Civil War II #8

Previously in Civil War II #7

I may be done with comic book events for awhile. It’s fun seeing Marvel’s heroes team-up and even fight, and it’s always interesting to see how the big events affect the smaller pockets of the universe. However, they stretch on way too long and it’s impossible to keep up with the many tie-ins. For this second Marvel Civil War, I decided to only read the tie-ins I was already attached to: Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman. Both incorporated the larger story into their current narratives beautifully. Kamala struggled with choosing sides between her two mentors and Jessica’s relationship with Carol will never be the same after Bruce Banner’s death.

The larger story - the conflict between Tony and Carol and the best way to utilize Ulysses’ visions - started strong, but by the time it ended here, I didn’t care anymore. It didn’t help that ongoing series spawned from this event (like Invincible Iron Man) have already started so the ending here held no real surprises.

Carol’s fight with Tony leaves him mortally wounded, but thanks to experiments he’s been performing on himself, his body is kept alive in a sort of stasis. Ulysses transcends to a higher being, probably, and hopefully, never to be heard from again. And no one has the sense or balls to tell Carol she was Team Too Damn Much throughout this whole mess.

Ultimately, this failed to live up to its amazing start: the deaths of Rhodey and Bruce, the trial, Jennifer’s injuries after taking on Thanos (what happened with him anyway?), and the promise of a deep dive into the pitfalls of predictive justice.

I’ll continue with Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman; they’re simply the two of the best series out right now. And I’m excited to dive into Invincible Iron Man and Hulk. For those, I am grateful to Civil War II… but not for much else.