Nova 10, Deadpool Annual 1

Nova 10
Wells and Duggan (w) and Barberi, Lopez, Medina, Livesay, Vlasco, and Pallot (a) and Curiel and Stewart (c)

This is technically issue 100 of various NOVA books so we get an oversized issue with a couple of stories in it. The first continues where we'd left off, with Zeb Wells showing us a contract negotiation between Sam and his mother as they try to find a common ground that will allow Sam to join a superhero team. He's under the impression that this team will be the Avengers, who he still recalls being asked by Thor to join, but, in truth, it's for the position of reserve on the New Warriors, soon to be formed by Speedball and Justice. He's angry that he has to deal with this contract at all and angrier still that it'd be for a team without much prestige or power, so he throws a bit of a fit and, against his mother's wishes, he flies off to talk with the Watcher. The Watcher, of course, doesn't really talk back, but does show Sam images of the previous Nova, Richard Rider, teaming up with unknowns and providing them a lot of firepower before teaming up with the Avengers and providing them next to nothing. Sam understands and goes home, signing the contract and optimistic that he can be of use on a smaller team with more realistic goals. The second story gives us our first taste of Gerry Duggan as the new NOVA writer, giving us a quick story that shows Nova responding to a distress call in space and saving the human and alien onboard while his mom, back on Earth, argues with the school principal about Sam's truancy issues. Sam saves the aliens and heads home, hoping to make it to school on time only to find himself nearly mysteriously blinded when he reaches Earth again. Likely, that's where our story will pick up next time. A third story (comprised of solely a double page spread) shows us a peek at what NOVA 1000 would look like. It's cutesy but lacking most charm, honestly. Fortunately, it's two pages so whatever.

Not a bad book. It's certainly a nice transition from Wells to Duggan as we see the official conclusion of the storyline Wells brought to the book throughout INFINITY and with the New Warriors' appearance. Wells brings the same sort of energy to Sam that he'd done throughout his short run on the series and it's easy to recognize why he'll be missed, pushing forward. It's still obviously far too early to say anything about Duggan and a rather short second story in here doesn't give us enough to judge but Wells did a phenomenal job bringing an energy and an easy levity to the series, which is not as easy to do with superhero books as you might expect it to be. Solid conclusion for Wells and a nice little start for Duggan, even if it was too short to really glean a ton about what's coming next, beyond sudden blindness.

Deadpool Annual 1
Acker and Blacker (w) and Shaner (a) and Gandini (c)

A quick trip back in Deadpool's somewhat recent past shows him hired, just before SECRET INVASION, to kill Matt Murdock, Hell's Kitchen's most famous attorney. Deadpool bemoans the fact that New York is a tough place to get things done, what with all of the passing-by superheroes and ninjas and what-not. He's interrupted before he takes his sniper shot by a character calling himself Madcap, someone who seems more than a little crazy and who, like Deadpool, has healing factor powers as well as the power to make people go varying levels of crazy. For the already-crazy Deadpool, it backfires on Madcap and ends with Deadpool feeling pretty relaxed. At this point, Daredevil shows up and delivers a solid beating to the two of them before Thor also appears and lightnings the villains into dust. Deadpool eventually re-shapes but Madcap is nowhere to be seen; at least not until Deadpool starts thinking and realizes that Madcap has clearly reshaped with him. It's been a rather long-time thing with Deadpool that he has two different caption boxes, one yellow and one white. Turns out the white one has been Madcap, trapped in Deadpool's mind. 'Pool admits that it grew on him after a while, having someone else to talk to, but another contract to kill Murdock leads to another superhero smack down when Luke Cage confronts Deadpool (near the start of Marvel NOW) and punches him enough to let Madcap take temporary control of the body, which doesn't sit well with the mercenary. Thor again shows up and Madcap, using his powers, gets Cage and Thor to start a tug of war using Deadpool's body and ripping Madcap from him, hence why there are no more white caption boxes. Daredevil shows up again and beats Deadpool down and Deadpool can't help but miss the other voice in his head.

Fun little book that both gives a direct reason for part of Deadpool's craziness and then takes it away, changing very little but giving us a nice little origin story of sorts. It's a clever little twist, not without its own charms, and it's presented well. Madcap and Deadpool are rather funny together and everyone else that has a cameo is well-written and funny in his own right (as a "Thrilling Adventure Hour" fan, I couldn't help notice that Acker and Blacker wrote Thor a little like Croach the Tracker which did not upset me in the slightest and which also made Daredevil feel a little like Sparks Nevada but probably only to me). Despite the slight shift in "origin," the book certainly isn't particularly serious and it's hard to say if this will impact canon or anything or if Madcap, who leaves this issue miraculously in one piece, will turn up again at some point or if this was a one-off deal but it's certainly a fun book and it has a good deal of charm to back it up and to slot it nicely into its role as an Annual issue.

New Avengers 12, Infinity: Heist 3, Infinity the Hunt 4

New Avengers 12
Hickman (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c)

Infinity officially wraps up (about three days later, sorry guys) as we see the aftermath in Wakanda, the biggest strike zone for Thanos' troops. With Thanos and his troops withdrawing, dead, or captured, Shuri can't help but notice T'Challa's absence in the fight. She goes to question him on it in Necropolis, where, he says, he also had to fight Thanos and his Black Order. She demands to know what it is he's been doing and he deflects, but he's quickly betrayed by the royal guards, the Hatut Zaraze, and his once faithful personal guards, the Dora Milaje, who tell Shuri that he's been bringing foreigners in and that one of those foreigners is Namor, king of the land Wakanda is battling. T'Challa continues to deflect accusations and questions and Shuri bans him from entering Wakanda. As they leave, Namor himself appears and applauds T'Challa for the bravery he's shown in refusing to give up the Illuminati, no matter the cost. Meanwhile, Reed, Tony, and Hank go to chat with Black Swan, who laughs at their fight with the Builders, saying that you don't mind a dog when facing a demon. Back at his Sanctum Sanctorum, Dr. Strange is ready give up everything he believed in himself to take a more active role in defending the Earth.

The problem that I tend to have with events (well, one of them) is that I don't think the need to focus on huge plots gives enough chance to see what these events are doing to the characters. Sometimes we'll see their reactions in the aftermath or very briefly in the moment but by and large we don't get a true look at the characters as humans in their moment, one of Marvel's long-time biggest strengths. This issue, though, helps to prove that wrong. There's a ton going on and it gives us a look at nearly everyone in the Illuminati and the issues they're each dealing with. It's actually painful watching Black Panther get cast out of his beloved Wakanda simply because he can't tell Shuri what's happening. It's even painful from Shuri's perspective, as she throws out her brother, who she's always loved and admired. I'd say that Panther is helped by the fact that I adore T'Challa and understand his relationship to Shuri and Wakanda but I also felt pained by Namor's speech to Black Panther and by Dr. Strange's somewhat useless feeling and his sudden change in response to the Ebony Maw's recent takeover. Okay, I love both of those characters too but I think the point is still the same. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and every one of these characters has a crown of some sort, as was the conceit of the team. Really well done and some of my favorite Deodato art in a book lately.

Infinity: Heist 3
Tieri (w) and Barrionuevo w/ Olliffe (a) and Sotocolor (c)

Spymaster's assembled team breaks into Stark Tower, currently guarded by what MIGHT be the Mighty Avengers while the Avengers are in space, and manage to, after a little bit of in-fighting, open the door to the armor-vault. Once inside, Blizzard, Firebrand, and Whirlwind attack the other team members, knowing that they'll end up dead in the vault if they don't take action first. After the brief attack, Blizzard lets up and tells the other members that he's ready to finish the job but that he does't want to end up dead afterwards. They agree, for the moment, to these terms and Spymaster tags all of the armor, sending it to the buyer directly before sending himself away too, intending to take all of the payment for himself. By this point, the Mighty Avengers have been alerted and attack, leaving the team angry and needing an escape. Titanium Man offers a chance to resolve both, offering to bring them to the buyer as well. They reluctantly accept and get transported to the buyer, who is, of course, Titanium Man, who takes off his helmet to reveal Captain Atlas of the Kree empire.

Pretty hard to follow this one, in some terms. Not that the plot is particularly difficult; no, you could pretty easily follow each step without any complications. That's definitely good, though, as everyone is wearing excessive armor and things and it gets pretty hard to tell who everyone is at any time. The villains aren't the only ones; I emphasized "might" in that first sentence because I'm still not totally sure it was the Mighty Avengers. The art isn't exactly bad, I would say, but it is exactly bad in the sense that it's hard to keep up with the story and the characters when you're not entirely sure who each character is. As I said, the story itself isn't that complicated which really saves it in a way because it would be hard to tell what was happening if the story wasn't so easy. However, it comes at the expense of the story continuing to be a little less than exciting. Now the Kree are involved, so let's see what happens the next time out.

Infinity the Hunt 4
Kindt (w) and Sanders w/ P. Diaz and D. Donovan (a) and Campbell w/ Silva (C)

The kids heading to Atlantis find themselves caught inside a giant whale but, well, it's not as bad as it seems. The whale creature, named Leviathan, is psychically linked with a girl from Atlantis named Whalesong and is actually saving them. Whalesong lets them know, from more psychic images, that Atlantis is relatively safe now and that Thanos has brought his legion to Wakanda. The kids, with the help of Leviathan, go to Wakanda after some argument and immediately join the fray there, hoping to help Shuri. Shuri won't accept their help, refusing to put kids in danger and feeling that Wakanda can still handle itself. Some of the monsters, though, are too much to handle and it requires everyone pitching in. Thanks in large part to the strategic mind of Gang, the kids win out and manage to help protect Wakanda. The games have been a failure but everyone still learned a valuable lesson about...um, working together, I guess?

I hate to bring this up again but AVENGERS ARENA wouldn't have worked nearly as well, if at all, if Hopeless hadn't insisted on dedicating full issues to individual characters, building up who each was before showing what they were all up against and how they were going to survive (or not survive, as the case may be). INFINITY THE HUNT doesn't have the benefit of 18 issues to let everyone in on every character and I think it suffers for it. Kindt makes the savvy decision to make Quentin Quire the narrator of this issue, even though he's not overly important to the issue or the story as a whole (in truth, Gang probably has the most to do here), because he's probably the one we know best, meaning Kindt doesn't have to worry too much about establishing him, he's already there. Still, it's hard to feel a weight to this story because you just can't care about all of the characters. Sure, you don't want anyone to die but you also can't really concern yourself if they do in this case. It makes the lesson feel forced and cliché (well, it is cliché, which doesn't help) and it makes you lose any sort of attachment. I'd be okay if this annual game thing wasn't really an annual game thing we had to see.

Savage Wolverine 12, Wolverine and the X-Men 38, Wolverine and the X-Men Annual 1

Savage Wolverine 12
P. Jimenez and Lope (w) and P. Jimenez (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Wolverine apparently spends a lot of his time in Africa because he likes to hunt the animals there; hunt, not kill, he's sure to mention. Hunt in that he likes to sneak up to and get close enough to the animals to hang out with them and commune with them. He's doing that currently, with an elephant specifically, when something draws him away. The smell of death hangs in the air and he tracks it to three extremely wounded rhinos, all of whom have had their horns cut off and all of whom are on the brink of dying a slow and painful death. A group of people with guns appear and Wolverine goes feral, attacking them ferociously. He manages to calm down just enough to hear that they're not the guys who did this, they're the rangers and they're on the trail of the poachers and now Wolverine's destroyed their guns so they can't put these animals out of their misery. Wolverine, of course, has to do it. Logan calls Kitty and has her track the poacher operation and figure out what their course of action is and has her track his elephant. Kitty traces the operation to flying out of Mozambique to Madripoor, where they're stored and sold to clients. Wolverine is outraged, having spent his time in charge of Madripoor making sure no poacher sales came through. He believes it was probably Daken who overturned that and welcomed poachers. He catches up with the jet out of Mozambique and pays a visit to old friend Tyger Tiger, hoping to find out who's been behind this. Of course, when he finds the warehouse, he learns that it's her and she has a slew of her men draw guns on him.

Pretty interesting side of Wolverine here. It's not a necessarily unexpected one for the guy who was raised with the animals. Even as recently as this summer's The Wolverine, we've seen Wolverine care for and defend animals in their habitat and connect with them on another level. This is a nice part of Wolverine to see and his dedication to stopping this poacher ring is both admirable and intense. The comic itself drags a little bit as we get a little too much explanation of poaching and his deep love for animals, slowing a bit in the middle of the issue. Aside from that, the art is good and this Wolverine is pretty sharp and well-written, with his loyalties pretty openly at the surface here. There's also a little bit of a comic relief scene with Kitty teaching some ridiculous class about costume choice (??) that kind of breaks the flow of the book right down the middle. Still, not a bad issue and the art certainly does its job here.

Wolverine and the X-Men 38
Aaron (w) and Larraz (a) and Milla (c)

Broo is giving a tour to the newest students at the Jean Grey School, the Bricklemoore twins, as a SHIELD carrier descends on the school. Wolverine and the core administration head out to meet the emerging Maria Hill and Dazzler to talk about the events of BATTLE OF THE ATOM. Hill indicates that, despite what they might think, SHIELD didn't intend to fire on them over Cape Citadel and that they're not sure what happened. It still, for the X-Men, doesn't cover the fact that SHIELD clearly has Sentinels on their side. Hill doesn't regret having them, explaining that she's responsible for protecting the people of the world, which means being prepared to take down mutants on the days mutants end up almost destroying the world. The fight is a bitter one and it reveals SHIELD's fear of mutants. Wolverine gets Quentin Quire to hack SHIELD and find their Sentinel warehouses for him to destroy. The activity alerts Dazzler to Wolverine's plan. Dazzler (really Mystique) initially has the men at those warehouses stand mostly down to let Wolverine vent some frustration but then, finding out that Quire also moved funds out of her agency, changes her mind. Cyclops' school, meanwhile, keeps tabs on SHIELD activity and realizes that they're overprotecting their Sentinel bases and Scott wants to go investigate. Finally, the Bricklemoore twins reveal themselves to actually be secret not-mutant agents under Dazzler's command.

For there being so many irons in the fire on this one, the book certainly takes its time getting to them. The Broo-giving-a-tour is largely meant for kind of comic relief purposes and, one could say, establishing some characters around the school, which is particularly odd considering this is the 38th issue and that the book is ending after only a few more issues, KIND OF meaning that people who haven't already learned about these characters really don't have much time left to. The idea of Wolverine and Cyclops meeting one-on-one again is certainly an interesting one and, frankly, probably the most interesting of all of the ideas levied here. The idea that SHIELD is a little anti-mutant right now is obviously an interesting one but one that's being explored all over the mutant-wing of the universe and one that, you know, invokes SHIELD, making it kind of boring. As for Mystique's plans, this book makes no qualms about saying that that storyline is mostly happening in Bendis' books, making me wonder why this particular iron is in this particular fire. Still, there's plenty happening to keep us busy through the end of this series' run.

Wolverine and the X-Men Annual 1
Aaron (w) and Bradshaw, Wong, Kesel, and Olazaba (a) and Mossa (c)

Kid Gladiator is back on the Shi'ar homeworld and back at his Imperial Guard Training Academy, giving a report of his time on Earth. His report kind of makes him realize that he didn't actually hate Earth all that much and his time back with the Academy has made him realize that there's not enough action here for him. He's thus pretty excited when the Builders attack the universe, giving him a chance to stow away, against his father's wishes, and take part in the fight. He excels out there and eventually it comes to Gladiator's attention that his son is indeed out there and running rampant. He's impressed with his son (who also had to take down four Warbirds back on the Shi'ar homeworld to even escape) and allows him to keep fighting at his side. They also talk about Kubark going back to Earth, where he wants to go. Gladiator can't really allow it but, after all the fighting has ceased for the time, he relents and sends Kid Gladiator back to Earth, where we see him at the end of the issue as well as in WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN 38.

Not a bad character study for Kid Gladiator, who has always been a pompous Shi'ar warrior. His fighting has undoubtedly improved but we also see his personality come along a bit in the same way we saw Warbird's back in ASTONISHING X-MEN. It's not exactly a new story as the kid leaves his home that he thinks is better, learns about the new culture and doesn't like it at the time but realizes later that all he wants is what he thought he didn't. Okay, so that's not a great explanation but WHATEVER, it's Thanksgiving weekend and give me a break and you get it, right? It's still a nice look at Kid Gladiator and puts him a little into perspective as he heads back to Earth to brag and fight some more. It's also not a bad look at another angle of INFINITY, one that more invokes the Shi'ar's involvement and that shows the front lines a little more, rather than the war council/front lines.

All-New X-Men 19, Uncanny X-Force 14, Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 1

All-New X-Men 19
Bendis (w) and Peterson (a) and Silva (c)

There's a mutant on the run for her life, though she's not convinced she's a mutant, in Miami. A group of heavily armed religious zealots have surrounded her and are ready to finish her for being an abomination when the All-New X-Men show up, clad in their brand new uniforms! There's much quipping about the mutant place in religion and how little sense it all makes while the fight rages. The new mutant runs off and Kitty follows her, hoping to help, calling her Laura and wondering why she's not recognizing her. As the X-Men wrap up the fight, the police arrive and Magik insists they go while Scott insists they stay and try to file a report for the police. Of course, the police don't want to hear it and Magik teleports them away before they're shot. Kitty finally catches up with the new mutant and we find that it's not a new mutant, it's a severely messed up X-23!

Another OG X-Men-in-action issue as they continue to adjust to this future and work together as a team a bit better. Laura is clearly a little out of sorts (and a bit out of memory, it would seem) after her time on Murder World, where she ended up rather left in the woods, feral, and extremely injured. Are they pulling X-23's first Wolverine, erasing her memory and leaving her wounded, defensive, and alone? Boy, sounds like it! The issue is a bit heavy on the back-and-forth and takes a somewhat slow pace because of it, despite being primarily a fight issue and despite so very little happening. There's one somewhat disturbing long-panel that gives rather a close-up on Jean Grey's butt, which goes rather over-the-top and both pulled me out of the issue and made me go "isn't she supposed to be like 15 or 16 at this point?" Jean Grey may be going down the Magneto road, disgusted by humans and angry at everyone, though it's sure to come in stages. The cover for next issue has X-23 throwing herself at Scott which made me groan and roll my eyes. Really sick of all these love triangles (and this isn't X-23's first) and people throwing themselves at other people. Bendis seems not to be sick of that.

Uncanny X-Force 14
Humphries (w) and Briones (a) and Curiel (c)

Cassandra Nova has opened up the portal to the Revenants' world with the sacrifice of a low-level psychic and now has locked down LA to stop communications from going out, leaving Nova herself and Psylocke as the only two psychics in the area. That makes things tricky for X-Force, who has to sacrifice a psychic before daybreak to close the veil (these rules seem arbitrary). As they send an attack force (Puck) at Nova's moving base (she called forth a ground-made creature to carry them all), Nova offers an alliance to Betsy, hoping that she'll help in exchange for her old body back, the original Betsy Braddock British body. She looks on it with sadness and longing as Puck breaks in and rescues her, taking the Demon Bear down in the process. The escape doesn't go particularly well and they end up in the Revenants' world.

Plenty of action here and a pretty neat little choice for Betsy, who has to push away probably her last chance at ending up in the OG British body to save the world. Not that she's done badly in the Hand-resurrected body and not that she hasn't had the time to get used to it, but it's still a really intriguing choice and one that you're like "I can see why she'd want that." Aside from the continually arbitrary rules, there's a lot going on here and a lot to make this seemingly final X-Force-only arc interesting; this arc will lead to the "Vendetta" crossover with CABLE AND X-FORCE which will ultimately result in the two books ending, to be replaced with Si Spurrier's X-FORCE, which will be amazing. Anyway, interested to see where this story in and of itself is going.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 1
Fialkov (w) and Martinez and Lucas (a) and Bellaire (c)

Galactus has reached Earth and it's come at a time when Kitty's X-Men have gone back to Tian to try to find any survivors, including the missing Pixie. They manage to find the small group of mutants (an oddly specific bunch that includes Pixie, a guy who has the power to calm people down, someone who can use and amplify the powers of others, Strong Guy and Beak) right as Galactus appears and Amp and Pixie both panic, leading to the entire group teleporting the entire area into what seems like maybe space, where the Gah-Lak-Tus swarm surrounds them, charging at them over and over in the hopes to consume them. Silence (the calm-people-down guy) is killed pretty quickly and the others begin to fight. Things seem a bit out of control when the new Captain Marvel, AKA Rick Jones, appears to help.

Fialkov has really orchestrated this whole event, it seems, which seems like a really big event for someone who hasn't been at Marvel for that long. I'm not saying he's doing a bad job or doesn't deserve to be doing this, but Marvel tends to give events to people they've been working with for awhile and really know they trust but Fialkov has kind of excelled this year (especially in the Ultimate universe) and has made himself worthy of the new event, apparently. It's certainly an interesting event and you can see all the pieces falling into place, as the Ultimates go after Galactus, along with Spider-Man, and the X-Men go after the Gah-Lak-Tus swarm along with Captain Marvel. That means a fight on all fronts, whether it's going to go well or not. Obviously the plot is the key to this issue, as with most event books, which means that some of the charm of the ULTIMATE X-MEN book under Brian Wood has been lost. I'm not sure that it really could have kept up into this event because, like I said, events tend to be a little too plot heavy and, also, this is going to be a limited run book, meaning it can't hit that same kind of building-tension tone that Wood had hit so well in his run. Still, should be an interesting event.

Superior Spider-Man 22, Scarlet Spider 24, Superior Carnage 5

Superior Spider-Man 22
Slott and Gage (w) and Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado (c)

Flash Thompson is back in New York and on the trail of someone going by the name Crime Master, who he had recently fought in his own series and had rather brought his life to something of a stand-still. Meanwhile, Parker Industries has opened its doors and started work. Peter gives his first speech to the scientists (it's practically got super-villain written all over it) and meets with his Aunt May and Uncle Jay to show them around. He's called away from the offices (and from Anna Maria) by his Spider-Army, who alert him to Venom and Crime Master's fight. Venom has figured out that Crime Master isn't Betty Brant's brother, the most recent Crime Master, but some former Maggia guy who bought the name off of Hobgoblin and currently regrets it. Venom pretty easily takes this new Crime Master down a peg and the villain gives up when Spider-Man appears with a small battalion. But he's not there for Crime Master; he's there for Venom. Venom realizes that Spidey probably doesn't realize Venom's a good guy now and eventually is forced to show his face, revealing himself as Flash and hoping that's enough for Spidey but ultimately, this Spider-Man doesn't have any connection to the man and seems poised to kill anyway.

Pretty smooth issue, moves a little bit more quickly than the last handful of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN issues have and sets us up in a lot of different ways. We're no longer in the Parker Industries funding stages, nor in the doctorate-earning stages so we're able to move a little more efficiently through Doc Ock's newest plans. There's a nice character-defining line from Anna Maria as she points to Peter as someone who's quick to action, someone who goes out and does what he wants done and who takes what he wants taken. It's hard not to see that in stark contrast to OG Peter Parker who was constantly second-guessing himself and doubting himself on top of the difference in action vs. reaction we've talked about a lot in other reviews. There's also some more plot-building stuff than was highlighted above as Wraith discovers that Carlie's disappeared and her apartment's been ransacked with all of her notes on Peter similarly gone. She blames Spider-Man and vows to play as dirty as she thinks he's playing. Meanwhile, Jameson is sick of being under Spider-Man's thumb and supposedly has a plan to get out from under it. Plenty happening, plenty of groundwork laid for the next set of issues, and plenty of character development through it all. Pretty solid work.

Scarlet Spider 24
Yost and Burnham (w) and Baldeon (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Kaine still blames himself for Donald's injury and all of the guilt and the pressure he's felt from the start has reached its breaking point, leaving him frustrated and angry with himself, ready to throw away the Scarlet Spider persona for good. Both Annabelle and Aracely are firmly on his side but Wally feels differently, particularly after finally looking Kaine up in his police database and finding the laundry list of crimes attributed to him. After a long day of wallowing and being unable to burn his costume (unstable molecules), Kaine returns home to find Annabelle there, ready to make him feel better and taking a different and more sex-filled tact. While Aracely tries to not hear what's happening in the other room, she has another strange vision laced with plenty of ancient Central and South American imagery and claiming that either she has to die or everyone will die and the likes. As those events both wrap up, all hell breaks loose as Wally comes in to arrest Kaine, the real Annabelle shows up alongside a rocket-launcher-toting Zoe Walsh (unstable daughter of a Roxxon CEO who blames Scarlet Spider for his death but also has a thing for him from back in SCARLET SPIDER 7 or so), and the revealed-to-be-fake Annabelle transforms into a horrifying monster thing we've probably seen before but I don't remember off-hand. Amidst the chaos, Zoe fires her rocket, exploding the penthouse.

The final issue of Scarlet Spider, issue 25, is just around the corner and it shows here as the rising action really speeds to a climax here, bringing everyone who might want to have at Kaine together at once and then firing a rocket-launcher into the room. For all of its last-second action, sudden characters, and confusion, the issue does a really good job sticking to the themes of the book and getting right to the core of everything Kaine's been going through, perfectly summed up by the critical injury to Donald (WAIT, if Wally and Donald got married, would Wally become Walter Meland because that just came to me and I'll never be happy again if I don't decide that's what's going to happen). He's been going through a lot of this kind of reformed villain stress from the first moment of this book, where he didn't intend to be a hero or to stop in Houston and he can't help thinking about how much better everyone would be if he had stopped, unable to even consider that that wouldn't be true because Houston would have blown up like, ages ago if he wasn't there. A lot of really good stuff and the book develops in such a way that Yost and Burnham really get to explore that stuff before turning the jets on ramping up the action, which also has the added benefit of making the action seem incredibly chaotic and shocking the audience with how quickly it moves. Good stuff, looking forward to the final issue though also pretty sad that it's about to be over.

Superior Carnage 5
Shinick (w) and Segovia, Crisostomo, Ho, and Mexia (a) and JD Ramos and Lokus (c)

Klaw has been killed but it doesn't stop him from being our narrator for the issue. As a being made of pure sound, his death has transferred his consciousness and his abilities into the sound wall, making him a part of everything but with the knowledge that he'll continue dispersing, soon to lose his consciousness in the sounds. For now, though, he watches as Carnage runs rampant in his friend the Wizard's body. He outmatches Spider-Man and knows his secrets, he bests all of Spider-Man's men, he rips the legs from Malus, and he still demands to see his son. One of Spider-Man's men reveals that he's there and eventually Spider-Man is forced to play his trump card. To the Wizard's surprise, it's not Bentley-23 on-site but rather the "son" of Carnage, Cletus Kasady. Klaw explains that he's realized over time that Carnage feels the sort of betrayal a teenager feels, passed around from host to host, wanting to separate from everyone while maintaining some sort of link to someone. However, he adjusts it to include the fact that it's Carnage who has left his hosts behind, evolving and changing, but that he longs for someone he can fully control, someone designed especially for him, and that perfect host then is Kasady. Carnage rips itself off of Wizard and makes its way to Kasady as Spider-Man and his men use a specially designed gun to try to contain him. They can't get it running in time but Klaw uses his remaining power from the sound wall to project unbridled sound at the reunited Kasady and Carnage, allowing Spider-Man the chance to contain him. The book ends with the reveal that Wizard's dementia has stopped and, for all intents and purposes, he's doing better than before now that Carnage has seemingly fixed his mind to an extent; that Cletus Kasady's mind has been similarly fixed from his short time with Carnage, fixed enough at least to wake him out of his coma if not to make him less crazy; and that Spider-Man has Carnage under his control for now.

Solid ending to what turned out to be a pretty compelling and well executed story. I wasn't terribly optimistic at the start after the first issue didn't exactly win me over but Shinick had a story that was pretty good and clearly wanted to play with a couple of characters in unexpected ways, showing Wizard as a broken man who wants nothing more than to impress his son, showing Klaw as an extremely loyal and very capable villain right up to the end, and showing Carnage in probably the most complex light it's ever been cast in. Instead of a somewhat mindless and blood-thirsty beast, Carnage has a whole range of purported emotions that have left it an efficient and extremely calculating killer. There's a lot of really good stuff to this and the Carnage bent, not entirely unlike the Deadpool-based but rather silly series (like DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED, and DEADPOOL KILLS DEADPOOL), aims to continue, albeit with less of a silly tone than the Deadpool books and more of a "oh dear god why is this happening tone," with the next Carnage-based series (following up CARNAGE, CARNAGE USA, and now SUPERIOR CARNAGE) revealed as CARNAGE HOMECOMING. Get ready for a lot more Cletus Kasady.

Hawkeye 14, Indestructible Hulk 16, FF 14

Hawkeye 14
Fraction (w) and Wu (a) and Hollingsworth (c)


Kate Bishop is officially moved into LA (as we already know from the Annual) and just about out of money. Realizing that she has skills that are maybe a little harder to market, she starts to try to put herself out there as a hero for hire and gets her first case as she uses her neighbor's printer to print her flyers out. Her neighbors, a gay couple, are getting married and the florist shop set to handle the wedding has been most burned down, burning almost all of the flowers. Kate goes to investigate and the florist points her to Flynt Ward and tells her that Ward burned everything but the orchids he had for the wedding, which Ward took himself and which Kate's neighbors were most insistent about, as one of them saw orchids specifically in a vision of the wedding. Kate tries to get the police involved and then stakes out Ward herself, who immediately recognizes what she's doing and keeps her out of his way. She decides to stalk him and take pictures of his drug dealing ways but is quickly found out and Ward chases her down in his car, knocking her off her bike before driving away. She snaps a few more pictures and goes back to the police, who inform her that marijuana is legal and so he's not really a dealer but that the hit and run will land him in prison, as will illegal possession of a firearm they found in the car. She recovers the last of the orchids and brings them to the wedding, accomplishing her first mission though also getting into a bit of an antagonistic relationship with her police contact. Ward, meanwhile, makes his first call from prison to none other than Madam Masque, enemy of our hero.

Very solid first Kate-in-LA issue (not counting the Annual which was ALSO extremely good) and it sets a nice tone for the book. Fraction clearly has a very strong voice for Kate, one that's maybe a little less grown-up than the Kate we typically see in books like YOUNG AVENGERS where she's kind of forced to be mature one by the immaturity of her teammates. Here, she's a little more free and a little more stream of consciousness than we've seen her. Though the voice might not totally match the voice we've seen somewhat established for her (I would say previous voices for Kate aren't particularly well-established in and of themselves) but they certainly stay consistent and I think you can absolutely see that voice in any iteration of Kate. Annie Wu hops on the book on art and it's phenomenal. Her Kate is outstanding and it's especially emotive. Hollingsworth's colors are great again and incredibly varied from the darker and somewhat grittier colors we've seen throughout HAWKEYE, giving way to lighter and more vibrant colors for Kate. Really fun intro to our Kate issues arc, very excited to see it. Perhaps the best explanation of the art comes from Matt Fraction's Twitter:

@AnnieW gonna get super-esoteric in the scripts just to see how you draw her: "she just remembered something but is about to sneeze" etc
— BUTT STUFF WEREWOLF (@mattfraction) October 31, 2013

Indestructible Hulk 16
Waid (w) and Asrar (a) and Staples (c)

Hulk is back to Hulking and Banner is back to Bannering after the cross-time adventures of the last arc and after the events of INFINITY. Banner is upset at having fallen behind on his promise of a new world-changing invention or discovery each Friday and plans to recoup some time with a couple of pet projects he's been working on, only to find each one invented or discovered just hours before he would have by the other big brains of the Marvel Universe. His frustration forces Hulk out and he hopes to get a mission from Hill but finds out, with the help of team-member Randall Jessup, that Hill doesn't want him on her newest big mission exploring an Aztec ruin for a potential new renewable energy found there. Frustrated more, Banner starts to Hulk but Jessup manages to talk him down and sneak him into the mission anyway. The two of them go down to Mexico and infiltrate the pyramid, where Banner starts to give way to Hulk again. Jessup earns his stripes again as he controls Hulk enough to get him clear from bringing the whole pyramid down and points him at the thing he needs to fight. Jessup also gives Hulk a successful plan of action, which does result in bringing the whole pyramid down but allows the SHIELD team to get out in time and Jessup to smuggle out the source of the renewable energy, which he shows to Banner. The issue ends with a foreshadowing line explaining that Banner knew he could trust Jessup to his death...seven days later.

Really nice issue of this book. I mentioned in my INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK review last week that Banner's team was the only consistent supporting cast created for its book that I really found myself missing over the course of an arc (thinking especially about Wolverine's dumb science cadre in WOLVERINE). Here Waid brings them back in a big way, even though it only really highlights Jessup. It reminded me a little bit of Dennis Hopeless' early run on AVENGERS ARENA, which made sure to give flashbacks of individuals on Murder World juxtaposed with what was happening with the character currently. The same thing happens here as we see a bit of Jessup's past with a tough upbringing that eventually led to him leaving his family behind a bit only to later find that his father had apparently murder-suicided his mother. It's given Jessup a need to stay with the ones he cares about and resolve to never let them down, which comes out strong with Banner in this issue. Though it's not a bad cliffhanger, I'll be a bit disappointed if Jessup does die next issue. I'd also like more issues like this one, which teams Banner up with members of his think-tank to better get to know them as individuals, which was AVENGERS ARENA's true biggest strength and which paid such dividends as the series went on. Still, very good issue, nice solid core to it and it's setting us up to care about a character who will no doubt be in some danger next time out.

FF 14
Fraction and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and M. Allred (a) and Laura Allred (c)

The FF are regrouping after Doom's interference with Alex Power and their subsequent trip through the portal to the moon and Uatu's base. As they regroup, they plan their next attack, hoping to gain more allies in their fight against Doom, Immortus, and Annihilus. They manage to swipe a slew of bots to go up against Doom's army of Doombots, leaving the replacement F4, along with old John Storm and young Ahura and Alex to go after Doom himself. Scott also appeals to Uatu to do more than watch and it seems to get through on some level, but we'll likely have to see about that later. Scott also admits to Darla that he was forced to kill in prison and that he's worried that side of him, the killer who rather enjoyed the act (though it was clear self-defense), will come out against Doom. There's hijinx and tomfoolery and what-have-you as the team prepares to leave the kids on the moon while they strike. Meanwhile, Doom realizes Lang is about to strike but has more on his mind. As we saw in the last FANTASTIC FOUR, he has figured out that the Negative Zone is connected to every universe and he wishes to control that himself, knocking Annihilus out of his plans and eventually causing it to knock Immortus out of his plans, again as we saw in FANTASTIC FOUR.

Plenty happening as the book heads towards it battle royale finale. Some interesting stuff and some nice character moments for a couple of our heroes but overall the book drags a bit in places that I don't think it needs to drag. This series has long wanted to have a different feel to it, one accomplished by charm and wit and fun as much as it is accomplished by Michael Allred's fresh art and Laura Allred's vibrant colors. I think it still has that but it's running into problems here as it wants to have it both ways, trading off fun and carefree with serious and sometimes dark. It's a very tricky line to balance on and I think Lee Allred is having a little more trouble walking it than Fraction, who has had plenty of experience in a lot of his books, had. I think it's because of that that the book turns extra wordy and starts to feel really off-track at certain points as Allred tries to sprinkle enough of everything in and ends up putting in a little too much of each. The funny thing was that I read maybe a little over half the book before needing to attend to other duties, saving the rest for later. When I came back to it and skimmed the first half to remember my place then continued reading the second half, I found it a better read. It felt a little less wordy in the second half and a lot of the fluff and the mixed tone was in the first half, it turned out. Not an awful book, just not one that I'd have as many recommendations for.

Avengers Arena 18, Uncanny Avengers 14, Avengers Assemble 21

Avengers Arena 18
Hopeless (w) and Walker and Gorder (a) and Beaulieu (c)

Katy and Death Locket watch the teen heroes fight from Arcade's bunker with Katy's finger on the trigger the entire time. The raging battles between Cammi and Nico and Anachronism and Reptil come to a grinding halt when attention is directed at the imploding Hazmat, ready to wipe them all out unintentionally. Reptil transforms into a a bigger dinosaur, one with more speed and a longer mouth, and promises he'll help her, picking her up in his mouth without a second thought, despite her protests, and rushing her into the water, where everyone sees her explode. Katy, angry that the fights have stopped, unleashes some of Arcade's last tricks, forcing the kids to fight for their lives until Tim takes a brief moment of control over Katy and demands Death Locket, still in love with Tim, kill them. Suddenly, the insect swarm, sand people, and napalm winds subside and Death Locket appears by the other survivors to explain. With the game over and Arcade gone, they decide, with the insight of the returning Hazmat, now out of her suit and not glowing but alone as she leaves the water, that they won't say anything about what happened. SHIELD and the heads of the schools come to pick the kids up and investigate but they refuse to say a word about what happened, not wanting to give Arcade the satisfaction, though Arcade gets his satisfaction as he begins to upload his 30 part video series "What Really Happened in Murder World."

Really great series, very nice ending. Our final survivor count sits at nine, I believe, leaving us with Cammi, Death Locket, Nico, Anachronism, Hazmat, Cullen, X-23, Chase, and (this is the only "I think" on the list) Chris Powell. I'll be honest, it never really occurred to me for some reason that Reptil could die in this series and, only looking back do I realize, I have no idea why I thought that. First and foremost, he wasn't that big a character, no bigger than, say, Mettle, who was exploded in the first issue also trying to save Jen. Somehow he always felt off the table so I'm a little sad to see him go here. Still, there's a nice finality to the series as the kids all get off the island and get to go home with their respective school heads. Even the discussion of how they address all of this is interesting, though I'm not sure if it takes into account the idea of the video getting out. Regardless, it's a very exciting set-up for the next step in this teens-in-peril streak Hopeless is on as some of our characters aim to infiltrate the Masters of Evil in AVENGERS UNDERCOVER. Pretty excited to see Hopeless and Walker pick up again in March. Sad this series is over, glad the characters will move on.

Uncanny Avengers 14
Remender (w) and McNiven and Dell (a) and L. Martin (c)

At various points in the future, Kang is gathering an army of supers presumably in the hopes that they can help him defeat the twins. Meanwhile, back in the present, Shiro and Rogue rush to the Ark to stop Wanda and Simon from completing the spell they think will separate mutants and humans forever, not knowing that Wanda intends to bring the mutants to the Ark to stop the twins. Rogue is dead-set on stopping Wanda any way possible but it will have to wait a moment as Daken and Grim Reaper lie in wait and pounce as soon as Rogue and Shiro appear. Wolverine, apparently following Shiro and Rogue, jumps into the fight to give Shiro the chance to remove Simon from the spell. Wolverine continues to insist no killing but is held by Daken long enough to watch Rogue escape Reaper and charge Wanda, stabbing her through the chest with her borrowed Wolverine claws. Wanda falls and Simon follows her down. Grim Reaper gets the drop on Rogue as she reaffirms to herself that it was the only way to stop Wanda. Reaper stabs her through the heart with his scythe and then, with his enhanced powers, leaves no room for doubt that she's dead as Wolverine, dispatching Daken, sprints towards him, watches him electrify her. Simon rushes to Wanda's side and, as she dies, he pours all of himself into her to power her spell, dissipating himself to help her finish her plan, calling all the mutants to rise against the twins.

Geez. Huge issue. Two major characters die and one Wonder Man maybe dies. I'm not sure how much more I have to say about this. The past thirteen issues of UNCANNY AVENGERS built to this, from Rogue and Wanda's feud to Wolverine's insistence that everyone find a no-kill solution to Wonder Man's non-violence to the return of Grim Reaper and Daken, among the other horsemen, to Rogue's killing of Grim Reaper to the mutant solution to just everything all comes down to this issue, where Rogue kills Wanda and then Grim Reaper kills Rogue all while Wolverine watches. Nearly perfect culmination of everything that Remender's been working towards all along and something that very clearly isn't a conclusion but a climax. Although it's something that we've been building towards, it's not the final step, we still have plenty to look forward to. Let's also not overlook the fact that he just killed off a couple major Marvel Universe characters, for however long. What a big and well-executed issue.

Avengers Assemble 21
DeConnick (w) and Buffagni (a) and Woodard (c)

INHUMANITY has started and the Avengers have to deal with the slew of Terrigenesis cocoons that have started popping up. Among those cocoons is the social studies teacher of Anya Corazon, aka Spider-Girl, who brings her case to the Avengers, hoping they'll be enticed by the fact that he was kidnapped while in cocoon. Spider-Woman and Black Widow team up with Anya to form a full blown spider-lady team and strike at an AIM lab that has connections to the kidnapping. They hit the lights, giving them ten seconds to dispatch of the beekeepers inside, which they manage to do with relative ease. As they start to question one of the fallen, they're surrounded by a secondary AIM team led by Widow's former foe Kashmir Vennema, the inter-dimensional arms dealer Widow ran into back in CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BLACK WIDOW. Vennema reveals that one of the cocoons they captured died (Anya's teacher) and the other is still available for sale. She also decides to have the three Avengers killed, knowing she's protected because AIM is an officially recognized entity that has now been invaded. Meanwhile, June Covington aka Toxie Doxie is on the hunt for cocoons and for vengeance for her purchased and subsequently exploded cocoon.

Nice to have a little bit of a less tense book following up AVENGERS ARENA's conclusion and UNCANNY AVENGERS' biggest issue probably ever (kind of willing to say it might be one of the biggest issues of any non-event series in recent history). Not to say this doesn't have its tension...actually, it kind of doesn't. I feel like maybe it should have had more but it's really hard to say if the lack of tension is created because it's, you know, just AIM and they're Black Widow, Spider-Woman, and Spider-Girl or if it's less tense because I'm so fresh off reading these darker and grittier books. Not to say this isn't still a fun book; there's a lot of great characterization stuff between the three leads of this issue as well as between Captain Marvel and Spider-Girl, who spar a bit over what's important and who's being condescending to whom (hint: it's Captain Marvel to Spider-Girl). Fun issue, nice little arc developing. I still really like this book as a bit of a more relaxed and character-focused Avengers title. Nice issue.

Infinity 6

Infinity 6
Hickman (w) and Cheung and Morales w/ Weaver, Ortego, Meikis and Livesay (a) and Ponsor w/ Svorcina (c)

The Avengers have burst through the barricade and arrived on Earth as Widow leads her team through the Peak and directs Starbrand to disperse the rest of the ships in local space. With that part of the war won, we look back on Earth as the Illuminati try to stop Supergiant from activating their world-killing bomb. They're too late to stop her powering it up with the unwilling help of Black Bolt, so all that needs doing is to trigger the device. Unfortunately for Supergiant, Maximus the Mad holds the trigger. He's willing to detonate it if Supergiant will recognize that he's the smartest in the room, which he proves when he reveals that Lockjaw has also found his way into the room and transports Supergiant and the bomb itself to another world, destroying that world and presumably Supergiant while Lockjaw goes back home. The Avengers continue their fight against Thanos, which isn't going particularly well. The tables turn a bit as Cap deflects a couple of deadly shots from Proxima Midnight and they hit Corvus Glaive, killing him and horrifying her. Meanwhile, the Ebony Maw has been talking to the trapped Thane and releases him as the fight reaches its most desperate. Thane reaches out and touches Thanos with his right hand before disappearing into the cosmos with the Maw. When the Illuminati arrive to find the mostly unconscious Avengers, they explain that Thane's left hand brings death, as was the case in the village he destroyed, while his right hand brings a living death, revealing that Thanos and Proxima Midnight are trapped in some form of stasis. The threat has, for the moment, passed, and Thanos is conquered again, though Thane seems more powerful than his father and is currently under the thumb of the dangerous Ebony Maw. The epilogue shows the Skrulls, Kree, Shi'ar, and Annihilation Wave returning to their home planets (the Annihilation Wave left a portal open and now have a planet; scary), Black Bolt and Maximus discussing the future of the Inhumans, and the Illuminati taking control of the Thanos in stasis.

Very big, very epic final issue as the fight comes home on all fronts and the Avengers walk away almost entirely successful. No wonder this will give way to books like AVENGERS WORLD and things like that; the Avengers have never been more impressive than they are now, a team, as Reed Richards points out, assembled to do the impossible and which has now accomplished it. Very surprised that, despite all of my brilliant predictions (I got some bad feelings about Doctor Strange midway through this issue too), no one died in this issue. This must be the first event in a long while where Avengers haven't died or even fake-died. Even now I'm so surprised that I'm worrying I forgot someone. Anyway, really solid ending and more than enough to both show off our team and allow us to celebrate while also planting tons and tons of seeds for the future, including the return of the Skrulls, Kree, and of Annihilus, not to mention the rise of Thane. Plenty happening, great event through and through and worthy of the title "event." AND IT'S NOT QUITE OVER JUST YET, IS IT?



Okay, this is where my review for NEW AVENGERS 12 was supposed to be but I haven't gotten ahold of it yet and I'd like to post SOMETHING now, especially before my second batch (which has been finished for a while, you guys, I swear) posts at 6 EST. So, here's this one. NEW AVENGERS will come at some point. Probably. Geez.

Comics this week

GEEZ, HOPE YOU GUYS WEREN'T DOING ANYTHING OVER THE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND AS WE HAVE JUST TOO MANY COMICS TO READ. That's right, tons of books releasing this week including a handful of really big ones and a handful of ones I don't really want to read but I will because I, you guys, am a hero. Anyway, let's talk about some of them!

Avengers Arena 18
The final issue of the surprisingly amazing AVENGERS ARENA. I've loved this series for quite some time now and I'm sad to see it end but I'm glad that presumably we'll get some closure. Everyone out there should be interested to see who lives, who doesn't, who wins, what happens to Arcade, etc. Glad this one's lasted seemingly as long as it was meant to.

Deadpool Annual 1
Okay, so this maybe isn't the biggest book in a week filled with really big books and it might not even be the one I'm most excited for BUT this one definitely deserves a look. The preview for it looked like a lot of fun and it's written by the spectacular writing team of Ben Acker and Blacker, writers and creators of "The Thrilling Adventure Hour" podcast, among other things. The duo is immensely talented and clearly has a love for comics. They made their Marvel debut with WOLVERINE SEASON ONE early this year, which I didn't necessarily love, but I think Deadpool will fit their tone really well. Also they have a bit more experience now, as they just released the "Thrilling Adventure Hour" graphic novel I still need to check out.

Hawkeye 14
HAWKEYE this week, you guys! I believe this will be the first issue that officially splits Hawkeye and Hawkeye up, East Coast vs. West Coast, and will also kick off the artist rotation of the amazing David Aja and the increasingly impressive Annie Wu. This is one of the best books out there and it took a bit of a break in the middle there so now any time we get it back is exciting.

Infinity 6
The end of INFINITY (minus the last tie-in book) is here and I have some trouble believing that everything will go perfectly smoothly and that everyone will survive. I've been hedging my bets on this for a while and my predictions for who won't make it out are pretty well-documented at this point but, more than that, we're reaching the end of a major Marvel event, one that has very much defied expectations throughout. Looking forward to it.

New Avengers 12
DID SOMEONE MENTION A LAST TIE-IN BOOK? Yes. I did, in the parentheses near the beginning of the last entry. This was all planned, you guys. The event is ending and the phenomenal story of NEW AVENGERS will officially bring us there. There's so much happening in this event and so much in this book overall, both before and during the event. Really looking forward to where the tensions of this team land us in the aftermath. Should be a lot of fun and, as much as I've liked this event, I'm still excited for the main story to return.

This week's picks

Lot of good picks this week and not too many truly bad ones, which is pretty exciting as someone who makes himself read them all. Let's get right into it without any more unnecessary notes from me.

Thunderbolts 18

Another fun issue of THUNDERBOLTS that continues to help build a new feel for this series. This arc probably overall could have been condensed an issue or so but I don't think the extra length really hurts it in any big way. If anything, it gives us a more complete look at the characters and a better feel for the tone. Everything in this first arc from Charles Soule comes to a head as the Thunderbolts succeed in all of their goals (plus a few bonus ones) but not without tensions rising and a bit of a competitive bent shining through (there's a great moment where Deadpool brags about killing the Paguros and doing it without following Punisher's complex plan and then gets to rub it in to Punisher that, since he was helping after all, Punisher's going to be in for a doozy when Deadpool's name comes out of that hat). There's still a romantic thing going on with Elektra and Punisher (that culminates IN THE BATTLE VAN) and there are still plenty of tensions borne from that. And Mercy, this doesn't even mention Mercy! There's so much happening and the book still manages to be fresh and fun. Pretty neat.

X-Men Legacy 20

Speaking of culmination, Si Spurrier's final arc on the book is approaching and he's going into it guns fully blazing, it seems. After an entire series spent with David going back and forth in his power-set and in his own confidence, everything seems to be pretty well sorted as David goes up against his biggest foe yet (and he's been up against the Red Skull, you guys). One of the best and most impressive parts of it all is that it's not coming as a heavy-handed "FINALLY David overcomes all of his issues" sort of story because David has fluctuated so often in the series. He's gone from being among the most powerful to de-powered to looking to be de-powered to being confident to being doubtful to everything in between and, frankly, he's won out in just about every venture he's undertaken, even if it's not the cleanest win. Because of that, it's hard to say that he's needed outwardly to overcome his issues since, without overcoming it, he's been so successful. This is a very emotional and exciting win for David and it's perfectly executed. The art really stands out here and it works perfectly for the tone of the book. Great stuff, really excited for the next arc to start.

Young Avengers 12

Guys, YOUNG AVENGERS is likely to remain on my top picks for the last few issues, just as it's been here for the first 12 or so. This book is reliably among the best of any given week, no matter what happens. For starters, the writing is always top of the game and the characterization is always incredibly intricate and multi-faceted. It's a book that feels fully in sync with itself; the art perfectly represents the writing, the characters will say something and then look amazingly expressive of that thought. Often, they don't even really need to say anything, the look conveys it, and Gillen is a skilled enough writer and trusts McKelvie enough to know that upfront. Gillen said in an interview that one of his biggest goals for the book was to get McKelvie into the spotlight by getting him to draw a fairly big ongoing series with Marvel. He's pretty clearly accomplished that by getting the immensely talented Jamie McKelvie into the comic-reader lexicon and, as anyone who knew him before this or who has seen him since can tell you, it's one hundred percent deserved. This is, hands-down, the best drawn book in a slew of absolutely amazingly drawn books right now. Amazing stuff. Hoping to hear soon that Gillen and McKelvie are picking up another Marvel book.

Wolverine MAX 13, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 2

Wolverine MAX 13
Starr (w) and Ruiz w/ Mogorron (a) and D. Brown (c)

Wolverine is back at Sean’s house and unsure of the events of the last few hours which have ended with the man whose picture he found in his pocket dead and blood all over his hands. Wolverine has very few recollections of the past couple of hours, bar a couple flashes here and there that seem like they might point out his guilt. Sean reveals that Suzie’s gone, which he links to the crime as well and worries him immensely. Sean reluctantly tells Wolverine that Suzie, Mother Night, has been hypnotizing him and this all must be her doing; the man Wolverine killed was her husband and now she’s going to be rich and they’ll be framed for the crime. They drive out to a more remote area where Wolverine, still confused and doubtful of all of this, shoots himself in the head with a shotgun. He wakes up a little while later and Mother Night’s hold over him is gone. Everything falls into place and Wolverine leaves to hunt Suzie down. He finds her and brutally kills her before meeting up with Sean again and killing him too (he was suspicious of him the whole time). After the two deaths, Wolverine gives himself up to pursuers who he assumes to be cops but, instead, he’s met by a man in a suit coming out of a limo who seems to know him.

This book continues to be slow and extremely deliberate without any real sense of a payoff. Wolverine spends most of this issue being confused and saying over and over again, both out loud and in his narration, that he doesn’t believe what’s happening but he can’t remember anything about it so who’s to say? This is another one of those books where the writer seems to think maybe we can’t keep up with a pretty straightforward comic book plot and that he should therefore probably explain it to us about a million times. This is the wrong way to approach a book that’s already a little boring because, GUYS, it makes it a lot more boring. I continue to be perplexed by the very existence of this book, with two other solely Wolverine books (WOLVERINE and SAVAGE WOLVERINE) and another coming next month (WOLVERINE ORIGINS II), all of which are better (or are going to be better, thanks Kieron Gillen) than this one and one of which is just about as brutal without, perhaps, the same amount of swears (SAVAGE WOLVERINE). Even WOLVERINE, which I’ve been pretty non-plussed by, has at least moments of interesting plot and character moments to buoy the sometimes boring parts of the book.

Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 2
Hastings (w) and Camagni (a) and Milla (c)

Longshot’s moment with a cosmic cube has altered the universe by, apparently, splitting his split-faced foe into his two component parts and unleashing him on the world. One of those parts has taken over at SHIELD and is attempting to contain or destroy everyone with magic-based powers as they are too unpredictable and unstable. He finds Longshot and a little girl who has a demon or something of the like hiding in her teddy bear and he attacks both of them. They’re narrowly rescued by the intervention of Doctor Strange, who freezes time and brings them back to his Sanctum Sanctorum. He identifies, with some help from Longshot, the foe as the In-Betweener, someone split between Chaos and Order. His two parts have separated and it’s Order who is trying to take the magic out of the game and who intends to eventually take mutants and other super-powered entities off the board as well. Strange summons a handful of other magic-based fugitives (Ghost Rider, Scarlet Witch, and Deadpool, who had recently stolen a magic wand) and enlists their help in trying to stop Order and free Chaos from the helicarrier. They pick up Dazzler, who is working for SHIELD, along the way as she realizes Order’s plan for mutants and others. The strike is going relatively well until one of the SHIELD agents takes down Strange, who was shielding all of them. Longshot abandons ship as Order twists the minds of Strange, Ghost Rider, Scarlet Witch, and Deadpool to act as his agents. On the plus side, Chaos has been freed. Now it’s just a matter of reuniting the two…and not getting crushed by the falling helicarrier.

I don’t know if it’s a matter of having adapted to the tone of this book or if it’s because we have more of an explained plot but this issue works a little better than the first. The plot is starting to take some shape, giving us a better sense of what Longshot is up against and of his (and others’) personality and powers. There are a lot of fun bits in here, often highlighted by Longshot’s endlessly upbeat attitude, even against countless foes, and his trust in his unpredictable powers. There’s a nice beat where Longshot helps Ghost Rider with his chain by hooking it on jets and hoping for the best, which he gets when Wanda makes the jets light enough to trail behind them before being unhooked and making them heavy enough to come crashing down again. Perhaps an even better moment than that is when, near the end of the issue, Longshot throws himself off the helicarrier saying “I know what will work!” before, as he free-falls, adding “Probably!” and landing in the arms of a passing-by Thor, who releases him gently onto a padded awning and, consequently, the ground. Lots of fun stuff, a really fun attitude, and a compelling enough story make for an altogether entertaining read.

Thunderbolts 18, A+X 14, Cataclysm: Ultimates 1

Thunderbolts 18
Soule (w) and Palo (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Punisher's quest to kill the Paguros continues as the Terrigen mists and Thanos' attack on Earth continues to rain down. Punisher, Elektra, and Venom are making quick work of all of the mobsters and get some unexpected help from the transformed Nobili after one of the Nobili children is shot through the head by a mobster. Flash tags the Paguros as they attempt to slink away and the three of them begin to make their way after the family. Things aren't going as well for the Nobili, though, as the other Nobili son, believing he'll never be able to re-enter society, kills himself. The elder Nobili is devastated but quickly realizes his power is borne from the strength of his family, meaning that he has all of his lineage in his new body with him, and they convince him to go after Punisher (another day, it seems, as that's the last we see of them this issue). Meanwhile, Red Hulk convinces Mercy that, if she helps him now by killing alien threats and leaving behind even the most desperately wishing-for-death humans, he can provide her with more death than she could ever need. She believes him and heads out, doing a number on the alien invasion by herself. Back on the streets, Deadpool has found his pizza and is ready to dig in. It's, sadly enough, not as good as he remembers it being, which causes him to wonder why he was so fixated on this particular pizza place. As he does, the Paguros walk in. Deadpool sees their pictures on the wall, proclaims "ohhhhhh, right," and shoots the three of them, confusing Punisher to no end when he and the others arrive. The team reunites and they set off for their new base, with the sub destroyed, via 16 hour road trip.

Another fantastic issue and a nice finish to the tie-in arc that I had worried was slowing. The remaining Nobili provides a threat for the coming issues while the threats here are resolved without too much stress but with a lot of interesting twists and turns. Mercy remains a concern and, by the end of the issue, Ross is forced to tell the rest of the team about her. Flash and Frank have some more tension as Flash continues to protest against Frank's "kill everyone, they're all guilty" mentality and Frank gets angry with Flash when he believes Flash watched the Paguros leave the safehouse without mentioning it to anyone. That puts at least two (probably three, if you count Leader, though he's likely not counted) of the Thunderbolts at odds with Castle and suddenly makes I'm the most reviled character on a team that also has a supervillain on it. The twist of Deadpool eating at a pizza place apparently owned by the Paguros is a great one; you knew all along that Deadpool was going to get back into the action at some point but it was hard to know exactly how. This was kind of the perfect way to do it and it resulted in an actual burst of laughter when Deadpool connects the pieces and abruptly shoots the Paguros, after all of Frank's hard work. There are some other fun moments in the relationship of the team and the book continues to be a solid one. I'm excited to see how Soule's first non-tie-in issues go.

A+X 14
Spider-Man and Magneto: Bemis (w) and Lafuente (a) and Delgado (c)
Captain America and Cyclops: Duggan (w) and Yardin (a) and Mossa (c)

The first team-up finds Spider-Man meeting Magneto, after what seemed to be a general summons from Magneto, underground at an AIM base. The two fight their way through a complex and trick-filled facility while discussing the shortcomings of supervillains, who Magneto particularly detests. Spider-Man clearly believes many of them to be inferior but has trouble wholly agreeing to Magneto's diatribe as it conflicts with his own memories as a supervillain. Eventually they face down MODOK and soundly defeat him before arriving at a young, kidnapped mutant, the true reason for the mission. The young mutant hates the idea of being a mutant and vows that he will grow up strong just to stop all mutants and leaves. Magneto basically just says that you win some, you lose some, and they part ways. Bit of an anti-climax, that, but it's most an acceptable ending. The story drags on a bit as Magneto does what basically amounts to a stand-up comedian's routine about supervillains but without any of the humor (for the record, that's not what he's going for so no humor is appropriate but the sentiment remains the same). Hard not to be a bit bored by that, particularly knowing that there's not going to be a huge pay-off because this is A+X, not a book with consequences or continuity. SPEAKING OF CONTINUITY...

Cap and Cyclops continue their quest to find the sleeper cell Skrulls. Cap tried to leave Cyclops behind in cuffs but Cyclops busted his way out of them and rejoins Cap, at least showing some amount of dedication to the mission. The two arrive at a SHIELD safehouse and Cap asks the LMD watching over it helps pull up records of where the Skrulls have been. They also learn that Latverian scientists might have a captured Skrull on site for study. The two set off with a new Skrull detector in hand for Latveria and things go pretty much how you'd expect, as the pair are discovered and they have to fight their way through a slew of Doombots (where Cap discovers Cyclops' powers aren't exactly up to snuff) before ending up on the radar of Doom himself. They convince Doom to release the Skrull to them as another Skrull war would hurt Latveria as well and Doom reluctantly agrees, claiming his scientists have studied him as much as they can but, of course, killing the Skrull just to be a jerk about it. It's not an awful story but, again, I think the nature of A+X kind of hurts just about any story. On top of that, I get Cap's righteous indignation about Cyclops here but it's getting a little old already, which makes it rather feel like more issues of this will wear pretty thin. Oh well, just...a million more A+X issues to go, right? Inexplicably?

Cataclysm: Ultimates 1
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Quintana (c)

Galactus' approach and the arrival of the first of the Gah Lak Tus swarm has some unexpected consequences as the swarm seems to have infected humans, currently the ones in Belarus who are rising up and hailing Galactus and Gah Lak Tus in direct defiance of the onsite SHIELD team, which is comprised of Fury's new super-powered SHIELD team. They're not totally sure how the swarm spreads but they're hoping to contain this without any casualties, realizing that these people are being controlled by the swarm and possibly by AIM, who clearly has a hand in this as well. They get to the ground to try to restrain the people but they're quickly overrun and have to withdraw, but not before Abigail Brand is touched by a swarm member and transforms into one herself. Fury finally calls it and decides to drop their final weapon into play, a weapon AIM assumed they'd use: the Hulk. Hulk touches down and begins to get angry but is quickly overrun by the swarm and, like Brand, is transformed into another piece of Galactus' puzzle. This, of course, is all happening while Galactus himself towers over head and causes his own wave of destruction.

So, as yet, calling this series CATACLYSM: ULTIMATES is a bit of a misnomer because these guys aren't technically the Ultimates, though maybe they were dubbed the back-up Ultimates when the real Ultimates were captured by Reed Richards. Even still, this probably isn't the team you were expecting when you picked up this book. Regardless, it's an interesting enough story and certainly a threat that needs to be examined, given the sheer weight of the situation and the virus-like spreading of the swarm. It does feel a little like maybe Fury should have pieced some things together about these guys before dropping the Hulk in but, as AIM points out, if a problem gets too big for them, they always just throw a Hulk at it. This one got out of hand fast and apparently dropping a Hulk into the middle of situations doesn't always require knowing too much about that situation, letting Hulk kind of piece it together for himself. Fialkov and company are doing a good job to point out just how dangerous this swarm and Galactus himself could be, certainly something worth worrying about and something worthy of being deemed such a threat that it might END THE ULTIMATE UNIVERSE.

X-Men Legacy 20, Cable and X-Force 16

X-Men Legacy 20
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung w/ Tadeo (a) and Villarrubia (c)

The Shadow Phoenix is in David's mind attacking all of the powers that live there as David tries to find a way to defeat it. He thinks back to the things that linked the survivors of the Shadow Phoenix he saw when he was combing around Aarkus' head for clues. His first assumption is that sheer power defeated it, so he tries to rally his strongest and most intimidating powers, though he does so to no avail. They're scared of the Shadow Phoenix, who is picking them apart one by one. His next thought is strength in numbers, so his next move is to attempt to lead the remaining powers in his head. When this continues not to work, it sets in on him. Strength in numbers doesn't matter, it's the ability to work together that saved the Shadow Phoenix's other foes. Knowing this, David opens himself up to bond with his powers, teaming with them instead of simply grabbing and controlling them when he needs. David realizes that his mantra of "I rule me" has never been more true; every human, as he says, is a legion in need of a leader, wishing to be guided and not ruled. As a result, the Shadow Phoenix starts to weaken and even starts to spit back out the powers its swallowed, which David realizes is pretty weird; a predator who doesn't chew its food but keeps it intact. It dawns on David as he expels the Shadow Phoenix and wakes up: the Shadow Phoenix wasn't real, it was all a con. As he emerges from his own mind and awakens again, he begins to accuse Aarkus, who quickly cuts him off and explains it was only for his own good. He needed to learn how to use his powers like this, to become one with them. They needed him scared, not smug. Aarkus, in fact, appreciated that David stepped in to correct his previous views about mutants and wanted to return the favor by opening David's mind to what he could really be. On top of that, they need him whole to face down the golden Xavier. Even this series' first person to turn on David, Karasu Tengu, has realized that her life is, in fact, better for David's interference in it and so she played the role of the Shadow Phoenix. Now David must go and fight, with all of his powers intact.

Really, really lovely book. There are few examples of the sort of "hero realizes his potential" part of the hero's journey that are as well executed as this. All of the pieces start coming together as we see flashes from David of his own memories of this series where, for as successful as he's been, he's used and abused people. He's accomplished most of his own goals but his mistakes and even the problematic perception of him have all come because he's refused to let people in on his plan, preferring to do things himself and let people see too late that maybe he was doing a good thing after all. This issue makes clear that David simply hasn't seen things that way up to now and, even if he realized he wasn't really in any danger from the Shadow Phoenix, it's impossible to argue that he didn't just become far more powerful by leading his powers instead of just controlling them so there's a lesson here for him regardless of how the lesson came to him. The art is gorgeous and fits so well with this book and I continue to read these issues and wonder how I didn't love the art from the start. This issue very much feels like Spurrier's way to wrap it up here as he begins his transition over to his new X-FORCE book (still excited about that, you guys); we've now seen David embrace his powers and his future as well as mending relationships with Aarkus, SWORD, and Karasu. The issue ends with the knowledge that Blindfold was kind of in on this plan from the start but that she refused to be a part of it because she didn't want to see David in so much pain and because she realized that it was the beginning of the end. Brand then promptly wiped Blindfold's memory of it and sent her home. Some has stuck around, though, as she mutters in her sleep that they're going to start the end. So, as Abigail Brand says, go start it, cowboy.

Cable and X-Force 16
Hopeless (w) and Sandoval (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The sudden appearance of another entity in Forge's head has complicated things for the team as a whole. The Sentinel Colossus and Domino were tasked with taking down is not as inert as they were expecting it. Though they eventually manage to shut it down, the initial chase and the ensuing explosion cause an avalanche very near to them. Cable, on the other hand, has found that his new pre-cog powers are working pretty well but that his old powers aren't running properly any more, leaving he and Hope in the middle of a firefight with Reavers without any guns. Hope, though, had accidentally borrowed some of his TK powers when she had to attack him with the psimitar and so has enough to keep them mostly protected, though how far that will go remains to be seen as higher ranking Reavers return with a device that morphs the fallen Reavers into one giant predator. Finally, back at the base, Nemesis has entered Forge's consciousness to try to figure out what's going on inside. While in there, he runs into Forge and the two begin to explore while Forge explains that this entity is known as the Adversary (very clever name) and is a creature of pure chaos who likes to mess with humans (who Nemesis likens to Q from Star Trek: the Next Generation for all you nerds out there, says the guy with a comic blog). As they explore and find no real way to stop the Adversary, Forge realizes that the mind they're in isn't Forge's any more, it's the Adversary's.

A good deal of interesting stuff here as, in typical CABLE AND X-FORCE fashion, things go extremely wrong extremely quickly. There's a lot to contend with and it's almost entirely interesting as Cable's old powers are no longer working, Hope's powers are somewhat amplified by the TK that came pouring out of Cable's mind not long ago, Domino and Colossus have ruined their date night by causing an avalanche when they had to bring down a Sentinel, favorite odd-couple Nemesis and Forge are reunited as they wander through someone's mind, and Boom Boom is stuck at home contending with a god-like being of pure chaos who, in his first moments around her, converted their base into a simulacrum of a night club. As I said, there's a lot happening. The writing continues to be really character-driven, giving us really great moments from...well, from everyone, really. There's not a character in this issue who doesn't have a good few lines. The art fits the tone really well, a somewhat more cartoony feel than what we've seen from this book previously with Gerardo Sandoval  picking up the pencils on this one. There are cute little moments in lettering too as Hope throws a car at some of the Reavers and the sound effect reads "KAR-KRASH," just pages after an avalanche starting made the sound "AVALANCHE." Sometimes little fun games like that can get really distracting and pull you out, but I had to double-check kar-krash before really getting it and I didn't even see "AVALANCHE" on the first read-through. Lots of fun stuff with plenty of plot to keep us motivated for next issue.