The final showdown draws near.
Had things gone according to the original plan, this issue would have served as the penultimate chapter of Civil War II, and it also would have been released weeks ago. Neither of those facts does anything to make up for the general sense of malaise surrounding the series. Civil War II isn't living up to its promise, and having such a slow, uneventful chapter this close to the finale only exacerbates the situation.
Civil War #6 mainly concerns itself with the fallout from issue #5 and Ulysses' vision of Spider-Man killing Captain America in the ruins of Washington DC. Naturally, no one among the Avengers is happy to bear witness to such a dark prophecy, least of all Miles himself. To his credit, Brian Bendis does deliver some solid characterization in this issue. There's a great scene early on as Cap comforts the hysterical Miles, proving that Hydra can't stamp out Steve Rogers' fundamental decency and ability to inspire. And there are other memorable moments as Miles continues to react to this awful news and the various Avengers begin to consider the consequences of their recent actions and whether Ulysses' visions are still worth fighting for.
That even goes for Captain Marvel. While this series has failed to to portray Carol and Tony as being on equal moral footing, it at least helps to see that Carol feels genuine remorse for the toll her crusade has taken.
The moody, introspective approach to this issue allows artist David Marquez to shine every bit as much has previous, action-focused chapters have. Marquez injects his characters with a palpable sense of emotion, often completely eliminating the need for dialogue. Marquez's two standout sequences in this chapter revolve around characters silently grieving. And Justin Ponsor's colors can always be counted upon to match and enhance the mood of any given scene. For all of Civil War II's storytelling problems, there's no question that Marquez was the ideal artist to tackle the project. So much of what does work about this event boils to down his and Ponsor's contributions.
While this issue delivers plenty of emotion and great visuals, it has frustratingly little else to offer. The plot moves at a snail's pace as the two factions end their current skirmish and begin preparing for the final battle to come. That mainly involves a lot of talking and bantering on both sides and some switching of factions, little of which really gets to the heart of the conflict or serves to make the "Protect the future vs. change the future" dilemma more compelling. As usual, it falls on the tie-ins to lend depth to this story. It's frustrating that Civil War II has been expanded to eight issues when the plot has been so slow to move forward in these first six chapters. The series needed to make better use of the space it already had to work with.
The Verdict
Civil War II has had trouble building momentum from the beginning, and this issue does nothing to address that problem. There are some strong emotional moments here, and plenty of stunning artwork from Marquez and Ponsor, but the sluggish pace and generally listless nature of the conflict continue to frustrate.
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