Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Don’t believe me that Marvel’s Civil War crossover was earthshaking and controversial? Just wait until you see what Spider-Man does in issue #2.
The first half of this issue is a bunch of short scenes catching readers up on how much the Marvel Universe has changed now. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents find supervillains the Vulture and the Grim Reaper beaten and tied up in the sewer. The bad guys reveal that Captain America caught them. Maria Hill of S.H.I.E.L.D. notes that Captain America is continuing crimefighting while on the run. But, Cap has taken down fifteen criminals in seventy-two hours, meaning it’s not just him. He’s recruiting more of his fellow heroes to his side.
Next, Iron Man’s team is also continuing to be crimefighters, but they’re doing it out in the streets on broad daylight. Reed and She-Hulk join Iron Man and others, where they’ve all defeated a giant Doombot. The nearby crowd cheers for them, “People are starting to believe in heroes again,” Iron Man says. She-Hulk questions their stance on superhero registration. Iron Man says there will still be superheroes, it’s just that registration will weed out the teens, the amateurs, and the psychos, leaving only the purely good heroes. Tigra asks what category Captain America is in, and Iron Man only says that Cap is “wrong.”
Then we go to the New Baxter Building, where Reed is all in with Team Iron Man. He says he and Tony are working on a project that’s the most exciting thing he’s ever done (!). Sue questions him about hunting down and apprehending other superheroes, including some of their friends. Reed says, “They don’t leave us any choice if they refuse to register.”

Sue then sees math figures drawn all over the walls of Reed’s lab. Reed says this is an exponential curve. He explains that the number of superhumans is growing at an alarming rate, and if something isn’t done to keep them reigned in now, it’ll become an apocalypse. Sue finds a disc on Reed’s desk marked “42.” Reed refuses to tell her what that is, saying it’s classified. She leaves for the hospital to visit Johnny, who is still in a coma, and Reed dismissively says to give Johnny his love.
At the Daily Bugle office, J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robertson discuss preparations for Tony Stark’s upcoming press conference. Jonah says that superhero registration is everything he’d spent years fighting for. Robbie wonders if the superhero community will actually register and reveal their secret identities. “Just the smart ones,” Jonah says as Spider-Man swings by outside his window.
Tony talks with his buddy Happy Hogan. They haven’t any word from Captain America. Happy says Cap is putting together is own team, and that Cap won’t stop fighting until the fight is done. Tony has a rare moment of self-doubt during Civil War, as he leans his head back and says, “Oh God. Please let us be doing the right thing here.”

Then the issue’s main storyline begins, featuring not Spider-Man but the Young Avengers. Patriot, the team’s leader, is running across rooftops trying to escape a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter. They shoot him full of tranquilizer darts, but he’s so strong he keeps going. He breaks through a window into a nearby skyscraper, so the helicopter fires a missile in after him, resulting in a massive explosion of knockout gas.
Outside, a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have rounded up the rest of the Young Avengers, fitting them with some sort of power-dampening shackles. The team is Wiccan, Hulkling, the android Jonas, Stature (a.k.a. Cassie Lang), and the new Hawkeye (a.k.a. Kate Bishop). They’re being loaded up into one of those big convoy trucks we last saw in Fantastic Four. What the characters don’t know is that Daredevil and Luke Cage are watching from a distance, with Luke saying that Captain America and the Falcon are already at the scene.
The truck heads through the city. Inside the driver’s seats, one S.H.I.E.L.D. agent rants about how much he dislikes superheroes. The agent driving says, “You talk too much,” and he crashes the truck. It’s Cap in disguise! Then we see the Falcon is in disguise in the back of the truck. He undoes the manacles on Wiccan so Wiccan can cast a spell to get them out of there. He does, and the entire truck teleports away.
The truck reappears inside a giant underground complex, where members of Cap’s team aid the Young Avengers. Cable of the X-Men is there, saying “Welcome to the resistance.” Captain America explains that this location is a S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house that’s so secret, only Nick Fury knows about it. Fury’s not there, having gone “deep underground” once registration began. Daredevil says the team is already at work forging new identities for the Young Avengers. Cap warns that Tony Stark is up to something big.
Cut to Tony Stark, at the press conference mentioned earlier. Here’s one of the most talked-about moments in Marvel history. Tony is there with parents of kids who died in the Stamford incident at the start of Civil War #1, and then he introduces Spider-Man. Spidey comes out in his classic uniform, not the “iron spider” armor he’d been wearing recently.
“I’m not wearing my old mask because I’m ashamed of what I do,” he says. “I’m proud of who I am, and I’m here right now to prove it.” Then, in front of all the news cameras broadcasting this to the entire world, he takes of his mask and says, “My name is Peter Parker, and I’ve been Spider-Man since I was fifteen years old.”
Cut to the Daily Bugle, where J. Jonah Jameson has fainted.
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: The overall narrative of Civil War is that Iron Man is a futurist, and he’s doing all these things because he’s mathematically predicted where the future will go if he doesn’t. This issue, however, suggests that the future-predicting math came from Reed, not Tony.
Fade out: There’s little doubt that Sue is anti-reg at this point, but Reed is oblivious to that. I’d thought these two had moved beyond the “he’s so busy in the lab he never has time for her” thing, but Civil War moves characters around the board in all sorts of out-of-character ways.
Clobberin’ time: Ben is one panel at the new Baxter Building, showing he hasn’t left the country yet. He won’t for a while, but it’ll happen.
Flame on: Sue watches Spider-Man’s announcement from Johnny’s hospital room. It would have been hilarious if that’s what woke Johnny up from his coma, but I’m okay with Jonah getting the end-of-issue joke.
Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk and Tigra are both on Iron Man’s team, yet both are questioning whether they’re doing the right thing. I keep forgetting to put Luke Cage in this “Fantastic fifth wheel” section, but yes, he’s Captain America’s right-hand-man throughout Civil War.
Four and a half/our gal Val: Ben watches the kids while Sue and Reed have their conversation. It’s a somber scene, suggesting Franklin and Valeria can tell something’s up.
SUE-per spy: The 2019 Invisible Woman miniseries revealed that Sue had a double life as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent all along. The question during Civil War is, how much does she know? Is S.H.I.E.L.D. after her for info on Cap’s team? Does she know stuff about Cap’s team she’s not saying? There’s no way to know.
Trivia time: Young Avengers was hugely popular when it first debuted, but the series never quite recovered from Civil War. The characters have endured, though. Hulking and Wiccan got a lot of press as one of Marvel’s most prominent openly gay couples. Hulking went on to be a major player in the Empyre crossover. The two female Young Avengers have become stars in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Cassie getting her powers in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Kate being a regular in the Hawkeye series. Kate was also a main character in the 2020 Avengers video game.
Yes, the Casssie Lang of Young Avengers is the same Cassie who lived with the Fantastic Four for a while during the Tom DeFalco years, when her dad Ant-Man was a member of the team. She’s had quite the growth spurt!
I can’t find any info on what this giant Doombot was doing attacking New York. This doesn’t seem like Dr. Doom’s M.O. My theory is that Doom knows something’s up with Thor’s hammer, so he sent the Doombot to distract the heroes from learning about it.
Allegedly, the framed newspapers on the wall in Jonah’s office are the exact same ones seen in his office in the movie Spider-Man 2. They’re too tiny for me to tell, but I’ll take the fans’ word for it.
Fantastic or frightful? Weird how Spider-Man revealing his identity is the big selling point of this issue, yet it’s mostly a Young Avengers story instead. (You had to read the regular Spider-Man titles to get the full story about his unmasking.) The issue does, however, do a good job of selling how the Marvel Universe as we once knew it is over, and we’re now in an unpredictable place.
Next: It’s Splitsville.
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