Written by Marvel’s Civil War II #3 was released today, which means Bruce Banner is officially dead (until he’s alive again). Your friendly neighborhood blogger might do up a write-up in the future, but I figured the occasion offered a good excuse to experiment with uploading my first real YouTube review.
Douglas Ernst Blog 
I don’t get why it was necessary for Hawkeye to jump the gun. Bruce’s eyes weren’t even glowing or anything. It would’ve made an awful lot more sense if he was starting to glow, or grow, or something like that, and he said “wait! I’ve got this serum, it’ll stop the change–” and then Hawkeye shoots him, since he was obviously starting to change. The question then becomes, would Bruce have been able to avert the change, since he knew it was happening? Or would that have been the start of the devastating battle we saw glimpses of, maybe the serum would have caused him to change to an even more powerful form?
As it was I didn’t see any evidence that he actually was changing. On top of that Hawkeye is saying he could tell it was happening even though he went really far away beforehand. Finally, having him be in a tree like that seemed stupid. There was no reason he couldn’t just be standing nearby and do it; nobody was going to be watching him when this confrontation was happening. On top of that, what universe are we in where a murder trial goes through this quickly? That’s harder to believe in than the Hulk.
And am I crazy for wanting to see this super-Hulk battle happen? They showed us some images of it and it looked awesome, like something we’ve never seen before. The Hulk appeared to be giant-sized. It feels like a ripoff to show those hints and then not only not have that battle happen, but have an issue with basically no action at all.
I find this Tony Stark vs. Carol Danvers thing weak, too. Cap and Tony have very well-established personalities. Danvers is well known for changing her powers, name, and look a lot, and doesn’t really have a well-established character. I couldn’t tell you one thing about her that I know for sure off the top of my head, considering that the version before the short-haired Captain Marvel version was almost totally different. She’s just a weak foil for Stark. It actually would make more sense, and fit characters better, for it to be Maria Hill. At least I know her character, and SHIELD wanting to hunt down bad guys before they strike seems like it makes a lot of sense. Or for that matter, make it Tony vs. Nick Fury. That might work even better. But Danvers is a terrible pick for the opposite side.
Tony just seems to be constantly whining “stop it Carol, this isn’t good, stop it, really, cut it out” like a kid. It just makes him seem weak and ineffectual. And he can’t have a fistfight with her like he did with Cap because nobody wants to see Iron Man beat up a girl. It’s just a bad idea all around.
And even if they did fight, you know they wouldn’t let Tony win. Something-something-girl power or whatever.
“I don’t get why it was necessary for Hawkeye to jump the gun. Bruce’s eyes weren’t even glowing or anything. It would’ve made an awful lot more sense if he was starting to glow, or grow, or something like that, and he said “wait! I’ve got this serum, it’ll stop the change–” and then Hawkeye shoots him, since he was obviously starting to change.”
You are correct, sir! Hawkeye says he saw a flicker of green in Bruce’s eyes, but as you said: There was no reason to jump the gun, urrrrm, arrow. Heh.
“Finally, having him be in a tree like that seemed stupid.”
Haha. I thought the same thing.
“And am I crazy for wanting to see this super-Hulk battle happen? They showed us some images of it and it looked awesome, like something we’ve never seen before. The Hulk appeared to be giant-sized. It feels like a ripoff to show those hints and then not only not have that battle happen, but have an issue with basically no action at all.”
Agreed. Your entire comment was spot on.
Maybe the “Giant Hulk” battle will still happen in the future, but “killing” Bruce now brings it about with Amadeus Cho down the line? I can see some hero trying to bring him back to life … trying to play God … and it goes horribly wrong.
Hawkeye says he saw a flicker of green in Bruce’s eyes
This is so confusing, though. There are a bunch of possibilities which have an impact on what happens next. There was no reason for this to be a confusing point. I mean, we saw Bruce’s eyes right before he was shot. So either Hawkeye was wrong, which means he killed someone they’ve all known for years and has saved the earth dozens of times due to paranoia, he was lying for some reason, or he was right and the artist didn’t show it to us.
This moment was a total breakdown of “sequential art” because it implies that the art was wrong or didn’t show us what we needed to see to understand the scene. For such a simple moment it became incredibly muddled because of the disagreement between the art and the writing.
It’s a horrible mistake because this situation is already pretty confusing and muddled. At least the original Civil War had relatively clear stakes and the situation made sense. Plus you had the advantage of clear personalities on both sides, whereas, again, Danvers has never cared about proactive superheroing before so this whole thing doesn’t really tie into her existing character as far as I know, and she’s not that well known anyway.
Not to mention, the eye thing isn’t something only Hawkeye would know. Everyone standing there was looking right at Bruce. There is a definitive answer about this point, so they should have just shown it to us. Plus that makes me feel like Hawkeye is wrong, since everyone, including us, was watching Bruce right beforehand and didn’t see what Hawkeye thinks he saw.
I just don’t get why they can’t make it clear whether Hawkeye was right or wrong about Bruce starting to Hulk out. That’s important context for how you feel about what he did; there could still be a case made for or against him either way, but with it up in the air I don’t even know what the trial is about — is it about what he did? Or is it about why he did it? Was this a major point at the trial? I would have made it a big point if I were the prosecution. It’s just a huge distraction that doesn’t need to be there. I can’t understand why they would make such a basic point so ambiguous; it actually undercuts the story.
Great first video! And yeah, I’m not really a fan of what went down in this issue. I feel like they really are just slowly killing off the classic characters to make room for the new, ‘hipper’ characters.
“Great first video!”
Thanks, Conner. I got off work and then just sort of decided to put myself through a “speed round” to get up a video. I basically treated it like I was at work and someone was like, “We need a comic review as soon as possible? Knock it out, Doug!” Just like starting this blog many years ago, I think you just need to dive in and do it. I’ll learn the tricks of the trade as I go on.
“And yeah, I’m not really a fan of what went down in this issue. I feel like they really are just slowly killing off the classic characters to make room for the new, ‘hipper’ characters.”
I wonder what Marvel’s internal numbers are telling them, because I don’t know how they can say it’s a good idea to kill of Bruce Banner. Captain America: Civil War comes out a few months ago, dominates the box office, and then within months a.) Captain America is Hydra-Cap, b.) Tony is getting replaced by Riri Williams, and c.) Hulk is dead.
The owner of my local comic shop says people come in who watch The Flash who then want to read similar DC stories. Why would Marvel not have a product that closely matches what people see on the big screen? It makes no sense.
I love the new format Doug. Hope you keep this up for other issues on occasion, ones that call for attention like this (possibly do one for the new Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows series when it starts?)
I’m tired of Marvel comics, and specifically their writers, having to play loose with continuity to suit the circumstances.
And someone get the memo that Matt Murdock is not the only attorney in the world. If the world still knew he was Daredevil I’d understand his celebrity, but nobody does anymore.
Tony has been acting more and more a man-child throughout this…I dread to say it, but maybe there was a method behind Slott’s madness when he had Tony and Peter cross over in Power Play.
“I love the new format Doug. Hope you keep this up for other issues on occasion, ones that call for attention like this (possibly do one for the new Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows series when it starts?)”
Thanks! As I told Conner, this was me just jumping into the pool last night. I plan on doing more, but I wanted to push myself to see if I can churn one out in roughly the same time it takes me to write and edit a blog post. If I could make a YouTube video faster than a blog post down the line, then it’s just a bonus.
I’m tired of Marvel comics, and specifically their writers, having to play loose with continuity to suit the circumstances.
That is an ongoing problem, and the response by the writes essentially translates: “Shut up and take your medicine.” It starts at the top.
The old saying is true: “S*** rolls downhill.”
“And someone get the memo that Matt Murdock is not the only attorney in the world.”
Heh. That is a good point. 🙂
Bruce Banner dindu nuffin
“Bruce Banner dindu nuffin.”
Haha. I was reading the issue and totally identified with Bruce Banner.
It’s like, “What are you psychos doing? You’re going to ambush me at my lab and then ask me why I might Hulk out on you? You’re going to hack into my systems when you could have literally just asked me what I was doing since I’ve known you for years? You’re going to bring these runt superhero high-school kids to glare at me? She Thor is going to say crap like ‘Don’t make this difficult’? When did you guys become just as deranged as most of the world’s villains?”
So, they are trying to play like Hawkeye was justified in killing BB?
That is hella ironic coming from a pro BLM agitprop house like Marvel.
The stupidity of the heroes in both Civil Wars flows out of the absence of talent, or diligence, of Marvel writers. Either lack of talent, that they don’t even see how faulty is their own story, or lazy, in that they feel like they can throw any sort of hack plot on the page and somebody will buy it. I go for the second explanation. They already don’t care about continuity, and now there is no effort to seal up logic holes (I don’t mean little picayune things, but huge, gaping basic logic holes). Marvel quality is basically regressed back to the 1990s.
Hey, have you heard about what happened to Frank Cho? When I heard I was curious if you’d cover it.
“Hey, have you heard about what happened to Frank Cho? When I heard I was curious if you’d cover it.”
You know me well… Stay tuned. 😉
Update: Frank Cho pushed off Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka’s ‘weird political agenda’