Secret Avengers 14, Cataclysm - Ultimates 3

Secret Avengers 14
Spencer and Kot (w) and Guice and Rubinstein (a) and Wilson (c)

Our story is happening on about three fronts right now. On AIM Island, Mockingbird is being reprogrammed by AIM Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson. He's giving her memories that span back years and years and make her believe that she's been all for the AIM Island plan since the start. Forson is trying to completely overwrite and eradicate Bobbi's old mind but Bobbi's not quitting just yet. Elsewhere on AIM Island, Mentallo continues to seclude himself, clearly still not so thrilled with the way things are going. He learns of Taskmaster's death and it seems to depress him further. Back on the helicarrier, MODOK dispenses more AIM intel to Maria Hill. On the AIM submarine en route to AIM Island, Yelena Belova transports Fury, Hawkeye, and Black Widow to AIM Island. When they arrive, they break out of their handcuffs and prepare to finish their assault on the island.

I've had problems in the past with this series for what seemed like a lack of focus. I think it rather continues here as we're reaching a point where all of the plots are kind of coming to a head but some of them kind of feel like they're not done yet. I read this issue late on Wednesday (I was trying to review it for Wednesday, as I do with almost every AVENGERS title, but I didn't get my hands on it until late) and flipped through it again briefly today to refresh my memory and the flip through made me like it more than I had. I think that, as a book with various acts and plots coming together and things like that it works rather well. However, when reading the issue all the way through, it's really easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of it. I don't know if that's a function of needing to rush to get through everything before the series "ends" next issue (the reboot comes a little later this year) or if it's simply not wanting to spend more time on establishing the reprogramming and everything else. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they don't want to spend more time on it but I think cramming more words and images in doesn't necessarily speed things up. Ah well, I guess we'll see as this one ends down next time. Maybe...maybe Bucky will return?

Cataclysm - Ultimates 3
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Quintana and Charalampidis (c)

Hercules continues to fight the horde of infected while Danny Ketch, Fury, and Dum Dum Dugan put Punisher down and prepare to take the fight to Tarleton, running the whole thing from his floating city. They key in on Falcon's coordinates and, after picking up Herc, teleport up there. Hercules attacks Tarleton and wrenches him from running the Gah Lak Tus swarm, leaving an opening for Falcon to work on cutting Tarleton's influence off. He's able to do it but he realizes that just killing Tarleton won't be enough; someone has to take his place to run everything or else the infected won't become uninfected. Without a second thought, Danny jumps into the spot and, with the help of Falcon's instructions, saves everybody still infected, sacrificing himself in the process. Tarleton tries to escape, summoning some of the swarm to him to try to get away but Ketch directs the remaining Ultimates to leave the floating city and he destroys it, catching Tarleton in the explosion. The civilians are restored (those who weren't destroyed as members of the swarm, anyway) and the newly restored Giant Woman helps to catch civilians falling from the sky. They laud Danny's sacrifice and Danny himself, our narrator for the story, is surprised when he finds that he's actually not dead; he's greeted by Agent Coulson and told that they spent a lot of money rebuilding him. They're calling him Machine Man now.

Pretty cool finale to this little mini series as CATACLYSM itself starts to wind down, ready to give way to the new-look Ultimate Universe. Fialkov has done a pretty good job with the rising tension, climax fight, redemption stuff we've seen in the last year from him (between ALPHA and all of his work in the Ultimate Universe). It's no different here as Ketch has a pretty strong narrative throughout and brings it to a head as he talks about the problems he's had and the person he's been that's led him to this spot but ultimately brings it to a head as he remembers the promise he made to himself and to his family to not let someone die while he was just standing by. It's a nice little mini-series and a solid ending for the mini as the new Ultimates manage somehow to survive the day and come out a little ahead (I mean, they lose Punisher but they'll live). Nice book.