Civil War II #4 Review: Lines Finally Drawn

Civil War II #4 recovers from the Hulk’s death by showing Captain Marvel’s descent into bad decisions, and the philosophical battles finally turn into punching – almost.

Civil War II #3 (of 7)
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by David Marquez
Colors by Justin Ponsor
Published by Marvel Comics

Civil War II has been moving forward at a good clip, but the “action” scenes have been largely an afterparty at Stark Tower, Iron Man’s kidnapping of an Inhuman, and the courtroom denouement around Hulk’s suicide-by-Hawkeye plan. This issue doesn’t quite get us to the hero-punches-hero we expect in a Civil War book, but it gets us right to the edge of it.

This is not a spoiler-free review. Read at your own risk!

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Tony Stark makes a presentation to the super-hero powers that be: his technology has figured out that Ulysses absorbs “all the — the data and energies cascading over the entire world” and subconsciously generates predictive algorithms, experienced as visions. As such, they’re not guaranteed to come true. Captain Marvel absorbs this and, having long since run out of damn to give, says that if there’s even a ten percent chance she can prevent global destruction, she’s prepared to do it. But her next play is to arrest Alison Green, a banker Ulysses thinks is going to take down the global economy, and she does it too early to get any evidence. Iron Man, his Avengers, and the teenage X-Men call her up to the roof of the Triskelion to explain how far she’s crossed over the line, but she gathers the adult X-Men, the Ultimates, Alpha Flight, and a surprise guest team to take her side. And next issue is going to be the huge brawl we’ve been waiting for.

For as much as this story was always going to be about Captain Marvel’s descent into the sacrifice of personal freedoms to protect the future, Brian Michael Bendis is keeping it interesting. Known for his decompressed storylines, he’s made sure to have at least one major meaningful scene in each issue, and though the battle lines of Ultimates/Extraordinary X-Men/Alpha Flight versus All-New X-Men/All-New All-Different Avengers seem a little too easy to draw, he’s wisely letting the individual decisions about this fight be made in the tie-in books. Carol’s doomed arrest of Alison Green is intercut with Tony’s presentation to the Illuminati, adding movement to an otherwise static 9-page monologue. It’s a well-told story, and I’m enjoying the flow of the individual books.

But it’s still a frustrating premise, and this issue only makes that worse. Tony Stark makes all the points every book has been making, and his “proof” that Ulysses is just running algorithms doesn’t make his argument more or less sound. The argument hasn’t been “Is Ulysses really seeing the future?” but “Is Carol right to make strategic decisions, up to and including preemptive incarceration, based on predictive data?” Tony is never going to accept that any amount of prediction is sound. Carol is never going to accept that she shouldn’t take an action that could save the world. This whole summer crossover is like watching your Facebook news feed in an election year. Post after post after post of, “Trump’s a racist, but hey, I’ve made up my mind to vote for him,” or “Hillary hasn’t answered for Benghazi or the emails, but hey, I’ve made up my mind to vote for her.” The Hulk has straight-up died and not a single hero seems to be changing positions. Neither side is willing to learn from the other, and I’m not sure what I, as a reader, am supposed to be getting out of this. It’s entertaining, but it’s not worth derailing dozens of summer comic book titles yet.

The Bottom Line: As a miniseries, this book is still fun, and it’s one of Bendis’s best-structured works to date. But the premise is not getting any less silly, and the Marvel Universe is not better for having this debate.

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