So by now I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that no New Avengers book can compare to the first one, Breakout. I’ve also come to the conclusion that none of the Civil War graphic novels hold a candle to the main Civil War graphic novel. So there’s a good possibility that the New Avengers: Civil War is poised for failure. It’s good to know you can depend on certain things.

The New Avengers Civil War trade paperback is a collection of five comic books and each book covers a single Avenger. As there are more than 5 New Avengers, obviously not everybody gets spotlighted. The five heroes that get their own book are Captain America, Luke Cage (probably the best story of them all), Spider-Woman, Sentry and Iron Man.

The pencilling between each book looks unique which is kind of a nice touch, probably not intentional but still. Sentry’s story looks almost air-brushed, Luke Cage’s looks much darker and dominated by sketch lines whereas Spider-Woman’s story has the bold outlines reminiscent of classic comic book art.

The major problem with this book is one of continuity. Not continuity between this Civil War trade paperback and the other Civil War books, but between this graphic novel and the next New Avengers book Revolution. See the spoiler for specifics.

Spoiler

In New Avengers Revolution (6) Why is Spider-Man dressed in black? In fact, why is he part of the New Avengers after the Civil War,because according to this graphic novel he’s sided with Tony Stark. Now, I know why Spider-Man was still on the New Avengers because I’ve read a good many of the Civil War books, but if I hadn’t their would be a huge chasm of information missing between New Avengers 5 & 6.

Ok, as for the details. The Captain America story re-unites Cap and Falcon after Captain America has escaped from Shield after refusing to turn into a cape hunter. The two of them head over to recruit Doctor Pym who turns into Giant-Man and delays them until Shield cape-hunters can arrive to arrest the two. Of course Captain America and Falcon escape and fly off into the sunset.

The second story focuses on Luke Cage and it is probably the best story of them all. Luke Cage basically tells Tony Stark to take a flying leap and that he wasn’t going to register so Tony warns him that come midnight the cape-hunters will come-a-knockin. He points out the injustice of pulling people out of their homes for doing nothing other than being different. Luke Cage sends Jessica Jones and his baby away from the action and then waits for the Shield agents to arrive. When Shield does arrive they bring the fight to him only to find that Luke Cage’s neighbors support him and they attack the Shield agents. Captain America, Falcon and Daredevil arrive in time to help Luke Cage escape in a stolen Shield vehicle.

Probably the worst story is the Spider-Woman tale in which Shield captures her just because they cannot trust her loyalties. Once again Hydra saves the day by attacking the Shield helicarrier and freeing Jessica Drew in hopes of having her take over all of Hydra. Well, that doesn’t make much sense, but whatever. Spider-Woman escapes from Hydra island and blows it up as she leaves.

The Sentry story has very little involvement with Civil War overall. Bob’s confused and doesn’t want to fight heroes so he heads up to the moon to chill out and think. The Inhumans attack him and then invite him to dinner. Iron Man finally shows up and tells Sentry it is his duty to join the Civil War to keep both sides from killing each other. Bob agrees and they fly off the moon.

The final story involves Tony Stark and a former employee who is furious that Tony would use his technology to attack super-heroes, so he disables the Iron Man armor and sets a bomb that will destroy him and Tony and possible the top few floors of Avengers Tower. Maria Hill uses Shield-tech take to save Tony and kill the kidnapper and then suggests to Tony Stark that he should take over Shield – which is another continuity faux pas as I seem to remember her acting surprised when Tony took over Shield at the end of the main Civil War trade paperback.

All in all, you can completely skip this book if you are collecting the new Avengers and don’t care about having every single one. Buy the Civil War graphic novel instead, it’s way better and gives you all the info you’ll need to know about Marvel’s Civil War.

Story
Artwork
Value
Can It Stand Alone
Cool Factor
Average