This week's picks!

Like I said in my pregame this week, 22 books in a week means there's a good pile of great books, a reasonable amount of mediocre books, and a couple of unfortunate books. However, it's rare that all three books that I choose in my pull list post come from the same review. Where do we find ourselves this week, you may ask? IN THAT VERY POSITION.

Captain America 8

This book, though starring my personal favorite character, was the closest to not making this list. I don't think what happened here was predictable, though I did pick up on the possibility of it about halfway through the issue, nor do I think it was written purely to shock. I think this is a real story that has a real place to go and real consequences for its characters but it's hard to shake the shock of it. In that way, it was almost edged out by Young Avengers, which I found delightful and full of character and story, despite only have twenty pages or so to introduce and establish two brand new (to this series) characters. However, Cap edged it out as a perfect culmination of everything Remender's worked for. The story isn't as palpable and crushing as it ended up being if Remender doesn't put in the proper amount of set-up time throughout the series. We know what Ian means to Steve and what Steve knows about situations like this and Remender forces us to ask if Steve did the right thing, taking Ian away from Zola. That's right; Rick Remender makes an argument worth listening to wherein we ask ourselves if Captain America, the pinnacle of morality, should have taken a child from notorious madman and Nazi Arnim Zola and raised it as his own. No brainer, right? Maybe not.

Daredevil 27

This is another book that makes the list as much for this issue as for the time dedicating to setting it up. Not only is it enough of a wait from Daredevil snapping and killing Bullseye to go back and pull Bullseye as the villain and give him a viable enough story to set him up as the mastermind behind all this, Waid and Samnee perfectly created tension and fear in Daredevil before this issue, making Ikari a real threat and giving the audience the sense of dread that permeates through the scenes that show Murdock's friends and associates with unseen and quite possibly psychopathic agents. Then we get the perfect twist for someone dubbed "the man without fear;" he's overcome his mental blocks in this case and has prepared wonderfully for this moment, enlisting Daredevil's friends to keep watch over Matt's friends and fighting Ikari in smart (if lucky) ways. It's a wonderful book and the perfect finish to this story. Each part feels like it needs the next as much as anything. No space went to waste in this arc and it all comes together in the end. Truly an issue worth reading of a series worth reading.

Hawkeye 11

Ever since this issue was announced I knew it was going to end up here. First and foremost, I'm a sucker for dogs. Most dogs but particularly good sized ones. I've been sold on this series since Arrow/Pizza Dog/Lucky joined the cast. Even putting that aside, though, this book is gorgeous. There's a real story that comes through with a beautiful idea of the way that dogs think. It's not condescending, it's not cutesy, and it's not a waste issue. It respects the subject matter, the narrator, and the audience by not treating this as if it was just an idea they had and it didn't matter beyond that. There was care and purpose put into this issue. When I was in school, many times when I had the chance to pick my own subject matter for an essay or a presentation, I chose something that I could be entertained writing about. It often came down to Sonic the Hedgehog or comics. Despite the first instinct that would say these papers would be garbage, I know that I poured more into them and made them far better papers because I'd need to convince the reader that it was even more legitimate than maybe more serious subject matter. This issue kind of rings of that; they knew from the start this was an uphill battle to prove this issue was going to be worth reading and paying for. So they did it. Great issue.

Best cover

GUYS, I know, I'm picking the same thing as one of these books. I know, I know. But sometimes covers are just amazing and even if I've seen them for weeks before they were released I have to pull myself out and say "BOY this is a really good cover." So this is a great cover and it deserves to be here even if this post SEEMS super lazy because they're all pulled from the same day of posting comics but guys, I can't help it if I wanted to read all three of these books real bad. So you're going to have to deal with it and also be thankful that I'm not also choosing a best panel because, hey guys, it would be from one of these three books.

Gambit 14, Journey Into Mystery 653, Nova 5

Gambit 14
Asmus (w) and Pham (a) and Roseberg (c)

Following the long story all connected to Joelle, Gambit gets a different case sent his way. Or rather, he's sent its way, I suppose, by Pete Wisdom of England's MI13. Wisdom, who we last saw being very annoyed with Gambit way back in Gambit's first arc, has made a bit of a huge mistake and needs Gambit to, on the down low, rectify it. A powerful book of fairy magic meant to harness some of the creatures in the fairy realm (England is full of that kind of stuff in Marvel). The book is the Faerie Grimoire and it was meant as a peace offering to those in the fairy realm and a girl stole it right out from Wisdom's nose. He needs Gambit to help get it back. The two snipe each other a bit (well, in truth, Wisdom snipes at Gambit a bit and Gambit enjoys himself altogether too much) and they put their plan in action, which involves Gambit posing as a magic store clerk (yes, they have magic stores in England) and sleight of handing the book away from her when she's distracted. It doesn't go particularly well as she recognizes Gambit and reveals herself to be a Death Reaper, which is some sort of scantily clad black magic practicer, from the looks of it. Gambit breaks free from her by kinetically charging some piercings on her face but it gives her enough time to start summoning from the book. Gambit tackles her and they both fall through a portal into the fairy world, where a bunch of fairies have already professed their love for Gambit and attack the Death Reaper, saving him and ending the book, save for one page that shows his return to Earth as a knight to the fairy people, infuriating Wisdom.

There are things to like about this issue but not a ton. The dialogue between Pete and Gambit is the highlight but there are times that even that borders on over-the-top. There's a story in here that might have been worth telling but it's very bogged down by a need to have everyone in the world kiss Gambit. The end of the issue, a severe deus ex, almost makes it feel like Asmus started it when he had more time to work with the story, then had to shut it down quickly to give enough time to write a final arc before the series ends after Marvel cancelled the book. That might be me making excuses for the book but, even if that's not what happened, it's the way that it felt.

Journey Into Mystery 653
K. Immonen (w) and Schiti (a) and Bellaire (c)

After Beta Ray Bill and Scuttlebutt (his ship) crash into the Avengers Jupiter base, where Sif is trying to help Gaea rest, Bill and Sif have a chance to catch up a bit. He tells her about the ship that's crashed and they argue a bit about how best to proceed. Bill and Sif set out to try to find both Gaea and Bill's girlfriend amidst the wreckage. Sif manages to find Bill's girlfriend and tries to transport her, wounded, to healing tech that Tony has in the base. She gets her there but she fears she was too late, as she dies in the tech. Bill finds them and is somewhat cold about her death. Sif asks for answers and he's unable to give many, explaining that something like a haze fell over him, blocking his memories a bit. That fits with whatever's been happening here too, as we saw Sif at the start of the issue confused about her predicament and unsure what she remembers. At first, the audience thinks it's just grogginess from the crash but it seems deeper than that now, with this new reveal. It also explains why people keep forgetting about Gaea. When Sif remembers, she takes off back into the base. Gaea is missing from her chamber and the audience sees her descending somewhere into the planet, into a place where Bill had stumbled searching for his girlfriend and which had rejected him, nearly killing him.

There's a lot happening here and it's pretty masterfully executed as pieces of the story make themselves evident to us when they need to be made evident and not a moment sooner. There's a lot of strange tension between Sif and Bill but it's written well and it often gives way to arguing or jokes of a sort. The story itself is an interesting one but we're a bit too early into it to tell how interesting it will remain. Let's assume pretty interesting. The saddest part about this series is its impending cancellation. This story feels like it could go on a bit longer and it's the sort of series that you feel deserves a sort of wrap-up issue but, with only two issues left, it's hard to imagine that there will be time for that. Depressing times as another good book winds down. Ugh, you guys, Red She-Hulk only has one more issue. WHAT IS THIS WORLD?

Nova 5
Loeb (w) and McGuinness and Vines (w) and Delgado (c)

Sam gets his helmet back out of the hands of Titus and uses it to rocket Titus away from his home for a moment while he runs and grabs the Ultimate Nullifier. His mom sees him in the Nova gear right as he's about to take off, a problem he decides he'll have to deal with later. Nova follows Titus to the spot he was blasted, which happens to be in front of a couple of the cool kids from school (including Sam's love interest). He protects them easily from Titus before grabbing him and space-jumping him back to the point in space where the Chitauri fleet is waiting. Titus is astounded by the decision, laughing at how stupid it is. Nova, separating himself a bit from Titus, pulls out the Ultimate Nullifier, prepared to use it on the whole fleet if he needs to. Titus tries to grab the Nullifier from him and ends up activating it, creating a sort of black hole in Chitauri space that everything gets pulled into, including, despite Sam's attempt to save him, Titus himself. The black hole closes and Gamora and Rocket Raccoon appear behind Sam to congratulate him and to take the Ultimate Nullifier for safe-keeping. He refuses and brings the Nullifier to the Watcher instead, who seems pleased with his actions. Then he returns home to talk with his mom, who is not upset with what he's doing as she always knew he would. He vows to find and save his father, who is still out there somewhere.

Everything wraps up with a nice little bow at the end of Nova's first arc. It wasn't a bad ending just like this isn't a bad book, per se, but every step seemed a little predictable. The introduction of this new Nova Corps is an interesting decision and could lead to pretty neat things but, by and large, this first arc was fairly cookie-cutter stuff. You can kind of read every beat as it's happening and it leads to asking what audience this book is aiming to grab. I would say this, more than something like Wolverine and the X-Men (which I have similar questions about), is an all-ages book that is meant to get kids more into comics. There are things here for adults to enjoy but not that many. If that's the intent, I think this book is probably doing fine. If it's not the intent and this is meant to be a serious addition to the Marvel Universe, I don't think it can last at this rate. However, the change in Novas from Richard Rider to Sam Alexander tells me that I am right. I'm so smart, guys.

Age of Ultron 10 AI, Ultimate X-Men 28

Age of Ultron 10 AI
Waid (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

Age of Ultron is over and has left our universe in much the same place as it was before. Sure, Ultron is gone now, possibly for good (though probably not, amirite?), and there are cracks in the space-time continuum but we'll probably get to that later. For our purposes, everything is pretty much back to normal. But I know what you were asking yourself: what does that mean for Hank Pym? Haha, just kidding, you weren't asking yourself that and I knew all along you weren't. Good news, though, Marvel has an answer anyway. Pym has seen what happens (kind of?) in a world without him. Frankly, both worlds are in trouble. However, after some serious existential crisis-ing, he realizes that the world he's in is very slightly better than the world he's not in, but not really because of Pym the straight-laced inventor. It's better because of the hero he's been when he's unleashed his creativity and imagination. We get a look back into his life where his parents, simple, hard-working folk, try to get Hank to focus on practical problems, preferring he ignore anything imaginative for imaginative's sake. His grandmother though, a science-fiction writer, fosters that creativity and applauds it. After her death that, as a child, Hank could not stop, he settled in to doing uncreative science, which is likely a bit of an offense to scientists. We get a little run-through of his life that culminates in an examination of his need to fit in and to live his life by the standards set by others for him. Enough of that, he decides, and chooses to improve lives with science and with hero-ing again, after a bit of a vacation from that life. Get ready for ol' Hank Pym to join the greater Marvel scene again! You're excited, right? No, I know.

Despite everything snarky I said above (which was largely directed at Hank Pym, except for the uncreative science being offensive to scientists. That's kind of a real qualm but super minor because I am not a scientist), this was a pretty good comic. Mark Waid is getting a lot of well-deserved praise for everything he touches these days and this book is no different. He's writing probably the best Hank Pym in the Universe right now, maybe ever, between this and Daredevil. Obviously Tom DeFalco is a comic-writing pro/legend, but it kind of made me wish that Waid had written Ant-Man Season One back when that came out. He clearly has such a defined sense of the character, even if it's a little different than any sense anyone else may have had. I know I go on about this a fair amount but the show Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes was a pretty fantastic representation of Hank Pym. It's easy to look at Pym and see someone who has kind of a crappy superpower and real psychological problems but, as horrible as this sounds, not very interesting ones. Also, he hit his wife that time which really has gone a long way to scarring his reputation. However, looks like EMH gave him and like Mark Waid has set aside for him makes him a far more interesting player on the Marvel field. He's due for a little resurgence, especially with Avengers A.I. on the way (which this book is certainly a prelude to, even going so far as to show Pym fiddling with an old Doombot head) and with Edgar Wright's very exciting movie seemingly confirmed for a 2015 release. If Waid or someone with a similar grip on the character can keep writing him, we could be in for a nice reversal on Pym soon.

Ultimate X-Men 28
Wood (w) and Asrar and Vlasco (a) and Bellaire (c)

Okay, so Psylocke wasn't officially dead after Farbird dropped on her. But she was dying. As she dies, she leaves Jean Grey with some ominous words; her mission had been to oversee the extinction of mutant-kind and, though she failed in her death, she sees in Jean a mutant who could oversee that extinction anyway. With Psylocke dead, the tensions dissipate quickly. General Ross sees what's been happening (they've also lost quite a few men as a result of the sentient seed's actions) and knows this has gone beyond anything he wants a part in. He says that if the government still wants to take down Utopia, they'll have to find another way, hopefully a more diplomatic one. He advises Kitty to keep her head down and stop scaring people, even if it's just with great innovations like the sentient seed and with a peaceful community. Kitty refuses his advice and they part. Jean is astounded to find no one upset in the wake of this attack; instead, everyone seems genuinely happy that the attacker has been discovered and stopped and forgiving of those who had been under Psylocke's control (there's a panel that shows, from a distance, Kitty and Mach Two embracing). Kitty calls Jean in to talk and reveals that they've known she was Jean Grey since the moment she came to Utopia and that they have no plan to be absorbed by Tian. She says that they might have been intrigued by a collaboration, two sister nations, but that the deception Jean used and her insistence that Tian is the superior nation and the way of the future has all but pushed that out the window. Jean is furious with Kitty and thinks it's a stupid move. Jean, enraged, lights into the Phoenix, which does not frighten Kitty, who still asks her to leave. As the issue closes, we see Farbird, acting under Jean's orders, returning to Tian to activate "Project Supersonic," a project that will bring us into our next arc, "World War X."

I've been a big fan of Ultimate X-Men all around and I think this ending was something pretty astounding. After months of priming readers for a big fight between Utopia and the military, Kitty ends up able to stay true to her word of fighting back without fighting (though the sentient seed certainly does a bit). This is the Utopia that she had promised, one that is peaceful and just wants to exist as a safe-haven for mutants, a community. Of course, readers hungry for action out of this book will likely get their fill with the next arc which seems like it will be led by someone decidedly less hopeful than General Ross (weird to say that, but we're talking about Ultimate Ross, not regular type Red Hulk). This book moves with expert timing and is one of the best out there for creating tension and a real atmosphere. I also get the feeling, though this is hard to promise as someone who is pretty invested in all these books, that it would be an easy book to jump into. It might be a little tricky if you've never heard anything about the Ultimate Unvierse before, just as anything now would be, but there are only a couple of basic facts you need to know and they come out pretty naturally every issue or so. And yes, that is a recommendation, you guys.

Uncanny X-Force 7, Wolverine and the X-Men 32, Wolverine 5

Uncanny X-Force 7
Humphries (w) and Alphona and Talajić (a) and Sotomayor and Loughridge (c)

Cluster and Psylocke are on the search for Fantomex which brings up a few old memories for Betsy. We finally get to see a little bit of what happened in Paris, an event she has referred to a few times to indicate her relationship's decline with Fantomex. Fantomex had convinced her to help him thieve a bit, getting back into his old ways and allowing her to try something new. She gets bored with it, or so she claims, which disappoints Fantomex. Back in the present, Cluster has traced one of Weapon XIII's suppliers to a shady club which allows its patrons to hire women dressed as superheroes for...things. Cluster and Psylocke, wearing a costume that she had when she was thieving with Fantomex and which is a purple variation of Fantomex's costume, decide it's their best opportunity to infiltrate. The pair manage to find the supplier but quickly discover that they've been set up and there are ninjas in the room waiting for them. They chase after the supplier, who has slipped out of the room, and are pursued by the ninjas. Cluster realizes that the ninjas aren't trying to advance, just cutting off escape routes. They turn a corner and find that the supplier has disappeared. Cluster feels a familiar dejā vu sense and realizes that it's the feeling Fantomex's misdirect gives, a power that is now Weapon XIII's. He appears and instantly catches Cluster, holding her at gunpoint and making Psylocke submit to his custody or else. She does and we get another glimpse into her memories. As Fantomex's need to keep thieving starts to annoy her, she begins to separate herself from him a little bit. Cluster, who has been living with them and helping out in their capers, comes to talk to her. She admits that Fantomex seemed to have gotten the scoundrel parts of their personality but they all got love for Psylocke. However, the part of the brain that perhaps had the most love, Psylocke realizes, was Cluster. The two kiss passionately. We cut back to the present, with Betsy tied up in a dark room of Weapon XIII's, who admits that this is all for show. Really, all he wanted was a chance to show, he says with a rose outstretched to her, how much he loves her.

I've been waiting for a Fantomex-driven story since this book was announced. He was the breakout character of Remender's fantastic X-Force series and I thought he was just an awesome addition to the Universe (I know he was there before, but not very much and this role defined him). This story doesn't disappoint. It's exactly as high-strung and crazy and confusing as I would have hoped. There were a couple problems I had but they're problems that I personally have as a fan of Fantomex and not problems in constructing the story. I'm saddened that Fantomex seems kind of like the jerk of the bunch and I'm saddened that Weapon XIII has the misdirect powers. Again, these aren't issues with the story, just issues I have to come to terms with as a fan. Still, it's an interesting story that's going to leave us in a very strange and confusing place but that could ultimately provide exactly what we've wanted from the Fantomex saga.

Wolverine and the X-Men 32
Aaron (w) and Bradshaw and Wong (a) and L. Martin and Milla (c)

Quentin Quire has been tortured extensively since his discovery as a traitor. They tried, it seems, to throw him in the Siege Perilous but he was rejected. He learns that the Philistine was created by the Siege Perilous and has decided that he owes himself to it, following it wherever it needs to go. Right now, it felt it needed to be at the Hellfire Academy so he's there too. As with last issue where we were introduced to the whole school in a sort of montage kind of way, we get a montage of people torturing Quentin mixed with a montage of Wolverine using the little bamfs to help him follow-up on leads and track the Hellfire Academy. Like last time, it comes off as kind of annoying rather than anything worth watching. The Wolverine parts are definitely better than the torture parts which are predictable and irritating. It culminates in a meeting between the heads of the school, now including Kilgore's new headmaster Sabretooth, to figure out how to proceed with the students. The issue ends with Kilgore introducing, via satellite, the new Hellions to the men and women of the Hellfire Club. The Hellions, of course, are the trained students now wearing uniforms and yelling "all hail Hellfire."

Again, it's hard for me to nail down who this book is for and, though that sounds like it might not be a huge issue as long as the book's good, it is. The book isn't good enough to cover for the fact that it's hard to figure out its audience and knowing that would at least help put it in perspective. There's a lot of violence and language and alcohol and the likes for it to be directed at children but there's an equal amount of goofiness and cheap jokes for the adults. Maybe early teens? I don't know. It's a little like Deadpool except it's not as obsessed with puns/in-jokes and Deadpool is decidedly meant for an older audience so at least it can be judged that way. Here it's hard to come to a conclusion on it because I can never shake the feeling that I'm not the one for whom it's intended. Even if I try to view it as an all-ages book, I know it fails with a couple markets (or it should, anyway). It's a hard book to get a feel for and, when you do, it rather feels like it's not hitting home.

Wolverine 5
Cornell (w) and Pierfederici and Kesel w/ Fischer (a) and Mossa (c)

Wolverine has been taken into the SHIELD helicarrier Hercules for debriefing but he's accurately suspected that Fury et al have been infected by the parasite he's been dealing with lately. He goes anyway, after seeing the Watcher last time made him wary of not going. When there, he tries to fight his way through the helicarrier without killing too many people before he manages to escape below deck. The helicarrier, which was built with Atlantis in mind, plunges underwater. Wolverine gets a call off to his cast of supporting characters and they manage to get him plans for the helicarrier to show him his way around. He manages to find a few agents in a decompression chamber and outfits them with oxygen masks before releasing them. They haven't been contaminated, leading Wolverine to suspect that the parasite travels through the air. It doesn't have an effect on him because he heals it out and it hasn't had an effect on them because they were in an airtight chamber when it made its way through the helicarrier. The group works their way through the helicarrier. They make their way, not without incident, to the armory before parasite-controlled Fury decides to open the vent in there and start drowning them.

This was one of the more straightforward issues of this series so far but it still moves awfully slowly. It's unclear entirely what Wolverine's plan is but not knowing isn't a huge detriment to this issue. It's a little bit of one because it's hard to figure out if he has a plan or not but we figure that he'll have one when the time to have one is appropriate. By and large, though, the problem with this issue, as it has been with the series in general, is the feel of the issue. It feels slow and so it is slow. It's hard to get a real grip on Wolverine's character aside from the few things that are rather shoved down our throats. This includes his distaste for killing and his cynic attitude. There are also a couple thought bubbles, which are largely phased out from comics. They don't really have a huge impact but I felt it was worth noting anyway. They take the place of captions, as does Wolverine's decision to talk to himself whenever he's alone. I've complained about Savage Wolverine being too focused on the violence of Wolverine (especially when Wolverine MAX is also around) but this one is too focused on making Wolverine a thinker. I know, I'm getting picky. Honestly, I'm the type of person who would rather see someone plotting than someone fighting in most cases and I don't think Cornell is wrong to focus on Wolverine thinking and trying to find ways to not use his claws, but his thinking tends not to carry the book, as much as it wants to, and his insistence to show Wolverine as the reluctantly violent character doesn't really work because he so quickly pops his claws. I think there is a compelling way to do it but it's not happening right now, at least not well enough to carry the series.

All-New X-Men 13, Uncanny X-Men 7, X-Men 2

All-New X-Men 13
Bendis (w) and Immonen and Von Grawbadger (a) and Beredo (c)

Wolverine, Kitty, and the young original X-Men team are on the search for Mystique and company, fresh off being framed for crimes she committed with their appearance. Wolverine and Kitty teach Jean how to use her powers to keep them unseen at the crime scene and the rest of the team starts investigating. Wolverine recognizes that Sabretooth is with Mystique and says that he can track them. Jean can't keep up the illusion and soon they're found at the scene. Bobby makes an ice wall to cover their escape but they've again been seen on the spot. In the X-Jet, Jean frets about letting the team down while Scott tries to comfort her and they all watch Alex Summers' press conference from Uncanny Avengers, where he says that he wants people to stop using the "m" word and start viewing everyone by their character. Wolverine and Kitty both express levels of distaste for this plan with Kitty's coming as an impassioned speech about anti-Semitism she's faced and how she'd rather see prejudiced people coming or something of the like. They crash Mystique's hideout where she's trying to pay Madame Hydra for control of Madripoor. The entire team instantly starts fighting everyone but Lady Mastermind spots Jean Grey and creates an image of the original Mastermind to toy with her mind, which sends her into a panic and makes her go Phoenix on everyone.

I have a number of issues with this series that are pretty documented at this point but there are a handful that are specific to this issue that are worth mentioning. At one point, when Wolverine is discovering that Sabretooth is with Mystique, Scott asks how long they've fought Sabretooth and how well Sabretooth knows them before deducing that Sabretooth and Mystique will know Wolverine is going to do this and is coming, to which Wolverine responds "Yeah, you're right," as if the thought hadn't crossed his mind. I understand Bendis' need/desire to make Cyclops look like a good leader/strategist but it comes at the expense of showing Wolverine, someone who literally thinks about fighting more often than anyone in the world and who knows these specific enemies better than anyone, as incompetent. The speech from Kitty about a moment in her past when her heart was broken by a boy who made an anti-Semetic comment is a nice character pice for her but it gets pretty muddled in there. I thought she was going to agree with Alex's point about judging people for their character before judging them for their race or religion and then I had to read it over again a couple times to see where I'd lost the thread of it. And, of course, it ends with Bobby going "You're Jewish?" because he's incapable of keeping his mouth shut at any point in this series for any amount of time. These may seem like nitpicks but they all do strike an unpleasant chord with me that makes this story feel like lazy writing. Scott is a strategist because he improbably out-strategizes Wolverine and Kitty has a full page talk about how people are prejudiced. In six panels, there are 27 word bubbles, all from Kitty. I don't know. I still can't get my head around this series. Seriously, why are these kids still in the present?

Uncanny X-Men 7
Bendis (w) and Irving (a and c)

Magik has managed to magic Scott's X-Men out of Limbo at great personal cost. She tells her story to a somewhat confused and stunned Doctor Strange and it carries throughout the issue. She tells him about how they got into Limbo and about her connection with it before explaining the fight that went on. The X-Men are losing the fight and she knows it. She manages, then, to really take control of Limbo, sending the X-Men out of it to safety and taking the whole dimension within herself. That's why she's come to Doctor Strange; she needs to get the dimension out and learn to control her powers more than she ever has. Doctor Strange accurately realizes in the midst of the story that Illyana has traveled through time to talk to him and we learn that she is talking with him in a point before he's ever been an Avenger. Illyana explains that the Avengers and X-Men don't see eye-to-eye right now and that she couldn't go to him in present day because he might not help her. He agrees to teach her what he can. Meanwhile, the X-Men, back home, are starting to figure out that maybe Scott doesn't have the level of power they think he does and he tells them that they're all going to train more. The kid who produces gold balls (what) doesn't want anything to do with the team any more. Oh, and one of the kids died in Limbo but their healer managed to bring him back.

Time travel is popping up a lot in books recently and, used well, it can be pretty effective. The problem with time travel is that it too often comes as a panacea to problems and typically an uninteresting one in that role. Someone like Kang, who is known for time-traveling, tends to use it best because it's part of his character and it's what we expect him to do. It would be weird if he wasn't time-traveling to wreak havoc. However, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not impressed by Bendis' time-traveling capers. I didn't care for Age of Ultron and I don't care for All-New X-Men. Throw time-traveling in again here and you can bet that I'll be on my guard.

X-Men 2
Wood (w) and Coipel, Morales, and Hanna (a) and L. Martin, Milla and Strain (c)

Arkea has taken the body of X-friend Karima Shapandar, the Omega Sentinel who has been in a coma for some time but who has all sorts of technology in her, and it using this body to attack the X-Men. She takes Hank out and locks down the entire Jean Grey school. Rogue goes immediately to try to stop her and is surprised to see Karima up and moving. It catches her off-guard long enough to keep Arkea ahead in the fight. Storm sends Kitty in next, which legitimately worries Arkea, who has accessed the X-Men files. When Kitty arrives, Arkea attacks her and Kitty gives Karima one chance to fight back before she threatens to compromise the system. Arkea, with all the files downloaded and with Karima's circuitry repaired, escapes. Sublime stresses to them again how much trouble they're in as Rachel tracks Arkea's movements. The team, except Kitty (and maybe Rogue, it's hard to tell where she's at right now), all get on a jet to track Arkea. Storm allows Jubilee and the little baby Shogo to come as well and Sublime has a somewhat nice moment with them, where he tells Jubilee that the baby is safe of control from Arkea and, to Jubilee's delight, refers to the boy as Jubilee's son. Kitty, heading up the clean-up efforts at the Jean Grey School, is surprised when one of the students unearths what looks like it could be a bomb.

The action keeps on rolling with issue two and it definitely puts this series in a good place going forward. We have an interesting and very formidable villain and a definite feel for the team. It's still a little too early to get a complete read on how this team is going to hold up but we can already start to see the pieces falling into place. Storm has quickly assumed the leader role (well-deserved) and dispatches orders with efficiency. Every piece works pretty well together and it feels right; all of these X-Men have worked with one another innumerable times and it makes sense that they would so quickly fall into the appropriate roles and trust that everything Storm was directing would make sense. It's a solid issue of what looks like it could be turning into a solid book. There are a few nice character moments, including the question of whether Kitty would have phased through Karima to try to take out Arkea. I'm sure we haven't seen the end of that.

Deadpool 12, Fury MAX 13, Scarlet Spider 18

Deadpool 12
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne, Gorder, and Lucas (a) and Staples (c)

The Vetis storyline comes to a close as Deadpool is forced to fight the demon who is supercharged with the souls that Deadpool has retrieved for him. The fight is certainly a losing one for Deadpool, who is severely outmatched but Michael appears from Hell at just the right time, now dressed in all white and looking a bit more refined than crazy. Michael begins casting spells to help Deadpool but he'll need more time to be able to destroy Vetis. Mephisto shows up and berates Vetis, who slices the demon's head off pretty quickly. Michael gives Deadpool the chance to kill Vetis by stabbing him in the chest, which Deadpool promptly does, freeing all the souls that he'd taken, including, apparently, Ben's. Mephisto, pleased with how the day has turned out, offers Preston and Deadpool a deal; he'll give her her body back if she'll just ask for his help. She thinks it over but ultimately decides that they can find a way that doesn't involve the devil. Deadpool gets a vote too and goes the same way. Mephisto leaves, saying the deal is still on the table. Michael and Deadpool snipe at each other for a bit as Michael is angry that Deadpool killed him and left him in Hell for years (time moves slower there, is the description, but it might mean faster and look, I don't know, you get it though, right?) and Deadpool is angry that Michael doesn't understand it was the only way and that look, it's all worked out. Ben goes to help Michael, who storms out of Deadpool's head (this is where the negotiation between Mephisto took place) while Preston stays to comfort Deadpool, swearing that she'll help him, now that his mental block is down and he might start remembering horrible things again.

Like I'd said, this arc is way better than the first one though the idea kind of rings the same (Deadpool has to go all over the place killing superpowered beings while a bigger evil boss-battle waits for him at the end). The writing still isn't blowing me away and a lot of the jokes feel forced and unnecessary. There are far fewer quips and annoying jokes than in the first arc, which is a welcome relief. I understand that Deadpool kind of asks for this sort of writing but it often comes off as overkill. Hopefully as we move forward with his memories kind of coming back through his mental block, we'll start seeing a slightly deeper Deadpool. The shallow Deadpool is fine for team-ups or one-shots but a series needs to bring more depth to him than this one has. They've given themselves a way to open that up a bit, which would certainly help the series.

Fury MAX 13
Ennis (w) and Parlov (a) and Loughridge (c)

It's 1999 and George Hatherly, Fury's friend, is dying. Shirley goes to visit him in the hospital and ends up complaining to him about her life. They're both old now and neither of them has the Infinity Formula that Fury has so they look it (actually, I just found out that this series is on a separate Earth than the 616, one that correlates to Punisher MAX and so on, a world without superheroes and so forth. Probably should have known all along but it didn't really matter. However, that makes this a different Fury and one who may not have that formula; he just may still look better than anyone else his age). Shirley complains that Pug has a mistress living with them and bemoans the fact that she had to marry Pug, but that he was still a better choice than Fury would have been. Hatherly admits that he always thought she was lovely, which kind of sends her over the edge, knowing that there was a good man out there for her that presented a third and altogether more attractive road than either of her other thoughts. Fury attends Hatherly's funeral but is ignored by almost everyone there, angry that he didn't ever visit Hatherly in the hospital. Hatherly's granddaughter approaches him, knows who he is and understands, through Hatherly, why Fury never went to visit. She tells him that George had told her a little about what they'd done and had gotten sad talking about it, said that they'd started off with the best intentions but that everything had gone wrong and it was all pointless. She wants to know what the intentions were or why they felt they needed them. The comic detours away from the answer for a moment, giving us instead an encounter between Fury and former enemy combatant Letrong Giap from Vietnam. The two talk beside the Vietnam Memorial, walking through the sights of DC. It's a rather lovely talk about war and about what soldiers believe and how they're treated. He eventually wishes Fury well, shaking hands with him as they depart. We see into Shirley's home where she's just dropped a glass bottle of vodka. Pug's mistress comes in, gets a drink, and leaves, leaving Shirley behind to drink from another bottle of vodka. The scene turns very dark in ways I don't really want to describe for younger readers but ends with Shirley killing both the mistress and Pug before she calls Fury, a little delirious, and kills herself. Fury eventually makes it to Shirley's home and finds the cops clearing everything up. We see him recording again, years later, and decrying the fact that he just can't seem to die. He wanted war, the girl, and the victory and he only chose one. We cut back to his answer to George's granddaughter which involves the first meeting between Fury and Hatherly, where Hatherly genuinely believed that he was signing up for the job because he owed a debt to the past and a responsibility to the future, symbolized by the American flag which shows blood on the bandaged wounds of brave men and all the stars in the sky. The series ends with a portrait shot of Fury, alone in a dark room with a microphone and a gun on the table next to him.

Really heartbreaking ending. It goes nicely along with everything else this series has done and gives a cold, hard look at a very dark man. Nick Fury is one of the most interesting characters in any Marvel Universe, when done right. He's the guy who has plans within plans, wheels within wheels, and so on. He's never totally in a corner because he's always planned for that corner and has an idea of how to get out of it. This series shows the times his plans only led to darker corners and deeper holes. It would be depressing for any character but it seems more so for Fury. Add to that the questions that we saw recently in Greg Rucka's Punisher: War Zone series that had Thor telling Punisher that his war had left him behind and that he knows what it feels like to be a warrior without a war. That's very much Fury, who continues to find his own wars in this and leaves everything else behind, no matter the cost. It's depressing and it's heartbreaking and it's kind of wonderful.

Scarlet Spider 18
Yost (w) and Barberi and Wong w/Garza (a) and Lokus (c)

Kaine has just killed Wolverine and one of the Assassin's Guild's spies has seen it happen. He's seen Wolverine's heart stop and the X-Men surround Kaine and Wolverine. Belladonna calls the spy home just in time for him to miss Beast restarting Wolverine's heart as he heals. Wolverine agrees to help Kaine take down the Guild and understands his reasons. Aracely had gone into young Jean Grey's head and told her that Kaine needed to kill Wolverine for the Assassin's Guild outside. Jean psychically reported this to Wolverine and Wolverine accepted. Now the two, leaving Aracely at the school, have taken off for the Guild. Aracely is talking non-stop to the mutants and asking all sorts of questions. Hank is running tests on her and has determined that she has another entity living inside her body. Meanwhile, Kaine and Wolverine enter the Assassin's Guild, stealthily killing a few guards inside before they're found out and descended upon. The fight becomes much harder but they continue to push forward, eventually finding Belladonna, who screams that the Red Death is coming because of these events and she's eventually, an inch away from being killed by Kaine, proven correct as the Red Death, a very powerful woman, appears, killing some of Belladonna's henchmen quickly and aiming at Kaine and Wolverine.

This is one of the only team-ups we've gotten between Kaine and someone who actually knows Spider-Man, which is really fun to read. You suddenly get a better sense of how he interacts with people. Sure he's still the brooding anti-hero, cynical and jaded, but he's also a Peter Parker clone. He still has the same sort of humor and love for battle-quipping as Peter but it's decidedly darker material. Teamed with Wolverine, it's all pretty fun. Both of them, by the time the issue concludes, have (mostly jokingly) offered to kill the other to stop the fight. Kaine tells Wolverine that his plan, as things reach their most tense, is to leave while they're busy killing Wolverine. There's a lot of stuff like that in this book and it's entirely enjoyable, even as the story ramps up in tension for the characters. Another solid issue, well-written and well-drawn.

FF 8, Guardians of the Galaxy 4

FF 8
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

The Baxter Building has reappeared in New York, fresh out of the Negative Zone and carrying, unbeknownst to our team, a hitchhiking Annihilus. Alex Power sees the report in the newspaper and tells Doom that he should probably be heading home now to help those kids deal with what happened. Doom strikes him and drags him to a holding cell, where he's keeping Alex's parents. Alex will do what Doom says from now on, Doom decrees. Meanwhile, the FF leave Dragon Man in charge of the kids and head to Himalayas, former site of the Inhumans' Attilan. There Medusa offers herself up for challenge from any Inhuman who thinks he or she could protect the children of the FF better than Medusa has, given her recent brainwashing. No one challenges her, which frustrates She-Hulk. She-Hulk views the Inhumans at this little tribunal as a bunch of yes-men and she believes that they should consider replacing Medusa for this. Medusa herself seems a little unsure of whether she's qualified or not but it's She-Hulk who really drives the point home. Back home, Bentley-23 and Ahura have returned to the Baxter Building and are promptly set upon by the other children, who call them "bad guys." Traps have been set all around the building and Bentley-23 and Ahura must try to navigate them while explaining that they're not bad. Or rather, that he is, he was born to be, but he's no different than before. Ahura is increasingly annoyed by everything but Bentley is pretty patient with everyone, eventually winning them over and complimenting Tong's new lifestyle choice. Later, in the Inhumans' flying city, Medusa comes to She-Hulk in her bedroom and gives her the chance to speak more as no one else will. It goes badly and the two end up in a scuffle. The two crash through several walls, including into what seems to be a hallway that Scott is walking down on his cellphone. He breaks the two up and tells them that Dragon Man has reported that Alex Power has returned home. Back home, old John Storm wakes up again, still screaming about Doom, and we find out that Doom, joined by Annihilus now, is getting information from an outside source: a young Kang the Conqueror, sometime in his life between Iron Lad and Kang and going by Immortus (changed from Kid Immortus by his girlfriend Ravonna).

A lot happened here, which seems to be the norm for this book. They don't match up against villains every issue or even every few issues but plenty continues to go on behind the scenes for our heroes. Here we've set up a rift in the FF, a spy among them, questions about worthiness on the team, and a few key villains teaming up with their eyes on the FF. Immortus is an interesting choice of villain and one I hadn't seen coming. Yes, Kang is kind of all over the Marvel Universe right now but he's in a great spot here. If this is at a time where we've somewhat recently left Iron Lad of the Young Avengers behind, which his attitude and youth seem to point at, his last bit of time on Earth saw his then girlfriend killed in front of him while the Avengers refused to let him go into the future to try to save her, as he'll eventually attempt with Ravonna (fifty year old spoiler). That girlfriend? Cassie Lang, daughter of Scott. Who killed her? Dr. Doom. All kinds of questions come up with this villain team-up and it's exciting to see where it's all going to end up.

Guardians of the Galaxy 4
Bendis (w) and Pichelli (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Guardians have escaped the Spartax guard and now celebrate at a shady bar, especially praising Groot who saved them all. Drax is drinking a fair amount and getting pretty belligerent, Peter is trying to attract a woman he found, and Tony is still fretting a bit about Earth. Rocket gives him a sort of phone that will allow him to call back to Earth from pretty much anywhere. Tony and Gamora flirt briefly and pretty quickly end up back in a room on the ship together. We flash from the bar to post-coitus and Gamora decides she's going back to the bar. On her way back, she's targeted by an assassin and shot in the back. The shot stuns her and her attacker, Maxilin the Accuser, comes to brag a bit about how she didn't even seem to realize there was a bounty on her head and how he so easily brought her down. She, of course, gets up and beats the crap out of him, only being brought down again when she tries to use his gun which will only work for him. Down again and this time with fewer tricks left, she's surprised to find Maxilin shot instead of her, as Rocket and the rest of the Guardians come around the corner, fleeing the bar which is quickly filling up with Spartax royal guard. They head back for the ship, where Tony has just called home to ask Pepper how things are going and if Earth is okay (it is). As they make their way to the ship, the audience sees Maxilin, still alive, slink away.

It seems if anyone is enlightened by Peter's announcement to the Spartax about they're corrupt king, it's not the Spartax royal guard and so we haven't eliminated any sort of fugitive feel for the team. Add on the bounty hunter(s) who will no doubt be coming after Gamora and the intrigue of whatever has caused those hunters to come after her and we have a bit of a story developing. The issue moves pretty well and Pichelli's art continues to stand out. There's a little of the back-and-forth dialogue but "a little" isn't detrimental. I think I can pretty easily say this is my favorite Bendis book coming out right now (I'll be ranting about two others tomorrow), though it's still too early for me to deem it a particularly successful book. I like a lot of where it's going and what it's doing but we'll have to let it feel itself out more.

Captain America 8, Daredevil 27, Hawkeye 11

Captain America 8
Remender (w) and Romita Jr. and Janson with Hanna (a) and White (c)

God that's a hard one to read. Hey guys, I normally don't mention that there are spoilers in these reviews because it's pretty obvious. There were two ways to go with this blog, writing brief and vague analysis of certain issues and suggesting books to read or writing longer reviews that summarize issues and point out the strengths and flaws while working from a point where you and I both know how books end. Obviously I've chosen the latter and I don't regret it. However, if you're reading this book or plan to, do not read this review until you've read the issue. I suspected the ending that was coming and it still came as a shock to me. Spoilers start....now. Zola is rallying his troops as he prepares to head back to Earth to Zolafy it. He's made them ready to keep serving him in Dimension Z and to serve the new king and queen of the land, his two children. His children are quite busy themselves at the moment, as Ian/Leopold fights Steve and Jet finds a conscience. She betrays her father by leading captured Phrox away from their captivity and back to their children waiting in the caves, who she had secretly been smuggling against her father's orders. Just as she gets them close to safety, Zola descends on her, enraged that she's found compassion. The two begin to fight as we cut back away to Steve and Leopold. Steve is getting himself pretty good and killed throughout the issue. We've seen through the series a level of violence against Steve that is unprecedented for him and quite possibly for any comic and it's continued here. He's fought off and killed Captain Zolandia, the mutate who shares his genes but it cost him a lot to do it and it's not like he went into the fight in the best shape he's ever been. Now Leopold attacks him, screaming about how he was kidnapped and how strength is virtue and might makes right and so forth. He question the hypocrisy of representing and protecting one nation, particularly one so fraught with problems as America and prepares to kill the already near-dead Steve. Steve tries again to convince the boy that he did everything he could only to help him and that it doesn't matter if he's Leopold or Ian, as long as Steve knows that the child made his own choice. He explains that he chose who he became, he chose to be someone different than his father. The rage in the boy's face falters and, though he's still holding a gun to Steve's head, he chooses the name Ian. Steve comforts him and says that it'll all be okay as (SERIOUSLY GUYS, SPOILERS) a bullet fires and speeds through Ian's neck, who tumbles over and off the bridge he and Steve had been on. Steve turns to see the shooter, Sharon Carter, eager to get Steve out.

Look, I'm not going to pretend like I didn't notice the fact that I've read two really traumatic murders of a child in Marvel books in the last three years and both have come from the pen of Rick Remender. I'm sure there are others out there who have noticed that and who, more skeptical than I, are saying it's a rather weak trick to elicit a certain response from the audience. I hugely disagree here. First off, I don't think killing a child in any medium is ever an easy decision, less so when you've spent seven issues building and protecting him. It's a particularly devastating move, sure, to any reader and it's obvious the effect it could have on a reader and on a book. Still, I think Remender's proven time and again that he's not doing anything for cheap reactions or cheap thrills. Instead, everything has always been perfectly choreographed and everything has a purpose. Even still, as recently as the last Uncanny Avengers, people are debating Wolverine's X-Force team's actions with the child Apocalypse. I think this is a similarly complicated situation and I'd be very surprised if there weren't serious repercussions and still possibly some salvation for Ian (here's hoping). Still, really and truly devastating issue here all around. Even if you take the probable death of Ian out, you have Steve in a level of emotional and physical pain that has never been seen and Romita's art and White's colors certainly bring that to life. There are a lot of bigger panels to show exactly how violent Zolandia has become against Steve and the Ian shot, as well as the Sharon reveal, both get a full page. Wow, that's going to be a hard one to get past. That's kind of why I scheduled it to be reviewed before two other absurdly great books.

Daredevil 27
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and Rodriguez (c)

Holy crap. Okay, that thing I said before about Captain America, it stands here too. Read this issue. Don't let my writing, which cannot compare to the feeling this comic can give, ruin the surprises in this book. Daredevil has discovered who is behind everything in his life going crazy recently. Bullseye has been resurrected by the Hand but, though he lives again, his body will never be the same. His spine is too badly damaged from Daredevil's attack on him at the onset of Shadowland and it's left him paralyzed and devoid of his senses except sight. In the time that he's been alive since his resurrection, he's done nothing but focus on revenge on Daredevil. He has learned everything about him, about his life and it's left him with every detail of his intricate plan. Now Daredevil has figured him out and he's approaching the concrete-like container that holds Bullseye, seemingly unaware that Ikari is behind him. Daredevil leaps into action, jumping on to the top of Bullseye's container and threatening to send his club straight into Bullseye's brain. Bullseye tells him how stupid that would be. As the audience, we get a look into where Matt's friends are. The people in his office have been summoned back to work by someone claiming to be Matt, though he's not in his office and someone else is lurking in the shadows. A grinning doctor has just excused one of Foggy's nurses, leaving the two alone. Someone watches A.D.A. McDuffie from out the window. Milla has a smiling visitor at her hospital. We see all this as Bullseye reveals what happened with the Hand and how foolish it would be to attack him. With only his sight left, Bullseye demands that Daredevil fight Ikari, where Daredevil will lose and die in front of him. If he doesn't, everyone Matt cares about will die to the agents Bullseye has sent. SPOILERS YOU DUDES AND LADYDUDES. Matt reveals to Bullseye that he's not so concerned about Bullseye's agents because Bullseye wasn't the only one to send people to Matt's friends. Foggy's doctor is Hank Pym, the shadowy man in the office is Iron Fist, the man outside McDuffie's window is Spider-Man and Black Widow pushes Milla's wheelchair across the grounds. Daredevil attacks Ikari but quickly realizes that he'll lose anyway, tired as he is. He smells chemicals and rightly figures out that the chemicals Bullseye used to try to create more Daredevils are nearby. Matt races to them, knowing it will throw Ikari off, low-level radiation filling the air. He's right but as he falls to attack Ikari, Lady Bullseye appears and enters the fray. Knowing it's a fight he can't really win, he collapses the floor (or the roof, it's a little tricky to tell) with his club, sending Bullseye crashing down with them. Ikari and Lady Bullseye are trapped under floorboards as Daredevil pries Bullseye out of the metal tank, though not quickly enough to save his eyesight from the chemicals seeping in. The three villains are arrested and this chapter comes to a close with Matt astoundingly victorious.

I'm not sure I can say a whole lot about analysis here. I'm pretty blown away. The twist in the middle wherein Matt has planned for Bullseye's agents with his own totally blew me away. It somehow didn't even occur to me. That's how well Waid and Samnee have been planting the seeds throughout this arc. It's just a beautifully done story and it's a perfect reconnection between Daredevil and Bullseye. Fittingly, it ends with Matt and Foggy talking again. That's been a nice touch for this series, the strength of their relationship prevailing again. It's been a wonderful series, deserving of all the praise it gets. Speaking of comics that deserve all the praise they get...

Hawkeye 11
Fraction (w) and Aja (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Well this has been an unsuccessful post for reviewing comics but a really phenomenal post on a personal level for reading comics. Each and every one of these comics so beautifully represents another reason I love comics. Of course, I've been waiting for this one eagerly since it was announced. Lucky, a.k.a. Pizza Dog, investigates the murder of Grills. Yes, for those who haven't seen already, this comic comes from the perspective of Clint's dog. And it is just gorgeous. There's not much that I can summarize here because I really really don't want to ruin this one for you which is just such a wonderful example of storytelling and such a beautiful mix of words and pictures. In Marvel, two books regularly refuse to make the distinction between writer and artist, instead preferring to label the writer and artist as "storyteller." Those two books are Hawkeye and Daredevil and they're about as perfect as they can be. I do like what the decision to cast themselves as storytellers represents and I think that these books, more than any other, probably require that distinction. I love the art and the writing of plenty of Marvel books but few are so dependent on one another as these two books. So what will I say about this book, other than you need to read it because it's a marvel of storytelling and heart? Lucky, the hardboiled almost noir dogtective (nailed it) investigates the case and runs afoul of former owners/enemies while getting further than Clint probably will in quite some time on this case. Also, he again makes Clint as likable as he's been in this book before kind of breaking everyone's heart. I'm not even going to give this one two paragraphs because I'm not really doing a full-blown summary. I can't stress this enough you guys. Read this book. Read all three of these ones, okay? It's all well worth it.

Avengers Arena 11, Secret Avengers 5, Young Avengers 6

Avengers Arena 11
Hopeless (w) and Burchielli (a) and Beaulieu (c)

Hazmat and Reptil, after escaping from a feral, trigger-scented X-23, managed to find their way to a safe zone beach. Hazmat's personality has changed pretty drastically in the time they've spent there, sending her from the angsty and complaining type to someone far more flippant and upbeat. She spends a lot of time napping and a lot of time sunbathing, particularly while Reptil worked his way back to full health. Even after Reptil was ready to move, Hazmat kept them there, not caring about the game. Reptil is worried about her but is also delicate in his handling; he knows that she lost Mettle and he knows this attitude isn't her but he doesn't know what to do about it until Cammi, Nara, Bloodstone, Anachronism, and X-23 fall out of the sky on to their beach. They explain everything that's been happening with them and Reptil explains everything that's happened on the beach. Bloodstone is furious that they've sat away from the danger with everything going on and that lives have been lost quite probably because of their non-involvement. Cammi is planning to go back out and try to find and save Nico if she's still alive and tells Reptil that he needs to snap Hazmat out of this attitude. Reptil takes the advice to heart and wrestles a sunbathing Hazmat, at great personal risk considering her radioactive body, to force her to listen. She snaps a little bit and lets some of her emotion out. As Reptil is about to give up on changing her mind, she joins up with the rest of them, ready to fight.

Definitely a little slower than the last few issues but it gives us a good sense of where we stand and a slower issue every once in a while is definitely necessary. You need something, as a reader, to balance out all of the action or else it all becomes indistinguishable. Here we get a little bit more information, particularly about where Hazmat and Reptil have been, the state of some of our characters, and the overall mood in Murder World. Surprisingly, spirits are not especially high. Solid issue. A little light on plot but still a good read for characters and to give a sense of the way that Murder World is functioning, which is made more important and relevant because we've spent so much time worrying about Katy and far less lately about what this place is. One of the really nice things about this issue is that we'd had ten full issues prior to this and issue one started with Hazmat narrating and talking about how she's always the type to complain and to judge, as complaining somehow makes her feel better. Now here, she's dancing, she's outgoing, she's making jokes. This is what Avengers Arena has done so effectively and is now able to cash in. Entirely well-done series.

Secret Avengers 5
Spencer (w) and Ross (a) and Wilson (c)

After AIM's production and dispersal of Iron Patriots, Daisy Johnson sent a team comprised of Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Hawkeye to assassinate AIM's Scientist Supreme, Dr. Andrew Forson. The three have officially received their orders and Hawkeye instantly refuses them, unwilling to kill. He and Fury argue about whether it's justified or not and whether this is a war or not before Black Widow jumps in and says that it doesn't matter; she'll be the one taking the shot and they can figure out later whose fault it is. They get into their positions, with Black Widow ready to take down Forson. Just before she can take the shot, though, she's attacked by AIM's weirdly cyborg-ish Yelena Belova, the other Black Widow. Natasha gets thrown out of her high window by Belova and Hawkeye disobeys his order to assassinate Forson himself and instead shoots a net arrow with a parachute at Natasha, saving her from the fall. Fury, at ground level, attacks the small AIM gathering himself, killing numerous henchmen before shooting Forson in the face. The three escape and are debriefed by Coulson, who is attempting to get to the bottom of the events. When Fury questions why he needs to go through all this, Coulson admits that Daisy has been removed as head of SHIELD pending an investigation and Maria Hill is back in charge. Hill, meanwhile, is having a chat with her security council liaison and discussing what should be done about the whole situation and about Daisy. Dalton, the liaison, informs her that it's a delicate scenario because they broke some very clear rules but acknowledging that would sound like siding with AIM and dishonoring Senator Ralston's memory. As a result, now they must work with AIM to try to ensure nothing like this or the Iron Patriot attacks happen again, which Dalton is sure will be made easier as AIM Island now has a permanent seat on the UN security council. He puts Hill in communication with their representative, Dr. Andrew Forson.

This book is still a little hard to get a full read on. I'm never really disappointed by it and the the issues themselves tend to move quickly enough, but I never come away from it feeling altogether satisfied either. It's not a case where I'm not satisfied because the ending is so shocking or is so traumatizing or moving or whatever, which would leave me unhappy but pretty satisfied (or at least emotionally exhausted); instead, I come away feeling like I'm not getting a good grip on the story or the characters. The particularly strange thing here is that I know, when I pull back enough, that plenty happens in each story and that I have at least a bit of a sense of each character. I do think we haven't focused enough on character but it's only been five issues and there's been a ton of plot; striking an appropriate balance isn't ever easy. Still, it often leaves me uncomfortable and fidgety and I can't put my finger on why. My best guess would be that I don't have a feel for the characters in their roles in this book and that's making it a bit harder to warm up to it.

Young Avengers 6
Gillen (w) and K. Brown (a and c)

Prodigy, one time New X-Man, has taken on a job as tech support in an unnamed company, but one that's fascinating nonetheless. His calls revolve around telling people how to dismantle Skrull bombs, how to stave off an attack from Elektra, etc. He's a depowered mutant after M-Day but the knowledge he gained with his mutation (which allowed him to absorb and mimic knowledge and skills of other mutants) stayed with him, even though he lost the powers, which left him a genius. Also at this company but working in the factory area is former Young Avengers Speed, twin brother (also psychically created by Scarlet Witch) of Wiccan. He uses his powers to quickly assemble everything he needs to assemble, leaving him done a week's work within moments. He meets up with David and the two talk over noodles and, the next day, coffee. Speed relates all about the problems he had with the Young Avengers (mostly their penchant for do-goodery and their inevitable break-up) and asks David why he's working such a terrible job if he's a genius. David, a bit bitter, explains that his time as a poster-boy for Cyclops during the Schism didn't make him particularly popular with people and few jobs are open to him as a result. He intends to do this long enough to simply retire, leaving the hero world (who he feels used him and everyone else) behind. They arrive at work in the second day of their friendship (first full day, if we're being picky) to find that someone had broken into the company to steal the components. The security camera shows someone dressed as the Patriot committing the crime and staring into the camera. Speed calls Eli's house and learns that Patriot hasn't even been leaving the house, let alone committing crimes in unnamed company, and Speed offers himself and David up as surveillance for the company to try to catch the guy. When he breaks in that night, Speed attacks him but is pretty quickly brought down by what appears to be a psychic attack. Speed gets up in an attempt to run from the mysterious not-Patriot but is caught even as the not-Patriot moves zombie-like to him. He reaches out a gloved hand and touches Speed's shoulder, causing him to disappear instantly. David is understandably startled and gets only cryptic answers from the not-Patriot. He pulls a glove off, revealing a lack of a hand and tells David to accept the glove if he wants Speed back. David refuses and calls him insane. The not-Patriot tells David he's in denial then disappears himself, leaving David alone as the issue ends.

I feel like these summaries are longer than any other summaries I write for other books. Here's the thing you need to know if you're reading this summary and not this book: the issues never move slowly. For all that happens, for all the character and all the story and all the suspense and all the brilliance, the book have not once felt like a chore to read or like it's adding anything that doesn't warrant adding. There's no amount of wasted space, even in the pauses and the silence. It's an entirely impressive title in a lot of ways and cramming in so much story and character without making the reader's head explode is an unenviable but totally worthwhile task. This book features Kate Brown as the artist and colorist and, like New Avengers last week, the change in artist from one who I can't stop praising to another works totally well. Her art is solid and it's a great change for an issue that changes things so much. I love McKelvie's art but it's a smart decision, like the one New Avengers made to swap out Epting for Deodato last week amidst an issue that slowed things down a bit, to switch artists to show that this is a different story than the one we've been reading, requiring the reader to look at it differently. It's the same book and the great dialogue and the strength of the characters as seen through dialogue and actions shows that perfectly well, but the change in art lets you know that we're in a different scenario entirely. Also, Kate Brown's art is pretty perfect for this issue and the colors feel similar to the palette we've seen through the series so far, though a little more muted and less solid. Another great issue.

Comics this week

NOPE. TOO MANY.




Okay, if my count holds, there are twenty-two new comics from Marvel this week. As much as I love comics and just want to be reading them all the time, this saddens me greatly. It saddens me thinking of how many reviews have to be written, it saddens me knowing that the more comics there are the more comics I won't like. It saddens me because there's an Age of Ultron 10.1A.I. What. Okay, let's just dive in instead of listening to this guy whine about the job he made himself which just involves talking about comics. Plus side, it's impossible NOT to be excited by five+ of these books.

Avengers Arena 11
This book is great every time and now we're coming fresh off another death (of a pretty big character, no less) who used her dying breath to wish for help. Not astounding on its own but when you consider that her wishes are made of magic, it's not a bad way to go. Meanwhile, a big part of our cast just jumped into a portal with no idea where it will lead. Finally, if the cover of this week's issue is to be believed, we have a couple of guys we haven't seen in awhile showing up again; a couple of guys who would have no idea what's been happening with the rest of the cast and, particularly, with Katy. Exciting times ahead, dear reader.

Captain America 8
The most depressing fight in the world is set to happen unless twists hit pretty early. Cap is squared off against Ian in just the saddest battle. I don't think I can objectively write more about that at this point, since I'll just keep thinking about how sad it is. Guys, Cap has raised this kid for SO LONG. He's been in Dimension Z LONGER THAN IN PRESENT DAY MARVEL, by his calendar! And he's going to have to fight the CHILD who he's raised THAT ENTIRE TIME. WHAT.

Fury MAX 13
Final issue of this thoroughly impressive book. There have been times where it's slowed in this long arc but overall it's been a really nice piece. Garth Ennis is kind of exactly the right person to be writing Nick Fury, especially a retrospective Nick Fury. This book has been an entertaining read all the way through and has left me pretty satisfied, as someone who finds Nick Fury a very compelling character in the right hands. Ennis' hands were definitely right for this. Sorry if that sounds incredibly odd.

Hawkeye 11
"Pizza Dog in 'Pizza Is My Business.'" Sold.

Ultimate X-Men 28
Everything that so nicely fell into place over the last couple issues and particularly last issue will either shape up or shatter completely here as the mutants of Utopia learn whether or not they'll have to fight or if Utopia itself can protect them. If it can't, is this fight worth it? What can be gained? What will be lost?Who will remain and what will be left of them? These answers and more, hopefully in this week's new Ultimate X-Men.

Young Avengers 6
OKAY you caught me. I'm sneaking a sixth pick in here and covering it by writing particularly short (for me) blurbs for each. This book has been outstanding since panel one and I expect nothing less, even as Kate Brown sits in for superb series artist Jamie McKelvie on this one. Old Young Avenger (and long-lost twin brother to Wiccan) Tommy/Speed is working a desk job? With former Young Avenger X-Men equivalent Prodigy? How will this affect our team and its roster? It's a very rare book that can make me excited for a story with new characters and also thoroughly depressed that we might not see much out of the normal characters, especially where we haven't dealt with them nearly enough for my liking just yet. I think it's safe to say that Marvel has hit absolute gold with Marvel NOW and its new slew of Avengers book. I can't point to a one and say it's bad or that I dislike it. In fact, the majority of them are in my current favorites category. Exciting time to be a Marvel fan.


Yes, I stuck six pregame picks in but can you blame me? This post didn't even MENTION Daredevil WHO WILL BE CONFRONTING A CATATONIC BULLSEYE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE DD KILLED HIM IN SHADOWLAND nor X-Men 2, which I still have very high hopes for. YOU GUYS. I changed my mind while writing this; this week is going to be awesome.

This week's picks

Lot of good comics in another week where a slew of great Marvel NOW Avengers books came out. Let's try to keep this one short and sweet, as much as I'm capable of doing that.

Indestructible Hulk 9

Team-ups with Hulk hardly work this well and I never would have expected this one to yield such immediate results. I guess, thinking about it, that I had figured Daredevil would run into Hulk and, in the typical fashion, would debate helping the monster over trying to bring him in. Instead, the two already have a great working relationship borne out of Banner's genuine preparedness and drive to help out. As a result, we get a solid team-up between the two entirely different superheroes and a couple of really great moments that help develop both characters and help develop this arc, particularly a nice page where Daredevil walks into an underground dive, gets guns pointed at him immediately, and is shortly followed by the Hulk bursting calmly through the wall behind him. Solid issue and a very exciting team-up.

New Avengers 7

We pull away from the ongoing story about the incursions to get a somewhat better grip on our group of heroes and the precarious position they each find themselves in. There's plenty to dissect here but the weight of the issue comes from Black Panther needing to choose whether to take the logical approach of trying to talk Shuri out of war with Atlantis or taking the probably more satisfying route of openly throwing his support behind a war. The Marvel Universe is a complicated place with many alliances constantly fluxing and, among all the nations of the 616, none is more complex than Wakanda. I'm definitely biased in stories about Wakanda as I find the nation and its hero immensely interesting as is, but this brings out a lot of the complications this country provides. Another great issue with spot-on writing and wonderful situations.


X-Men Legacy 12

I mostly go into books without trying to predict what's going to happen next. There are times where it's painfully obvious and I have no option but to subconsciously guess. There are some stories that are so good I can't help but speculate about the way they'll turn out. This one, I knew, couldn't end with David's powers taken away but I kept myself from guessing how exactly he would get out of it because I wanted to be surprised by the twists Spurrier created. On top of that, Spurrier is somewhat dedicated to going against convention, which he proves here again. Not only is David not trying to give up his powers, he's actively attempting to do what he had originally set out to do: end threats to mutants. On top of that, he's doing it by utilizing things he's discovered since taking on this role. The turn is pulled off so masterfully that I'm still shocked even when all the pieces fall beautifully into place and it begins to feel like there was no other way for this to play out. It all comes to a head when David notes that, whatever it is he's meant to cause, he'll solve with his powers because his mantra, "I rule me," still stands.

A+X 9, Wolverine MAX 8

A+X 9
Captain America and Wolverine: Edmondson (w) and Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado (c)
Doctor Strange and Quentin Quire, Eyeboy and Pixie: Lapham (w and a) and Loughridge (c)

It's getting harder and harder to review these as it just boils down to a plot summary for A+X because there isn't supposed to be a huge examination of these characters. The problem with it boiling down to plot is that there also isn't supposed to be a huge plot. So we run into a few problems in writing something even a little compelling. This is a particularly weird issue as we have one story, in Captain America and Wolverine, which features two characters who have a really long and complicated relationship teaming up and another story where Doc Strange and a group of X-kids meet up in a team-up I can't imagine anyone was asking for. In this case, Cap and Wolverine are going to help Doc Strange (these stories weren't supposed to come out together but this one got pushed back) rescue a Shaman friend of his who is in trouble. They argue about the sanctity of life and eventually learn a lesson from Doc Strange about how no number of team-ups between Avengers and X-Men can stop all the evils in the world. What's weirdest about this story is that these guys have such a long history and there are really interesting ways to look at it (one is happening in Uncanny Avengers, for example), whereas many of these team-ups so far have been just oddly matched characters interacting for the first time or maybe a little more in-depth than normal. So these guys have a relationship already and it's not even really that closely examined. It feels like it's a random meeting between the two, a pair who have never really worked together before. It just feels like this would have been a nice time to get a little further into their world.

In story two, Quentin Quire and Pixie have had a series of bets that will result in, for the loser, a series of shameful acts. At the moment, Quentin seems to be losing and will be forced to wear baby's clothes at the Jean Grey School. Their next bet is to steal something from the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange. Whoever steals the best thing wins. They bring Eyeboy along as an impartial judge. They manage to sneak into Strange's and split up, with Quentin demanding Eyeboy help him. While they search his home, Eyeboy stumbles into Doc's room, where Strange himself is being attacked by the demon D'Spayre. Eyeboy goes screaming for help, bringing Pixie and Quire back. D'Spayre shows people their worst fears and begins to with the kids before Quentin shuts him out of their brains. The group, with the revived Doctor Strange, vanquish D'Spayre. Strange thanks them and sends Pixie and Quentin home, keeping Eyeboy around to give him a gift that enhances what he can see, especially on the magic spectrum. He also tells Eyeboy to hang around with better people. Not much here, not too much to get into. It's hard to figure out how the world views and/or should view Eyeboy, who is often the butt of jokes or the doing something pretty useful. So is he a joke? Is he not going to die at some point to thin out the herd? It's always tough to tell in these cases. NEXT ISSUE, though, is a team-up between Fantomex and Black Widow, so it's possible this whole series has been worth it.

Wolverine MAX 8
Starr (w) and Ruiz (a) and Brown (c)

Wolverine is a little dead but he's quickly recovering. Now he's being brought out to the country to be buried by a couple of Franky's henchmen. When they come for them, he kills both of them quickly and heads back for the mansion. Now with the element of surprise, he's able to storm the mansion and kill just about everyone. He catches up with Candy, who tells him that what's happened was never her intent and she really did quite like his dog. Also, if he kills her, he won't be able to find Franky before he flees. This makes some sense to Wolverine, so he listens to her and they go to the roof, where Franky is getting into a helicopter. Wolverine stops him and brings down the chopper, catching up with Franky and dropping him off the roof. He brings Candy back down and, still mostly unbelieving of her story, tells her to leave the country and return to England. If he ever finds her again, he'll be less forgiving, he promises.

It's hard to write too much about this series that I haven't already. It still feels weird to me that this book takes itself so seriously. Obviously the MAX line has the ability to do that (or not do that, in the case of books like Deadpool MAX) in a way that the normal lines really can't. These are directed for a far more mature audience and allow different aspect of Wolverine's more mature life to be revealed. Instead, it feels kind of cliche and entirely predictable. It's unfortunate because, while I do think this book is capable of doing everything Savage Wolverine has wanted to do (and done somewhat more effectively at this point), there's some real meat in Wolverine's life that hasn't been uncovered in all this time. Still, it's going to go uncovered, it seems, as we'd rather focus on him being angsty and stabbing more stuff while swearing without censors.

Ultimates 26, Ultimate Spider-Man 24

Ultimates 26
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Charalampidis w/ Quintana (c)

Reed Richards, the Hulk, and Quicksilver have teamed up with Kang the Conqueror of this universe to create the New World Order, which is dedicated to bettering the world in ways the Ultimates never seemed able to do. This means world peace (negotiated between all nations with a helping push from Reed's Herbietron security bots and minimal loss of life), the destruction of copyrights and patents to free scientific discovery and creativity, the elimination of financial institutions, and mass-producing Stark's version of the sentient seed to end world hunger. He announces this to the world before jabbing at the Ultimates by saying that "this is how you save the world." The Ultimates themselves are in disarray. Thor is outraged that they're not fighting back more quickly, Tony is unable to use any of his suits (Reed has hacked his system and locked Tony and Anthony out), and Monica Chang has been locked out of SHIELD, which is more or less disbanded. They've sent Sue to talk to/distract Reed while Hawkeye tries to rescue Cap, which doesn't go particularly well. Sue and SHIELD agent Ben Grimm attack Reed, lasting pretty well against him, but Kang easily catches and tortures Hawkeye. Banner tracks Thor to a pub, where they get into a massive fight, and Quicksilver arrives at the Ultimates' hiding place and knocks out Monica before seemingly shutting down and/or destroying Anthony (Tony's sentient tumor, because comics are weird) and reporting to Reed that he's found the infinity gem. Is Anthony an infinity gem? Tune in next time to find out, I suppose.

There are some interesting parts to this story but it is moving a little strangely overall. It might be because I'm a little more disconnected from this universe so I'm having more trouble getting into the heads of the villains of this arc than I usually do in the 616, as I know less about their motivations here. Also, as with what happened in Avengers vs. X-Men last year, it's a little hard to know which side to be on here, which may be intentional. Like, these are all pretty hardcore crazy people in the Ultimate Universe so it's hard to be on their side and they're clearly in direct competition with the titular heroes of this series but they're doing things like creating world peace and ending world hunger, even if they're forcing that on the world. It's what the mutants did with their Phoenix powers in AvX so the fight that the Avengers brought to them was based more on "they're doing this without any sort of system to check them and there's a chance they go evil." I like ambiguous villains as much as the next guy (assuming that guy likes ambiguous villains) but sometimes they feel a little too extreme in either direction. Still, the big disassembled event is set up pretty nicely now so we're in line for some action and/or drama going forward and there's always the added risk in this universe that people can die and stay dead and that every single one of these characters is not currently leading their own book. Kind of a thrilling thing for a superhero comic reader in some regards.

Ultimate Spider-Man 24
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

Cloak and Dagger have appeared in the Ultimate Universe and they've almost immediately run afoul of Miles Morales, who was simply trying to have a nice dinner with his father at the Chinese restaurant where Gwen Stacy happens to work because every Spider-Man universe has to be almost absurdly interconnected. The duo are fighting Bombshell and no one seems to know what to expect out of anyone in the situation. We get the backstory for this Cloak and Dagger, which involves them both as class presidents at different high schools and falling in love then, on their prom night, getting into a major car accident. Both were in a coma and seemingly unlikely to awaken when a group of clearly evil doctors at a Roxxon think tank (including Ultimate Layla Miller, Nathaniel Essex, Samuel Sterns, and Arnim Zola III) secret them away by claiming that they did die and the hospital staff accidentally cremated them (is this a thing that happens?) so there are NO REMAINS. The pair are taken to a Roxxon testing facility and used in experiments that Sterns has come up with which involves injecting dark matter into them for soft sciencey reasons. Now they have these powers and apparently they broke out but we didn't get that part of the story just yet. Meanwhile, the fight with Bombshell continues as both sides try to feel each other out. Miles, his dad, Gwen, and the woman who owns the Chinese restaurant escape and Gwen demands Miles get back on the horse and become Spider-Man again, which he is contemplating by the end of the issue.

This issue was largely dedicated to exploring who Cloak and Dagger are. It's useful, particularly if they're planning to stick around, but it's also a little formulaic. Beyond just the star-crossed lovers bit, the two are only really defined by their positions in student government. We learn that they're both their class presidents and that they're smart and cute and concerned with the world, etc. It's a bit of a way to give us ideas about the characters and some key personality aspects without actually having to develop a personality for them. Maybe that will come later (and don't tell me it happened here because it didn't; they had back-and-forth dialogue several times but every single character in this book has that at some point or another so that is not a defined personality) but it's all we're getting for now, which is a little strange considering this issue was dedicated to introducing them. I'm sure we're not done with these guys and smart money says that Miles will start being Spider-Man again at some point in the near future.