Avengers Arena 12
Hopeless (w) and Walker and Gorder (a) and Beaulieu (c)
Katy is seemingly in charge of Murder World at this point and she's building to become better. She still has the Sentinel she stole from Juston, as well as complete control over Death Locket and Chase's Darkhawk. She debates internally whether or not she's the villain here but recognizes that it doesn't matter. Games don't have villains; they have winners and losers and she's winning. Unfortunately for her, not everyone is ready to lose. Nico Minoru, killed two issues ago, is going through something of a transformation out in the snow. Her hand, cut off by Chasehawk, is grafting back on to her body, her wounds are sealing, and the Staff of One is returned to her. In addition to returning to full health, she seems to have powered up enormously. Arcade watches and deduces that the loss of blood is responsible for her rebirth. To summon the Staff of One, Nico has to shed blood, usually done with a little cut or something else minor. This time, she's lost her hand and lost so much blood that the Staff recognizes her great sacrifice by upping her power and, as she called with her dying breath, helping her. She flies out to Katy and co and shows off her new power. She absorbs the forest fire that Katy has started to keep people away and instantly blows up the Sentinel. Katy, surprised by all of this, begins to fight back but is quickly running out of weapons. After Nico destroys the Sentinel, she disables Death Locket and delivers a couple of lighter blows to Chasehawk. Katy tells Nico that the only way to stop her is to kill Chase, which Nico won't do. Instead, Katy continues to use Chasehawk to attack Nico and Nico begins to lose her stamina again. Finally she deals a couple of blows to Chasehawk that take him out of the fight enough for her to focus on Katy and Death Locket. She uses a spell that pulls them underground, successfully ending the fight. Chase, free of Katy's influence, immediately begins apologizing to Nico, telling her that he's back in control now, and asking if she's in control. She hasn't said anything but spells since this whole thing started and Arcade speculated that her mind wasn't entirely there. Nico, though, assures Chase she's in control and okay and would rather fight with him later, if it's okay. Meanwhile, Katy and Death Locket have arrived underground, seemingly in Arcade's base. Death Locket is up and about but Katy has yet to move. Looking through a door's window into a room, Death Locket finds what appears to be Murder World's morgue.
Wow, big issue. For such a big issue, though, there's not a lot to add that you didn't see in the plot description. That doesn't make this a bad issue or anything along those lines, it just means it was a fight scene issue. Super important to plot, little bits about character here and there and maybe about story overall, but not huge character developments (aside from Nico being not dead, of course). There's still plenty to like about this issue and fight issues are a big part of superhero books so it's not like it's anything unexpected and jarring. Still, we get a good look at Nico's true potential with the new knowledge that a major blood sacrifice means bigger power for her. The plot advances a lot here and the art and colors are pretty huge so it's a certainly a book worth reading. Next issue we'll get the one that I made vague reference to in my pre-game this week about Hank Pym noticing that some of his Academy kids have gone missing and trying to piece together where they are in a guest book by Christos Gage and Karl Moline.
Secret Avengers 6
Spencer (w) and Guice and Magyar (a) and M. Wilson (c)
Last issue showed the team, led by Nick Fury, killing AIM's Scientist Supreme before revealing that AIM's Scientist Supreme is alive and well and representing AIM Island at the UN. So the question, the review page asks, is what
really happened on AIM Island? Look, I'm still not sure. What I am sure of is what actually happened in this issue. Okay, I'm not that sure on that but I'm more sure on that than on what happened on AIM Island. The issue takes place before and during the events of last issue. We see former MI13 official Charles Dalton becoming the new UN Security Council liaison to SHIELD and telling Maria Hill that they want to install her as the official director of SHIELD, replacing Daisy Johnson. There is a good moment for Maria here, few and far between, where she does throw some support Daisy's way before apparently accepting Dalton's support. Meanwhile, Coulson has brought in James Rhodes to talk to be patched in and linked with the AIM created Iron Patriots. To do that, though, they need Mockingbird and Taskmaster to patch them through the communications hub of AIM Island. Mockingbird arrives on Barbuda only to find that Taskmaster has seemingly no recollection of their mission (hearkening back to recent days where we've learned Taskmaster's abilities have pretty much overridden his memories). Daisy, back in the SHIELD helicarrier Iliad, is working with Agent Ellis Love of the Psy-Ops department to try to reestablish a link with Taskmaster to try to unearth those memories of his assistance to this cause. She manages to do it as Mockingbird is about to put him down (after putting down his little team). He remembers what he needs to remember and they go off to the comm hub to link Rhodey in. Rhodey berates the Iron Patriots and manages to convince them to install him as their new leader, which they do, sending a new suit to him. Finally, Maria and Dalton learn that Daisy has an operation running on AIM Island (to catch up with the start of last issue) and deem that it's enough for the Security Council to remove Daisy as head of SHIELD
It's hard to keep up with this book if just because it bounces around so often between so many different plots. I've seen some books do that and work (Captain Marvel and Avengers Assemble in the Enemy Within storyline are the most recent I can think of) but here it's a little jarring because we've also jumped back in time, forcing the reader to remember what's come before and to work with what's happening now. I would say that maybe this will feel firmer when it's collected in a trade but I'm not sure that it will, particularly with the time jumping. In a trade, it will just feel a little out of place. That's kind of how this book feels at the worst of times: out of place. Something isn't quite working for this book. There have been times where it's been solid and it's done a good job explaining its purpose and giving us an interesting story but it gets too muddled down by its own premises to really stick to its strengths. Instead, it highlights its weaknesses more and more. Butch Guice has some solid art and I do tend to like his work but overall this book remains a little too obsessed with trying to build a secret, covert feel. It should maybe try to stick to a single narrative or maybe two next time, putting fewer quick jumps between scenes and letting the reader get comfortable with a series that is still trying to establish itself.
Young Avengers 7
Gillen (w) and McKelvie (a) and M. Wilson (c)
The Young Avengers have been out and about for three months now, with their time out and about wonderfully broken down by Instagram-ish posts from Loki detailing some of their escapades in the time since we saw them last. Mostly, they've been on the trail of a handful of Skrulls who have been wreaking some amount of havoc ever since they attacked Kate and Noh-Varr in issue one. Finally, after three months, they've caught up with these Skrulls and taken them down only to find that they're not Skrulls at all. They're a different race of shapeshifters who have decided to live like Skrulls because they hero-worship Skrulls. After the six Skifflefuffles are picked up by galactic police, Loki can't help pointing out the similarities between the YA hero-worshipping the Avengers and acting as them. Meanwhile, Teddy and Noh-Varr have a rather lovely talk about Teddy's fear (thanks to Loki) that maybe Billy is accidentally reality-warping Teddy into loving him. Noh-Varr doesn't buy into it and comforts Teddy as the group makes their way back to Earth for breakfast. At their regular diner, they run into Prodigy who has been waiting for them to return. He tells them how he's been tracking them and why and they go with him to the warehouse where Speed was taken by the weird force. Loki manages to trace the entity that took Speed but determines that he's skipped dimensions, which would require lots of time to prepare and to teach Billy the proper spells (he's been helping Billy master his magic in the three months since last issue), unless, he says, there's someone who can speed the process of dimension hopping up. America steps up and opens their way into the multiverse with her mysterious multiverse-hopping powers which had hitherto been unknown to the team (aside from, apparently, Loki). They fall through the hole into the multiverse America has created and find the not-Patriot waiting for them there, Speed still trapped behind his eyes. He beckons to them and runs into another portal that seems to enter into another universe(s).
This book is pretty phenomenal all around. I know I've said that consistently since issue one but it holds true every issue. One of the best things about this book is that the characters don't come off as fake nor as caricatures of themselves or of what a teenager is constantly shown as in mediums written by non-teenagers. There is a real honesty to them and it's an honesty that keeps them both beholden to their several years of established character and to what it is to be that age. Every decision this issue made is a pretty perfect one, from a Skifflefuffle narrating the open in a Young Avengers sort of fashion (it's no mistake that there are six Skifflefuffles) and being quietly extremely similar in their makeup to the YA, to the Instagram breakdown of the last three months (complete with comments on the pictures from every member of the team except America, who doesn't have an account), to their seemingly constant decision to go to breakfast together, to the reveal that, though the team has grown relatively close off-camera, no one really knows America even after these three months together, to the subtle inclusion of Prodigy to the story. It all works beautifully and it all comes together perfectly. The Instagram page-spread had me wary on the look of it but it works amazingly well. It ties back to Gillen's decision in Journey into Mystery to make Kid Loki someone who loves the internet and to make everyone else (except, decidedly, America) act their age in the comments but not in a condescending sort of way. More than that, it's an easy and effective way to show that three months have passed, which is particularly good to see because we can jump right back into the book, knowing that these people have spent three months with one another and gotten over the sort of "how will this team work together" building phase of the typical team-book. No wasted space seems to be the theory of this book and it's working out wonderfully. Every character gets at least one or two moments to really shine here. If you're not reading this book, you're missing out on one of the best constructed books the Marvel Universe has to offer. Amazing.
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