Revolutionary War - Omega 1, Miracleman 4

Revolutionary War - Omega 1
Lanning and Cowsill (w) and Elson (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Killpower has emerged from Hell as Mephisto's servant and he's intent on bring Hell to Earth and making his former friends pay for leaving him behind and forgetting about him. Some of the plot, including how the demons were able to get through to Earth and some of the specifics of the plan, comes to light but that's for yesterday and today is for taking down Killpower and his demons. The heroes who were captured and linked up to the portal to power it are freed and immediately dive back into the fight, as do all the heroes we've seen so far. Even Liger manages to keep moving, trying to call the wounded heroes to action. Demons are attacking all over the world and it's up to the UK heroes to stop it. When all hope seems lost, Motormouth appears and stuns Killpower enough that he comes to his senses a bit. Not a boy any longer, he recognizes that he's done bad things and that he can't escape them and that Mephisto used the rage deep down inside to control him. He begs that they kill him before he loses control to it again and, while Captain Britain and Motormouth refuse, plenty of the mercenary characters hear his plea and accommodate him. With Killpower dead, Dark Angel is able to use his mind and the demonic power of all the demons around to force Hell back down and close the portal for good. There's some wrap-up as the heroes go their separate ways; Dark Angel continues to be bound to Mephisto, Liger and Keller (now free of his demon) enter the portal to try to save Kether Troop, Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom return to their roles, etc. Captain Britain sends us off, saying that there's a history of secrets, murder, and magic beneath London but that the streets and heroes belong to the future.

It's a fine send-off as everything wraps up rather nicely. Not everyone could be saved but it's a nice introduction to a lot of these characters who are primed to go off on their own adventures should anyone feel the urge to write them or to follow them. One of the downfalls of this series, simply through its design, is that it's really hard to get a sense of a lot of the characters. Many appeared only in one book prior to this finale, where everyone appeared but no one character had much screentime, and those books were all team books of a sort, barring perhaps Dark Angel and Motormouth. As a result, a couple of the characters (like Dark Angel and Motormouth) are characterized fairly well, at least as well as a single issue can cover, while others hardly feel explored at all. Hopefully a series like this does lead to more sorts of events or interactions with the Marvel Universe et al (Dark Angel has already made her way over to IRON MAN and characters like Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, and Union Jack are no strangers to many of the more-known heroes) because there's clearly plenty to see here, even if this event wasn't a great place to see it all. At the end of the day though, isn't that the best outcome for which this series could have hoped? That people out there would read it all the way through and say "I'm not sure that was my cup of tea (British), but I'd be interested in seeing more of these characters?" Mission accomplished, I'd say.

Miracleman 4
A. Moore (w) and A. Davis and Leach (a) and Oliff (c)

HEY EVERYONE, before I start this review it's worth noting that I missed the last issue because I had other things going on and this was the easiest book to cut from my schedule. Now that it's back on there, I'll recap very briefly: Miracleman and Kid Miracleman, now not a kid and totally evil and super-duper powerful, fought some more and just when it looked like KM would win, he accidentally said "Miracleman" and changed back to little 13 year-old Johnny Bates. He was taken into care as he seemed like he wasn't responsible for the actions of the villain but we know that that villain is still in him, just biding his time. Meanwhile, the government sent out an old project they'd abandoned when they thought supers were gone, a failsafe plan, and they sent him, a man named Evelyn Cream, to kill Miracleman. Miracleman learns some more about his powers with his wife Liz and Liz reveals that she's pregnant and it's Miracleman's kid, if there's any difference between Michael and Miracle. Michael goes two months later to see if there's work for him at the newspaper and, on his way home, Cream shoots him in the gut, using a baby as a hostage so he can't transform into MM. Now on to this issue!

Evelyn Cream shot Mike Moran with tranquilizers and brought him back to a safehouse. In that safehouse, he explains that he's betrayed his employers but he's done it because he believes Miracleman can help him and that he can help Miracleman. He informs him that Miracleman was created by a branch of the government called the Spookshow for a project called Project Zarathustra and that the Spookshow is responsible for the A-bomb that nearly killed him and killed his friend Young Miracleman. He also tells Miracleman that there's a bunker for Project Zarathustra still out there, a bunker that the Spookshow's chief Sir Dennis Archer doesn't want found. He also warns MM that the trip could be dangerous and full of traps but MM has no problem with that and the two take off. He has no problem as soldiers come to kill him and land mines go off around him and even as a bomb erupts beneath his feet. The final defense, a failed and now crazed superhero borne from Project Zarathustra named Big Ben, also fails to even slow MM and soon he and Cream are in the bunker, examining video reports where MM learns that he and the other two young men were experimented on after being pulled from the system as simply the orphaned children of war veterans. What's more, they had done extensive testing on the would-be heroes in a sort of virtual reality environment that had kept them under for eight years and had instilled false memories in them. The tipping point for MM is finding out that the brains behind Project Zarathustra is none other than his one time perceived biggest villain Emil Gargunza. He trashes the bunker, causing thousands of pounds of damage, and the two depart, leaving Big Ben, who heard about his failed origin, nearly comatose behind them.

It continues to be a really interesting story (it's hard to keep saying that because it's a story that's thirty years old and it's impossible to be anything but absurdly late to this party) and one that pretty masterfully updates the old comics for this new world and new universe. I've given a lot of credit in recent days to books like IRON MAN, which took the original origin of a character and shifted it just enough so that there's a wealth of new stories and a huge twist for the character but still respected everything that came before. Likewise, Ed Brubaker did a fantastic job in CAPTAIN AMERICA of rewriting the Invaders and aging Bucky a bit to make it more believable while simultaneously showing him as doing more of the black ops kind of stuff the Invaders needed to have done, an origin for Bucky that makes far more sense but still carefully treads around the old comics. In the reverse, I talked just earlier THIS DAY about a terrible change to an origin when Marvel decided to ruin Falcon's first appearance by retconning it to all be a ploy to get at Captain America while also setting back his character a solid few decades. This one certainly lands in the category of the former examples as Moore wonderfully respected the early stories, leaving them intact, but made the story entirely his own and updated it to work in a world that was far more cynical and wanted something darker, like Moore and Frank Miller were able to provide. It's impressive stuff and good storytelling. The books tend to be a little wordy as the narration tends to really kick it up a notch in a way that modern comics rarely do but you hardly notice it while you're reading because it's usually worthwhile stuff. This one's a classic for a reason, keep checking in on it.

Marvel Knights Hulk 4, Revolutionary War - Warheads 1

Marvel Knights Hulk 4
Keatinge (w) and Kowalski (a) and Filardi (c)

Nikoleta Harrow has brought Banner to the site of the first gamma bomb, the site where Hulk was born. She brings him underground and he realizes that she's allowed AIM to trace them and to follow them there before she reveals that she's also gotten her hands on another gamma bomb and left it on the surface. It goes off and wrecks through AIM's forces. As Banner hulks out, she injects herself with the serum they've created and attacks Hulk as a Hulk herself. she momentarily stops him but he ultimately brings her down and she dies, as she knew she would when she brought him there. SHIELD agent Molly Fitzgerald shows up to bring Banner back in and to answer his questions about the damage he's done. He returns to Paris briefly to apologize to the woman who found him and took care of him before his life returns to what it had been.

I will admit, I was somewhat distracted reading this issue wondering why I hadn't figured out Nikoleta Harrow before this issue. MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE wasn't that long ago and I clearly knew that Keatinge had written both. I should have recognized Harrow from her brief role in Morbius' adventures. Maybe I would have cared a little more about this series if I had some minor background for its villain. It's hard to say, though, because it takes a special HULK book to make me care too much about people trying to replicate the Hulk conditions and become Hulks. I just can't bring myself to care (I also have trouble with the "I want to recreate the super soldier serum!" storylines and anything all along those lines. Not as much trouble, mind you, and there certainly can be good stories centered around those but by and large they're mostly kind of tired storylines). Keatinge wrote a wrap-up letter at the end that talks about he and artist Piotr Kowalski's desire to get into Banner as a character, to get into what separates him and the weirdness inside of both him and Hulk. I don't think they really hit it. I wonder if a longer series would have given them the chance but this one just felt too rushed and too bogged down in its own story to really care about character until the very end.

Revolutionary War - Warheads 1
Lanning and Cowsill (w) and Erskine (a) and Zamor (c)

Colonel Tigon Liger has been hearing voices calling to him from Hell, the voices of Kether Troop, the team he had to leave behind the last time they stopped Mys-Tech. He goes to one of the Master Keys, a wizard who can open a portal provided he has some information on it first, to try to get him to open a portal to Hell to pull his team out after all this time. Agent Keller meets them at the SHIELD building in England only to find that someone's been building a portal on a missing thirteenth floor. It turns out, unfortunately for Liger, that the builder was none other than Keller himself, possessed by a Psycho-Wraith and prepared to use the captured British heroes (including Captain Britain and Dark Angel, plus others) as surrogates for the Mys-Tech board to open the gate to Hell and unleash a revolution on Britain and the world. Liger is unable to stop Keller now that he has a Master Key there and the portal is reared up and ready to go. It's not Mys-Tech coming out, though, it's Hell's new "liege lord" and Mephisto's chosen champion Killpower.

I've been a bit hard on REVOLUTIONARY WAR as a whole but I stand behind just about everything I've said so far. I think that the tone, by and large, hasn't corresponded with the intended drama of the book and I think that the exposition of who everyone is and the history of these characters has interfered with the storytelling of this book. That aside for this review, I think WARHEADS was just about the most coherent and best standalone issue of this event (aside from maybe DARK ANGEL, which read extremely well even without a lot of context). It really felt dedicated to telling the story and to keeping a consistent tone, which was a huge difference maker. I still think there was a bundle of exposition, maybe bordering on too much, but I've always understood why that was going to happen in this series, even if I wasn't in favor of it. This one, once it starts to get away from the history of the Kether Troop, does a solid job presenting a threat and making us understand why it's a threat. It's still a little confusing but I'm willing to take the blame on being confused. Solid work. Hopefully it's paved the way enough to make the upcoming conclusion, REVOLUTIONARY WAR - OMEGA, powerful and meaningful.

Wolverine 3, Revolutionary War - Motormouth 1

Wolverine 3
Cornell (w) and Stegman, Morales, and Livesay (a) and Curiel (c)

Going for record speed on this review. Present day Wolverine's a little shaken by the man he killed with his new team and by his memories of the past, the day when he left his old team. Spider-Man threw him off the roof then caught him and let him swing down to the ground himself, where Jubilee met him and led him to a fight against anti-mutant robots. At the same time, Maria Hill tried to recruit him to go after Sabretooth. He declines all options and heads home to find a new costume from Spider-Man waiting for him. Meanwhile, Sabretooth, still wearing a suit, has decided to dedicate his life to becoming God.

As has been true for some time now, I continue to be bored by this series, both in its characters and in its presentation. The characters all sound rather the same with the very slight exception of Wolverine, who sounds very slightly more gruff, which you can tell by the way he knocks the "g" off of verbs ending in "ing." Everyone else is somewhat indistinguishable and the pacing continues to be off-the-charts slow. While Cornell tries to get new readers caught up on the saga of the new status quo for Wolverine, he ends up wasting issues trying to show that Wolverine is both frustrated and vulnerable. Somehow, that doesn't make for much compelling reading.

Revolutionary War - Motormouth 1
Dakin (w) and Cliquet (a) and Redmond (c)

Motormouth, another Marvel UK superhero, gets thrown into the fight against Mys-Tech, with whom she's had plenty of experience in the past, who are after her for her very special shoes. She and a group of neighborhood thugs team up to take out the agents they sent and to save both Motormouth and her kids, one of whom reveals that she has the power to see into her mother's head and remove memories if she so chooses. They decide, as a family, to go to Hell to help rescue Motormouth's old partner Killpower.

OKAY, first item of business, not sure if those names up above are correct. The cover states different names and the splash page for this one talks all about the stuff happening with Colonel Tigon Liger and refuses to even mention Motormouth. Granted, this series has worked in such a way that this is Motormouth's first appearance in these events so maybe that's intentional but Liger is barely even mentioned in this issue so I have my doubts. Furthermore, the distribution list I follow (which I'm already mad at this week) has the names above as the creative team but again defines the book as one seemingly about Tigon Liger. So I just don't know what to think. Anyway, it's another REVOLUTIONARY WAR book which means it's another disjointed and strangely paced and toned book showing a UK hero being forced into the fight against Mys-Tech and ending with the now very old ending of someone deciding to take matters into their own hands to stop the evil entity. I didn't end up reviewing the last one, REVOLUTIONARY WAR - SUPERSOLDIERS because I rather ran out of time in the week and it's good to know that, as I guessed at the time, I didn't actually miss a beat.

Deadpool 23, Revolutionary War - Death's Head II 1

Deadpool 23
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne (a) and Staples (c)

Deadpool is unleashed on the Ultimatum helicarrier and makes quick work of everyone he runs across while Preston argues for some sort of leniency. He tracks down Gorman on the ship, quickly falling out of the sky, and shoots him in the gut as the ship shakes. Gorman falls out of the helicarrier but he's strapped to a jetpack so it's possible he survived. Deadpool returns to the SHIELD helicarrier where Coulson and Adsit tell him that they've found a new body for Preston and thank him, a little warily, for bringing down the helicarrier.

The shortness of this review shouldn't indicate that it's not a fun issue or not an interesting issue or something along those lines. It's just a pretty quick issue to review because it's mostly fighting and killing and some quips and little jokes here and there. Deadpool still gets some solid characterization with his methods pointedly more brutal than they had been throughout the rest of the series. It also says a lot that he gets out truly unscathed from the attack, bringing down an entire helicarrier full of scientists and fighters and agents without so much as a scratch. In that way, it's a good Deadpool issue. Preston also promises that, when she gets her own body, they'll finish out the Butcher case and she'll attempt to track Eleanor, if she is still alive out there some where, but Deadpool wants the issue put to bed, demanding Preston not ever introduce them. So there's still plenty going on for Deadpool and there's more planned for the coming months as, presumably, Preston goes elsewhere for the first time in about fifteen or so issues.

Revolutionary War - Death's Head II 1
Lanning and Cowsill (w) and Roche (a) and Gandini (c)

Death's Head II was last seen knocking out and kidnapping Captain Britain but no worries, he's still a relatively good guy. He injected him with a tracking device so they could follow Mys-Tech and so that they have a man on the inside, though he maybe should have warned Captain Britain about the plan. However, he's betrayed pretty quickly and has to fight his way out from Mys-Tech's treachery. He contacts his pal Tuck from the future who goes back in time with the older Death's Head I model to help DHII. There's quipping and fighting and quipping and man, oh man, more quipping. Evelyn Necker, the face of the villain in this issue, even corrupts DHII at one point and forces DHI to "kill" him, allowing him to reboot and rejoin the good fight. They eventually manage to take down the villains and set things straight before Tuck and DHII set out to save the world.

This entire REVOLUTIONARY WAR event continues to suffer from a tone problem as it's really incredibly hard to tell how great this threat is since every book has alternated between "we are in dire trouble" and "we should probably make a joke that doesn't really read as a joke because it's so forced and/or so blatantly set-up." Between that and the fact that Death's Head I literally mugs at the camera at one point after being hit by Death's Head II while he mutters a "I knew I could be hard on myself, but this is starting to..." I don't know if Death's Head is one of the characters who typically breaks the fourth wall (though the slightest of wikipedia searches would make me believe he doesn't) but GOD is it irritating the couple of times it happens here. At first I was thinking I wasn't really onboard only because I don't know the characters so well but I'm beginning to think that it's not so much me having the problems here. Gillen's REVOLUTIONARY WAR - DARK ANGEL was definitely the top of the bunch here and hers was the only book where I didn't know any of the characters participating (her, essentially. Okay, I knew Mephisto, I suppose). There's something to be said about trying to have your cake and eat it too. It's a stupid saying but it's not wrong here.

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 4, Revolutionary War - Knights of Pendragon 1, Night of the Living Deadpool 2

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 4
Bendis (w) and Bagley and Hennessy (a) and Keith (c)

The Ultimates have recruited the X-Men in the fight against Galactus and their newest, perhaps most desperate, plan revolves around Kitty Pryde. Their hope is to use Pym Particles to allow her to grow to near-Galactus size (or at least nearer-Galactus size) and get her close to the cosmic entity before she phases through him and, if all goes well, disrupts all of his technology inside. It's a gambit but it's the best they can do on such a short schedule. They inject Kitty with the particles but can't actually get her moving just yet as Jean Grey, who Stark had trying to probe Galactus' mind for any useful information, is noticed by Galactus and he turns his attentions towards the helicarrier. While they start to abandon ship, Captain America jumps into a jet and flies straight at Galactus, ramming the jet into Galactus' mouth as Cap attempts to bail. The helicarrier goes down, hopefully after a number of people were able to escape with the distraction Cap provided, and Galactus remains.

The cover would have you believe that Cap doesn't make it from his jump out of the jet but the pages inside don't indicate anything specific and, with comics, specifics are everything. Without a body, you can almost guarantee an alive body will turn up sometime soon. This event is still interesting and still worthy of, it would appear, the possible conclusion of the ULTIMATE line (by the way, I think we've covered but it's not the conclusion as they've already solicited and talked about new parts of the all-new Ultimate line or whatever they're calling it) but I think, for how small and contained the Ultimate Universe feels compared to the main universe, the sheer volume of books about this event has hurt the tension of it. With so many books and an entire universe tied to its outcome, it's starting to feel, even amidst all the action and all of the big set pieces, that the event is dragging. Almost every event at this point seems to reach that threshold, an invisible line where the reader's interest inevitably begins to wane. I do wonder if there are readers out there who are just reading the Ultimate Universe stuff and have been following this event with bated breath. Do you, mysterious reader, feel like it's still moving really well? Am I tainted because I've read every major Marvel book in between all of these CATACLYSM books? I don't know but it's the inherent problem (or one of the inherent problems) with these events and I think this whole event would be wise to start reaching its conclusion.

Revolutionary War - Knights of Pendragon 1
R. Williams (w) and Sliney (a) and Gandini (c)

Dai Thomas and Kate McLellan go to investigate an old underground Mys-Tech base while Pete Wisdom and Union Jack go to Avalon to warn Albion about Mys-Tech's re-emergence. Both pairs run into problems as Dai and Kate run afoul of the zombies of King Arthur's court, intent on returning to run Britain. Wisdom and Jack find that Mys-Tech beat them to Avalon and overran the Green Knight and possibly Albion. The stories converge as Albion falls out of Avalon and into the underground base (they were together the whole time, practically!) and manages to lead the Knights of Pendragon again. However, it's short lived as their overrun again fairly quickly. Fortunately, Wisdom snags zombie Excalibur and uses it to awaken the Green Knight, turning him into a knight for today (something like a marathon runner that's PROBABLY a British reference but I'm not about to understand it) and saving everyone, even resurrecting Dai, who had kind of died during the battle.

I was rather looking forward to this part of REVOLUTIONARY WAR because, on top of continuing the plot that I'm having a bit of trouble really getting into, it was bringing in characters I like and know a bit better in Pete Wisdom and Union Jack. It, instead, didn't really end up working for me and I found the whole thing something of a headache and often more grating than entertaining. It does a lot of the "clever, too-cool-for-this" captions thing I've taken such issue with over the last year or so and goes SO FAR out of its way to make sure we know the key points of these characters. Pete Wisdom calls himself a cynical guy, like, a hundred times in this issue (I didn't actually count but it FEELS like a hundred) and there's nothing I like LESS than a sarcastic or cynical person constantly asserting how cynical or sarcastic they are. UGH. Anyway, the plot doesn't clear up at all here as we only tangentially see what Mys-Tech is up to and the issue serves as just a way to show off a couple more characters and to point out who's Welsh and who isn't (?).

Night of the Living Deadpool 2
Bunn (w) and Rosanas (a and c)

Check it everyone, I can write this review SO FAST and you'll still get a PERFECT sense of this book. Deadpool and his team of humans travel through the zombies and typical zombie stuff happens, with the one person in their group who was already bitten turning and going on to turn someone else before Deadpool kills them both, then the other three people with him get bitten one after the other after Deadpool and company visit a slew of classic zombie-media locales (ie Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, oodles of Walking Dead, others I'm less familiar with, etc). Deadpool, now alone, finds himself near a human commune ready to be invaded by a group of other humans.

This series is a loving homage to zombies and everything zombie in media and, as such, straddles a fine line between nostalgia, hamfisted reference, and Deadpool. The art is really the standout of the book, particularly as we already have something sort of this nature with Headpool from MARVEL ZOMBIES, but it still can't really cover the fact that this book is only going to be for the true Deadpool fans out there and MAYBE for the true zombie fans out there. The problem is that zombie Marvel was already done better in the aforementioned MARVEL ZOMBIES and zombies in general have already been done better in...well, everything they mention from Night of the Living Dead to the amazing Shaun of the Dead to The Walking Dead. So every beat is predictable in some fashion, meaning that the allure of these Deadpool-centric series, the draw of seeing some new idea, is kind of gone. I liked DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED best of all of these little series and that one introduced the most original ideas. After a turn through Deadpool fighting Deadpools (and at least the neat idea of a Deadpool alternate-costume for every hero they could fit on the page), we get to this. I don't know. I think the most I can say is that you'll probably know if you'll like it right from the get-go and if it's not for you in its design than it's not going to ever be for you.

Miracleman 1, Revolutionary War - Dark Angel 1

Miracleman 1
Anglo (w and a) and D. Lawrence (a) and Moore (w) and Leach (a) and Oliff (c)

It's a re-release for Marvelman/Miracleman as MIRACLEMAN 1 kicks off with a triple size issue. In the issue are stories from original Miracleman creator Mick Anglo, including one where the Miracleman Family, comprising of Miracleman, Young Miracleman, and Kid Miracleman, is roped into a tale of time travel and science fiction when invaders from 25 years in the future, the year 1981, come back to good, old 1956 to wreak havoc, solved when Miracleman and Young Miracleman travel to 1981 and stop their time-travel ships before they can get off the ground, creating something of a paradox but it was 1956 so WHO WOULD POSSIBLY CARE? (Doc Brown would, as a note) The issue moves from the Mick Anglo story to Alan Moore's reboot, WARRIOR, in 1982 (Moore's name is carefully removed from all parts of this book, per his own wishes). In the present (1982, keep up), Michael Moran has been living with his wife Liz for a decade and a half and has no memories of his history as Miracleman, save for some migraines and dreams of flying. Michael's freelance journalist job brings him, though, to what quickly turns into hostage situation. Unfortunately, he is one of those taken hostage but FORTUNATELY he sees the word "atomic" backwards which makes him remember his life as Miracleman. Shouting "Kimota!" he becomes Miracleman again for the first time in twenty years and ends the terrorist threat, returning home that night to talk to Liz about his powers and what he can remember. After a full synopsis of his history, he reveals that the last thing he remembers as Miracleman is a mission that pit him and Young and Kid up against arch-nemesis Gargunza, a mission that would result in Miracleman discovering that the Miracleman Family is not invulnerable to the A-bomb. The last thing he saw was Young Miracleman, who, with Kid, had dove straight into the action, pretty much exploding in front of him. Miracleman came crashing down to Earth in bad shape and didn't wake up for two months, forgetting everything he had been before that. As he explains everything to Liz, someone else who remembers Miracleman sees the news footage from the day and curses Miracleman. The issue ends with an interview between Joe Quesada and Mick Anglo, some concept drawings, and a couple more Anglo stories.

Solid execution here as Marvel brings a 1980s series based on a 1950s character into the 2010s. It's the Back to the Future trifecta (I almost wish I hadn't referenced Doc Brown above but I did and I never wanna stop so it's okay). Of course, this is only issue one so I don't want to heap too much praise on it (lest it turn a Back to the Future II on me) but presumably the art restoration will, if nothing else does, keep up the way it's going and the book looks great. The colors are well done (Moore's original book was black and white) and the art looks crisp as ever. I'll admit that I don't have a background with MIRACLEMAN so I'm one of those people who is just glad that it's getting reprinted since it's so hard to find anywhere. I don't know how much of these reviews will be about story (as these are stories that have already been published, up until they get to the new material from Gaiman) but that's okay with me, if my reviews end up a little shorter on these books on the whole (obviously not this issue, okay). I'll probably just talk about Back to the Future more, which is ALSO totally great with me.

Revolutionary War - Dark Angel 1
Gillen (w) and D. Smith (a) and R. Redmond (c)

Another peek into Marvel UK as current comic superstar Kieron Gillen gives us a one-shot for the hero Dark Angel (Shevaun Hadley) which grants her a somewhat self-contained story that plays into the scale of this event and goes a little deeper into the story while also giving us a pretty full rundown on the character. Dark Angel's father was a member of Mys-Tech who was, of course, killed by Mephisto after trying to break their deal in the modern day. Shevaun was granted powers as part of the deal, as Gillen puts it, and fought against Mys-Tech. Still, the debt her father and his cronies accrued needs to be paid off so Shevaun has to help Mephisto with things here and there, leaving very little time and power for her own exploits (kind of cool about Shevaun's power: there is a daily limit to them). The terms of the deal are particularly hard on her as Mys-Tech begins to rise again and she's forced to fight some of their hidden tech before she's chased by one of the biggest techs her father ever created, Psycho-Wraith Prime. With no will left to fight, she summons Mephisto and asks for a new deal, one that will take her powers away in the hopes that it will keep them from Mys-Tech. Mephisto has her sign a new contract but, you know, he's Mephisto so it all goes rather belly-up as she's sucked into the contract and Psycho-Wraith Prime gets his hands on her anyway, finding, as Mephisto says, one sixth of the power he needs. Life ends, your debts live on.

As this event is still pretty young, I'm very interested in how it's going to play out going forward. There's clearly a big story here but it's only got a set amount of time to explain itself as every book seems to be something of a one-shot that happens to tie in to the main plot. Because every book is focused on a different character or team or set of characters (not necessarily in team form) and most of these characters aren't well-known by US audiences, part of the issue has to be dedicated to explaining who a character is, what he or she is (roughly) about, and what his or her powers are. That means that issues like this one read a little bit slower and it puts the writer in a tricky spot of knowingly slowing their pace down to make sure the audience is mostly on the same page. Despite that, Gillen does a good job to get the gist of the character across and to give her a real chip on her shoulder, helping to fully realize Shevaun. At the end of it all, it's very much a story about the sins of the father (pretty explicitly) and the idea that, as Shevaun puts it, "we paid for their Heaven and now we live in their Hell." It's a good story, she's a good character, we get a little bit of the Mys-Tech story, and Dietrich Smith's art is perfect for the issue. Next up: the Knights of Pendragon, featuring UNION JACK! You guys, I love Union Jack.

Revolutionary War - Alpha 1, Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 3, Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 3

Revolutionary War - Alpha 1
Lanning and Cowsill (w) and Elson (a) and Fabela (c)

Geez that's a long post title with just a whole bunch of hyphens. Anyway, Marvel UK is back on the map with REVOLUTIONARY WAR and this is our opening shot to the series. Of course, plenty of these characters haven't been seen for a while so we're due for a bit of recap and character summarization which the writers provide in excruciating detail. On top of that, we learn a bit about our plot; there had been an organization of techno-wizards (it's always wizards in Britain) from around 1000 AD who had made a deal with Mephisto to grant them immortality. Somewhat recently, though, they had established a corporation called Mys-Tech and fed Mephisto more and more souls in exchange for keeping their own alive. Of course, they got to a point where they wanted to stay immortal but break from their contract. To do so, they found a great deal of artifacts and alien tech to help them and realized that they could get out of their contract if they sacrificed Great Britain's entire population to Mephisto. They tried and everyone fought at the Battle of London Bridge (covered up, of course, by MI-13). Plenty of heroes died in the battle but Mys-Tech was stopped. OR SO IT SEEMED. Colonel Tigon Liger (yes, that's a real Marvel UK hero's name. I know, I rolled my eyes too) has been a drunk since the battle, where he was forced to make the decision to close Mys-Tech's portal to hell before they could bring hell to Earth even though several of their fighters were on the other side. Now they're all coming back to make the world burn.

There's an interesting story in here but I'm a little nervous about the writing of this first issue alone. There is a lot of ground to cover to establish our characters and our history here, which is undoubtedly why the first heroes we see and the ones who we spend the most time with in this issue are our biggest current UK characters in Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom. Conveniently, Wisdom wasn't around for the Battle of London Bridge so he needs as much catching up as we do. I watched the first 15 minutes or so of the pilot for CBS' new drama Intelligence the other day and had to shut it off because it was very clear that the series wasn't really aiming for subtext anywhere (I have plenty of problems with CBS and this is definitely a recurring one). Characters were constantly fully defining other characters so we didn't actually have to learn about a character, we could just be told ("you DO need a handler even though you're a great asset! I know you need a handler because your last mission was to find the location of the nukes in Mongolia, and you went off mission looking for her. I know you don't want to hear this again but your wife, Amelia, is dead. She was captured long ago and we lost contact with her and she's definitely dead" is pretty much the gist of it). That's a little how this issue feels and it's not how you want to dive into a book, with all of this unnatural exposition and dialogue. I'm hoping that now the first issue is out of the way things start to feel a little more natural but we'll see. The story seems good enough to hold up the series, let's just hope it has the chance to.

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 3
Bendis (w) and Bagley and Hennessy (a) and Keith (c)

Under Tony Stark's instruction (and armed with one of his repulsors), Spider-Man is going into the 616 with Reed Richards to ensure that he stays on mission and comes home with the right answer to stop Galactus. Despite protests from Sue and others, Reed and Miles set off and quickly make it to the 616's Baxter Building. They break in with relative ease (you'd think Reed would program in security to stop alternate dimension F4s from getting in, considering how frequently it comes up, but apparently not) and download the data on Galactus without being spotted. However, Valeria shows up as they're about to leave and recognizes that Reed isn't her Reed and the security turns on them. Reed, who had copied two different flash drives with Galactus info and given one to Miles and kept one in case they got separated, tells Miles to go and to get back and deliver the information. He does, ditching the security robots on the other Spider-Man who happens to be swinging by (don't TOTALLY understand how that works, their costumes aren't that similar and there are pretty obvious size differences), and he makes it back to the Ultimate Universe to deliver the info. Before they can question him too long about Reed, Reed makes his way back through the portal. He apologizes to Sue for ruining their life, now that he's seen what they could have had and how beautiful the world really is.

Really cheesy ending and I guess I don't totally buy it? I don't know. This Reed is very strange and it's hard to pin down his personality, exactly. Sometimes he's an aloof psychotic genius and sometimes he's just a psychotic 616 Reed. Look, either way he's pretty psychotic. I get that seeing the way things turned out for an alternate dimension you would change things, potentially, and even meeting your potential daughter could change things but this seems like an abrupt turnaround. Of course, it could all be a lie and he could be playing them but who knows. Anyway, this is a super weird event for me. It's interesting enough and all the books are focusing on interesting parts of the event but I've never had an event that is so hard to distinguish book from book. Characters appear in several books at once, plot seems to move in every book but it's hard to tell which plot is the main plot, etc. I know some of those issues may seem petty, but it's been a little weird to read an issue then see it advertise the next issue of CATACLYSM (the main series) and be surprised that that wasn't what I was reading. It's melding together, which is kind of a good thing but also kind of weird to actually see happen. I guess we'll just have to wait for this one to end before I can tell if the layout worked for me.

Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 3
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

A plane from Great Britain didn't understand in time not to go to Newark because there is no more Newark (I get that no one is anticipating anything like Galactus but I imagine pilots are pretty well-trained to go to a different airport if the tower is telling them to go to a different airport) and, as a result, flies directly at Galactus. It comes crashing down in pieces including right at the foot of the Morales' apartment while Jefferson yells at Miles for being Spider-Man, who Jefferson decides is responsible for the deaths of both his brother and his wife. He says a lot of horrible things and is generally horrible until Miles has to leave him to go help with the plane wreckage, asking him to wait until he can come back and save him. With the help of Spider-Woman, Cloak and Dagger, and Bombshell, they manage to save the survivors (including a very strange J. Jonah Jameson) and teleport them to a Pittsburgh hospital. Miles returns home to find that Jefferson has left as Cap calls him in to help with the Galactus business (as seen in CATACLYSM - ULTIMATES' LAST STAND).

That Jefferson guy is a real jerk. There's a sense, as there has been throughout Miles' story, that we're supposed to find Jefferson as aggressive and quick-to-anger and particularly against Spider-Man, obviously unjustly but with limited information that we can all supposedly understand. It doesn't always read that way, though, and this is no exception. Not to say that he wouldn't act this way in this moment but I can never get a real feel for the character. Sometimes he seems tolerant and like love of his family conquers all (particularly love and pride in his son) and sometimes it seems like he's just gone crazy. I had problems with him earlier in this series too, as he suddenly became a freedom fighter or something. That was pretty weird. Anyway, nice little team-up for the five teenage superheroes we've seen dominating this book recently and presumably a turnaround on this Spider-Man from J. Jonah Jameson (all it takes is for every Ultimate Spider-Man to save his life individually, it seems). More good Marquez art and solid Ponsor colors help the story along.

Comics this week

Geez, back to a full workload of comics, huh? That might change over the course of the year. Turns out reviewing every single major Marvel comic is EXHAUSTING and maybe not as comprehensive as you want it to be? I don't know. Look, I'm mulling some things over and we don't really have to talk about this now. Anyway, lot of new number ones to kick the year off and one book tragically ending. Let's get into it.

All-New X-Factor 1
GOOD, another book that has two hyphens in it. Thanks for that trend, Marvel. Anyway, excited to see an X-Factor team around again, even if it doesn't have Madrox in it (sad face) and if it will focus on a somewhat corporate team of mutants instead of the easy-going mentality of the detective agency. Should be an interesting team and I'm glad to see Peter David back at it. Hoping this becomes another X-book I can turn to when I'm feeling down on X-books.

Avengers World 1
I'm interested to see how this series plays out as Jonathan Hickman brings us a world where the Avengers have never really been higher. After a few threats that were very clearly not brought about by the superhero community and a big time rescue from said community, it's time to see what benefits the Avengers reap from it. Included in this benefits, presumably, expanded membership and therefore a book needed to check in on the characters who maybe wouldn't get screen time in AVENGERS otherwise.

Black Widow 1
Very glad to see Natasha getting her own book again and really interested to see how she's doing. We've seen her a bunch in AVENGERS and AVENGERS ASSEMBLE but we haven't really gotten any one-on-one time with her since WINTER SOLDIER ended with her losing her memories of Bucky. I'm happy to see her back in the spotlight and I'm hoping this series manages to last a bit longer for her. God knows she's earned a strong series.

Revolutionary War Alpha 1
Too many number ones out this week means that other books that might have made this pre-game (specifically CABLE AND X-FORCE 18, the start of the VENDETTA crossover with UNCANNY X-FORCE, and IRON MAN 20) get kind of pushed to the side so I can only really mention them in entries dedicated to other books I'm excited about. Anyway, REVOLUTIONARY WAR is a new event that will focus on Marvel UK, the delightful UK branch of the Marvel Universe. It's not a full-blown event in that it's not going to span the Marvel Universe but it's nice to see it happening since it will let us see so many characters that have been cast out a bit in recent years. Should be fun.

Young Avengers 15
Contrasting all these number ones is the final issue of the spectacular YOUNG AVENGERS series. Really sad to see this one go (if I hadn't made that abundantly clear by now) but excited to see the manner in which it goes. Plenty still happening over there and we should get another really nice issue with art from Becky Cloonan, Ming Doyle, Joe Quinones, and, of course, series regular/artist extraordinaire Jamie McKelvie. Looking forward to it but then curling up in a ball for the rest of the week so I don't have to think about how there will never be another one.