Civil War II: Choosing Sides #4 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Mondays

You Think You’re The First?

The Punisher
Written By: Chuck Brown
Art By: Chris Visions, Megan Wilson

Power Pack
Written By: John Allison
Art By: Rosi Kampe, Megan Wilson

Nick Fury: Post Prologue Part Four
Written By: Declan Shalvey
Art By: Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 17, 2016
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

If you’ve read my previous reviews of this book, you know I’m not a huge fan. Granted, there are a lot of good parts. If these books were based on those stories that I loved, then this would be one of the most successful miniseries ever and probably the best part of this entire Marvel crossover. Unfortunately, each book is separated into three different stories and usually I enjoy one story and hate the other two. It certainly doesn’t help that Nick Fury’s story has been continuing through the entire miniseries and is easily the worst part of it. I just wish we had gotten to full Nick Fury issues and then we could be done with this shit show, but no dice. Anyways, much like the other reviews, I’ll separate the score into three even parts and add them together at the end. Does this issue redeem the previous issues? Let’s find out.

Part 1 – The Punisher

This section begins with a group of criminals breaking into a previously abandoned research facility. Apparently, there is a virus that was left there and they want to pick it up. The virus currently must be ingested to infect someone but they have someone that can turn it into an airborne virus and thus making it far more valuable. The criminals apparently have a key that will allow them to grab the virus and when they pull it out, it turns out the key is a human hand. Unfortunately for them, it would seem that one of their crew is missing so they send someone to look for him. The man finds blood everywhere when suddenly Frank Castle shows up behind him and chops off his hand with a machete and then kills him. Punisher goes on to kill the rest of the crew and forces the leader to ingest the virus that he came to steal. The leaders asks how he was able to figure out what they were going to do. He had obviously heard rumors about their preemptive justice. Unfortunately for him, Castle was just able to read the patterns and he’s been stopping criminals for years. He didn’t need a precog to defeat them.

This section is so fucking cool! I love seeing the Punisher be an absolutely badass and basically in this issue he states that he’s just good enough to know the plans that criminals have and that he doesn’t need any fancy precog to do what he’s been doing for years. The art fits so well with the tone of the issue and it’s brutal and incredible to look at. I’m a hug fan and it’s a damn shame that this story is only a third of the issue.

3.3/3.3

Part 2 – Power Pack

I’m not familiar with Power Pack or any of the characters that appear in this section of the comic but it would seem that they have some odd assortment of powers and two of them are younger and using the opportunity to visit the older girl at college. They show up and talk abut a couple things before collecting items for a small picnic on the college lawn. The younger girl’s powers start to flare up and so they take care of that rather quickly. When they return the boy is on his phone looking at the news about Bruce Banner being killed by Hawkeye. The three go into a local coffee shop so they can all talk about the implications of the new civil war between the heroes. They leave the shop to see a couple of college girls being bothered by a drone which is pestering them about social media. Our trio decides that they should let Jack be the hero this time so he can impress the college girls. He takes out the drone while the other two sing out his praises. This ends this section.

I honestly got little to nothing from this section. Just felt like an overall waste to me. First off, I’m not very familiar with these characters and I’m certain that few are but for the most part, the section is all leading up to this conversation that takes place in the coffee shop. Unfortunately that conversation is one that we’ve seen throughout this crossover and even in this very book already.

1.0/3.3

Part 3 – Nick Fury: Post Prologue Part 4

While I haven’t been a big fan of the Nick Fury aspect of this book so far, I would have to admit that the story has progressively gotten better. It’s still not good, but it was getting better. In this issue, however, they really just threw all of that out the window. There is no dialogue at all in this section and instead shows a story in which Nick Fury steals some information from another S.H.I.E.L.D. base and is confronted by Black Widow. She gives him chase and they end up fighting each other before Nick Fury ultimately ends up escaping. Now, an action packed section might seem exciting in theory but the execution is anything but. We receive several generic action panels that give the reader no sense of what’s actually happening and basically just fills time in a story that should have been over by now. This was a waste of time to any reader and an insult to the entire audience. I’m not going to even dive that deep into this section because if the creative team doesn’t care, why should I?

0.3/3.3

Bits and Pieces:

This issue gives us one great story, one “meh” story, and one story that’s so blatant that it insults the very reader. Thank god for the creative teams who were given these small stories and decided to really shine with them and put a considerable amount of effort into making them great. If not for them, this miniseries would be a complete wash.

4.7/10