Civil War II #0 Review: Prelude To War

Marvel officially launches Civil War II, their mega-event of the summer, with a rather boring zero issue.

Civil War II #0
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Artwork by Olivier Coipel
Colored by Justin Ponsor
Published by Marvel Comics

After what feels like years of hype and a fairly humdrum prelude on Free Comic Book Day, Civil War II begins in earnest with a zero issue that sets things up for the conflict to come.

Unfortunately, that setup turns out to be fairly boring and not really all that interesting.

Civil War #0 spends almost the entire issue doing three things: establishing why Captain Marvel will fall on one side of the conflict while also explaining why She-Hulk will fall on the other. And believe me, there is nothing subtle about it. Writer Brian Michael Bendis beats the reader over the head with the two different opinions to the point where you feel like you just spent an hour taking an ethics class.

Of course, that begs the question of where is Iron Man. It was revealed early on that Tony Stark would fall on one side of the conflict while Captain Marvel takes the opposing one. However, he isn’t so much as mentioned in the zero issue, which came off as a bit odd.

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I mean, he just starred in a movie that has made a billion dollars. You would think he would be in the first issue of a miniseries that he is going to be playing a huge part in, if for no other reason than it what fans are expecting.

The third thing Civil War #0 does? That would be Ulysses, the Inhuman who will be the match that sparks the fires of the battle to come. Turns out he’s just an ordinary college student who gets hit with the massive Terrigen Cloud roaming around the Earth and becomes an Inhuman who can see the future.

Done and done.

Unfortunately, the introduction of Ulysses is very brief and doesn’t really do anything to give the character any depth or the reader any sense of who he is, which is something that probably should have been done in the FCBD special.

Thankfully, Olivier Coipel is around to at least make sure everything looks beautiful and amazing. His work in Civil War II is a bit more refined than what we’ve seen in the past. The lines are less sketchy and his art has a slightly softer edge to it. It’s a nice evolution of his style and one that should be a perfect fit for a project like Civil War II and working once again with Bendis.

Despite the fact nothing actually happens, Civil War II #0 does serve its purpose, which is to bring everyone up to speed and lay the groundwork for the rest of the series. In addition, the tone struck by Bendis is very reminiscent of the original Civil War, which asked a lot of interesting and tough questions that didn’t have any ready answers.

The problem is that is you have been reading Marvel Comics for a while now, nothing in Civil War II #0 will seem even remotely interesting. But if you are new to these parts, the issue does its job well enough and gets you ready for what I hope will be an action-packed first issue.

Related Story: Civil War Journal – Prelude

The Bottom Line: For those coming in cold after seeing Captain America: Civil War, Civil War II #0 does a good enough job of bringing you up to speed and setting the stage for what’s to come.

On the other hand, if you have been keeping up to date over the last year or so with everything Marvel, you may come away a bit bored after reading it and curious as to the whereabouts of Iron Man.

Hopefully things will improve in the first issue and Civil War II will have a shot at living up the the pedigree of the original.