This week's picks!

I say this a lot but this was a pretty hard week to pick. Here's the thing: there weren't any huge standouts this week. There was no book that I read this week that I put down and thought "that book's one of the best this week. It doesn't matter what else I read, this makes the top three." That doesn't mean books weren't good; in fact, that's rather the problem. Plenty of books were good, but around the same level of good. So I decided to take one from three different areas this week.

Young Avengers

I didn't really know I was going to pick this over Uncanny Avengers for the Avengers area until I just wrote it down. It was a big toss-up. I liked a lot of what happened in Uncanny and I like some of the nods towards tradition that I saw. However, Young Avengers steals it with a great, fun feel and phenomenal art. It's tough for anyone to compete with Jamie McKelvie's art when I'm the one making the decision. We still have yet to see the whole team converge with one another, but we have 4/6 present right now and we saw the other two in the first issue and have heard from Kate texting Billy in the last couple. Really fun issue with a lot of interesting developments, especially with Loki admittedly playing the Tyrion Lannister role and presenting a case why he should be given Billy's reality-twisting powers for a few minutes. It's not easy (nor probably wise) to trust him but do the Young Avengers have a choice?




X-Men Legacy 8

My intent all along had been to pick Astonishing X-Men over Legacy to represent the X-corner of the Universe. I found Astonishing X-Men, the second chapter of the X-Termination event, to be pretty exciting, even if it was a little crowded. As someone who should know everyone in that book, I came in with something of an advantage, but still found myself unsure of everyone's motivation. Still, the book was a very fast read and certainly enjoyable. It's set itself up for a solid event. However, at the end of the day, X-Men Legacy continues to be the book I find myself talking about and thinking about most. I really like the idea of Santi Sardina's power and I think it's a perfect example of the way David wants to change the world. Throwing in the drama between the monster in David's head and the Charles Xavier there just made the book that much more exciting. I love a lot of what this book is doing and I find myself consistently pleased with it. I'm excited to see where the book plans on going; will David continue to find himself in little once-off scenarios or will the arc that's dying to be told bubble up to the surface soon? We'll have to wait and see.

Fantastic Four 5AU

Unlike X-Termination, I'm not totally sold on the Age of Ultron event. Obviously I have some personal biases here (considering the writer for the event and the characters he's chosen to kill in the event of late) but the truth is I'm having some trouble understanding the weight of an event like this. I like big, grand stories as much as the next person but this one seems like it's a little too grand, especially since there's a whole universe of other things happening. Don't get me wrong, I'd be infinitely more upset by this event if every book had to take a couple issues out to tie-in, but that does have a certain appeal. Now it just feels weird and misplaced. However, the tie-in Fantastic Four issue gave the event more weight than I think even the main book could. Suddenly it feels like it's set in the regular Marvel Universe. Suddenly it feels like there are real consequences. Suddenly it feels like people are affected by this event. Fraction did a great job to show the team off as the family they are. The losses in the eyes of the children are an easy way to understand how meaningful this event would be in this universe even if, as readers, we're jaded by the fifteen events we seem to get per year. Great tie-in issue that really went out of its way to stabilize the event some.

Deadpool Killustrated 3, Morbius the Living Vampire 3

Deadpool Killustrated 3
Bunn (w) and Lolli and Parsons (a) and Gandini (c)

I continue to like this story more than I've liked many other weird, dystopic Marvel worlds (ie Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Marvel Universe vs. the Avengers, etc.). In this issue, Deadpool kills Ebenezer Scrooge, Igor and Doctor Frankenstein, Mowgli and Bagheera, the little mermaid, and Captains Nemo and Ahab. Off-panel, he's also attacked the island of Dr. Moreau, the inhabitants of Lilliput, and Caesar and his government. On top of all that, he's added some backup in the form of Frankenstein's monster (now powered by part of Deadpool's brain, seemingly giving his alternate personality a new and very strong body to inhabit). It's another solid issue where we see a couple more hero-inspirations (Mowgli and Bagheera are Ka-Zar and Zabu, Captain Nemo is Magneto, Dr. Frankenstein is the Jackal and, to Deadpool's delight, the little mermaid is Namor) and we hear a little more about Deadpool's quest. However, it doesn't do a whole lot more than that. It was another fun look into the roots of Marvel characters, something we've seen for the last couple issues. With one issue left, I would have expected more to happen, particularly more with Sherlock Holmes' newly developed anti-Deadpool team. They appear once, investigating the off-panel Deadpool killings and deducing that he has the monster's assistance now (they don't know it's the monster, but Sherlock decides that Deadpool's second personality now has a body). Still, not a ton more to say about this issue that I haven't said in my previous reviews. Still a pretty good idea, if just to show again that fiction is important. The last issue will really define this series. Where does it go from here? Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe ended with Deadpool sneaking up on the creative team responsible for the book. Will this series end in a similarly tongue-in-cheek manner? Will Deadpool get some resolution? Will Deadpool himself be killed, ending this series of books? We have one more issue to find out.

Morbius the Living Vampire 3
Keatinge (w) and Elson (a) and Fabela (c)

Noah lays dying after Morbius ripped out his throat. His gang attacks Morbius as Henry and Becky rush out of there and eventually Noah's girlfriend shoots Morbius in the neck. When Morbius awakens, still having trouble pushing his blood craving down, he's tied up with chains and hanging upside down, being questioned by Noah's girlfriend. He claims he can save Noah but he needs to set to work on it immediately. She allows him to go assist their "field medic," a one-armed, hardly trained guy named Vasquez. Vasquez seems like a decent guy but it soon doesn't matter as Noah snaps to attention and instinctively kills Vasquez before Morbius restrains him again, saying that he needs to lay down or else he won't survive. It's possible that, while throwing Noah back down on the operating table, Morbius killed Noah again. Whoops. Meanwhile, Becky and Henry hide out in her abandoned theater and in a diner while one of Noah's men watches them, ready to strike if Noah's girlfriend gives the order.
The driving force in this issue is Morbius' growing bloodlust, which he constantly remarks on and also tries to stifle. I'll be honest, I wasn't totally sold on this book when it was announced. I've never looked at Morbius before and thought "geez, that's a guy whose story we need told." Is that just me? I don't know. Maybe Marvel is (late) trying to cash in on the vampire craze. Or maybe Morbius is going to make an appearance in the next Spider-Man movie and they're trying to lay bricks early. Or maybe there really is a demand for Morbius stories that I've been set apart from. Maybe this story is set to improve (in case I didn't let on enough here, I am not blown away by anything that's happened so far) and it was the description of the story that encouraged Marvel to take a chance on the book (though that's usually more likely to happen in the case of a limited series, not an ongoing). I don't know. I'm not in Marvel's head or their offices (inexplicably). So your guess is as good as mine and my guess is that this series could end up short-lived if it doesn't start to make significant moves on this character. The move from New York City into Brownsville is an interesting move and puts another anti-hero in a suspect place, which is always kind of a winning idea. Hopefully the book can get the audience to invest a little deeper soon.

Gambit 10, Thunderbolts 7, Fury MAX 10

Gambit 10
Asmus (w) and C. Mann w/ Kirk and S. Mann and Leisten (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Gambit and Fence make a plan with Joelle to get to the secret HYDRA base that, according to information from an ex-HYDRA officer, was used by Baron Von Strucker to defeat death. Joelle's stated plan is to find whatever serum or formula HYDRA came up with and use it on her dying daughter. Gambit and Joelle travel to the base, a skull-shaped snow base in Canada, and use the access codes the ex-HYDRA officer gave them (or rather, the ones Gambit stole when he got involved at the villain club last issue). The deeper they go into the base, they begin to realize that their HYDRA officer wasn't exactly the highest-ranking, so his codes stop working at a certain point and leave Gambit and Joelle fighting their way through horrible defensive abominations. They make their way to the serum, take it, and manage to escape by snowmobile. After camping out in the snow together overnight, Gambit and Joelle wake up to find Rogue standing over them. Meanwhile, Tombstone has tracked down Fence and demanded the whereabouts of Joelle and Gambit. Fence tries, to his credit, to get Tombstone to back off, citing Joelle's daughter. Tombstone reveals that Joelle is not what she claims to be.
This was a fun issue, sure, with all the staples of Gambit books so far. There's a bit of repetition throughout that gets a little stale (Gambit constantly reminds everyone that he's been in situations like this before, and he and Joelle constantly affirm that they're trusting each other in this) but overall the book's enjoyable enough. Tombstone seems intent on bringing us somewhere in this Joelle storyline, which is something of a relief. I'm interested to see how the introduction of Rogue to this story will play out. Frankly there's not much else to say about the issue. It reads like every other issue of Gambit so far, which is neither a bad thing nor a particularly ringing endorsement. The book has been fun so far but ten issues that feel like they're spinning their wheels a bit makes you worry about the longevity of a title like this. I'm on its side, though, for now. It's a fun book with an interesting main character, though Gambit books don't have a history of lasting. We'll see how the next few issues shape up.

Thunderbolts 7
Way (w) and Noto (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The key to this book, at least in my mind, is the team itself. When the first issue came out, I absolutely picked it up because of the team presented on the cover. I was very interested in this black-and-red team because it was so clearly not a team. Everyone in the book is used to working by him or herself primarily (with the possible exception of Flash, but Venom tends not to get along with people). The first arc was interesting because it took that team and physically divided them while creating emotional divides between them. We left the first arc with no one trusting team leader Red Hulk, Deadpool angry with Punisher for his fling with Elektra, Punisher angry at Red Hulk for bringing Leader on to the team, and Venom particularly angry with their time in Kata Jaya. Issue seven takes a well-planned turn by putting the team in the same place again and making that place a submarine. Is there still a story happening here? Sure. But I don't really care about it, not yet anyway. Deadpool has an uncomfortable exchange with Elektra, which leads to Deadpool assuming her relationship with Punisher has continued though it hasn't (or at least, not by way of an actual relationship). As a result, Deadpool has spent time in the not-Danger Room (pretty much just a Danger Room) killing Punisher 300 times, according to Red Hulk. Meanwhile, Red Hulk has to deal with a mutiny as the rest of the team gets sick of his lies and one another. He handles it easily enough and explains the coming plot; the transport that left Kata Jaya just before them was carrying the materials, Ross explains, for a Gamma bomb. He has Leader looking over the schematics in the hopes that he'll be able to prove or disprove his theory. This is all going on with the backdrop of a CIA issue wherein a terrorist cell they didn't know existed seems to have blown itself up or, as they privately suspect, was dismantled by something (there's a great appearance by the Uncanny Avengers as the CIA tries to figure out who was responsible. "Look at what I'm carrying...does it look like a broom to you?" Captain America says, holding his shield. "Clean up your own mess." He then returns to fighting AIM, riding giant, rocket-propelled gorillas. THAT'S the story I want to read). Leader bursts in to Ross' briefing saying that it's not a bomb they're building; it's a battery. Enter gamma-powered robotic suits as the upcoming villains.
I like the way this book has been structured, especially as the pieces start to come together on the heels of the first arc. I think, looking back, that I got a little dismayed by how little the team, which had interested me in the book in the first place, was interacting with one another. Have faith though, says Daniel Way. We simply went through all of that to make it more important for the team to be trapped in a submarine together. Good issue and the foundations are all there for a good book. I have to say, too, I was a big fan of the Noto art over the Dillon art. I could stand to look at the characters' faces.

Fury MAX 10
Ennis (w) and Parlov (a) and Loughridge (c)

I like the Fury MAX book because it feels like an indie comic with the backdrop of a "normal" Marvel world. It's nice to occasionally pull back from the capes of the superhero world and read a book about a mostly normal (though pretty darn crafty) guy somewhere in the espionage world. I do think that there's too much swearing.
Let's step back and take a look at that line real quick, shall we? It occurs to me that I've complained about swearing in several books. I complain about excessive swearing in books where excessive swearing appears, I've complained about Bendis' fake swears in Guardians of the Galaxy, I've complained about Humphries' black-box swearing in Uncanny X-Force, etc. I'm not opposed to swears. I'm not on some campaign to remove swears from modern day society. I swear somewhat frequently myself. I don't do it in this blog so much because it's typically not necessary and usually sloppy writing. There are typically better words to use. I think it's fair to toss it into fiction occasionally because you're creating human characters and humans swear. I don't really like it when people swear non-stop in fiction because I tend not to run into people who swear that much and it takes me out of the book when you throw that many unnecessary words at me. Swears don't upset me. Bad writing does. Let's head back to Fury MAX 10.
So a problem with the MAX line is the ability to swear pretty much at will. I can usually get past that but by and large I find it overdone. Still, there's an interesting story happening here, and one that's not so outrageous you have to suspend disbelief. I love comics (obviously) and I love superhero comics, but clearly you go in with a level of suspended disbelief. It's nice occasionally to have a story that seems like it might be real. In this case, Fury is recounting his time surveying an American armed support group in Nicaragua in 1984. The questions and plot mostly revolve around whether or not the American forces are getting into the drug-dealing game with material from Nicaragua. It's a compelling story that seems to be going in a very interesting place as a captain on the base has just been found dead, holding a gun in front of a pile of cocaine. It's a compelling story set in a compelling world that isn't particularly foreign to readers (unless it's a child reading, in which case STOP READING THE MAX LINE). Good place to start this arc.

Wolverine and the X-Men 27, Ultimate Wolverine 2

Wolverine and the X-Men 27
Aaron (w) and Perez (a) and L. Martin and Milla (c)

After being defeated and tied up by his brother Dog in the last issue, Wolverine spends most of this issue trying to free himself (pretty unsuccessfully) from his constraints. Meanwhile, Dog has unleashed cavemen, cowboys, and robots on the at-risk Jean Grey School students in the Savage Land. The kids all have different causes to think back on things Wolverine told them on the plane ride over; for Evan (Genesis), it's the strength in knowing that you can overcome your upbringing our your destiny. For Sprite, the newly named rocky-skinned, flying student, it's that you don't have to take everything so seriously to be serious. For Shark-Girl, it's that having people to count on doesn't weaken you, it strengthens you. The lessons seem a little trite but it's not so much the lesson that's important, it's the idea of Wolverine giving it. Coming into this arc, he wasn't exactly prime teacher material. He already knew that and all the kids (save maybe Evan) brought on the trip were beginning to believe it too. Now, as they all are able to look back on the advice he gave as they attempt to fight their way through these obstacles, it'll give them a reason to think again. I would expect next issue to see the advice he dispensed to Glob Herman and Eye-Boy, as I think we've already seen his talks with everyone else.
It's a nice bit of character development for everyone. It's particularly necessary to see development from the students who are varied and largely newer student, but it's nice to see the development in Wolverine (however small it may be, given that we already know a fair amount about Wolverine) in the way he handles the students. That's the key to this arc, as demonstrated by Dog's insistence on being the better man and teacher than Wolverine, and the way it's wrapped up will show whether or not the arc worked.  The issue ends with the cavemen, cowboys, and robots deciding to team up against the kids and Dog and Quentin throwing Dog under the bus as he figures out Dog's intent and the fact that it was Dog who displaced everyone from time to bring them here. Quentin starts belittling Dog's plan and Dog, showing his own feral side, snaps and punches Quentin out as the issue concludes. Leaves us in a possibly interesting place going into the next book.

Ultimate Wolverine 2
Bunn (w) and Messina and Erskine (a) and Tartaglia (c)

Jimmy and Black Box make their way to Florida (where one of the research facilities indicated by Wolverine's message lies) and Jimmy makes a quick stop to check in on his parents, the Hudsons. It's a nice little moment as we see the parents actually actively missing Jimmy. He doesn't interact with them or make his presence known and they move on to the facility, which is being watched by Wild Child and a group of security waiting to see if anyone makes a move on the place. Black Box and Jimmy break in and Black Box accesses enough files to understand what Mothervine is. It's essentially a program developed to try to weaponize mutation. This is a plot point that comes up pretty frequently with X-Men books (as it probably would in real life) and maybe even more so in the Ultimate Universe, where it's been discovered that the government created mutants in the first place. Wild Child and his cronies attack, knock out Jimmy, and begin to take Black Box for questioning. Suddenly, everyone in the group (save our heroes) are instantaneously skinned alive. Quicksilver shows up and introduces himself as Jimmy's brother. We get a quick flashback to Wolverine's days trying to take down Mothervine where he runs into (and subsequently makes out with) Magda, Pietro's mother.
I think there are some interesting ideas here and overall the book continues to be solid enough to carry a four book mini-series. Again, I get the distinct sense that it would be overstepping its bounds if it went longer than that so good call by Bunn and Marvel. I did have some trouble with the way both Magda and the sole female member of Wild Child's hit squad were portrayed; Magda appears in a very tight and pretty open outfit with massive breasts and the female security member is the only one on the team who has skin showing. Personal peeve of mine and, as I say in all my Savage Wolverine reviews, I'd prefer it if comics didn't make it so easy for people who find the medium juvenile to prove their points. Otherwise, pretty solid book with a good place to go for the second half of the series. I'll be interested to see what comes of the discovery of Mothervine's true intent and what difference any of it all makes in the long run.

Astonishing X-Men 60, X-Men Legacy 8, Uncanny X-Force 3

Astonishing X-Men 60
Lapham, Liu, and Pak (s) and Liu (w) and Buffagni and Arlem (a) and Sotomayor and Loughridge (c)

This event, as I think is the nature of it, is pretty confusing. I wonder how someone who hadn't been reading these three series would feel coming into this event and bouncing between books to try to figure it out. Fortunately, that's not a problem I have to worry about. The three cosmic beings that entered through the portal and killed head-in-a-jar Xavier remain present and, it turns out, absorb and emit energy. The absorption rate seems much higher, as they physically grow with enough energy added to them. Dazzler attempts to attack them but they drain her powers pretty quickly, leaving her weakened but she's stopped before dying. The Wolverines attack and find themselves rebuffed by an aura around the entities. Their healing factor isn't fast enough to keep them in the fight too long and the healing factor of the three beings is too fast to allow them to make a dent. Northstar runs through their chests and temporarily stuns them, giving enough time to pull the Wolverines out, and Bobby manages to freeze them temporarily using just about all the power he has. However, by all means, these three seem practically unbeatable.
While weakened, Karma tries to get into their heads but it ends up reverberating back on her. She announces their thoughts: they are cosmic beings, enemies to the Celestials, and were trapped outside of dimensions by the Celestials, but all the recent transporting between dimensions has weakened the borders and allowed them through. Karma is expelled from their minds and, like everyone else, weakened. Sensing more power in the 616, one of the beings goes through the portal to its Earth while the other two stay behind. One heads for the city and the Apocalypse seed, the other begins to devour the portal. Prophet quickly splits the heroes (and dark Beast) into teams, one team to stay and fight in the AoA and one to head back to the 616. There's a sampling of each crossed-over team in the new teams. Sabretooth and his dad attack the portal-eating being, seemingly sacrificing themselves to create a diversion while people sneak back to Earth.
I said this event is so far confusing. That doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, once you kind of get a grip on what's happening, it's pretty riveting and, despite all the action and all the characters and all the exposition and shouting, it's a really fast read. I do think, though, that it's a smart idea to separate the teams a little bit so that not everyone is together throughout the event. As we hit the half-way point of the full event (including the prologues), I think this book is in a pretty good spot. So far it's been paced pretty well. I'm interested in seeing how the rest of the event turns out, as now we're truly in the thick of things and there are still four issues remaining across four different titles.

QUICK ADDITION: I just learned that both X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse (which you may recognize as two of the three books involved in this crossover event) have been cancelled. It's too bad, I think both were compelling reads (somewhat surprisingly to me with X-Treme) that felt a little off-the-beaten-path for X-books. I might write more on these cancellations eventually.

X-Men Legacy 8
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung (a) and Villarrubia (c)

Another really fun entry to the series with a tense addition to the ongoing story. As with last issue, this story is pretty self-contained. David has found a young mutant named Santi Sardina with the ability to take credit. I know, it sounds weird but it's definitely a new power. Essentially, Santi receives praise for anything praiseworthy around him; if people watch a good movie in his vicinity, he gets credit for making it, if someone reads a poem that strikes a chord with them, he gets credit for writing it, etc. He doesn't understand what's happening for a long while and, when he eventually does, he's pretty quickly fed up with it. He doesn't use it to his advantage (not intentionally, anyway) but, as David explains to Blindfold from their spot watching this drama unfold in what David called the psychosphere (the dream plane), it wears on him as he becomes unable to distinguish any genuinely deserved praise from the praise he'd be bound to get anyway. Santi is ready to drop out of school and remove himself from human contact to end the misdirected adulation but, David explains, he's planning to give things one more shot. He's looking to sign up for an extracurricular. Blindfold wants David to nudge him to art club, as Santi enjoys graffiti, but David has other plans. He explains to Blindfold the implications of this power. If he joins the student government now, he'll be class president in a year, elected official in three, governor by 28 and president right at 35. It would be the first mutant president and it would be a huge windfall for mutantkind, something to turn the tides. This, David feels, is what his father's dream would be; a wonderful representative for mutants that is uniformly loved (even if it's a little undeserved) and in a position to affect real change.
However, just as David is about to push Santi that way, David's mind is attacked by the monster that's been hiding in it. David, normally relegating himself to the shadows of his own mind to avoid this monster, is unprepared and can't gather any of his powers in time. He's about to lose the fight for his mind and body when the Charles in David's mind takes control and expels the monster. Charles disappears into David's mind again and David regains control shakily. He turns back to his mantra of "I rule me" and realizes that everyone should be able to say those words. He nudges Santi to art, which leads to some great superhero-based artwork anonymously created and praised (though, again, as it's anonymous, Santi isn't the one praised for it).
It's another really good entry with a solid story and a unique set of circumstances all tied together in a thought-provoking way. I love Santi's power and his aversion to it. I know it's maybe a little unexpected in a world full of people with laser-eyes and bone claws, but I think it's a good dig at that side of mutantdom. Mutant powers are undefined by their nature and so truly can be pretty much anything. I like the drive David has right now to achieve Charles' dream and I can see the logic in his using the method he proposes here. The abrupt entrance and exit of the mind-Charles put this whole series in a new and interesting place as we get another look at the story in David's head. There are also great things happening with the layout of this comic. David spends a lot of time in his own head. When we're seeing something happen outside of his head, we see his thoughts in captions, as is true in so many comics. When we view David inside his own head, there's a loudspeaker system shouting out his thoughts, the ones that would be in the captions. It's a really wonderful idea. His relationship with Blindfold continues to improve and impress. The title page, which featured the name of everyone involved crossed out and replaced by "Santi Sardina," was a great touch, as is Spurrier's inclusion of Pixie as Blindfold's friend and roommate so he can write more Scottish characters. All around, just a great book and another great issue. If you're a Marvel fan and have some background reading comics (I think this might be a hard book to dive into comics with) and want to get into the mutant wing of the Marvel Universe, this is a great book to go with. It's small enough to not feel like you're missing out on decades of backstory and continuity but still gives a great sense of mutant purpose and the place of mutants in this world. Really wonderful book.

Uncanny X-Force 3
Humphries (w) and Garney and Hanna w/Alphona and Strain (a) and Gracia w/ Gonzalez (c)

Another action-packed issue of this new iteration of X-Force as Puck, Storm and Psylocke question Spiral on the little girl (named Ginny) and Bishop's sudden appearance. Spiral reveals that she had "teamed up" with Ginny to help them both make their way in this world (a six-armed supervillain can't exactly get a job at In-N-Out Burger, Spiral explains) by opening a club and having the telepathic Ginny make everyone believe they're feeling whatever feelings they came looking for. There's an interesting question of ethics here that this team just does not have time for right now. Bishop is on the scent of Ginny and they don't have time to wait for backup from the school. Psylocke locks in on Ginny's location and Spiral teleports them to the LA subway system Psylocke directed her to. There they find Bishop and Ginny. Bishop is still crazy and extremely fast and strong, making the fight, weaving all around trains, an extremely difficult one for the team. Spiral grabs Ginny and teleports on to a train to get them away from it. Eventually, Betsy psychically stabs Bishop which has the unexpected negative effect of sending her into his mind, which is maze-like and a trap itself, she discovers as the issue ends. Meanwhile, the good Fantomexes have parachuted out of a plane over LA while the bad Fantomex watched.
There's a lot happening here in terms of action and some exposition, but it still feels like the story is kind of taking its time coming to us. I don't necessarily think that's a bad idea, though I do think some things are going to have to start connecting pretty soon. You can only drag a story so long before mystery and suspense give way to annoyance and frustration (ask Lost how their fans took to unanswered questions over a long period of time). I do think that the next few issues will be crucial in defining this series. We're at least waist-deep into what could be a pretty compelling story on a couple different sides and I don't think that revealing all the answers to the story at once, especially in issue three, is the right move. However, some answers are going to have to start spilling through (or at least trickling through) to keep readers invested. I think putting Betsy in Bishop's mind is a good place to start digging for clues. Putting all the Fantomexes in the same city as our team is another clever move. It's putting all the pieces into play on a chessboard and arranging them in a way that you know the actual carnage (there's a lot of carnage in chess, right?) is right around the corner. So I think this is another stepping-stone issue but not without reason. If we go another few issues with stepping-stone issues the series will be in trouble, but for now I think it's moving at a pretty smart pace.

FF 5, Scarlet Spider 15

FUN FACT: I like this team-up of books because they're my displaced books this week. I would have matched them with Fantastic Four and Superior Spider-Man (for seemingly obvious reasons) but both of those books were direct tie-ins to Age of Ultron so it seemed silly to split it that way. A LOOK INTO THE PROCESS, dear readers.

FF 5
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred

Quick second fun fact (because we're all having fun): I don't think I would be at all upset if Laura Allred decided to color every single one of her books entirely red.
The FF is a little bit falling apart. Medusa is a bit...problematic, at the moment. Scott is freaking out about losing Alex who Darla assures him is 18 and well within his rights to leave if he wants. Old John Storm is still pretty crazy and has wandered off himself. She-Hulk and Darla both seem okay but it's still not an easy position for anyone to be in. In a beautiful bit of homage to early Fantastic Four, John Storm wanders into the former bowery mumbling about how it's as good a place as any for him to mix with the other derelicts in the city. John's lines in this scene are direct quotes from the first appearance of Namor in F4 from way back when. Johnny, then, was also walking around the bowery mumbling to himself before stumbling into Namor, who has lost his memory and made himself at home among the city's derelicts. Whether it's done to indicate that John is aware of his past or crazy or whatever it might be, it's a wonderful little toy that still fits pretty well in the story even if you don't know the history. Fraction is among the industry's best (I think in general, but specifically) at fitting in nods to the past in his work and it's almost always a delight. Anyway, here in FF 5, John then gets his flame on and starts to burn the city down little bit by bit. The F4 rush out to try to stop him and are aided by two members of the Future Foundation, old Atlanteans Vil and Wu, who summon a many-spouted beast from the river to help keep John extinguished. A member of the press catches the team at the site and belittles them in the paper. Then, cliffhangers abound as Alex shows up at Castle Doom to talk about this new FF and Medusa brings Bentley to his father, Wizard (who refers to Medusa as his wife). Weird and creepy.
There are a lot of fun things happening in the forefront of this book with just as many sinister strings waiting to be pulled just under the surface. It's an interesting place for this book to come from and it's interesting to watch it all come together. I particularly like what Scott's going through right now, as he hasn't really been looked at since he was resurrected in Young Avengers (not that he knew he was resurrected) and after his daughter's death shortly after that. In this issue, he snaps a bit with Darla as he screams about everyone just being stupid kids. There's a lot going on in his head and I'm excited to see more of it. Another fun issue.

Scarlet Spider 15
Yost (w) and Pham, Edwards, Siqueira, Pallot, Bit, and Olazaba (a) and Fabela (c)

Speaking of books that have gone to an interesting place, Scarlet Spider. After two issues ago saw Kaine killed and last issue saw him revived and giving up his humanity to try to save Aracely. This issue finds Kaine as a hideous spider-like monster, now calling himself and/or deeming everyone else "prey," intent on killing just about everything. He finds Aracely and the two wolves and stabs one of the wolves through the chest. The other grabs the fallen wolf and rushes him away hopefully to safety. Kaine lunges at Aracely and, just before he's about to kill her, she's able to get him to revert back to human. The experience, naturally, upsets Kaine a bit though it opens his eyes as to his possible true nature. It's an interesting look into the mind of Kaine and exactly how he's feeling about everything that's been going on in his life over the last few weeks. We're also getting closer and closer to figuring out who is behind everything here and what Aracely's true role in everything is.
I'll be honest I've gotten a little bogged down in this story. I think that's probably on me, in truth, and the amount of books I read. I kind of can't believe this series is already at issue 15. I don't think I've missed issues along the way but I've definitely pushed some to the back of my mind here and there and I think that's all going to come back to bite me as Aracely takes center stage for whatever story eventually comes our way. I don't know if it'll be the next arc the focuses on Aracely or if it'll just be something that makes its way to us over time but I feel equally uncomfortable delving into Aracely-centric stories. Maybe, though, that's the way I'm supposed to feel. She's touted as a mysterious character who kind of sprung up out of nowhere and has some amount of power but seems unsure on using it. Maybe I'm supposed to know exactly as much as I feel I do (very little) and that it will be revealed over time. I'm going to go with that.
Overall not a bad issue. Some things come to a head. I don't remember the specifics of last issue but I wouldn't be surprised if this and the last one could have been combined. Not my call and I sure don't feel like digging up that issue to nitpick. I think there was probably enough in each that neither would could be effectively cut down to half an issue or less, so both might have ended up feeling a little padded out but were still worthwhile.

Age of Ultron 3, Fantastic Four 5AU, Superior Spider-Man 6AU

Age of Ultron 3
Bendis (w) and Hitch and Neary (a) and Mounts (c)

This is a strange event. I was actually a little more confident in it when the crossovers weren't coming out. With just the main series, I didn't need to really worry about where this fit in with the Marvel Universe. The crossovers, particularly Fantastic Four 5AU, seem to be saying pretty firmly "no, this is happening this instant and you need to accept that and move on. Anyone who's died is dead and anyone who has shaved their head has short hair now." That's tricky because, as this is such a contained event (it's in its own book and only a handful of crossovers as the series continues) I can't buy that. Twenty books came out this week. If you subtract the three tied to Age of Ultron, that's seventeen books where Age of Ultron ISN'T having any repercussions and likely will continue to not have any repercussions. It's seventeen books where Thing, Mr. Fantastic, Johnny, Black Panther, Hulk, Thor, and so many others aren't dead. That's the difference between an event like this and just two different team books featuring the same characters, or even between a solo character's book and a team book he or she is on. Captain America is in Dimension Z in his book right now but he's also at the head of the Avengers and on the Uncanny Avengers. It doesn't even really matter how that works because he's not dead in any of them.
Maybe that's too much to pick at. With the popularity of books like Avengers vs. the Marvel Universe and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, we've clearly said that we want to watch our heroes die (well, not me, I've clearly said that I don't enjoy watching my heroes die). Maybe this is a reaction to that. Maybe the heroes aren't actually dead and Ultron has enslaved or is hiding them. I don't think we've seen a body yet, except, and I can't talk about this too long because I'll just get angry, Black Panther's. Black Panther, who, after an explosion behind them, got launched a little ways in the air and, despite his unparalleled agility and athleticism, landed flat on the side of his head and snapped his neck. That's crap. If that's the real Black Panther (either of them, T'Challa or Shuri), that's crap. The only word we got that he was dead was Taskmaster quickly checking his pulse, so maybe he's not, but WHATEVER, still crap. Anyway, the hidden heroes decide to offer up one of their own for trade, based on Spider-Man's account of the villains holding him. Cap puts forth this plan, as it's the only one they have, as a way to send someone into Ultron HQ and hopefully survive and root around for clues and break out, which seems flawed on many levels and also not exactly like the most ingenious plan but WHATEVER again. Cage and She-Hulk both offer to go and they eventually decide on Cage offering to trade She-Hulk. He brings her there and is escorted to where they assume Ultron is only to find out that Ultron isn't on site but half of Vision is and he's acting as Ultron's stand-in. Interesting idea, we'll see where it goes. Maybe this will change, but I still didn't feel sold on this main title. I don't know why. I think the death thing I mentioned above has a lot to do with it. I think the idea that the world is in ruins doesn't help because I can see the world not-ruined in every other Marvel book. Maybe it's because I'm not getting a good feel on any of the characters. Weirdly, despite what I might have implied above about the crossovers, I liked the crossovers far more than I've liked any of the main book issues so far. So let's just get on to them, shall we?

Fantastic Four 5AU
Fraction (w) and Araujo (a) and Villarrubia (c)

Like I said just above, I think I liked the crossovers more than the main series. There's a good chance that that's because of the focus on character that a crossover book can give. Instead of being forced, like the main series, to focus on the entire group of heroes underground and several more spread out around the country on top of focusing on story, the crossovers can focus on how these characters are impacted by everything that's happened. Instead of sitting and wondering how all these heroes are going to come back, you watch the effect this is actually having on people, which is more intriguing to me. Even though I, in my cleverest of brains, have deduced that probably nothing super major will actually come of this event, the characters all treat it as they have to, as a world-shattering thing that's happening. So it's very sweet and incredibly sad to watch the Fantastic Four leave messages for Franklin and Valeria that essentially are only activated if any of the F4 die. It's structured beautifully yet tragically. The kids, still up in space, find the recording with a brief prologue from Reed. Then we see Johnny's message to the kids on one page, followed by a couple pages of him sacrificing himself to give the team time. Then we get Ben's message followed by a couple pages of Ben getting swarmed by Ultrons. At this point, when we see Reed's message start, we pretty much know what's about to happen down on Earth and, sure enough, he expands his whole body to try to block Sue and Ultron's jump inside of it and self-destruct. Sue's message never plays, as She-Hulk finds her alive under some rubble. Franklin and Val are left, scared and alone, in space.
It's a very touching issue that gives us a good look at the characters in this book. It's easy to forget that this is just Fraction's sixth issue of the book as it already feels so natural and deep. Johnny leaves a message to the kids that basically takes the whole thing as a joke, having died himself so recently. Ben's message includes a confession: he thinks he might be responsible for Doctor Doom. He messed with parts of the experiments that made Doom who he is now because Doom was such a jerk even before that. It's a confession that has weighed on Ben, never revealed before. Reed ends up writing most of his last thoughts to them on paper, unable to speak. It's very touching all around and the worry in Franklin and Val's eyes are real, which makes it all the harder. Very good tie-in. I'll be interested to see what Fantastic Four 6 is going to be shaped like, following this. I mentioned in my pre-game that I hadn't seen tie-ins done quite like this before, still taking place in the regular series continuity but as a little step to the side. I'm intrigued to see where it goes.

Superior Spider-Man 6AU
Gage (w) and Soy (a)

As opposed to Fantastic Four, this tie-in was more story-driven. Tony Stark doesn't love the plan of sending She-Hulk as an offering and so has come up with a different plan; with a device he concocted as one-time head of SHIELD, he intends to transport the entire Ultron HQ into the negative zone. Essentially the device requires beacons to be placed all around the HQ and then a doorway to be opened into the negative zone. That doorway is in Horizon Labs, where Spider-Man worked. Spider-Man, who it turns out is still Doc Ock Spider-Man playing a convincing Peter Parker, agrees to aid Tony and Quicksilver (who will place the beacons) in the mission. Once inside Horizon, though, we learn that Ock had ulterior motives, as he so often does. He activates all his spider-bots across the city and latches them on to nearby Ultron units to take control of them. He has determined that, with his intellect and knowledge of machines and knowledge of Ultron (who he met during the Secret War), he can override the units and control them, maybe even use them to fix and better the world. It works pretty well at first but, as he tries to guide one Ultron unit to the real Ultron, his plan starts to fail as Ultron has planned for this sort of thing. He loses control of the units and is descended on by Ultrons. He narrowly escapes and returns to the other heroes, allowing Tony to think that he just didn't have time to charge the device. He does, though, tell Tony that the plan would have worked.
This one is more story-driven than Fantastic Four was but it certainly isn't only interesting for the story. There are plenty of character moments mixed in as we get a little more insight into this new Spider-Man. He mourns the possible losses of those closest to him (like Aunt May and MJ) though pushes those thoughts down and explains them away as Peter's consciousness leaking through. He also shows some respect to Max Modell, who clearly died trying to usher people to safety. After his plan fails, he recognizes that maybe Peter hadn't been weakened by relying on others, as he had previously decided, but rather strengthened. There are some good person-to-person dialogues too, especially between an angry Spider-Man and a weary and somewhat defeated Tony Stark. Quicksilver, too, gets a couple of nice lines in, largely about Spider-Man's maturity in this time of crisis. It's an interesting story with enough compelling character moments to absolutely make it worthwhile. Another good tie-in.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1, Journey into Mystery 650

Guardians of the Galaxy 1
Bendis (w) and McNiven and Dell (a) and Ponsor (c)

I find it interesting that the conceit of this book, at least in the early stages, is that the Guardians of the Galaxy are going to be tasked with protecting Earth from galactic threats. I don't think it's a particularly bad idea and space still gives an awful lot of room to play around, but I find it interesting that the plan is to take an integral part of Marvel Cosmic and bring it right around Earth. Again, I feel like this is coming off as a criticism and I don't intend it to be. I have some criticisms but we'll get to those and longtime readers can probably already guess what they are, given the little (w) tag up above. I legitimately do find it interesting that this galactic team which is set to get a movie in 2014 and has been around since the late 1960s in on-and-off books, most recently in 2008, is going to be dealing with galactic threats that could expand the Universe while sticking pretty close to Earth. The 2008 series had no problem keeping off of Earth. Occasionally someone would make reference to it but, by and large, it was inconsequential because this was a team fighting for far more. I see this as a way to kind of ease into the series. It depends on how long this story will go; if it's the conceit for the entire series (at least for the foreseeable), I think it will wear a bit thin, but if it's the conceit for the beginning of this series to ease readers in and make them feel comfortable with the team without feeling like they're removed from the rest of the Marvel Universe (hence the inclusion of Iron Man), I think it'll serve a good purpose. I do hope that doesn't limit the storytelling to stories that don't challenge regular comic readers in the hopes that all new fans can easily dive in (which is simultaneously both a super nerdy and a kind of snooty thing to say). Another thing that I found pretty cool about the 2008 series was that, I think because of its existence on the outside of the Marvel Universe, it wasn't afraid to challenge readers and to make things confusing. Confusion is good sometimes in comics. It's worked for Gillen in Journey into Mystery and it's working for Hickman in Avengers and Spurrier in X-Men Legacy and in countless other places. It's about keeping readers' heads enough above water to make them keep reading and eventually feel REALLY good when things start coming together. But anyway, it's an interesting idea.

I've loved all of Skottie Young's baby-
variant covers for Marvel NOW!, but
maybe none more so than this one

FOR CRITICISMS, then, I'd like to again point to my usual complaint with Bendis. The dialogue is TV-show back-and-forth with way too much talking and it really pulls the reader out as you can kind of get a headache with so much. Also, and this is nitpicky and probably a personal issue, I tend to hate fake swear words. Like, made up ones because of a new and, ahem, alien language. That's not entirely accurate. I thought it worked really well in Firefly and Serenity (I know, that was Chinese and not an alien language, but my point applies as everyone speaks English except in little bits of Chinese here and there). I don't like it when it's used excessively, seemingly only used to show that they ARE swearing and that they ARE clever little not-swears. In Firefly (and probably in other places I haven't really seen), they used it as appropriate, when a character would actually swear. As I write this, YES I know how nitpicky it is but it really was pretty obnoxious whenever anyone said "krutack," just as it would be obnoxious (and is obnoxious when it happens) if someone swears every few words. Look, most of my regular complaints about Bendis stand, is what I'm saying. I think the story is interesting and the setting is very interesting. We'll see where it goes next time.

Journey Into Mystery 650
Immonen (w) and Schiti (a) and Bellaire (c)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, they got me. Wasn't Heimdall. It was some weird sand golem in the place of Heimdall that Sif correctly identified at the end of last issue as not-Heimdall and decapitated. Phew. Heimdall was just in Young Avengers. That would have been weird. Anyway. Sif and her little band of berserkers are in Asgardia and they all find it different than they remembered. Svip, the most brutal of the berserkers, finds it worse, far softer than what he remembered, which is what Sif had been feeling to start this arc. She disappears to go find Aerndis, the witch who gave her the berserker power and who apparently was responsible for opening the Bifrost to let her and her three men into Asgardia again. She is withered, dying from the power needed to open the Bifrost. Sif asks her what mad spell Aerndis had placed on her. Aerdnis tells her that it was all an act and that the berserker rage was in her all along; Sif had only come looking for an excuse to use it. Sif doesn't believe her. Heimdall appears to tell her that Svip has gone into Broxton and has unleashed the darkest monster from the lake. Sif and the two others follow her and fight the monster as Svip tries to convince Sif that she's wanted this all along, to fight more monsters and to harden herself where ever that might be. She finally admits to herself that Aerdnis had been right and that she, instead of finding a strength, had found a weakness in herself. She's not thrilled about it. She sends Svip back to the island and restores peace to Broxton. She's learned a valuable lesson in this five part arc and the two berserkers seem better for the journey as well.
If the end of that review (and maybe the rest of it) sounds a little after-school special, it's because it kind of is. Whenever that "the power was inside you all along!" reveal comes around, it's only logical to connect it to that sort of thing, even if the "power" that was inside all along is a berserker warrior toughness and bloodlust. Still, it was a fun episode and it reads pretty well. I think it got bogged down a little with Aerdnis and with Svip at the end, but by and large it was enjoyable and the whole arc was definitely worth telling and a worthy story for Sif. I think she comes out pretty cleanly as the fiercest warrior of Asgardia, so that's a plus. With Sif a little more developed going forward, I'm excited about the second arc of this post-Loki series.

Uncanny Avengers 5, Young Avengers 3, A+X 6

Uncanny Avengers 5
Remender (w) and Coipel and Morales (a) and L. Martin with Molinar (c)

I've really liked Marvel NOW! for the way the writers and artists have really jumped in and been unafraid to break some traditions. At the same time, I kind of love the way that Remender is playing with traditions in this book. I've talked a little bit before about Remender's use of a narrator, something that has faded a little bit with the disappearance of thought bubbles and the emergence of captions as a character's thoughts (which I don't view as a bad thing). There's no real narrator in this issue (though there's a good bit with Kang as narrator at the beginning) but there are still a few traditions that creep their way into UA 5. One of the traditions that I hadn't really considered for any of these new Avengers books in Marvel NOW! that has been all but ignored (which I don't think has hurt the books in any way) is the press conference. It took this issue for me to actually recognize that none of the other Avengers books have done a press conference issue in any way but that it really is a weird sort of tradition for these books to have. It makes total sense to me that the Avengers WOULD have press conferences so I've never questioned them appearing in a book, but it's still a fun little nod at Avengers history. There's a lot of that in this issue, between Rogue replacing a picture of the original Avengers with a picture of Charles Xavier, the team meeting together to discuss their next move (in a meeting called by Cap, just like the old days when people used to regularly call and lead meetings), Wasp and Wonder Man (Avengers mainstays) appearing at the mansion as a PR team for this new Unity Avengers division, and the inevitable supervillain attack at the press conference. Even when Grim Reaper does attack the conference, he announces his name with the traditional (though not frequently used in modern comics) larger/different/colored font.

Don't mistake all of these traditions as covering up a weak book. Plenty happens here and it's all very interesting. Kang the Conqueror, sick of seeing the timeline corrupted by Apocalypse and his spawn, kidnaps the twin children of Apocalypse and his Pestilence (of the Four Horsemen from Remender's Uncanny X-Force days). Wolverine goes to Japan to convince Sunfire (a one-time Apocalypse Horseman himself) to join the team. Rogue and Scarlet Witch express their frustration with the Unity Avengers. Alex takes charge of both a team meeting and the press conference that follows. Grim Reaper, rather insane, attacks the Avengers and eventually is possibly killed by Rogue in front of gathered press as she doesn't realize the strength of the power she absorbs from Wonder Man. So yes. A TON HAPPENED. Another solid issue and it puts us in another interesting place as we move forward (though where did Thor go? I know he's in next issue but I didn't see him...wait, I just went back. He's AT the press conference. Why did he not get in on that fight with Grim Reaper? Would it have been too easy? Okay, so there's my complaint about the issue and MAYBE it's a little nitpicky but MAYBE it's a good question.

Young Avengers 3
Gillen (w) and McKelvie with Norton (a) and Wilson (c)

I don't know that Young Avengers is my favorite book Marvel has at the moment (considering all the tough competition) but I do believe it's the one wherein I most regularly say "oh, that's neat" about something or other that Gillen and/or McKelvie has done. Whether it's McKelvie's full-page spreads with interesting panels sprinkled in or a writing technique that makes a narrator feel present when he's not (for example, America speeds into a situation as a blur of colors that appear in several panels that say "somewhere distant" then "still distant" the next time it appears then "getting closer" the next time then "here" as she arrives). I find myself constantly reading and seeing innovations like these in a mainstream comic and being completely taken aback with how simple and how great they are. It's one thing for a to know the story they want to tell and even to know the characters their using, it's a different thing altogether when they have such a complete grasp on the tone they want that story and these characters to have. I don't know if it ties into what I was talking about in my pre-game post about Gillen and McKelvie's long-established relationship coming into this comic or about their experiences with these kinds of innovations in their independent comic Phonogram but it really shows and it plays incredibly well in this book.

The book itself, on top of being a kind of masterwork of cool techniques, is loaded with story and character (particularly character). After Billy's spell the restore Teddy's mother in issue one, everyone tied to him has found their parents alive, present, and altered. The start of the issue has Billy, Teddy, and Loki fighting Loki's once-dead father Laufey outside of Asgard. America shows up just before her parents who have been combing the universes to track her down. It's the first time we REALLY see America outside of a couple of quick lines in the first issue and a bit of backstory in the initial .1. Her attitude is very clearly on display, as are some of her powers. It's particularly important because she's the least known character of all of these relatively unknown characters (people who know the Young Avengers know the majority of this team, but those people are limited. Loki too, despite his long history, is only really entirely familiar to people who read Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery) but you don't want to just cram in information about her. You want it to come out naturally, as the story requires it. We're also getting a great look at Gillen's Loki, which remains unbeatably enigmatic. No one trusts him to cast spells or trusts him at all (wisely). America reveals that he had wanted her to kill Billy, which he explains as a reverse psychology tactic to get her to actually protect Billy, citing the known perception of him as, you know, Loki. He explains too that his powers are significantly weaker because he's in a child's body and tells the three of them that he could wipe this spell away instantly if he could "borrow" Wiccan's powers. What side is Loki playing? Only Loki knows, as it should be. Great book, great issue. If you're a comic fan, you should read Young Avengers. It's a good story with good characters (and a really good sense of what that story is and who these characters are) and great flair. Also worth reading for the best fake ID in the world variant cover (at right).

A+X 6
Captain Marvel + Wolverine: David (w) and Camuncoli w/ Benevento (a) and Brown and Mossa (c)
Thing + Gambit: Costa (w) and Caselli (a) and Mossa (c)

Interesting first story. As I've said about A+X before, they're not aiming for story here. There's probably nothing from any of these books that will be expounded on in other books or used in canon later on. They're fun little books to show X-Men and Avengers working together, a place they've usually not been before. We mostly have seen people who haven't really teamed up together in the past, like Gambit and Hawkeye or Captain America and Quentin Quire. Even the second story in this issue (Thing and Gambit) is one you don't really envision. That makes this first one interesting; it's a team-up that's happened plenty of times. In fact, in some timeline (I want to say Days of Future Past but I might be wrong) Carol and Logan end up married. Not the case here, of course, but it's worth noting (maybe. Noted it, anyway). Playing poker, the two get into an argument spawned from the TV series Angel about who would win in a fight, an astronaut or a caveman. It's an interesting question posed by interesting characters to examine it. Carol is all about flight and the modern (with pretty amazing powers to boot) and Wolverine's incredibly old and oftentimes not far off from a caveman. Naturally, the two side on their respective connection (Carol with the astronauts, Logan with the caveman). As they're arguing (and it gets kind of heated), they're interrupted by a giant robotic being called The End, who seems intent on fighting them. Carol poses the question to him and he answers "astronaut" and explains that we've already seen it in Planet of the Apes. They invite him to the card game. Sure it's cute and throwaway but it's still pretty fun. There's a lot of fun dialogue and smart writing that feels relatively real. Like I said, I'm not here for an ongoing series where The End is a legitimate threat and not a not-particularly-tongue-in-cheek joke and the two have to put aside their argument to defeat him. I'm here for him to be invited to the card game as Carol lords his answer over Wolverine. Fun story.

Story two is another fun one but with two characters I like less than the first story. I like Gambit well enough but I'm not really a big Thing fan. It's a similar situation though, with no real villains in sight (aside from those dirty Yancy Street Gang members) and, even more similar, a poker game. Thing has been invited to join a card game with the Yancy Street Gang and they, to even the odds of the rock pokerface of Thing, have brought in Gambit as their ringer. Thing lashes out at Gambit as the two met several months ago in New Orleans as Gambit cheated a man in cards and he and Thing got into a fight. Thing yells at Gambit in the present for a while and Gambit slings his smooth insults back before Thing eventually demands they take it outside. They manage to sneak all the winnings out with them and escape together while the gang waits around inside. We learn that their original meeting had ended when Thing reveals it was all a misunderstanding between them and enlisted his help in cheating this very gang in this very situation. Kind of a fun story. I'm somehow less into it than the first one, which I thought had a little more character to it (and those characters HAPPENED to be ones I liked more anyway).

Comics this week!

Sorry about the no-post yesterday, busy day piled on a lot of tiredness. I guess we'll have to save Spider-Man's Get Kraven for another day.

Fantastic Four 5AU and Superior Spider-Man 6AU

I'm mildly interested in this actual story and how it's going to tie-in to everything, particularly as it's hard to see where Age of Ultron fits into the regular Marvel Universe, but I'm almost more interested in the simple designation. This is issue 5AU. It's a tie-in to both books, in theory, that isn't necessarily a part of Fraction's story over in F4. It's like a .1, but tying into two books. Superior Spider-Man is like that this week as well so I've cheated and combined the pair to illustrate why I'm intrigued. It's nice because you can pretty easily stay organized if you're trying to collect the whole event but also avoid it without feeling particularly cheated if you are subscribing to either individual book but not the event. Interesting move from Marvel and I'd like to see how it reads.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1

I'm admittedly quite wary about this book, as anyone who has heard my feelings on Brian Michael Bendis recently probably knows, but the .1 was pretty good and Marvel has to be making a push with these characters as they have a movie arriving in 2014. The movie announcement was completely out of left field but the team is a good one and it's an interesting choice to expand this Universe. Hopefully it has something to say and actually goes about saying it. It worries me that it's a team book because that's when I tend to have the most problems with Bendis but it also has, for my money, one of the best Skottie Young variants to come out of Marvel NOW! (though they've all been great)

Uncanny Avengers 5

I can't express enough how much I've enjoyed this book. Now, with their first arc kind of in the books, we'll see where this team goes from here. The story from the first arc is clearly far from over but the Red Skull disappeared so the team is going to have to move on or investigate or both. The cliffhanger of the last issue left some ominous directions for this book to go in and I recently received a promotional mini-poster for Uncanny Avengers 6 that has Thor in battle with a full-grown Apocalypse and, since receiving it, I've been blown away by the idea that we have ONE ISSUE to get to that story. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN THIS ISSUE?

X-Men Legacy 8

Just a great book. Consistently. My girlfriend read one of the most recent issues after inadvertently skipping a few a couple days ago and I caught myself getting giddy explaining what was happening to her. It's nice when a book that you've been reading and that you have recognized as good still gives you some level of surprise in just how good it is. It's still in that tumultuous time, though, where the book is establishing itself (on all levels, but specifically in how it will read after the first arc) so I'm interested to see how the flow catches. Will Spurrier do a number of one-part stories or will he do one-parters that tie everything into an arc eventually or will he start into an arc soon? All kinds of questions.

Young Avengers 3

Last issue did a lot of fun things playing with the medium and I'd expect nothing less going forward. Gillen and McKelvie have worked together on independent projects (and a couple Marvel team-ups) for years now and it shows. It's neat to have a book written and drawn by people who already have a great rapport because there aren't any growing pains. A lot of new series have to find their rhythm as writer and artist figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses. This book just dove right in because Gillen and McKelvie are so attuned to that already and they clearly care about the work and have fun doing it. I'd imagine we'll get even more Young Avengers in this issue (instead of just Loki, Billy, and Teddy). Everything's working out already but it's even more exciting to see how it will all flow together.

This week's picks!

New Avengers 4

I get the sense already that it's going to be impossible for this book not to land in my top three every time it comes out. I love the story, I love the characters, I love the questions it's asking, I love the understanding of superheroes in this world, I love the art, I love the colors, I love the interactions. This is pretty much a perfect book in my eyes. It occurs to me that this book ended with the first real fight scene this team will have, after fighting against something far more intangible the rest of the series. Somehow I'm even MORE interested in this book as we get to the point where we'll see the team work together. None of this even begins to talk about the underlying dynamics of the team, particularly Black Panther and Namor (though, really, anyone and Namor) and the way Beast feels about everything that's happening. Just an all around phenomenal title right now and issue four was no less fantastic than the other three issues.

Captain Marvel 11

Every time I read a new issue of this series I come away feeling floored by the amount of detail each book manages to cram in. I've appreciated from the very first how many non-super powered characters have made their way into this book and how well each one has been crafted just with a line or two every now and then. For DeConnick to then take those people (who, because of the work she's done, are truly people and not just set pieces) and make them integral to the plot and, more importantly, to Carol's life and Carol's sense of her own life is beautiful. In mainstream comics, you don't get a lot of examination of a character's life outside of superheroing and maybe one or two dramas here and there that are almost exclusively related to family or to dating. Captain Marvel has quietly built a life for Carol Danvers, from when she wakes up to when she goes to bed so now, when that life is in jeopardy, the stakes are much higher and it's a far greater payoff for the reader. Terrifically done and rewarding in every sense.

Captain America 5

This beating out Avengers or Hulk is almost entirely based on my own bias. I think it absolutely merits being up in the top three, but the reason that I picked it over the other deserving titles without much of a second thought is totally because of my own love for the character (fun fact: it's also why Avengers would have been my fourth pick; the characterization of Cap in that book, alongside everything else in the book, puts it a little ahead). I should stop being excited, probably, by how well I think Remender's characterizing Captain America. I've said plenty of times that there are easy ways to screw up writing Captain America (in fact, I think there are Marvel writers working today who don't write him very well) and, though I trusted and loved Remender hot off of Uncanny X-Force, I was admittedly nervous when I heard he was writing Cap. Not because of him, because I would have been nervous for anyone to write Cap. Nothing is worse than a poorly written Captain America heading up his own book. But Remender has blown me away with the look he's given this new series. On top of just going back into Steve's childhood, we're getting so much added to Steve without going against everything that's come before. It's really delightful, as a big Captain America fan, to not only watch the character done right, but to see him expanded on so much. Someone nervous about writing Cap could easily have just taken the Brubaker Cap and put him into more plots, focusing on story rather than on expanding character. Remender's doing both and it's working out extremely well.

Cable and X-Force 6, All-New X-Men 9

Cable and X-Force 6
Hopeless (w) and Larocca (a) and D'Armata (c)

One of the things that I've really liked about this series so far and which carries the book more often than not is the camaraderie of this team. When I actually sit and think about it, it's kind of a risky move. Usually newly-formed teams have to go through the growing pains of what it is they're doing and who they're working with and so on. To skip that (at least for now, Hopeless could definitely still get into it later) is a bit of a risky move because it could make the book feel a little unrealistic. You throw all these people together and you get a perfectly functioning team with a solid rapport? Suspicious. But this team doesn't feel like that. I think a big part of it is who the team leader is. Cable is supposed to be a great leader. It's in his history and it's in his nature. He's also a master strategist. It makes total sense, in the context of his character, that he would deliberate on a team, then bring them together and they'd work well as a unit almost immediately. There were bumps in the road in the first arc (and there are bound to be more as we continue) but people weren't at each other's throats. They all get along because Cable chose them all to get along.

The team chemistry is what makes this book really flow. The plots are interesting and the plans to accomplish the goals are even more interesting, but the team itself is the real draw of this book. Everyone, just six issues in, has a very specific rapport with everyone else and it's a lot of fun to watch it all happen. Every character has a distinct voice and vocabulary, which helps illustrate the characters even further. Cable's team, now featuring Boom Boom, breaks into a SWORD prison which happens to be the same one Colossus has just handed himself into. They're not there to break him out, though Domino goes to visit the guilt-ridden Russian. The team is there to steal an alien to steal a spaceship. It's pretty exciting to know that this team is going to be going into space, once they get past Cyclops, who has tracked down his son as the issue ends. There's also a nice scene here between Wolverine and Colossus and between Kitty and Colossus (kind of) where she breaks into his room and leaves him art supplies and a note before running out. It's a nice little touch after everything Kitty and Peter have been through to have Hopeless point to that relationship, whatever might come of it. Just an all around solid issue driven by the characters. There's still a plot happening in the foreground and one lurking in the background (involving the first scene of the first issue, where the Uncanny Avengers stumbled onto Cable's team with all the dead factory workers) but this book feels like it could survive even if they never went any where. Speaking of things not going any where...

All-New X-Men 9
Bendis (w) and Immonen and Von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia and Beredo (c)

My earlier review today was linked by the discussion of narrators. My reviews are almost all consciously linked together in some way (ie, two Wolverine books, two Avengers books, etc.) but I usually list them out and pair them together at the start of a week, before I've read the book. I did that this week too, but I hadn't figured out which two books to link with one another in each individual review of the day. After reading the four books, I knew I wanted to talk about narration with those two books which left these two. I deemed this acceptable because, even without finding a link, it meant comparing a book I'm really enjoying with a book I'm really not enjoying. How minute can that comparison go? I'm comparing a book with great characters to a book with off-character characters? I CAN GO EVEN FURTHER. I'm comparing a book with a good Kitty Pryde and a book with a bad Kitty Pryde.

Kitty is not a member of Cable's X-Force team. She only shows up for a couple pages as she leaves a note for Peter in his cell saying that she's having trouble reconciling the Peter in her head with the Peter who has done the things he's accused of saying. She's conflicted by their awful "date" when he had the Phoenix Force but she's proud of him for turning himself in (which is not the adjective Wolverine would use) and she hasn't been able to bring herself to actually talk with him in the midst of everything. She's almost gotten there four times already before finally leaving this note. This Kitty, in two pages, is deep and conflicted and so spot-on with the Kitty that's already established in the Marvel Universe and that, more importantly, matches the Kitty that's been so instrumental to the X-corner of the Universe for the past several years. The Kitty in All-New X-Men, though, has fallen into the same convenient narrative trap that everyone else in All-New X-Men seems to have fallen into, which is that this school was formed for the exact opposite reason of these issues. Wolverine wanted the school to be a haven for mutant kids to come and learn. They'd be taught defense, sure, because conflict is unavoidable, but by and large he wanted to provide them a place where they didn't have to go out and fight. Kitty is the perfect headmistress for the school because these are all things she believes in and subscribes to. But when the original X-Men team shows up, all of that is out the window as she instantly volunteers to train the team in the present as opposed to sending them straight back to the past. This issue shows her working with the kids in the Danger Room instead of, for example, sending them straight back to the past. I can't wrap my head around the Kitty who decides she's a better teacher for these kids than Professor X. It also doesn't make sense to me, if the excuse is "well if the kids are going to stay here (and maybe they CAN make a difference) then SOMEONE has to train them," that Kitty doesn't decide "hey, they're NOT going to stay here because that's absurd."

In this issue, after a disastrous Danger Room session, Jean and Kitty find out that Scott met with Mystique (who is currently aiding Sabretooth in breaking Lady Mastermind out of SHIELD holding; Lady Mastermind and Mystique sure an unironic dialogue about how maybe she should drop the "Lady" part because it seems a bit sexist while wearing a costume, at right, that she may have put on backwards and forgotten to zip). Warren, fresh off having his mind altered to want to stay in the present, meets with Hank to learn about mutants and the issue ends with Cyclops' new X-Men team arriving at the school, as was set up in the last Uncanny X-Men issue. Another issue, another review with me saying "I guess some things happened but it certainly feels like a lot more COULD have happened in the time given."