Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears Vol. 2: Civil War II

by Dennis Hopeless

[Quirky Cat]

This volume contains the obligatory tie-in to the Civil War II plotline (pretty sure it’s going to affect every character in the Marvel universe in some way, shape, or form. Mostly because it can). You don’t have to read Civil War II before reading this to understand it (actually, I found myself more confused having read Civil War II first, since they skipped a fairly major event that Carol’s best friend should have cared about).



I actually really liked the way Jessica Drew ended up getting roped into the Civil War II plot – Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel asked (well, begged) Jessica to be her background checker for events going on. Long story short: There’s a new inhuman who may or may not be able to see the future with perfect accuracy. Carol asked Jessica to take a handful of the events predicted and confirm or deny their accuracy. While Jessica is obviously uncomfortable with the core concept of the kid’s abilities, she agrees to do so, since investigating is totally her thing (plus the government pay bit probably helped too).
Her conclusion? Twenty out of the twenty (give or take) events she checked into all were accurate. She was hoping for at least one failure out of these, in order to get Carol to put on the breaks for a bit. Her hopes were in vain though. As if that wasn’t bad enough, events occur in rapid succession to make her loathe the whole mission goal and Carol along with it.
Jessica’s connection to many of the key players in Civil War II actually made this volume surprisingly interesting, despite her minimal level of involvement. She is/was friends with Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Carol Danvers (obviously), and many others. I mention the first two for obvious reasons, as the events that occur between the two of them leave her utterly devastated as well as confused and angry. I wish this volume had included the conclusion of Clint’s trial, as I would have liked to see her reaction to the verdict. Maybe the next volume will include it.
I’ll admit some of my bias is showing when I find myself upset that Jessica cut things off between her and Carol. I’m a total Captain Marvel fan, so naturally I don’t want to see her losing any friends over this (obviously, I have particular opinions over the events in Civil War II because of this). I do feel that in this case, both were pretty awful friends to each other. Yes, Carol didn’t listen to Jessica about her concerns and that may or may not have cost another friend their life. The flip side though is Carol lost somebody very close to her, and yet we don’t even see that event mentioned in the volume, showing how low it registered on Jessica’s radar (which is actually pretty sad, considering what happened).
Overall I’m pretty happy with this volume, though I felt like the beginning of the first issue and ending of the last issue were just a bit campy. I feel that Spider-Woman is at her best when there’s a strong plot to back her up, as the more “fluff” comics just don’t do her justice.


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