Comics this week

GUYS. ONLY 14 BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK. AND THAT INCLUDES SOME THAT I MAY NOT EVEN REVIEW! WHAT A WEEK! PRAISE BE TO THE END OF JANUARY.

Inhumanity 2
Little confused about this one going into the week so that should be good for us! INHUMANITY continues after a bit of a wait in INHUMANITY 2, previously known as INHUMANITY - MEDUSA. Why the change? Well smart money says its in the crossfire of the switch from Fraction to Soule as writer on INHUMANITY. Who's writing this issue? Who knows! But it should probably be a big one!

Superior Spider-Man 26
With GOBLIN NATION just getting under way and impacting the entire Spider-Man universe and with the knowledge that Peter Parker is still alive inside his own mind somewhere, things are set to start ramping up for this series before April's launch of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Now seems as good a time as any to get onboard if you've been curious.

Thunderbolts 21
Fun! Whimsy! Adventure! Most of the Thunderbolts in Hell and Elektra and Punisher likely facing off against Mercy! Just read this book and enjoy it, you guys.

Uncanny Avengers 16
Things are happening in this book and they've been happening for quite some time in this book. All of the mutants have been whisked away to the ark and put into stasis for the journey, seemingly ending any hope at rebellion against the Apocalypse twins. So what stands in their way? Well it seems probably not Earth since the Earth has been sentenced to death for the death of a Celestial. Geez guys, didn't you have enough problems already?

X-Men Legacy 23
This amazing title has reached its penultimate issue. Well, I mean, it's going to number 25, which will be number 300, but that won't really have to do with David and won't be by Si Spurrier. Well, Spurrier will have a story in it and it might focus on David, I don't know that. OKAY LOOK, this book has been incredible and the story we know is rushing towards its conclusion in the very next issue. Seems like maybe this is a bit of a weird time to jump on but seriously, give this book your money while you have the chance (also buy the trades and tell every single person you know about it, regardless of everything else you know about them).



Here's one of the super awesome things though: THESE FIVE BOOKS ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION. There's also CATACLYSM - ULTIMATES' LAST STAND, which will likely feature the death of a hero whose image is STILL blocked out on certain sites despite the fact they didn't block it out in the back of last week's CATACLYSM - ULTIMATE X-MEN. There's UNCANNY X-FORCE, which will end the VENDETTA crossover and will effectively say goodbye to both CABLE AND X-FORCE and UNCANNY X-FORCE in one fell swoop. There's MIRACLEMAN 2, another fully colored reprint of Alan Moore's original series. There's THOR: GOD OF THUNDER, which will mark the start of another new arc for a series that so violently jumps back and forth between really good and tolerable and may ALSO mark the return of Esad Ribic art. REVOLUTIONARY WAR - KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON is out this week and it stars...the KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON, one of whom is UNION JACK. GUYS. I've only NOT named like, four books and frankly, even some of them will probably catch your eye. Look, what I'm saying is get to your comic book store this week and check out some of these neat books coming out this week.

All-New X-Factor 2, Cable and X-Force 19

All-New X-Factor 2
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

X-Factor enters the AIM lab to try to find Dr. Hoffman and Quicksilver and Gambit are almost instantly whisked away into traps, leading Polaris to start ripping the place apart. As the lab reacts and launches gas at her, she vaults into the holding cell where they're keeping Fatale. The traps that Quicksilver and Gambit were pulled into are ultimately beatable and the two reunite pretty quickly. The invasion, though, has drawn the notice of Hoffman and he's begun to launch into his testing. He had been draining the power from mutants Fatale, Reaper, and Abyss to charge himself up and to give himself a bunch of energy based powers. As Polaris tries to fight back, Quicksilver and Gambit rush on to the scene, with Quicksilver giving Gambit an opportunity to toss a kinetic card into the monster Hoffman's ear, destroying him from the inside out. Hoffman himself is alive but unconscious as the power dissipates. As the team regroups, Fatale, Reaper, and Abyss want to kill Hoffman but Polaris and Quicksilver won't let them. The appearance of Quicksilver, though, gives them an ample enough hate to turn their focus to him (fun fact: Quicksilver is hated by like, everybody). They leave, though, and swear their revenge someday.

Bit of a strange issue. It's also one of those issues that annoys me because it highlights some possible level of hypocrisy in me. I often think about long first arcs and wonder if it maybe hurt the book to stay in one story for so long to kick it off. In some cases, I think it works really well, like with CAPTAIN AMERICA and with THOR: GOD OF THUNDER (which did eventually wear on me a bit but was mostly solid and was technically two arcs, though it really was just one). Yet when this book comes along and gives a two issue arc to establish our characters, at least half of our team (the splash page indicates there may be more on the way) has been introduced, and we see a plot resolved, I'm left wanting maybe a bit more. It's not a bad issue, per se, just one that feels like we missed chunks of story that were maybe important. It also does the Marvel thing of playing with what exactly it is to be mutant. Right now, Rick Remender has Red Skull walking around the Marvel Universe with Charles Xavier's actual brain in him to give him telepathy while Peter David here explains that Dr. Hoffman was able to drain the energy from mutants to gain powers that may or may not be THEIR powers but are powers. Kind of have to overlook that. The ending is also a bit abrupt as everything winds down quickly and the issue ends with Gambit quipping about Quicksilver. Bit of a strange read, really.

Cable and X-Force 19
Hopeless (w) and Unzueta (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The two X-Force teams have met up and things have calmed down a bit between them since last time as they try to figure out what happened to Cable, Spiral, Bishop, and Hope. Psylocke can't locate them anywhere until Forge suggests that they get to a junkyard where he and Nemesis can whip up a power amplifier for her. Meanwhile, Stryfe has contained everyone in his vicinity and force-teleports Spiral away, not caring about her. He then makes Cable watch as he leaves Hope and Bishop in a room with a psimitar and he taunts Cable about how, despite all of his wishes, he built a daughter who knows how to be a killer. Back in California, the power amplifier works and leads the teams right to Spiral (sent to a fishing ship). Betsy says that the power amplifier can help her take the blocks out of Spiral's head as far as remembering where Stryfe is if she's willing to take them there. Spiral agrees and they prepare to take off.

It's a bit sad that this crossover is the way that both of these books will end because it means that we don't get to see a real Hopeless send-off to the book he so neatly crafted. Instead, this is the final issue of CABLE AND X-FORCE and it's very clearly not the final issue of the story. Sad to see it go and sad that it has to spend a lot of its time focusing on characters who weren't even in this book. Sure we'll see a little bit more of Cable's X-Force team as VENDETTA wraps up next week but it would have been nice to get just one more book to see the finale for this team, which Hopeless wrote so well and made so fun. As an individual issue in the crossover, this isn't a bad one. As I said in the last VENDETTA review, you can pretty much map out the beats of a four-issue crossover like this one and this issue is hitting those same beats now as the two teams come back together and put their differences aside to prepare for the final fight against the big bad with the stakes raised to their highest points. In a way, maybe that's what's so sad about this being the final issue. We don't get closure for the team we grew to like but we also don't get anything we weren't expecting in the course of this crossover. Kind of a buzzkill. As much as I want the new X-FORCE series to start, I wouldn't mind a true final issue for this book, no matter the outcome of the next issue.

X-Men Legacy 22, Uncanny X-Force 16

X-Men Legacy 22
Spurrier (w) and Pham (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The evil mind-Xavier has launched a missile containing all sorts of nuclear firepower at Washington, knowing that the very act, once it shows on the radar, will cause a chain reaction around the world currently filled with hate that the gold Xavier has permeated. David, though, unknowingly has called for his allies. From Wolverine's team to Cyclops' team to Abigail Brand and Sydren to Pete Wisdom to anyone he's teamed up with and they all show, helping to take apart the nuke before it can cause too much trouble (as David points out, taking apart a nuke was the first thing the X-Men did). The gold Xavier is less a gold Xavier at current and more a giant rock monster thing with crazy seemingly disintegration ray powers so it'll take all the X-Men and David's considerable might to bring him down. There are casualties in the fight that David, as a leader, has to be able to move past, including the apparent deaths of Abigail Brand, Chamber, and Karasu Tengu. David pushes through and gets the X-Men to push through and work together, to put aside the hate they have stored up in them and the hate that Xavier is trying to force to the surface. David destroys the body and pulls the power into the astral plane. It's at this moment that Blindfold wakes up, with the power taken by her brother restored (now that Luca's body is destroyed), and projects herself to the fight while her actual body hurries its way there. David squares off against the gold Xavier, who begins to weaken and transform away from the Xavier image and into something small and sickly, goblin-like, in his mind. David prepares to either cage the personality or destroy it but the personality denies him, asking David how a person with a sickness of the mind cures it. The answer is, of course, that he doesn't: he finds ways to live with it. With that, he dives into David's legion and David, unprepared to take it on, emerges back into the real world and becomes the world worm they knew he would become.

The last time I talked about X-MEN LEGACY it was to name it 2013's best Marvel title. This issue does absolutely nothing to disavow me of that notion, even though last week saw the conclusion and therefore the wrap-up of the amazing YOUNG AVENGERS. This book is just truly something else. There's a feeling with the last year or two of Marvel books that they're all echoing something different out there. I think that has a lot to do with books like HAWKEYE, which really broke the mold of a superhero comic, and the rise of Image comics. Superhero books can be different and they can maybe be a little niche and you can take the superhero world, with all of its tropes and eccentricities and over-the-top action and death and resurrection and superpowers and supervillains, and you can, if you want, stick it in a real-ish world and tell really great, really character-centric stories. It's not necessarily a new idea when it's framed that way but it certainly feels new and the books that are doing it well are doing it with such excellence that they're about the best books I've ever seen. Even books that feel a little more traditional, like DAREDEVIL, are bringing such a level of personality and depth that they're changing the face of superhero comics. X-MEN LEGACY is a book about the mutant son of Charles Xavier who happens to be the most powerful mutant in existence. David himself says that his father thought of him as a mutant with "godlike powers and childlike control." Despite this and despite the amazing stories that Spurrier can be and has told with the character, it's remained remarkably personal and remarkably moving. This issue moves David into a spot (where he's been moving for a while, actually) where the main villain has been the sickness in himself and, instead of the typical superhero solution of "punch down the bad guys," you can't find a cure for every sickness. It's an amazing book. Khoi Pham's art is incredible here and, though his style is a departure from Tan Eng Huat (the other major series artist), gives the book a very distinct feel. Huat's art has really grown on me as the series has progressed and, honestly, it's at the point where I love Pham's art in this book but I can see it just as well as if Huat drew it. That's thanks in no small part, too, to Rachelle Rosenberg's colors, which unify the title and makes it look unlike any other out there. Amazing, amazing book. If we ever get a full omnibus style release for this title, I'd urge everyone to get it. Urge, you guys.

Uncanny X-Force 16
Humphries (w) and Tolibao and Soy (a) and Curiel (c)

Hope and Bishop have been taken by Stryfe and both Cable's X-Force and the Uncanny X-Force are interested in finding them. However, the reasons for their mutual interest don't exactly match up and the two teams begin to fight one another through LA. Cable's team shows up to support their leader as he gets knocked out by Storm and Psylocke and they play a bit of keep away as Cable's team works to get him back. Meanwhile, Bishop tries to convince Hope that he's really changed but nothing he can say, as he well understands, can make up for the horrors he's inflicted on Hope. Stryfe shows up to taunt at them for a bit and because he's sworn revenge on Bishop, who betrayed him and left him stranded in the future the last time they saw each other. He offers Hope a chance at her wildest dreams (to be revealed next issue). Back in LA, the dust settles to find Cable awake again. Cable instructs Dr. Nemesis to give Spiral a nightmare, which he does with one of his drug concoctions. In the midst of Spiral's Mojo-based nightmare, Cable convinces her to teleport him to Stryfe's location, which she somewhat unwittingly does. They arrive to find Stryfe waiting for them.

What I typically like about four-issue crossovers is that there's usually a lot to explain and not a lot of room to do it in, so you tend to get only the exposition that you truly need and the action has to move at a certain pace to convey the entire story of two separate entities (in this case, CABLE AND X-FORCE and UNCANNY X-FORCE) over only four issues. For the most part, VENDETTA is proving to be no different. The fights move pretty quickly, the inciting incident and rising action all move well, and you can feel the story both winding up and preparing to wind down at any point. On the weaker ones, you can usually map out the beats after the first issue. I wouldn't say this is entirely one of the weaker ones; the story there, particularly the story about Hope and Bishop, is intriguing enough to keep the audience guessing and to keep the crossover moving well. I will say, I almost would have preferred it if this issue wasn't a big fight issue. Not only would a quick team-up without the typical big fight be something of a surprise in a crossover of this style, it would make a little more sense. To both Sam Humphries' and Dennis Hopeless' credit, they've created a reason for the fight that's more than just "this is the second beat of a four-issue crossover." Still, these are two teams comprised of people who are friends and unquestionably heroes (well, except for the reformed villains you tend to ruin into) and you'd like to see that, just once, mean something. Still not a bad issue. There's some clunky fight-dialogue sprinkled throughout but the arguments for both side are good enough that you can get past it. Also not complaining that the resolution of this crossover will set us into the February launch of Si Spurrier's (see above review) X-FORCE.

All-New X-Factor 1, Cable and X-Force 18

All-New X-Factor 1
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

Wolverine's annoyed that Gambit keeps missing school, has taken over the Thieves' Guild, and has continued his thieving ways. He tells Gambit that he's going to have to shape up if he wants to keep teaching at the school. Polaris, though, shows up with an alternative: come work with her on behalf of Serval Industries. They go to Serval HQ to meet with Harrison Snow, CEO and president of Serval, to hear his pitch to Gambit, which is basically that Serval has plenty of resources as a huge and rising company (and poses Snow as the next Tony Stark, weapons-manufacturer-wise) and that Snow would like to see those resources used for good in the world. Gambit agrees to go on a mission with Polaris and surprise teammate (surprise to Polaris, anyway) Quicksilver and test it out. The three break into an AIM research facility harboring scientist Dr. Terrance Hoffman who is allegedly experimenting on mutants. As they make their way through the facility, Hoffman continues to test the mutant Fatale and relishes the idea of testing even more mutants.

This is definitely looking like a wait-and-see book after the first issue. Of course, plenty of books are like that and there's no shame in it (I would say, though, that both AVENGERS WORLD and BLACK WIDOW, which debuted this week as well, landed pretty squarely in the "things are looking good" camp). Right now there's just too much that needs establishing before we can start to see what these characters and this plot is going to feel like. Gambit (and probably the rest of the team but we get narration from Gambit this time out) is certainly skeptical of Serval and he probably should be, given the fact that it's a huge corporation hiring a superhero team to do good work in the world. Huge corporations don't tend to work exclusively on the side of good in comics (unless they're run by a superhero to begin with) and Gambit clearly recognizes that. The team's an interesting one and there's reason to believe we'll get good chemistry out of them and Peter David keeps up his knack for dialogue and fairly easy-flowing scenes in his return to Marvel (he wasn't gone for long, no, but it's still a return). Carmine Di Giandomenico brings a crisp art style to the book that could certainly pay off and Lee Loughridge's colors are phenomenal. Should be fun to watch this one play out.

Cable and X-Force 18
Hopeless (w) and Unzueta (a) and Rosenberg (c)

After a conveniently timed nightmare about Bishop (to be fair, we're led to believe she has nightmares about Bishop fairly often), Hope wakes up to find Boom Boom watching a live stream of Cable's visions. As she walks in, the TV flashes by an image of Bishop and informs her that Bishop is in Hollywood this very instant. Hope knocks out Boom Boom to stop her telling Cable, takes guns from the armory, and embarks on a mission to kill Bishop. When Boom Boom awakes and tells Cable, he sets off after her, hoping to spare Hope from cold blooded murder. Meanwhile, on the west coast, Bishop has angrily set off to stew in the city after learning that Storm erased his memories of hunting Hope. Now he's got them back, he's trying to learn to cope. He doesn't have much time to try, though, as Hope attacks him before either X-Force team appears to intervene. However, someone does appear in time to intervene as Stryfe, Cable's clone from the future, shows up and grabs both of them before, disappearing with the two of them as Cable arrives. It's not long before the Uncanny X-Force arrives and suddenly Cable has to explain why Psylocke can't find Bishop any more.

There's a lot happening here of interest but it's ultimately going to rely on the random Stryfe plot twist. It would have been enough to pit Hope and Cable against Bishop and eventually have the X-Force teams get involved with it (though I then would have complained about why no one is talking to one another just as I'm going to complain about Bishop's relationship with his new team) but this new wrinkle can either vastly improve the story or unnecessarily complicate it. We'll have to see which way it goes, though typically the words "clone from the future" tend to be in the latter camp. The other major issue I'm having is that UNCANNY X-FORCE hasn't exactly done a lot to show that the team actually cares about Bishop. Sure, the act of removing his memories was done out of some bit of caring and sure they already know Bishop but he's only just returned from the future and he's spent as much time fighting against them as fighting alongside them. I don't think it doesn't work, necessarily, but I would have liked to see some stronger connection between the team and Bishop. The VENDETTA crossover will pick back up in the next issue of UNCANNY X-FORCE so we'll likely get a better sense then of how this event will go.

Uncanny X-Men 15, Cable and X-Force 17

Uncanny X-Men 15
Bendis (w) and Anka (a) and Beredo (c)

The girls of the New Xavier School have realized that they don't have much by way of clothes or entertainment or whatever else they might need and so convince their female professors to take them shopping. Emma is excited about it and provides the needed money while Ilyana and Kitty are ambivalent but willing to go anyway. They go to London and shop and buy clothes and talk for a while until sirens interrupt a meal. They follow the sirens to find cocoons popping up all over the city and the telepaths, scanning the mind of anyone they can reach, hear about the Terrigenesis bomb. They go to one of the nearby cocoons which has a transforming Latverian in it who comes out and, after a brief talk with the X-Men, knocks them all unconscious without trying. AIM shows up right after and takes the boy into their custody, excited that he seems to be able to take out a fleet of X-Men without even trying. The women eventually wake up and they leave the scene, realizing that the world is about to get more complicated.

An INHUMANITY tie-in here and one that, I suppose, helps illustrate this new event and shows us that Cyclops' team is aware of what's happening but doesn't do a ton else. There's a lot of dialogue here, as is typical in a Bendis book, but most of it doesn't really delve deeper into character than we've already been. Celeste doesn't like Jean and Jean doesn't really like that Celeste doesn't like Jean because of what she could become and Celeste actually doesn't like Jean because she shouldn't be in this time and so on and so forth. Beyond that, not much more is discussed beyond the women's desire to go shopping and some defensive lines from Bendis about how it's not sexist, they just like to go shopping is all. There's a lot of the back-and-forth dialogue that, again, serves to slow the book a lot while making every character sound the same and somehow, spectacularly, not adding anything to the book's story. Kris Anka picks up the art on this one and it's definitely the highlight of the issue. Anka's done good work on UNCANNY X-FORCE covers this run and he's done pretty killer character and costume design work recently (he also works on the excellent new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show on Nickelodeon so I've nothing but praise for him). Overall, the story is one you're probably reading everywhere else across the Marvel Universe right now and it's done better elsewhere and, if you're reading UNCANNY X-MEN, you won't get much new out of this one unless, I suppose, these new clothes take a front seat in the next arc?

Cable and X-Force 17
Hopeless (w) and Sandoval (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The Adversary is on the loose in the X-Force bunker and Forge and Doctor Nemesis are trapped in Forge's mind while he uses Forge's body. Forge realizes that he hasn't left the bunker yet because he can't; the Adversary's incredible magic powers don't work on cold metal, such as the steel the bunker is entirely made out of (seems arbitrary). The key, then, is to keep him in there and to get Doc's consciousness out of Forge's body and have Doc kill Forge to stop the Adversary getting loose in the world. Doc refuses but Forge insists and both try to contact Boom Boom to stop her blowing holes in the bunker and to get her to get Doc out with the mind sync in the lab. Meanwhile, Domino and Colossus stop the avalanche hitting the small town below with a bit of luck and some ingenuity while Cable and Hope have worse luck against the Reavers and their Reavertron 9, made up of the lower level Reavers in the area. After a bit of fighting and some impressive fortitude on both their parts, Hope destroys the Reavertron and takes down the higher ranking Reavers and Cable carries her exhausted body out. Back at the bunker, Boom Boom manages to reach the switch, sending Doc's and Forge's consciousnesses into Doc's mind but, with the mind sync grabbing all nearby consciousnesses, it also sends the Adversary to Doc. Forge is annoyed that it seems impossible to save any of them but Doc points out that not all minds are created equal and he uses the tools in his own mindscape to indefinitely trap the Adversary, eager to hold his victory over Forge for long to come.

Nice little issue as everything here wraps up pretty cleanly and rather abruptly. Domino and Colossus get their moment together as they get to go on their date night after successfully working together to save the town and detonate the Sentinel. Cable and Hope get a bit of bonding time and Hope gets to prove herself to her father. Doc and Forge share a nice moment when Doc reveals that his plan of entering Forge's mind was a little short-sighted and he didn't have time to plan an exit strategy, too concerned was he in saving his reluctant friend's life. I'm also in favor of this issue because we get a lot of Doc Nemesis and we get to see him pretty much win outright in his constant battle of wits with Forge. Nice issue and a nice conclusion, in a way, to the series. There are still a few more issues before this book and UNCANNY X-FORCE disappear and get replaced by Si Spurrier's X-FORCE early in 2014 but the next few issues will be the crossover series VENDETTA between the two X-Force books and will therefore not exactly be based around the mission statement of this team (or of the other team but that one has less of a mission statement and more of a "we banded together because we had to in order to stop this crazy threat") so it's like the series is ending here, in a way. Bit sad. It does make me wonder how long in advance Hopeless knew about the replacement of this book, especially considering how abrupt the finale of this little arc was, wrapping things up in a hastily tied bow. Oh well, it all works out well and Sandoval's art really fits the sort of chaotic action we see throughout the issue. Nicely done all the same.