All-New X-Men 29, Amazing X-Men 9, X-Force 7

All-New X-Men 29
Bendis (w) and Immonen (p) and Von Grawbadger (i) and Gracia w/Keith (c) and Petit (l)

X-23 hits Xavier Jr. from behind, breaking his grip on the Stepford Cuckoos and releasing everyone, including his own Brotherhood, from his hold. As he attempts to regain control or to get the X-Men to kill one another, Jean Grey and the Stepfords team to keep him at bay while Laura keeps Raze busy. Eventually, after much banter, the X-Men capture Xavier and Raze, sending them to SHIELD with the explicit direction that they keep strong power dampeners and sedatives on the pair, while the innocent "members" of the Brotherhood are sent back to their own time. STILL, somehow, worst-character Maria Hill allows Xavier to write a message to himself in the future, warning them that this plan didn't work either (presumably she didn't know that's what he'd write, but come on). Also, Warren takes X-23 out on something of a date.

The cyclical and continuous nature of comics means that you almost never see a door explicitly closed. Even when, say, Si Spurrier erases David Haller from the Marvel Universe entire, there's almost always some sort of backdoor. Spurrier didn't really leave one but he acknowledged that someone could certainly come along and change things back anyhow. Still, this "enemies of the future can't be defeated until their dead" sort of backdoor is a dangerous and cynical one, one that allows a seemingly infinite amount of second chances. What might be more dangerous (and perhaps more cynical from me) is that I'm already totally sick of Xavier Jr. and his story. I was sick of it in BATTLE OF THE ATOM. Also Maria Hill continues to be terrible simply to move the story forward and now X-23 and Warren are a thing, apparently. I feel like this is all a new coat of paint on an obviously old story (guys, it's not even THAT old).

Total Score: 2/5


Amazing X-Men 9
Yost and Kyle (w) and Barberi (p) and Wong, Meikis, and Barberi (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Wendigo curse is spreading, having already enveloped an entire town, and no one is quite sure how to handle it. The US military wants to keep it across the border, though they're eventually outvoted by Thor and Captain America. Meanwhile, officials are suggesting people move south, hopefully keeping the plague behind them. The X-Men, of course, are trying to find Wolverine in all of this. Eventually they manage it, tracking Wolverine and his newfound allies Talisman and Puck, but they're still heavily outmatched by the power and numbers of the Wendigo. Talisman thinks, given enough time to perform the spell, she can change the Wendigo back to their true human form. The X-Men circle her to give her the time but the fight has proven too much for Wolverine, who collapses, turning into a Wendigo himself, and attacks Talisman.

Yost and Kyle, in their second issue of this young series and of this arc, keep the action up here, showing a true Wendigo infestation and making sure to illustrate just how devastating it is. It's so big that two prime Avengers make an appearance in an X-Men book. There's a bit of characterization mixed in with all of the action and the tone, with each character getting a little bit of time in the spotlight, at least long enough to establish a bit about his or her personality. It's a strong issue though I think it suffers a little from a strange desire to jump around in time and to cast the scale of the disaster against a running news broadcast about it. It stretches the issue a bit longer than it needs to be, slowing things where you don't want anything to be slowed. Still a strong issue and another good look at the new creative team.

Total Score: 4/5


X-Force 7
Spurrier (w) and R. Kim (a and c) and Sabino (l)

X-Force has the closest thing they're likely to get to a day off and they're spending it at home, mostly hitting on one another. Psylocke flirts clumsily with the guaranteed one-night-stand Cable but retracts it later when he goes a little too fundamentalist for her liking, MeMe pulls Fantomex into her world, using the Nantes in his head to tell him that she's bored and maybe they could hook up at some time, and Marrow is convinced that Doc Nemesis wants to sleep with her, even as he explains to her all the ways she's broken. Meanwhile, a past Cable had sent Domino to follow a money trail that would point to Volga's investors which pits her directly against Volga in his new robotic body even as Cable forgets she's out there. The issue ends darkly as Volga (who has been spying on X-Force) captures Domino and as Fantomex reveals that he's been killing Cable the last few days to make himself feel more important.

I talk frequently about the occasional need for a series to take a slight break, something to reset the action and slow things down a bit. X-FORCE, unwilling to really take time off, keeps the pace and the darkness off by introducing frequent Cable collaborator Domino to the series and immediately having Cable's "die everyday" revelation have some serious repercussions. Cable going fundamentalist by promising that X-Force will not cease and will even spy on possible threats to make sure their goals are achieved is paralleled by Volga making a speech to Domino that says more or less the same things Cable is, even ending with a pair of panels that put Cable and Volga's faces side-by-side. METAPHOR.

Total Score: 5/5  

Punisher 4, She-Hulk 3

Punisher 4
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c)

Captured by Dos Soles and Electro, Punisher is in a bit of a bind. Electro tortures him while the leader of the Dos Soles promises that he'll earn money loaning Punisher out to be tortured to other villains who have been hurt by his actions. Electro has no intention of letting Punisher live that long but doesn't mention that bit to the Dos Soles' leader. After the drug lord leaves the room, Electro continues to brag to Punisher before Punisher kicks out at the chest of Electro and propels himself, chair and all, through a window behind him. Freed from his chains on impact, he rushes to one of the bombs in the room, daring the Dos Soles who saw his escape to shoot him. He manages to get a gun from one of them and he works his way through the building before the Dos Soles' leader detonates the building, preferring not to leave anything behind. Punisher reunites with Tuggs and tells him that the Soles are planning a citywide strike on LA with Electro, who is also working with AIM and has come to work with the Dos Soles as part of an arrangement with AIM (though Frank doesn't know this part yet). While Frank sets out to shut them down, Tuggs is captured by the new Howling Commandoes closing in on Punisher. A new wrench is going to be thrown into everything, though, as AIM hires another mercenary to work for whatever their plan is: former X-Man/X-Force member Domino.

Like BLACK WIDOW, Edmondson is here writing another story about a strong protagonist who is good at what he does even if what he does is arguably "good." He also makes sure that the protagonist has a strong narrative running throughout, something important for both books that he's writing right now. With BLACK WIDOW, he has to ensure that she's not characterized as cold or heartless; Noto's art helps bunches with that because she's so very human in the art but having a running narrative of the way she thinks helps tremendously. In that same way, Punisher is brutal and efficient in his methods and he's very steadfast in what he believes, all of which has put him toe-to-toe with unambiguously "good" superheroes time and again. Giving him a strong narrative and putting his very human thoughts there (as writers sometimes use the "Punisher's War Journal" entries to do, though I think it's less effective than a straight shot into his mind) humanize him in a way that his actions never could. Strong issue here and plenty of story to follow as Punisher's new universe gets a bit bigger every issue.

She-Hulk 3
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)

She-Hulk has been approached by Kristoff Vernard, son of Dr. Doom, seeking asylum in the United States. As the two go out for coffee so she can hear his case, he says that he's being kept in Latveria and groomed to be the next ruler of the nation, which may be okay except that he knows he wouldn't be a ruler in his own right, he'd be the ruler holding all of Doom's positions and doing only what he wanted. He wants to be allowed to experience the world for himself and he knows Doom will never allow it. She agrees to help him but, since he's been in America for exactly a year at this point, they have to get the paperwork in that day. She calls in a favor with a judge and they get into Kristoff's car. His driver begins to take them to the airport, revealing himself to be a Doombot as they figure out where they're going. She-Hulk stops him and tracks down an old Fantasticar kept at JFK to get them back into the city. On the way in, they're besieged by legions of Doombots as they try to make their way into the courthouse in disguise. One catches what they assume is Kristoff only to find it's Hellcat posing as Kristoff to allow the actual man time to get into the courtroom. He does and She-Hulk rushes in behind him, rather beat up. Given the difficulty it took just getting past Doom and into the court that day, the judge approves his grant for asylum but no sooner does she pound the gavel than does Doom himself descend into the courtroom and drag Kristoff away, with She-Hulk vowing to get him back.

Bold move here as Soule puts She-Hulk right up against Dr. Doom to kick off her brand new series. There's a lot of legal work here as we understand why Kristoff wants asylum and the case in which it can be granted to him, not to mention some of the logistics of gaining asylum. The book kicks off with double page spreads galore as She-Hulk and Kristoff walk through the city with elongated panels stretching between the two pages. It's certainly an interesting layout and makes the story feel almost widescreen, in a way, though it's not a tactic I think I'd enjoy so much on repeated issues (I'm a bit conservative with my fondness for double page spreads, another thing I tend not to enjoy from Bendis). The book flows pretty well, though it's an interestingly paced book. There are long swaths of dialogue as procedure and history is explained but the double page spreads serve to make the book read faster; though there's a lot of dialogue, every page-worth of dialogue is spread across two pages. So the book flows but it's not in a regular sort of way. Still, it works and the book continues to be a pretty fun ride.

Uncanny X-Men 15, Cable and X-Force 17

Uncanny X-Men 15
Bendis (w) and Anka (a) and Beredo (c)

The girls of the New Xavier School have realized that they don't have much by way of clothes or entertainment or whatever else they might need and so convince their female professors to take them shopping. Emma is excited about it and provides the needed money while Ilyana and Kitty are ambivalent but willing to go anyway. They go to London and shop and buy clothes and talk for a while until sirens interrupt a meal. They follow the sirens to find cocoons popping up all over the city and the telepaths, scanning the mind of anyone they can reach, hear about the Terrigenesis bomb. They go to one of the nearby cocoons which has a transforming Latverian in it who comes out and, after a brief talk with the X-Men, knocks them all unconscious without trying. AIM shows up right after and takes the boy into their custody, excited that he seems to be able to take out a fleet of X-Men without even trying. The women eventually wake up and they leave the scene, realizing that the world is about to get more complicated.

An INHUMANITY tie-in here and one that, I suppose, helps illustrate this new event and shows us that Cyclops' team is aware of what's happening but doesn't do a ton else. There's a lot of dialogue here, as is typical in a Bendis book, but most of it doesn't really delve deeper into character than we've already been. Celeste doesn't like Jean and Jean doesn't really like that Celeste doesn't like Jean because of what she could become and Celeste actually doesn't like Jean because she shouldn't be in this time and so on and so forth. Beyond that, not much more is discussed beyond the women's desire to go shopping and some defensive lines from Bendis about how it's not sexist, they just like to go shopping is all. There's a lot of the back-and-forth dialogue that, again, serves to slow the book a lot while making every character sound the same and somehow, spectacularly, not adding anything to the book's story. Kris Anka picks up the art on this one and it's definitely the highlight of the issue. Anka's done good work on UNCANNY X-FORCE covers this run and he's done pretty killer character and costume design work recently (he also works on the excellent new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show on Nickelodeon so I've nothing but praise for him). Overall, the story is one you're probably reading everywhere else across the Marvel Universe right now and it's done better elsewhere and, if you're reading UNCANNY X-MEN, you won't get much new out of this one unless, I suppose, these new clothes take a front seat in the next arc?

Cable and X-Force 17
Hopeless (w) and Sandoval (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The Adversary is on the loose in the X-Force bunker and Forge and Doctor Nemesis are trapped in Forge's mind while he uses Forge's body. Forge realizes that he hasn't left the bunker yet because he can't; the Adversary's incredible magic powers don't work on cold metal, such as the steel the bunker is entirely made out of (seems arbitrary). The key, then, is to keep him in there and to get Doc's consciousness out of Forge's body and have Doc kill Forge to stop the Adversary getting loose in the world. Doc refuses but Forge insists and both try to contact Boom Boom to stop her blowing holes in the bunker and to get her to get Doc out with the mind sync in the lab. Meanwhile, Domino and Colossus stop the avalanche hitting the small town below with a bit of luck and some ingenuity while Cable and Hope have worse luck against the Reavers and their Reavertron 9, made up of the lower level Reavers in the area. After a bit of fighting and some impressive fortitude on both their parts, Hope destroys the Reavertron and takes down the higher ranking Reavers and Cable carries her exhausted body out. Back at the bunker, Boom Boom manages to reach the switch, sending Doc's and Forge's consciousnesses into Doc's mind but, with the mind sync grabbing all nearby consciousnesses, it also sends the Adversary to Doc. Forge is annoyed that it seems impossible to save any of them but Doc points out that not all minds are created equal and he uses the tools in his own mindscape to indefinitely trap the Adversary, eager to hold his victory over Forge for long to come.

Nice little issue as everything here wraps up pretty cleanly and rather abruptly. Domino and Colossus get their moment together as they get to go on their date night after successfully working together to save the town and detonate the Sentinel. Cable and Hope get a bit of bonding time and Hope gets to prove herself to her father. Doc and Forge share a nice moment when Doc reveals that his plan of entering Forge's mind was a little short-sighted and he didn't have time to plan an exit strategy, too concerned was he in saving his reluctant friend's life. I'm also in favor of this issue because we get a lot of Doc Nemesis and we get to see him pretty much win outright in his constant battle of wits with Forge. Nice issue and a nice conclusion, in a way, to the series. There are still a few more issues before this book and UNCANNY X-FORCE disappear and get replaced by Si Spurrier's X-FORCE early in 2014 but the next few issues will be the crossover series VENDETTA between the two X-Force books and will therefore not exactly be based around the mission statement of this team (or of the other team but that one has less of a mission statement and more of a "we banded together because we had to in order to stop this crazy threat") so it's like the series is ending here, in a way. Bit sad. It does make me wonder how long in advance Hopeless knew about the replacement of this book, especially considering how abrupt the finale of this little arc was, wrapping things up in a hastily tied bow. Oh well, it all works out well and Sandoval's art really fits the sort of chaotic action we see throughout the issue. Nicely done all the same.

X-Men Legacy 20, Cable and X-Force 16

X-Men Legacy 20
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung w/ Tadeo (a) and Villarrubia (c)

The Shadow Phoenix is in David's mind attacking all of the powers that live there as David tries to find a way to defeat it. He thinks back to the things that linked the survivors of the Shadow Phoenix he saw when he was combing around Aarkus' head for clues. His first assumption is that sheer power defeated it, so he tries to rally his strongest and most intimidating powers, though he does so to no avail. They're scared of the Shadow Phoenix, who is picking them apart one by one. His next thought is strength in numbers, so his next move is to attempt to lead the remaining powers in his head. When this continues not to work, it sets in on him. Strength in numbers doesn't matter, it's the ability to work together that saved the Shadow Phoenix's other foes. Knowing this, David opens himself up to bond with his powers, teaming with them instead of simply grabbing and controlling them when he needs. David realizes that his mantra of "I rule me" has never been more true; every human, as he says, is a legion in need of a leader, wishing to be guided and not ruled. As a result, the Shadow Phoenix starts to weaken and even starts to spit back out the powers its swallowed, which David realizes is pretty weird; a predator who doesn't chew its food but keeps it intact. It dawns on David as he expels the Shadow Phoenix and wakes up: the Shadow Phoenix wasn't real, it was all a con. As he emerges from his own mind and awakens again, he begins to accuse Aarkus, who quickly cuts him off and explains it was only for his own good. He needed to learn how to use his powers like this, to become one with them. They needed him scared, not smug. Aarkus, in fact, appreciated that David stepped in to correct his previous views about mutants and wanted to return the favor by opening David's mind to what he could really be. On top of that, they need him whole to face down the golden Xavier. Even this series' first person to turn on David, Karasu Tengu, has realized that her life is, in fact, better for David's interference in it and so she played the role of the Shadow Phoenix. Now David must go and fight, with all of his powers intact.

Really, really lovely book. There are few examples of the sort of "hero realizes his potential" part of the hero's journey that are as well executed as this. All of the pieces start coming together as we see flashes from David of his own memories of this series where, for as successful as he's been, he's used and abused people. He's accomplished most of his own goals but his mistakes and even the problematic perception of him have all come because he's refused to let people in on his plan, preferring to do things himself and let people see too late that maybe he was doing a good thing after all. This issue makes clear that David simply hasn't seen things that way up to now and, even if he realized he wasn't really in any danger from the Shadow Phoenix, it's impossible to argue that he didn't just become far more powerful by leading his powers instead of just controlling them so there's a lesson here for him regardless of how the lesson came to him. The art is gorgeous and fits so well with this book and I continue to read these issues and wonder how I didn't love the art from the start. This issue very much feels like Spurrier's way to wrap it up here as he begins his transition over to his new X-FORCE book (still excited about that, you guys); we've now seen David embrace his powers and his future as well as mending relationships with Aarkus, SWORD, and Karasu. The issue ends with the knowledge that Blindfold was kind of in on this plan from the start but that she refused to be a part of it because she didn't want to see David in so much pain and because she realized that it was the beginning of the end. Brand then promptly wiped Blindfold's memory of it and sent her home. Some has stuck around, though, as she mutters in her sleep that they're going to start the end. So, as Abigail Brand says, go start it, cowboy.

Cable and X-Force 16
Hopeless (w) and Sandoval (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The sudden appearance of another entity in Forge's head has complicated things for the team as a whole. The Sentinel Colossus and Domino were tasked with taking down is not as inert as they were expecting it. Though they eventually manage to shut it down, the initial chase and the ensuing explosion cause an avalanche very near to them. Cable, on the other hand, has found that his new pre-cog powers are working pretty well but that his old powers aren't running properly any more, leaving he and Hope in the middle of a firefight with Reavers without any guns. Hope, though, had accidentally borrowed some of his TK powers when she had to attack him with the psimitar and so has enough to keep them mostly protected, though how far that will go remains to be seen as higher ranking Reavers return with a device that morphs the fallen Reavers into one giant predator. Finally, back at the base, Nemesis has entered Forge's consciousness to try to figure out what's going on inside. While in there, he runs into Forge and the two begin to explore while Forge explains that this entity is known as the Adversary (very clever name) and is a creature of pure chaos who likes to mess with humans (who Nemesis likens to Q from Star Trek: the Next Generation for all you nerds out there, says the guy with a comic blog). As they explore and find no real way to stop the Adversary, Forge realizes that the mind they're in isn't Forge's any more, it's the Adversary's.

A good deal of interesting stuff here as, in typical CABLE AND X-FORCE fashion, things go extremely wrong extremely quickly. There's a lot to contend with and it's almost entirely interesting as Cable's old powers are no longer working, Hope's powers are somewhat amplified by the TK that came pouring out of Cable's mind not long ago, Domino and Colossus have ruined their date night by causing an avalanche when they had to bring down a Sentinel, favorite odd-couple Nemesis and Forge are reunited as they wander through someone's mind, and Boom Boom is stuck at home contending with a god-like being of pure chaos who, in his first moments around her, converted their base into a simulacrum of a night club. As I said, there's a lot happening. The writing continues to be really character-driven, giving us really great moments from...well, from everyone, really. There's not a character in this issue who doesn't have a good few lines. The art fits the tone really well, a somewhat more cartoony feel than what we've seen from this book previously with Gerardo Sandoval  picking up the pencils on this one. There are cute little moments in lettering too as Hope throws a car at some of the Reavers and the sound effect reads "KAR-KRASH," just pages after an avalanche starting made the sound "AVALANCHE." Sometimes little fun games like that can get really distracting and pull you out, but I had to double-check kar-krash before really getting it and I didn't even see "AVALANCHE" on the first read-through. Lots of fun stuff with plenty of plot to keep us motivated for next issue.

X-Men 4, Cable and X-Force 13

X-Men 4
Wood (w) and D. Lopez and C. Smith w/ N. Lee (a) and Peter (c)

The new team is fresh off their first adventure together wherein Storm was prepared to make the call to kill their friend Karima to protect the world from Arkea. It's a decision that's not exactly sitting well with her teammates, particularly Rachel, who also feels that Storm has installed herself as leader prematurely. The team has to work out their issues as they save a jet with a malfunctioning engine from crashing by hooking it to their Blackbird. Meanwhile, Wolverine escapes the school for a bit to hang out with Jubilee for the first proper time in a long while (they hung out at some point in the last couple years but it was amidst Jubilee turning into a vampire and a clan attacking Wolverine to find he doesn't turn into a vampire very well so it's not a real hangout, you know?). The two friends and Jubilee's adopted son Shogo hit a couple of Jubilee's old favorite places in the California town where she grew up and share a very nice day which ends with Wolverine buying Jubilee's old house, unbeknownst to her. He's a good guy, that one. Also featured prominently on the cover.

Lot of really good stuff in here. It's a bit wordy, particularly as we get accustomed to this team and the way they talk and the issues they have to work out but the words aren't typically wasted. There are a few bits that feel a little forced, particularly with Jubilee as she and Wolverine decide that subtext is for suckers and that they'd rather lay their history out on the table in front of us for all to see but it's still not the worst decision. Jubilee has been removed from the spotlight for a while now and it seems like she's going to be a major player in this book full of people who have stayed very much in the spotlight lately. Best to get everyone caught up. Besides, her relationship with Wolverine does allow for that sort of talk. It's not perfect and you do catch yourself reading a lot of bits like "hey, I was a pretty lost kid myself when the X-Men found me!" but it gets across the points we need and generally keeps pretty uptempo. The other storyline, featuring the actual X-Men team, is even stronger, showing the team dealing with problems and giving us a good sense of personalities on the team. On top of that, it's a little nice to see a crisis solved efficiently and effectively and without a single supervillain showing up. You guys, there wasn't even a supervillain in this book. Kind of neat to just see them being heroes because they can do things like save jets, not because they're the only one matched to fight a supervillain. Solid issue, I think the best that's come about so far. Also a nice side of Wolverine that certainly has existed but isn't focused on a ton.

Cable and X-Force 13
Hopeless and Bunn (w) and Larroca and Sandoval (a) and D'Armata (c)

Hope is still in the future talking to future Hope and Blaquesmith while X-Force, starting to come back together again, is still dealing with problems in the past. We finally get the Dr. Nemesis and Forge bit that I've been waiting for and it does not disappoint, though it's incredibly short-lived as the two argue about the best way to destroy a giant horrible monster (kind of Cthulu-ish but not exactly, for reference), with both shooting down the other's ideas one by one. Domino, Boom-Boom, and Colossus show up and, with a combination of punches and explosions, defeat the monster pretty quickly. As the team talks, Domino reveals that Cable's in trouble and they head out to attack the Uncanny Avengers again. Cable himself is trying to explain things to Alex who finds himself in the difficult position of believing Cable but still unsure how to deal with what seemed to be a terrorist attack to the media by Cable's team and the fact that Cable's seizures are getting worse and worse, causing his powers to go out of control and hurt people nearby. Finally, Hope, in dealing with her future self and Blaquesmith, has found that she's not particularly fond of her future self and the solutions they've come up with. They've made Cable have these visions in the hopes (ha, get it, two Hopes) that he stays in the superhero game (he would have quit, future Hope relates, if not for these visions and it would have doomed the world). Of course, the downside is that now it's killing him and present Hope has to figure that out herself.

A lot going on here and, as I said, the Dr. Nemesis and Forge bit is exactly what I was reading for and I was not disappointed, except in that it's so quickly over. I just want to read them talk with one another. PRO-TIP: read Dr. Nemesis as a 1950s detective or, more accurately, as the Venture Brothers' Cardholder and Doe. It's the most fun in the world and hopefully you'll understand what I see in him. Anyway, the team's stuff is mostly interesting, the Hope stuff feels a little protracted and a bit weak and Cable's stuff is good but we already pretty much know it all, it's just him explaining it to Havok now. Some decent writing carries a bit of the bad stuff though the Hope sections still feel pretty slow and they're the majority of this book. It's tough to wade through a bit of time as Hope can't quite figure out what's happening and, when it all clicks into place, she's angry at future Hope for not realizing her plans might kill Cable. The issue ends with Blaquesmith and future Hope preparing to send Hope back to the past with the corny and shoe-horned line that the weapon she's carrying with her back there is "a fighting chance." Come on, don't leave us with that, you guys. Leave us with Dr. Nemesis finding a new hat! His excursion to a hat store!

All-New X-Men 15, Cable and X-Force 12, X-Factor 260

All-New X-Men 15
Bendis (w) and Lafuente (a) and Campbell (c)

The original X-Men are still in the present. That about sums up the issue and the series at large, but let's keep going because we are gluttons for punishment. Bobby admits to Scott that he's freaked out whenever he sees Kitty and his older self embrace because he doesn't really like Kitty and he doesn't understand this crazy future. He and Scott decide to leave the mansion for a while and go hit on girls. Meanwhile, Jean is working with the grown Beast to focus her telekinetic powers, which leads to her reading his mind and finding out that he was once in love with her in what must be the creepiest thoughts Beast has ever had (he's can't stop thinking about how beautiful she is, despite the age difference now, and how much he regrets not telling her before). Then she approaches young Hank and makes out with him for a while.

I've asked it before and I'll no doubt ask it again but for whom is this book written? I understand that it has fans and I understand that, at the root of every review I write, I can never be right because what people like is objective and no one has a correct opinion, as it were. But who benefits from this book? On top of the writing, which I happen to find annoying and grating because Bendis writes most characters exactly the same and as if they're all teenagers so it's particularly grating when they actually are teenagers and he has to differentiate, to whom is this story compelling? Who is out there enjoying the new love triangles that change the face of the Marvel Universe for no particular reason and which puts Jean in such an ungodly position of choosing between a couple of her teammates? Is she going to track down Angel and make out with him later too because he wanted to date her originally as well?  Being a physically strong character doesn't make you a strong character and somehow this book feels like it's weakening Jean Grey as a character, who was already quite weak at her inception. In addition, I can't help but again say that the original X-Men have spent 15 issues in the future and who is enjoying this book? Then again, I bought a shirt that was three sizes too big for me the last time I went shopping so what do I know?

Cable and X-Force 12
Hopeless and Bunn (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

So I didn't get exactly what I was hoping for out of this issue as we don't get the story that focuses on Dr. Nemesis just yet but I'm holding out hope for next time. Instead, we get Domino helping Colossus break into a supervillain bank vault that contains a magical artifact that will destroy the Earth if not dealt with today (cutting it a little close, guys). The break-in and the inevitable fight against all of the enemies is mere backdrop to the lover's quarrel they're having about whether or not they should have a relationship that goes on further than where it's gone already. Meanwhile, Hope is in the future to find out who is behind Cable's visions and why.

Maybe I'm too much of a cynic here or something but I don't really care about the relationships developing in this book or in All-New X-Men, which made two of the reviews today a little hard to get through (evidenced by the fact that I'm going to just keep complaining about this shirt I bought). I don't even necessarily think the problem in this book is a lack of caring about Domino and/or Colossus. I like both of them just fine (Colossus more so, probably, but Domino's been great under Hopeless' watch) but I think we've seen enough awkward start-stop relationships built over time and this one seems less intriguing than even most of those. One of my favorite things about Winter Soldier's introduction to the Marvel Universe was the implied relationship between him and Black Widow prior to their time as heroes, which is then instantly and without fanfare picked back up when they come together again. I read comics for the characters  and the world they've built but that tends to make it a little harder to care about them going through relationship problems that have been forced on them. Maybe that's just me. I did, after all, buy this dumb shirt (yes, I'm wearing it now, for the first time, which is why I'm particularly annoyed with it today).

X-Factor 260
David (w) and Edwards and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

The end of the world came and went, X-Factor is somewhere in the wind, separated and lost, and Polaris is getting drunk. Like, crazy amounts of drunk. And she's sick of the world right now so she's going a little more villain than she normally would, which means that when the bartender refuses to keep serving her, she starts wreaking a little havoc. Eventually the police come, who Polaris instantly disperses, followed by a SWAT team. Before the SWAT team has a chance to try to take out Polaris, Quicksilver stops by on his way to Avengers Mansion (not sure why he's living there at this point but whatever, let's keep going). Quicksilver, of course, is Lorna's half-brother and the two quickly come at odds with one another. Quicksilver attempts to talk Lorna down and Lorna very much does not want to be talked down, leading to quite a fight between the two

As X-Factor winds down to its final issue (only two more left! I don't care for that!), we've seen where various members of the team have ended up post-Hell on Earth. Lorna seems to be the only one back in New York (that we know of so far) and she is not faring well. It's a nice portrayal of a breakdown for a superhero, especially since Lorna has been moving this way for a while. We can only hope she doesn't turn supervillain, honestly, given everything that's happened with her lately. Now with her team lost to her, she's fallen rather hard. The conversation between Lorna and Pietro is a decent one with Peter David no stranger to writing the two of them. Of course, Lorna being drunk means that conversation goes over the top at times and it gets a little annoying after some time but overall it's a seemingly accurate example of someone falling so quickly on to hard times and overreacting. There is a moment at the end where, sober, she remembers what happened and regrets her attack on Quicksilver, which is at least reassuring. Also at the end was a hint of a new X-Factor team/series in the works, which is the first I've officially heard of that, assuming it will bear a new series.

Cable and X-Force 11, Uncanny X-Force 7, X-Factor 259

Cable and X-Force 11
Hopeless (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

Cable's been taken prisoner by the Uncanny Avengers but it's okay, this issue isn't about that anyway. Before he went down, he divided up his team to accomplish goals to prevent visions he'd had. Domino and Boom Boom are first on the docket and need to kidnap a child from a hospital before his mutation kicks in, which Cable has foreseen will liquify the hospital, killing a bunch of people. The two have to audible a few times as, in true Cable and X-Force fashion, things don't go according to plan. Meanwhile, Hope wakes up in a possible future the Blaquesmith has brought her to so that she can understand why Cable's going through what he's going through.

This book continues to be strong in that it's one of Marvel's best at characterizing its team. Not only has it already set that precent by really hammering home what I talked about in my Avengers Assemble review this week: the team acts like a team and everyone has a voice. That's been true throughout the series and now, as we focus on just two members of the team (outside of the Hope storyline, who is characterized in her own way there) and, to boot, two members of the team who have a longstanding relationship. The two talk naturally (though they do pretty thoroughly fail the Bechdel Test) and with the confidence that a real relationship brings while executing the mission in their very different ways. It leads their talk to a lot of different places, including the subject of Domino's relationship with Colossus (which is all Boom Boom wants to talk about) and examinations of who the two characters are through the way they handle adversity. We get a little of their past and a little of their present mixed with their reactions to situations and to one another. It's a solid look into these two all with the backdrop of a nice X-Force story. Really looking forward to the others in this arc if they're going to be structured in a similar way.

Uncanny X-Force 7
Humphries (w) and Alphona and Talajić (a) and Sotomayor and Loughridge (c)

Psylocke and Cluster have been taken captive by Weapon XIII in the hopes that he will be able to woo Betsy into loving him the way he loves her and the way she loved Fantomex (when the three brains were in one body). We get a bit more of the past as we find out how the rift developed between then and now, when she was so happy with Cluster (again failing the Bechdel Test) and when things broke apart, and we hear Weapon XIII's version of the story, which involves him telling her that he loves her more than Fantomex and Cluster ever could, that he loves and respects her as an equal, not as a prize to be held, and so on. We also get a better look at XIII's powers as his misdirect is hugely amplified now that he's free of the nanites that kept their powers in some sort of check (those nanites went to Fantomex; I'd love to see a list of what abilities went to whom, get that out of the way). Psylocke has the opportunity to stop Weapon XIII, or either of the other Fantomexes for that matter. Will she take it?

I like aspects of this story and I'm interested in a lot of it. I'm not an expert on Psylocke's long and complicated past; I'm most familiar with her in the last few years, as a member of X-Force and the X-Men. However, this new Psylocke is a strange one to get a grasp on. In the time I've seen her, she's been pretty independent and strayed pretty far from games. Here, though, she's being toyed with in the very least by someone and it seems like she's allowing everyone in turn to bend her to what they want her to be, which is a little disconcerting for her character. I really would like a list of the powers and personalities that went to the other Fantomexes because it feels like everything was divided up but it's a bit uneven at this point and I'd like to just know, especially as it feels like it's not going to be clearly revealed for some time, at least. It also feels like the Fantomexes are, as right now, fairly one dimensional, which was never true in the other X-Force book. Maybe that's a result of their three brains splitting into three people but, if that is the case, it makes each individual less interesting, which is depressing. Also, I get that Weapon XIII is in love with Betsy, but isn't that brain the one that's programmed to hunt mutants? I was always under the impression that the other two brains had to keep that one massively in check when they were in one body but maybe it's easier than it seems. Who knows. I wish I did.

X-Factor 259
David (w) and someone (a) and Milla (c)

First, a major complaint. Who is working on this book? The cover shows that Leonard Kirk is the illustrator, the cover page of the book says it's Carmen Carnero and Jay Leisten and my new comic list shows it as Neil Edwards and David Yardin. So I have no idea who drew this book. I probably could do a little more research, see their styles or whatever, or even google around, but I'm not going to. I don't like to come off as more professional than whoever assembled the book. Just madder than them. Anyway, let's talk about this book that was definitely written by Peter David and probably colored by Matt Milla. Rictor and Shatterstar had been blasted somewhere by Mephisto in the Hell on Earth storyline's conclusion and now we get to find out where. They've apparently been blasted to the Mojoverse, but that's not all. Rictor's been fighting for Mojo's broadcasts and trying to wait for a way out. Finally one's presented as an opponent of his ends up being Shatterstar, devoid of his memory of Rictor, and as Longshot, also not remembering Rictor, appears with some rebels to rescue Star, taking Rictor along with them. Yes, it's confusing. But it gets more confusing as we realize that we're not only displaced in space but also in time. We finally get the origin of both Shatterstar and Longshot and boy is it weird and involves a good deal of time travel and strange parentage. The issue itself doesn't really leave us with a great impression of what's going to become of Rictor and Shatterstar (and Longshot but he's not really our time's Longshot anyway) but it's possible they'll get where they need to be off-camera.

Outside of the book's confusion on the artist, the story itself is fairly interesting and finally clears up something that X-Factor fans have likely been wondering about for some time now (I wasn't because, honestly, I jumped onboard to the series in the last couple years and kind of just fell into the idea that I didn't actually know Longshot or Shatterstar's past beyond the basics and that I didn't totally need it; they were still fully fleshed out characters and their past was kind of irrelevant to what I had learned of their personalities). Still, it certainly must clear up a lot of questions that it likely asks several more and boy, there's nothing more confusing than talking about the lineage of time travelers, is there? Maybe this was a poor time to start tightening up my summaries. The end of the issue was a bit of a let-down as nothing really feels resolved the story feels kind of over anyway. Next time it looks like we'll focus on what's going on with Polaris as she has some sort of interaction with half-brother Quicksilver. Should be interesting as Polaris has been kind of the dark-horse of the family lately and her relationship with Magneto has gotten weirder in recent issues.

Avengers 16, Avengers Assemble 17, A+X 10

Hey folks (changing it up from my normal "guys" to signify the minor change I'm about to announce), I go back and forth between whether or not I should have full summaries with my issue, thereby spoiling the issue but giving us more to effectively talk about without having to dance over it. Obviously I have chosen the "good god, all the summaries please" option in the past. This week, as a writing exercise to myself, a way to test out a different format, and, albeit, a way to shorten reviews on a busy week, I'm going to try to limit myself. Let's see how long that lasts.

Avengers 16

Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and F. Martin (c)

The prelude to Infinity pushes on as the foe from AIM Island, exponentially stronger than when they procured it, has broken out and made its way to the communicated signal in Perth, where the Avengers have gathered to shut down the signal. Meanwhile, on the Dyson Sphere that Tony created (over in New Avengers, but we've seen it here last time we saw Kevin and Adam, who sound less threatening than they are as Starbrand and...Adam), Kevin is learning about his new Starbrand powers and Adam is helping him reach the potential he needs. Hopefully he reaches it, though he poses a major threat to the Avengers at full power, because Captain Universe has shown Manifold why the Avengers need to think bigger.

Things are really heating up over here, which doesn't necessarily confuse things less. I've long said that this book has been relentlessly confusing, not leaving a lot of time to keep up with the book if you miss something or other. That said, it's giving a pretty great story for people who are keeping up with it. I think if you're skipping issues here and there, you're probably having some trouble keeping up (especially with things like the re-emergence of Kevin and Adam and the one page or so that the story spends on a foreign planet so Captain Universe can tell Manifold about how big the problem is) but it's worth reading. You can feel the story spreading out and really becoming the event it wants to be and you can certainly see why it's exciting for Hickman, as it feels like a story that can branch out in a lot of directions and that can really move the universe. Events have this problem sometimes of really coming out of nowhere and of staying far too long but this one feels like the seeds are pretty well planted and ready to sprout. Let's hope it doesn't continue a year past when the event ends (check out my A+X 10 below!).

Avengers Assemble 17

DeConnick (w) and Buffagni w/ Larraz (a) and Woodard (c)

Carol and company are now successfully on the trail of Yon-Rogg but that makes little difference since they still don't know where to find him. Meanwhile, the Sentries he's set up are continuing to lock into place for some horrible and unknown plans. The Avengers are spread out, each trying to take out Sentries in specific areas before they touch down. The Captains Marvel and America, thanks to help from Wasp and a Sersi the Eternal guest appearance, manage to track Yon-Rogg only to find that the psyche-magnitron had more effect on Carol than she had thought. Now Yon-Rogg's pulling out all the stops to battle the woman he views as an impostor in his kingdom and Carol needs to step up to stop him.

There's plenty going on in this event and five issues seems like a perfect amount for this event. That will, of course, be decided with the conclusion in the next issue of Captain Marvel but for now the arc is moving really well and the issues are well-paced and nicely hectic, creating the appropriate tone. One of the things that I wasn't totally sold on when this arc started but have come to really appreciate is the way that the Avengers have been characterized here. First and foremost, it's easy to forget that this isn't Captain Marvel's book and that it requires all of the Avengers. Secondly though, it's nice to see the Avengers interacting the way they do in this book. They're still spread apart and still obviously very busy but they all clearly have their own defined personalities and they all have their own quirks. That's one of the things that's been kind of lacking in Avengers, which has a more serious and grittier tone than Avengers Assemble has had, even as evidenced in the artwork. Still, it's nice to see a team, especially Marvel's premiere team, acting like a team and it certainly continues to shine through here, even if the focus is on Captain Marvel. Excited for the conclusion and where it leaves things for Carol and the Avengers.

A+X 10

Black Widow and Fantomex: B.C. Moore (w) and Anka (a) and J. Campbell (c)

Scarlet Witch and Domino: A. Warren (w and a) and Guru eFX (c)

Black Widow and Fantomex team up to stop a Russian program that has DNA samplings of every Russian superpowered being and intends to use them to create new heroes and/or villains. Black Widow is there to save people from the past she had while Fantomex is there to pull off an extremely difficult heist for an unknown buyer. Also, Black Widow wants to use stealth and planning and Fantomex wants to pull off an extremely difficult heist for an unknown buyer but doesn't really care how. This puts the two of them on the same team but rather at odds immediately as Fantomex blows Widow's cover. The two reconcile to join against versions of Ursa Major, Darkstar, and Sibercat. In part two, Scarlet Witch and Domino are dealing with a whole bunch of soft science (and Domino seems to be dealing with a slight alcoholic buzz) that essentially means probability fields from some Celestial base could destroy the world. According to Witch's plan, Domino is supposed to go into the base and destroy the core. However, her luck powers are enhanced by Scarlet Witch right now and she's suddenly able to see the outcome of certain paths of action and most of them seem to end in her death. She audibles and makes a play to save the universe (spoilers: it works).

The first story is absolutely delightful. Of course, I was biased going in but that didn't really help my review of Hawkeye and Deadpool which was a little boring anyway. Still, Black Widow and Fantomex are two of my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe and somehow it had never occurred to me that they could ever team up and it had occurred to me even LESS that they could team up against Ursa Major, who is one of my favorite villains on principle alone (giant bear who is pretty much just a giant bear rivals even my love of Batroc Ze Lepair). Great characterization for both of them drives the story and it's a worthwhile plot in its own way. Can't really say the same for story two which, granted, didn't feature two of my favorite characters, and also was bogged down by pretty unfortunate characterization and a very convoluted story about convoluted powers that no one really understands anyway. One complaint about story one, and it's a pretty petty one but it applies to plenty of comics; I don't really need a backstory for the tech you're using. If Black Widow pulls out some impressive tech, I'll believe that she either got it from Stark or that she just has it because she's a superspy. Maybe someone like Deadpool, who shouldn't really have access to that kind of stuff on a daily basis, needs to explain where he got it but there are multiple lines in this one dedicated to telling where Natasha got her tech. Still a very good story in a typically weaker book.

Cable and X-Force 10, Thunderbolts 11

Cable and X-Force 10
Hopeless (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

Dennis Hopeless jumps back onto Cable and X-Force after a Hope-centric issue to pick up where that one left off, with Hope trying to meet up with Cable and the Uncanny Avengers trying to do the same thing, though for different reasons. Hope tracks down Blaquesmith, Cable's mentor from the future living in the present and who now owns a group of convenience stores. Hope wants to know what's happening with Cable's visions and where he is. Blaquesmith seems to know but knocks Hope unconscious instead of telling her, which is of significantly less use to her. Meanwhile, the team is at an old trailer owned by Forge to get their bearings and for Cable to figure out his new plan, and to recuperate from Forge's eye surgery to replace Cable's eye. The team is laying low and Domino goes to talk to Cable, who is panicking because he's had visions of five separate catastrophes all set to happen at once, leaving him no way to stop all five. Domino demands that he starts trusting the team with missions and, with that, they plot out their newest set of missions for the team. They finish just in time to find the Uncanny Avengers descending on the trailer and Forge unveils his line of vehicles for them, which he's dubbed "Forge Force," to the chagrin of Dr. Nemesis. However, Cable's brain starts hemorrhaging at just the wrong moment and X-Force is forced to stall the Avengers as Dr. Nemesis sorts Cable out. They manage to hold them off in a nicely done, quick fight scene and Cable revives enough to blow up the UA's ship with his new eye laser for everyone to leave. However, unbeknownst to the team, the strain forces Cable to pass out, allowing the UA to apprehend him as the team escapes.

Another really great issue for this series, which has been perfectly equal parts action and fun throughout its run. The dialogue continues to be smart and to really define the characters without needing particularly character-centric issues. Dr. Nemesis continues to be one of the all-around best characters in the Marvel Universe and I continue to not really be able to articulate why. This book is smart and fast and fun at all the right moments and I anticipate it will only get better as the stresses get to Cable and as the team starts to get a little more responsibility. There might be no better team in the Marvel Universe to watch work together than this team right now, it'll be interesting to see how they work when separated and when a little more aware of their goals (or maybe a little less, I guess we'll see).

Thunderbolts 11
Way (w) and Noto (a) and Guru eFX (c)

All of the calls that suddenly came in from everyone surrounding the team of Red Hulk, the Leader, Elektra, and Punisher are from, as it turns out, the Leader. His suspicion is that it's his various pieces of intellect, stored in aggregate chunks of data all over the world. In this case, he wanted to know where Orestez Natchios was and his intellect is trying to respond, trying to give him the answer. Though this is unsettling, they trust the location they've been given because Natchios' location is pretty public; he's giving a book tour for his book about being raised by terrorists. They go to his reading, prepared to bring him in or kill him after but quickly learn that it's a trap. Orestez explains to the crowd there how he was raised to be a killer but he's managed to break from that, unlike his poor sister Elektra who, oh hey, is right over there, sitting amongst you and waiting to kill me. Just as he makes this announcement, trying to goad them, Ross goes Red Hulk and the gamma powered suits sent to kill Orestez by those he betrayed crash into the venue. Elektra points out that this is all a trap and Orestez has set this up to make them look like terrorists and to make himself look like a martyr. She says the only way to ensure that doesn't happen is to not kill him. Red Hulk refuses that idea and orders the team to kill him anyway. He tears through the gamma suits as Punisher and Elektra try to hunt Orestez. The Leader, meanwhile, sneaks into a computer lab and jams any satellite feeds, stopping any sort of news report from going live. Deadpool and Venom show up to make sure that no army backup provides support in the area before they can get out of there and Elektra leads her brother out of the venue. When Punisher finds her, she says that Orestez is gone and shows her bloody hands. The issue ends with Leader secretly talking to Mercy and bemoaning the fact that he's learned so much but still knows so little about himself. She says he knows enough; he knows he's meant to lead.

It's an interesting wrap-up to this story as it brings the team together to, again, execute a pretty successful mission, all things considered. We're 11 issues into this story now and we've only seen the team executing missions a couple of times, which is ample for the stories that have been told but still just a little bit sad. I feel like, considering this team, we haven't had a ton of time to look into who they are nor to see them really work together. I know that we have but I think that's been a weird function of having so complicated a story running so often. They've been pretty good stories (though sometimes a little tough to weave through) but, to a point, we've had to sacrifice some amount of character to get there. There has been enough character examination to get us through, which is great because what we've gotten so far is pretty compelling, but we haven't had a ton to think over. I think it's a failing of the book so far and something I'd like to see remedied because the best part about this team is simply who's on it. I bought the first issue, without truly liking too many of the characters, because the team-up of these specific characters was so interesting to me. I'd like to see Way get into that a bit more. Still, this is kind of a minor nitpick and the book is still more than readable and enjoyable. It's a good book with good characters who could really become great characters.

Cable and X-Force 8, Thunderbolts 9, Gambit 12

Cable and X-Force 8
Hopeless (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

Abigail Brand sedates Colossus before he can rush out of the Raft and do whatever it is he thinks he might be able to do to stop the alien from taking Domino and the rest of the team. Brand then finds Cable and explains to the two of them that the alien they've released is wanted by tons of alien races and that botching his transfer could result in a whole slew of war coming right to Earth's doorstep. After she's done reaming them out for letting him go, Cable shows her the image that was in his mind, which involves that very war coming to Earth. It turns out more aliens knew his location than Brand thought. By releasing the alien, Cable and his team have saved the Earth. Brand understands but can't let them go. She agrees to help Cable get his team back under the promise that they'll hand themselves in as soon as it's over. Meanwhile, on the alien ship, the alien is trying to intimidate Domino, who seems pretty unbreakable. It turns out that Forge had raised a beacon that broadcast the location of the ship to every enemy of the alien so they'd know where to find him, before wiring a time bomb to the ship's engine. The time bomb explodes as Domino explains and the alien gets really angry, threatening to eat her, even if it's the last thing he'll be able to do. At this moment, Colossus is launched through the side of the ship and throws the alien into space. Colossus has realized what is important, thanks to Domino's capture, but Domino has a nice moment too, making it clear to Colossus that this was simply a job that went bad and that she's not some girl to be rescued. Back aboard Brand's ship, they clearly don't go to SWORD holding, choosing instead to steal her ship from her and leave her adrift in a spacesuit. She contacts SWORD for a pickup and the Uncanny Avengers to bring down Cable.

It's a good resolution to the story as the plan itself and the dangers that required the plan become clear, showing the audience that this X-Force team isn't bad after all. Yes, they still got captured and stuck on the ship, but everything else went off without a problem. Earth is saved, the alien is dead or arrested and off Earth, and the team is back together. Exciting as we look forward to Cable's uncle's team coming after them. They'd already run afoul of them early in the series but there was no resolution there. Seemingly there will have to be one as we press forward. Also nice to return to Earth-based plots. Always nice to come back from space. Another good issue and this book continues to be solid and stay tight.

Thunderbolts 9
Way (w) and Noto (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The Thunderbolts find out that whoever is behind this gamma arms dealing has ties to, in the very least, Russia as they have access to the Crimson Dynamo armor plans. The Crimson Dynamos the audience saw at the end of issue seven (I believe) showed us that someone related to Russia was central to this plot, but the Thunderbolts have also now seen them, as a few of them attack the arms deal that the team broke up last issue. Red Hulk takes out a pair of them while Elektra puts down the other. All three of them end up detonating the gamma battery/bomb in their chest. Red Hulk is fine because he's a hulk and Venom saves Punisher and Elektra by throwing the symbiote over the explosion. It knocks him out and sends him into a crazy dream that makes him feel powerless and where he sees Mercy again before waking up mostly healed. Deadpool, too, has been revived by his own healing powers and with some urging from the Leader and manages to get Punisher, Elektra, and Venom out of the area before they're caught on film. He disguises them so they can take a little more time getting Flash to safety but video footage still catches a glimpse of Elektra's eyes, which have been identified by her brother, a Greek novelist. Deadpool seems not to know that it was Elektra who put him down last issue and at least plays that role well this time. Whether or not he does know is still up for debate, but we're working under the assumption he doesn't. Ross calls a briefing and they discuss the next move. He suspects Arthur Vanko, the nephew of the creator of the Crimson Dynamo. The audience knows he's not wrong (we saw him in the beginning) but we also know that there's someone else pulling the strings, which Red Hulk doesn't believe. However, the rest of the team wishes to stay on the path they're on and not just narrow it down to the one guy. The Leader interjects to ask if he should call them, as he trapped the phone number of the guy. Red Hulk is mad that he wasn't told sooner but Venom says that it was likely because the Leader doesn't, and shouldn't, trust Ross.

The book keeps up all of its strongest points while giving us an interesting enough plot to keep up on board. The team drama and the volatility of the team continues to play as large a role as anything with the distrust of Ross from pretty much everyone, the Punisher/Elektra non-romance and Deadpool's jealousy of it, and the fact that the Leader is still a member of this team. There are plenty of problems with the team that could serve to get in the way of their missions. I really like the way those dramas are presented and the team is perfect for them. So far, they haven't jeopardized a mission with their issues and that fact illustrates the team in the right light; at the end of the day, it's a team made up of stone-cold professionals. They could still crack down the road but the times that they choose to react to their problems tells an awful lot about these characters. Good book.

Gambit 12
Asmus (w) and C. Mann, Soy, Kirk, and Leisten (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Gambit and Rogue arrive at the hospital just in time to see Tombstone being thrown out a window by a not-bleeding-out Joelle. Gambit follows Tombstone, who has the Zero Compound, and Rogue goes after Joelle. Rogue and Joelle fight briefly but Joelle quickly gives up and says that she doesn't want this fight or to hurt anyone, she just wants to go after Tombstone. Meanwhile, Gambit and Tombstone wrap up a jet-pack/car chase to find themselves in an abandoned little area wherein Tombstone questions whether Joelle was telling the truth to Gambit when she called the Zero Compound a miracle cure or whether she was telling the truth to Tombstone when she called it liquid death. Some of it is released on the area and it obliterates anything it comes into contact with, to the delight of Tombstone. Joelle and Rogue show up via helicopter and knock Tombstone into the remaining compound on the ground, potentially exploding him (the art is a little tricky to decipher here, so what exactly happened to the guy is up for debate). Joelle and Gambit talk a bit and Joelle reveals that she took a strange man up on his offer to essentially give her eternal life when she was dying so that she could spend more time with her daughter. However, eternal life comes with its drawbacks as now she's had to watch her daughter die and she is powerless to die herself. The Zero Compound was both liquid death and a miracle cure for her, the only thing that could allow her to die. She takes the last drops of it and burns away. Gambit talks things over with Rogue before remembering that he hasn't even checked to see if Fence is okay. He's not. He's lying in a puddle of blood and with robotic pieces all hanging out. Suspense!

It's not a bad ending to this arc and to the Joelle storyline that has pervaded the series so far. I'll be interested to see the direction that Asmus takes the character and the book from here but I'm glad that he was able to wrap this story up pretty cleanly and with an interesting enough plot and conclusion to justify the arc. With Joelle gone, though, we've lost a character who has driven the majority of this series so far so the next few issues will tell us a lot about where Asmus wants the run to go and what he wants to focus on.

Cable and X-Force 6, All-New X-Men 9

Cable and X-Force 6
Hopeless (w) and Larocca (a) and D'Armata (c)

One of the things that I've really liked about this series so far and which carries the book more often than not is the camaraderie of this team. When I actually sit and think about it, it's kind of a risky move. Usually newly-formed teams have to go through the growing pains of what it is they're doing and who they're working with and so on. To skip that (at least for now, Hopeless could definitely still get into it later) is a bit of a risky move because it could make the book feel a little unrealistic. You throw all these people together and you get a perfectly functioning team with a solid rapport? Suspicious. But this team doesn't feel like that. I think a big part of it is who the team leader is. Cable is supposed to be a great leader. It's in his history and it's in his nature. He's also a master strategist. It makes total sense, in the context of his character, that he would deliberate on a team, then bring them together and they'd work well as a unit almost immediately. There were bumps in the road in the first arc (and there are bound to be more as we continue) but people weren't at each other's throats. They all get along because Cable chose them all to get along.

The team chemistry is what makes this book really flow. The plots are interesting and the plans to accomplish the goals are even more interesting, but the team itself is the real draw of this book. Everyone, just six issues in, has a very specific rapport with everyone else and it's a lot of fun to watch it all happen. Every character has a distinct voice and vocabulary, which helps illustrate the characters even further. Cable's team, now featuring Boom Boom, breaks into a SWORD prison which happens to be the same one Colossus has just handed himself into. They're not there to break him out, though Domino goes to visit the guilt-ridden Russian. The team is there to steal an alien to steal a spaceship. It's pretty exciting to know that this team is going to be going into space, once they get past Cyclops, who has tracked down his son as the issue ends. There's also a nice scene here between Wolverine and Colossus and between Kitty and Colossus (kind of) where she breaks into his room and leaves him art supplies and a note before running out. It's a nice little touch after everything Kitty and Peter have been through to have Hopeless point to that relationship, whatever might come of it. Just an all around solid issue driven by the characters. There's still a plot happening in the foreground and one lurking in the background (involving the first scene of the first issue, where the Uncanny Avengers stumbled onto Cable's team with all the dead factory workers) but this book feels like it could survive even if they never went any where. Speaking of things not going any where...

All-New X-Men 9
Bendis (w) and Immonen and Von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia and Beredo (c)

My earlier review today was linked by the discussion of narrators. My reviews are almost all consciously linked together in some way (ie, two Wolverine books, two Avengers books, etc.) but I usually list them out and pair them together at the start of a week, before I've read the book. I did that this week too, but I hadn't figured out which two books to link with one another in each individual review of the day. After reading the four books, I knew I wanted to talk about narration with those two books which left these two. I deemed this acceptable because, even without finding a link, it meant comparing a book I'm really enjoying with a book I'm really not enjoying. How minute can that comparison go? I'm comparing a book with great characters to a book with off-character characters? I CAN GO EVEN FURTHER. I'm comparing a book with a good Kitty Pryde and a book with a bad Kitty Pryde.

Kitty is not a member of Cable's X-Force team. She only shows up for a couple pages as she leaves a note for Peter in his cell saying that she's having trouble reconciling the Peter in her head with the Peter who has done the things he's accused of saying. She's conflicted by their awful "date" when he had the Phoenix Force but she's proud of him for turning himself in (which is not the adjective Wolverine would use) and she hasn't been able to bring herself to actually talk with him in the midst of everything. She's almost gotten there four times already before finally leaving this note. This Kitty, in two pages, is deep and conflicted and so spot-on with the Kitty that's already established in the Marvel Universe and that, more importantly, matches the Kitty that's been so instrumental to the X-corner of the Universe for the past several years. The Kitty in All-New X-Men, though, has fallen into the same convenient narrative trap that everyone else in All-New X-Men seems to have fallen into, which is that this school was formed for the exact opposite reason of these issues. Wolverine wanted the school to be a haven for mutant kids to come and learn. They'd be taught defense, sure, because conflict is unavoidable, but by and large he wanted to provide them a place where they didn't have to go out and fight. Kitty is the perfect headmistress for the school because these are all things she believes in and subscribes to. But when the original X-Men team shows up, all of that is out the window as she instantly volunteers to train the team in the present as opposed to sending them straight back to the past. This issue shows her working with the kids in the Danger Room instead of, for example, sending them straight back to the past. I can't wrap my head around the Kitty who decides she's a better teacher for these kids than Professor X. It also doesn't make sense to me, if the excuse is "well if the kids are going to stay here (and maybe they CAN make a difference) then SOMEONE has to train them," that Kitty doesn't decide "hey, they're NOT going to stay here because that's absurd."

In this issue, after a disastrous Danger Room session, Jean and Kitty find out that Scott met with Mystique (who is currently aiding Sabretooth in breaking Lady Mastermind out of SHIELD holding; Lady Mastermind and Mystique sure an unironic dialogue about how maybe she should drop the "Lady" part because it seems a bit sexist while wearing a costume, at right, that she may have put on backwards and forgotten to zip). Warren, fresh off having his mind altered to want to stay in the present, meets with Hank to learn about mutants and the issue ends with Cyclops' new X-Men team arriving at the school, as was set up in the last Uncanny X-Men issue. Another issue, another review with me saying "I guess some things happened but it certainly feels like a lot more COULD have happened in the time given."

Cable and X-Force 4, Fury MAX 9

Cable and X-Force 4
Hopeless (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

I hadn't read anything by Dennis Hopeless before Marvel NOW! (I don't think, I could have read singles here and there that I'm not remembering), but boy has he won me over. Avengers Arena has exceeded all expectations and kept me very interested and involved while overcoming my objections and my lack of prior knowledge. Cable and X-Force did the same. I had more prior knowledge about these characters and fewer objections, but I was wary of any book titled X-Force on the heels of Remender's tremendous series, not to mention the fact that there was ANOTHER X-Force book slated for Marvel NOW! This one obviously is a few issues further along than Sam Humphries' X-Force entry, but so far this book has been nothing but delightful.

First and foremost with me, I like the characters and their interactions a whole lot. There are already some alliances here from the past (Cable and Domino, Cable and Forge, Domino and Colossus, etc.) that Hopeless is leaning on and building on and give a sense of friendliness to the team (which I think is probably the wrong word but it's the word I'm choosing anyway). There are also newer dynamics, like that of Dr. Nemesis and anybody because I really love Dr. Nemesis so I don't care what the justification is. On top of all of these good characters, we're getting complicated plots with complicated solutions that are getting more and more complicated as time goes by. HOWEVER, they don't bog you down. You don't get to a point with all of these complications and say "geez, they lost me." If you ever do that, it's because the team is lost too. When Deathlok appears and disappears in this issue, the team is just as unsure as you are what role he's playing. But otherwise, we're largely seeing compelling but easy to understand plots complicated by the ramifications of their outcomes.

This issue also brings in the focus of what this group is willing to do. On the one hand, they're willing to stop a giant threat to humans and mutants alike at all costs, exploring non-lethal methods first and, upon exhausting them, eventually moving to those more devastating solutions. This decision weighs on everyone but we particularly see Colossus' trouble dealing with it. He knew some of the innocent men who died after getting caught up in everything through no fault of their own. On top of that, he knew they were just trying to lead innocent lives, like he's been trying to find since AvX. It's heart-wrenching to watch him watch them fail. A lot of really good things to look for in here. If you're looking for an X book that's a little outside the mainstream and a little less convoluted than bringing past X-Men to the present, you should check this book out. Can't go wrong with it so far.

Fury MAX 9
Ennis (w) and Parlov (a) and Loughridge (c)

I considered not reviewing this issue. I considered it for a number of reasons. For one, it's in the MAX line, which is Marvel's way to take itself really seriously. Not that I don't take Marvel seriously, but MAX is the way they can do it with swearing and excessive violence and sex. It only works for some characters so they only really put some characters up for the MAX line, including Fury and Deadpool. I guess there are some benefits to it, but they're typically not benefits I read comics for so I tend not to give too much credence to them. Another reason I almost didn't review this was that I hadn't read any of this series prior. In fact, I think one issue of this has come out since I started this blog and I missed that one entirely and pretended it didn't exist. On the other hand, if I want to make a blog about Marvel comics, it feels weird to be so selective about what I feel Marvel should do. And, at the end of the day, I love comics. I'd read it anyway, probably, I might as well say some things on it.

Like I said, I've never read Fury MAX before, so I only have Fury's regular style history and my knowledge of the MAX line to go on coming in. Not necessarily awful. I don't hate the MAX comics, I just tend to disregard them. This issue didn't totally REQUIRE the MAX identifier on it; except for a couple swears and maybe a tiny bit more blood than usual (though I can't be sure), it felt like it could have fit any where in the regular Universe. I've seen Deadpool MAX issues that are just a free-for-all of swears and gore and sex, so this was a relatively tame one. It also happens during the Vietnam War, which leads you to believe there will be some blood. Fury and Frank Castle are teamed up to assassinate a Vietnamese leader who has evidence of illicit activities taking place fairly high up in the American government. If that evidence were to come to light, it could effectively end the war and destabilize America. When Fury eventually does get to the Vietnamese leader, he's asked why he would want to stop the evidence from getting out. After all, it would end this horrible war. The Vietnamese leader indicates that he's done many things for love of his country; this is just another of those. Castle still shoots him from the window and Fury torches the place. They get out right before the Air Force air strikes the place, in case Fury and Castle failed. Upon his return home, Fury meets with a conniving senator whose wife has a relationship with Fury and is told that the senator did everything he could to try to call off the air strike. The audience knows it's not true (we saw him earlier obstinately not doing anything) and probably Fury knows. He's left with the idea that his actions only protected people who don't deserve protecting and prolonged a war that maybe he's ill-prepared to stop fighting (like Punisher in War Zone and Nightmare; the war never leaves the soldier). Pretty interesting stuff. Compelling. I'm sad it has to be in the MAX area because I think readers might treat it like I do, even though I think Ennis has smart things to say. Who knows though, I certainly don't slog through Marvel's sales reports. Maybe it's doing just fine. Fury-based books never seem to last without that MAX tag, so maybe this one will break that mold. Good luck to it.