Captain America goes out to find Spider-Man and does. He talks about what America really is and then gets him over on his side. Yay for Spider-Man! However, the Kingpin puts a hit out on Peter and “anyone” who might be near him. An assassin heads over to the abandoned building across the street from the sleazy hotel that the Parkers are hanging out at.
The Punisher and Captain America continue on their escapades, dealing with criminals and villains. Frank then retrieves the tech he needs to infiltrate the Baxter Building.
While Reed puts the final touches on “Thor,” Punisher slips in and gets the needed information on 42. Sue goes to Namor for help, but he refuses her.
Danny, an NYPD cop and one of Ben Urich’s sources, tips Ben off – Stark is making a killing in the stock markets. In fact, the day before Stamford, he cashed in. Plus, Osborne was given nanites from Iron Man and the Pro-Reg. forces. In exchange for this info, Danny sets him up for a date with Sally. Before hand, Sally has the chance to interview Captain America, only to find that Cap doesn’t have much of a story to tell because his idea of America is very different – or perhaps (she muses) she’s just a changed woman. Whatever the case maybe, the mind-controlled Osborne kills some visiting Atlanteans when they show up to recover the bodies of the sleeper cell (which they claim was peaceful). During questioning, he’s taken away by SHIELD.
Speedball has insane pain in his back now from the bullet fragments and now that his power has returned and changed, he decides to Register and gets out of jail. Now free, he confronts the man who shot him, then goes off and puts on a costume that will increase his pain as well as channel his new power. He then becomes the new Penance.
The Secrets Avengers convene to go over their plans when two villains – Goldbug and Plunderer – offer their services. The Punisher kills them because they’re bad guys and Captain America beats him up. As he does, we see flashbacks that show why the Punisher is working with Cap and the Secret Avengers and why he respects him. Cap then has Castle thrown out.
Ms. Marvel delivers the name of the man who arranged for Osborne’s control and the assassination of the Atlanteans to Sally. Sally is shocked and arranges to meet Ben Urich at Time’s Square at 6:15. Shortly thereafter, Ben comes to Jameson with a story that he knows the Bugle can’t publish and thus, quits.
Doctor Strange continues his fast in the hopes of a peaceful end to the conflict.
After a phone call to May and MJ, Peter joins the Secret Avengers in their final assault. They sneak into Ryker’s Island, then through the portal and into the Negative Zone. Once there, Iron Man, the Pro-Reg Forces and the Thunderbolts all arrive – with Tony telling Cap he’s had a spy in the Secret Avengers. Cap reveals that he’s known about Tigra being a spy and then has Pym change back into Hulkling, having taking Yellowjacket’s place earlier. With Hulkling having taken Pym’s place, the cells of 42 are opened and the captured heroes arrive and join with the Secret Avengers.
The battle kicks off.
Captain America wants the battle taken out of 42 and into the Baxter Building, but they’re unable to do that. Cloak teleports everyone into New York City, dropping them onto Time’s Square below.
Sally and Ben meet just as the battle is renewed in Time’s Square. Typeface is killed as the pair rush into a subway tunnel to hide from the conflict.
Meanwhile, 42 is drifting due to the damage it received in the battle. Turns out Captain Marvel in this warden due to an accident that brought him forward in the timestream. He’s uncertain as whether or not to take action, but finally does.
The battle in Time’s Square gets rather pitched. Spider-Man punches and kicks – among others – Mr. Fantastic. As Lady Deathstrike, Venom, Bullseye, and Taskmaster beat the crap outta Cap, Namor arrives with a strike force of Atlanteans. However, Thor, Sentry, Captain Marvel, and the California Champions arrive as well.
In the midst of the battle, the Wakandian Embassy tries to evacuate. Storm is asked by T’Challa to protect while he battles the Pro-Regs. This eventually leads to a confrontation with Thor. The two battle; getting rather harsh while Storm protects the evacuating Wakandians. Sue steps in at one point and helps protect Storm from an onslaught of lightning. Storm manages to disrupt Thor’s circuitry using an EMP, but he reactives . . . but this time, it’s Hercules that wants to tackle the faux god.
Spider-Man muses about the war while Jameson and various others bare witness. He begins to understand that at the end of the day, they’re not fighting over rules and regulations – they’re fighting over the people, the citizens, and the way things used to be. Spider-Man then spots Captain Marvel and goes off to accuse Tony of disgracing Mar-Vell’s memory just he like he did with Thor. Iron Man blasts Spider-Man away, and then is confronted by Cap.
The Vision helps disrupt the armor and Cap leaps right into battle.
The Thing then returns, looking to help the people by keeping the battle away from the citizens. Sue is overjoyed by his actions, but the Taskmaster lines up to shoot her. Reed leaps into the way and takes the bullets. Enraged, Sue smashes Taskmaster.
Thor and Hercules continue their battle, with Hercules eventually smashing Thor’s head in with his own hammer. Thor is destroyed.
Captain America and Iron Man continue to duke it out, with Iron Man now on the ropes. With his helmet shattered and his armor down, Iron Man looks to Cap (with his shield raised) and tells him to do it. Cap hesitates . . . and is tackled by cops, firemen, and paramedics. Cap insists that he’s helping them, but they make him look around at the damage that he and this battle have caused. Because he resisted, the Civil War began and eventually destroyed Times Square.
Cap surrenders and orders his troops to stand down.
In the aftermath of the battle, Sally and Ben emerge to find the destruction appalling and Ben wonders if perhaps this was why things had to change. Black Panther and Storm now have nowhere to go with the embassy destroyed. Plus, Spider-Man is among the missing and the assassin is still targeting their room.
The Punisher managed to pick-up Steve’s mask.
Brought to Ryker’s, Steve and Tony get into it, with Steve blaming Tony for making this happen in the first place and asking if his new position as SHIELD director is worth it. Tony just basically calls Steve a sore loser and walks off.
Wow. Okay.
First of all, my hat’s off to Marvel. The way this all read right here – this final portion – it’s perfect. If one reads this in the order I did, they’ll see the major subplots converge in the final battle. Even little things, like Ms. Marvel’s doubts, manifest when she gives Sally the information about the traitor. It fits so well together and, in fact, adding the extra scenes and elements from other books only makes it all the more effective. It gives the final battle more intensity and makes Cap’s surrender not only more dramatic, but also make more sense.
On the character’s side of things, I think this was a great work right here. Punisher, Black Panther, Speedball, Storm, Hercules, Reed, Ben, Sue, Tony, Steve, and Peter all are very well played here. The more I read that scene where Cap surrenders, the more I understand why he did it and why it makes perfect sense.
I talked about in another review about what “Civil War” war really about in terms of the larger MU. Things needed to change and this was the change. There was resistance to change, as there always is, but at the end of the day, this change was for the better.
There are still emotional issues to figure out and there’s the whole Osborne/Atlantis conspiracy, but this is pretty much the big end of Civil War. Next up, the epilogue.
~W~
4 comments:
So, uh, where does Civil War #4 fit in this continuity?
It's in there. When I copied and pasted the read order into the blog, I apparently didn't get the whole thing.
But I see no mention of the Thor-clone killing Goliath either.
Strange. I know I read it, I could have sworn I wrote about it, but I can't seem to find it.
When I was working on this, the entries were spread across two-three computers, so I might be missing an entry or . . . something.
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