CH-CH-CH-CHANGES to the comic world! SPOILERS FOR CIVIL WAR 2 INCLUDED BE WARNED!!

So there have been some major changes to the comic book world in the last few weeks. I'm talking about both DC and Marvel, but more specifically Marvel. DC is running their latest reboot, REBIRTH, which is performing well and has been a good read thus far. Marvel is also performing well, despite what some may say.

Marvel recently launched their 2nd Civil War story line. Issue #3 was released yesterday and WOW! Now, since it was released yesterday, and this is my blog, and I make the rules; then I'm going to spoil the shit out of this!

Issue #1 killed off 2 characters! THE FIRST ISSUE! And they weren't minor characters either, these were well known, well loved characters.  Let me give you some back story without spoiling too much detail. There are 2 major teams that take the spotlight for main Marvel stories. There's the Avengers (new line-up, not at all like the movies. Led by Iron Man), and the Ultimates (a team full of mostly new characters that I am unfamiliar with but am excited to learn about). Sides are drawn between members of both of these teams, as well as the Inhumans (don't know the Inhumans? Check out one of my older posts!), and the X-Men.

So this new Marvel Comics Universe has super humans like Captain Marvel and Spider-Man, mutants like the X-Men, and Inhumans like Medusa (Queen of the Inhumans). The big deal here is that the population of Inhumans is increasing exponentially due to the Terrigen Mist (a cloud of alien gas that causes any Inhuman DNA found in humans to trigger, therefore giving these certain humans powers) floating around the globe. This is a problem for the mutants, because of the mutant gene in their DNA the Terrigen is poisonous to them and is responsible for a mass decrease in the mutant population. This does not stop the X-Men and the Inhumans from working together, but does add a real nice underlying tension between the 2 groups.

One of these new Inhumans is a man named Ulysses. His powers are that he gets visions of a "possible" future. Rather than just seeing these visions, he experiences them and is also able to share this experience with people around him. Ulysses gets a vision and alerts the Inhumans, Avengers, and the Ultimates in time to stop a "giant alien Celestial Giant" (Ms. Marvel's words) from destroying the planet. They do, but then the question is asked, "are we saving the future or are we altering the future?" Iron Man believes that by acting on these visions, that they are actually altering the future which may not be a good idea. While Captain Marvel believes that they should follow these visions to save as many lives as possible. Good moral quandry right?

Well, as if there wasn't enough tension after that conversation, but soon after Ulysses gets another vision. This time he alerts just the Ultimates because of how Captain Marvel feels, and this time it's in time to ambush a newly resurrected Thanos and stop him from stealing the Cosmic Cube. However, during the melee War Machine is hit and accidentally hits She-Hulk with a missle. He is terrified that he's killed her, and while distracted with checking on her, he's attacked and killed by Thanos.

So right after Tony Stark argues about altering the future, the actions of Captain Marvel and the Ultimates lead to the death of his best friend and former teammate. Stark kidnaps Ulysses from Attillan (the kingdom of the Inhumans) in order to learn how his powers work. This leads into issue 3, when the Ultimates and Inhumans catch up to Stark and Ulysses gets his 3rd vision, this time sharing it with everyone in the room. And this time his visions show a rage filled Hulk several stories tall and holding half of Iron Man's body in his right hand.

Quick backstory about Hulk these days. Last year Marvel introduced the Totally Awesome Hulk, a title that I can't stand. I also do not like the story. Basically a young child prodigy named Amadeus Cho has been assisting Bruce Banner for many years. Last year he developed a bracelet that would remove gamma radiated cells from Banner's body and give them to whomever wore the bracelet. Banner would then hide himself away in a secret mountain laboratory to experiment on himself. This comes as a shock to his friends later on. Cho uses the bracelet for himself and becomes the new Hulk. I don't like it, but whatever.

Anyway, the Avengers, Inhumans and the Ultimates arrive to confront Banner. Captain Marvel and Tony Stark approach the situation from opposing sides. Danvers wants to take Banner into custody to avoid any future possibility of Banner "hulking out", while Stark wants to stay with Banner to keep him safe.  At this point in his life, Bruce Banner hasn't had a "hulking out" incident in a year, but is terrified that he might have or will at any moment. The tension grows and Banner starts to get mad, but before he gets a chance to hulk out, an arrow with a special arrowhead comes out of no where and strikes Banner through the head. Killing him. That's right. The fucking Incredible Hulk was killed in issue #3 of Civil War II. I was stunned. Then the killer was revealed. Hawkeye aka Clint Barton was apparently contacted by Banner months before. He tells Hawkeye that he hasn't had a Hulk incident in a year, but he's terrified that he could at any moment. He reveals that he developed the arrowhead himself, specifically to kill him. He goes on to explain that he's asking Hawkeye because he knows that Hawkeye is the only one he can trust to be able to move on after killing Banner.

I was shocked. I already felt as if the ground underneath me was falling out with this All New All Different Marvel Comics, but they just killed off 2 Hulks and War Machine. Who the hell is next?!!!

I'm going to mention one other significant change to ongoing comics that seems to have people in an uproar. Every few years, the writers decide to change an old character a bit by either killing off the classic character entirely and replacing them or coming up with a way to keep the character alive but still use a new character in the title role. Follow me? No? Ok then...so the last major character to go through a big character change was Captain America aka Steve Rogers. A year or so ago Captain America started aging, and would soon be too old to continue heroing. So the mantle of Captain America was passed on to the Falcon. This is not the first time. There have been several Captain American's that were not Steve Rogers. The time before this Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier) took over as Cap after Steve Rogers was "assassinated" at the end of Marvel's first Civil War. So now Falcon is Cap, but also Steve Rogers is back as Cap. Yes, that's right. There are 2 Captain America's currently. Why? I don't know. I don't particulary care for this at all. I was never a fan of Falcon to begin with. But I digress. The uproar with Cap was that in issue #1 of Captain America Steve Rogers, it was revealed that Cap was an agent of Hydra this whole time. People went bonkers. Then issue #2 came out and he was back to where he belongs. But that's not the change I want to talk about.

There's a new Iron Man. And she, yes SHE, is a 15 year old black girl. Personally, I love this idea. I believe all characters need a change from time to time. Other people have worn Batman's cowl in Bruce Wayne's absence, there are currently 2 Spider-Mans (Spider-Men?) in the Marvel Universe, and also 2 Captain Americas. But people are freaking out about this new Iron Man. Their complaint is that Marvel is changing iconic character simply for politically correct reasons. And I call bullshit. Personally, the idea to go with a young Muslim girl as Ms. Marvel was a great idea! Miles Morales, a half black, half hispanic teen is a great idea! And now a black female Iron Man is also a great idea! It mirrors our society! We don't live in a world or even a country of all just one race of people, so why should the comic world be full of all white super heroes and just a few that represent another race? These same people would then argue that it's not the diversity they have a problem with, it's the unoriginal thinking of the writers. Here I also disagree. I will respond to that argument with a question; Would you be more likely to pick up a new comic featuring a new hero with totally original powers and name that was of a different race or would you simply continue to buy the comics that feature your favorite heroes that don't ever really change? The answer is simple. If given the choice between what they know and what they don't, people choose what they are familiar with before trying something new. Sales numbers for the new Ms. Marvel were fantastic! Would that be the case if she wasn't called Ms. Marvel? Probably not.

My point here is, change is inevitable. In comic books and in life. There is nothing we can do to stop change, so instead of resisting we should be embracing. Change is scary, but it is also exciting. I look forward to seeing the many changes my favorite characters will be going through in the years to come and hopefully I will have a hand in those changes as well.

Thanks for reading. We're recording episode 2 of The Good Shit podcast today, so that will be available on soundcloud tomorrow, be sure to listen in. Jimmy and I have a new guest and some great topics to talk about. See you next time!