Front Lines - Mini-Reviews (Week of July 6) - DC Rebirth and Civil War II

Captain America: Sam Wilson #11 by Nick Spencer and Daniel Acuna

Summary: Both Captain Marvel and Iron Man approach Sam Wilson about supporting their side in the Ulysses debate.  Sam decides that he’s with Stark, reluctantly.  He plans on giving a nuanced speech about it, but there is an emergency so he says “**** future profiling.”  The emergency is that Rage has started fighting back against the perceived racism of the Americops.  Sam is worried that this will all blow up, so rushes to intervene.  

Meanwhile, we find out USAgent is active overseas fighting terrorists. He gets a call from the US Senate…

Mike: With everything that happened last week, this issue ended up being very timely.  I say all the time that I think comics need to have more diversity in creators, but I do think that Nick Spencer has a lot to say about race.  For the most part, I think he handles difficult topics very well.

The scenes with Sam talking to Carol and Tonk were well done.  Maybe some of the best character moments from Civil War II so far. I also liked seeing the return of two characters I’ve always liked in Rage and US Agent.  

Civil War II: Kingpin #1

“Shouldn’t Have Come Back” by Matthew Rosenberg and Ricardo Lopez Ortiz

Summary: Kingpin has returned to New York.  He is trying to gather villains together, but the heroes are now arresting criminals before they act, using Ulysses.  Kingpin has an Inhuman of his own working for him, Janus.  Bushwhacker comes to kill Kingpin, but Kingpin easily takes  Bushwhacker out.

Heroes continue to take down villains, but keep finding Kingpin to be immune to showing up in Ulysses predictions.  A local asks Kingpin to help find his kidnapped daughter. Kingpin tracks the kidnapper to a warehouse.  He realizes that Janus is the kidnapper.  But he also realizes that Janus is immune to Ulysses’ power, so useful to him.

“The Death and Birth of Janus Jardeesh” by Matthew Rosenberg and Dalibor Talajic

Summary: In the backup, we get Janus’s back story.  While Kingpin was out of town, Janus worked for Black Cat.  He was exposed to terrigan gas and revealed to be an Inhuman.  He wasn’t sure what his powers were, but they kept making him sick and seeing visions of Celestials.  His girlfriend ends up leaving him.  He manage to escape a raid where all of Black Cat’s men get arrested.  He’s desperate for work, and gets recruited by Man Mountain Marko to help do some kidnappings.

Mike: I am not even sure what I read here.  So one of Kingpin’s men just happens to be an Inhuman whose power is that he is exempt from Ulysses’s powers?  This requires way too many leaps of faith for me to sit back and enjoy this one.  I am glad to see Kingpin stepped his game up, but the whole story feels real forced and unnecessary.   Probably the worst Civil War II tie-in yet.

Civil War II: Ulysses #2 by Al Ewing, Karl Kesel, and Jefte Palo

Summary: Ulysses is brought into Karnak’s Tower of Wisdom to be trained. He takes a tour and meets some of the other freaky inhabitants of the Tower.  Ulysses is disgusted by everything he’s seen, which pisses Karnak off. Karnak brings him to his room, which is basically a prison cell.  Karnak threatens Ulysses, which induces a vision of the future.  Ulysses sees the tower collapsed and everyone is dead.

Mike: Another blah Marvel Infinite issue.  There wasn’t anything wrong with this issue, it’s just nothing I would have picked up if not for Civil War II.  Marvel has never made a real strong argument that their digital books are worth my time and money. I hate so say that because DC, Monkeybrain, and Thrillbent all put out first run digital comics that I absolutely love.  Marvel charges more for their digital comics, and the quality just isn’t there.

Civil War II: X-Men #2  by Cullen Bunn and Andrea Broccardo

Summary: The X-Men are able to stop a Brood invasion that Ulysses predicted.  But the X-Men and Captain Marvel are concerned what Magneto will do about Ulysses. Magneto sees Ulysses as a weapon that could be used against mutantkind.  

Meanwhile, Nightcrawler has defected to Magneto’s team, as he also has concerns about how Ulysses could be used.  Magneto sends Fantomex in to do reconnaissance on New Attilan, but Storm had already sent Gambit in to take Fantomex down and get him out of New Attilan before he triggered war between Inhumans and mutants.

Psylocke has been in contact with Storm the whole time.  She decides that Magneto is up to his old tricks, and steals a Blackbird to leave Magneto’s team. Magneto decides they need another psychic to replace her.

Mike: It’s kind of annoying that the events on this book seem like they will have a major impact on the core X-Men series, but they are happening here in this crossover mini. Nightcrawler and Psylocke have both left their teams and defected for a lack of better term. The mutants may be heading towards an inevitable war with the Inhumans.   Too much be NOT be happening in the core titles themselves, if you ask me.

That said, I am really enjoying the story Cullen Bunn is telling here.  He has a strong take on all these characters.  I kind of would love to see him as the sole X-Men writer moving forward. It would make the line a more more coherent and tightly plotted to have one writer doing the two core X-titles. All-New X-Men can basically stand on it’s own, I would think.

Spider-Woman #9 by Dennis Hopeless and Javier Rodriguez

Summary: Captain Marvel keeps trying to get Spider-Woman’s attention, but Jessica and Porcupine are on a case in Canada trying to stop Wendigos.  They find a restaurant intentionally feeding human to its customers to create Wendigos.  Captain Marvel arrives to help them defeat the Wendigos.  Spider-Woman is annoyed that Carol interfered, but Carol insists it’s important.  She tells Jessica about Ulysses and asks that Jessica and her team help vet Ulysses’ smaller predictions to see if they all come true.  Jessica reluctantly agrees.

Mike: Again with the Wendigos.  Marvel kind of did a similar story in Amazing X-Men a while back, though it was played a little more for laughs here.   In the end, Jessica finds herself dragged into the Civil War debate.  It’s a shame that Spider-Woman has spent so much of the second volume dragged into crossovers.  Spider-Women was blah, and Civil War II just hasn’t grabbed me.  I do think Dennis Hopeless does a great job with Jessica anyway, but I can’t help but think of Peter David’s first run on X-Factor where he felt like he was never able to really build a flow because he would have to stop his stories every few months for the next flavor of the month crossover.

The Totally Awesome Hulk #8 by Greg Pak and Alan Davis

Summary: About a month ago, Bruce Banner intentionally injected himself with a flu virus out of curiosity because when he was Hulk, he could never get sick.    Amadeus and Maddy bring him to Hulk’s old  base in Arizona.  Rick Jones and She-Hulk come to visit.  Maddy gets Amadeus to admit to him that he’s been experiencing black outs.  She-Hulk and Banner both are certain that he’s nothing like the old Hulk and shouldn’t be a danger.  Amadeus ends up catching the flu from Hulk, and there is where we end.

Mike: While things might go to shit in next week’s Civil War II (Ulysses saw a vision that one of the Hulks is responsible for killing all the heroes), this was a nice characterization piece.  We learned a lot about Banner and Cho.  And it was great to see Rick Jones and She-Hulk here as supporting characters.  I do think She-Hulk can headline her own book, but comics just don’t have strong supporting casts like they used to.  Totally Awesome Hulk kind of flies under the radar, but it is consistently one of my favorite Marvel titles.

Justice League: Rebirth #1 by Bryan Hitch

Summary: An alien creature called The Reaper has come to Earth.  It is able to infect people and bring it under it’s control. Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg stand against it.   Meanwhile, Pre-Flashpoint Superman is not sure if he’s ready to be part of the Justice League, but Lois talks him into it.  Superman and the two new Green Lanterns arrive to help the Justice League defeat the Reaper.  The Reaper suggests that it’s the start of even more powerful threats to come.  

Mike: This story actually would be a solid way to “rebirth” Justice League, but to be honest, I just don’t like Bryan Hitch’s take on DC’s icons.  I got bored of his Justice League of America after just 2 issues, and I was annoyed they decided to put him on the core Justice League book moving forward.  I honestly just can’t bring myself to buy Justice League by Hitch.  Hoping they get someone else on that book real quick.