Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Art By: David Marquez and Olivier Coipel
Cover By: Marko Djurdjevic
Publisher: Marvel

Synopsis: This is the one everyone will be talking about! One of the biggest heroes in the Marvel Universe will fall! Who it is and how and why will divide fans for years to come. Will the heroes of the Marvel Universe survive the unthinkable happening? The fallout to this issue is enormous! – (Source)

The Good:
The art was really good on this book. Marquez is a good fit for a book with so many spandex clad characters but was also very good with the courtroom scenes. He draws really expressive faces too which was a necessity in this incredibly melodramatic story.
And Olivier Coipel’s art on the Bruce Banner/Hawkeye scenes fit seamlessly with Marquez’s stuff.

The Bad:
This issue, hell this entire mini-series, is a mess and seems to be fueled more by “SHOCKING MOMENTS!!!” than a story that makes sense. the whole idea that the entire super-hero community loses its collective senses because some strange Inhuman kid sees the future is kinda dumb when you factor in all of the other precog characters that have been living in the Marvel U over the years. Take Destiny (Mystique’s friend and confidante) for instance. Destiny could see into the future with pinpoint precision at times yet no one lost their shit and started turning the Marvel U into a version of MINORITY REPORT. Destiny even worked for the government for years without anyone giving one solitary damn about how effective her visions were and how they could be used proactively. I can count several instances where Carol Danvers in her Ms Marvel days actually had personal run-ins with Destiny and never once did Carol turn into a fascist thug who would advocate preemptive action against close friends.
Also Hawkeye is adamantly opposed to killing. There are stacks of comics where Hawkeye has stated in no uncertain terms that eh doesn’t kill and that heroes don’t kill. He quit the Avengers because they let Wolverine on the team. He joined the Thunderbolts to try and show them that heroes do not cross that line. He dumped Mockingbird when he found out she killed the guy who raped her. Committing cold-blooded murder on the off-chance that Bruce Banner was about to “Hulk Up” is not something Hawkeye would do. Also Hawkeye and Bruce Banner have never been close enough that Banner would choose Hawkeye to be the one to kill him.

The Ugly:
If you were one of the people who was reading Greg Pak’s TOTALLY AWESOME HULK and his characterization of Bruce Banner then you’d be as bummed by the turn of events in this comic as I am.

Final Verdict: A bad crossover gets even worse as Brian Michael Bendis tosses all the characterization that other writers have given to characters and tosses it out the window in service of cheap shock tactics and a tedious mega-event crossover. Basically CIVIL WAR II is shaping up to be just as big a disappointment as the original CIVIL WAR was.

Rating: D+