Civil War II (1-8)

I’m maybe one of the few people who didn’t really love Marvel’s 2006 Civil War event.  The idea of the event is actually an excellent idea. Without reading it, the plot points and over idea sound excellent. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
So, when I heard that one of the new Marvel events was going to be Civil War II I had mixed emotions. For one, I wish we would get more original ideas, instead of rehashing old ones. I really enjoy Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel. Her being the other major player opposite of Iron Man in this series.

(Spoilers ahead)

So, here is how everything basically sets up. A new Inhuman named Ulysses now has the power to see the future. Civil War II opens with the heroes beating back an alien invasion. An invasion that Ulysses warned them about. No big deal. They had it completely covered, because they had a heads up from Ulysses. Several of the heroes (Captain Marvel included) are really excited to have Ulysses on their side. They can stop world shattering events before they even begin. This is great!
But stick-in-the-mud Tony Stark thinks it’s a bad idea. The future isn’t written and all that.
Ulysses gets a new vision, and Captain Marvel decides to get a group together and take care of business. The only problem is the business is Thanos. During this operation She Hulk is put in the hospital and Rhodey (War Machine) ends up being killed.

Tony gives his “I told you so” speech, but that isn’t good enough for Carol.

It seems like almost every time the characters are talking with each other and about to maybe make some valid points and work it out, this Ulysses kid has another vision and 1/2 the heroes run off to prevent whatever is about to happen from happening.

Several heroes die, Carol tries to arrest Tony, Spider-Man (Miles not Peter) switches sides, Carol tries to arrest Spider-Man, Captain America steps forward to stop the conflict… blah blah blah

I didn’t hate the story, the first 4 issues of Civil War II were actually pretty good. The last 4 issues just seemed like there was no real reason for anyone to be fighting. There was no real urgency to it. It also felt like it was really leading up to… well… something, and it just never got there. In the end it makes Carol kind of look like a jerk, and Tony looks like he was faking that he cared at all. There was no real reason for any of the heroes to pick a side other than “because.”

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again… I don’t hate Bendis’ writing. I think he can be a pretty good writer. But I felt like Civil War II had no heart. It wanted to take us on a journey, but then decided to just get high and hang out on the couch eating cheesy poofs instead.

I can’t say that I don’t recommend reading it at all. I’m sure that some of the things that happened in the books will “change the Marvel Universe forever” for the next 6 months. I just don’t see any of it being much of a lasting effect, other than the characters that they killed off. Which felt like an empty attempt to make a not very good event have some weight.
I did actually like the first 4 issues. So I’m going to rate this series 4 jalapeños