CREDIT: Marvel
Rating: 3/5 – One Good Story is Not Worth the $4.99 Spent.
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
Civil War II is now two issues in and although I’ve been entertained, I haven’t found it to be a must read event. Since I’m not completely bought into the main series and the story presented so far, I was hoping that some of the “must read” stories would be found in the related tie-ins and mini series. Civil War II: Choosing Sides is an anthology book looking at some of the characters that don’t have their own series, or aren’t starring in the main book. Unfortunately, this anthology also didn’t provide great or must read stories and unless you’re a fan of the characters involved, which I’m confident not a whole lot of people are, this can easily be avoided.
The first story is by far the best of the three and stars Nick Fury. Fury’s given an assignment by Maria Hill to investigate a rogue Hydra group that are posing as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. It’s written by Declan Shalvey who also provides the art. Even though Shalvey’s previous writing credits are limited to issues #7 & 8 of the BOOM! series ’28 Days Later’, he does a great job here. Jordie Bellaire colors Shalvey’s pencils so the art looks great to go along with an entertaining story that looks to be the only one of the three that will continue on into next issue.
The second story was the one I was hoping would be better, starring a character I used to love, Night Thrasher. Brandon Easton writes a mostly forgettable tale starring the previous leader of the New Warriors. The art by Paul Davidson is a bit of a mess and although the colors are the way they are because of the story, the amount of reds drowns the art out as they fade into the reds in the character’s costumes. Night Thrasher comes across as a character totally lacking appeal. Co-star Iron Man makes fun of his “skateboard” and because of the short story format, there aren’t opportunities to positively define the character for any potential new readers who may be meeting him for the first time.
Finally, Chad Bowers and Chris Sims write a tale about Damage Control with Leonardo Romero. It attempts to be funny, which comes off as out of place in a book like this. There’s an alien stealing construction equipment from Damage Control’s clean up efforts. Just why the alien is doing so, although cute, seems better fitted to an all ages book rather than a comic that has serious consequences.
Although I enjoyed the Nick Fury story, I didn’t enjoy it enough to continue purchasing this anthology book. Depending on the characters starring in future issues, I may come back to it if I can find them on the cheap, but spending $4.99 on one out of three stories that I enjoyed gives me little desire to return.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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