Secret Avengers 5, Avengers World 9

Secret Avengers 5
Kot (w) and Walsh (a) and Wilson (c) and Cowles (l)

It's sort of a day off for the Secret Avengers with all of their recent missions end it and the team spends it in their own ways. Spider-Woman talks to the living bomb and learns from it that she is an empath, Coulson demands a vacation and takes it even after it's denied, Fury is sent into Coulson's locker only to have acid sprayed in his good eye for his troubles, Black Widow helps Maria Hill interrogate the terrible poet and reveals that she knows about MODOK, Hawkeye eats lunch and shoots some arrows, and Maria Hill and MODOK discuss whether MODOK can be trusted. Though MODOK swears he can and swears that he wants to make the world better, Hill secretly believes that everything that's happened recently, from the hitman to the recently discovered pregnancy of the Fury to the poet and the living bomb, has MODOK's fingerprints all over it.

There are directions in which this book can go that I think would make it an interesting book and I think that Kot has wisely kept many of those directions open. One of the benefits of an occasional rest issue is that it allows a reader to reset and the writer to nod at different potential plot lines. You need to fill space in a rest issue and you don't want it to be wasted space so the best thing you can do is keep some balls in the air. Kot is doing that nicely here, but there is a little bit of a flaw here in that Kot's biggest ball still in the air is that MODOK maybe can't be trusted. I wasn't particularly onboard at any point with MODOK joining up with SHIELD because I don't think it tracks at any point in MODOK's existence (it tracks in SHIELD's existence because SHIELD is the worst) but neither sincerely wanting to help SHIELD nor subterfuge and subtlety in trying to take SHIELD apart from the outside has ever been a strong suit for MODOK, so to find that this book's drama is currently hinging on whether or not we trust MODOK left me feeling a little letdown. Still, I enjoyed this issue more than the previous ones because it felt a little more down-to-Earth (I don't think the book should be forced to keep to sort of generic comic book standards, but I do think it needs to choose a real tone and stick with it) and didn't get too caught up in its own perception.

Total Score: 4/5


Avengers World 9
Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)

Cannonball and Sunspot are being treated pretty well by AIM and it's throwing them off a bit. They're not able to leave but they're treated to fine dining and first-run movies (with as blatant a nod to Marvel's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy as you're about to see in comics, even including the movie tie-in books). Still, their rescue team didn't pan out but Maria Hill was able to establish contact. With the help of a future Jocasta unit recovered back in Spencer's SECRET AVENGERS, Hill has learned that AIM Island has blossomed because the AIM of the future is sending back tech and info to the past. She knows how they're doing it and sends Cannonball and Sunspot to go shut it down at the source, traveling to the future to stop the flow of information to the past. A future Jocasta meets them there and brings them to see the kidnapped children of the Avengers.

I talked in my pre-game about how much I'm enjoying this series as a whole, with smaller teams and somewhat more personal quarters and missions. It's been a really strong book altogether and I think this issue is no different. This one is a little more light-hearted as Cannonball and Sunspot, particularly together, are more light-hearted characters, but it works here as the situation still feels big but they, with all of their powers and bravado, don't quite fit into it, leading to the humor and the slightly-off tone. It works. Also, there's a major Back to the Future reference which is then called back very nicely and a good Back to the Future reference will typically get me on your side (I'm calling it Back to the Future because the line in question, "it's your kids, Marty, something has got to be done about your kids!," is at the end of the first movie and is repeated at the start of the second movie but we're NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE SECOND MOVIE. Whole stupid thing hinges on Marty not being able to walk away from someone calling him chicken. So dumb, you guys! But that first one is gold).

Total Score: 5/5
Back to the Future Total Score: 1.21 GW

Miracleman 1, Revolutionary War - Dark Angel 1

Miracleman 1
Anglo (w and a) and D. Lawrence (a) and Moore (w) and Leach (a) and Oliff (c)

It's a re-release for Marvelman/Miracleman as MIRACLEMAN 1 kicks off with a triple size issue. In the issue are stories from original Miracleman creator Mick Anglo, including one where the Miracleman Family, comprising of Miracleman, Young Miracleman, and Kid Miracleman, is roped into a tale of time travel and science fiction when invaders from 25 years in the future, the year 1981, come back to good, old 1956 to wreak havoc, solved when Miracleman and Young Miracleman travel to 1981 and stop their time-travel ships before they can get off the ground, creating something of a paradox but it was 1956 so WHO WOULD POSSIBLY CARE? (Doc Brown would, as a note) The issue moves from the Mick Anglo story to Alan Moore's reboot, WARRIOR, in 1982 (Moore's name is carefully removed from all parts of this book, per his own wishes). In the present (1982, keep up), Michael Moran has been living with his wife Liz for a decade and a half and has no memories of his history as Miracleman, save for some migraines and dreams of flying. Michael's freelance journalist job brings him, though, to what quickly turns into hostage situation. Unfortunately, he is one of those taken hostage but FORTUNATELY he sees the word "atomic" backwards which makes him remember his life as Miracleman. Shouting "Kimota!" he becomes Miracleman again for the first time in twenty years and ends the terrorist threat, returning home that night to talk to Liz about his powers and what he can remember. After a full synopsis of his history, he reveals that the last thing he remembers as Miracleman is a mission that pit him and Young and Kid up against arch-nemesis Gargunza, a mission that would result in Miracleman discovering that the Miracleman Family is not invulnerable to the A-bomb. The last thing he saw was Young Miracleman, who, with Kid, had dove straight into the action, pretty much exploding in front of him. Miracleman came crashing down to Earth in bad shape and didn't wake up for two months, forgetting everything he had been before that. As he explains everything to Liz, someone else who remembers Miracleman sees the news footage from the day and curses Miracleman. The issue ends with an interview between Joe Quesada and Mick Anglo, some concept drawings, and a couple more Anglo stories.

Solid execution here as Marvel brings a 1980s series based on a 1950s character into the 2010s. It's the Back to the Future trifecta (I almost wish I hadn't referenced Doc Brown above but I did and I never wanna stop so it's okay). Of course, this is only issue one so I don't want to heap too much praise on it (lest it turn a Back to the Future II on me) but presumably the art restoration will, if nothing else does, keep up the way it's going and the book looks great. The colors are well done (Moore's original book was black and white) and the art looks crisp as ever. I'll admit that I don't have a background with MIRACLEMAN so I'm one of those people who is just glad that it's getting reprinted since it's so hard to find anywhere. I don't know how much of these reviews will be about story (as these are stories that have already been published, up until they get to the new material from Gaiman) but that's okay with me, if my reviews end up a little shorter on these books on the whole (obviously not this issue, okay). I'll probably just talk about Back to the Future more, which is ALSO totally great with me.

Revolutionary War - Dark Angel 1
Gillen (w) and D. Smith (a) and R. Redmond (c)

Another peek into Marvel UK as current comic superstar Kieron Gillen gives us a one-shot for the hero Dark Angel (Shevaun Hadley) which grants her a somewhat self-contained story that plays into the scale of this event and goes a little deeper into the story while also giving us a pretty full rundown on the character. Dark Angel's father was a member of Mys-Tech who was, of course, killed by Mephisto after trying to break their deal in the modern day. Shevaun was granted powers as part of the deal, as Gillen puts it, and fought against Mys-Tech. Still, the debt her father and his cronies accrued needs to be paid off so Shevaun has to help Mephisto with things here and there, leaving very little time and power for her own exploits (kind of cool about Shevaun's power: there is a daily limit to them). The terms of the deal are particularly hard on her as Mys-Tech begins to rise again and she's forced to fight some of their hidden tech before she's chased by one of the biggest techs her father ever created, Psycho-Wraith Prime. With no will left to fight, she summons Mephisto and asks for a new deal, one that will take her powers away in the hopes that it will keep them from Mys-Tech. Mephisto has her sign a new contract but, you know, he's Mephisto so it all goes rather belly-up as she's sucked into the contract and Psycho-Wraith Prime gets his hands on her anyway, finding, as Mephisto says, one sixth of the power he needs. Life ends, your debts live on.

As this event is still pretty young, I'm very interested in how it's going to play out going forward. There's clearly a big story here but it's only got a set amount of time to explain itself as every book seems to be something of a one-shot that happens to tie in to the main plot. Because every book is focused on a different character or team or set of characters (not necessarily in team form) and most of these characters aren't well-known by US audiences, part of the issue has to be dedicated to explaining who a character is, what he or she is (roughly) about, and what his or her powers are. That means that issues like this one read a little bit slower and it puts the writer in a tricky spot of knowingly slowing their pace down to make sure the audience is mostly on the same page. Despite that, Gillen does a good job to get the gist of the character across and to give her a real chip on her shoulder, helping to fully realize Shevaun. At the end of it all, it's very much a story about the sins of the father (pretty explicitly) and the idea that, as Shevaun puts it, "we paid for their Heaven and now we live in their Hell." It's a good story, she's a good character, we get a little bit of the Mys-Tech story, and Dietrich Smith's art is perfect for the issue. Next up: the Knights of Pendragon, featuring UNION JACK! You guys, I love Union Jack.