Captain America 24
As the Avengers fight Zola's mutates on the ground, Ian makes his way up to Sharon and Falcon and Jet confront Zola himself. Zola tells Jet that all of her actions, her revolt, her betrayal, etc., were by his will and offers her a place once more by his side as he conquers the world. She still fights him, getting help from Falcon as Ian and Sharon, who not only survived her time in Dimension Z but actually ended up raising Ian the rest of the way (so Sharon and Steve are his mom and dad), discover that Zola has a bomb meant to raze New York, civilians and superheroes alike. Zola has the bomb, as well as the mutates, telepathically controlled through his antennae (oh Zola, you're so silly!) so he can detonate it at a moment's notice. He hasn't done so only because he wants his daughter to join him once more. Falcon distracts Zola while Redwing clips Zola's antennae, hoping to disrupt the signal, but in classic villain mode the bomb sets to a 30-second timer when the signal is lost, leaving New York seemingly doomed. Falcon rushes to the bomb and grabs it, flying it far over the city and telling Steve to marry Sharon and raise Ian and have a good life as the bomb explodes.
You guys ever get the feeling that comic solicits and news and everything kind of ruin suspense to a point? This is a really great comic, complete with everything you could want from a superhero comic: a classic pure evil villain, an attempt to destroy all the superheroes and millions of civilians on the path to taking over the world, heroes working together towards a common goal, the monumental sacrifice of a terrific and long-standing superhero. And yet, we know that Falcon's meant to pick up the Captain America mantle in the next issue so we have a pretty good feeling that he'll live. To Remender's credit, that doesn't take all of the tension out or make the sacrifice meaningless; instead, it still stands strong and shines a great light on Sam. Overall, I can't fault the book for the flaws of the information age and this is still a really good issue.
Total Score: 5/5
Black Widow 10
We see a flashback of Black Widow's time on the other side of the law, specifically the period when Hawkeye had become an Avenger but his beloved Black Widow was still a criminal. The two find themselves on opposite sides of an escort mission as Natasha attempts to smuggle Rashid, an accountant with all manner of secrets in his head about terrorist money dealings, out of Pakistan to Russian operatives and Clint tries to capture Rashid. The two spar across Islamabad but Natasha eventually wins out, long-distance snapping Hawkeye's bow before he can successfully derail the car Rashid managed to get in. In the present, though, Rashid is the one who kidnapped Isaiah, who holds firm, unwilling to give up any information and sure that Natasha won't come for him. On the other hand, though, Natasha realizes she may need a hand on this one.
Though the cover and the hype are something of a fake-out as Hawkeye only appears in flashback form and we don't see much of their working one-on-one relationship now, the issue still holds up to the rest of the series nicely, with plenty of action and phenomenal Phil Noto art doing most of the storytelling with Edmondson's often terse dialogue filling in many of the specifics. In that way, it's very much a comic (and has been through its run) that uses the advantages of an illustrated medium to really flesh out a story. Comics drag when they rely too much on the narration or the dialogue to push the story forward or to build up characters too much. Not to say that all comics with a lot of writing are slow or uninteresting, just that it's a risk you run when you write an issue and leave little room for the art to tell the story. This series continues its excellent run unabated and I advise you check it out if you, for some inane reason, haven't already.
Total Score: 5/5
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