Civil War II (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

OK, so having read #0, I see several plot threads:

1)Jennifer is in court, defending the Jester.  I wonder what the legal complications would be of a lawyer acting as an amateur law enforcer.

2)Rhodey is keeping the peace in Latveria. I don't know why they don't just hand control of Latveria over to Victor in perpetuity. He always ends up in charge there eventually, anyhow.

3)Later, the President offers Rhodey SecDef, as a stepping stone to the Presidency, since if a super-hero is going to be President someday, he doesn't want it to be Tony.  Surely Stark has so many skeletons in the closet that if he ran for anything, they'd need to summon the Ghost of Ray Harryhausen to animate them when they all came dancing out?

4)At Ohio State University, a girl and a boy who had just worked up the nerve to ask her out are Terrigen-cocooned.  Do they really just let the Terrigen float around, mutating whom it will?  Surely, one of the MU's many science geniuses could knock up a giant fan to blow it away from populated areas?

5)Leonard Samson visits Carol Danvers, to make sure she hasn't gone nuts.  She is concerned about the menace that they will not be able to stop.

6)Maria Hill informs Jennifer that the Jester - who was convicted- has been killed in prison. Jennifer is outraged, but Maria is all like "He would have recidivated anyway, they always do."  Was Maria always an @$$hole, or did she become one at some point?

7)Back at OSU the kids hatch out of their cocoons. (They just leave these cocoons lying around? they don't collect them and take them somewhere, or at least cordon them off?)  The boy looks normal-ish, but the girl looks demonic and flies away, yowling.  There is some kind of an episode - it's unclear what - and the boy (and the reader) is left wondering what the Hell happened.  He is alone in a devastated city - presumably Columbus, since that's where OSU is in the "real" world.

I'll tell you my main concern - years ago, I was just starting to really get into the Avengers book, and the first Civil War came along and blew it all up, souring me on Marvel for years. I sure hope that's not about to happen all over again.

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

Trouble is no matter how reasonable both sides are at the start escalation and pain is unavoidable.  They are just starting from a different point than cw1 which had extremes right off the bat.  For myself I feel certain that they'll be lines crossed and I'll just try hard not to care.

[Detective 445]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

“But something I read over the weekend suggested to me that her plan was take actions which would prevent the crimes from being committed in the first place. Not “Let’s go back in time and kill Hitler a s baby,” but “Let’s go back in time and tutor Hitler in art school so that he doesn’t drop out.”

I could get behind a plan like that.

Yeah, that stance does seem a little more reasonable. Although, as I said, it did result in the death of War Machine. And there's the whole pandora's box of tampering with the time stream. One question I have: If Ulysseys can see the future and knew that Thanos would arrive, then couldn't he also predict that the Avengers would act on his prediction and War Machine would die?

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

Which is the basic problem of this storyline.  If you can predict the future you can change the future if you have any intelligence at all.

[Detective 445]

The debate in the story is about whether they should try to change the future.

The problem, as I see it, is that no one knows exactly what Ulysseys is seeing in his visions. A possible future? A partial view of the future? An incorrect view? The heroes are pretty much at the mercy of whatever he tells them. And, conveniently, they are not able to scan his mind.

[The Baron]

OK, time to look at issue #2. To allow some extra space, here's a picture of Jack Oakie. If you don't know who Jack Oakie was, then you have no business considering yourself to be an educated person.

The intro reveals that Jennifer is in a coma and not dead, which is good because bugger-all the story says about it. Tony infiltrates New Attilan and kidnaps Ulysses, making the Inhumans look like the chumps that they are. (What's Hank McCoy doing with them, anyhow?)  The Inhumans go to Stark Tower, mostly to stop Karnak from knocking it over.  Karnak as a hot-headed dumbass here.  I've never liked the Inhumans much, and Karnak comes across as really unlikable.  The Ultimates and Avengers show up and Carol convinces the Inhumans to settle them down and let the heroes handle it.

Elsewhere, Tony examines/harasses Ulysses, trying to analyze his powers. The heroes show up, Carol and Tony argue and Ulysses has another vision, this time projecting it into the assembled heroes' minds. The vision shows the Hulk having killed all of the heroes. We end with Carol going to visit Bruce.

Overall: Another OK issue. They've still got me interested in what's going to happen next.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Of course I know who Jack Oakie is. His daughter, Kari, invented recorded musical accompaniment. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

And of all the Inhumans, why isn't Karnak the one that can tell the future?

"Sis boom bah."

[The Baron]

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

And of all the Inhumans, why isn't Karnak the one that can tell the future?

"Sis boom bah."

Awesome.

[Detective 445]

I wasn't crazy about this issue. Iron Man blows his chance at the moral high ground yet again by making horrible choices. And Karnak is completely out of character from the way he is portrayed in his solo book. Loved the art though.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Here's a video of the routine.

[Ronald Morgan]

I believe it was E. Nelson Bridwell that said Captain Marvel looked like Fred MacMurray at first, but later started looking like Jack Oakie. I think he's probably best remembered today for playing Mussolini to Charlie Chaplin's Hitler.
 
The Baron said:

OK, time to look at issue #2. To allow some extra space, here's a picture of Jack Oakie. If you don't know who Jack Oakie was, then you have no business considering yourself to be an educated person.

The intro reveals that Jennifer is in a coma and not dead, which is good because bugger-all the story says about it. Tony infiltrates New Attilan and kidnaps Ulysses, making the Inhumans look like the chumps that they are. (What's Hank McCoy doing with them, anyhow?)  The Inhumans go to Stark Tower, mostly to stop Karnak from knocking it over.  Karnak as a hot-headed dumbass here.  I've never liked the Inhumans much, and Karnak comes across as really unlikable.  The Ultimates and Avengers show up and Carol convinces the Inhumans to settle them down and let the heroes handle it.

Elsewhere, Tony examines/harasses Ulysses, trying to analyze his powers. The heroes show up, Carol and Tony argue and Ulysses has another vision, this time projecting it into the assembled heroes' minds. The vision shows the Hulk having killed all of the heroes. We end with Carol going to visit Bruce.

Overall: Another OK issue. They've still got me interested in what's going to happen next.

[Detective 445]

Checked out a few tie-ins:

Gods of War was not my kind of thing at all. Gave up after a few pages.

Choosing Sides is an anthology style book that was hit or miss for me. Kind of enjoyed the Damage Control story but I won't continue with it.

Ultimates 8 went over some events that we've already seen from a different vantage point but had some nice character work throughout and added a little bit of an "origin story" to boot.