A+X 16, Infinity: Heist 4, Inhumanity: The Awakening 2

A+X 16
Spider-Man and Psylocke: S. Ryan (w) and Parlov (a) and Gandini (c)
Captain America and Cyclops (and so many friends): Duggan (w) and Yardin, C. Smith, N. Lee, and Pallot (a) and Mossa (c)

In our first story (set several years ago), Spider-Man happens to be swinging by a restaurant when he hears a crash. He goes to check it out and finds Psylocke in there, surrounded by sword-wielding men in suits. He helps her dispatch of them but, as she tries to interrogate one, one of the felled men drops a grenade. Spidey stays out of the blast radius but Psylocke ends up impaled by a sword on the ground. Spidey rushes to her side and immediately realizes he can't move her. She doesn't want him to leave for help and so he stays as she tries to hold on to consciousness. Right as it seems like she might be fading, the X-Men show up and take her away, presumably to save her (she's still alive now, isn't she?) and Spider-Man makes his way home. Weird little story, doesn't seem to fit any where but it's a nice intimate look into the superhero community, which I suppose is the goal of this series. The story moves well and the art works well enough for it so I guess I can't complain. Still a little weird though, right?

Continuing the long Cap+Cyclops saga, the assembled team squares off against Cadre K, the Skrulls who were trained by Charles Xavier and who are hiding out on the planet. In the middle of their big fight, Emma Frost realizes that they're not doing anything wrong here and informs the heroes. Everyone stops the fight and they talk for a bit as Cadre K explains that they're just trying to make a decent living for themselves out on the farm and trying to keep the cattle who have Skrull DNA in them out of other farms and out of processed foods in America (some of their farm is comprised of the cattle that Reed Richards convinced Skrulls to be on their first trip to Earth, a move everyone considers pretty jerky). The heroes decide there's nothing wrong with what they're doing (in fact, they'd prefer those cows stay out of the market) and promise to stop fighting against them and fight for them as need be. Unfortunately, the LMD Cap and Cyclops have been working with shows up and reveals that he, Cap, and Cyclops have been infected with nano-Doombots who have monitored everything so Doom is likely on his way to capture these Skrulls. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer to see a resolution between Cap and Cyclops.

Infinity: Heist 4
Tieri (w) and Barrionuevo, Bachs, N. Edwards, Domingues, and Rauch (a) and Sotocolor and Mossa (c)

The supervillain team-up not in league with Captain Atlas of the Kree (so pretty much just not Spymaster) present have been imprisoned and knocked out so that they can be executed (weird that they're waiting) by the Iron Man soldiers that they helped to steal, unwittingly, for the Kree Empire. We'll get back to that, okay? Anyway, Unicorn goes crazy and manages to break them out of their containment and, with the help of a remote controlled Iron Man who has figured out what's happening here and the help of Blizzard's new Inhuman powers (which apparently act as a battery, so he overcharges a lot of the armors), they manage to defeat Atlas and Spymaster. Not willing to let his pals go down for the fight, Blizzard flies the remote Iron Man out and freezes them both while the others escape. When the pair come to, Iron Man shuttles Blizzard off to jail, where the SHIELD psych team gives him a dream of joining up with the Inhumans on Attilan while Whirlwind and Firebrand start a relationship over again in the tropics.

There was a time this week where I wasn't sure I'd be able to read this book in time to review and, well, I'm kind of jealous of that possible-timeline-Tim. I haven't totally hated this series overall and I don't totally hate this last issue but I certainly don't care for it. There's plenty here that doesn't quite gel for me. First and foremost is the idea that someone from the Kree Empire is deadset on stealing Tony Stark armor and using B-List villains to do it, including hiring Spymaster to coordinate the whole thing. One of the biggest things about the Kree Empire is that they're masters of technology. I don't really see them going crazy to steal all of Tony Stark's outdated armor. I know that might seem like a minor flaw but really, it's the plot point that's driving LITERALLY EVERYTHING we've seen in this mini-series so not buying it means that the whole series is weak. Also, everyone looks and sounds rather the same (aside from Firebrand, who at least looks different, thanks to being the only woman in this series) so it's hard to tell exactly what's happening at any one time. The final reveal that Blizzard is actually dreaming his future with the Inhumans is played like a big and shocking reveal but it's really not that big a reveal and it's not that meaningful because, again, B-list villain who we haven't really grown to love in this series, despite what Tieri might think. Ah well, at least the final piece of INFINITY seems to be over, which is more than we can say for AVENGERS VS. X-MEN, am I right A+X?

Inhumanity: The Awakening 2
Kindt (w) and Davidson (a) and Beaulieu (c)

The assortment of kids (I'd be fine if that was their superhero team name - The Assortment of Kids! Actually, never mind, I'm going to use that one, copyright Tim Nicastro 2014) manage to track down new Inhuman Fiona's new Inhuman brother Flynn after he destroys an apartment building which we learn was the apartment building that housed the jerk kids who nearly tortured Fiona in the park before she flew away. He was doing it out of love and a severe anger problem, that's all! So the Assortment of Kids® goes to meet up with Flynn and Finesse talks him down from his anger, explaining a bit of her history to sympathize. They stage it so that it looks like the apartment building was actually just the result of an Inhuman transformation and then they give Flynn and Fiona a choice of which superkid school they want to go to: Flynn chooses the Latverian School of Science (geez guys, warning bells, huh?) and Fiona checks all of them out to learn she's not alone in the world.

Like the last issue, this one is framed by social media. It's a little less intrusive here as we don't follow the Instagram account of anyone in the book but it's still pretty prevalent as every page shows a weird non-sequiter sort of Twitter conversation between two people who seem unrelated with all of this and it's weird and creepy and I do not care for it. One of the blurbs from one of the creators at the end of YOUNG AVENGERS this week called YOUNG AVENGERS the perfect comic for the Tumblr generation (which I a little resent because I loved that book and similarly hate that generation but I understand what it's saying) and it feels like this book is trying just super hard to be named that. Instead, I think it flounders and gets a little too heavy-handed about these kids not fitting in and finding their place and so on and so forth. On top of it, the art is a little bit weird and kind of makes everyone look super ugly super all the time. Also, I just really can't say enough how much I don't need a Twitter feed going across the top of a comic book. Gross. Hope no one was looking for interesting action from the cover of this one! Plus side: the book that this one advertises at the end of this one is AVENGERS UNDERCOVER, which I'm looking forward to and, more importantly, which isn't this one.

New Avengers 12, Infinity: Heist 3, Infinity the Hunt 4

New Avengers 12
Hickman (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c)

Infinity officially wraps up (about three days later, sorry guys) as we see the aftermath in Wakanda, the biggest strike zone for Thanos' troops. With Thanos and his troops withdrawing, dead, or captured, Shuri can't help but notice T'Challa's absence in the fight. She goes to question him on it in Necropolis, where, he says, he also had to fight Thanos and his Black Order. She demands to know what it is he's been doing and he deflects, but he's quickly betrayed by the royal guards, the Hatut Zaraze, and his once faithful personal guards, the Dora Milaje, who tell Shuri that he's been bringing foreigners in and that one of those foreigners is Namor, king of the land Wakanda is battling. T'Challa continues to deflect accusations and questions and Shuri bans him from entering Wakanda. As they leave, Namor himself appears and applauds T'Challa for the bravery he's shown in refusing to give up the Illuminati, no matter the cost. Meanwhile, Reed, Tony, and Hank go to chat with Black Swan, who laughs at their fight with the Builders, saying that you don't mind a dog when facing a demon. Back at his Sanctum Sanctorum, Dr. Strange is ready give up everything he believed in himself to take a more active role in defending the Earth.

The problem that I tend to have with events (well, one of them) is that I don't think the need to focus on huge plots gives enough chance to see what these events are doing to the characters. Sometimes we'll see their reactions in the aftermath or very briefly in the moment but by and large we don't get a true look at the characters as humans in their moment, one of Marvel's long-time biggest strengths. This issue, though, helps to prove that wrong. There's a ton going on and it gives us a look at nearly everyone in the Illuminati and the issues they're each dealing with. It's actually painful watching Black Panther get cast out of his beloved Wakanda simply because he can't tell Shuri what's happening. It's even painful from Shuri's perspective, as she throws out her brother, who she's always loved and admired. I'd say that Panther is helped by the fact that I adore T'Challa and understand his relationship to Shuri and Wakanda but I also felt pained by Namor's speech to Black Panther and by Dr. Strange's somewhat useless feeling and his sudden change in response to the Ebony Maw's recent takeover. Okay, I love both of those characters too but I think the point is still the same. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and every one of these characters has a crown of some sort, as was the conceit of the team. Really well done and some of my favorite Deodato art in a book lately.

Infinity: Heist 3
Tieri (w) and Barrionuevo w/ Olliffe (a) and Sotocolor (c)

Spymaster's assembled team breaks into Stark Tower, currently guarded by what MIGHT be the Mighty Avengers while the Avengers are in space, and manage to, after a little bit of in-fighting, open the door to the armor-vault. Once inside, Blizzard, Firebrand, and Whirlwind attack the other team members, knowing that they'll end up dead in the vault if they don't take action first. After the brief attack, Blizzard lets up and tells the other members that he's ready to finish the job but that he does't want to end up dead afterwards. They agree, for the moment, to these terms and Spymaster tags all of the armor, sending it to the buyer directly before sending himself away too, intending to take all of the payment for himself. By this point, the Mighty Avengers have been alerted and attack, leaving the team angry and needing an escape. Titanium Man offers a chance to resolve both, offering to bring them to the buyer as well. They reluctantly accept and get transported to the buyer, who is, of course, Titanium Man, who takes off his helmet to reveal Captain Atlas of the Kree empire.

Pretty hard to follow this one, in some terms. Not that the plot is particularly difficult; no, you could pretty easily follow each step without any complications. That's definitely good, though, as everyone is wearing excessive armor and things and it gets pretty hard to tell who everyone is at any time. The villains aren't the only ones; I emphasized "might" in that first sentence because I'm still not totally sure it was the Mighty Avengers. The art isn't exactly bad, I would say, but it is exactly bad in the sense that it's hard to keep up with the story and the characters when you're not entirely sure who each character is. As I said, the story itself isn't that complicated which really saves it in a way because it would be hard to tell what was happening if the story wasn't so easy. However, it comes at the expense of the story continuing to be a little less than exciting. Now the Kree are involved, so let's see what happens the next time out.

Infinity the Hunt 4
Kindt (w) and Sanders w/ P. Diaz and D. Donovan (a) and Campbell w/ Silva (C)

The kids heading to Atlantis find themselves caught inside a giant whale but, well, it's not as bad as it seems. The whale creature, named Leviathan, is psychically linked with a girl from Atlantis named Whalesong and is actually saving them. Whalesong lets them know, from more psychic images, that Atlantis is relatively safe now and that Thanos has brought his legion to Wakanda. The kids, with the help of Leviathan, go to Wakanda after some argument and immediately join the fray there, hoping to help Shuri. Shuri won't accept their help, refusing to put kids in danger and feeling that Wakanda can still handle itself. Some of the monsters, though, are too much to handle and it requires everyone pitching in. Thanks in large part to the strategic mind of Gang, the kids win out and manage to help protect Wakanda. The games have been a failure but everyone still learned a valuable lesson about...um, working together, I guess?

I hate to bring this up again but AVENGERS ARENA wouldn't have worked nearly as well, if at all, if Hopeless hadn't insisted on dedicating full issues to individual characters, building up who each was before showing what they were all up against and how they were going to survive (or not survive, as the case may be). INFINITY THE HUNT doesn't have the benefit of 18 issues to let everyone in on every character and I think it suffers for it. Kindt makes the savvy decision to make Quentin Quire the narrator of this issue, even though he's not overly important to the issue or the story as a whole (in truth, Gang probably has the most to do here), because he's probably the one we know best, meaning Kindt doesn't have to worry too much about establishing him, he's already there. Still, it's hard to feel a weight to this story because you just can't care about all of the characters. Sure, you don't want anyone to die but you also can't really concern yourself if they do in this case. It makes the lesson feel forced and cliché (well, it is cliché, which doesn't help) and it makes you lose any sort of attachment. I'd be okay if this annual game thing wasn't really an annual game thing we had to see.

Infinity the Hunt 3, Infinity: Heist 2

Infinity the Hunt 3
Kindt (w) and Sanders (a) and Campbell (c)

The kids at the Pan-Asian School, who were launched into space as a protective measure to keep them from the attacks on the ground, have re-routed themselves and crashed down in Wakanda, hoping to fix up their pod and send it to Atlantis to help the Atlantis students. Wakanda, of course, has problems enough as it is and the students from Wakanda have very little interest in helping out Atlantis. The Pan-Asian students help convince them to be the better heroes and, when they eventually arrive, they find that the other kids have beaten them to the area, though the situation itself is pretty dire as Atlantis is already in trouble and these kids have little training and little experience working together. They do their best, which is considerably good, but, in the end, everyone seems primed to be eaten by a ridiculously giant sea-creature.

My problems with this series continue pretty unabated; we're inventing too many new people to really have stakes. There are a handful of students we already know and they're the only ones we can really pick out and, therefore, hope survive. Sure, it'd be neat if everyone made it out alive, but we don't know these other guys, you know? There's no connection and there's no chance to really, in such a short tie-in, make a connection. I'd also say, and this might be only for me personally, that, for as long as the X-kids we're seeing here (like Quentin Quire and Sprite) have been around, I care way more about the FF kids and the Avengers Academy kids, again limiting the weight of the series. It's not necessarily a bad story, per se, it's just...kind of empty?

Infinity: Heist 2
Tieri (w) and Barrionuevo (a) and Pantazis, Mossa, Loughridge, and Fabela (c)

Blizzard passing out last issue, it turns out, was a result of the Terrigen Mists spreading over Earth. That's right, Blizzard is an Inhuman. Now that he's awoken, he sees his transformation as a way to start his life over. He's not quite sure what his transformation means for his powers or anything else but now seems like a good time to turn his life around. Of course, it comes at a bad time for everyone around him, as Spymaster doesn't take the decision to bow out of the heist very well. In retribution, he attacks Blizzard's friend Whirlwind and, when she tries to intercede, Firebrand. He insist they follow-through lest worse happen to them, though he secretly tells Whiplash that none of them is to make it out of the next day alive.

This has a little more weight to it than Infinity the Hunt. It might be because we know the characters a little bit more, it might be because we know the story a little bit better (villain wants to turn his life around but gets pulled back in), or it might just be because it's a smaller cast here. Really, we're only on the side of three people, whereas, in the Hunt, we're on the side of like, probably a billion kids. Granted, they're kids, but they're mostly teenagers and teenagers can be pretty annoying. Who hasn't pictured them eaten by a giant sea-creature at some point? I...I sense I'm getting a little off-topic here. Anyway, this one is decent. There are stakes, there's an enemy who has proven himself fairly powerful and not to be trifled with, there's redemption, there's backstabbing (even for villains), there's a new power-set to be revealed, etc. Plenty happening here to at least make this an entertaining, if not particularly memorable, story.

Infinity: Heist 1, A+X 12

Infinity: Heist 1
Tieri (w) and Barrionuevo (a) and Sotomayor (c)

The Avengers are up in space which means it's open season for the supervillains of Earth. Of course, it's not quite as straightforward as that because there are still a number of heroes left on the planet but that's the mentality of the supervillains. That mentality is out in full force as Blizzard and Whirlwind plan an attack on the Wakandan embassy, which just received a shipment of gold. They successfully break in and fight their way past the Wakandans only to find Spymaster waiting for them in the vault. He's already stolen the gold (and diamonds!) and sold them but he has another job for them, one that is even better paying. They meet him at a supervillain nightclub (these pop up pretty frequently) and find their team, adding Whiplash, Unicorn, and Firebrand to the duo. Spymaster explains that they're going to rip off Tony Stark then introduces the last member of their team, Titanium Man. As soon as Titanium Man bursts into the room, Blizzard has some sort of attack and can't breathe, collapsing to the floor.

It's a little hard not to compare this to Superior Foes of Spider-Man because there are some obvious similarities. First and foremost, we're focusing on the supervillains. I'd also put Whirlwind and Blizzard on the same level as Boomerang and company (okay, maybe a tiny step up, if only because "whirlwind" and "blizzard" are both Pokémon moves and therefore more dangerous while "Boomerang" is not. If his name was "Bonemarang," maybe he'd have a case). The tones aren't dissimilar, though I'd say that Spencer's book aims for the funny more than this one does (though there are comedy bits in here too). However, with the similarities come the same overall problems. A book like this relies very heavily on characterization of these villains, who have only ever been characterized as villains before. Some may have more nuances to them, depending on how long they've been around and who's handled them before, while some may have fewer. However, they're not, for most people, the characters we've long been rooting for. As a writer, you have to make the villains sympathetic enough that you want them to kind of succeed, or at least not die trying to fight the hero we're actually rooting for. Because, in most cases, the reader goes in rooting against your protagonist and the antagonist is the hero your reader does care about. Tricky stuff here. We'll have to let this one carry on a bit further before any judgement can be made.

A+X 12
Wonder Man and Beast: Gage (w) and D. Williams (a) and Gandini (c)
Captain America and Jubilee: Jordan (w) and Unzueta (a) and Mason (c)

This issue of A+X feels a little more like the form this book should be taking, or at least one of the forms it should be taking. The first story re-teams former Avengers and former best pals Wonder Man and Beast as they decide to meet up for drinks at a bar. The two reminisce a bit before each expresses disappointment in what the other has become. For Beast, Wonder Man going crazy and attacking Avengers before becoming a superhero pacifist is a strange turn and for Wonder Man, Beast bringing the original X-Men forward in time to relive the past is completely out of character. And guess what, I agree on both counts. Wholeheartedly. Anyway, the two wonder if they can recover their friendship and decide to go out on the town like they used to. It's a nice night out for the two of them and they return to the bar toward the end of it, only to walk home drunkenly singing like they used to. It's not a bad story (and this is coming from someone who doesn't really care for Wonder Man) and finally shows characters in the Marvel Universe making some sense. Wonder Man's a pacifist? Beast, the scientific genius who would like nothing more than to talk about the dangers of time travel, bringing the original X-Men to the present? It's a crazy, crazy, sometimes ridiculous plot-driven world out there and someone is finally highlighting it. Christos Gage, even in his random one-shot appearances here and again, writes some compelling characters and relationships, I tell you what. Hoping to meet him tomorrow at Granite State Comic-Con but THAT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER HERE, DOES IT?

The second story is one of the more unusual team-ups we've seen as Captain America pairs with Jubilee to take down a sunken submarine of Nazi vampires, a sentence I just wrote. Cap's actually had a couple of weird team-ups, notably this one and one with Quentin Quire in maybe issue five or six. They work in similar ways, in truth, as Cap again pulls a younger hero out from the X-Men and guides him or her somewhere (subterranean, no less) to show the kind of positive impact they could have on the world. In this case, Cap was hoping that the Nazi vampires would give up their fight, realizing that their war was well over, and would see Jubilee and realize that vampires don't have to be evil. It doesn't quite work out but it still leaves a nice impression on Jubilee, who realizes Captain America has respect for her, enough that he wanted to bring her as a role model, in essence. I suppose, in a book like this, that's what Cap's role is going to be, a guiding hand for younger heroes. He teamed up with Wolverine as more or less equals and next issue will team him, likely uncomfortably, with Cyclops, but there are certain characters who break down in certain ways and Cap is either the leader, the teammate, or the kind of guiding hand. That's him throughout his appearances in this series. Not a bad story and a better full issue overall than we've seen in a bit from this book.