Some sad news upfront: Marvel has apparently made the decision to cancel the ongoing Winter Soldier series with issue 19 in June. I'm rather disappointed but not entirely surprised. More on Monday (likely, assuming I write the post in advance; like I said, I will not be around most of next week).
X-Treme X-Men 13
Lapham, Liu, and Pak (s) and Pak (w) and Mogorron and Valdes, Tadeo, Cuevas, Ho, and Wong (a) and Loughridge (c)
The pressure stays on for the X-Termination event with X-Treme X-Men 13. The creature who made it to the 616 has successfully brought down the Dreaming Celestial and imbibed it, but not before the Earth team found the Celestial's memory banks and realized that this creature is intending to bring millions more back that way to destroy the entire universe. Kurt (I'm calling kid Nightcrawler "Kurt" and AoA Nightcrawler "Nightcrawler," for a bit of a key here) helps teleport people back and forth through the portal but the strain of it shows on him. Meanwhile, Jean and Nightcrawler try to snag the Apocalypse Seed back from Dark Beast so that Jean can use it. In the ensuing chase, the seed gets close enough to one of the creatures that the teams can see the reaction to the seed's appearance. The creature shies away from it, so it does seem like using the Apocalypse Seed is a possible method to destroy. Prophet still believes that Jean can handle it so she'd be the natural choice. However, Prophet also decides that it's too late to save both worlds. Simple timing means that only one world is possible to save so they'll have to choose. Dazzler refuses to accept this and they decide that they could save both if all three creatures were in the same place. Sadly, the creature on 616 seems to have no plans of returning to the AoA. Kurt, already affected by the strain of everything, sacrifices himself to teleport the creature in. Dazzler catches him on a light slide as he falls. We're not given any final signal that he's dead, important to note, but it does seem pretty final and EITHER WAY it's pretty sad, probably more sad if the cover didn't have his team surrounding his fallen body. Nightcrawler stabs Beast through the back and they recover the Apocalypse Seed as the book ends.
So a few more twists, a few more turns. At least for now the 616 is safe but they have limited time to destroy these creatures before more show up and the seed seems the only way. The last couple books in this series have a lot of ground to cover, as they need to defeat the enemies, show us the seed's effect, and, presumably, give us a sense of what happens to the X-Treme X-Men and this whole Age of Apocalypse, as both books are officially over now. Two more books left in this event and it somehow seems like both too many books left and too few. It's a weird feeling. I suppose that could be a good thing, though, as it could just leave us right where we want with length. The event continues to be, in my opinion, the best one currently happening at Marvel.
Wolverine 2
Cornell (w) and Davis and Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)
This book is confusing, so let's try to work it out. First off, there's some sort of weird maybe drug deal happening where cops and gangsters alike have joined up and at least one gang member was surprised by this and shot by everyone involved for his surprise. Then we cut back to Wolverine. That in itself raises a few questions. Is the business with the child Alex a distraction? Are the drugs the ones mind-controlling Alex? Are the people behind the drugs behind all of this? I don't know. So Wolverine continues to chase Alex, who is acting very strange but is still not hesitating to shoot people with the new gun. He's acting strangely enough that Wolverine quickly realizes that Alex is no longer in control of his own body. Alex momentarily evades Wolverine and Wolvy starts asking around for information in the street. A homeless person offers him a protein booster that will help his powers for a dollar, which Wolverine accepts, much to the surprise of the homeless person. Instead of rubbing it on his chest, as the homeless person suggests, Wolverine drinks it to "clear his palate." It seems like I'm going into a lot of detail for a throwaway scene, but it is kind of interesting to note and might come back later (Chekhov's gun and all, yes?). It's interesting in the "clear the palate" kind of way, but also in his attitude when he explains what he did to the thing inhabiting Alex, saying that it doesn't really matter what it was because he'll heal from it. So Wolverine and "Alex" have a chat about how much "Alex" has learned about Wolverine before he loses the gun and throws Alex off the building, saying goodbye to Wolverine and that maybe they'll talk again. Wolverine dives after them and saves Alex, allowing the gun to leave his sight to save the child. Alex snaps out of it and remembers Wolverine as the person who killed his dad and starts crying. The entity inhabits another guy who picks up the gun, but new Nick Fury shows up and shoots him before having a chat with Wolverine about how they want to play this. The Watcher shows up as the issue ends.
So there's a lot going on here and it doesn't all fit together just yet. It's still pretty interesting and it promises to keep up the pace as the Watcher makes his appearance. Some payoff's going to have to start seeping through, though, or else all this confusion for confusion's sake will wear a little thin. I like the way Wolverine's being characterized though. He comes off as quick thinking and weathered and like someone who has been in these sorts of situations before. He pretty quickly recognizes mind-control (as I feel more heroes probably should by that point) and does what he can to learn more without hurting Alex. His interaction with Nick Fury is nice because it's not the kind of typical interaction, wherein they have to get acclimated to one another or it's just an exposition dump or anything like that. Instead, Nick and Wolverine talk like two people who have known each other's histories and know each other's roles pretty well. Nick asks which of Wolverine's teams he wants to call in on this and Wolvy tells him that he wants them all to hang back for a bit. Wolverine also takes charge, saying that he has evidence in his shoulder (a bullet that went in and never came out) that will have to be removed delicately. It's the way I suppose I'd expect Wolverine to act. A lot of Wolverine comics prefer to go the surly route with Wolvy, which I think is in his personality, but it ends up kind of overriding some more sensible things I'd imagine Wolverine as knowing to do. Here he's acting sensible and taking help where it's offered, instead of shoving Fury away and chasing after the gun. So let's keep that up.
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