Deadpool 20, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 3, Indestructible Hulk Annual 1

Deadpool 20
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Koblish (a) and Staples (c)

It's another flashback issue for DEADPOOL as this time we find Deadpool visiting Wakanda in the 1960s only to find himself embroiled in a search across the map for four cosmic puzzle pieces. His search starts in Wakanda, leads him to the Savage Land and then to the Negative Zone and finally to Tibet, showing Deadpool making jokes and enemies in each place. He completes the puzzle and it calls forth a baby Watcher, sort of, and Deadpool inadvertently blows up the moon before meeting with Odin and getting on his good side, inevitably leading Odin to restore everything. It's...it's not particularly well-explained, though you get the sense we're not here for the story of this one, which is truly too bad because I don't know what else you'd be here for.

By and large, the DEADPOOL flashback issues have been interesting, whether for a story or an interaction or a change in the art style or whatever it might be. This one is an exception, which reverts DEADPOOL back to a mess of references and jokes without punchlines. It kind of reminds me of a recent article on Cracked.com (which is relatively more swear-filled and what not than I am here so, you know, if you're against that sort of thing, use your own judgment on clicking that link) that talked about the "comedy" of the new Grand Theft Auto game and pretty much summed up my thoughts on it. I'd say this is a step above that but it's not exactly a leap and it's the problem I have with humor that simply references things and expects you to laugh. In this case, I think it wasn't a bad idea to move to a flashback issue because Deadpool's in a pretty dark place and probably many readers aren't picking up DEADPOOL because they're looking for a brooding anti-hero. So we break up his story by looking back in something a little lighter but I think it went overly light for this. It's reminiscent of the first arc which I hate enormously so I'm hoping this spins back to where it was soon.

Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 3
Hastings (w) and Camagni, Calderon-Zurita, and Pallot (a) and Milla w/ Campbell (c)

Chaos watches in delight as the helicarrier falls from the sky, though he's saddened to find that either Longshot's luck powers or Dazzler's competence stops it from all-out crashing. Bitter, he starts to pull chaotic beings from time and space, including an old Magneto, a werewolf Captain America, and two vampire lords in Dracula and vampire Wolverine. The real Captain America shows up to help Longshot and together they manage to take everyone down, only to have Chaos call more in. This back-and-forth continues until Order shows up and the two fight. Longshot realizes that his luck powers have also been having unintended consequences; for all the good luck it's provided him, it's been followed by equally bad luck for someone else where it normally just results in good luck if his aims are altruistic. Meanwhile, Superior Spider-Man brings the woman and girl Longshot had been protecting to Dr. Dipson, the scientist from the first issue! It's all coming together!

Really fun book now that Hastings has had some time to develop what he needed to develop and to explore the world he's created, one based around Longshot's interaction with the cosmic cube. The plot is certainly compelling enough to keep readers interested but the fun comes from all of the interesting ideas and the duel between Chaos and Order. Cap's appearance in here is great, pitting him against his werewolf self (from the past; he claims that he remembers a version of himself shooting himself as a werewolf with a single-use chronodisplacer gun and has been carrying it around ever since, ready to fill his role) and against a pair of vampires, among others. There's a shot of Venom-Punisher and Carnage-Silver Surfer and all sorts of fun tidbits like that but it's really the quick and fun writing that ties it all together. A series of ideas in a book is still just a series of ideas until someone ties them together effectively and Hastings has done that very well with fun dialogue and pretty good characterization. Looking forward to the next issue.

Indestructible Hulk Annual 1
J. Parker (w) and M. Asrar (a) and N. Daniel (c)

Annual season pushes on as INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK gets its first, giving us a little bit of time with the Science Bros, Banner and Stark, as they track down a former mentor of theirs on a secluded island where he's doing a bit of Dr. Moreau work, but on the island as a whole, not on the people or anything like that. So maybe Dr. Moreau isn't the best comparison but I'll not be changing it. Anyway, Hulk and Iron Man have to work together to stop Doctor Zadian, who has practically weaponized the entire island with his research and who has measures in place to stop both Iron Man (whose armor nearly entirely breaks down on him when he interacts with the sand) and Hulk (who cannot stay Hulk for any more than a few seconds at a time on the island). The two heroes talk and trek across the island to find Zadian and discuss their past and a little bit of their motivations while they search before ultimately finding Zadian's base and, with a bit of a fight (and Iron Man resorting to tormenting Banner enough to keep him Hulked), manage to bring him down.

I tend not to be the biggest fan of Annuals; I tend to think they're not great stories and that we don't get the best characterization out of them on the whole because there simply isn't much time to let a story develop these days when given just one issue. However, I've been really impressed by Marvel's batch this year, from (admittedly) Fraction's fantastic HAWKEYE ANNUAL tothe fun and chaos of DEADPOOL ANNUAL to this week's really high-spirited AVENGERS ANNUAL and now INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK ANNUAL, I think Marvel has really dedicated itself to providing a good story and good creative teams to work on their books. As I said, HAWKEYE was still helmed by Fraction so there was a guaranteed unified feel for that Annual compared to the series but the rest have featured teams that, each time out, have made me really excited for the book, starting with Acker and Blacker on DEADPOOL, moving to the much-missed Kathryn Immonen on AVENGERS and now Jeff Parker (from old favorites RED SHE-HULK and DARK AVENGERS, notably for this blog) on INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK. I couldn't be happier with the teams or the results. Parker here explores the trend we've seen with Banner as someone who can't quite keep his jealousy in check and who realizes how much of his life has been spent on Hulk whereas people like Tony got to spend so much of his life with science and bettering the world with what they do. There's also a lot of characterization for Tony, who is secretly just as envious of Banner's intelligence but refuses to let it show nearly as much as Banner does. Really sharp writing, lots of fun, and a really nice character study for the two of them. I've heard Parker's been killing it on BATMAN '66 for DC and he's just taken over, I believe, as writer on AQUAMAN but I haven't had the time to check either out. I'd love to at some point as Jeff Parker has yet to disappoint me in any capacity. This year has made me less reluctant to review Annuals and more willing to actually be excited for them. Thanks Marvel!

This week's picks!

Not a bad week for comics, you guys! I will admit to not being particularly thrilled for the comics that were coming out this week; it feels like it had been long enough since some of my most anticipated books (INFINITY, NEW AVENGERS, HAWKEYE, YOUNG AVENGERS, etc) had last come out that we'd have a fuller slate for this week but instead we got a pretty barebones week which nonetheless managed to pull out some really good books.

Captain America Living Legend 3

I've liked this series a great deal but this one still only barely managed to edge out MARVEL KNIGHTS: X-MEN and AVENGERS ARENA for one of the top spots this week. That's right, there were five books (at least) worthy of this list this week. Cap makes the cut here because I'm a sucker for book with strong character moments and choices and for books that thematically plant seeds then bring them to harvest successfully. In this case, as I've said so many times, Andy Diggle has made it clear that the background characters, while sometimes still being less important to the plot, are real characters, people who would probably go home to their families at night if they survived the day (they tend not to). The level of care Diggle puts into that has been great and it reminds me of Kelly Sue DeConnick's CAPTAIN MARVEL, which spread little lines of dialogue to establish more minor characters in Carol's life throughout the early books to be picked up on later, confirming that Carol had a real connection to these people and that we'd care if they were threatened. Diggle's done fine work with this mini and it's heading to an interesting place.

Deadpool 19

Another time DEADPOOL has made the cut after starting this series on my absolute most hated list. I don't take back what I said about early DEADPOOL issues in this volume but I'm extremely happy to see that it's soared over all of that. This arc has had a nice emotional bent to it for Deadpool which could probably have felt extremely heavy-handed and weak but managed to pretty regularly stay away from that. On top of it, Posehn and Duggan again brought out other major characters from the Marvel Universe and wrote them well. Even when I wasn't liking the series, I did like a lot of the characterizations for other Marvel staples. Shalvey and Bellaire really complete this book and make it something definitely worth picking up, a nicely written and characterized book with truly gorgeous and fitting art. There's a lot of really cool stuff in here both on the writing end and on the art end and it's a pretty complete book for it.

Savage Wolverine 11

Jock's writing debut with Marvel is a success as his SAVAGE WOLVERINE arc comes to a close and gives us a nice, complete-enough story to really sink our teeth into. I talked in my review about how it doesn't really clear up who specifically it is that brought Wolverine here, how they captured him, where this place is, and who is trying so desperately to recreate him, but, in truth, I'm not sure that any of that would have improved this book. It's a complete story and it works particularly well for a character like Wolverine, who is so used to not knowing huge swaths of his own history and who is also pretty used to people trying to experiment on him and recreate him. So we find Wolverine landing on this planet and just kind of making do with what he knows and what he can do. On top of all that and on top of the classic Wolverine violence and rage we see at the forefront here, we get to see the somewhat softer side of Wolverine, the side that almost instantly takes to Kouen and who understands what's going to happen to him and understands the decision Kouen makes to destroy his test-tube brothers before they can suffer through what he's going to suffer through even when Wolverine himself couldn't bring himself to do it. Gorgeous art, nice story, good characterization, can't ask for anything more. Oh, and I just realized I picked a book by Jock and a book by Andy Diggle in the same week. So exciting!


Coolest art decision

I absolutely love this little sequence. In DEADPOOL 19, Deadpool and Wolverine attempt to enter Butler's little fortress while Captain America goes to stand guard topside and cover them from the should-be-advancing North Korean army. We haven't seen Cap since the first page or so of the issue but then, about ten pages in, a clearly-nervous Butler bursts out asking where the North Korean army is and why it hasn't stopped Deadpool's team yet. Smash cut to Cap standing in front of the collected army (obviously not at full force but full enough), viewed from the binoculars of an NK soldier, standing perfectly upright, shield behind his back. Not only is it a pretty great Cap, looking very much like the soldier we know and love, he's standing, waiting for an entire army, with his shield behind his back. Awesome, you guys.

This week's picks

Some real good comics came out this week. Sometimes it's hard to pick just three, even in a week when that's nearly a quarter of the comics that came out. So what made the cut this week? FIND OUT, BELOW.

Captain America 12

This was a pretty powerful issue for Cap as a character. Character matters an awful lot to comics and it matters an awful lot to me as a reader. I've said plenty of times before that Captain America is my favorite character, which could make this something of a biased pick, but really I'm in favor of seeing a somewhat new side of any character, as long as it fits within their established character. Remender has done that well throughout the series, giving Cap a full history that changes what we know about the character but doesn't change the perception of the character. In fact, it strengthens it. This issue beautifully shows the aftermath of Dimension Z for Steve and shows us just how hard the stoic Cap is taking everything. Tough issue as a Cap fan because he's in a real pain, one that it feels like we haven't seen from him since he figured out Bucky was the Winter Soldier. The Nuke storyline is still establishing itself and stays in the background of this one again, almost to the issue's detriment, but it will surely help the arc in the long run.

Deadpool 18

Deadpool cracks the top picks after its writing team earned my ire way, way back in the very first issues. They've turned things around, changing the tone of the book particularly for this arc, but even for arcs before it, and changing the humor from something that was almost entirely stupid reference driven into something that fits a little better. Like with Cap this week, we see a new side of Deadpool, one that realizes the consequences to his actions and one who is clearly in emotional pain, something we don't see out of the wild card Deadpool very often. The book is quick, it's smart, and it's well-written, for Deadpool and for supporting characters Wolverine and Captain America. Solid stuff. Deadpool this week beats out Avengers Arena, Ultimate X-Men, and even the final issue of Astonishing X-Men.

Infinity 4

Another impressive showing from this year's major event (good god, Age of Ultron happened this year, didn't it? It feels like that was years ago and also terrible. One of those statements is correct). The resistance comes up with a plan to hurt the Builders while, on Earth (and just above it), Black Bolt seemingly sacrifices himself to protect the rest of the Inhumans and to create many, many more. It feels like this event, unlike some in the recent past, will have long-lasting effects, perhaps even ones that are interesting as we push forward. I'll be real sad if Black Bolt is dead but, you know, this is comics so don't count on it. If he is, though, it certainly creates some interesting plot points going forward, both within the Inhumans and within the superhero community. Also, guys, Thor threw Mjolnir so far it crashed into a star and came back and burst through one of the creators of the universe. That was, you know, pretty gratifying.

Captain America 12, Deadpool 18, Wolverine 10

Captain America 18
Remender (w) and Pacheco and Janson (a) and White and Rosenberg (c)

Cap has burned all his souvenirs from bygone ages and is trying to step forward in his life. Of course, this isn't any sort of easy step. It's harder, even, then being frozen in ice and reawakened because now he's also just in the last day, practically, lost a son and a wife. One of Steve's closest friends, the Falcon, comes to talk with him about it, wanting to get him out of the house. The two move around the city talking until Steve finally cracks and breaks down as much as Steve Rogers can. Meanwhile, we find out that Nuke has been set loose on the world (in plenty of places where America has lost soldiers) by someone who apparently abhors America (unbeknownst to Nuke, though much is unbeknownst to Nuke) and  who seems to have mystical powers all his own.

The story for the arc is certainly still coming. The intrigue of Nuke and the former SHIELD agent who hates America and its capitalist ways and has powers borne from some mystical dragon is very present in this issue, if still rather unexplained, but that's, for the second straight issue, not our focus with Steve. And I don't blame the book for it. Steve went through 16 issues of just about the worst things that have ever happened to him. Of course, in those ten years in Dimension Z, some truly wonderful things happened to him, mostly to do with him and Ian, but he was fighting a horrible and seemingly impossible to defeat overlord and it culminated in the death of the two people closest to him and in returning to a world he no longer recognizes hot on the heels of those deaths. Let's give him a couple issues to let some of that emotion out. These are really difficult issues for Cap and this one perhaps even more so than the last. He's got a lot going on and it's, to Remender and Pacheco's credit, very evident and palpable here. It hurts to watch Cap go through what he's going through, the rock of the Marvel Universe so shaken to his core by what's happened. You may know Cap is the unflappable leader of the Avengers without even really realizing it. I've read plenty of Captain America and seen him at low points, needing to gather himself or needing to let the fear and doubt and tragedy out of him but this, right here and now, still resonates on a different level. It's a powerful issue for Cap, who is at his lowest right now, and (segue) he's not the only character feeling that way at the moment.

Deadpool 18
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c)

Deadpool, Cap, and Wolverine are leading the North Korean experiment mutants out of the camp and are on pace to try to save their families from destruction at the hands of the North Koreans. It's not an easy task but they at least have the upper hand in terms of powers and, at least briefly, the element of surprise. They plan their strike and move and, surprisingly, it goes rather well. They manage, in no small part thanks to Deadpool, to decimate the army on-hand and rescue the surviving family members, though there are plenty who were killed even before this strike. Deadpool realizes, despite Wolverine's attempts to get him to stay back, that his baby's mother and, quite probably, his baby are among that number. It shatters Deadpool, who went into the fight more serious than, as Wolverine commented, we've seen him and who was perhaps more dedicated to the fight than ever before. The issue ends with Deadpool pronouncing this all his fault and crying over the loss of his family.

It's a tough issue for Deadpool and, as this arc continues to show, pretty strong writing and ideas. There are jokes that are well-timed, there are fun bits to the action that keep this firmly in the "This is a Deadpool book" camp, but it all cedes to an emotional core for the book. Gone are the non-stop terrible jokes and references, gone are the ineffectual crude jokes and baseline humor tactics, gone are the meaningless support and villainous characters this book has often found itself littered with (though Preston is still kicking around; more on that in a minute). In its place is a smart and thoughtful book that knows when to put in jokes and knows when to keep jokes out of the way. I think I may have talked about this before but I certainly can't be bothered to look that up to confirm so I'll say it again, Preston remains a weak point for the book. She's filling the same sort of role in Deadpool's mind that the loose Peter Parker consciousness filled in the first several issues of Superior Spider-Man; she's saying things we totally expect her to say when we don't need those things to be said. Peter would see Doc Ock doing something morally ambiguous in his body and would start saying over and over "oh come on, don't do that, I would never do that," a sentiment that the audience was well-aware of. This is much the same case, where Preston is saying things right along those lines only to be ignored by Deadpool or even for him to consent but in a way where I honestly believe he would have consented without her needing to say anything. I think her inclusion here slows down what is otherwise a truly very good issue though, in truth, this issue is strong enough and her role so limited that it still stands well in spite of her. Also some more great Declan Shalvey art.

Wolverine 10
Cornell (w) and A. Davis and M. Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Wolverine is still on the trail of Sabretooth, which has led him to the place where he was born, now a strip mall, while Fury and SHIELD work with the Host to try to counteract the Virus' effects. One of Wolverine's unnecessary supporting characters (back from when we met them all at the bar way back when) has apparently created a sort of filter to keep the Virus out but it's a limited range and their too expensive and difficult to produce en masse and so they're only being used by the supporting characters, SHIELD, and heads of state. Fury, who is working with the Host to try to find some sort of way to stop the Virus, asks the Host if there's anything she can do to reverse what the Virus did to Wolverine. The Host admits there isn't but says that the Virus might be able to (bet that won't come up again) if it was so inclined. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Kitty have investigated the mall and, while trying to get the security guards to clear out, watch as Sabretooth's small branch of the Hand, Mystique, Lord Deathstrike, and the Silver Samurai enter the mall to close in around them. Up on the helicarrier, SHIELD has realized that the Virus is launching its full attack and that it's much more widespread than they thought, already beginning to infect the globe.

Hopefully this set up yields results as we have what will have to be a rather fast-paced and action-packed conclusion coming up on this arc (we're on part three of six so maybe it will be a little drawn out, rather like this series as a whole). Still, we find Wolverine still being awfully cautious for the first time in...ever, and we see the Virus putting its plans into motion. There are some books where a ten issue+ arc feels right (like in Captain America, Young Avengers, and, to perhaps a lesser extent, Thor), like the book has still moved extremely well and the story was ultimately worth telling. In this case, it feels like we've gotten maybe six issues combined of story out of ten physical issues. That's not even necessarily because of the ideas; there's a virus that's essentially possessing people inhabiting the Earth and which has made Wolverine susceptible to injury, which has spun off into its own story which, in all likelihood, will tie back into the virus story. That's plenty of story for ten books. Cap got more than ten really great issues out of one prolonged fight with Zola. Still, the pacing and the writing feels slow which makes the story feel lethargic. I feel like it's gotten a little better as we've introduced more compelling characters with more compelling reasons to be there (throwing Kitty in alongside Wolverine helps because we see the impact he's had on people and we get to see the little quirks of his being mortal from an outside perspective) but this book still feels like it's been around for a long time, and not in a good, it feels classic sort of way. It's more like "good god, this story is still going, isn't it?" kind of way. Not really where you want to be ten issues in.