New Avengers 6, Dark Avengers 190

New Avengers 6
Hickman (w) and Epting and Magyar (a) and D'Armata (c)

This incursion is different for a few reasons. The first is that the team is somewhat ready for it, having created ways to destroy the opposing world if necessary. Second, it's happening over Latveria, adding all sorts of potential problems to this work. Third, as Black Swan explains, the world that's coming has blue skies and not red. Blue, she says, signifies mapmakers, who deplete the Earths of all living substance to power themselves, then allow that Earth to continue its path towards other ones. Eventually, a piece of that dead Earth is meant to break off and lead the mapmakers to the newly discovered Earth so they can start the process all over again. Though the team has far more time to destroy this incurring Earth (and far fewer moral qualms, given the fact that the planet is already dead, which is not to say no moral qualms), the piece of the Earth will break off within an hour and doom the new Earth (the 616 Earth). The team goes to the dead Earth as Doom and his son fight off an invading army from the dead Earth (they serve as sort of a distraction, it seems) and manage to blow it up. When they return to the 616 Earth, they put Black Swan in her cage where she begins to telepathically communicate with the similarly trapped Terrax. They may be coming to some sort of arrangement. Meanwhile, it seems like the piece of the dead Earth may, in fact, have arrived as Doom's men bring him an artifact.

I will admit there was a little less Doom than I was kind of hoping for here, but I think that this is probably a better way to throw him into the mix. Instead of making him fully aware of everything, he knows some basics (other Earths are attacking this one, the Illuminati are somehow connected) and will be thirsting for more. Keeping him in the dark will just make him more hostile, which is especially great considering we already have someone on the team who is purportedly willing to do whatever it takes to save this Earth without concerns (Namor). The character relationships are growing and the characters on an individual basis are becoming incredibly interesting, even if they were already. Black Panther has always had the willingness to do whatever it takes but his intelligence almost always made it so that he could win every situation without huge, huge sacrifices. Now he has to cope with blowing up other worlds to save his own, which can hardly count as a win. One of the more fascinating things about Reed Richards to me has always been the fact that seemingly every alternate universe Reed we see is evil in someway or another, whether he's been corrupted by knowledge or is just sociopathic, preferring intelligence to human emotion. He's kind of straddling that line here as he forms a strange bond with Black Swan and knows that her cold understanding of this situation is going to prove useful. There's a lot happening in this book in the immediate and in the background that will inevitably boil up. It's very exciting to get to watch that happen.

Dark Avengers 190
Parker (w) and Edwards and Pallot (a) and Sotocolor (c)

The mysteries of this alternate universe unravel as Reed Richards reveals that the whole world was a sick experiment of sorts by AIM, meant to twist the genius heroes of the world into open warfare so that they could steal the weaponry that was created. They were able to steal a sliver of time from Kang after he had recently attacked the Avengers and had been exploiting that sliver of time to create this little pocket world. With the sliver closed, everything will return to normal and this reality, if it's remembered at all, will only be remembered as a sort of bad dream to whoever was involved. However,  if the sliver closes with the actual Dark Avengers still inside (it's their appearance that has destabilized the sliver as a whole), they could be erased from existence. The issue features a lot of little team-comes-together moments and everybody-helping-out bits as the Dark Avengers join with the few remaining heroes of this world to take down Grimm and Tony. After Reed explains everything, they find themselves chasing down the AIM unit that's busy escaping through the sliver themselves and they manage to pour out of the sliver, beating up (or possibly killing, who knows with this team) the AIM unit and shutting down the sliver forever. There's a quick page of the heroes of the 616 shaking off the bad images the sliver created and the team re-emerges just outside of Avengers Tower. Skaar leaves, free of the team, and the rest of the team seems destined to stick together, except for Ai Apaec, who June steps on. There is still some intrigue left over from this arc as we're not totally sure if June is controlling certain aspects of US Agent (who has no intention of bringing the team to prison, as they were headed the first issue of this long arc) or anyone else, but more or less, this book is closed.

As I said in my pre-game this week, I was very disappointed to see that this series was ending. I do think there are more stories to be told by this team and I can't say that there's anyone out there who should be telling them more than Jeff Parker. His wit and quirk mixed with the impressive stories he's wanted to tell both here and on Red She-Hulk have made these books, which could have been disasters as they abruptly followed on the heels of Thunderbolts and [Red] Hulk respectively , something different in this Universe full of great, if sometimes same-y, stories. It's been nice to learn more about these characters and to question their motivations while also exploring a world pushed mad by AIM and what happens if the heroes of our world are pushed just a little too far. Don't be surprised to see these characters used again soon or appearing in other books across the U, but be saddened that we lost this particular book.





Also, quick note, this is my 200th post on this blog. Thanks for everyone who's been reading and all of you who haven't, even. Just, thanks to everyone.

Fantastic Four 7, FF 6

Fantastic Four 7
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Hennessey (a) and Mounts (c)

The Fantastic Four go into prevention mode as Franklin saves the team from the sun and Blastaar explosion by sending them through time and space to the end of the universe, just before the aliens who sentenced Blastaar to being the first death in the universe send him back to it. They arrive and instantly head it off with the aliens, who help repair their ship and talk to Reed, Susan, and Ben about how their bodies are decaying. They know that Reed's cellular structure is decaying while something is happening to Ben's mind. Ben is angry Reed didn't tell him, but has more pressing issues. The next day is the one day a year where he transforms out of the Thing and into Ben Grimm for 24 hours and he'd like to be able to spend that day himself. Reed promises to be done with what they're doing at the end of the universe by then to allow Ben to choose where ever he wants to go. The whole team works together to pull one over on the aliens (after the aliens fix up and improve the F4's ship and everything) by rescuing Blastaar for themselves. If he isn't sent back in time to the start of the universe, he'd never explode there and they'd never be caught in the explosion. Johnny asks the question "what sparks us to come back here if he never explodes?" opening up a loop of time travel issues, but Sue rebuffs him by simply demanding he not ask. Val creates a containment unit for Blastaar that should keep him from exploding and helps prepare the ship. Everyone plays a role in the long con and eventually they end up leaving with Blastaar, who they drop off in the Negative Zone. Reed asks Ben what he wants to do with the rest of his day (they've taken out an hour doing this) and he asks to go home.
It's a nice little issue that has a lot of layers to it. There are nice mentions from the aliens of Franklin (when they first see Franklin, who is unconscious from the effort to bring them there, they tell him he's not the first Franklin Richards they've seen) and Valeria (the head alien says "while your species as a whole may not have survived this long, everyone knows of Valeria Richards"). It all fits in nicely with the F4 mythos without dominating too much of the story. Now 3/4 of the Fantastic Four know that their powers could be killing them, which will likely bring out some more tension as we continue. There's also a Reed-defining moment as he says to the alien, once the long con is complete, "your society, this civilization, you might have a few billion years on me and mine, sure...but I'm Reed Richards. Nobody's smarter than me." Fun issue. By the end it does feel rather like a heist movie (hence all the long con references) with all the pieces coming into place. Nicely done.

FF 6
Fraction (w) and Quinones (a) and L. Allred (c)

We get a fun look into the Baxter Building (complete with map of the tower) as Dragon Man searches for his roommate Bentley-23, who we know has been taken by Medusa. Dragon Man's character has been pretty fun in this series, if far removed. He's constantly off to the side, reading a newspaper and making "hmm" kinds of sounds. This issue starts the same way, though with several more "hmm"s. He searches the general area and starts asking about Bentley, but no one can tell him anything. At breakfast, he brings it up again, as Ahura (Medusa's son) brings up that she's missing. Meanwhile, Scott has been having trouble sleeping because of an incredibly depressing dream about his daughter that's keeping him from rest. He too questions where Medusa is as She-Hulk shows Darla the paper, which has hacked cell phone pictures of her trying on different headwear (as seen last issue). Darla is furious but has to get over it to go to a gig at Carnegie Hall. Of course, the Yancy Street Gang, who has joined the modern age as hackers, is behind it. Tong, one of the Moloids, expresses to his brothers that there's something inside him now that "there is a girl inside of him" and she dons a dress and asks for their understanding. They grant it and parade through the Baxter Building, to the enjoyment of She-Hulk and Darla and the confusion of Scott. She-Hulk and Ahura meet with his father Black Bolt to tell of Medusa's disappearance. It's actually a pretty funny scene as Black Bolt and Ahura communicate telepathically and Black Bolt continually gets closer to his son's head. Ahura reveals that Black Bolt has given them permission to take Lockjaw with them (rad) to help them find Medusa again. Darla's gig goes badly as everyone in attendance has been brought there by the Yancy Street Gang and are all wearing Thing masks and throw things at her to force her off the stage. Scott has seemingly disappeared on her and she eventually meets up with him at an internet cafe. He's invited the heads of the YSG to the cafe and reveals to them that he was with them as they went home that night, watching as they hacked things. He got all of their passwords and sent them around to any other hackers or news organizations or embassies they've embarrassed. He tells them to back off and it seems to have the desired effect. It's nice for Scott to finally win one. They return home to find that Dragon Man has connected Medusa and Bentley-23's disappearances after all, just in time for the whole building to be sent to the Negative Zone.
If this recap seemed like it jumped around a lot, it's because it did. There are a lot of things going on at the Baxter Building these days and a lot of storylines Fraction wants covered. He switches back and forth between them effortlessly and doesn't really seem to care if you're comfortable with the pace. There are places to be and things to do. I think it's a solid way to approach this book, which he's set up as being a pretty hectic time. Of course it would be hectic, there are 15 or so children living in one building with four adults (three right now) who don't quite know how they fit with one another yet, or how they fit into the lives of the children. The jumping back and forth at random and quickly, without allowing us to get too comfortable in one story, helps show how chaotic the FF life is. When I said above it was nice that Scott was able to win one, I meant it. It felt like such a victory for him in that it was a near-total victory over the YSG and it was so needed. Will it help stem the tide of emotion over Cassie? No, of course not. But it's nice to win occasionally. Good book. Next issue we send everyone into the Negative Zone. Fun stuff ahoy.