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A review by aceinit
Civil War II by
2.0
Oh, man. We could have had it all with this one, and I really believe that. *cue Adele interlude* We could have had it aaaaaaaalllllllllllllll *end Adele interlude*
There are so many things I like about this story. First and foremost, the art team of Marquez and Ponsor is top-notch and perfect for the series. I love how well they complement one another, and I especially love how Carol is drawn and colored here. She looks amazing. I am unabashedly in love with this version of Captain Marvel.
Secondly, I like the idea of Ulysses. He kind of sold me on wanting to give the Inhumans series a fair shot. I don’t really care about the Inhumans. I know very little of them outside of Medusa’s involvement with A-Force and an occasional Black Bolt appearance in various other things I read. I like the idea of his loner outcast kid having an overwhelming power to predict the future, even if it always wants to bring Minority Report to mind.
Thirdly, I get why Ulysses and his powers would cause such a rift in the superhero community. These guys have been getting by on the skin of their teeth, barely averting world-ending disasters for how long now? The ability to have someone predict those disasters, and to put a stop to them before they happened, and to maybe make the world a secure place and maybe, just maybe, take a day off has got to be tempting.
Fourthly, the return of Tony Stark and Doctor Strange as Facial Hair Bros. I mean, come on.
But, good god, does this series turn into a trainwreck in record time. Captain Marvel becomes such a fanatical believer in Ulysses and his visions that she quickly becomes a caricature and the most unlikeable, most unsympathetic, utterly unreasonable character in the series, and it is very hard not to argue when it is pointed out to her that everyone who dies in this series does so as a direct result of her actions. To put her front in center in a major event and then cast her as utterly deranged is a really bizarre decision, particularly given the character’s popularity and her recently-announced (at the time the series was first hyped and released) solo film. Is this really the version of Captain Marvel you want to bring front and center?
A lot of otherwise rational characters make a lot of ridiculous and sometimes out-of-character decisions in the name of Escalating the Drama. You might as well start a drinking game for how many times massive fights break out right after someone urges someone else to keep their cool, or says “we cannot afford a big fight in front of…” Be sure to bring along a lot of booze if you choose the drinking game. You will go through it in record time.
The thing is, though, I would have liked this event if it wasn’t, you know, an event. I enjoyed the hell out of issues 0 and 1. I would have loved the story of Ulysses and his powers if it was done on a much, much smaller scale, and every hero you’ve ever heard of wasn’t punching each other out on top of a national landmark. But Marvel doesn’t show any sign of shutting the Company!Wide!Crossover!Spectacular machine down any time soon, and this isn’t the first or last potentially excellent story to get sacrificed to the event machine.
There are so many things I like about this story. First and foremost, the art team of Marquez and Ponsor is top-notch and perfect for the series. I love how well they complement one another, and I especially love how Carol is drawn and colored here. She looks amazing. I am unabashedly in love with this version of Captain Marvel.
Secondly, I like the idea of Ulysses. He kind of sold me on wanting to give the Inhumans series a fair shot. I don’t really care about the Inhumans. I know very little of them outside of Medusa’s involvement with A-Force and an occasional Black Bolt appearance in various other things I read. I like the idea of his loner outcast kid having an overwhelming power to predict the future, even if it always wants to bring Minority Report to mind.
Thirdly, I get why Ulysses and his powers would cause such a rift in the superhero community. These guys have been getting by on the skin of their teeth, barely averting world-ending disasters for how long now? The ability to have someone predict those disasters, and to put a stop to them before they happened, and to maybe make the world a secure place and maybe, just maybe, take a day off has got to be tempting.
Fourthly, the return of Tony Stark and Doctor Strange as Facial Hair Bros. I mean, come on.
But, good god, does this series turn into a trainwreck in record time. Captain Marvel becomes such a fanatical believer in Ulysses and his visions that she quickly becomes a caricature and the most unlikeable, most unsympathetic, utterly unreasonable character in the series, and it is very hard not to argue when it is pointed out to her that everyone who dies in this series does so as a direct result of her actions. To put her front in center in a major event and then cast her as utterly deranged is a really bizarre decision, particularly given the character’s popularity and her recently-announced (at the time the series was first hyped and released) solo film. Is this really the version of Captain Marvel you want to bring front and center?
A lot of otherwise rational characters make a lot of ridiculous and sometimes out-of-character decisions in the name of Escalating the Drama. You might as well start a drinking game for how many times massive fights break out right after someone urges someone else to keep their cool, or says “we cannot afford a big fight in front of…” Be sure to bring along a lot of booze if you choose the drinking game. You will go through it in record time.
The thing is, though, I would have liked this event if it wasn’t, you know, an event. I enjoyed the hell out of issues 0 and 1. I would have loved the story of Ulysses and his powers if it was done on a much, much smaller scale, and every hero you’ve ever heard of wasn’t punching each other out on top of a national landmark. But Marvel doesn’t show any sign of shutting the Company!Wide!Crossover!Spectacular machine down any time soon, and this isn’t the first or last potentially excellent story to get sacrificed to the event machine.