Ok, Jester, here's the paydata. As the article stated, the Civil War storyline takes place after a group of super heroes, the New Warriors, attacked a group of super villians who were hiding out in a neighborhood. The New Warriors were filming a reality show and they knew they were way outclassed, but they wanted higher ratings, and attacked anyway. The fight culminates when Namorita (Namor's late cousin) attacks a guy (whose name I forget) who causes massive explosions centered on himself. She ends up tackling the guy into a school buss outside of an elementary school, and the cobber blows up, taking out most of the kids, all but one of the New Warriors, and several residential blocks.
The fallout from this is of course a media feeding frenzy. The New Warriors' comments about wanting ratings is retreived fromthe reckage and aired all over the world. SOmeone in Washington decides that now is a good time for the Superhero Registration Act, which requires ALL super-powered indeviduals to register thier identity with S.H.I.EL.D. and draw pay and supervision from said organization, effectively federalizing ALL superhero activity in the USA.
Of course, the superhero community is going nuts about this, with EVERYONE torn between keeping their identities secret and obeying the law. Surprisingly, Captain America is set very strongly against this policy and fights his way off of a helicarrier to prove it. Ironman, on the other hand, is feeling guilty about all of this and decides that the best way to defuse the situation is to embrace this Act and therby take the steam out of it. He figures they can work with the government for a few years, and then go back to normal over time. In Civil War Front Line Issue #1, he actually removes his helmet at a press conference and says, "Hello. I'm Tony Stark and I'm an alchoholic."
If you want to collect this series, well, you're fragged. Just like every other big storyline in Marvel, there will be a cross over in EVERY SINGLE TITLE. Plus, the actual Civil War title will be 7 issues long, with a coresponding title called Civil War Front Lines (which centers on 2 journalists imbedded on each side of this conflict) having either 6 or 8 issues, I forget which. And now that it has been announced that Spiderman will reveal his secret identity, well, good luck finding a copy if you don't have a folder somewhere.
If you like, I will keep you posted on this. Or, I'm sure you will be able to by a Civil War compilation sometime in the near future.
Gabriel
