Civil War 2 starts in the free comic book day special, which actually takes place in the middle of #1. This really sets the bar for the type of cr*p we'll be seeing in this mess. Anyway, Thanos attacks Project Pegasus looking for the cosmic cube but thanks to the precognitive abilities of the new inhuman, Captain Marvel, War Machine, She-Hulk, Black Panther, the Human Torch, Ms America, Blue Marvel, Crystal, Medusa and Dazzler arrive on the scene to stop him. They ultimately win out but at a heavy cost. Rhodey is dead and She-Hulk is gravely injured. Nothing like a bit of pointless death to put things in good spirits. Won't be the last.
I'll skip out #0 because nothing happens in it. #1 opens before the whole mess in the FCBD issue as a precognition helps an entire army of Avengers defeat some celestial destructor. Now where was this army of Avengers when Thanos attacked? Given that Thanos is one of their greatest enemies, f*ck if I know. They're introduced to Ulysses, Jean Grey can't read his mind because reasons. Tony is anxious about what's going on. The fact that they averted the celestial crisis proves he only sees a possible future. Captain Marvel says she doesn't care as long as the world keeps turning.
The next morning, Tony gets the news of Rhodey's death and angrily storms into S.H.I.E.L.D. saying he knew this was coming. Personally I think in the case of some-one like Thanos, the first priority should be CALL EVERYONE. Also, did you want him to steal something like a cosmic cube, Tony?
In #2 Stark takes another step into d*ck direction by kidnapping Ulysses, Medusa claims he's declared war on Inhumans. Which is a bit dramatic if I'm honest. Captain Marvel manages to calm them down, saying they will find him. Tony is testing Ulysses brain, his reaction to certain stimuli, he wants to know exactly what he's dealing with before getting to the whole civil war idea. The others find him quickly thanks to Hank McCoy being with the inhumans. Ulysses is released but soon has a vision of the Hulk going on a rampage.
In #3 they find Bruce Banner has being treating himself with dead gamma cells, he claims they've kept the Hulk at bay for over a year. He gets angry over their confrontation and Hawkeye shoots him dead with an arrow, seeing he's about to transform. Now, that took me two sentences, this is a $4.99 comic.
In #4 a woman is arrested for carrying an empty briefcase. She'll be important in my next review. Tony has a meeting with everyone, he explains how Ulysses' powers work. They take in physical surroundings and come up with an algorithm to predict the future. One that Tony says is only 10% likely to be accurate. Because Captain Marvel is the biggest idiot on the planet she decides to continue and tells Tony to back off. Look, I get it if it's predicting world threatening events like Thanos, but that's not all they're using it for. The woman is Alison Green, according to the vision, she's a HYDRA agent, working undercover in finance to plot a massive attack. They have no proof of this and Captain Marvel threatens to hold her here indefinitely and in that one move she becomes the de-facto villain of this series.
She's rescued by Tony Stark, backed up by Avengers and others alike. Carol tries to arrest him and brings in, of all people, the Guardians of the Galaxy to back her up. They're there because Bendis is a bad writer and doesn't know anything about the Guardians of the Galaxy. The fight takes up pretty much the entirety of #5 but it's ended when another of Ulysses' visions are displayed. Spider-man (Miles) will kill Captain America in front of the Capitol Building.
Cap confronts Miles, neither believe the vision will come to pass and Miles is allowed to go home, much to Carol's ire. Black Panther decides enough is enough and he can no longer defend these actions. And that places them in dilema as attacking him is basically an act of war with Wakanda. The group depart, and the inhumans leave, with the Guardians of the Galaxy joining Captain Marvel as their ship was destroyed in the fight. The Champions leave to find Miles on their own. Miles ultimately stands outside the Capitol building, waiting for the next step.
#7 opens with Ulysses in the ruins of Old Man Logan. The police confront Miles but are ultimately ordered to stand down, he's not technically doing anything illegal. Old Man Logan doesn't really answer many questions before Ulysses breaks out the vision. He tells her that Tony Stark 'pushed her too far' and everyone on the planet should know who that means without going 'her who?' Ulysses tries to get Medusa to get Captain Marvel to stop but she's not stopping. She tries to reason with Miles but he's surrounded by a force field. Stark was watching an engages in a massive Iron Man suit.
Medusa heads to shield to try and stop the fight and Ulysses is back in another vision. Maria Hill gives the order and they head down. Before they can do anything Tony's suit explodes and the fight is ended. Ulysses sees the world beyond and is taken. The after of this is Carol getting rewarded for being a d*ck and Tony Stark is alive but comatose thanks to experiments he's supposedly performed on himself.
This is a terrible event comic. It lacks in just about every faction. Apart from one really, the artwork was good. The problem is the book was repeatedly delayed and an issue was added because of what was likely art delays. It failed to establish certain elements of the status quo before it was brought into the Marvel Now relaunch.
But let's start with the fact that War Machine and the Hulk's death were pointless. It's not like Amadeus Cho couldn't exist with Banner still around, hell they could've done the buddy cop routine like in Blue Beetle. Same with Riri Williams as Iron Man. Not necessary. Hawkeye getting away with it only really serves to set up other books and keep him out of the story. Peter Parker Spider-man, supposedly behind Captain Marvel for some reason, is not featured in this series after the first issue. His entire story is in a pointless tie-in. Shame they featured him on so many covers.
The pacing of this book is atrocious, barely anything happens issue-to-issue. I've done 4 issue tests with longer summaries than this entire series. 10 issues this took to cover, 10! Sure I skipped bits out but it's not like any of it was important to the plot. There are 2 major fight scenes in the entirety of the Civil War, and only one of them is an all out brawl between heroes, this doesn't even deliver on the promise of the Civil War.
Then's there's the motivation issue. Most characters have no in-story motivation for what they agree. I know why Ms Marvel and Spider-man stand where they do because I read their regular issues, Ms Marvel's are really good by the way but there are so many characters where you just have to scratch your head as to why they're on which side. Why are the Guardians, notorious outlaws, siding with Captain Marvel? I could maybe get Quill because he does get something but Rocket Raccoon? Venom? Highly doubtful. Also, wasn't Cap supposed to side with Carol? That never happened.
Then we come to the dialogue. Look, I get the Avengers movies have a lot of jokes in them, sometimes overly so but could you maybe hold back on the quips, Bendis, it undermines the stakes here so goddamn much.
But let's get to the biggest problem. The moral dilemma. The idea of predictive justice, Minority Report with super heroes, I was kinda interested. I liked Minority Report, it's one of the better movies I reviewed for Cruise Month but it's not handled well here, the same arguments are made over and over again. It's racial profiling, removes civil liberties and isn't necessarily 100% accurate, yes, this is all correct, can you try something deeper now and not spend the next 10 issues repeating it. How about Ulysses himself, you know Minority report focused on the use and suffering of the precogs, anything, nope? Moving on. Carol is not portrayed well here, I get what her intentions are but time and again she continues to stand for it despite knowing the risks far outweighed the rewards. And of course she ultimately won, which is standard for Civil War.
The loss of Ulysses was inevitable, he'd barely grown as a character so it's not as if I care but there's no way the status quo could handle a precog, even on a less than permanent basis. The twist with it getting personal I saw coming a mile away and just felt like an excuse for Bendis to showcase Miles Morales further (besides the fact the Hulk's death already covered this angle)
This event is a mess and what's worse is the price, the main issues of the book each cost $4.99. I had to pay for the Free Comic Book Day issue because I'm not from America nor do I live local to a comic shop and #0 was $3.99.
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