Civil War II #2 Comic Book Recap/Review

Civil War II #2 Recap/Review: Choose your side…

Civil War II #2 Comic Book Recap

In New Attilan, home of the Inhumans, Tony Stark infiltrates the main complex.  His target is Ulysses, the young man with premonitions… that got his best friend killed.  The young man is afraid of Stark’s sudden appearance, but before Tony can act, Medusa strikes.  She is able to entangle Tony within her hair.  As she breaches his armor’s interior, Stark manages to knock her back <BLAST> with a desperate maneuver.  She collapses to the floor, so the other Inhumans move in to assist.  Karnak is first to act, but Tony’s been thinking about this opponent for some time.

This Inhuman’s super-power has the ability to detect the weakness in anything.  As an engineer, Tony admires the ability to spot flaws like that.  Too bad Stark doesn’t have any.  Crystal then hurls a lightning blast, but against Tony , it’s a bad idea.  Iron Man is able to use this opportunity to escape with Ulysses while the Inhumans gather themselves and take in what just happened.  They can’t believe Stark would do this… he just declared war on Attilan.

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

Elsewhere, the Ultimates reel from this news.  They knew Tony was upset but can’t believe how little time it took for him to cause an international incident over it.  Maria says they need to go to Stark Tower.  Tony wouldn’t be stupid enough to go there, but odds are, the Inhumans are already paying it a visit.  Indeed, they find them there, arguing with Tony’s AI, demanding an explanation for the Avenger’s action.  The Ultimates try to calm everyone down, but the Inhumans are very upset over this.  Carol reminds Medusa that they’ve all lost people today, and asks her for one chance to make things right.

Ulysses wakes up tied to a chair and under close observation of Tony.  Stark is none too friendly, blaming the young man for sending his best friend to his death.  Ulysses is confused but Tony doesn’t care, and begins hooking the Inhuman up to some electrodes.  He’s going to thoroughly scan the young man’s brain and see these visions for himself.  He wants to know just what he is facing, especially because he’s pretty sure he’s about to go to war with some of his closest friends.  Stark begins the procedure and tries to induce a vision but has little success, while he mentions that his friends Jessica Jones and Dakota North are investigating Ulysses’ background.  Again, the boy doesn’t understand, and so Tony explains that he is worried that the Inhuman could have some sort of bias.  After all, everyone has an angle.  Stark himself hates daytime talk shows.  Who is to say Ulysses’ own biases can’t affect his premonitions?  The young man admits he never even thought of that, when suddenly, Friday detects a security breach.

Stark is surprised the others were able to track him down so quickly, before he remembers that Beast is helping the Inhumans.  Tony hurriedly frees his captive and asks him to pretend they are having fun when  company arrives.  Carol and the others are none too happy about all this, and though Tony tries to play things off as a harmless misunderstanding, Ulysses dryly comments that he was kidnapped and tortured.  While Stark and Danvers begin bickering, though both agree that Tony is definitely having a nervous breakdown, everyone fails to notice Ulysses starting to get a vision.

The vision ends, and everyone sits in stunned silence.  This one wasn’t like the others.  Everyone saw it.  While the others are blown away by how real it seems, and wonder what it means, Ulysses begins crying.  He says he’s sorry, but the Hulk is going to kill them all.  In Utah, Dr. Banner works quietly away.  He is pleasantly surprised when he sees Carol paying him a visit.

Civil War II #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 #2.

Well, alright, this was a pretty fun comic.  I did enjoy this, though by and large it is simply a natural continuation of what was set up in issue one.  If you enjoyed that first issue, you’ll probably like this one.  Past that, there’s nothing too crazy here that rang as game changing, though I do have to say this comic’s ending did surprise me.  I like how one of Tony’s nightmare scenarios he mentioned during issue number one is actually coming true, and Ulysses did indeed predict the Hulk as the next major threat.  This isn’t the direct path to escalation of the Civil War I was expecting, so it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Everything good about issue one in terms of art and writing is good here, too, and hopefully, this trend continues going forward.  It’s actually kind of surprising.  Though I did like this comic, it is short.  In classic Brian Micheal Bendis fashion, the plot basically moves an inch forward while the rest of the time is focused on character-heavy dialogue.  However, any criticism this comic might create seems to slide right off the damn thing like it’s waterproof.  These first two issues practically demand you to ask yourself when was the last time you had this much fun in a big crossover event, and I find myself having trouble coming up with a single example in the last few years of something this fun and energetic.

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

Which is actually very impressive considering Bendis’ less than stellar track run in the past with big events like this.  I think a big part of this is that David Marquez is such a great artist to work with him.  The way Bendis writes depends heavily on you understanding what his characters are thinking and feeling throughout the story mixed in with blockbuster-style, simple action, that deliberately resonates itself, and Marquez seems to nail that every time.  This Hulk scene is a good example of that.  Just the sort of raw power that Bendis is often all too good at pitting superheroes against.

It reminds me of how he used to depict the Green Goblin in the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, and I’m left looking rather eagerly forward to seeing what happens with Hulk next issue.  Banner has been quiet in the background of the Marvel world ever since Secret Wars so I’m really curious what happens next.