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  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Tony Stark, as always. While many can understand why he is upset at Rhodey's death, the fact that he decided to take his feelings out on Carol and anyone around in the middle of a triage situation didn't win him any sympathy. It also doesn't help that his ranting is downright insulting. Rhodey is after all a man who is both a veteran hero and soldier and has been in countless dangerous situations, with Tony's rant sounding like Rhodey was a child dragged into a dangerous situation by an irresponsible adult. On the other hand, Rhodey was going up against THANOS, and with somewhat weak armor to boot, so there was that. Part 2 helps Tony a bit by showing he didn't run off to kill Ulysses and Ulysses himself comes to understand Tony's reasoning of why his powers shouldn't just be accepted and that testing should probably be done before fully trusting the visions. Still, this comes after Tony basically declared war on the Inhumans by kidnapping Ulysses, then used enhanced interrogation to begin his study, as well as attacking several Inhumans in his getaway, including Queen Medusa.
    • The Inhumans, as a whole. While some feel that they aren't the true villains in all of this, most aren't happy with the actions that they took against Tony Stark, which basically destroyed his life and his company. Between that and their general behavior towards the mutant plight due to their mists killing them (justifying Magneto's anger), fan reaction isn't completely on their side.
    • Storm's X-Men team. Some understand that they don't want a war with the Inhumans, while others are pissed that they aren't as angry at them as Magneto is.
    • Finally, there is the biggest, Captain Marvel. While there are those who agree with her that her actions involving Ulysses's visions are saving people, many feel that she is being dumb, arrogant and stubborn with how she goes about dealing with them, especially since it has led to her detaining people without much proof of anything, and those actions indirectly led to the deaths of Rhodey and Bruce Banner. Banner's case is even worse, as she led a large group of superheroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to confront him, even though the vision said that he would kill them all. Later on, she still insists that the visions are helping and that Hawkeye may have saved people by killing Banner. Even Maria Hill starts to think Carol is going too far. Even with her whole side falling apart and mounting evidence that she shouldn't be doing this, she continues to cling on to Ulysses's visions.
      • It didn't help that Carol's characterisation was dependent on who's writing her during this event. The tie-ins such as Ms Marvel and Alpha Flight portrayed her in a more negative light — her invoking Godwin's Law on Magneto in the latter series being the most infamous example — with her acting much more of a Jerkass than she was in the main story.
  • Broken Base
    • That the other side is being led by Captain Marvel instead of Captain America. With the more cosmic scope being used in the story, some feel that she's a decent choice. Others feel like it's more Carol shilling, and others don't like that she's being portrayed as the villain.
    • Rhodey's death has also drawn ire, with some thinking it's a reasonable way to kickstart the event and others finding it a cheap case of a Cynicism Catalyst to get Tony and Carol to fight (especially since Captain America: Civil War showed a way that the conflict could still occur without any named characters dying). The authorial justification for the death either explained things out or just made things worse as the Rhodey/Carol relationship was rather rushed and many felt it existed as an excuse to give her something tied to Tony.
    • Bruce's death has really drawn in ire, mostly due to what happened before the spoilered action. The biggest problem was that Civil War II depicted Bruce proclaiming that he was always on the verge of the Hulk returning while Totally Awesome Hulk proclaimed that Bruce was 100% cured. Those who don't like what happened claim that this is Bendis ignoring Characterization Marches On in favor of telling his own story while others claim that Bruce has always been one step away from releasing the beast, even after losing him.
    • The above action is also divisive among Hawkeye's fandom, as once again Bendis depicts Clint using deadly force, which goes against one of Hawkeye's biggest character traits, yet Bendis has a history of ignoring it and depicting him as the most kill-happy Avenger. Some fans believe this is Bendis butchering Clint Barton again, while others at least think that Hawkeye dealing with the guilt of killing a friend would provide interesting character development for him. Though the detractors point out that Bruce and Clint were never close and were never really friends.
    • The decision to seemingly have the event mirror the Black Lives Matter debate. Those in favor think it's a nice way to add some political relevancy and point out that Marvel has a history of doing Ripped from the Headlines stories, while those opposed think it's inappropriate to tie such a touchy subject to a superhero comic. Adding to this is the fact that the victim in the comic is a white male rather than a minority, which some feel makes the allegory fall apart.
    • Tony's final fate in the finale. Some feel that his coma is a copout and that he should have actually died for the event to had some meaningful impact, while others are just glad that Carol isn't a murderer. Adding to this debate is the fact that some feel Tony not really being dead makes it very hard to get invested in Ironheart, since it's now all but assured Tony will be back to reclaim the Iron Man mantle from her.
    • Is this better or worse than the original Civil War? Those that hold the former view say that the topic is much more meaningful and clear than the original which suffered Depending on the Writer, while those in the latter party believe that all the same mistakes were made, leading it to be worse because the writers repeated all mistakes.
  • Designated Hero: Regardless of which side is meant to be the 'correct' one, both sides act in a ridiculously villainous manner that makes them a lot harder to root for. This might be intentional to add moral ambiguity, but all it does is make the conflict difficult to care about.
    • Carol Danvers. When shown proof of how Ulysses' powers actually work, she ignores it and continues her campaign of fighting the future by arresting a woman with the only proof being his vision of her and an empty suitcase. She recruits Kamala to aid her in her venture and essentially tells her to deal with it when the poor girl is having completely major second-thoughts over the entire thing. Later on as she ramped up, several characters call her out on her increasingly totalitarian behavior. Magneto outright compares her to the Nazis after a few mishaps between her and the X-Man, causing her to compare Magneto (who, keep in mind, is a Holocaust survivor) to an internet troll invoking Godwin's Law. Notably, Carol seems to be repeating the same pitfalls that Tony went through in the original Civil War (whose side had a point but invalidated it by acting in a villainous manner), but exaggerated ten-fold. As trying to save people from attacks and crisis that would cause a huge loss of life (which Carol and the Ultimates had been doing and was Carol's initial plan for Ulysses) would be unquestionably a good thing, it comes off as Marvel deliberately trying to make her more villainous to add more moral ambiguity to avoid Tony being the clear-cut bad guy.
    • Tony Stark. After finding out about Ulysses' power, he instantly distrusts it for little to no reason, starting an argument with his friends over essentially nothing. He follows this by, when Ulysses's vision gets Rhodey killed, but successfully prevents the deaths that Thanos would have caused, attacking the Inhumans and kidnapping Ulysses, proceeding to begin experimenting on him to determine how his powers work in order to find any flaw to justify his irrational distrust of him. When he goes about recruiting people to his cause, he does so through bribery (such as trying to buy Sam Wilson's support by playing off of his financial troubles), among other issues. While Carol is Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, Tony seems to start the event being an unsympathetic asshole, even before Carol's extremism comes into play.
    • The Inhumans. At first, they are right to be angry that Tony kidnapped Ulysses. However, Medusa destroyed his company, took his money and ruined his reputation. Even worse, Triton and Maximus blew up his company tower because they felt that she didn't go far enough. When they were with the other heroes confronting Banner, Tony pointed out that Banner hasn't done anything, to which Medusa responded with "Yet." Add to the fact that they don't want to really help save the mutants from being killed off by their mists, and it's pretty hard to see them as heroic. Now it's debatable whether some of the writers themselves consider them heroes considering what Magneto asked Rachel Grey in Civil War 2: X-Men #3: "Tell me... in the world you came from... your future... do you recall an Inhuman lifting a finger to help our people?" This instantly caused her to join Magneto. They had basically abandoned Carol when she turned to them for help after Miles went home to deal with the vision of himself killing Captain America.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Rhodey's death here is just the end of a Trauma Conga Line for the character, especially since the FCBD book came out one day after Captain America: Civil War, where Rhodey is paralyzed by a stray blast by the Vision. Suddenly, Rhodey in the movies looks like the lucky one.
    • Related to this is the reveal in U.S.Avengers that compared to another timeline, what happened was the heroes getting off lightly, and that if Thanos' arrival hadn't been predicted, he'd have killed a lot more people.
    • Tony sobbing that he doesn't want to go through what he did with Captain America in the previous war becomes this, in light of Cap being HYDRA.
    • In the All-New, All-Different Avengers tie-in, Nadia is shown trying to build a device to help everyone understand each other and breaks down crying when it blows up. In light of the revelations in her own title in 2019 that she has full-blown bipolar disorder like her father did, it comes off less like a new hero learning a harsh reality and more of the first sign of something so much worse.
    • Tony's 2019 solo has him suffering Clone Angst because he's not sure if he's the original or a backup copy. Made worse by the fact that Carol had a tie-in to the Infinity Wars event where she saw an alternate reality where she did more obviously kill Tony. Turns out the sole difference between that reality and mainstream is whether Tony's body was intact for the backup to take effect. While he did have a breakdown over the nature of his body in the lead-up to Iron Man 2020 (Event), this was mitigated by issue 4 revealing he is indeed Tony.
  • Heartwarming Moments:
    • Bruce Banner's Final Will and Testament. Turns out he had a lot planned out for this - he had a benefit corporation set up to use the money from his invention patents to pay for the victims of the Hulk's rampage and gave his friends, including Rick Jones, Betty Ross, and the Warbound, a good chunk of money and a few gifts of their own - Jimi Hendrix's guitar to Rick, a new (perfectly legal) identity for Betty if what she's going through is too much and a reverse-engineered spaceship to get the Warbound back into space if they wish to. And the last one is a simple kitchen timer with one single request: if you ever start to get mad, set it to three minutes and cool off.
    • In Uncanny Avengers #13, Deadpool attempts to bust Hawkeye from jail, setting him up with everything to start a new life. He rejects everything and the two end up bonding.
    • Captain Marvel #9 has a moment when, after Ulysses has a vision of Carol and Aurora fighting, and Carol accuses that Aurora's Split Personality might be the cause, Alpha Flight immediately take Aurora's side and give Carol a brief What the Hell, Hero? as they express that they choose Aurora over her.
  • Narm:
    • She-Hulk somehow being seemingly killed by a dinky little rocket despite her powerful healing abilities and prior durability feats. It comes across as so forced and feels like a cheap way to raise the stakes. She even has time to cry out "Ow!" beforehand, making it even more silly. Mitigated somewhat by the confirmation that she's actually in a coma, and that was a result of Thanos flattening her after the missile stunned her briefly.
    • On the same note, Thanos's role in the story as a mere Starter Villain comes off as this as a cheap way to hype up the threat. His undignified defeat by people who should have no business causing him any trouble did not help matters.
    • And on that note, add the Celestials into that as well. Their sudden attack on Earth comes off as a Diabolus ex Nihilo, with their only purpose much like Thanos was to be a high enough threat level to add credibility to Ulysses's visions and make Carol's side come off as more justified than it actually was. The Serial Escalation of the threat level ultimately makes the story more nonsensical.
    • Ulysses's weepy, over-dramatic reaction to a vision of a world devastated and destroyed by the Hulk. "I'm sorry, the Hulk's going to kill you all!". Uh-huh. How many times has this exact threat been brought up again?
    • War Machine's demise might have been more dramatic had one of the very first pages of the event not had Doc Samson (who had died in a previous story) alive again for absolutely no reason ("I'm better now") whatsoever, something that everyone is entirely unfazed by, so we're supposed to be shocked and saddened by a major character's death when another's presence and the reactions of others to it just drove home the triviality of major character deaths in the Marvel Universe.
    • "Damn you, Doctor Strange!"
  • Nightmare Fuel: Captain America in Civil War II: The Oath. It starts out a little like Civil War: The Confession. However, as Cap talks to Iron Man's comatose body, he reveals the depths of just how cold and calculating he is. Later on in the book, the way he speaks makes it seem as if Hydra Cap thinks of himself as a separate person from the Cap we all knew and love. His overall goal? To tear down American society. To replace it with a Hydra-run dystopia. We're even treated to visions of what he wants. Such happy, cheerful things as armed checkpoints on the road, people being dragged out of cars. The news reduced to propaganda, managed by men with guns. Schoolchildren doing the double-fisted salute to the Hydra flag. Visibly nonhuman mutants and Inhumans kept in a camp wired off with barbed wire. White, blonde children wearing Hydra shirts and carrying rocks chasing down a black child. Hydra warships, looking very much like tentacled demons, patrolling the skies. An army of Hydra soldiers holding a victorious rally in front of the ruins of the Capital Building.
  • Older Than They Think: Carol Danvers' attitude here, especially post-issue #4, isn't the first time she's behaved in this fashion. In the original Civil War, Carol acted the same exact way, with one infamous incident that had her hunt down and beat up Julia Carpenter (Spider-Woman, or "Arachne" at the time) in front of her daughter.
  • The Scrappy: Ulysses is widely disliked by fans as his only purpose in the story was to be the Living Macguffin and drive the conflict forward. He's also disliked for his constant Wangsting which is probably the only key aspect of his personality and his lame design. Little wonder that we never ever see or hear from him ever again after Eternity comes to to literally take him out from the story.
  • Tainted by the Preview: The lynchpin for the event, which abruptly killed off Rhodey and (seemingly) Jen, left a rather bad taste in many fans' mouths that has tainted their view of the event. The deaths of two popular characters to create a reason for the plot had a pretty common reaction from the fandom: "Oh. This is going to be one of those crossovers…"
  • Tear Jerker: Rhodey's death and Carol cradling him in her arms afterwards. Seeing a strong, normally upbeat character broken like that is heartwrenching.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some felt that Old Man Logan should have been the one to kill Banner instead of Hawkeye. The choice would have been more natural since given Logan's experience with the Hulk of his universe, which would naturally make him hostile towards the prospect of Banner hulking out and killing everyone.
  • Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
    • It's another Civil War, coming so close after Secret Wars (2015) that it was advertised long before this latter event was even halfway through, and the advertisement for Marvel comics following this event not only show that this event will end with the heroes of the Marvel Universe divided again, but Marvel editors affirm that an "Inhumans Vs. X-Men" event is soon to come (and apparent project titles tossed around for it on the Internet have been some dreary ones like 'Death of X' or 'End of X'). Several critics and commenters in social media have mentioned that they are, quite plainly, tired of this type of Status Quo. Likewise, to fuel the event, both sides are depicted in an extremely unsympathetic light, both committing horrible actions without reasonable justification in order to muddy their points, rather than maturely explore the pros and cons of their side as a basis for the conflict. As a result, rather than the viewer being free to support whichever side they believe has the most sound basis, they're left trying to decide which one is less of an asshole about it.
    • Invoked by Laura Kinney, the new Wolverine, in all but name in the last issue of her tie-in. After which she grabs her younger sister/clone Gabby and goes into hiding.
  • Unexpected Character:
    • The Choosing Sides book brings back the Power Pack, Tom Foster, Damage Control and Night Thrasher, the latter fresh off of his revival during Contest of Champions (2015).
    • The Gentleman from the Sinister Six trilogy of novels by Adam-Troy Castro has a cameo as one of Wilson Fisk's associates in Civil War II: Kingpin #4.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Both sides are considered this by many fans. While it is true that the story is supposed to be morally grey and neither is meant to be perfect, many think Marvel went too far in making them imperfect until they were just unlikable.
    • Carol stubbornly pursues changing the future even as it either makes things worse or becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and makes insanely morally questionable decisions such as arresting a civilian and planning to hold her indefinitely with the barest of evidence. She has driven away many of her friends and allies and yet still keeps going. Now, some are questioning whether or not she should be Marvel's Top Female Superhero as a result of her actions. Even worse, she tried to arrest Miles for killing Cap in the future, basically killed Tony (he only ended up in a coma due to his experiments), and barely seems fazed by it. It doesn't help that she: a) basically agreed with Tony in the end after being congratulated by the President, and b) has yet to face any punishment for almost killing another superhero.
    • Tony meanwhile is considered by many to be the "right" side regarding the use of the visions but he's such an obnoxious hypocritical Jerkass whose entire foundation is built on blaming Carol for Rhodey's death. Because being a superhero and soldier is an insanely safe job. The result is that while most can agree with Tony, they still can't stand him enough to side with him. For a quick look into how much of a dick he is, in the final issue he fires several rockets at Carol which miss and injure Captain America. His response?
    • To an extent, The Inhumans. They are already a Broken Base due to their actions regarding the mists that are killing the mutants. But, they did have every right to be mad about Tony kidnapping Ulysses. However, their response was to basically destroy his company and his reputation, not to mention bombing his tower, possibly endangering others in the process. Meanwhile, they were the ones to bring Ulysses to the superheroes in the first place, but when Carol implores for their help after the vision of Miles killing Cap, they just leave her to hold the bag.
  • The Woobie:
    • Carol, who starts out the series having her boyfriend die in front of her due to a mission she brought him on.
    • Bruce Banner, who was absolutely and utterly betrayed by the people he thought of as friends and colleagues at a point where he was finally cured and happy, forced into a very stressful situation and killed as a result.
    • Also, Tony, who lost his best friend in said mission. He then proceeded to lose his money, his company and his tower, was unable to save Banner, and is now facing arrest from Carol and S.H.I.E.L.D. for freeing a woman who was arrested solely on a vision. Though, this is Tony Stark, after all.
    • Kamala Khan, who, like Peter Parker in the original story, watches as her life falls apart around her because she backed the wrong person.
    • Miles Morales, after the vision of him killing Steve Rogers is revealed. Especially since we, as readers, know that Steve Rogers is secretly working for HYDRA and any and all destruction in the vision was probably caused by him instead of Miles and Miles likely would have every reason to put him down. However, the characters do not get any context so all Miles see is him holding the murdered body of the Big Good of the entire Marvel universe among a burnt city. How the hell is he supposed to take that as any way except Future Me Scares Me?

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