Captain America 21, Black Widow 7, Iron Man 27

Captain America 21
Remender (w) and Klein (a) and White (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Gungnir has fully deployed, turning into a giant robot over the small country of Nrosvekistan in Iron Nail's attempt to show SHIELD and America tyrannically and devastatingly eliminating an underpowered enemy. With Mindbubble out of play, the SHIELD agents onboard have started to wake up, though they're groggy from their time mindbubbled. Captain America continues to fight Iron Nail and manages to stall him a bit, enough for Maria Hill to tell him that he needs to destroy the Gungnir's power core. Cap races down, pursued by the Iron Nail, and weak and injured, manages to make one last throw to send his shield caroming into the power core and shutting down the Gungnir. Iron Nail manages to get some of his weapons into Cap, draining him of his life force and aging him incredibly before Falcon arrives to save him, though it affords the Nail a chance set the Gungnir to destroy, hoping to take everyone down with him. Falcon pulls Cap out as Ran Shen is engulfed in flames but  it may be too late for Steve, who recovers in a hospital bed old and frail.

There's a lot of strong character work in this book as Steve pulls himself together for a final attempt at shutting down the Gungnir. He yells at himself for letting this all happen on his watch, for not seeing that Nuke was clearly a part of a bigger scheme, and for losing himself in thoughts about Dimension Z when it was already past, that he would mourn his past while he lost his present. Poor Steve is just about the only guy whose gone through that sort of thing TWICE and now he's here and upset with himself for being sad about it. He remembers his role as the super soldier, as Captain America, the guy who gets the privilege of wearing the uniform, as he continues to push himself and continues to stand. It's meaningful and hopeful and restorative right up until the moment when Iron Nail ages him up (hard to say if it's aging him up or extracting the super soldier serum from him, all possible, though I don't know that the latter would age him so incredibly). It's a strong finish to the Iron Nail's arc and it's certainly going to leave plenty of story pieces to pick up as we move forward.

Total Score: 5/5


Black Widow 7
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a and c) and Cowles (l)

Black Widow's new target, a group of cyberterrorists, are making a buy in San Francisco, new home to former lover and ally Daredevil. Natasha remembers her days with Daredevil in San Francisco, where she walked the line between contract killer and hero and where he could read her like everyone else. She takes out the seller and poses as him to try to make the drop but she's found out quickly and ends up in a rooftop chase with a sniper who tried to take her out. She catches up with him and holds him at gunpoint, trying to get more information out of him but he doesn't know enough. Before anything else comes of it, Daredevil appears and intercedes, telling Natasha that he'll make sure the authorities take the sniper. He tells her to leave San Francisco as he cannot read her heartbeat any more, meaning he doesn't know if he can trust her and his job is to protect the city.

As Isaiah hopes for Natasha to make some friends, Natasha finds that maybe she's lost one of her oldest. It's a poignant and meaningful story and rather heartbreaking. It's the first time we've seen Natasha as she's viewed in the superhero community and the first time we've seen her in this series outside of her own bubble, where we know what she's doing and we root for her because she's our protagonist. Now Daredevil steps in and tells us that maybe Natasha's role isn't so sacred. There's a flashback to kick this one off as Natasha, years ago in San Francisco, lies to Matt about a job she's just done and he tries to get her to reconsider her jobs. Juxtaposed with this story where Matt can't afford to give her the benefit of the doubt, it's a little painful to watch. It also pretty starkly gives us the contrast between the Natasha of then (someone trying to shelve her killer past) to now (someone trying to atone for sins but unafraid to kill, which puts her at odds with so many heroes, including Daredevil). On top of ALL OF THAT, we get a bit more on Isaiah, a former mob man who somehow got himself and his sister out and believes himself indebted to Natasha, despite his sister's protests. Really excellent writing in this one and some of the best character work I've seen a single issue do. Oh, and Phil Noto is still on this book so it continues to be outstanding art.

Total Score: 5/5


Iron Man 27
Gillen (w) and C. Richards and J. Bennett (p) and Hanna (i) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Stark brothers have made their own ring and know at least some of the plans of the current Mandarins. All they need is someone who has interfaced with these rings to put their plan of taking down the Mandarins in action. That, of course, leads them to Abigail Burns, the Red Peril (I want everyone to know, right here and now, that I almost called her "Abigail Brand, the Red Fury" but DIDN'T EVEN STUMBLE because I knew how wrong that was and instantly course corrected both words. I wish I could also say I didn't look it up afterwards to be sure but I'm not that self-secure), who needs convincing but agrees when she learns that Nazi Alec Eiffel is one of the ring-bearers and she wants to stomp a Nazi. With her help, the Starks manage to find and take down the Mandarins pretty handily, except for the so-far-unrevealed Liar, who reveals himself to be Marc Kumar, PR person for Stark and fiancee to Pepper Potts (who can't have anything nice). Oh, and speaking of Pepper Potts, Marc has her hostage and forces Tony to a standstill.

There's a lot happening here to explain the rings and the Starks' methods for bringing them down and Iron Metropolitan (which is a full battlesuit and which is activated to stop Mole Man and his pals) which rather slows this issue down. It's a lot of exposition and a lot of soft science from all angles (we have to talk about the rings, about the plans that each known Mandarin has, about the way to stop them, about tech vs. magic, etc.) but I don't know that there's a better way to do this. I think if you stretch this issue out into two it doesn't work and I think if you sprinkle this sort of exposition across books, you forget the relevant parts by the time we reach the showdown. Gillen has sprinkled in some of this information already but it really is a bit of an information dump here (which is rare from Gillen) and it's a little hard to get through at times. Not a bad book by any stretch but certainly not as impressive as I'd like from this typically top-notch book.

Total Score: 3/5

Iron Man 23, Thor: God of Thunder 20

Iron Man 23
Gillen (w) and L. Ross (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Iron Man is on the hunt for the Mandarins out there and happens to find that one of them is the fired director behind a musical based on Iron Man that created Tony to be a pervert. Of course, Tony's people fired him and now a ring has made its way to the disgruntled artist. Tony tries to put him down softly but, before he's able to, Malekith appears and straight up murders the guy, taking the ring and disappearing before Tony gets his bearings. Tony now knows who's behind the capture of the rings and so he turns to his new specialist on magical affairs, Shevaun Haldane, Dark Angel. He explains to her that he doesn't want to go to Malekith expert Thor because then his attack on Malekith ends up being political between Asgard and Svartalfheim as opposed to being simply about the rings and he doesn't want to put that on Thor. Shevaun builds him a weapon that she thinks should render the rings inert temporarily and creates three magical one-use doors that will, if all goes according to plan, drop him in Svartalfheim, drop the weapon next to him, and return him home from Svartalfheim when it's finished. Wearing the stealth suit with the hopes that he can sneak through Svartalfheim without alerting too many people to his presence, Tony is sent through the first door only to find that he's been dropped right into the center of Malekith's hall.

Plenty going on right now and the book moves really quickly as a result, even despite the amount of explaining and backstory they have to give. On top of the A plot summarized above, there's a B plot involving a relationship developing between Arno and Abigail Burns, the Red Peril who just lost her hands to Malekith's attack. There's a good chance that none of this is ideal news for Tony but you can't help but feel good that Arno's making friends. Anyway, there's always the chance that a story like this, one that crosses a couple of different mythologies, can come off feeling really forced and leaving the audience feeling cynical about the motives behind the crossover, as it were. Here though, Gillen nicely threads the needle between the science vs. magic and the Iron Man vs. Malekith so that the story feels like a really solid one developing instead of some kind of weird opportunistic cash grab. Pretty neat, you guys.

Thor: God of Thunder 20
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c)

Thor and Rosalind Solomon are out to stop Roxxon, whatever it takes, as Rosalind hates them and what they're doing to the environment and Thor is pretty sure that Earth hates them and also he likes Rosalind. Thor has taken several books out from the godly library he's visited in recent days about the death of many different worlds and he's prepared to do what it takes to bring Roxxon down. In this case, it means blowing up a few of their plants in an "Act of God" manner that means insurance won't pay for it. Of course, increasingly evil Dario Agger knows who is behind it and insists that his men find a way to hurt Thor, to strike back in this new war. Their suggestion to the evil man who is both nicknamed and physically, on occasion, "minotaur" is that they strike at Broxton, Oklahoma. MEANWHILE, in the far-off future, King Thor tries to talk with Galactus about maybe not eating Earth and then, when words don't work, prepares to fight.

There are parts of this story I like and am intrigued by and there are parts that I can't help kind of rolling my eyes at. For example, I like the idea that Thor wants to get into the conservationist mindset because he just straight up loves Earth and anything that harms it, whether it's Dr. Doom trying to take it over, Ultron attempting to kill everyone on it, or Roxxon actually killing it, is in for a fight. The idea that he'd be behind the "hey, let's make nature be great!" kind of fight is one that I both get and that I like for his character. On the other hand, Dario Agger is eye-rolling villainous. He admits that he's caused chemical spills just to kill wildlife, that he's introduced predators who don't belong in certain places to be in those certain places, and that he's altered several bears to completely deplete the salmon population in certain rivers, all so that Roxxon can provide the solutions eventually. While I don't doubt that there are evil people out there, this is so frustratingly comic book evil that I can't help but be a little disappointed by it. I tend to prefer my villains either untouchable and evil or even a little more complicated. It does seem as if they're ready to build up a sad backstory for him but I think it may already be too late. Anyway, King Thor calls Galactus rude so I GUESS I'm saying you should check out this issue?

Captain America 18, Iron Man 22

Captain America 18
Remender (w) and Klein (a) and White (c)

Mindbubble has control of Fury and, in turn, control of the Gungnir, a new helicarrier the size of a city and probably with the firepower to level more than just that. Maria Hill calls for all the backup she can get to try to stop Mindbubble. Fortunately for her, Cap and Falcon were nearby trying to spy on the goings-on, suspicious of SHIELD for having weaponry and villains that even Steve isn't allowed to know about. As they approach, they find themselves set upon by SHIELD agents thinking that the two heroes are Hydra. They take them down non-lethally and Cap steals one of their bikes to go after the helicarrier. On the way, Steve calls Jet, who had been interrogating a cyborg tasked with guarding Weapon Minus, and learns from her about Mindbubble, an ex-SHIELD scientist who had wanted to create a less violent alternative to warfare. SHIELD, of course, wanted an alternative to Weapon Plus, in case their experiments ever turned on them. Mindbubble used the super soldier serum and LSD to create a new concoction he hoped would be more peaceful. With no willing test subjects, Mindbubble used the serum on himself and quickly went crazy, turning on SHIELD and taking down a number of SHIELD agents before he could be restrained. Jet also informs Steve that Mindbubble's mindbubbles create a sort of dream map for the victim, placing him in the fantasy world his own heart desired. When Mindbubble is done with them, the fantasy turns dark and kills the victim. She advises Steve to kill himself rather than let the fantasy do it if he's mindbubbled. Steve arrives on the helicarrier with an entire SHIELD fleet on his tail as the issue ends.

Still a lot going on here though this issue does feel a little redundant. The Mindbubble origin isn't exactly foreign to us at this point so retelling it isn't too effective only a couple issues later. Also, much of this issue is fighting and a chase scene between SHIELD and Steve and Falcon. Despite all that, though, the issue is still entertaining and it moves really quickly for how much information is dispensed. Hill somehow remains the only one un-mindbubbled of the agents sent to take down Mindbubble and Fury and she sets the Gungnir to self-destruct though she's surprised and stopped by the Iron Nail amidst everything else that's happening. It's a solid issue and there are some nice moments between Steve and Sam. The narration continues to be fairly strong and sets up plenty of feelings for Steve, letting us know that he's got a lot to fantasize about when he eventually has to go up against Mindbubble and letting us know that he has just about exactly the right amount of trust in SHIELD. The colors on this issue were a nice departure from the grim and dark metal colors we've seen lately in this book, setting up the chase over plenty of orange desert making it seem a little more light than it had lately, even if it's only as an interlude between tense moments. I don't think you'll miss a lot if you miss this issue but it's still one worth reading. Can't complain.

Iron Man 22
Gillen (w) and Bennett and Hanna (a) and Guru-eFX (c)

It's Red Threat and Iron Man up against Lord Remaker and the Exile in a battle of Mandarin Rings and Stark Tech for the new city Troy. Abigail Burns has changed her mind about the city and fights alongside her hated foe Tony Stark to defend it but Tony's mind is on the Troy Core, the heart of the city and the last known whereabouts of Arno Stark, that Lord Remaker just destroyed. Tony continues fighting but is soon surprised when Arno emerges from the wreckage in his new battle suit, a giant Iron Man suit of his own design. The reinforcements force the Exile and Lord Remaker to flee. Red Threat tracks Lord Remaker in the city with her own ring and finds him dead at the hands of someone else, the ring gone. Just as quickly, her hands are sliced off and the attacker again disappears with the ring. Tony finds her and brings her to a hospital where he and Marc question her about the rings. She tells them that the rings just want to destabilize and cause chaos and that they seem to really hate Tony Stark. Therefore, their mission is two-fold: wreak havoc and wreck Tony. According to Abigail, this means Stark has painted a bullseye on Troy with his very presence. He acquiesces and holds a press conference to announce his decision to leave the city in the hands of the capable and mysterious new designer Arno. Meanwhile, new series villain Malekith counts the three rings on his fingers and vows to complete the set.

This is one of those situations where I hate hate hate solicits. I understand, to a point, the purpose of them. In this, the information age, no one wants to wait three months to find out what to expect from a new series or, for retailers, to know what's going to be on the shelves. Sometimes, books are able to guard their secrets in solicits but that's usually just for big events and deaths and things. This would have been a crazy reveal, one that really shakes up what's happening in IRON MAN and leaves a lot of questions to the reader. I try not to read solicits as often as I can but it's impossible at this point not to see some things, given the websites I frequent and the twitterers I follow. Even though many in the comics industry tend not to like solicits, they're forced to lean into them and advertise storylines in advance. I can't blame them for that; the news is out there, best to control it and answer questions the way you want them answered. In this case, I knew about Malekith joining the book a couple months ago so when a hand appeared and snagged Lord Remaker's ring, I wasn't at all surprised. It's too bad too. I kept thinking about this as I was reading, how curious I'd be if I wasn't aware of what was coming. GUYS, I think it'd be PRETTY CURIOUS. Still a good book and one that's well-written and exciting. Still a fun and exciting book as IRON MAN presses on.

Captain America 17, Iron Man Annual 1

Captain America 17
Remender (w) and Klein (a) and White (c)

Dr. Mindbubble, the product of the mysterious Weapon Minus program, is loose and his old friend Ran Shen, the Iron Nail, is the first to contact him. They talk about how SHIELD has lost sight of any boundaries and how its power is too great before Mindbubble agrees to do his part to slow its growth. He finds Nick Fury, having lost Falcon, at the bottom of the cliff and quickly mindbubbles him (GET READY, I'm using this as a verb whenever I see fit). Back in New York, Cap and Jet talk about Cap's idealism and how, in Jet's opinion, he could maybe stand to have a little less. Cap does seem to recognize that occasionally his desire to capture and not kill allows greater crimes to happen later but it's not something he's willing to strike right away. He's pulled into a situation wherein a dirty bank manager is attacked by Shen's people, ready to bring him to Shen's dirty bank manager mine. Cap stops them but looks with disgust at the man he saved. He's called back to the Hub by Maria Hill, who informs him of Nuke's explosion and the deaths it caused, including the presumed deaths of Fury and Falcon. Cap blames himself but gets the slightest reprieve when Jet reveals that she can sense Falcon two miles downstream from the site, not dead. MEANWHILE, Dr. Mindbubble has so mindbubbled Fury that Fury attacks a SHIELD base, thinking it's a Hydra base, and "steals" the plans for a new and seemingly indestructible helicarrier.

There are a lot of things to really like about what's happening in this book right now. Among those things is the idea of Dr. Mindbubble. I'm not going to say yet that I think Mindbubble is a great character (though, I can't stress this enough, mindbubble is a great verb) because it's just too soon. However, the idea that Weapon Minus was a SHIELD project meant to counter Weapon Plus is very intriguing and rather goes to Iron Nail's point that SHIELD maybe does have too much power (anyone who's ever read anything with SHIELD in it, except maybe Hickman's work or Steranko's work, could have told you that). Where everything that came out of Weapon Plus (Cap before it was officially Weapon Plus, Wolverine, Deadpool, Fantomex, the Skinless Man, etc) was created for his strength and fighting prowess, Mindbubble was created for his power over the mind, where everyone of them (aside from Fantomex, who takes his own precautions) is susceptible. Actually, you know what, tangent time. In a world where like, EVERYBODY wears costumes that entail some sort of headgear, why does only Magneto, of the major characters, have the sort that blocks out telepathic communication. Sure in SOME cases it makes sense, it may be more likely that Wolverine will WANT to communicate telepathically with, say, Psylocke than that he'll be controlled telepathically but shouldn't there be like, some sort of switch or something that blocks telepathic communication? Like, your head is ALREADY covered, dude, just throw in some lead or something. ANYWAY, pretty good issue, glad Falcon's not dead (though I wouldn't have supposed he was), really like the idea of Weapon Minus to counter Weapon Plus.

Iron Man Annual 1
Two Cities: Gillen (w) and A. Martinez and R. Fernandez (a) and Sotomayor (c)
Orbital: Gillen (w) and Padilla and Hanna (a) and Staples (c)
By Moonlight: Gillen (w) and Marz (a) and Sanz (c)

Three stories in this IRON MAN ANNUAL, or IRON MANNUAL, that all focus around recent events in the IRON MAN universe. The first ties to the recent Iron Man infinite comic FATAL FRONTIER wherein, on the moon, abandoned Soviet probe Udarnik the Shockworker used a new fuel source, called Phlogistone, to build a wonderful city for anyone who would join him and Tony, to prevent the free flow of Phlogistone getting out of hand, tried to keep the peace by pitting prospective Phlogistone manipulators against one another. It ended badly and Tony realized that Phlogistone poisoned humans, driving them mad. Everyone abandoned the city and Tony neutralized the metal. "Two Cities" picks up after that as Tony pleads with Udarnik to remove the remaining Phlogistone from his system. Udarnik isn't exactly on good terms with Tony, though, after the shutdown of his own city left him alone in space again. Tony convinces him by telling him of Troy and the impact it will have in space and reaching to the moon. Udarnik doesn't like it and hates the cruel irony that Tony, who destroyed his city, wants Udarnik to save him so he can finish building his own great city but Udarnik also can't help believing that Tony is the world's greatest hope to building a city like he claims and reaching to space and so saves him, telling him to leave and bring back other people. "Orbital" finds Arno Stark reaching out to Warren Ellis Eli Warren and his New Modernist Army (from that first arc with Extremis, the guys who were in space) to man Troy's geostationary orbital platform. Warren is skeptical and doesn't want to help anything Stark-related (though he doesn't know that Arno is Stark-related, just that Troy is) but Arno makes a compelling case and they agree, though not before informing Arno that Tony had destroyed every piece of Extremis which likely would have had the power to fix Arno's physical maladies, rebuilding him from the ground up. Finally, "By Moonlight" shows us a series of double-page spreads that start nine months ago, with Pepper and Marc's first meeting, followed by one a month later with the two of them on a date, and culminate with a date in Scotland three months ago when Marc proposed marriage and Pepper proposed a business relationship between Marc and Stark Resilient.

Geez, long summary, but remember I'm summarizing three different stories in one issue and (very briefly) one four-part (maybe?) infinite comic so let's cut me some slack, okay? The best thing about this issue, hands down, is how into Tony it gets without even really placing Tony front and center for the three different stories. In fact, he's only arguably the star of one of the three stories and even then Gillen has to cover some backstory that he can't be sure the reader of this comic has actually gotten around to reading yet, even if he's promised to do it and has it somewhere. In that first story, though, Tony is hallucinating about Yinsen, his friend from the day he became Iron Man, and Yinsen pretty explicitly offers up the theme of this issue and it's a powerful one. Yinsen says, as Tony believes himself to be dying (before Udarnik reluctantly helps him), "you're always willing to ask others to sacrifice for your greater good" and it's perhaps the most compellingly true thing about Iron Man. It's hard to argue that Iron Man has done good for this world, that his genius and his, after the Iron Man-creating incident, ethics have made the world a better place. In some ways, that's a part of what can make Iron Man boring if he's not well-handled; we know he's a good guy at this point and we know how nearly unbeatable he can be given some tools. But this, the idea that his egomania and arrogance make him exactly who he is, someone willing to make people give up their dreams to further his own because he knows them to be good, is certainly a compelling take on Iron Man and it's one that I certainly can't find fault with. As if his asking Udarnik to sacrifice his city and pride to help Tony build his own isn't enough, we get the second story where Arno learns that Tony destroyed Extremis despite the good it could have brought into the world. Very neat stuff, worth checking out to get a good sense of who Iron Man is.

Black Widow 3, Iron Man 21

Black Widow 3
N. Edmondson (w) and Noto (a and c)

Natasha's been hired to break a man out of a prison sentence in Argentina for crimes he did not commit. The job pays well and it's one that's not particularly hard for someone as good as she is. On her way out the door to head to Argentina from her Little Russia home, she comes across her neighbor Ana, who has a black eye from the husband Natasha has told her to leave. She has no time to dwell on this and goes to Argentina, successfully breaking her charge, a man named Angelo, out of the prison. She takes down every guard in their path non-lethally, refusing even to carry a gun in the situation, telling Angelo that these are good men just doing their jobs and that his wrongful imprisonment is no reason to take it out on them. She has to leave him at a riverbed for a moment while she attends to guards on foot and, while she's gone, Angelo murders one of the guards and tosses him into the river, telling Natasha when she returns that he slipped. When Natasha and Angelo meet up with Angelo's contact and their extraction, Natasha hears the man call Angelo "lobo blanco," the white wolf. As they begin to take off, she realizes who the man is, someone known as the butcher of Argentina. The crimes he was imprisoned for truly weren't his own but there were plenty he wasn't arrested for that were his own. She makes a snap call and drags Angelo out of the rising helicopter, landing them both back in the river. She stabs Angelo and lets the crocodiles eat him as she swims to shore. She's extracted from Argentina by Maria Hill as she's needed for a SHIELD op and requests to stop over at her apartment for some gear. While there, she pushes into Ana's apartment and pins down her husband, swearing to break his spine if she ever touches Ana again.

It's very, very rare to come across a book that I'm so enamored with so quickly, particularly one where I don't have a ton of familiarity with the creative team. I didn't really know Edmondson going in and I knew Noto but hadn't seen him be THIS good before. I think probably the last book that kind of had this feel for me was maybe NEW AVENGERS, which started so dramatically and felt so epic. Even books like X-MEN LEGACY (which I obviously adore but had a bit more of a slow burn for me) and YOUNG AVENGERS (which I loved out of the gate but also rather knew I would given the team behind it) didn't land in quite the same way this one has so quickly. Noto's art is absolutely gorgeous, Edmondson is telling a really compelling story and building a really amazing character out of Natasha, and, well, everything is just going really, really well. Natasha's narration again leads us through the story as she talks about how she doesn't really call any place a home, how she can't because homes are a distraction and she can't afford distractions in her life. Not having a home means that she feels she can belong everywhere but, as she points out, also feels that she belongs nowhere. It's such a wonderful and powerful idea for always traveling, always in exotic locales character and it's made even more tragic when she reveals that her real home is where she finds pain, that that's what's most familiar to her. It's a wonderful story and a wonderful book. GUYS, I haven't even talked about the fact that this is an amazingly strong female character who has spent three books doing nothing but being entirely amazing at her job, passing the Bechdel test, not being a sex symbol, and having real conversations with real people. GUYS. HOW AMAZING IS THIS BOOK?

Iron Man 21
Gillen (w) and Bennett and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Arno and Tony have been trying and trying to track the Mandarin Rings but seem unable to find them when they're not immediately in use. The longer it takes, the more damage Troy suffers, particularly from the Remaker Ring, which keeps turning up to bomb parts of the city. Troy's PR head Marc Kumar meets with ex-girlfriend (and current Mandarin Seven) Abigail "Red Peril" Burns and tells her that she needs to stop acting the terrorist, a role that doesn't fit her. She swears the bombings haven't been her and decides to go see what's so special about the city. Iron Man tracks her and uses his stealth suit to follow her through the city. She finds that Troy is a self-sustaining, self-repairing city, capable even of taking care of its derelict population by creating energy efficient homes for them and everyone else. She realizes that the city she's been fighting against is actually nothing worth fighting against, that for as much as she dislikes Stark and what he stands for, this is a worthwhile place. Her ring leads her to two more rings active in the city, the Remaker, in the possession of the previous would-be warlord of Mandarin City after the fall of the Mandarin, and the Night-Bringer, in the possession of Victor Kohl, the jerk kid who felt so slighted by Iron Man after Kohl was responsible for killing his father in a drunken rage. The three talk and realize how their views perhaps don't really match up, including how the Remaker is preparing to launch a missile at Stark's current HQ, and prepare to fight one another. The rings then identify that Tony's in the room with them and he gets pulled into a fight he wasn't expecting while he's trying to get out to stop the missile and save Arno. The Night-Bringer won't allow him to leave in time and he ends up with a view of the building as the missile hits it, presumably with Arno still inside.

The fight against the Mandarin Rings escalates even further as Tony and Arno become directly involved. Well, even more directly involved than they were. We also get a better sense of the people behind a few of the rings and a better sense, perhaps, of why the rings chose these people. There seems to be some discord out there between the rings' new owners but, perhaps, also between the rings. Burns, for all of her hatred for the establishment and distrust of Tony, isn't a terrorist and has a real belief in her progressive views. The Remaker, meanwhile, wants only to have ruled the city or for no one to rule the city. The Night-Bringer is a punk kid who refuses to be held responsible for his own actions. And these are just three of the ten. Will Arno be okay? Will Troy survive its first arc? The next arc is called "Rings of the Mandarin" and will focus on one new ring-bearer in particular trying to gain control of the other nine. Gillen's already talked about the next arc and who that one new ring-bearer is (click that link to read his pretty good interview with CBR and find out who) and it's got me pretty excited about what's in the near future but there are still some pretty good questions for the immediate future.

Hawkeye 16, Iron Man 20, Indestructible Hulk 18

Hawkeye 16
Fraction (w) and Wu (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Kate is still out in LA and still short on cash and most everything else. She finds a seemingly kindred spirit wandering the highway as she rides her bike down it and agrees to help him get back something he claims was stolen from him. She soon finds out that the old hobo is actually '60s musical sensation Will Bryson and that he's not actually an old hobo at all. Will claims that his brother Grey, his one time recording partner, stole the masters of Will's long-awaited masterpiece album Wishes and that he released them bit by bit to the public. Kate is quickly embroiled in this little family feud despite the urgings of her extremely reluctant police contact and vows to help Will get his recordings back and figure out who is, in fact, behind it. Kate's investigation leads her into a fight with Bryson nurses/bodyguards and eventually she talks with Grey and realizes he did steal it but that there's not much she can do about it, nor, perhaps, that she should do about it. Will holds a concert to play bits of Wishes and Kate attends with her new LA friends and, for a moment, feels like she's going to be okay. Then Madame Masque pops up behind her, whispers "found you" and disappears again.

I said last week that THUNDERBOLTS might just be the most fun book that Marvel is putting out these days. While I stand by the sentiment that it is certainly fun, it's hard not to read this book and hand the title right on over. If THUNDERBOLTS is the book that's trying to be the most fun (and pretty much succeeding), Kate might still be the most fun character, so I have to say that HAWKEYE might just win out. I think THUNDERBOLTS is going for a lighter feel in general than HAWKEYE (which might be harder to say right now considering we haven't seen a Clint-centered issue in a while) but geez, this book is a non-stop fun ride. Kate's voice is absolutely unique and delightful and the book manages to be chock-full of references without ever feeling bogged down. That's a really important and specific type of writing to hit and it's the difference between, say, the amazing Venture Brothers and the deplorable other reference-centric comedy like Family Guy or The Big Bang Theory. This is a lovely little issue and it again highlights the beautiful differences between David Aja and Annie Wu. Fraction answered a question on his tumblr that pretty perfectly encapsulated what makes this little switch-off so great, saying that if he was only going to be allowed access to Aja for the Kate stories he wanted to tell, he probably wouldn't have sent her to LA. Obviously Aja's art is amazing but it's incredibly different from Annie Wu's, though Matt Hollingsworth's colors also deserve mention for still linking the stories so well. Wonderful book, nice story, great character, and amazing art. Can't ever go wrong with this book.

Iron Man 20
Gillen (w) and Padilla and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

IRON MAN jumps into INHUMANITY as Tony and Arno continue searching for the Mandarin rings only to find one, the Nightbringer, alighting on a human with a whole flight of issues already. This human, Victor Kohl, has had plenty of personal problems and his most recent one, a distrust of his father and brothers and a suspicion that he's not really his father's son, is exacerbated when the Terrigen mists hit and his family all cocoon and he doesn't. The government comes to take the cocoons away and Victor watches the news, discovering that the Inhuman DNA is passed through bloodline so it appears he was right and he wasn't part of their bloodline. He drinks himself into a stupor and goes to attack the Inhuman Nativity Center his family was brought to. The Nightbringer finds him there and rests on him, happy with his desire for vengeance and his anger. As soon as the Nightbringer goes active, Tony and Arno spot it on their equipment and Tony goes to recover it. He and Kohl fight and Kohl damages the cocoons before Iron Man gets a clean shot off on him. Nightbringer recognizes that they're incapacitated and teleport away before Tony can get his hands on him. Transported underground, Kohl is surprised to find himself suddenly cocooning. When he breaks free in his new Inhuman form, Medusa arrives to show him the remains of his father's cocoon, destroyed by Kohl. She also informs him that his family was living in the same place when the Terrigen bomb was detonated and so had the same level of exposure and therefore all changed at once but he lived elsewhere at the time and so changed later but he's still of their blood. However, she admonishes him for killing an Inhuman and exiles him from Inhuman society. The Nightbringer convinces Kohl that it's really Iron Man's fault (not a hard sell for Kohl) and he swears revenge, taking the new name The Exile.

Pretty cool little tie-in here and one that manages to show us the Marvel Universe at large but still keeps the story rather contained to Iron Man's world. It's a nice play by Gillen as he constructs an issue that works to achieve both ends well. The sentient rings continue to be a really cool idea and the idea of Tony and Arno searching them out but only able to find them when they go active adds a layer of depth and intrigue that's worth acknowledging and that keeps the reader on his toes. There's also a nice talk between Tony and Arno about INHUMANITY which feels like something of an admission on Marvel's part that GEEZ it feels like this has been going on a while already and it has barely even started. There's also talk about Bruce Banner trying to find a cure (as we'll see below) and Tony wondering if it's really necessary to worry about. Lot of good bigger universe stuff in here, which is the sort of thing that Gillen's IRON MAN has avoided diligently and it's yielded good results, yet here we are with a solid tie-in that really works. Can't complain.

Indestructible Hulk 18
Waid (w) and Raapack and Sepulveda w/ Grummett (a) and Staples (c)

Banner's bomb goes off too low over Tulsa and things immediately descend into chaos. Hank Pym would have been caught in the explosion but managed to shrink down to microscopic size and actually avoid the particles as they flew by. It's a good thing he did since he starts to figure out what's happening before anyone else. The bomb itself integrated tech that Banner recovered from the Chronarchists int he hope that he could create time fields that would accelerate the Terrigen particles so they were spent almost instantly, keeping them from everyone else. It's a good idea and one that Pym particularly is impressed by but he finds a cocoon amidst the chaotic time fields and realizes it must not have worked. After everything is set straight again in the town below the bomb's detonation, the super scientists determine that there were too many variables with the Terrigen particles that no one could have foreseen. It doesn't make Banner feel any better. He plans to hitch a ride back with his team, who broke out of the lab despite Hill's orders, only to see them nearly go down before reaching him as Randall Jessup cocoons and turns into some sort of monster, which seems to emit some sort of almost sedative rays, to the point that he calms the raging Hulk back into Banner and throws him from the jet.

The bomb storyline was only a two piece arc but it worked for me. I think that I enjoyed the first part more, which really delves into what's happening with Banner and what's at stake for him pride-wise. Waid did a really good job (as he's done all series) characterizing Banner and giving us a sense of what these kinds of things mean to him (it seems like there are big changes coming for the series as it moves into its new ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW launch and I think Waid's done an excellent job facilitating the shift). This issue was a little more dedicated to the action and the science of it, which maybe slowed down the character-driven bits a little, though it does shine a bit of a light on Hank Pym's character for anyone looking for that. The transformation of Jessup is something that Waid's been working to but we'll have to wait until next issue to really see what it means. Entertaining and engaging book all the same.

Avengers Annual 1, Iron Man 19

Avengers Annual 1
K. Immonen (w) and Lafuente (a) and Beredo w/ Loughridge (c)

Shang-Chi is taking some kids who may or may not have powers and who may or may not be delinquents of some kind (different Avengers seem to have different perspectives on the issue) on a tour of Avengers Tower. It's just before Christmas and most of the Avengers have gone elsewhere for the holidays, leaving only Shang-Chi, Captain America, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, and Tony Stark behind. Shang-Chi's tour is something of a failure, as all of the Avengers present a not so clean look at what it is to be super powered. Manifold turns up to help Shang bring all of the kids away but one, unbeknownst to the Avengers and the other kids, sneaks away and stays at the tower. Everyone sets off to their own holiday plans except Cap, who has volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on the tower. He locks up and goes to help at a local kitchen, where he spends a good amount of time chatting with another vet about days gone by. He returns to the Tower later  and is alerted to a break-in in Tony's lab. The girl who stayed behind, an eager and excited girl named Zamira, has the power to manifest voices with alarming accuracy, meaning that she creates versions of herself that have the voices of the people they're meant to represent. FOR EXAMPLE, she manifests a Tony Stark who can access his lab with voice recognition and who speaks not dissimilarly to someone's perception of Tony Stark. Apparently she tends to lose control and create these voices when she gets anxious and she's super anxious now. Her voices run amok, issuing voice commands throughout Avengers Tower from Tony's lab. Cap goes to check it out and is quickly joined by Natasha and Hulk, both of whom ended up staying behind in the Tower after all. They try to calm Zamira down and, particularly Widow, try to get her to use her perceived liability as an asset. Tony, who also apparently stayed behind, joins in the action and things start to go crazy as too many voices start issuing commands and one of them accidentally sets off the self-destruct command. Zamira pulls herself together just in time to help set everything right, issuing other commands with other voices to stop the countdown. All of them clean things up and decide to spend the evening together, eating and talking.

It's a goofy issue, breaking very much from the current feel of Hickman's AVENGERS, but it's well-placed and extremely well-executed. I was excited to see Kathryn Immonen's name on the cover for this one, knowing we'd get a good dose of character and some solid dialogue. Between her fast-paced and chaotic story and David Lafuente's art, this Annual stands up on its own as a perfectly pleasant and easily read standalone story. I'm a big fan of showing off character and this one is pretty much just a showcase of that, giving us a really nice look at some of our core Avengers in their downtime. It's a little like DeConnick's AVENGERS ASSEMBLE in the way that it focuses on the more familial feel of the Avengers but manages to let itself be a little goofier and a little less story-driven. The story is still clearly important but one of the nice things about an Annual is that it doesn't require a story that's going to keep going beyond its one issue; sometimes you'll get one that sets up the future of a book but by and large Annuals tend to be a chance to let someone else take the characters for a spin and see what comes out of it. It was really nice to see a break from the super-serious feel of the current line of Avengers books and I hope, if it leads to anything, it leads to Kathryn Immonen on another book.

Iron Man 19
Gillen (w) and Bennett and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Tony has a surprise for Pepper. Well, a couple of them. He introduces her to Arno and gives the briefest of explanations of what's happening. He also inadvertently introduces her to his newest suit operating system, PEPPER, which is a bit awkward (he quickly promotes PEPPER to running the new city and renames her HELEN, giving her a Troy to look after). He also tells her of his plan to take over and rebuild Mandarin City, feral since the death of Mandarin over a year ago (back at the end of Fraction's run on IRON MAN). She's worried about him and about this whole plan, which seems entirely like an overreaction to something deeper. He admits that she's probably right but isn't too bothered by it, preferring to overreact and do something good with it than to overreact and become an alcoholic again. She convinces him to hire her new fiancee as PR person for the whole undertaking, which would probably go relatively well if not for an attack by Mandarin Ring 1 (in the presence of Mandarin Ring 7 and Abigail Burns, who we met last time) at the time of his press conference.

Plenty going on in this series still but it's rather underlined by the somewhat sweet moments of this issue. There's a relief to Tony and Arno both knowing that they're overreaching a bit and that they're trying something so big, meaning that if they have a fall during this, it won't come with full issues of "oh my hubris!" but rather with something like "well, it would have been pretty cool if it had worked!" There are also sweet and very human moments between Tony and Pepper as he explains why it's maybe not as creepy as she thinks it is that he built and named his AI after her, something that we kind of already knew but that she deserves to hear as well. He, of course, does try to hide it from her, but it's sweet and creepy nonetheless. The idea, for those who missed it in the beginning of Gillen's run, is that Pepper is Tony's best friend and that he wasn't trying to replace her or obsess over her or anything like that, but that he needed something to remind him of her and to keep him balanced as he traversed the infinite space he was going to enter. Look, I think it's sweet, okay? There's also a moment in here where Tony's narration kind of apologizes for leaving Mandarin City in shambles and justifies it by saying "I was in space, guys." Anyone who's read even, like, one post from this blog will note my love of talking to an audience and referring to it as "guys" so WHAT AN EASY WAY TO WIN ME OVER.

Captain America 13, Captain Marvel 17, Iron Man 18

Captain America 13
Remender (w) and Klein (a) and White (c)

Back in the late '60s, Nick Fury calls in undercover operative Ran Shen, meant to be infiltrating the Communist party in China to question him on why he hasn't reported back in two years. Of course, Fury doesn't really ask questions he doesn't already know the answers to and the interrogation pretty quickly turns south as he accuses Shen of creating his own party to rival Mao's, a claim Shen doesn't back down from. He then reveals his own enhancements and attacks Fury and Dum Dum Dugan, breaking out of his containment and rushing, with a scan of Fury's eye, to a high security location at the SHIELD hub. He's not the only one, though, as the Russian spy/assassin the Winter Soldier has watched the whole thing go down and attacks Shen once Shen gets inside the secure location. After a quick fight, both are attacked by a Dum Dum and Fury-led SHIELD team and both escape, though we see what Shen was after: a giant wing labeled "Weapon Minus." Lot of information here for the first ten pages of the book. Back in the present, Maria Hill calls Steve and a protesting Falcon (protesting on Steve's behalf) to take down Nuke in Nrosvekistan, claiming that it has to be Steve who does that, it has to be the icon of America to show that America doesn't support Nuke's actions. The two arrive and pretty quickly have some trouble taking the broken super-soldier down. It's a fight that will continue into the next issue.

Geez but there was a lot happening in those first ten pages. Sometimes you'll read a book and it will flow or, perhaps, even slow down (I think this book had a little of both) to such an extent that it covers the fact that we've just gotten so much information. I'm fortunate because I write a comics blog and so I end up delving in to help clarify some things but, if I didn't, I imagine I would forget a lot of key plot points (I still kind of do but that's more poor-memory related than anything else). The beginning of the book, with Ran Shen's interrogation and the Winter Soldier's involvement, are particularly interesting, though it starts to slow a little bit when we get into Shen's point of view, which almost entirely consists of a page or so of Shen hating America. I think it serves a purpose here, really giving us a depth of vitriol and catching readers up with the Iron Nail's beliefs, but it does feel a bit like it drags the story out. Winter Soldier's involvement is neat and it's cool to know that there's a deeper story there (perhaps one set to be explored more in WINTER SOLDIER: BITTER MARCH), expressed as Shen recognizes Winter Soldier and Winter Soldier reveals that Shen's target isn't his target; his target is Shen. Plenty happening here and that's BEFORE we get to Captain America himself, my thoughts on whom have been pretty regular of late. I find it really interesting to see Cap this despondent and Remender does a great job to, despite that, still show Cap as the force he was from the start of this book, someone fighting through anything and everything in his way (physical, internal and external, and mental) though there is an added sense of desperation and hopelessness there that didn't feel as present at the onset of this series. Stellar writing for Cap again. Great book. It would take something pretty impressive to follow this one up in a review. SEGUE.

Captain Marvel 17
DeConnick (w) and Andrade (a) and Bellaire (c)

Carol Danvers has returned to New York for the first time since the Enemy Within storyline's conclusion and it's a bit of a different world now. She's very open with her friends (hard not to be with this) about the state of her memories, though it doesn't impact her personality. Ultimately it means that she has no memories of people in her life like self-proclaimed sidekick Kit, personal assistant Wendy, and friends Tracy and Frank. On the flip-side, a ceremony is being held in her honor by the city of New York, appreciative of her efforts in Enemy Within. One individual, though, is not happy with her (really not happy with the world, but taking it out on her), new villain Grace Valentine, a self-made business success and genius computer engineer who wants more and finds herself overshadowed by the superhero events of recent days. She attacks the award ceremony (where Carol is given a key to the city and, perhaps more importantly, a new apartment in the CROWN OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY whaaaaat) and Carol springs into action. Valentine has hijacked several drones and uses them swoop down on Carol, stunning her momentarily. As Carol recovers, Valentine sends a message to the world about who she is and who Carol is and why people should overlook Carol's perceived "achievements" for her own before revealing that she's targeting Carol by her star insignia. The crowd then jumps into the action, revealing their own insignias and shouting "I am Captain Marvel" and confusing the drones while inspiring Carol back into the fight. Valentine decides that she has no problem attacking Carol's supporters and sets her drones to the task when Carol leaps back in and saves the day. The day ends with Kit settling in to the CROWN OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY apartment and showing Carol a comic book she wrote and drew to help re-educate Carol on who Captain Marvel is and what she's done, including inspiring (unbeknownst to even Kit) a young New Jersey teen with superpowers of her own.

A truly phenomenal issue and one that someone with less emotional restraint than I may have even teared up at a bit. Not me, that's not the point, you guys. It's just...it's not the point, okay? Anyway, it's a great issue that pulls on everything DeConnick has built for Carol through the course of this series. I talked about it at length during Enemy Within, which built a nightmare around Carol and enveloped all of her friends, a weight that doesn't feeling weighty if DeConnick doesn't put in the time to create a world around Carol. She did create that world, though, and so the involvement of Carol's friends continued to have resonance throughout the story and it's coming around again here, as Carol suddenly doesn't even remember who her friends are. The characters, though, are so real and so fleshed out that you can feel the love and care from them as they try to work around Carol's recent losses and find a way to get her involved again. What's more is that you're actively rooting for them and for Carol on their behalf. I can't think of another superhero comic populated by non-superheroes where this is more true. Even in Spider-Man, which has one of the most expansive casts of non-superhero characters (though that tends to change pretty frequently as different writers power up different characters in his life, geez), there are a few duds I can point to at anyone time that I can honestly say "yeah, I don't care about that guy/lady." Here, I actively care about everyone in Carol's life and this book doesn't work if you, as a reader, don't. Phenomenal job and a truly wonderful issue.

Iron Man 18
Gillen (w) and Bennett and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

We get a simulated look at the world of 30 years from now as Tony and Arno Stark immediately get to work on trying to better the world, trying to help the people and protect them. After that simulated 30 years, Tony and Arno have created a self-sufficient and self-protecting city that they can manage from above. As wonderful and idyllic as it is and despite how much it matches their dreams, it's inevitably immediately destroyed as the AI they've had around and based on 451's designs has covertly worked to undermine them, even when it was unaware of doing it. The two are wrenched out of the simulation and Arno emphasizes to Tony, back in the present day, that they cannot trust AI, a fact that Tony keeps glazing over because, as much as he knows he can't trust anything to do with 451, he can't help but be fascinated at the technology. Arno suspects that he's actually just avoiding talking about the adoption. Tony is saved by the bell on that one as an Avengers distress call comes in and he dispatches his Iron Man suit, complete with PEPPER, to handle it. Arno frowns on it but understands Tony's decision to be more proactive in building this new way of life than reactive in trying to stop supervillains as they pop up. Meanwhile, they seem to have a doozy of a supervillain primed to pop up as some sort of possible AI or enchanted ring-dispenser is targeting individuals around the world and making them Mandarins, presumably 1-10 (we see the creation of Mandarin Seven here).

Still a lot happening in this book, though plenty of this issue is dedicated to a simulation of a possible future. That feels like it should slow the book but I didn't even notice how much of the book it had taken up until I flipped through again to look something up for my summary. It moves well and it serves a distinct purpose, showing us what Arno and Tony are set to do. Tony has always been the engineer of the Marvel Universe; it's on his back that the technology and wonders (and sometimes also threats) of the Marvel Universe appear so it's important that we see what his aims are moving forward, as well as what his concerns are. In this case, his aims are perhaps greater than they've ever been, a self-sufficient city that can protect its inhabitants from both natural and alien threats in a particularly threatening new world. We also see some of the newest concerns as Arno warns Tony repeatedly that he can't trust AI, which Tony has more and more begun to trust with time. The addition of a new Mandarin-based threat at the end of the issue is just icing on the cake as we already have more than enough here to talk about and think about moving forward. It would have been relatively easy to take this issue as a sort of break issue, to reorient and keep away from supervillains and the like while Gillen establishes Tony's new life with Arno but, instead, we get plenty of new threats and new promises for Tony. Pretty neat stuff.

Secret Avengers 10, Iron Man 17, Indestructible Hulk 14

Secret Avengers 10
Brisson (w) and Ross (a) and Wilson (c)

Infinity tie-in as one of SHIELD's own, a computer tech named Sarah Garza, turns out to be an Inhuman, accidentally destroying her own apartment building as her energy-based powers manifest. Fortunately, there were no casualties as the apartment had already been evacuated in the midst of Thanos' attack. Maria Hill decides to immediately deputize Sarah, who has no real training for this, and send her into New York's battlefield in desperate need of backup. With a modified Stark suit and minutes of training from James Rhodes, Sarah is deployed and instantly makes an impact, helping Rhodey, Fury, and Coulson hold back the aliens. Before they can celebrate too long, though, the small group is besieged by what appears to be another new Inhuman who blames Sarah for destroying their neighborhood.

Not a bad tie-in issue, to be sure. I'm a little annoyed with the timing of it, as I kind of stated in my pre-game this week if only because I think Secret Avengers has hit a nice little patch for itself and it's tough to see it interrupted right as it starts to get going (also when Bucky appears). Still, don't want to judge this book by the book it could have been so, looking at this issue by itself, it certainly stands up alright. Pretty solid writing and characterization with the creation of an interesting new character and an immediate threat presenting itself against that character specifically. It also seems to me a fairly tricky book to write, one that requires its protagonist not to be too skilled to start but to be able to learn quickly. If she's too skilled, you lose the character you've built and a semblance of (bear with me) realism. If she can't pick it up quickly, you don't have much of a book, considering this is a two-issue arc. I think Brisson did a nice job combating that by making her adapt fairly well and also putting her in a Stark suit. The suit allows for an explanation on how she is able to harness he powers so quickly; Tony Stark was ready for her. Easy enough! Good art by the talented Luke Ross and, as ever, great Matt Wilson colors, kind of evocative of Bettie Breitweiser, who excels in these war-torn colors.


Iron Man 17
Gillen (w) and Pagulayan and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

There was one more secret that the Starks were keeping, even from 451, at the time of their son's birth. Not trusting 451, Howard had kept a watchful eye over the birth of the boy and realized that 451 had implanted another piece to his DNA, a sort of genetic clock that would expire when the boy turned 30 or so. Howard created a cocktail in the hopes of stopping that clock, something he injected into Maria but that they kept secret successfully from 451. However, it ended up introducing a degenerative disease to their son, one that was barely kept at bay by medicine. Now, decades later, Tony has learned this secret and figured it out; he was always a decoy to show 451 that the child he'd masterminded was still alive while the real child he'd masterminded was hidden away, kept alive by science. Tony works it out and, at the Maria Stark Foundation Hospice, he finds his brother Arno. Tony was adopted, Arno is the child that 451 created, there are two Starks, Arno and the world are safe with 451 out of the picture, so on and so forth. Mic-drop from Kieron Gillen (coincidentally, the name of Gillen and McKelvie's third Young Avengers trade is set to be "Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space").

Lots of stuff to get into here and, well, I'm not quite sure how to take it. I really liked the Secret Origin of Tony Stark; it was bold, it was inventive, it was creative, it was a little crazy but it also fit the history of the character extremely well, giving us a big, bold change without sacrificing continuity, a rare feat. Now there's a big, bold change that, I would say again, doesn't really sacrifice continuity, but, somehow, it feels less strong. Tony's adopted. The upside of this is, of course, the one downside that Secret Origin had had before, which is that it reinstates Tony as a self-made genius, someone who grew under his father's tutelage and who excelled at being everything we've come to expect from Tony. That was kind of tainted under the Secret Origin explanation and now it's back, which I'd say is good for Tony as a character. Still, I liked the Secret Origin plot and I'm a little ambivalent to the secret addition of a second Stark. Mostly I'm holding off judgment. I immediately lauded Secret Origin for its boldness and its creativity but I'd rather hold judgment here as things get a little weirder. Still a good story and one that has potential to yield really interesting results but I'm not totally willing just yet to call it a masterstroke. I'm most interested to see where the addition of Arno Stark puts Tony. As great as it is to be back in a place where we know Tony has raised himself up to his current standing, Arno really is the masterpiece 451 created (minus the ability to physically do much of anything and the kill-switch). We already have hints that maybe Arno is more intelligent than Tony (though we have only Arno's word for that) while being, perhaps, a bit more down-to-earth as well (he's actually surprisingly tender with Tony). It'll be interesting to see where this lands everyone after the dust settles.

Indestructible Hulk 14
Waid (w) and Jacinto and Asrar (a) and Staples (c)

The last remaining Chronarchist is messing with Hulk's personal timeline, sending him to fit big enemies in various times and places all through history all while switching back and forth between Hulk personas. Regular Hulk, Mr. Fixit, Gladiator Hulk, they all appear. Banner, stuck in his bot, knows that they're quickly running out of time and that the fights, though Hulk is excited by them, are just distractions. The more time they take, the less chance Banner has of stopping the Chronarchist from changing Hulk's origin story. We find out at this point, of course, that Chronarchist is working on behalf of someone else, the god-you-really-should-have-seen-this-coming Zarrko. Banner manages to steer them to the Gamma Bomb site just in time. He transfers his consciousness into the actual Bruce Banner (albeit years too early) right as the bot itself breaks down. However, Hulk interferes, knocking Banner aside from the blast and getting hit with it himself. Banner isn't Hulk, but Hulk is now extra Hulk.

This is going to be a tricky one to talk about and to recover from. Time travel is always always always tricky. Because it doesn't exist and there aren't real rules but that didn't stop us (that's the collective us, nerds) from making multitudes of rules about it. Are we seeing a butterfly effect situation? Are we seeing divergent timelines? Are we seeing Looper-like time travel rules? Well, I just saw Looper yesterday and it seems like they might be our best chance to explain this. Joseph Gordon-Levitt shoots his future self who is sent back to the past (as all Loopers eventually do) then lives out the rest of his life on the Looper retirement plan. Eventually his life gets better and he falls in love (when he becomes Bruce Willis) and, as the mob come in to kidnap him and send him back to the past to be shot by JGL, they shoot his wife. He manages to then get sent back in time and stop JGL from shooting him, creating a new timeline based on the events of an old timeline. LOOK, it's very complicated and WHY did I just spend half a paragraph talking about Looper? Anyway, it was pretty good and maybe you should watch it if you like science fiction stuff in that realm (you're here, I know you do) and this is all my way of saying that it's hard to review this book because it continues to be good as an individual issue progressing the story but it's hard to judge it without the end of the story to look at. Okay? Okay.