Cable and X-Force 7, Dark Avengers 189, Thunderbolts 8

Cable and X-Force 7
Hopeless (w) and Larocca (a) and D'Armata (c)

One of the things that's been so fun about Cable and X-Force so far is that, despite Cable's ability as a good strategist and the team's overall competence in their respective fields, sometimes things just don't work out. There are often variables that Cable can't foresee, for one reason or another, and the plan goes south amazingly fast. In the first story, Cable and X-Force were stunned to find how quickly the disease infecting the fast food chain had spread and how resilient it was to any of Dr. Nemesis' remedies and were also surprised to find Deathlok involved, among other setbacks. Already in this seemingly smoother plan, after a successful first half, Cable finds himself face-to-face with his fugitive father Cyclops, and Boom Boom and Domino find that the alien they're trying to break out to reunite with his ship is less than cooperative. I will say, this is the only time I've really thought to question Cable's plan. Even if it's necessary to get the alien out so he can pilot the ship, we maybe should have done a little more research on this alien to find out just how creepy and not helpful he might be. Of course, Cable hasn't come across the alien yet, which has attacked every other member of the team so far, so maybe Cable will turn up and force him into submission or blackmail him or something. On the other hand, it does seem like they need this SPECIFIC alien to prevent the future Cable has seen, so maybe they're just out of pleasant options.
So Boom Boom and Domino break the alien out while Dr. Nemesis and Forge take a quick jaunt into space for Dr. Nemesis' benefit. Cable talks with Cyclops, who says that he trusts Cable and if there's anything he can do to help, he's available. Domino hits on Colossus a bit and tries again to convince him to leave with them but Colossus refuses, still preferring to serve his time in the prison. After the alien knocks out Boom Boom and Domino and brings them onto his ship, which he hijacks out from under Dr. Nemesis and Forge, he gives a threatening message to Colossus before taking off in his ship with the rest of the team. Cable pursues in a stolen SWORD ship.
The writing in this book continues to be fast-paced and largely fun. There are some great character relationships developing here. I really love the Forge-Dr. Nemesis dynamic that Hopeless has created and I'm kind of intrigued by this Domino-Colossus relationship. I don't mind Domino but I'd never found her super interesting. I guess that I've been most interested in her when she's teamed up with Cable or Cable and Deadpool or something and I tend to be a fan of the Kitty-Colossus relationship, so I wouldn't have expected myself to care about this fling at all, but it's interesting to watch develop. I also love Colossus and I think the arc he's going through right now is fascinating and fits the character really well. You do have to ask how long he's going to keep himself on the bench, knowing he could help his friends. Exciting questions abound and NEXT TIME, dear readers, we had to SPACE.

Dark Avengers 189
Parker (w) and Edwards and Pallot (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Events are moving quickly again in Dark Avengers as the not-dead Moonstone phases into Stark's lab to break Ragnarok out and meet up with the other Dark Avengers who are in battle with Doc Strange. Strange imbibes all of Iron Fist's chi energy as he goads Danny into attacking, making him even more formidable. It's a little sad as a fan of both those characters in the 616 to watch Strange drooling to kill Iron Fist, as I think they're relationship is pretty fantastic in the normal universe. Meanwhile, Al Apaic organizes a bit of an attack himself, directing US Agent to the Cap of this world's shield, which US Agent uses to deflect Strange's attack and kill Clea. Apaic uses all his poison on Strange, killing him and releasing Skaar from his spell, allowing him to turn on Grimm and spare Reed's life. Moonstone and Ragnarok begin to try to leave Stark's lab and are confronted by Stark himself, who kills Pym with a blast Moonstone phased through. Ragnarok tears into Stark and destroys the armor, only for them to watch as a brain in a helmet flew away. Pym reveals, with his dying words, that he kept replacing bit by bit of himself to make room for more weapons until only the brain was left. Moonstone then leads Ragnarok away from Stark's and towards Thor's hammer, still in the crater Thor died in. Ragnarok lifts it and is transformed into something that looks a bit less like Thor.
So things have definitely sped up after a couple issues of the pieces fitting themselves into place. Now the Dark Avengers have seen to the end of Strange and have put Grimm and Stark very much on their toes. Assuming Skaar can escape with Richards and meet up with Ragnarok and Moonstone and the three heavy weights can find the other team members, things could get real interesting real fast. I've already been interested in this story (though I am glad to see it pick up its pace a bit again) and now I'm very intrigued to see how the rest of the arc plays out. AIM has something up their sleeve and Tony has just launched his "Iron Omega," which seems to be kind of an endgame for all he's concerned. Meanwhile, lingering in the background is the Namor-Sue Storm threat of destroying New York and the worry that Reed might not be able to open a portal back (he probably will though...then again, there's no reason this team COULDN'T stay out here). The resolution of the story is also something to be excited about, as we can learn what AIM's game is behind all of this and exactly what happened to devolve everyone so quickly. Fun stuff ahead for this book.

Thunderbolts 8
Way (w) and Noto (a) and Guru eFX (c)

There are a couple of great little twists in this book that make me excited about the way the Thunderbolts can run as a team again, after what I found to be a little bit of a stall in the first arc. I was intrigued by this team after seeing the first cover and who was going to be in it, and I still am, but I was a little turned off by the pacing of the first arc (and, in truth, I wasn't a fan of Dillon's art and that took me out of it a bit). I think now we're reaching some really interesting points, as we're seeing the skill and competence of this team mixed with the warring personalities. Let's get to the twists in a minute. First, the plot.
On the hunt for whoever is using gamma-powered armor to decimate the Middle East, Red Hulk's investigation brings him to a former American living as a terrorist in (of all places this week) Chechnya. He interrogates the man and finds out about a local arms dealer who seems to have had a run in recently with the person behind the gamma armor. The TBolts wipe out the little terrorist cell and leave. They plan an attack on the arms dealer, still trying to get answers, and this is where we start to get to our twists. Red Hulk has teamed Deadpool and Punisher together in an interesting call of, essentially, "these two could handle one another if one turned out to be a problem." Deadpool reports to Red Hulk that Punisher is champing at the bit to take out all these people contacting the arms dealer, as is his way, and he fears that he might jeopardize the mission. Red Hulk tells Deadpool to keep his eyes open and take Punisher out if he has to. Of course, Punisher isn't acting that way and Deadpool is trying to set him up so he might be able to attack him. Meanwhile, inside the location, the scummy arms dealer is meeting with terrorists and makes a note of how much he likes women in burkas because he can wonder if they're as pretty under there as he might imagine them to be. Though the last arc and the general layout of these kinds of books might lead you to believe that it's Elektra in this burka. Punisher and Deadpool have their eyes on the meeting from a perch in a window and Deadpool pulls out a handgun to use on Punisher. A gun fires and, at the turn of the page, we find that Elektra wasn't in the burka but had a sniper rifle trained on Deadpool and took him down before he could make his move on Punisher. Out from under the burka comes Venom ("out from under" isn't exactly the right phrase, as the symbiote was creating the burka) and he, Elektra, Punisher, and Red Hulk tear up the place, finally getting to the arms dealer. They start to question him before he receives a phone call from the guy they're trying to find and it detonates an explosion.
Things are, like in each other book in this review, heating up again. The team is doing everything I would have hoped this team would be able to do. The twists of Venom in the burka and Elektra prepared to take down Deadpool changes the dynamic of the book. The Venom in the burka bit shows that Way isn't afraid to play with your preconceptions, which is always a nice touch for a book to have. The Elektra-Deadpool-Punisher thing is more what we can expect from the team. This team has a purpose and it will do what it has to do achieve it. If that means taking out a key member of the team, it will be done without second thoughts. Good issue and it feels like we've put this book back on solid footing.