Avengers 4, Dark Avengers 186

Avengers 4
Hickman (w) and Kubert (a) and D'Armata (c)

Hickman's Avengers run continues with another somewhat confusing plot. The confusion this time comes largely from the focus on an individual character, which is interesting given what I predicted in my pre-game post this week. I had speculated and hoped that we would start seeing smaller teams sent out on missions and that would allow us to examine characters a little more closely. In this case, the team we largely dealt with comprised of Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, Thor, Hawkeye, and Hyperion (fun side note, a "small" Avengers team these days is still bigger than the original Avengers when the book started. Granted, the problems are a little bigger than Loki making Hulk feel misunderstood or a Space Phantom, but here we are). Attentive readers might note that we know an awful lot about the first five Avengers I just mentioned and not a huge amount about Hyperion. This is probably true even for people well-versed in Hyperion prior to this book (which I'm not and really no one is as this is a different Hyperion than any of the others we've seen). So we get a lot of his backstory which is probably harder to follow if you're trying to determine the whole time if this is stuff you already know rather than just taking it as new information. Alas, such is my curse.

Based on the origin we see in this issue, what we know of past Hyperions, and the way he acts in the present, this is a pretty high-powered and intelligent dude. His goals are a little unclear, as is his past (beyond a certain point). It makes him a character worth watching. I'd like to see now if Hickman intends to run an arc focused on Hyperion or, as I'm anticipating, to jump to another team at another spot and maybe focus on someone else. Remember, what we saw here was only a third of the revealed team (not including Captain America, who we see and is in direct contact with this team, but doesn't appear with the Avengers). This issue is kind of a self-contained issue of a bigger story. We're continuing from the first arc, where organic bombs were launched at Earth to create life (and destroy the present life). They've found six spots and have cordoned off most of them from the population at large. There are a couple the Avengers aren't allowed to attend to, thanks to foreign governments, and one they haven't yet gotten to, a spot in the Savage Land. The six-hero team goes to this spot and finds AIM there running experiments already. The place quickly proves dangerous as it rapidly grows when exposed to an outside agent. The Avengers handily take down the AIM squad and contain the area. We learn after, as an audience not as the Avengers, that there's a seventh spot that the Avengers have overlooked, a spot in Norway that AIM is already fast approaching.

I'll be interested to see if Hickman stays in this arc, which is clearly not over, or proceeds somewhere else for the time being to return to this later. Like I said, I'll also be interested to see if he jumps teams and shows us the newer members. At this point, I'd be surprised if he focused an issue on a key cog in the Marvel Universe (your Spider-Mans or your Wolverines or your Iron Mans) beyond giving us their personality through dialogue and actions. I would assume he'll continue like this and give us better looks at the people we can't read thirty other current books about. It's a neat idea and, like I said last week, I think it makes a lot of sense to have a huge Avengers roster with little teams assigned to each problem. It's the same as the way the Avengers have been treated in recent history but with way more organization. An openly rotating team is far better than three or so distinct teams that meld together whenever they want to. I'm enjoying this book so far.

Dark Avengers 186
Parker (w) and Pierfederici and Edwards and Pallot (a) and Sotomayor (c)

This story has sucked me right in. Most alternate universe books are decent enough but you're always checking your watch, waiting for the characters to return to their rightful universe (I check my watch when I'm impatient about a comic. It's a Captain America watch so I feel like he goes "hey, I'm in an alternate universe too right now and you love that book. But I get it; you're still waiting for me to go home"). This one has none of that. Even though it's the driving motivation of the book and most of our narration, given the Dark Avengers are just as in the dark about this new universe as we are, it's easy to forget that a.) they're our main characters, and b.) their priority is to find a way home. That's not a slight at the book, not me saying "GEEZ, has this guy FORGOTTEN what they're doing here?" It's me saying I'm so genuinely engaged in the plot in this world that I forget the plot as it pertains to the known world.

Doctor Strange is controlling Skaar and Moonstone to attack Iron Man's forces and Thing's forces, respectively to make it seem to each leader as if the other is ready for war. Strange intends both forces to fall or at least be weakened enough for him to crush them both. The Dark Avengers out of the fight, Scarlet Witch, Trickshot, Ragnarok (unconscious), Al Apaec and US Agent are watching the events unfold from within Iron Man's area and Al Apaec determines that Skaar and Moonstone are being used and suggests they kill Strange to free their powerhouses. Meanwhile, Thing has captured Reed Richards, who has come from his own ruled area to try to reason with Ben about goings-on beyond their understanding. As Iron Man and Thing begin to fight, Namor and his wife Sue Storm crash the party with some intense flooding and threaten to destroy the area in 24 hours. The individual forces (other than Reed, who is still with Ben) return back to their bases to prepare.

It's really engaging and it's undeniably interesting. Though we know a lot about this universe, there are plenty of questions still to be answered (or to remain unanswered, such is the curse of "in media res") and it seems like Reed has a theory that the Dark Avengers are going to have to hear if they intend to return home. I'm pretty excited to see where this goes, even though it has no impact on any book outside of this one. That's always a sign of a good book, especially in such an intertwined Universe as Marvel's.

Superior Spider-Man 2, Hawkeye 7, Journey into Mystery 648

Superior Spider-Man 2
Slott (w) and Stegman (a) and Delgado (c)

I was not as sold on this issue as I was on the first one. HOWEVER, it did make me worry again about the issues I had with issue one. I think the story that's happening right now is pretty interesting. Despite all of the qualms comic readers naturally have with death and resurrection in comics, this is an interesting idea. You take probably the most moral character, the most human but still moral character, in the Marvel Universe, you yank him out of his body and you put in someone who is notably less moral. More than that (because they're already doing that in Scarlet Spider), you give him all the memories and the weight of those memories of the moral guy and you see what it does to the immoral guy. It's the nature vs. nurture argument dissected, but with the argument revolving around someone who is born of both nature and nurture. After 700 issues in the main series and tons more in other series and appearances, we kind of know how Peter's going to react in just about every situation. We also tend to know how Doc Ock will react in just about every situation (though he's more mysterious, as we don't typically have his inner monologue running constantly in front of us). So what happens when you cram the two together? That's far less predictable.

My worry is that it won't be, especially with the revelation last issue that Peter's consciousness is still in his body and able to fight some of Doc Ock's actions. Yes, Doc Ock will still surprise us from time to time, as he did this issue by telling Mary Jane that they can never be together after spending most of the issue trying to be with her, but Peter never really will. We'd never ask him to, either; we love him because he's so moral and so how we'd want to be with his powers. But it takes a little bit of the intrigue of "wait, what will Doc Ock do now?" if we know Peter's there to possibly stop it. Would it have been really disturbing to watch Peter Parker's Spider-Man beat in a guy's face? Yup. Would it at least change the dynamic that we were expecting? Most definitely. The other problem with the two of them inhabiting the same space is that now we get Doc Ock's need to hear himself talk and his complete lack of social skills tied with Peter's need to hear himself talk and his, now that he's not able to do anything about it, kind of whiny personality. Like, I love Peter and I do think Slott is probably writing his personality correctly (as I implicitly trust Dan Slott), but when Peter's not capable of Spider-Manning, especially after growing up with that ability, he's pretty whiny. So we get Doc's flourishes and rambles died to Peter constantly going "NO NO NO, DON'T DO THAT NO." Again, I don't think either character is acting a way they wouldn't, so I can't justifiably be upset about it, but I can still be annoyed.

As I said, we definitely can still be surprised by Doc's actions here, and Peter still sharing the body doesn't negate the fact that we're seeing the old Doc Ock with a new spin. There's still plenty of hope for this new Spider-Man, and I do still appreciate that he's the hero who solves problems with his brain first and his powers second, but I do worry if some of these problems will just expand as the series goes along. I don't know how you quiet down either character or how you have tension between them while they share the same body without having Peter stop Otto but then again, I'm not the one writing Spider-Man. If I knew how to solve these problems effectively, I'd be writing Spider-Man (SPOILER: no I probably wouldn't). Slott is writing Spider-Man, so I have to imagine he's ready for this and more.

Hawkeye 7
Fraction (w) and Lieber and Hamm (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

As I stated in yesterday's post, the profits of this issue of the fantastic Hawkeye series go to the Red Cross's efforts for Hurricane Sandy. It shows, but not in a bad way. Usually, when "it shows," it's heavy-handed or a throwaway issue with the focus being on the cause. This issue certainly focuses on the cause, Hurricane Sandy, but not in a really heavy-handed way or in a way that doesn't fit with the rest of the book. This book, so far, has largely been Hawkeye and Hawkeye, when she's around, doing heroic things (or mildly heroic things) that you don't equate to superheroes. Fraction has gone out of his way to not have the Hawkeyes do superheroic things. Only in a couple of issues have pre-established comic heroes or villains shown up. Not to say that Fraction hasn't created his own villains, they're just, as it stands, more floor-level villains. Mobsters, mostly. Spider-Man might fight mobsters occasionally, but you can bet that Mr. Negative or Hammerhead is backing them up. Daredevil gets through hordes of gangsters to find his way to Kingpin. Hawkeye, so far, has not found his way to any higher-powered villain, just an older one (it's possible more "powers" will come later, but whatever, we're not there yet and I'm writing this now, without future guidance). What I'm saying in my very long-winded way is that the Hawkeyes have fought bad guys. Not supervillains, not Hydra (okay, once they did but only a little bit. They mostly ran). Just bad dudes who were threatening normal people. So it's not out of place at all that what they're doing when Hurricane Sandy touches down is helping normal people.

Even the better books that have been spawned from tragedy or things along those lines tend to be a little hard to ground. The thing about comics is that they're escapism, at their core. We all want to be able to be these heroes, we want these heroes to exist. Sure, I'd argue they're far more than that. They're good fiction, they're amazing examples of a serialized fiction that changes hands endlessly allowing us to view all sorts of angles of all sorts of characters. But they're not real. Even if a tragedy happens in that world, it's removed from us so, as sad or alarming as it may be to read (if it's written well), there's a limit to the connection we can feel. We're in Captain America's head, or Spider-Man's head, or Wolverine's head, seeing this happen to their world. They are infinitely better prepared for this kind of thing. Even when they're at a loss for what to do, they can go out there and likely do more than I can so I sit in the passenger seat and watch them do it. When these kinds of inspired-by-reality books come along, it's a little jarring. We see Cap at the Twin Towers and we can't just be a spectator. We know that's our world and Captain America isn't really there watching. There are thousands of real heroes in our world and his demeanor serves to remind us of them. But those are real people, just as the people who died there were real people and we can never forget that. The same is true to this Hawkeye issue, but to a far lesser degree. It helps that the Hawkeyes aren't powered. They're just people. And it certainly helps that, in this issue, not a single arrow is fired. Kate threatens looters with them and gets knocked out for her troubles, only to awaken and find townspeople have stopped the looters and recovered her stolen weapons. Clint helps a man from his apartment building connect with his father while they work together to stay alive amidst terrible floods. It feels far more real than Thor aiding firemen while they lift debris. It's because Clint and Kate are people in this book, something Fraction's already done so well prior to this that it just slides right in here without question. When people are beset by tragedy, they don't pull out their armor and start helping in ways we can't fathom. They go and help in ways they can on an individual basis. So this book feels real and it's worth buying. It's worth buying because it's a good book and because it's a good cause. Just go buy it.

Journey into Mystery 648
Immonen (w) and Schiti (a) and Bellaire (c)

Sif's journey is very different than Loki's was previously in this title. Where Loki had been transformed into a child with no memory of his past self or his past crimes, but still an inclination for mischief, only to be reverted back to his true self with the last pages of his long arc, Sif transforms herself into something more powerful and deadly at the very start of her arc. Loki, who many would like to have cast away, was protected by his brother and attempted to earn everyone's trust. Sif, who has been cast away by her brother, seeks to earn everyone's respect as the greatest warrior. Where this story will go, I'm still not sure. We'll figure that out when we get there, I suppose. HOWEVER, this is a journey into mystery, so we might as well examine the trip Sif takes. In this particular issue, hot off being cast out by Heimdall to the place where all the other berserkers before her have been sent, Sif swiftly and violently kills a big monster before maiming the three remaining berserkers of Asgard. They stop her just before she kills them too and they all eat and have a chat. The berserkers have been here a long time and are a bit defeated. They would still fight, but time has worn them down and there are fewer enemies and less bloodlust. Sif has no problem with bloodlust and she asks for the biggest enemy around. Meanwhile, Heimdall in Asgardia visits Aerndis, who bestowed the gift of the berserker on Sif a couple issues back, who ominously tells Heimdall that his sending Sif to the foreign land has opened a tunnel, not a gate. We understand this a bit better when the issue closes with Sif and the three berserkers and their giant monster rival appearing on Earth and Spider-Man (Superior style, as the rest of the Universe appears to be catching up) promptly entering the fray.

I admit, I have some trouble getting into Asgard stuff. I've never been huge into fantasy and a lot of the fantasy tropes are bound to show up in Asgard. I largely still read it because I care about plenty of the Asgardians and I wouldn't drop this book because Gillen's run was great, Immonen is a good writer, and Sif is already interesting. It's hard not to compare this book to the last run of it (as shown above) and also not to compare her to Wolverine, what with the term "berserker" being tossed all around. The interesting bit, though, doesn't come from the direct comparison to Wolverine. It comes from the fact that Wolverine does everything in his power to keep the uncontrollable berserker down, while Sif embraces it and uses it to be the best warrior she can. She comes from a warrior race, no less one typically dominated by males. When you think of warriors of Asgard, you think of Thor and, perhaps appropriately given their name, the Warriors Three. Sif might be there too, maybe as an afterthought, but you might as well also think of Balder, Heimdall, Odin, Tyr, hell, even Bill. Even if Sif IS on that list, she's heavily outnumbered by males. So she has something to prove, whether it's fair or not. While she and Wolverine are both great warriors without the berserker part of them, she'll take the berserker to give her the edge, where Wolverine will try to dull it even if it slows him. It's a very interesting idea and it'll be fun to watch it expand as we go forward.

New comics coming out!

Kind of a short list this week. Lot of second printings and the like, but only nine new issues. Weird coming off like, three straight weeks of 15 book releases. So what am I most looking forward to?

Avengers 4
Hot off the finale of the first arc, I'm looking for more character building and possibly more of the "wait, WHO'S on the team?" kind of thing going forward. I think Hickman roped the audience in, now it's time to keep us there. Like I said in number three's review last week, the inaccessibility is both kind of exciting and very surprising. The last Avengers series got sick of its team and decided to pull in anyone who was currently any sort of Avenger (regular, New, Secret, which was always weird) seemingly whenever it felt like it. I'm not saying that this book is going to feature a smaller team all the time, but it at least seems to be exploring more of what likely SHOULD be the Avengers runs; they call in the best people for the job, not all of the people for every job.

Hawkeye 7
I'm always going to be excited for this Hawkeye series. I've come to understand that. It's always solid, always fun, always a great examination of the characters it chooses to focus on. This week, any purchase will benefit the Red Cross's efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, so if you need to buy one book, you could do worse than getting a probably great book for a good cause. It's a win-win.

Superior Spider-Man 2
After a very engaging first entry to this new series, everyone will wait to see if Superior Spider-Man can keep up the speed (and disgust every single one of us by watching a Doc Ock inhabited Peter Parker making out with MJ). Last issue made it abundantly clear that Superior Spider-Man is a very different kind of hero than Amazing Spider-Man. It's definitely interesting to watch. We're also going to have to see what last issue's cliffhanger is going to mean for the timetable of this series going forward.

Movies of the FUTURE

So a while back on my tumblr, I wrote a bit about Marvel's "phase two" of their cinematic universe. Maybe I'll post that at some point, but I think I've already said a good amount on this here blog. However, my post did generate a question, so I'll answer it here, for newer viewers. I've updated it a bit to be a little more relevant, but I ALSO might have missed some older stuff so sorry about weird tense changes or me talking about things that hadn't happened yet but have by now.


What other Marvel movies would you most like to see made in the next few years and why? Alternatively, which stories from the comics would you really like to see adapted in the inevitable sequels like (for instance) Cap 3? 

I’d love a Black Panther movie, like was rumored over the last few months. I think he’s a remarkable hero and it’d be great to get a strong black hero. Plus he’s an important wheel in that universe, one of the more important ones you could add to the periphery. There are three kind of "big-ish" heroes that I'm really big into and I'd love movies for all three. Black Panther's one, another would be Daredevil. I KNOW, I KNOW, Daredevil's movie was already terrible once. But Marvel's on a roll of "do no wrong" so I think, in the right hands, he'd be great. With the rights back from Fox, I would be a little surprised to see it included in the vaunted "phase three," mostly because of that horrible last attempt. The third character I’m a huge sucker for is Iron Fist but I’d be surprised to see him in a movie without a Heroes for Hire angle and I don’t particularly love Luke Cage, so 50-50 there. I’d also love to see a Captain Marvel/Ms. Marvel movie made, if the character can really catch on through the new book, if just to introduce a strong female character as a major player in the universe. I’d like to see Vision, for some reason, but I can’t see a movie about him working. He’d work fine beside Ultron in a possible Avengers 3 (I almost guarantee that's the third Avengers movie, especially with Ant Man in phase three) and joining the team, but by himself he wouldn’t work. Or maybe he would, I’m no movie maker. I’m also kind of an Inhumans fan, but I don’t know where they’d fall in copyright problems. I know Fox is claiming that they own anyone termed “mutant” and I feel like the Inhumans have, though I might have made this up at some point, in some book been called early mutants. Again, I might have made this up or dreamt it, but Fox could totally be dicks about that. It seems they've announced Doc Strange as a guaranteed movie in phase three alongside at least Ant Man. I'm totally happy with that. Good guy, different feel, different look, it'll be neat.

Stories I’d like to see is a little harder. I really can’t overstate how much I absolutely adore the Winter Soldier storyline so I’m just so giddy about that. I love the idea of Civil War and I don’t really know why you bring Maria Hill into Avengers unless you’re planning to delve into that. Civil War has looked worse in retrospect, I think, because it sort of kicked off the whole “heroes-fighting-heroes in big events” thing that Marvel is on right now, which isn’t necessarily great, but I love the reasoning behind it and it adds depth to Cap. But it would be a tricky movie. Same for Secret Invasion, in a way. I’m not sure I’d like that in a movie, frankly. There’s too much involved. That showing up in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was all I really needed. Bummed that show’s getting cancelled, for the record. Boy, World War Hulk was kind of cool, huh? I don’t know if that would work in a movie either, but that was just a pure action event. All kinds of crazy. I wouldn’t mind seeing something in Iron Man with his alcoholism, but I also don’t know that it’s necessary. Why complicate the movie character unless it’s REALLY going to benefit the movies? I think Armor Wars is a pretty standard answer for him, but I’m not sure it’s necessary. I mean, the first two movies so far have been about people using his technology, or technology based on his design. What are the chances the third movie doesn’t have something to do with that (though I think I heard something about Extremis related to this…again, COULD be made up)? There was a GREAT arc in the Black Panther series from the late 90s, I think, where Panther alienates his former Avengers teammates by more or less revealing that he only took the spot on the team to spy on them and gather intelligence. Then a little later on, I think, he absolutely demolishes Iron Man in a fight. I don’t think the stories were related, if I’m remembering correctly, but it’s not a bad idea. I love Panther and characters like him (Namor, Black Bolt, etc) because they will help the Avengers or whoever at times and they’re typically good at heart, but they’re rulers and everything they do has to fall into that perspective. Panther joined the Avengers, sure, but he did it to make sure they wouldn’t negatively impact Wakanda. I love those kinds of ideas.

Age of Ultron series...suspiciously timed?

Was this answer too long? Probably, but everything I write seems to be so WHATEVER. What would you want to see done?

This week's picks

This might not come as a shock to anybody, but this week was pretty hard to choose. Marvel is putting forward a lot of good books right now and, especially with so many number ones coming out to build excitement, this whole first month of my blog has been hard to choose what three I eventually recommend. This week is really hard because there are two that I am absolutely choosing and several that could be in contention for the third spot. I'm lucky, really, to have this kind of a problem, but it's still a problem. FUN FACT: Deadpool 4 will not be on this list.

Uncanny Avengers 3

This was rather a no-brainer for me. It's largely a no-brainer because I've been thinking about it constantly since it came out. Whenever a book does that, it's hard not to pick it as a must-buy for the week. To my memory, this is just about the darkest arc I've seen Marvel do in a long time. The book feels like it's more deeply seated in the Marvel Universe than many I've seen in the past. There are consequences to this book that, barring major events and crossovers, feel more long-term than other books are usually willing to do. However, it isn't dark simply for the sake of dark. It is dark because dark is what the Marvel Universe should feel like right now. There's a lot of distrust of mutants out there, especially hot off the heels of the Phoenix, and suddenly their numbers are exploding again. Race riots are exactly what I'd expect to be happening, even if the Red Skull, of all villains, weren't stoking them. A lot of civilians have died in the midst of this, as I imagine they would. It feels real and it feels powerful and it's just a really stellar plot and book. Worth reading, even amidst all the darkness.

Winter Soldier 14

It's possible this one's on here more for me than for you. Like I said in my review, this is Brubaker's last issue on the book he created with the character he created and, likely, his last book at Marvel. It's certainly a sad day. It's also sad because I love Bucky and it's entirely true that no one knows Bucky better than Brubaker because he's the only one who's really written him. I worry a bit about that moving forward, though I think Marvel's done a good job transitioning to new writers by and large so far. Still some worrisome times for Winter Soldier fans ahead. Anyway, this issue is worth your reading for the final team up of Brubaker and Guice and Bellaire/Breitweiser (who have done such a fine job coloring in all of their own books and who you should pay ENORMOUS respect to, even though I don't pay nearly enough respect to colorists in these posts, something I aim to remedy in the coming days/weeks). It's also the end of the Black Widow Hunt storyline, which is both action-packed and heart-breaking. So many hyphenated feelings to go around. This book is one of Marvel's 2.99 books and it's absolutely worth the price of admission. Pick it up, for sure.

Punisher: Nightmare 4
I know, I can't believe he picked that one either. In a week that gave us fantastic and totally-worthy-of-this-list entries like Avengers, FF, and Young Avengers, not to mention a fairly strong showing from the first issue of the new X-Force, I'm going with the fourth and penultimate book in a Punisher mini-series. Who'd've guessed? OKAY, so I really liked Avengers for, of all things, its inaccessibility and I don't know if you should buy it based on that if you're looking to buy one this week. I like the sense of fun and old-school comic-ness of FF, and, frankly, I think Young Avengers will do just fine without my recommendation (though probably that would be on this list ANYWAY if not for Punisher). Punisher: Nightmare has rather blown away my expectations and this book is tying everything together really nicely. I don't think this book has missed a beat yet, particularly. Two wasn't my favorite issue and three got a little murky, but both were still necessary steps to the arc. I think four is possibly the best so far, though maybe with the least action. We see a lot of Frank understanding why he does what he does, perhaps especially interesting to see parallel to Punisher War Zone, wherein he's being forced to wonder about why he's still doing what he does. I might be turning around on Punisher, you guys. We'll have to see.



Anyway, just ABOUT on time, hopefully next week will be a little less hectic and a lot less anger-filled. We passed one month of my blog this week and I couldn't be happier with it so far. Well, okay, yes I could. But really, I'm pretty happy with it. I hope you all are too. Even if you just come here for the pictures.

Deadpool Killustrated 1, Punisher: Nightmare 4

OKAY, so I meant to write these for yesterday and I ended up just ranting about Deadpool and the state of comedy for a while instead. THEN I said I'd write them in a separate post later yesterday and I still didn't. SO HERE WE ARE. I haven't decided yet if I'll write this then throw up my picks for this week after or just do those tomorrow. We'll see, okay?

Deadpool Killustrated 1
Bunn (w) and Lolli (a)

I've said before on here that I tend not to like the "vs. the Marvel Universe" or the "Marvel Zombies" or whatever else fits in that kind of theoretical boat. Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe last summer was certainly in that boat and I found very few redeeming qualities to it. I do believe that Deadpool is a very talented mercenary and he might even be capable of taking out a few big guns in the Universe, but I could never buy that he'd be able to kill everyone. He's not Hulk, he's not a deranged Thor, he's not Sentry, he's not an omega level mutant. There is a limit to his abilities. So on top of the fact that I didn't like seeing all my dead heroes, it took me out a bit to think on the fact that he killed them all because I just couldn't buy it. There was also little by way of enticing story. Deadpool snapped, saw everything as a fiction (expounding a little more darkly on the old idea that Deadpool knows he's in a comic book), and decided to end it. It's okay, but it seemed pretty blatantly just a stepping stone to show Deadpool kill a bunch of people. It was the kind of unbelievable premise that a basic action movie has in order to be an action movie. Fine for what it was but it left too much aside for my elitist need for substance.

This book SEEMS a bit different so far. On top of the fact that I like the idea of him attacking great fictional characters (that I don't love as much as Captain America or Black Panther), it's a more interesting premise to the "how do I end this fiction?" question. For what it's worth, I also like the way the Mad Thinker and the other mad scientists were portrayed in this issue. They're scared of Deadpool and they think he's insane, but they're all driven by their brains and curiosity anyway so they do what he asks, even if they don't believe in it, because they're intrigued by the ideas. Mad Thinker gets more confident while he explains, though you figure he never totally buys Deadpool's theories. He's clearly more inclined to after he's killed so many multiverse characters but it's still outlandish but he's STILL willing to entertain it just to think about it. Anyway, that's a little off-topic. Just a nice touch. As Deadpool enters the fictional universes, the scientists send in some sort of warning mechanism to attract attention and the issue ends with Sherlock Holmes finding one. So there's a plot.

Deadpool kills Don Quixote and makes his way to Moby Dick and the rest of the cast. He ends up with Pinocchio on his sword as well, though he's not sure how that worked. As he looks at the wooden puppet, it briefly transforms into the Vision and back. So there are things happening here that Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe (where this story spawns from, by the way) didn't really delve into. It seems there's going to be more in the way of a plot. I'm also more inclined to believe that Deadpool could kill Don Quixote, Pinocchio, Moby Dick, Ahab, Ishmael, and the rest than I am to believe he could kill all the multiverse's superheroes so I'm willing to suspend disbelief longer. Hopefully this book proves me right and we're in for a fun book.

Punisher: Nightmare 4
Gimple (w) and Texeira (a)

There's a really interesting way to write Punisher, which I'm only just discovering because, as I've said time and time again, I've never really been interested in Punisher. But he's always had an interesting side to him. It's beyond the "I kill bad guys, not just put them in jail" side. It's the side that knows he's doing the alternative. It's the side that knows that the right thing might be to put them in jail but he's never needed to do the right thing. He needs to do the real thing, the permanent thing. It's that question about whether or not Batman should kill Joker. Yes it breaks his principles, yes it makes him an executioner, yes it might send him over the edge he so tenuously holds on to, but it probably saves lives. It almost definitely saves lives. It was an interesting piece of Daredevil's Shadowland story a couple years ago too. Daredevil kills Bullseye, a relentless, psychotic, very talented assassin. Something snaps inside of Daredevil, he lets the ninja group the Hand corrupt him, and he begins to attempt to bring Bullseye back, resurrecting him as the Hand has resurrected killers like Elektra and Mystique to lead them and serve them fully. The superhero community is aghast at what Matt's done and the fact he killed Bullseye. It breaks the code. But when Daredevil begins to try to bring him back, they know they have to stop him because, ultimately, they don't want Bullseye back. They didn't want Matt to kill him, but they sure aren't sad he's dead.

That's kind of Punisher ALL THE TIME, except that he's not possibly turning evil. He is what he is and he does what he does because it's the long-term smartest course of action. No one likes it because no one likes killing and because there are plenty of reformed villains leading great lives in the Marvel Universe. What if Punisher had killed Black Widow, or Hawkeye, or Spider-Woman, or any other villain-turned-hero? It's a scary prospect. Maybe he HAS killed someone like them, someone on the wrong team who was on the path to redemption. So do you frown at what he's done? Yes. Are you at least a little willing to turn a blind eye? Most likely. I think it doesn't hurt Castle that the most unambiguously moral character and leader the Universe has to offer, Captain America, is a soldier first and knows that there are times when killing is necessary. What Punisher: Nightmare has done really well is to illustrate Frank as the guy who does what he does because he's already walked this path. He's going to Hell, if such a place exists. He's the monster that the world needs. In Frank's own eyes, he feels that when he hesitates, "when I stop killing, the wrong people die." Does someone like me approve of that, someone who is anti-killing and would far prefer peace to war? Nope. But does it give me pause to wonder about Punisher? Absolutely. That's what this series has been really good at. It's also worth noting that Scott Gimple, the newly announced show-runner for The Walking Dead has written this series. We're seeing the kind of character pieces that he is interested in. I think that means good things for the show because this book has been pretty solid so far. Conclusion next week, I do believe.

Deadpool 4

Deadpool 4
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Moore (a)

I'll cut right to it. I really hate this title right now. Like, really and sincerely. I'm not sure if I'd be so fervently against it if it weren't for Remender's Deadpool and for Way's Deadpool, but this is a really awful Deadpool and, at least as far as the majority of Marvel goes, a bad book. There are fans of this book, I guarantee it. Maybe they have well-reasoned critiques of why this book is a satire, a look inwards at this society within today's comedy strictly built on pop culture references, non-sequitors, the increasingly ridiculous political stage, and more. Of why this book utilizes all of these things in such huge quantity simply to point out the ridiculousness and laziness of this kind of writing by filling the book about one of today's most popular characters, one of the early adopters of referencing the outside world, with an overabundance of it all, to the point of people putting it down in disgust. Maybe the book is asking why we have to fall back on these references so often instead of creating new stories and new dialogue, rather than taking lines from Arrested Development or the Simpsons or directly referencing people like Scott Adsit or Scott Aukerman. Maybe it's asking by showing. But I have sincere doubts at that level.

I can't speak to the writer's intent, only to what appears on the page afterwards. And this book is awful for it. There have been, throughout this short series, references to everything I mentioned above (and I quite like AD, the Simpsons, Adsit and Aukerman, this isn't a dig at them, just stating a small percentage of the references that've come into the book so far) and far more. We've had unsubtle mentions of Obamacare, the Tea Party, reality stars, the Simpsons, Arrested Development, Adsit, Aukerman, a number of disjointed presidential accomplishments (given, this arc has been about killing dead presidents but whose fault is THAT?), metal music, and more I can't bear to go look back at. I'm not willing to let this all be said then just summed up by "nerd rage" or something similar. Yes, I'm upset about something fictional. But this isn't even just about comic books. It's about that type of comedy style that the hypothetical and analytical fan of the book I alluded to earlier was talking about. I'm obviously a comic book geek. I think the last month of posts has proven that well enough. Even if I'd had a day of posts, I'd've proven that. And that's not even looking at my house or my conversations or my friends. That's just looking at this blog. But people ask me all the time if I like the show The Big Bang Theory, because BOY do they love it and I should too because I'm a nerd. But of course, it's garbage. It's not good writing. None of the characters are anywhere near real and very few, if any, are even slightly layered. It often feels like the majority of jokes on the show are simply adult humans with successful jobs and plenty of schooling not understanding, to a dangerous degree, social situations and/or simply referencing a nerdy thing. Someone quotes the Ninja Turtles theme song. Laugh track after the first line. Laugh track after the second line. That's not writing. That's simply echoing. This is what the new Deadpool feels like. There aren't characters here, there are faces that say words that we've heard before in the hopes that hearing them again might trigger something in us that makes us want to buy the book. I don't know why you would.

Like I said, I don't know if I'd be this upset over this book if not for Remender and Way's Deadpools. Was Deadpool still a bit of a comedian? Of course. Was he still unhinged and unpredictable? Yes. Were his morals questionable and, in fact, possibly non-existent? Yup. All there. But there was something to Deadpool. There was a believability to him that Marvel has always strived for. There was a bit of a loss of that somewhere in the '90s as sales needed severe boosting and people just drew on what was cool. They CBS'd it. And it killed Marvel. The resurgence of real characters with real layers and real human problems brought Marvel back from the brink and put it firmly on top. Am I saying that there's no room for cheesy books at Marvel? No. They'll likely always sell and this is the way to get it done. I used to love Adult Swim original programming so I accepted the two hours of Family Guy we had to endure to get to it (after Family Guy made the switch to this type of writing) because Family Guy paid the bills. But when you have every show run like that in the hopes you'll have another monster hit, you lose a real quality to your programming. I'm not worried about Marvel doing that and I doubt this book is doing so well it would happen. But I don't know why, with such a character-oriented history and such a breadth of characters with depth to choose from, you'd take a really popular character who has undergone real change and evolved in so many ways while still staying true to his original character, why you'd take a character whose past few years have so embodied what Marvel can be, and dumb him down to what he is now. This isn't nerd rage. This is about good writing and about why this kind of writing will never engender progress. No, not every book has to be about progress. Some books can just be hack and slash, cheap jokes. I just don't know why you'd sacrifice a popular character in your universe who had become so much more than what he was to match the basest of humor.





Okay, I don't usually break reviews up this way (you know, in the month I've been doing this), but I'm going to post this now and then post Deadpool Killustrated 1 and Punisher: Nightmare 4 later today. I think they wouldn't really get the attention they probably deserve here. I went a little off the rails up there. And man, I have tons more to say, but I'll spare you. For now. Until Deadpool 5, likely.

FF 3, Gambit 8, Wolverine and the X-Men 24

FF 3
Fraction (w) and Allred (a)

I've never been a big Fantastic Four fan. I understand their history and the importance of their existence to the Marvel Universe and to comics as a whole. Doesn't change the fact I've never been a big fan. Sue was really the only member I regularly felt I couldn't really get anywhere else (science I can get from Spidey or Iron Man or Beast or even Ant-Man, quips and a hothead I can get from Spidey or Wolverine sometimes or Hawkeye or Quicksilver or anyone characterized as young, Thing I can get from...I dunno, other places but REALLY I never needed any), what with the quiet amount of absurd power and the mother aspect. Also in terms of the strained marital relationship and the head of the family business. Look, there are things to like about Sue (and often about Johnny but I didn't NEED to go to the book to find someone like him). What was always unique about this team was that they were a family. I like it in theory, but I've never actually loved it in practice. Even in Hickman's run, which I quite liked, I didn't find myself eagerly picking up each new book. I picked up each new book with a certain level of disdain and of impatience, regardless of how intriguing or well-written it might be.

Fraction's FF and Fantastic Four already feel different. FF, of course, does not focus on the Fantastic Four, rather four different people who are not related in any true way and all, minus Darla, have extensive history in their own way. So yes, that's invigorating right off the bat. But really, I think teamed with Michael Allred's art and Laura Allred's colors, this book feels fresh and new and fun. Right now, in this issue, the new team is dealing with an old Johnny Storm who has returned to Earth to tell the FF that a future/alternate reality Doom, Kang, and Annihilus have teamed up and killed the three other Fantastics and he only barely survived. But as I'm reading this issue and this rendering of the horrible deaths of the F4 (I found Sue trapped in a bubble with water filling it particularly horrifying), I'm still turning the page going "gee this is fun. Gee this is a good comic." So yes, there's plenty I could say here about why each character presents something new to look forward to and everyone has something to prove or atone for, but I'll save that for another day. For now, I'll say that this book is worth picking up (with relative ease, mind you) because it is fun. The stakes are still high, the dangers are still real and looming, the plot is still definitely thickening, but this book is a lot of fun and I don't know why you wouldn't want to read a book just based on that.

Gambit 8
Asmus (w) and Ferry (a)

I honestly don't have much to say about this book. When I finish reading a comic, my head is usually exploding with things I want to say, positive or negative. This one though just kind of existed. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad issue. If you're reading Gambit already you'll probably enjoy it. If you're not but looking to, this issue is a pretty easy way to jump in. It gives you the main feel of everything Gambit has been so far; thief, good guy, saving damsels, showing off abs, Cajun, etc. It's not a bad book. I just don't have much to add. Like I said, it gives the main feel of everything this book has been so far. Even though he's in a new locale and fighting previously unseen villains, nothing about this issue comes as a particular surprise. Gambit is charming, he's trying to rescue some people who no one else would help, he's thinking about the girl he saved before and thinks he should have helped her even more.

This issue, though it's obviously set apart from things he's done already, feels more like a stepping stone to another arc. It's more worrying because this is the first issue of an arc (I would guess a two-part arc, but it could go longer) and it feels already like this is just here to push us to the next arc. I could be wrong. Next issue could be absolutely jaw-dropping, he could take one of these weirdly evolved creatures and keep it as a pet and ride around on it forever and ever (jaw-dropping). But for now, despite the intrigue that could come from this place, it feels like we're meant to care more about what's coming next, which makes it really hard to care about what's happening now.

Wolverine and the X-Men 24
Aaron (w) and Lopez (a)

This is a weird series for me, when I actually sit back and think about it. There's a lot to it in terms of overall plot and dangers (ie the Hellfire Club and crazy Kade Kilgore, ever looming mutant hatred, the hardships of running a school for mutants, various other one-off problems) but most of them come of not feeling real. Even when an issue ended with Broo being shot in the head and lying comatose on a church floor, it didn't feel like a huge weight. I think I tend not to know the mood of the book. It wants to be a fun book, one where everyone has a rapport and hijinks ensue, but also needs to keep the dangerous air of what it is to be involved with the X-Men. When you're trying to have it both ways to too much of an extreme, it kind of falls flat. I couldn't understand the weight of Broo being shot paired with Doop with brass knuckles (no, they weren't EXACTLY paired, but it's the feel of the book overall I'm getting at). Do I think the school would actually run that sort of way, with goofiness and danger in equal parts? Yeah, maybe. That's the weirdest part to me about this series, I can't say it's wrong. I can only say that it doesn't feel right.

In this issue, it's teacher's night. Wolverine is left in charge of the school, which has never happened before, as the teacher's all go out for a night on the town. Kitty and Bobby go on a date, enjoy it, and learn something about, I don't know, having fun while ultimately deciding not to pursue a relationship further. Hank goes to SWORD to see his girlfriend, the always uncomfortable Abigail Brand, but uses the time just to look over records of Brood autopsy's to try to help Broo (still comatose). Quentin Quire has a chat with Jean Grey, though really Wolverine's prime responsibility at the school should be stopping those two from ever meeting. Wolverine and Ororo have a chat about how the school will progress, then he cuts her hair into the mohawk and they make out a bit, despite Black Panther's plea to live happily with anyone except him. Kade Kilgore is working with Sabretooth to learn how to be a better hunter (which is weird, I thought Kade was against all manner of mutant, not just X-Men). And finally, Idie is present while Broo finally wakes up, only to find that he's reverted to violent bloodlust Brood instead of nerd Brood. Like Gambit, this book kind of felt like a stepping stone for what's to come, a necessary issue where they cram a bunch of what would've been side-plots into one big side-plot issue. If you're casually keeping up with Wolverine and the X-Men, you could probably just look at the cover and tell what you need to know about this issue. You'd miss out on some small character moments and some really big eyes, but you'd get the gist.

Uncanny Avengers 3, A+X 4, Astonishing X-Men 58, Ultimates 20

Uncanny Avengers 3
Remender (w) and Cassaday (a)

Following the death of Charles Xavier, a cloned copy of the Red Skull meant to awaken a set number of years after its creation JUST IN CASE some things went wrong has stolen the telepath's body and grafted Charles' mind to his own, giving one of the most vile villains in the Marvel Universe (or any universe) one of the most powerful telepathic minds the world has seen. Skull has also created "S-Men," mutant-hating supervillains from many different countries and backgrounds to aid him in his quest to destroy the mutants and tear the country apart. He started in issue one with a brainwashed Avalanche attacking New York, he continued in issue two with his S-Man Honest John, the living propaganda, appearing on the news to convince people of the threat of the mutants which, in turn, led to many watching to gruesomely kill any mutants nearby, and now in issue three, Skull has staged a full-on attack in New York City. He allows brainwashed followers to see the x-gene in a person and then they violently descend on that person. Normal humans, not villains or superpowered people, normal humans attack innocent maybe-mutants (only one of them seems to definitely be a mutant, the others don't have physical mutations) and slaughter them. It's...well, it's dark. It's a bit hard to watch at times.

The uncanny Avengers show up, led by Havok, to try to break through the S-Men and Skull and calm things down as much as possible. It's the first time we see the advertised team in one place, with mind-controlled Scarlet Witch and Rogue brought to the fight by Skull after being captured in the first issue. Havok, Cap, and Wolverine get to work trying to stop people and the narration lets us know a bit about what each is going through. Cap, as a human, is having trouble keeping Skull out of his head and infecting it with anti-mutant thoughts. He manages to overcome it, though he recognizably has some troubles, snapping at Havok in the middle of the fight. Wolverine, who hasn't killed since the death of Xavier, does what he can to subdue the people before Scarlet Witch and Rogue, broken out of their control, inform him that Skull has Xavier's brain. Wolverine instantly goes berserker and rushes Skull. BAD NEWS, though, Honest John has convinced Thor that Odin wants the mutants eradicated, that it's in the best interest of both Asgard and Midgard. Thor protects Skull from Wolverine's attack (after Wolverine cleaves a hand off), then attacks him full on as another S-Man deactivates Logan's x-gene. Uh-oh.

So yeah, this issue is just insanely dark. There's no real light to be had and this is probably the darkest corner of the Marvel Universe right now. However, I think it's an important darkness. Cap's hope, AvX over, that everyone can work together to put human/mutant rights on track, but it was always going to be more difficult than that. Red Skull is obviously the perfect villain to escalate things here and, with Skull, you never have to worry about a change of heart or some moral concerns stopping him. The stakes are high and they certainly feel real in this book. It's a little hard to watch but it's incredibly interesting and it feels like it has an actual weight to it, like the impact of this book can be felt throughout the Universe. Also, if you were missing Remender causing extreme pain to Wolverine after X-Force, here's a good time to see it again.

A+X 4
Story one: Andrews (w and a); Story two: Latour (w) and Lopez (a)

Okay, in my head, this post was set up perfectly. I had the melding of X-Men and Avenger in the first entry, then had A+X, then Astonishing X-Men and Ultimates. EVERYONE IS REPRESENTED and BOY do the Avengers and X-Men get along great. Of course, Uncanny Avengers threw that all off by being unbearably depressing and hate-filled. So now we're here, a light-hearted book where an Avenger teams up with an X-Man and everyone has fun. Hoo-bloody-ray.

But really, this book is fine. If you're champing at the bit for continuity and long-storylines and true threats, you're probably not best served by any A+X books. These are really books just for the fun of it. Team up an Avenger and an X-Man, let them do something heroic or fun or whatever, and we'll all feel better after AvX. Some have a little more weight to them than others (Black Panther and Storm clearly had a little more to talk about than, say, Spider-Man and Beast or next issue's Iron Fist and Doop), but these are by and large just fun team-up books. No stakes, no huge threats, no real worries. Reading this AFTER Uncanny Avengers will either make you more relaxed or make you scream "HOW CAN YOU BE THIS CALM? THINGS AREN'T BETTER. THEY'RE FAR, FAR WORSE."

Story one teams Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Beast (cat-form) in either an alternate reality or a faraway future, HARD TO TELL. In this land, zombies walk the Earth as punishment for humanity's behavior towards Beasts. There is a whole society of Beasts, all started by our original Hank McCoy. Upon their arrival, Hank is taken to make love to the queen and Spidey is taken to fight a huge, feral Beast in a gladiatorial show. Hank and Spidey both take issue with their situation and Hank saves Spidey and they both get banished and sent back home. The story ends with Spidey asking Hank what could send him over the edge so far that he'd turn on humanity right as a child expresses disgust at Hank's form. OMINOUS, but not really because this book is fun. Kaare Andrews' art is great in the story and there's a good bit of back-and-forth between the fun/science-loving characters.

Story two teams up Quentin Quire with Cap and it goes a little predictably. Neither character is written poorly or anything, but like I said at the onset, these books are for fun, not for tons of depth. Cap, on Logan's suggestion, brings Quire to crash an AIM outpost with tons of little mini-MODOKs (MODOGs) and Quire, ever the anarchist rebel, wants no part in the guy dressed in a flag. Cap lets Quire see him as Steve Rogers, the weakling who signed up to protect the innocent, and things go more amicably from there. This is really my first look at Latour's writing pre-Winter Soldier, but there's not really enough here to make any judgments. I think both characters are portrayed fairly accurately and I imagine Quire will be nowhere near Winter Soldier, so no way to call this early. Still, A+X 4 is great if you want some fun, if you want a little jumping-on point for some characters/ideas, or want the whole AvX series completed in your collection. Otherwise, might not be totally worth it.

Astonishing X-Men 58
Liu (w) and Walta (a)

I'll be honest, I think I missed the last issue. I read the recap of the arc at the start of this comic and was thoroughly confused. FORTUNATELY, I read what I think was a point one a while ago showing Warbird's childhood with the Shi'ar where her artistic tendencies were stamped out for warring tendencies. So I'm pretty much caught up. This issue revolves around her and the last member of an alien race the Shi'ar had thought destroyed, an alien race called the Fianden, a race of artists. See where this is going? The Fianden threatened the Shi'ar a while back and now the last member is trying to restore them via a Fianden artifact so Warbird goes after him. They talk, he makes her feel like maybe she's still "defective" from youth, he eventually escapes and releases the artifact, creating a museum of Fianden art. The end of the issue shows Warbird, still grappling with who she is, picking up a pencil again.

I like Astonishing X-Men because there's very little cross-over with other X-books. Sure Gambit has his own book now and occasionally Wolverine will pop in here among everywhere else he has to pop, but the root of this team is largely removed from the rest of the X-Universe. It's part of the reason I like X-Factor, too. When you see Captain America in eight books a week, there's always a nagging thought in the back of your mind saying "right, well, nothing will happen here, he's over there," or asking how he does it all. At some point, "he's superhuman" doesn't make up for an entire lack of sleep. The Astonishing X-Men do this because they're X-Men and they're not busy somewhere else. Works fine. So you might get the less popular characters (Gambit aside), but they're still layered and interesting characters, they just don't necessarily have anything else going on today. For this issue, if you're not at all interested in Warbird, you probably won't be picking it up. If you care about her or about the team or have an undying fascination with the Shi'ar (?), go ahead.

The Ultimates 20
Humphries (w) and Eaton (a)

Nick Fury, appearing as original 616 Nick Fury, is back in Ultimates. After the war and Reunification, Hydra is still kicking around trying to overthrow President Cap. Nick Fury, in disguise, has joined up with Hydra under the alias Scorpio and everyone at SHIELD knows it. Unable to accept that Fury's a traitor, SHIELD sends Hawkeye in to talk to or kidnap Fury. Meanwhile, Fury seems a little less than pro-Hydra, seemingly trying to talk one Hydra agent out of the business and then looking to get his hands on the secret weapon Hydra has procured to take down Cap, labeled "the Torch." Hawkeye and the Hydra agent Nick was talking to, codenamed Nails, find Nick there. Hawkeye tries to get Nick to acknowledge him but to no avail. He's captured by Hydra and their leader, Crimson, orders Nick to execute him. Cliffhanger.

Meanwhile, the California government has found a top-secret SHIELD facility with what seem to be super-powered entities inside, leading the special advisor to the governor to proclaim that they have their own Ultimates for taking down President Cap and Sue Storm and Thor, trying to find a gem of the infinity gauntlet, get teleported into some Hydra base. Good cliffhanger, solid work pushing forward on some other plots that will surely eventually become main plot lines but currently reside somewhere more diminished, good book overall. If you're not in on the Ultimates Universe, it's not a bad time to start. Things are still a little hard to get a grasp of if you're just coming through now, I'm sure, but Reunification and President Cap are probably good times to start coming onboard, if you're so inclined. There are certainly other issues that are more entrenched in the history of the Ultimates that will crop up, but these story-lines are largely new and therefore equally easy to jump on for a new reader as for an established Ultimates reader. The depressing but also fun bit of the Ultimates universe is that people tend to stay dead, more often than not, so stakes can be a little higher. While we all bide our time in the 616 waiting for Peter Parker to return, just as we did with Human Torch and Cap and so many others recently, that same waiting game doesn't typically pan out in Ultimates.

Avengers 3, Uncanny X-Force 1, Winter Soldier 14, Young Avengers 1

Boy, weird that on a day that isn't an X-Men centric day, the majority of my reviewed comics come so far down alphabetically.

Avengers 3
Hickman (w) and Opeña (a)

Much of the things I love about New Avengers so far are among the things I'm having some trouble with in Avengers so far. New Avengers instantly grabbed me because I loved the idea of the Illuminati and who was on the team and the story that had come out of those characters. Avengers is very different. Instead of an established team of people who know each other and have worked together in some form or another through their histories, Avengers has shown a group of core Avengers (the movie Avengers, even) backed up by a bunch of people who may or may not know one another. Yes, there are the old stand-bys in that group (Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman), but there are also less-known faces like Hyperion, Sunspot, Manifold, Captain Universe, and Smasher. Then there are people I know I'm at least more familiar with (of that last group, I'm probably most familiar with Manifold but even that is from Secret Warriors and boy has it been a while since I read that) like Shang-Chi, Falcon, and Cannonball. And two of THEIR first names are Sam.

Look, what I'm getting at in my roundabout and convoluted way is that this team is hard. Especially early, thrown into a story abruptly, it's hard to kind of get the bearings of the team. It's a little hard to understand how big the team is mid-battle and it's tough to know everyone's powers if you don't already. Presumably this will clear a bit as the story progresses. I really like that Hickman doesn't hold your hand while you're reading. It makes this book, which really SHOULD feel kind of like the most comic-y book Marvel has, feel like a real historic comic. Avengers is so ingrained in the Marvel Universe, so exhaustively woven into the thread of Marvel comics, that it really ought to be, for better or worse, one of the least accessible books on the shelves. I love that this runs with Avengers Assemble for that reason; one is a great jumping-on point without sacrificing characters while the other is just an absolutely horrible jumping-on point that invokes every corner of the Marvel Universe.

So yes. I like this book a lot for what it is. I hope it pushes forward exactly this way, weaving narratives and characters together in the quieter moments without needing to explicitly state who everyone is and what they do while making it clear that they've all been around the Marvel U long enough to know what's up. I'm comparing it to Young Avengers: Children's Crusade in my head because my girlfriend and I just went back and read all of that at once to prep for the new series. In that book, every issue has the same plot re-explained just about each issue. Each issue someone reminds us why Scarlet Witch is seen with such contempt and each issue has her say, with regret, "no more mutants." This Avengers book wouldn't be caught dead doing that. Or alive, because it's a book and not a living thing, but that's beside the point. Was I confused by this arc? Yes. Did it hinder some enjoyment of this book? Maybe a tiny bit. Do I love it anyway? Absolutely.

Uncanny X-Force 1
Humphries (w) and Garney (a)

This was kind of similar to Avengers in the "throw the audience in and see what happens" kind of vein. We get flashes of backstory here and there but by and large we're waiting to see what's happened with Betsy and Fantomex since the last iteration of X-Force tragically ended. There was certainly more backstory than in any of the three first issues of Avengers but I think it's more necessary. Betsy and Storm have both gone through tremendous life events so, even though they're hugely established characters (unlike some of the Avengers), we have to understand why more than we have to understand who each Avenger is right away. And that's the last comparison I'll make between the two.

Betsy's a bit unhinged post-X-Force and, apparently, post-Fantomex. Storm is re-mohawked and ready to hit something post-Black Panther. I appreciate the way both of these characters act in this book. They are two of the stronger women in 616 and so it's definitely more fitting for them to be out and maybe a little more aggressive upon break-ups of some sort than to be moping around or horribly saddened. Wolverine fires Betsy from the school (she'd be an awful teacher anyway) and she and Storm set out to meet Wolverine's contact, Puck, for a new mission that involves Spiral. I know little about Spiral so I won't go into much there. At the end of the issue, we find out how things ended with Fantomex and Betsy. There's a new love in Fantomex's life, or maybe an old one, as the issue ends with him and his lady-clone Cluster making out in Paris.

It was definitely a moment where I went "aw, gross, no, that's not what-" and then I thought about it and said "yeah, nevermind, that's exactly what Fantomex would be doing." No sight of the third Fantomex yet, but I'm sure we'll see him some time soon. I'm excited for him to pop up, mutant hater as he probably is (Sentinel brain will probably do that to you). The series seems to have stories lined up, as Storm and Puck discover Spiral has a child locked up in a vault (reminiscent of the surprise child Apocalypse in Remender's early X-Force days) and as Bishop has returned from the future he was abandoned in. Here's hoping the series knows where it wants to go from here.

Winter Soldier 14
Brubaker (w) and Guice (a)

Brubaker's final Winter Soldier book, and quite possibly his final book ever at Marvel, is sad for a number of reasons. As I've said before, I came into comics in the middle of Brubaker's run on Captain America and he was a big part of what pushed my interest in comics and in Cap and Bucky. Now, years later, he's ending his time there and I'm as in love with Marvel and those two characters particularly as I've ever been. So while the characters will no doubt survive his leaving (I've already talked about how much I'm enjoying Remender's new take on Cap and I'm excited about the new era of Winter Soldier), it still cuts deep. Thank you for everything you've brought to this Universe, Brubaker. And thank you for still writing your several creator-owned series, which are all great and I highly recommend but aren't Marvel so I won't be talking about on a blog called "Marvels" at readmarvel.blogspot.com.

The other major reason it's sad is that it's a very sad issue. One of the more enjoyable romances in the Marvel Universe (of which there are just so, so many) has been Black Widow and Bucky's. Two people with a somewhat shared history (and the only two who can share it with one another) and a similar experience, with similar "powers" (which is to say no powers) and similar roles tied to similar personalities was always going to lead to just a delightful romance. And of course, because Brubaker can never let us just be happy, now it's not. The Black Widow Hunt arc ends with Bucky saving her from former Winter Soldier program assassin Leo Novokov and SHIELD restoring all of her memories except her memories of Bucky. Novokov surely would have preferred these people all died but barring that he had a plan to ruin Bucky as best he could even in the case of his success. Instead of allowing more people to tamper with her head in the hope of restoring those memories, Bucky lets Natasha go so she can be happily ignorant of him while he suffers.

This series under Brubaker was phenomenal. A great little spy/noir book with amazing art and colors throughout (Bettie Breitweiser and Jordie Bellaire colored this one. I tend to love Breitweiser's work all around and she's one of the few I'm usually able to pick out without looking it up and Bellaire has popped up on tons of books I've really enjoyed so clearly she's doing a bang-up job too) and great storytelling at every juncture. Bucky's becoming a big player in this world with nowhere to go but up, especially with Cap 2 coming out next year. This series has done a great job showing his skills and his off-the-charts coolness. I'm eager for Jason Latour's run to start to see where Bucky goes next.

Young Avengers 1
Gillen (w) and McKelvie (a)

After spending the last two days reading the entire Young Avengers back catalogue over again (it is not NEARLY as long as I thought it was. I had it in my head somehow that maybe they had come around in the 90s and had been on and off the radar for a while, but instead they originated in 2009-2010. I've had a huge Avengers poster with them on it throughout almost their entire existence) and reading Kieron Gillen's "Meet the Team" series on Tumblr, I came in with a fair grip on these characters. Unlike Avengers, it's not totally necessary to know much about this team coming in. Gillen lays a lot of it out on the table in a way that's easy to comprehend without feeling like forced exposition. Anything he doesn't lay out on the table is for us to discover along the way. By the end of the first issue, we've seen a bit of Noh-Varr's powers, a bit of Loki's powers, a bit of Ms. America's powers, a bit of Teddy's powers, and a bit of Wiccan's powers. Sharp readers know that's everyone bound for the team aside from Kate, who is the only unpowered member so it seems a good decision she's the one we don't see anything from but from whom we see maybe the most personality in limited space.

McKelvie's art is something I could rave about all day but it's particularly nice here as we see different forms of magic, of shape-shifting, of alien technology, and of whatever else you can think of in comics but none of it ever seems too hectic or unidentifiable. It's useful because, although plenty happens in this comic, nothing seems out of our grasp of understanding. It's a solid first entry from both Gillen and McKelvie. I expect it to only get better going forward, as there are plenty of irons in the fire, both in terms of the team's personalities and the conflict bound to arise. I also always love seeing writers and artists who have worked closely together in the past join up on a book. There's a level of comfort you can kind of feel emanating out of the book, leaving no confusion in terms of book real-estate or plot-holes (though SUDDENLY "Caplan" is spelled with a "C" instead of the usual "K." I hope we hear the exciting tale of why they changed their names. OR MAYBE we'll see why Teddy pronounces their name with a "C" instead of a "K." Maybe it was completely intentional!). This and Winter Soldier both ended with my girlfriend and I saying "wait, that's it? How are there no pages left?" which is always a good place to be. Well, a bad-good place.

Comics this week!

We press forward with Marvel NOW! as my pre-picks this week include two number ones and one number 14 which is NOT really part of Marvel NOW! though it very well COULD have been Avengers 3 or FF 3 if I had gone that way. SPOILERS: I didn't.


Uncanny X-Force 1
I was more on the fence about this one hot off the heels of the last X-Force. Not because I didn't love the past X-Force; I think I've gone to some great lengths to prove how much I loved it. It was that love that made me skeptical about this X-Force incarnation. I didn't see how it could match up. We'll see if it does. Sam Humphries has done himself well to make me interested in interviews and the like and because Fantomex has come back. Previously, I had said "boy, I like Psylocke and Storm, but there's no one that REALLY draws me to this book" until they revived Fantomex and split him into three. NOW I'm really interested.

Winter Soldier 14
As a huge Cap fan, I am also a huge Winter Soldier fan. I'm also a huge Brubaker fan and this is his final Marvel book I imagine. He loves his own stuff and it's all great and, I'm sure, very freeing. Still, he clearly didn't take MY advice into account. So this is the end of that era, his time with his character at Marvel in his little corner of the universe finished, likely forever. I've loved his run here and with Bucky as a whole and I'm heartbroken tomorrow finishes the whole thing. I wish only the best for Jason Latour but that doesn't make this issue any easier. ALSO, it's probably going to be intense. Hopefully everyone's okay on the other side.

Young Avengers 1
This is another book I was trying to not be excited about simply because I don't want to feel like I need to spend millions on comics each week but BOY is that not happening here. I was, of course, foiled from the start by the fact that this is Gillen and McKelvie teamed up. I like Phonogram, I loved Journey into Mystery and I adore anything McKelvie has ever drawn. I'm interested in the team and I've greedily drank up every bit of "Meet the Team" Gillen has posted on his tumblr and I'm pretty gosh-darn excited. I trust this writer/artist team and I'm excited to see what they can do on a long-form Marvel book together.


Like I said, Avengers and FF could have been on this list and I'm happy for a handful of other releases, but these three are what I'm most looking forward to. Another good week from Marvel.

Cinematic Universe

Say what you will about superhero movies and cheesy action polluting the CINEMA, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a wonder to behold. Even if you aren't a comic fan (not to discourage readers, but WHY are you on this blog?), you have to understand that what Marvel Studios has done is kind of revolutionary. That might not be revolutionary in a good way, time will tell. But to have taken distinctly different franchises from an incredibly distinctly different medium and tied them all fluidly together is very new. No, of course it's not new to make a series, 1, 2, 3, 4. It's new to make a series like this where the movies don't directly tie to each other until they do.

Matthew Ferguson's box art for the Avengers. Really
awesome.

There are a lot of things I really like about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Universe 199999. I don't know why they couldn't just do a three digit universe like the 616 or something more natural. Typing 616 is WAY easier than saying the main Marvel Universe but typing 199999 seems WAY harder somehow) and only a handful of things I don't like. Are there some lesser entries? Sure. Do I worry that they'll run out of ideas? You bet. Have they characterized the stars as both accurate to the comics and free enough to enter different plots? Absolutely. As I've said several times, I hate seeing Captain America as uber-patriot, beat down all the commies, I've loved America before you were even born kind of guy, which media outside of comics (aside from the 1950s Cap) tends to shift towards. The most encouraging thing for me about the Marvel Universe to that point was Chris Evans' Captain America. He is everything that I want him to be. It's perfect. Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man both reflects and shapes Tony of today. Chris Hemsworth's Thor is accurate in power and humility and dear lord he is huge. Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, while so far only seen through wider lenses, both seem pretty nicely tuned.

BUT EVEN THAT is not the most brilliant thing to me. Good characterization is obviously very important but it only required someone along the line to read a comic book or two to understand the characters. The most brilliant thing to me is the peppering in of other characters in the movies. Pepperpottsering in of other characters. Because...because Pepper Potts has been... Anyway, the first Iron Man movie saw James Rhodes and Pepper and Happy Hogan throughout the movie, which was kind of cool but all are very strictly relegated to Iron Man's universe so none were a stretch. They're a supporting cast, no matter what any might have gone on to do in the rest of the 616. It was the introduction of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury that really changed the game. Suddenly the whole universe was open. Iron Man 2 introduced Black Widow, who has acted as an Iron Man supporting cast character but is WAY bigger to the extended universe than, say, Rhodes or Pepper. Thor sort of introduced Hawkeye but didn't throw in too much else (a whole ton of not-so-subtle winks) aside from the Asgard crew and Cap couldn't really go beyond people in World War II. They still threw in a young Howard Stark as a somewhat important character. Avengers, then, was the culmination of everything and it was amazing. The movie was good, it was fun, we got to see Cap and Iron Man and Thor and the Hulk on the big screen exactly the way we all would have wanted to see them, the way none of us could have dreamed we'd get to.

So now we enter Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and everything's coming up Milhouse. Iron Man 3 is going to stick mostly to the Iron Man corner of the world but we could certainly see a couple introductions here or there (fingers crossed for Carol Danvers). Thor 2 sounds like it'll likely still keeping itself to the other eight realms that aren't Midgard (though Christopher Eccleston will also be there so THAT's neat). CAP, though, CAP 2 is going to be HUGE. We're likely going to see an extension of Black Widow's role, the introduction of the Falcon, and the Winter Soldier. I can't say how excited I am for this movie so I won't try here. What I will say is that this sprinkling in of characters here and there, few enough so as not to overwhelm but more than enough to create a bigger universe, is  being handled PERFECTLY. It's reason enough to be excited by all this, even if you're not really a comic fan. If you're a fan of movies and of stories and of characters, this universe should excite you. This doesn't even get INTO Guardians of the Galaxy, which could easily incorporate others like Nova or whoever else (not Silver Surfer, Fox has the rights to that guy). It's a tragedy they don't have the rights to the X-Men or to Spider-Man because this universe would have even THAT much more depth. So if you take anything away from this post, take away the fact that Sony should give back Spider-Man and that Fox should give back X-Men, or at least that they should all work out some kind of deal where Marvel gets to borrow them. Guys, I'm all for that. For the good of the art.