Iron Man 26, Iron Patriot 3

Iron Man 26

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

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

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

Total Score: 4/5

Iron Patriot 3

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

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

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

Total Score: 5/5

Iron Man 24, Captain Marvel 2

Iron Man 24
Gillen (w) and Ross (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Tony's trip into Svartalfheim is not off to a great start as he has been quickly spotted. He's able to fight off the first wave of Dark Elves but his stealth suit isn't really made for combat and so he's forced to flee when Malekith attacks and before Shevaun can send the weapon he needs. He escapes into the woods and hides out, hoping that he left enough of a trail for his pursuers to track him. Malekith, who holds four rings (Spectral, Incandescence, Remaker, and Lightning), divvies up his rings among the search parties, giving the leader of each a different ring and keeping the Remaker for himself. Shevaun sends the gun, tailor made to defeat elves and rings alike, to Tony's new location and he's able to use it to put down the holder of the Incandescence ring, taking it back, but he's forced to cloak again when the others arrive. Malekith taunts him, knowing that he's around, and really cuts to the core of Tony. When he and the rest of the elves leave, preferring to wait for Tony's eventual emergence rather than searching him out. Shevaun suggests that Tony use the third and final available portal to come home with a partial mission success but he refuses, furious with Malekith. Instead, he has Shevaun send his big, dwarf-killing armor to him.

It's a real culture clash over here as Tony learns that the Dark Elves are maybe a little bit more than he bargained for and that maybe he's not entirely prepared to wage war against them. Just when those thoughts are settling though, Malekith, who used Tony's flesh to see into his heart, starts talking about Tony being an unwanted child and how the Dark Elves are no strangers to unwanted children; they just tend to eat them because, as Malekith puts it, what else are they good for? It calls back on some of the thoughts that Tony has had to put aside in order to deal with his city and the Mandarin rings but that are clearly still pretty powerful in his mind. That alone would make for an interesting story but putting Tony in Svartalfheim up against a vicious enemy powerful already wielding three rings that make him much more powerful seems like the recipe for success. We'll see next how the Dark Elves, with a notable hatred for iron, deal with one of Tony's offensive suits instead of his defensive one. Plenty of good stuff happening here and I think the adrenaline is really about to start pumping.

Captain Marvel 2
DeConnick (w) and D. Lopez (a) and Loughridge (c)

Captain Marvel is transporting the Nowlian girl Tic to the planet Torfa, where supposedly the rest of her people have been moved after the Builders destroyed their home planet. She and her ship, with an AI named Harrison, and her cat Chewie who, apparently every single person on Earth refused to watch (not that unbelievable), are intercepted by two smuggler ships guarded by a mercenary ship. She explains her mission but the mercenaries, on the order of their client, fire on her anyway. The ship takes damage quickly and Carol is forced into the fight herself, directing Harrison to protect the medical bay and get the thrusters up while she deals with and/or distracts the ships. Out in space she begins to tear apart the smuggler ships. The mercenary ship flees as the Guardians of the Galaxy show up to dispatch the ship on her tail. Carol's ship and the Guardians' ship link so that Rocket can help with the repairs but he pretty quickly starts attacking Chewie, swearing that it's a Flerken and not a cat. Carol and Star-Lord separate them and she finds out that Torfa seems to be a poisonous planet so perhaps bringing the girl there isn't the best plan. Meanwhile, the gunfire as Rocket attacked Chewie woke up Tic and she emerges as Star-Lord reveals to Carol that he's the son of J-Son, which isn't what Tic wanted to hear. She flees into Carol's ship, locking them all on the Guardians' ship in the hopes that she'll be able to steal it. Captain Marvel sets out after her by herself in the depths of space, anxious to get her ship back and to rescue her cat.

Good introduction of the Guardians here, with whom Carol is primed to spend a good amount of time. She's immediately accepted and the DeConnick does a pretty good job writing all of the Guardians, though we really only get extended dialogue and looks at Star-Lord and Rocket. In addition, any thought that the book might suffer unduly from the loss of Carol's supporting cast (Wendy, Spider-Woman, Tracy, Kit, Frank, etc) should be more or less assuaged here. We're only an issue removed from her leaving them all behind and going into space but it's clear that DeConnick's take on Carol and her character alone are certainly capable of carrying a book. Obviously the introduction of the Guardians and the hint from the first issue that Captain Marvel will form a team of her own don't hurt things but regardless, Carol has returned to this book as the same strong and confident character, totally able to drive a book, that she left the last series as. David Lopez's art is remarkably good and he draws a mean Carol as well as a mean suited-up Captain Marvel, all of which I was happy about and, admittedly, a little relieved about because I did not particularly care for Lopez's cover. Fans of the last series should absolutely be picking this one up. It has the same heart and the same enthusiasm as the first series, not to mention that there are already a couple of irons in the fire for story ideas and new characters. Even if you didn't read the first series, check this one out, see if the tone is for you. I find it hard to think it isn't.

Revolutionary War - Omega 1, Miracleman 4

Revolutionary War - Omega 1
Lanning and Cowsill (w) and Elson (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Killpower has emerged from Hell as Mephisto's servant and he's intent on bring Hell to Earth and making his former friends pay for leaving him behind and forgetting about him. Some of the plot, including how the demons were able to get through to Earth and some of the specifics of the plan, comes to light but that's for yesterday and today is for taking down Killpower and his demons. The heroes who were captured and linked up to the portal to power it are freed and immediately dive back into the fight, as do all the heroes we've seen so far. Even Liger manages to keep moving, trying to call the wounded heroes to action. Demons are attacking all over the world and it's up to the UK heroes to stop it. When all hope seems lost, Motormouth appears and stuns Killpower enough that he comes to his senses a bit. Not a boy any longer, he recognizes that he's done bad things and that he can't escape them and that Mephisto used the rage deep down inside to control him. He begs that they kill him before he loses control to it again and, while Captain Britain and Motormouth refuse, plenty of the mercenary characters hear his plea and accommodate him. With Killpower dead, Dark Angel is able to use his mind and the demonic power of all the demons around to force Hell back down and close the portal for good. There's some wrap-up as the heroes go their separate ways; Dark Angel continues to be bound to Mephisto, Liger and Keller (now free of his demon) enter the portal to try to save Kether Troop, Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom return to their roles, etc. Captain Britain sends us off, saying that there's a history of secrets, murder, and magic beneath London but that the streets and heroes belong to the future.

It's a fine send-off as everything wraps up rather nicely. Not everyone could be saved but it's a nice introduction to a lot of these characters who are primed to go off on their own adventures should anyone feel the urge to write them or to follow them. One of the downfalls of this series, simply through its design, is that it's really hard to get a sense of a lot of the characters. Many appeared only in one book prior to this finale, where everyone appeared but no one character had much screentime, and those books were all team books of a sort, barring perhaps Dark Angel and Motormouth. As a result, a couple of the characters (like Dark Angel and Motormouth) are characterized fairly well, at least as well as a single issue can cover, while others hardly feel explored at all. Hopefully a series like this does lead to more sorts of events or interactions with the Marvel Universe et al (Dark Angel has already made her way over to IRON MAN and characters like Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, and Union Jack are no strangers to many of the more-known heroes) because there's clearly plenty to see here, even if this event wasn't a great place to see it all. At the end of the day though, isn't that the best outcome for which this series could have hoped? That people out there would read it all the way through and say "I'm not sure that was my cup of tea (British), but I'd be interested in seeing more of these characters?" Mission accomplished, I'd say.

Miracleman 4
A. Moore (w) and A. Davis and Leach (a) and Oliff (c)

HEY EVERYONE, before I start this review it's worth noting that I missed the last issue because I had other things going on and this was the easiest book to cut from my schedule. Now that it's back on there, I'll recap very briefly: Miracleman and Kid Miracleman, now not a kid and totally evil and super-duper powerful, fought some more and just when it looked like KM would win, he accidentally said "Miracleman" and changed back to little 13 year-old Johnny Bates. He was taken into care as he seemed like he wasn't responsible for the actions of the villain but we know that that villain is still in him, just biding his time. Meanwhile, the government sent out an old project they'd abandoned when they thought supers were gone, a failsafe plan, and they sent him, a man named Evelyn Cream, to kill Miracleman. Miracleman learns some more about his powers with his wife Liz and Liz reveals that she's pregnant and it's Miracleman's kid, if there's any difference between Michael and Miracle. Michael goes two months later to see if there's work for him at the newspaper and, on his way home, Cream shoots him in the gut, using a baby as a hostage so he can't transform into MM. Now on to this issue!

Evelyn Cream shot Mike Moran with tranquilizers and brought him back to a safehouse. In that safehouse, he explains that he's betrayed his employers but he's done it because he believes Miracleman can help him and that he can help Miracleman. He informs him that Miracleman was created by a branch of the government called the Spookshow for a project called Project Zarathustra and that the Spookshow is responsible for the A-bomb that nearly killed him and killed his friend Young Miracleman. He also tells Miracleman that there's a bunker for Project Zarathustra still out there, a bunker that the Spookshow's chief Sir Dennis Archer doesn't want found. He also warns MM that the trip could be dangerous and full of traps but MM has no problem with that and the two take off. He has no problem as soldiers come to kill him and land mines go off around him and even as a bomb erupts beneath his feet. The final defense, a failed and now crazed superhero borne from Project Zarathustra named Big Ben, also fails to even slow MM and soon he and Cream are in the bunker, examining video reports where MM learns that he and the other two young men were experimented on after being pulled from the system as simply the orphaned children of war veterans. What's more, they had done extensive testing on the would-be heroes in a sort of virtual reality environment that had kept them under for eight years and had instilled false memories in them. The tipping point for MM is finding out that the brains behind Project Zarathustra is none other than his one time perceived biggest villain Emil Gargunza. He trashes the bunker, causing thousands of pounds of damage, and the two depart, leaving Big Ben, who heard about his failed origin, nearly comatose behind them.

It continues to be a really interesting story (it's hard to keep saying that because it's a story that's thirty years old and it's impossible to be anything but absurdly late to this party) and one that pretty masterfully updates the old comics for this new world and new universe. I've given a lot of credit in recent days to books like IRON MAN, which took the original origin of a character and shifted it just enough so that there's a wealth of new stories and a huge twist for the character but still respected everything that came before. Likewise, Ed Brubaker did a fantastic job in CAPTAIN AMERICA of rewriting the Invaders and aging Bucky a bit to make it more believable while simultaneously showing him as doing more of the black ops kind of stuff the Invaders needed to have done, an origin for Bucky that makes far more sense but still carefully treads around the old comics. In the reverse, I talked just earlier THIS DAY about a terrible change to an origin when Marvel decided to ruin Falcon's first appearance by retconning it to all be a ploy to get at Captain America while also setting back his character a solid few decades. This one certainly lands in the category of the former examples as Moore wonderfully respected the early stories, leaving them intact, but made the story entirely his own and updated it to work in a world that was far more cynical and wanted something darker, like Moore and Frank Miller were able to provide. It's impressive stuff and good storytelling. The books tend to be a little wordy as the narration tends to really kick it up a notch in a way that modern comics rarely do but you hardly notice it while you're reading because it's usually worthwhile stuff. This one's a classic for a reason, keep checking in on it.

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.