Civil War II: Choosing Sides #2 Comic Book Review/Recap

Civil War II: Choosing Sides #2: War Machine, Goliath, and Nick Fury

Civil War II: Choosing Sides #2 Comic Book Recap

America Chavez was there when James Rhodes died. He went down fighting one of the worst villains out there, and Ms. America has seen a lot. If, one day, she has to die, this would be how she’d like to go. Protecting people she cares about. At Rhodey’s funeral, Kate Bishop is surprised to find America alone, without her team. Kate wants to talk, but this whole thing is making America uncomfortable. Sincere Kate Bishop is the worst, and, wanting to bring her sarcastic friend back, Chavez suggests they leave. In spite of Hawkeye’s concerns, she agrees to go. It’s better than being alone. Besides, any excuse to get away from here is a good one.

Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau can’t focus on the preacher speaking. She can’t concentrate on anything in the past few days. She has to get out of here. Blue Marvel will want to talk, but Monica isn’t interested. People are the last thing she needs right now. People die… they get let down. They ground you and make you love… and then you break their heart. She couldn’t save James… and it just reminds her that she thinks she is falling apart. She has to concentrate just to hold herself together, but lately, she’s been wondering if she should just let her light fade out of existence, like a dwindling star. But she won’t. Not today. This isn’t the end of her story, or Rhodey’s. She’ll save the next one. She promises.

Misty Knight is no stranger to funerals, but this one hits her hard. She has trouble figuring out why, until she realizes, she is James. They were both two ordinary humans with tech fighting titans. One good hit could finish them off. So she reflects on her own life… her relationships, her actions, and what matters. She doesn’t know how Rhodey felt when he died, but she knows she doesn’t want to go down regretting actions not taken. It’s time for Misty Knight to be a hero again. She thanks James for reminding her of this.

Storm wants to hear James’ friends talk of his accomplishments. A man with no powers in the greatest of dangers who triumphed so many times. The man who, in spite of everything, was Tony Stark’s best friend. She wants to relish in tales of greatness, but this happy thought is interrupted when she sees her ex-husband disapprove of the smile that crosses her face. Suddenly she is happy she is no longer a queen. She is free to drink and talk with friends after the funeral, and can go back home to her family when all this is done. But she doesn’t. Instead she travels to Rhodey’s home, Philadelphia. She takes in the sights, enjoys a baseball game, and meets some great people. She loves his city, if for no other reason than than producing a man as fine as James Rhodes. Wherever he may be now, she takes one last moment to think of the man with fondness.

Meanwhile, America and Kate travel the multiverse to see other versions of James. One leads the Avengers as Iron Man after Tony Stark died. One retired and became mayor of Philadelphia. Another works as a scientist, and a third… well, that just upsets Kate. But America thinks this makes her point. This James is dead. She hates that she couldn’t save him. But on an infinite number of worlds and infinite amount of Jameses are still out there. Kate wonders if that’s how America sees everyone, as just interchangeable. America reassures her friend that this Rhodey had a noble death, and it’s things like that which always bring her back to this particular Earth. Kate asks who else the woman cares about, but well, she’s not going to be that easy.

Prisoner #24653 was no James Rhodes. He was… a blamer. He could grow as tall as a building, but he thought so small, which is why he ended up here. But he won’t admit that. 24653 watched his uncle die at the hands of an artificial Thor during the first Civil War. He blamed the Avengers, and lashed out. He thought small, so he was small.

That’s what Officer Moore thought, but he knows now he was wrong. During a prison riot 246 – no – Tom Foster distinguished himself. His powers were returned. He could have escaped. Instead… he distinguished himself. He saved dozens of lives; hundreds if you consider what those monsters would do if they had escaped. And now, he sees Tom for what he is, for what he will one day be – a true hero. In court, he tells the judge that Tom Foster does not belong in prison. They take this under advisement, and weeks later, Officer Moore is happy to shake the hand of a free man. Moore asks if Tom has any big plans now that he is out. He does… they are giant.

Nick Fury is dead. He has gone underground. He’s had to improvise, and call in a few favors. You may have heard of Marc Spector. He has multiple personalities that converge into a singular being known as the Moon Knight. Fury doesn’t know him well, but he knows the man can be unpredictable. So nobody would be surprised if he randomly attacked a well-known SHIELD donor – Elton Blake. It turns out Blake not only supports SHIELD but several other organizations like AIM and HYDRA. He’s too well connected politically to be exposed, but Fury is dead. Dead men answer to no one. But Nick can’t be seen without losing his cover.

Marc Spector is currently in an insane asylum, so he won’t get in trouble over this – he has the perfect alibi. Blake is relieved to see Fury, because everyone knows Moon Knight is a complete lunatic. He’s surprised to see Nick, who is supposed to be dead, but claims he has no interest in harming SHIELD. Nick presents evidence to the contrary, and suddenly the story changes. The leader has shown them the way. Fury has to die, so SHIELD will live. He knows that Nick has no chance of stopping this, so he happily gives the man the location of the Leader, because Blake has faith in a better tomorrow.

Civil War II: Choosing Sides #2 Comic Book Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island! My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Civil War II: Choosing Sides #2!

So, with another anthology comic, as always, we’ll break my review up by story. First up is the War Machine portion, written by Jeremy Whitely and with art by Marguerite Sauvage. Out of the three parts, this segment definitely got the most mixed reaction out of me. I do like parts of this, they picked some interesting characters to focus on and there were some nice moments. I liked Storm’s part when she goes to Philly and I enjoyed seeing the other versions of Rhodey from other universes. It was a somewhat touching send-off for the character, but I do have some issues.

These don’t feel like people who were overly close to Rhodey, nor were these stories all that touching or particularly insightful. I’ve seen this sort of thing done better before, with Cap after the first Civil War or following Logan’s death a couple of years ago, but it feels like they did a much better job with those than what we got here. This comic is sincere at times and it can be touching, but a lot of it rings hollow. A lot of the dialogue features obvious statements or meaningless nonsense, which leads to the whole story feeling kind of dull. It is morose and weighty, without any drama or enough other content to make it interesting. I did like the art, that’s the best part of this segment, but on the whole it is a lot characters crying and grieving without much else to offer us as an audience, nor are we really given a reason to care.

Then there’s the Goliath part written by Brandon Thomas and drawn by Marco Rudy. I’m a big fan of this one. It’s vivid and intense, but a nice, hopeful story. It’s short, simple, and sweet. I like how this guard went from viewing Foster as just another inmate who didn’t deserve a second chance to a hero that didn’t need to be in prison, and that change felt natural. It felt deserved. So it’s a bright, hopeful, and well-drawn comic that nicely ties into the first Civil War as well. It was pretty good stuff on the whole.

And Nick Fury’s story continues under the pen of Declan Shalvey – I’ll never get used to pronouncing that one. I liked seeing the big Moon Knight fight, even if it wasn’t really Marc Spector and I did enjoy this comic. It was a good little twist and the story continues without much fanfare, but I’m still interested in it.

So, in conclusion, we have two stories I liked, and one I didn’t really enjoy on the whole. I think War Machine’s part is good enough that this comic is still worth reading, kind of, but yeah, I’m not going to pretend it was perfect. Make of that what you will, though I’m not sure whether or not this really merits a recommendation.