This week's picks

Twelve books this week and not a whole ton of standouts among them. Some good books, some fun books, some really irritating books, but very light in books that really blew me away. I guess not every book can do that every time. Sigh.

Iron Man 15

This one seems like it might be able to though. Just a great series with another great issue. 451 has been a suspicious character ever since he, you know, allowed the Voldi to be destroyed. Truthfully, he was suspicious before that, with his Tony obsession and everything else. Still though, he alternated between good and bad, usually doing bad things but claiming them to be for good reasons. There was little indication that this was all true and that he wouldn't just get Tony in the Godkiller then point him at whatever planet he felt needed destroying that week. Until now. Now we're talking about a being who had sacrificed everything good about himself to save Earth only to find he couldn't, not in the way he intended, so everything horrible he did now has no purpose; they're just horrible acts. If we do believe everything he said is true now, 451 went from being a watcher (not a Watcher, just similar) who never interfered to finally choosing to interfere and, in his first real opportunity to change things, killing billions of lifeforms for nothing. The weight bears down on him here and it's amazing and devastating all at once. Great issue, continues to be a great series.

Venom 40

This was a tough pick for the week. I had Iron Man in the list all along and the next book, particularly in what was kind of a weak week, earned a pick as an "in memoriam" pick so that left this spot for a couple of similar books. It was really between this, Infinity 2, and X-Men Legacy 16. In the end, though, the pacing of this one really won out as it seemed like a well-packed issue without being too overdone or too hard to follow. Legacy had some cooler moments, with David facing down some of the most respected mutants in the world and picking them apart one-by-one, but that one's conclusion might have more weight to it than the set-up had. This has some good character weight between Flash and Andi dealing with their symbiotes and what exactly they want and mean as well as a solid plot that will serve as a jumping off point for the next story. Sad this book is coming to an end; the stories keep flowing out of it and providing genuinely interesting issues.

X-Factor 262

The final issue of Peter David's long run on X-Factor which, if my math is right, led to over one hundred issues for the long-time comic scribe. It was a reliably solid book with one of the best true "teams" in the Marvel Universe. Not a super powerful team or a particularly influential team, just a team that has banded together and grown closer, despite their differences, to do what little they can. Pretty consistent sense of fun and some really great characters who probably wouldn't have a home if not for this series. The final issue wasn't anything super special but it deserves to be here as a summation of the series. The conclusion of 262 finds the team spread out, disbanded after Hell on Earth, and team leader Jamie Madrox choosing to settle down with new wife Layla and coming child on their family farm. A nice sendoff for the man who started it all (Peter David was given the book after a Madrox mini-series). Sad to see it go but it seems like maybe it was time.

X-Men Legacy 15, X-Factor 261

X-Men Legacy 15
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung (a) and Villarrubia (c)

Pete Wisdom set up a meeting for David with his rather estranged mother Gabrielle Haller and it instantly starts on a pretty hostile note as David brings Gabrielle to Muir Island, the place where David was at his craziest and abandoned to Moira MacTaggert's experiments. There's an emotional core to the issue that's really solid as David tries to get to the center of his abandonment issues and why Moira MacTaggert was a bigger role in his life than his own mother. There are some really great resolves here for David and his own issues (including Gabrielle going into David's mind and identifying the demon that's been in there as specifically not Charles Xavier, which is rather a weight off of David). It's good that these resolves come, of course, because Gabrielle is promptly shot after David's issues are lessened. He immediately, in a remarkably cool moment in his brain, harnesses new powers and destroys the attackers (an attack organized by the newly unseated President Abdi) before teleporting himself to the Jean Grey School where he can sit in front of the statue of his father (unbothered after he telepathically suggests to everyone around that he's not there) with Blindfold. The two talk for a bit and it leads to David's revelation that he ought to maybe dispatch some "filial justice" in honor of his father, dead at the hands of Cyclops.

Exciting times for the book and, really, what this whole thing boils down to as ever, is that I really love this book you guys. It's just...it's the best book and I don't get why you're not reading it. If you are reading it, ignore that because you totally know how awesome it is already and I don't need to tell you (I will anyway). There's a great emotional core to this book, as I mentioned above, and it really strikes home for David and for the readers that care about David. There's a lot of resolution to hope for and certainly not enough that could ever be given (David was given up by his mother to Charles and Moira when he developed his powers, where he inevitably went a bit crazy and was ultimately sedated and tested on relentlessly, so yeah, there's a bit to come back from) but David gets enough to satisfy and to make more of a weight for Gabrielle's death. I talked in a Fearless Defenders review in the last couple months about "fridging" a character, creating them just to kill them off for an emotional resonance, but this isn't exactly that. Gabrielle is an established character in the Marvel Universe and her death, even though she's been off the pages for a while, still has a real impact to it. She's big in that world (head of the Israeli Embassy) and she's big in the mutant community. Most importantly right now, she was somehow big to David, even if he didn't grow up with her around. So it's not exactly fridging, it's bigger than that and the weight it holds can't be ignored. Some more great stuff with David in his own mind and hey you guys, I really love this book.

X-Factor 261
David (w) and N. Edwards and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

We're on the penultimate issue of this iteration of X-Factor (it's very likely it will be rebooted shortly after it ends but no official word yet) which means we're still trying to figure out what's become of the team since the events of the Hell on Earth arc. Today's team members: Darwin and Monet. Darwin, sick of being a lackey for Hela, is trying to hunt the Norse goddess down and work some things out with her when he runs into Monet. He questions how she came back from the dead (it happens) and isn't totally satisfied with her response. Like Guido before her, Monet has come back not feeling much of anything and hoping to fix that but can't find the team and has no real outlet so she's shooting in the dark. She and Darwin talk for a bit and he reveals that he's in love with her, that he always has been, leading the two of them into a brief entanglement that ends when Hela appears the next morning and Darwin shoos her off, deciding he's happy the way he is. Awwwwww.

I've mostly been happy with the wrapping up of individual arcs as the book winds down and I think Peter David's taken great care to make sure his characters, the ones he's been writing for years and years pretty much untouched now are in good shape as their book concludes. It's especially nice for X-Factor fans because there's a good chance we won't see much from these characters in the immediate future, particularly if they don't end up on the newest iteration of the team. Sure, some will probably find their way into X-Men books here and there but by and large these characters are ones that are likely to drift into the background of the universe. Truly sad, sure, but kind of expected. The fact we had them in this book for as long as we did is nice (except Rahne, who I still don't care for). But BOY, he better resolve the Madrox thing in the final issue or I'm going to be so angry. I love Madrox. He better not be a goat-headed demon for the rest of his life. I'll be so mad, you guys.

X-Men Legacy 12, X-Factor 258

X-Men Legacy 12
Spurrier (w) and Davidson and Leisten (a) and Peter (c)

David is still set on taking the pill as the issue starts, a move that thrills Red Skull. For his peaceful anti-mutant organization Darwin's Martyrs, this is perfect; the son of the most famous mutant of all hoping to rid himself of his powers. They start the cameras rolling as David explains who he is and why he's doing what he's doing. Right as he's about to pop the pill in, Blindfold and her quickly assembled team show up, stopping David from taking the pill. A fight breaks out on camera as the team recognizes Red Skull and attacks. Unfortunately, this is all still according to Skull's plan. When the camera pans to see what's happening, it simply looks as if mutants killed Marcus Glove, the figurehead of the organization (who, of course, was just a Red Skull creation). Now it looks like these dangerous mutants broke in and killed a peaceful man who had a peaceful solution to ending mutant threats. People watching the report are furious, rallying together against what seems to be a common enemy. On the plus side, this actually has all played into David's hands, who was never actually there to take the pill. He brings out one time Legacy star Santi Sardina, the boy whose mutant power is to take credit for things, and it confuses the watching populace, who all believe Santi is a hero but may have just killed Glove but who is also taking credit for leading Darwin's Martyrs but who is also a mutant and...well, it's all very confusing. David, of course, knew it would be and nothing kills a rally like utter confusion at its core. The mutants team on Red Skull, secure knowing that they won't be crucified for the events of today. Just as Skull goes down, the gold entity in David's head takes his minute of control of David's body. He calls himself Legion and makes his way for Skull, hoping to inhabit the body that holds Xavier's brain and claim the brain for his own. The mini X-team holds him for part of the minute as Blindfold tries to help David from inside his own brain (where she can hear all of his loudspeakered thoughts). Right as Legion is about to take hold of the body, Karasu-Tengu shows up with her psychic raven and attacks Legion, stopping him long enough for the minute to end and for David to regain control of the body and trap Legion in a cell. David reveals that Darwin's Martyrs was just another threat to mutants that needed eradicating and that there was never a chance he'd give up his powers. If he really is meant to do something awful to the world, he'll handle it with his own abilities because he rules himself.

I really like this book. I'm not sure I've said that enough here. Even this issue, which took the twist of last issue, which had twisted the entire superhero genre on its own, kind of reversed that twist and still didn't leave me unsatisfied or depressed. Of course, I knew David couldn't really lose his powers but the idea was so brilliant that he was willing to, even after everything converged to convince him to fight back. Still, I guess the way I figured his powers would stay was that the team would show up and they'd all fight and the day would be saved. That sort of happens but not in the straightforward way it could have, and that many lesser books would have done. That's cliche and old but this was new and exciting and worked so perfectly within everything else Spurrier's done with the series. Just a brilliant set of twists and turns and it's hard not to cite David among my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe at the moment.

X-Factor 258
David (w) and Edwards, Carnero, and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

X-Factor is winding down and, while for Layla and Madrox last issue that meant asking more questions, for Rahne this issue it means closing doors. She jumps into John Maddox's church (he's a priest who was a duplicate of Madrox but chose not to be reabsorbed when the time came) and kills two gunmen who were tearing up the church aiming to kill Maddox for his suggestion to the wife of one of the gunman that she leave him. The gunmen have killed members of the congregation already by the time Rahne launches through the window but she puts them down quickly, killing one and possibly fatally wounding the other. She leaves just as quickly as she came, leaving Maddox confused and alarmed. She comes back later to talk with Maddox, who recognized something was wrong with her when she came in. She tells the whole story about Tier's death and another story about where she ended up after the events. She was sent to the Arctic, though she fever-dreamed that it was Niffleheim, the land of the dead, and that Tier and his father were both there and that she was finally able to join them. Unfortunately for her, she's actually just talking to a polar bear. Guido appears and saves her from it then apologizes, sort of, for things that happened. He knows he can't make it up to her but he sends her to Maddox's church just in the nick of time. As Rahne is about to leave, having told her story, Maddox offers her a position in the church, learning to become a deacon. She accepts and Maddox recognizes that it's the start of a new life for her, meaning probably we're don with her through the end. One would think, but I've been burned before.

I'm not a big fan of Rahne so I wasn't particularly thrilled by this issue. Also, there are a lot of weird bits to this one. On the one hand, there's a couple of gunmen shooting up a church and then that storyline is done. Obviously it will still weigh on the town and on Maddox when he's not dealing with X-Factor related things, but it was weird for such a devastating attack to be thrown aside so quickly. There is also a bit of recap here as we recount what happened in the lords of hell arc and bits of Rahne's past. Still, David had to wrap up the character if his intent is to wrap up the series by ending each character's respective arc and this is about as good a place to leave her as any, with a person she's comfortable with and in a church. It'll do, I suppose. It'll do.

Winter Soldier 19, Red She-Hulk 66, X-Factor 257

Winter Soldier 19
Latour (w) and Klein (a and c)

The final issue of Winter Soldier finds Tesla having created a cosmic cube of some sort, the Tesla Tesseract. Her plan is to create chaos by going back in time with it to kill the people who have brought her pain. She advises Bucky to take the opportunity to go back and finish Novokov before he can hurt Natasha or wipe her memories. He refuses, knowing that time shouldn't be broken this way. He watches helplessly as she jumps them to various points in her life where she was hurt and kills whoever was torturing her. All the while, Bucky pleads with her to return and live the life she has. Finally, she brings him back to the day he killed her father and tells him that now he has the chance to make all of this go away by not killing her father. He explains that he understands what he was and who he is and how everything feeds into his life and how he can't just go back in time and change things, as much as he wants to erase his Winter Soldier past. No good can come from altering the past. Tesla attacks him, using the body of Father Hammer, who was evidently watching Bucky even at this point to see his skills. As Bucky gives up the fight, he shows Tesla her reflection on his knife. When she could have gone to see her father in this time, she chose instead to look like Father Hammer. Mortified by this, she brings them back to the present and admits her mistakes, fighting a war on soldiers. Unfortunately, it's too late to save them as the cosmic energy is expanding too quickly. Bucky uses his arm, rigged with a homing beacon, to send them back to Earth while she keeps them intangible so they don't crash into anything. They land in the ocean and she sinks away, disappearing, while he emerges at the top. There's a nice wrap-up for Joe Robards where he acknowledges without acknowledging that he knows Bucky killed his wife but he understands the weight of having a mission. Bucky returns to the cube despite himself and goes back in time to kiss Natasha at a time when she knew him before leaving again.

It's a wonderful and fitting wrap-up for the Winter Soldier, whose biggest demon since his return, and rightfully so, has been his past as the Winter Soldier. This issue gives him an out, a way to try to erase the things he's done and the person he was in that time, or even small parts of it. He could erase the horrible acts he's committed, he could erase Novokov and get back Natasha, he could do just about anything. Instead, he comes to terms with what the past means. Will he ever be over it? No, probably not. He probably shouldn't ever be. But maybe he can move past it with this feeling. Latour and Klein inherited an almost impossible job (replacing a beloved writer who created this character on a near-failing book) and did very nice work anyway. Klein's art really stands out here as there's a great piece at the beginning that shows the Winter Soldier's beginning as Bucky falls into the water from the drone he couldn't stop which calls back to early Avengers style art and uses great colors. The issue is solid and their run was well-executed. Still very sad to see this book go. Well at least the other two books in this review are still going strong and will never-oh.

Red She-Hulk 66
Parker (w) and Pagulayan, Olliffe, Bennett, and Jose (a) and Staples (c)

Red She-Hulk and X-51 arrive in the Florida Everglades, the Nexus of Realities, according to the Terranometer. Time is different here and Aaron is hopeful that they'll have the best shot of changing a fixed point in time by going to where time is least fixed. As they arrive, Red She-Hulk instantly spots and attacks Man-Thing, home after his journey with the old Thunderbolts some months ago. He teleports her into a different reality, one where she goes out and saves Bruce Banner on the gamma testing site where he saved Rick Jones and became the Hulk. As a result, she becomes the Hulk (still red and a she, but now the only Hulk) and he's just a great scientist. In this reality, Banner is able to help Betty keep Hulk in check and maintainable, leading to her eventual transformation into a form far more like the Red She-Hulk we know. As a result, she's more accepted in society and is a valued Avenger (who makes out with Thor at least once in her lifetime), all of which makes Banner jealous. Banner teams with Dr. Stack and creates the Machine Men, used to attack super-powered individuals. This whole time, Aaron has been trying to contact Betty in this world to get her to remember who she really is and bring her back to their universe. He can only effectively communicate with her through dreams and she shakes them off in the morning, fully embracing her new life when awake. When Banner and Stack create the Machine Men, Aaron is finally able to enter the world as more than just a spectator, as he enters his own alternate body. Man-Thing continues to watch from the sidelines, unsure of what exactly is happening and unable to teleport them back in any useful way. On the plus side for them, though, She-Hulk has tracked Red She-Hulk with the help of Echelon before leaving them in the dust to reach Betty and Aaron first. She arrives as Aaron, who, in this world, is programmed to hunt superheroes, is trying to tell Betty that this world isn't hers and she needs to go back with them. Unfortunately, Aaron is just a machine and must continue attacking her while trying to give her advice so it comes off pretty misleading. Man-Thing is able to open Betty's eyes to her past, but now she has both histories running through her mind so she's not in great shape. Man-Thing and Aaron try to get She-Hulk to help but Betty goes full Hulk right as General Fortean arrives so everything is going completely wrong and crazy as the series ends next issue.

GUYS, I can't believe this series is ending. I've loved this book since it switched over to Betty as the primary character and this issue illustrates again how perfect it is. First and foremost, this is an alternate timeline done right. Parker did it very well in Dark Avengers but this is a different animal, as it's one change that has meaningful implications and that logically moves from one step to another. I could name other books where, for example, Hank Pym is killed and then everything changes to such a ridiculous degree that you might mistake Hank Pym for God. Instead, one switch changes the whole Hulk dynamic of the Marvel Universe and everything naturally follows from that switch. On top of that, we have our characters acting in character (except occasionally Betty, who doesn't actually know what her character is) and doing what they can to solve this. One of the best parts, though, comes from Aaron who is fresh off his failure against the Yologarch because he couldn't escape the fact that he's just a robot following code. In this new universe, he is humbled again to find that he still can't break code so, as human as he is, he can't stop attacking Betty, his friend, while he's trying to save her. It's a brilliant extension of the ideas addressed with Aaron before this, and something that comes up occasionally with AIs but is still an engaging idea made far more engaging by the long game Parker has been playing to make us like Aaron so much and to give him so much personality over the course of this series. It's hard for me to understand why this book is ending, though Jeff Parker has assured me it's not my fault so I feel pretty good about that.

X-Factor 257
David (w) and Edwards and Carnero (a) and Milla (c)

"The End of X-Factor" six-part arc has officially started which should bring us right up to Peter David's final X-Factor issue and the final issue of this run on X-Factor (there is some speculation that it will be restarted as a part of Marvel NOW! or Marvel NOW! 2 which is apparently a thing that is happening that I'll probably have to look into more when I haven't written a few overly giant reviews already (stop writing and canceling great books and maybe I'll stop typing so much...but don't actually stop writing great books, okay? And look, in the interest of honesty, I probably won't stop typing so much). We jump right into it as Layla has tracked the demon goat-headed Madrox to Marrakesh, Morocco where he's being held by a boy named Aziz who hopes to use him to open a portal to the afterlife and bring his mother back from it. Yes, it's already kind of the saddest story. Layla, who knows things, has found her powers to be a bit off of late. This run-in with Aziz and his uncle (who has dabbled in dark arts and thinks he can use Jamie to open the portal successfully) was something she saw in her thoughts but it was supposed to be a quick detour as the portal never opened and Madrox was supposed to still be Madrox when it happened, not goat-head Madrox. Unlike her visions, though, they successfully open the portal and goat-head goes in and pulls the mother out. Unfortunately, the mother is a horrible demon thing now and kills Aziz almost instantly before approaching Layla. Layla's forcefield doesn't protect her from this otherworldly being and she's about to suffer the same fate as Aziz when goat-head Madrox pulls the demon back and throws her into the portal. Layla disguises Madrox and they leave, still unsure of what to do next and Layla unsettled by her inaccurate visions.

This is a certainly compelling storyline. I love Madrox, as readers of this blog should certainly know by now, and so I'm happy if this final arc focuses on trying to get him back. The idea that Layla's visions aren't predicting the correct events is an interesting one and how exactly she'll be able to translate those to help could lead to a great story. On top of that, this seemed to be the first time that we saw goat-head show some sort of semblance of an idea of what was happening, as he saves his wife and escapes with her pretty willingly. Whether that's more a survival instinct or part of Jamie's personality coming through is up for debate. Still, the issue was a very quick read and was over well before I was ready for it to end, which is always a good sign, if a little depressing. I'll be interested to see where this one takes us to trigger the ending.

FF 7, Wolverine and the X-Men 29, X-Factor 256

FF 7
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

Everything FF has been building to (well, a lot of things) comes to a head here in issue seven as Scott is forced to confront his fear of his new children dying in his arms like Cassie, as Darla shows off her new Thing powers pretty impressively, and as the Wizard's plan becomes clear to everyone. The Wizard has transported the Baxter Building into the Negative Zone in the hopes of showing Bentley-23 that his fake family, the FF, is weak and doesn't deserve him whereas his "real" family, comprised of the Wizard, a brainwashed Medusa, and Blastaar, wants him to be home with them. A fight ensues, wherein Scott tells the kids to get ready to battle instead of hiding. Onome expresses concern about that and Scott explains that he's terrified for them every moment of every day but that the world is a scary and dangerous place and they're just as likely to choke on waffles as they are to die in a battle and that eventually you just have to live your life. Leech mostly calms Medusa, who flips in and out of the brainwashing, while Darla fights Blastaar and Scott fights the Wizard. Darla fights surprisingly well but eventually has her Thing suit destroyed by a Blastaar punch. Fortunately, Bentley-23 has rushed off in the Baxter Building and returns with a vest that he wraps Blastaar in and activates, sending him to the end of time (hence his arc in Fantastic Four; well done, Fraction). They stop the Wizard and hand him over to Black Bolt who, despite Medusa's plea for compassion from her husband (as Wizard is clearly insane and just wanted the love of his "son"), "would have words" with Wizard. Meanwhile, Doom questions Alex Power about the FF's plan to "end Doom."

This is a nice wrap up to, really, the team's first arc. There have been plenty of things going on and even a couple of nice standalone sort of issues but this is the first real storyline that's wrapped up. It's especially good going forward because now Medusa can officially be a member of the team, which is always interesting. Add to that the newfound feeling of family the FF seems to have and we have ourselves a different book. The writing continues to be solid and the art fits incredibly well. The Allreds create images and colors that call back images of the original Fantastic Four books and in a bygone generation of comics as a whole. Even the cover image (shown above) has the old school style coloring and drawing with the rarely seen word bubbles on the cover explaining some of what's happening. If I had a stronger knowledge of F4 covers, I'd even say it's a direct parody of one, just as old John Storm's walk through the bowery an issue or two ago. Very fun book, well executed again.

Wolverine and the X-Men 29
Aaron (w) and R. Perez (a) and L. Martin (c)

Fresh off his return from the Savage Land, Wolverine makes a speech to the students and faculty of the Jean Grey School, thanking them for sticking with him and explaining to them that he knows the school is important and that the person he is today is a far different one than the one he'd be without Xavier's school in his past. They bury a time capsule to be opened in 25 years. Fortunately for us, we are merely an audience, so we are then transported 25 years into the future to see what exactly is going on when the time capsule is opened. The school still exists and Wolverine is still there (though now weirdly with grey hair; he doesn't seem to have aged at all in his first 100+ years alive but these last 25 seem to have really gotten to him. Maybe it's the teaching). Looking inside, he finds something that unsettles him and that he can trace back to everything going wrong. Longtime comic fans will already recognize this set-up as boilerplate teaser issue and they're 100% correct. Grey-hair Wolverine teleports into space to a satellite maintained by a now 40 year old Eye Boy, who monitors all mutant activity and other such things and dispatches controls as needed. Locked away in the satellite is time travel equipment which Wolverine hopes to use, despite Eye Boy's request not to and the fact that Wolverine has clearly gotten into trouble doing this before. Eye Boy is needed on Earth and so leaves Wolvy there, saying that he's welcome to use the time machine stuff if he really needs to but that maybe he should just leave a note to the present day Wolverine (as is grey-hair Wolverine's intent) that says "thanks," as Eye Boy clearly appreciates what he's done for him. Grey-hair eventually does just that. Meanwhile, in the present, Idie meets with a shadowy traitor from the Jean Grey School who has joined the Hellfire Academy and requests to join as well.

As I said, this is pretty boilerplate for comics. It doesn't happen in every series (thankfully) but there are several series that wish to tease the future of their books by actually showing the future to keep people interested. In Bendis' Avengers run, near the beginning of the Heroic Age, there was an issue of Avengers that found the present day Avengers transported into the future by Kang and looking over a timeline Kang had constructed of events that were happening. The timeline was at least mildly familiar to fans as they could see events that had happened already on it and events that they knew were set to happen (this was just prior to Johnny Storm's "death" and there was a marker on the timeline that said "THREE," for example). It's a way of keeping people onboard without having to actually thread suspense through the series. Am I a little bitter about it? Maybe. It is boilerplate but that doesn't mean that it's the best routine. Maybe the first time or two that you see it you'll pour over the dialogue and try to piece together the things they're referring to but, in the end, I try not to read solicits for a reason. I care about a long-term plan for these characters and these books, sure, but I don't appreciate the poking and prodding that seems to say "hey, do you care yet? Want me to tell you what's going to happen? Going to have to keep reading!" I was already going to keep reading, Wolverine and the X-Men. You didn't have to waste an issue telling me to.

X-Factor 256
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

Interesting ending to the seemingly very long Lords of Hell storyline. Tier, after explaining for about the fiftieth time who he is, kills all the hell lords who had previously lost and makes his way to Mephisto. Polaris and Jezebel are leading an army of goat-Madroxes through the gates in a frontal assault while the rest of the team comes in through the backdoor. Tier attacks Mephisto, who in turn traps him and attacks Shatterstar and Rictor. Tier breaks free and starts to attack Mephisto again but eventually is slain through the gut with a trident by Guido, who has just appeared on the scene. As the rules of the game were "whoever kills Tier becomes the lord of Hell," Guido assumes the throne. He uses his power to restore Monet (obviously) and sends her away. Layla, who was away from the action with Madrox-prime, is transported onto a city building's roof, unsure of what's happening and having lost Jamie. Hopefully the defeat of Mephisto will return Jamie to mutant form and out of goat form because he has sorely been missing from this arc.

It's an interesting ending because it puts Guido in a position of power and takes Tier out of the equation. Of course, that's going to make Rahne even more violent and angry and therefore present, but you can't win on all counts. OKAY, look, I really didn't like Tier and I wasn't a big fan of this story in general. I guess I didn't even totally mind the story (except that it seemed to last forever) but it's hard to really feel involved with the story when you don't care about the narrator and, in essence, the driving force. Madrox is also my favorite member of the team so losing him to a transformation didn't help my feelings for the arc. Just as it seemed Tier might end up staying with the team in the case of their victory, Guido ends that, which is interesting enough purely based on what Guido's become, and takes over as lord of hell. Nice little twist to finish it off that I, admittedly, never saw coming. Looking forward to the next arc which will have to resolve quite a few things and which, Peter David willing, will restore Madrox to the character we know and love.

Winter Soldier 18, X-Factor 255

I know what you're thinking: Tim, you're so good at this blog and you almost always have a reason for choosing a couple of books to be reviewed together, as imperceptible as those reasons may be to us, the wonderful readers! But we are having some trouble understanding this team-up, especially so early in the review week. Friday is too early to have paired up the other books and have these left as the remainders and you LIKE both of these books, you would work to pair them up with things first. In fact, there were several more X-books this week you could have paired X-Factor up with, though we admit we too would have been hard-pressed to figure out with what to pair Winter Soldier. Well, I have some bad news for you upbeat and very complimentary reader. This is "sad day" in the review week, wherein I review two cancelled Marvel books as they live out the rest of their sentence. That's right, though we knew Winter Soldier was cancelled, we've learned recently that the long running and nearly always entertaining X-Factor has also been cancelled. As a proponent of both of these books, I'm depressed over this most recent news, but I haven't the time for a proper retrospective this week and will have to dive into it next week. Instead, I'm writing an overly long introduction to my reviews for this week's issue of each book.

Winter Soldier 18
Latour (w) and Klein (a and c)

Just as with Hawkeye this week, we get a background for the villain of this arc in this, the penultimate issue of Winter Soldier. Tesla Tarasova was, as we know, a child when the Winter Soldier killed her father, a brilliant scientist who focused his work on cosmic radiation. A very smart girl, Tesla was raised in the same horrible orphanage/school that Bucky destroyed a few issues ago. We get a deeper look into life as a child of that institute and find it every bit as disturbing as we may have speculated last time. Every child there is trained to be a killer, a whole school of little Winter Soldiers to end up sold to the highest bidder. However, Tesla was different. Though she still excelled in training and was extraordinarily intelligent, she obsessed over her father's work on cosmic rays and eventually managed to expose herself to some, creating the Electric Ghost. Now her goal seems to be to unleash the same potential unleashed in her in the people like her, people without fear. Instead of seeing James as the man who killed her father and, as one would assume, hating him for it, she sees him simply as being like her, someone without fear and with power to be unleashed. She immediately deduces that he's fighting against his past not because he can't live with what he's done, but because he can live with what he's done. That's a great idea for Winter Soldier. Bucky has, since his return to the Marvel U, been haunted by everything he's done but he has never hidden from it. In fact, he's fully aware of what his past has wrought, including a pretty great arc (when he was the acting Captain America) where he had to fight people from his past and decidedly used the Winter Soldier costume to inspire fear and recognition. The fact that he still wears that costume is very telling of who he is. He fights against his past, but the question has never been raised about why he's insistent on still being the Winter Soldier. Is he simply not willing to shy away from his past? Is he upset about his past and needs to atone for it as the same person? Maybe. But the question itself of whether or not there's a part of him that can live with it is interesting.
So the Electric Ghost doesn't hate Bucky. In fact, she sees a kindred spirit in him and thanks him for changing her life in such a way that she's now here, controlling satellites and making people fear her or overcome any fears. She's so thankful, in fact that she makes out with him at the end of the issue. She doesn't like that he's still chained to Natasha and his past, chained to something like any other normal person. Where will that lead next issue for her and for Bucky? What will become of Bucky after this ends? Is this a way for Bucky to cut his losses with Natasha? I kind of hope not. I love them as a couple and hope that eventually things settle themselves out. But there are all sorts of interesting questions being raised and I worry that one remaining issue might not be enough to answer them all.

X-Factor 255
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

The Hell on Earth arc continues (admittedly somewhat regrettably) as Mephisto wins the day. He's defeated all the other Hell Lords while Tier waffled about in deciding to try to kill the Lords or not. Now Mephisto has won and has set himself up as the new ruler of all the hells and is seemingly unstoppable, except for Tier who finally chooses to take the fight to Mephisto. Meanwhile, Monet and Guido continue their fight, both physically and verbally. Guido notices that Monet is getting more shaken up by the fight than she should be and comments on it. She denies it and continues to fight with him, eventually leading to him punching her a little too hard (though, he notes, not hard enough that it should hurt her as badly as it does) and, well, killing her. So that was a shocker. Oh yes, spoilers and all that. Look, it's a review blog and my formula has stayed more or less the same, so there are quite a few spoilers in each review. Maybe I should make more of a note of that. I'll take it into consideration. Maybe clump the summary together more and then leave the analysis separate. We'll see. ANYWAY, Monet just died, what are we talking about? That's a pretty big deal. Of course, people have come back from the dead before in this book (and recently, at that) so it's not out of the question that she'll be revived. HOWEVER, with the book facing cancellation and Peter David never looking for the book to get stale, maybe this is the real deal. Also, one of the cool things (and one of the things I'll miss most about X-Factor) about this book is that no one who stars in this book really appears anywhere else in the Marvel Universe. Someone might make an appearance, or the team might even pop by in an event or something to see what's happening, but they seem to be the largest self-contained team in the 616 and the most self-contained characters in the Marvel Universe. What I'm getting at here, in my long-winded way, is that Monet could very well die here and the Marvel Universe at large would not even need to take notice. It's not like a fake-out Cap death where he's on 90 teams and in his own book so we know he's probably fine. It's Monet in one book on one team and, frankly, if you asked 90% of the 616 who she was they probably wouldn't know unless they were particularly well-informed. That's where this book pretty much leaves off. OH, and Jamie is still a goat-headed demon and Mephisto needs to turn that around stat because Madrox is great.
I alluded to not particularly liking that this arc is continuing at the start of this review and I stand by that. It's a major arc and I guess, when shaped this way, it definitely could have a final story feel to it. Major characters have returned, major characters are dying, major events are happening, etc. Still, it hasn't been my favorite story from X-Factor and I'm going to be more sad if the book ends on this note. I'll say again, though, that's personal preference. It's entirely possible some diehard X-Factor fans are loving this arc and loving what the team is going through right now and are contentedly sighing at the final outcome for our beloved second-tier heroes. Sadly, I'm not one of those people and if the book ends with this arc I'll feel a little empty inside.
I plan on doing a real sort of retrospective on X-Factor at some point but this week is a little busy and I already have my Monday post planned and it's a little more time sensitive than whatever my thoughts on X-Factor are, especially when my thoughts on X-Factor are pretty well documented here.

X-Termination 1, X-Factor 253

X-Termination 1
Lapham, Liu, and Pak (s) and Lapham (w) and D. Lopez, A. Lopez, and Martinez (a) and Mossa (c)

The X-Termation event officially starts after a bit of prologue work in Astonishing X-Men and X-Treme X-Men over the last few weeks. AoA Nightcrawler has recruited AoA (or Dark) Beast to get them back into their universe from the 616. Dark Beast decides that the only way would be to go inside the Dreaming Celestial in San Francisco, as the Celestial is a sort of access point to all universes. It's a dangerous prospect and has never really been considered before but, with the aid of some helmets Beast whipped up to guard their psyches, Nightcrawler successfully teleports the pair inside. Meanwhile, Wolverine and his astonishing X-Men team are still tracking Nightcrawler. Wolverine has been betrayed by the elf and intends to make sure it doesn't happen again. If there's a weakness in this premise, I think it's here. I understand that Wolverine's mad and this comic does what it can to illustrate why Wolverine's so mad (he was betrayed by Nightcrawler who Wolverine trusted, despite being told not to, but that betrayal led to Wolverine having to kill his own son) but it still feels a little forced. To the issue's credit, I think they know that. I think they go out of their way to establish why Wolverine's mad and focus on it a little more instead of shying away. I do believe that Wolverine would consider Nightcrawler an enemy now, but in the way he doesn't go hunting down Creed or Mystique 24/7, I imagine Wolverine wouldn't send an X-Men team out after Nightcrawler. There is, the comic points out, a more personal element to this too; not only was Wolverine betrayed by someone he thought of as an ally, he was betrayed by someone who is another universe's equivalent of his dead best friend. It's not so far-fetched that it's lingering over my head all the time, but it's enough that I'm a little dismayed when Wolverine and team travel through the portal into the Age of Apocalypse Universe with Beast and Nightcrawler because it seems excessive. When they get to the AoA, things escalate, as Nightcrawler learns he's missed the war, all his friends from this universe are dead except for Creed and Jean, and Weapon Omega has been stopped. Dark Beast is captured by Jean and friends and told he'll stand trial for his crimes after he fixes the portal, which is still open and tearing things apart a bit. Wolverine and his team come through the portal and get into an argument with Jean over what's happening and who gets to hang out with Nightcrawler. Dazzler and her X-Treme X-Men team burst through the portal warning of the horrible things on the other side, which then proceed to come out. Three extremely powerful entities emerge and one kills Charles Xavier (the one that's just a head) and seems to grow. Now, as we move on to part two in the next Astonishing X-Men, three X-Men teams are facing down the possible end of the multiverse.
It's an interesting story to tie these three teams together and it'll be fun going forward because we have three different teams from three totally different backgrounds (including the X-Treme X-Men team whose members come from all sorts of different backgrounds as it is) forced to work together and to work alongside people they'd rather not work alongside (i.e. anyone and Dark Beast, Wolverine's team and Nightcrawler, Wolverine's team and most of Jean's team who are villains in the 616, etc.). One of the interesting things about this issue was that it centered itself around Nightcrawler, even putting Nightcrawler's thoughts on display as the captions. This takes some of the ambiguity out of his character, showing us that he regrets betraying the team and understands why Wolverine hates him. It also shows him as still mourning the loss of his wife and now re-appearing in the AoA as a man without a home. The aftermath of Weapon Omega has left him feeling just as much an outsider here as in the 616. Knowing what we know of him through his thoughts, we know he's still a pretty good guy at heart, someone who may wish for his own death but will still fight beside whoever he's with for the right cause. I think it's a really smart decision to take that ambiguity away for the audience's sake. Let Wolverine be mad at him, let us know that Wolverine won't forgive him, but let us know that he's on our side. The issue escalates quickly as all three teams meet up. Should be fun moving forward.

X-Factor 253
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

I think I've put my finger on why I'm not a huge fan of this "hell on Earth" arc of X-Factor, a book I routinely love. I've already touched on this before but I had decided that it was rooted in my own anti-Rahne biases. I think that plays a role but the real key is in the captions. As I said above with X-Termination, it's an interesting decision for a writer to have to make to choose whose thoughts are shown in the caption. With the disappearance of thought bubbles in comics (as brought to my attention, in fact, by Peter David's Writing For Comics and Graphic Novels), captions play a similar role but usually only give us one character's thoughts, where thought bubbles could potentially drift to a couple characters in any given issue. Single-character books, like Winter Soldier or Captain Marvel, will typically focus the captions on the titular character, while team books will often use captions either as a narrator, like Avengers or Uncanny Avengers, or will select one character per issue or arc to focus on, like X-Factor or X-Termination. Throughout this arc, the captions have been with the thoughts of Tier, Rahne's son. My problem with that is kind of two-fold but both severely affect my enjoyment of this arc. For one, Tier doesn't have much to say. He's a kid in the middle of this weird situation so he mostly just remarks on how weird this situation is. When he's an interesting character, it's because he's gone berserker which means he's not thinking and has no real memory of the event, so his captions don't bring us for that ride, just the before and after, again leaving Tier with little of value to say. The other problem with Tier's captions, for me at least, is that I tend to view X-Factor as the ultimate family-driven book. They're not a family but they act like one. They're a closer team than just about any other team in the Marvel Universe and, for me, that's what drives this book. When you take the focus off of the team, I lose some interest in the title itself. If there's going to be a center to the book in the captions, I want it to be in the form of someone on X-Factor.

Jamie, as a horrible goat-headed demon, is guarding Jezebel for Mephisto when Strong Guy shows up and knocks Jamie out to rescue her. Strong Guy reveals that he's playing an angle that suits him but won't say what that angle is, making his character more compelling again. Meanwhile, X-Factor debates using Tier as a weapon against the Hell lords, as he's already taken down one of them himself. He takes down Satana in this issue, so that plan seems like a go. Monet, who has been weakened by Pluto and fainted earlier in the issue, gets the news of internal bleeding from Layla, who knows that she'll die from this. Monet confirms this with Layla and tells Layla to tell no one before flying off. These are the moments in an X-Factor book that intrigue me. They're the character moments that only need a page, despite the huge implications, because they're precisely what David has set up with his run. It's a strong team element driven by people and little interactions. Hopefully next issue will see a return of Madrox as Madrox and not as goat-headed Madrox. Also, according to the title page of the comic, Peter David is recovering well from his December stroke and has been released from the hospital and is writing again. Hooray! Still continue to learn what to do to help if you're so inclined.

Thunderbolts 4, X-Factor 251

Thunderbolts 4
Way (w) and Dillon (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The details of the mission that the Thunderbolts are on has become both clearer and foggier. On the one hand, we now know that the dictator of Kata Jaya was in the pocket of America at the start of his regime, though that didn't make him a good person. Then America left him, feeling they'd stabilized the region they way they'd wanted, and now the dictator has gone rogue and gotten his own mercenary in the form of Madman. Thunderbolt Ross led the team down in order to take out the dictator and stop his gamma-charged army. However, the indication that America was involved in the dictator's placement and the fact that Ross' plan involved the Leader in some capacity seems to have muddled the rest of the team's drive a bit. Punisher ended last issue by shooting the Leader in the head and this issue picks up with Red Hulk leaping off to try to save him (pouring lots of radiation on him because THAT'S just science).

Meanwhile, the dictator gives his whole backstory to Elektra before killing himself in front of her just as Venom shows up to save her. Punisher tapes a landmine to his chest and dives on to Madman as Deadpool distracts him. Exciting bits of action and intrigue in this issue, but it's hard to say where we'll end up and the plot is a little bogged down in itself. It could clear up pretty quickly, especially if we could ever figure out Ross' motives. All said, though, most of this issue was taken up with the dictator explaining the state of Kata Jaya and shooting himself, so not a lot to analyze in terms of team dynamic (which is particularly broken right now, as there is no trust in Ross and he's gone anyway). I imagine next issue we'll get something more intrinsic in terms of team building (if the team sticks together) or plot smoothing. Not much to say. I'm not a particular fan of Dillon's drawings, largely when he goes to faces. I think the bodies are fine and someone like, say, Deadpool is fine because there's a mask, but I've never liked the way he does faces. It's distracting. Also, he seems of the opinion that Punisher ought to be Sly Stallone and that makes me read Punisher as Sly Stallone and I hate myself for doing that.

X-Factor 251
David (w) and Kirk (a) and Milla (c)

There were some interesting developments in this issue but I'm still largely held down by my lack of affection for Wolfsbane. I just don't really care what happens to her and, while her son is innocent enough, I've certainly tied the two together. Overall, the plot is important because it involves hell-lords coming to Earth to destroy Tier and claim dominion over the other hells which could have reaching effects. The more interesting development to me, though, was that Darwin apparently discovered that, unbeknownst to most of the team, Monet is dying. We don't know what's happening with her and it seems clear that she is unaware, but Darwin brings it up with Layla who ALSO knows. So there's some intrigue for you. Also, Polaris doesn't want to go to the Avengers for help because she doesn't want to have to go to Havok. Worth noting.

Anyway, the hell lords have a deal in place that says whoever kills the seven billionth person born on Earth gets to be the hell overlord. Everyone still has their own hell but they kind of report to the winner. That's really what this is about. At first, I was reading it saying "geez, really? That's what this is? And the seven billionth person on Earth is the son of a super-powered person?" That last bit still holds true in disbelief but whatever, coincidence stretches far enough. After I thought about the "seven billionth person" deal, it made an amount of sense to me. At first I had said "that's not a great reason," but after some pondering I realized...well, it's still not a great reason. But it's not a great reason for a pretty decent reason. Some sort of higher being, a god-figure, seemed to hand this deal down to the hell-lords, who agreed to it. It's exactly the sort of deal someone based on, per se, the Christian God would have made. It's the whole idea of "hey devil, I bet that this dude Job stays true to me NO MATTER what you throw at him" or "I'm mad that humans are being jerks down there, I know, I'll flood the Earth!" It's very old-testament, this deal. So I forgive it. I'm still skeptical that it boils down to the son of a superhero but whatever, I'll live with it. If you get by that part of the story, it's a pretty good issue. Though I'm bored by Wolfsbane, I still think this team dynamic is one of the best in comics today. They function like a family, even after the last couple months have shaken their roster up a bit, and it's worth reading just for that.