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.

[Captain Comics]

If you read my recent column about Marvel and DC sales (cough, cough) you'd see that I said:

While the main Civil War II title is selling very well, the tie-ins are not. For example, in the Top 100 list for August, Amazing Spider-Man #16 is at No. 4, but Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man #3 is at No. 65. As should be obvious, one is CWII-related, while the other is not – and the big summer crossover book is the one with the weakest sales.

“Whatever its reason,” writes Rich Johnston at bleedingcool.com, “whatever the analysis (and there will be plenty), despite having a movie on the screen, a Free Comic Book Day launch, the might of Disney and a far more able marketing department, ‘Civil War II’ is a bust.”

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

  I did read that column Cap, and two things occurred me to me at the time.  First even though my monetary situation has stabilized every time I go into a comic book story I find myself talking myself out of buying any marvel or dc comics.  I'm probably a minority in that but I'm ok with being in a minority.  Partly I know that I'm still very nervous about money, but your column told me exactly why it's so easy now where once I would have bought them: the storylines are just repeats.  Marvel heroes are fighting each other, DC is revamping it's characters and continuity.  Marvel heroes are always fighting each other and most of the reasons -like this current one in my opinion- are flimsy.  DC has re-done it's characters so often I've lost a lot of affection I've had for them.  The new Supergirl looks interesting but lets face it she has a expiration date on her just like the last three had.  I'm just not as inclined to take a chance anymore, not with the marvel prices at 3.99 and 4.99 and DC stuck in a seemingly endless re-boot cycle.  I don't hate marvel as much as I did last year and I don't like DC as much as I did last year: I just don't care that much anymore.

  I think the cw main title is selling well because it is the star of the show, but the action taking place outside of the main title is just filler and not well disguised filler either.  At least with the main title you have a question of how it's going to work out and whether or not it will lead into the next event of Inhumans versus X-men and if they'll be any hints as to what cw3 or cw4 will be like.  But outside the main title what is there?

[Richard Willis]

I read your column, too. For some reason it slipped my mind. (My mind can be very slippery.)

[Detective 445]

In some ways I think Marvel has divorced itself from it's past in a similar way to what DC did with New 52. 

By clearing the continuity slate, they make their books accessible to newcomers but unfortunately they give many longtime readers an easy jumping off point. And since the long history and relationships between all of these characters is sort of watery and vague now, many longtime fans can't get invested in a story that has them all in conflict with each other.

[Captain Comics]

My plan with "Secret Wars" was to catch up on the pre-Secret Wars Marvel, read the collection when it came out, and then decide which of the "new" series I wanted to follow. But I found as the "new" Marvel progressed the urgency to read the "old" universe faded, and I never got around to it ... which means I never got around to picking post-Secret Wars titles to follow. So I'm not following any. And as the "new" Marvel proceeds, I find less and less urgency to catch up on any of it.

So I didn't intend for Secret Wars to be a jumping-off point. But that's how it worked out. 

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

I know I may be in the minority here, Cap, but I for one never wanted the Secret Wars-era Marvel U to end.

There were so many stories and series in there that I loved. Master of Kung Fu, Planet Hulk, Age of Apocalypse, Civil War...so many of those books produced so many of the best stories, because they could do anything. Howard the Human!? Seriously. I loved that short period of time so much.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Yeah, I honestly don't know where to begin with Marvel books. I genuinely don't. I mean, Champions is a new team, right -- but it looks like it'll pick up threads begun in Waid's Avengers, which began last year? I feel like if I pick up nearly any Marvel book, it'll be like trying to pick something off of flypaper -- I'll wind up getting stuck in a morass of other titles and unintended crossovers. 

So right now I'm picking up Silver Surfer -- a continuation of a pre New All New All Different title -- and Black Widow -- not a continuation of an old title, but the continuation of the excellent Daredevil creative team. Both books are distinctive enough that I feel like any crossovers will be limited in scope, or different enough from the main books that they'll be satisfying on their own.

The only other Marvel book I'm buying is Steve Rogers: Captain America -- simply because it was launched with so much bombast and daring that I had to pay attention. And it was clearly a new direction, even though as the story's gone on I can see that it's tied in with storylines I hadn't been following before. I imagine when it does a hard crossover with Sam Wilson, I'll pick those up too. But so far, I'm doing fine following just the one book. 

I've got Marvel Unlimited, so I can check out books from 6 months ago and beyond... but I haven't felt too much urgency there, either. 

[Captain Comics]

I always intend to catch up on Marvel. I just never get around to it. Sad.

[Randy Jackson]

FWIW, I think Marvel's been putting out much higher quality comics than DC for the past few years now. However, I think they made a big mistake with Civil War II, as it derailed a lot of momentum for some of it's more mainstream titles. I still believe they're doing better for now, but at the same time a number of titles I'd been enjoying quite a lot are now coming to an end.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Like Rob, I'm highly enthusiastic about Silver Surfer and Black Widow.

Also like Rob, but slightly more enthusiastic, I recommend Captain America (both of them, actually).

[The Baron]

Time to talk about issue #7.  Our spoiler space this time is a picture of Joe Flynn, looking irritated as only he could...

There are two basic threads in this one. In one, Ulysses has a vision of a future desert wasteland. This time, however, he interacts with the vision, encountering Old Man Logan, who tells him the everything went to Hell because "she" pushed Stark too far.  When he exits the vision, he assumes it meant that Carol must stop fighting Tony over him.  Meanwhile, Steve meets Miles on the steps of the Capitol, to reassure one another that Miles isn't going to kill Steve.  Carol shows up to arrest Miles, and Tony shows up in what looks like Hulkbuster armor to stop her. It ends with Carol slamming into Tony.

Eh. Alright. Five pages worth of story drawn out into 24.  This is good example of a story that started out well enough, and then went sailing straight off a cliff.

[Captain Comics]

Only one more to go!  I'm guessing some heroes are going to fight some other heroes, but I could be wrong!