Emerjas

When an Inhuman with the ability to see the future appears, Captain Marvel sees an opportunity to prevent problems before they happen. However, Iron Man sees this as a slippery slope and opposes what he sees as an abuse of power. Their disagreement causes the entire superhero community to pick sides and face off against one another.

This only got two stars because the art is absolutely gorgeous. I may have hated the plot, but I loved looking at it as it played out. If the art could have been paired up with a story I liked, I would have been thrilled.

To be fair to the book, its very premise put it at a disadvantage to having me like it. I hate superhero stories that feature heroes fighting heroes. There are exceptions that have managed to win me over, but for the most part, I spend this kind of story incredibly frustrated as the heroes behave like bratty children who resort to violence first and generally stop behaving like the heroes they typically are. And this was not one of those exceptions.

Characters just felt needlessly antagonistic to one another just to push the plot along as they all seemed to forget how to speak rationally with one another or act in logical ways. They just made ridiculous decisions simply to push the plot along rather than it being a rational way to act. Like when a vision shows Hulk going on a rampage, they’re solution is to have everyone go and surround Banner’s place and confront him even though he’s been Hulk-free for a year now. If Banner really could transform still, their actions seemed like a really good way of triggering that instead of talking to Banner in a calm and less intimidating way.

This was the point I knew I’d hate everyone on Captain Marvel’s side.

And her side just kept getting worse. They started arrested people and holding them for crimes that they hadn’t yet committed. I don’t understand how I’m supposed to see the sides as both having a point when one side is arresting people for nothing and holding them without a trial or anything. I really don’t get why so many heroes would join that side.

The whole conflict felt like it escalated so quickly and no one was willing to rationally discuss anything. I couldn’t understand why characters were acting the way they were and what their reasoning was for the side they chose. And I really don’t understand why so many of them were drawn into this conflict. It didn’t feel like the kind of dispute that would involve the entire superhero community.

The art really is the only thing I enjoyed here. This was a great example of why I hate stories about superheroes fighting one another. They usually end up making everyone look bad.