Civil War #5 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Soule wraps up this series beautifully.  Seriously.  As endings go, it's pretty damn perfect.

Jennifer manages to punch a hole in the Skrull's compound, allowing Tony to restart his communications system (because he can now transmit a signal) and call a suit of armor to come get him.  Jennifer goes after Veranke while Tony beelines for Steve.  As I mentioned last issue, I wasn't entirely sure how Tony was going to convince Steve to believe him that the Skrulls were "responsible."  But, Soule solves that problem in exactly the way any good author should solve it:  he shows and doesn't tell.  Tony uses his sonic blasters to reveal that his deputy, Bucky, was a Skrull, proving his point to Steve.  (I'm pretty sure that he got this information from Jennifer's quick look into the Skrulls' files.)  Still somewhat disbelieving, Steve allows Emma to share Tony's thoughts with him, showing Veranke's super-villain exposition from last issue.  (It's still the only weak point of this series.)

However, Tony worries that it's still too late, since it'll be next to impossible not only to rally the troops on both sides to work in concert against the Skrulls but to prevent them from shape-changing and fleeing.  Steve suggests the Bellcurve bomb -- dun dun DUN! -- and he gets Logan-Hulk to throw it into the Divide.  (On that, I had no idea that Logan was the Hulk.  Did we see that happen, or did it happen before the series?  I feel like Soule thought that I knew that, but it was definitely a "WTF?" moment for me.)  However, the bomb is damaged, and Steve and Tony go to detonate it themselves. Seeking some form of penance, they also decide to attract the heroes into the Divide with them:  the bomb explodes, killing Steve and Tony and removing the powers of Earth's superheroes.  Later, Peter and Jennifer talk on the Divide, showing that the two sides are cautiously working together.  Jennifer asks Peter if he thinks that Steve and Tony purposefully took away their powers.  He responds that he doesn't know, but he doesn't want to fight about it.

I like this issue so much because it really delves into the psychology of the events.  For example, on several occasions, Tony refuses to blame the Skrull for the war.  He recognizes that they might've fanned the flames of the conflict, but he and Steve kept the war going because they were heroes made kings:  they couldn't lose.  Steve is more quick to blame the Skrulls, and it fits with his personality:  he can't admit that he could've been the bad guy all along.  (Tony faced that reality years ago.)  Steve only starts to come to that realization at the end, and even then it's overshadowed by his disbelief that it was the Skrulls all along.  But, it's not just Steve and Tony that Soule puts on the couch.  We learn that MJ chose the Iron because she thought that it was better for their daughter; Peter chose the Blue to avoid getting thrown into Stark's jails.  But, Peter implies to Jennifer that those decisions might have had more to do with their relationship (and the problems in it) and that the forced choice might've been a convenient excuse.  Again, it shows a subtlety that we just rarely see in comics:  the "villain" isn't necessarily the one that causes the problem; sometimes, it's just the way that the hero frames the problem, usually in a way that suits him/her.  Seriously, where else do you get that sort of insight?

When you combine the characterization, plotting, and scripting with Yu's pencils, it's just a great package.  This series and "Amazing Spider-Man:  Renew Your Vows" are definitely the top two "Secret Wars" tie-in series for me.  In fact, even if you're not reading "Secret Wars," you should pick up this mini-series.  It stands on its own as a great story.  (Can Soule and Yu come work on "Amazing Spider-Man" when Slott is done?  Please?)

***** (five of five stars)

Civil War #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

All along, it's been "Civil War" versus "Secret Invasion" and we didn't even know!  (In retrospect, we probably should've known, given that "Secret Invasion" was one of the few events that Marvel didn't pull into "Secret Wars."  But, until now, we didn't know!)

T'Challa is revealed to be the Skrull Queen, Veranke, in this issue.  Tony arrives to save Jennifer from "him," but "T'Challa's" defenses make short work of Tony.  "T'Challa" then goes full Bond villain by narrating the secret history of the Warzone.  "He" admits to destroying the Negative Zone prison.  Since "his" forces weren't yet strong enough to initiate an invasion, "he" let Steve and Tony weaken each other further with their civil war.  "He" alludes to "his" lost homeland as motivation for finding a new nation for "his" people, and we of course think that "he's" talking about Wakanda.  However, Tony realizes that he's not dealing with T'Challa, since T'Challa would be smart enough to have killed Tony immediately.  (Heh.)  Veranke is confident that she knows all Tony's tricks, but he informs her that he doesn't exactly advertise all his abilities:  he uses thunder that he created after cloning Thor to attack her (and reveal her identity).  He and Jennifer make quick work of the remaining Skrulls, and Jennifer tells Tony that she has to tell him about her mission in the Blue.  (I think that we're supposed to believe that she stumbled upon Project:  Bellcurve, but I don't see how she could've, since Bullseye almost immediately caught her.)  Meanwhile, Steve has led his forces across the Divide and rides into the middle of the Iron's heroes with the hope that they attack him so he can deploy the bomb.
  

I'm only giving this issue three stars, despite thoroughly enjoying it, because Vernake's monologue is just too expository and wasteful:  seriously, she should've just killed Tony so that she could impersonate him, as she planned.  But, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how suitably epic Yu's art is:  I pretty much want him drawing all huge battle-scenes.  It also doesn't mean that I'm not excited to see how Soule brings the story to an end next issue.  It would be interesting to learn when Veranke replaced T'Challa.  But, the real question is whether Tony will get to Steve in time to stop him from detonating the bomb.  Even if Steve learns that he and Tony were manipulated into their war, I don't know if he's going to care.

*** (three of five stars)

Civil War #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Of all the tie-in series, this one is definitely telling the darkest story.  To underline that point, Soule reveals in this issue that Kingpin once ripped the arms from Doc Ock and attached them to his body, but the arms killed him instead with 20,000 volts of electricity to the brain.  Not that dark, you think?  Could be darker, you scoff?  It doesn't end there.  The arms kept Kingpin's dead body as a host and got a job building tech for Iron Man.  Seriously, when I say "dark," I mean dark.

The best part of this issue is Soule exploring Peter's fractured psyche.  After Elektra is killed on their mission to retrieve supplies to implement Project Bellcurve, Peter tells the Beast that he felt nothing.  He's seen so much death that he may remember how he used to feel when someone died, but he can't connect with that feeling anymore.  From Logan, you'd probably just nod at this comment, but Soule reminds you how awful this reality is to force Peter Parker to such a place.

Meanwhile, Jennifer tracks down Bullseye, only to get captured by, of all people, T'Challa.  We learn that he survived the explosion in the Negative Zone, but we don't know how he survived, why he stayed in hiding, or why he's working with Bullseye.  But, given that he blames Stark for the explosion, I'm guessing that Jennifer isn't really going to get that warm of a welcome.

*** (three of five stars)

Civil War #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Soule makes it clear here that the actors in this drama have reached a point of no return.  After years of stalemate, they're striking at each other more directly than they previously have.

On the Blue side, Peter convinces Steve that the assassination attempt on him is the proof that they need that Stark has no intention of negotiating.  Steve (more or less) agrees and greenlights Project Bellcurve, a procedure that the Beast developed to strip metahumans of their powers.  The plan appears to be to use this procedure on all the metahumans of the Iron.  However, Peter has to lead a mission into the Iron to get the resources needed to use it on that grand of a scale.  Meanwhile, Tony has come to realize that someone is manipulating events behind the scenes and sends Jennifer into the Blue to track down the assassin to see if s/he is connected to this manipulation.

As with other "Secret Wars" tie-in series, this series is fascinating because we really see familiar characters taken to (and perhaps beyond) their limit.  Peter is spoiling for a fight, rattled by Stark bringing Mary Jane and his daughter to see him at the Divide.  Steve has fetishized freedom, making sure that Sandman (the test subject for Bellcurve) is fully cognizant of his decision to lose his powers.  However, it's unclear how he reconciles this view with the possibility of involuntarily stripping thousands of metahumans in the Iron of their powers.  Does he really believe that he has no other choice?  Although he acquiesces to Peter here, he doesn't seem all that convinced.  Finally, She-Hulk is portrayed as particularly world-weary, almost too exhausted to seek justice for her friend, Miriam Sharpe.  It's a grim place.

Like "Amazing Spider-Man:  Renew Your Vows," I feel like we're not heading for a happy ending here, and I'm anxious to see how it all unfolds.  Before I go, I also need to mention the art.  Yu is really on fire here:  his designs for the cities -- particularly Liberation, the capital of the Blue -- are stunning.  It makes me long for the day when he takes of "Amazing Spider-Man."  One day, maybe!

**** (four of five stars)

Civil War #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue is probably the best first issue of any comics series that I've ever read.  Seriously.  Wow.

Unlike most events, "Secret Wars'" tie-in issues have been its real strength.  (I actually like the larger story that Hickman is telling, so I don't mean that as a dig against him.)  In most events, the tie-in issues are unloved step-children, telling stories that happen off-panel in the main series but that aren't necessarily all that interesting in the first place.  But, with "Secret Wars," the tie-in issue are actually the entire point of the event.  Doom pulled together all these realities where some of the best-known events of Marvel's past didn't get resolved in the way that they did in the prime reality, and we get to see how they went instead.  It initially sounded like fan-wanking, but, I'll be honest, it makes me wonder if Marvel shouldn't go the opposite way from where they're planning:  rather than ending the Multiverse with this event, maybe they should keep telling all these stories.

Turning to the matter at hand, "Civil War" happened when I wasn't reading comics.  I know the outlines of the story mainly from the "Marvel:  Ultimate Alliance 2" video game.  Soule starts us at the tipping point of the event, with Captain America and the anti-registration heroes storming Iron Man's "Prison 42" to free their allies.  However, it doesn't go according to plan.  Someone activates a self-destruct sequence, though it's unclear which party did it.  T'challa claims that it was Iron Man, so he sends Dagger to Cloak to get him to evacuate as many people as possible.  Maria Hill claims that T'challa did it but she has no options because he (allegedly) locked out S.H.I.E.L.D. so that they can't stop the countdown.  The truth is likely neither story, but Soule will get to that eventually.  At this stage, the result is more important:  Cloak tries to save as many people as possible, but he winds up serving as a conduit for the explosion, destroying St. Louis and 15 million people.

It's where Soule goes from here that makes this issue one of the most imaginative stories that I've ever read.  Similarly to Slott's work on "Amazing Spider-Man:  Renew Your Vows," one action flows logically from another action, carrying you seamlessly through the story.  In the war that follows (including Norman Osborn's failed coup), Captain America and Iron Man wind up splitting the country, with Tony establishing a benign dictatorship called the Iron in the East and Cap setting up a libertarian paradise called the Blue in the West.  Miriam Sharpe, mother of one of the children killed in Stamford, arranges a peace conference on the Divide, the No Man's Land between the two countries.

Needless to say, it doesn't go well.  Tony needs land for his growing population, and he's been applying pressure on Cap by blocking off trade to the Blue, since the Iron is seen by other countries as the successor to the United States.  However, Cap refuses.  It's honestly one of the most tensely scripted conversations that I've ever read in comics.  In the mainstream Marvel Universe, "Civil War" represents the nadir of Steve and Tony's relationship.  However, they eventually recover.  Soule brilliantly takes their relationship at the nadir and embitters it even more, to the point where the two can barely be in the same room.  Moreover, his characterizations of both men are brilliant extensions of who they were during "Civil War:"  Cap has become a weary but committed rebel, an extreme version of his Nomad/Captain persona, and Tony is the arrogant and confidant leader, an extreme version of his CEO responsibilities.  Soule makes it clear that Steve and Tony are able to reconcile in the mainstream Marvel Universe because they haven't been pushed to the point where they are here; they still had some common ground.  But, that ground is gone, as is any doubt that they might actually be wrong.

To make matters worse, Miriam is assassinated during the conference.  The shot cam from the west, so Tony instantly blames Cap.  Steve dispatches his deputy, Peter Parker, now the Falcon, to investigate.  (In a heart-breaking twist, Tony had brought MJ and Peter's daughter with him, allowing them time together for the first time in six years.  My only criticism of this issue is that I'm not entirely sure why MJ hasn't been allowed to move to the Blue, though I'm hoping that we get more clarity on that.  Has Tony essentially been keeping her hostage to exert pressure on Steve?)  Peter and Steve come to realize that only Bullseye (who Steve claims works for Tony) could've taken the shot and that he hit Miriam by accident:  he was really aiming for Steve, but Miriam unexpectedly stood.  Steve quits the talks, despite Tony claiming that he didn't do it, and commits to Peter to end the war. 

Honestly, I just don't know what more I can say.  It's like reading "Civil War" crossed with "The Road."  It's pretty much the dystopic comic that I've always wanted to read, and I'm so excited about the next issue that I can't believe I have to wait as long as I do.

***** (five of five stars)