Thor: God of Thunder 14, Fearless Defenders 10, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 4

Thor: God of Thunder 14
Aaron (w) and Garney (a) and Svorcina (c)

Malekith is running rampant through the Nine Realms and, first on his list of to-be-murdered is the Queen of the Dark Elves, who is currently hiding out in Nidavellir. In order to try to stop him, the Congress of Worlds has decided to make a strike force comprised of warriors from each of the realms in a Lord of the Rings style team-up. It turns out that they're not fast enough, though, as they arrive in Nidavellir to find slain dark elves and dwarves everywhere. The squad squares off somewhat successfully against Malekith but their inexperience with one another shows as their dwarf causes an explosion in the mines, which kills some of Malekith's supporters but allows Malekith the chance to escape. As the squad considers breaking up, Thor insists they stick together and bring down Malekith.

It is a little hard not to draw the Lord of the Rings comparison here, even if their goal of killing Malekith is a bit different than bringing a ring to a volcano. It's hard, at this point, not to compare fantasy-esque worlds with the tropes of elves as Aryan sharpshooters and dwarves as miners and so on. So thanks for that, Tolkien. Also, banding together from all the various realms to take down an enemy. Look, it's awfully similar, is what I'm saying. That's not to say it's not a fun book still, with a formidable foe and interesting supporting characters, even if you're only going to think of them in terms of their Lord of the Rings counterparts. Seriously, that's all you'll do. You won't even try to. Also, Thor has a nice pro-Mjolnir line that I won't ruin for people planning to read it. Malekith still remains a worthy foe for these guys which means this story still has more to offer. Continued good art from industry vet Ron Garney and really solid colors from Ive Svorcina.

Fearless Defenders 10
Bunn (w) and Sliney (a) and Gandini (c)

Thanos has struck Attilan and Black Bolt has activated Maximus' machine, which has triggered Terrigenesis for anyone with Inhuman DNA all over the world. This includes Ren Kimura, a young woman who excels at dance. Her power? Ribbon dancing with, like, really sharp ribbons? It's more visual than practical, really. Anyway, she finds her way out to the street to find Thanos' army killing anyone they find who is in the midst of Terrigenesis. Caroline Le Fey is trying to save them, hoping to harvest their powers herself, while Valkyrie and the Defenders are trying to save them, hoping to save them. After a fight, which involves Ren joining forces with the Defenders to stop Le Fey, despite her confusion about the whole situation. As Le Fey's team leaves, Valkyrie changes to Annabel and Annabel welcomes Ren to the Defenders.

I talked earlier this week about how I feel like Brian Wood's X-Men is getting unfortunately interrupted at a delicate time in its start as all of the many interlocking X-Men books get tied down to Battle of the Atom. Although Fearless Defenders is only ten issues in, it's tied into two separate events with Age of Ultron and Infinity both getting the Fearless Defenders involved. This doesn't feel the same, though, as X-Men getting a tie-in with books that directly connect to it. This feels a little like a book that's stumbling and is trying to pick up extra sales in typically sale-heavy events. This is pure speculation as someone with absolutely no knowledge of sales figures but it does still feel like grasping at straws. If they are having troubles, it's both deserved and undeserved. I don't think the book has been spectacular, with an incongruous tone and a villain who purports to be both threatening and unwelcomely snarky. The whole book, in truth, has this weird feeling of unwelcome snark to it, like the book wants to be something cool and fresh but can't quite feel its way there. Still, it's also undeserved because it's the treatment that female-led books get. It's a tricky situation because female-led books need to sell to keep getting female-led books made but they also have to be worth reading and worth telling and this one hasn't really proven it. That's also tricky because it is continually getting interrupted by events.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 4
Rodi (w) and Del Mundo (a) and Del Mundo and D'Alfonso (c)

Spider-Man is trying to stop Thanos' army alongside the Mighty Avengers when he has to suddenly stop to try to deal with Fulmina, the electricity based super hero/villain he may have accidentally inspired into her villainy. She's systematically shutting down power to New York while in the power grid, which is coming at a particularly bad time as, since I mentioned, Thanos' army is currently attacking. Spider-Man insists that he has this under control and advises Luke Cage and Monica Rambeau to stay clear of it. He manages to get enough out of Fulmina's range to access his own generator-based power grid. He hooks up the neurolitic scanner, the device he used to expel Peter from his mind, and uses it to trap Fulmina in his mind, trapped by the electricity in his brain. He reminds her that her goal to bring the world back to the Middle Ages means bringing the world back to plague and darkness and disaster, even if the sentiment of separating from technology is somewhat understandable (it isn't to Spider-Man, but you get the idea). She relents, even restoring power to the city and destroying a second fleet of Thanos' ships before disappearing.

Another solid issue for this book. Maybe a little preachy on both sides but maybe necessarily so. Comics are interesting because they're an immediate evaluation of our concerns and fears. We've seen more and more AI-based foes as AI and technology grows more and more rampant in our society. This story is spawned directly from a focus on smartphones and computers and the like. There is a real discussion in this debate of how dependent humanity is on technology and this shows both extremes of it. So it's a somewhat heavy-handed argument that a technologically driven world is absolutely meant to win. Still, it's a decent little story with solid writing and good characterization for Doc Ock with really good art and colors particularly raising the book up. Pretty excited for the next issue which seems like it will get back to the story we left Avenging Spider-Man with; a Sinister Six's worth of villains captured by Superior Spider-Man for purposes still unclear.