Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man

Civil War II

by Christos Gage, Dan Slott, Travel Foreman (Illustrator)

Collects Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man II #1-4 and material from Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #7-8.

CIVIL WAR II rocks the Amazing Spider-Man's world! There's a new Inhuman with the ability to predict the future, and as Earth's heroes grapple with their feelings about his very existence, there's one fact on which almost everyone can agree: This Ulysses bears great power, and has a tremendous responsibility to use it safely. Peter Parker knows a thing or two about that, so who better to serve as a mentor? But when that ol' Parker luck strikes, Ulysses predicts someone close to Spidey is about to turn traitor! Could it be that one of his oldest foes is about to return? As friends turn against friends across the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man is no exception — but with whom will he clash?

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Spider Man, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

117 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 22, 2017

About the author

Chris N. Gage is a writer for comic books and television.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has very little to do with Civil War II except that Ulysses is in the first issue. Which I think is probably a good thing because this was far better than most comic book event tie-in stories. Gage was woven an interesting tale of redemption and personal responsibility.

Spider-Man takes Ulysses out to show him the ropes and get a feel of what his powers really can do. Ulysses sees that one of Peter's employees will become Clash again in the future. So does knowing the future cause the future to happen because it changes how one acts? Clash is a very interesting, complex character and I look forward to seeing more of him.

The story is only 4 issues with the last 2 issues a reprint from a couple of years ago detailing how Clash gets hired by Peter Parker.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what? I enjoyed this one. The general standard of tie-ins to Civil War II seems to be quite a bit better than crossover event tie-ins usually are, which is nice.

I really liked the artwork and I thought this was a nice little story that fit in well with Civil War II without getting bogged down by it. For my money, Christos Gage has Spidey's 'voice' down much better than Dan Slott does.

The only thing that made me sad is that another reformed bad guy didn't get to stay on the straight and narrow. Call me a dreamer but I believe in the possibility of redemption...

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Directly related to the Civil War 2 event, but you don't need to be caught up to follow what's going on. Being familiar with the current state of Spider-Man is more than helpful, though.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoa, after crappy book after crappy book it's nice to get something decent. I thank Christos Gage for that.

So what's it about? Spider-man is working with Ulysses to try and see how to use his powers for good. While Ulysses is only in the first issue and a half, his dynamic with Spider-man shows the type of person Peter is. When The Clash (A super villain I never heard of) is visioned to go bad once more Peter has to decide how to handle this. Will him pushing himself into Clash life make him go super villain again or will it stop him. That is the question presented here.

Good: The art is pretty solid and some really good fight scenes. I also liked Peter in here because he's conflicted. Not about some big CEO meeting or anything, just his personal issues, and trying to do what's right and not sure how to do it. Clash also made for a pretty interesting story about redemption.

Bad: But I didn't love the ending of what happen with Clash. Also, the last two issues are thrown into this collection for no other reason than to beef it up, and they suck.

Overall, a 2.5 out of 5, but I'll bump it to a 3 just because was enjoyable enough.

[Vinton Bayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
It wasn't bad. It had almost nothing to do with Civil War II except they borrowed Ulysses so he could have a vision that would drive the story. This book was really just ok. The Clash thing seemed forced and there's a good chance they are leading that character in a direction I'm going to hate. Just let people be redeemed for once.

[The Rudie Librarian (Brian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

What does it mean to trust someone? How do you give someone a chance when you know what they have done in the past. If you know something could happen do you have a responsibility to act? These are the questions this books brings up. Well written and enjoyable.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A loose tie-in to the main event, this volume actually has more to do with Dan Slott’s AMS run, given its focus on the reformed but lapsing villain known as Clash. There’s a good story here, and the beats of it are expertly laid out and executed, even if the art style gets a little sketchy (ha ha) at times. 3.5 stars.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope.

Don't purchase this if you think you have to because of Civil War II.

It was ok, at best.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh man, I HATED the art here. Story is a good companion to Civil War II since Ulysses is a pretty integral part of this volume, but it's still not a must read if you want to skip the Civil War II side-stories.

I really liked Clayton Cole. Gage did a great job writing a sympathetic good "bad guy".

It's hard to see Spidy on the "wrong side" of Civil War (again), but I totally get why he's Team Carol. I was also Team Carol until no one was on Team Carol...

Also, unrelated: how do people really not believe that Spidy and Peter are the same person?? (It's so interesting that Spider-Man and Peter Parker are BFFs and travel together, and go to work together, and are the same height, and have the same voice, and speak for each other...but for sure they're just best bros.)

I really liked issues #7 & #8 of Amazing Spider-Man which are also in this volume. There's a cute team up with Ms. Marvel and the art is good.

[Adan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one! It's less about Ulysses and his future-predicting powers and the superhero war that inevitably leads to, and more about how friggin' hard it is to walk the straight and narrow while being an ex-con. And how easy it is to screw it all up even when you have lots of support. And hey, bonus Spidey issues with both Ms Marvel and Silk!

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects some stories from the 2014 Amazing Spider-Man series, with Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel doing a team-up to save an in-coccoon Inhuman from being kidnapped. It's a fun short team-up, though I might be biased because I just love how adorkable and fangirly Ms. Marvel is whenever she meets another superhero. It's got a nice ending that uses Peter Parker as a great leader and mentor figure, both to younger superheroes (as Spider-Man) and to the regular people (as the head of Parker Industries).

Clayton Cole, formerly known as the supervillain Clash, was a minor character in the team-up story but becomes central to the actual Civil War II tie-in. Spider-Man is taking Ulysses under his wing to teach him the "great power" and "great responsibility" that his future-predicting visions can have, when Ulysses gets a vision of Clayton Cole going back to being a supervillain. The rest of the series follows Cole as he spirals deeper down the path to villainy as Peter Parker tries to stop him from doing something he'll regret. It's scary to watch Cole being chased by his past and his obsession, and there's this big hope that even supervillains can find redemption and reform themselves. This story isn't important for the Civil War II event but it does explore how Ulysses should use his powers, whether his visions should be followed or not, and explores Spider-Man's decision as to whether he should join Iron Man's or Captain Marvel's side in the War.

My biggest complaint is the colouring. Or the art. I don't know. I'm a fan of Travel Foreman, and I'm a fan of Rain Beredo, but something about how they come together in this series doesn't sit right with me. Lots of pages look like some dated CGI, with Spider-Man's costume appearing both grimy covered in dirt and sleak translucency. It distracts from the story and really bothers me.

Still, this is a fun volume that uses the Civil War II backdrop to tell a cool story about Spider-Man's supporting cast and the burden of a criminal past, while also fleshing out some background details for the main event itself. It doesn't make up for the weaknesses of Civil War II, but if you like Spider-Man (and his cast of minor supporting characters/supervillains) it's a fun read.

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spiderman has to come face to face with one of Ulysses predictions and after experiencing the effects, Spidey has to decide which side he will choose to stand with.

This was an excellent way of really boiling down the potential of Ulysses powers. It reduces the scope from huge, catastrophic events, to a much smaller, personal battle for Spiderman. This really helps cement the notion of how Ulysses visions can potentially be self fulfilling prophecies. For example, in this book, Ulysses gets a vision that one of Peter Parker's employees will revert back to the villain known as Clash. However, the downward spiral that Clash goes on to eventually lead back to his villainous ways has to do partly, with Ulysses and his vision. Clash notices Ulysses and Spiderman looking at him strangely and whispering about him across rooms. This gets him paranoid and he starts going down the wrong path from there.

But what if Ulysses hadn't told Peter about the vision? Then Clash wouldn't have noticed the whispers and strange looks. Maybe he would've just chocked up the rest of his bad day as just that - a bad day. But instead, his paranoia and anger get the better of him and Ulysses' vision comes true.

In the end, Spidey see's the visions as good things - if treated properly. So looks like he will be on the side of Captain Marvel in the main Civil War II title. It's interesting to see how Peter Parker will handle things, now that he has a more intimate look at Ulysses' abilities. Christos Gage gives us a story that boils down the whole CWII event to a smaller scale, and the result is pretty damn entertaining and thought provoking. Recommended for fans of Spidey - even if you aren't into the whole event.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great tie-in to the Civil War II event and works well largely because it has little to do with the event itself.

Spidey has Ulysses, the new Inhuman who has visions of the future, intern at Parker Industries. Inevitably Ulysses has another vision, this one about PI employee Clayton Cole, known as the villain Clash in a former life (seen in the Learning to Crawl story). He predicts that Cole will revert to his old ways and once again take up the mantle of Clash. Peter Parker keeps an eye on Cole with this knowledge but the vision is inevitable and may even be brought on my Parker knowing about it.

Essentially, it's the classic tale of a prophecy that goes back to Ancient Greek times. It's a story which always works well and certainly does in a Spider-Man context. Gage does a fantastic job with Clayton Cole, using the character really well and he really makes it feel like you understand Cole's motivation.

Also included here are two issues of Amazing Spider-Man where Spider-Man teams up with Ms. Marvel. I've read it before but nonetheless it's a fun little story.

Tie-in stories to big comics events are so often terrible. It was great that Marvel made this outside the main series anyway but it is the best comics event tie-in for a long, long time.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spider-man dostał zaszczyt nauki powodu drugiej wojny domowej Marvela, czyli Ulissesa - członka społeczności Inhumans. Jego moce pozwalają przewidzieć zbrodnie, zanim zostanie popełniona, co pozwala właściwym osobom zareagować w dobrym czasie. Szkopuł w tym, że chłopak wymaga szkolenia, co nie za bardzo podoba się jednemu pracownikowi Peter Industries, który widzi jak chłopak jest faworyzowany.

Na domiar złego Ulisses ma wizję, w której ktoś z otoczenia Pajęczaka powróci do dawnych, przestępczych praktyk. Czy Pajęczakowi uda się załagodzić sytuację? Cztery zeszyty czyta się szybko i łatwo zrozumieć motywację znajomego Petera, który postanawia poprawić swoją sytuację materialną, zwłaszcza widząc presję jaką odczuwa. Cała historia jest jednak przewidywalna i nawet sprawne poprowadzenie akcji nie uczyni z tej pozycji unikatowego doznania. Rzetelna robota, ale i tak mając w pamięci część tytułów towarzyszące chociażby Secret Wars - tu jest nieźle, nawet jeżeli jest to historia, jakich wiele.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, that cover's not accurate. At no point does Spider-Man wrestle with choosing sides or feel bad about the fight between Captain Marvel and Iron Man.

Instead we get another self-fulfilling prophecy where Ulysses sees Spider-Man fighting Clash, so Peter gets paranoid and starts grilling Clayton Cole, who gets upset and puts on the Clash suit again.

The story is written well enough that I empathize with Clash. Our culture is designed so that it's unreasonably difficult for an ex-con to put their life back together and keep it together. The art was awful. I genuinely did not want to look at these people.

[Scott Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice side story that illustrates all the dangers of predictive justice--as Carol and her co-conspirators keep calling it throughout this series of mini-series, tie-ins, etc. It captures everything about Peter that would make him buy in, and reveals how even with the best of intentions, there will continue to be unforeseen costs and problems at least potentially caused by self-fulfilling prophecy type events when any predictive force is in play. This is my favorite piece of all the Civil War II stuff I've read.

[Geonessary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, but it's a little bit of a bummer. This is a good tie in because the majority of it is contained in the book. You don't have to refer too much to Civil War II, what you need to know all happens in it. The last two issues aren't even that old of issues, so I was a little annoyed at that.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid tie in to Civil War II. Villains work the best when time is taken to develop them and Clash has been given a lot of time. He could easily turn into an anti-hero the way things left off.
This story did a good job of taking the reason behind the Civil War and brought it down to a personal level for Spider-Man. This worked as a tie in and stand alone story.

[Igor Veloso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este volume foi resgatado do lixo, e foi a primeira vez que li algo da Marvel em print. Nem sabia que Portugal importava este conteúdo. Gostei e as 'modernices' certamente toleráveis. Senti alguma nostalgia de outras BD's e apreciei ter uma banda desenhada deste género nas minhas mãos. É outra vibe.

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid superhero story, that uses the premise of Civil War II as a jumping off point to tell a story that fits squarely on this character's universe. A good example of using an event crossover to good purpose.

[David Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable artwork pushes it up to a 3. It's a pretty average story, tangentially related to Civil War 2. Basically just a Spiderman v Clash arc. Also has two Taylor Swift references and one for Meghan Trainor.

[Néstor Vargas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay book. I like the use of Clash as this redeeming character, or at least trying to be redeemed. I was wondering what happened with Spidey during the main event and this also helps explain it, using Civil War II as an excuse. The art was mid.

[Kris Ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read that tells the story of Peter Parker/Spider-Man giving the baddies a second chance.

[taeli · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 10/27/17

[Kyle Berk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume especially because it becomes prime Spider-Man by the end.

I think this is a good Civil War II tie in, I enjoyed it more than the main event at times.

Worth a read.

[Reagan Townley · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5 Stars*

Good book! To be quite frank though, I’m not gonna continue on in the series. Bought this for super cheap at Books a Million and wanted to slowly get back into reading!

[Nea Poulain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not horrible, la verdad. (No soy tan fan de todos los tie-ins de Civil War II).

[Peter Krol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Minimal connection to Civil War II.

[Ava · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the art style, and this was a super fun read! I would definitely purchase the next release.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disappointed with where it seems like they’re taking Clash’s character, but otherwise a decent, but not amazing, story.