Civil War II #7 Review: Hurry, Wait, Punch Something
By Matt Conner
Civil War II reaches the penultimate issue, but if you want to see the great punch at the end, you’ve got a lot of filler to wade through.
Civil War II #5 (of 8)
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by David Marquez with Andrea Sorrentino and Marcelo Maiolo
Colors by Justin Ponsor
Published by Marvel Comics
Civil War II #7
Civil War II has been an uneven event, but Brian Michael Bendis paces the main book well. With the exception of last month, each issue has one major story beat and enjoyable dialogue to set the action. This week, Bendis pulls his book a little closer to the established quality, but it might not be enough.
As established last time (and in the Spider-Man tie-in), Miles Morales responds to an accusation that he’ll kill Captain America on the steps of the Capitol by planting himself on those steps and pointedly not killing anybody. Captain Marvel and Maria Hill have to negotiate a tense police standoff. Ulysses’s latest vision lets him hang out with Old Man Logan long enough to learn that this Civil War has apocalyptic potential, but before he can tell anyone, Carol has thrown an unthinkable punch. And the Marvel Universe may never be the same.
As much as I enjoy Sorrentino’s art, the pages where he illustrates Ulysses’s vision don’t have much plot motion or tell us more about this important (but bland) new Inhuman. Books need filler like this to get out on time, I get that, but this book is already so late, and the event has already flooded to an extra eighth issue. The Marvel line has moved on, and waiting for content in a book two months out of date feels wasteful.
That said, that punch. I can think of several ways it’s not as bad as it looks, but readers, it looks bad. Carol Danvers crosses a dangerous line, and Bendis has earned this move with six careful months of her slippery slope. No one will be calling her a super villain after this, but she has made one Hell of a mistake.
I hope we can eventually remember Civil War II by the great beats. The death of War Machine. Hawkeye kills the Hulk. Iron Man starts a war with the Inhumans. And Carol throws a punch she shouldn’t have. I hope we can forget how long it took to get to those, how much connective tissue buried them. Because for all its flaws, Civil War II is worth reading. Now let’s see how Bendis wraps this up next month.