Echoes of Brave New World

ICv2.com has an article on the upcoming Civil War event from Marvel Comics. It quotes a New York Times article on the subject (you may have to register to read this). According to the reporter:

The question at the heart of the series is a fundamental one: “Would you give up your civil liberties to feel safer in the world?”

This is exactly (word for word) the theme behind my Brave New World RPG, published way back in the more innocent days of 1999. The metaseries plotline involves a disaster after which all the heroes have to register with the government or become criminals. For those of you familiar with Brave New World, that’s going to sound achingly familiar.

I’m not saying that Marvel’s lifting anything from my game. This is as relevant a topic as there is these days. It’s just great to see one of the Big Two comic publishers tackling those same issues. I’ll be in line to get my copies and see how they handle it.

As an aside, I noticed that Wikipedia now has an entry on Brave New World. If you’re not familiar with the game, the article features an excellent recap of its background.