Marvel Must Have. Civil War II

Minority Report made in Marvel Comics

«Have you ever seen anything like this? Nobody has done it”

Mainstream superhero comics are like almost any cultural product intended for mass entertainment, children of their time. This means that, beyond the story they can tell us, or the weight it has for the fictional Universe in question to which it belongs, among its pages we can guess many things about the time in which they were published.
In the case of Civil War IIsequel to the popular event Mark Miller and Steve McNiven from the year 2006 (and which for some readers, like the one who writes this, marked the beginning, seriously, of their relationship with superhero comics) we are facing one of the recent comics most influenced at all levels by the time that it was created. saw birth.

Firstly, and at the level of business synergies, Civil War II It was published in 2016, almost at the same time as the Russo brothers’ film adaptation of the popular confrontation between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark.

The reason was obvious: If the superheroic Civil War was going to take place as a major cinematic event in the third “solo” cinematic iteration of Captain America, there had to be the right reflection in the panels.

And the idea that Marvel has always had in mind since it was acquired by Disney in 2008 is that the films would serve to generate new readers for this popular cosmos of comic fiction.

However, we keep asking ourselves on many occasions whether this strategy has really served Marvel well, because the reality is that comic book sales since 2008 have not increased, especially due to the company’s cinematic success. since whoever goes to the cinema to see a movie The Avengersyou don’t necessarily go to a bookstore to buy a comic from the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes collection.

However, be that as it may, the reality is that this is how Marvel plans the future of its publisher, as in fact (although now to a lesser extent given the decline in popularity of the MCU in cinemas and television) it continues to do so until now and we have this We have to stick to it to shortcut the analysis of this comic we have in hand.

Secondly, also for a cinematographic issue, but in this case of character rights. In that fleeting time in Marvel Comicsthe Inhumans of Attilan had come to occupy the place that had long belonged to mutants (and Disney wanted mutants in the MCU but could not use them because, at that time, they belonged to Fox).

In this way, different people were affected by the Terrigen Mists throughout the planet, developing very diverse powers that led them to be feared and hated by many characters.

In this context, it was born Civil War II, whose argument was structured around whether the power to see the immediate future could justify preventive action by public powers against certain subjects who had not yet committed a crime but who were going to commit a crime. Such was the power of the Inhuman Ulysses. Does this argument ring any bells to you? In two words; Minority Report.

This brings us to the next point of our analysis regarding the context in which this comic was published. And since 2001, since the fateful 9/11, the United States had been putting into practice the idea of ​​preventive legitimate defense or what is the same, hitting the supposedly enemy country before it hits you knowing that sooner or later early, it will.
This idea was undoubtedly carried out during the administration of George Bush Jr and, in 2016, with Donald Trump elected President of the United States of America, it was something that many citizens feared and that in this comic, in some way, is reflected.

Finally, we are facing the swan song of Brian Michael Bendis in Marvel Comics. And, although the so-called Architect of the Marvel Universe still had a few months left working with the publisher, the reality is that this would be his last big event for it. From this moment on, the author would limit himself to scripting his fetish characters (Miles Morales, Riri Williams, Jessica Jones), leaving everything ready for his march to the Distinguished Competition.

In fact, Miles Morales has an important role in this event, and it has been a year since the formerly known as Ultimate Spiderman had arrived via Secret Wars to the conventional Marvel Universe rebuilt after them, so being Bendis the scriptwriter of the event was obviously going to give him an important participation in it.

And the reality is that, regarding the approach of the story, and some situations that occur in it, such as the one that has to do with Bruce Banner, the scriptwriter seemed like the Bendis of yesteryear, the one who managed to move quite a few readers with his decomprehensive narrative style.

However, the development of the ten issues (eight, plus a special number 0 and the Free Comic Book Day special) show that no matter how good an idea is, it is worth little if its future is not adequate.

Bendis reduces everything to an eternal and repetitive iteration between Tony Stark (in this case on the side of the “good guys” or those who consider that the future is never exact) and Carol Danvers (leader of the side that bets on imprisoning criminals. before they have the opportunity to commit a crime) that could be summarized in two vignettes with infinite scenes of superheroic action to better show off David Marquezan artist who, yes, becomes the most powerful reason to acquire this title along with the rest of the talented illustrators who participate in this story.

Two years ago, I already carried out a more focused analysis on the comic and its proposal at the time of its publication in format Now! Deluxeserving this new analysis on the occasion of the reissue of this story in Must Have of a different revisitation of the event, more focused on its hows and whys at a contextual level than on the comic itself.

A work that, despite its low quality in terms of plot, is today indispensable for the regular Marvel reader who, with it, will understand and understand one more piece of the House of Ideas of the 21st Century.

The best

• How the context that surrounds the work permeates it from beginning to end.
• Its striking drawing.
• The plot approach.

Worst

• The development of the argument.
• How out of character most of the protagonists are.