Secret Avengers 10, Iron Man 17, Indestructible Hulk 14

Secret Avengers 10
Brisson (w) and Ross (a) and Wilson (c)

Infinity tie-in as one of SHIELD's own, a computer tech named Sarah Garza, turns out to be an Inhuman, accidentally destroying her own apartment building as her energy-based powers manifest. Fortunately, there were no casualties as the apartment had already been evacuated in the midst of Thanos' attack. Maria Hill decides to immediately deputize Sarah, who has no real training for this, and send her into New York's battlefield in desperate need of backup. With a modified Stark suit and minutes of training from James Rhodes, Sarah is deployed and instantly makes an impact, helping Rhodey, Fury, and Coulson hold back the aliens. Before they can celebrate too long, though, the small group is besieged by what appears to be another new Inhuman who blames Sarah for destroying their neighborhood.

Not a bad tie-in issue, to be sure. I'm a little annoyed with the timing of it, as I kind of stated in my pre-game this week if only because I think Secret Avengers has hit a nice little patch for itself and it's tough to see it interrupted right as it starts to get going (also when Bucky appears). Still, don't want to judge this book by the book it could have been so, looking at this issue by itself, it certainly stands up alright. Pretty solid writing and characterization with the creation of an interesting new character and an immediate threat presenting itself against that character specifically. It also seems to me a fairly tricky book to write, one that requires its protagonist not to be too skilled to start but to be able to learn quickly. If she's too skilled, you lose the character you've built and a semblance of (bear with me) realism. If she can't pick it up quickly, you don't have much of a book, considering this is a two-issue arc. I think Brisson did a nice job combating that by making her adapt fairly well and also putting her in a Stark suit. The suit allows for an explanation on how she is able to harness he powers so quickly; Tony Stark was ready for her. Easy enough! Good art by the talented Luke Ross and, as ever, great Matt Wilson colors, kind of evocative of Bettie Breitweiser, who excels in these war-torn colors.


Iron Man 17
Gillen (w) and Pagulayan and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

There was one more secret that the Starks were keeping, even from 451, at the time of their son's birth. Not trusting 451, Howard had kept a watchful eye over the birth of the boy and realized that 451 had implanted another piece to his DNA, a sort of genetic clock that would expire when the boy turned 30 or so. Howard created a cocktail in the hopes of stopping that clock, something he injected into Maria but that they kept secret successfully from 451. However, it ended up introducing a degenerative disease to their son, one that was barely kept at bay by medicine. Now, decades later, Tony has learned this secret and figured it out; he was always a decoy to show 451 that the child he'd masterminded was still alive while the real child he'd masterminded was hidden away, kept alive by science. Tony works it out and, at the Maria Stark Foundation Hospice, he finds his brother Arno. Tony was adopted, Arno is the child that 451 created, there are two Starks, Arno and the world are safe with 451 out of the picture, so on and so forth. Mic-drop from Kieron Gillen (coincidentally, the name of Gillen and McKelvie's third Young Avengers trade is set to be "Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space").

Lots of stuff to get into here and, well, I'm not quite sure how to take it. I really liked the Secret Origin of Tony Stark; it was bold, it was inventive, it was creative, it was a little crazy but it also fit the history of the character extremely well, giving us a big, bold change without sacrificing continuity, a rare feat. Now there's a big, bold change that, I would say again, doesn't really sacrifice continuity, but, somehow, it feels less strong. Tony's adopted. The upside of this is, of course, the one downside that Secret Origin had had before, which is that it reinstates Tony as a self-made genius, someone who grew under his father's tutelage and who excelled at being everything we've come to expect from Tony. That was kind of tainted under the Secret Origin explanation and now it's back, which I'd say is good for Tony as a character. Still, I liked the Secret Origin plot and I'm a little ambivalent to the secret addition of a second Stark. Mostly I'm holding off judgment. I immediately lauded Secret Origin for its boldness and its creativity but I'd rather hold judgment here as things get a little weirder. Still a good story and one that has potential to yield really interesting results but I'm not totally willing just yet to call it a masterstroke. I'm most interested to see where the addition of Arno Stark puts Tony. As great as it is to be back in a place where we know Tony has raised himself up to his current standing, Arno really is the masterpiece 451 created (minus the ability to physically do much of anything and the kill-switch). We already have hints that maybe Arno is more intelligent than Tony (though we have only Arno's word for that) while being, perhaps, a bit more down-to-earth as well (he's actually surprisingly tender with Tony). It'll be interesting to see where this lands everyone after the dust settles.

Indestructible Hulk 14
Waid (w) and Jacinto and Asrar (a) and Staples (c)

The last remaining Chronarchist is messing with Hulk's personal timeline, sending him to fit big enemies in various times and places all through history all while switching back and forth between Hulk personas. Regular Hulk, Mr. Fixit, Gladiator Hulk, they all appear. Banner, stuck in his bot, knows that they're quickly running out of time and that the fights, though Hulk is excited by them, are just distractions. The more time they take, the less chance Banner has of stopping the Chronarchist from changing Hulk's origin story. We find out at this point, of course, that Chronarchist is working on behalf of someone else, the god-you-really-should-have-seen-this-coming Zarrko. Banner manages to steer them to the Gamma Bomb site just in time. He transfers his consciousness into the actual Bruce Banner (albeit years too early) right as the bot itself breaks down. However, Hulk interferes, knocking Banner aside from the blast and getting hit with it himself. Banner isn't Hulk, but Hulk is now extra Hulk.

This is going to be a tricky one to talk about and to recover from. Time travel is always always always tricky. Because it doesn't exist and there aren't real rules but that didn't stop us (that's the collective us, nerds) from making multitudes of rules about it. Are we seeing a butterfly effect situation? Are we seeing divergent timelines? Are we seeing Looper-like time travel rules? Well, I just saw Looper yesterday and it seems like they might be our best chance to explain this. Joseph Gordon-Levitt shoots his future self who is sent back to the past (as all Loopers eventually do) then lives out the rest of his life on the Looper retirement plan. Eventually his life gets better and he falls in love (when he becomes Bruce Willis) and, as the mob come in to kidnap him and send him back to the past to be shot by JGL, they shoot his wife. He manages to then get sent back in time and stop JGL from shooting him, creating a new timeline based on the events of an old timeline. LOOK, it's very complicated and WHY did I just spend half a paragraph talking about Looper? Anyway, it was pretty good and maybe you should watch it if you like science fiction stuff in that realm (you're here, I know you do) and this is all my way of saying that it's hard to review this book because it continues to be good as an individual issue progressing the story but it's hard to judge it without the end of the story to look at. Okay? Okay.