Civil War II #2 Review

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In Civil War II #2, The Marvel Universe teams up on Tony Stark…for now.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Civil War II #2.

Civil War II #2

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | Artist: David Marquez | Color Artist: Juston Ponsor | Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles | Designer: Victor Ochoa | Cover Artist: Marko Djurdjevic

Assualt on New Attilan

Civil War II #2 has been billed as Tony Stark declaring war on the Inhumans. That may be an exaggeration. Tony Stark wants Ulysses. Ulysses is in New Attilan, and New Attilan is home of the Inhumans. Therefore, Iron Man invades New Attilan in order get Ulysses.

However, Ulysses is a citizen of New Attilan. Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans, will not let one of her subjects be abducted. She begs Tony not to go through with this, but Tony won’t listen. She attempts to subdue him, but Tony retaliates. This brings in the rest of the Inhumans to the Queen’s aid.

Faced with unfavorable odd, Iron Man takes the opportunity to demonstrate his power. An entire team of Inhumans is unable to stop him. There is an especially good moment between Karnak and Iron Man. Karnak has the ability to detect structural weaknesses and use them against his opponents. As an engineer, Tony always appreciated that. However, Tony ends up apologizing to Karnak, because he doesn’t have any.

Through the use of a decoy, Tony grabs Ulysses and gets away.

The Inhumans Threaten Retalliation

Stark’s assault on New Attilan was not unanticipated by Carol Danvers and the Ultimates. They gave the Inhumans a warning. Of course, it wasn’t enough. Medusa and the Inhumans want Ulysses back and at least some of them want revenge. They all know that Tony is not at Stark Tower, but the Inhumans head there anyway.

Karnak threatens to bring down Stark Tower in retaliation. That is when a combined force of Avengers, Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents intervene. The combined force promises to handle the situation and return Ulysses to the Inhumans. Mollified for the moment, Medusa and the Inhumans refrain from taking any action against Stark Tower.

This is an impressive force that has arrayed itself against Iron Man. The combined motives of the group vary. First, the Inhumans want to retrieve Ulysses and they want some measure of revenge. Second, some of the assembled heroes are allies and friends of Tony’s. They may not always agree with him, but the last thing they want is to get in a life threatening altercation with him. Third, Carol Danvers is trying to preserve a measure of peace. Tony’s capture of Ulysses very well could be taken as an act of war. She is interested in preventing that.

Tony Examines Ulysses

While the rest of the Super Hero community aligns against him, Tony hides in a secret location. Ulysses was rendered unconscious, but Tony awakens him to test him. He demands that Ulysses demonstrate his powers. Ulysses, however, is not capable of generating the visions. At this point, they just come to him.

With the assistance of his assistant artificial intelligence, Friday, Tony examines Ulysses anyway. After some questioning and experimentation, Tony learns a little about Ulysses, but he doesn’t come to a definitive understanding of Ulysses’ abilities. Tony has Friday take a scan of Ulysses’ brain for further study later should he survive the conflict with his friends. He does raise an issue that not many have so far when considering Ulysses’ talents. How can Ulysses be sure that his visions aren’t influenced by any biases that he may or may not be aware of?

Just before the cavalry is about to arrive, Tony reiterates a point that has been part of central argument all along. Rhodey died because Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers acted on information that she shouldn’t have known. Acting on a potential future event had unintended consequences. While it might have prevented a larger attack on Earth, it may also have ended up costing two heroes their lives. Furthermore, there is no proof that Earth’s heroes would not have stopped Thanos with a minimum loss of life if they had reacted to an attack instead of rushing to prevent one (see Civil War II, issue #1).

The Cavalry Arrives

Tony’s examination of Ulysses is cut short. Despite the fact that many of Earth’s mightiest heroes have allied themselves against him, Tony handles the situation in a nonchalant manner. At this time, the Ultimates and Avengers are still trying to reason with Tony. They argue for him to act rationally. He did just kidnap Ulysses, who up until recently was just a college kid.

The argument between Tony and the other heroes makes it difficult to paint Tony in a bad light. Sure, he did attack the Inhumans. He did kidnap Ulysses. But, he is the only one that is concerned with the manner in which Ulysses’ powers are being used. Not even Hank McCoy, a.k.a. the Beast, has stopped to consider the consequences of using Ulysses’ gifts.

Tony attempts to point this out to the assembled heroes once again. He is even willing to agree with Carol Danvers that he is having a nervous breakdown. The stress of his friend’s death has gotten to him. He is also alarmed that his friends have stopped considering his concerns. This entire argument is brought to an early end.

Ulysses’ Latest Vision

As Tony is making his point to Captain Marvel and the other heroes, Ulysses experiences a vision. This vision is different than the last in that not only does he see it, but he projects it to all the assembled heroes. The vision is dire. The Hulk is standing over the bodies of many, if not all, of the Avengers and Ultimates. Ulysses apologizes to the group and confirms his vision.

Coincidentally, this scenario is not far off from what Tony offered as a hypothetical in issue one. Granted in issue one his hypothetical had the Hulk making out with Ultron, which isn’t what Ulysses forecast in this vision. However, Tony did follow up his hypothetical with an observation and a question. His observation was that Ulysses predicting the Celestial attack had little in the way of consequences if he had been wrong. If the Celestial hadn’t show up, then no harm and no foul.

More importantly, Tony asked what would they do if Ulysses predicted one of them would be a danger? Should they lock up a hero before he had done anything wrong? That is now the scenario before the heroes. The difference is that they are all scared. Ulysses predicted the Celestial and he predicted the attack by Thanos. The attack by Thanos led to the loss of beloved friends and comrades.

The Growing Conflict

So, the heroes of the Marvel universe have reached a crisis point. What do they do? They have just received a terrifying vision from a source many of them believe to be reliable. Their doom has been predicted. Not at the hands of a villain, but this attack comes at the hands of an ally. Do they have the right to take preemptive action? Should they?

Up until this moment, the heroes have attempted to reconcile their differences even if Tony Stark did take drastic action by kidnapping Ulysses. Many of the heroes have genuine affection for each other. Carol Danvers has told Tony Stark she loves him multiple times. She has shed tears for Rhodey and She Hulk. Tony confides in Ulysses that he is likely going to war with very close friends, and he has to understand how Ulysses’ powers work.

It is unclear what all the heroes think of the vision Ulysses shared and what to do about it. It is relatively clear what Carol Danvers thinks. She heads straight for Bruce Banner as the issue concludes. While everyone was playing nicely up to this point, that is unlikely to continue.

Civil War II #2 Final Thoughts

It appears that the Hulk is the tipping point to this series. In the lead up to Civil War II, Marvel has promoted the notion that the death of a hero at the hands of another hero will ignite the conflict. The question has been which two heroes would be involved? For the moment, that appears to be the Hulk and Carol Danvers. Many are predicting that the Hulk will kill someone. I’m not so certain that is the case.

For one thing, Carol Danvers may not even have the right person. Bruce Banner is not currently the Hulk. Amadeus Cho became the Hulk after the events of the recent Secret Wars event. In addition, Ulysses’ vision predicts the death of the Avengers and Ultimates. It isn’t likely that all of them will die. Carol appears poised to try and do something to Banner before he could turn into the Hulk, if such a thing is possible, to prevent those deaths.

However, the biggest reason I do not believe it will be the Hulk killing another hero is that this is the very scenario that has created a rift between Tony and Carol. Captain Marvel has been able to fall back on the accuracy of Ulysses’ visions in the past. How will she cope when one of his visions proves to be the catalyst for a disaster or severely flawed? Much of the story has focused on Tony’s perspective and side of the argument so far. It will be interesting to get a compelling argument from Carol’s perspective.

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