Hunger 4, A+X13, Wolverine MAX 12

Hunger 4
Fialkov (w) and Kirk (a) and Aburtov (c)

Rick Jones has taken the helmet (and therefore the powers and the bomb) used by Captain Marvel, enhancing his own already impressive powers and giving him access to the device Mahr Vel had designed to defeat the Gah Lak Tus Swarm. The helmet predicts, if he uses the bomb near Hala, that the death count would be in the millions, an outcome Rick is unwilling to accept. At great personal risk, he manages to use his Nova powers to teleport Galactus and the swarm to an emptier location where he detonates the bomb more safely. It (at least temporarily) disables the swarm and deals a massive blow to Galactus, who escapes to gain more energy. The Watcher predicts he'll move towards the highest energy planet in the area (Earth, of course, in Ultimate: Cataclysm) but that Rick Jones, who managed to survive the attack, has other things to worry about, things that will present themselves in time.

Not a bad ending to what has been a pretty reliable series. Last issue showed Rick abandon his responsibility, unwilling to continue his involvement in fighting the massive force, but he's inspired to go back and, if need be, sacrifice himself to save the universe. He throws himself into that role now without reservation and only hesitates when he realizes the death toll if he tries to take out Galactus over Hala. Even then he doesn't hesitate to use his powers to teleport Galactus and the swarm away, an action that, by itself, could kill him. It's a nice progression from first issue Rick, who didn't understand his role in the universe and who was completely unprepared to get into such a big fight. He had done good things but he was ready for a break and ready to hang up the helmet for a bit, it seemed, before being frustratingly called back by the Watcher. After the stumble in issue three, his resolve is far stronger and seeing the actions of so many heroes around him (Spider-Man and Mahr Vel, particularly) strengthens him more. It's pretty classic hero's journey stuff but it's presented in an interesting and, above all else, succinct way, from which the book benefits. I've said before that the pacing is excellent and the choice to make this a four issue series instead of anything bigger (as Marvel has preferred to do of late) was a smart call, not allowing time for the series to wallow in any one thought. As a result, this is a bang-bang little series with a good core, some solid characterization, and a good story that will, it seems, pretty perfectly lead in to Cataclysm. Great work all around, Fialkov and crew did their jobs here.

A+X 13
Captain America and Cyclops: Duggan (w) and Yardin (a) and Mossa (c)
Black Widow and Emma Frost: Chaykin (w and a) and Delgado (c)

Story one, Captain America and Cyclops, is an interesting new attempt by the apparently ongoing A+X series (seriously, I was sure this was only going to last like, ten issues max, what is happening?) to tell an ongoing story with continuity and everything. This is part one of six of a story where a rebel Skrull band, helped in their training by none other than Charles Xavier, is preparing to attack Earth in the wake of Xavier's death and in retribution for the long-past Secret Invasion. A Skrull unassociated to that band has called together Captain America and Cyclops, failing to reach Xavier, to tell them so they won't seek retribution from the Skrulls if it comes to that. Of course, Cap and Cyclops aren't on great terms right now, to say the least, and immediately jeopardize the mission by fighting on the Skrull's ship and, conveniently, damaging all of the equipment the Skrull might use to pick different heroes or to scan people to see if they're really Skrulls or any other thing they might do. The two will have to grudgingly put their differences aside to protect the planet, made harder by the fact that Cap managed to lock Cyclops in nearly unbreakable handcuffs. Should be an interesting attempt as A+X delves into continuity for the first time here and puts the two people who are perhaps most furious with one another together for six ten-page issues. I'm not totally onboard with the premise but, again, it's just A+X, I'll let abrupt storytelling slide here.

Comic pro Howard Chaykin takes story two, a tale of espionage and intrigue and, well, mostly sex as Emma Frost enlists Black Widow's reluctant help to track down a sex tape Frost made in her Hellfire Club days so the person who has the tape will stop blackmailing her. The pair eventually manage to track down the scumbag who has it and Emma Frost, concentrating to her utmost, uses her weakened powers to punish the man; whenever he sees bare breasts in the future, he will helplessly projectile vomit. I have my problems with Howard Chaykin's art and writing style though I recognize that he's from sort of a different wing of comics and a different age than I'm really in favor of so I understand there is an appeal there that's unique to his work. I quite like his work in Matt Fraction's independent comic Satellite Sam but I have my problems with it here. I also tend to have problems when female superheroes are put into this kind of sexually motivated hole because don't we have enough of that everywhere else in our world? Still, the characterizations aren't awful and there are some nice pieces of dialogue here. It's not enough for me to really climb onboard this story but, again, I'm sure there are big Chaykin fans out there (and this art is distinctly Chaykin) who will love seeing these characters rendered in such a way. I'm not one. Worth a miss.

Wolverine MAX 12
Starr (w) and Ruiz (a) and D. Brown (c)

Wolverine has been hypnotized by Mother Night, who has found out about his fighting prowess, his healing factor, and, now, his deadly claws. Thrilled by the discoveries, Mother Night has decided to keep Wolverine pretty firmly in her grasp as her own personal assassin, among other things. His first target is Vegas gambler Max Fisher (no relation to Rushmore). She gives Wolverine a photo of him and makes him forget their conversation, coming back to his senses with the picture and an unexplainable hatred for Fisher. He's suspicious when he awakens, not knowing how he got the photo and not sure why he hates the stranger, but he can't come up with any reasons why. His fighting prowess, though, seems totally gone as he can no longer fully control himself; he manages to win another cage fight only after getting pounded on for a while and after Mother Night intercedes to get him to fight better before going to kill Fisher. Of course, after the fight he tracks and slays Fisher. He wakes up bloodied and all over the news.

Interesting story in that it will be interesting to see how Wolverine figures out he's being used and exactly what his retribution is when he does figure it out. Mother Night's not a bad villain for him in this series because he's so vulnerable to anything that makes him question his memory more and that he can't really identify as a threat. When he's not directly under her control, he recognizes some sort of attraction to her (mostly implanted by her) but can't quite place the uneasy feeling he has. I think it's a strong villain and it could lead to a strong story but the arc is still rather bogged down by excessive explanation and minor story points, sending the audience through explanation after explanation and reminding us over and over that his memory is bad. Some of that is important; Mother Night explaining away his uneasiness by blaming his damaged memory is an important moment because it shows the audience that there's a reason Wolverine could allow for these weird directions. Still, we get kind of hit over the head with it, which both slows the issue and over-explains, something you don't really want to do in comics. I think this story has the makings of a good arc but it's not going to quite reach it until Starr can get out of his own way.

Hunger 3, Infinity the Hunt 2, Thunderbolts 16

Hunger 3
Fialkov (w) and Kirk (a) and Aburtov (c)

Galactus, now merged with the Gah Lak Tus swarm, continues his rampage through the Ultimate universe while Silver Surfer and Rick Jones try to deal with a rogue swarm that's portal'd with them to Earth. They're having some trouble containing it when they get help from an unlikely source: Mahr-Vehl, the Captain Marvel of this Universe. He reveals to the duo that the Kree created the Gah Lak Tus swarm and that he's studied all his life to stop it, which explains why he has so little trouble destroying the swarm that followed them to Earth. Rick needs to process everything and leaves, saying that he can't do anything more with them. As Surfer and Captain Marvel press forward and attack Galactus and his swarm, Rick joins back up with them, having gone home and seen that Peter Parker, the kid he knew back when he lived across the street, has died and was Spider-Man. It's fortified Rick and he finds himself back in the fight, a solid weapon against Galactus. Meanwhile, Mahr-Vehl's weapons don't work on Galactus himself and he is fatally wounded in the fight. Before he dies, he tells Surfer and Rick that he has a bomb in his helmet that will destroy Galactus, it just has to be piloted there. Rick immediately puts the helmet on, prepared to sacrifice himself to stop the swarm.

We're racing towards the conclusion of this series which may be the only series still concerned with the fact that space-time continuum was apparently ruptured during Age of Ultron (that's not entirely true, Hulk is still jumping through time in his own book while Guardians of the Galaxy is dealing with the universe-hopping Angela, though neither event feels particularly world-breaking). Whether this series is powerful enough to have made Age of Ultron worth it is up for debate but frankly, the fact that we might even debate it is high praise. Age of Ultron was pretty garbage but this series feels like a story worth telling. Fialkov's strong writing and characters help that, as does Leonard Kirk's fairly phenomenal artwork on the book. One of the other things worth mentioning in this is that it's not a book that's about to overstay its welcome. There are fewer and fewer mini-series out there right now, mostly leaving that space for events, and almost all of those run too long (Infinity is paced pretty well so far but it's still a somewhat long series in general). Hunger ends with issue four and will, in that time, have a succinct but powerful beginning, middle, and (hopefully) end. That means a lot today.

Infinity the Hunt 2
Kindt (w) and S. Sanders (a) and Campbell (c)

We are introduced to the Latverian School's contenders in the games before they too are thrust into the fight against Thanos. Back stateside, the teachers from the various schools direct the kids into a specially made bunker to wait out the attack. Some are more hesitant to back out of the fight than others but are convinced as one of the newly created students, Crimson, gets viciously killed by Thanos' horde. While waiting things out deep underground, the kids get a transmission from the Latverian School goading them into the battle. They agree to meet up in what's left of Atlantis to see if they can save the Atlantis students.

The book ends up dedicating another couple pages to introducing new characters, none of whom I'm like to remember as this limited series pushes forward. One of the (many) great things about Avengers Arena is that, as an extended but finite series, they had time to throw everyone at us all at once but take their time eventually giving everyone a backstory and a real characterization. I feel like I should have been taking extensive notes in the first issue of this one. When Crimson dies in this issue, I have legitimately no idea why I need to care. Obviously he's a person (in this universe) and, on top of that, a young person, but I have absolutely no connection to him and, in comics, connections are everything. Even if i had taken notes about who each character was, it wouldn't make me feel any more strongly about what happened to Crimson because I still know nothing about who he was. This isn't necessarily a fault for Kindt, who has four issues to tell a complete story and introduce about a hundred new characters, but it's a fault for the design of this book. We're obviously only going to really be concerned with the handful of characters we know and smart money says they'll probably come out okay while others may act as cannon fodder. Also, the endless explanations of who everyone is (hopefully coming to a close with this issue over) slows down the story, as it did tremendously in issue one. It's not a great sign if your first two issues of four have to spend the majority of their time introducing the cast. Hopefully the story will kick up in issues three and four and make it worthwhile.

Thunderbolts 16
Soule (w) and Palo (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Punisher, Elektra, and Venom are still making a move for the Paguros amidst Thanos' army's attack. They've let the Nobili, who sold the Paguros out, go and are now hot on their tail as they make their way to the Paguro's hideout. Apparently, the Paguros have a bunker that anyone under their protection can go to when this end-of-the-world stuff happens. The Nobili, no friends to the Paguros, manage to barter their way in by saying they have information about Punisher. The head of the Paguros opens their armory to the various gangs inside, telling them to prepare for a fight with the Punisher. Meanwhile, Supergiant of Thanos' Black Order has found the Leader by tracking his extreme intelligence. Mercy saves him before rushing to the city to herald forth those wishing for death. Deadpool, out in the city, saves a few more people and takes down a few more of Thanos' army, mad that they would take coins out of a fountain ("Those are people's wishes. You don't steal people's wishes!!!"), before waving down a still-working horse-drawn carriage operator in the hopes that he'll take him to the pizza place he needs to go.

Another solid issue for Charles Soule on the new-look Thunderbolts. I'd say this one is maybe a little slower and a little less fun than the last two but it's certainly not to the book's detriment. This one feels very much more like set-up for the final battles than the last two, which concerned themselves with the part of the story they were telling, not the part of the story that is yet to come. Still, the book has its bright moments, which continue to very much include Deadpool, and the story continues to be a good one. You can see the unbridled joy in Punisher as he realizes that just about every criminal in the city will be bunkered down at the Paguros, ripe for the picking. It continues to be strong characterization all around as we also see Punisher bitterly waving off the suggestion that they wait for Red Hulk or Deadpool, as they've clearly abandoned this mission (claiming that this is why he doesn't work in teams). Elektra has a nice moment where she scares some information out of a guard and she and Flash share a telling look at the end of the issue as they realize how in his element Frank is. There's a ton happening here and it's all working to the book's benefit. Another good issue.

Hunger 2, Deadpool Kills Deadpool 2, Daredevil Dark Nights 3

Hunger 2
Fialkov (w) and Kirk (a) and Aburtov (c)

Galactus and the Gah Lak Tus swarm have merged into one being, far more powerful than either individual entity and it's making its way through the Ultimate Universe. On the plus side, Rick Jones now isn't the only super powerful entity in the universe who is aware of its existence as the Ultimate Universe's Silver Surfer is also on the case, showing up just in time to save Rick from the swarm. This Surfer, like the 616's, prefers nonviolence where he can get it and begins to attempt to talk Galactus down. Galactus is amused that there's a Silver Surfer in this universe too but, of course, doesn't listen to him because that would end the series right now and also would be a bit silly. With their powers combined, will they be enough to stop the Galactus swarm?

No, not yet, anyway. But you probably knew that because we just talked about how it would be a little silly if the four issue series actually ended in the second issue. Rick Jones and Silver Surfer, though, are teamed up now and have been transported to Earth, along with one of the swarm. The writing in this series has been pretty solid so far and I'm always a fan of Silver Surfer showing up (pretty darn excited that he's going to be in the next Daredevil issue, if the cover is to be believed). The two of them are pretty powerful and nicely aligned here but they'd have to be powerful or else putting them up against double Galactus wouldn't be much of an interesting fight. Leonard Kirk's art also continues to be pretty astounding and the colors for the book are really nice. It's a grand story for the Ultimate Universe, which Fialkov is already working on a different grand story for. It'll be interesting to see how Earth intersects with this story if indeed it does. If it doesn't in this story, I'm a little more worried for our protagonists here. Never get too attached to characters in the Ultimate Universe and particularly don't get too attached if they're characters who are facing a seemingly insurmountable foe and who haven't appeared in the universe any time recently. The thing about the Ultimate Universe is that insurmountable foes tend to remain insurmountable for quite some time.

Deadpool Kills Deadpool 2
Bunn (w) and Espin (a) and Gandini (c)

The summary of the series is broken down a bit more by our Watcher here as he explains the last couple Deadpool Kills series and how it ultimately led to certain Deadpools believing that, if they couldn't destroy the universe through killing all the heroes and all the ideas, maybe the universe is, in fact, in his mind. As a result, these Deadpools are tooling around the multiverse killing Deadpools who are not trying to kill other Deadpool. Talking about this series is going to get confusing, hm? Our Deadpool accompanies his band of Deadpools to a Deadpool hideout where they find out that their Deadpool comrades were ambushed by evil Deadpools and the evil Deadpools are lying in wait for them and this sentence might have broken a record for number of Deadpools invoked. Turns out the Watcher is a sort of double agent in that he's playing both sides of Deadpools because he's such a fan of the character that he wants to help them both out. Our Deadpool loses a couple of his crew though gains a couple more but it might be too late for them. The evil Deadpools, including the Deadpool made up from parts of our Deadpool, admit that they're here on a suicide mission as Galactuspool shows up.

The series is silly and better for it. Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe lost a bit in the way of Deadpool silliness (though that was a parallel dimension's Deadpool), sacrificing it for far worse jokes and more gore. I liked Deadpool Killustrated but that was based mostly on the idea behind it rather than the writing in it. I like that we're back with our Deadpool who is a little more familiar to us. The story itself is equally silly and seems almost to be more an excuse for the team to come up with more Deadpools to draw and characterize (there are Deadpool equivalents for just about every hero, including a Captain Marvelpool and a Wolverinepool, as well as many other silly ideas, like the now-dead Beard of Beespool). Still some interesting ideas in here but I'm not sure if people are reading this for its complicated and meaningful plot and its complicated and meaningful characters. The book's called Deadpool Kills Deadpool, if you're looking for complex and meaningful probably best to look elsewhere.

Daredevil Dark Nights 3
Weeks (w) and Weeks, Cariello and Palmer (a) and Loughridge (c)

Daredevil has been brought back to a shelter by the woman he saved from the mugger before passing out last issue. He's been out about twenty minutes and the man who runs the shelter, who purportedly knows Daredevil's mission of saving the little girl's heart, has set off to finish the job for him. When Matt awakens, he instantly follows the man, not knowing if he's actually planning to deliver it and knowing that, even if he is planning it, he won't make it to the hospital in this weather. The man has indeed run into a few problems himself, finding himself on the short side of addition debts and accosted by the gang he owes them to. Daredevil manages to track the heart and save the man, escaping with him and the heart before the gang members can regroup. In turn, Daredevil is helped by a SHIELD patrol that has been keeping abreast of the situation themselves. The heart is successfully delivered and Daredevil kicks around the hospital until he hears the girl's heart beating.

This was a nice little story for Daredevil as he has to cope with memories and an overwhelming and unbeatable enemy in the snow of the city. Daredevil is a pretty introspective character and he has a lot going on in his head most of the time. Weeks was smart to focus on that aspect of the character and to force him into a situation where his mind drifts into memories more easily, given the strain his body is facing. There are a couple of somewhat strange turns that put Daredevil in the frame of trying to save the girl to make up for his sins in the world but I'm not sure I love that idea. On the one hand, Daredevil certainly is motivated by his failures, like many other heroes, but on the other, that makes it feel like he wouldn't try to save this girl unless he was trying to absolve himself and that's kind of a crappy hero. I know that there's some level of that to plenty of heroes (Spider-Man is constantly trying to make up for the fact he caused Uncle Ben's death) but I think that it weakens the story a bit here, especially as it only really comes up this issue. By and large though, pretty good story with really good art. If you're on the fence about picking up this series, the art alone should push you to do it. Excited to see what the next story and creative team will bring us.

Hunger 1, What If...AvX 3

Hunger 1
Fialkov (w) and Kirk (a) and Aburtov (c)

After the events of Age of Ultron, the time and spacelines are split a bit and everything is wonky. Issue 10 of Age of Ultron showed Galactus popping into the Ultimate Universe (where he "exists" in the form of a swarm of robot drones and flesh eating viruses called Gah Lak Tus) and that's what this four issue mini-series is focusing on. To start, it focuses on Rick Jones, who is far more powerful in the Ultimate Universe than he is in the 616 and has been tasked by the Watcher to protect the Universe and who is currently trying to take something of a break from that life. He's unable to when he's thrown through a portal by the Watcher that sends him to a battlefield where the Kree and Chitauri (the Ultimate version of the Skrulls, pretty much, which are now also in the 616 thanks to The Avengers and Bendis' Guardians of the Galaxy, among other things) are attacked by the Gah Lak Tus swarm. It's here that the rift in the time opens up, depositing the 616's Galactus in the middle of the fight as well.

The Gah Lak Tus swarm and Galactus are obviously already huge threats on their own but this mini-series introduces the idea of two versions of Galactus teaming up and wreaking unbelievable havoc, among other worrying things about the rips in time and space. The decision to focus this, at least for now, on Rick Jones is an interesting one as I believe he's been rather inactive for rather some time (well, by his own admission, he's been incredibly active but we've not seen him in some time) but he's a wonderfully powerful entity and therefore is a good gauge for how strong the Galacti are. At the same time as this giant disaster, Fialkov is writing the giant disasters ongoing in the Ultimates at current and he's fresh off a startlingly good Alpha mini-series. I don't read a ton outside of Marvel and a handful of  other indies (and Scott Snyder's Batman which I have to admit is a pretty awesome book, even if I won't recommend it here lest it ruin my Marvel cred) so I hadn't seen Fialkov prior to this set of Marvel comics but he's certainly a capable writer with a good eye for character and a story to tell. He was recently on the Nerdist Writers Panel podcast and said that one of the approaches he likes to take is to tell the story of a character on their worst day, which is a nice frame for a lot of these stories and which tells a good amount about the character in the way he or she reacts. Solid start here. It'll be interesting to see how this resolves as I find it hard to believe the 616 will be lacking a Galactus permanently.

What If...AvX 3
Palmiotti (w) and Sandoval and Tarragona (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Quick note again: Marvel has to get their credits together. This is another in a series of issues I've seen recently where the credits on the cover don't match up with the credits on the interior. The interior is claiming Gerardo Sandoval is the main artist but the cover claims Jorge Molina, as does the shipping list I check. I went with Sandoval because I've seen more Molina art and it doesn't really look like his style. I could be wrong, of course, but I'm sticking with it. Anyway, glad this took up so much space because there's not a whole ton to talk about with this issue. Hope was, at the end of last issue, possessed by the Phoenix in the company of Magneto and Emma Frost and the Avengers space strike team was in hot pursuit. They get there only to find Hope controlled by the Phoenix and starting to be manipulated by Magneto, which doesn't bode well for the humans on Earth. On Earth, everyone is getting pretty antsy about the reports from space and the Avengers and X-Men put their differences aside to try to stop Magneto. It won't be that easy, though, to stop the master of magnetism teamed up with the impossibly powerful Phoenix. They have one more issue to try to do so.

I'd be interested to hear how someone who prefers comics and stories for their plots is reacting to this What If series. I like plot and a good plot can certainly carry a comic sometimes but it would have to be an insanely good plot to make up for weak characters. I care mostly about characters and think the best characters can easily hoist up a bad plot and make you forget all about it. This story is not about the characters. That much has been clear from the get-go. Events sometimes have trouble doing that because there are so many pieces to the story. It's why I liked the Age of Ultron tie-in stuff more than Age of Ultron (well, that and other reasons); I preferred to hear how these events impacted the characters I care about rather than how the story would settle itself out. Civil War was pretty solid for defining character because it was such a morality question and just choosing a side told a lot about character. Here, though, the character doesn't really impact the story. It's good that it doesn't, though, because every character continues to be either written exactly the same, in the case of any backgroundish character, or to their basest elements, in the case of the characters most in the foreground. Everyone is simply saying whatever best advances the plot and no one seems to have a personality to them except for the personality foisted on the stars of the book, like Magneto (hates humans), Cap (soldier), Cyclops (X-Man) and Iron Man (Avenger). On the other hand, pretty much anyone else could be swapped with any other character and it would all look about the same. Nova, here Sam Alexander, talks like he's been a superhero for years and is maybe actually Richard Rider under there instead of a 15 year old who just got powers. Black Panther literally says, in conferring with Tony about a scientific weapons device, "From what you told me, this thing packs a wallop!" which ignores the fact that the Panther we know would already know the exact scope of the tech he's using, would never say "wallop," and likely hasn't had an exclamation point anywhere near him in decades. These may sound like nitpicks from someone who's a little too into comic books (if that's what you're thinking, why are you here? That's pretty much ENTIRELY what this blog is supposed to be), but they really do break the flow and the weight of the book by making it feel like the writer didn't care about the characters, so why should I? I adore Black Panther, he's in my top five superheroes, and it couldn't have mattered less to me that he died in this issue (he died in this issue, btw). Sure it's a "what if" so I know it's not in continuity anyway, but I still should have felt something: I knew he wasn't actually going to be dead at the end of Age of Ultron and I was still legitimately mad when he got killed off (though that was largely because he got killed by a bad fall, the dude with maybe the best reflexes in the world). Here, it didn't matter. He was just words on a page. And that's an ugly thought to be left with when your job description boils down to "words on a page."