SPEED ROUND: All-New Invaders 6, All-New Ultimates 3, Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu 2, She-Hulk 5

Sorry everyone, these should have come out last week (not helped by the fact that I only have busy weeks from here on out) but they didn't so here these reviews are, in all their glory. Except, in this case, "in all their glory" means "literally as short as I can make them."

All-New Invaders 6
J. Robinson (w) and Laming (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Petit (l)

Japanese-American superhero Radiance was in Manhattan for the ORIGINAL SIN truth bomb and learned that the Invaders had the power to stop the atom bomb in WWII but that they didn't. She demands a meeting with an Invader and gets Human Torch after taking some SHIELD agents hostage. He reveals it had to do with the second Golden Girl, Gwenny Lou Sabuki, grandmother to Radiance.

This book continues to move extraordinarily slowly as Robinson dispenses seemingly unending back-story, exposition, and clunky dialogue. I one hundred percent recommend this book if you're trying to find a comic that stumbles its way through 70 years of Human Torch history. But that's just about the only way that I would recommend this comic. I know, it breaks my heart too.

Total Score: 1/5


All-New Ultimates 3
Fiffe (w) and Pinna (a) and Woodard (c) and Cowles (l)

Jess is saved from her poisoning by her naturally produced antitoxins and some careful monitoring from doctors. Bombshell double-agents her way back into her drug dealer boyfriend's life to allow Spider-Man a chance to break up a powerful drug ring. Scourge appears on the scene and manages to evade all capture from the pursuing Spider-Woman, Kitty Pryde, Cloak, and Dagger.

If that summary made this book seem exciting or maybe even like it's on the right path after a shaky start, well, I'm sorry for misleading you. For all of the action of this issue that eventually comes, it's a crawl to get to just about anything meaningful. Meaningful's still kind of a stretch: there's a lot of cliche teenage emotion and hints that there's a bigger story that what our heroes have seen but there's not much more to it than that. And did i mention this story moves really slow for something that's trying so hard?

Total Score: 1/5


Deadly Hands of Kung Fu
Benson (w) and Huat (p) and Yeung (i) and Aburtov (c) and Sabino (l)

Shang-Chi has been asking around about the White Dragon, hoping to discover more about the death of his friend Leiko Wu but he's met at every turn by resistance. His digging brings out old enemy Skull Crusher, with whom he speaks about Leiko Wu and the changes in her over the years. He points Shang to a brothel owned by White Dragon where Shang subsequently is pointed to a nearby memorial where White Dragon sometimes hangs out where Shang meets up with Daughters of the Dragon Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, staking out the White Dragon themselves, before FINALLY being pointed to a nightclub White Dragon runs, where Shang comes face-to-face with White Dragon at last.

This story bounces from locale to locale as Shang-Chi traverses some seedy parts of London to try to find a lead on Leiko Wu, though it never feels particularly overloaded with new locations. There's more to the story of Leiko Wu than Shang wants to admit but still he proves an affable protagonist as he politely asks his questions and tries to remain above violence, though easily turns it on when he needs to. The addition of the Daughters of the Dragon is not unwelcome and I was glad to see Misty looking like regular Misty and not like she does on the cover, as I worried her two most recent appearances (here and in her inexplicable arc in DAREDEVIL: DARK NIGHTS) would both feature her in some sort of strange and underdressed love interest way. Nope, all good here and it's still good to see Huat and Yeung on art in this book. Nothing here that will blow readers away but still easily a readable book.

Total Score: 3/5


She-Hulk 5
Soule (w) and Wimberly (a) and Renzi (c) and Cowles (l)

She-Hulk and her team have set about researching the blue file, sending Hellcat to find Tigra, Angie Huang to a North Dakota courthouse, and She-Hulk to Shocker's apartment. After some understood fear out of Shocker, She-Hulk has a decent conversation with him and learns he doesn't know about the file, doesn't remember much of anything  because, apparently, his prolonged exposure to the vibrations make him super susceptible to concussions. She gets what she can out of him and heads home. Hellcat, though, ended up somehow triggering a response in Tigra, causing her to attack Hellcat when she brought up the file and to nearly kill herself. Meanwhile, Angie finds the files she needs in the ND courthouse but also finds herself at gunpoint from the office clerk. Hellcat tries to warn She-Hulk that the blue file seems to have a trigger word problem that makes those involved ready to kill themselves but Shulk doesn't get the message as she's busy telling a rock climbing Wyatt Wingfoot about his involvement.

Plenty happening in this book as it's an interesting story on three different fronts. Even the least action-filled section, She-Hulk's talk with Shocker, leads to some fun moments and some good characterization out of both characters. It's another strong entry into this series from Soule, though the art style of Ron Wimberly is decidedly different than, say, series regular Javier Pulido's. It's more than a little distracting at times and, while it does the job, I'm not sure it's totally for me. Still, solid book, solid series, interesting story.

Total Score: 4/5

All-New Invaders 5, Fantastic Four 5

All-New Invaders 5
J. Robinson (w) and Pugh (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Petit (l)

Everything works out because Winter Soldier breaks out Aarkus and he and another Eternal find the God's Whisper while Torch knocks out the watching Kree soldiers and Steve uses a computer virus laced shield (??) to shut down the Supremor for a time while they make their way off-planet. Back on Earth, Namor returns to the deep, Bucky goes back to wherever it is Bucky goes, and Cap recruits Jim to SHIELD while they muse over what Aarkus could be doing with the Eternals (hint: controlling Galactus in the Negative Zone with the God's Whisper if they should ever need him).

That "everything works out" bit above is only there partly because I'm lazy. Moreover, though, it's there because that's the spirit of this issue. It's very much a book that revolves around the old school style "I only wanted you to THINK I'd missed when, in fact, I was aiming at that device above you that's currently toppling on you" or some such that I swear happened in every other issue of AVENGERS back near the start of its run. Here it's all meaningless misdirect as Bucky buys time, Cap has a computer virus on his shield (not how that works, for the record, don't care what kind of comic book technology you have), and Torch ups the radiation in the room with Cap waving it off by literally saying "I'm immune." If the solutions are ridiculous then the stakes are meaningless. It's like being in an imaginary shootout with a child who keeps saying "no, you didn't hit me! I have a forcefield and the shot bounced and hit you!" You can make up the rules all you want, that doesn't mean I'm going to be on board with it. Pugh's art is pretty good though.

Total Score: 2/5


Fantastic Four 5
J. Robinson (w) and Kirk (p) and Leisten and Magyar (i) and Aburtov (c) and Cowles (l)

The Fantastic Four are on trial and the prosecutor is dragging them through the mud about every major superhero thing they've played a role in and how many people it hurt and it ends with a ruling that we don't get the full sense of yet but means the kids of the FF are shipped off to Camp Hammond to be watched by new SHIELD agent Jim Hammond (very quickly making his first SHIELD appearance from above). Oh, and in other news on this book, it made me as angry as any other book I've read in the past year and a half and I can't believe Marvel decided to charge five dollars for a book with five extra pages in it (albeit with art from all sorts of different artists).

Seriously. The courtroom superhero drama hasn't been compelling since the first time it was done and, when it's done this poorly, it throws everything into question. There's a writing trick wherein a writer knows exactly how a sane character would get out of a problem but dutifully ignores that solution because there's no drama in it. That's what Robinson's doing but it's not just Robinson who knows how to get out of it, it's every single person reading this book ever. The prosecutor has the shakiest grasp on how to prosecute and his terribleness and the terribleness of the entire plot draws the lawyering abilities of She-Hulk, the F4's lawyer, into severe question. It's a rare book that can take a completely separate book that I really like (SHE-HULK) and call it into question by painting its protagonist so weak. It's choppy writing at best and it's a terrible and cliche story that's executed about as badly as it could be. It feels like it was an excuse to get a bunch of guest artists in (who all do admirable work, though it sometimes feels like it's Marvel trying to hard sell their other books as Samnee draws some Daredevil related business and the Allred's pop in to draw Galactus and the Silver Surfer) and to charge an extra dollar for five extra pages and the book is garbage. Literally within the first three pages I was angry at this book.

Total Score: 1/5

All-New Invaders 4, Fantastic Four 3

All-New Invaders 4
J. Robinson (w) and Pugh (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Petit (l)

The Invaders have been captured by Tanalth and the Kree with the help of Ikaris, the Eternal they control with the God's Whisper. The Supreme Intelligence wants to dissect the Vision (already off in another chamber for testing), Human Torch, and Captain America to try to make their own forces stronger but they have no plans for Bucky, who launches forth as if to try to escape. He is shot and pronounced dead by the Human Torch. Namor is brought back to them and Tanalth and the Supreme Intelligence demand they fight Ikaris for the amusement of all present. Cap, Torch, and Namor manage to hold off Ikaris long enough for Bucky, obviously not dead, to sneak away and break Vision out, which had been the plan all along.

Story
For the first time, all our players are generally in the same area and rather aware of the situation. The story right now is the fight against the Kree and against the God's Whisper which gives everything something of an old-fashioned feel, sending this team away from the perils of Earth for a minute to deal with a possible alien war before it can become one. Okay, that's not really what makes it feel so old-fashioned but we'll get to that. The twist of Bucky being alive isn't so much a twist as it is another sort of call-back to a simpler times in comics (specifically to the time when everyone would go "I only wanted you to THINK I'd missed!" before a shield/arrow/Mjolnir/avalanche hit its intended strategic target. The God's Whisper is certainly compelling but even that can only take us so far. 4/5

Character
Cap's the strategist, Torch is proud of being more human, and Bucky doesn't want to be made a mindless slave as he relates in an all-too-long tirade while he's trying to enact an "escape" that would cause his "death." You can very nearly give him a pass for that strange and sudden speech because maybe he's just overacting but it is still a jarring sort of speech. Namor shows real emotion as he admits that it was his pride that put them all in this position and killed Bucky (he was not aware of the plan). It's an okay moment to see him open up to the only people would who really call him a friend but it still seems rather out of place, even in the midst of all of this. Namor isn't really a character who apologizes or recognizes his own pride. Honestly maybe a little too easy to get a grip on these characters. 3/5

Writing
The old-fashionedness I was talking about above comes out most of all in the writing. There's a lot of over-explanation for a plot that I have to imagine everyone understood as soon as Bucky was pronounced dead. It's like in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when Voldemort (spoiler) thinks he kills Harry and has one person whose been grumpy with him all book check to confirm, then goes "WELL THAT OUGHTA DO IT." But even worse here for the brilliant strategist Kree, they let one of their ENEMIES check on their other ENEMY and totally believe him. It's the kind of basic suspension of disbelief that pulls you out of any sort of story. On top of that, the characters do feel so sort of cut-and-paste copies of themselves that it's hard to really be worried about any of them, which is particularly sad because I love the Invaders. This isn't me coming from a place of "oh, these characters are okay, I guess, I don't really know much about them or know why I should care." I love these characters through and through and I'm not invested in a single thing that happens to them in this book. Ugh. Whatever. 1/5

Art
Art's fine. Maybe a little too reliant on face lines for me but it gets the point across. I'm just depressed, okay? 4/5

Miscellaneous
Oh, who cares?

Total score: 2/5


Fantastic Four
J. Robinson (w) and Kirk (p) and Kesel (i) and Aburtov (c) and Cowles (l)

Johnny's powers have been wiped out since science. Something about the Negative Zone and Johnny's time there and the antigens in the bomb Reed had to make on the fly. Either way, his powers are gone now and Reed will work on getting them back but, you know, no promises. Meanwhile, Fury has detained all of the inert monsters from that other zone and plans on disposing of them until Reed learns that, underneath their monstrous exteriors, they're all humans. While Sue takes the kids on a field trip through Atlantis, Johnny and Ben walk through Times Square talking about his power loss only to be attacked by the new Frightful Four, led by an apparently healed Wizard.

Story
There's something specific going on for each F4 member, meaning that they're all more or less on their own as this story starts to take shape. While all of this is happening at home, Valeria has left for Latveria to spend some time away from her family and to hang out with ol' Uncle Doom. The Fantastic Four has always been about unity and family so keeping them apart as the series starts to really move could lead to something more interesting. There are hints that we'll be examining the love life of everyone as the story progresses as Ben and Alicia rekindle a relationship, Johnny mentions the Skrull Lyja he once loved and explains that he searched the Negative Zone for her but couldn't find her, and Namor guides the field trip Sue sets up while also looking adoringly at her. While the rest of the story is starting to take some shape, I'm not a huge, huge fan of multi-faceted love stories? So I have some concerns about that. We'll air those when we get to it though. 4/5

Character
Like with the above ALL-NEW INVADERS, it feels almost like these characters are too easy to grasp. These ones are maybe a little less carbon copy of the normal F4 representation (mostly in that Ben seems quieter and Johnny is more wistful than powerful) than the ANI are of the Invaders so far, but it's still not making for an altogether engaging story. I just don't have a strong enough connection to these characters right now to make much of what they go through dramatic for me. Now, I admit that that may have more to do with these characters over the long haul (I've never been a huge F4 fan) than about Robinson's new run, which is still very young. Still, I'll need to see more out of these characters to get behind this series. 2/5

Writing
References to the rest of the F4 Universe seem to be the order of the day for FANTASTIC FOUR as Nick Fury drops in and everything from the FF's encounter with Doom at the end of the recently ended FF series to Wyatt Wingfoot, Darla Deering, Lyja, Doom, Namor, and the Negative Zone are all referenced. Certainly Robinson wants to establish the depth of this corner of the world but references like these seem often to  be there just for fan service and that ends up being tricky. Of course, a lot of it, I'm sure, is sowing seeds for the future of this book but there's no need to put it all here in issue three. Let the book find its footing before you start plotting out its future. 3/5

Art
The art sometimes looks a little too soft for me but i tend to project what I'm feeling about a book onto its art so maybe I'm not the best judge of this one. I think the book is moving a little slowly in its tone, even for one that's seen so much action and life-shifting in just three issues. There was an issue of HAWKEYE where Clint set up a DVR and it was more engaging than any of these three issues where there's been an invasion of Earth, powers lost, and shocking revelations. Tone means everything. The art helps too, I guess, since we're in the art section, right? Look, I'm maybe not on my game today. 3/5

Miscellaneous
This book feels very much like it wants to be darker than it's currently coming off. Right from the get-go this creative team has promised major changes to this world, including Johnny's lost powers and the possible arrests of Ben and Dragon Man, not to mention the harsher red costumes instead of the classic blue ones. Still, there's very nearly nothing dark about this tone through three issues. It's hard to tell a great story if you can't get your tone, writing, and story to match up.

Total score: 3/5

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.

Captain Marvel 1, Fantastic Four 2

Captain Marvel 1
DeConnick (w) and D. Lopez (a) and Loughridge (c)

Six weeks from now, Captain Marvel is in outer space with some new and alien crew-mates, on the run from the Spartax Secret Police and on the search for certain materials at an outpost. They pretty quickly get into it with a couple of roaming Spartax Secret Policemen and are forced to separate. Cut back to six weeks ago, when our story begins, as Carol and Iron Patriot attempt to stop what seems to be a missile from hitting New York. She grabs it and tosses it, giving the two a chance to examine it in the air. It's not a bomb, as it would happen, but instead some sort of containment for an alien creature. The alien is delivered to SWORD while Captain Marvel returns to her home in the Statue of Liberty, where she's recently welcomed Kit and her mother to stay after Kit's mother lost her job. As Carol puts Kit back to bed (she got up when Carol returned home), Iron Man beckons her to come with him. He tells her that he thinks the Avengers should have someone out in space monitoring any potential threats to Earth or even just things Earth should be aware of. His time with the Guardians of the Galaxy made him aware of how dangerous space may be for Earth and he wants to be prepared. She volunteers to take the first shift, which would be about a year or so in space. She breaks the news to her disappointed but understanding boyfriend Rhodey and she sets off, hoping to find where she belongs.

I think this is a tricky issue to write and it kind of shows. This is a book being rebooted not because it was doing poorly or because it needed a fresh start but because Marvel wanted the boost of a new release in the midst of new release season instead of just before a wave of new releases. This is, anyway, the company line. That said, there are pros and cons to sending Carol to space just as there are pros and cons to having to reboot a series so soon after the last one "concluded." Some of the pros and cons of the latter include needing to try to reach a new audience while similarly retaining one fresh off a great and well loved volume while some of the pros and cons of the former are that Marvel cosmic is ALWAYS a risky move. It's, of course, currently rather in vogue as Guardians of the Galaxy and the comic by the same name have paved the way for introducing more mainstream audiences to the space side of Marvel comics. Of course, that doesn't make it entirely less risky, just means it's got a bigger sandbox to play in. I guess what I'd say, then, is that this isn't a bad issue, just an issue that has found itself in the precarious position of trying to set up a new world without completely dismantling the old one. With that said, I think that the next few issues have the ability to get progressively stronger as the new order falls a little more into place.

Fantastic Four 2
J. Robinson (w) and Kirk and Kesel (a) and Aburtov (c)

The strange monsters that burst from the Baxter Building are revealed, by Franklin Richards, to have come from his secret pocket universe which is currently, as Franklin puts it, sick. They are extremely resilient creatures and it takes Reed a while to concoct something that will neutralize them. By the time he does, they've wreaked havoc all over New York and drawn the attention of plenty of Avengers and other heroes alike. Like his solution with Fin Fang Foom in issue one, Reed's solution this time requires Johnny to act as a catalyst for the cytotoxin he's developed and which will need to be dispersed in the atmosphere. He warns Johnny that it may have negative effects on anyone close to it while it disperses but Johnny decides they can't wait any longer and flies off with it. The cytotoxin works, rendering all the beasts unconscious, but it also knocks Johnny out of the sky. When the F4 catch him, he reveals that he can't feel his powers any more.

The pocket universe Franklin refers to in this issue is the controversial HEROES REBORN universe that it was revealed he had created back in the late '90s when Marvel attempted to reboot some of their major franchises with more modern takes on some of their key heroes after their apparent deaths at the hands of Onslaught. Interestingly, series writer James Robinson also wrote the final issue of all of the HEROES REBORN rebooted titles back in the '90s so he has some first hand familiarity with the universe he's reintroducing here. Despite all of the fighting and the race-against-the-clock mentality of Reed developing the cytotoxin (which happens kind of anticlimactically), it's hard to say this was a particularly exciting issue. It's also hard to be TOO interested in Johnny losing his powers as this is something of a frequent trope of superhero comics and, more importantly, is something that happened in just the last volume of FANTASTIC FOUR, albeit in a slightly different way. Of course, before Fraction's run (and part of Hickman's run, I suppose), I could never find myself interested in the Fantastic Four for some reason so being kind of bored by this one just fits the mold.

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.

Fantastic Four 7, FF 6

Fantastic Four 7
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Hennessey (a) and Mounts (c)

The Fantastic Four go into prevention mode as Franklin saves the team from the sun and Blastaar explosion by sending them through time and space to the end of the universe, just before the aliens who sentenced Blastaar to being the first death in the universe send him back to it. They arrive and instantly head it off with the aliens, who help repair their ship and talk to Reed, Susan, and Ben about how their bodies are decaying. They know that Reed's cellular structure is decaying while something is happening to Ben's mind. Ben is angry Reed didn't tell him, but has more pressing issues. The next day is the one day a year where he transforms out of the Thing and into Ben Grimm for 24 hours and he'd like to be able to spend that day himself. Reed promises to be done with what they're doing at the end of the universe by then to allow Ben to choose where ever he wants to go. The whole team works together to pull one over on the aliens (after the aliens fix up and improve the F4's ship and everything) by rescuing Blastaar for themselves. If he isn't sent back in time to the start of the universe, he'd never explode there and they'd never be caught in the explosion. Johnny asks the question "what sparks us to come back here if he never explodes?" opening up a loop of time travel issues, but Sue rebuffs him by simply demanding he not ask. Val creates a containment unit for Blastaar that should keep him from exploding and helps prepare the ship. Everyone plays a role in the long con and eventually they end up leaving with Blastaar, who they drop off in the Negative Zone. Reed asks Ben what he wants to do with the rest of his day (they've taken out an hour doing this) and he asks to go home.
It's a nice little issue that has a lot of layers to it. There are nice mentions from the aliens of Franklin (when they first see Franklin, who is unconscious from the effort to bring them there, they tell him he's not the first Franklin Richards they've seen) and Valeria (the head alien says "while your species as a whole may not have survived this long, everyone knows of Valeria Richards"). It all fits in nicely with the F4 mythos without dominating too much of the story. Now 3/4 of the Fantastic Four know that their powers could be killing them, which will likely bring out some more tension as we continue. There's also a Reed-defining moment as he says to the alien, once the long con is complete, "your society, this civilization, you might have a few billion years on me and mine, sure...but I'm Reed Richards. Nobody's smarter than me." Fun issue. By the end it does feel rather like a heist movie (hence all the long con references) with all the pieces coming into place. Nicely done.

FF 6
Fraction (w) and Quinones (a) and L. Allred (c)

We get a fun look into the Baxter Building (complete with map of the tower) as Dragon Man searches for his roommate Bentley-23, who we know has been taken by Medusa. Dragon Man's character has been pretty fun in this series, if far removed. He's constantly off to the side, reading a newspaper and making "hmm" kinds of sounds. This issue starts the same way, though with several more "hmm"s. He searches the general area and starts asking about Bentley, but no one can tell him anything. At breakfast, he brings it up again, as Ahura (Medusa's son) brings up that she's missing. Meanwhile, Scott has been having trouble sleeping because of an incredibly depressing dream about his daughter that's keeping him from rest. He too questions where Medusa is as She-Hulk shows Darla the paper, which has hacked cell phone pictures of her trying on different headwear (as seen last issue). Darla is furious but has to get over it to go to a gig at Carnegie Hall. Of course, the Yancy Street Gang, who has joined the modern age as hackers, is behind it. Tong, one of the Moloids, expresses to his brothers that there's something inside him now that "there is a girl inside of him" and she dons a dress and asks for their understanding. They grant it and parade through the Baxter Building, to the enjoyment of She-Hulk and Darla and the confusion of Scott. She-Hulk and Ahura meet with his father Black Bolt to tell of Medusa's disappearance. It's actually a pretty funny scene as Black Bolt and Ahura communicate telepathically and Black Bolt continually gets closer to his son's head. Ahura reveals that Black Bolt has given them permission to take Lockjaw with them (rad) to help them find Medusa again. Darla's gig goes badly as everyone in attendance has been brought there by the Yancy Street Gang and are all wearing Thing masks and throw things at her to force her off the stage. Scott has seemingly disappeared on her and she eventually meets up with him at an internet cafe. He's invited the heads of the YSG to the cafe and reveals to them that he was with them as they went home that night, watching as they hacked things. He got all of their passwords and sent them around to any other hackers or news organizations or embassies they've embarrassed. He tells them to back off and it seems to have the desired effect. It's nice for Scott to finally win one. They return home to find that Dragon Man has connected Medusa and Bentley-23's disappearances after all, just in time for the whole building to be sent to the Negative Zone.
If this recap seemed like it jumped around a lot, it's because it did. There are a lot of things going on at the Baxter Building these days and a lot of storylines Fraction wants covered. He switches back and forth between them effortlessly and doesn't really seem to care if you're comfortable with the pace. There are places to be and things to do. I think it's a solid way to approach this book, which he's set up as being a pretty hectic time. Of course it would be hectic, there are 15 or so children living in one building with four adults (three right now) who don't quite know how they fit with one another yet, or how they fit into the lives of the children. The jumping back and forth at random and quickly, without allowing us to get too comfortable in one story, helps show how chaotic the FF life is. When I said above it was nice that Scott was able to win one, I meant it. It felt like such a victory for him in that it was a near-total victory over the YSG and it was so needed. Will it help stem the tide of emotion over Cassie? No, of course not. But it's nice to win occasionally. Good book. Next issue we send everyone into the Negative Zone. Fun stuff ahoy.

Fantastic Four 6, Ultimates 23

Fantastic Four 6
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Farmer (a) and Mounts

I enjoy this Fantastic Four run quite a bit and the Thing is an interesting character in this run. These are two statements I never thought I'd make separately, let alone together, but they hold true regardless. I like that the Fantastic Four have returned to the roots, as it were, and gone in a route of exploration. I think removing them from the superheroes of Earth is probably a smart idea, and one that will only benefit the team for the time being. This issue puts the F4 and the two kids (with everyone alive, despite F4 5AU's assertion; remember, this issue puts us squarely back into F4 continuity whereas that one drifted us somewhere between Age of Ultron and F4 and there's a high probability that the Age of Ultron continuity gets erased, so that story's plot has less meaning to it. Still I'd recommend it based on the character moments all around) on a trip to see the Big Bang. The ULTIMATE exploration for science. They'll see the entire universe created from a place somewhat removed from it. Reed quizzes the kids on what the Big Bang is in a whole lot of science-talk, mixed nicely with a couple of child-like moments, and the gang sets off. Ben, meanwhile, is dealing with a killer headache and some rage problems, not unlike the Hulk. But imagine if, instead of the Hulk growing out of Bruce Banner, the Hulk grew out of someone like the Thing, who is already somewhat Hulkish in his own right. Ben actively has to calm himself down from even minor annoyances, flashing a Thing-out when the kids knock on the bathroom door while he's trying to open a container of Tylenol. The team flies to the Big Bang and finds a creature strapped to a rock in front of the explosion. The audience saw this creature at the start of the issue (it's all covered up so we don't know its identity as yet) being sentenced for its crimes by authorities at the end of the universe to die in the Big Bang; to be the universe's first death. The F4 waste little time in deciding to rescue the creature, which they manage, only to find that he's none other than old cosmic foe Blastaar, currently outputting crazy radioactivity. Blastaar immediately begins attacking his rescuers and blowing bits of the ship to pieces. Thing hulks out (I'd try to use a different word but that one already exists and it really fits, you guys) and starts wailing on Blastaar before eventually being knocked outside the ship, hanging on for his life. Sue protects the kids and herself before telling them to run for safety and trapping Johnny and Blastaar in a forcefield together. Johnny heats the area up intensely before Blastaar can manage to knock him out. The kids send a couple of HERBIE-based robots (and a Doctor Who joke) in to help, which distracts Blastaar long enough for the team to reconvene and come up with a plan. The craft is pretty devastated but Blastaar is close to exploding, so the only viable option is Franklin, who swears he can use his powers to save them. The last few panels show the ship (Ben included, who is floating outside the ship but hanging on) disappearing and leaving Blastaar in front of the Big Bang explosion, fading into it.
So we're not sure where the F4 will wind up and whether or not Franklin did what he aimed to do successfully, but we're in a very interesting spot for this book. If Franklin wasn't able to do it as successfully as he hoped, we'll have questions for the plot about where they are and what's happened to them. If he did do it successfully, maybe we'll have to question if Franklin is ready for his role as world's most powerful hero sooner than we thought. And Ben...what is happening with Ben? When he loses control to the anger, His color scheme inverts, with his rocks going black and the cracks between the rocks going yellow/orange. It looks a bit like his Fear Itself Worthy-incarnation, as I think I've mentioned before. Is he still suffering ill-effects from that or is he, like Reed, starting to see degradation from the power-granting explosion? All questions worth asking and all interesting plot points to deal with going forward. Good issue.

Ultimates 23
Humphries (w) and Bennett and José (a) and Milla (c)

Another solid issue for the Ultimates as Ford's West Coast Ultimates continue their attacks on the true Ultimates. Black Knight has successfully subdued and captured Tony Stark and brought him back to Ford, who soliloquies his plan in a super-villainy way. Tony decides not to attack Ford, as his armor isn't available and Ford still has one reject Ultimate with him, though in suspension (Wonder Man). Meanwhile, President Cap is getting pretty fed up with his new job. He's disgusted with the people he has to work with (namely the elected officials) and feels he could be doing more out on the front lines than from behind a desk. He complains that he was elected to win the war and he's done that but the country's still not mending and he can't politic his way around that. Carol Danvers assures him that he was elected as a symbol for the war and the reconstruction and that he's doing a fine job. This doesn't stop him, though, from leaping into action when Tigra and Quake are unleashed on DC. We get a bit of backstory for Tigra (ex-cop who was in prison for "actions that cost a young man his life" before Nick Fury approached her about joining the Ultimates), who is soundly beaten by Cap, and for the Vision (Robert Mitchell, a high school dropout with an IQ of 240 who is adept at hacking and created an antimatter generator from plans found on the internet) who is currently using Tigra and Quake as a distraction so he can bring a new Tony Stark satellite/energy platform crashing down on Sacramento. Ford explains to Tony that the action will look like an attack on the West Coast from the President and that it will also kill the current governor of California, paving the way for one of Ford's hand-picked candidates to take control and to officially separate itself from the United States and become an enemy to the country. Cap sniffs out the distraction tactic and directs SHIELD to figure out what they're meant not to see. Quake, meanwhile, reveals to the audience that she's been betrayed by Vision and Ford, who did not tell her that the plan was to reprogram the J-RICE (the satellite) and not simply destroy it. Quake is angry about the betrayal and clearly was not complicit in the plan, so we'll see where that goes. At the same time, the Black Knight shows up on the moon and knocks Thor aside, keeping Thor and Sue Storm distracted. Hawkeye is out somewhere keeping tabs on Nick Fury for SHIELD. So that's all Ultimates accounted for with seemingly no way to stop what's happening.
This is an interesting place to leave the issue. Cap has figured out that it's a distraction and that these Ultimates were sent by Ford for some reason or another and, on top of all the other crap he has to deal with right now, he is pissed about it. These Ultimates are pretty formidable, with Vision's intelligence and at least some powers (we haven't seen a lot of them, just an ability to phase and fly so far) making him a useful counter to Black Knight's sheer power. Tigra was somewhat impressive but she ended up one on one against a very angry Captain America, so it's hard to get a proper gauge on her. Wonder Man's still in the tank, so we'll have to see soon what he's like in the field. The country and the Ultimates are on a dangerous precipice as we head into the next issue, leaving us in a pretty good spot for action and intrigue.

Death in Comics

I've talked a few times this week (and overall in the past of this blog) about the consequences of death in comics. There are plenty of opinions out there about this by people who are more qualified than I am but that hasn't stopped me before. This is a complicated issue for me. On the one hand, having characters who are able to come back from the dead, maybe even multiple times, certainly cheapens death in comics. Like I've said before, no death in the 616 seems permanent, meaning that when Spider-Man died in issue 700, we were sad but the question wasn't "what now?" but rather "when will he be back?" When Captain America died a couple years ago, we followed the same basic thought, even though that one lasted a little longer. Johnny Storm died a year or two ago and came back. These are three major characters in the Marvel Universe who have died and come back within the last five years. Hawkeye's on that list too, but his death was, I believe, a couple years before Cap's so it's out of the time range I'm inexplicably exemplifying. Although Peter Parker hasn't officially come back yet, his consciousness is still seemingly in his body somewhere, just not in control of the body. We know he'll be back. He's Peter Parker.

The movies, as great as I've found them, further complicate things. I don't see real risk in an Iron Man book or a Cap book, at least not real risk to the title character. Comics are a business and it would be awfully silly for Marvel to throw some of their biggest cash cows away at the height of their popularity. Not to say they wouldn't or they wouldn't do a death like Spider-Man's right now (who also has his own series of movies going on right now but those are less directly tied to Marvel), but we REALLY know there that it isn't permanent. A major character's death grabs headlines and could time out well for a popularity boost, but even the mainstream media is catching on to the inevitable resurrection.

So what does this temporary view of death mean for comics? That's a tougher question. Yes, it forces us to pull back and remember that Marvel is a business and they're not just writing compelling stories to write compelling stories, no matter the end. They still do write an awful lot of compelling stories (or else this blog would be in much worse shape) but we know now that they won't kill off a popular character for good. They might even kill him or her off seemingly for good but it's just a matter of time before someone later on says "boy, what happened to that guy? Let's get him involved again!" Does it cheapen their death in the comic itself, in terms of the story? I don't really think so. I mean, it pulls us out a bit. As sad as I was over Peter Parker's death, my brain was saying "right, so when's he going to be back? How will he come back? What clues were left in this series that someone will build on to get Peter Parker back?" But like I said quickly in my Age of Apocalypse review this week, the characters don't realize they'll be coming back. The sacrifice they typically make (it's almost always some sort of sacrifice when they die) still holds the same weight because they didn't sacrifice themselves saying "aw geez, this sure is an inconvenience. I'll miss half a season of Lost!" (or whatever it is people watch these days that's more recent) Instead they sacrifice themselves with the intention of dying.

So that's not the issue. The issue isn't heroes being less heroic. It's about an audience being made cynical by the business of comics. Now here's where it gets messy, even for me (SPOILER: I don't come up with a genius answer one way or the other by the end of this post). I don't want to be reminded that Marvel is a business and these comics are available because people are getting paid to make them. I also express my gratitude for the Ultimate Universe and other universes where characters stay dead and new characters may rise up and take their place. HOWEVER, at the same time, if Captain America had really died, I'd be devastated still. If Peter Parker wasn't eventually coming back, I don't know how I'd be feeling right now. Comics are escapism, right? They always have been. Most literature is. But most literature is also finite. Comics probably are too, but we never really see that end. God willing, they will be infinite. In escapist fantasies, do we want to be reminded that everyone we love dies? That everyone we love, no matter how strong or how seemingly invincible, falls eventually? Or would we rather believe that there's always a power to come back? I'm not saying it's the best lesson to teach whoever is reading comics, but I don't think we need to worry about that lesson. Throughout any person's life, they'll learn countless times that people die. It's sad but it's true. I can't imagine that people are reading comics and saying "geez, this is just like real life!" At least, not as it pertains to superheroes or death. The good comics emulate real life in the way they show their characters, which is why we're so sad when they die. We might as well know these people. It's not teaching us a lesson about death or about how it's possible to overcome death. It's just letting us escape like we wanted to when we first picked up a comic book. Is death still a real threat in comics? I don't know. People can come back at will in some places but will stay dead in others. Less important characters die and stay dead all the time in comics. If a more important character dies, their sacrifice and their death still means a lot, even if they'll eventually be resurrected. Every death still has a weight to it. Maybe I'm a bad comic reader, but I'm not going to complain if my favorite character breaks reality by coming back from the dead. He's already broken reality plenty of times before this and I certainly didn't mention it then. What's so different now?

This week's picks!

New Avengers 3

SURPRISE! New Avengers makes this list. I really can't say enough about this series. The questions that are raised issue to issue are enough to keep me fascinated, let alone the characters and the choices they have to make. Their interactions are intense, their history is all muddled, and the choices they have to make are incalculable. You have characters like Hank, with a strong moral center who doesn't agree with the principles of the team, making hard decisions that, though they're extremely difficult, fit the character. Of course, there's also Captain America, who absolutely makes the decisions he would make any other time. There is a quality about Cap that good writers see in him, which is that he's willing to make difficult decisions and is able to kill if he thinks he needs to. He's a soldier and he lives his life as one. That said, Hickman's right to have him blatantly object to this, completely assured of his moral standing. He's a soldier and kills if it's necessary and, at that, if the person he's facing needs to die. Captain America is the definitive example of a hero because he wouldn't even consider destroying another planet. They invoked memories of Civil War when Cap asked Tony where this all stops. It reminds me of a moment in Civil War when Cap and Tony, in secret, met and Tony told Cap that if everyone in the world was like him, there wouldn't be the need for registration. But no one is like Cap. This was an amazing issue of an amazing book. Frankly, I'd be recommending it on the art alone. I'm so happy I have so much more to say.

Secret Avengers 37

I'm a sucker for these kinds of hard choices, apparently. Clint and the team are faced with the choice of sacrificing a possible better life AND an entire species of sentient beings to keep their humanity. It's not a choice you make easily. It's an even harder choice for someone like, brilliantly used, the Human Torch, who has strived so long for a place to fit in and finally had one, only to give it away in the hopes that he could keep humanity intact. Human Torch is a wonderful character. I'm not a hundred percent sure when he came back into regular continuity (last I had seen of him before Invaders Now! was Bucky tracking his remains, stolen by an evil scientist), but he has plenty of things still to explore. He's a little like Vision in that regard. Okay, maybe a lot like Vision, but without the long-standing history of being an Avenger and spending all his time with humans. This finale should really be put to good use by another writer soon, someone willing to explore Torch's view of himself and of society as a whole. There's plenty to delve into there. I'm looking forward to the new incarnation of Secret Avengers, starting next week. However, this was a great send-off to 37 solid issues.

Superior Spider-Man 3

I tend to go into each post-game with one or two books pretty firmly in mind and one spot as a toss-up. In this case, I knew from the outset that New Avengers was in and was confident, barring two tremendous books I hadn't already hit, that Secret Avengers was in (I read New and Secret Avengers pretty much first, alongside Avengers, Avengers Assemble Annual, and Winter Soldier). The third one was up for grabs all week, even up to this very sentence. I'm choosing Superior Spider-Man because I think it represents a good change of pace from what I was worried about last issue. We have some intrigue in Doc Ock's history and in Peter's new ability to see that history. We also have some precedent in violence out of this new Spider-Man and now we have a full-on violent attack. Although I'm not a big Carlie fan, the fact she's apparently aware of Spider-Man's new identity leads to some intrigue. There's a lot going on and I think this issue was a great example of that. Still, hard work beating out Venom and other books this week. I wouldn't be surprised if Iron Man 7 is in this list when it comes out; 6 was a good book but too much of a stepping stone issue to rate top three in a tough week.



Alright, hopefully I have something for you tomorrow. Just started a new job so I'll do what I can to get things rolling. HOPEFULLY won't affect the rest of the week, which is more straightforward. I don't know about you guys, but I like the new set-up. Going forward, I'm doing five pre-game picks on Tuesday, and splitting each day of reviews into two separate posts, if the amount of new releases allows it. Anyway, if you read all this, I appreciate your reading things that only interest me. Thanks so much!