New Avengers 15, Avengers World 4

New Avengers 15
Hickman (w) and Bianchi w/ Pieruccini (a) and Dall'Alpi (c)

The team has been using the bridge that Black Swan advised them to create in order to look into other worlds and see how they've combatted the incursions or, in many more cases, who they failed to combat incursions. However, that's not all they've been able to do with the bridge. They've realized that they can actually use the bridge to see through time, like looking at a star in the sky that's millennia old. It doesn't work great on the future but it's pretty good at looking at the past so they've decided to try to learn a few things about the threats they face, including looking into Black Swan's past, which reveals a glimpse at some of the people she's misled and betrayed (including alternate versions of Reed and Tony) to get where she is. They promptly go and fight her, managing to get her caged again in what they believe to be an unbreakable cage, though it still leaves her a chance to speak with Terrax, who tells her that he believes there are no constants and that these men will fall.

Friends, I'm going to level with you here. I haven't been sleeping particularly well lately and last night was no exception. I woke up several hours before I intended this morning after falling asleep several hours after I intended. And now, here I am reviewing this comic just about as quickly as I can. after its release. Any person reading this book can probably tell you that it is not best read when weary and sleep-deprived. I had to read the various parts of this one a few times over and, were I closer to my copies of the rest of the series (and were I not afraid that retrieving them would just land me in my bed from which I would not move again the rest of the day), I'd likely be referring back to them to try to straighten some things out. I really like this book and I think it's doing a lot of really interesting things. I will say that at this point I think that reading this by trades isn't a bad idea. It's a lot to keep in your head from moment to moment and week to week. That said, I'm still enjoying the way that the characters interact with one another and I'm looking forward to seeing where this whole story goes, particularly as it's been revealed of late that Captain America will have his memories of the Illuminati and the incursions restored in the upcoming ORIGINAL SIN event. Should be a good time. Well, not really good, per se, but certainly interesting. Should be a time, anyway.

Avengers World 4
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and Mossa (c)

The team of Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, Nightmask, and Starbrand have accidentally found their way into the City of the Dead under Velletri, Italy. Well, one of the cities of the dead, as Sebastian Druid explains to Captain America and Bruce Banner back at the Iliad. Under Velletri, Starbrand is called away from the rest of the team by voices only he can hear beckoning to him while his team fights some spirits emerging from the rivers. Kevin finds that the voices are all the souls of the people he killed back when he first got his powers in AVENGERS and that they're not particularly thrilled with him. He's overcome with fear and guilt and the spirits take him to their leader, who Sebastian explains would have to be someone pretty powerful to hold sway in the city of the dead. "Powerful" doesn't seem to be an issue for the ruler of this city of the dead, as Morgan Le Fay returns to the Marvel Universe.

Another pretty interesting turn as Hickman and Spencer continue to break in this new title that is living up to its promise of shining a light on the Avengers in smaller groups and as individuals. It's also another nice little reunion for Hickman as former Secret Warrior Druid returns to shed some light on the City of the Dead and to get involved with the Avengers right as Banner points out to Cap that, with all of their new hires, they're sorely lacking people who represent the magical element of the Marvel Universe. His concerns, it seems are totally warranted and it's nice to see another Secret Warrior back in the fold, raising the total up from Manifold in Hickman's AVENGERS and Quake in Spencer's SECRET AVENGERS. Also can't help but like Stefano Caselli's work with one of the old Secret Warriors and his work in general on this issue. It's a very compelling idea and one that had to come to a head at some point; regardless of how little Kevin may have interacted with the students at his school, regardless of how ignored he may have been, he still killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people when he got his powers. As one of the souls he recognizes points out, it's not the kind of superhero origin that makes you Captain America. Should be interesting when this one picks up again, likely after we've revisited the other AVENGERS WORLD stories.

Captain Marvel 16, Secret Avengers 9

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

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

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

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

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

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