There are still too many books left.
All-New Doop 5
Doop has learned that his mother is also his father and it's shaken him a bit. Still, with the help of Wolverine, he's able to settle himself down and restore the story to its rightful place, even wiping the memories of everyone involved so they can get back to the main narrative and he can return to his place in the margins. It's a nice conclusion for Doop and there's a nice moment between him and Kitty but still the limited series remains baffling to me, even insofar as why it exists. It's not helped by how much I disliked BATTLE OF THE ATOM.
Total Score: 2/5
All-New X-Factor 13
Quicksilver's press conference has shaken things up a bit for X-Factor as Polaris stands up for her half-brother to Harrison Snow and then helps him stand up to Gorgon of the Inhumans, who attacks Quicksilver as he takes Luna and Georgia on a trip to Pennsylvania. Gorgon is furious that Quicksilver betrayed the Inhumans and "stole" Luna away, though Luna stands up for her father. Though Quicksilver is prepared to accept his punishment, ex-wife Crystal shows up to calm the situation a bit, taking Gorgon home to Attilan and allowing Luna to stay with Pietro a little longer. Still some good heart in this series as the team begins to stand up for one another and as Quicksilver gets some more development to bring him back to a more respectable place in the Marvel Universe.
Total Score: 4/5
Avengers World 12
The Avengers and the new Euroforce work together to try to battle Morgan Le Fay in her new City of the Dead. After a quick bit of origin for each of the new Euroforce characters, Druid shows up to aid the team. Unfortunately, Le Fay quickly kills him. Bit of a surprise there. Anyway, another pretty strong showing here as Spencer does some quick work to create a bit of intrigue for Euroforce, begging us to ask where they've come from. I continue to quite like Checchetto's art.
Total Score: 4/5
Deadpool vs. X-Force 4
Deadpool has inauspiciously teamed with Hitler to help Talbot control the world in the present. At Deadpool's disposal is a special gun that will erase its target from all of existence. After some attempts to set the past right, Cable shows up to have a final battle with Deadpool and Talbot. As Deadpool turns the gun on Cable, Cable uses his as-yet unrevealed telekinesis to redirect the blast to hit Talbot, erasing him from all of time and creating something of a paradox but fixing all of the past as Talbot never hired Deadpool in the first place. Not a bad ending but not necessarily a series that I believe needed to exist.
Total Score: 3/5
Hawkeye vs. Deadpool 0
A hacker has been targeted after stealing the HR records of every active SHIELD agent. On Halloween, he attempts to get help from Hawkeye, who mistakes him for another ungrateful trick-or-treater and turns him away. He runs into Deadpool on his way out and slips his flash drive into the merc's candy basket. The hacker ends up murdered by a pair of goons dressed up like Punisher and Daredevil and quoting patriotic aphorisms. Deadpool and Hawkeye don't want to team up to solve this murder and protect SHIELD but it looks like they may be forced to, particularly as it seems like they may be going up against Black Cat sooner or later. Pretty fun first issue here as Duggan and Lolli play with Deadpool's typical writing and with homages to Hawkeye's current series that mostly hit the mark. Could be a fun team-up.
Total Score: 4/5
Legendary Star-Lord 3
Star-Lord has been captured by the Badoon and wakes up in a Badoon jail along with a young Badoon child and a spy. With some help from Kitty Pryde in the form of a hologram, the trio break out of their cell and head for safety. Despite a hatred for the Badoon, Star-Lord is won over by the young Badoon child who leads Quill to a nice new ship, which he uses to bring the child to the orphanage he robbed in the first issue. Next stop: Earth for a confrontation with Thanos. I continue to believe that this series isn't living up to its potential, which I think could be a pretty high ceiling. Instead, it feels like, as I said last issue, the opposite of ROCKET RACCOON, seemingly trapped in the Marvel Universe and too attached to the new mythos of
Guardians of the Galaxy (complete with a terrible "OOGA CHAKA" reference). Give me something fun and crazy, not something that feels tied down.
Total Score: 2/5
Punisher 10
Punisher is in prison after his last run-in with Black Widow but prisons mean very little Frank Castle, who quickly enrages the right people and causes a prison riot, allowing him time to go talk to an older man in the prison named Hector Ruiz. Meanwhile, LA has exploded in crime rates and the police officers find themselves becoming more violent in response, with many getting suspended as a result of their actions even as the Dos Sols prepare for another strike. Edmondson keeps the tension up here though this one is still rather a break issue, giving us a chance to settle back into the LA storyline after a bit of time removed. Strong work and I really like that cover right over there.
Total Score: 4/5
She-Hulk 8
An elderly Captain America has gone to She-Hulk for help after a deathbed confession from a ninety year-old man questions whether or not Cap killed a man decades and decades ago. As She-Hulk attempts to take the California-based case, she runs into a handful of problems and concerns, only to have them reach their breaking point when she learns she's going up against friend and fellow hero Matt Murdock in court. This book continues to be rather unlike any other book out there right now as it acts as half procedural and half superhero book. The case gets more and more complicated but it's happening on a backdrop of excellent character work and really strong Javier Pulido art.
Total Score: 5/5
Spider-Man 2099 3
Miguel O'Hara worries what his reveal to Liz Allan will bring him at work and learns quickly that it will bring him something just short of blackmail, as she requires he accompany Tiberius Stone as Stone goes to a war-torn nation to sell Spider Slayers to the government, despite his objections. Sure enough, as soon as the two arrive, Stone is kidnapped by the rebelling forces. Unfortunately for those forces, Spider-Man 2099 isn't the only protection Stone has, as the corporation had already sent Scorpion to help against the uprising and that the Spider Slayers are already active in the country. There are some interesting ideas here but it's so far a little hard to stay invested in these characters, as David insists we care to some extent about what Liz Allan has to say about things and about Tiberius Stone, whose survival O'Hara counts on for his own life. Certainly not all bad but also not compelling enough to differentiate itself.
Total Score: 3/5
Superior Foes of Spider-Man 15
Shocker yells at his old team for betraying him but ends up, of course, betrayed again as the new Sinister Six suddenly finds themselves winning all over the place after a successful raid of Owl's compound and now sitting on the head of Silvermane that could make them heads of the Maggia. After a successful fight against some of their hired help, angry to be cut out of the deal, things seem to be looking up for the villain team...until Owl teams up with Chameleon to find Boomerang, Overdrive makes a deal with Mr. Negative to give him the head of Silvermane, Beetle gives Tombstone the info about the head of Silvermane, and Speed Demon offers the head of Silvermane to Madam Masque because she's hot. Still plenty of fun with a lot of laughs and some great moments, particularly as the issue winds down and we start to see, juxtaposed with Boomerang's pride in the team, the many betrayals upcoming.
Total Score: 4/5
Uncanny X-Men 25
The will of Charles Xavier includes, as we learned last time, the fact he married Mystique but it also includes the revelation that there is an extraordinarily powerful mutant out there named Matthew Malloy who Xavier met when Malloy was a child and who he realized was too powerful to allow to continue his regular life. Xavier installed a series of mental blocks to dampen the child's power and visited him yearly in the guise of another child until Malloy caught on to Xavier's trickery and asked him what was really happening. When he learned, he wanted all of his memories removed and the mental blocks reinforced. Now, with Xavier dead, the responsibility of checking in on Malloy falls to his X-Men, a task that may be trouble as Malloy's mental blocks have been removed and the young man finds himself burdened with immense power. There's an interesting story here but it's absolutely buried under narration, dialogue, petty fights, and banter. Also, the story isn't
that interesting, let's calm down, okay?
Total Score: 2/5
X-Men 19
Jubilee, with some consultation help from Beast, manages to reboot the Peak's systems and repair the shielding while the psychics on the team take out the attacking Sidrian Hunters. Monet, Psylocke, and Rachel Grey take a shuttle out to the last place Deathbird had shown them in her memory, meeting up with a few Shi'ar on the way. Meanwhile, Storm tries to repair the Peak but runs into complications as she's already exhausted from the last battle and is asked to generate electricity herself (not the way her powers work) and power up the ship. She may be in trouble as the suspicious Manifold Tyger attempts to "aid" her while the psychics discover that Deathbird had been brought by the Brood to a place where she and other creatures were experimented on. Some of the experiments, sadly, are still there and ready to attack. Like the last issue, some of the ideas are pretty strong and the dialogue and characters are particularly well done here. It's a good story that's utilizing every member of the team pretty well.
Total Score: 4/5
Scourge is being transferred to federal prison and the Ultimates want to watch over the transfer, which proves to be the right thing to do as a white-supremacist group, believing Scourge to be one of them, breaks him out. The Ultimates stop the racists but Scourge, who doesn't want to be associated with the white-supremacist group, gets away. Dagger is wounded in the fight and she and Cloak leave to get medical assistance, only to be sniped by a mysterious assailant, thus showcasing the one exciting moment this series has ever had, though also distracting from it by dealing with more relationship crap just beforehand. Total Score: 3/5
Years ago, Dr. Strange sent Hulk to a mystical crossroads where he could access a number of other planets, ones where he couldn't do harm. While on trial for his unilateral decision on Earth, a representative from one of the planets Hulk could visit appears and accuses Strange of genocide, sending Hulk to his planet. Strange, accompanied by a SHIELD agent, heads to the other world to find that Hulk has destroyed weapon after weapon the citizens have sent after him and that he has a cave full of dead citizens. This one's certainly a more interesting storyline than the last and Strange is proving to be compelling all on his own. Pretty strong work, though I'd like to see a little more before I make a judgment on it. Total Score: 4/5
