Hawkeye 8, Journey into Mystery 649, Gambit 9

Hawkeye 8
Fraction (w) and Aja and Wu (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Another really solid entry in this Hawkeye series. This one is a little tougher to follow than the standard Hawkeye (which may be tougher to follow than the standard Marvel production anyway) as it bounces around the story a bit and, this is largely where the confusion comes in, it focuses on Hawkeye's "bad penny," called Penny and Cherry at different times, as we don't know her real name. That is exactly why she makes it a little harder to follow; Penny/Cherry is the best example of an unreliable narrator. We don't know when she's telling the truth, we don't know IF she's told the truth and we don't know why we should believe her. Hawkeye certainly isn't sure at any point except that he's a hero and she's pretty attractive so probably he should help her.

The story is framed around a series of comics Cherry has been discreetly sending Clint. The comics, illustrated wonderfully by Annie Wu, feature a protagonist who looks shockingly like Cherry and drives a car that looks shockingly like the one she sold Clint back in her first appearance. Clint can't help wondering if it is actually her that these comics are depicting but, given Cherry's level or reliability, we never get any sort of clear answer. Regardless, they certainly inform our opinions about her nonetheless. Each comic cover (there are four in total) looks exactly the way they're supposed to, like an older woman-centric kind of magazine (they even have the correct titles, like "Love Fugitive" and "A Girl Like You" which both play into what's happening in Hawkeye and look and sound exactly like the comics they're meant to represent). It's really a great framing device and I can't say enough how wonderful these comic covers look. The clear and detailed style reminds me of McKelvie's work and definitely make me want to look into Annie Wu, who I'm not sure I've seen before. They also represent a clear break from Aja's work while simultaneously fitting perfectly alongside it. It's a really gorgeous issue, maybe more than a regular Hawkeye issue. The story revolving around Cherry is similarly entertaining and has that extra layer of ambiguity given the subject matter.

As the issue winds down, we learn that things are heating up for Hawkeye, as the tracksuit Draculas are offering their services to the major crime players of New York and offering up Hawkeye's life. The crime lords seem pretty split on whether to take the Draculas on their deal but, led by Kingpin, they eventually consent, deciding that in the best case, Hawkeye dies, and in the worst case, the Draculas fail and all get arrested, leaving their new territory a little more open. Thrilling times ahead.

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

Uhhhhhhhh, so I think that (SPOILERS) Sif just decapitated Heimdall? So that's a thing that happened.  Huh.

Right, so, when we last saw them, Sif and her newfound trio of Asgardian berserkers slipped through a portal to Earth that happened to bring along various monsters. Sif's battle with a legion of near-spiders (they're only six-armed) ends in some spider-slaughter (assisted by Superior Spider-Man) and leaves us watching around the world (and the atmosphere) as various other heroes (including Monica Rambeau, Hellcat, and Namor) dispatch the remaining monsters with ease. The berserkers in New York bicker about where to go next for a minute before Sif puts her boot down and says that they're going to return to Asgardia to protect the realm. After some more discussion on logistics, Sif manages to place a call to Broxton that sets the wheels in motion for Heimdall to open the Bifrost for our heroes, who promptly pass it and slice off Heimdall's head. Nope, still sounds weird.

I do like the way this comic is executed. It doesn't feel the need to stick with Sif throughout its entirety and it doesn't feel like it has to trap Sif in a threat that doesn't fit with the Marvel Universe. Yes the monsters were real threats but, when this sort of thing happens in other books, that usually leads to the titular character trying to track down each one him or herself. In this case, Immonen rightly points out that, though the monsters are menacing, the other heroes of Earth are capable of taking care of themselves. It's a clever device that also frees Sif up to leave Midgard without spending too much time there and without leaving readers asking why she didn't clean up her own mess. She would have but others got to it first. It's also a nice way to showcase some heroes who have slid off the radar a bit, like Hellcat and Monica (which is not her hero name). Then we get the cliffhanger at the end and boy do we need to get to the next issue to clear up what is happening.

Gambit 9
Asmus (w) and C. Mann and S. Mann w/ Martinez (a) and Rosenberg (c)

I think the best thing that Asmus has done with this book so far (which has been a pretty good book overall) is simply in his feel for the character. Gambit's a tough character to get right and a really easy one to get wrong. You throw in a couple Cajun sounding things and make him pun a lot and boom, classic Gambit. Marvel recently, though, hasn't opted to take the easy way out at any turn. Gambit, like almost all other characters in their own single title or even in their team titles, is being portrayed as somewhat more complex, but not so complex that he gets away from the roots of his character, which is complex enough in its conceit. Okay, that was convoluted. The point is that Gambit, a lifelong thief and regular X-Man, is a complex character just in that description, but his personality seems pretty straightforward. It's not an easy line to walk and Asmus has it lined up pretty well.

This story takes Gambit back to Joelle, the femme fatale that got him into trouble in the first arc of this series. Now she's consorting with super-villains in New York's infamous "Bar With No Name" (the Marvel bar where all the villains hang out and occasionally where Punisher and Daredevil go to let off steam or follow leads) and trying to make deals with some of the bigger members, specifically Tombstone. It's a great little bar atmosphere which features a lot of risque dancers and what not, which would normally have me crying foul but it fits with the establishment. You don't expect the villain's bar to be full of dart boards and sadness. Anyway, it's a nice set-up because it also shows us how Gambit fits into this world. He's greeted courteously by some villains, who consider him a fine member of their ranks (including by Batroc the "oh man you guys I totally love Batroc" Leaper), and treated with suspicion by plenty of others. It just serves to again show the complexity of the character, though he keeps his normal personality throughout his time there. After trying to persuade Joelle to leave with no success, he plants incriminating evidence on her to turn the establishment against her, then gets her out of the bar. Tombstone swears revenge. Later, Gambit and Joelle have a talk wherein she reveals that she has a dying daughter, which is driving all of her actions. It's like the Hawkeye issue in that we're still not sure of her true motives or whether or not she's lying.

This has been a solid run so far. I'm looking forward to where this plays out but I also won't be too upset to eventually lose the Joelle story (if we do). I don't know why, I just haven't connected to the character well. I think she just sprang a little too much out of nowhere and it's left me a little surprised at how quickly Gambit fell head over heels in love with her. Maybe this arc will develop her more (or, quite probably, maybe it's my fault because I didn't pay enough attention to the first few issues) and this will go away, but for now I'm a little hesitant.

FF 4, Guardians of the Galaxy 0.1

FF 4
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

Boy, really pulled it out at the end there. This was a fun issue all the way through with a couple of developments happening with in the whole FF organization but largely the focus was on the Moloids newfound obsession with She-Hulk. I kind of love the conceit, especially given the Moloids recent love for regular type Hulk (not these Moloids specifically, but the Moloids Hulk went underground with for a little bit). I also like the way Fraction has them speak and interact. It's not really different from what Hickman did but I didn't have this blog then so WHATEVER, I can say what I want. I also appreciate that they instantly fall in love with She-Hulk and, upon hearing of her date, approach Bentley about finding ways to ruin it. That works on just about every level for me.

So most of the issue is that, with Bentley concocting junior super-villain schemes to try to break up the date between Jen and Wyatt Wingfoot and, as you might imagine, these schemes all go wrong and end up making the night more romantic for the two. It's a fun little issue with nothing too serious aside from Scott snapping at older member of the FF Alex Power as Alex questions the whole idea of the FF and of Scott's plan to attack Doom. The end of the issue gets serious too, as Bentley complains about how poorly the night went to an unseen interrogator. The interrogator reassures Bentley and promises to help him live up to his destiny, seemingly as a super-villain, before being revealed as Medusa, Sue's stand-in on the team. Dark things are afoot, dear reader, dark things indeed. It also makes us glance back at a scene earlier when she provokes the future Johnny Storm and causes him to leave. What game is Medusa playing? We'll just have to find out. Pretty solid issue. If you're looking for dark and gritty, it's not here. The majority of this issue was structured for fun with plot seeping in around the corners. Not a bad thing, but certainly not for every reader.

Guardians of the Galaxy 0.1
Bendis (w) and McNiven and Dell (a) and Ponsor (c)

Promising start to the series. It at least gives a background look into Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I've read the most recent iteration of the series, featuring pretty much everyone on this new team (minus Iron Man), but I haven't read it for a couple years now so I don't remember as much as I'd like going in. Maybe that's good though, time to start fresh. I don't mind the backstory Bendis has crafted for Peter Quill, which seems to follow the story bits I like about Quill's history (there's no mention of a step-father or anything who tried to attack his mother, which Wikipedia claims there was at one point and I am FINE with that). I also like the addition of Iron Man to the team, though it already feels like Marvel time is getting pretty convoluted again, considering how prominent Iron Man is in Marvel books (and the fact that he's in deep space in two series and on Earth in any other). Whatever. Gotta just shake that one off. Anyway, I like that he's on the team because it fills the void left by Nova (in truth, I can't remember if Nova was officially ON the Guardians team in the recent run or if he just fought alongside them for a period or, FRANKLY, if he even did that. It's been a while since I read it, you guys). It's also a nice feature to have Iron Man be the guy who needs stuff explained to him, as opposed to the one doing the explaining. Could be interesting.

There's not a whole ton left to say because this issue was a 0.1, just giving us a little background before the full series starts. I like the art a lot and I don't expect that to change. I've been sold on McNiven for a couple years, since he popped up on my radar (particularly when he took over on Captain America). We don't really have a sense of how Bendis is going to write anyone aside from my Star-Lord and Iron Man for this book, nor a full sense of the dangers they'll face. The Badoon, the alien race that killed Star-Lord's mother, seems like fair game, as does Thanos, considering his history with the team and the fact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will likely tie Thanos and the Guardians together again to prepare for Avengers 2. I'll be interested to see how this book shapes up and how the team is represented before their major motion picture in 2014 (where it's recently been announced Chris Pratt, Andy from Parks and Recreation, will play Star-Lord. Pretty excited about that, interested to see how the character shapes out considering Pratt's normal style of character).

Young Avengers 2, Avengers Arena 5

Young Avengers 2
Gillen (w) and McKelvie w/ Norton (a) and Wilson (c)

BOY, this book has a different feel than Uncanny Avengers. I tried to tell myself I wouldn't compare the two (that's why I didn't include this review with UA) but I guess that's where I had to go. It's still not a bad thing for me to say (yes, well done, me). This is still a pretty excellent book. The tone is incredibly different and it one hundred percent should be. This is the kind of stark contrast that should overwrite every non-comic fan's feelings about comics. Just because they fall in the same medium doesn't mean they're all the same thing. They're like, you know, books. Or any other sort of media. One book is designed to be dark and ask questions about prejudices and hate and people, another is meant to examine teen people and alternate dimensions and is therefore considerably lighter. Neither book was bad. In fact, both were pretty spectacular in their own way. I feel most non-comic fans scoff at the idea of comics because they're all viewed the way they once felt; like every book is essentially the same with different characters. Of course, that's not how all old books were to the people reading them, but I know I can at least see their point in the assumption. These books couldn't be more different while also leading us to similar places.

This issue focuses mostly on Wiccan and Hulkling, then brings in Loki to aid the two. Wiccan and Hulkling, fresh off Wiccan bringing Hulkling's alternate dimension "mom" to their dimension, are startled to find that she is not at all what Hulkling remembers and has made Wiccan's parents similarly gooey (physically gooey) and dissimilar. It's a shock to the two of them, compounded by her impossible to solve physiology and the fact that, when the two Young Avengers turn to the Uncanny Avengers for help (surprise appearance that justifies my earlier comparison!), this impostor seems to have corrupted more than just their household. The UA don't assist in any way and Billy and Teddy are sent to their new "room," which resembles a blank comic panel. As Wiccan tries to figure out what to do next while trying to piece together what's just happened, Loki turns up and rescues the two, bringing them to his favorite diner to illustrate their various problems. The two well-learned young superheroes know better than to outright trust Loki and suspect he might, in fact, have something to do with this impostor so they bring him to Asgardia to make sure he has no tricks up his little sleeves. There, they're confronted by Loki's father (geez, more parents confronting their kids in unlikely manners, I think we have ourselves a THEME), the previously dead frost giant Laufey.

There are many things happening in this series. As Gillen is a master at making and tying together a story, there's absolutely no way we have all the facts to piece together what's happening just yet. There is some weird thing happening with all the adults of this world (and, for all we know, everyone in general outside of our heroes) that is reverting them to some sort of weird 1950s sensibility. It ties in very nicely with the fact that these are the YOUNG (18 year old or so) Avengers and that they are so in touch with the youth of today. So far, the way Gillen's creating the contrast between the families and kids of today and those of the idealized 1950s world is coming along really nicely. I'm excited to see where he wants to go with it and where this is leaving our three unseen members (Hawkeye, Miss America, and Noh-Varr). Very interesting book.

Avengers Arena 5
Hopeless (w) and Walker (a) and Martin (c)

Boy, this series just keeps getting better and better too. Just REALLY happy with all the Avengers-related offerings right now, from Assemble to Avengers to U and Y A to New Avengers to this. Across the board happiness from that corner, which, pretty recently, wasn't true. Like in the last few issues of this book, I didn't know much about the focus characters, this time Kid Briton and the Braddock Academy. By now, we've gotten a look into just about every group so Hopeless feels more comfortable shifting within the issue between groups. Kid Briton, apparently, is the Captain Britain of another Universe, one even more unstable than ours, where he was raised from birth to be a fighter. As a result, he has far more skills at his young age than Captain Britain had and he has the arrogance of a highly-powered teenager. For those who know a bit about Captain Britain, you already know that his powers come from his self-confidence.

This issue starts off with Kid Briton wondering how fair it is that he's nearly invincible with his powers, as opposed to everyone else and, in particular, certain members of his own group. We also see some flashbacks from the Braddock Academy where our Brian confronts young Brian to try to make him understand why his arrogance is misplaced and unhelpful. He could (and really should) be so much more but he often comes off as a bully with crazy powers. It's a great idea and we get a huge sense of his arrogance in this quick flashback. We also learn that he's cheating on his nice and compassionate and probably too kind for him girlfriend Apex (also of the Academy) with other Academy member Nara, an Atlantean. Back in Murderworld, Kid Briton bullies group members Anachronism and Bloodstone and delights in their falling from a cliff into a river (the two seem relatively safe after the fall). Nara joins in laughing and Death Locket, the little girl Deathlok the group took in during issue two (I believe), blasts Nara off the cliff herself. Apex protects Death Locket from Kid Briton's anger and reveals that she knows Brian had been cheating on her all along but that's over now. Kid Briton's "health bar" drops as his confidence wavers.

This book is both really interesting and really fun. I wonder how non-gamers view the layout of some of these things. Arcade has clearly taken a turn from pinball machines and death-bumper cars (that probably happened) towards new gaming equipment. Each participant in Murderworld has their own health bar and there are med-packs and food items hidden around Murderworld in ways that very much resemble video games. It's another great idea in a book full of them. The health bar is also a very straightforward way to keep the audience up to date and to show subtle changes that might not have the same impact otherwise (i.e. Kid Briton's confidence falling hurts his health, even though nothing physical has happened to him, because his powers are now downgraded). It's unique to Marvel, for sure, and I might say it's unique to most comics in general. I have to say again, though, that this has been a really fun series so far with a lot of punch to it. In total, between this, Young Avengers and, earlier, Uncanny Avengers, I'm not sure I've had a day of reviews that were this firmly in the "buy this book" category. Nothing makes me more pleased than that.

Uncanny Avengers 4

Uncanny Avengers 4
Remender (w) and Cassaday (a) and Martin w/ Molinar (c)

I'm pretty sure I started my last review saying something along the lines of "Wow." There's no reason not to do that here too. This book was incredible. There's a major story going on and there are major threats around, but it didn't stop Remender from loading this with character and with small moments. It's a really gorgeous issue (both in writing and in art/colors) and, unless you have a real aversion to captions or a bit of bloodshed, you should read it. I said yesterday that part of why I was looking forward to this book was the haunting last images from last issue. That's no less true and that feeling was certainly well met. The book starts off right where the last one left off; there's crazy carnage all around New York as homo sapiens have attacked new mutants in the streets of the city under the mind-control powers of Charles Xavier as wielded by the Red Skull. Wolverine has fallen and Scarlet Witch and Havok are trying to shut a practically possessed Thor down to get to Skull. Captain America, meanwhile, is fighting his own battle against Skull's powers, trying to keep Skull's hate out of his mind. It's exciting and fascinating on every front. Scarlet Witch needs a tremendous amount of power to outlast Thor, which she eventually musters with the help of Havok to keep Thor in check while she charges. She ends up tapping directly into her chaos energies and unleashing a massive attack on the Asgardian that launches him out of the fight for enough time to allow Havok to get to Skull. It also takes her out of the fight for the remainder, as she needs rest to recover. Skull, meanwhile, is busy trying to convert Captain America to his side, playing on Cap's own insecurities about the country. With his psychic powers, Skull can see the frustrations Steve has in the America that is compared to the America that could be. It's a really revealing few pages (and only gives me more faith in Remender on the Captain America series itself) that explain perfectly what I've complained about on here before, most recently in my post on comic-based video games. Cap isn't a shill for America, blindly echoing patriotic sentiments. He has real opinions on the country and how great it could be but he knows it's not there and there's a chance it won't ever be there. His responsibility is to always fight to try to get it to that point. Skull, though, latches on to his problems and fears about America and tries to promise him real change in the way he'd run things. Cap, with the help of Rogue and Havok, keeps Skull from fully planting any idea in his head and beats Skull down with the shield. Skull manages to escape with one of his S-Men, but the spell is broken. Thor comes down from orbit restored and Wolverine's healing factor (previously blocked by a different S-Man, kicks back in, allowing him to slowly recover.

I usually try not to spend too much time on recap because a.) I don't want to give away the whole issue and b.) I try not to write five pages per review. This comic forces my hand because I think it's so near perfect. There's lots of dialogue and many captions from an omniscient narrator, as has been true so far in this series, but that never slows the book down, like it can in other comics. Also, every part of this book develops a character or shows off this team. Just in naturally recapping, I found myself painting a picture of how this team works together instinctively. It's really impressive, given that so many teams these days feel like they're cut and pasted together and everyone has their distinct roles. Here, every team member does whatever they can to try to ultimately stop Skull, which is how it should be. The fight FEELS real for a fight involving superheroes and villains. Skull's attempt to brainwash Cap not only shows off Cap's feelings about America (perfectly captured, I think, though obviously with a more Red Skull hatred bent than really shows up in Cap's thoughts), it lays out what Skull wants to do. Yes, it's likely inaccurate because he's simply trying to get Cap on his side, but it's an argument that you can picture Steve having trouble turning down (when he's under some amount of mind-control, obviously). It also wonderfully references some X-Men history, with Skull describing a future with mutants on the run that directly harkens back to Days of Future Past with the famous "slain/apprehended" wanted mutants wall. Remender ties in MORE X-Men history later, as he hints towards a future with Red Skull acting as Onslaught, whose identity is tied with that of Professor Xavier.

This book is making a real pull for Avengers and mutants to work together. These kinds of things tend to just focus on the Avengers or bring in the Avengers and mutants working together but don't deal with the fact that they ARE Avengers and mutants working together. Remender's doing a fantastic job to make everything connect and feel like AvX had real consequences and that mutants are a real piece of this world that make humans uncomfortable. It's masterfully done and we're only four issues in. This might legitimately challenge my love of New Avengers for best new Marvel book. There are also enough light moments and introspective moments and really, truly sweet moments to make this book fit a wide spectrum of emotion. If you're not reading this book, you're making a mistake. It's as simple as that. It's a pretty dark book at times because it's covering extremely dark subject matter, but if you can get past that, it's a wonderful read.



JUST A NOTE: I apologize for this being just one review. I tend to tie a couple reviews into one post, which was my intent upon starting this post. However, given how long this review was, I felt justified in leaving it as its own review. More importantly, though, I was so blown away by this issue that I actually had to take a break before I reviewed my next book (which I'm incredibly excited about) because I was worried another book wouldn't live up to the expectations this one set. READ THIS BOOK.

Comics this week!

There aren't as many books out this week as I expected, after a cursory glance, but the ones that are out make me hesitate to pick the ones I'm most excited for. Lot of good stuff makes it harder to narrow down to the top five. But, because I'm a champion, I have done so.

Hawkeye 8
I'm not going to stop choosing this book as one of my most anticipated. There are a handful of books at Marvel that I look forward to giddily every time they come out. This is right around the top of that list. There's a doubly strange effect with Hawkeye, too, where I know I'm not reading to keep up with the story. There hasn't really been an ongoing story yet, though there have been a couple arcs and there are things that are clearly built to become a story but they haven't yet developed. I'm reading this book excitedly every time it comes out because I just really enjoy this book. It's a nice little departure from the feel of most Marvel books.

Punisher War Zone 5
After duping the Avengers into following a false trail and stealing Iron Man's armor to rescue Sergeant Cole-Alves, the final book of this mini is primed for crazy action and some major character choices for Punisher and Cole-Alves, particularly. This will also mark the end of the series that tied together the Avengers world and Punisher, two corners that tend to stay pretty far apart in the Marvel Universe, so it's a little interesting just to remember that this is unlikely to happen again immediately (of course, it will happen again eventually, this is Marvel, after all).

Uncanny Avengers 4
This book has been stellar so far and the last issue haunted me long after the issue ended. It's rare that an image or issue stays with me that vividly (I remember after the first issue of Shadowland thinking constantly back to Daredevil stabbing Bullseye through the chest) and I'm simultaneously incredibly nervous and excited to see where the series goes from here. It's very dark and it feels pretty big, unlike most typical Avengers stories. Almost none of them go this dark. I'm interested to see where it goes from this spot.

X-Men Legacy 6
This book has been great so far and the cliffhanger at the end of last issue was about as good as any I've seen in recent comics. I'm not even particularly invested in the outcome (I've never really had a connection to Blindfold) beyond wanting the good guys to win. They've made me invested in the series as a whole, without needing to be terribly invested in how things end, which is a really weird feeling. It's kind of like Hawkeye in that way, but with a more dedicated story driving the series.

Young Avengers 2
Another big cliffhanger to end the previous issue sets this one up for some interesting progress moving forward. Even though we saw all the characters, nothing is really tied together yet; none of the original Young Avengers are really with each other (aside from Billy and Teddy) and the new members of the team have appeared but haven't been nearly inducted to the team. On top of that, Billy's parents have been melted to go by a crazy version of Teddy's mother from another dimension (good work Billy). Lots to go on here. Plus Gillen and McKelvie.

Good week, everybody. Good week.

Comic book based video games

I'll be honest, this is a very spur of the moment idea for a post. I'm not one hundred percent sure of what I'm going to say. Let's find out TOGETHER.


I have plenty to say about comic books. I think I've made that abundantly clear over the last two months (just like last month, I'll take another quick moment just to say thank you for following me, all of you who have seen this blog, and allowing me to feel like I'm doing something when I write these things). What I might not have made as clear, though I can see how you'd make the correlation, is that I also happen to have plenty to say about video games. I'm a little different on video games because I know my tastes are different than most gamers (in that I play a lot, but I spread out between sports, action, Nintendo-franchise, etc.) and I can only quantify what I find fun, not what most people would. I know comics are subjective too, but I feel at least a little more knowledgeable about writing and about comic history and things like that than I do about video games. So I can tell you that I like the Assassin's Creed series because I can deal with lots of repetitive action if it means I get to free run huge environments and dive off buildings seemingly at will. The Spider-Man 2 video game taught me that.

CHECK THAT SEGUE. What I do feel MORE confident talking about, then, are video games adapted from comic books. I have, on my Tumblr pre-blog days, a REALLY long review on the shortcomings of the 2011 game X-Men Destiny. I've also made a couple of references here and on that Tumblr to the way video games translate comic book characters into their world. My aim is to get a little deeper into that here.

"Look guys, just remember how long I've been doing this
and how much we all love America and we'll be good."

First off, let me say that I get it. Video game developers have to come from a place of "I'm developing my own story and I can't expect everyone that plays this game to know everything about the character we're working with." It's just like starting a new series. HOWEVER, and I find this a fault with video gaming anyway, the characters are usually so broken into their basest parts that they lose all semblance of personality. My biggest objection to this is with Captain America. In games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance (1 and 2) and Marvel vs. Capcom, all of Cap's dialogue seems to revolve around "I've been doing this since before you were born!" or "That's the AMERICAN way." As you can probably guess, I totally HATE that style of dialoguing. I hate it ANYWAY, for what it represents and the laziness inherent in that, but I particularly hate it with Cap because I have a thing to blame now for why I have to explain to every non-Cap fan that he's not just a patriotic schill. Of course he SOUNDS like he is if you've just played the games, but let me talk to you about his seventy years (maybe minus the '50s) of history. It just doesn't work very well.

If Spider-Man is in your game and I don't get to
webswing around New York, you've failed.

In that respect, games like Spider-Man 2 broke the mold. Spider-Man felt like Spider-Man (albeit, that game was tied to the blockbuster 2004 movie so the developers had a little more wiggle room in terms of what knowledge the player had coming in) and he played like Spider-Man. He had all the responsibility, he swung around on webs, you could time it to make him swing faster and to feel more fluid, and he would be called by random passersby to assist them, which is EXACTLY how I'd view Spider-Man's day in the comics. The Captain America video game was good about that too. Again, that was probably possible because of his big movie that the game tied into. Instead of just coming in cold, you could expect an audience would understand the character a little more. Yes there are still some force-fed patriotic lines, but at least in the context of World War II (which is when that game takes place) it fits a lot better.

Pretty much all the new Deadpool game has to do

That leads us to the newest real Marvel games that we'll see. One is a Marvel based MMO, it seems like. I have some high-ish hopes for that, just in that it's going to be written by comics pros and will feature scores of characters and not just the ones who can just be boiled down to their bare elements. My "ish" comes in the form of Bendis being one of those comics pros (I swear that guy is doing whatever it takes to get OUT of comics; he signs on to any TV thing he can, movies, games, whatever) and in that I'm not a huge MMO fan. I'm still interested to see how it works and how it runs. The other is Deadpool. I'll be honest, I find it a little hard to screw up a Deadpool game. Everything that I complain about in my recent Deadpool reviews can be thrown out the window in a game. Like I said, the game doesn't have the history of the character bogging it down so much and it can, for better or worse, focus on just making Deadpool out to be a snarky and crazy mercenary who will likely break the fourth wall. There's also the benefit of actually playing as Deadpool instead of just watching him do everything, which is fine when the series is good but is painful when the series is bad. Now, in the right hands, it should just be good.

Look, my point at the end of all this is a little barebones itself. I think it relates more to the gaming industry than to the comics industry. I think there are plenty of games out there that do fine without story. Mobile games, sports games, a lot of shooters, etc. My problem comes if you're making a game based on a character who is all about personality and story and you approach it lazily. Making Cap talk about apple pie and having Tony Stark just mention facts about his armor does not constitute making a game about them, in my opinion. Until game developers can strive to tell meaningful stories with their games, I don't see how gaming can become a relevant story-telling platform, which some creators are aiming to make it. I don't think that's a bad aim, or even a nearly impossible one. I think it's reasonable and within reach. I'd just like to see them strive a little harder for it.



As an addendum, if it's too much to ask to make Cap a little less crazy patriotic in your game, at least have scenes like this one:

This week's picks

I really need to stop prefacing these posts with a "gee whiz, but this was awful hard!" intro because it's a little worn by now. Is it hard to pick the three best comics Marvel put out this week in a totally subjective method? Yes. Most of the time. Well like, one third of the time. In that I usually have two picks or so right up at the top and need to whittle down the third. So let's start off with those two this week and see if I come up with the third one along the way.

Captain America 4

I don't think I can stress enough how much I'm enjoying this book. It has a leg-up on this kind of subjective "pick of the week" post because Cap is my favorite character, yes. I won't deny that, I'm biased. But after a huge switch from the Captain America veteran Ed Brubaker to Rick Remender there was the possibility that I wouldn't like this book as much and would write it off more easily than if Brubaker's run had just kept going. I am thrilled to report that is not the case. The look backwards into Steve's childhood tied with the present of his raising a child of (sort of) his own is a pretty delightful change. On top of that, the series is tense and rife with action and adventure and what not. I don't think Remender sacrificed any one aspect of the book to build on another; they're all there in seemingly equal parts. The art and colors are matching the tone perfectly. It's just a lovely book.

Captain Marvel 10

No surprises that this is on my list, as it keeps landing here and on my pre-game lists. The last two issues have received a boost with Filipe Andrade's art but they'd be landing here regardless. This is just a great series with a great main character and the fearlessness to add new characters to its pages. A lot of writers starting a new book would hesitate to build up a supporting cast and throw the book so deep into the Marvel Universe, but DeConnick has pushed Carol's fellow Avengers into this book in nice and easy increments while also giving Carol a few non-hero contacts to strengthen her personality. From the people she crosses every day to the people who live around her to the people she bumps into, Carol has a unique relationship with every single character she meets. That's a rare trait, especially in a comic. One of the reasons I've liked Fraction's Hawkeye so much is that he has an easy-going kind of personality with all the people outside of his world. It's similar to Captain Marvel's, except that Hawkeye doesn't have to ever switch from that personality into huge ultra-powered hero. Sure he still is a hero and does heroic things, but he can't talk to someone then fly off mid-conversation to energy blast some bad guys. I'm not saying Hawkeye's easier to write or anything like that because it has its own challenges, but for Captain Marvel to so believably transfer from that friendly conversational mode into hard-hitting action is no easy feat. Great book.

Daredevil 23

I had to go back and read this issue before choosing it. My plan was to read the few that were up for this spot (Thor, Superior Spider-Man, Avengers, Nova) but I got to Daredevil first and, by the end, there was no question. The emotional punch that this issue packed teamed with the fact that there's a real long-running story going on here made for a pretty easy choice after all (though it's always hard not to pick Thor). On top of the fact that this issue ends in a gorgeous and heart-breaking, near-wordless page about where Foggy's going from here (pictured at left), not to mention that the rest of this issue beautifully showed Matt and Foggy's friendship, the individual behind a recent string of direct attacks on Daredevil is taking new and extreme steps to challenge the man without fear. This issue shows an attempt to replicate the accident that made Matt into Daredevil, using prison inmates as subjects. There are lots of places for this series to go right now and I think pretty much any of them are going to be exciting. Also, Samnee and Rodriguez are killing it on art and colors.

Dark Avengers 187, Ultimates 21

Dark Avengers 187
Parker (w) and Edwards and Pallot (a) and Sotomayor (c)

I think I'm never going to not have fun finding everyone in this dark and twisted universe the Dark Avengers are in. Like I've said while talking about this book before, there are a lot of things about this new universe not to like, largely revolving around the fact that Manhattan is separated into different territories all controlled by jerk-versions of heroes of the 616 and it seems like Manhattan is the only city left in the world AND Captain America is dead. STILL, there's plenty to like about the situation. As I keep repeating, I love that new writers to a longstanding series get to turn the character just a little bit to show us a new part of them. In this case, Parker is able to take the characters we know and either bring out their darkest sides, corrupted by this world, or just show them in a different light. It's the benefit of playing in alternate universes and Parker clearly knows what he wants to do with it. There's a bigger story going on here, sure, about how some of these guys got this way. Not for all of them, necessarily, but Reed Richards keeps begging Ben Grimm to listen to him, that the cosmic rays are having a secondary effect on them all (except Reed because his mind is too squishy). Jury's still out on if Doc Strange is a creepy old man just because that's a part of him lying under the surface (Fraction's Defenders series touched a bit on that a couple times) and if Tony Stark has been broken by this world or if he's somehow altered. We'll see more, presumably. The joy of this issue was the street heroes emergence.

I mentioned a couple reviews ago that I was excited to eventually see Iron Fist's area, which had been hinted at. Turns out the street heroes have banded together to keep Hell's Kitchen in their control. A different version of Spider-Man (who MIGHT be Apaec himself? At least, the Apaec of the Dark Avengers, posed as Spider-Man for that team, has sensed something different about him and can communicate in weird spider language with him) has webbed the whole area up to detect intruders entering. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Shang Chi, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, and Hawkeye are all present in this area and handily take down the three Dark Avengers they can see (Scarlet Witch, Trickshot, and US Agent; Dark Spider-Man is chilling with this world's Spider-Man) without allowing them to explain themselves. Everyone in the group seems particularly affronted by US Agent, dressed in his normal costume again, as they see him as a Cap knockoff and this group is clearly all firmly in Cap's camp. Meanwhile, Skaar and Moonstone are in Thing's camp and Moonstone has been forced to fight for Thing's amusement in gladiatorial sort of battles and may or may not die at the end? The "to be continued" text seems to think she does, but I have my doubts. I still am really enjoying this book. Jeff Parker is keeping himself to the outskirts of the Marvel Universe with this book and Red She-Hulk but boy is he doing a bang-up job in both places.

Ultimates 21
Humphries (w) and Eaton, Magyar and Hennessy (a) and Milla (c)

Nick Fury wasn't a traitor! Of course, if you were reading Ultimate X-Men, you probably knew that, as long as this WAS Nick Fury, he was still a good guy. Dude helped the mutants, of COURSE he's a good guy! But anyway, everything else hit the fan this issue. Iron Patriot attacks the Hydra camp and clears a path for Falcon to get Fury and get out but Fury and Hawkeye break out before Falcon gets there. Meanwhile, SHIELD and President Cap determine that Fury wasn't the traitor but that another ex-SHIELD agent, now under the guise of Commander Crimson, was and that she has a potential WMD that she uses to level Tony and his fleet of Wasp bots and blow a crater into the ground that seals around them. After the smoke clears, everyone meets up and Fury announces that he's going to put together a small unit to infiltrate and disassemble Hydra as opposed to sending in the Ultimates and having the majority of the enemies flee. His first recruit is Nails, a girl from the Hydra camp he'd infiltrated who had shown reluctance with Crimson's methods and who Crimson would have killed if not for Fury. TURNS OUT, she's this Universe's version of Abigail Brand.

Like the situation in Dark Avengers but on a bigger scale, one of the fun things about the Ultimate Universe has always been waiting for 616 people to show up. There are a ton already there, a ton who have died, and a ton of new characters who have popped up exclusive to the 1610. Still, there are so many characters out there so it's pretty neat when a new one crops up, even if it's just Abigail Brand. They're little bones for the dedicated Marvel readers and they don't really throw anything off for people who only read Ultimate stuff, if such people exist. I thought that the Ultimate Universe stuff was a little hokey when it was first created. I understand why they did it from both a monetary and logical standpoint of "let's give readers a new universe so they don't feel so bogged down by the decades of stuff that came before modern comics." However, a lot of what happened seemed a little too...I don't really know, off, I suppose. I can't really put my finger on it. Maybe it's because I read that stuff when I was younger and I could only ever compare it to the 616 and it didn't sit as well. Maybe if I went back and re-read it, I'd be more accepting. I don't know. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I think the Ultimate Universe has really found its voice and knows the stories it wants to tell. It's separated itself enough from the 616 to effectively tell those stories and I think the whole universe is really moving in a good direction. Well done, Marvel, well done.

Deadpool 5, X-Factor 252

Deadpool 5
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Moore (a) and Staples (c)

I think I said pretty much everything I needed to say about my feelings on this title last time but it all still holds true. Let me say, too, that it wouldn't be impossible for this book to win me over. It would be impossible for the first five issues to retroactively win me over, but I'm rooting for this book to be good. Why wouldn't I? I like Deadpool as a character and I'm going to keep reading this book so I'd really prefer it be readable. But right now, I will readily say that it is the worst book Marvel is putting out at current.

I'll be honest, I don't really have a ton to add to this review. I said it all last time and everything is the same. Yes, Deadpool went off and fought different presidents. Yes, some things happened in the plot, including the death of an important character. But really, I don't care about the character because the book hasn't made me care about any of these characters. It's hard to care about characters when they're just a pile of pop culture references and insults. Every issue feels the same and I cannot really care about it. That's a tough thing when you write a Deadpool-centric comic. Deadpool is a kind of crazy character who is supposed to be openly funny and morally ambiguous and a little out of his mind. Not only is that a challenging character to write, it's a hard way to frame a story. You can't do big world-ending stories like with some characters because no one would buy it. The scale is toned down in a Deadpool book. So you have to focus on threats to Deadpool or threats that people have hired Deadpool to deal with. It's a hard line to walk with both story and character and I think Posehn and Duggan are not near that line. This is a fundamentally depressing run on the book just because, if it's done right, it's a pretty different book. Not just different from what Posehn and Duggan are putting out, different from most of Marvel. There aren't a lot of mercenary-based books, especially not featuring mercenaries who are as conflicted as Deadpool but who hide conflicts in their humor. So we're missing out on a solid book and we're given, in return, this really unfunny book that's trying so hard to be funny in the most Family Guy manner possible.

X-Factor 252
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

So the rules of the "ruler of hell" contest are a little more complicated than anyone predicted. Tier is able to actually "kill" the hell-gods (which doesn't really kill them, just seemingly takes them out of the competition). This new twist puts the other hell-gods on edge after Tier disembowels Pluto. Mephisto turns on the other hell-gods, attacking them before abruptly leaving for his hell. Meanwhile, the fight against Pluto before Tier joined in left X-Factor wounded and disoriented. Jamie and Jezebel are missing, Shatterstar's arms are broken, and everyone else has had their pride a little bit on the low side. After they watch Tier single-handedly destroy Pluto, they try to regroup and Shatterstar teleports them out of there. Madrox is still missing and only his new wife Layla seems to care a whole bunch in the immediate aftermath of the battle. The issue ends with Mephisto waking Jezebel back in their hell and announcing that, while he's gone, she has a new babysitter, a demon-headed Madrox.

I'll be honest, I've no idea where this is heading but BOY do I hope Madrox comes out okay. I don't know if you guys realize this, but I like Madrox. He's a good dude. There are a couple of important plot points in this issue, most of which are summarized above. It does still feel like this was more of a stepping stone issue than a huge reveal kind of issue. We know more about the rules of the competition but we have no real progress to the end. Still, the book is paced well and it's easy to read. I wonder how many issues David had in the bank before his stroke (which it sounds like he's recovering positively from, but was still a stroke, so I imagine he'll need a good deal of time to recover) and if this run will be interrupted at all or if David will present notes to another writer or something along those lines. I also don't know if David writes full-script or Marvel method. If he writes Marvel method, he could potentially give the script outlines to Kirk and then help to tag it all together later. Of course, I'm speculating these things with practically no information on how is recovery is going and how much he'll need to do. Likely he'll need time fully off to recoup one way or another, I'd just wonder how he'd take that. This has been his book for a very long time and David is an old comics pro (fun fact, if you're interested in writing comics, his book on the subject is very interesting and well done. It's also nice if you're just interested in comics and how they're built) so I'd wonder if he'd pass the buck on to someone else while he recovered, at least in the middle of an important arc. And of course, THIS speculation comes with absolutely no personal knowledge of Peter David. Oh well. All interesting questions, at least to me. Remember, you can learn more about his stroke and recovery and what you can do to help, if so inclined, here.

Savage Wolverine 2, Wolverine MAX 4

Savage Wolverine 2
Cho (w and a) and Keith (c)

Still not sold. That's what this is going to come down to, so there's my prediction for the end of this review. My issues from last week are at least somewhat diminished, largely regarding Shanna and her often exposed bits. Don't get me wrong, they're still pretty exposed. And yes, that's Shanna's outfit and Kazar is just as exposed, sure. Though, I'd argue with Kazar, his secret parts (the totally adult way I refer to genitals) aren't bulging out, as Shanna's breasts are. The reason I'm saying, then, that they're somewhat diminished is that Cho revealed that Shanna IS, in fact, wearing a leopard-print bikini bottom  underneath her loin cloth. So that's a step up and, quite frankly after last issue, we were at kind of a low bar. However, the story itself wasn't as prominent here as it was in issue one, which is worrying. They reiterated the fact, a lot, that they need to get off the island and that they need to damage a machine and that there are dinosaurs in the Savage Land. If I had to summarize this issue, I'd say "Wolverine and Shanna fight dinosaurs, talk about needing to get off the island, fight more dinosaurs, and bicker. And Amadeus Cho shows up and allows the natives to think he's a god."

In truth, the Amadeus Cho stuff was the most interesting of this issue. It's worth wondering where he's been since he and Hercules split up after, I think, the Chaos War, and after his very small part in, I want to say, Fear Itself. He's at least typically a pretty intriguing character, if just because unbelievably intelligent people are usually easy to watch. So he shows up, with a new AI named Calvin and with powers tied to that AI. It's like Iron Man's Jarvis AI in the movies and what not. Though the machine on the island preventing Shanna and Wolverine's escape is impairing his own abilities, Cho is still able to protect himself with an AI-based exoskeleton, translate with his AI-based universal translator, and hover a bit with his AI-based...hover-abilities, I guess? He does all of this as he's attacked by some natives and they quickly bow to him. If I'm sounding vague about this new AI, it's because we only know what we're given right now. Presumably we'll hear a backstory about it at some point or something along those lines because I believe it's new tech for Cho.

Unfortunately, the fact that Cho is the most interesting part to me of this issue doesn't really bode well for a book called "Savage Wolverine." I just don't get it, I think. When I didn't realize there was a new Wolverine book coming out with Marvel NOW!, Savage Wolverine made some amount of sense. Bring Wolverine back to his more antihero roots outside of things like Wolverine and the X-Men and Uncanny Avengers. But Paul Cornell and Alan Davis have a new Wolverine series coming out in March and the next review on this very page is Wolverine MAX, which has more leeway with swearing and gore and sex. We'll see how Cornell's series goes, but it does beg the question "why does Savage Wolverine need to exist?" Still not sold.

Wolverine MAX 4
Starr (w) and Boschi and Ruiz (a) and Brown (c)

I admit, I think I missed an issue or two of this series. I remember the first issue and maybe another one in between then and now but a lot of the information in this one was a first to me. However, it's also possible that's because of my predisposed sort of aversion to the MAX line or to the fact that, as an ugly American, I tend to zone out a little more when Wolverine's in Japan. It usually ties to his samurai background and I just tell myself I'll never fully understand it so my brain doesn't even bother trying. It happens. Still something interesting going on, clearly, that I'm JUST on the outskirts of. Wolverine has run across Victor Creed and Creed is trying to convince him that he's responsible for a plane crash that killed all the passengers (aside from Wolverine), including his own girlfriend Yami. Wolverine refuses to believe it but his memories are shot from the crash and he can't confirm that what Creed is saying isn't true. Neither can the audience, so we're left in a tough spot trying to figure out if Wolverine is the animal he always tries to bury or if Creed's lying, like normal.

The issue shows a series of flashbacks as Logan slowly gains memories back. He attempts to remember his deceased wife Mariko and what the cause of her death was, as well as where he might have hidden a sword she gave him (which Creed needs). Along the way, he starts to remember bits from the plane ride. Finally, just as someone sneaks up on him at Mariko's grave, he remembers that there was a decoy on the plane with a detonator who Wolverine tried to stop while Yami pressed the real detonator. It's an interesting story that goes the way a lot of Wolverine stories tend to go. Wolverine can't remember what's happening, he can't decide if he's a monster or not, and finally he realizes that he was a pawn or that he's being manipulated or that he's the good guy. The next step, likely saved for Wolverine MAX 5, is to beat up a whole lot of people. So get ready for that.

Like I said, the story's a pretty good one, if well-tread. I do appreciate that both this book and Fury MAX 9 steered a little bit clear of the MAX designation. There was extra blood and a couple extra swears, but I don't think it really stood out a whole ton. There are plenty of things like this MAX line (where this has happened before) or, for example, shows on HBO and the like that have excessive amounts of swearing or sex just because they can. It usually weakens the story. I'm not saying that these series won't eventually have elements of that, but it's nice to see that they aren't leaning on it. Still, we'll have to see how this storyline pans out before making a full-out judgment for or against it.

Nova 1, Morbius the Living Vampire 2

Nova 1
Loeb (w) and McGuinness and Vines (a) and Gracia (c)

There's a very Back to the Future vibe here. This is issue one of Nova wherein a new Nova is born. I like the conceit more than I thought I would. I like the Richard Rider Nova a fair amount and I was a little disappointed to hear that this Nova series would focus on someone new. However, instead of replacing Rider, Loeb has introduced a new form of Nova Corps. It's a little like Avengers vs. Secret Avengers in that Rider's Nova was a member of the Nova Corps with gold helmets (nicknamed the Gold Domes) and Jesse Alexander was a member of the black helmeted and cleverly named Black Novas. They seem a little more covert than the regular universe police that is Nova Corps. One of their missions, Jesse recounts to his son Sam, was to rescue Rocket Raccoon and Gamora of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Jesse was a hero. However, he's been on Earth with his family awaiting the call from the Black Novas for fifteen years, long enough to have two children and lose many jobs while he tells his stories of former greatness.

So let's get back to the Back to the Future thread. First and foremost, the disciplinarian at the school is very clearly Mr. Strickland. The way he looks, the way he's dressed, the fact that he instantly compares Sam to his father (who, unlike BTTF, works at the school as a janitor). Then there's the fact that Sam is a bit of a loner kind of kid who has a love interest and skateboards everywhere while also disparaging his weak father. By the end of the issue, Sam, who doesn't believe his father's stories any more, is approached by Rocket Raccoon and Gamora who have news to deliver about Jesse, who has gone missing along with his Nova helmet. Sam will have to step up and likely fix the past before he can go home. Hopefully he has to make sure Jesse and his wife (who I'm pretty sure went unnamed but we can probably assume is named Lorraine) make it to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance so they can kiss and get married and have three kids and name one of them Marty and take it easy on him when he accidentally sets the rug on fire when he's eight.

Look. I love Back to the Future. Any comparisons I can draw between your comic and that movie are only going to be to your benefit. That aside (mostly), this book was better than I expected it to be after I learned about the barebones premise. Like I said at the beginning of this week, this is a solid creative team and I have an amount of trust in them to not disappoint me. I'm glad this series started on a high note because I did, regardless, come in with a bit of skepticism. Back to the Future did not hurt. OH MY GOD, CAN ROCKET RACCOON BE DOC BROWN PLEASE?

I don't typically double dip on cover art, but BOY Skottie Young sure is great.

Morbius the Living Vampire 2
Keatinge (w) and Elson (a) and Fabela (c)

I think this issue might have been a step in the right direction. Issue one left me a little cynical about the series as a whole, largely because it was the familiar story of an antihero trying to prove himself a hero and I didn't particularly warm to the style of it. This issue pulls back some of the quirky things Keatinge had done in the first issue, which I think helped, and gives a little bigger conflict to Morbius. Yes he still has the Hulk idea of "I just want to be left alone," but less so. Here he happily accepts the friendship of a fellow homeless person and quickly attaches himself to her. The story then revolves around a couple run-ins he had with locals of Brownsville, including the gang leader from last issue and a mother who worriedly kept herself and her son away from that gang leader (apparently her brother-in-law). Now Morbius, attached to new friend Becky who HAPPENS to be the babysitter of the son, gets involved again with Noah's gang.

The interesting part doesn't come from the quick friendship, necessarily, nor the need to hero about as Noah essentially kidnaps the little boy Henry. Morbius doesn't like Noah and is one of a very limited few in the town who isn't scared of Noah and his gang, but we never get the sense that he's involved in this because he's so heroic. There are times where he's stepped up to Noah because it was the right thing to do, but it largely seems like he would just prefer to keep to himself and lay low while trying to figure out how to get back to Horizon Labs to figure out how to de-vampire himself. Of course, if the book was all about the exploits of a low-laying kind-of vampire, it would probably not sell as well as Marvel would like, so instead he pretty rapidly gets embroiled in the tensions of the town. That's kind of interesting, but still not really the interesting part. The interesting part is that Morbius himself doesn't really know which way to go. He knows that he's never wanted to be vampiric and that his goal is to be less of a vampire. He also knows, as he points out to us a few times, that the world is not a great place. However, by the end of the issue, his concern isn't, like with most heroes, being better than the worst parts of the world at large, but maybe being worse. Instead of trying to rise above the situation with Noah, he dives below it and attacks Noah vampirely (new word, called it). It's the thirst for blood and the fear of the vampire he has all coming to the forefront in an attempt to defeat a bigger evil. Maybe he's not a good guy, he wonders. Maybe he doesn't have to be. Maybe the key to his survival in this world isn't keeping his head down and trying to do right by good people, maybe it's sticking his head up and trying to do wrong by bad people. Kind of a Punisher mentality but without the straightforwardness. Punisher never thinks he's wrong. Morbius might. We'll see how this series progresses, but this issue definitely helped the series on its way.

Indestructible Hulk 4, Thor: God of Thunder 5

Indestructible Hulk 4
Waid (w) and Yu and Alanguilan (a) and Gho (c)

There is always a challenge involved in crafting a Hulk series. You would think, given that he's one of Marvel's oldest and most profitable characters, it wouldn't be so tough. I mean, all comics are tough to craft (in theory), but wouldn't Hulk just fit into that definition? As hard as any other? No, not really. It's a similar problem to Thor's (HEY, LOOK WHAT REVIEW HULK IS TEAMED UP WITH THIS WEEK!) in that, as their titles would imply, they are not standard superheroes. One is indestructible, one is a god. It makes finding enemies a little tougher. It also means you don't have the old standby of showing heroism by making one of them stop a mugger or something occasionally. Neither one is particularly useful on that end. Well, they would be, but they'd also likely kill the mugger (even if on accident) and Hulk might kill anyone else nearby. Of course, that's one of their big differences. Thor can always think (how well depends on the interpretation and on who would answer) whereas Hulk is often mindless. Sometimes he gains intelligence, sometimes he's Banner as Hulk, sometimes the Hulk has a more brash and less human personality but an understanding one nonetheless. It all varies. And that's where Hulk's complicated. Not only do you have to find villains that threaten him (which end up being impossible villains for anyone else), you have to understand the Hulk you're trying to write. This is, for me, why this series has so much potential.

Waid isn't shy about how he wants to show Banner. He also isn't shy about who he wants Hulk fighting. Whether or not Hulk has any level of intelligence...it's a little too early to tell, I think. So far, we're leaning no but there's certainly chance for that to shift. But Banner is the driving force right now, which is almost always untrue about Hulk books. I mean, they're titled "Hulk" in some manner or another. We don't read "Bruce Banner" in the same way we don't read "Tony Stark" or "Steve Rogers (excluding the 'Steve Rogers: Super Soldier' mini)." There are some exceptions but they're very rare. So for the alter-ego of the superhero to drive the book, especially an alter-ego who is typically so separated from his other persona (for example, Tony Stark IS Iron Man. Peter Parker IS Spider-Man, usually) to drive the book, we know the sort of change Waid is going for. Tie that to the fact that, in the last two issues of the four total issues, Hulk has been submerged in lava and pulled to the deepest depths of the sea and we can start to piece together the potential of this book. And it's shaping into a pretty fine book. If Waid can keep characterizing Banner as strongly as he is, there's no reason this formula can't work. It's just one that hasn't really been done before. It's taking an old character with a longstanding history and pointing the camera at a different angle, just like I've talked about with Remender's Captain America. And it's one of the many reasons comics are great.

Thor: God of Thunder 5
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c)

While one of Hulk's motivations for punching stuff really hard is simply to be left alone or to just punch stuff really hard, Thor has a bit more humanity to him and a lot of his reasons are more driven by the people and gods he cares about. Sure there are times where he fights for glory or for fun; he's a warrior of Asgard, that's kind of what they do. More than Hulk, though, there are weights to Thor's stories that involve actively trying to save people or institutions he's tied to. Hulk doesn't have a ton of people nor institutions he's tied to, so it comes up a little less frequently. Characters like Thor and Hulk, who have seemingly boundless strength and might be invincible, tend to get into these kinds of situations. It's, I think, best exemplified by this comic. How do you threaten someone who might not ever feel truly threatened? Attack the things they don't have control over. Other people, society, whatever else.

This series so far has focused on Gorr, the god-killer. Right there we know that, while Thor is certainly in danger of running afoul of a possible "god-killer" (you know, being a god and all), the threat is perhaps greater to the institution that is godhood. It's an angle of Thor we don't see too often, his fraternity with other gods. Obviously his connection to other Asgardian gods is well-established, but writer Jason Aaron creates many other gods to lord over many other peoples. Thor might not know all of them but he certainly knows some and he has common ground with all. Whether or not he cares about them directly, he cares about them for what they are. Sure he'd care if Gorr was a people-killer but a.) he might not be as intimidating, and b.) everyone probably just looks like a people-killer to Thor. Gorr is different and his hunt has taken the life of gods close to Thor. More than that, Aaron has framed this story in three main parts, viewing a young and brash Thor captured and tortured by Gorr in their first encounter, a present day Thor who is finding god corpses and aims to hunt down the god-killer after centuries ignoring the threat (not a little out of fear), and a future Thor who is the last god Gorr has to kill. Now, through the magic of comic books, present and future Thor are both in the future and aiming to end Gorr's dominion. It's a great framing device because, not only does it establish Thor's well-known character arc (young, arrogant warrior to hardened, respectable, solemn Avenger to the eventual wise, likely noble king of Asgard), it explains this threat through time and also makes Thor a little more culpable in the creation of Gorr. This was already a great book before this issue, but this issue goes out of its way to begin to explain Gorr's motivations and his strengthened tie to Thor. Next issue will likely provide more of that, as it's going to deal with his origin or, as the back of the book calls it, the Gorrigin. Fantastic. That alone would make me recommend this book. Good thing it's worth reading otherwise.

Superior Spider-Man 4, Daredevil 23, Alpha Big Time 1

Superior Spider-Man 4
Slott (w) and Camuncoli and Dell (a) and Delgado (c)

Dan Slott is wasting no time getting the new Spider-Man familiar with his own history. After a couple of small time Spidey villains to kick off the series, last issue brought back the Vulture and this issue invokes recent villain Massacre and the Green Goblin. Recently, a lot of solo hero books are steering clear of their key villains, for one reason or another. Daredevil hasn't crossed Kingpin nor resurrected Bullseye. Hawkeye doesn't really have a huge villain (maybe Trickshot, who I think is upcoming, and maybe Crossfire? I don't know, he doesn't really get his own villains because his solo books don't tend to work out). Captain Marvel will be bringing in an old villain as a new arch soon, according to DeConnick. Cap is facing off against Zola, who is a kind of key villain, but I'd still rank him under Red Skull and Zemo, probably. But here, the new Spider-Man is really running the gamut. Of course, part of that is that Spider-Man's rogues gallery is a little more expansive than probably anyone else in Marvel and, like Batman, his best villains tend to shadow him in some way or they're closely related to Peter Parker. That doesn't totally affect Doc Ock in Peter's body, but, as one of Peter's biggest villains himself, he still typically has some connection to his enemies. Massacre, then, presents an interesting foil. Sociopathic, not entirely unlike Doc Ock, but with a bigger thirst for wanton destruction and murder and less of a need for intelligence. So there's plenty for Slott to play with.

On top of bringing up every villain he can pull together, Slott is weaving a compelling tale of what Doc Ock does in Peter's body to Peter's social life. It's hard to say for sure if there's any real care in his actions, if he really wants to stay close to Aunt May or get closer to Mary Jane, or if it's some kind of game for him, a game where he masters Peter's life in a way Peter never could. I personally lean towards the latter, but I think an argument could be made (slightly) in either direction. Doc isn't complete sociopath. He has real emotions and presumably could feel real love. However, his need to crush Peter Parker in every conceivable way kind of leads me to believe that one of those ways would even be posthumously (OR SO HE THINKS). It's a good question and it's something that will likely have to come up eventually, as he's forced to choose where his priorities lie. It sets us up for plenty of interesting situations as this series progresses. Between that and the stark differences in how Doc Spidey and the true Spider-Man operate, this book has manuevered itself into a good little position to ask some questions to Spider-Man readers. I think one of the ultimate questions we'll end up asking ourselves (depending on how the next couple issues/arcs develop, is who is the better Spider-Man? Is it worth having a Spider-Man who prevents more crime if he's also a jerk and has less of the responsibility that made Spidey so great? Or is it worth allowing a little more crime to make more morally sound decisions?

Daredevil 23
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and Rodriguez (c)

Waid's run of Daredevil has been a very well-acclaimed run, garnering notice from all corners of the comic industry. It's been pretty tight, keeping arcs short and showing glimpses of bigger things. Glimpses of Matt's relationships, glimpses of the cracks in his newfound armor, glimpses of villains on the horizon, and glimpses of the darker, grittier Daredevil he's tried to leave behind. What's so interesting about this issue, tied to the last few, is that we're watching as a story expands in a couple directions. As I said, it's been a relatively tight book, keeping its cards pretty close and giving us these peeks to keep us wondering. Now the book is widening bit by bit. We're realizing an overarching scheme by some unseen villain, we're watching as Matt's relationships start to falter as his past lurks closer, and we're...well, we're seeing Foggy get cancer. There's not really a broad stroke there, it's awfully specific and terribly depressing. Either Brubaker or Bendis in their runs fake-killed Foggy in a prison stabbing as he visited Matt. Of course, he recovered from that simply because it was a fake-killing and not a for-real-killing. It was only ever meant to send him off the radar (SENSE. GET IT? BECAUSE DAREDEVIL HAS A RADAR SENSE. pfft, whatever, you just don't understand science). But cancer seems an awful lot harder to fake.

One of the things I've always appreciated about Daredevil comics, and that has followed this run well, is that the relationship between Foggy and Matt always seemed real. They were always real friends. That meant a lot of sacrifice (usually on Foggy's part), but also a lot of real love. That makes this harder than it would seem in probably most other superhero comics. It also leads to an interesting shift in priorities. Right now, Matt is going through his seemingly biggest problem since Shadowland and he's trying to work pieces together. However, Matt's priorities tend to be with Foggy (eventually). So how does Matt react here? Does he work on both? Do he and Foggy work out some sort of arrangement? Does he try to settle his business faster to, in theory, give himself more time with Foggy? For that matter, what kind of timeline does Foggy have? What kind of cancer is it? Are we talking treatable? Are we in the early stages? Plenty of questions here. Add to that the fact that this is a superhero comic called "Daredevil" wherein we will likely learn more about the secret attacker behind all of these recent trials for our hero and we've got ourselves a quickly growing story, blossoming from a new, more lighthearted look at the character while we all waited for him to break. Waid is playing a game with Daredevil and he's doing it masterfully. It's worth checking in on him if you're a comic fan in general. It also doesn't hurt that the art in this series has been outstanding, from people like Paolo Rivera straight on through to Chris Samnee. Great series so far.

Alpha Big Time 1
Fialkov (w) and Plati (a)

I expected worse from this series. I don't know what exactly I expected, but I expected worse than this. Alpha, when he was first introduced in the late stage of Amazing Spider-Man, was pretty annoying and took a lot out of me. He's an interesting idea, though. Peter Parker creates a teenage hero on accident, much like his own creation was an accident. However, Alpha (Andy Maguire) has far more power than Spidey ever had and his is growing. He has potentially limitless power once it all expands. And he's a teenager. In ASM, he was focused on the publicity of being a superhero and the cool-factor. It led to obvious mistakes, even with Spider-Man mentoring himself. Eventually, his recklessness caused people to die, so Peter worked out a way to negate the "Parker Particles" within him that slowed his growth to a crawl. Doc Ock Spidey, of course, wants to overwrite that and try again. This goes back to the whole "needs to be better than Peter in every way" bit I mentioned up above.

So Alpha, now understanding a little more what his powers can cause, accepts about ten percent of his power back and goes out superheroing. We've seen his life without the powers and, as it did before he got powers, it's pretty awful. The difference is that now, everyone knows he used to be a superhero and people give him no end of crap for it. Where his life had been dull and he'd gone unnoticed before his newfound powers, after he lost the powers he simply became a target for insults. This issue starts off by showing us some of that, teamed with both the resentment at Peter Parker for taking away his powers and being a bad mentor and also the understanding of why Peter had to take the powers away. It leaves us with an interesting feeling about where Alpha stands. He does seem to be a good kid, if still brash. He does also seem to have real regret about what happened his first time around. He still wants to be a superhero but he understands a little more what that really means. He's still a high schooler, he's still got some issues with Peter and with his personal life but he is leaning good, it seems. Regardless, just the questions about his motivations and how much heroing he can actually do without making mistakes and/or killing someone (as this issue ends, more or less) make this book an intriguing option going forward. We'll see how the rest of the series plays out but issue one definitely wasn't a bad start for this new five issue mini. Hopefully it can sustain. I think five issues will be a pretty solid gauge of the character going forward, or will at least give enough time to make Maguire irrelevant again.