Eternals # 2, Pages 13-24; Eternals # 3, Pages 1-8, 12-13; New Avengers # 23, Civil War # 3 (Pages # 2 - 3), X-Factor # 8-9, Wolverine # 42 (rest of issue), Fantastic Four # 538, Wolverine # 43-48, Blade # 5, Civil War: Frontline # 3, Civil War: Frontline # 4: “Sleeper Cell, Part Two”, Civil War: Choosing Sides - The Immortal Iron Fist, Young Avengers and Runaways # 1-4, Ms. Marvel # 6-8, Civil War: Choosing Sides - Switching Sides, Civil War: Choosing Sides – USAgent, Black Panther # 21, Heroes for Hire # 1, Iron Man # 13 (Pages # 1-22), Black Panther # 22, Civil War: Frontline # 4 (rest of issue), Civil War: Frontline # 5
The Eternal Sersi is throwing fancy party for a foreign country when it’s crashed by terrorists working for the Deviants. Even with the memories of him being an Eternal suppressed, Makkari leaps into action and saves a lot of people. Iron Man then shows up and helps clean up. He then confronts Sersi about registration, to which she confesses as having no memory of ever being an Avenger or having powers.
Spider-Woman is then brought into SHIELD custody for being a triple-agent. She is then rescued by Hydra, but manages to escape to Captain America, having no where else to go.
Members from Iron Man’s Pro-Reg forces meet up with various heroes. Doctor Strange is gone, having retreated to the North Pole to fast until it’s all over. T’Challa rejects Reed’s offer to come over to his side.
X-Factor is then notified that Quicksilver might be heading to Mutant Town. The X-Men arrive after Pietro meets with Jaime and his team and X-Factor decides to take a stand against Registration – mainly because X-Factor learns the truth about Decimation and Jaime helps Aegis escape Capekillers.
Wolverine, against the X-Men’s orders, goes after Nitro. He picks up his scent in Stamford and goes on the hunt.
With Sue and Reed arguing, Ben goes to talk at Johnny while he’s in a comma. Ben then goes out, sees Ms. Marvel fighting Silver Claw, and decides to stand up for the people. Meanwhile, the mysteries “DB” gets a hold of Thor’s hammer.
Wolverine tracks Nitro down to Big Sur, California. He’s joined by SHIELD agents who get completely wiped out. As Wolverine starts to take Nitro down, Atlantian sleeper agents leap in to take Nitro themselves. Nitro dangles some juicy information in front of Wolverine, which causes Logan to vow to keep Nitro alive. Namor shows up, takes Logan down, then hauls Nitro to Atlantis for killing Namorita. Wolverine heads down and confronts Namor and takes off one of Nitro’s hand . . . and learns that Damage Control, Inc. gave Nitro MGH. MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone) gave Nitro more power, in the hopes that he would cause greater damage and therefore, give Damage Control Inc. more business. While destroying various arms of Damage Control, Inc., Logan is taken in by SHIELD . . . only to escape and confront the new CEO of Damage Control, Inc. He and Wolverine fight until they crash over the side of the building. Logan then tells one of the sleeper agents (pillow talk) about where his soul goes when he’s really damaged.
SHIELD drags in Blade after he battles a registered Morbius and Blade is charged with reeling Wolverine. He and Logan battle it out, until Blade realizes that he knows Wolverine from years ago and was actually saved by him. He then tells SHIELD that Logan is off limits.
Sally Floyd is brought into a gathering of super-heroes in hiding, including Network, Battlestar, Solo, Typeface, and others. Afterwards, Sally witnesses a battle between Pro-Reg Bantam and Anti-Reg Thunderclap. Thunderclap, unfortunately, accidentally knocks Bantam into a gas tanker and BOOM! She-Hulk continues to try and convince Speedball into Registering, but he again declines.
Meanwhile, an Aquarium blows up and the owner – Joe – turns out to be an Atlantian deep sleeper agent who is activated by whale calls and goes to Atlantis.
We then revisit Daredevil as he asks Iron Fist to take his place for a while. Iron Fist does, but decides that Iron Fist would/will be needed soon.
The Young Avengers get word of the Runaways in Los Angeles and decide to go against Cap’s orders and go to confront them. After a scuffle, the teams discuss registration before they are attacked by Marvel Boy and half the teams are captured. The rest go after them and eventually succeed in releasing Marvel Boy from his brainwashing and rescue their friends. The teams then part ways, with the Runaways deciding not to side with anyone and instead, “run away” from the situation.
Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, and Arachne are given new missions after Prowler is captured. Arachne is asked to bring in Shroud, with whom she is having a love affair with. The two go on the run while Wonder Man and Ms. Marvel ask Arana to register (she does). The trio follow Shroud and Arachne and after bringing in Shroud, they battle it out with Arachne at her parents house in front her daughter.
Venom takes out some SHIELD agents, but then is approached by Radioactive Man and Songbirds about joining the Thunderbolts. He accepts.
USAgent is approached by Iron Man about heading up to Canada to go after Purple Man and to head up the new Alpha Flight team. After some complaining, he goes.
Storm and Black Panther go to Atlantis at the invitation of Namor. Namor wants to build up a global resistance against the Registration Act and wants T’Challa and Ororo to lead it. After some debate and some flashbacks regarding the Invaders, T’Challa decides to do it.
The Heroes for Hire (Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Humbug, Shang-Chi, Tarantula, Black Cat, Paladin, and Orca) are asked by Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and Spider-Man to hunt down super-villains. After helping to fight the Mandarin’s Avatars, they manage to bring in some super-villains seeking to flee New York.
Iron Man, on the west coast, is filming PSAs, being threatened by the Secretary of Defense, and helps to find comfort in his friends . . . only to not get any.
Black Panther and Storm meet with Captain Britain, who turns them down. After that, they head to Washington DC to meet with the President – which goes wrong when they’re asked to Register. On the way out, Black Panther goes to help a child who is in danger of being trampled by a crowd. Nearby ONE forces register this as an attack. War Machine gets involved and nearly killed if not for T’Challa. Iron Man then shows up and the two fight, with Black Panther declaring that his business in America is not finished.
Sally Floyd once more goes to the underground super-hero meeting, only to discover she was followed by SHIELD. She barely escapes. Meanwhile, Ben Urich is attacked by Green Goblin, but when Osborne is about to actually kill him, he flips out and runs off. Ben goes to Jameson and the two tie into it . . . with Ben getting fired. Sally is contacted by someone mysterious who tells her she’s looking in the wrong in the place. When she brings her story to the Alternative, she and her editor are arrested by SHIELD.
After being shunned and rejected by his mother, Speedball is sent to “Fantasy Island,” the Negative Zone prison created to hold super-heroes and super-villains.
Okay, well, let’s start at the top . . .
“The Eternals” is a great story. Honestly, I could have put the entire mini-series in here. Putting it up against the back-drop of a “Civil War”-ridden Marvel Universe is a great choice.
The Spider-Woman story is nice, though it does feel a little detached from the major event.
X-Factor is a great story that pulls together threads from Decimation and Civil War and links them nicely. Jamie’s ultimate decision to defy the X-Men, protect Quicksilver and Mutant Town, and stand proudly against Registration is well reasoned and I liked that we saw him move emotionally towards this decision.
Wolverine’s tale is quite excellent. Wolverine comes across as honorable, savage, complex, emotional, deep, and bad-ass all in one. It’s great to see him chafe under Scott and Emma’s command and break out on his own. He’s smart here, he’s using his head. It’s probably among the very best Wolverine stories I have ever read – and that’s saying something. His interaction with Namor is also particularly enjoyable as the two seem to be more similar than one would think. Further, the battle with Blade, while mostly fan-service, is fun to watch. As an aside – there’s an interesting connection Logan has with the New Warriors. Way back in “Mutants No More,” the New Warriors managed to save Logan’s ass when his powers were gone.
Fantastic Four, personally, feels like little more than a blip on the RADAR. It’s fun to see Ben entertain the comatose Johnny and I like the position he gets stuck in at the end. But the fight between Reed and Sue just doesn’t jive well with me.
Frontline continues to do a good job at offering a street-level, down-to-Earth look at the Civil War. There are some highlights, including mainly the Bantam/Thunderclap fight and the gathering of C and D-listers. However, even though it’s well-written, the veering towards the Sleeper Cell/conspiracy storyline takes away from the position these characters were so perfectly in.
Speedball’s tale continues to be more and more tragic.
The meeting between the Young Avengers and the Runaways is a fun one and it’s about damn time these two teams meet. It’s a pretty good story, even though its connection with Civil War is a little subtle. But it’s great to see these characters interact and it works well against the back-drop of Civil War.
Ms. Marvel is another strong book, really focusing in on the friendly face of the Pro-Reg forces. Ms. Marvel’s character really shines as she is gentle to bring in Arana, but harsh when separating Arachne from Rachel. It’s a well-paced, well-written story with top-notch character development for Ms. Marvel.
Black Panther’s role in Civil War works well and suits both him and Storm to a tee. Hudlin is finally getting the hang of Storm. The “white media versus black media” is played a little too hard, but there are some strong highlights that outshine that. The meeting with Namor, Captain Britain and Iron Man are well-handled and all the characters come across nicely. Iron Man is a little harsh, but not as bad as with other writers.
Heroes For Hire is a fun book with great characters and a nice premise.
The “behind the mask” look at Iron Man is appreciated as we see just how insecure he is about all of this despite the “I’m a great super-hero, go register!” attitude.
The various “Choosing Sides” are all just mainly snippets, but they’re good snippets and offer insight to the characters dealt with in said story. They vary in terms of quality, but for the most part, it’s pretty good.
~W~
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