Marvel’s Civil War II has not been shy about the fatalities. The first issue ended with the death of James Rhodes, aka War Machine, and put She-Hulk on the critical list. And things have not improved since, with Ulysses, the Inhuman who can see the future, declaring that the Avengers were going to be killed by one of their own. So another hero took matters into his own hands. Spoilers below.
No, seriously, this is a huge spoiler. If you haven’t read the issue yet, enjoy this GIF as you click away. Don’t worry, Deadpool’s not going anywhere.
So, yeah, Hawkeye kills Bruce Banner in Civil War II #3. It’s a bit more complicated than Clint just taking an opportunistic shot: The book is framed around Hawkeye’s trial, where he confesses that Bruce Banner gave him the go-ahead, and the murder weapon was designed by Banner himself. And it’s worth noting that Bruce Banner hasn’t been the Hulk for a while, as that would be Amadeus Cho in The Totally Awesome Hulk, although Amadeus may not be quite so chill after Banner’s death on his own front lawn. And before you ask, yes, the plan is that this will stick, or at least as long as comic-book fatalities ever stick.
As a critic, I confess this issue bothered me a lot both in the writing and in the execution. For one thing, unlike Rhodey’s death, we all know Banner is coming back sooner or later, and the trope of returning from the dead has fundamentally robbed deaths like this of their impact. Banner might be gone for a while, but as long as Marvel is putting out Hulk comics, Bruce Banner has pretty good odds of crawling out of his grave. Furthermore, the death doesn’t do much with the story’s ongoing theme. It’s not clear why Bruce, who is so concerned about hulking out and killing somebody that he gives Hawkeye a Hulk-Killer arrow, doesn’t just go quietly and trust his friends that the matter will be resolved peacefully, rather than risk his worst nightmare coming true.
Either way, Bruce Banner is dead, and Civil War II will only get more complicated from here. Hopefully, all these hero deaths will be a bit more meaningful, in the end.