Guardians of the Galaxy 11, Miracleman 2, Thunderbolts 21

Guardians of the Galaxy 11
Bendis (w) and Pichelli (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Guardians of the Galaxy are still on the search for Thanos and still hunted by J-Son for defying his orders to stay clear of Earth. This doesn't stop Peter Quill from going to all of his favorite seedy places either hoping they won't look in some place so obvious or hoping to get into a fight, depending on who you ask. He, of course, ends up being drugged by a Skrull bounty hunter and carried away. The Skrull doesn't get far, though, as Gamora and Angela happen to be nearby and see the female Skrull coming out of the bar with Quill. The two stop her and Angela, to the chagrin of Gamora, beheads her. They all return to the ship to find that Rocket has bugged a Badoon frequency and they hear talk of a recent council meeting that ended with the Shi'ar vowing to take Jean Grey from Earth and put her on trial for her crimes as the Phoenix. The Guardians decide to stop it and, as we saw in the last ALL-NEW X-MEN, arrive just a few moments too late.

One of my problems with GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (and, in truth, Bendis as a whole on occasion) is that it sometimes feels like it wants to wholly disregard the rest of the Marvel Universe, both from the past and in the present. There's a debate about whether a writer in comics should be bound by a character's often long and complicated chronology or if that writer should tell the story worth telling with the character, even if it conflicts with something in the history. I tend to believe more in the latter because I think times change and these characters are ridiculously old in some cases. However, I think some deference should be paid to the character itself. For example, I think Peter Quill did have that wry sense of humor back in his past but he was a bit more serious and a bit more of a true leader type, reluctant as he may be to accept it. This one seems like a full-on goof with an occasional Mal Reynolds-like flair for the dramatic. I think part of his change to flippancy is the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which has cast Chris Pratt, known best for his comedic turn as Andy in Parks and Recreation, in the role of Peter Quill. Still, it paints a different picture of Quill in the comics than what we'd seen before, seemingly changing his character to something it wasn't. In terms of the present-day incongruities, J-Son betrayed the council in INFINITY and, I guess I took it as assumed, the council knew of his betrayal. Captain Marvel and the Avengers knew for sure, I suppose it's possible that Captain America, learning the news, wouldn't have told anyone else in the council? It...seems unlikely. Yet here they are, their whole council reconvened and not mentioning it with J-Son flippant as his son for no real reason. Perhaps this, and other Bendis books, are meant to only be read as one series, telling the story he set out to tell with the characters with which he set out to tell it. Maybe they read perfectly fluidly by themselves. But when you're part of a bigger universe like this, you at least have to play by the rules of that universe a bit, not just when they're helpful to you (the Shi'ar must punish Jean Grey for her crimes as the Phoenix).

Miracleman 2
Moore (w) and Leach (a) and Oliff (c) and Anglo (w and a)

A couple more collected stories from WARRIOR as we see the first meeting between Mike Moran and Johnny Bates since Moran's memory of Marvelman returned. Johnny Bates, of course, was Kid Marvelman back in the early days but now, claiming to have lost his powers in the explosion that killed Young Marvelman, he's a normal human who owns an incredibly successful tech company. He invites Mike and Liz to his offices to talk but Mike quickly realizes things aren't as they seem. He asks Liz to leave and accuses Johnny of still having his powers and of lying for some nefarious purpose, which is certainly the case as Johnny reveals that he kept his powers after the explosion and now found himself the most powerful being on Earth at 16 and with no one to stop him. He, of course, is now a sociopath who wants only to rule and to destroy and his powers are stronger and he's more experienced than Marvelman. He annihilates Marvelman in combat and turns to face London as he wonders what to do next.

It's certainly an enticing story, one with an equal parts tragic and terrible villain for Marvelman's return to the modern era (safe and sound in good old 1982). It's a classic superhero story as the superhero gains his powers (or, in this case, regains) and finds himself pitted against an ultimate foe, someone seemingly better than him in every way and who has a personal connection to our hero. Most interestingly, this book reads like a modern comic more than most other books from the early '80s, without too much over explaining and with art that would fit into today's pantheon as well as any other era's. For someone who is solely a modern day reader, you may find the narration captions a bit overkill (though there are still some books that employ narrative captions today, they're far and few between. The biggest example I can think of from current Marvel is UNCANNY AVENGERS but even that one varies in how often it uses them, issue-to-issue) but that doesn't take anything away from the writing. Good book, certainly worth checking out and comparing to the books of then and now. Or just reading it because it's pretty good.

Thunderbolts 21
Soule (w) and Barberi (a) and Silva w/ Campbell and Mason (c)

The majority of the Thunderbolts are in Hell with Ghost Rider while Elektra and Punisher await their return with something resembling patience. In Hell, Ghost Rider tries to find a personal hell, a hell crafted specifically by a demon to ensure maximum punishment and pain to a single inhabitant, because those are easier to return to Earth from. However, their search for the perfect hell draws the notice and ire of Mephisto, who had since claimed Red Hulk as his own personal plaything. Unfortunately for Mephisto, he's no longer ruler of Hell and can't really enforce his ownership over the hell mark on Red Hulk's chest. This leads Leader to an idea: make an actual deal with the actual devil to get them out of Hell and put Mercy in it in exchange for dethroning the new ruler of Hell, who, of course, turns out to be Guido, formerly of X-Factor. Meanwhile, Elektra and Punisher go on an assassin journey as Elektra gets a job while the others are out of town. As Punisher begins to question how Elektra can know that she's assassinating people who deserve it, the entire house they're staking out is abruptly and violently destroyed. Mercy appears to Elektra, fresh off destroying the house, and demands to know where Red Hulk and Leader are.

Another good issue as the Thunderbolts are separated and have plenty to deal with on their plates. There's a nice moment for Leader as he gets to exercise his brain a bit constructing a legally binding contract with the devil. It's also an interesting juncture for the reader as we have to wonder whether he's putting things in there that will hurt Red Hulk or, say, Deadpool, who wants his own secret request added into the contract. Meanwhile, Ghost Rider chats with Venom about the purpose of the team and seems into the idea, leading to the probable induction of a new teammate. It's all made even more compelling as the Thunderbolts realize that Guido is the new ruler of Hell and they'll have to kill someone who's been a pretty good guy in the past in order to get what they want and fulfill their promise to Mephisto. As if that weren't enough to entertain, Elektra and Punisher, the two potentially least powerful members of the team (or, at least, most human, somehow), have to face down Mercy while the Thunderbolts in Hell get their business together. Should be a fun time because this book is constantly a fun time.

Superior Spider-Man 26, Thor: God of Thunder 18

Superior Spider-Man 26
Slott (w) and Ramos, Rodriguez, Martin, Olazaba, and Lopez (a) and Delgado, Rodriguez, and Martin (c)

It's a story on three fronts as Goblin fights Hobgoblin, the Avengers demand answers from Spider-Man, and Peter Parker tries to navigate his way through a now barren mindscape. Each story is rather self-contained (though obviously part of the bigger story that's happening) and each one is illustrated by a different artist. Goblin and Hobgoblin battle mano y mano to decide who will lead New York's Goblins. The battle culminates in Hobgoblin deciding, after seeing a scar on Goblin's chest, that Goblin really is Norman Osborn and then promptly getting his head cut off. Good news for Roderick Kingsley, though, it wasn't really Roderick Kingsley but a surrogate he had trained just like the new one he's training. Story two has Spider-Man answering questions from the Avengers about why he'd delete the tests the Avengers ran and the camera footage of his tests. He rebuts these questions by saying that he doesn't want people to know his identity more than they have to and wasn't that the point of Civil War and also he's done weird stuff in the past and they haven't asked questions so why should it be any different now and oh, it's because he's an Avenger now, well he quits. So that's that. Meanwhile, in Spider-Man's mindscape, Peter wanders around, weak as he's ever been and missing the memories that made him him. The only memories of Peter that remain are the ones Otto had to look at back when he had the full range of them. Fortunately, these are all memories of great strength for Peter and it gives him the inspiration to keep moving forward and to find a way to retake his body.

OKAY, so apparently we're NOT actually fully at GOBLIN NATION yet and somehow this is lasting longer than the buildup to INHUMANITY and other such stories (but it's not as long as FEAR ITSELF, nothing is as long as FEAR ITSELF). Despite that, all three stories are interesting and important, not to mention well-presented. The secret of the Green Goblin's identity persists, even if Hobgoblin is sold, and Slott clearly wants us to keep asking. On top of that, only former Hobgoblin associate Phil Urich knows that the Hobgoblin his new boss killed isn't Kingsley and he can't spread the news around without Goblin losing claim to Hobgoblin's men. Back to Spider-Man, it seems like the Avengers are more suspicious than ever and things may be turning in that direction soon. Finally, there's the added twist that, even when Peter gets his body back, he likely won't have his full range of memories available to him so his messy life may not get cleared up quite so quickly. Good issue, plenty happening and lots to look forward to.

Thor: God of Thunder 18
Aaron (w) and Pastoras (a and c)

A one-off issue (though we've said that before only to have that one-off come back and mean everything in other series) as Jason Aaron closes out arc three with a tale of young Thor attempting to assist some worshippers on Midgard by finding out who has been attacking their dogs and their crops. The worshippers blame the dragon Skabgagg but Thor discovered that Skabgagg wasn't the problem, a group of trolls were. He and Skabgagg teamed up to defeat them then were both celebrated by the worshippers (a tribe of viking women). They return a few days later to their respective homes where Thor rests and recovers and presumably gets reamed out by Odin. Skabgagg, meanwhile, goes home and immediately fights with his father about what it is to be a dragon. He storms off and goes back to the vikings to keep partying. However, his drunken spiral gets worse and worse and the vikings have to call Thor back to deal with it all. He tries to talk the dragon down but the dragon won't be talked down and Thor has to fight Skabgagg with, if you know Thor, pretty predictable result. Thor returns home a bit sobered by the experience.

It's not a bad little story and Dan Pastoras' art is certainly a good fit for it. Unless Skabgagg and the other dragons of Skabgagg's family return down the line, I can't say this will have a lot of bearing on the title as a whole but it's another in a seemingly endless supply of "Thor grows up" issues littered through his history. The fact we've seen these lessons before, though, doesn't preclude the possibility that this one is worth reading. It's still a pretty good story, maybe a little heavy-handed at times, and the art shines through on Pastoras' little one-shot issue. We get a bit more of Thor's character as he grows up just a little bit and edges ever closer to the Thor we know. Next issue, Jason Aaron promises in a somewhat oddly timed letter to the audience afterwards (the letter itself is pretty neat, in terms of replacing a fan letter page with a letter from the writer to kind of say where we are and where we're going but it's a somewhat unusual thing for a Marvel book to have and it almost makes it feel like Aaron is asking fans to stick with the book), we'll see another big storyline that pits Thor against a threat to Earth and teams him with SHIELD agent Roz Solomon (from WAAAAAY back in issue twelve) and will also bring back King Thor and introduce us to Old Galactus all with the incredible art of original series artist Esad Ribic. Should be neat.

X-Men Legacy 23, Uncanny X-Force 17

X-Men Legacy 23
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung (a) and Villarrubia (c)

David's world worm is in full effect as he finds himself trapped in his own mind while the sum of his powers begin to envelop everyone around him, calling forth all mutants to join him, which they do, convinced by David's powers that it's for the best. The only one who isn't called into David is Blindfold, who tries to stop the other mutants from being taken but who also recognizes that she won't be able to. She enters David's mind as her physical body keeps fighting the world worm outside and the two of them talk. It's a surprisingly soft talk with everything that's happening outside and it has a lot to do with his regret that he won't be able to spend more time with Ruth. It's then, though, that the smallest of loopholes occurs to him (particularly notable since he also spends a fair amount of time lamenting that the beautiful people in this world always get loopholes and manage to worm their way out of death but he just worms his way into it. Get it? Worms. Guys, I'm working on LAYERS here): one of the powers he's gestalt-ed into him is the powers of the Chronodon, who can make time stand still. He uses these powers not to stop anything that's about to happen but to give himself and Ruth just a little more time. And then they make love in that time.

This series and this story have been incredible all the way through, highlighted by a very distinct narrator and protagonist but certainly helped by a well-developed and maintained supporting cast. In the end, though, this was always meant to be a love story between David and Ruth and finally, after 23 issues, they get their moment. Albeit, it's a short lived one as they had to literally stop time to have it and their return to time will return their physical forms to fighting with one needing to kill the other to ensure their better future, but it's still a moment. It's a lovely moment at that and it's backed by an issue that gives us exactly what we've come to expect from this book; it's a solid mix of action, high stakes, and character drama with the typical comic book world-ending possibility and, as David knew it would, it all comes down to punching. Really great visual issue too. Striking images and jarring colors (lots of yellow and grey) really help to highlight everything that's happening and give it sort of an epic feel. So excited for the last issue but also so incredibly depressed by the idea of it.

Uncanny X-Force 17
Humphries (w) and Tolibao, Soy, Tadeo, Young, and Paris (a) and Curiel (c)

The conclusion of UNCANNY X-FORCE, CABLE AND X-FORCE, and the VENDETTA crossover itself kicks off with Hope plunging the psimitar into Bishop's gut. Bishop, though, convinces her to take the psimitar out without actually killing him by again pointing out that he's totally sorry but more so that she shouldn't throw her life away by killing and that she shouldn't throw her life away on him. Not to say he wouldn't deserve it, he admits, but that it's still not worth it (it doesn't hurt that he's not a threat any more). With this, the rest of the X-Force teams locate and attack Stryfe, splitting into two groups, one to attack Stryfe and one to locate their missing teammates. The attack on Stryfe is well-managed by Psylocke but ultimately fails to the omega-level mutant. Stryfe captures everyone in a telekinetic hold except for Spiral, who had left earlier, and Cable, who was still removed from the fight. Spiral, though, hadn't actually left officially but had, instead, gone to pick up Cable and they return to stab Stryfe with the psimitar, which does not kill him but does force him to flee. However, before he goes, he forces Hope to take his powers, knowing she can't contain them and will likely kill them all with the psychic reverb. With Stryfe gone, everyone is free to worry about Hope exploding but, before she can, Bishop rushes forth and talks to her, understanding what she's going through as someone whose powers also rely on absorption and release. Bishop manages to get her to contain the power and then blast it upwards, impacting no one. With everyone safe, the two teams reconvene and hang out a bit, effectively ending the books with Psylocke and Cable walking into the sunset together.

It's not a bad little ending but most of it hinges on Bishop and Hope, which is certainly a worthwhile story and one that's executed as well as anything in these two series has been. However, it also means that the rest of the players in this book kind of get pushed to the side a little and actually end up feeling a little unnecessary. The story was never about them and their rescue of the hostages only ended up serving as a distraction for Cable to get to Stryfe. Kind of a weird way to end the two series, which is kind of what I've been saying since the get-go. I've also been saying that this crossover has hit every beat in a sort of predictable fashion and, with the quality of the issue aside, this issue is no different. Still, like I said, the story of Cable, Hope, and Bishop was one certainly worth telling and I think it's told pretty well here. I don't think either of these series got to end on a particularly strong note with this crossover, sadly, but it's certainly an acceptable note and it paves the way rather nicely for Si Spurrier's X-FORCE next month (woo!).

Uncanny Avengers 16, Avengers Assemble 23, Inhumanity 2

Uncanny Avengers 16
Remender (w) and McNiven, Dell, and Leisten (a) and L. Martin (c)

With most of the Unity Squad pulled into the ark, it's up to Thor, Wasp, and Captain America to stop the ark from leaving with all of the world's mutants and save the world from execution at the hands of the Celestial Exitar. Fortunately, the arrival of Exitar has not gone unnoticed and some of the big science brains in the Marvel Universe (non-mutant) are busy working on solutions. Thor's got his own solution too, which is to find Jarnbjorn and talk with Exitar or, barring that, hopefully kill him before he can attack the Earth. Knowing that the Apocalypse twins have Jarnbjorn, Thor attacks Uriel and Eimin in the ark. He frees Steve from his captivity (Cap-tivity) and together they manage to separate the twins, which stops the biggest of their powers from working. While Thor whales on Uriel, Cap manages to outmaneuver Eimin and launch her out of the spaceship (it was pretty cool you guys). Thor follows Uriel to Jarnbjorn and punches up Uriel some more. Meanwhile, Wasp is trying to shut down the tachyon dam that's keeping Immortus from entering with his reinforcements but gets interrupted by Grim Reaper, who tells her the only way to shut the dam down is to kill him first. Back on the ship, Thor continues to annihilate Uriel, eventually shoving him into an exploding portal, potentially killing him. As Thor follows the explosion to the exterior of the ship, he finds Eimin, holding Jarnbjorn in the shadow of Exitar, ready to fight him for it.

Very intense issue. While I like this whole team and I think Remender's done a good job overall to develop the entire time and to grant focus to everyone at various points, I think this issue benefits from the small remaining team. It's a big issue with lots going on and it really highlights very good one-on-one battles between, particularly, Thor and Uriel and Cap and Eimin (we don't see a lot of Wasp and Grim Reaper). It also gives us a chance to really settle into this plot which has multiple parts. McNiven's art is very good and well suited for the story, particularly with the Cap stuff. Laura Martin holds her own too, giving the art a sense of weight and scale that matches the tone of the story. Even with all of the plot going on and all of the battles, there are some really nice character moments tucked away in this issue, including Cap's admission, while battling exactly the way he intends to battle, that he's maybe a bit past his prime, Thor's deference to Cap as a leader, and Thor's reaction to seeing Scarlet Witch killed. Very good issue all around and this one remains one of the better Avengers titles and, even without the mutants around, one of the better X-titles. Good stuff.

Avengers Assemble 23
DeConnick and W. Ellis (w) and Buffagni (a) and Woodard (c)

Araña and Spider-Woman talk with Maria Hill about the Toxie Doxie situation and Hill sends some information over while the two spiders chat. Shortly, though, Spider-Woman tags out for Wolverine, mostly benched by Cap while he figures out the healing factor business, and he and Anya make for Covington's lab, but not before Wolverine can thoroughly chew out Spider-Girl for unpreparedness. Freshly decked out in a new costume that isn't just her spandex, Anya accompanies Wolverine to the lab and the two of them take down the assistants and looters within, finally getting some answers from one of Covington's assistants who reveals that the man in the cocoon may still be alive. Covington herself has also gotten some answers as well as she's tracked down the man who delivered her the exploding cocoon and learned that it was a New York AIM branch who had it delivered to her. Now powered with some Inhuman DNA, she's ready to make a move.

This book has been a fun one throughout its run (sadly ending soon) and this issue manages to straddle the line of being very fun and pretty serious. After a nice little learning and bonding session from Spider-Woman (with an amazing reference to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, an incredible cartoon also ended before its time though that one was replaced with something far worse and AVENGERS WORLD will likely still be pretty good, though probably pretty different), the tone changes as Wolverine takes charge and demands that Spider-Girl stop treating her life like it's a game. The Wolverine in this book is a really strong one, one who clearly has the weight of his life on his shoulders. He's not incapable of making a joke or two but he has things he needs to say before he can get to it and Spider-Girl, even with her teenage ways, can't help but bow to his requests and understand his reasons for making them. There's an interesting plot going on here but it's really only a backdrop to the great character work and fun writing that's happening in the foreground. Matteo Buffagni's a good choice for the book as his art is both not entirely cartoony and yet not entirely realistic so it fits nicely with the tone. Good work all around.

Inhumanity 2
Fraction (w) and Bradshaw, Nauck, Hanna, and Palmer (a) and Fabela and Mossa (c)

After a bit of a stall in the last couple months (hindered by creator differences and a complicated shipping schedule thanks to the holiday season) INHUMANITY pushes on as we see up close and personal what's going on with the Inhumans themselves as the Terrigenesis Wave spreads through the world. For Medusa, leader of the Inhumans, she must tamp down the presumed loss of her husband (Black Bolt was still in Attilan as it fell and has not been seen since, though we know he's alive) and the disappearance of her son (Ahura and all other Inhuman children have gone missing since the teleports out of the city) as she leads the Inhumans into this new world. To make matters more complicated, the human world is looking for answers and many have reacted in different ways, with some humans experimenting on cocoons or capturing them for study and some thought-gone Inhumans re-emerging to take the cocoons for their own, presumably to build an army against the current throne. There's plenty for Medusa to do and she starts by crashing down with a small team on an AIM base where experiments on the cocoons have taken place and ensures they don't have anything to experiment on and that the fear of Inhumans has been struck in their human hearts.

It's not a bad issue but it's a little hard not to separate from the time between where we've already seen so much happen. Even in books like IRON MAN we've seen Medusa in a proactive role, though this book gives the sense that it took her a bit of time to reach that point. Not a long time, mind, she steps up when she needs to step up, but enough that there are some tensions among her people and even within her own mind. However, the separation between the end of INFINITY and this issue isn't the most jarring thing about this issue; that award goes pretty firmly to Nick Bradshaw's art. All of the women look both sort of anime and super-feminized. All the women, as opposed to the men in the book, have the classic big, bright eyes with completely unblemished skin and big, pouty mouths, none of which seems to work with the tone of the book and none of which works with me on a personal level. With that said, it's hard to take the tone of the book seriously, which is too bad because, removed from the art, it seems to hit on the chords Fraction wants it to hit. Can't really recommend this one because I don't think it's going to give you a huge look at this event or status quo change or whatever this is from an angle we're not seeing done just as well elsewhere and the art really drags this one down.

Comics this week

GUYS. ONLY 14 BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK. AND THAT INCLUDES SOME THAT I MAY NOT EVEN REVIEW! WHAT A WEEK! PRAISE BE TO THE END OF JANUARY.

Inhumanity 2
Little confused about this one going into the week so that should be good for us! INHUMANITY continues after a bit of a wait in INHUMANITY 2, previously known as INHUMANITY - MEDUSA. Why the change? Well smart money says its in the crossfire of the switch from Fraction to Soule as writer on INHUMANITY. Who's writing this issue? Who knows! But it should probably be a big one!

Superior Spider-Man 26
With GOBLIN NATION just getting under way and impacting the entire Spider-Man universe and with the knowledge that Peter Parker is still alive inside his own mind somewhere, things are set to start ramping up for this series before April's launch of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Now seems as good a time as any to get onboard if you've been curious.

Thunderbolts 21
Fun! Whimsy! Adventure! Most of the Thunderbolts in Hell and Elektra and Punisher likely facing off against Mercy! Just read this book and enjoy it, you guys.

Uncanny Avengers 16
Things are happening in this book and they've been happening for quite some time in this book. All of the mutants have been whisked away to the ark and put into stasis for the journey, seemingly ending any hope at rebellion against the Apocalypse twins. So what stands in their way? Well it seems probably not Earth since the Earth has been sentenced to death for the death of a Celestial. Geez guys, didn't you have enough problems already?

X-Men Legacy 23
This amazing title has reached its penultimate issue. Well, I mean, it's going to number 25, which will be number 300, but that won't really have to do with David and won't be by Si Spurrier. Well, Spurrier will have a story in it and it might focus on David, I don't know that. OKAY LOOK, this book has been incredible and the story we know is rushing towards its conclusion in the very next issue. Seems like maybe this is a bit of a weird time to jump on but seriously, give this book your money while you have the chance (also buy the trades and tell every single person you know about it, regardless of everything else you know about them).



Here's one of the super awesome things though: THESE FIVE BOOKS ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION. There's also CATACLYSM - ULTIMATES' LAST STAND, which will likely feature the death of a hero whose image is STILL blocked out on certain sites despite the fact they didn't block it out in the back of last week's CATACLYSM - ULTIMATE X-MEN. There's UNCANNY X-FORCE, which will end the VENDETTA crossover and will effectively say goodbye to both CABLE AND X-FORCE and UNCANNY X-FORCE in one fell swoop. There's MIRACLEMAN 2, another fully colored reprint of Alan Moore's original series. There's THOR: GOD OF THUNDER, which will mark the start of another new arc for a series that so violently jumps back and forth between really good and tolerable and may ALSO mark the return of Esad Ribic art. REVOLUTIONARY WAR - KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON is out this week and it stars...the KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON, one of whom is UNION JACK. GUYS. I've only NOT named like, four books and frankly, even some of them will probably catch your eye. Look, what I'm saying is get to your comic book store this week and check out some of these neat books coming out this week.

This week's picks

Pretty good week for comics. I'd say there were a solid handful up near the top, worthy of consideration for the top three (marred by the fact that two pretty quickly took two of the top spots), plenty of books that drifted between "fine" and "good" and really none that slumped into "unreadable" or even "irredeemable." This blog should be called the Irredeemable Unreadable. Anyway. Picks!

Black Widow 2

After a very impressive debut just two short weeks ago, BLACK WIDOW lands on the top picks again with another thought-provoking, character-driven and absolutely gorgeous book. This one is particularly neat because you open the comic and the very first page is a beautiful full-page panel of Natasha flipping away from a car crash ("flipping" perhaps implies a little too much intent). There's a lot to like here and it's not hard to find it all. The action scenes are very impressive and well choreographed, the quieter moments hold their spots perfectly, Natasha's dialogue is exactly what you'd want it to be, the art continues to be amazing (guys, I can't stress how pretty this book is), we get some plot both with the introduction of the Iron Scorpion and with Isaiah's sudden ability to take care of problems. It's just a very interesting, very well made book. I'm really looking forward to this one and I think everyone should probably get in on the ground floor of it now.

Hawkeye 16

Proving that sequential numbering isn't for everyone, HAWKEYE 16 leapt ahead of HAWKEYE 15 in release date and shows, for anyone who may have been asking, that Kate Bishop can absolutely kill in two issues back-to-back about her. I don't know who possibly could have been asking that but, as much as I like the idea of the alternating story and I rather miss seeing what's happening with Clint, Fraction has made Kate such a compelling and entertaining character, pulling her from her more rigidly set YOUNG AVENGERS past and giving her solo adventures the likes of which have never been seen and she's knocking it out of the park every time. Add to that Annie Wu's incredible art and her uncanny ability for expression and emotion and this is a book with both immediate payoff and re-readability through the roof. Look, I love this title anyway and I don't know what else I can say to convince you but this book is amazing.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 9

I like the Spider-Man team-up books in general, with AVENGING SPIDER-MAN earning a special place in my heart and now SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP pulling in good issue after good issue, but this one feels different in a way because of just how tied to the current plot of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN it appears to be. Up to now, the team-up books have been good and extremely entertaining for the most part but have been pretty self-contained. Instead, this one has its roots very much in the GOBLIN NATION arc from SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN and has repercussions that must be felt throughout both books. Also, the writing is impressive, the art is fantastic, and the characterization is spot on. One of the things that always impresses me about this book and AVENGING SPIDER-MAN before it is the adaptability of the writer to pull in a score of other characters, write them for only an issue or two, and somehow nail down the personality. Impressive feat and Kevin Shinick does it every bit as well as people like Christos Gage and Christopher Yost. Great stuff here, enough even to beat out other top picks contenders X-MEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, and IRON MAN.

Wolverine and the X-Men 40, Origin II 2, Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3

Wolverine and the X-Men 40
Aaron (w) and Larraz (a) and Milla (c)

The kids of the Jean Grey School (well, the kids we always see, anyway, sorry Young X-Men) have figured out that Joseph and Josephine are not quite on the level and, though they're disappointed that they couldn't sway them to be cool about everything (particularly saddened by Joseph, who seemed to actually be taking to the school), they resolve to show them everything by having them take a tour with the bamfs. The bamfs jump them from dangerous spot to dangerous spot to dangerous spot in the school and eventually the pair return, shaken and more uptight. The students are still ready to fight if need be but Joseph finally makes his decision and uses his guns to stun his sister. They resolve to have Quentin put new memories into the pair of them, making them forget this whole thing, and to go report back to Dazzler with no real information. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Cyclops have finally finished fighting all of the Sentinels at the mostly abandoned SHIELD base and they search around for first aid. Wolverine is satisfied when they come across the beer supply and the two of them sit and drink beers and talk about things. Cyclops prods Wolverine to figure out why exactly he (and everyone else) hates him so much and Wolverine reveals that it's largely driven by the fact that they shouldn't be hating him. They don't want Cyclops to be the image of the militant mutant or the mutant that people need to be scared of. That should be Wolverine's job. The two don't necessarily bury the hatchet but it's one of the best interactions they've had together since SCHISM and they leave amicably enough.

Not a bad issue. I didn't really need the Joseph/Josephine storyline at all, let alone for as long as it took. I think that storyline will perhaps mean a little more after the next couple of issues drop, with Jason Aaron ending his 40+ issue run on the title with issue 42. If this was his way of mostly saying goodbye to the kids and the school, I think it works fine. If he goes on to do another big goodbye to them all or something, I'm not sure how necessary it is. It's certainly readable but it does carry on a bit past when you get the point and know how things are going to shape up. The Wolverine and Cyclops bit, though, is very well done and hints at the sort of thing that's been happening a little more recently, building on the last issue of X-MEN LEGACY which saw the two fight side by side and even on the ongoing A+X storyline which finds Cap more willing to work with Cyclops than when the story started. It's a nice conversation between the two and it's pretty real. It's also the second book this week (coming in after MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN) that posits that Wolverine is allowed to kill and be the dangerous one because he knows who he is. Weird moral, you guys.

Origin II 2
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin (c)

There's been rumor of a polar bear who wandered too far south into Canada and killed a wolf pack before being murdered by some other unknown creature, like a wildcat but as big and strong as a man. There are two entities that have heard about the strange happenings, Dr. Nathaniel Essex, to whom the bear belonged, and, thanks to one of Essex's blabbermouth trackers (no longer employed/alive), an independent businessman named Hugo and his trackers Clara, good with animals, and Victor Creed, ace tracker. As the two units set out on their own ways, Essex's Marauders run into Wolverine after a gas-based attack draws him out of the woods. He attacks Essex's men but leaves as quickly as he came. After that, Creed tracks him down to an undergrowth and helps capture him for Hugo, to the chagrin of Clara. Hugo, of course, then quickly puts him center-stage in his circus.

I still like this story, its presentation, its characters, and the art of the book. I will say that I have a feeling that ORIGIN II, even as a concept, is a little flawed in a world where we suddenly know SO MUCH about Wolverine and his history. Sure he's lived for over a hundred years at this point so there's plenty out there we still don't know but we now know more than we did. ORIGIN, the first book in this story, came out in 2001 and a lot has changed in a little over a decade for the character. On top of Wolverine's actual memories being restored, the Marvel market has been absolutely saturated with Wolverine in the last several years. He's starred in an untold number of comic books, he's been in a score of major motion pictures, and we've delved pretty deep into his past in every medium in which he's appeared. That doesn't make ORIGIN II a bad book or a bad story or not worth reading, it just means that it almost can't feel necessary. I will say, masterstroke by Marvel in putting Kieron Gillen on this book. Gillen's a guy who, just in the last couple of years, rewrote Loki, one of Marvel's earliest full-fledged villains, into a totally new character and managed to give Iron Man, founding Avenger and star of his own set of major motion pictures, an almost entirely different backstory that somehow still perfectly fits with his history. If anyone can make this meaningful, I trust that Gillen can. Worth sticking with it if just for that, particularly as the price of this one dropped to a more reasonable 3.99.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3
Fialkov (w) and A. Martinez, J. Lucas, and R. Fernandez (a) and Bellaire (c)

Rogue powers herself up with everybody's power set (except Beak, turns out she didn't need any of that) and amps THAT up with Amp's power set. She vows that no one else will die and charges headfirst into the swarm. She goes a little crazy up there but manages to do a solid amount of damage to Gah Lak Tus. Unfortunately, she's too late to safe Pixie, who is dying pretty quickly on the ground. The X-Men have to pull her back down and out of her rage so that she can take Pixie's powers and get them all home but getting her out of her rage is a little harder than they bargained for. Rick Jones leaps into action and helps fight alongside Rogue but, more importantly, relates to her about his recent past and everything he's learned from it and who he's chosen to be as a result. The talk (and the fact that he can touch and kiss her without dying thanks to his cosmic powers) inspires her to come back down but she refuses to take Pixie's power since the energy she'll take will certainly kill her. Pixie wants it done, though, as she's dying either way and wants the others to live so she touches Rogue's face and dies peacefully. Rogue prepares to make the jump but, to her continued disappointment, Rick stays behind to give them a chance to go without the swarm. He swears he'll make it out and, I have to say, we have no reason not to believe him. They arrive back home and see that Galactus is still out there and Rogue rallies them to fight him no matter the cost.

It's a nice little story and a fitting finish for the Ultimate X-Men as Rogue has to overcome her issues and understand who she is before she can save the world. The pacing is good as each beat seems pretty necessary, either for plot or for characterization (there's even a nice little moment between Beak and Pixie as Beak helps to care for her while she slips away), and the action moves particularly well. There was maybe a little too much happening in this issue to drop focus on too many of the people there but I don't think it hurts the book in any way. You don't need to know what Guido's doing if Rogue and Rick Jones are fighting against time to destroy the Gah Lak Tus swarm and only have twenty pages to do it. In fact, you never really think about the characters on the ground not integral to what's happening through all of the action, which seems like a pretty good misdirect for Fialkov to pull off. That guy knows how to handle a script and how to handle action. Marvel took a risk putting this event pretty much into the hands of someone who hadn't worked a ton on their books before but I think it's really paid off and turned into a nice and pretty well-structured event, though there might be one too many books out there because it's starting to feel like it's dragging a bit. Fortunately, that doesn't really bite the X-Men because their story is so different from everyone else's. Good work all around.

All-New X-Factor 2, Cable and X-Force 19

All-New X-Factor 2
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

X-Factor enters the AIM lab to try to find Dr. Hoffman and Quicksilver and Gambit are almost instantly whisked away into traps, leading Polaris to start ripping the place apart. As the lab reacts and launches gas at her, she vaults into the holding cell where they're keeping Fatale. The traps that Quicksilver and Gambit were pulled into are ultimately beatable and the two reunite pretty quickly. The invasion, though, has drawn the notice of Hoffman and he's begun to launch into his testing. He had been draining the power from mutants Fatale, Reaper, and Abyss to charge himself up and to give himself a bunch of energy based powers. As Polaris tries to fight back, Quicksilver and Gambit rush on to the scene, with Quicksilver giving Gambit an opportunity to toss a kinetic card into the monster Hoffman's ear, destroying him from the inside out. Hoffman himself is alive but unconscious as the power dissipates. As the team regroups, Fatale, Reaper, and Abyss want to kill Hoffman but Polaris and Quicksilver won't let them. The appearance of Quicksilver, though, gives them an ample enough hate to turn their focus to him (fun fact: Quicksilver is hated by like, everybody). They leave, though, and swear their revenge someday.

Bit of a strange issue. It's also one of those issues that annoys me because it highlights some possible level of hypocrisy in me. I often think about long first arcs and wonder if it maybe hurt the book to stay in one story for so long to kick it off. In some cases, I think it works really well, like with CAPTAIN AMERICA and with THOR: GOD OF THUNDER (which did eventually wear on me a bit but was mostly solid and was technically two arcs, though it really was just one). Yet when this book comes along and gives a two issue arc to establish our characters, at least half of our team (the splash page indicates there may be more on the way) has been introduced, and we see a plot resolved, I'm left wanting maybe a bit more. It's not a bad issue, per se, just one that feels like we missed chunks of story that were maybe important. It also does the Marvel thing of playing with what exactly it is to be mutant. Right now, Rick Remender has Red Skull walking around the Marvel Universe with Charles Xavier's actual brain in him to give him telepathy while Peter David here explains that Dr. Hoffman was able to drain the energy from mutants to gain powers that may or may not be THEIR powers but are powers. Kind of have to overlook that. The ending is also a bit abrupt as everything winds down quickly and the issue ends with Gambit quipping about Quicksilver. Bit of a strange read, really.

Cable and X-Force 19
Hopeless (w) and Unzueta (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The two X-Force teams have met up and things have calmed down a bit between them since last time as they try to figure out what happened to Cable, Spiral, Bishop, and Hope. Psylocke can't locate them anywhere until Forge suggests that they get to a junkyard where he and Nemesis can whip up a power amplifier for her. Meanwhile, Stryfe has contained everyone in his vicinity and force-teleports Spiral away, not caring about her. He then makes Cable watch as he leaves Hope and Bishop in a room with a psimitar and he taunts Cable about how, despite all of his wishes, he built a daughter who knows how to be a killer. Back in California, the power amplifier works and leads the teams right to Spiral (sent to a fishing ship). Betsy says that the power amplifier can help her take the blocks out of Spiral's head as far as remembering where Stryfe is if she's willing to take them there. Spiral agrees and they prepare to take off.

It's a bit sad that this crossover is the way that both of these books will end because it means that we don't get to see a real Hopeless send-off to the book he so neatly crafted. Instead, this is the final issue of CABLE AND X-FORCE and it's very clearly not the final issue of the story. Sad to see it go and sad that it has to spend a lot of its time focusing on characters who weren't even in this book. Sure we'll see a little bit more of Cable's X-Force team as VENDETTA wraps up next week but it would have been nice to get just one more book to see the finale for this team, which Hopeless wrote so well and made so fun. As an individual issue in the crossover, this isn't a bad one. As I said in the last VENDETTA review, you can pretty much map out the beats of a four-issue crossover like this one and this issue is hitting those same beats now as the two teams come back together and put their differences aside to prepare for the final fight against the big bad with the stakes raised to their highest points. In a way, maybe that's what's so sad about this being the final issue. We don't get closure for the team we grew to like but we also don't get anything we weren't expecting in the course of this crossover. Kind of a buzzkill. As much as I want the new X-FORCE series to start, I wouldn't mind a true final issue for this book, no matter the outcome of the next issue.

All-New X-Men 22, X-Men 9, Marvel Knights X-Men 3

All-New X-Men 22
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

The ANXM team is back from their meeting with the Purifiers and everyone's relaxing their own way. For Scott and Jean (and, inadvertently, Warren), that means arguing about her knowing the future and being upset and Scott being upset and drama and so on and so forth. The fight ends as Jean storms off and is promptly kidnapped by suddenly attacking aliens who, according to Kitty, seem to be Shi'ar. They put everyone attacking them in bubble forcefields and take Jean away in one without a giant fight. As soon as they've left, the Guardians of the Galaxy pop by and realize that they're too late.

Right off the bat the pacing feels a little strange in this one. Things move pretty well for the second half of the book but the first half is largely made up of Scott and Jean fighting across a cafeteria table (and across Warren for comic relief). Though the back-and-forth dialogue is pretty prevalent in this scene, I actually think that it works here because they're meant to be kind of quickly shouting at one another and it doesn't often step into strange asides and quips. Instead, it feels like a real fight. So my problem, then, isn't with the writing of this scene, it's with the length of it. Maybe halfway through it I think it's safe to say it could have ended. There's even an out there that could have still sent Jean walking away and the issue progressing from there. It might be an attempt by Bendis at trying to give just a little more characterization to the three characters present in whatever way he can but it feels like it just overstayed its welcome, causing readers to have to push through the end of a fight they already fully understand and, worse still, to which they know the ending. Still, it's not one of the weaker issues of the series for that, as the pacing almost immediately picks up (though again, I'd say there's a bit of waste in the second half insofar as how often people explain what's happening in the fight, but that's pretty petty, even by my own admission) and the ending paves the way for the now started TRIAL OF JEAN GREY. Solid Immonen artwork on this one but, then again, it's always solid Immonen artwork.

X-Men 9
Wood (w) and T. Dodson and R. Dodson (a) and Keith, Woodard, and Mossa (c)

Lady Deathstrike has moved her operation, along with Enchantress and Typhoid Mary, to a new office in Dubai where she hopes to power her small team up and hopes to bring Arkea to life. The X-Men are trying to track them but not finding much until Jubilee and Karima find a Cortes jet landing in Dubai. Monet is ready to strike and aimed at the top seven floors of the building, all of which are owned by Cortes and seem empty, aside from the villains. Monet blasts through but it's just too late; Arkea has already been revived, taking the body of Cortes' assistant Reiko, and amped up the powers of the other three. Enchantress, her powers fully restored, manages to grab and hold Monet until she loses consciousness while Mary and Arkea escape. Mary and Arkea talk about the X-Men, whose databases Arkea still retains from her first appearance, and it gives Arkea an idea: she begins to take over other entities all over the world (including, possibly, Karima again) and plans to attack the X-Men on every home base she knows.

The stakes are pretty quickly rising here as Arkea comes back online. There's still plenty of intrigue and questions as Sublime returns to the X-Men to help for one reason or another but it's largely out in the open now as the audience is privy to Arkea's rebirth and her plan going forward. The team building and characterization is mostly in the actions of characters as everyone has her role and takes to it immediately, with Jubilee and Karima trying to track Arkea, Storm and Psylocke meeting with Arab superhero and peacekeeper Sabra to ensure their fight with Arkea keeps from starting a war, Monet as the strike force, and Rachel probing Sublime for information and directing the others. Everyone has an individual voice, even as some of our characters have fewer lines and are maybe a little out of focus. Meanwhile, the plot is running full tilt now and our players are largely accounted for, though there are hints that Arkea might be picking up new enemies for her sisterhood, as Enchantress deems it. As X-MEN moves firmly out of the event it was wrapped up in, it's progressing extremely well with Brian Wood doing his "raising all the stakes" thing perfectly as expected. Good stuff, excited to see what comes of it.

Marvel Knights X-Men 3
Revel (w and a) and Peter (c)

As the X-Men onsite begin to see their memories come to life as a result of Darla, powered up by Krystal's drugs, things start to break down pretty rapidly. Tons of old X-Men villains and horrors descend on the town and tensions immediately start running high, particularly from Wolverine, who has apparently gone crazy and is set on killing Darla for what he saw in her memories and what's happening all around them. As he and Rogue fight pretty brutally over it, Kitty tries to get Krystal to safety. Meanwhile, a mysterious group practically running the town and creating the drug that everyone in the town has been using, a mutant drug born of a mutant who arrived in the town some time ago, is ready to jump into the fight and do so by killing the sheriff of the town, Krystal's uncle Jasper. As Kitty and Krystal try to get away, an entity that Krystal refers to as Jasper appears in the car and attacks Kitty from behind, forcing her to phase through the moving vehicle and stranding her on the road in front of a mob of angry townspeople.

The chaos of this book is really ramping up and it's easy to lose track if you miss a single panel. In that respect, the interesting and rather gorgeous art is almost a hindrance to the book as you kind of want to skip the writing just to look at the artwork. It's the sort of book that might take a couple read-throughs to really comprehend (and even then I'm not sure I've got it all) and to really see it. I'm not the type to start complaining about pretty and experimental art in a book. The plot is maybe a little convoluted but this is the sort of story that I'd like to see the results before I officially condemn the plot. I think that it's something that could wrap up really nicely or could go entirely south depending on how Revel moves from here. This serves, then, as a very interesting midway point for the limited series and continues to set itself apart from a lot of the other books on the shelves with its action, its intimate team, and its artwork. Pretty neat issue, looking forward to how this one wraps.

FF 16, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 9

FF 16
Fraction and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)
Backup story: Kesel and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and Quinones and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

It's Scott Lang vs. Doom in the battle that the entirety of this run of FF has been building towards. The team has depowered Doom and kept him from the power he so desperately craves after getting his hands on it for such a short time last issue and wielding it like the god he wants to be. So it's man-to-man for Scott and Doom and Scott starts pounding on the evil dictator and giving him a piece of his mind. There's a lot to do with Doom being a sociopath and Lang being an ex-con Cassie's death and so forth. Just as Lang's preparing for his final Doom beat-down, the Living Tribunal shows up to punish Doom for striking the Watcher. He decrees that Doom's face gain a new scar for every horrible crime he enacts going forward. Then he leaves and Lang beats him up some more. The story ends as Ravonna brings Franklin and Val to Scott and gives Doom a vision that he killed Val in the same way he killed Cassie and I guess all is as it should be maybe? The issue ends with the same backup story as in FANTASTIC FOUR 16.

The fatal flaw of this issue is that it just seems to want to do a little too much. Between the really long and somehow rather preachy speech from Scott Lang as he pounds on Doom and the sudden appearance of the Living Tribunal and a somewhat ham-fisted explanation of how powerful Scott Lang is and how he harnessed the true power of Pym Particles and all sorts of other things, the issue really starts to drag on to the point where I was reading it and kind of saying "okay, we get it." It leaves you almost feeling bad for Doom who is very CLEARLY the villain here but who doesn't really come off that way after Scott's long speech. I think the problem has also had to do with focus as the series wound its way down. Bit of a strange send-off, really, and one that, like FANTASTIC FOUR 16, felt a little like maybe it snuck up on the creators a bit. Ah well.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 9
Shinick (w) and Checchetto (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Spider-Man can't help but feel like things are a little tense in the city despite his anti-crime campaign. Everything is eerily quiet until bullets start flying at him. He dodges them and decks his stomach and chest area in his webbing before flying down at his assailant. Spidey is surprised to find that it's Punisher shooting at him (and unaware that his new webbing is bulletproof) and quickly learns that Punisher was trying to get his attention for Daredevil, who is also hanging around. The two are suspicious of the way Spider-Man has been acting lately and they both suspect that he may have had a hand in the theft of a goblin glider from one of Punisher's armories. Spider-Man consents to bring them to Spider-Island to show them his own armory and to prove that he didn't take Punisher's stuff. They talk about how secure Spidey has made the place and how protected he's made the arms he's found but, of course, when he opens the weapons room everything is gone, save one pumpkin bomb flying at them. Punisher shoots it out of the air and he and Daredevil manage to see (or "see," in Daredevil's case) someone trying to escape, disguised as one of Spidey's henchmen. Daredevil sniffs the guy out and the guy reveals that he's covered himself in pumpkin bombs, ready to take the whole place down if need be. He asks for directions from the person he's working for but said person (who we know to be the Green Goblin) does not respond, realizing that Daredevil would hear him and preferring not to be in the open yet. Punisher shoots the trigger out of his hand but it doesn't stop the henchman from dropping a smoke grenade followed by a flashbomb, effectively blinding Punisher (wearing night vision goggles). Punisher throws a knife at the man, upsetting Spider-Man who hoped to get answers about other people that the man referenced. Soon, though, his answers come as seemingly his entire henchman army turns on the three superheroes.

Geez, plenty going on for a typically pretty self-contained book. AVENGING SPIDER-MAN also had a team-up between these three and it was a bit more tense in terms of the relationship between the three established characters, even though that one featured Peter Parker as Spider-Man. This one ties very nicely into the events of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN and builds well off both the imminent GOBLIN NATION arc and the pretty obvious building antipathy between Spider-Man and his henchmen. It also kicks off with the typical accusation that maybe something isn't quite right with Spider-Man, an accusation well-leveled here (geez Daredevil, get in on the action) and one that slots nicely into a time when everyone is at their most suspicious of him. In fact, the only real flaw I see with this book is that, as the back cover indicates, it takes place between SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN 26 and 27, meaning that it comes out before the books its supposed to take place between. It's not bad enough that it really damages the issue in any significant way, just kind of gives you the sneaking suspicion that maybe there's even more to this story that we haven't seen yet. Otherwise, though, really good issue, fun and quick-paced. Lot of action and a solid team-up between these three oft-teamed heroes. Also really good Marco Checchetto art. I think I keep accidentally confusing his name with maybe Carmine Di Giandomenico (I know, don't ask me how) and I like Checchetto's art a good deal more so I'm excited whenever I get a book from the one I like more.

Hawkeye 16, Iron Man 20, Indestructible Hulk 18

Hawkeye 16
Fraction (w) and Wu (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Kate is still out in LA and still short on cash and most everything else. She finds a seemingly kindred spirit wandering the highway as she rides her bike down it and agrees to help him get back something he claims was stolen from him. She soon finds out that the old hobo is actually '60s musical sensation Will Bryson and that he's not actually an old hobo at all. Will claims that his brother Grey, his one time recording partner, stole the masters of Will's long-awaited masterpiece album Wishes and that he released them bit by bit to the public. Kate is quickly embroiled in this little family feud despite the urgings of her extremely reluctant police contact and vows to help Will get his recordings back and figure out who is, in fact, behind it. Kate's investigation leads her into a fight with Bryson nurses/bodyguards and eventually she talks with Grey and realizes he did steal it but that there's not much she can do about it, nor, perhaps, that she should do about it. Will holds a concert to play bits of Wishes and Kate attends with her new LA friends and, for a moment, feels like she's going to be okay. Then Madame Masque pops up behind her, whispers "found you" and disappears again.

I said last week that THUNDERBOLTS might just be the most fun book that Marvel is putting out these days. While I stand by the sentiment that it is certainly fun, it's hard not to read this book and hand the title right on over. If THUNDERBOLTS is the book that's trying to be the most fun (and pretty much succeeding), Kate might still be the most fun character, so I have to say that HAWKEYE might just win out. I think THUNDERBOLTS is going for a lighter feel in general than HAWKEYE (which might be harder to say right now considering we haven't seen a Clint-centered issue in a while) but geez, this book is a non-stop fun ride. Kate's voice is absolutely unique and delightful and the book manages to be chock-full of references without ever feeling bogged down. That's a really important and specific type of writing to hit and it's the difference between, say, the amazing Venture Brothers and the deplorable other reference-centric comedy like Family Guy or The Big Bang Theory. This is a lovely little issue and it again highlights the beautiful differences between David Aja and Annie Wu. Fraction answered a question on his tumblr that pretty perfectly encapsulated what makes this little switch-off so great, saying that if he was only going to be allowed access to Aja for the Kate stories he wanted to tell, he probably wouldn't have sent her to LA. Obviously Aja's art is amazing but it's incredibly different from Annie Wu's, though Matt Hollingsworth's colors also deserve mention for still linking the stories so well. Wonderful book, nice story, great character, and amazing art. Can't ever go wrong with this book.

Iron Man 20
Gillen (w) and Padilla and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

IRON MAN jumps into INHUMANITY as Tony and Arno continue searching for the Mandarin rings only to find one, the Nightbringer, alighting on a human with a whole flight of issues already. This human, Victor Kohl, has had plenty of personal problems and his most recent one, a distrust of his father and brothers and a suspicion that he's not really his father's son, is exacerbated when the Terrigen mists hit and his family all cocoon and he doesn't. The government comes to take the cocoons away and Victor watches the news, discovering that the Inhuman DNA is passed through bloodline so it appears he was right and he wasn't part of their bloodline. He drinks himself into a stupor and goes to attack the Inhuman Nativity Center his family was brought to. The Nightbringer finds him there and rests on him, happy with his desire for vengeance and his anger. As soon as the Nightbringer goes active, Tony and Arno spot it on their equipment and Tony goes to recover it. He and Kohl fight and Kohl damages the cocoons before Iron Man gets a clean shot off on him. Nightbringer recognizes that they're incapacitated and teleport away before Tony can get his hands on him. Transported underground, Kohl is surprised to find himself suddenly cocooning. When he breaks free in his new Inhuman form, Medusa arrives to show him the remains of his father's cocoon, destroyed by Kohl. She also informs him that his family was living in the same place when the Terrigen bomb was detonated and so had the same level of exposure and therefore all changed at once but he lived elsewhere at the time and so changed later but he's still of their blood. However, she admonishes him for killing an Inhuman and exiles him from Inhuman society. The Nightbringer convinces Kohl that it's really Iron Man's fault (not a hard sell for Kohl) and he swears revenge, taking the new name The Exile.

Pretty cool little tie-in here and one that manages to show us the Marvel Universe at large but still keeps the story rather contained to Iron Man's world. It's a nice play by Gillen as he constructs an issue that works to achieve both ends well. The sentient rings continue to be a really cool idea and the idea of Tony and Arno searching them out but only able to find them when they go active adds a layer of depth and intrigue that's worth acknowledging and that keeps the reader on his toes. There's also a nice talk between Tony and Arno about INHUMANITY which feels like something of an admission on Marvel's part that GEEZ it feels like this has been going on a while already and it has barely even started. There's also talk about Bruce Banner trying to find a cure (as we'll see below) and Tony wondering if it's really necessary to worry about. Lot of good bigger universe stuff in here, which is the sort of thing that Gillen's IRON MAN has avoided diligently and it's yielded good results, yet here we are with a solid tie-in that really works. Can't complain.

Indestructible Hulk 18
Waid (w) and Raapack and Sepulveda w/ Grummett (a) and Staples (c)

Banner's bomb goes off too low over Tulsa and things immediately descend into chaos. Hank Pym would have been caught in the explosion but managed to shrink down to microscopic size and actually avoid the particles as they flew by. It's a good thing he did since he starts to figure out what's happening before anyone else. The bomb itself integrated tech that Banner recovered from the Chronarchists int he hope that he could create time fields that would accelerate the Terrigen particles so they were spent almost instantly, keeping them from everyone else. It's a good idea and one that Pym particularly is impressed by but he finds a cocoon amidst the chaotic time fields and realizes it must not have worked. After everything is set straight again in the town below the bomb's detonation, the super scientists determine that there were too many variables with the Terrigen particles that no one could have foreseen. It doesn't make Banner feel any better. He plans to hitch a ride back with his team, who broke out of the lab despite Hill's orders, only to see them nearly go down before reaching him as Randall Jessup cocoons and turns into some sort of monster, which seems to emit some sort of almost sedative rays, to the point that he calms the raging Hulk back into Banner and throws him from the jet.

The bomb storyline was only a two piece arc but it worked for me. I think that I enjoyed the first part more, which really delves into what's happening with Banner and what's at stake for him pride-wise. Waid did a really good job (as he's done all series) characterizing Banner and giving us a sense of what these kinds of things mean to him (it seems like there are big changes coming for the series as it moves into its new ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW launch and I think Waid's done an excellent job facilitating the shift). This issue was a little more dedicated to the action and the science of it, which maybe slowed down the character-driven bits a little, though it does shine a bit of a light on Hank Pym's character for anyone looking for that. The transformation of Jessup is something that Waid's been working to but we'll have to wait until next issue to really see what it means. Entertaining and engaging book all the same.

Captain America 15, All-New Invaders 1, Black Widow 2

Captain America 15
Remender (w) and Pacheco and Taibo (a) and Rosenberg w/ Beredo and Staples (c)

Cap, Falcon, and Fury make the trip home with Nuke in tow. On the way, Nuke talks about how he never liked his nickname, that "Nuke" implies he was dropped into wars and brought back, but he was always on the ground with other soldiers. Fury and Cap commend him on it and talk about how wrong his recent orders had been, promising to clear his name as someone who would rather risk his life saving American soldiers than killing enemy ones until whoever was behind this reprogrammed him to be unable to do anything but follow orders. Nuke promises to try to help remember what these people did to him and who they were. When they return to the States, Falcon drops Cap off at home and they have a nice talk before Falcon sets off again to help interrogate Nuke at a SHIELD hub in the Grand Canyon. While there, the Iron Nail listens to everything said with his own surveillance. As Nuke talks to SHIELD agent Lamia, whose father Nuke risked his life to save in the war, while Falcon and Fury talk outside, Iron Nail detonates Nuke, who apparently has a real nuke or some other powerful bomb inside. Fury and Falcon escape but only just. Meanwhile, the doors to the Weapon Minus program have been cracked and new supervillain, Horace Littleton AKA Dr. Mindbubble, waltzes out as Iron Nail explains to the audience that Littleton had perfected a super soldier serum laced with LSD and, after his funding was cut, had used it on himself and been locked away for his troubles.

There's a lot of really good and interesting stuff happening here and it's balanced by, as you can probably guess by the last sentence up there, a lot of stuff we're going to have to wait and see on. The most interesting stuff is the humanity from Nuke and Cap's sort-of pep talk to him. Cap is still pulling himself back from the edge of what he almost did to Nuke and Pacheco's art and Remender's writing make it clear just how hard it is on him. Still he does a good job talking to Nuke and trying to get him to understand what's happening and encouraging him about finding his place in the world. There's a lot of really good stuff between Cap, Fury, and Nuke and later there's more good stuff between Cap and Falcon and Falcon and Fury. Each and every one of them comes off as real and well established. The Iron Nail is definitely still someone we're going to have to get used to. Remender kicks the issue off with a scene where we see some of the world's wealthiest men forced into mines by Iron Nail and made to work there until they're 65 so they can see what they put the rest of the world through. Then there's the Dr. Mindbubble business. So I think there are some good ideas here and there's a real political message in here particularly apropos for today's audiences as the class gap widens and more people start to notice it. I'm just not sure it's realized enough and I'm not instantly sold on Dr. Mindbubble (he literally has a tube shooting bubbles out of his brain) so we'll have to see where it all goes before any judgements are made. Otherwise more really good stuff.

All-New Invaders 1
J. Robinson (w) and Pugh (a) Guru eFX (c)

Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, was last seen betraying the AI uprising of Rick Remender's SECRET AVENGERS (which was one, soon-to-be two SECRET AVENGERSes ago) in order to save humanity. Since then, he's disappeared into Blaketon, Illinois, where he's free to live a normal life. Trouble comes calling, though, in the form of a Kree warrior named Tanalth the Pursuer who is trying to find three hidden pieces of an artifact called the Gods' Whisper, something that apparently can summon Hela to you (in the very least) and use her power. Tanalth uses a Kree weapon to dig a memory out of Torch, one he's not familiar with, which shows Baron Strucker in WWII using the device to have Hela kill attacking troops. From the memory and the recesses of Jim's mind, Tanalth gets what she wants and relays the information to her men. Before she can finish the job and kill Torch, though, Cap and Bucky show up to defend him. Meanwhile, the Kree Supreme Intelligence holds Namor captive, alluding to the idea that he's unintentionally betrayed his former allies.

Interesting first issue. There's a lot of information here and a lot of ground to cover but Robinson covers it pretty well, giving enough focus to Jim's current state of mind and how upset he is when his new home is attacked to successfully push us into Jim's shoes. That's particularly important since, as the splash-page character descriptions tell us, Jim's the least known of the Invaders these days so it's kind of an interesting decision to start with him as our focal point. There's also something interesting building with the Kree and the Gods' Whisper as it brings up something I wonder about occasionally, which is the relation to the Nine Realms and Marvel Cosmic. Obviously Thor has interacted with plenty of bits and pieces of Marvel Cosmic for some time but the Kree's desire to have Hela's powers on their side is an interesting choice. As I said, there's a lot to cover here for Robinson's first issue but he handles it pretty well. There's a bit of oddly choppy writing at times and I'd like to see how the other characters' voices come along as the series presses forward but it's certainly a worthwhile first issue. I'd love for this book to really find its place and give us a brand-new Invaders series to really dig into.

Black Widow 2
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a and c)

Natasha has been re-hired by an old client to find a missing colleague and rescue him. Despite her lawyer Isaiah Ross' wishes, she goes and immediately finds herself embroiled in something a little bigger than a typical kidnapping job. It's a job that impacts her directly, someone kidnapping the son of one of her old clients knowing that he would call her and that she would come to help. By her own admission, she was sloppy in not seeing anything weird about the situation and it leads her to finding the man's son too late and barely escaping with her own life. When she returns to her client, she also finds him dead and the man responsible waiting for her. It kicks off a fight that ends in a marketplace in Shanghai (which is where the issue begins before sending us back in time to the roots of the problem and then eventually makes its way back) when Widow surprises her would-be killer, going by the Iron Scorpion (apparently Asian villains are going by the old Russian naming system of focusing on a specific words these days, but replacing "Red" with "Iron"), and manages to injure him enough that he is forced to scamper away. Meanwhile, Ross has had trouble at home with someone attempting to blackmail Natasha and plotting to kill Ross to get to her. Ross, though, apparently isn't just the office worker we thought he was; he tracks and kills the blackmailers before Natasha returns.

Another very cool issue as Edmondson plays with the timeline of the story, which is a very common practice these days but is often done less well than it is here. HAWKEYE is the ultimate pro at it right now and this book certainly feels more like that one than some of the lesser examples. I'd like to have a few more issues under the belt before deeming the writing on this one particularly good but so far I'm really enjoying the voice of Natasha. It's hard to establish a voice this early into a series, especially for a character who writers seem to have a hard time giving a concrete voice to and so usually go for one of the tropes she's somewhat associated with (stone cold killer, slightly mad murderer, etc.). So far, though, Edmondson has done a good job giving her a voice in the narrative that's very human and much more real than much we've seen from her in the last few years. I'm also happy it's coming out so much in the narrative which leaves her somewhat more tight-lipped in dialogue. Not to say she's not talking or not sustaining a voice in her dialogue because she still is but she's not one of the really chatty characters in the Marvel Universe and so far Edmondson isn't changing that. Again the art is absolutely gorgeous and, frankly, you should be reading this book with each new release just for that. I worry that I'll get too complacent with it over time and forget to mention it but take it for granted that Noto isn't going to slip up. Check this new book out everyone. Give it to everyone you know.

Avengers 25, Avengers World 2, Mighty Avengers 5

Avengers 25
Hickman (w) and Larroca (a) and F. Martin (c)

At this present moment, Maria Hill and SHIELD, investigating an explosion in New York, find a couple hundred dead bodies including, among them, Hank Pym's. The comic zooms us to several hours previous when AIM, led by Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson and Minister Superia, was busy opening up portals to the multiverse, powered by energy harvested from the Negative Zone. As they open one of the portals, they're surprised to find the Avengers coming out of it. It's an old school team made up of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Wasp, and Ant-Man, many of whom don their old school costumes. The group seems a little confused particularly when Forson tells them they're on Earth. They back out through the portal again and are next seen flying over New York. They talk briefly about their failed attempts to save Earth and we get a little flashback and see that their Earth (these are clearly parallel universe Avengers) was destroyed by an incursion but they were pulled off of it in time. They decide to continue their mission on this Earth, starting again, as it were. Unfortunately for this Earth, it seems like maybe these Avengers have a different way of helping and the last footage SHIELD has of them is Thor bringing his hammer down on a crowded street and shorting all the electronics and, presumably, some of the people. Some time later, Maria Hill calls the Avengers to the helicarrier to give their whereabouts for the last couple hours.

There was a fear in me that this was maybe going to go All-New X-Men on me but it was never a particularly substantial fear. Hickman has enough Avengers to play with, he doesn't need to duplicate more or bring more from the past here. Frankly, in this day and age, I'm pretty sure no one has to resort to that but hey, I guess I don't run things. Anyway, one of the things that's been impressive to me about the way that Marvel NOW and subsequent relaunches have gone is their uniformity across certain books. Sometimes it doesn't quite work but the focus on AIM as the villains, which has played across AVENGERS, NEW AVENGERS, AVENGERS WORLD (as we'll see in a moment) and SECRET AVENGERS particularly, but has not been limited to those titles. There's a lot going on with AIM right now and it's making a real impact on the books, maybe more so than something like, say, an event or crossover might demonstrate. Should be interesting to see the Avengers of today take on the Avengers of yesterday (and also of evil) as this story pushes forward but keep an eye on everything AIM is up to as well. Something big is brewing.

Avengers World 2
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and F. Martin (c)

Smasher, Cannonball, and Sunspot have been captured by AIM as they went to investigate the strange growth of AIM Island. Cannonball and Sunspot both sustained serious injuries but are being treated by AIM while Smasher, seemingly unharmed, tries to break out of her containment field. Forson allows Smasher to be released and hopes that he can convince her to support what's happening on the island. He tells her that she's free to go whenever she pleases but that he'd like to show her something first. Once she's convinced her friends are okay and she's free to go, she consents to follow Forson, who shows her around one of the rapidly growing forests on the island and tells her that this truly is a new AIM, not bogged down by the old ways and the greed that followed but hoping to improve the future. She's still suspicious but she allows Forson to keep talking until one of the exotic bugs bites her. She begins to transform, the transformation changing her costume into something yellow and wrapping itself around her while Jude the Entropic Man approaches. Forson tells her that she will be the messenger, that she will deliver their message to the people with "low vision" who will try to strike at AIM out of fear. Their message is "everything dies."

Another nice issue for AVENGERS WORLD as more problems with AIM come into focus. AIM Island is growing both out and up, with all sorts of crazy developments that Bruce Banner says are way beyond anything the rest of the Earth seems capable of yet. Now they've captured three Avengers and turned one of them to their side, seemingly. It's a little like the earlier issues of AVENGERS, which focused on giving us an understanding of some of our newer members, like Smasher. This issue jumps back and forth between the present and everything Smasher's dealing with now to Smasher's past with the lessons of her grandfather and his stories and the bond she shared with him. It's a very nice story and one worth exploring and it gives the main story a little more of a drive. It'll be interesting if this book can sustain its pace and give us a look at some of the characters we won't see in a particularly personal way over in AVENGERS while AVENGERS tells the bigger stories, or at least the ones the require a bigger team. Cool stuff, hopefully it will keep pushing.

Mighty Avengers 5
Ewing (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and D'Armata (c)

While Spider-Man chews out Luke Cage and Jessica Jones for being unorganized and tries to make himself leader of the team, Spectrum leads Ronin, Falcon, Power Man, and White Tiger to the fallen Attilan, where Ronin suspects Deathwalkers are trying to find Inhuman artifacts for their own devious purposes. They talk their way inside where Cortex Inc.'s Barbara McDevitt, newly made Inhuman, is already searching and has already been set upon by the Hellhound of the Deathwalkers. Her new power, though, is to create limited time fields and she trapped the Hellhound in one mid-pounce while she continued working. She releases it as the Mighty Avengers arrive and they have to work together to fight it, even after it takes Ronin out of the fight. Spectrum avoids Barbara's powers with her own light powers and is able to shut her down while Power Man and White Tiger (Falcon waited outside) combine to stop the Hellhound. Ronin, meanwhile, took the artifact and left. Back at the Gem Theater, She-Hulk shows up to "mediate" the issue between Spider-Man, Cage, and Jessica as it quickly turned into punching. Spider-Man ends up leaving, deciding that Cage can keep his stupid team.

We're only five issues into this new Avengers title but, if things keep going the way they're looking, MIGHTY AVENGERS has quickly become my least favorite of the bunch. There are a lot of little bits and pieces that I'm not in favor of but it can kind of all be summed up as "it seems like this book is just trying too hard." The weirdest thing is that I don't even know what it's trying too hard to do. It's reminding me a bit of FEARLESS DEFENDERS but with very slightly bigger toys to play with. Everybody quips and the book wants to have this fun feel to it but it seems to come out forced at every turn. Everyone, like back in FEARLESS DEFENDERS, gets their own little introduction caption that wants to pal around with the audience. There are also weird questions that aren't being asked, like the strange identity of Ronin or, perhaps more aptly since that one actually is meant to be a mystery for whatever purpose, the question that every other book in the universe has asked so many times, to the point where I'm almost glad this book isn't asking it but it suddenly comes off as glaringly odd that it's not being mentioned: who is this Spider-Man? This is Cage and Jessica's first run in with the Superior Spider-Man after spending years on a team with him and there's no questioning the giant jerk he's become, a jerkiness that doesn't even try to hide itself like it so often does in different (some might say better) books. If I'm remembering correctly (it's hard to keep some of this stuff straight), Jessica and Luke even know that Spider-Man is Peter Parker and they know and like Peter so it's not like some mysterious, faceless entity behind that mask who has suddenly changed, it's a friend of theirs who has become the world's biggest jerk. Sure, I'm a little sick of every book having to do the "boy, he's acting strange" dance but you can sort of see why they do it after reading this book. Definitely not my favorite book out there and I don't know that that's going to change without a major tonal shift.