Wolverine MAX 15, Marvel Knights Hulk 2, Night of the Living Deadpool 1

Wolverine MAX 15
Starr (w) and Ruiz (a) and Brown (c)

Logan searches the house of the people he just killed trying to defend for a means to start his new life. He finds a little bit of money, showers, and takes some new clothes with him back to Vegas where he gambles the money into a good amount more money. Before he can take off, though, he's drugged and brought to Mickey Gold's penthouse again and put in an adamantium cage. Gold comes in and soliloquizes about who Wolverine is and a little about his past (apparently he was hunted by a Frank Castle in a weird plot twist that will go nowhere as this is the last issue) before revealing that he was the one who paid for Wolverine's adamantium claws and that he also put adamantium claws into himself after finding out Wolverine was a disappointment (guys, this doesn't make any sense. Gold himself admits to not having a healing factor. How would he make his bones the hardest metal ever without a healing factor? Okay, I run a comics review blog, there's no need to call me a nerd for that statement specifically). They fight to the death over Gold's dead son and Wolverine eventually wins out. He also kills the security guards who come to assist Gold and he gets out of town. His last stop before movie on to a new life is to some train tracks, where he sticks his arms out to be run over by a coming train, hoping that his claws won't regrow next time.

I continue to not be sad about this book ending as it still disappoints more than anything else. Frankly, I think this and SAVAGE WOLVERINE should probably be one book, the all-the-gore-you-could-want Wolverine title. A friend of mine was talking with me a couple years ago about the brief introduction of Wolverine to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and how excited that friend was to see Wolverine disembowel a villain on the show (it's shown through a shadow on the show to avoid showing too much gore but it's very clear how violent Wolverine is in the moment). Not because my friend loves grisly deaths but because that's what Wolverine does and, if I may be so bold, is the best at doing. He doesn't typically do that much in a standalone WOLVERINE series because they want to show him with heart and with a moral center that hates doing the violent things he does, which is totally fine. But if you're going to make a book about Wolverine that promises a return-to-basics Wolverine or if you're making a book that exists in order to show gore and sex and you have the ability to use Wolverine, you should be having a blast. This book was never having a blast. SAVAGE WOLVERINE seems like it often has more fun than this one but can't go as far and this one never has the fun it feels like it should. I don't know. Anyway, not upset this one's ending (though I will sincerely miss the monthly awesome Jock cover). It feels like it was meant to do something different and just never got around to it. Speaking of...

Marvel Knights Hulk 2
Keatinge (w) and Kowalski (a) and Filardi (c)

The two gamma-infused super soldiers detonated on Banner and took down much of a city block to do it. SHIELD officer Molly Fitzgerald is sent to collect Banner from the French authorities holding him but doesn't get there before Banner's stolen away by the very people who were trying to capture him anyway. They're apparently an off-shoot of AIM, led by a High Commander Harrow, intent on permanently separating from AIM. To do that, though, comes at the cost of making AIM an enemy and, in that respect, Harrow and her off-shoot are a bit outgunned. Harrow wants Hulk on her side but can't get Banner to remember anything nor to actually Hulk out. She injects him with the same serum the super soldiers had that will hopefully enhance his Hulk powers and make him loyal to her. Eventually all of the torture and everything else works and he Hulks out, possibly remembering who he is in the process, but the serum works as well so after he defeats the attacking AIM forces, he bows to Harrow.

There are three MARVEL KNIGHTS series currently running in the Marvel Universe, between this, MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN, and MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN. Each book seems to mix some sort of interesting new self-involved story with a really interesting and different art style that might not work thrust into the mainstream series but that really differentiates itself from anything else out there. Except, I would say, MARVEL KNIGHTS HULK. MARVEL KNIGHTS HULK tells a story where Banner has amnesia (which is, I suppose, maybe a new-ish idea but it's mistaking the idea that we really care about Banner and, since by issue two we've seen Hulk, the stakes are quickly lowered on that front) and Hulk is controlled by someone else, which is kind of a running theme for Hulk books. Not that it happens all the time, but that it happens enough (particularly if you've ever read just about anything in the Ultimate Universe). Also, the art is fine but it doesn't stand out in any way from other books on the market, particularly not in the same way that Marco Rudy's amazing MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN art flows around a page or the way that Brahm Revel's pastel-like art creates a tone for MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN. This one just kind of is. I don't think it's an awful story or something particularly poorly written, I'm just not that engaged by it and I'm finding it hard to see why this is in the MARVEL KNIGHTS line. Maybe I would be more lenient on it if it was called "HULK: THAT TIME HE HAD AMNESIA" or something like that but putting it in the MK line means that it has a sort of implied standard to live up to and I don't think it's doing that.

Night of the Living Deadpool 1
Bunn (w) and Rosanas (a and c)

Deadpool awakens after a food coma to find the world almost empty but for the zombies roaming every corner. Despite the papers flying around with headlines like "Dead Walk!" and "Dead Rising From the Grave!" and the hints he may have seen in the previous few weeks (of which there are plenty), it takes Deadpool actually running into a zombie and attracting a horde to himself when he fires a gun to realize that maybe there are such thing as zombies. He's ready to start slicing and dicing as he's surrounded on all sides before a human tells him to duck and promptly mows down a path of zombies so Deadpool can jump into their truck. They tell him they're headed to a potential army outpost that's hopefully still okay (assuming the contact they have with them can live that long) and inform him that the virus spread remarkably quickly, quickly enough that he missed it in the couple of days he was asleep in a chimichanga restaurant. Also, all the other heroes are apparently dead.

Hope you're not tired of zombie stories because HERE'S ANOTHER ONE. There are parts of this one that make it enjoyable still and if you're a zombie fan, likely you're going to want to flock to this. This one spends a lot of time establishing the zombie-run world (these zombies are a bit different as they still seem to have a human consciousness trying to reach out but unable to actually fight their body from attacking) and showing Deadpool ignoring the signs of the virus as it was happening. It's hard not to compare this one to THE WALKING DEAD, the major zombie series in comics and now in other media. For starters, the zombie world is all black and white (except for Deadpool), like THE WALKING DEAD comics. Even Deadpool waking up from a "coma" and finding himself in the middle of a city overrun and saved by a group of other survivors harkens back to TWD (though it's not unique in that respect). Still, the book obviously won't continue to be exactly the same as TWD features a sheriff with a complex history and a family to look after as its protagonist and this one features Deadpool. It's a pretty book (though I couldn't help wondering if I'd feel that way if it weren't black and white with splashes of Deadpool color) and, I mean, it's a zombie story, so you probably already know a lot about it, right?

Thunderbolts 19, Nova 11, Marvel Knights Hulk 1

Thunderbolts 19
Soule (w) and Walta (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The Thunderbolts are taking a road trip as they make their way to the next base. Deadpool is dead in the backseat (he'll be fine, he wanted it to pass the time) but everyone else is merely waiting out the car ride. Leader asks Ross for a cigarette lighter, wanting to re-center himself. Ross allows it and quickly Leader figures out a plan to dispatch with everyone in the van, including using his radiation emissions to knock Ross out before lighting Deadpool ablaze and using the magnesium in a road flare to neutralize the Venom symbiote while stabbing Flash through the chest, ultimately sending Punisher and Elektra to their death by directing them to save the others and tossing a bag of grenades in after them. He nixes the plan, though, when he realizes that then Mercy would show up and undoubtedly kill him. He also admits that he's not sure he's thinking clearly and that he's not seeing all the variables so he decides to wait it out, knowing that every team needs a leader.

Pretty fun little book. Despite it being a kind of "it was all a dream" issue, there's a lot to be gained. First and foremost, Leader seems to be moving quickly back to his old ways despite putting on a good show to the contrary. We, of course, have known something was up since we saw him willingly let Mercy out of captivity on the sub and force them to ground but now we can see his plans in their entirety and he's giving us a rare first person look into his mind and his plans and his goals. It's a very interesting issue and one that's certainly interesting to read even if it ends in the somewhat predictable "he's not actually doing any of this" way. Still a story that needs telling to show us exactly where Leader is right now and what he's thinking. Also, Gabriel Walta's first issue on the book brings some pretty impressive and very unique art to the series, not too far removed from Jefte Palo but also definitely its own style. Nice issue, great cover.

Nova 11
Duggan (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova's getting readjusted to his normal life on Earth and trying to get it to fit in with his life as Nova. After believing that he was going blind upon returning home last time and seeing bright lights all across his vision, he visits their family doctor who tells him it's probably just temporary blindness brought on by stress and maybe a little by any recent hits to the head he's taken recently. While in one of his classes, Sam realizes that the lights he had been seeing are a map. That night, he flies to the nearest light and finds a dead Nova there. Also there are a horde of giant spiders hanging around that he manages to take down one-by-one. He hears the log from the dead Nova and it shows him an even bigger spider who gored this Nova throw the chest. Sam figures it out just in time and flies up and blasts the giant one from the safety of space. Realizing that the dots are all dead Novas, he decides to go home for the night. However, new enemy Cadivan, apparently a hunter or gladiator or something from deep space has kept a Nova helmet just in case some others should appear for him to kill and take as trophies. Now his helmet has flickered showing that someone is still out there.

Not a bad start for Duggan on his first full NOVA issue. Little bit of a slow start here as we get some time with Sam at school and Sam still trying to deal with his father running out on them and his mother looking for a job. Still, those things aren't bad things to have; the best characters are the ones who are deeper than what happens under the mask, in the vein of Peter Parker or Tony Stark. It does feel a little like this book wants to create the new Spider-Man, someone who lost the man who initially taught him about power and responsibility but he's still left with a strong if slightly helpless role model and support system all while navigating the treacherous waters of high school. Sam's voice still isn't bad here; it's maybe not as free-flowing or imaginative as Zeb Wells' but that may not be fair to judge after one issue. Not a bad issue and retaining the solid art team of Medina, Vlasco, and Curiel helps keep the tone pretty consistent, as the art of a book has as much to do with tone as any other aspect. It'll be interesting to see how a full arc progresses here.

Marvel Knights Hulk 1
Keatinge (w) and Kowalski (a) and Filardi (c)

Banner is face down in a river as this book starts and pulled out by a woman who saw him earlier that day on the metro (they're in Paris) having something of a freak out. She pulls him out and sees that he's got gunshot wounds. The woman, named Dyane, brings him to her apartment and gets to work trying to fix him up a bit and letting him rest. He wakes later and the two of them walk about the city as he tries to get his bearings. He remembers hulking out at some point but doesn't know where he is or who he is. As they walk around the city and she tries to get him to remember things, two mysterious men in trench coats track down Dyane's uncle George and show him a picture of Banner, asking if he's been seen. George says he has and answers all of their questions without hesitation but they gun him down anyway. They manage to find Banner and try to fight him, trying to bring the Hulk out. On the orders of their superior, they both inject themselves with some sort of serum and turn into something like hulks themselves, wrecking their way through the city on his trail. Finally, after scores of casualties, they explode in a blinding light right on top of Banner.

The first image in this issue is a full page panel of Banner face down in the water and I got flashbacks to Keatinge's first scene back on MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE, which found Morbius chased through the streets and getting "killed" brutally within the first issue. Apparently Keatinge has something of a theme going here. This issue, somewhat unlike MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN and MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN, seems to be hitting some clichéd ground, including the face-down man in the river, the mysterious but helpful stranger, the amnesia, the trench coat guys, etc. On top of that, the art isn't bad but it's not as experimental as it is in the other new MARVEL KNIGHTS books which really sets them apart from the more mainstream titles. So I guess maybe this one isn't going to be my favorite of the bunch; it moved a bit slowly and you could probably play a drinking game with the beats of this book. If he has a memory of hulking out but tries to downplay it, take a drink. If he has amnesia, take a drink. If he inexplicably gets asked out by the girl who really knows nothing about him except that he ends up face down in lakes, take a drink. If the men in trench coats have sunglasses, hats, and dark motives, take a drink. If you're bored by the end of the issue, take a drink. Thirst should be pretty well-quenched by the end of this one.

Comics this week

Another big week as another 19 or so major books come out on Wednesday. You might be asking yourself "gee, doesn't that make it over 60 in three weeks?" Why yes, yes it does. Trust me on that. I have to imagine that we're squeezing out all the books we can before a presumably slow Christmas week. Anyway, let's talk about this week with a few QUICK HITS.

Avengers 24.NOW
That's right, All-New Marvel NOW is starting and I don't know why we have to name our new-brandings like that. I felt ridiculous enough all year saying "Marvel NOW!" (with or without exclamation point, that was never cleared up) and now I have this hyphenated mash-up of words that serve only to remind me of ALL-NEW X-MEN, a series I do not care for. ANYWAY, this is the first AVENGERS issue post-INFINITY and, if you needed more reasons to check it out, comes with a Daniel Acuña poster exhibiting EVERY AVENGER.

Captain America 14
Cap is up against Nuke after a couple issues building to it! Can he stop the far more deranged and probably more powerful super-soldier? Also, what is happening in that poor guy's mind (in this case, "poor guy" can apply to either Nuke or Cap)?

Captain America Living Legend 4
This mini-series wraps after a pretty exciting and successful run. Excited to see just where it's going to go. Oh yes, and Cap is a monster as we start issue four. THESE THINGS HAPPEN SOMETIMES.

Marvel Knights Hulk 1
The two currently running MARVEL KNIGHTS series (SPIDER-MAN and X-MEN) are both impressive in their own ways, featuring really stand-out and unique art to go along with a story that I would deem "compelling enough." Interested to see where MARVEL KNIGHTS HULK will fit in, which I think leaves room for a lot of interesting art but who I also find to be an often-uninteresting character. In the right hands, he's amazing. In the wrong ones (which I tend to see more often) he's the same story over and over and I do not care. Let's find out where this one falls TOGETHER.

Thunderbolts 19
Maybe my favorite cover of the week. The Thunderbolts are on a road-trip! I've really liked this series as it turned the corner from readable with Daniel Way to immensely enjoyable with Charles Soule. I'm sad Jefte Palo seems to have moved on but I do like Gabriel Walta and I think the writing has been more than sharp enough to stand with an art change. Very interested to see where this is going now that Soule will move on to his first non-event-related story.

X-Men Legacy 21, Amazing X-Men 2, Marvel Knights X-Men 2

X-Men Legacy 21
Spurrier (w) and Pham w/ Leisten (a) and Rosenberg (c)

David’s newfound sense of self isn’t exactly thrilling everyone close to him…or really, anyone close to him since Blindfold is the only one close to him. He visits her before he sets off on his journey and he lets her into his mind again, explaining why he has to fight the evil Xavier and where he has to do it. It has a lot to do with the psychosphere, the kind of collective subconscious that Xavier is warping and filling with hate, filling the human hivemind with hate and anger. Ruth understands all of this but doesn’t like that it’s David who has to end it and really doesn’t like that David has become something different and strange as she loves the imperfect David. As ever though, David reveals that his visit, though he loves her, was using her to try to bond his remaining personalities, as he’s always stronger and more complete when he’s around her. It, uh, it doesn’t totally work and he leaves her behind while still bemoaning all of his non-participation medal personalities. He goes to fight the gold-skinned Xavier and, despite his growing power, still can’t best him. Xavier announces that it’s worthless, that he was always the strongest piece of David, whatever he might have been in relation to David. David keeps pleading to his strongest powers to join up with him and they keep refusing. Blindfold, still in her bed at Winchester, pleads too. Xavier makes David watch as his hate bleeds into a man on a nuke-carrying submarine who goes on to kill all of his shipmates and launch the nuke before killing himself.

Despite all of the growing plot and the rising tension as the gold-skinned Xavier starts polluting the world and making humans attack one another to pave the way for mutants, everything that happens here is so fundamentally driven by Spurrier’s insistence to make David a fully realized and wonderfully compelling character. Without David’s character, it’s just another superhero-against-insurmountable-odds story, which can be perfectly fine but right now we have extra levels to it because there’s so much happening with David. In fact, by and large, I’m far more interested in what’s going to become of David as a character than I am about whether or not he’ll stop the gold-skinned Xavier. That’s not a slight on the story nor the threat, both of which are impressive, rather it’s a ringing endorsement of how interesting David is as a character and how invested the audience is in him. More great stuff, looking forward to the last few issues, sad that it’ll be ending.

Amazing X-Men 2
Aaron (w) and McGuinness and Vines (a) and Gracia (c)

After coming through the portal, the X-Men are all separated, with Storm, Iceman, and Firestar landing in what seems to be Hell and Wolverine and Northstar ending up in what seems to be Heaven. Wolverine is contacted by Xavier, who kind of explains where he is and tells him not to let go in his fight against the captain of the ship he’s fighting, Captain Jack (??). He does, of course, let go in the physical sense of the plank he’s holding on to (like, walking the plank sort of plank) and falls into what seems to be nothingness. Storm, Iceman, and Firestar look to fight their way out but pretty quickly realize that they’re not the only target of the demons below, who are also not so thrilled with Azazel. They best their adversaries, though it comes with great exhaustion to Iceman particularly. Firestar tries to help him out of Hell as Storm is captured by some of the red bamfs and the captain of the ship leaving Hell, Captain Kid, as in Billy the Kid (??). Watching the ship and ready to hijack and take it over, though, is Nightcrawler.

It’s probably wrong to say that a book is moving slowly after two issues but, I mean, this book is moving pretty slowly, right guys? It’s not that there haven’t been fights or that there haven’t been big dramatic reveals or villains (kind of, if we’re counting the weird ship captains which I’m still not really counting) because there have been. Still, the book is moving pretty slowly, which might have to do with the amount of narration and character explanations that sometimes come with the beginnings of books. In this case, we get definitions of major X-Men like Wolverine, Iceman, Storm, and Northstar, and a perhaps would-be more useful definition of Firestar if it didn’t basically just say “I don’t really know her.” The narration is from Nightcrawler which makes me wish that the issue was just about Nightcrawler already, and not about this weird Heaven/Hell thing. I’m not totally onboard with that, you guys. The art isn’t bad and I’m less bothered this time out by the similarities between this and the first few issues of NOVA (also drawn by McGuinness) which made everyone look a little more childlike than I would have hoped. I guess ultimately I just wish this book, like Aaron’s time on WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN (which I just found out will be continuing without Aaron and will pass to WINTER SOLDIER writer Jason Latour), was maybe a little less childlike than I’ve seen so far.

Marvel Knights X-Men 2
Revel (w and a) and Peter (c)

Wolverine fights off Sabretooth who reveals him to be Mystique to fight Rogue before being joined by Blob and Pyro and a cadre of Hellfire Guard, all of which rings strange to Wolverine. He realizes that something else must be causing it and sees a girl in the middle of the house, holding a gun and hiding from them. He asks if she’s doing this and she tells him that she’ll shoot him then goes ahead and shoots him. He shakes it off and she cuts her arm, making all of the manifestations disappear. They talk to her and, along with Kitty and the girl they picked up last time, determine to bring her with them until they can figure some more things out. The new girl, Darla, reveals that she can pull out memories from people’s minds and manifest them, which led to the suicide of her mother and abandonment from her father. Wolverine accuses her of killing the mutant they’re there to kill and freaks out a bit at her, which makes Rogue a bit suspicious. They probably all should be suspicious of the other girl they’re with but no one is so the adventure continues!

The story continues to be compelling as we get roped into a backwoods world of mutants and drugs and dirty cops and all sorts of other things that Wolverine, Kitty, and Rogue were never expecting. More compelling than the story and these characters, though, is the art, which continues to stand out and really looks like nothing else in comics today. Between the fluidity of the art and the almost-pastel like colors, the panels look almost like paintings, though not in the same sort of ways you get near-painting-like panels in comics occasionally, like I'd say MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN is kind of looking right now. The story itself is good and the new characters Revel has created are plenty interesting, just as it's interesting to see three core X-Men finding themselves out of their depth in a small town, but it's really the art that's drawing me in, again, not unlike MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN.

Mighty Avengers 3, Marvel Knights Spider-Man 2

Mighty Avengers 3
Ewing (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and D'Armata (c)

Shuma-Gorath continues its attack on the city, allowed some access through Thanos' attack and protected by Ebony Maw's manipulation of Dr. Strange, while Spider-Man tries to save a gravely injured Spectrum. Blue Marvel arrives on the scene just in time to stall Shuma-Gorath and begin the healing process on Spectrum, who he gives extra photons to in order to boost her weakened areas which previously non-existent anti-photons have attacked. The process is painful but it strengthens Spectrum and saves her life. Amidst all the terror, Power Man and White Tiger return to the scene to help. Under the direction of the mysterious Spider-Hero, Power Man summons chi from all over the city and focuses it on White Tiger, who unleashes the Tiger God on Shuma-Gorath, effectively weakening it enough for Blue Marvel and Spectrum to destroy its physical presence in New York. As the fight ends, a nearby reporter asks them about their team-up and Luke dubs them an official Avengers team.

I'm interested to see where this team is going more than I'm interested in these first few issues. Starting a team in the middle of an event is tricky business and allows for just about no relationship building which leaves this team feeling cobbled together and a bit slap-dash. I think there is a part of this book where that is supposed to be true; these aren't the heroes that went to space to fight the aliens or the ones who are gathered in Wakanda, these are the heroes who were left-over. Not to say they're not a formidable team, they're just not a team. As a result, it's hard to judge the book based on what we're seeing in these first few issues. On top of that, we have a character whose true identity has yet to be revealed, two young characters with little experience, a Spider-Man who isn't Peter Parker, and a hero of a bygone age starring alongside Avengers veterans Luke Cage and Monica Rambeau. It's a strange team and one that will require team-building if the series is to last, something that, as I said, wasn't particularly possible in these first few issues. If anything, kicking this off in an event gives Ewing a chance to showcase the physical strength and problem-solving skills of the team, leaving the team-nature to later. As I said, the team is formidable for sure, just not really team, as yet, which will have to be worked out as the series progresses.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man 2
Kindt (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)

Spider-Man finds himself falling from the sky into water amidst the wreckage of a plane and needs to recount the events of the last fifteen minutes. Aboard the plane, he fought Sandman, Shocker, Hydro-Man, and Mysterio, fairly big name Spidey villains and ones who probably shouldn't be, on the best of days, fought in a constricted space. Spider-Man walks us through the fights, revealing that his spider-sense does more than just warn him of incoming danger, it helps him plot his attacks; a bad attack plan will cause his spider-sense to go off while a better plan will leave it silent. Pretty neat, huh? Anyway, he uses this to best his enemies before bursting out of the plane while it disappears (maybe? The art and the writing both get a little vague at this point) and he heads for the ocean as he wonders who it is behind all of this, who's rallying the troops here and as a word floats through his head: who is the kingpin of all this?

Another interesting story with really stunning art and some surprisingly good characterization. I say surprisingly because this doesn't feel like it's a book meant to be exploring too deep into Spider-Man's thoughts; it feels more like an intense fight-based book meant to really elevate the artist more than anything else and to put layout and comic design above story and character. That's not entirely the case, though, as we see an interesting introspective side of Spidey, one which can't help wondering about the repeated failures of his villains and about their mental states as he defeats them. He recognizes that, despite all of his hardships, he's never the one who ends up in prison or losing the majority of the fights so the look in the villains' eyes as he knocks them out is beyond anything he's aware of. It's an interesting side of Spider-Man, who is one of the more introspective and sympathetic heroes in the Marvel Universe already. Again, though, it's the art that really elevates this book to a new level. It's very cool and very unique, though sometimes it does get a little in the way of the storytelling. Sometimes it's a little hard to follow and to understand what exactly is happening but by and large, it's an easy enough story and enough of a well-known character that there's very little the art can do to hinder the writing. It's not like we're trying to guess Peter Parker's motives or we're trying to guess at the motives of his enemies. We get all that, we get this story (though it's still a little in the shadows) and so there's plenty of leeway for the art. Spectacular art.

Comics this week

Fewer comics out this week than it looked like when I was recording them. Still PLENTY to look forward to in what amounts to a very interesting week. I could have selected maybe 70% of these books for this list and it would have made total sense. Narrowing it down to just five is actually pretty tricky. Let's try though, shall we, with some QUICK HITS?

Amazing X-Men 1
Another new X-Men book in what feels like a race to compete with the number of Avengers books out there (man, good luck). This one will be helmed by WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN and THOR: GOD OF THUNDER scribe Jason Aaron. I really like half of those books and this one promises the return of Nightcrawler so keep your eyes peeled. Here's hoping for another solid 616 X-Men book, raising the total to two.

Captain Marvel 17
It was really hard to pick between Captains America and Marvel this week for this list but ultimately I went with this one because it's really going to be the first Carol book since her huge transformation during Enemy Within that will really focus on Carol's life. We had some good issues tied-in to Infinity but this will be the first with Carol returning to Carol's life since losing her memory. I think CAPTAIN AMERICA will be just as poignant as he continues to deal with his losses but this book feels more watch-worthy as that one's already in full swing and this one's just starting out.

Iron Man 18
After last issue's game-change reveal of Tony's secret secret origin, we get pretty quickly to see the kind of shape the new news will take. Obviously I'm not expecting the next several years of Iron Man to be laid out in front of us but it's the first issue since the reveal and it'll no doubt give us a much better sense of how things will work going forward.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man 2
I don't necessarily pick the books I'm looking forward to most for this pre-game post, though you could certainly make the case. I tend to look at the strength of an ongoing book or a creator, the importance of a given issue to the book or to the Marvel line (which is why number ones tend to make the cut fairly frequently), the events of the Marvel Universe as a whole and, yes, ultimately, books I'm looking forward to most. MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN kind of falls into all of those categories as Marvel looks to reignite their MARVEL KNIGHTS line and after a startling but pretty gorgeous and pretty neat first issue for this series in particular. I'd like to see MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN take another step forward this week and show exactly what to expect out of the series as the memories of the first issue are, perhaps, behind us.

X-Men Legacy 19
Okay, so SOMETIMES it's the books I'm looking forward to most. I have trouble getting a sense of where X-MEN LEGACY fits in the greater scheme of Marvel and how it ranks up in sales and what-not. I worry about it more than occasionally but the bottom line is that this book has been stunning throughout its run and it's certainly worthy of your time. This issue still certainly does fit the criteria of importance of a given issue as last issue saw the mind prison David had kept so rigidly intact the lats couple of months burst open into chaos and Luca teaming with the evil Xavier in David's head. Plenty going on, plenty to look forward to, plenty to read this book for. Exciting times abound, dear reader.

Daredevil Dark Nights 5, Marvel Knights Spider-Man 1, Superior Foes of Spider-Man 4

Daredevil Dark Nights 5
Lapham (w and a) and Loughridge (c)

Daredevil has caught up with the ten-inch tall Buggit as he finds Michael dead in the arms of his wife. Buggit takes off again after strapping a bomb to his tiny chest. Daredevil understands why Buggit's mad and what he's trying to do but also knows that Buggit is guilty of stealing the gun and takes off after him. He loses the trail, though, when he overhears cops talking about Shocker attacking a cop, perhaps killing him. Shocker was Daredevil's responsibility and he pauses in his chase of Buggit to stop Shocker from attacking more cops. He manages to take down Shocker and it makes him realize that Buggit isn't suicidal; he's going after mob boss Milo but Daredevil believes he'll try to leave the bomb for Milo, not go down with it. Daredevil shows up to save Milo, though he also insists on protecting Buggit from Milo's men. He manages to succeed and Michael's widow shows up to tell Buggit that Michael went straight to try to protect Buggit, which softens him enough to accept his arrest instead of murdering Milo. As Milo seems poised to walk away free, the monster the Avengers were busy with throughout the whole adventure falls and its arm crushes Milo inside his car.

Plenty to like in this issue with a solid core and very nice characterization for Daredevil (as well as for Spider-Man, who has a brief cameo in Peter Parker form). It certainly gets a little slow in the middle but  the issue more than makes up for it with great art and a nice showing for Daredevil. The art is fairly similar to Samnee's style and the coloring and lettering are very similar, which is simultaneous totally welcome and a little bit of a strange decision. Where Dark Nights is a separate series entirely, it feels almost like it's giving permission (and perhaps even urging this series) to try putting out its own art on the character and its own tone for the book. Again, the ongoing Daredevil series is absolutely phenomenal so making the tone so similar to that book isn't an error in judgment in anyway, it just rings as a little bit strange. Still, pretty good issue as the slightly ridiculous storyline (still hard to get over Buggit) wraps up on a nice note.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man 1
Kindt (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)

The Marvel Knights line launches anew as Matt Kindt, Marco Ruby, and Val Staples give us a pretty crazy Spider-Man story. Spidey (Peter) finds himself facing off, in rapid succession, against a number of enemies who may or may not be hallucinations. Spider-Man gets through a handful of them before Arcade (a little more solidly than the enemies before him) pops up to explain what's going on; a number of villains have gotten together and planted a bomb somewhere innocents will gather and it's up to Spidey to save them, which he must do by taking a pill Arcade presents and sticking to their plan for him. The plan is to pit Spider-Man up against 99 of the toughest villains out there. If he doesn't take the pill or if he deviates after he takes the pill, the bomb will go off. Let the games begin.

Very interesting launch for the new Marvel Knights line (I said in my pre-game that I wasn't sure if it was real or not because I didn't know they were re-launching the Marvel Knights line, although it occurs to me that I definitely read about Marvel Knights X-Men somewhat recently). Marvel Knights, as A+ editor Tom Brennan explains at the end of the issue, was originally meant to be a place for cutting-edge ideas and creators and comics and this is intended to be a return to that. There's a real sense of that here as the fairly gorgeous art is certainly unique to Marvel comics right now. It reminds me a little of David Mack and Joe Quesada's run on Daredevil, though I'd say that one had a little more to it while also looking a tiny bit more cartoony with Quesada's art. That run, Daredevil: Parts of a Hole, remains one of my very favorite complete arcs so any comparison to that is certainly something that won't upset me. It's an exciting ride in this book and I'm definitely looking forward to where it goes next.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 4
Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Boomerang has sic'd Luke Cage and Iron Fist on his gang now that they've kicked him out of it. Meanwhile, he's promised Chameleon that he'll get him the head of Silvermane in the next day. The next part of his plan, of course, is breaking his former gang out of the prison transit they're waiting in. As soon as he does this, they welcome him back with open arms, preferring his leadership that didn't put them in jail, even if it's a bit terrible, over Beetle's management that almost immediately got them beat up by the Heroes for Hire. Shocker reveals to Boomerang that he saw that the Punisher they faced down was really Chameleon. Boomerang covers for it and reveals to Shocker that, though they might not always have seen eye-to-eye in the past, he's glad they're on the same crew. Of course, that ends up feeling a little less true when we see that, by issue's end, Boomerang is shoving his car into a lake with Shocker trapped in the trunk.

The book really feels like it's found its own voice. I do think it mostly started off with a very similar voice but now that we're a few issues in, it's cemented and it feels unique to this book. The tone of the book is wholly its own and it fits it. It's also hard to say that this book is moving slowly though we still haven't started our heist of Silvermane's head. This one seems paced a little better too; there's still plenty of dialogue and narration, but it slows down where it needs to slow down and speeds back up as it needs to speed up. Pacing isn't all about cutting down words, it's about making sure the words are there when they're needed and gone when they're not. This issue is a really good example of that. Meanwhile, the tone continues to impress and feel proper for the story and the characters. Pretty solid book that's quietly developed into something altogether pretty impressive.