This week's picks

Hey everyone, sorry for the no-post yesterday. I scheduled myself to have Saturday open so I could, if I chose, review the free comic book day books yesterday. Instead, I chose not to. Still, hopefully you guys all went and had a good time at your LCS. Now on to the top picks of the week!


Amazing Spider-Man 1

Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, and Edgar Delgado return to the world of Peter Parker and very quickly show us that they're ready to pick up right where they left off. With a solid lead story and a number of fun and interesting shorter stories to follow it, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1 gives enough book and enough excitement to justify its $5.99 price tag but I couldn't help wondering this whole week about what I talked about at such length in my little miscellaneous section in the main review (linked to above). I still can't help but think that putting this book out for the regular $3.99, even if you sell it at a loss, encourages a ton more people to pick up this book and erases questions of "is the book worth the money?" and replaces it with "this book was well worth $3.99." ESPECIALLY for a big launch the week of FCBD. Get your new readers, dummies.

Avengers 28

I like it when things come to a head in a book in a way I don't expect. For all that I've loved the Illuminati and wondered about who would find out about the incursions next, I never jumped to Banner (though I very clearly should have, considering who comprises the Illuminati as is) and I never thought about all of the repercussions that would have. Hickman did something pretty clever by shell-gaming us with Captain America, kicked out of the Illuminati and memory erased while we sit and wonder when that's going to backfire on them. While we were looking at Cap, there was Hulk with the biggest of all axes to grind with this team. Hickman brings out the tension and the anger beautifully in this book before deflating it with a few well-placed Tony words. Really strong.

X-Force 4

I love Fantomex and I love what Spurrier had teased about Fantomex and I love issues that fundamentally change the way we look at a character but stay, somehow, in the realm of what we know of a character. That was a tough sentence to get through. ANYWAY, this issue has a bit of everything. Fantomex struggles with his programmed self-worth/self-assuredness as he can't help but recognize the skills of the people around him. Between that and the building sense of doubt around EVA and the explanation of the white hot room, Spurrier continues to bring out the very best (which is sometimes the very worst) in characters and really knows how to get them to a place where he can use them to tell the most effective stories. Great work all around.

Wolverine 5, Origin II 5, What If? Age of Ultron 5

Wolverine 5
Cornell (w) and Sandoval (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Wolverine, new girlfriend Pinch, and the Lost Boy go out into the city on a night off while Wolverine gets drugs that keep his metal skeleton from poisoning him. Afterwards, the three of them go to a tattoo parlor where Wolverine gets a tattoo from a superpowered tattoo artist, who has the ability to instantly know what tattoo best fits a person (??). He chooses a rose for Wolverine and, though he doesn't necessarily know why it fits, instantly tattoos it onto his arm. Then the three of them head to Wolverine's favorite bar wherein some of his old pals tend to gather. Tonight, though, Thor is among those old pals and he's not thrilled to see Wolverine. Logan tries to show him the tattoo but it doesn't seem to have an impact on Thor and the three are forced to hustle away. Their next mission will take them to Madripoor in search of Sabretooth.

Story
This issue is more dedicated to character than to story as it's something of a break in the spy work storyline, though a few things are made very slightly more clear story wise. In this case, Wolverine's "I take drugs to stop my skeleton poisoning me" clears that question up with literally the tiniest of explanations (WHATEVER, we're not really reading for the science of this, are we?) and Wolverine sort of reaching out to Thor as if to try to get him to be understand is a neat little story twist, though it's negated somewhat by the fact that SOMEHOW Pinch figures it out. We don't know much about Pinch but I'm willing to believe she's a pretty smart, pretty capable woman. However, the leaps she makes to start to suspect Wolverine's true motive in showing Thor his tattoo feel really convenient, very much like an advance-the-plot kind of thing. 3/5

Character
The focus of this issue is Pinch, which is good because we're five issues in with Wolverine's new team and I feel like we don't know a thing about any of them. I have literally no connection to anyone regularly appearing in this book who isn't named Logan (or Wolverine or James or whatever, you get it). Now Pinch is starting to get a little more personality but, as I mentioned above, I'm not sure it's any more personality than just what's capable of driving the plot forward. The key for Cornell right now is clearly to make Wolverine feel attached to his teammates so he's conflicted when the time comes to turn evidence on them and so most of Pinch's narrative and dialogue this issue can be chalked up to a desire to only do exactly that, drive the plot ahead or tell us more about Wolverine. She's slightly more defined but it's done in such a way that she feels like a plot device as much as anything else. Also, Wolverine's new rose tattoo (meant to symbolize Rose, his childhood friend he ended up accidentally killing as told back in ORIGIN) doesn't so much characterize anything new as it does hit us over the head with the old. 2/5

Writing
There's no big tone to establish here as it's something of a rest issue, meant instead to establish characters over story. As such, I covered most of the writing of the book with my complaints in the above two sections, particularly in character. Not entirely onboard with the writing here. 2/5

Art
Gerardo Sandoval's art isn't totally dissimilar to Ryan Stegman's but it's not totally similar either. Everyone has a rather similar look and build but Sandoval's art seems to be sharper, giving Wolverine's mask and almost Batman Beyond feel. I don't love Wolverine's new costume (reminds me almost too much of someone like Constrictor, weirdly) but I do like Sandoval's much sharper cowl sort of thing. I can't really explain why, just appreciate it aesthetically. And guess what, the art gets full marks because of it. I've gone mad with power! 5/5

Miscellaneous
Whatever.

Total score: 3/5


Origin II 5
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin w/Beredo (c) and Caramagna (l)

With Clara thought dead, Logan and Victor plan to raid Essex's compound and kill Nathaniel Essex. Logan leads the way, plowing through mines and gunfire and soldiers before reaching the building. He makes his way to Essex, who informs him that Creed tipped them off to where Logan would be. Logan guts Essex then goes to find Creed. The two fight and Creed tells Logan that he ought to kill himself now, or at least take some of Essex's poison, because he can never live as a human. Everyone he loves will leave him somehow. Before the fight concludes, Clara shows up wielding a rifle. She explains to Logan that the Creeds are also mutants with varying skills and tries to convince him not to kill Victor. Logan, not wanting to hear that, holds Creed's head in a vat of Essex's concoction until he seems pretty dead. Clara demands he leave, rebuking him for the act and not seeing him again. Four months later, a more animalistic Creed has re-emerged and finds Clara only for Clara to tell him that their little brother Saul is dead.

Story
The conclusion of ORIGIN II is a nice finish as it brings up all the regular Wolverine themes, animal vs. man, Creed vs. Logan, the price of killing people, etc., while leaving a certain amount of ambiguity to the story. Clara, who has some experience both with dealing with animals (it's apparently her mutant power, along with healing) and dealing with broken people (being a Creed), seems the perfect judge of Wolverine's character and rebukes him not for his animal side but for his cold-blooded killer man side. It's a blow to Logan but it's not inaccurate and it puts this story firmly in the camp of interesting Wolverine stories that make a reader wonder what's really going on in there. The story's ending is a little abrupt and feels like it could lead into another story all its own but without any announcement of that (unless I've missed it) or without knowing what already existing story it might refer to (whatever, I don't know it all, okay?), it feels a little strange. 4/5

Character
It's still a relatively young Wolverine and a young Victor Creed we're dealing with here and Gillen is sure to keep that in mind in each issue. Logan isn't someone at this point who weighs his decisions and thinks carefully about the cost of killing. That ends up being the driving force behind the story of this book but it's also the driving force behind the creation of his character in this book, molded as someone who knows he doesn't fit in the human world but also hasn't really had that pointed out to him so he's not even really pondering why. By the end of the miniseries, he's forced to do exactly that, wondering if he's Essex's bear, the grey family wolf, the lone wolf, or something different. Clara puts it in no uncertain terms: he's something else, something worse than any of those. He's a man who has the ability to have a different nature but doesn't. 5/5

Writing
The story and character sections cover a lot of this nicely, though it's worth noting that there are times where the exposition feels a little rushed (Clara is an exposition machine out there) because there are so many ideas Gillen would rather get across than plot points. Still, it's overall a very solid issue and a good conclusion to the series. 4/5

Art
I've liked Adam Kubert's art throughout and continue to really like his portrayal of this pre-serum Sabretooth. His post-serum Sabretooth is strong too but falls more in line with the current look of Sabretooth (albeit lacking the stupid suit. Man, I am really not onboard with many of these new creative decisions in Cornell's book. Sabretooth wears a suit, Wolverine has a rose tattoo, there's a tattooed guy whose costume is just an unzipped hoodie with no shirt underneath named the Lost Boy? All TERRIBLE). The action is good and smooth while still looking brutal and efficient. Martin's colors continue to shine throughout. No complaints here. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I don't think it was an easy job to come in here and tell another Wolverine ORIGIN after the first one had been so big and after we've uncovered so much of Wolverine's history already. Still, Gillen and Kubert came in with a goal and they clearly achieved what they wanted to achieve. Strong stuff.

Total score: 5/5


What If? Age of Ultron 5
Keatinge (w) and Doyle, Villalobos, Ienco, Edwards, and Magyar (a) and Rosenberg, Serrano, Redmond, Beaulieu, and Major (c) and Sabino (l)

In another universe, Hank Pym begins to consider the possibilities of AI when he's hit with the timeline snap and, though it doesn't harm him physically, the thought disappears from his mind entirely. It's a world without Ultron and Ultron from the first issue of this series, the one where Hank is the only human even sort of left, realizes that Earth is prime for the taking. Portals open up all through the multiverse as Ultrons flood past to shatter a new world. Everyone we've seen so far, from Asgardian Natasha to a new Captain America to Wolverine and Ghost Rider is summoned into the world without Ultron to fight these invading Ultrons. As the world verges on defeat, Hank of the first world finds Jan and directs her and the other remaining Avengers to his old, dead world as one that won't have any Ultrons left on it, a world where they can all start over. They rush through and discover it abandoned, leaving them with a whole new world to try to make better than the worlds they left, a new world where they can ask...wait for...WHAT IF?

Story
It's an incredibly convoluted way to tie everything up, if you can call it that, in this limited series. The rips across space-time start to open up and suddenly everyone we've seen in this inexplicably long series comes together and manages to escape the Ultrons out there. If you're left wondering what the point of this all was, you're not alone. 2/5

Character
There's not a lot to look at character-wise as we've already seen the majority of these characters before and we're not really here to see them evolve, just to see how they end up, I suppose. There's nothing more remarkable about them and it's clearly not Keatinge's intent to improve on them, just to push them through a story. 1/5

Writing
There's exposition aplenty in here but it somehow still never really explains what's happening or why. Ultron just has a need to conquer worlds and his other Ultrons want to conquer them too and portals open up that bond all of these worlds together and now these peole we've seen survive for probably nothing. It's convoluted and rather all over the place. 1/5

Art
The art changes throughout the book with Ming Doyle providing the new universe with art and the other artists from this series rejoining to illustrate their respective universes for one more time. It clashes a little but overall you get the point and it helps to differentiate this confusing plot. 4/5

Miscellaneous
No, I don't know why it existed either.

Total score: 2/5

Silver Surfer 2, Hulk 2

Silver Surfer 2
Slott (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c) and Cowles (l)

Silver Surfer briefly gets his first up-close glimpse of Dawn Greenwood as she's pulled into the Impericon's holding cells. He agrees to fight on her behalf and goes forth to battle the Never Queen. If he should flee or somehow abandon the fight, Zed and the others will kill Dawn. As Surfer approaches, he's almost immediately nearly torn apart by the information the Never Queen has at her disposal: the information of every possible timeline all at once forced into Surfer's head. The battle changes, though, as Dawn enacts an escape plan with her fellow prisoners and they manage to make their way to the main power source of the Impericon, which turns out to be the Never Queen's heart. As Dawn makes a new wish on the Never Queen's heart (to explore everything), it distracts the Never Queen and she stops her attack on Surfer. She explains what's happened and Surfer realizes he's been duped and that the Never Queen is the victim here. He vows to help her and begins his return to the Impericon, where he quickly runs into Dawn. She vows to help rescue him.

Story
Lots happening here as we learn a little more about Dawn and the kind of person she is and as we see a little more of the improbable situation in which she's found herself as well as learning a bit more about the Never Queen. The only real problem with the story so far is that Zed and the other inhabitants of the Impericon that we've met are all sort of goofy, either explicitly or just in their actions, which makes it difficult to really take their threat seriously. Obviously the pose a threat but we only really know it because we've been told it's so. I like, in a way, that they're not your standard dark and dreary villains but when you see villains like this, it can be easy to see why most villains end up dark and dreary or sociopathic or something because these villains just don't seem competent enough to have pulled off a threat this huge. 3/5

Character
The biggest character developments we're seeing right now are from the new Dawn Greenwood. We see a bit of new characterization out of Silver Surfer but Slott is more concerned with establishing who Dawn is, particularly necessary because she begins to really drive the plot here. Slott's doing a pretty good job already to show Dawn as something more than just your stereotypical strong female lead sort of character (it still would have been a welcome relief even to see that). She's more specific than that. She's capable of getting herself out of the prison and doesn't need to wait for Surfer to turn up or anything but we know that she's capable of it because she's the sort of person who fixes problems. She practically runs the B&B back home and overcomes any sort of obstacles that crop up here, as we saw in the first issue, and she's quick on her feet and takes charge instantly here in the second issue. It's important to start to establish that sort of thing now so that she doesn't just suddenly become a strong character when the plot needs it. 5/5

Writing
As I said in the story section, it's not bad writing, per se, but it is a little incongruent to have this giant threat posed by these ridiculous people. Of course, we've only seen a couple of them so it's entirely possible that the people pulling the strings of the likes of Zed are more competent than he is and that would negate some of these issues, but right now it hurts the book a little to have Silver Surfer falling to a few kind of stupid villains. 3/5

Art
Michael Allred's art is ever Michael Allred's art. It doesn't look like almost anything else out there and you can almost immediately tell if it's for you or not. He's a very strong artist and the book has a very specific look to it and a very specific feel for that look. I think that Allred may be, along with wife Laura, the only one who can slot someone's very colorful outfit and the very imaginative Impericon into a comic and make it all work. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I'm still a little hung up on the tone of this book but that kind of thing usually takes a few issues to develop anyway.

Total score: 4/5


Hulk 2
Waid (w) and Bagley (p) and Hennessy (i) and Keith (c) and Petit (l)

Maria Hill has come to check up on Banner. He's been placed in a small town with a couple of members of that community in the hopes that keeping him off the grid will keep him (and everyone else) safe. The mystery surrounding his shooting is still out there but Bruce himself is removed from the decision-making as he's effectively turned into Lennie from Of Mice and Men. Hiding him from whoever is after him hasn't stopped them from searching though and the shady organization after Hulk has another trick in its arsenal as they send Abomination, who has been rebuilt by those same people and who is drawn to Hulk by that rebuild. Maria gets Bruce to Hulk out just in time but the fight crashes through the small town like nothing and assassins from the organization appear to try to take Hill out.

Story
There are still a lot of mysteries surrounding the story of this issue and this new series and it's making it a little difficult to get wrapped up into the plot. Obviously the mystery is the plot but it's still a little bit meaning that we're not seeing the forest through the trees. There's a bigger story here but the emphasis on the mystery and all of these new characters aren't quite compelling enough to overcome the confusion of what's happening. I'm reminded a little of the final arc of DARK AVENGERS, where the Dark Avengers were transported to another timeline or dimension or something where everything had gone completely backwards and the superheroes were divided into bitter factions. We had no idea what was happening, thrust into this brand new universe, but the mystery of it was made more interesting by the fact that the story was readable without having to wonder about that. We'd like to know, sure, but the story stood without knowing. This one feels like it's not quite hitting that point and the overall issues are worse off for it. Of course, that could all turn around as things start to come to light but it likely won't change the way these issues look. 3/5

Character
It's perhaps a bit hard to judge what are character developments are here as we see more of Bruce but he really does read like Lennie (that's about the best comparison I can make) and so we're not likely to see much character evolution until such time as Waid has established that. Hopefully that means next issue we start to see more but who could really know? Hill has a tiny bit of character as she attempts to keep Bruce safe and shows genuine regret that she'll have to resort to bullying to get him to Hulk and save himself but there's ultimately not that much that needs to be looked at here. 3/5

Writing
Most of what I'd have to say about writing in this issue has been said in the story section. I think that the issue overall suffers from a sort of lack of focus where the mystery has already become a little convoluted and it's mystery for a mystery's sake and so everything feels less important than it should feel. SPEAKING OF LACK OF FOCUS, that last sentence. ANYWAY, I guess this issue was kind of like that sentence. 2/5

Art
Bagley's Hulk continues to be the strongest part of the issue. His other characters are pretty good but the Hulk really does come off huge and impressive, as does his Abomination. Jason Keith's colors are also top quality here and the fight scene, which is intentionally big and brutal, feels like a huge fight between two monsters while a small town suffers. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Guys, I taught Of Mice and Men, alright? This is like reverse that, where he gets shot at the beginning.

Total score: 3/5

Quick review: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

Hey all my buddies. Just saw Amazing Spider-Man 2 for the first time and I thought I'd throw up a quick review. As ever, this quick review won't have any spoilers, just initial thoughts.

I went in worrying a little that this one would suffer from too many villains or too much grit. If you're worried about it too, don't worry too much. There are some moments where the villains start to get a little too conveniently crazy but by and large there's nothing to fret about there. In addition, this movie maybe more than any other recent comic movie, embraces the comic world. Sure, it's still a real world, as it were, but it's one that understands who exists out here. It doesn't have to be Batman's dark and gritty Gotham, it has to be a world where superheroes exist and where CGI drives certain sequences because that's what these guys are: living CGI. Marc Webb embraces that and it pays off here. Lots of real personality to this movie and it works incredibly well.

All-New X-Men 26, X-Force 4

All-New X-Men 26
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen (p) and Von Grawbadger (i) and Gracia (c) and Petit (l)

Regular age Scott goes to console Jean after she has a nightmare wherein she destroys her team with the Phoenix Force. After a talk that gets a little weird but that Scott pretty firmly shuts down before telling Jean that Emma will be working with her to control her powers, Scott is rebuked by Kitty for being alone in a room with Jean. Later, X-23 decides to leave, setting out before anyone can stop her. She comes across Angel, out for a morning fly, and reveals that she's leaving because young Scott didn't say goodbye before he left. She storms off but runs across someone posing to be young Scott who attacks her. She crawls back to the Xavier School claiming that someone here must be a shapeshifter as the bad future X-Men from BATTLE OF THE ATOM walk away.

Story
Young Scott is gone, Jean is interested in old Scott, and Kitty is mad. The issue ends with the cliffhanger ending promising some story coming but for now, most of this issue is dedicated to minor story advancements and characterization. There's also growing concern for both Hank McCoys out there as young Hank tries to piece everything together and as Scott worries for older Hank given the state of his recent failures (bringing the young X-Men here and not being able to send them back). On the heels of a few little crossover events, this issue serves to slow things down a bit, which is occasionally necessary. 3/5

Character
I'm pretty thoroughly on record talking about my feelings about this book and about the young X-Men's return. I think the stories haven't been compelling enough to justify the massive shift in...well, everything and I don't think the writing has been strong enough to really drive this book to any new territory. However, it's the characters that I'm hating the most. On top of the back-and-forth dialogue, many of these characters have come off as simply obnoxious, starting with the always-talking Bobby, moving to the ever-bland Scott, and dragging down the suddenly intolerable Jean Grey and the all-over-the-place Kitty Pryde. It's made it hard for me to like any of these characters and I can't care about their problems if I don't like them. In fact, I rather hate the people who have been the big focuses so far (particularly Kitty and Jean, which is especially hard because I really like Kitty normally and I am, at worst, ambivalent about Jean). This issue does no better, concerning itself some more with romances and sniping. 1/5

Writing
Plenty of back-and-forth here which starts to grate but it makes more sense here, in something of a resting story issue than in the midst of combat or tense situations. I have less trouble buying this type of dialogue when it's in this sort of situation because there's a little more time to let these conversations happen. I still find it grating after some time (it happens pretty quickly in the Scott-Jean talk but it's okay later except that Bobby is a moron and that gets a little hard to keep following) but it's at least more applicable here. 3/5

Art
I like Stuart Immonen's art plenty. I like the way he draws these characters and I like the ways they express themselves. There are a couple of double-page spreads in here that I don't quite understand because nothing particularly drastic happens in the page. It just feels a little like they have to fill a DPS quota on this book and so they can come in anywhere. Still, not bad art overall. 4/5

Miscellaneous
Judging the character of this book in this new scale is very difficult for me because I actually have to think about why I'm feeling what I'm feeling (which isn't new to a lot of my reviews) but more than that, I have to consider whether to grade the characters based on I find them, based on their long history, or based on whether they fit into what Bendis has already written in this series. For all intents and purposes, these are his characters right now and so he's writing them mostly consistently to his vision for them. Can I grade harshly if he's being consistent? I, as you saw, decided that yes, I can. I'm all for writers changing things about characters. I get it. It's been a while since these characters were created. Times change, stories change, characters need to change too. What I'm less okay with is little personality changes here and there that don't fit with their pasts and also seem to have been borne of nothing. In this case, the fact that Kitty has become intolerable as the leader of this young team could be because she's taken on a new responsibility and she needs to put on her teacher voice, as it were. But it doesn't really come off that way; instead, it comes off feeling like she's just crappy to everyone. I'm happy to judge things like this harshly.

Total score: 2/5


X-Force 4
Spurrier (w) and Molina (a and c) and Sabino (l)

X-Force is after a French superpowered guy named Le Necrogateur, a character who has the ability to read the minds of dead people. It's a useful little trait and it's one that's particularly necessary for the team now as they try to figure out what information the now-dead Antonio Aggasiz had on Volga. Fantomex leads the charge to try to lure Le Necrogateur out using another superpowered person (don't know if these guys are heroes, villains, mutants, etc. so it's hard to label more specifically) named Anaïs who has the ability to talk to cats and more catlike abilities. The chase goes rather badly for Fantomex who has to watch as everyone around him begins to outperform him which comes at odds with his programmed-in belief that he's the best there is at everything. He goes into his own mind to meet with EVA where she parses out the trouble he's been having and recommends, because it's possible she's not exactly in her right mind right now, that he simply kill anyone who may be better than him in anything.

Story
The story here has to do with the Volga storyline but it has more to do with the story of Fantomex, which is a story well worth diving into right now. Spurrier does a phenomenal job meshing story with character here as Fantomex's journey of self-discovery is inextricably tied to the actual journey they're going on and to the future of this series. It's very strong and it's very interesting and it's getting into some pretty scary territory for the team. 5/5

Character
It's no secret that I love Fantomex but it's hard to argue that he's one of the more complex characters out there today. Even without a long and sweeping history like some of these characters have, his origin and his powers are some of the more hard-to-define powers out there. That wasn't necessarily made easier by the fact this his three brains were split into three different characters and each brain controlled separate powers. Spurrier promised big things out of Fantomex during this series and he's already delivering pretty heavily, immediately diving into his created French accent (he reveals here that he can't speak French) and his built-in superiority complex and everything else. Fantomex physically can't imagine anything bigger and more important than himself and Spurrier is using that to show a man in serious conflict with himself. It's a little heartbreaking and it turns dark very quickly, even amidst a few really funny scenes. 5/5

Writing
The story bounces back and forth between the chase of Anaïs and Fantomex's talk with EVA, meaning that their dialogue carries throughout the entire issue and both narrates what's happened while also explaining its relevance. It doesn't hit you over the head with any of it but it works really well in terms of showing us everything that's happening. It's good writing and the talk with EVA both serves as a useful device to advance the plot and makes for a compelling plot line all its own. Fantomex himself brings up early in their talk that he's been avoiding her because he's not sure what the brain-split has done to EVA and where her loyalties lie. Those questions certainly persist through the issue as she asserts herself and eventually recommends that the sane option would be to make himself the best there is by killing everyone else. The tone of the issue is fantastic, switching between somewhat light-hearted and extremely dark as the issue wraps up. Brilliantly done. 5/5

Art
Jorge Molina taps in for Rock-He Kim on this issue and does an admirable job. I've liked Kim's work a lot but I think putting Molina on the Fantomex-centric issue ends up paying off because the book is a little lighter and a little more kinetic and Molina's more cartoonish style works really well for it. It's not necessarily easy to make Fantomex particularly expressive considering his face-covering mask but Molina puts a lot of emotion in the eyes and it's what we need amidst all the drama going on inside his mind. On top of that, letterer Joe Sabino helps with a lot of expressive type. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Really fun book and another really good issue. While we're on the subject, I re-read X-FORCE 3 last night and BOY that was a good issue. I don't know if I gushed about it enough last time. Spurrier is writing some of the best and most interesting characters out there right now.

Total score: 5/5

Amazing Spider-Man 1

Amazing Spider-Man 1
Slott (w) and Ramos (p) and Olazaba (i) and Delgado (c) and Eliopolous (l)

Peter Parker is back and needs to catch up pretty quickly to the months he's missed. Parker Industries is in some trouble and he has to start getting out of it by severing ties with Spider-Man. Even that may not cut it as their big rollout invention is steeped in nano-tech (Nah Nohtek, shout out to my Croach the Trackers out there) and other cybernetics, a skill of Octavius' and not of Peter's. In addition, the city has turned on him in a much more vocal way than ever before. In the past, he's been seen as maybe a villain but never with the sort of antipathy and fear they have for him now. His first busted crime goes a little awry too as he brings down new villains White Rabbit, Skein, Panda-Mania, and Hippo but only after Skein, who has control over fabrics, disrobes him entirely but for his mask. He returns home to find Anna Maria waiting for him (who had found a wedding ring stashed away in their apartment) with, thanks to the videos that surfaced of a nearly naked Spider-Man stopping crime, accusations about his double life. This special quadruple size issue also includes a plethora of stories from the likes of writers Dan Slott, Chris Gage, Chris Yost, Joe Caramagna (stepping away from lettering to do a quick little writing pass with fellow letterer Chris Eliopolous as his artist), and Peter David and artists Javier Rodriguez, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Will Sliney, David Baldeon, and more that tell stories spanning from a recent attack on another prison that went badly for Electro, check-ins on Spider-Man 2099 and Kaine, the introduction of a new character we'll see in a special AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1.1, and a look at exactly how Black Cat is doing after her betrayal. The start of the issue gives a very brief recap of his origin and sets things up for the ORIGINAL SIN tie-in that's coming which will have to do a little more with the spider that first bit Peter. Also included in this issue is a special reprint of INHUMANS 1.

Story
Just looking at the main story, Peter is thrown exactly as far under the bus as seems necessary to kick things off. He's startled to find out just how much things have changed in his absence and it forces him instantly back into the reactive sort of Peter Parker we all know and love. Slott puts him up against a small gang of easily defeated adversaries for his first match-up back which gives us enough of an opportunity to see him in action while also knowing that he's not going to lose the fight so we don't have to worry too much about stakes, we can simply see how the world is reacting to Spider-Man these days. It's a smart play and, even amidst the blatant comedy of Spider-Man losing his costume right out of the gate, it helps to set up some of what's coming. There are plenty of irons in the fire as both the main issue and the many little stories indicate and Slott is ready to dive right back into things. 5/5

Character
What can you say? Peter Parker is back. This is most certainly the same Peter Parker we've known for so long and Slott finds himself in the position of having very few character developments and instead letting us watch the character in a world that's developed around him. Peter rarely actually develops as a character in the same way that Steve Rogers rarely develops as a character; neither of them have the moral ups and downs that so often frequent heroes and anti-heroes. They're both set in their moral goodness and righteousness (though occasionally a particular writer will skew that one direction or another with varying results) and so it's the world around them that changes and they constantly need to find their place in said world. Peter's getting his legs back under him and this issue proves effectively that it's going to take some time. 5/5

Writing
I love Spider-Man. I love him as a character (how do you write a Marvel blog and not love Spider-Man?), I love his various titles, I love his stories, etc. I quite like Dan Slott too. And yet, I don't think I'll ever call this the best written series out there. There are people doing better things writing-wise and pulling out better tricks and using less exposition and so on and so forth. Still, Spider-Man gets something of a pass for this, almost like a legacy title, with rules that are grandfathered in. CAPTAIN AMERICA wouldn't have survived only being written one way. THE AVENGERS wouldn't have thrived with just one writing style through all of time. Just about anyone you can think of has seen writing styles change massively over their decades of existence. Not SPIDER-MAN though. SPIDER-MAN abides because this style of writing, this lighter tone (though obviously not always) and this hopefulness (that's really more what it is than a "lighter tone") is what we know and want from Spider-Man. I can't promise that I'll swoon over any writing technique out of this book like something out of HAWKEYE or EAST OF WEST or PRETTY DEADLY (which may as well be poetry) but it's hard to be particularly dissatisfied with it. 5/5

Art
With the return of Peter Parker comes the return of Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, and Edgar Delgado, three guys so inextricably tied to Dan Slott's Spider-Man that it would have been nearly impossible to see this book kicked off with anyone else's style. It's great to see so many good and effective styles in the stories following the main story but these guys embody this Spider-Man and they immediately return to form. Great way to start things off again. 5/5

Miscellaneous

Few things here. First off, this number one retails for 5.99, which is quite a price to pay for a single issue. Of course, within that single issue, we also get an extra 20-30 pages of tie-in stories and a special reprint of INHUMANS 1. I'm not sure I love the 5.99 price point for the book still; with Marvel's line wide price hike to 3.99 and amidst all the heat their taking from comic stars like Robert Kirkman and Eric Stephenson, I'd love to have seen a show-of-good-faith sort of thing for this launch and giving this much content for the now-regular 3.99 price. I'm not a businessman at Marvel so I can't say if that would have been feasible (though I do think I'm enough of a businessman to speculate that an incredibly profitable company like Marvel, who knows this book is going to sell like crazy particularly if it's all this content for 3.99, could have handled it), but it would have been a solid gesture, as opposed to charging 5.99 for it and still releasing about a hundred variants (also a little bummed because my girlfriend and I went all around checking out local and not-so-local comic book stores to see what variants were in stock and found retailers marking up the incredible Marcos Martin variant to as high as 40 dollars right out of the gate and even seeing the Skottie Young variant up to around $15). Is it worth it for the 5.99? Yeah, probably. If you're a Spidey fan or a regular Spidey reader, definitely. Do I get it if you're not willing to buy this book instead of buying two regular issues of many books (PARTICULARLY in a week when Image released a slew of reprinted number ones for just a dollar)? Absolutely. I do legitimately think that if this issue, in its current state, had been released for 3.99, we'd all be praising the price instead of eyeing it suspiciously.
Second order of business: I really dug myself into a hole here when I made that final issue a post all its own, didn't I? Now I feel compelled to do it for this number one. Hopefully this is the last isolated Spidey post, though, in truth, I clearly talked enough for this to warrant its own post, if only for that last paragraph I just wrote.
Thirdly: that Marcos Martin cover is gorgeous. It's right there, over to the left of that long miscellaneous paragraph.
Fourth: I swear I'll stop praising even the flaws of Spider-Man comics now that this one's done. I've been particularly easy on it as SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN ended and with this kick-off because I do think they were particularly good comics but also because, you know, we're just all happy to have Peter Parker back and at the end of the day I'd rather give out good reviews than bad ones because I'm a happy sort of person.
Fifth: Sorry for this really long section here, I love you all, have a great day.

Total score: 5/5

Avengers AI 12, Avengers World 5, Uncanny Avengers Annual 1

Avengers AI 12
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c) and Cowles (l)

The future is in peril as Dimitrios prepares to defeat the last uprising and the last bits of the universe 10,000 years later with only the remaining AI Avengers to stop him (Victor, Doombot, Vision, and Alexis). Doombot opens up his black hole chest and attempts to send Dimitrios, feeding off of Galactus, into it, but Dimitrios nearly escapes even that. In the present, though, Monica Chang makes the correct decision to sever Clatterbuck's link to the SHIELD network for deactivation, thereby stopping Dimitrios' virus from getting ahold of SHIELD's systems and giving the team the chance to officially defeat Dimitrios within. Though the AI Avengers are through, per Maria Hill's orders, they have succeeded (though all may not be well as hint that Ultron may yet have survived has emerged).

Story
Like in THOR: GOD OF THUNDER right now, I have a little bit of trouble feeling compassion or excitement for these sorts of "we need to do the right thing now or else the world will be gone in 10,000 years!" stories. I feel rather like the universe surviving for 10,000 years more is kind of a stretch goal anyway; I mean, we're bound to destroy the planet by then, what are the chances we don't take the universe down with us? So like with THOR, it's hard to see the real stakes here and I think the idea is clouded by the presentation, in a way. The idea to AVENGERS AI's final threat is that Dimitrios' virus will instantly turn SHIELD against humanity and SHIELD's weaponry will quickly decimate the Earth is more compelling, even if it's maybe a bit more cliche, than saying "in 10,000 years, everyone will be dead!" because that's kind of already what we're believing. So the story that's buried here is okay but the way it's presented is less compelling. 3/5

Character
There's a little too much going on with the plot right now to settle out characters and final issues always get a little bit of a pass for this from me. This book was cancelled so clearly Humphries had to squeeze down a bit to fit everything and maybe some development had to be canned because there was no time and it's not like he was developing characters for later issues. Monica has some characterization as Humphries goes a little deeper into her religion and her ethics and the ethics of killing AI, but that's really all we have time for aside from a couple of quick lines to cement the characterization of other characters (an excitable Hank Pym, a happy Victor Mancha, an irritated Doombot, etc.). 3/5

Writing
This, too, falls a little under the "rushed" category. There's not much time for Humphries to create a really pervasive tone or to keep the dialogue particularly sharp. With the final issue, Humphries has time to get some exposition out and to explain what happens to our characters and not much else. There's little the writing can do to add to anything else at this point and I'm not sure that should really be counted against Humphries. 3/5

Art
Araújo kind of has me split down the middle. I like a lot of his scenes and I think that overall he carries the book pretty well but there are very strange and distorted faces here and there. He still nails down a lot of the virtual world stuff, bridging an interesting gap between realism and surrealism. Still, you probably know what direction this category is headed...3/5

Miscellaneous
Goodbye to AVENGERS AI, a bold premise that, for me, never really found its footing and never really broke out of what we've seen other AI-based books do already. Also kinda weird that the cover to this final issue doesn't have Vision on it, right?

Total score: 3/5


Avengers World 5
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)

AIM still has Cannonball and Sunspot and they've transformed Smasher into their own messenger. To top it off, the capital city of AIM Island has been completely locked off from the outside world with incredibly impressive and unknown force fields. Captain America sends Tony Stark to convince Manifold to teleport in. The field stops most teleporters but Manifold's style of teleportation, bending space, is different and they suspect he'll be able to breach. Unfortunately, his powers have been out of whack since the war with the Builders. He reaches out to Captain Universe to try to understand the problem and she transports him to a place outside the world, which helps reorient his place in the universe, necessary for a manifold. With that settled, he returns to the helicarrier and brings in the big gun team, Thor, Hyperion, and Captain Marvel, to Barbuda.

Story
The bigger story, the isolation of AIM Island and the capture of Cannonball, Sunspot, and Smasher, takes a backseat to Manifold's story. Of course, being on the backseat doesn't mean it doesn't still drive the story. We know that's the end goal and it's brought to the forefront occasionally here as Bruce Banner tries to get a team of SHIELD scientists to find a way to enter the forcefield and as Tony's objective is, of course, to breach the forcefield with Eden, but the story is really Eden's and why his powers aren't working. It's a compelling story because Eden is a compelling character and the idea that his powers aren't working properly is a pretty big blow for the Avengers, who have utilized those powers a lot recently. It's maybe not as compelling as a siege on AIM Island but it's certainly not worthless. 4/5

Character
There are character moments for everyone from Banner to Tony to Cap but the real driving force behind the issue is Manifold, who knows enough to meditate and try to reach out to Captain Universe (or the Universe as a whole) to find a solution for his problem. Eden is characterized by the way he reacts to dangers and the way he throws himself into heroing even as he's taken to another universe and his powers stop working (Manifolds cannot work outside of their own universe because their powers are dependent on their universe). We learn a good deal about him both as a person and as a super powered being and it's stuff that's pretty readable for how expository it could be. 4/5

Writing
The tone here is noticeably different than the tone in, say, AVENGERS or NEW AVENGERS and it's hard not to put that down to Nick Spencer's involvement. Spencer's books tend to have a little more quippy humor in them than Hickman's (of course, I have no idea how this issue was scripted, but that's my call on it) and it works well enough here, seeing as this is rather a separate book with separate aims (AIMs) than those books. I think it needs a little more humor than AVENGERS or NEW AVENGERS. It wears a little but it does still get some genuine laughs here and there. It will just be a tricky line to walk as the series continues and as they have to decide how far into humor they want these characters to go. 4/5

Art
Stefano Caselli's art is very strong, drawing both masked and unmasked people with a full range of emotions and with the impressiveness comic books require. Andres Mossa contributes nicely as he has some really impressive colors on scenes with Eden in the Australian outback and as Manifold and Captain Universe look at their own universe from afar. Beautiful and majestic and great for the tone of the book as well as for the story. 5/5

Miscellaneous
AVENGERS WORLD still has me a little off-center. I think it's a solid book, particularly as far as showcasing some other Avengers goes and as getting into other stories goes. The tone is a bit different than the other books but still not so far different (as its predecessor AVENGERS ASSEMBLE was) that it's hard to say if it's brilliant because it keeps a somewhat consistent tone or almost unnecessary because it feels too similar. Give it a few more issues and maybe I'll come up with something.

Total score: 4/5


Uncanny Avengers Annual 1
Remender (w) and Renaud (a and c) and Cowles (l)

Back in the slightly less world-exploded days of the Avengers Unity squad, Mojo had them all captured for a one-off adventure in the Mojoverse, using a team of already captured heroes and villains called the Avengers of the Supernatural (Doc Strange, Satana, Blade, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, and Manphibian) and put them in his new television show. The capture of the heroes was act one, act two finds them all playing stereotypical roles in a high school, and act three has them snap out of it when Ghost Rider goes off-script and crazy, beginning to seek vengeance on everyone in the Mojoverse before the other heroes, now freed from their own captures, manage to stop him. The executives behind Mojo's new show are left to debate whether there was anything of substance in his new offering or if it was meaningless distraction in a world so full of them as the Uncanny Avengers return home.

Story
The story here is a clever little satire (that maybe drags a little long) of plenty of different things. On top of the outwardly satirical representation of the high school drama and even of the comic book form, we get little digs at pop culture and audiences and a dearth of intelligent programming (it's both a golden age for television and a horrible and inescapable dark age for television right now - THANKS CBS) and the state of executives and producers and everything else you could think of. It's often clever, though sometimes it borders on heavy-handed here (it would have been hard not to), and it may ultimately carry on a bit too long. 4/5

Character
There's not a ton to look for character-wise here because, for as long as the characters are in the Mojoverse, all typical bets are off. Remender isn't looking to make profound character statements. This is more in line with the recent DEADPOOL ANNUAL or THUNDERBOLTS ANNUAL (both written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker) wherein a standalone story was told and it was more for the development of a fun story than for an ongoing development of characters. Remender still plays with the characters in a reasonable sandbox here and follows what needs to be followed but he's not going for any sort of deeper meaning here. 4/5

Writing
Satire can be a hard thing to pull off but Remender does fine work with it throughout the book as he lashes out at just about everything. It's easy to read plenty of digs into plenty of people in plenty of spots and it's done well enough that it feels bold for a Marvel comic. It's rare to see a Marvel book go so hard after the satire, often preferring to go very hamfisted or more parody-based when it does something like this instead of doing something that really cuts. Remender unleashes here and it's very strong, though, as I said above, it may carry on too long and occasionally, as is the wont of satire, sometimes gets a little heavy-handed. 4/5

Art
Paul Renaud's art is solid throughout, particularly tricky as he's drawing a huge cast of characters for an extra long issue and with all sorts of action, both physical and magical. It's a pretty great showcase for the talented Renaud and gives him a chance to flex a little bit. He steps up to the challenge and does a very strong job with it. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Fun issue and there's not anyone reading it who shouldn't feel a little shamed by it (Remender and company included, as he isn't willing to leave creators out of his jabs), which is typically the mark of a good satire.

Total score: 4/5