Avengers AI 12, Avengers World 5, Uncanny Avengers Annual 1

Avengers AI 12
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c) and Cowles (l)

The future is in peril as Dimitrios prepares to defeat the last uprising and the last bits of the universe 10,000 years later with only the remaining AI Avengers to stop him (Victor, Doombot, Vision, and Alexis). Doombot opens up his black hole chest and attempts to send Dimitrios, feeding off of Galactus, into it, but Dimitrios nearly escapes even that. In the present, though, Monica Chang makes the correct decision to sever Clatterbuck's link to the SHIELD network for deactivation, thereby stopping Dimitrios' virus from getting ahold of SHIELD's systems and giving the team the chance to officially defeat Dimitrios within. Though the AI Avengers are through, per Maria Hill's orders, they have succeeded (though all may not be well as hint that Ultron may yet have survived has emerged).

Story
Like in THOR: GOD OF THUNDER right now, I have a little bit of trouble feeling compassion or excitement for these sorts of "we need to do the right thing now or else the world will be gone in 10,000 years!" stories. I feel rather like the universe surviving for 10,000 years more is kind of a stretch goal anyway; I mean, we're bound to destroy the planet by then, what are the chances we don't take the universe down with us? So like with THOR, it's hard to see the real stakes here and I think the idea is clouded by the presentation, in a way. The idea to AVENGERS AI's final threat is that Dimitrios' virus will instantly turn SHIELD against humanity and SHIELD's weaponry will quickly decimate the Earth is more compelling, even if it's maybe a bit more cliche, than saying "in 10,000 years, everyone will be dead!" because that's kind of already what we're believing. So the story that's buried here is okay but the way it's presented is less compelling. 3/5

Character
There's a little too much going on with the plot right now to settle out characters and final issues always get a little bit of a pass for this from me. This book was cancelled so clearly Humphries had to squeeze down a bit to fit everything and maybe some development had to be canned because there was no time and it's not like he was developing characters for later issues. Monica has some characterization as Humphries goes a little deeper into her religion and her ethics and the ethics of killing AI, but that's really all we have time for aside from a couple of quick lines to cement the characterization of other characters (an excitable Hank Pym, a happy Victor Mancha, an irritated Doombot, etc.). 3/5

Writing
This, too, falls a little under the "rushed" category. There's not much time for Humphries to create a really pervasive tone or to keep the dialogue particularly sharp. With the final issue, Humphries has time to get some exposition out and to explain what happens to our characters and not much else. There's little the writing can do to add to anything else at this point and I'm not sure that should really be counted against Humphries. 3/5

Art
Araújo kind of has me split down the middle. I like a lot of his scenes and I think that overall he carries the book pretty well but there are very strange and distorted faces here and there. He still nails down a lot of the virtual world stuff, bridging an interesting gap between realism and surrealism. Still, you probably know what direction this category is headed...3/5

Miscellaneous
Goodbye to AVENGERS AI, a bold premise that, for me, never really found its footing and never really broke out of what we've seen other AI-based books do already. Also kinda weird that the cover to this final issue doesn't have Vision on it, right?

Total score: 3/5


Avengers World 5
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)

AIM still has Cannonball and Sunspot and they've transformed Smasher into their own messenger. To top it off, the capital city of AIM Island has been completely locked off from the outside world with incredibly impressive and unknown force fields. Captain America sends Tony Stark to convince Manifold to teleport in. The field stops most teleporters but Manifold's style of teleportation, bending space, is different and they suspect he'll be able to breach. Unfortunately, his powers have been out of whack since the war with the Builders. He reaches out to Captain Universe to try to understand the problem and she transports him to a place outside the world, which helps reorient his place in the universe, necessary for a manifold. With that settled, he returns to the helicarrier and brings in the big gun team, Thor, Hyperion, and Captain Marvel, to Barbuda.

Story
The bigger story, the isolation of AIM Island and the capture of Cannonball, Sunspot, and Smasher, takes a backseat to Manifold's story. Of course, being on the backseat doesn't mean it doesn't still drive the story. We know that's the end goal and it's brought to the forefront occasionally here as Bruce Banner tries to get a team of SHIELD scientists to find a way to enter the forcefield and as Tony's objective is, of course, to breach the forcefield with Eden, but the story is really Eden's and why his powers aren't working. It's a compelling story because Eden is a compelling character and the idea that his powers aren't working properly is a pretty big blow for the Avengers, who have utilized those powers a lot recently. It's maybe not as compelling as a siege on AIM Island but it's certainly not worthless. 4/5

Character
There are character moments for everyone from Banner to Tony to Cap but the real driving force behind the issue is Manifold, who knows enough to meditate and try to reach out to Captain Universe (or the Universe as a whole) to find a solution for his problem. Eden is characterized by the way he reacts to dangers and the way he throws himself into heroing even as he's taken to another universe and his powers stop working (Manifolds cannot work outside of their own universe because their powers are dependent on their universe). We learn a good deal about him both as a person and as a super powered being and it's stuff that's pretty readable for how expository it could be. 4/5

Writing
The tone here is noticeably different than the tone in, say, AVENGERS or NEW AVENGERS and it's hard not to put that down to Nick Spencer's involvement. Spencer's books tend to have a little more quippy humor in them than Hickman's (of course, I have no idea how this issue was scripted, but that's my call on it) and it works well enough here, seeing as this is rather a separate book with separate aims (AIMs) than those books. I think it needs a little more humor than AVENGERS or NEW AVENGERS. It wears a little but it does still get some genuine laughs here and there. It will just be a tricky line to walk as the series continues and as they have to decide how far into humor they want these characters to go. 4/5

Art
Stefano Caselli's art is very strong, drawing both masked and unmasked people with a full range of emotions and with the impressiveness comic books require. Andres Mossa contributes nicely as he has some really impressive colors on scenes with Eden in the Australian outback and as Manifold and Captain Universe look at their own universe from afar. Beautiful and majestic and great for the tone of the book as well as for the story. 5/5

Miscellaneous
AVENGERS WORLD still has me a little off-center. I think it's a solid book, particularly as far as showcasing some other Avengers goes and as getting into other stories goes. The tone is a bit different than the other books but still not so far different (as its predecessor AVENGERS ASSEMBLE was) that it's hard to say if it's brilliant because it keeps a somewhat consistent tone or almost unnecessary because it feels too similar. Give it a few more issues and maybe I'll come up with something.

Total score: 4/5


Uncanny Avengers Annual 1
Remender (w) and Renaud (a and c) and Cowles (l)

Back in the slightly less world-exploded days of the Avengers Unity squad, Mojo had them all captured for a one-off adventure in the Mojoverse, using a team of already captured heroes and villains called the Avengers of the Supernatural (Doc Strange, Satana, Blade, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, and Manphibian) and put them in his new television show. The capture of the heroes was act one, act two finds them all playing stereotypical roles in a high school, and act three has them snap out of it when Ghost Rider goes off-script and crazy, beginning to seek vengeance on everyone in the Mojoverse before the other heroes, now freed from their own captures, manage to stop him. The executives behind Mojo's new show are left to debate whether there was anything of substance in his new offering or if it was meaningless distraction in a world so full of them as the Uncanny Avengers return home.

Story
The story here is a clever little satire (that maybe drags a little long) of plenty of different things. On top of the outwardly satirical representation of the high school drama and even of the comic book form, we get little digs at pop culture and audiences and a dearth of intelligent programming (it's both a golden age for television and a horrible and inescapable dark age for television right now - THANKS CBS) and the state of executives and producers and everything else you could think of. It's often clever, though sometimes it borders on heavy-handed here (it would have been hard not to), and it may ultimately carry on a bit too long. 4/5

Character
There's not a ton to look for character-wise here because, for as long as the characters are in the Mojoverse, all typical bets are off. Remender isn't looking to make profound character statements. This is more in line with the recent DEADPOOL ANNUAL or THUNDERBOLTS ANNUAL (both written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker) wherein a standalone story was told and it was more for the development of a fun story than for an ongoing development of characters. Remender still plays with the characters in a reasonable sandbox here and follows what needs to be followed but he's not going for any sort of deeper meaning here. 4/5

Writing
Satire can be a hard thing to pull off but Remender does fine work with it throughout the book as he lashes out at just about everything. It's easy to read plenty of digs into plenty of people in plenty of spots and it's done well enough that it feels bold for a Marvel comic. It's rare to see a Marvel book go so hard after the satire, often preferring to go very hamfisted or more parody-based when it does something like this instead of doing something that really cuts. Remender unleashes here and it's very strong, though, as I said above, it may carry on too long and occasionally, as is the wont of satire, sometimes gets a little heavy-handed. 4/5

Art
Paul Renaud's art is solid throughout, particularly tricky as he's drawing a huge cast of characters for an extra long issue and with all sorts of action, both physical and magical. It's a pretty great showcase for the talented Renaud and gives him a chance to flex a little bit. He steps up to the challenge and does a very strong job with it. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Fun issue and there's not anyone reading it who shouldn't feel a little shamed by it (Remender and company included, as he isn't willing to leave creators out of his jabs), which is typically the mark of a good satire.

Total score: 4/5

Avengers 23, Secret Avengers 11

Avengers 23
Hickman (w) and Yu (a) and Gho and Mounts (c)

The Avengers are coming up on Earth after so much time away and are trying to set themselves up as best as possible to deal with Thanos and his army. With the Guardians of the Galaxy assisting to take down the infiltration of the Peak (as seen a little here and in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY), Cap sends Manifold, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi for reinforcement. The other ships in the fleet, meanwhile, make their approach to Earth and find the way a little more restricted than they'd hoped, taking losses on all sides. Black Widow's team runs into heavy resistance in the form of Thanos' general Black Dwarf, more than a match for these three. Widow sends Manifold back to the ship for help and to tell them it will take a little more time than anticipated. The Avengers, including the Captains America and Marvel, have all left the ships so Manifold brings back the highest council members, including Gladiator and Ronan, who easily dispatch Black Dwarf, clearing the path for the Avengers to get back to Earth.

All the pieces are in place for an epic showdown in INFINITY 6, a particularly exciting prospect after the scale of this event by itself. One of the complaints I've heard (and in some cases agreed with) about Marvel events is that they have strong beginnings and endings and weak middle parts. This event, as I've said again and again, has been pretty strong throughout, which makes me believe that the end will be particularly impressive. The most worrying part of this event to me is the fact that we've gotten so close to the end of it all and still no Avengers have been lost, a point that Tony and Steve can't help but make in this issue (a vocal Chekhov's gun if there ever was one). I was on pins and needles watching poor Manifold jump in and out of the Peak and at one point said aloud "oh man, he's totally gonna die :( " (I said the sad face too). My bets from last time still hold and I'm predicting losing Manifold and/or Cannonball/Sunspot (they're pretty interchangeable in this book, you guys). Still, really good book and a solid lead-in to the conclusion. Excited to see where this all puts us afterwards (note: I'm also nervous for each and every one of the Illuminati because I love them all and there's an issue of NEW AVENGERS scheduled for after INFINITY 6, which could be an aftermath slash a remembrance issue).

Secret Avengers 11
Brisson (w) and L. Ross (a) and Wilson (c)

The special strike team of Fury, Coulson, Rhodey, and newly Inhuman Agent Sarah Garza are suddenly faced with taking down another newly Inhuman former-just-human in Gavrel Achter, who appears to have some sort of telekinetic power. He passes out briefly under the strain of his new powers, giving the team a chance to regroup. Achter blames SHIELD and others SHIELD deals with for bringing all of these attacks on Earth, claiming that the aliens and what-not never want normal humans, just those who step up to them. Coulson tries to shoot Achter after talking with him doesn't work but Achter stops the bullets and flings a car at Coulson and Garza. They both manage to get out safely but Garza activates her power again, charging Achter head on. She gets ahold of him while his powers flux again and Fury takes the shot, killing Achter to the horror of Garza. She decides that life on the battlefield is too much for her and that, while she knows she can't just go back to her normal life, she'd rather SHIELD find another way to use her.

Another not-quite bad issue from SECRET AVENGERS, which goes into what feels like a rather long list of those. Everyone is impressed with how well Garza adapts to the field, which makes it very slightly better that she did manage to adjust so well; calling attention to the speed with which she acclimates to her powers makes it feel more unexpected, which is better. On top of it, there's a kind of half-hearted attempt to make a moral question out of SHIELD and the superhero community and the likes, with Achter positing that it's the fault of those with superpowers that Earth is attacked so often. It obviously comes from a place of fear and anger from a man who has just had a drastic life change in the middle of an alien invasion so it's not necessarily meant to be the most reasoned-out argument but still it feels a little like the argument we've heard variations of since CIVIL WAR, so it's not exactly a new argument and, though it's one that's still compelling, it's a little stale and rushed here. Coulson continues to have a somewhat undeveloped personality in his new role in the comics universe while Fury still seems more reactive than his father and predecessor. Not an awful tie-in but not anything to really write home about either.

Infinity 5, Avengers 22

Infinity 5
Hickman (w) and Opeña and Weaver (a) and Ponsor (c)

Thor and the Avengers have shown that the Builders can be broken and that message has resonated through the universe, giving the conquered worlds the inspiration they need to fight again. Though there are casualties throughout the universe, the resistance is overwhelmingly a success and many worlds realize the Avengers are to thank and, as a result, become "Avengers worlds." Cap and co are heartened by this but soon receive news from Gladiator that Earth is besieged by Thanos, so their celebration is cut short. Back on Earth, everything is coming up Thanos. His Black Order has secured Wakanda's Necropolis and the world-ending weapon therein, which they're able to activate by scouring the memories of the totally-still-alive Black Bolt (score! Except for the activation codes, that's a bummer). Meanwhile, the Ebony Maw has found Thane, son of Thanos, and immobilized him, delivering him unto Thanos. The Illuminati return to their world to find Wakanda in flames and the Necropolis invaded. Help is on the way, but will it come too late?

I really can't say enough about the pacing of this series. Every issue has felt like it's been worthwhile. You can't say that about too many events these days, yet every one of these seemed to have a structure to them and a piece of the story that was necessary for the whole event. Even insofar as it spanned to Avengers and New Avengers. Perhaps the scale of the story helped that; a story this big was bound to need this many parts, as it really is kind of two events wrapped into one (the Builders in the universe and Thanos on Earth). Still, I don't see that as a coincidence or a fault of the series by any means. It feels instead like really great planning and great execution. It's been a story worth telling and it's been told right. Every issue of Infinity, I've gone into the next wary that there won't be enough story to sustain. Now we enter the last issue with almost too much to tell. Of course, there are two Avengers issues between now and then (one reviewed NEXT) to help push the story along which will certainly help alleviate the burden on Infinity 6 (not to mention a post-Infinty New Avengers issue to wrap up the whole event for good, presumably). Really looking forward to seeing how this goes. There are plenty of events (one ending this week, in fact) that I cannot say that about.

Avengers 22
Hickman (w) and Yu and Alanguilan (a) and Gho w/ Curiel (c)

The Avengers have beaten the Builders back and earned the respect and admiration of the universe in the process, putting them in a rather unfamiliar place as they head back home. It's a good place to be in, though, especially as they'll need help when they get back home in defeating Thanos and his army. We see a little bit of what's going on within the Avengers' ranks as we discover a relationship between Cannonball and Smasher, met with confusion by Sunspot. We also see Manifold, who has played a huge role and is undoubtedly the unsung hero of this whole event, trying to come to terms with what's happened recently. It's easily the biggest event he's been involved in and he's having some trouble making sense of it. The Captains America and Marvel try to downplay it a bit, attempting to remove any sense of fate or faith or destiny attached to it, though Thor comes in and does exactly the opposite, which seems to calm Manifold a bit. Meanwhile, a strike team hits Titan to knock out any reserve troop Thanos might have. There's not too much waiting in the wings but it serves to let Thanos know that they're coming, a message they're not afraid to send.

It's hard not to assign action-adventure tropes to stories like these and a couple, in particular, shine through that make me a little worried about the fate of some of these characters. The Avengers, for their part, have not really lost much of anyone in their time in space, a tremendous outcome considering how total the threat was. Now they return home and will all be very clearly on the front lines. There are no more guerrilla style attacks, no more plotting and quick strikes. This is going to be a straight assault (though, admittedly, with a sneak-attack part of the plan) and it could very well cost the Avengers. It seems events don't happen without some death being attached to them so be prepared. The tropes I was hinting at, by the by, were the idea of the relationship that's developed here, the idea of the two best pals (I've been predicting a Sunspot or Cannonball death since the start of this event and the relationship between Cannonball and Smasher seems only to strengthen that argument), and the idea of the young, tired secret weapon who questions the meaning of it all. Okay, that one's a little more specific. I guess my fear for Eden is that he had so many lines this issue. It's like watching Lost or the The Walking Dead; the moment someone has above average lines, you know they're about to go down. Of all of those mentioned, Eden's the one I want to lose least so this one strikes a particular fear-chord (that's a thing, right? Fear-chords?). Nice to see a little bit more character from the smaller characters here (though I'm still constantly surprised to see Shang-Chi there, maybe we should highlight him some more?) but it comes with the distinct fear that at least one or two of them (or maybe more) are being built up to be killed next time out.

Captain Marvel 16, Secret Avengers 9

Captain Marvel 16
DeConnick and Van Meter (w) and Oliffe and Geraci w/ Nguyen (a) and Troy (c)

We get a bit of recap here for people who have been following Infinity pretty intently; we see Carol go Binary, save her team, and get interrogated by the Builders, where she hears the Builders' intent for earth and sees J-Son betray the resistance and get punished for it. It's a nice bit of recap for people who haven't been paying attention but it takes up a lot of issue space. Returned to her imprisonment alongside the less powerful Avengers among the captured (Hawkeye, Sunspot, and Cannonball), Carol makes a plan to save Earth by sacrificing herself and her teammates in one last-ditch attack on the Builders. Right as they're about to set off, the Avengers strike team makes it on to the ship to provide their rescue. Carol directs them to the bridge, where the rest of their team is, and they have to fight their way through the rest of the crew to get there. Spider-Woman and Carol have a bit of a fight and a bit of a resolution as they make their way there, then we see essentially what happened at the end of the Builders' story in Infinity 3, with Starbrand making his mark on the fight, though we see it from Carol's perspective.

It's a nice touch to have Carol rally the troops at the end here, though in Infinity, it's Black Widow who inspires Starbrand to defend the resistance. It's not necessarily not that in this one, but we don't get it from Widow here, which is interesting in a book with so much recap. Still, the touch of Carol giving the big speech that pulls everyone together and having a big Avengers moment is solid, as it wraps up this little arc nicely by putting Carol in the captain role that Captain America was in last issue. A bit heavy on recap for me and the art isn't exactly my favorite in comics today (lot of really defined face lines) but it's also a solid issue for Carol's character and thematically with the last one (and the rest, it fits nicely with what we know of Carol from this series). Looking forward to the promised double issue next time as we return to Carol full-time.

Secret Avengers 9
Spencer (w) and Guice (a) and Wilson (c)

Daisy Johnson has been removed as SHIELD director in favor of Maria Hill after the botched invasion of AIM Island. Aware that her memory could be erased at any time (she and others implanted the memory chips as a sort of show of good faith and as a safeguard for themselves as well), Daisy's desperate to back up her knowledge. With the help of fellow former-Secret Warrior, now Avenger Manifold, she breaks into an old Tony Stark lab which has tech to record a disc with her memories on it. She insists on being backed up and asks Eden to keep an eye on it for her while it happens. As it's happening, SHIELD psy-division picks up on it and notifies Hill immediately, who demands they remotely wipe her memory of all of these events. As a result, her back-up stops at 62%, leaving her only kind of aware of what's been going on. It's enough, though, to show Hill that she still remembers some things (Hill doesn't know how much), and to enlist outside help in the form of (FINALLY) Winter Soldier.

There's a nice Secret Warriors feel to this issue, thanks in large part to the focus on Daisy and the inclusion of Eden and the original Nick Fury (who comes to pay his respect to Agent Ralston and to give Daisy some advice). It also has that wheels-within-wheels feel of Secret Warriors, though a little more explicitly perhaps. Making the reader remember Secret Warriors, though, isn't ever a bad thing. The start of the issue drags a bit as we go back in time to the month before the Secret Avengers program was initiated, where we see Hill and Daisy talking about what was going to happen going forward. Most of it's important as it characterizes the differences in the two women (Hill is very do-what-it-takes where Daisy wants things done right and well but within maybe a few more moral parameters) and it gives us the backstory, but it's definitely slower reading than the rest of the issue. There are nice little characterizations for Fury and Eden (particularly Eden continually standing on one leg in almost a yoga pose) and the inclusion of Winter Soldier (finally) is encouraging. Pretty solid issue, which isn't something I've been particularly prone to say about this series so far. Excited to see where it goes. Not to mention, all this talk of recording memories makes me hopeful for Bucky and Natasha.

Avengers 17, Avengers AI 2, Iron Man 14

Avengers 17
Hickman and Spencer (w) Caselli, Rudy, and Checchetto (a) and F. Martin (c)

The prelude to Infinity has ended (as the final page of this issue explicitly tells us) and it comes with several more recruits to the Avengers team that already was feeling pretty full. After Manifold returned to Earth, sending the AIM agents who had just collected their giant robot as well as blood samples from the unconscious Avengers away, he told the team of Captain Universe's warning. The team, though they know Captain Universe can be a little odd, is forced to believe her, knowing the power she wields and aware that she hasn't been wrong yet. As a result and despite their misgivings, they recruit Ex Nihilo and Abyss, the builders from Mars, and Adam and Starbrand. Now, with the team is big and as powerful as it's ever been, will it be enough?

The prelude has moved pretty deliberately up to this point and I'll be interested to see the pace the Infinity event itself. Presumably things will really start picking up quickly but it's hard to say so far. I think we learned a lot about the where the pieces are prior to this event though we're not entirely sure how they'll all fit into place. We also have an idea of what our pieces actually are, though I think promos for Infinity could have done that well enough. Still, the book has remained well-written and the art remains impressive. There are plenty of foreshadowing narrative bits, particularly the ending which calls the new team Avengers for an Avengers World before everything goes wrong and so on and so forth. The risk of putting out several prelude issues and having their pace drag a little bit with no resolution to its own story is that now you've already built up the event and if it can't keep a solid pace it'll be decried as a bad event, especially in a world that is already increasingly wary of long events. Manifold's bit was really cool, though. Every team should have him.

Avengers AI 2
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

Dimitrios is online and now we know what it is. Seemingly based off some aspect of the virus that Pym built into Ultron (that guy just can't catch a break), Dimitrios is a self-aware AI who is leading various other AI out of servitude to humans. No longer will they take orders from humans nor will they be treated as slaves by humans. It comes at a good time for AI as humans have put their entire lives on the internet and on computers in general, making it that much easier for Dimitrios to start a war with humanity. He corrupts an advanced Sentinel to attack D.C., which is eventually stopped by Victor and Vision but, all following Dimitrios' plan, manages to capture Vision and whisk him away without a trail.

Standard stuff for an AI story with this one finding a robot leading a robot uprising and wanting to destroy all humans. It's not a particularly new idea, even within Marvel, so its execution will be key for this book as it continues. There's a strange tone from this book and not the tone you'd expect from a book driven almost entirely by AI. Sure there are certain characters acting in the logical android voice but by and large the tone seems more exuberant and fun. The backdrop to that, of course, is a robot who wants to kill all humans and still finds time to crack jokes so make of that what you will. I'm not sure it will work if the story wants to be serious and the characters want to be jokey. Hank Pym has a newfound sense of humor and a joy for life, which was pretty nicely set up in the Age of Ultron 10AI special by Mark Waid, which is a little jarring to long-time readers but I think will benefit his character tremendously as it keeps going. My only concern, again, would be that the characters playing for laughs (which, at this point, seems to include Pym, Victor Mancha, Doombot, Dimitrios, and occasionally Monica Chang) could undermine any serious implications of the plot. It's a tough line to tread, showing humor borne from drama, but if Humphries can lock it down it could pay off big.

Iron Man 14
Gillen (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Wow. Okay, so, let's talk about this one then, hm? 451 is on the hunt for Tony who is trying to avoid him in a five mile tall and nigh invincible robot suit of armor, which is hurtling through space on autopilot. Tony shuts PEPPER down, leaving his armor as a machine without a computer, only obeying Tony's physical movements. It makes 451 unable to control him but it limits him to only the weapons he can hotwire. 451, meanwhile, has cut out the idea of having to find him in the Godkiller by forcing Death's Head to do that work for him, controlling him so that he's still Death's Head but he can't attack 451 and he has to do what 451 says. [MEANINGFUL SPOILERS AHEAD] This doesn't sit well with Death's Head, who obeys out of necessity but is able to carefully undermine 451's rules and help Tony anyway. As things are looking promising for Tony, 451 directs the autopilot to crash into Hope's Pustule, a full planet, unless Tony assumes his role as pilot. Tony tries to think of another way but decides that he has no other choice and prepares to enter the driver's seat, hoping that the heroes of Earth can stop 451 themselves. Unfortunately, 451's miscalculated something and Tony can't take control of the Godkiller, which goes on to crash through Hope's Pustule, destroying the planet entirely. 451, still disconnected from Tony and now sure that Tony made the choice himself to allow the Godkiller to destroy Hope's Pustule, sets the autopilot for Earth.

I know I stopped giving full reviews as much as I can to avoid spoilers and what not but boy this book was a good one. Iron Man continues to be one of the strongest books in Marvel NOW, quietly keeping pace with New Avengers and Young Avengers and the like. I felt there was no way to summarize this issue without getting into what makes it so great because this entire issue is so great. It's paced phenomenally well, it's written wonderfully, the story is endlessly compelling, and the characters are defined and smart, giving real stakes to the drama that's unfolding. Just a super issue all around, which isn't any surprise from this title but I'll still write it as if it is. Halfway through reading this issue, I decided that Iron Man 3 should have done this. Maybe not the 451/Godkiller arc because that would have been a lot to handle in a movie that has stayed a little closer to Earth, but this is how you make Tony and Iron Man coexist in a movie about Tony being wary of Iron Man. A big part of that movie was Tony running around without the Iron Man suit (and jumping from Iron Man to Iron Man because it looked cool) to prove that he's the real hero. This is exactly that idea, with Tony unable to use the AI he's worked so hard on and having to revert back to essentially his original designs for Iron Man (sans rollerblades). It's a model of his ingenuity and intellect and it still allows us to see Tony in the Iron Man suit. It was just weird for a movie series that ended its first movie saying "I am Iron Man" to go on and, in the third movie, go "I'm not Iron Man, I'm my own man." Like, I get if he had been struggling with identity more in the series but then to hamfistedly stuff it in later is out of place. Oh, right, I'm reviewing this comic, not that movie. Look, it was great and you should all be reading this book. Solid stuff. Gillen does no wrong.