Gang, our Civil War II #7 review is a little SPOILER-Y, so…check back with us after you’ve read the issue. Oh? Still here? Thank you!
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: David Marquez
Bendis has one more issue to stick the landing. One more issue to make it all worthwhile. Because the jury is still out on the legacy of Civil War II.
Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not pooping on the event. Some of the tie-ins have been really, really good. Heck man, there was an issue of Patsy Walker: Hellcat that made me cry for real man tears, for Pete’s sake. But the core book itself has been an uneven buffet of great characterization and shocking reveals combined with decompressed wheel spinning and endless wool gathering.
Issue seven is no different with the precognitive Inhuman Ulysses on some sort of vision quest that takes him to the world of Old Man Logan. Meanwhile, Captain Marvel’s team is trying to figure out what to do about Miles Morales. Remember, in the previous issue, Ulysses shared a vision that Miles will kill Steve Rogers, and this issue, no one really knows what to do with poor Miles. And then Iron Man shows up and — that’s really it.
Bendis serves as our guide to both Ulysses’ mind trip and the conflict with Miles, and everything just sort of moves along at a leisurely pace with the same points being brought up again and again and then nothing really happens. Guys, this title has been late and it has been decompressed to an inch of its life. It’s time for answers and resolutions. This issue gives readers neither.
It’s not all bad though, kids. Because in this Miles Morales-focused issue, we’re reminded that nobody writes Miles like Bendis. That’s the hook that keeps this installment moving. And it is fun to see Bendis return to the world of Old Man Logan one more time. The writer’s Old Man Logan miniseries was one of the highlights of Secret Wars, so it is fun to watch Bendis swim those Sergio Leone-like waters again.
But the book’s main event is the art of David Marquez. Marquez’s character’s emotions simply leap off the page. He has such dramatic timing even when his characters are just talking. And in this book, characters talk — a lot. But Marquez’s greatest trick is making his layouts match the innovative and brilliant layouts Andrea Sorrentino uses on the Old Man Logan regular series and miniseries. The Old Man Logan sequences could have been just another derivative Ulysses vision, but thanks to Marquez’s tonal matching, the Ulysses Logan scenes really shined.
Also, by having Ulysses visit a very familiar, very recently revealed potential future, Bendis did raise the stakes on the series. So, let’s see if Bendis can stick the landing when Civil War II ends next issue.
