Scan barcode
A review by sapphicsolace
Civil War II by
2.0
Before I get into this review, I'm going to bring up the Trolly Problem. I am sure a lot of you have heard of the Trolly Problem, either in a high school or university philosophy class or The Good Place. If you haven't, here's what this (ridiculous in my opinion) thought experiment is.
You're standing by railway tracks. You see a trolly/tram is coming and it's going to hit and kill five people because the breaks are broken. You are standing by a lever that will make the tram turn and kill one person instead. Do you pull the lever?
Why am I bringing up the Trolly Problem? Well, that's what Civil War II felt like. It brought in moral complexities with just as much moral contrivance, and really its own version of the thought experiment.
Before I go in deep with this review, I actually want to compare it to Civil War and how these two arcs are different.
Civil War at least made sense
You know what I like about Civil War? Both sides had areas to them that made sense that you could side with Steve or Tony but still see merit in where they were coming from. I was Team Cap but honestly? Tony had points about training. The problem at hand for me was absolute government control and I felt a pay roll would make superheroes no different from cops. Then there was also the issue of secret identities. I can understand why civilians would want to know who was protecting them but that also puts the families of the heroes at risk.
Civil War didn't try to bring moral complexities into it, and both sides kind of had things you agreed and disagreed with. It was balanced. Where does Civil War II go wrong?
This is chaos and not the good kind
At the very basic surface level, I agree with Carol. If we're assuming Ulysses' visions do 100% show the future, it's not right to knowingly let people die. I also didn't agree with Tony when he outright blamed Carol for Rhodey's death or Jen's coma that came as a result of her trying to change the future. This goes back to the Trolly Problem; it's a situation where you either allow death to happen or risk death of people who might've not died otherwise.
This creates a lot of issues. Initially... Carol's intentions were good. She went to Thanos with Absolute Certainty he was going to go after the cosmic cube or whatever he was going after. Then the other instances which I'll get to soon have their own issues. But since we are on Carol, let's talk about her and Tony in this run.
What is this character assassination
I have a lot of questions, mostly why did Tony kidnap Ulysses? That put nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. Referring back to Civil War, neither Tony nor Cap did anything so outrageously horrendous that you were forced on one side, even temporarily. Again, Civil War worked because it allowed space for how you may feel about certain things. When Civil War II isn't relying on characterisation, it relies on where you might fall in the Trolly Problem thought experiment.
People actually use this mess of an arc to "prove" Carol's actually a "villain" when really, this is a dose of bad characterisation that Tony was put through too. Neither of them come out looking good after any of this.
We're gonna accidentally put in deeper philosophical questions but not really deal with them
I don't know if the things I'm going to point out were at all intentional. They probably weren't but they were included anyway. The only thing that was put in for certain was if it was okay to incarcerate a felon over only thinking about doing a crime. That's it.
Rhodey's death is a weird one to me. It was so clearly added to contribute to the conflict. Really, what were the chances of him being the one to die? What were the chances of any of those who went dying? I get why he was chosen to cause the conflict but I still hate it.
What does any of what I said have to do with philosophy? Simple: military deaths in unjust wars. Rhodey volunteered himself to go. How is his death any different from people who die in unjust war? Do I think this was the writer's intent? Absolutely not. I do however think it does create a layer of moral complexity.
Now onto are much more blatant example: Bruce's death. Needless to say, his death brings in the complexities of assisted suicide. This obviously gets messy and included in the conflict of 'well Clint wouldn't have shot him if he wasn't going to Hulk out, which wouldn't have happened if we'd never come'. Again, this gets into the messy grey area but since there was an entire trial around it, it brought in philosophy around assisted suicide. with what we know of Bruce as a character...it's dark. This only goes darker when the publics hatred of Bruce and Hulk come to fruition. It's kind of overlooked how the public loves Clint solely for killing Bruce, only made more apparent in The Fallen.
Lastly, the vision where Miles is shown killing Cap. I really don't think it was an accident the Afro-Latino character was profiled in a crime he didn't commit, I really don't. I want to believe the writers are at least that self aware. But it's difficult to think they are. Because, yes, profiling is mentioned, but not as in detail as it could be, or who would be most affected by this new method of catching the bad guys. I do kind of feel any chance of talking about this though was thrown out the window when a white woman with what looks like a good job was included. It was turned into how Carol was now going to go after anybody, not only because they have not shown signs of even potentially committing the crime, but because they haven't.
Could this shit show have been avoided?
I really do not get why they just didn't test Ulysses powers and find out how accurate his visions are are. I personally think more objective decisions could've been made knowing that. Tony didn't want to alter history at all, sure but he also seemed concerned with the likelihood of them becoming true. Carol wanted to prevent bad futures altogether. I don't think there could've been a completely civil agreement or anything but all of this could've been avoided.
In conclusion, this arc doesn't exist to me. The only good thing that came out of it was the Fallen one shot but that's my Bruce stan bias speaking.
If you made it this far, don't waste your time on this, read a synopsis on the basic events and just skim when other character's runs intersect with this.
You're standing by railway tracks. You see a trolly/tram is coming and it's going to hit and kill five people because the breaks are broken. You are standing by a lever that will make the tram turn and kill one person instead. Do you pull the lever?
Why am I bringing up the Trolly Problem? Well, that's what Civil War II felt like. It brought in moral complexities with just as much moral contrivance, and really its own version of the thought experiment.
Before I go in deep with this review, I actually want to compare it to Civil War and how these two arcs are different.
Civil War at least made sense
You know what I like about Civil War? Both sides had areas to them that made sense that you could side with Steve or Tony but still see merit in where they were coming from. I was Team Cap but honestly? Tony had points about training. The problem at hand for me was absolute government control and I felt a pay roll would make superheroes no different from cops. Then there was also the issue of secret identities. I can understand why civilians would want to know who was protecting them but that also puts the families of the heroes at risk.
Civil War didn't try to bring moral complexities into it, and both sides kind of had things you agreed and disagreed with. It was balanced. Where does Civil War II go wrong?
This is chaos and not the good kind
At the very basic surface level, I agree with Carol. If we're assuming Ulysses' visions do 100% show the future, it's not right to knowingly let people die. I also didn't agree with Tony when he outright blamed Carol for Rhodey's death or Jen's coma that came as a result of her trying to change the future. This goes back to the Trolly Problem; it's a situation where you either allow death to happen or risk death of people who might've not died otherwise.
This creates a lot of issues. Initially... Carol's intentions were good. She went to Thanos with Absolute Certainty he was going to go after the cosmic cube or whatever he was going after. Then the other instances which I'll get to soon have their own issues. But since we are on Carol, let's talk about her and Tony in this run.
What is this character assassination
I have a lot of questions, mostly why did Tony kidnap Ulysses? That put nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. Referring back to Civil War, neither Tony nor Cap did anything so outrageously horrendous that you were forced on one side, even temporarily. Again, Civil War worked because it allowed space for how you may feel about certain things. When Civil War II isn't relying on characterisation, it relies on where you might fall in the Trolly Problem thought experiment.
People actually use this mess of an arc to "prove" Carol's actually a "villain" when really, this is a dose of bad characterisation that Tony was put through too. Neither of them come out looking good after any of this.
We're gonna accidentally put in deeper philosophical questions but not really deal with them
I don't know if the things I'm going to point out were at all intentional. They probably weren't but they were included anyway. The only thing that was put in for certain was if it was okay to incarcerate a felon over only thinking about doing a crime. That's it.
Rhodey's death is a weird one to me. It was so clearly added to contribute to the conflict. Really, what were the chances of him being the one to die? What were the chances of any of those who went dying? I get why he was chosen to cause the conflict but I still hate it.
What does any of what I said have to do with philosophy? Simple: military deaths in unjust wars. Rhodey volunteered himself to go. How is his death any different from people who die in unjust war? Do I think this was the writer's intent? Absolutely not. I do however think it does create a layer of moral complexity.
Now onto are much more blatant example: Bruce's death. Needless to say, his death brings in the complexities of assisted suicide. This obviously gets messy and included in the conflict of 'well Clint wouldn't have shot him if he wasn't going to Hulk out, which wouldn't have happened if we'd never come'. Again, this gets into the messy grey area but since there was an entire trial around it, it brought in philosophy around assisted suicide. with what we know of Bruce as a character...it's dark. This only goes darker when the publics hatred of Bruce and Hulk come to fruition. It's kind of overlooked how the public loves Clint solely for killing Bruce, only made more apparent in The Fallen.
Lastly, the vision where Miles is shown killing Cap. I really don't think it was an accident the Afro-Latino character was profiled in a crime he didn't commit, I really don't. I want to believe the writers are at least that self aware. But it's difficult to think they are. Because, yes, profiling is mentioned, but not as in detail as it could be, or who would be most affected by this new method of catching the bad guys. I do kind of feel any chance of talking about this though was thrown out the window when a white woman with what looks like a good job was included. It was turned into how Carol was now going to go after anybody, not only because they have not shown signs of even potentially committing the crime, but because they haven't.
Could this shit show have been avoided?
I really do not get why they just didn't test Ulysses powers and find out how accurate his visions are are. I personally think more objective decisions could've been made knowing that. Tony didn't want to alter history at all, sure but he also seemed concerned with the likelihood of them becoming true. Carol wanted to prevent bad futures altogether. I don't think there could've been a completely civil agreement or anything but all of this could've been avoided.
In conclusion, this arc doesn't exist to me. The only good thing that came out of it was the Fallen one shot but that's my Bruce stan bias speaking.
If you made it this far, don't waste your time on this, read a synopsis on the basic events and just skim when other character's runs intersect with this.