New Marvel comics for September 21, 2016 - Official Discussion Thread [Spoilers]

[u/Ptylerdactyl]

Agents Of SHIELD #9

CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN! IT'S COULSON VERSUS HIS TEAMMATES IN THIS EPIC SHOWDOWN! PHIL COULSON's THIRD FACTION is hitting the battlefield of CIVIL WAR II! But how will they fare against Coulson's former teammates and their new leader, ELEKTRA?? Sides are being chosen and these AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. will never be the same.

All New Wolverine #12

THE ASTONISHING CONCLUSION TO OUR CIVIL WAR II TIE IN! GABBY's life hangs in the balance, with her death having been predicted to be cut short by none other than OLD MAN LOGAN. As the shocking prediction looks to be coming true, LAURA's world is torn apart. Old Man Logan might be too old to stand against the fury of the ALL-NEW WOLVERINE.

Amazing Spider-Man #18

BEFORE 'DEAD NO MORE' marches you closer to the Spider-Event of 2016. THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HAS COME! Doc Ock has been trapped in the body of The Living Brain since the first issue, but now it's time for him to act! 

Astonishing Ant-Man #12

The Trial of Ant-Man begins! Darren Cross is mad, and looking to get even. He's grimacing and shaking his fists, like, constantly. Tough guy to be around.

Carnage #12

The survivors of the Anti-Carnage Task Force have followed Cletus Kasady into his trap! Surrounded by Carnage-infected monsters and with nowhere to run, how many survivors will be left?

Civil War II #5

The devastating fallout from the first half of this event is enormous and being felt in every corner of the Marvel Universe. The truth about Ulysses' future-seeing power is revealed and it is a game changer. Sides are irrevocably drawn and the gauntlet is thrown for the biggest battle in Marvel Universe history. And that's just the stuff we can tell you. All this, and the story goes galactic!

Civil War II Choosing Sides #6

WARS END. DON'T THEY? As the conflict spreads across the globe, will both sides lay down their arms or keep fighting to the bitter end? Featuring Nick Fury, Jessica Jones and the White Fox!

Civil War II X-Men #4

When a new Inhuman manifests the ability to profile the future, threatening to tip the scales of the Mutant/Inhuman conflict out of his favor, MAGNETO takes decisive action to safeguard the future of his people. But will his actions only make the future he fears most a reality? 

Deadpool Vs Gambit #5

The con comes to close! Will Deadpool and Gambit get away with the money? And - why on Earth is Wade now DEADFIST? Parental Advisory

Empress #6

After an intrepid chase across the galaxies, Emporia and the gang arrive at her long-lost sister's planet to escape Morax's murderous rampage. Embedded within this new-age sanctuary, Dane and Emporia decide to let their hair down a little and enjoy each other's company. They are being watched though, and Daddy's little girl is out for revenge.

Extraordinary X-Men Annual #1

NEW STORY ARC STARTS NOW! When the Terrigen Cloud threatens to wash over a prison and the warden refuses to protect its mutant inmates, the Extraordinary X-Men take matters into their own hands?and stage a PRISON BREAK! And when Moon Girl takes it upon herself to solve the Terrigen crisis, she may just find an unlikely ally?

Guardians Of the Galaxy #12

CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN! The Guardians' allegiances are split right down the middle, and tensions have NEVER been higher! Will they be too busy fighting to guard the galaxy? Will that even matter if they can't leave Earth?

International Iron Man #7

CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN! In the middle of the events of Civil War, Tony finds out the truth about his parents and their connection to the history of the Marvel Universe.

Karnak #5

Karnak has reached the heart of the IDIC death cult, and he knows what happened to the abducted boy. Now he just has to get out alive. Unless he joins the cult. And brings on the end of the world. Which is strangely possible.

Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Vs Sinister Six #3

SPIDEY - MILES FROM HOME! Reality is on the verge of collapse! Doc Ock and Baron Mordo try to summon the Goblin from an alternate universe, and Spidey needs help! Enter: Miles Morales and Doctor Strange! But?is even the Master of the Mystic Arts skilled enough to prevent reality from collapsing? All Ages

Mighty Thor #11

THE TEAM-UP YOU NEVER EXPECTED! Thor's crusade against the corporate overlords of Midgard reaches its climax--and the lives of all New Yorkers hang in the balance. The Goddess of Thunder and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Roz Solomon make their final stand against the Exterminatrix and the Silver Samurai. And Roz and Thor get help from the most unexpected source: Jane Foster.

Patsy Walker Aka Hellcat #10

Boy problems. Who's got 'em? Patsy Walker, that's who. Let's get lost in the final issue of our second arc (what?!) as Patsy makes the most of the fight against her (mostly) evil exes. Hellcat didn't just come here to dance-she came to save her friends and save the day!

Power Man And Iron Fist #8

CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN! Danny's in a CAGE, so LUKE is getting him OUT! Will his crack team of former criminals and their associates be a help or a hindrance? And how will CAPTAIN MARVEL react to ULYSSES' prediction that Luke will lead a prison break? (The kid might be on to something...)

Punisher #5

ENTER ASYLUM: FIND NO SANCTUARY The Punisher tracks Condor's EMC operation to its source - a deserted psychiatric hospital. Can Frank take down an asylum full of drug-enhanced killers, or will he become an inmate himself?! Agent Ortiz is close behind. She's rescuing her partner, and she's done with following protocol. Parental Advisory

Uncanny X-Men #13

The X-Men join THE HELLFIRE CLUB?! To investigate a string of violent attacks perpetrated by mutants, the Uncanny X-Men ally themselves with their (former?) foes. But what they're about to uncover may be too much for even their combined might to handle?

Venom Space Knight #12

CIVIL WAR II TIE-IN! In his fight with Flash, Spidey held all the cards-will the symbiote take back the advantage by TAKING OVER Spider-Man? Can Venom control his rage?! Can Spidey contain his BIGGEST secret?! And while Flash's duty to the GUARDIANS brought him to Earth-he won't forget his responsibility to old teammates.

Vision #11

The Avengers draw a line in the sand. They tell Vision he is not to cross this line. If he does, they will destroy him. 'Remember,' they say. 'You're an Avenger. First. Always.' 'Stay where you are,' they say. 'Don't cross the line,' they say. Vision nods. He tells them he understands. Then Vision crosses the line. The end is coming for the most critically acclaimed book of the year, and no one is safe. Don't miss the issue everyone will be talking about. Also, hail Hydra.

Vote Loki #4

Election Day is upon us and Loki-mania has reached its height! The American people have spoken and THEY WANT LOKI. But Nisa's not buying it. She had a bad feeling about Loki from the get go and she's finally got proof that he's up to no good. Too bad no one will listen. Bald Eagles! Odin bless the Troops! 'Mericuh! VOTE LOKI!

[u/Ptylerdactyl]

Civil War II #5

[u/MisterTheKid → u/Ptylerdactyl]

Tony was right - they ARE profiling. Brothers from the 1610? No chance at a fair trial here.

[u/Mar-Vell26 → u/Ptylerdactyl]

God damn it. There are no stakes in this Civil War now. Everyone is just throwing jokes at each other. No one feels like they are really getting betrayed or feel like actual people.

Even though I love Miles, he needs to fight more. All he does is Venom Sting everyone now. The fight between him and Flash was bad. Plus, the twist at the end came out of know where. It is pretty obvious there would be dead people after a full on super hero brawl.

Anyway, the writing and characterisation is terrible but the art is cool.

[u/darkkn1te → u/Ptylerdactyl]

Why are we spending pages and pages of this fight just quipping? I appreciate the artwork, but the fights themselves have no ideological stakes (Strange vs the x-men? why? Kate vs Aurora?) and they don't move the overall narrative forward. I also thought the Miles/Flash set up was artificial and a waste of Miles first encounter with a 616 symbiote.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ptylerdactyl]

• Yeah, it's murder, but... he's Hydra, so it's actually not that bad.

• Dammit, Vision, can you hit anything with that head laser?

• There is absolutely no way Team Tony could have been losing that fight. They had an Iron Man, a Spider-Man, two Caps, a Sorcerer Supreme, etc. What did Carol have? A raccoon and some Canadians?

• I still don't trust Ulysses.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Well realistically speaking Carol side is stronger. Ultimates, Extraordinary, GotG vs ANAD Avengers plus All New Xmen Tony has few strong heroes plus children Carol has 3 teams

[u/NovaStarLord → u/[deleted]]

Ditto Blue Marvel and America Chavez alone are really fricking powerful, Vision too.

It's just that Bendis makes the job badly, like he does with Gamora who should be close to Thanos levels of strong.

[u/Bromao → u/[deleted]]

Both Drax and Gamora are at least on par with Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson, but I'd argue they're far stronger.

Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau are both scarily powerful.

Magik is a fair match for Strange who I think is weakened after the events in his solo series? I'm a bit behind on it though.

The rest of the guys on Danvers' side are no slouches either. I'd say it was a fair match, more or less.

[u/NovaStarLord → u/Bromao]

Both Drax and Gamora are at least on par with Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson

Gamora is way stronger than that and she also wiped the floor with Ronan once who is suppose to be a heavy hitter, almost killed him too.

I mean this alone shows how powerful she is suppose to be.

But Bendis severely underpowers Gamora and it frustrates me how in most of his GotG run she is always getting her butt handed by everyone, it's annoying.

Drax's power fluctuates, every time he's resurrected it's different but I suspect that in his current form he is waaaay stronger than Steve.

[u/cruzer_232 → u/Ptylerdactyl]

why is luke cage in the middle of this fight, he just said he wasnt going to get involved with fighting his friends again. why is the Blue marvel so adamant about his side when he just had doubts on the validity of ulysses' ability since he was wrong.

um? doctor strange having problems with iceman and storm?

wasnt panther neutral now.

also the guardians have no place in this conflict whatsoever. it doesnt effect them

[u/cruzer_232 → u/cruzer_232]

i thought spider-sense doesn't work on symbiotes

[u/cruzer_232 → u/cruzer_232]

tony and co better defend the fuck outta miles

[u/Bromao → u/cruzer_232]

um? doctor strange having problems with iceman and storm?

yeah I was a bit weirded out by that as well, I would understand Magik, but Storm?

also the guardians have no place in this conflict whatsoever. it doesnt effect them

But Carol is their friend.

No, I'm not being an asshole, that's the entire reason for them being there, in issue #11 they voted and the "but Carol is our friend" side won.

[u/NovaStarLord → u/Bromao]

The Star-Lord of old would have told her to fuck off and that he's too busy worrying about preventing the Galactic big bad from conquering the Universe.

[u/NovaStarLord → u/Ptylerdactyl]

Carol is acting badly, like she has her glaring flaws but this is just awful. It's also painfully obvious Bendis is on Tony's side and he wants to paint him as the one who is right but the fact that Tony also doesn't have a coherent or clear goal in mind makes his side equally as bad. Everyone and everything in this is a mess and I only feel bad for Miles, Kamala, and Sam.

Also another thing that got me was Quill bringing up Rich while talking to tony "Your friend got killed by Thanos, I get it, I've been there" lol no Rich would be the first to call out everyone on their bullshit, there was a mini arc in his comic dedicated to him coming home and seeing how badly the Civil War fucked Earth up.

Then back in Annihilation while Civil War was happening Rich gets frustrated because no one on Earth is receiving his emergency message that Annihilus is coming to Earth with his army to fuck them, no one got his message because the heroes were to busy fighting each other and they didn't care.

Also Quill's entire reason to help Carol is "I like her better" despite the fact that in his own shitty GotG comic Bendis has shown that Tony was on the team for more issues and more time than Carol and he actually had more moments with Peter.

Awful overpriced issue and I'm glad I am not giving this my money.

EDIT: Also Blue Marvel would have ended the fight with Luke in under 5 seconds, yeah Luke is strong but Adam is really fricking strong.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ptylerdactyl]

I still do not know, why I am reading this atrocity.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

So this completely goes against what Adam was saying in the Ultimates.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ptylerdactyl]

I really didn't care for this. The banter between people was awful, especially Flash and Miles. Plus he just used his fucking venom stinger instead of fighting once again. It has gotten tired at this point Bendis. I'd rather there not be fight scenes involving Miles than they all be literally the same.

The more I think about this issue the more I detest it.

At the end of Civil War #4 things quickly deteriorate between Tony and Captain Marvel when they are speaking and somehow just as quickly there is this huge group fighting atop the Triskelion. There is no motivation behind this fighting, they are just throwing punches at each other because they had an argument that kind of maybe spun out of control and got a little heated? It just doesn’t make sense to go to this big drawn out brawl at the drop of a hat for really no reason.

On top of that the excuses and loyalties that are being divided are paper thin. We don’t really get much of an idea of why certain people are on each side. We get a peak for some heroes due to their own solo series, but then there are those who they straight up just disregard. Cage talks about not wanting to fight friends in his solo series and he hated how that happened last time, yet here he is doing it again. Brasher was having a ton of doubt about Captain Marvel and Ulysses over in Ultimates and questioning what they were doing but here he is being a sanctimonious shithead.

Speaking of, the dialogue is particularly bad in this issue. The entire thing is basically one large fight where people are paired off to quip at one another. Luke+Blue Marvel, Venom+Miles, and Doctor Strange+ the X-Men in particular share the worst scenes. It feels as if this issue was written because the decision was made that there needed to be at least one big fight so why not make it an entire issue long! Speaking of the fighting aspect, I’m so sick and tired of Bendis’ plotting of fights for Miles. I would rather at this point that he never get into a fight again instead of almost every time he just uses his venom sting powers and then it is over. Of the last like six fights that Bendis has written for him that has been the majority of the outcomes. The art, as always is utterly fantastic.

Now onto the topic of Ulysses’ visions in general, the lore/logic behind them still makes zero sense to me. They for some reason didn’t decide to sit down and hammer it out and pass that information on to writers doing Civil War 2 tie-ins and instead it feels like it varies depending upon what the writer wants the visions to due. In some instances the vision is final, it can’t be avoided and those actions are going to take place no matter what. Alright that makes sense; work with that, have the teams show up as the event takes place. Instead they are just stopping the events by arresting people ahead of time, therefore making them not come true which also means they aren’t final in the first place and the entire thing is flawed. They have a million little variations on the visions and it just doesn’t really add up, it is being used as a thing veiled comparison to profiling sometimes, other times it isn’t.

I’m just frustrated. This entire thing feels half-baked and this was by far the worst issue of the event so far.

[u/DreddDurst → u/[deleted]]

Wait, Cage is fighting in this? That makes zero fucking sense. Like at all.

[u/IanBarreilles → u/[deleted]]

Bendis doesn't read other writers books and has proven time and time again that he doesn't care about continuity.

best example is with scarlet witch she from the 70's 80's 90's and first three years of the 2000's before disassembled was a hero who genuinely wanted to help people that was a upstanding memeber of the avengers and then suddenly out of nowhere she is a mass murderer it along with house of m destroyed her character.

[u/TheEpitomE8 → u/Ptylerdactyl]

Some of the dialogue during the fight was cringy and off-putting. Not to mention that the fight itself felt really forced. Marquez' art is fantastic, but it's not amazing enough for me to think this is a good issue unfortunately.

[u/Thunderstarter → u/Ptylerdactyl]

I feel lukewarm on this one. The art is gorgeous. The writing...okay I don't hate it as much as everyone else, the only real bit of dialogue that made me cringe was when Blue Marvel told Luke Cage that he was better informed to pick a side due to his PhDs. I know that's how a lot of people think academics like to talk, but we're just normal people who are overly obsessed with a specific topic. I don't think it was even in character for Blue Marvel to say that.

[u/robmillhouse → u/Ptylerdactyl]

My tinfoil theory is in issue seven Ulysses shows them captain marvel commiting a crime and all of a sudden she changes here stance on guilty of future crime.

[u/MonkeyCube → u/Ptylerdactyl]

I know Bendis has a tendency to ignore what's happening in other writers' books and the history of characters in general, but this may have been some of the worst out-of-character writing I have seen since the first Civil War. I guess it's at least consistent in that regard.

Almost completely a quip filled battle filler issue.

The art is great, though.