for them.
  
  Then we have the actual Civil War issues. Let me ruin something that wasn't good to begin with. Fisk claims he will help Tony Stark snuff out the anti-reg crew in return for Tony getting him out of prison. Tony goes for it. Tony thinks Fisk has located Captain America's secret bunker and goes out with a SHIELD team to attack it. It instead turns out to be a huge low-level super-villain team, led by Hammerhead (yeah, that's stupid), that opposes Fisk and both pro-reg and anti-reg heroes. So Fisk tricked Tony into taking down his number one enemy without having to really do anything. And even better, it turns out that Fisk was actually really working with Captain America. So... Tony and Steve were both working with the Kingpin of Underground Crime, but Tony got played. Serves him right, though.
  
  So this review could honestly substitute for reading the book. There's no real reason to read this unless you have a compulsion (like me) to read as much of the Civil War arc as possible. Unfortunately, I should have learned my lesson after I read
  Civil War: X-Men Universe.
• 
  Kayla

  I didn't like this nearly as much as I liked the other comics in the Civil War series. I think it's because I'm not familiar with a lot of the Marvel villains, so most of this went over my head.
• 
  Christian Smith

  Plot holes/problems:
  
  1. How did Dio get out of jail when he was caught fighting with other prisoners? You get more sentence time when you're caught fighting with prisoners.
  
  2. When a cop shot towards Dio the bullet grazed over his face but was a good couple inches away yet somehow Dio still bled. How?
  
  3. How did Boomarang and Grizzly get to the club so quickly in order to apprehend Dio?
  
  4. The consultant wouldn't fake cuss in a letter. So why was his swearword all gibberish like they do in comics?
  
  5. How did Dio not get injured from the explosion when he hadn't zipped up his invulnerability coat all the way?
• 
  Chris Cutter

  Read “Civil War: Punisher War Journal” before this and you’ll appreciate this installment a lot more. That being said this story takes place on the absolute fringe of the Civil War and does not really add or subtract anything from the main events. Still a good comic though, never heard of Underworld before.
• 
  Gavin

  One of the worst written things I've ever come across. Every second word is '@#*!%'...not even 'Fuck' just the fake swearing. Really gritty...not.
  5 of the 6 issues are about an idiotic mafia guy getting out of jail and readjusting. Only 1 is about Kingpin in jail, and his manipulations of Iron Man or Cap and the Civil War. That might have been interesting for a whole volume, but 1 issue? Nope, not enough to carry a book.
  The art was also pretty lame, and I'm sorry, since when does some D-list badguy get over on the Punisher? No. Just No.
  Avoid this like herpes.
  This is just a ploy to tack a useless book onto a vague tie-in to Civil War. I sure as $*%^ hope this isn't a regular book...
• 
  Sarah

  1.5 Stars rounded up to two because of great art. Not great
• 
  matt murdock

  i only read the war crimes oneshot but i enjoyed it, i really liked the twist with fisk
• 
  David M. Briggs

  I'm beginning to think this period was just a bad time for comics.
• 
  Holden Attradies

  I kind of feel like "war Crimes" was a really misleading title for this book. In fact, until the last quarter of the book you won't even see how the hell anything ties in with the super hero Civil War, although I was okay with that. It was nice having the origin story of the Underworld character alongside the short Kingpin story at the end. It was nice knowing who this character was and why he was motivated the way he was, all things that would have been total question marks if I had read just the King Pin story.
  
  In a way I see how Underworlds story fits into the Civil War story. Civil War is a story about what it means to be a Superhero, and how as times have changed perhaps that has changed. This was kind of showing the flip side, the side of the villains. Super powers changed that too, and the times changed that. Underworld was very much a person that didn't want to change with the times, but in the end was forced to.
  
  My favorite moment form the whole comic had to have been the opening/closing visual/narration of Kingpin first as a young lad and then as an adult. It was stunning and that creepy little smile gave me chills.
• 
  Naomi Ruth

  Honestly? I didn't like this one. I just don't like comics about bad guys. Especially not bad guys who are cursing and killing. I don't like the lack of moral, I don't know, I was going to use the word commentary, but I don't think that's right. It just made me uncomfortable. There was another graphic novel I tried reading, but I couldn't finish it because it was also about bad guys, being bad. It makes me uncomfortable, because I don't quite understand the point. Maybe there isn't a point. Maybe I'm missing it. Maybe I just don't like watching/reading about people without amoral center because there's a part of me that is terrified that I'll be there one day, and I never, never want to be there.
  
  Lot's of maybes. But one non-maybe: I didn't like this and I kinda' wish I hadn't read it.
• 
  Adriana

  This is the worst Civil War book I’ve read so far.
  Two thirds of the book deal with a tough guy who just got out of jail and his transformation into the villain Underworld. It has some good points and some solid storytelling, but there was nothing that really held my interest. Could have totally skipped it and not missed anything.
  The last part is more interesting as it deals with Kingpin and the villain community’s reactions to the Civil War with some great scenes between Kingpin and Tony Stark and a good (yet slightly predictable) plot twist at the end. Could have easily been an extra chapter in another volume and saved me the trouble of sloughing thru the first part.
  An easily skippable volume in the saga that is Civil War.
  
• 
  Nate

  I swear this is the last one.
  
  Jackie Dio is released from prison right at the start of the Marvel Civil War. Yeah, I didn't know who he was either but he sure beats up a lot of people in this comic book hard boiled homage.
• 
  Mitchell Friedman

  A little confusing and a little dark. But definitely different and on the better side of the Civil War books. This one follows an unknown thug and how he gets involved on the edge of the Civil War battle. Pretty good writing, pretty good art. Lots of surprises. Worth rereading 4.5 of 5.
• 
  Matt

  Not bad. Interesting side of the story. Little slow. Writing wasn't anything special. My least favorite of the series so far.
• 
  Annette Jordan

  In the War Crimes story we see the Kingpin pulling strings from inside prison and manipulating Tony Stark to get what he wants - a really good story with plenty of twists and turns
• 
  Chris S.

  stand alone : 3*
  integrated in the story arc : not worth much at all... except if you count starks involvement in the underworld. Then again... check out "civil war :front line" for that !
• 
  Jeff Stockett

  The Kingpin is my kind of villain. I sure do enjoy watching him treat the whole world like a big game of chess.
• 
  Jen

  I thought this was super repetitive, boring, and did not really show anything worthwhile to the Civil War event. Boo, thumbs down.
• 
  Daniel

  2-star quality, took off another cuz it's crassly presented as a Civil War tie-in when only a sixth of it has anything to do with it.
• 
  Ryan Arthurs

  Awesome idea however my copy was fucked up so the sequence of two of the comics was wack.
• 
  Michael

  Not really a compelling story.
• 
  Simon

  Another one of those milking the cash-cow volumes.
• 
  Valery

  so very romantic story. any stony shippers? well-well, affected and pathetic. both of them.
• 
  R J Royer

  Not the best of the series and not the worst. The focus being on Underworld's origin makes this book unique in that aspect and also very interesting as well as it's saving grace. The fact that it also was supposed to have The Punisher in it and her was there for less than ten panels just depressed me. A good book lacking in the most basic of it's interfaces.