Pow! Bam! Super-heroes battle over civil liberties

Contrary to popular belief, comic books - even the most muscle-bound super-hero comics - have a long history of addressing political and moral issues, from Superman's earliest adventures (which often included battling oppressive landlords and corrupt politicians) to recent and more explicitly political graphic novels like Transmetropolitan and The Invisibles.

The new Civil War mini-series from Marvel Comics tackles head-on issues of overreaching government power and individual conscience, public safety and personal liberty.

In the series, a group of Marvel super-heroes led by Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic embrace the government's demand that they reveal their secret identities and go to work for the government as legitimate officers of the law, complete with "pension plans and annual vacation time."

Meanwhile, Captain America and his allies refuse to register with the government. "Don't play politics with me," Captain America tells a cop. "Super-heroes need to stay above that stuff or Washington starts telling us who the super-villains are."

"The Marvel superheroes are reflective of the environment they were created in," says Marvel editor Tom Brevoort. "Civil War has characters grounded in the contemporary world with a fantasy element. If you live in the world, you will find some point of relevance on top of having a big exciting superhero adventure with guys in costumes flying at each other and fighting."