Comics this week!

Sorry about the no-show yesterday. I have all these things in my head all week to write about on my Mondays (free day!) then I get there and have no idea what any of them were or why any of us are here or what happens when we die or anything. Look, Mondays are an existential crisis. But Tuesdays are for speculating on new comics!

Not a huge week for releases this week and really none of my standby picks seem primed to appear. I kind of dread short weeks if only because I'm very nervous about how many books will be out next week if there are only 12 this week. Also, if there were only like, 15 last week. Yikes.

Avengers: The Enemy Within 1
Carol Danvers is the focus of this crossover which will be helmed by the brilliant Kelly Sue DeConnick. The event starts with this one shot and will carry through Avengers Assemble 16 and 17 in June and July as well as through Captain Marvel 13 and 14, also in June and July. The series as advertised with the tagline "The sins of the Avengers' past threatens Captain Marvel's future." It's a particularly good time for that to come up now (good drama-wise, not so good for Captain Marvel) as Cap can't fly for risk of a tumor destroying her brain and old Kree enemy Yon-Rogg seems primed to strike at her in any way he can. This one-shot should help lay the groundwork into the two books and bring the Avengers in on Carol's problems.

Cable and X-Force 8
Cable and his team, in sticking with the fashion of this book, find their perfect plan going incredibly awry as the alien they broke out of prison to take them on his spaceship decides he doesn't so much need them as wants to torture them. As the alien takes his ship back, Peter is the only one seemingly able to stop them. Is seeing Domino and Boom Boom unconscious and being dragged up to a spaceship by a creepy alien enough to force Peter to break himself out of prison (as a note, "break himself out" is not as hard as it sounds; the wall in his cell rather fell apart during all the excitement)? On top of questions like this, Cable and X-Force remains a largely entertaining book with a lot of fun character dynamics and an interesting story running underneath.

FF 7
I know, I'm surprised as anyone that this book is on this list this week. Over a Thunderbolts book that seems to be gaining steam, no less. The dynamics of this team that can't seem to find its footing are extremely entertaining to watch. The FF has to deal with problems from all sides (including from inside) and are clearly so ill-equipped to do it. Scott and She-Hulk are the only two who have really been on a superhero team before and Scott is still extremely uncomfortable taking care of children as his grief over daughter Cassie's death hasn't passed (not that it should; only that he's still in a place where he can't cope enough to effectively run a house full of children). That leaves She-Hulk as sort of the rock of the book and she's largely been on the sidelines with the focus kind of staying on Darla's learning curve and Medusa's betrayal. There are a lot of things happening and even more things set to happen just on the horizon. Worth checking in on this book.

Gambit 12
I think that this book has lost a little bit of its steam in recent days but the last couple issues left Gambit in a pretty solid place with a good mystery to solve if he manages to survive the trek home. Add to the situation the fact that Tombstone just seemingly killed the root of the mystery in Joelle (as well as someone who Gambit cares about despite himself) and we're looking at an interesting issue. Will Gambit and Rogue make it home successfully? Will they find out what Joelle was trying to save and what she died for? This is comics: did she really die? Will Gambit step up to Tombstone for killing Joelle or will Tombstone forgive Gambit for breaking his club wall? Nobody knows, but it seems like we'll get a good sense of it this week.

Iron Man 10
The plot thickens as 451 reveals that he's doing what he's done as a sort of long con for Howard Stark, who tells Tony through film that he's done some things he's not proud of to protect the Earth and to protect Tony (fun fact: as a Lost fan, "long con" is one of my favorite terms and I am just so thrilled to have an opportunity to use it in this blog. I will be using it AS OFTEN as I can). Now Tony has to get to the bottom of what his father was doing with 451 and weigh whether or not it's worth letting 451 continue doing what he's doing. This feels like a somewhat defining moment for Gillen's run on Iron Man and I fully expect Gillen to give us a great story and a reason to keep being excited for the further adventures of the iron Avenger.