Hell freezes over

Civil War #7 sent to printers. This, of course, is the book that should have been out in November, meaning that the crossover has dominated almost Marvel's entire output for ten months. Arguably diminishing returns set in around the time of the Thor clone.

Come to think of it, remember those two issues of Fantastic Four that were billed as Civil War lead-ins? The ones about Thor's hammer?

Well, what did those have to do with Civil War, anyway?

They sold 36,000 extra copies on the strength of the crossover billing, so it would be nice to think there was some connection. To be fair, I'm sure there was meant to be one at the time, but whether it's survived months of rewriting is another matter. I can't see how it becomes relevant unless the final issue is "And then the real Thor shows up out of nowhere and sorts it all out," something for which there's no foreshadowing whatsoever. Mind you, the clone Thor doesn't seem to serve any actual story purpose either, other than to boost sales by teasing the character's return in a shameless bait-and-switch, so who knows...