Civil War II #1 Comic Book Recap/Review

Civil War II #1 Recap/Review: Protect the future… or change it.

Civil War II #1 Comic Book Recap

Within a campground in Columbus, a boy runs through the woods.  He is terrified.  It won’t stop, no matter what he does.  His name is Ulysses, and he is an Inhuman.  And luckily, he is not alone.

Weeks later, in Manhattan, Tony Stark lies on the ground.  Miles Morales asks if this is crazy, even by Avengers standards.  Falcon reassures the young man it’s not just him.  This is crazy.  But Nova explains that’s the best part about being an Avenger.  You’re never alone with the crazy.             Today the Avengers are facing a rampaging Celestial from another dimension.  However, this is no time to panic.  They have a plan, and today, <BOOM> they aren’t alone.  With an army of super heroes around them, Carol Danvers and Tony Stark greet each other in the field.  Everyone is in place, so Iron Man contacts Doctor Strange.  Stephen has gathered a team of sorcerers and together, they begin a spell.  The other heroes back off, and, with great effort, the spell casters are able to banish the Celestial back to its home dimension.

[Related: Click Here For Marvel’s Complete Civil War II Reading Order Checklist]

As the dust settles, the magicians lay, exhausted, but the day is saved.  Tony declares drinks are on him.  In no time at all, they kick off a party at Stark Tower with Stark delivering a toast.  He says he was so moved by the events today.  It’s rare that the heroes get an unqualified win like this, and it is all thanks to the Inhumans, who were able to co-ordinate this pre-emptive response with the exact date and time that the Celestial would appear.  The party begins as everyone catches up with one another, but She-Hulk and Carol agree to seek out the Inhumans and find out just how they knew about the Celestial attack.

They find Tony with their allies, wondering the exact same thing, and Medusa asks to speak with the heroes in private.  They all meet in Tony’s kitchen, where the Inhumans introduce their newest member – Ulysses.  He is reluctant to share this, but Medusa reassures the young man that he can trust these people.  The Inhumans have been keeping secrets for a long time, and it has never worked out for them, so they are trying something different.  So Ulysses states that he sees the future events before they happen, but they are difficult to explain.  Tony gets the young Jean Grey to come in, in the hopes that she can show everybody Ulysses’ visions.

In spite of the rift between Inhumans and X-Men, all parties agree to this, but Jean is unable to read Ulysses mind.  It’s like a closed system, unable to be read or accessed by telepaths.  Carol pays this no mind, however, and instead offers the boy a job.  She explains how her team, the Ultimates, are specifically looking for ways to stop disasters before they happen.  Tony doesn’t like this though.  This is a person they’ve never met, whose mind is closed to them, and claims to see a future.

Tony points out they have no idea what probability ratio Ulysses’ powers work on.  The Celestial’s attack was predicted and then stopped by the Avengers, meaning that what Ulysses saw wasn’t the future, just a potential future.   Carol muses on this with everyone else for a moment, before deciding that at the end of the day, all that matters is that lives were saved.  That’s good enough for her.

Tony has Ulysses explain how he got his powers.  He describes how his visions began emerging while he was camping.  The Inhumans took him in, and taught the young man to hone his abilities.  But then he saw the world being destroyed.  He was able to use his powers and determine exactly it was coming, then, thanks to the heroes of Earth, it never happened.  Tony still isn’t happy.  Yesterday was simple.  A big, cosmic threat.  But Stark points out that this won’t always be easy.  What if Ulysses sees a baby being born that will one day become a dictator?  What if he sees one of them do something the rest don’t like?  Tony is a futurist.  He respects the future.  He believes in the future.  He worships it.  All he asks is that they be careful if they use any more visions.  He leaves, inviting everyone to enjoy the party.

Later, Tony is working in his lab, when his employee Mary Jane Watson comes by.  She’s quiet, and Stark can tell something is wrong.  It’s Rhodey… he’s gone.  Tony arrives at the Triskelion, headquarters of the Ultimates, in a rage.  He demands to see his friend.  In their infirmary, Stark looks over the remains of his closest ally and remarks that something immensely powerful must have broken through James’ armor.  He asks how this happened, and while Maria Hill tries to explain, Tony doesn’t even listen, and instead begins shouting for Carol, as he wants to hear from her himself.  But when he sees the look on everyone’s face, he calms down.  James wasn’t the only casualty of this mission.  At the side of She-Hulk’s bed, Carol sits alone.  Jennifer is alive, but doctors aren’t sure if she will ever walk again… or even wake up.  Her gamma-based biology is unique, and they are lacking an expert like Bruce Banner.

Tony asks what happened, and Carol explains it was Thanos.  Alarmed, Stark assumes the mad Titan attacked Earth, but the others explain they ambushed him.  Ulysses got a vision and so they acted, not realizing the true extent of the threat.  Stark quietly declares that Carol killed his best friend.  She might as well have done it with her own hands.  They try to explain that James was a soldier, that he was on site at the time and volunteered, but Stark doesn’t want to hear this.  He warned them all about this sort of thing.  Carol stays her ground though.  Knowing what they did at the time, she’d do it all again.  She says she loves Tony, and is truly sorry.  Also, they were able to capture Thanos before he could do anyone else any harm.  Tony leaves, swearing he will make it so none of them ever play God again.  Carol moves to follow him, but is stopped by Jennifer, who is waking up.  She-Hulk asks her friend to fight for this.  It’s their future.  Not his.   They need to fight for this.    Crying, Carol watches at the doctors scramble around Jennifer, struggling to revive the woman.  Outside, Tony Stark flies away.

Civil War II #1 Comic Book Recap

Hello and welcome to Comic Island!  My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review of Civil War II #1.

Wow, that was something else, alright.  On the whole it is a great comic.  It is well done.  We got a little preview of what this creative team would be like in the first five issues of Iron Man, but boy, did they do some great work here.  As writer, Bendis does well at setting up a story with some great scenes, starting out this issue strong and ending even stronger.  There’s also plenty of little details and cameos that can add a lot for Marvel fans.  And as artist, Marquez accommodates the man masterfully at every step of the way.  Everything about his art is perfect, from conveying the moments of action nicely to giving facial expressions a real sense of life to them.  Already, this is shaping up to be an excellent event, and so far, I’m liking this premise more than the original Civil War.  Yes, we are losing the political angle here in favor of a more high-concept, sci-fi one.  It’s basically Marvel’s Minority Report.  And while I wasn’t sure how that premise was going to work out when it was announced, seeing it here has really sold me on it.

[Related: Click Here For Marvel’s Complete Civil War II Reading Order Checklist]

Because this isn’t really a war over philosophy or destiny.  That stuff was enough to annoy Tony but not enough to drive him to war.  No, what did it was what happened to Rhodey and Jennifer.  That was not only surprising but pretty emotional too.  Yes, it obviously isn’t going to be a permanent death because this is a comic book.  But at this point observing that is like observing the sky is blue.  You’re not clever for noticing it, and honestly, it doesn’t really mean much.  These deaths matter in the context of this story.  That’s what is important.  The look on Carol’s face as the heartbeat monitor goes off is really heartbreaking, and that’s what I like about this comic so much.  This divide is going to be about a personal issue over a political or philosophical one, and I think that’s really going to mean something down the road.  What works best about Civil War II is something the original Civil War failed on most consistently – I get where both sides are coming from here.

Carol is right, in part, and she’s a very relate-able character.  Her motives are super understandable – she cares first and foremost about saving lives.  I get that.  But Tony has merit too.  They don’t know a lot about this kid or how his powers work.  I wonder if they are in danger of creating self-fulfilling prophecies.  What if the disaster they try to stop is caused by their own attempts to stop it?  Think about it like this.  What if Ulysses saw James get killed by Thanos, and so he goes, “Oh no!  We’ve got to stop Thanos!”  So then everyone goes to stop Thanos, and, sure enough, the Titan kills Rhodey during the very battle they started.  While if they had done nothing, he would be fine!  Stark is right to be cautious about these things, and hey, pretty much anyone who lost their best friend like that would be understandably upset.

This comic does everything right and totally exceeded my already pretty optimistic expectations.  We’ll see how things go from here.  Remember the original Civil War started out pretty strong too, and only started to unravel near the back half.  Still, I think this is shaping up to be a pretty awesome event overall.  I highly recommend you check this one out for yourself.  Let me know what you guys think in the comments section below, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and keep reading comics.