Nova 13, Savage Wolverine 15

Nova 13
Duggan (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova's feeling pretty good about himself after helping a stranded ship that needed a boost, not knowing that the ship was actually a slave trader's ship. These are the things that happen when you're a teenager. Beta Ray Bill, though, knew exactly who was on the ship and is appalled that a Nova would help them. He comes to investigate, having lost the trail on the ship anyway, and he and Nova quickly get into a fight. Nova stands up pretty well to Bill but eventually he realizes what Bill's argument is and the two reconcile, with Nova demanding to come with him to find these slave traders. Bill accepts his help and Sam makes plans for a babysitter, his friend Carrie, to come and watch his little sister while he departs into space.

Pretty solid book. It's largely a fight book pitting Nova against Beta Ray Bill but it gives a pretty good sense of both characters and a pretty good sense of where Nova stands in terms of his power relative to what we know of this universe. He's been up against a number of new foes which makes it hard to judge just how powerful he is (though, you know, destroying a Chitauri fleet in the first arc wasn't a bad read) and something like this, having him stand toe-to-toe with someone the Asgardians hail as a true warrior, worthy of his own Mjolnir-like hammer in Stormbreaker, gives us a sense of the sort of power he has. Their dialogue works pretty well together though the book revolves a lot around Beta Ray Bill's alien appearance (though, I suppose, it makes some sense. You look at that guy and it's gonna take you a little while to get over it). Also nice to see Sam take some responsibility and make arrangements for his mother and decide that he needs to see this slave trader business to the end. Good issue, nothing to particularly note as a downside. Not sure it super stands out but certainly good for the series. I talked about AMAZING X-MEN feeling like a book made for kids and making me roll my eyes at it but I'd say that NOVA is something of an all-ages book at this point and it feels fresh and fun, typically. Follow that model if you're going to make a book that's more accessible.

Savage Wolverine 15
Isanove (w, a, c)

With the death of Elias and the kidnapping of Sofia, Logan is left with little choice but to storm the compound at which Sofia's being kept. He takes out the guard and slashes the face of the outfit's leader, a a man named Sergio, sometimes called Marion while Peter, coming in behind him, shoots the Frenchman Pierre-Anselme in the arm. They hustle Sofia out of there and, with all the kids in tow, head to a brothel in St. Paul to lay low for a little bit. The brothel's owner Dolly, who had a relationship with Logan ten years previous, sets them up with a new car and points them towards Colorado to stay with family. Unfortunately, Marion and Pierre are on the lookout for them and come and interrogate Dolly, killing her when she won't give up any information. Pierre finds the sales slip for Logan's new car and his eyes and ears all over the country track Logan and the kids down by nightfall, with the police taking Logan and Sofia into custody.

Isanove's 1930s crime story continues but, in a somewhat strange if effective move, starts things on a ship headed to America in 1920 as Marion and Pierre, seemingly in their teens or thereabouts, meet for the first time as immigrants. We see their origin for about ten pages of the comic and it lets us understand their ruthlessness and their mentality, not to mention their hero-worship of Houdini, a man constantly in utter control of his body and mind. It's a bit of a jarring interlude as we're suddenly introduced to character's we don't know as young men and are forced to learn about them and about their families in their immediately complex background, not made easier by the fact that we have to pretty quickly learn to distinguish the multiple players on the ship. However, it's not too hard to follow if you can stick with it for its entirety and it rather does give us a good sense of villains who would otherwise be simple gangsters. Isanove's art is a good match for his writing style (helps when you know exactly how your artist is going to draw things and vice versa) though things do start to get a little bogged down here and there as people start to look the same, though constant name reminders (not in a particularly intrusive way, though, in the way where it's like "FIRESTAR will do it!" Geez, I really did not like AMAZING X-MEN this week, huh?). Definitely enjoyable as SAVAGE WOLVERINE, when it's on, continues to be pretty far and away the best Wolverine title.