Avengers Arena 9, Ultimates 24

Avengers Arena 9
Hopeless (w) and Walker and Gorder (a) and Beaulieu (c)

The mystery of Apex's gender-switching is revealed as the newfound Tim (far too few Tims in comics) stops Darkhawk and Juston's fight and tells their story. They're technopathic twins who share a body, female when Katy's in charge and male when Tim is. Katy is very much the devilishly clever aggressor we've seen throughout the series already and Tim is the pacifier who watches it all happen because Katy has overpowered him. He comes out after she's been defeated by the events of last issue and explains everything causing the other kids to vote on whether to kill him to stop Katy or not. They decide against killing him (in a big decision that ultimately causes Nico to cast Chase/Darkhawk out of the group) and tie him up. Unfortunately, when their guards are a bit lowered, Katy comes out again and takes control of Death Locket, freeing herself and finally killing Juston to take control of his Sentinel as she had tried to do way back in the first few issues. The narration comes from Tim all issue as he reveals to the audience that Katy plays these games and always plans to an end that only Katy could benefit from. Of course, the end of the issue reveals that this whole situation had been one of those plans and Tim knows that he's responsible for his sister's actions because he was incapable of sacrificing himself to stop her.

The moral dilemma behind good cop Tim and bad cop Katy is a really interesting question and definitely carries the issue and could carry more, assuming Apex sticks around for a while. Tim is responsible for Katy's evil insofar as he doesn't want to die himself. It's hard to blame him for that as accepting his role as a martyr to stop Katy is no easy feat, especially not for someone so young. Katy is clearly the more powerful of the two, having used her powers to force Tim back in the first place, and the more aggressive of the two. Tim prefers the passive, non-confrontational approach and, as a result, he ends up cleaning Katy's messes up more often than not. Add to this whole drama the drama of Nico kicking Chase out (and calling him the stupidest among them) and Death Locket's feelings for Tim and we have a full-bodied, worthwhile drama on our hands. Oh, and did I mention that Juston just died and Katy the technopath has access to what's left of his Sentinel?

I know I talked about all five Avengers-related books in my pre-game so it may have SEEMED like I would tie those five together in day one of reviews, but thanks to being unable to get my hands on Assemble so far, please enjoy this review for The Ultimates 24. GUYS, it's just a DIFFERENT Avengers team. It still totally fits.

Ultimates 24
Humphries (w) and Bennett and José (a) and Milla (c)

The J-Rice satellite is hurtling from space down onto Sacramento, exactly as Ford had planned. Tony is still captured, Thor and Sue are still on the moon with Black Knight and Cap is still in Washington with Quake (who reveals the whole plan, having herself been double-crossed). Thor is being goaded by Black Knight into keeping up the fight while Tony, who has managed to successfully call his heavy Iron Man armor to him, feels like he can stop the new and unbelievably powerful Wonder Man and Ford himself if he stays. However, Monica Chang points out about a million times that Tony staying outside of Bakersfield (in the top secret West Coast Ultimates HQ) and Thor staying on the moon is exactly what Ford wants and that they have to choose between stopping those guys or stopping the nuke from hitting Sacramento. The team one by one reforms on Sacramento and contains the nuke (with Sue doing the actual containing after Cap, Thor, and Tony slow down the nuke and destroy the container), winning the day. With the victory, Cap resigns his presidency, saying that the war is over and, though there are still threats looming on the horizon, the wartime president is no longer needed. For better or worse, he plans to put the power of choice back in the hands of Americans, despite protests from Tony (who says he's the most popular president pretty much ever) and Thor (who says that he's a born leader and the country needs a leader now).

The President Cap era seems officially ended, which is probably good because Steve seemed on the verge of killing people in his last few times being a diplomat. However, Thor nicely lays out for us how much story there still is left to resolve, including these new West Coast Ultimates and Spokesperson Ford, the appearance of the gems, the new Hydra, and the general discontent around the country. There are a few nice moments in this issue, including Cap prepared to die under the nuke as a symbol to the country (not knowing if the other heroes will arrive in time and being the least capable of stopping a nuke) and a nice full page panel of the three best-known Avengers/Ultimates working together to try to stop the nuke. There's still a lot to go here but the story of the West Coast Ultimates comes down to an intentionally anti-climactic finish as the various members of the real Ultimates have to abandon their fights to save Sacramento. Still, as I said, there's a lot to look forward to (including their reemergence) and this arc has left the series in a healthy spot.