CIVIL WAR II's main player takes center stage, and its seismic effects are felt across the Marvel Universe! First, in a sensational prequel to the main event, experience the odyssey of Ulysses! What incredible journey leads him to join the Inhumans? And in the wake of a truly terrifying vision, why won't Karnak help him prevent disaster? Then, feel the full implications of the hostilities in a trio of tales. When a heroic icon is slain, those who knew him best remember the fallen legend - and the Avenger who killed him stands accused of his murder! But when the war is over, rivals Tony Stark and Carol Danvers turn to the one man they know they can trust - Steve Rogers, Captain America! Uh-oh...
COLLECTING: CIVIL WAR II: ULYSSES 1-3, THE FALLEN #1, THE ACCUSED #1, THE OATH #1
When it comes to event comics, the tie-ins are often better than the main title but in this case Civil War II: Fallout is definitely crappier.
Heads up: if you haven’t read the main event and are planning to, there are plenny of spoilers in this book and review so fair warning!
The three-part Ulysses story by Al Ewing was the best part of the volume. It reads like Ewing had fun writing the gleefully unpleasant Karnak as he mentors Ulysses in harnessing his new powers. Also, the Tower of Wisdom is full of very peculiar characters who are enjoyably weird. Like everything in this book, it’s unnecessary fluff but it held my attention.
Then we’re into the dregs: Marc Guggenheim’s The Accused is about Hawkeye’s trial for killing Bruce Banner; Daredevil is prosecuting. No part of it is the least bit interesting. The Fallen is indulgent, sentimental crap about Banner’s death that’s impossible to care about because every superhero dies and every superhero gets resurrected - Banner/Hulk are on their way back soon, I promise you.
The volume closes out with Nick Spencer’s The Oath which is tediously overwritten like most of Spencer’s Marvel stuff and is purely about underlining the largely unpopular storyline of Cap being a Hydra agent which most readers are already aware of.
None of these stories has any real bearing on Civil War II nor do they enhance the main event in any significant way - they exist purely to make some extra bucks off of Marvel fans. I recommend checking out the main story instead which isn’t bad (very surprising given the usual quality of event books!) and is definitely more entertaining than this pointless spinoff.
This prequel (kinda) to Civil War II tells the tale of how Karnak of the Inhumans helped Ulysses turn his precognitive abilities from a liability to an asset. It wasn't half bad, either. It was both creepy and exciting and there were even some funny moments. While it's not essential Civil War II reading, I really enjoyed it.
I still don't see the point in Marvel's 'infinite' comics, though. It's like watching a really badly animated cartoon.
This volume promises to be Fallout, but exactly half of it (Ulysses) is actually set at the start of the "War". It also promises to be the work of a few of Marvel's best writers, but none of them are at their best. The result is eminently skippable.
Ulysses. I'd hoped for a bit more on Ulysses, who's largely an enigma in Civil War II. Instead we get three issues of decompressed "training" largely about what a jerk Karnak is. It's hard to love this mini-series, when you hate one of the main characters so much (and after all of that, we don't really learn much about Ulysses). [4/10].
The Accused. The trial of Hawkeye. This repeats too much material about what happens, and is a bit slow, but it's a great spotlight on Matt Murdock and his feelings about justice. It also actually advances plotlines from Civil War II [6+/10].
The Fallen. The funeral for Bruce. It nicely positions him within the Marvel universe and has a few touching moments, but is otherwise dull [5/10].
The Oath It's nice to link Civil War II directly to Secret Empire like this; that's what Marvel was doing in the hey-day of its events. But this long monologue is really dull [2/10].
Karnak is well and truly mad, isn't he? I liked parts of the Ulysses mini and The Oath one-shot. I'd already read The Accused one-shot, and that was pretty good. The Fallen one-shot was meh.
Judging from the abysmal storyline of Civil War II, the fallout is not half bad. The 3 part Ulysses and Death of Bruce Banner are reason enough to read this compilation.
Alright, I'll admit it. I saw the cover for this comic and bought into Marvel's bullshit by paying to own it and I highly regret the decision but my $3.99 is gone and that's just how life is.
Sadly this was a let down for me, it filled in some minor plot holes from the main run of Civil War II and then gave a glimpse of what the future holds, which is unfortunately horrific but I'll get into that near the end.
The first six issues included centered on Ulysses and his training at the Tower of Wisdom. I personally feel that Ulysses is a very boring character and I don't really care for or about him or his training, and even less about him reaching divine status for no apparent reason. The story really breezed by and there was nothing too important or exciting about it, so while it wasn't garbage I'm not exactly sure why it was written at all.
The next comic was about Clint's trial for Bruce's murder, as well as the charged emotions and conspiracy surrounding it. The writer compels you to feel bad for Clint whether you want to or not, and while I still believe what he did was wrong, ill-judged and deserved punishment, I can't really hate him for it after reading about how guilty he feels.
Then came what I was actually hoping for from this collection, a story that centered around Bruce's family and friends and them coming together to support each other and hear his will. Reading it was definitely bittersweet and it doesn't give as much closure for his death as the Totally Awesome Hulk tie-ins in my opinion, but there's an advertisement for those at the end so readers understand to find them next. I really liked Bruce's suggestion about setting a timer for three minutes and doing nothing to calm down from rage before doing anything rash, I have anger problems of my own and will probably try that the next time something sets me off.
The last issue included here was awful, I was one of the people who felt pretty strongly about how Captain America being written as a Hydra agent is wrong and disrespectful to his Jewish creators and the people who found hope in him as the man fought Nazis. Listening to him go on about justice and morals is bad enough when he's himself since I usually cannot stand the man and how self-righteous he is, but being aware it was coming from the mouth of a character who is now absolute and utter scum made me want to vomit. The panels at the end of the Captain's view of the future that included very young children pledging allegiance to Hydra were some of the most heinous images I'd ever seen in a comic. I really have no clue how the creators of this issue and the entire Hydra Captain plot did not see how disgusting this is towards people who had and still have their lives threatened and oppressed by Nazis and groups affiliated with them like Hydra is in this fictional world.
My other large compliant with this volume is that Rhodey and his death are only mentioned one time. While Rhodey chose to put his life on the line fighting Thanos, he is still gone, and the least Marvel could do for murdering one of their few black heroes only to stir up drama and the emotions of white characters is to write something showing that those characters truly care. Correct me if I'm wrong but Bruce got multiple volumes of stories related to his friends and family's reactions to his death and so far I've seen nothing further about Rhodey. He may not have had as big of a part in the Marvel Universe as Hulk did, but he still meant something to people and deserved a proper send off.
In total Civil War II is an event I wish had never happened, but ironically I own this volume now thanks to my own foolishness and being willing to pay for any piece of media that appears to actually give a shit about Bruce.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1 estrella por todo lo que no fue Ulysses 2 estrellas porque la parte de Ulysses estuvo narrada de manera interesante... and is not that atrotious.
Quedaban dos pero le resté una por que la última issue es una cosa atroz que marca el camino para Secret Empire (cuando el Cap dice Hail Hydra) y porque me cagan tanto Steve a estas alturas (antes eras chévere, antes = Civil War original), como Tony (siempre) como Carol Danvers (Marvel realmente se esforzó en que me cayera mal y LO LOGRARON).
It makes sense that he needs training, but I was hoping to actually learn more about Ulysses's character.
Best feature: Lockjaw mention Worst feature: Medusa acknowledged as Queen but not acting like it. Damn girl, why you so uncertain? Why couldn't you train Ulysses?
The Ulysses mini is written by Al Ewing, with layouts by Karl Kesel, art by Jefte Palo, colours by Nick Filardi, and lettering by Clayton Cowles. It was originally published as an digital "Infinite Comic" where the panels overlap each other. Ewing really gets to go all-out with such a different style of comic than the usual print medium, making use of repeated panels that gain new context (such as changing dialogue, follow-up panels, replacing previous panels but keeping newer ones) that make reading the comic a more cinematic experience. He also gets to add a bunch of new Inhumans with different powers and a setting with its own unique (visual and social) culture. Ewing has become one of Marvel's biggest writers over the years so it's really cool to see him get to put his own pen on the big Inhuman franchise. It can be read right after issue #0 if Civil War II, and I highly recommend it (at least, digitally).
The Accused and The Fallen are two one-shots about a specific death that happens in Civil War II. Like Bill Foster in the original Civil War, another hero pays the ultimate price- well, sort of. The Accused is about the trial, with Matt Murdock (and his superhero alias Daredevil, of course) prosecuting. They try their hardest to make you think this trial really matters but it's basically just something spinning out of the event. The event is all about Ulysses and stuff, this one-shot is trying to throw a different plot thread in and instead of 'hero dies, people reconsider their sides' it ends up as 'hero dies, everyone else does exactly what they were doing before but now they look worse for doing it'. Oh and a bunch of throwbacks to the original Civil War for... reasons? Reasons that don't make sense, come out of nowhere, and at best would be a cheeky wink-wink-nudge-nudge but instead of an easter egg it's treated as a central conflict for the main Civil War II event. Which come up only in this tie-in. And don't matter. At all.
And then The Fallen is about the, well, 'fallen' aka dead person. Not going to say who it is, in case you haven't read Civil War II yet, but it's actually really touching. Showing the effects of the person's passing on everyone else- their friends, and their family, one last final parting gift of wisdom. Has pretty much nothing to do with Civil War II itself, but it's a terrific one-shot if you care about the character.
The Oath is kind of an epilogue of Civil War II, kind of a prologue to the next year's event Secret Empire. It shows all the different status quo changes, how each character is reacting to Civil War II, and feature Steve Rogers giving a lengthy speech about how weak the world is and how great Hydra will be. It's probably the best part of Civil War II because it's part of a storyline that's actually interesting (Nick Spencer's Captain America saga) instead of, well, the actual event it's included in. And sure there's some troubling aspects to that series but it's a hell of a one-shot.
So that's it. Overall this is kind of a mess of a collection. You get a short series from the start of the event, two one-shots from the middle, and an epilogue one-shot. None of them really affect the overall event at all, and you can skip all of them without 'missing' anything. Sure these helps flesh out individual character arcs in relation to their overall role in the Marvel universe, but they don't really matter to the event. The Oath is really the only one that feels like a complete and worthwhile extension of the main story but at the same time, it spends the entire one-shot setting up a different story instead. It doesn't work without the context of some other event. I'd love to recommend this, because it has some of the best stuff in Civil War II, but it's also tied to an event that no one should be reading in the first place.
This was a mixed bag of stories with 1 miniseries and 3 one-shots, but only the two one-shots, The Fallen and The Oath, actually meant something to the Civil War II event.
The Ulysses miniseries didn’t add much to the title character, and the artwork was lacklustre with unnecessarily weird and creepy-looking supporting characters, but there was a nice moment in the final chapter between Ulysses and Lock. Personally, I don’t think the Infinite Comic format works most of the time.
The Fallen was a good send-off to the Hulk, and the artwork was nice. Although, we all know this isn’t a final goodbye to the Jolly Green Giant.
The Oath is an epilogue to the Civil War II event, but the whole thing is just Steve Rogers monologuing, and we get to see him become the new director of SHIELD. There’s passing references to past Marvel events, and even some parallels to the first Marvel Civil War. Plus, it sets up the Secret Empire event, which I’m not ready for yet. Artwork was fine.
The Accused is for some reason is not available for digital purchase, but only exists in the digital collected edition. Therefore, I could not read this.
Overall, It’s stuff like this that makes tie-ins feel urgent to read, but in reality doesn’t offer much and you end up feeling like a fool for wanting to read them in the first place. I only recommend reading The Fallen and The Oath.
Once you get past the forgettable Ulysses prologue, -aside: I have no idea why the prologue to the entire series is in the final book- Fallout is one of the better chapters of the Civil War 2 saga. Nice and rather touching eulogy to Doctor Banner. But I think I can understand why they let him go now that I think about it. Hulk's book has not regained the popularity it had when it was my favorite under Pak/Loeb and Parker. That stretch that produced Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, Incredible Hercules, Fall of the Hulks, etc. That was an amazingly great span and run. Maybe even Hulk's greatest. I certainly love it.
It's been over 6 years since all that ended with the publication of Hulk: The Heart of the Monsters by Pak in 2011. A really great read by the way. And just about every Hulk book since then has been a misfire. She-Hulk had a great title. That was cancelled. Alan Davis did one that was pretty fun. Walt Simonson made him look great. Still no great magic. Even Pak's return to the book couldn't do it. In comics 6 years is a long time to go without a hit. So as much as I hate to admit it. It probably is the right time to temporarily retire the character. But I'll be the first in line when he makes his return.
Collects Civil War II: Ulysses issues #1-3, Civil War II: The Fallen #1, Civil War II: The Accused #1, Civil War II: The Oath
This is a mixed bag of boring material, pointless material, and some semi-interesting material.
Final rating = 2.5 stars
SOME SPOILERS BELOW:
The Ulysses story is about him getting trained by the Inhumans. Karnak is the other main character in this story.
"The Fallen" deals with the aftermath of the death of Bruce Banner, including scenes from his funeral.
"The Accused" is about the trial of Hawkeye.
I felt like "Fallen" and "Accused" both had information that just expanded on what we got from the main event series. We didn't really need these issues, even if they had some interesting anecdotes.
"The Oath" was probably the best part of this collection because it sets up the 2017 Marvel event, "Secret Empire." In that way, it acts as both an epilogue to "Civil War II" and a prologue to "Secret Empire."
Most of this volume I was pretty 'meh' about. I get it. Karnak is a dick and being trained by him would suck. After all, if someone is going to utilise their special powers of FINDING FAULT WITH EVERYTHING THEY SEE the least they could do is marry you first, amiright? Still, being the dufus completist I am, I trudged my way through some pretty uninspired stories until I got to the final comic in the TB.
It's brilliant.
No spoilers, but the masterful juxtaposition of Steve Rogers speaking on the steps of the House of Representatives to the assembled masses as he is sworn in as the new leader of SHIELD, and the chilling private monologue he delivers over the comatose body of Tony Stark is written and drawn so perfectly it is spine-tinglingly chilling. At the very least, skip to end for this story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
A miniseries and three one-shots set at various times throughout Civil War II.
First, a three-issue series focussing on Ulysses. My biggest problem with Civil War II is that Ulysses was the macguffin and was never treated as person. I was hoping this would flesh out the character more, but not really. Medusa brings Ulysses to Karnak's tower, where Ulysses meets some weird Inhumans and where Karnak utterly fails to explain his religion. Then, like everyone else, Karnak tests the veracity of Ulysses's visions.
The one-shots include Matt Murdock prosecuting Hawkeye's trial, the funeral for Bruce Banner, and, after Civil War II, Steve Rogers being sworn in as the leader of SHIELD. I've already read the trial and the Captain America piece in other collections.
"MY PERSONAL FEELINGS ASIDE, I HAVE ONLY ONE JOB HERE. AND THAT IS TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOUR LIFE ENDS AT THE POINT OF A NEEDLE." - Matt Murdock, prosecutor, to Clint Barton, suspect on trial for the murder of Bruce Banner.
First, Karnak puts Ulysses through a SERE course while he tries to prove the validity of Ulysses' future visions. Next, Matt Murdock has to prosecute Hawkeye for the murder of Hulk. A piece, brilliantly drawn by Mark Bagley, shows the "Hulk family," their reactions to losing Banner, and the reading of his will. Finally, Steve talks to a comatose Tony about his plans for world domination by means of an unpopular crossover event. Two stories were decent. The other two, not so much. Overall, an average rating of "meh." Two stars.
A good expansion of the Civil War II arc told from several points of view. The two best are the DareDevil storyline and the final Captain America panels which serve to set up the Secret Empire arc.
If you've read Civil War II you should read this, or not, it's up to you.
For an event I started off liking but grow to dislike more and more as it went on most of these comics and some nice depth to the parts I did like well worth a read.
Pretty decent as an online comic. Cool transitions,(but I'm sure I'd say that about any comic done as an Infinite Comic). Lots of witty banter with Karnak doing his thing as A-Hole Supreme.
Merged review:
A little bit on the short side, but it is yet another wonderfully done Infinite Comic. Karnak is so badass.