Daredevil: End of Days 8, Daredevil Dark Nights 1

Daredevil: End of Days 8
Bendis and Mack (w) and Janson and Sienkiewicz w/ Mack (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Books like this one make me feel like maybe I've lost touch with myself as a comic reader. Well, books like this one and Twitter. On Twitter, I follow both Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack and I love one of those men very much because I think he's an incredible talent who helped me realize just how much art can go into comics (the other one I nearly constantly sigh/yell at in my comic blog). David Mack particularly has been retweeting a lot of positive things about Daredevil: End of Days as a whole and the twist ending which surprised so many readers. So I had to ask myself "is this just because he tracked down the positive reviews/that only people who loved the book are taking the time to write to them about it or am I wrong about this series?" Of course, liking something is a rather objective definition whereas reviewing something should come from a neutral place and based on knowledge about what objectively makes something good or not. I know that by claiming this is a review blog, I'm kind of inherently saying I can do that but sometimes I'm not sure that's accurate. Maybe I've lost track of comics over the years and now I'm jaded and cynical. I just didn't care for this series. That's coming as someone who loves Daredevil and loves David Mack and, in the right circumstances, can appreciate an alternate reality-esque future. But I just didn't care for this series. I think, again, it kind of stems from the fact that this series was eight issues long. After issue three or four, I was annoyed by the mystery of Mapone more than I was curious about it. It kept coming up and it was clear it wasn't going to be answered in any quick way and the writing prodded the reader to keep asking "WHAT IS MAPONE," a question I was already sick of asking and I, in turn, begin to resent the fact that they wanted me to care. You know what it's like? It's like that scene in Wall-E where Eve asks Wall-E what his directive is and he shows her how good he is at compacting trash, then when he struggles through the word "directive?" she turns away from him and says "Classified." It's a great little moment in the film and would have been SO awful if he had kept asking her and she had kept saying "classified" but kept prodding him to ask anyway. Okay, maybe it's only like that if you're me.

Timothy, the little boy that Daredevil rescued once upon a time is the new Daredevil and we get a few scenes of the two of them as Matt trained him late in his life (in fact, just before he died). He explains that someone will appear to him to guide him when the time is right, just as Stick did for him, and that he'll know it when he sees it. Now, with Timothy's father Ben and his mentor Matt dead, he's desperate to find out who his "Stick" will be. He runs into people from Matt and his father's past, including Foggy Nelson, Punisher, Peter Parker, and Nick Fury, but none of them are his Stick. Fury offers him the secret of Mapone but Timothy, angry that Fury didn't give this information to Ben when he had the chance, throws the file in a trashcan fire. He returns into a bar he was visiting with Peter Parker (who attempted to help him work through his grief in a scene that can't help but have some SNAPPY DIALOGUE) to find that the red-headed woman playing pool with a bunch of hoodlums is in trouble as the hoodlums feel she's been conning them. Timothy jumps into the fight and takes out a couple of the guys before being critiqued by the woman for his fighting style. She then reveals that she's blind, the only thing her father left her, and that she can help train him to fight. Her name? Mapone Romanova, the daughter of Matt and Black Widow. If anywhere, this is where I'm jaded and cynical. The things I've read on Twitter make this seem like a huge and shocking reveal but is it? I mean, we saw Ben investigate all of Matt's former lovers and each one of them had a red-headed child. He couldn't track down Widow but should anyone be surprised she also had a child with Daredevil? Also, and I hate to be that guy, but Mapone is a stupid name.

Daredevil Dark Nights 1
Weeks (w and a) and Loughridge (c)

Daredevil Dark Nights is an eight part series that will feature three adventures for Daredevil written and illustrated by three different creative teams. Lee Weeks is heading up the first arc, a three issue story called "Angels Unaware," which focuses on Matt Murdock trying to deliver a heart to a little girl waiting in a hospital during a massive snowstorm. Matt fell asleep in the office reading the bible (getting back to Matt's Catholic roots) and wakes up to find the city effectively shut down. He decides to walk home, as his office is just a short walk, but the snow messes with his radar sense a bit. When a few muggers accost him on the empty streets, he makes quick work of a pair of them but doesn't sense the third one behind him, who knocks him unconscious and steals his money, leaving his wallet out, to be covered by the snow. A man (possibly homeless?) carries the unconscious Matt to the nearby hospital where he wakes unsure of who he is and startled to find that he's blind and everyone appears to be screaming (he doesn't remember his senses). Eventually things come back to him as he rouses himself and incapacitates the three muggers, who have turned up in the hospital lobby to ransom the people there. His doctor returns Matt to his bed and asks who he is. He asks her about the little girl who needs a heart transplant and is waiting for the helicopter that is trying to brave the snow to bring it to her. He informs the doctor that he heard the helicopter go down (the city is just about silent in the snowstorm so he could isolate the helicopter pretty easily) and that he can go get the heart. The homeless man had brought a suitcase that had been with Matt to the hospital and a member of the hospital staff had been trying to open it in the hopes it would reveal his identity (with his wallet buried in the snow). He gets it open and reveals to the doctor that the man is Daredevil. She brings him to the roof so he can try to retrieve the heart and hopefully save the little girl. He stumbles a bit in the snow as he dives off the roof so this may not be as easy as it could be for Daredevil.

This is definitely an interesting spin on Daredevil. It's very religion-laden, which could turn some readers off. That's always been a kind of interesting facet to Matt's character for me, even if it occasionally gets ignored or gets heavy-handed. Here I'd say it's more heavy-handed than maybe it needs to be, but it certainly illustrates the themes of this arc and the fact that Matt is religious. If you were picking up this Daredevil book and the only things you'd read had come from the last few years of Daredevil, you'd likely be startled to find him so engrossed in the bible and holding a chain with a cross on it. Still, it's not out of character, just a little different than what we've seen. The story is already engaging and the art varies between good and great at times. Weeks' three issues should be a good read on Daredevil's character and give us some thing to talk about before David Lapham takes over writer and artist duties for the two part "What a Day, What a Night" and Jimmy Palmiotti and Thony Silas give us the three issue arc "The Trip" to end the series.

Comics this week

Back to bunches of comics this week. Should be some real good ones in the bunch and should be a few bad ones (law of averages, right?) and a few that I'm not sure are real things I need to worry about (Wolverine Comic Reader 1 what?). As is typical, though, let's focus this Tuesday on the should-be-good-ones.

Avengers 13
Avengers, a book I'm already pretty thrilled with, is on a run of solid connected one-shots. It's hard to explain that too much so you guys should probably just all be reading Marvel flagship title. I do think this is still a tricky one for newcomers to comics which makes it particularly strange and particularly daring for Marvel to go forth with this. I also touched upon New Avengers last week kind of using the "New Avengers" title to drive sales but both feel more intense and complicated than new readers would be willing to get involved with. In that way, it feels like Marvel wants to reward long-time comic readers with Avengers books of their own and I certainly appreciate it. I hope their sales do too.

Avengers Arena 10
Despite this book's place on the list (which, I assure you, is purely alphabetical), this is the last pregame pick I'm writing before this post goes LIVE. That's important to note because it's been very difficult for me to pick just five books this week and Avengers Arena was vying against Cable and X-Force, Red She-Hulk, and Superior Spider-Man (none of these books were helped by the sudden inclusion of Iron Man, either). At the end of the day though, it came down to Avengers Arena again because I just can't stop enjoying this book. Every issue has been a delight and, even though it's officially earned a near-permanent spot here, it's still a surprise that it's so good. This book has all the makings of a book that could easily have been botched but instead it's found a great spot to work from and Hopeless and crew are putting out great issues week to week. Hard not to include on pregame picks.

Daredevil Dark Nights 1
I'm a big Daredevil fan so it's pretty interesting to me that Daredevil is getting so much love at Marvel right now. Granted, he's a successful older character and his new book is great (like, Eisner great) so it's not that huge of a surprise but it's still encouraging to see. So why pick this, the start of a new eight-part series that will feature different writers/artists to tell new one-shot stories about the man without fear, instead of the conclusion of the eight-part Daredevil: End of Days? Well because I don't much care for End of Days. I think that one could have been half the size and told just as much story. Eight one-shots telling eight separate stories seems like a bit of a better formula and is still a great way to showcase the character.

Iron Man 11
With the interesting story of 451 slowly emerging (though it's coming from him, so who knows whether we trust the narrator or not) and Tony Stark squared off against him, knowing that 451 can take over his armor at any time, we seem primed for a great story with great new insights to Tony and his world. Every issue has been entertaining and has left Tony in an interesting place and I trust Gillen to keep that up. Kieron Gillen has quickly cemented his place in comics and I'm looking forward to this story as much for Tony's new developments as for Gillen's. For Marvel alone (not counting his work with other companies or his indie works like the incredible Phonogram books) Gillen had a masterpiece in Journey into Mystery and is now knocking it out of the park in Iron Man and Young Avengers. I'm excited to watch it continue in all places.

Winter Soldier 19
This is the final issue of Winter Soldier. For anyone wishing to know what will happen to the supremely complicated, thought-dead hero, this will be the last we'll see of him in a solo book for at least a bit of time. Things may change in a year or so, as Captain America: Winter Soldier premieres in 2014, but for now, I'm hoping for a wonderful send-off to what has been a phenomenal solo series for one of Marvel's most popular new characters over the last several decades (I heard Brubaker said that he was the most popular since the likes of Wolverine and Deadpool, though I'm not sure where he got those numbers. I do sort of implicitly trust him, for better or worse). Real sad to see it go.

Daredevil 25, Daredevil: End of Days 7

Daredevil 25
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and Rodriguez (c)

I want to start quickly by saying that I like the idea in some Marvel books to christen the writer and artist as, like in this book, "storytellers" instead of "writer" and "artist." This book does it and Hawkeye does it (they don't really say "storytellers," they just present Fraction and Aja's names together in the credits) in the Marvel books (there might be more but I can't think of them) and I would bet more indie comics do it. It just feels like a nice touch and a nice response to the question of who drives a book. They're both necessary. This book has a killer team-up too, with Eisner award winning Mark Waid teamed with this year's Eisner award nominee Chris Samnee (totally deserving). Anyway, onwards we go.
Last issue ended with someone who had been experimented on turning up at Matt's doorstep (well, Foggy's hospital room doorstep). Matt has this guy, Larry, lead him to the place where the experiments were done, though he reveals as they touch down that he knows it's a trap. Larry didn't seem to know, just like he didn't know that the people trying to trap Matt gave Larry a defective pacemaker. Larry dies on the spot and leaves Matt waiting for an attack. He falls into the building below him as the glass on the rooftop breaks. There he's soliloquy'd to by a new villain, who reveals that the experiments were just the test subjects, weak and enfeebled already. They figured out the correct concoction and used it on someone more capable. Enter this guy, dubbed Ikari (Japanese for "fury") who comes in wearing Matt's father's boxing robe and wielding two Kusurigama blades (they're like baby scythes). Matt gets overconfident, feeling that he's mastered his own powers and there's no way a guy who has only just gotten them could be as prepared as he is. He's wrong, though, as he finds himself pretty evenly matched against Ikari. They do pretty equal amounts of damage to one another before Matt realizes the need to wrap it up. He flees momentarily from Ikari, disappearing into a closed sporting goods store. The store is confusing to a radar sense, with many different objects and smells, and Matt lights a match near a smoke alarm to set off a sprinkler system. Matt hides out, waiting for Ikari to get close enough and revealing to the audience that his radar sense is maybe 5% of what it normally is in rain but he anticipates that Ikari, without long training and experience, won't even be up to that. As Ikari inches closer to Matt's hiding place, Matt starts to grab at a bat. Ikari, next to him now, suggests he grab the red one. In a moment of nearly unprecedented fear and horror, Matt realizes Ikari isn't blind and Ikari beats him to within an inch of his life, allowing him to leave but warning him that the person who sent him will kill Daredevil, somehow and when he least expects it, but sometime soon.
It's another great issue with fantastic art and a lot of really fascinating ideas. Whoever is behind this (there is certainly speculation to be had on that front) knows how to scare Matt and how to enrage him. He also knows how his powers work and how Matt is trained to use them. We also get to learn a bit more ourselves about how Matt's powers work and how he uses them. It's always a fun part in Daredevil books when we reach a point where Matt explains the best places for him to fight and we can kind of see how his environment shapes the way he fights. In this case, learning about the sprinkler system (and Matt's own worry that someone would use that against him) is pretty interesting and, another bonus, negates what Daredevil, the 2003 really bad superhero movie, said on the subject, which was that his radar sense was enhanced in rain. Any separation you can get from that movie the better. This series continues to be one of Marvel's best and this issue is no different. Wonderfully done.

Daredevil: End of Days 7
Bendis and Mack (w) and Janson and Sienkiewicz (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

I am not against reading. In fact, I am very pro-reading. I also love reading comic books. I appreciate that comic books have moved away from the "block of text" style of narration because it breaks up flow. Comics are, by their nature, an incredibly visual medium. There has to be something of a balance between art and word or else you're pretty much just writing a book. Or a script. Maybe script is a more apt description for where I'm going with this. Where I'm going with this is that the first page of this issue has 22 different boxes of narration over four-ish panels of art. I say "ish" because there's one drawing on the background that goes across the entire page and focuses as one to two panels and there are three actual panels on top of it. Don't get me wrong, I like the art in this book. I like both Janson and Sienkiewicz and I continue to think that the series has done a good job spanning Daredevil art styles and even artists. The first half of the book or so, though, is like the first page, with dialogue and narration just cluttering the page like crazy. And not particularly worthwhile dialogue. This is the problem with Bendis' need for snappy back-and-forth writing. It might work in television or movies because those are inherently different. You can see the scene under the words. The words might only take a few seconds to throw out. In this, the same conversation covers up the drawings and distracts from the scene while taking pages to get through. Also, one character who talks through a bunch of the first half, a secretary at the Daily Bugle, is super obnoxious and unpleasant to read. That doesn't help anything. So the question, then, is "is all of this dialogue/narration necessary?" I'd say some of it is. Certainly not all of it. The bonus of having an inherently visual medium is that you can allow your artist to do some work for you. You want to see Urich struggling with the things he's found out and the questions that remain? Look at the pictures. And Janson and Sienkiewicz show him that way. Throw in a couple lines about how frustrated he is, sure. You don't need to cloud a page with it all. It gets to a point where you're forced to start wondering what the level of trust in the artist is. Most of these problems disappear midway through the issue or so, as Ben Urich is attacked by the Hand and the narration and dialogue gives way to action. Here we actually start to get to new information, as Urich enters the apartment Melvin Potter said he'd sent plenty of costumes to before. On the computer, he sees all sorts of files, including one labelled "Map" and one labelled "One." Don't think that this is going to bring us to the secret of "Mapone" because apparently we'd rather save that for the LAST issue, as Urich views the files and we get to see his horror. It's weird to follow a character as our main narrator and see what he sees through the series only to, at the biggest reveal, not get to see what he sees. ANYWAY, the Hand finds Urich there and attacks, but he's saved again by the new Daredevil and Punisher. The new Daredevil rushes Ben to safety before going back to try to help fight the Hand with Punisher, who is mowing the ninjas down. When Daredevil returns to Urich, the reporter has an arrow through his gut. Daredevil rips off the mask to reveal Urich's adopted son Timmy as the new Daredevil. I have some problems with this, but I'd like to see where the last issue goes before airing them. I think I've said enough already.

Cable and X-Force 5, Daredevil: End of Days 6

Cable and X-Force 5
Hopeless (w) and Larocca (a) and D'Armata (c)

Like Iron Man yesterday, this book was fun. It was intentionally a little removed from the way it's been the first four issues, focusing on the characters more than on any plot. There was still plot but it took the back-burner to show how these guys interact with one another and how they hide from the law. After the Eat-More catastrophe, Cable and his X-Force are laying low in Mexico while some steam hopefully blows off. Domino forces Colossus to relax by drinking and other things (EXPLICIT things) while Forge and Dr. Nemesis compete in video games and a cage fight between a giant robot and a scorpion-beast (SPOILERS: this issue is worth reading). Cable goes to Hope's home to explain why she can't come with them and why he's kept her out of all of this. It essentially boils down to the idea that his whole team is already pretty far gone in all this, where Hope is still seen as a hero in the wake of AvX and that will buy her goodwill that he wants her to be able to use how she wants. He wants her to try to live a normal life.

There are a lot of intricate character examinations happening around here, including Cable and Hope's relationship and the character Hopeless is establishing from Colossus. I think that's one of his biggest challenges but clearly one of his bigger strengths right now. Colossus is a great Marvel character who has some depth to him and has been through absolute hell over the last few years (in Fear Itself, he assumed the powers and anger of Juggernaut before, in AvX, taking the Phoenix Force). He's done horrible things and he's tried to maintain his very good guy inner being, but it's been extremely hard. Being Juggernaut hardened him and now, after AvX, he's cracking. It's not an easy place to come in and write the character from. He takes on a massive amount of guilt in this arc after watching men he befriended while undercover in the Eat-More factory die, on top of everything else he has going on. The issue ends with him handing himself in. We've got a lot of interesting stuff coming from this series and, if I had to choose right now, this is my favorite X-Force book out at present (granted, it has five issues and Humphries' Uncanny X-Force has two).

Daredevil: End of Days 6
Bendis and Mack (w) and Janson, Sienkiewicz, Mack and Maleev (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Things are happening frustratingly in this book, which I suppose could be a choice that the writers have made to show how frustrating things are for Ben Urich right now. I suppose all the slow reveals and the building questions with no answers and the pile of corpses that Urich keeps running into could all just be, rather than to set plot, to set tone. So we all know what it's like feeling frustrated by a case that never seems to end and never seems to resolve. Maybe this case won't resolve. Maybe that's the pull of it all. Maybe Urich will never figure out who the new Daredevil is and why everyone connected to Matt or to Daredevil ends up dead or missing. Maybe that's the end game and why we haven't seen any resolutions up to this point. Maybe this series shouldn't have been eight issues for that.

I'm going to start by saying I find the art in this series phenomal. I've touched on that a bit here and there. It feels like a melding of all of Daredevil's past art (which is certainly something they're going for by bringing in big name DD artists who have had some hand in his development over the years). More than that, it feels like the art of Daredevil's distant past melded with the more recent, grittier past. We also, in this issue, get two full-page David Mack spreads, which are incredible. David Mack's artwork is one of the reasons I became so cemented into comics. I was already pretty well in when I read his two Daredevil arcs about Echo and I came out saying "good god, this is art. This whole form is truly art." It was pretentious and I know that but whatever. It was amazing and awe-inspiring. So I will not speak ill of any of his art ever. It's all phenomenal and the two pages in this book are no different. The art overall is pretty great.

It's the story and the writing that's bugging me. Again we've gone through another issue where just about nothing has happened. I get that writing is a process and that telling a story is more than just action and answering questions right when they're asked. However, you have eight issues and we're through six and we've answered approximately zero questions. I do appreciate that the word "Mapone" didn't come up in this issue, forcing us to keep asking what that's all about. But the back-and-forth dialogue feels out of place and it appears in every scene with any two characters. And again, no questions answered. As we close this series down, we must be getting somewhere. I guess we'll find out.

Comics out this week!

Okay, so this week I think really IS a relatively small release week (about 14 new books). Still pretty action-packed including the first issue of a new event. Let's see what we've got.

Age of Ultron 1
For all of my possible skepticism about this series, it could still be big and it could be very interesting. I'm hoping it is, though I'm still a bit nervous. Regardless of how it turns out, this is likely on everyone's pre-game picks this week, which is EXACTLY what Marvel wants.

Cable and X-Force 5
I'm happy with how strong this series has been so far and I'm overall pretty thrilled with all of Dennis Hopeless' offerings in this new Marvel NOW! Plot and character-wise I'm looking forward to how this series shakes out. It doesn't hurt that I find it hard to believe I'd ever be upset with a book that has Dr. Nemesis in it.

Daredevil: End of Days 6
I've had some complaints to lodge against this series so far that all kind of go back to my skepticism about Age of Ultron. I feel like we've gotten to issue six and barely had anything actually happen. I'm a big proponent of taking at least an issue now and then to focus on characters and not on action if just to show what action is. However, I feel like we've gotten kind of non-stop lack of action. This issue seems forced into making a reveal or something.

Venom 32
I like where this series has landed. There are a lot of plotlines that seem ripe to converge and really shake Flash's world. I'm not sure if we'll dive into it right away in this issue or if it'll continue a kind of slow build while Flash sets things in order in his new home, but, after an initial scare with where the series was going, I'm happy with where we are and where we seem primed to go.

Winter Soldier 16
I love the character so much that I imagine this book will keep cropping up on this pre-game list. Adding the intrigue, though, is Jason Latour's new look at the character. I feel like we saw a bit to begin with in issue 15, Latour's first on the book, but now that some of the set-up is out of the way, I'll be really interested to see where the character is going.

Daredevil: End of Days 5, Superior Spider-Man 3

Daredevil: End of Days 5
Bendis and Mack (w) and Janson and Sienkiewicz (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

I'm happier with this issue than I was with the last one. However, that's with the caveat that I got a little less happy with the last one the more I thought about it. It really was that "4 of 8" bit that got me. That teamed with the fact that it's Brian Michael Bendis, who I distrust with this kind of thing because of his Avengers run. I believe I've said it before here but I'll say it again to reiterate. I think Brian Michael Bendis has skills. I think he's good at a form of dialogue (that he uses a little too often and doesn't QUITE fit the medium), I think he makes compelling plots, and I've seen him use space very effectively as, say, Daredevil's old writer. However, his Avengers run constantly featured four or so issue arcs that could be boiled down to one or two issues if you took out the unnecessary banter, recaps, and the "well where are THESE unrelated characters right now? Who is Hawkeye going to love this week? Where is Luke Cage in all this?" (He also has some pretty clear favorites) I can't call him a bad writer because I know he's not. On the other hand, I tend not to trust a book he's writing moving slowly (more on that tomorrow).

This book moved a little faster, still lording the mystery of "Mapone" over us but giving us an explanation of Daredevil's thought process, the fact that Daredevil was training a replacement (presumably the Daredevil who's been following Urich this whole series), a prison break, some facts on Matt Murdock's life, and Urich being pushed out a window. So there's a bit more going on in here than in the past few. I will say, I'm not totally surprised by the things that are coming out in this issue which are meant as big surprises. Those things are essentially "'Mapone' was a word picked to drive Bullseye crazy" and "Daredevil trained a replacement." Both are decent plot points and obviously important to this comic but they're treated as massive thriller reveals, despite being revealed in issue five. I think 'Mapone' has been dragged on too long, letting the mystery of it fade and allowing Ben Urich to ask everyone he meets what 'Mapone' means. It makes it feel like Urich is desperately asking for us to care about the mystery. I do care. To a point. That point was sometime before issue five, admittedly. Stil, this is an engaging story. I'd just be mad if I had expected a hint at a resolution any time before the eighth issue.

Superior Spider-Man 3
Slott (w) and Stegman (a) and Delgado (c)

This was a step up from the last issue. First of all, there's less whiny Peter demanding to be heard and more Peter accepting his position. In fact, Peter finds out that he can access Otto's memories to some extent, though he seems unable to choose them. We get to see Otto and Vulture meeting each other for the first time, a rather amicable meeting as you might assume from two intelligent villains with a similar cause. That meeting drives the story as Doc Spidey figures out a plan to deal with Vulture "once and for all." All this language, on top of the moment in ASM 700 and/or 699, whenever it happened, when Peter Doc told Carlie that he was actually Peter, is driving Carlie to believe that Spidey is no longer Peter. I admit I have some trouble with this simply because I don't like Carlie Cooper, so for her to be a possible hero of the story gives me no great satisfaction.

Doc Spidey's plan for Vulture, it turns out, is simply to give him the money he wants. Not stolen money (at least, not stolen now, perhaps once stolen), his own money. In their flashback meeting, we learn that, while Doc Ock was always more driven by his genius, Toomes is driven by his want for money. It's a good plan, probably, except that Vulture doesn't buy it and gets angry at Spider-Man's perceived taunts. He has his new henchmen attack Spidey, who hits one across the room, only to break his mask and reveal a child. Vulture is using children for his henchmen, crossing a line reserved for only the craziest or the most unscrupulous villains. Peter is then tossed into a new memory, as Doc Spidey snaps into a rage. Otto was beaten as a child, a memory Peter is now forced to watch. While he's watching this memory, he's unable to see whatever fight is happening outside. The fight here involves an aerial battle between Spidey and Vulture. Spidey's prepared, but he didn't anticipate Vulture upgrading his own arsenal and finds himself outmatched. However, he uses new friend J. Jonah Jameson's spider-beacon (an homage to the Bat-signal) to blind Vulture as they fly over it (with Doc utilizing his new polarized lenses) and crash the villain into the glass and heat of the lights, nearly killing him. Carlie and a couple police officers rush to the roof to find the carnage there and Doc tries to make Carlie understand what happened. More and more, though, it seems she knows what's really happening.

This issue was a nice switch from the last. It makes the Peter-in-Otto's-head bit far more interesting than just having him critique everything Otto does. It's also another chance to see Doc Spidey handling things his way, both with science and with whatever force necessary. Peter wouldn't ever consider killing as an option, or even injury such as this. He even pops into Doc's head from time to time begging him to go easy on Vulture because he's so old. Of course, Peter wasn't there to find that Vulture's new assistants were children so jury's out on how extreme his force would have been. It's an interesting plot device of making Otto do something possibly necessary or at least driven by good motives and have Peter only come in at the end to judge the outcome without knowing the full facts of the problem. This series seems off to a good start.

This week's picks

Let's assume that you do not have exorbitant wealth and thus don't want to but every comic that came out this past week. Let's also assume that you waited until Sunday to choose which books you wanted (BETTER HOPE THEY'RE NOT SOLD OUT). You've counted your pennies and now you're wondering which three books you should buy. DON'T WORRY, I'VE GOT THIS.

New Avengers 1

Honestly, buy this book. I'm hoping that the series maintains this pace and beauty and these characters (okay look, this issue was way more about Black Panther than the rest of the Illuminati and that would be OKAY BY ME, but I also like much of the Illuminati), but even if it peters off a little bit, it should still be a good series. That's how neat this first book was. I'm expecting it to stay good but this issue is very much a reason to spend your hard-earned money on COMIC BOOKS.






Daredevil: End of Days 4
This is going to depend on your feelings about Daredevil and on the rest of this series and on possible alternate futures so we're kind of banking on a lot here. But the art, by itself, is worth checking in on this book. The mystery is good, if a little dulled by now, and Ben Urich is a likable protagonist, as he's always been. We'll see how it moves, though I expect it'll be a reasonably good series that kind of drags on a bit as we see what's become of Daredevil's corner of the Marvel Universe before getting a jam-packed final issue or two.





Red She-Hulk 61

I know, I didn't think I was going to recommend this either. I was leaning towards Iron Man but Iron Man was the wrapping up of a good arc and the intro to what will probably be another good arc but it left this issue a little slowed down the middle. It's not bad and if you're an Iron Man fan it's probably more worth checking out than Red She-Hulk (and you probably will have already decided that), but Red She-Hulk surprises me with how much it has going on. I like the two separate Hulk personalities mixed with Betty's personality, I like the Tesla-as-guide-through-scientific-way-to-see-the-future (which I didn't really mention in this review as it happened a couple issues ago primarily but it's still all linked) and I like the SHIELD tie-in. I think big things are afoot, dear reader, and we'll see where they land us.



Overall kind of felt like a soft week. The stand-outs were pretty good but drop off a little after New Avengers. I have liked the Iron Man series so far, but this issue was a kind of in-between issue so I didn't necessarily find it as engaging as the ones I picked here. Still, comics are worth reading. Check these out if you're looking for somewhere to start.

New Avengers 1 and Daredevil: End of Days 4

New Avengers 1
Hickman (w) and Epting (a)

Wow. Yes. That's the way I'm starting this review. Because I'm a professional. I've been looking forward to this book since they teased it as the Illuminati's return. I have been pretty vocal on here already as to my distaste for Bendis' run on Avengers and New Avengers. Still, he did some things well and the guy's smart and clearly can be a good writer. One of the things I liked from his run, perhaps the thing I liked most, was the Illuminati. I like it because it's exactly what those characters would do; each one of them would consider himself worthy of making decisions for the world's behalf. Some might even be right in that assumption, not that they necessarily should do it. Black Panther walking out on the team upon his invitation was ALSO within character. It doesn't hurt that I'm particularly fond of Black Panther, and I like the rest of the team very much (Reed Richards not withstanding). So when Marvel showed that New Avengers would focus, at least to start, on the Illuminati returning, I was very excited. Excited enough that this could have been a big disappointment to me.

It's not. I mentioned the book in my top ten anticipated series list for 2013. One thing I didn't mention because I kept forgetting and I get a new wave of delight every time I remember is that Steve Epting is drawing the series. His run on Captain America was incredible and I have nothing but compliments to give. He does not disappoint here. Frank D'Armata does a great job as colorist, great enough that I noticed it instantly. There are only a handful of colorists that I really notice (I'm sorry, I'm usually focused on writing more than art and that makes me a bad fan for plenty of artists), like Bettie Breitweiser and Jordie Bellaire. So it really speaks to how gorgeous it is when I mention it here.

Now the story. I love seeing Wakanda. I love being a part of Wakanda. We get a good taste of a sort of ritual in Wakanda to lead the story, along with a view of T'Challa's new role as King of the Necropolis of Wakanda (instituted in Hickman's run on Fantastic Four), including a mention of feeling the pride of a former Wakandan king whose spirit he carries. More of that is bound to appear in this comic, hints at Wakanda's past and at its line of royalty. I'm onboard. Anyway, the story progresses and a portal opens in front of Panther and three young Wakandans from what appears to be an alternate reality or dimension. When they enter the portal, they find themselves facing a group of people, soldiers of a sort, and a lead woman. There is a version of Manifold, the former Secret Warrior who Hickman has re-introduced in his Avengers book, that is clearly not the 616's version (tip-off, he's white) with the head villain. She makes some ominous threats, her people kill the three Wakandans (who were shown as the strongest of the future generation of Wakanda after the short ritual to start the book) and she kills her Manifold before using a device he delivered to her to set the world floating above them on fire. Panther stops her a moment too late. He returns to his Wakanda, his earth, asking who answers the call of desperate men.

After a very movie-like two page spread, all black (spare a dark gray symbol), with white lettering that reads "New Avengers: Illuminati," the comic continues. We see Panther's feelings about each member of the Illuminati. Righteous men (Tony Stark), thinkers (Reed Richards), summoners (Dr. Strange), midnight kings (Black Bolt), and the devil himself (Namor). The comic ends with his plea for the goddess to save him "from what we are about to do." Surprise team-shot, Captain America leads the procession. I don't expect him to stay on this team, eventually he'll likely be replaced by Beast (who appears silhouetted on Jock's cover), but he became a part of it in Bendis' Avengers run.

It's an intriguing story with plenty of places to go and lots to say going forward. Because I'm dumb, I honestly hadn't even connected the fact that Namor would be coming to Wakanda, his first appearance there since the Phoenix-possessed Sub-Mariner destroyed the nation. Boy did that "and the devil himself" bit change that. The first entry in this series is majestic and huge. It's foreboding, it's a bit confusing (it is a Hickman book, after all), but in a good way. It makes you want to understand more and to read more. I really want to read more. And frankly, I want to see more. I cannot overstate how great the art was. Definitely worth buying and, even though it's been one issue, subscribing.


Daredevil: End of Days 4
Bendis and Mack (w) and Janson and Sienkiewicz with one page by Maleev (a)

I had a chat with the guy at the comic store about this series as I bought it. We talked about Marvel's attempts at doing these kinds of series every once in a while, these "the end" or "a character dies in the future that might could possibly happen" kind of things. They usually fall flat. We also talked about Bendis, agreeing that he's a good writer, but that his team books recently had started to sound the same. He said "I just don't see the Sentry quipping like Spider-Man, but there it was." It's entirely how I feel about Bendis. This review is not going in that direction.

This book has been startlingly good. I'm a Daredevil fan and I'm really a David Mack fan. His stories in Daredevil were some of my favorite, I adore Echo, and his art is unbelievable. That's not me trying to take away from Bendis to give this book a good review. I like Bendis. I often want to like Bendis more, but I agree with my comic book retailer's perception; with free reign and a team, he tends to quip more than write. Daredevil was a good book for him when he was the writer on it and his run there is the one I cite most frequently when arguing in his defense. I think he understands the darkness in Daredevil and I think he's better with a small cast. Avengers books tend now to feature a huge roster to bring as many fans in as possible. Smaller books don't have to do that. They can, but they don't have to. Daredevil is a prime example. Daredevil: End of Days is a sort of examination of that smaller cast. We see everyone. Well, we haven't seen Foggy, but we must at some point. We've seen Echo, Elektra, Typhoid Mary, Milla, and few others from Daredevil's past, as led by Ben Urich. This issue shows us Bullseye and Punisher, with a quick glance at one-time comic relief/low-level hood Turk. That probably makes the book sound more fun than it really is, but there is that level of fun to it. There's something going on just under the conspiracy of Daredevil's murder at the hands of the now suicidal Bullseye that's worth waiting around for. People are losing their grips. The word "Mapone" is floating around and making people extraordinarily tight-lipped. Every female from Matt's past has a red-headed child. To make matters more interesting/confusing, someone in a Daredevil suit is following Urich's investigation, just out of sight, and still catching criminals. There are things afoot.

Klaus Janson and Bill Sienkiewicz are doing a fine job in illustrating the book. It honestly feels like a mix of Daredevil's past just within the styles. There are hints of Frank Miller in the facial expressions, the broody shadows and rain of Alex Maleev, the sometimes painted look of Mack, and the occasional big and hectic scene shots inherent to the book overall. Maleev has one page in this book, a full page look at Bullseye tossing aces at the camera and looking crazy. It's kind of amazing.

If I had a complaint, it was that things are moving a little slowly. I like seeing this many people and I like the time they're given, but this is book four of eight. I'm not sure what the final payoff will be here, as excited about it as I am, but at current I'm having trouble justifying the eight issues. That could change as the series goes on and as more is revealed. However, right now it feels like we built up to the things we needed to build up to a couple issues ago and now we're kind of simmering, adding more to it, sure, but nothing we couldn't have guessed. Still, the art is worth checking out and the story is at a good point, it's just been there for a little bit now. I don't know if this will strike home with a lot of non-Daredevil fans, but why would you be reading about Daredevil's death if you didn't care about Daredevil anyway? Very fun, though, for a Daredevil fan.




Come back tomorrow for Morbius 1, All New X-Men 5, and Iron Man 5