Civil War Journal – Week Eight

Civil War II has eight books this week, including a major death in Civil War II #3. Which ones do you need to read?

Welcome back to Civil War Journal, Bam Smack Pow’s weekly recap column of all things Civil War II. This week, we lose a Marvel giant, watch a god go mad, and follow Deadpool into the bathroom.

Previously: Captain Marvel’s use of Inhuman precognitive Ulysses couldn’t prevent the death of War Machine, but it’s led to the prevention of some awful things, so when he foresees the Hulk killing the Avengers, she heads to Utah for a talk with Dr. Banner.

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What happened? As described in our review, Captain Marvel and Tony Stark try to find out if Bruce Banner is going to become the murderer Ulysses saw. When Hawkeye thinks he sees Banner turn a little green, he kills him with an arrow the doctor gave the archer for just such an occasion.

Was it good? It was entertaining and well-drawn, but it couldn’t get around the problems with the event’s premise itself.

Recommendation: Yes, if you are reading anything in this event this summer, you need to see the death of the Hulk.

What happened? Nobody trusts agent Coulson, but he still leads a team to arrest Iron Man for kidnapping Ulysses in Civil War II #2. Tony Stark tells Coulson about Captain Marvel’s use of Inhuman data, and Coulson lets him get away. He tells Maria Hill he refuses to pick a side because both of the team leaders are wrong, but Maria is on Carol Danvers’s side and fires Phil Coulson.

Was it good? I’m not sure I’m the target audience, but I found this book to be pretty dull when I read it for the Avengers Standoff crossover and don’t enjoy it any more now. It’s nice to see someone agree with me that a premise this bad makes both sides look worse in comparison, but the arguments are the same things we’ve been getting for eight weeks without much more to say.

Recommendation: I don’t recommend this book. Maybe it’s better for longtime readers of the title or for fans of the TV show, but it doesn’t make the crossover event read any better.

What happened? In the first story, Jeremy Whitley and Marguerite Sauvage check in on some of Marvel’s most important Black heroes as they come to terms with the death of one of their own, War Machine. In the second, Goliath Bill Foster’s nephew is incarcerated but uses his growth powers to stop a prison break instead of help himself. In the Nick Fury serial, the spy dresses up in some of Moon Knight’s costumes to track down “The Leader” who has been turning S.H.I.E.L.D. against him.

Was it good? The main story was amazing. Beautifully illustrated, with a sensitive attention to the importance of the death of a minority character and a firm grasp on the different voices of America Chavez, Monica Rambeau, Storm, and Misty Knight. This creative team could sell a solo book of any of these four women, and this issue, like Nick Spencer’s eulogy in Sam Wilson, needed to happen to justify that Marvel killed off one of its few minority characters and left dozens of white men unharmed. The other stories… I read the Goliath story four times and I still think I missed something. The narration was obtuse, and the art was beautiful but lacked any effective storytelling. Caption boxes obscured details on an already foggy art style, and there was no sense of teamwork among writer and artist. The Nick Fury story was less silly and pulpy than last time, but it’s still not very interesting, and it now has nothing to do with Civil War II.

Recommendation: If you could clip the main story out, get that, read that, and share it with friends. But don’t bother with the rest of the book.

What happened? The relevant part to Civil War II is that Deadpool breaks into the Ultimates’ base to ask about his daughter’s future, but Ulysses reveals that he really only sees large-scale disasters and can’t do requests. When the Merc With The Mouth tries to get out, he gets in a fight with Black Panther that eventually involves mutual kicks to the groin and Deadpool with his pants down in a bathroom stall (and the joke, “I haven’t seen so much drama over a bathroom since I was in North Carolina!”).

Was it good? It’s not as funny as Deadpool has been recently, but there was still humor, and the tension with Deadpool’s Mercs For Money is doing a great job of selling their new title (and the upcoming breakout titles for Solo, Slapstick, and Foolkiller).

Recommendation: It’s not integral to the main event. In fact, if Ulysses really only sees things like earthquakes and space invasions, it’s hard to see how he’s predicting Spider-Man’s employee turning bad in Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man or the kind of profiling we’re seeing in Civil War II: Kingpin. So let this be at the bottom of your “I’d buy it” stack.

What happened? When the guys learn about the casualties of the Thanos fight, Cage grieves an unresolved beef with War Machine and Danny Rand thinks back to that time he and She-Hulk hooked up. They talk to Captain Marvel and resolve to stay the heck out of the whole War this time around. Unfortunately, concerned citizens in a group called Preemptive Strike are hunting down convicted felons at risk of repeat offense and killing them. Family members hire the heroes to help out, but Danny is arrested during a riot.

Was it good? Yes, if for nothing more than these guys pointing out what we’ve all been thinking, that the premise of this whole summer crossover is flimsy and certainly not a good enough reason to turn good guys against each other.

Recommendation: You can safely skip it – these guys are sitting out.

What happened? Spider-Man is sure that Ulysses is wrong about a prediction that his loyal employee will become the villain Clash again, but this leads him to act weird around Clayton Cole, which leads Cole to become Clash again.

Was it good? Yes. Christos Gage’s exploration of recidivism is heartbreaking and thoughtful, with Cole trying so hard to do right but hitting everyone’s prejudices and eventually becoming discouraged enough to live down to them. This is one of the best real-world applications of the theme, along with the profiling in Ms. Marvel and Sam Wilson.

Recommendation: Ulysses’s prediction came true, but he still told Peter it might not, so if you want to believe the crummy point of Civil War II, you’re better off not getting this one. That said, if you can afford an extra book or two, this is a better exploration of the theme than most.

What happened? Unrelated to Civil War II, Hercules organizes a bunch of mythological figures like Theseus and Beowulf to fight The Uprising Storm, a group of new gods no one but the old ones can see . The crossover comes in when Captain Marvel is getting ready to go talk to doomed Bruce Banner and sees Hercules fighting invisible bad guys. Judging him by his past, she organizes some Avengers to stop what she’s sure is another drunken rampage, not realizing that The Storm has just turned Hercules into chaos itself.

Was it good? Umm, you know how sexy the cover is? That’s how sexy the inside is. And it’s continuing the enjoyable story from Hercules’s own recently-cancelled book.

Recommendation: This just doesn’t fit in with Civil War II, and calling it a tie-in doesn’t make it so. The first issue took place in the margins of Civil War II #1, but this one barely feels connected at all, and I don’t have hope it’s going to veer back around to relevance. If you’ve been reading Hercules or if you like some beefcake, it’s worth your time, but if you’re getting this as a Civil War II completist, you’ll be disappointed.

What happened? Songbird has been undercover with S.H.I.E.L.D. on behalf of Sunspot’s team in A.I.M. but agent John Garrett finds out that in one of Ulysses’s visions, Songbird was giving a tearful eulogy for Sunspot. Her cover blown, she’s quickly captured, and Cannonball and Power Man fly off to her rescue.

Was it good? It was, and there were other parts of the book unrelated to Civil War II that continue New Avengers’ reputation as a solid midlevel title.

Recommendation: It’s a decent read, but it has the most tentative of connections to the main event and does nothing to enrich the reader’s experience of Bendis’s story.

Several of the books this week were good, but very few were good because of their involvement with the greater storyline. Whitley’s Choosing Sides story, Walker’s Power Man And Iron Fist, and Gage’s Spider-Man were the only ones to really run with the impact of the theme to things like racial profiling or the metatextual importance of killing off one of fewer than ten prominent Black heroes. The others were just standard super heroics, with casual nods to Inhumans and their wacky future ways. And none of the tie ins were better than the books had been before entering Bendis’s world.

Tie-In Round-Up:

Recommended: The main series, of course, with preludes from the zero issue and the Free Comic Book Day pages. Also Captain America: Sam Wilson, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and Uncanny Inhumans.

Good but not top tier: Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man, Civil War II: Choosing Sides (but only the Damage Control story and the Whitley/Sauvage eulogy for War Machine), Civil War II: Gods Of War, Civil War II: Ulysses, Civil War II: X-Men, Deadpool, International Iron Man, Nova, New Avengers, Power Man And Iron Fist, Spider-Woman, Totally Awesome Hulk, The Ultimates

Not good: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Civil War II: Kingpin

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