A FEW people who read this space have asked why I haven’t yet mentioned Marvel’s "event" book for 2006, "Civil War." Well, there’s a reason.

I’m not a big fan of this book.

That’s not to say there aren’t things to like about it, Steve McNiven’s beautiful art being chief among them. McNiven’s pages look like storyboards for what would be the mother of all action movies.

Likewise, writer Mark Millar - aided by conferences with other top-tier Marvel writers like Brian Michael Bendis ("New Avengers"), Joss Whedon ("Astonishing X-Men"), J. Michael Straczynski ("Amazing Spider-Man"), Jeph Loeb ("The Ultimates 3") and Marvel Editor in chief Joe Quesada - spins a character-packed tale that is anything but dull and deals with interesting questions: "Why, especially in the wake of tragedy, shouldn’t beings with so much power have to register to use them? Why should they be allowed to wear masks?"

So why am I not singing this book’s praises? A few reasons:

• "Civil War" has a bit too much testosterone. There is nothing wrong with action-packed, popcorn movie stuff, but, like a Jerry Bruckheimer action film, it comes off more as a piece of product shipped on time than a work of art.

• Including the HUGE reveal at the end of "Civil War" No. 2 (I don’t know how Quesada and company plan on putting the genie back in that bottle) "Civil War" seems concentrated more on big events - deaths, resurrections, revelations - than telling a good story that lets heroes show why they are heroes.

• Some characters are portrayed wrong, specifically the New Warriors - whose arrogance and miscalculation causes the tragedy and sets off the events that lead to "Civil War."

"New Warriors" was one of the freshest, best-written, best-selling books of the ’90s. It had real characters you could relate to. Yet, as part of a trend that has today’s creators showing nothing but contempt for anything that was popular in the ’90s, Marvel responded to fan demand for the team to get a new series by taking away three of the more popular members, adding the silly Microbe and having them star in a reality TV show - as if that were a cool idea - then wondered why the book didn’t sell.

In addition, it’s hard to believe that Namorita, the cousin of the legendary Namor; Speedball, one of the last characters created by Steve Ditko and Night Thrasher, a top-flight strategist and team leader rumored to be getting his own TV show, would act like the collection of buffoons portrayed in this series.

• Some of this stuff just doesn’t ring true. Would the Human Torch really think so little about the death of hundreds of children and his own comrades as to go out and party in the wake of the tragedy that drives the book? Would he refer to the new warriors as "C-listers, tops?" No, that’s a writer talking, not the character. Also, would someone who has faced everyone that’s come down the pike for more than four decades of adventures allow himself to be suckered by a beer bottle by an angry clubber? Of course not, but it serves the story’s purpose of changing the lineup of the Fantastic Four, so what the heck?

• Finally, a lot of this stuff doesn’t make the heroes look or sound particularly heroic. Yes, Marvel virtually pioneered the concept of the flawed hero. But there is a difference between being flawed and being unworthy of emulation. They should still act like heroes.

For an example of what "Civil War" is missing, Marvel need look no further than its limited series, "Last Planet Standing," the tale of a futuristic Marvel Universe under threat by Galactus, Ravager of Worlds, who is making his way toward Earth.

While the story is not complex, it has drama and heroism. It is a throwback to classic Marvel and has everything the more sophisticated story in "Civil War" does not.