Civil War II #1 Review

So despite the huge mainstream hype on Captain America revealing to be a Hydra agent, it didn't help at all in comic book sales and ultimately, the winner goes to DC's Rebirth #1, being the No 1 comic book sold last week. I would say good news for DC indeed as it's a start to get back in the game.

This week, however, Marvel has a brand new arsenal that would continue their commanding lead in comic books, and that is the release of Civil War II #1 that is out now.

If you managed to get the Civil War II issue released on Free Comic Book Day, then you have a good idea what is going on, and Civil War II #1 just embelishes those events that eventually leads in to the new conflict.

Otherwise here is a quick summary of the events.

Civil War II begins with the introduction of Ulysses, an Inhuman who has the power to see visions of the future. If this sounds familiar to you, the character Charles Hinton from Agents of SHIELD also has a similar abilitiy as an Inhuman. The difference being the latter gives another person a vision of his/her own demise.

Ulysses was later found by the Inhumans, and after learning of his abilities, was taken in by the Ultimates, the superhero team led by Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, and comprised of members like Black Panther, Maria Hill, and Ms. America among others.

Danvers sees Ulysses as a valuable asset in knowing every possible future threats and disasters and stopping them at all costs before they even happen. Tony Stark aka Iron Man, isn't keen on Danvers's motive and therefore against using Ulysses's powers. In a way it's something like Minority Report.

As depicted in the Free Comic Book Day issue, Ulysses sees a vision of Thanos on Earth in search of the Cosmic Cube. You know, the one that's currently being fought over by Red Skull and Baron Zemo in the new Captain America issue? The Ultimates of course responded and that's when tragedy struck when two Marvel characters are killed off. Stark is determined to stop the Ultimates from using and abusing Ulysses's powers. Danvers is determined to do otherwise. So the new Civil War is born.

The Pros. I like the fact that Civil War II is another entry point for new readers who don't need to learn too much backlogging on Marvel's history and can jump right in. The issue also provides quick intro to the numerous characters involved in this event, so you can identify them whether you truly know them or not. I'm glad as well that the X-Men are involved too, though in extremely small roles. Also surprised that Tony, a type of guy who's SUPPOSED to be on board with Ulysses's abilities because he's a futurist himself, choses instead to oppose the idea. This is, in part, due to  his past experiences including the events of the first Civil War.

The Cons. The two characters that got killed off? They're among my favorites, so I am NOT happy at all, especially since the other one isn't supposed to die THAT easily. I also find the first issue a waste of character use as in one scene it had every Marvel team involved to face a threat, but literally didn't do anything and the threat was ultimately stopped by an all-magic team led by Benedict Cumber-- I mean Dr. Strange.

And I honestly don't know what to think of this conflict as it's so cliched. Again being similar to Minority Reprot, though writer Brian Michael Bendis assures it's not.

That said, I didn't find Civil War II #1 as awful. It just didn't impress me as much as Secret Wars #1 last year. I am pretty much joining Team Iron Man's side on this one. All-in-all not bad, but it's not enough to make me invest on the event and I'll just learn the plot elsewhere as time goes by. So if I were to give a scale right now for Civil War II #1, I'd give it a 3 out of 5.

As for the numerous tie-ins for both Rebirth and Civil War II, I've decided I'm not gonna invest in those because it's just too much for me, so I will just focus on the main event stories. If I managed to find some wiggle room, then I'll check those out.

So yeah, DC pretty much gets the upper hand on this one and I would personally prefer Rebirth over Civil War II at the moment.