Black Widow 11, Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier 1

Black Widow 11

Black Widow knows her attorney's gone missing and she is not thrilled about it. With the suspicious intel of Tori Raven and the help of X-23 (who, I suspect, has teamed up with Natasha thanks to events that we maybe were already supposed to know about from the aftermath of DEATH OF WOLVERINE, though I don't know that that's true and I certainly don't want to do research on such a thing), she storms the casino where Isaiah is being held and makes it up to the top floor, where she finds that Isaiah has been taken away by his captors and a bomb has been left in their place. Natasha and Laura manage to evade the bomb and catch up with the helicopter leaving the casino. Natasha keeps X-23 from killing one of the men, hoping for answers, and keeps Isaiah from keeping Rashid, the man Natasha once saved long ago. However, Rashid forces her to let him go from the helicopter, plunging into a pool below and surviving, but not before muttering that "they hadn't told him about this part," leading Natasha to suspect something about CHAOS, assuming it is them behind this, has to do with some sort of precognitive ability. This seems confirmed when we see, after Natasha, Laura, and Isaiah have successfully left the casino area, Tori take a call from the people at CHAOS and imply once more that they have access to future information.

On top of the gorgeous art of this book which, hopefully, you have checked out by now, one of the great things about this book is the tone and atmosphere of the story. I've already talked at length (perhaps ironically) about the terse dialogue and narration of the book, which makes the book move really quickly and keeps Natasha's character pretty well-defined while still ensuring to keep things decidedly close to the vest, even with the ever-present and unseen audience. However, in the broader sense, Edmondson is doing a fantastic job keeping CHAOS out there and somewhere on the outskirts. It's the same sort of thing you see in a lot of spy or crime series. One notable example is the tandem of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the first two Daniel Craig James Bond movies. The end of Casino Royale introduces this new apparently anti-MI6 terrorist group called Quantum and then Quantum of Solace, which picks up just minutes after the end of Casino Royale, goes on to illustrate them as this ubiquitous group that hides in plain sight, showing Bond that he can't trust anyone and forcing him to rely only on himself and anyone he can tangibly prove isn't working with the organization. In just 11 short issues (and far fewer concerning CHAOS), Edmondson has nicely planted the seeds to view this group in that sort of light, some sort of ubiquitous but unseen enemy that is constantly closing in on Natasha. It's a perfect adversary for her and it's presented brilliantly by both Edmondson and Noto. It's classic spy stuff and it's so far striking the perfect balance that makes them a massive threat but not something that requires Avengers attention on it (always a worry in a shared universe: why didn't so-and-so just call the Avengers? They can't ALWAYS be off-world!). Really great book just doing what it does, continuing to be really great.

Total Score: 5/5


Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier 1

Bucky Barnes has taken on Nick Fury's role as "man on the Wall," the guy who protects the planet from interstellar threats before they can even make it to Earth. This first issue finds him all over the galaxy with his chosen sidekick-who-isn't-a-sidekick Daisy Johnson. They start on a planet, kill a dude, take a weird little pet off the planet, investigate a drug trade through Atlantis, and team up with Namor only to find that the drug dealer's middle man was Loki and then the drug dealer is killed by someone else who seems impossible to identify in the murkiness of the final page.

I hate to say "I told you so" but I especially hate to say "I told you so" to myself, who was really starting to eagerly anticipate this book. I have had my problems with Kot in the past (I think SECRET AVENGERS is all over the place and certainly has become a book that isn't for me, a thing I hate dealing with because I still force myself to read every book like some dummy. I also think Kot really wants you to know that he's smart and thoughtful and progressive, something I would honestly have believed if he just wrote books I like because I think writers who can make good books ARE smart and thoughtful and progressive and don't always need to have an agenda LOOK, we're on a tangent again) and they're all coming right to a head here as he loads each page with dialogue and exposition and throws it all at us over Marco Rudy's really specific art style. One of the problems with that is that Rudy's art style involves using space on the page in a way that's very rarely, if ever, done. There are a lot of circular panels in the middle of a page that kind of branch out to create the rest of the page's layout and, when used effectively, create a really neat and unique sort of page. Here, though, it's really hard to follow the art because the words are so very present and it's a struggle just to find your way around the story, meaning you can't really make room for the art. Hopefully this is something that will settle out as the book continues (which is certainly a possibility as the two become more comfortable working with one another) because I still want to believe this book has potential. I just need to stop rolling my eyes at it.

Total Score: 2/5

Comics this week

Boy, it doesn't get much easier than this one, huh? There are weeks where I really have to weigh things out, pick out the top five books I'm looking forward to/that I believe are most important in the coming week, whether because there are too many vying for this prestigious list or because I just can't get myself up to five I'm excited about. But boy if five didn't jump right off the page to me this week. Is it a perfect five? No, probably not. I didn't have room for DEATH OF WOLVERINE on the list so now no one will know it could have been here as well. But the five that are here? Oh, I think you'll be interested in them.

Black Widow 11
WELL LOOK, I'M INTERESTED IN THEM, OKAY? How many times do I have to tell you to be interested in this one? Look, I'll level with you, I don't know if you're reading this book or not, I shouldn't be so mad at you. I'm just saying you should be reading this book. It's interesting because, logically, based on the other books that are coming in this list, I should have cut this one to make way for the important DEATH OF WOLVERINE, but it literally did not cross my mind. I'm not cutting this book from this list.

Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier 1
One of three premiere books this week (along with GUARDIANS 3000 and THOR) and one I'm really interested in. Yes. Interested is the right word. I go very back and forth on writer Ales Kot, who I wanted to like in his first SECRET AVENGERS take, don't like in the current SECRET AVENGERS series, and do like in his current IRON PATRIOT series. The series will be illustrated by Marco Rudy who I am rather obsessed with right now (loved his MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN and his NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL). Also worth noting: its protagonist is a character I love in Bucky Barnes. Color me warily optimistic.

Captain America 25
WHO IS THE NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA? We all likely know by now but that last page of the last issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA saw our best guess fly a bomb straight into the air, so maybe we're not a hundred percent sure? Look, it's a momentous issue for the series and I'd advise you check in on it (and it's been a really good series ANYWAY).

Thor 1
The second premiere issue to make the list this week (sorry GUARDIANS 3000, but I also kinda don't know why you exist) and, as with CAPTAIN AMERICA, big changes are here as we get our first real look at the new Thor. If that doesn't entice you at least a LITTLE, maybe you're on the wrong blog.

Uncanny Avengers 25
I know I may say this frequently, but we're right on the verge of AXIS and this book has been excellent to this point. Want to get the scoop on the upcoming Marvel event (or maybe even the one that's starting here, in UNCANNY AVENGERS 25? I don't know, I can't be bothered to do the slightest amount of research)? Check out this issue.

Original Sin 8

Original Sin 8

Nick Fury attempts to fight off Dr. Midas, Oubliette, and the Mindless Ones Midas has in tow. Help arrives as his gathered team of investigators show up to take on the Mindless Ones has Fury chases Midas to The Watcher's body, where Midas hopes to gain all of the deceased's secrets and power. Fury admits that he was the one who killed The Watcher after all, though flashbacks show us it was a little more complicated than that, and uses the remaining eye to destroy Midas. As the clean-up begins, no one is entirely sure what happened, only knowing that Uatu and Fury seem to really be dead. However, unbeknownst to everyone, a new being named the Unseen has emerged, someone bound to witness all just as Uatu did. In finishing news, Thor still can't pick up his hammer, Oubliette has one of Midas' still working hands, and Winter Soldier has seemingly taken Nick's place on the world's front lines.

One of the things that ended up frustrating me about this series was that I don't think it was poorly written or that the characters weren't well-done or something. I do think there were parts that dragged a bit and I think that the story wasn't particularly strong, certainly not strong enough to overcome my cynicism about releasing all these secrets into the world (especially the secrets that didn't end up impressing me) and about events as a whole. Still, it's hard to complain too much as we walk away from ORIGINAL SIN with a couple of big, key changes (no more Watcher, no more Nick Fury, Thor can't lift his hammer, Bucky's in space, etc.) and as there were a couple of good character moments. I didn't think Nick Fury's plot was very strong; I'll always consider Fury the wheels-within-wheels guy as opposed to the front-lines-of-Earth guy. I think that there's certainly room for both definitions and that one doesn't necessarily preclude the other, but there's something much more clever and much more sly to the first than to the second and that's the Fury I like reading. Anyway, though I didn't like his story, I thought that Aaron wrote him well enough to generate real sympathy and real heart for him as the series ends. I think everyone else gets a fair shake too. Geez, what a conflicting event. I guess I'm still not totally impressed with it but I can't say I full-out didn't like it. Sounds like a certain score to me...

Total Score: 3/5

Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier ongoing, Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy mini announced

Couple of news announcements this week out of Marvel and they're pretty big ones (well, one is. The other is fairly predictable). The first is the announcement of a new ongoing, BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Writer Ales Kot (SECRET AVENGERS, IRON PATRIOT) and artist Marco Rudy (MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN, NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL) plan to take Bucky all around the Marvel Universe, having him do his spy work anywhere and everywhere. It's an interesting move, one that was certainly bound to happen given the success of the movie and the success of the character, even pre-movie. I'm still lukewarm on Kot, not enjoying his SECRET AVENGERS pretty much at all but finding myself liking IRON PATRIOT. On the other hand, I'm already anything but lukewarm on Marco Rudy, absolutely loving MK SPIDER-MAN and his recent Dr. Strange-centric NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL. It'll be interesting. BUCKY BARNES: WINTER SOLDIER is set to debut in October.

The other new announcement is the follow-up to the anticipated DEATH OF WOLVERINE series later this year with a mini-series entitled DEATH OF WOLVERINE: THE LOGAN LEGACY. A seven-issue mini set to run through October, November, and December, will alternate creative teams, placing the focus on various villains, mostly (with a nod to X-23). The first and the final issue will both be written by DEATH OF WOLVERINE scribe Charles Soule. It has drawn comparisons to the post-Captain America death book FALLEN SON. So that's two more new books coming with big, long titles, because apparently Marvel doesn't care about bloggers who have limited tag-space on a given post.

Captain America 22, Black Widow 8

Captain America 22
Remender (w) and Pacheco (p) and Taibo (i) and White w/Loughridge (c) and Caramagna (l)

Everyone needs a rest once in a while and I can't think of anyone in the Marvel Universe after the past few months who needs one as badly as Captain America. The serum-less and frail Steve Rogers spends a day in his big bed at Avengers Mansion watching his reputation be tarnished and his ethics questioned by a number of SHIELD critics in the wake of Nrosvekistan and watching Louie while Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and (kind of) Thor try to find some trace of the serum in his blood and to restore him to Cap status. Steve is roused from his bed at last, though, when a portal to Dimension Z opens and Zola's minions come pouring out with Zola himself discussing his plans with the Red Skull.

I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again: every book needs a sort of rest issue now and again to slow things down and to keep the intensity of the action-based issues high by giving something to compare against. That's what this is for CAPTAIN AMERICA, a solid rest issue that establishes where we stand right now and what we should be thinking about as the series continues (mostly Zola, Red Skull, the serum-less Cap, and the fact that Jet and Falcon have, against Falcon's better impulses, started up some sort of a relationship following a wine-fueled night). It's a very good book and one that manages to reset the pace and tone, exactly what Remender set out to do, while still not resting on its laurels, preferring to still push the plot forward.

Total Score: 5/5


Black Widow 8
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a and c) and Cowles (l)

While Isaiah tries to secure some funds for their operation, Black Widow has a new job: stealing back some key data for a client from a courier on a train in Prague, or a reverse train heist, as she calls it. She easily makes it on to the train and recovers the package but she's surprised when Winter Soldier turns up, hired to stop an international gang from robbing the train. They work together well to get off the train and evade the attacking gang but Natasha is shot in the leg in the process and the two make their way to an empty house for Bucky to patch her up and for them to plan the next move. Bucky insists that she leaves before the gang catches up to them, arguing that her job was to secure the briefcase and that his was to handle the gang. She accepts reluctantly and begins to leave before Bucky calls out to her again. Unable to say anything to her about their one-time relationship (thanks to Natasha's complete amnesia of it), he wishes her luck and she leaves. She returns home to find a new lead waiting for her from Maria Hill while Isaiah has been taken by some anonymous party.

It's no surprise for me to say that I absolutely adore this book and that this issue, one that teased a Winter Soldier appearance that would team the two for the first time since Natasha's memory wipe at the hands of Leo Novokov, had a particular draw for me. Edmondson and Noto deliver as the book is appropriately exciting and fast while also being layered and heart-breaking. Edmondson handles the team-up extraordinarily well, not letting on (save for a few quick lines that could go either way) until the very end that something is on Bucky's mind while making their interaction feel like two spies who are really good at their jobs and who have an obvious chemistry together. Noto continues to amaze as both Natasha and Winter Soldier look incredible (my girlfriend pointed out how consistent Noto is in Natasha's appearance, something that you can't always expect from this medium) and setting their fight against some gorgeous backgrounds and colors. Another month, another great BLACK WIDOW issue.

Total Score: 5/5

All-New Invaders 3, Winter Soldier: Bitter March 2

All-New Invaders 3
J. Robinson (w) and Pugh (a) and Guru eFX (c)

We start with a quick flashback to just three days before as Namor is captured by Tanalth, who uses his pride and arrogance against him before using a weapon that drains the moisture from him, effectively weakening him entirely before she brings him back to Hala. Jump to the present to find the Supreme Intelligence searching his mind for the location of the Gods' Whisper. Fortunately, or so the team thinks, Thor and the other Asgardians are immune to the Gods' Whisper these days, having already created protection to shield from it as soon as they heard of its existence. Thor tells Captain America and the Human Torch this as they prepare to embark from Avengers Mansion on the next step of their journey. That next step is meeting up with Bucky, who has tracked down Aarkus in what is addressed as a particularly hard job but is only a couple panels' worth of work in practice, in New Mexico so they can create a bunch of smoke on which they can all travel with Aarkus to Hala. When they arrive, they find Tanalth waiting for them and she surprises them with a god already under their control, Ikaris of the Eternals.

I think this series would be twice as good with half the words. Right now, it can't seem to get out of its way with exposition and unnecessary and clunky dialogue. The following is a generalization and likely not a fair one at that: sometimes, comic writers brought up in a different age won't easily break from that age. James Robinson comes from a time in comics where exposition and linking the universe were the orders of the day and so he clearly wants to keep every potential new reader in the know about the Marvel Universe. However, it's something comics have broken from more recently. Sure, Marvel wants every person with any disposable income to buy any or all of their books but there is a realism to it that they can't assume anyone is buying or reading every book and they certainly can't cater to the person that knows everything that's happening in the universe. Each book needs to work on its own because, as you can pretty clearly see in this issue and the preceding two issues (though not as much as here), it just doesn't work when you try to tell the reader everything. You have Cap explaining things to Torch that Torch clearly already knows, even going so far as to say "as you know" in his sentences. Therefore, that dialogue is ONLY there to help the audience but it's posing as actual natural dialogue between two characters. Things like that or references to other books in the Marvel Universe are everywhere in this issue. When things don't need explaining, they're over-explained. When things do need explaining, they're under-explained. It's just something of a mess, which is a shame because I do love these characters and this team and I think even the story has real potential (though it continues to be hard, as someone who does read every book, to understand why the Kree are so set on attacking Earth at this particular moment; sure they're a warring race and MAN is Earth annoying to anyone not on Earth but you'd think the Builders would have bought Earth a little bit of time). Overall, though, the writing comes off as completely unnatural and long-winded. Hopefully once the plot is mostly laid out, Robinson will settle in a little more and cut back on some of the exposition.

Winter Soldier: Bitter March 2
Remender (w) and Boschi (a) and Chuckry (c)

Ran Shen has managed to keep the scientists alive through three days in the forest with the Winter Soldier lurking around somewhere in pursuit of them. He makes his first appearance when Shen finds a town and uses a phone to get in touch with SHIELD. Shen arranges an extraction with Horace Littleton (he who would be Mindbubble) but Littleton tells him that he has to get out of the country and make it to West Berlin before they can safely pick him up. Unfortunately for Shen, this is where Winter Soldier finds them and forces them to flee from the town. They barely make it out when Shen uses one of his wrist arrows to detonate on Winter Soldier's arm, giving them a chance to escape. Shen and the two scientists find their way onto a train heading out of country but while Shen and Mila discuss politics and flirt, Peter makes a secret meeting with Hydra aboard the train. Everything comes to a head suddenly when Winter Soldier bursts into the train and attacks Shen just as Hydra shows up to take back the scientists and, presumably, kill the other two.

There is an insane amount of stuff happening in this book and I'm going to go ahead and praise my own scheduling when I put this book alongside ALL-NEW INVADERS in the review circuit this week because it provides a pretty perfect counter. There's a lot happening over in CAPTAIN AMERICA and obviously this story, though a precursor in continuity, is driven very much by events over there. However, you can very easily read this story by itself and it reads well and it's interesting and exciting. The dialogue works and you can see all of the story threads here but it's not all over-explained. Granted, this is a prequel of sorts so Remender has to say all of this without saying anything specific, which could make it easier or harder than trying to load exposition about things that have happened into a book. But this book nails it on tone, on dialogue, and on laying out the sort of stuff it needs to lay out, even on top of creating a story that is perfectly readable as a Winter Soldier story in its own right. Well done all around.

Thor: God of Thunder 19, Winter Soldier: Bitter March 1

Thor: God of Thunder 19
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c)

King Thor examines Earth millennia in the future, now a cold, dead rock, with his three granddaughters, who are less enamored of Midgard than Thor was. As King Thor laments the way the world defeated itself, we turn back the clock to see what's happening with Thor the Avenger. It turns out he's trying to land a date with SHIELD agent Roz Solomon, who is, herself, trying to bring down the somehow constantly re-formed Roxxon. Thor helps her bring down some whalers before the two of them head for a new Roxxon unveiling with new Roxxon head Dario Agger. Agger has led an expedition to drill ice from Jupiter to try to "cure thirst" or something along those lines but Solomon knows that it's just a way to control the profits of Jupiter water. Thor arrives at the press conference with way more ice straight from Jotunheim, killing a lot of Agger's profits (business, am I right, guys?) and putting Thor and Solomon right on the map for Agger. After this act, Solomon agrees to go for coffee with Thor. Now we go back...to the FUTURE to see King Thor and his granddaughters on Earth as Galactus approaches.

Very clear set-up issue as plenty of seeds for the new arc are planted. There's something remarkably endearing about Thor trying to win a date with Agent Solomon that's worth seeing in this book and, of course, Esad Ribic's art flourishes here as he gets to draw giant underwater scenes and some big Asgardian style scenes. The issue starts to lose a little bit of steam as Roxxon gets involved, as Aaron is tasked with setting up a new agenda for Roxxon and a new CEO for the always always always corrupt company. I'd say that the Jupiter ice thing falls a little bit flat too since it's such a specific thing and it's hard to really see the point of it (though I suppose you could make the case that it's readily available water that Agger, like the villain in Quantum of Solace, would have at his control but, unlike that villain, Agger doesn't control the entire region's supply of water). Likewise, it's a little hard to muster up some sort of feelings for the Midgard of the future as it's far out enough that it's, you know, kind of expected that it will eventually die. Like, Thor HAD to have been told this at some point, right? Still, the seeds could harvest interesting fruit (just how I like my fruit) given just a little more time.

Winter Soldier: Bitter March 1
Remender (w) and Boschi (a) and Chuckry (c)

It's 1966 and Fury and SHIELD have learned that Hydra has captured Nazi scientists who have perfected the alchemy formula, which would allow Hydra untold resources if they're able to glean the formula for themselves. It's up to Fury and SHIELD's number two agent Ran Shen to break into a secure Hydra facility (Castle Hydra on a sheer cliff face in a snowy, remote locale) and capture the Nazi scientists or, if they can't manage capture, kill them. Shen and Fury wager on who will find the fastest way into the castle and Shen goes in the front door, counting on his smarts and ability to blend in to get him through, while Fury scales the side of the castle and goes in the drainage pipe. Shen seems to blend in okay and ends up hitting it off with a woman who seems to know something about Hydra's inner workings. The pair of them leave the party to be alone and the woman reveals herself to be the absolutely horrible new creation Madam Worm. With worms crawling out of her and into and all over Shen, designed to show Shen the beauty of Hydra, Fury appears and flamethrowers her into a big ol' pit. They manage to find the scientists and escape, to Fury's chagrin, up through the castle. They manage to avoid all guards going that way and make it outside only to have their new charges instantly stolen from them by none other than the Winter Soldier. Shen and Fury pursue him, all three essentially hang-gliding away from the castle. Shen distracts Winter Soldier while Fury attacks, causing him to drop the two targets. Shen manages to catch them and land but Fury is shot in the chest and falls elsewhere. Winter Soldier's wings are damaged and he, too, falls into the forest. Shen lands with the two scientists in the forest, realizing that he's up against a man thought only to be a myth, on foot with two Nazis, in the middle of a frozen forest.

All of our players are here, all of our plot is right here, laid out for us for this limited series, as we get our first real, extended look at a Cold War-era Winter Soldier. It's a really neat idea and the idea of three superpowers, SHIELD, Hydra, and Russia, vying for the formula tucked away in the heads of a pair of old Nazis, is a compelling story in and of itself. Throw in the fact that it'll both pit Shen and Fury against Winter Soldier and will establish the relationship that Shen has with all the players today (appearing in CAPTAIN AMERICA as the villain Iron Nail) and we have a pretty fascinating limited series on our hands. The art and the tone of the book hit their mark, feeling like a pretty solid spy story (too bad I spent so much time talking about James Bond in my THOR review, huh? Requisite Bond time has already been taken up). Matching that tone perfectly, by the by, are Andrew Robinson's covers for the series. SECRET AVENGERS has been trying to go for a spy, '70s era feel with its covers and fonts and things for a little while now and I think they've been okay but often a little convoluted for my tastes. These ones are much cleaner and the cover for issue two is pretty astounding, really looking forward to that one. Of course, I say all this but I still ended up with Chris Eliopoulos' animal variant (seen at right) for this issue ANYWAY. Look, it had Batroc as a fox, what was I supposed to do, not buy it?

All-New Invaders 2, Captain America 16

All-New Invaders 2
J. Robinson (w) and Pugh (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Bucky was doing a job for the original Nick Fury, a job that went surprisingly well, when the Kree found him like they'd go on to find Human Torch. After evading the Kree and managing to interrogate one of them, Bucky called Steve to let him know what was happening and the two of them went together to Torch in the midwest. Back where the first issue left off, the Invaders manage to hold off the Kree and their leader Tanalth long enough that she gets called back by the Kree with the information that they seem to have all the pieces of the Gods' Whisper. After she leaves, Bucky and Torch exposit a bit about the scene that both Bucky and Torch were made to remember, explaining that it happened on a mission when Cap was busy elsewhere and that they defeated the Nazis and broke the Gods' Whisper into three parts with each of them tasked with burying a part and not revealing its location to the others. After they did that, they called on Aarkus, the original Vision, to wipe their memory of the device and its location. Now they all agree to go after the Kree in the hopes of both stopping them from using the Whisper and saving Namor.

It's a good enough plot and one that justifies this once-upon-a-team getting back together (also, as Cap himself intimates, they're just about the only group aside from maybe Atlanteans who would care about rescuing Namor). The characters all play their roles this issue as Bucky gets to be the younger-seeming and more brash wetworks guy while Steve plays the morally definite inspirational leader and Torch plays Steve. That's one of the faults that a lot of people tend to fall into writing Invaders stories: Namor and Bucky are very much not Steve but Torch doesn't really get his own personality unless he's made somewhat angsty by the fact that he's an android and doesn't fit in (don't misread any tone in there, that sort of story is still compelling and the character changes it requires work well for Torch but it's not really one that can sustain all the time). Hopefully this series will last long enough and Robinson will be compelled enough to develop Torch into a character wholly his own. For now, though, the plot continues to suffice and the characters are ones we can pretty easily understand, so even if you're not brushed up on your Invaders, it's an easy enough book to jump into. Hopefully it stays a book worth having jumped into.

Captain America 16
Remender (w) and Alixe (a) and Delgado w/ Fabela and Silva (c)

With Steve across the globe on a mission taking down Nuke, readers may be wondering how Jet Black is faring in this new world. Turns out it's about as well as you would expect. She loathes the world and kind of loathes herself for helping to stop her father from taking it over when he so easily could have and, in her estimation, would have improved it. She's perplexed by the kindness and compassion she sees in the midst of all the horrible parts of the city and she can't quite guarantee it's a good thing. She finds herself doing her first very-nearly heroic thing when she intercedes on the behalf of a shopkeeper being beaten to death by a couple of men he threw out of his store. Of course, she waits until the shopkeeper is very badly beaten before scaring the assailants off. When asked by the man why she didn't help, she asks him why he didn't help himself and goes on to say that if he cannot defeat life, life will defeat him. She soon finds herself being addressed by a man who calls himself a friend and who reveals himself to be an S-Man. Anyone reading UNCANNY AVENGERS will know where this is heading, though we haven't been on that plot in quite some time. He brings her to none other than the Red Skull, who assures her that he is a friend of her father's and calls on her to join him and rule like a Zola over these people who are begging to be ruled. Overwhelmed by all the images he's showing her (such as the image of a Captain America on his knees, admitting that he's fighting for ideals he doesn't believe in and the image of her father), she panics a little and "escapes" only to find that the whole thing has been playing in her head as she stands over the beaten shopkeeper.

Plenty of things happening here and Remender again shows elements of the long game he's playing in so many books right now. It's still fairly impossible to get a read on Jet Black, who has shown signs of compassion dating back to her Dimension Z days but who ultimately seems unconvinced by it. The last thing Steve needs is for her to be teamed with Red Skull, especially the Red Skull who has Charles Xavier's mind in his head. There are a lot of things in this issue that call back to UNCANNY AVENGERS but I don't think you have to be a reader of both books to understand exactly what's happening (though I'd hazard that there's a good crossover between readers of CAPTAIN AMERICA and readers of UNCANNY AVENGERS). Even going so far as showing the Captain America that Skull shows to Jet, which is obviously not the real Cap but is something that was hinted at by Skull when he dug around Cap's mind early in UNCANNY AVENGERS, is a nice touch. The art is solid here and works particularly well in the outdoor scenes as Alixe's art and Delgado's colors work well together to create the sort of miserable New York winter day. That said, I won't be upset if Pacheco's back next time out, really been liking his stuff in the book. Next time: more about Dr. Mindbubble. Dr. Mindbubble. Still can't really wrap my head around it.

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.

New Winter Soldier Mini-Series Announced

Hooray! Another shot for the Winter Soldier! On top of appearing in upcoming issues of Secret Avengers and Captain America and being one of the leads in the just announced All-New Invaders, Bucky Barnes will return in February of next year for a mini-series entitled "Winter Soldier: Bitter March." The series will be written by Captain America scribe Rick Remender and will feature art from Roland Boschi. Taking place in the Cold War (so we have a Russian controlled Winter Soldier), this story plans to tie in heavily to events just down the road in Captain America. It also looks like it will pit Winter Soldier against 1960s SHIELD as the Russians and Americans look to secure scientists with potentially war-ending breakthrough weapons. You clever devils will likely also note that the release of this new five-issue mini will coincide nicely with the new Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie set to be released in early April in the US (why yes, I am bitter that we seem to get it later than nearly everybody else out there...sorry Germany and Brazil). The upside of this series for comic fans (other than it will be just another place to see one of the most popular characters created since the 1980s...I've heard the list is Wolverine, Deadpool, Winter Soldier but I heard that from Ed Brubaker so, you know, grain of salt) is that this will tie back to the Captain America ongoing so it doesn't seem like it will be merely a movie tie-in. Fun stuff abound!

First look at CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER

Hey guys, amazing. Just...amazing. More thoughts later, OBVIOUSLY.

Winter Soldier 18, X-Factor 255

I know what you're thinking: Tim, you're so good at this blog and you almost always have a reason for choosing a couple of books to be reviewed together, as imperceptible as those reasons may be to us, the wonderful readers! But we are having some trouble understanding this team-up, especially so early in the review week. Friday is too early to have paired up the other books and have these left as the remainders and you LIKE both of these books, you would work to pair them up with things first. In fact, there were several more X-books this week you could have paired X-Factor up with, though we admit we too would have been hard-pressed to figure out with what to pair Winter Soldier. Well, I have some bad news for you upbeat and very complimentary reader. This is "sad day" in the review week, wherein I review two cancelled Marvel books as they live out the rest of their sentence. That's right, though we knew Winter Soldier was cancelled, we've learned recently that the long running and nearly always entertaining X-Factor has also been cancelled. As a proponent of both of these books, I'm depressed over this most recent news, but I haven't the time for a proper retrospective this week and will have to dive into it next week. Instead, I'm writing an overly long introduction to my reviews for this week's issue of each book.

Winter Soldier 18
Latour (w) and Klein (a and c)

Just as with Hawkeye this week, we get a background for the villain of this arc in this, the penultimate issue of Winter Soldier. Tesla Tarasova was, as we know, a child when the Winter Soldier killed her father, a brilliant scientist who focused his work on cosmic radiation. A very smart girl, Tesla was raised in the same horrible orphanage/school that Bucky destroyed a few issues ago. We get a deeper look into life as a child of that institute and find it every bit as disturbing as we may have speculated last time. Every child there is trained to be a killer, a whole school of little Winter Soldiers to end up sold to the highest bidder. However, Tesla was different. Though she still excelled in training and was extraordinarily intelligent, she obsessed over her father's work on cosmic rays and eventually managed to expose herself to some, creating the Electric Ghost. Now her goal seems to be to unleash the same potential unleashed in her in the people like her, people without fear. Instead of seeing James as the man who killed her father and, as one would assume, hating him for it, she sees him simply as being like her, someone without fear and with power to be unleashed. She immediately deduces that he's fighting against his past not because he can't live with what he's done, but because he can live with what he's done. That's a great idea for Winter Soldier. Bucky has, since his return to the Marvel U, been haunted by everything he's done but he has never hidden from it. In fact, he's fully aware of what his past has wrought, including a pretty great arc (when he was the acting Captain America) where he had to fight people from his past and decidedly used the Winter Soldier costume to inspire fear and recognition. The fact that he still wears that costume is very telling of who he is. He fights against his past, but the question has never been raised about why he's insistent on still being the Winter Soldier. Is he simply not willing to shy away from his past? Is he upset about his past and needs to atone for it as the same person? Maybe. But the question itself of whether or not there's a part of him that can live with it is interesting.
So the Electric Ghost doesn't hate Bucky. In fact, she sees a kindred spirit in him and thanks him for changing her life in such a way that she's now here, controlling satellites and making people fear her or overcome any fears. She's so thankful, in fact that she makes out with him at the end of the issue. She doesn't like that he's still chained to Natasha and his past, chained to something like any other normal person. Where will that lead next issue for her and for Bucky? What will become of Bucky after this ends? Is this a way for Bucky to cut his losses with Natasha? I kind of hope not. I love them as a couple and hope that eventually things settle themselves out. But there are all sorts of interesting questions being raised and I worry that one remaining issue might not be enough to answer them all.

X-Factor 255
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

The Hell on Earth arc continues (admittedly somewhat regrettably) as Mephisto wins the day. He's defeated all the other Hell Lords while Tier waffled about in deciding to try to kill the Lords or not. Now Mephisto has won and has set himself up as the new ruler of all the hells and is seemingly unstoppable, except for Tier who finally chooses to take the fight to Mephisto. Meanwhile, Monet and Guido continue their fight, both physically and verbally. Guido notices that Monet is getting more shaken up by the fight than she should be and comments on it. She denies it and continues to fight with him, eventually leading to him punching her a little too hard (though, he notes, not hard enough that it should hurt her as badly as it does) and, well, killing her. So that was a shocker. Oh yes, spoilers and all that. Look, it's a review blog and my formula has stayed more or less the same, so there are quite a few spoilers in each review. Maybe I should make more of a note of that. I'll take it into consideration. Maybe clump the summary together more and then leave the analysis separate. We'll see. ANYWAY, Monet just died, what are we talking about? That's a pretty big deal. Of course, people have come back from the dead before in this book (and recently, at that) so it's not out of the question that she'll be revived. HOWEVER, with the book facing cancellation and Peter David never looking for the book to get stale, maybe this is the real deal. Also, one of the cool things (and one of the things I'll miss most about X-Factor) about this book is that no one who stars in this book really appears anywhere else in the Marvel Universe. Someone might make an appearance, or the team might even pop by in an event or something to see what's happening, but they seem to be the largest self-contained team in the 616 and the most self-contained characters in the Marvel Universe. What I'm getting at here, in my long-winded way, is that Monet could very well die here and the Marvel Universe at large would not even need to take notice. It's not like a fake-out Cap death where he's on 90 teams and in his own book so we know he's probably fine. It's Monet in one book on one team and, frankly, if you asked 90% of the 616 who she was they probably wouldn't know unless they were particularly well-informed. That's where this book pretty much leaves off. OH, and Jamie is still a goat-headed demon and Mephisto needs to turn that around stat because Madrox is great.
I alluded to not particularly liking that this arc is continuing at the start of this review and I stand by that. It's a major arc and I guess, when shaped this way, it definitely could have a final story feel to it. Major characters have returned, major characters are dying, major events are happening, etc. Still, it hasn't been my favorite story from X-Factor and I'm going to be more sad if the book ends on this note. I'll say again, though, that's personal preference. It's entirely possible some diehard X-Factor fans are loving this arc and loving what the team is going through right now and are contentedly sighing at the final outcome for our beloved second-tier heroes. Sadly, I'm not one of those people and if the book ends with this arc I'll feel a little empty inside.
I plan on doing a real sort of retrospective on X-Factor at some point but this week is a little busy and I already have my Monday post planned and it's a little more time sensitive than whatever my thoughts on X-Factor are, especially when my thoughts on X-Factor are pretty well documented here.

Another book cancelled

Winter Soldier cancelled with issue 19

After missing the memo last time around about X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse's cancellations, I created a Google alert to warn me when the term "Marvel cancels" appears. Already, one new cancellation in, it feels a bit like getting a call in the middle of the night from a family member and knowing it can't be good news. Of course, it didn't help that the first cancellation my new alert informed me about is one of my favorite ongoings. So yes, the news is out, Winter Soldier is officially cancelled, ending with issue 19 in June. Suspicions arose with the July solicits revealed this past week and no sign of Winter Soldier 20. So sadly, we couldn't even figure out what Bucky's been doing for 20 issues, we just get the 19. I'm sure we'll get more of what Bucky's up to as time goes on, but for the time being, we're going to be left with what last month's solicits showed, Bucky in space intertwined with someone who may or may not be the Electric Ghost. Presumably it will the arc he's on now, as well as the series.

Readers of this blog will know that Winter Soldier is both one of my favorite ongoing series and one of my favorite characters. I love the conceit behind Winter Soldier and the story of his origin enough to boost him there (let alone his tie with other favorite character Captain America), but through his time in the Marvel Universe his personality and the strength of his books have further cemented him in my heart. I'm extremely saddened to see this series go. It seems like Latour and Klein are both reaching a level of comfort with the character and with the story that would have brought Bucky to new places and new areas of his life. It's particularly sad because Bucky is entering a new point in his life, fresh off re-entering his own life after the brainwashing that created the Winter Soldier. After Brubaker's run ended, he's without Natasha and presumed dead by most of the world. His connections are as diminished as they've ever been and the start of Latour's run aimed itself at reintegrating him into missions from Nick Fury. On top of that, all the things I said about X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse being really solid and entertaining books that have been kind of pushed to the side for bigger events and titles and characters apply to the Winter Soldier title as well. I'm sad about this, though I think we all kind of knew from the get-go this was either going to kill or never survive. It's the kind of book that has probably more of a niche than most superhero books and those tend to have some trouble surviving (with obvious exceptions like Hawkeye leaping to mind).

As sad as I am about the cancellation, it's not entirely a surprise. Like I said, I think most fans of the book probably knew we were living on borrowed time with this one. In fact, we only got as far as 19 because of the announcement last Comic-Con that the new Captain America movie would have the title "Captain America: Winter Soldier." Brubaker revealed in some of his exit interviews that the book had been teetering on cancellation before that. He had said, after announcing his exit from Captain America, that he intended to remain on Winter Soldier for the foreseeable future, at the time expecting the foreseeable future to put him pretty much where he ended, given the book's cancellation. Instead, the title saw a bit of a sales boost after the movie reveal and Brubaker had to jump ship anyway. Latour and Klein both note in their blog posts dealing with the cancellation (below) that they knew they were fighting an uphill battle when they signed on but that it didn't change their desire to do the book. The problem with a character and a book like Winter Soldier is that, even though fans of the cinematic universe might leap on to the book to prepare for the upcoming movie, it requires the origin story to truly understand. Bucky is so woven into his own history that jumping into the series midway through probably didn't help a lot of new readers, eager to learn about the character who will feature in the motion picture. Also, the motion picture will cast him as a villain and suddenly he's a completely different character, one that audiences of the first Cap movie will recognize as dead, in the book.

I'm sad to see the book go and that's my primary view on this. Was it expected? Yeah, a little bit. Was I happy to have whatever time I got from this book? Sure was. Do I think that this is the end of Winter Soldier appearing in the Marvel Universe? Absolutely not. Marvel will certainly continue to throw Bucky into situations, likely starting with Secret Avengers where he was promoted even before the book launched, because he's a great character and he's well-liked. Hawkeye hadn't caught on in a solo series until Fraction's and he's still cited as plenty of people's favorite Avenger. With a movie coming out, Marvel isn't going to keep Bucky on the bench. So take some solace, then, that James Buchanon Barnes won't be on the sidelines long before we see him again. Will it be in his noir-ish solo series? Probably not. Is that super depressing? Sure is. Is there comfort in knowing good characters won't just fall by the wayside? Yes. So thank you Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice and Michael Lark and Bettie Breitweiser and Jordie Bellaire and Declan Shalvey and Jason Latour and Nic Klein and everyone else involved with this risky book from the start and from the middle and from the end. It was a great title that, yeah, deserved a bit better than it got but certainly gave it all. Pick up every issue from here on out for support and, you know what, go back and buy the rest too.



Writer Jason Latour's blog post about the cancellation can be found here. Artist Nic Klein's can be found here.

Winter Soldier 15, Red She-Hulk 62

Winter Soldier 15
Latour (w) and Klein (a and c)

I've hyped this book up a lot without actually hyping it up. I've talked about it a ton on this blog without, hopefully, saying positive or negative thoughts. One of the worst things to read in reviews is a review of something that hasn't even been released. You get it through user comments and reviews and stuff on Amazon and the like, where people will give a game a five star review and say "It looks awesome!" Guys, that's not a review. I do my pre-game picks of the week, but that's with the inherent disclaimer of "this book is what I'm most looking forward to, hopefully it's good."

Okay, so I'm pretty clearly stalling here until I have enough said that I don't have to talk about this comic. Don't read into that the wrong way. It wasn't a bad comic. It was a totally fine comic with an interesting premise and pretty clearly defined and intriguing new directions for Bucky to go. I think my hyping it, though, had made it so that this book was either going to be absolutely stunning or a complete flop. Instead, it landed where most comics do: certainly good with a lot of potential. I don't think it went too far in either direction but it set us up nicely.

This is my fault, beyond just hyping the book up. In my mind, Winter Soldier has been such an incredible book. It's been raised to elite-status, frankly, since before it started. I'm a sucker for the character, for the idea, for the noir style, and for Brubaker. Unless this book had beaten all odds and blown everything out of the water, I would see it as a downgrade. Frankly, I'm not sure it is. It's a change, most definitely. The thing I noticed most, honestly, was the lack of captions. Brubaker used captions all the time to convey Bucky's thoughts and, at least in this issue, Latour has Bucky say what he's thinking, either to no one or to Fury.

Okay, look, interruption real quick. I apologize in advance (and in last sentence) for comparing this so often to Brubaker's run, but it's going to happen. As I've said before, one of the more fascinating things to me about comics is the evolution of a character as seen through different writers. As Brubaker is really the only person who's written Winter Soldier, there are bound to be plenty of comparisons. LET'S GET BACK TO WHERE WE WERE THOUGH, OKAY?

At the end of the day, I like where Latour is going with this. He has some very clear ideas about Bucky's character and about the look of this book (it's neat to see someone with artistic talents taking over as a writer because you know that's what he'll be focused on). Some of the cool ideas that we've seen already include his take on Bucky and Black Widow's relationship (which was kind of established in Brubaker's stuff but more through the closed door of "we already have this relationship because of our past so we don't need to talk about it," whereas Latour had Bucky outright explain it) and his take on Bucky and Cap's relationship, on top of the new look into Bucky's past. It's bound to lead us to exciting places. If you're interested in jumping on to this book to learn more about Bucky, this issue is a brand new start. There isn't TOO much Winter Soldier history out there so it's not hard to catch up, but for a quick definition of him, this is a useful book.

Red She-Hulk 62
Parker (w) and Pagulayan and Alves (a) and Staples (c)

This was a good set-up issue. We already more or less know the story that's going on in Red She-Hulk involving a new sort of super serum the military is working on to create super powered soldiers. Though that never really works well, it seems to be on a path to working as Red She-Hulk has found a near-ancient SHIELD (or its predecessor) base and has subsequently found out that these tests will provide the military with super soldiers who will eventually crush civilians. It's a compelling story, even if this is just a recap sort of an issue, and it finds a Hulk opposing the army, as they are so wont to do.

What was more intriguing about this issue is the antagonist, General Fortean. We don't have a real sense what side of this he's on. Is he doing this knowing a possible outcome? Is he doing this because it's his job and it will certainly aid America if it works the way it should? Is he doing this for his soldiers? Is he doing this for power? Is he doing this because he hates Hulks? All valid questions and all questions that we'll keep having. He's not monologuing his evil villain speech and a lot of his requests, outside of the things Red She-Hulk knows, seem totally valid. He's trying to protect people. Even when, in this issue, he asks a visiting Captain America to reveal to him the identity of Red She-Hulk and the location of Machine Man, it could go either in the direction of "SO I MIGHT KILL THEM FOR INTERFERING!" or in the direction of "so I can make sure they don't attack my soldiers again and set back our progress!" Subtle differences, but pretty important ones.

It's another solid entry into this series and again I find myself recommending this book. The art is typically very good, the story is solid and the stakes are raised and, frankly, it's a little off the main radar. Yes the Avengers have shown up in recent issues to try to stop Red She-Hulk but they're still kind of on the perimeter. The end of the issue brings regular-type She-Hulk into the mix but even she's not a huge commodity right now in the Marvel Universe (aside from her new presence in the FF). As ex-cousins-in-law, who knows what their relationship will be? Interesting times abound, you guys. Interesting times indeed.