Morbius the Living Vampire 9, Superior Carnage 3

Morbius the Living Vampire 9

Keatinge (w) and Elson (a) and Fabela (c)

The Rose has shot Morbius with the not-quite Ultimate Nullifier and left him for dead. Becky sees him fall but is pulled back from helping him or checking on him (hint: it's comics, that means he's totally alive). He, of course, tracks Rose back to his secret lair and goes berserk there, killing all his guards before finally being led to Rose himself. The two fight and argue about what's going to become of them now that they've outlived their usefulness to the Rose's employers. Morbius admits that he knows what's happening now but enjoys the catharsis of slaughtering Rose. Morbius does end up talking to Rose's employers and learns that they're mostly in it to develop Brownsville now that Morbius has lifted the residents' spirits. One year later, Becky is in Manhattan hosting an art exhibit focused on Brownsville and dating Michael, who is in hiding (if he's seen, it could somehow mean Brownsville won't climb out of its poverty.

I haven't exactly been a fan of this series from its start or, really, even from its inception. I do think this issue helps a bit because it feels a lot more focused, like it always knew it wanted to be here (I don't know that that's true; with cancellations, sometimes you have to cut your story shorter than you'd like, but this feels more focused). That certainly helps the feel and the flow of this book but ultimately we see that the villains are pretty weak (and still a little confusing), which weakens what we had been seeing too. Also, not to ruin the exact ending of this one for you diehard Morbius fans out there, but it ends with an obvious reveal (Michael is alive and dating Becky or at least still pals with Becky) and the even more obvious and cheesy ending of Morbius saying that he's enjoying he's current plan, the one he hasn't tried before...LIVING. I think my eyeballs actually audibly rolled. People could hear my eyes. It was weird, you guys, and I don't appreciate it.

Superior Carnage 3

Shinick (w) and Segovia and Chrisostomo (a) and J.D. Ramos (c)

The transfer of Carnage on to the brilliant surgeon Karl Malus has been successful and it's left Wizard able to control Carnage, though the control is tenuous at best. Malus warns Klaw that he can feel Carnage trying to overpower Wizard and knows that the moment Wizard slips, Carnage will be in control. For the moment, though, they're going to take on Jameson to take over New York in Wizard's attempt to impress Bentley-23. It's a little chaotic and Wizard nearly slips and loses control of Carnage. When they arrive in the mayor's office at City Hall, they find Spider-Man with a couple of his minions waiting for him.

There's a lot of really good stuff here. It's a lot of what we've seen in the first couple issues as the power of Carnage is overwhelming but the plight of Wizard is still real and well-focused. In addition, we build a little more on what Klaw said to Malus about Wizard being family to him. Here, Klaw asks wizard about his mental state and what happened with Black Bolt and Wizard admits that things maybe aren't great but that he's more desperate than ever to show his son the man he is, not the failure he may have seen all of his life. There are real moments there, especially as Wizard drifts into the past tense when talking about himself before sheepishly correcting himself. Still, the threat of Carnage is a real one and it's one that everyone finds compelling enough to hear Wizard out. It'll be interesting to see where Spider-Man takes this book as the series wraps up (I believe that this story ends with issue four but I'm not totally sure and I tend to question myself when I get this way). There's a lot to like here, not just limited to the writing, though the writing is pretty good and the story is perhaps better. The art is solid and the colors remind everyone of the other two Carnage minis we've had in the last couple years (which featured distinctly different art).

Superior Spider-Man 18, Venom 41

Superior Spider-Man 18
Slott (w) and Stegman and Livesay (a) and Delgado (c)

Spider-Man 2099 is still in the present, hunting down Tiberius Stone to protect him as Spider-Man tries to stop him from taking over Horizon Labs. Meanwhile, the other scientists of Horizon Labs are using Grady's time door to get evidence of Stone's destruction at Horizon. Spidey 2099 saves Stone from Spider-Man, escaping with him for the moment to sort things out and realizing, through a connection with the future, the chain of events that lead to Horizon's takeover and Alchemax and everything. Present Spidey, getting a bit overwhelmed for one of the first times since he's taken over Peter's body, eventually tracks 2099 to Horizon, where he's explaining to the scientists how he can stop everything from going wrong, only to knock him out before he can explain.

Everything is going wrong for Ock, whose lab may be taken over (he would lose all of his patents and, in fact, for trying to take them out of Horizon, Max seems ready to fire him anyway), who doesn't remember who 2099 is, who doesn't realize what's really happening here, and who can't track the Goblins. It's a nice collapse of everything on Spidey's head but it doesn't necessarily mix well with what is already a very convoluted set of stories. This may be one of the double-edged swords of having Ock take over the role; he's more of a planner and seems smarter and more logical than Peter because of it but that means that his collapse has to be even bigger and more orchestrated than the little collapses you'd get every several issues for Peter. It puts this book in a place where the story has to be harder to follow because Ock has to not be following it. That means the inclusion of 2099 helps a lot in that respect, as Ock can't remember him so he's already playing from behind, but still kind of muddies the plot for the reader. Tricky stuff. Less future swearing in this one, which I appreciate, but it's still there, so I'm still kind of mad about it. Bit of a messy story even if it kind of has to be.

Venom 41
Bunn (w) and Coelho (a) and Loughridge (c)

Venom continues interrogating Hellstrom, who reveals that he's been searching out the power the demon mark brings, including splitting himself into duplicates to hunt things down (which is why he's been appearing dead all over the country). Venom figures out Mania has the demon mark on her and goes to find her. She's currently attacking Lord Ogre's base. As she reaches Ogre, he reveals that she can't kill him without triggering a chemical weapon that will kill a chunk of the city. She's willing to take the risk to call his bluff but Venom shows up just in time to stop her. However, Crossbones and his group shows up and his crony, Master Mayhem, unleashes demons through a portal on his chest. The demons kill Ogre and Venom throws the chemical weapon into the portal, stopping a few threats at once. Escaping the area, Mania and Venom go to learn some things about the symbiote and recent developments therein. He does manage to learn some things but it really just begs more questions, leading Venom to believe he needs to make a deal with a devil.

The pacing continues to be solid in this book as we never spend too much or, really, too little time in any one spot. The next issue will not only end the arc, but also the series, so it's important not to waste any space, especially now. It's particularly not easy with so many plot lines still running as we press forward. It's handled pretty well and there's, even with the tensions here, still a bit of humor to be found in this book, especially in the situation in which Flash and Andi debate how to deal with the symbiote and with Ogre. It should be a tense scene but it's pretty light-hearted and it works. Still pretty sad to see this book going away, a book that has been consistently good read since its start and that has changed the rules a few times over.

Captain Marvel 16, Secret Avengers 9

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

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

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

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

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

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

Infinity 3, Infinity: Against the Tide 2, New Avengers 10

Infinity 3
Hickman (w) and Opeña and Weaver (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Builders have destroyed, almost entirely, the world the resistance was recovering on. That leaves said resistance with very few places to turn. However, the Builders now offer leniency, saying any world that surrenders completely will be spared. One by one civilizations give in, including, eventually, the Kree and Spartax. The Skrulls, Shi'ar, Brood, and humans refuse. Cap develops a plan which involves distracting the Builders with a forward assault while teams teleport into one of the world destroyer ships and turn the weapons on the other world destroyer ships. It's a fairly successful attack, causing lots of damage to the fleet and forcing the Builders to flee with what they have left. The resistance is still up against the wall but they made a nice impact and rescued the captured Avengers in the process. The Builders who had been left behind to finish off what remained of the resistance fleet find themselves suddenly outgunned as Starbrand steps forward and uses his power at last, destroying the ships entirely. Meanwhile, at home, Thanos has left his pirates attacking Earth while he goes to Attilan, only to find that the empire has been emptied out, leaving only Black Bolt behind. He yells at Thanos, refusing to give up Thanos' son and, with the help of the machine Maximus built, destroying Attilan in the process.

Tons and tons going on here. A really nice victory for the Avengers off-planet, even if it's only a temporary one. It's a nice look at the ingenuity of Cap and the humans (even if it's essentially a Trojan horse), showing them as capable of standing beside the other worlds. Again it's an extra long issue but this one floats back and forth a little less than other issues have so far, preferring to focus on one story at a time from one angle at a time. There are still act breaks that continue to serve the story pretty well but we stay with the off-world Avengers first (with a slight recap of what happened in Avengers 19), staying with them and flipping a little back and forth between the Avengers and the Builders, then we move to Thanos as the story concerning the Builders ends for the issue. There are big plans in the works for the Inhumans (including an Inhumans event, it seems, and new book, written by Fraction, coming out soon, neither of which I've really talked about here) and this is certainly the spawning point of all that. They're a very interesting group and should be worth watching. Still pleasantly surprised by this event.

Infinity: Against the Tide
Latour (w) and R. Kim (a and c)

Continuing the Infinite Comic from Infinity 1, we see what's happening on one of the Skrull home worlds as Silver Surfer continues to try to save them from the onslaught. We get a bit of Surfer's history as he explains that he became the herald of Galactus in the worry that others would be less rightful than him and would allow the very worst of Galactus. He sees a little of that in the Builders as he defends the Skrulls, realizing their power is too great and their destruction too impossible to stop. He questions what the worth of fighting back is but steadies himself enough to save a young Skrull science officer (who we saw in the first issue) from a Skrull warrior's last act of war. He delivers the Skrull to SWORD and that Skrull, though similarly conflicted by the might of the Builders, offers himself as help for SWORD to prepare for the coming fight.

The Infinite Comic continues to be a really interesting medium; it's simultaneously hard to read because you don't want to break the flow of the rapid pictures by stopping for all the text but you also don't want to ignore the plot to solely focus on the pictures. The art is still pretty outstanding and, despite the difficulties inherent in reading the story, it's still a cool book with plenty going for it. Worth checking out if you have the means.

New Avengers 10
Hickman (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c)

The Illuminati have been set on a quest to find Thanos' son among the six hidden tribes of the Inhumans, who are spread out among the world. Tensions are high, considering the troubles off and on world and the secret war between Wakanda and Atlantis (those not directly involved don't know it's happening), but they split up to investigate the lands, with each member taking one Inhuman site (Black Bolt has returned to Attilan to face Thanos, as seen in Infinity 3). It's, of course, Stephen Strange who finds the son of Thanos. Strange is, unbeknownst to the rest of his team, compromised: the Ebony Maw is tagging along with him and eventually allows Stephen to leave with his life, not knowing what he's done in giving up the son of Thanos but aware that he's done something wrong. As he's released, though, he gets the call from his team about another incursion, happening just over Australia. Atlantis has fallen, Wakanda is about to be besieged by Thanos' full army, Attilan is falling, and now there's another incursion on its way. Plenty to deal with here.

Another solid issue of the book as we get back a little to the characterization of these characters and everything they currently have to contend with. The weight of it all is incredible, as hopefully the last sentence in that summary showed, and the tension between the characters is palpable. They have to discuss, in this issue, whether they can afford to help Black Bolt at this time and what it means to be who they are. Hank, for his part, refocuses the team a bit, insisting they help Black Bolt if they can. It is, of course, the tension between Black Panther and Namor as both keep their secrets from the others and as each plots the downfall of the other. A lot of really good stuff in here. This whole event, in tandem with everything that's happened already in Avengers and New Avengers, says an awful lot about Marvel architect Jonathan Hickman. The pieces are falling nicely into place and it all works. Groundwork, you guys, not just a time machine.

Comics this week

As I said in last week's picks post, I just started a new paying job so, look behind the curtain here, things might get a little more erratic around here. Hopefully everything keeps up the way it has but it could mean a number of things, including shorter posts or cutting books from my review slate. Longtime readers (or anyone who can search through a blog) know that I try to review every major Marvel release every week. I don't really want to cut that, necessarily, but, you know, I might. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted. So how do we kick off this testing ground? Why, with 17 new books of course!

Captain Marvel 16
This issue, like the last, is slated to tie-in to the Infinity event, which is actually pretty compelling for Captain Marvel right now. Last issue she went Binary to defeat foes and save her team after we learned that the events of The Enemy Within left her memory out of whack. In last week's Avengers, we saw her questioned by the Builders and learn of J-Son's betrayal. Plenty happening right now for Captain Marvel, it'll be interesting to see where the phenomenal Kelly Sue DeConnick takes this one. There are also some hints in the works about a change in the Captain Marvel format, as the book is missing from solicits not too long from now. There's been no word of cancellation and DeConnick herself has said not to worry about things. Some day we'll probably learn more.

Infinity 3
The event continues and it's set up both of the Marvel Universe's fronts, one fighting the Builders in space and one fighting Thanos on Earth. Plenty happening here and, as I've said since the start of the event, enough to justify making Infinity an event. Still, as we reach the halfway point of the main series (and presumably of the event as a whole), this is a crucial time for Infinity to show that it's not planning on slowing down. The events that have happened in the book and in the crossovers makes me feel like there's enough plot to keep pushing forward without losing momentum but this issue needs to prove it. Issues 3 and 4 will have to carry a fair amount of weight as events tend to lose steam in the middle before jumping to their thrilling conclusions. Hopefully this book won't lose any of its steam and will keep giving us a big story.

New Avengers 10
Even though I've liked this crossover a bit less than I've liked some of the others and less than I've liked the book when it's not busy crossing over, there's still a very interesting story here and one that's likely to get even more interesting as Namor has now betrayed Black Panther (if you can call it a betrayal) to Thanos' Black Order, saying that Wakanda is where the object Thanos seeks is hidden. There's been deserved tension between Panther and Namor since before the start of this series and it's all coming to a head now. It's a little hard for me to see this whole thing winding down without one of them dying. This is both exciting for fans (a Namor/Panther fight will be awfully impressive) and a little heartbreaking for me (I love both characters. Panther probably a hair more, but geez guys).

Thunderbolts 15
I really liked the last issue of Thunderbolts. It was fun and smart and quick and the art matched the tone extremely well. I'm looking forward to this issue, though perhaps a bit warily. I'm hoping that it keeps up the tone and the feel from the last one as our newest creative team continues its work on the book. The story itself could be interesting as a team of super mercenaries takes on a big crime family with the backing of every gang in New York. This issue, like the last one, is also marked as an Infinity tie-in. It only came up tangentially last time (with Venom noting that the Avengers were off-world and Frank adjusting his game plan accordingly) but I'd expect it to play a little bit of a bigger role here. Maybe not though. Something interesting to note about Infinity: though I'm still a little suspicious of it, four of my five most anticipated picks this week are directly related to it so I guess it's going pretty well after all.

X-Men Legacy 17
I assume we'll get the conclusion of David and Cyclops' fight this week, as I'd be surprised if it carries another issue. The tone of the last issue was pretty fun despite the seriousness of the situation for David. Though we've had a remarkable 16 issues so far, everything about David's character continues to be compelling and interesting, as well as fun to watch. I'm still not tired of going into David's head and seeing the powers there (and the still very smart concept of his monologues being broadcast inside his mind) nor am I tired of him using those powers. His personality is extremely well-defined and stands apart from just about every other character in the Marvel Universe. We're talking about a story about a very powerful but conflicted man whose somewhat absentee father, beloved by everyone he comes into contact with, was killed attacking his father's killer, who was like family to the father. This is pretty much Hamlet and, despite this, I still think he's a wonderfully original character and frankly I like this better.

This week's picks

Sorry about the somewhat erratic posting schedule this week (that may only concern me). I've just started a new job that I will, in theory, get paid for as opposed to this one which I only pretend to get paid for (unless someone wants to start doing that, right, literally anyone?). That could mean more erratic posts in the future. My thought is that either things will get much better with scheduling posts or much worse. We'll talk about it later, you guys. Anyway, this week's a little bit tricky because there weren't many standouts and, in fact, the non-standouts weren't all that good anyway. Let's talk about it ANYWAY.

Avengers Arena 15

This one never really has a non-standout issue and this week's was no exception. Some more character-building, even this late in the game and even with the character we're building dying in this issue. I think we're in for some really stellar finale books coming up. There's still so much to do in this book, so many plots that need wrapping and so many characters who need arcs resolved. The main villain of the piece hasn't come close to even being touched pretty much since issue one. Now Apex and Death Locket might be in the best position for that but god knows what way they'll go when we get down to it (mostly what way Apex will go and which way Death Locket will have to go as a result). That's not even to talk about what's going to happen with Anachronism as his girlfriend, with whom it seemed to be getting rather serious fairly quickly, has been killed by a monster his best friend, who not so secretly has a bit of a crush on him, turned into. Guys. That's a real sentence I just wrote about this series. Why aren't you reading this series?

Captain America 11

Another nice entry into what has been a pretty reliably solid new series for Cap. There's decidedly less action in this than in the first ten issues, giving Cap and the audience a chance to kind of catch their breath (though Nuke is still all action all the time). Emotionally, though, taking a breath isn't necessarily what Cap wants to do. He's still reeling from the loss of both Ian and Sharon and now he's being asked to reacquaint himself with a time period he left more than a decade ago. That's not easy for anyone, let alone someone who has so much loss in his past. The way to hopefully get through it? Forget the past, focus on the future. As good as separating from the past might be for Cap, who has always been anchored there in some way or another, it's still a bit of a gut-wrenching moment as he piles all of his memorabilia on the roof and sets it aflame. Tough stuff. Really interested to see what next issue brings.

Ultimates 30

This one came as a bit of a surprise to me. Not the quality of the book, that's been pretty solid for a good time now. It wasn't really on my radar for the last pick though until as I was doing my last check over the list of new comics this week. This beats out primarily Avengers and Deadpool (Mighty Avengers is somewhere not far behind but far enough out that it was only going to make it if every other book got injured this week). Avengers had, I think, just as good of a plot and solid writing but really, the male gaze thing I talked about in my review of it lingers for me as a big negative. Deadpool makes a surprise pull but I think Preston and the middle of the issue in general slowed the book down a bit too much to make the final leap. Ultimates, though, was a great lesson in tone and momentum swings, which are huge in a book like this. The plot has remained interesting and the characters have been key as every Ultimate gets a chance to shine at one point or another in this one. There's a lot to like here, even if it got a little muddled in the middle and maybe a little too "don't peak behind the curtains" at certain points. Solid stuff.


Best Cover
Avengers 19
Yu and L. Martin

Well, I mean, this one. Sure the issue lost some points for male gaze but boy if this cover isn't beautiful. Great characterization of Carol. Great, kind of haunting image. Fantastic colors. If I was in the comic shop and not concerned with reading every single issue of every single week, I'd look into buying this one to find more out about this character who resembles Captain Marvel but maybe in this reality I don't know her history so like, why's she on fire? The last issue of Captain Marvel featured Carol going Binary too but it wasn't quite as dramatic nor impressive as this (also I think it kind of ruined the surprise at the end of the issue, frankly). Really nice cover here.

Ultimates 30, Fearless Defenders 9, Deadpool 16

Ultimates 30
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Charalampidis (c)

Kang is Sue Storm from the future, still sure that the only way to save the Earth is to gather the gems and get to work right away. We see how she convinced Reed and how she got the pieces in place but Tony and the Ultimates keep resisting, eventually pushing back enough to get their hands on the final gems. Tony uses it to revive his body and put it back in the armor while also using some of Reed's future tech to armor Thor up a bit, giving him a new Mjolnir and pretty much giving him his powers back. As it looks like the Ultimates are going to win out, everyone experiences the sort of vision into all universes that we got at the end of Age of Ultron and Sue realizes she's come too late again, that there's no way to save everyone from what's coming. The gems break and Sue-Kang disappears. The Ultimates win the day and imprison Reed, who then informs Sue that something more powerful than just the regular Gah Lak Tus storm is coming and that it's broadcast one word: hunger.

Neat little ending for this neat little arc. There's a bit more "this is happening because we said it's happening" in this one than there has been throughout the rest, which has mostly landed on the comic-book side of possibility. Tony revives his dead body and then makes Thor a god again with future tech and "a little know-how" which is kind of the ultimate "look, this is happening now, no point arguing." Bits like that are surprisingly easy to ignore, though, and it leads to a place we probably want to be anyway, with Tony alive and Thor powerful again. The tone stays impressive again; just as the start of this arc had an overwhelming feeling of "oh no, these guys can't be beat," the ending, between this issue and the last, has a real feel of a momentum swing and then the feeling of "oh boy, these guys can't be beat!" It locks down pretty well and it should segue nicely into what will undoubtedly be our next major storyline for the Ultimates.

Fearless Defenders 9
Bunn (w) and Sliney (a) and Gandini (c)

The Defenders are on their way to meet, as scheduled, a slew of current and ex-boyfriends at a pub in the city when they're sidetracked by more of Caroline Le Fey's hired help who are trying to awaken ancient sentient (though currently dormant) sculptures called the Pandemonium Axles and walk them through the city. I...I don't really know why. Maybe that's on me, but we'll get to that bit in a minute. The Defenders are momentarily stunted by they pretty quickly recover themselves and engage in the battle with the Axles and the villains, joined now by the men who were waiting on them at the pub. The men have been talking amongst themselves all this time about how the new team needed a helping hand or maybe they needed to stop teaming up altogether. They bring this up with the women as the battle ends and are deservedly rebuked. The Defenders, though, have prisoners to interrogate.

Guys I really hated this issue. First and foremost, plot wise, I didn't really have any idea what was happening. It's pretty sloppily put together. I had to read it a couple of times, once to read the whole thing as it was written, once to read what was happening with the women by skipping over the men part and once to read what was happening with the men by skipping over the women. It seems like reading a book a few times for coherency's sake should be a major warning sign for an issue. In addition, the tone of the book again suffers. I've had problems with this from the get-go with this book. Does it want to be snappy and funny or dark and dangerous? It doesn't play down the middle somewhere smart, it alternates back and forth all too often, leaving both aspects weak for it. The biggest problem that I have, though, is the blatant sexism it puts on the male characters. I've been a little wary of this book because it's heralded as an all-female book and that has clearly been its intent. Like I said with my pre-game this week for Mighty Avengers and like I've said before, I'd rather have Marvel overdoing it than not doing it at all, so I'm onboard. I'm admittedly more wary because it's a male writer writing a female team (as with Wood in X-Men) but that shouldn't necessarily make it bad. However, playing to these tropes of "the men think the women are doing too much on their own! How terrible!" both comes off as insanely preachy and as disingenuous from a male writer. I'm not trying to say that Cullen Bunn is intending to do anything sexist by going so blatantly anti-sexist with his females, I think he's just scraping off the top of the barrel here. Worse than that, it's taking characters who, on the whole, don't really have any sort of this kind of sexism in their history and making them sexist. Suddenly Flash Thompson doesn't think women can handle a team on their own. Iron Fist is there (though I thought he and Misty had been broken up for a while; maybe I missed something, though I'm not really upset about them, I've always liked that couple) and, though he doesn't necessarily agree with Flash and the also-suddenly-sexist Stephen Strange (a little more believable as Fraction made him a bit creepy in the last Defenders incarnation), he's complicit now in this sexism. It seems like such a cliche approach to making an all-female team and now it's actively hurting other characters who didn't need to be involved. I don't think that's the way this team should be handled. I think having an all-female team should be handled as if it's just that, simply another team. Sure maybe villains make references occasionally or something like that, but they should ignore it because hey guys, they're superheroes. All kinds of problems with this one.

Deadpool 16
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c)

Deadpool is in captivity and dreaming about things under heavy sedation. He's starting to figure out a little subconsciously that he's in trouble and he manages to disconnect a tube with the mechanism he'd implanted a few issues ago into his thigh. It's enough to give him time to get out of the lab and make a break for it. As he's on the brink of escaping what he finds out is a laboratory and holding facility in North Korea, of all places, Butler finds him and begins to talk to him. Despite Preston's pleas, Deadpool listens and learns of a whole camp of created superheroes for North Korea which have been spawned from Deadpool's DNA. They're based on other, real superheroes, mostly mutants, but they're all descended from Deadpool's DNA, making them all pockmarked and hideous (not entirely sure why). Butler, of course, shoots Deadpool in the back of the head at the first opportunity, but not before telling him of the daughter he is and who they have under containment, the daughter he had with the girl from the Iron Fist/Power Man flashback issue (so at least that had a point, retrospectively). The brain heals slowly and Preston comes back online, trying to get Deadpool's mind to come back. It's hard to say how long it's been back as he's sitting in silence thinking about what Butler said. One of the mutants, a Nightcrawler, teleports into Deadpool's holding facility and gets him out of there. They talk as they start making an escape and Nightcrawler informs them that they're going to try to break out tonight and would love his help. They come upon a heavily guarded barn and Preston and Deadpool are curious as to what's inside. Nightcrawler says that it's never been that guarded before and Deadpool manages to break in with Nightcrawler joining him once he's inside. Within, they find what's being so heavily guarded: the real Captain America and Wolverine, under heavy sedation.

It's another pretty solid plot and overall pretty solid issue from Deadpool which, again, is so encouraging. The weight of a possible child really affects Deadpool and it does effectively shut him down for a little while, which is an impressive characterization. I will say, though, that I think the book is weakest as Preston tries to rally Deadpool, which might go back to my concerns for the book that maybe the writing is going well only when already established characters are there. I don't think either Michael nor Ben Franklin have been very good, let alone even less established characters, and this issue points to Preston not being a particular favorite of mine either. I haven't really liked her a lot throughout the series but I always figured it could be worse than having a straight man to Deadpool's funny guy in his head. Now I'm not so sure. I complained near the beginning of Superior Spider-Man that, as much as I loved him and was rooting for a return, Peter Parker in Doc Ock's head was grating and rather annoying, constantly just saying things we already knew, like "Come on, what are you doing? Spider-Man would never do that!" It's kind of the same with Preston and it weakens the writing a bit. However, overall, this issue again impresses and continues a pretty solid plot. I'm legitimately interested about what's coming next. Hopefully it keeps it up.