Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier ongoing, Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy mini announced

Couple of news announcements this week out of Marvel and they're pretty big ones (well, one is. The other is fairly predictable). The first is the announcement of a new ongoing, BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Writer Ales Kot (SECRET AVENGERS, IRON PATRIOT) and artist Marco Rudy (MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN, NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL) plan to take Bucky all around the Marvel Universe, having him do his spy work anywhere and everywhere. It's an interesting move, one that was certainly bound to happen given the success of the movie and the success of the character, even pre-movie. I'm still lukewarm on Kot, not enjoying his SECRET AVENGERS pretty much at all but finding myself liking IRON PATRIOT. On the other hand, I'm already anything but lukewarm on Marco Rudy, absolutely loving MK SPIDER-MAN and his recent Dr. Strange-centric NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL. It'll be interesting. BUCKY BARNES: WINTER SOLDIER is set to debut in October.

The other new announcement is the follow-up to the anticipated DEATH OF WOLVERINE series later this year with a mini-series entitled DEATH OF WOLVERINE: THE LOGAN LEGACY. A seven-issue mini set to run through October, November, and December, will alternate creative teams, placing the focus on various villains, mostly (with a nod to X-23). The first and the final issue will both be written by DEATH OF WOLVERINE scribe Charles Soule. It has drawn comparisons to the post-Captain America death book FALLEN SON. So that's two more new books coming with big, long titles, because apparently Marvel doesn't care about bloggers who have limited tag-space on a given post.

Iron Man 26, Iron Patriot 3

Iron Man 26

Gillen (w) and Bennett and Ross (p) and Hanna and Ross (i) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

Malekith, unable to defend himself from the other six rings and their wearers, makes a deal with Tony: he'll give the ring up if Tony will get him out of the area safely. Tony is wary but agrees, preferring, as Malekith puts it, to win than to take revenge. Tony returns to Earth with the rings intact and hides them away in his encasement. something is happening with the Bride (from way back in the Extremis storyline) and it may just be tied to the fact that Tony has discovered that Arno is trying to perfect Extremis. It's a problem Tony will have to deal with later, though, as four rings has brought them closer to their own goals, which seem to be constructing a ring of their own.

The book is appropriately dark, both in tone and in art/color, for the sorts of shady goings-on that are happening here. Between Iron Man making a deal with Malekith to protect him from the ring-bearers and Iron Man discovering who some of the other ring-bearers are and Arno trying to work the kinks out of the extremely dangerous Extremis and the two of them concocting something to do with the rings, there are a lot of threads here and exactly none of them guarantee any sort of a happy ending. There are outcomes, potentially, that may be less terrible than others available, but many of the possible outcomes are very worrying for Iron Man and it's impossible not to recognize that to some extent in this story. Well done overall.

Total Score: 4/5

Iron Patriot 3

Kot (w) and G. Brown (a) and Charalampidis (c) and Cowles (l)

Rhodes nearly dies from his time underwater but his mysterious savior/possible attacker revives him with a jolt of electricity as a homemade defibrillator. Rhodes attacks him but is forced to stop when the armored man threatens James' father and Lila. Meanwhile, James' father throws himself at the kidnappers, who seem to have some personal issue with him, allowing Lila a chance to run. Back with the masked man, a former agent of SHIELD, James learns that the man has kidnapped him in the hopes that he'll assassinate the former president for him, throwing the country into a civil war over how soldiers are used.

It's a compelling enough story and, I'd say, the most compelling aspect of it is how fast each issue reads. I try not to compare a writer's work to his other work (I do this unsuccessfully OFTEN) but it's hard to separate that I haven't really liked Kot's work with Marvel to this point, mostly because I think it's trying too hard to hit too many points and it ends up slowing an issue down or needlessly complicating things. Here, Kot has an interesting story and seemingly complicated moral decision for our protagonist to make and he's keeping the exposition and the dialogue to a minimum, letting both the art breathe and the story to stand on its own. Each of these issues has read quickly but not because they're uninteresting or poorly written or anything along those lines. They're gripping and compelling and Garry Brown's art and Jim Charalampidis' colors work extremely well with the tone and the content.

Total Score: 5/5

This week's picks

Slower week of releases this week and some pretty clear picks jump to mind. Then why are we wasting time when we could just be getting to it?

Daredevil 2

Things stay interesting in issue two of Matt Murdock's new stay in San Francisco. Waid, Samnee, and Rodriguez introduce him to some new friends and new foes and to people maybe somewhere in between. It's a lot of fun without ever forgetting its plot or its goals. On top of it, as has been true with this book from day one, even back in the Paolo Rivera days because of course even in the Paolo Rivera days, the book is gorgeous and conveys everything it needs to artistically while remaining one of the top books out there for interior art (and cover art, hence why Samnee was nominated this year for best cover artist at this year's Eisner's after a win for best penciller/inker last year). The spirit of this book persists and the tone that Waid and his various art teams worked so hard to establish still permeates through the series even after all of the tense events at the end of the last volume and the move to San Francisco to kick this one off. Really great overall comic book and I can't recommend it enough, you guys.

Elektra 1

Really great first issue for this new series, one that writer W. Haden Blackman will have to work hard to make relevant in a day and age where so many books are coming out and a seemingly B-list character will have to really stun to stand out. So far, so good. As I talked about in my review this week, Elektra is a tricky character to write over a long term but Blackman very clearly has plans for her and very clearly know what he wants to do with the character. On top of it, Mike Del Mundo, phenomenal, Eisner nominated cover artist for my beloved X-MEN LEGACY, is already crushing it on the art for this series. There's a lot happening in this first issue and a story that looks interesting, though it looks like it may have the ability to trump any sort of character developments. We'll have to hold out on any of those judgments and just really focus on how neat this first issue was.

Iron Patriot 2
This one gets the nod over AVENGERS UNDERCOVER, THUNDERBOLTS, and UNCANNY AVENGERS because it was a very good book but also because it surprised me with how good it was. There are certainly still nits to be picked here but it's a series I didn't expect much out of; I've had some troubles with writer Ales Kot in the recent past and I don't know how much I trust an Iron Patriot series to really shine but if Kot and artist Garry Brown can keep the book going like this then I think there's a real opportunity for an impressive series. It's another in a long list (one that also includes ELEKTRA) of recent risky series for Marvel to take a chance on and hopefully another one that will pay off. I love how many risks Marvel is taking but I do worry a little bit about flooding the market with books and how expensive those books have become (Robert Kirkman was in the news recently talking about Marvel's business plan of exclusively 3.99 titles) and what that will mean for books with smaller general followings. Still, hopefully the cream rises to the top and the books that deserve to be kept are kept when the numbers start getting crunched.

All-New Ghost Rider 1, Silver Surfer 1, Iron Patriot 1

All-New Ghost Rider 1
F. Smith (w) and T. Moore (a) and Staples and Daniel (c)

Robbie Reyes lives in East LA with his brother, a handicapped child, and works on cars at an auto shop during his days. Desperate to get his brother out of their neighborhood, he trusts no one and does the work every day, hoping to earn and save enough every day to get them to a safer place. The first issues shows Robbie at work, protecting his brother from bullies, and steering his brother back home past crime scenes and gun shots. Late at night, he breaks into the shop where he works and takes the car he's been working on (which seems like a modified Charger BUT I have what could quantifiably be called the tiniest amount of car knowledge and I'm guessing at that based on the fact it kinda looks like Michael's car in Burn Notice. Seriously, that's the research I did on this) out to a street race, where the winner will be given fifty thousand dollars. He's on the verge of winning the race when a helicopter shines a light on him and demands he pull over. He tries to outrun and outmaneuver it, believing it to be the cops, but is eventually forced into an alley. He emerges from the car with his hands up, ready to give himself up in the hope of leniency, but he's promptly and brutally gunned down, slaughtered by men who apparently aren't cops but are a big ol' drug cartel seeking the contraband in his car's trunk (what, did you not even CHECK the trunk Robbie?). The men leave Robbie in the alley and set the car ablaze, preferring to leave no real evidence. The fire engulfs Robbie and out of it comes the all-new Ghost Rider, with a fresh set of wheels.

The best way to describe this book is "kinetic." It moves well both in pacing and in the art style. Tradd Moore's cartoony style allows him to draw speed lines and shooting flames without the slightest hint of irony and that's what makes the book work. Felipe Smith does his part by crafting a character who we can't help but like (literally can't help it. It's a real save-the-cat moment to have his first real act be saving his wheelchair-bound brother from the absolute worst people in the world but its hard to even see that as overly cynical because this is comics and comic characters are BUILT on doing exactly that sort of thing, brother or not) and with whom we sympathize. We want him to get out of East LA and we understand why he's willing to "borrow" the car to do it, even going so far as to enter an illegal street race and risk imprisonment or what-have-you. Also nice is that the appearance of Ghost Rider doesn't come as a complete surprise despite the fact that Robbie Reyes seems like an entirely good guy and Ghost Rider is a spirit of vengeance because Moore's art shows the spirit creeping in around the edges well before the final transformation. I could see people being turned off by the cartoony style of the book, perhaps even especially core Ghost Rider fans, but I think it's the best way for this book to work. Definitely a solid opening for ANGR (a pretty fantastic abbreviation for the series, far ahead of ALL-NEW X-FACTOR'S ANXF), worth checking in on before it gets too involved.

Silver Surfer 1
Slott (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

Dawn Greenwood lives in Anchor Bay, a small seaside New England town, where she and her father run a very popular bed and breakfast while her twin sister Eve advertises for it worldwide (hard to say that you have to suspend your disbelief that a B&B would advertise all over the world when I'm going to go on to talk at great length about a character called the Silver Surfer without any such warning). Eve travels the world, just as she's always wanted, while Dawn stays at home in the little town she's always loved. Recently though, it's started to dawn on her (DAWN, GET IT?) that maybe she's missing out a little. MEANWHILE, Silver Surfer, in his endless quest to redeem himself for his past with Galactus, has saved the people of Brundlebus 3 by rekindling their sun with his power cosmic (they are a tiny people) and has subsequently been tabbed as champion by the very secretive Impericon, a planet that takes great pains to shield itself from Heralds of Galactus. Surfer is unsure what any of this means but he allows himself to be taken there and, eventually, agrees to be their champion against the foe they've been fighting for so long, a potential world-destroyer named the Never Queen. Unfortunately for Dawn Greenwood, Zed of the Impericon takes precautions in case their chosen champion refuses to help and, with a machine called the Motivator which shows the past, present, and future of a given champion, Zed has learned that the being who means the most to Silver Surfer in all the cosmos is Dawn Greenwood and has subsequently captured her in the hopes that Surfer will comply. Surfer is outraged that they would use such means, particularly as he had already agreed, but admits he doesn't know who Dawn is.

It's a brand new solo title for Silver Surfer and this one shows hints of sticking around. It seems like people are ready for a new SILVER SURFER and the team-up of Dan Slott's often fairly light-hearted writing and Michael and Laura Allred's always light-hearted and colorful art seems to be a near perfect blend. The first issue maybe cuts a few corners here and there, particularly with the introduction of the Motivator, a machine that seems specifically built to move this plot forward, an almost literal deus ex machina but like, one that just moves the story along instead of ending a story, but overall it's a good read and one whose tone and pace certainly work well. One of the strengths of this issue is the pacing; though there's a lot to establish here, as with any new series, Slott makes good use of quick cuts to keep the book flowing and to make sure readers want to keep up. No one really has time to feel bored throughout the course of the book which ensures people will at least have some sort of opinion by the end; the worst situation would be if no one finished the book, as is sometimes the case with Marvel cosmic characters and with regular human characters getting a spotlight, particularly new ones. It's certainly a good start for a book that I expect to do pretty well, particularly if this is the kind of effort that Slott and the Allreds are going to keep putting forth (which, knowing all of their past work, I'm sure it is).

Iron Patriot 1
Kot (w) and G. Brown (a) and Charalampidis (c)

It's a new age for James Rhodes as he trades in his War Machine look and name for the more peaceful sounding (depending on who you are) Iron Patriot. With the new name comes a new take on his role in the world; he's no longer going to be a weapon for the United States military to wield, but rather a homeland based defense and recovery asset. He's going to do what he can to make the United States better and to help the world where he can. His new role, which has been approved by Congress and the president, also means that he's been spending a bit more time with his father, Terrence Rhodes, and his niece Lila Rhodes, daughter of James' deceased sister. Lila is a budding engineer and quickly jumps to her uncle's aid when a member of Congress decries Rhodes' new position. As nice as the sentiment is and as powerful as it apparently is in this world (her online video supporting Rhodey goes viral very quickly), it unfortunately paints a bit of a target on Lila as a shadowy organization after Rhodes decides that they'll be kidnapping two people instead of one in their attempt to hurt Rhodey. He's hurt enough, though, when he attacks randomly appearing monsters in the Gulf of Mexico and his armor shuts down.

A new direction for Rhodes and a focus on his family life are the cornerstones to this young book and I think it's probably a good way to go. There have been enough stories about Rhodey's involvement with the military (though obviously this still plays on that because it's unavoidable) and with Tony Stark that getting away from it and deciding to focus on his family and, in turn, Rhodey as a person is likely the best way to get new stories out of him. There are very few military-based Marvel superheroes and even fewer that are military while they're superheroes. There are certainly stories to be told with the new Iron Patriot and writer Ales Kot clearly wants to explore those sorts of stories. Overall, the book works pretty well and the art style, though nothing particularly groundbreaking, works for the tone of the book. As nitpicky as this seems, the end of the book feels a little off as suddenly the narration changes to an almost memoir-esque narrative, with Rhodes talking about the events we're seeing in the past tense. It could very well be building to something bigger down the line with the tense change and the more formal sort of tone, but in the moment it's jarring and foreign. Still, doesn't ruin the book overall which is a fine first issue. Hooray, three for three on first issues debuting this week! Marvel is taking risks and launching new solo titles and they're WORKING. TWO of these, it should be mentioned, feature a minority in the lead role (I don't think "silver" is a minority). Long overdue and still probably not enough.