Mighty Avengers 9, Secret Avengers 2

Mighty Avengers 9
Ewing (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and D'Armata w/ Delgado (c)

Blue Marvel tries to reason with his son Max while his other son Kevin, larger than life, begins to come out of the portal. Kevin is too unstable to bring back into this world and he's primed to explode if he's not sent back into the portal, taking the solar system with him. Max refuses to believe it and thinks that he can stabilize Kevin with just a little more time and so refuses to lower the forcefield. Spectrum becomes gamma radiation and enters She-Hulk to power her up more, giving her the strength to break through the forcefield and, when the two separate again, they manage to force Kevin back into the portal. Max is still furious with his father and Adam is more depressed than ever. Meanwhile, Ronin fights off one of some enemies looking to get their hands on the talisman he took and finally reveals himself to be Blade.

There's a lot of Brashear family backstory here as we see Adam's relationship with Kevin as the two fought off major threats on the down low and we see the circumstances of Kevin's disappearance right at the start of the Marvel Age. It's very clear that Adam loves his family and is full of regret for Kevin's loss, as well as his wife's death and the subsequent anger from Max that separated them. So like, it's easy to see how much he loves them but it's also not hard to extrapolate that maybe he's the problem? Anyway, it's a big moment for Blue Marvel in this issue and a tiny universe-threatening problem defeated but not a ton more to deal with on this front. Ronin is Blade, something probably pretty evident considering how often they kept saying Deathwalkers and, well, not hard to switch that on over to Daywalker. So that's that. Not an awful book and certainly it keeps with the tone of this series so far but there just kind of feels like there isn't a whole lot here this time out.

Secret Avengers 2
Kot (w) and Walsh (a) and Wilson (c)

Coulson and Fury are drifting through space as the Fury (not Fury) drifts into the sun. At the same time, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, and Hawkeye use the SHIELD car to drive to the space station to repair the console to stop more satellites from falling out of the sky and killing more people. All this while an assassin comes to kill Maria Hill for actions she's taken that led to deaths. So it's a busy day for the Secret Avengers as Black Widow, Spider-Woman, and Hawkeye make it to the space station and stop the satellites, MODOK sends a lab rat with a syringe on its back to take out the assassin from the vents, and the saved Maria Hill uses one of MODOK's designs, the nanobot blanket, to have her team rescue Fury and Coulson from impending doom.

Readers of my first review of this series will know that I was not so onboard with it. It felt like it was gratuitous and trying way too hard to be something it simply can't be. Kot himself compared the series to a Michael Bay movie, a Breaking Bad episode, and an Arrested Development episode. I said that in the first review too and I bring it up again here because it felt to me too much like it's trying to be too many things at once all the while trying to be different from other comics but trying to ape some similar styles. It's hard not to read any HAWKEYE influence into books like this one, ones that are maybe more chaotic with more personal risks than universal risks and that's probably not fair. However, it's also hard not to read those influences into THIS book particularly as the first issue took the Hawkeye-face-covers-exposed-genitals and and second issue finds Clint out of costume with bandages all over his face, a la HAWKEYE. I also talked in the first review about not writing this book off because it's so early and I'm going to continue to not write it off. I lodged some of these same complaints against SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN at the start of its series and I think that one has nicely carved out its own little niche. Here's hoping that Kot can do the same thing though I'm maybe secretly a little more skeptical. This one just seems so derivative to kick things off. LOOK, I'll stop talking about it now because I'M NOT WRITING ANYTHING OFF.

Mighty Avengers 8, Secret Avengers 1

Mighty Avengers 8
Ewing (w) and Schiti (a) and D'Armata (c)

The Mighty Avengers have managed to get away from Gideon Mace and his militantly conservative hate group but there is still talk of a lawsuit given White Tiger's attack on the headquarters. Now the team has brought Ava to Blue Marvel's undersea base Kadesh in the hopes that they can find some way to remove the Tiger God's influence on her. Before they're able to come up with anything or summon any magic specialists, Blue Marvel is called away by a threat from WESPE, a European sort of AIM style group with a focus on providing scientists with money and resources in exchange for deadly tech down the line. Blue Marvel, She-Hulk, and Spectrum go to find out what the alert in the Pacific is about. Blue Marvel is particularly worried as it seems to be occurring in an area that serves as a gateway to the Neutral Zone, a dimension he found long before and apparently where one of his sons, Kevin, is trapped. Dr. Max Brashear, Adam's other son, has teamed up with WESPE in the hopes that he can find a way to bring Kevin back. As you may imagine, he has some serious problems with his father. He traps Spectrum and She-Hulk in a forcefield strong enough even light can't get in or out and then he uses his volcano base to rupture the space between the world and the Neutral Zone, hoping to bring Kevin back. Meanwhile, the Tiger God has appeared to Ava and demanded answers for her interference in his hunt. She reams him out, explaining to him exactly how feared tigers aren't in this day and age and daring him to kill her, seeing where that would leave him. When he realizes he can't, she demands he give her all his power, which he seems to do. She wakes up again, apparently better than ever.

There are some interesting things going on in this book and with this team. I don't know a ton about Blue Marvel but he's got a pretty good story and an intriguing conceit. White Tiger, too, is showing a lot of promise in this book. The interactions between the team are compelling, at some points anyway, and sometimes interesting enough in and of themselves. Still there are a few too many jokey-jokes and tonal shifts in the writing that throw me off. I really cannot get past jokey introduction captions (this will come back in the next review too, guys. Look forward to it, if not to the next book). On top of that, Max, or Dr. Positron as he's calling himself, is a little more comical a villain than I think this book needs at its outset. I understand the appeal of writing him as somewhat childish; he is the child of Blue Marvel and his personality couldn't be more different than his father's. Regardless, he borders on silly and it makes him a little hard to take seriously. This book, too, is already more concerned with the rest of the Marvel Universe than almost any book in the modern era, making references to a handful in just one issue. Again, I understand the point of that and I get that Ewing found easy enough ways to reference books like Blue Marvel's initial series, YOUNG AVENGERS, and his own LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD, just like I get that Marvel is a business and likes to get fans interested in those sorts of tie-ins, but sometimes it feels a little cynical and a little too hitting us over the head. In a way, it's either a book that's good in spite of itself or a book that's not quite good despite itself. Tricky, tricky book to get behind.

Secret Avengers 1
Kot (w) and M. Walsh (a) and M. Wilson (c)

The Secret Avengers are back up and running on Maria Hill's watch as her new and uneasy alliance with MODOK begins. For her team's first mission, she's sent Coulson and Fury Jr. (gotta start referring to him like that as Nick Fury Sr. is set to reappear in the upcoming ORIGINAL SIN) to space to investigate a SHIELD satellite having some troubles while Black Widow and Spider-Woman spend their day relaxing, something apparently important to Black Widow. They've gone to get massages and gelato and to test out some weaponry at a place Natasha knows well. Unfortunately for them, though, they're interrupted by a naked Hawkeye on the run from AIM (not a single person knows why he's naked except that Kot and the team wanted to parrot the Hawk-blocked bit from HAWKEYE which they do not once but twice in what might be the cheapest move in the entire...you know what, we'll get into it later). As they escape AIM in Natasha's car, Hawkeye naked and the two women covered with towels, they're called by Hill to assist Coulson and Fury Jr., who are dealing with the cybiote and Captain Britain foe the Fury in space.

Guys. I would have words with this book. I've been a little skeptical of this reboot of SECRET AVENGERS, coming, as we all know, very shortly after the end of the last volume. I didn't think the last volume was great and I think that the last arc of it was something of an unfulfilling mess. Ales Kot had a big hand in wrapping that volume and now kicks off this volume promising to take readers somewhere they've never gone before with something fresh and new. And yet, he also describes the book as a Michael Bay directed episode of Breaking Bad by way of Arrested Development, thereby referencing three things this book will be similar to instead of just being its own thing. This is just issue one so I'm trying not to be too judgmental about it but it's kind of hard. In most cases, I think I'd rather a first issue swing for the fences and miss because at least it tried something. The last thing you want is for your first issue to be boring. I think we've had a couple of those recently (sadly, I kind of have to point to ALL-NEW INVADERS and ALL-NEW X-FACTOR for those examples, though I have hopes for both books). However, eye-rollingly unimaginative and derivative isn't exactly a great swing either and that's rather what this was. Not only did we get a naked Hawkeye for literally no reason after he, trying to evade AIM, breaks into what happens to be the same exact Russian baths in New York that Natasha and Jessica are at. Then they do the now infamous "Hawkeye-face comic-code-style covering Hawkeye's genitals" to him and then, later on, they cover what would be a Spider-Woman exposed breast with a Spider-Woman face because apparently the joke that really only worked when it was new back in HAWKEYE was hilarious enough to work twice in this issue. It's all just ridiculous and derivative and that's not even getting INTO the fact that it often seems like there are maybe five people who I've seen write Natasha Romanoff and have managed to create a believable character for her backstory and this doesn't seem to be one of them. I'm cutting myself off here because, again, it's the first issue and I don't want to throw the series entirely away based on one issue but I will tell you that we're not far from it. OH, and Kot spent some time having Maria Hill and MODOK discuss Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias" and Shelley's contemporary Horace Smith because literature debates are the way we expect Hill and MODOK to talk and aren't condescending at all (Kot would go on to talk about Sylvia Plath in his opening letters-page column because UGH). OKAY, I'm seriously done now. Join me later for me being angry at ALL-NEW X-MEN because I don't know why I scheduled the books I'm most looking forward to for the Thursday through Saturday stretch.

New Avengers 14, Mighty Avengers 6, Avengers AI 9

New Avengers 14
Hickman (w) and Bianchi (a) and Dall'Alpi (c)

The Illuminati, in their quest to find some solution that's a little more permanent, continue to watch other worlds be invaded by the Mapmakers and deal with Incursions of their own only to find that even the most prepared worlds fall with very little resistance. This time out they find a world, Earth-2319, that has been separated pretty firmly into humans and mutants (with all of the mutants following their savior Magneto's example and setting up a new utopia for themselves in the mutant-established country of Tian) but one willing to work to stop the incursions and the Mapmakers. While they watch, every hero they observe dies, even the ones to whom the Mapmakers give the opportunity to flee. The alternate Reed Richards dies sacrificing himself to (very temporarily) save Dr. Doom, who was actually capable of destroying one of the Mapmakers. No closer to any answers, the Illuminati look away. MEANWHILE, the descent of Dr. Stephen Strange continues as he seeks a way to help more with the problems of these incursions. With his soul already seemingly in jeopardy from the way the Illuminati have been forced to deal with the incursions, he goes to the Sinner's Market (a Black Arts Market, essentially) and asks for a transaction that will grant him the power he needs to unseat planets from the skies. When brought to the throne and asked how much of his soul he is selling to gain the power he seeks (for the power he's asked about, he'll need to give up a fifth of his soul), he replies "all of it."

While seeing the destruction of Earth-2319 at the hands of the Mapmakers was interesting and certainly pushes our own Illuminati further into doubt and madness, the Dr. Strange storyline is the more compelling one to me at the moment. I don't know that we gain a lot more out of the Earth-2319 story than we did from the last issue, seeing the destruction of Earth-23099, except that we see Doom defeat one of the Mapmakers proving them beatable (at least in an individual sense) and, weirdly, a little bit sentimental about the loss. Back to Strange, though. Hickman's played kind of a long game with Strange and it's beginning to pay off. He obviously belongs with the Illuminati, given his expertise in magic and his position as Sorcerer Supreme but he's found that his particular brand of combat and problem-solving hasn't been entirely useful in the fight thus far. Now he appears willing and ready to give himself up to be the power he claims to be, a no-holds-barred version of the most powerful magician on the planet. It's the idea that Dumbledore would have dwarfed Voldemort if he had been willing to use the Dark Arts. It's been a real journey, mostly in tiny little snippets, for Strange to get to this point in the book and it's coming across wonderfully now. It's also a fundamental change for a character with a rich history and with a potentially richer future (there's plenty of talk of a Dr. Strange movie in Marvel Studios' Phase Three). Should be real interesting.

Mighty Avengers 6
Ewing (w) and Schiti (a) and D'Armata (c)

Luke and Jessica are swapping apartments with Dave Griffith, operator of the Gem Theater, so that Dave gets to live in the Gem, which he loves, and Luke and Jessica and Danielle have a home removed from the action that the Mighty Avengers hotline will bring to the Gem. Helping with the move are Blue Marvel, Iron Fist, and White Tiger. Blue Marvel gets along amicably with everyone, though none of them are too familiar with one another, until he and Luke begin to argue about their pasts, with Blue Marvel holding Cage's criminal past against him and Cage holding Blue Marvel accountable for retiring and hiding instead of providing a seemingly all-powerful role model for African-Americans. It's a good argument and one that, particularly from Luke's vantage point, holds water. Across town, Spectrum and She-Hulk work with Power Man to increase his strength, learning that if he studies and feels a connection with the spot he's in (they test this on Liberty Island) he is able to draw more chi from the spot and therefore is more powerful. Elsewhere, Falcon uses his bird connections to follow a far-right nutjob responsible for burning down a bookstore that he claimed promoted Marxism and who Falcon suspects is working with Gideon Mace, former Cage villain and, more recently, murderer of practically the entire family of the current White Tiger (including the past White Tiger).

There's a good amount happening here despite the lack of immediate action and I'm happy to say that this one is, for my money, easily the best issue of MIGHTY AVENGERS thus far. We're starting to get a better look at the personalities of our individual team members and understand a little where each one is coming from. Cage makes a nice speech (that could easily have gone a little far into preachy but managed to avoid that line) about his visibility (though he fails to mention that he spent the better part of his career doing it to make money, it still hits the mark exactly where it needs to) and how meaningful it would have been to know that there was someone out there for decades even before him who was a shining, unbeatable force and who happened to be black. We see a little of Ava's personality as we can pretty easily see her dedication to being a hero (which we've gotten little tastes of already) and the guilt and hurt that remains over the deaths of her family members and, as referenced in the issue, even the kidnapping and deaths of plenty of her Avengers Academy friends during the events of AVENGERS ARENA. We get Monica as a teacher, Power Man as a reluctant student (not the first time he's been there, am I right Iron Fist?), and Falcon as a total pro at his job. For as much character work as I liked in the book, the bit that was maybe coolest for me, as a big ol' Falcon fan, was seeing Sam so perfectly use his advantage and come off almost as a Batman-esque character (though less angsty and less murdered-parentsy). Some very cool stuff in here, hope this tone continues and I also wouldn't mind seeing a bit more Iron Fist, if he's going to be around longer than just as a babysitter (though I also wouldn't mind seeing that).

Avengers AI 9
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

Pym, Doombot, Vision, Captain America, and Rogue (pre-UNCANNY AVENGERS 14, as evidenced by the fact that she's not a charred corpse) have been pulled into the Diamond to fight Dimitrios' troops. They have to adjust to the inner workings of the Diamond where they're only limited by what they can imagine. Victor and new friend Gibson are elsewhere in the Diamond, being interrogated by anti-Dimitrios AI but manage to convince them that the Avengers, just arrived, are there to help and to fight Dimitrios so they reluctantly go to help and, with their powers combined, manage to defeat the horde of Dimitrios' troops. Vision and one of the other AIs work together to try to find the source of Gascheck, the app that's driving the world insane, but have to swear to the anti-Dimitrios group that the Avengers will help them in their fight against Dimitrios before they are able to get a lock on the app. Meanwhile, Alexis meets with her first-six sister, the gardener Eton, in the hopes of unlocking her memories further. Back on the surface, Maria Hill has given Monica Chang and new partner Jocasta their first mission and Jocasta introduces Chang to the rest of the team, a handful of varied-ability Jocastas.

This is a tricky series because it's hard to pinpoint exactly what isn't working about it for me. When I pull back and examine the story as a whole (little Inside Baseball here: I've been thinking of changing up the format of these reviews to break down the various elements a little better and to focus what I talk about with each book to make it a little more standardized, but that's unrelated to what I'm saying oh god why did I start talking about this?) it works as a fairly interesting story. I don't think it's the best out there or the most revolutionary out there but it's certainly one that's capable of holding my interest. However, when I actually read the issues, something gets lost in the translation (or the step before the translation. In this case, it rather feels like the translation is the better part). I don't even think Humphries' writing is bad, per se, I think it just kind of gets in its own way a bit. It feels like there's a lot of dialogue there that must be unnecessary as you kind of keep losing the thread of what's happening. Until you pull back and think about the story by itself, it's very easy to miss the forest for the trees. That puts this whole series into some weird in-between space where I want to like it and want to ignore it ALL AT THE SAME TIME. There have been issues, too, that felt a little less bogged down and therefore read a bit better. Come to think of it, I think I mostly felt similarly (though I couldn't express it as well) about Humphries' UNCANNY X-FORCE. There was something there and also something missing.

Mighty Avengers 3, Marvel Knights Spider-Man 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mighty Avengers 2, Iron Man 16, Captain America Living Legend 1

Mighty Avengers 2
Ewing (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and D'Armata (c)

Proxima Midnight's attack is in full swing and is already devastating the Mighty Avengers. She sends a light spear after Spectrum which knocks her completely out of the fight. Proxima promises that the spear's poison will kill her, even after it's been removed. She knocks Cage down too as she prepares to finish the team off. An uprising from the nearby civilians inspires Cage back to his feet and fighting harder than ever. He holds his own against Proxima for a bit until Thanos projects his image over the city, pulling Proxima out. She leaves and the team checks in with the possibly dying Spectrum. Meanwhile, Blue Marvel has been monitoring the whole situation, with some motivation from the Watcher, and takes off as Doctor Strange, under the influence of the Ebony Maw, summons Shuma-Gorath.

Plenty going on as the series kicks off. On top of the cast of characters we already had, we now get a surprise visit from Blue Marvel and Kaluu, Stranger's master in black magic. The stakes are pretty high, as anyone reading any part of Infinity can tell you. It's reflected here pretty accurately as Proxima Midnight's attack is more than powerful enough to knock out the two strongest members of the team (depending on who the Spider Hero is). Blue Marvel has a nice scene as he explains why he's removed himself from the world as far as Blue Marvel goes, preferring to monitor the world from his own surveillance station. His character comes out pretty strong as he talks casually with Uatu (well, "talks with" is a little strong as it's a pretty one-sided conversation) and he figures out the problems pretty well. It's a strong showing for him and it's simultaneously an interesting and nice move to throw him in with this team. Solid issue with plenty of new characters and ideas while continuing where we left off, all without being overwhelming in any real way.

Iron Man 16
Gillen (w) and Pagulayan and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The Godkiller is withdrawing into its own dimension, 451 is shutting himself down and deleting his databases, and Tony is running out of options. He attempts to hack into 451's programming to find the codes he needs to get out but even his tech can't make that happen fast enough. In a quick decision, he flies the inert 451 to Death's Head's ship which he suspects might be based on 451's tech, in payment for his tracking Tony down. He's right and manages to hack 451 successfully and break out of the Godkiller just in the nick of time. He picks up his former life again, jumping back in with the Guardians for a few months (we flash forward to three months after the 451 saga and Tony is leaving the Guardians) before returning home. Unbeknownst to anyone else, he's kept 451. He arrives home to find that Pepper (the real one, not the computer) has a new fiancee and that some new research he's done has dredged up some results on his parents.

We get a nice ticking clock finale to what has been an overall great arc. In a way, this ending was a little bit of a letdown if only because it pit Tony against 451 again, after a fashion, but it was a 451 who was no longer functioning. 451 was a fantastic villain in so many ways and it's a little sad that the end of his run (for now, obviously) has him silent. Still, I think it's the best way for it to end. I know, this sounds like I'm talking in circles (because I am) but I think I'm getting to a point. First and foremost, I absolutely loved the turn 451 took in that last issue and I think it's far stronger than having him in a massive gunfight with Tony (which, you know, also happened). It's just a little sad because you'd like to see him battling against Tony. But you also don't. You know how it is, right guys? Look, 451's a great villain, is what it comes down to. I want to see more of him and I'm glad to know that I likely will, in some form or another. In addition, 451 had a nice little narrative at the beginning to show his stance again. It seems more truthful within the narrative. Excited to see where this all goes.

Captain America Living Legend 1
Diggle (w) and Granov (a and c)

Flashback to the final days of WWII: America and Russia are still allies but they're starting to run out of common enemy as Germany begins to collapse. A Russian unit has been sent to find and extract a German rocket scientist from a bunker to help Russia as the world starts to progress towards rocket-based weapons and space exploration. Sergeant Volkov, the sergeant leading the unit (with his captain too injured and wishing not to go forward with the mission), is pretty die-hard pulling for Russia, knowing that the alliance between America and Russia is set to break down and knowing that Russia needs to get its edge now. Of course, as they start getting overwhelmed by the German troop in front of them (led by a Panzer), Captain America shows up and pretty much singlehandedly gets the Germans to surrender. As he and Volkov discuss the fate of the German rocket scientist, a stray Nazi shoots Volkov. We find, flashing forward to 1968, that Cap managed to save Volkov, who is now going to be the first man to walk on the moon on behalf of Russia. Flash forward to today as American scientists in orbit are deploying a new technology to try to convert dark energy to a sustainable energy for Earth's use. The space station breaks down as it overloads, with the station transforming into some sort of monstrosity and pulling the scientists in. The space station breaks through orbit and ends up in Russia, acting like it's being pulled that way. One word got through SHIELD's monitoring of the situation: Volkov.

It's a really solid first issue for this mini-series and it's a great character-builder for Cap (who doesn't need a ton of building here, just some reinforcing and some direction as to which Cap we'll be seeing here) and for Volkov, who acts strictly on the behalf of mother Russia at all times. Cap is strong as ever, throwing his shield through the Panzer, in fact. In truth, Cap isn't really the focus of this book as we kick off; again, where we know Cap's somewhat unflinching character and where he stands on most issues, we don't need to see a ton of him to set the tone. Volkov is extremely important to characterize here and Diggle makes sure he gets the right amount of attention. The exchange between Volkov's captain and Volkov is a fantastic characterization of each; I don't anticipate seeing the captain again but he acts as a great stand-in for the opinion of a more human person, someone who would rather Volkov go and pursue his own life rather than commit suicide in an attack against a much stronger force. Solid characters, intriguing plot, plenty to look forward to with this one. Great art, too. I've mostly seen Granov on covers to this point; it's nice to see him on interiors in a book I'm already liking.

Avengers 19, Mighty Avengers 1

Avengers 19
Hickman (w) and Yu (a) and Gho (c)

Little clerical note: not sure about this creative team. It's definitely Hickman and Yu and Gho but the cover mentions Gerry Alanguilan and the inside does not. I have to err with the inside here and think that the cover is a hold-over creative team list from Avengers 18. Still, hate when something that potentially easy gets messy, as it has very often with Marvel recently. On to the comic. Captain Marvel, who put up a pretty good fight against the Builders as Binary but was ultimately subdued, and her team of Avengers have been captured and are now being questioned by the Builders, who are curious to learn how Starbrand, Nightmask, Captain Universe, and the last Abyss in existence came to be in their possession. Meanwhile, Cap and Thor are trying to help the Galactic Council plan against what they now know to be a near endless army. Unbeknownst to them all, though, J-Son of Spartax is attempting to betray them by sending a secret message to the Builders promising them whatever they want in exchange for the end of this war. They reveal that they want Earth but don't need J-Son to get it; in fact, they can trace J-Son from the poorly hidden broadcast and quickly send one of the defeated ships hurtling at the Galactic Council at impossible speeds. The Builders have found their hidden enemies.

It's another solid issue of Infinity that still manages to keep the stakes raised and, perhaps, raise them further. The troubling questions that the Builders ask Captain Marvel about how they came into possession of their big (and familiar to the Builders) weapons are intriguing and the idea that there are still tons of Ex Nihilos and Ex Nihilas (we meet one of each in this issue) and just the one Abyss remaining in the Universe is especially fascinating. The mythos of the Builders and this whole event are clearly front and center here and it's, so far, a well-constructed one. It's well-constructed and, in truth, it has no right to be. If you had told me that we'd have another version of the Celestials, maybe more powerful even, in the more serious days of comics (the Celestials were created in the '70s by Jack Kirby when Jack Kirby was allowed to do grand and epic things, even if he wasn't necessarily allowed to finish them), I'd have said that there's no way a story could define them in any real light. I think that struggle isn't yet over but Hickman has done an impressive job building them up (ha, building). My biggest complaint, and it's fairly big because it did make me cringe and did pull me out of this comic a few times, was the male gaze aspect of this issue. There's a lot of focus on female characters' butts and even a weirdly pornographic moment with Ex Nihila and Captain Marvel. All of it feels like it's very much meant to appeal to men which have long been the largest audience of comic book readers. I think, though, it's particularly in bad taste (it's pretty always in bad taste but here especially) when it's focused on Captain Marvel, who Kelly Sue DeConnick has gone to great lengths to establish as a very strong female character. You put her on the cover of this issue (which is a great cover) and it's hopefully going to drive even more women to buy the comic (and even if it doesn't, such heavy male gaze is pretty inexcusable) so putting such a focus on the image of women is especially jarring. Like I said, it's a good issue and pretty well drawn overall but the male gaze stuff is really overdone.

Mighty Avengers 1
Ewing (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and D'Armata (c)

Luke Cage has reassembled, at least temporarily, the Heroes for Hire but, instead of Iron Fist or Misty Knight or Colleen Wing leading the charge, he has scooped up the new Power Man, Victor Alvarez, and the new White Tiger, Ava Ayala. They find themselves matched against Spider-Man when they're hired by Horizon Labs to stop petty costumed thieves. Spider-Man rails against them as mercenaries and the like, striking a chord with White Tiger, who decides that he's right and abruptly quits the team-up. Cage and Power Man wrap up and go to talk things over and Power Man is disillusioned by how defeatist he thinks Cage has become (Cage cares about a paycheck because he has a family now, seems to be the gist) and he also leaves, claiming that Cage has quit, not him. Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau, former Captain Marvel and current hero Spectrum, is getting back in the superhero game and has decided she needs a new costume. While at the costume store, she runs into an old acquaintance who needs a favor (we never see the acquaintance). As they're talking, Thanos' Black Order strikes Earth and Proxima Midnight, with her job done on Atlantis, strikes New York. Monica insists she won't help her acquaintance unless he helps them now so he dons an off-brand Spider-Man costume to conceal his identity (he's not supposed to be in the country, apparently) and the pair of them meet up with Cage and Spider-Man, who have both come out to fight Proxima Midnight.

There's a lot here and a lot to build on, which is good. I didn't feel a huge connection to many of the characters (though I'd say there's obviously love in the writing of Spectrum, who comes out best in all of this) but it's still only issue one and we have to establish who everyone is before we can really talk about them on a deeper level. There's a story already here for Ewing to work with, which isn't a bad place to jump into this book, and it requires a lot of attention and a lot of power. The Black Order are very impressive but they're not unbeatable. We saw Wakanda stave off the first attack against it (though presumably not the last, THANKS NAMOR) and there are fewer superheroes there than the four in front of us (possibly six of White Tiger and Power Man double back) though more warriors. Tricky business. Also, the identity of the Splendiferous Spider Hero (as he's so dubbed) is a nice little mystery for readers who know only that he has a connection to Monica, he's not supposed to be in the country, and he uses nunchucks. I'm not going to really speculate on who it could be because I like to find these things out in time. I was likely wrong in my pre-game at a guess that maybe we had a Miles Morales in the 616 but let's not act like that was so impossible, hm? Anyway, off to a pretty good start here.