Uncanny X-Men 4, Fearless Defenders 3

Uncanny X-Men 4
Bendis (w) and Bachalo, Townsend, Mendoza, Vey, and Olazaba (a) and Bachalo (c)

In my last All-New X-Men review, I speculated that the original X-Man who was going to go with Scott's crew was Jean. It made sense to me, even if it was a little formulaic, because she had heard the Jean Grey School faculty talking about how useful it would be to have a mole in the school and she's the most capable and the most gung-ho about this "staying in the future" business. Instead, it was Angel. I'm going to decide that this is a machination of Jean's and not Angel going of his own free will, which is better than what I had decided during that issue anyway. If Angel is there of his own free will, I'm having some troubles. Yes, Jean psychically made him change his mind about leaving just before all this happened (again leaning into the theory that Jean sent Angel there) but Angel is skeptical of this whole future and why they're here anyway. So how would he be the one to willingly go off with a team that featured Magneto? And, as was true last All-New X-Men issue, the Stepford Cuckoos also go with Scott's new X-Men team.
If it seems like I'm retreading a lot of ANXM ground with this issue's recap, it's because this issue was the last issue of ANXM, by and large. There are some things happening between the Cuckoos and Emma, as they talk to her psychically while Scott's at the school and discover that she's without powers but by and large, a third of this book or so is literally the same meeting from ANXM. You have to assume, of course, that not everyone who reads Uncanny X-Men will be reading All-New X-Men and you have to give some sort of recap to explain how the Cuckoos and Angel ended up with Scott and his team, but I'm not sure you have to take up a third of the issue copying down the majority of a different issue. I think the Emma and the Cuckoos stuff is worthwhile and fits in this book but the book is so insistent with showing us what's happening between Scott and everyone else and I'd say that's not necessary here. Again, though, this comes from someone who read both books. Maybe someone who's just reading Uncanny X-Men really profits from getting that whole talk. I'm not sure I profited from it when it was only in All-New X-Men so I'm particularly against it now. It's the same general problem I tend to have with Bendis' books, all boiled down; I feel like we have a lot of wasted space in this issue. But again, that's coming from someone who knows the full story going in. Meanwhile, the other new recruits continue to be somewhat uninteresting and make me sigh when I see blocks of text coming out of them and something is happening with Magik's powers. I need to give more time for the new recruits, obviously, who have no training and are just learning about what it is to be mutant, but it's that back-and-forth dialogue every time they show up that makes me cringe a bit. Magik will likely be explored next issue.

Fearless Defenders 3
Bunn (w) and Sliney (a) and Gandini (c)

Alright, now the book's starting to jump into it a little bit. We're starting to understand a little bit more of the threat that's been presented to us. The Doom Maidens are a dangerous and formidable bunch who are being raised by Caroline Le Fey and her assistant Mr. Raven. We still don't know what their goals are, aside from "end of the world" kind of talk, but we've at least seen, from Hela's description, how brutal they can be. Hela has then raised Hippolyta by calling in many favors and promising many more to different death lords and has chosen her to fight for Asgardia. She doesn't want Valkyrie in on this because she fears that Valkyrie could be turned against them. When asked what her motivation is in trying to stop the Doom Maidens from wiping out the gods and humans and what not, who, Valkyrie points out, would only strengthen Hela's army, Hela responds that the Doom Maidens would then tear from the lands of the living to her lands and have already captured Dani Moonstar, shieldmaiden to Hel, to open up a path. So the pieces are mostly in place here, which helps open some things up for the audience. The All-Mothers accept Hippolyta but also overrule Hela, saying that the three who just came to Asgardia (Valkyrie, Misty, and Annabelle Riggs) will go with Hippolyta to fight the Doom Maidens. Honestly, not that I'm trying to badmouth these three, this seems a little ill-prepared from the All-Mothers. They know Valkyrie is good for this kind of fight and it's her fault that it's happening (though they should consider Hela's warning about turning Valkyrie against them), but they don't know much about Misty Knight and Annabelle Riggs is a non-powered archaeologist. Yes, yes, teamwork and overcoming odds and all, but it REALLY seems like if this threat is so big they're willing to work alongside Hela, who was willing to raise the ruler of the Amazons for the task, they should maybe vet their candidates a little better.
So the new team heads to Harrowpoint Island in Washington, where Hela tracked the resonances of the Doom Maidens, and sets off on their search. Valkyrie is drawn to a spot in the little abandoned town under a church, where they find some groggy Doom Maidens and the rock-encased Dani Moonstar. Hippolyta quickly begins to fight and finds herself doing pretty well, though the other three are a little more taken aback. Riggs rescues Dani, though Le Fey, from her monitoring station, says that the ritual was near complete anyway so losing Moonstar isn't a huge problem. She also says that the Doom Maidens have just woken up after sleeping for a few thousand years, so they probably just have to shake off the cobwebs. Once they do, the maiden of seduction slows Hippolyta and Valkyrie, still fighting, realizes that something seems to be awakening in her. The Doom Maidens stop fighting her and call her their sister as the issue ends. So this book seems to be going places after a couple set-up issues that seem necessary, especially in retrospect. There's still only a little bit connecting these heroes, so it'll be important to see those connections and ties grow as the book continues, meaning that we'll have to get some more character focus in coming issues. Still, I'm more optimistic about this book after this issue than I had been after a somewhat slow, if necessary, start.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1, Journey into Mystery 650

Guardians of the Galaxy 1
Bendis (w) and McNiven and Dell (a) and Ponsor (c)

I find it interesting that the conceit of this book, at least in the early stages, is that the Guardians of the Galaxy are going to be tasked with protecting Earth from galactic threats. I don't think it's a particularly bad idea and space still gives an awful lot of room to play around, but I find it interesting that the plan is to take an integral part of Marvel Cosmic and bring it right around Earth. Again, I feel like this is coming off as a criticism and I don't intend it to be. I have some criticisms but we'll get to those and longtime readers can probably already guess what they are, given the little (w) tag up above. I legitimately do find it interesting that this galactic team which is set to get a movie in 2014 and has been around since the late 1960s in on-and-off books, most recently in 2008, is going to be dealing with galactic threats that could expand the Universe while sticking pretty close to Earth. The 2008 series had no problem keeping off of Earth. Occasionally someone would make reference to it but, by and large, it was inconsequential because this was a team fighting for far more. I see this as a way to kind of ease into the series. It depends on how long this story will go; if it's the conceit for the entire series (at least for the foreseeable), I think it will wear a bit thin, but if it's the conceit for the beginning of this series to ease readers in and make them feel comfortable with the team without feeling like they're removed from the rest of the Marvel Universe (hence the inclusion of Iron Man), I think it'll serve a good purpose. I do hope that doesn't limit the storytelling to stories that don't challenge regular comic readers in the hopes that all new fans can easily dive in (which is simultaneously both a super nerdy and a kind of snooty thing to say). Another thing that I found pretty cool about the 2008 series was that, I think because of its existence on the outside of the Marvel Universe, it wasn't afraid to challenge readers and to make things confusing. Confusion is good sometimes in comics. It's worked for Gillen in Journey into Mystery and it's working for Hickman in Avengers and Spurrier in X-Men Legacy and in countless other places. It's about keeping readers' heads enough above water to make them keep reading and eventually feel REALLY good when things start coming together. But anyway, it's an interesting idea.

I've loved all of Skottie Young's baby-
variant covers for Marvel NOW!, but
maybe none more so than this one

FOR CRITICISMS, then, I'd like to again point to my usual complaint with Bendis. The dialogue is TV-show back-and-forth with way too much talking and it really pulls the reader out as you can kind of get a headache with so much. Also, and this is nitpicky and probably a personal issue, I tend to hate fake swear words. Like, made up ones because of a new and, ahem, alien language. That's not entirely accurate. I thought it worked really well in Firefly and Serenity (I know, that was Chinese and not an alien language, but my point applies as everyone speaks English except in little bits of Chinese here and there). I don't like it when it's used excessively, seemingly only used to show that they ARE swearing and that they ARE clever little not-swears. In Firefly (and probably in other places I haven't really seen), they used it as appropriate, when a character would actually swear. As I write this, YES I know how nitpicky it is but it really was pretty obnoxious whenever anyone said "krutack," just as it would be obnoxious (and is obnoxious when it happens) if someone swears every few words. Look, most of my regular complaints about Bendis stand, is what I'm saying. I think the story is interesting and the setting is very interesting. We'll see where it goes next time.

Journey Into Mystery 650
Immonen (w) and Schiti (a) and Bellaire (c)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, they got me. Wasn't Heimdall. It was some weird sand golem in the place of Heimdall that Sif correctly identified at the end of last issue as not-Heimdall and decapitated. Phew. Heimdall was just in Young Avengers. That would have been weird. Anyway. Sif and her little band of berserkers are in Asgardia and they all find it different than they remembered. Svip, the most brutal of the berserkers, finds it worse, far softer than what he remembered, which is what Sif had been feeling to start this arc. She disappears to go find Aerndis, the witch who gave her the berserker power and who apparently was responsible for opening the Bifrost to let her and her three men into Asgardia again. She is withered, dying from the power needed to open the Bifrost. Sif asks her what mad spell Aerndis had placed on her. Aerdnis tells her that it was all an act and that the berserker rage was in her all along; Sif had only come looking for an excuse to use it. Sif doesn't believe her. Heimdall appears to tell her that Svip has gone into Broxton and has unleashed the darkest monster from the lake. Sif and the two others follow her and fight the monster as Svip tries to convince Sif that she's wanted this all along, to fight more monsters and to harden herself where ever that might be. She finally admits to herself that Aerdnis had been right and that she, instead of finding a strength, had found a weakness in herself. She's not thrilled about it. She sends Svip back to the island and restores peace to Broxton. She's learned a valuable lesson in this five part arc and the two berserkers seem better for the journey as well.
If the end of that review (and maybe the rest of it) sounds a little after-school special, it's because it kind of is. Whenever that "the power was inside you all along!" reveal comes around, it's only logical to connect it to that sort of thing, even if the "power" that was inside all along is a berserker warrior toughness and bloodlust. Still, it was a fun episode and it reads pretty well. I think it got bogged down a little with Aerdnis and with Svip at the end, but by and large it was enjoyable and the whole arc was definitely worth telling and a worthy story for Sif. I think she comes out pretty cleanly as the fiercest warrior of Asgardia, so that's a plus. With Sif a little more developed going forward, I'm excited about the second arc of this post-Loki series.