Savage Wolverine 17, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 12, What If? Age of Ultron 4

Savage Wolverine 17
Isanove (w+a) and Petit (l)

Wolverine has managed to get Sophia and Matti out of town to go to their aunt's home in Colorado, hoping to get away from the action they've been up against. However, their assailants still have Peter, who hadn't quite died in the shootout and who tells them of his aunt's house before they officially kill him. As Wolverine gets a coffee in town, ready to leave, he hears that the two have been there and he races back to the house to find their uncle Burt already dead, their aunt Adele tied up to a mounted hunting trophy, Matti beat up on the floor, and Sophia getting stabbed in an eye. Wolverine dives into the fight and, with the help of the wounded Sophia and Adele ripping the trophy off the wall, he overcomes the villains. Eighty years later, he meets with Sophia again, now an old woman in a retirement home with family of her own and they talk and reminisce peacefully.

Story
The exciting gangster story continues and only gets darker and darker. Marion and Frenchy are driven by their need to finish this job, unable to live with the idea that they've been bested in even the slightest of ways, and will kill anyone in their way to prove they're the best. Wolverine plays his role, preferring only to get the kids to safety and not to attack the problem head-on, which he admits to Sophia isn't the way he's used to working. Framing it that way makes the issue and the story a little more interesting in retrospect as it does really showcase a younger Logan, pre-X-Men and really pre-Wolverine (for all I've been calling him Wolverine), needing to think about the responsibility he has on him during all of this. The downside of this arc is that it does feel like the story dragged a little bit, especially considering this was just a four-issue arc. Now that we've come to the end, it feels like this has been all the series has focused on, like we've never seen another SAVAGE WOLVERINE issue outside of this arc. Still, it's a nice look at another time in Logan's life. 4/5

Character
Isanove led off SAVAGE WOLVERINE 15 with a deeper look into Marion and the Frenchman in the hopes that we'd understand who Logan is dealing with better but, now that the arc is done, it seems like it was a strange move. We did get more understanding of what Logan was dealing with but there's not really a sense of sympathy to them and, truth told, I still largely forget about them until like, midway through an issue. That's probably on me but it still struck me as odd; a pair of villains driving an arc who I can't remember details about except that they liked Houdini? Kinda weird. Logan is ever Logan here and Sophia gets built up a little bit in this final issue as she convinces Logan that she understands him, that no one could have saved Vicky and that Peter died because he didn't listen to Logan. Good work with our main protagonists, a little less so with the antagonists. 3/5

Writing
It's hard to judge the writing of this issue. I don't think it's bad, per se, but I think Isanove's art drives the tone more than the writing. The writing is what it is and it conveys the plot well enough but it's the art and particularly the colors that give this issue some weight. Still, the writing does what it needs to and that's more than plenty of other books can say. 4/5

Art
As I hinted at, the art does a phenomenal job here in storytelling. There are some times where faces look a little bit off or the blurring sort of technique doesn't quite work on people but by and large the art tells the story as effectively as any writing. There is a sense that you could flip through this one and not read any of the words and still have a solid grasp on what's happening. The colors are wonderful and create a sense of the area these characters travel through and live in. It's a strange book because it's not my favorite art by any stretch but it's seemingly perfect for this story, helped, undoubtedly, by the fact it's all Isanove. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Not a bad little arc. One likely that will impress readers as they read it but maybe not stand out in their memory after the fact (okay, that's definitely a little too much personal opinion coming out).

Total score: 4/5


Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 12
Shinick (w) and Frenz and Checchetto (p) and Buscema and Chechetto (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

In the wake of Goblin's attack on Doc Ock's one-time love Mary Alice, Doc Ock pounds on the Goblin and vows revenge, prompting them into something of an arms war in their separate battles against Spider-Man. While Goblin continues to try to shatter Spider-Man's mind, Doc Ock continues to try to use science to shatter his body. Finally, Doc rather wins as he replaces Spidey's mind with his own and watches him die in his own frail body. In addition, he becomes the superior hero and fixes up the city through science. However, when Goblin takes Anna Maria, Doc Ock realizes he's not strong enough to face Goblin again and turns over the controls to the growing Peter Parker, allowing another defeat over Goblin at the cost of himself.

Story
I had some problems with this story last time as it feels like it's trying too hard to link Goblin and Doc Ock in a really farfetched sort of way. Those problems persist here as they're the driving force of this book too. Still, the issue races through years of backstory to see where we are today and to wrap things up rather hurriedly as Peter Parker tags back in. Maybe the problem is it's hard to be invested in these characters or in this story with strange and previously entirely unreferenced connection to today. It leaves the story feeling boring and a bit of a slog to get through, particularly considering how wordy it is. 2/5

Character
Though the Mary Alice Anders stuff was there already, this retcon to have Goblin essentially kill her feels really forced, like it's just a way to raise stakes that already seemed high enough in the main story. The idea behind the retcon, though, is kind of interesting, the idea that we've now finished reading Otto's story over in SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN but that there was a little more to his character and to his history with Goblin than ever met the eye. I don't think it particularly works here but I think that it's an interesting concept in the way it was executed. Still, not much else to be gained from character that we haven't seen done better over in SUPERIOR. 3/5

Writing
Doctor Octopus is rather verbose as a character but the narrative here over-explains like crazy. On top of an extended segment where he's pounding on Goblin and each thought is bookended by Ock thinking "and strike" as he strikes Goblin, we get an entire summation of their relationship to Spider-Man and to each other as the years have gone on, all in narrative. It makes for a slow read of ideas that shouldn't really be new to readers and it certainly doesn't help make the story more interesting. 2/5

Art
Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema team up for the bulk of the art on this book, just about anything that took place in the past and they give the book a more simple feel, as does Rachelle Rosenberg, whose colors are very strong but have fewer gradients in the flashback stuff. Marco Checchetto picks up the reins late in the book as he draws current day Spider-Man and Peter Parker when they re-emerge and the art style shifts to reflect the change. Both art styles are great and work well in the time they're addressing and the shift between the two distinct styles works to let the audience know what's happening. Solid art here. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Not a whole ton more to add, I think I pretty much said what I wanted to say.

Total score: 3/5


What If? Age of Ultron 4
Keatinge (w) and Kowalski and Edwards (p) and Kowalski and Magyar (i) and Major (c) and Sabino (l)

It's Captain America's turn in the spotlight (or specifically out of it, I suppose) as the Age of Ultron shockwave kills a Cap in another universe and leads the world to lose faith in their heroes. When Cap suddenly died, the other heroes tried to cover it up to keep a world already upset from finding out but when they found out they turned even more on their heroes. The world fell into disarray and distrust. Iron Man's new plan is to find someone who could embody the spirit of this new America and lead the world into a new day. He picks Frank Castle and they pump him up with a new sort of super soldier serum developed by Reed Richards and put him in a costume and set him to work. Things work out far better than anyone could have guessed and it leads to an even better world than the 616, one where invasions are stopped more quickly, Civil War never happens, etc., all leading to a new initiative of having a Cap in every state and eventually a Cap in countries all over the globe.

Story
Okay, these WHAT IFs have been a little shaky in some of their logic (as is often the case with WHAT IFs) but this one is boggling start to finish. The idea that the world would lose some hope with the death of Captain America isn't too farfetched (though it's hard to say exactly when he died from the shockwave and the art makes it look a little like it's right as he came out of the ice so that's kinda weird that it would even have an effect) but the idea that heroes would try to cover it up is strange and that the world would turn on heroes for it is even weirder. Ultimately, though, the idea that Punisher becomes Captain America, an even better Captain America, is the least believable bit. Keatinge has enjoyed experimenting with these sort of scenarios through the run of this improbable series and has enjoyed turning things on their head a bit to see if they worked but this one seems like the premise is flawed. 2/5

Character
Castle is the character we see most here and he seems to be the same general Castle from the 616, making the shift from Punisher to Captain America exactly as weird as it seems. Still, there's not much character to look at here until the end, when a young girl has discovered the retired Castle and tries to get him to stop being surly and teach her to throw a trashcan lid, eventually prompting her to become another Captain America in the future. Just weird, this issue. 2/5

Writing
The story is the weirdest element and the writing then stays out of its way in a book that has almost no conflict, just a series of events that seem to be going everyone's way. Still, the writing starts to get a little grating as two children start talking about whether or not Old Man Castle really was the Captain America who kicked this all off. It suffers from that sort of "this is how kids talk!" style writing that makes it almost intolerable. Okay, so this is maybe a little bit of a nitpick as it only happens for like, a page, but it's the most notable writing in the book that isn't just explaining what's happening. 3/5

Art
The art, split up between Piotr Kowalski and Neil Edwards, does its work. Kowalski's stuff is pretty great when looking at setting or even at figures but looks a little cartoonish in faces, which comes at odds with the rest of his drawing. Edwards' stuff is a little more uniform but doesn't give the sort of sweeping looks at setting or the really stand-out figures that Kowalski did. Still, both do what they set out to do and certainly don't hurt the book. 4/5

Miscellaneous
How is this book still going?

Total score: 3/5