Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 6, Moon Knight 7

Sorry about the late post on this one, it was SUPPOSED to come yesterday at 2 PM but I GUESS that wasn't what Blogger wanted to do. And we all work on what Blogger wants to do.

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 6

Things have gotten stranger and darker in New York as Brenda reveals herself again to be a little more than just a college student writing a report and as Li's police force is decimated by Davos, hoping once more to claim his birthright with the help of loyal monsters and the recently captured Pei and her newborn dragon baby, who is pretty adorable. Meanwhile, Iron Fist has been saved by a strange old man referred to as The Fooh and by his childhood friend Sparrow, now blind. Danny flashes back to his childhood with memories, real or dreams, of his father arriving in K'un Lun after his seeming death, rescued by the people of K'un Lun. It also turns into a flashback about Danny's mom having an affair with Harold Meachum which Danny found out about. Sparrow helps to refocus him and he decides that, even with his chi source gone and his iron fists diminished, he's ready to fight.

There's a lot of cool stuff happening here and some really interesting story telling, all helped by Andrews' great art (and check out that cover, it's real neat). It's also a pretty deep read and re-cast of Iron Fist's already remarkably dark origin. By the same token, I'm not sure I needed the affair with Meachum to cement my interest in these things. Affairs very rarely appeal to me and at this point they often seem cliche. I will say, in its defense, I think it's stronger here because Andrews has done such a good job to show that Danny's father had gone totally crazy and had disconnected from reality, even going so far as to have Danny's mother, in the throes of passion, say that she just wants Harold to make her feel something. So there's a little more of an emotional affair aspect going on but it still feels a little trite to me. Regardless, still a strong issue, check it out for a really neat little dragon, a fantastic cover, continued gorgeous art, and a compelling story. Can't do much better than that.

Total Score: 4/5


Moon Knight 7

A seemingly almost equally well-equipped ex-soldier has appeared on the scenes in New York targeting a visiting general who has committed some sort of crimes that the soldier has been privy to. Regardless, though, the general is a traveler in the night and therefore under Moon Knight's protection so a chase ensues throughout the city with Moon Knight eventually using his glider to stop the would-be assassin. He knocks the AWOL soldier out in time to answer the man's phone and learn that the woman behind the attempt is, in fact, Moon Knight's psychiatrist.

Though this is apparently the start of a continuing storyline, unlike the first six issues, Brian Wood goes to great lengths to make this issue read in the same way that Ellis and Shalvey's run read. There is a bit more dialogue as the soldier gives direction to his drone, which slows the issue a little but sets up the technology nicely, but Moon Knight acts and speaks in very much the same way he has throughout this volume, which is appreciated. Smallwood's art is very impressive, perhaps more expressive than Shalvey's (though I think I like Shalvey's style a bit more) and Bellaire's colors continue to be astonishing. The twist of Moon Knight's doctor being the benefactor of this assassination attempt is maybe one more twist than is necessary, but I'm still interested in learning more so it's certainly not enough to wave off. Strong first entry for the new creative team.

Total Score: 4/5

Moon Knight 6, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 5

Moon Knight 6
Ellis (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

For questioning why this Mr. Knight character gets to do the police work, NYPD officer Ryan Trent is told by his superior that he's going to be a street cop for life. With this, the latest in a lifetime of people telling him he's not good enough, Trent decides that he can be better than Moon Knight and begins gathering information on the vigilante. Things quickly spiral and he begins to really loathe Moon Knight, changing his plans from "make something of myself" to "kill Moon Knight as the new Black Spectre, classic Moon Knight villain, then take his place and enjoy the love and admiration of just EVERYBODY." It's, perhaps, a bit of a "shoot first, ask questions never/why would you even think about questioning this plan" plan but BOY does Trent commit to it. His final act (in the plan and, spoilers, in life) is to rig up some car-bombs and lure Moon Knight to their location. He detonates them, though Moon Knight isn't caught in the blast, having sent his car ahead as a decoy, and ends up blowing himself up with his last bomb while Moon Knight tells him that Black Spectre, like, it seems, Trent, only ever wanted to be loved and that was his ultimate downfall. Moon Knight, on the other hand, doesn't want love from anyone, that the people who love him end up dying horribly, and that's why he always wins.

It's an appropriately dark ending for Ellis and Shalvey's last issue of the series and it does a phenomenal job of bringing their arc of six mostly unconnected single stories to a full circle. The story is interesting, Moon Knight plays his typical role as sort of a ghost in the issue and ends up, as in each issue, the only one to walk away (his logic at the end, then, is evidently infallible). Shalvey and Bellaire's art remains unbelievable and fit Ellis' tone perfectly. Just an overall great book and one of the best runs on a character I've seen in some time. Interesting side-note: Marvel seems determined to get the reader to stick with the book, addressing Ellis and Shalvey's departure and providing a four-page preview at the end of this book, which wouldn't be as weird if they hadn't plugged the four-page preview into other books (including ROCKET RACCOON and presumably others). Weird that they're so concerned the audience will jump ship. It reeks of backlash from fans upon learning Ellis and Shalvey were leaving. STILL, back to the matter at hand: great book, pick this and its preceding five up.

Total Score: 5/5


Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 5
Kaare Andrews (w, a, c) and Caramagna (l)

Iron Fist begins to recognize the threat he faces as, of course, not his father but as The One, the final challenge a potential Iron Fist faces in their long line of challenges to ascend to the role of protector of K'un Lun (some day, SOME DAY, I won't have to look up how to spell K'un Lun). Look, that doesn't make it not weird since Danny killed The One in his own trial. Crushed and broken, Danny manages to escape only with the help of the K'un Lun elders, who whisk him out just in time to not be totally killed. Meanwhile, the messenger girl Pei continues to try to evade the dark forces following her with the help of Brenda who proves herself suddenly adept at many fighting styles (??) and escapes into the sewers carrying the chi of K'un Lun, though she inadvertently releases it and unleashes, it seems, Shou-Lao the undying (knew he wasn't dead...that's a joke, you guys) into the New York City sewer system.

Plenty happening but this issue almost acts more like catch-up, despite the incredible amount of action. Danny recaps a little what's been going on and we see just about everyone we've seen so far in Andrews' run. It ends up dragging the issue a little bit but I think it's probably worth it to kind of reset and show us where we are right now in a book loaded with pretty deep cuts into Iron Fist mythology. Still doesn't solve Danny's problems of totally broken fists and a lack of chi but I'm sure we're getting there, no doubt with Pei's help. Also kind of can't stand when characters suddenly whip out very convenient powers like Brenda did, though maybe that's building to something else too. Look, whatever, is what I'm saying. Still pretty good work and some stellar art from Andrews, as ever.

Total Score: 4/5

Comics this week

Lot of intriguing books out there this week. On the other hand, I'm probably just going to mostly pick books you're expecting me to pick? So, not so much intriguing here as "predictable." Look, these things happen. Maybe Marvel should release its intriguing books on weeks where fewer sure-thing books are coming out?

Black Widow 9
Great book all the time and it got an added boost of heart last time with Winter Soldier's inclusion. This one will crossover with this week's PUNISHER 9 as well. Expect a pretty fun one, particularly as both books are helmed by writer Nathan Edmondson, who has added life to both series.

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 5
Guys, do I have to cover why I like this book even more? There's a lot to like here and it's certainly worth a look if you somehow haven't looked yet, if just to see how the book plays. Lots of neat things, though maybe not quite as neat and predictably great as...

Moon Knight 6
Very sadly, this is the final issue for Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey, who have really killed it on this book, completely redefining Moon Knight and blowing away readers at every turn. They've made this series, in just five issues, one of this best Marvel has in a lineup replete with good books. I don't want to write off the series when Ellis and Shalvey leave as Brian Wood will take over as series writer and I quite like Wood's work, not to mention that colorist Jordie Bellaire will stay on, which is certainly a win. Still, this will be the final issue for Ellis and Shalvey (who, excitingly, will team together again on Image's INJECTION, along with Bellaire) and I insist you read this book.

New Avengers 22
Back-to-back release weeks for NEW AVENGERS and I can't help but choose this book, which I've loved overall and whose last issue I particularly loved. Excellent work last week as we see a depth of character to Black Panther that Hickman had kind of danced around, particularly because Panther is someone who tends to play things close to the vest. How will the Illuminati react to Namor's ability to do what they could not?

Rocket Raccoon 2
Look, this is why having five books on this pre-game list is sometimes tough. SPIDER-VERSE starts this week with the return of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN, the compelling SHE-HULK is out this week, and the very fun NEW WARRIORS returns this week as well, recently revoking their own Avengers status (well, Justice, as the only Avengers member) to stand for the New Warriors. Instead, though, the pick goes to Skottie Young's already incredibly fun ROCKET RACCOON, which will hopefully get a few more pick-ups in stores this week on the heels of the immensely successful and delightful Guardians of the Galaxy. Not that, if the pre-order numbers were any indication, this book needs a huge pick-up.

Moon Knight 5, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 4

Moon Knight 5
Ellis (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

A young girl has been kidnapped by a crime family. She's being held in the fifth floor of a six story abandoned building by a dozen or so guards. Moon Knight makes his way to the fifth floor.

I put down every issue of this series going "this book is awesome." It's a number of things and I think that it's a number of things I've already talked about with this book. Each issue gives a slightly different flavor and the flavor of this one is a far more brutal and less mystical one. Khonshu only plays a role insofar as his tie to Moon Knight. There are no spirits and there are no curses. This one is just Moon Knight making his way through a series of thugs who stand no chance against him. It is brutal and it is devastating and it is truly a phenomenal comic. As ever, one of Ellis' strengths on the book remains his understanding of how to keep quiet during the action and how to let Moon Knight's terseness speak volumes. Declan Shalvey does a phenomenal job both with the still moments and with the intense action just as Jordie Bellaire does a stellar job setting the tone. Check this issue out.

Total Score: 5/5


Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 4
K. Andrews (w, a, and c) and Caramagna (l)

In a flashback to before Danny left for K'un Lun (on his present journey), we see a night between Danny and Brenda where she, having lowered his defenses and seen through his false callousness, gets him to confide in her, at least a little, and talk to her about his parents. That night, his mother, a monstrous skeleton not unlike the father he ran into at the end of last issue, comes to him while he sleeps and scolds him for looking back at her when she told him not to, for watching her get ripped apart. Brenda stays through his whole episode and calms him back to bed, though it's still a restless night. In the present, his maybe-father/monster insults his connection to Lei Kung and compares it to his connection and perceived failure to his own father. Danny raises his iron fist to strike with the power of Shou-Lao, K'un Lun, and the tree of immortality only to find that, with those destroyed, he has no power.

Danny's demons are very real and they're facing him down one by one. Andrews, on top of his phenomenal art and strong writing, has a real sense of tone and character for this book. The flashback to time spent with Brenda isn't necessarily what the audience is expecting but, after reading it, it feels like it's exactly what we needed. He's not a callous jerk, he's not humorless because Andrews has decided that's who Danny has always been, he's just a guy with a lot going on and a public face that differs from his private face. If you had fears that maybe this was signifying a massive shift in who Iron Fist has been in the past, I think you can relax. It might be a bit of a shift, perhaps leading to someone who's a bit darker underneath, but it's not anything that shouldn't be expected. Really solid book, very compelling art, perhaps a little risqué for younger readers. Only in America could I call this book risqué because it has sexual themes whereas I called MOON KNIGHT awesome and brutal with no such warning. Pretty weird, right? Guys, I have observations like this for DAYS. LOOK AT THAT COVER, EVERYONE. GOOOOOOOOOD week for covers and this is likely the best one.

Total Score: 5/5

X-Force 9, Wolverine 9

X-Force 6
Spurrier (w) and J. Molina (p) and Yeung (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Petit (l)

Volga's thrown Cable out the window and subsequently exploded him and now has the team trapped and even MeMe, our narrator in this issue, rather trapped in a computer. She seems to be taking Cable's death particularly hard but takes the time to give us a brief rundown on what happened in Alexandria. She had been there, working for Volga, and saw the bomb explode, aiming for mutants, and had seen Cable and Hope affected. Back with Volga in the present, the villain prepares to start experimenting on the surviving team just as Cable and Dr. Nemesis teleport into the room, revealing that Cable has been sending copies of himself into fights as the real Cable, poisoned during the bomb, is in stasis and continually sends his copies out to die while receiving the memories and information they gain in his headband. They escape Volga's grasp and Psylocke again tells MeMe that she has to reveal to Cable who she really is...Hope, piggybacking on the real but brain dead MeMe's powers.

What do I have to tell you people to get you to read this book? Or are you all doing it already? Let me know, okay? Because seriously, it's so great. I explained this whole series to someone today and, even with my babbling summarization (familiar with those?), the book sounded AWESOME. To me, at least. I think the audience I was telling it to was genuinely interested but, you know, babbling. Really great issue and how crazy is it that the reveal of the bomb's real impact and that Cable's been sending copies of himself out into the world while he slowly dies at home AREN'T the biggest reveals. Check this series out.

Total Score: 5/5


Wolverine 9
Cornell (w) and Anka (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Wolverine continues to chat with Death while Iron Fist and Shang-Chi fight the Hand outside. Wolverine learns from Death that he's still rather afraid of dying but that he also still has honor and pride and whatever else. He also learns that Sabretooth has Pinch, her daughter, and Lost Boy and he's ready for a rematch.

THE DEATH OF WOLVERINE is looking more and more like a rebranding than an actual, literal death. There's talk in this issue about what a name means and what his name is and other things of that vein. Death also scoffs at the idea she told him he'd die in three months. ANYWAY, I still can't get behind this book. The talk with Death as an actual person continues to not be that compelling to me, particularly as Death just espouses super basic psychology kind of stuff that should absolutely blow no one's mind. Also Rose makes another appearance and his dumb rose tattoo does the same. Hoping his healing power comes back just to get rid of that.

Total Score: 2/5

Wolverine 8, Savage Wolverine 20, Nightcrawler 3

Wolverine 8
Cornell (w) and Anka (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Wolverine, guided by Shang-Chi and Iron Fist, visits a mystical temple where it is said that death takes a holiday. Offer comes to Sabretooth to, in theory, work out a way for him to free Pinch and her daughter Annie and Lost Boy. Of course, he doesn't really care about that and manages instead to offer up a way to track Wolverine in exchange for his services. Accepting, Sabretooth sends a team of ninjas to attack Wolverine.

With the much advertised DEATH OF WOLVERINE coming, Cornell kicks off his three part THREE MONTHS TO DIE run by sending Wolverine, still trying to rediscover himself in the new killable world, to meet Death and to work out with Shang-Chi and Iron Fist. I tend to be wary of the physical representation of Death whenever it appears in fiction, just as I'm still a little flummoxed by the physical Heaven that we saw in AMAZING X-MEN to bring back Nightcrawler (although, somehow, I'm past the point of quibbling over Hell existing in Marvel - maybe it's just time that these things need). I tend to believe that having a character who actually is Death is a little on the nose for my liking. Still, teaming Wolverine with Shang-Chi and Iron Fist isn't a bad thing so maybe this will all turn out okay. Still don't like businessman Sabretooth.

Total Score: 3/5


Savage Wolverine 20
Tieri (w) and F. Ruiz (a) and Brown (c) and Petit (l)

It's the roaring '20s (the roaring late '20s, to be exact) and prohibition is all over the place with Al Capone running the most successful bootlegging gig though it puts him at odds with Bugs Moran, a Canadian bootlegger who's enlisted Wolverine. When Wolverine's girlfriend turns up dead (fridging at its finest), he hunts down Capone, who gives him the name of the man who actually did it. Of course, that man is Sabretooth and Sabretooth enacts the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, of which Wolverine was a victim before healing.

The tone of this book is pretty dead on to where it needs to be and Felix Ruiz does a swell job making it feel like the '20s, making this another interesting enough installment of "how does Wolverine play into this time/this event?" a game that this series has been playing since the first couple of arcs passed. Still, the story isn't particularly compelling (which might be my own bias against gangster stuff, I just tend not to care unless it's really a different take on gangsters) and somehow businessman Sabretooth turns up again, albeit in a more questioning and mercenary sort of way. I wouldn't say that I'm burnt out on Wolverine, exactly, which is a credit because boy is he EVERYWHERE but I am certainly, at this point, well burnt out on Sabretooth.

Total Score: 3/5


Nightcrawler 3
Claremont (w) and Nauck (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Petit (l)

Trimega, showing up with three robots now, attacks the circus and immediately begins to show off how powerful he is, tearing through Kurt's friends and adopted family like nothing. Margali shows up just in time and easily overpowers them and Kurt decides, to keep the others safe and to get some back up, that he'll bring Amanda and Margali to the Jean Grey School, where they're greeted with suspicion and hostility. There are far deeper issues at play, though, as Margali and Amanda attack their interrogators behind closed doors and as a horde of Trimegas show up to attack the school.

While the story feels like it's moving a little too slowly to be particularly compelling, there's a bit more to like here. I want to clarify - the story itself isn't necessarily moving that slowly but the sheer amount of dialogue and exposition slows down the actual pacing of the book to a point where it's sometimes hard to get really drawn into the story itself. There is some decent characterization based on the way the X-Men react to Margali and to Kurt and the way Kurt has to continue to struggle with his return to life, leaving behind everything he'd lived his previous life working towards. Heaven is real, confirming all of his hope and faith, but he still rejected it, which is a compelling story but seems pretty well over by the time the issue's done with.

Total Score: 3/5

Moon Knight 4, Iron Fist: The Immortal Weapon 3, Magneto 5

Moon Knight 4
Ellis (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

Moon Knight has been contacted by a Doctor Skelton, a sleep scientist who had worked with one-time ally to Marc Spector Peter Alraune. Skelton is having troubles with his sleep studies as all of his patients, hooked up to machines and drips in his small office provided by the university, have been going slowly insane after having the same dream. Moon Knight, sworn to protect travelers in the night (which also includes protecting people in dreams), returns to the office with Skelton and goes to sleep on the floor of one of an open, damp and smelly room. He enters an incredibly colorful and psychedelic hellscape where seemingly every piece of the landscape has the face of a man pleading for death. Moon Knight explores the area for a bit and then abruptly wakes up and crashes into Skelton's office, dragging him out by the hair and throwing him into the damp and smelly room, where he rips up the floorboards to find a corpse wrapped in a bag rotting underneath. Skelton explains that it was a random guy from Craigslist who'd first participated in the study and who had undisclosed medical problems that reacted badly to the drugs Skelton used and that Skelton had been forced to hide the body or else he would be shut down. Moon Knight explains that he's been rotting there with his own fungus and with whatever else Skelton put into him, that they've "been breathing in his dreams."

Another amazing outing for this MOON KNIGHT book which finds Ellis doing one of his favorite things, weird and creepy science, and finds Shalvey getting to really play with a new environment and play with the constructs of dreams, while Bellaire gets to colors some extraordinary new settings. Just a really phenomenal book, one that really flies by but that you'll have no trouble going back to when it's over, one that you'll really want to flip through a couple of times just to see everything that Shalvey and Bellaire are doing, let alone the interesting story and the ever tight-lipped Moon Knight (which comes somewhat at odds with the Moon Knight in ORIGINAL SIN who was rather a chatterbox this week's issue). I said in my pre-game this week that this is a series that will, even just three issues in, undoubtedly be a phenomenal book for as long as Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey want to stay on it and, oh hey, what's this news now? Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood are taking over the series starting in issue seven in September? CURSE YOU, IRONIC LINK.

Total Score: 5/5


Iron Fist: The Immortal Weapon 3
K. Andrews (w, a, c) and Caramagna (l)

As Danny returns to K'un Lun to find it in ruins with the Thunderer, his old master and current Yu Ti of the mystical city, decapitated, something inside him rather snaps. Between the present and a slew of flashbacks, we see Danny trying to keep his rage down and his rage turning into fear as he worries about who he is and what he'll become, that his fear is based on unleashing death. Thunderer was an instrumental part of learning that about himself and now he's dead and Danny wasn't there to stop it. Fellow immortal weapon Prince of Orphans is onsite to help K'un Lun recover and asks Danny to step up and eat the fruit of immortality that he declined when he was first given the choice. Then, he'd rejected it because he sought vengeance on the man who he believed killed his parents, Harold Meachum only to be denied that vengeance because Meachum was old and frail, already practically dead. Now he's offered the fruit in the hopes that he'll stay and be a new and stable Yu Ti, a guiding hand as K'un Lun rebuilds. He declines it and kicks down the tree, demanding vengeance and attacking the Prince of Orphans. he's thrown out from K'un Lun and into the snowy Himalayas where he runs across some sort of beast that appears to be his father. Meanwhile, Brenda, the girl he slept with in issue one, is trying to watch over the little messenger girl but things are complicated when Davos (it's always Davos) comes to kill her.

On top of a very clear love of Iron Fist and the mythology surrounding Danny Rand and K'un Lun, it seems as if Kaare Andrews sat down and thought out every single thing about Danny Rand. He compiled his origin and his past and his present and tried to map out who the character was. Though Danny has recently been something of a stable voice, guiding perhaps angrier characters like Luke Cage or Daredevil, and giving his time and powers freely (well, since Heroes for Hire, anyway), you can absolutely see where Andrews is coming from. Spider-Man every single day is reminded and pushed by his origin, by the fact that he let Uncle Ben die with his own inaction. Yet here's Danny Rand, a guy who, as a child, saw his crazed father fall to his death and his mother torn apart by wolves as he pressed forward to a city where he would be relentlessly trained to be a weapon, and he opens up a nice dojo in town for kids to come train with him. I'm not saying that's impossible or crazy or anything like that, no. Absolutely people come back from horrifying childhoods. But still, Andrews obviously looked at Danny and said "well there's clearly more to it than that." And that's the story we're seeing. It's a story set in the present but with very strong and obvious ties to his past. And it's just an astounding book to look at. Also, I like that cover and the next cover looks AMAZING.

Total Score: 5/5


Magneto 5
Bunn (w) and Walta (a) and Bellaire (c) and Petit (l)

Magneto is recovering between missions. Removed to small-town America, he plots his next steps and restocks his supply of staples and other small magnetic things. He meets with a man to learn a new target he can attack but, before he can set out, he's found by a woman wishing to help him. Briar Raleigh is a woman with a metal leg and a dossier on the entire SHIELD team set to hunt Magneto. He decides to hear her out as she promises to lead him to much bigger scores, including the Marauders, than any little random informant could give, though he's not without his suspicions. It's possible those suspicions are well-founded as we're privy to a flashback wherein we see that she lost her leg in a Magneto attack on Seattle some time prior.

Briar Raleigh, though a name I'm not sure I can get behind (though I'm not eye rolling at it like certain Verity Willises), seems an interesting addition to this book. Someone with questionable motives giving apparently useful information to Magneto and being the person who can lead him in a direction. Whenever you have a character who can point a protagonist in a direction you have the potential for an interesting character. One like this one, who has questionable motives and no known history, seems particularly useful, especially given how many enemies Magneto's made. It's a little like Isaiah in BLACK WIDOW but it's hard not to believe (though this could be just what Edmondson wants us to believe) that Isaiah is a pretty good dude, at least good for Natasha. In this case, Briar Raleigh (does not flow off the tongue, nor does it flow off the keyboard) may well be giving Magneto information now only to lead him to traps later. Fun stuff. Can't complain on this one.

Total Score: 5/5

Comics this week

Ooh boy, we have an embarrassment of riches this week so let's dive right into it and try to highlight the five I'm most excited about.

Black Widow 7
Have I mentioned enough how good this book is? I feel like I probably haven't. You'll be hard-pressed to find a book that's more compelling and more gorgeous than this one every release and now, as Natasha finds herself surrounded by trouble on all sides, will she go out and find a friend? Real excited about where this book is and, more importantly, where it's going.

Captain America 21
This is one of those books that, though I've been praising it from day one, almost feels like it's snuck past a lot of people. Remender is doing a phenomenal job in the traditional comics vein of breaking a hero so far down that it seems impossible for him to come back up from it. It's a great look into Marvel's most stalwart hero as Remender forces him further down than he's ever been. Like his UNCANNY AVENGERS and even his UNCANNY X-FORCE, this is a story within a much greater story. We're on individual arcs but the entire book has built us to this place and beyond.

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 3
I'm still very intrigued by this series. I'm happy with the way it kicked off, with an interesting story and a jarring recast of Danny's origin, all of which has been propped up by phenomenal art (both current day and flashback art). Now, as things head to K'un-Lun, I'm interested to see where writer/artist Kaare Andrews goes. He showed last issue he wasn't afraid to dive right in but it certainly feels like he'll have to offer up a little more information as the series rolls on. Still, very cool series, very much looking forward to seeing more of it.

Moon Knight 4
It's rare (though it's happened a number of times since the start of Marvel NOW!) to see a series that kicks off so strongly that you know it'll be a great book for as long as the creative team wants to do it.  MOON KNIGHT is that sort of book, one where you can't help but inherently trust that you will never be disappointed by it. I think it deserves consideration for your favorite title but know that if it doesn't reach that point, it'll certainly still be worth a buy every week. I say that THREE ISSUES IN.

Original Sin 3
Ahhh, events. The big draw for this series, the idea that major Marvel secrets will be revealed, is finally here as somehow-series-villain the Orb unleashes the Watcher's eye on the world (OKAY, I guess it's not that weird, he found an eye, this is the only eye-themed villain. Kind of amazing they even had an eye-themed villain ready to go). We should be starting to see enough of this event to start to make a couple judgments here and there but I resent that it has to make the list in front of other worthy titles like NEW WARRIORS, PUNISHER, AVENGERS WORLD, SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN, CYCLOPS, and IRON MAN. Seriously, an embarrassment of riches.

Black Widow 6, Punisher 5, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2

Black Widow 6
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a) and Cowles (l)

Black Widow has been captured and has spent her interrogation trying to learn what she can about her captors but it's only led her to realize that they're more scared than anything, desperately striking out while they can at anything that could give them information. She breaks out of her bonds when the time is right and begins to make her way down to Damon Dran, who has apparently reconstructed Molot Boga in the hopes that the new steel Hammer of God will be able to protect him from whatever's after him. Widow throws him overboard and captures Dran but whoever it is that's after him has infiltrated SHIELD to some extent as well, turning one of their officers who delivers a poisonous gas to Dran in his cell. Not knowing who she can trust, Natasha returns to her regular life and gets her new assignment from Isaiah.

Story
Edmondson is doing something really interesting with this series so far. He's telling quick stories, getting in and out with a good read on the character and a good sense of what these sorts of missions are. Of course, between this new ongoing plot line and the Iron Scorpion plot line from issue two, there are plenty of directions still to go out there but neither requires immediate action. Instead, they create an atmosphere around Natasha, one that shows the world seemingly closing in around her and closing her off (there's a nice theme through this one that she can't trust anyone and that it's possible she'll need friends going forward with Hawkeye tossed out as a possibility). 5/5

Character
The biggest character movements here are seeing Widow using her interrogation to learn more about her enemies, something not uncommon to Widow's character (even enough that it was referenced in The Avengers), and when she realizes just how alone she is. Seeing how she copes with that, if she decides to pursue allies or pushes forward alone, will show a lot about her character while also allowing us a glimpse behind her process. Really looking forward to it. 5/5

Writing
Edmondson, on top of getting in and out of stories relatively quickly, even the ones that he leaves open-ended to return to later, knows that fewer words can often tell more. There's limited dialogue and limited narration, never distracting from the story or the art but still doing more than enough to convey the plot and the character and everything else he may need to do. Natasha has always seemed a terse character and Edmondson isn't afraid to let her action do the talking. Of course, that's made easier when you have Phil Noto doing astonishing work on the book. 5/5

Art
Gorgeous book with phenomenal characters, solid emotion, great action, and perfect colors. I've already said it all about this series but Noto continues to impress. This issue kicks off with a full page panel of a close-up on Natasha's punched face and it still looks phenomenal. I put this issue down, as I do with seemingly every new release from this book, going "geez, this book is great to look at." 5/5

Miscellaneous
Man, it's going to get a five. It'd be nice if she had her memories of Bucky because NATASHA, I KNOW SOMEONE YOU COULD TRUST.

Total score: 5/5


Punisher 5
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a) and Petit (l)

The Commandos after Frank tagged the coyote Loot with a tracker and waited while he traveled from Tuggs' place to Frank's hideout. Frank returns to Tuggs, freeing him from his binds, but doesn't have time to think on who attacked him as Electro has just shut down all power to the city. With the power out and the green light given, the Dos Sols attack every cop they can find, killing off police officers with abandon and creating havoc while their boss prepares to trigger the chemical weapon. Punisher finds him and manages to slow him down, nearly able to kill him, before Electro arrives and strikes at Punisher.

Story
The attack on LA is ramping up quickly as the Dos Sols begin to shoot cops and wrap their hand around the city. Guillermo, their leader, is ready to kill the city to show his strength and to advertise his gang to any who would join up. Meanwhile, the Commandos are still after Punisher and the other characters that have joined Frank's new life are all getting enough screen time to show that they'll warrant some attention here as well. Another strong outing from Edmondson as he shows a city in real chaos (which is, coincidentally, a buzzword in this week's BLACK WIDOW as well). 5/5

Character
It continues to be hard to judge Castle's character as he continues to be someone who plays things pretty close to the vest and doesn't have the benefit that, say, BLACK WIDOW has because there's not a lot of narration to show the reader what's really going through Frank's mind. Still, the speed with which he reacts to Loot's presence and his single-mindedness to stop the Dos Sols and Electro say a lot about him. Like with BLACK WIDOW (it's hard not to compare the books as they star protagonists who are similar in their demeanor and sort of in their skills and as they're both written by the same guy right now), Edmondson keeps it pretty short with Frank's dialogue and allows the art to do the talking for the character. It's strong work and it can be rare to see in a Marvel book but Edmondson is doing well in both his books. 5/5

Writing
Covered a lot of this section both in the story and character sections and in my BLACK WIDOW review, honestly. This story, obviously, is more of a traditional long arc than what B-Widz is going through right now but that makes sense with who Punisher is. You don't send Black Widow into a Punisher story any more than you'd send Punisher into a Black Widow story. Though they're presented in a similar fashion in some of the technical stuff, the stories are pretty diverse and I think Edmondson is showing a lot of poise in crafting them the way they need to be crafted. 5/5

Art
Mitch Gerads is doing really cool stuff with this book both in the action sequences and in the colors. It's a very dark book but he continues to mix in moments that are a bit lighter in their presentation if not in their tone, necessarily. Of course, this issue is largely darker because the power's gone out all around the city and cops are being killed in droves. Still, everyone has a very distinct look and Frank and Electro fighting has the sort of kinetic energy (and electric energy) that it should. 5/5

Miscellaneous
It's a testament to this book that I'm not sure I'm coming around a lot on Frank Castle as a character but I'm still finding this series remarkably engaging and well executed.

Total score: 5/5


Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2
K. Andrews (w and a) and Caramagna (l)

Danny has to rush to K'un Lun, which isn't supposed to intersect with this plane for years still to come. Fortunately, he has a secret path back secreted away under Rand Tower, a way to teleport into the magic city. While the girl Brenda calls an ambulance for the messenger in Danny's apartment, Danny recalls more of his childhood, now remembering the crazed look in his mother's eye as she swears Danny to avenge his family on Harold and as she sacrifices herself to the wolves so Danny can make it to K'un Lun. Now he's apparently made it to K'un Lun, overrun by the cybernetic ninjas that attacked his apartment, where just days ago Davos, son of the original Thunderer, attacks his sister, who has since taken on the mantle of Thunderer while their father has taken on the role of Yu-Ti, leader of K'un Lun. When Danny finally arrives in K'un Lun, he finds it aflame with what seems to be a decapitated Shou-Lao front and center.

Story
Andrews really throws it all at us right at once, which is a gutsy move for someone delving so deep into K'un Lun history in just the second issue. We see Davos, we see the Thunderer, we see Shou-Lao, we see more Iron Fist origin, etc. It's kind of stunning all presented in there and it shows a lot of guts to hope that readers who may not know all of this will understand it as we push forward and that they'll stick with the book long enough to see how it fits together or where it's going. Still, the story itself is something of a mystery but what we need to know now is that there's discontent in K'un Lun and that someone somehow related to its past is transformed and attacking. It's an interesting story but we'll have to see where it goes now. 4/5

Character
There's a bit more to Danny revealed here particularly as Andrews ekes out the last bit of his childhood origin in this issue and as we get a slightly better sense of his voice through the narration and the way he views himself. We also get a quick tutorial in the way Davos thinks, which will undoubtedly be important, and we get a quick look at the new Yu-Ti (new-ish, anyway. I think this is one of the first times we've seen him acting as Yu-Ti). There are moving parts all around here and the story is at the forefront so there's maybe a little less character than the first issue's initial information dump but there's still a bit here to learn about. You can't expect every issue to come with major revelations. 4/5

Writing
The tone, helped along by the art and the color, is decidedly dark and hectic, all of which comes through pretty strongly here. Andrews deciding not to go into tons of detail about who these characters are and how their lives fit together may be a somewhat risky move in terms of keeping readers onboard but it makes sense as far as establishing a frantic tone and keeping an air of mystery to the book. It's a clever move, we'll just have to see if it pays off as we continue. 4/5

Art
Andrews' art continues to be pretty outstanding and the colors really help to set the tone effectively. The switches between looking at the present and looking at Danny's past are made more interesting and made easier to see as Andrews switches art forms a little bit and switches color palettes while also giving the past sections a more classic comic book faded feel. It's effective and it's useful to establish what's going on in a book that can come off so chaotic at times, intentional or not. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Another strong issue though there are real concerns about how vague and cryptic Andrews is going to be as we push forward. Obviously way too early to tell if this is a real concern just yet.

Total score: 4/5

Comics this week

With the premiere of several newish books, including Marvel's big summer event, what books will make the cut for ones to be excited about? Let's talk about it.

Black Widow 6
Natasha has been captured by the forces of the indestructible man but has also learned that whoever it is she's after has even someone purportedly indestructible in hiding. More pressing matters first, though, as Natasha will have to find her way out of captivity before she can figure out why.

Cyclops 1
Readers of the blog know I'm not a big fan of the original X-Men being in the present and I'm not a big fan of Cyclops as a character in general, so perhaps this pick is a bit of a strange one. The real reason I'm picking this is that it'll be written by Greg Rucka, who has a lot of talent and an extremely impressive resume. Hopefully he can make us care about this series.

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2
After an exciting and rather gorgeous first issue that delved into both Danny's power and his childhood, I'm excited to see where Kaare Andrews takes the immortal Iron Fist next. Probably K'un-Lun, right? Yeah, I think I'm right. Very excited.

Moon Knight 3
Boy, some really good art out there this week. BLACK WIDOW, IRON FIST, and MOON KNIGHT are all among my regularly cited for great art (albeit IRON FIST has only had one issue so far). Anyway, this series is going pretty well so far with a pair of gorgeous and really thought-provoking if not entirely haunting first issues. Excited to see where Ellis, Shalvey, and Bellaire take it this time.

Original Sin 1
Can't have a new event kick off without a little anticipation. We'll see where this one takes us as the MU prepares to be thrown into some sort of chaos. INFINITY, the last major event in the MU, was a pretty good one all the way through but it didn't go far enough to restore my confidence in events. FEAR ITSELF, AVX, and AGE OF ULTRON have done a bit too much damage to be restored by one impressive event. Let's see if we can get two in a row.

This week's picks

Lotta books out this week. Several good books, several okay books, a couple of not so great books, and only a few great books. So which ones are they? LET'S FIND 'EM TOGETHER.

Avengers Undercover 2
I think there are really interesting ideas coming out of this book right now and that those ideas are really driving this book. Dennis Hopeless has done something very cool with this batch of characters and looks to continue it here. They're characters we can't help but care about because we saw what they went through and he did such a good job characterizing them the first time out. Now we can dive right into the brand new story and bring our feelings about these characters with us. It's almost a perfect situation as we're already guaranteed to care if we made the leap with this team already and now Hopeless just needs to find a good story to keep us here. I think he has, which is a great thing to be able to say on just issue two. There's plenty here and there's a lot to keep us onboard not to mention the interesting plot Hopeless has already established here. Gonna be another fun ride on this one.




Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 1

Kaare Andrews is off to a really strong start with this book. I was ready for the art to be fantastic and to care about the character because I love Iron Fist but I wasn't sure what to expect out of the story or the characters or the writing or anything. I hadn't read anything big by Andrews and it's not super easy to write a good Iron Fist story; Iron Fist fans are lucky because his most recent ongoing series was written by Duane Swierczynski...and also by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker just before that. So yeah, not a bad team-up. ANYWAY, I wasn't sure what to expect out of IRON FIST: THE LIVING WEAPON but almost immediately Andrews has shown that he has some interesting ideas and that he's ready to take this character and this book to cool new places. He's already taken a look at the origin and put his own completely believable twist on it (assuming you bought into his origin anyway). The art, of course, is also amazing, but I'm really impressed by the story and the character that Andrews has already begun developing. I'm looking forward to this series as it keeps going.

Iron Man 24

Okay, this is where things kind of break down for me on this list. It was between IRON MAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, THUNDERBOLTS, DEADPOOL, and ALL-NEW X-FACTOR. Frankly, that's too many books to have to choose from. There are upsides to each but I didn't think any were necessarily at the top of their respective games. Of them all then, I thought IRON MAN had the strongest outing. CAPTAIN MARVEL got maybe a little too caught up in the introduction of the Guardians of the Galaxy for my liking (and that cover really did put me off). T-BOLTS has really built up too much of a great book for its own good so a good issue still doesn't really measure. DEADPOOL was strong and a worthwhile look for the content inside but it's hard to fully recommend it for anyone but big ol' Deadpool fans. ALL-NEW X-FACTOR is taking good steps but doesn't quite feel there yet, you know? Also, kinda annoyed still with the ALL-NEW titles. Anyway, IRON MAN was a pretty strong book as Tony directly interacts with Malekith and dives headfirst into his war with the rings. There's a lot happening here and I think Gillen's right on the edge of throwing us some juicy Tony Stark character development. It's a fun read, it's a good story, and it's a strong character showing. I think IRON MAN is still kind of on the rebound for me after the amazing SECRET ORIGIN OF TONY STARK storyline but I am liking this story anyway. Look, it's hard to explain feelings, you guys.

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 1, Daredevil 1.50

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 1
K. Andrews

Danny Rand meets with a journalism student as she interviews him about his past and his powers. The night devolves quickly as she becomes attracted to him and, while the drinks flow, eventually goes home with him. The whole time, Danny is distant, thinking about his father's determination to get his family and business partner to K'un Lun. Of course, this event drove Danny's life as his parents would both die that day and Danny would barely escape death to make it to the mystical city, where he would become the immortal Iron Fist and choose to leave K'un Lun, forsaking his immortality to avenge his murdered family. As he mulls over his past (before, after, and probably during his, erm, relations with the girl Brenda), he realizes that someone is coming for him. He dives out the window of his penthouse apartment which overlooks the ruined Rand building and meets a flock of ninjas descending from a helicopter. He defeats them handily (that's very nearly a pun about his iron fist, you guys) and returns to the girl only to find that there's an undead but very powerful ninja waiting for him there. His iron fist blinks out at the wrong time but he's more than just his power and he still defeats the ninja. With the last combatant dispatched, a different girl appears, arrows in her back, and whispers that he needs to return to K'un Lun.

Stellar first issue by Kaare Andrews. There's a ton happening here and it's ever so slightly twisting the story of Iron Fist. Iron Fist is rather my go-to for "which superhero has the darkest origin?" That question comes up more than you'd think (mostly I pose it so I can answer "Iron Fist." I never said I didn't play to win). As a child, Danny Rand was walked through a harsh, winter, mountainous climate because his dad was driven to show them all K'un Lun. His dad's business partner, Harold Meachum, watched as Wendell Rand fell off the cliff to his death and offered help to Danny's mother if she would marry him. She refuses and she and Danny are left to their own devices, which here means "promptly attacked and chased by wolves." She falls behind to let Danny gain some distance and tells Danny to just keep going. As the wolves get to her, Danny finds the entrance to K'un Lun. PRETTY DARK, YOU GUYS. This twists the origin very slightly but not in any way that is unbelievable. Instead, Andrews casts Wendell Rand as someone who had long since gone mad, desperate to return to K'un Lun. It's not a stretch in any way, just a slightly different way to look at it. There's an amount of apathy to Danny as this series opens and a fear that he'll go the way of his father. There are so many emotions here and so much depth already to this Danny Rand, not even getting into the story that's happening and the phenomenal art Andrews brings to the book. Really great first issue. Everyone should check this one out.

Daredevil 1.50
The King in Red: Waid (w) and J. Rodriguez and A. Lopez (a) and J. Rodriguez (c)
The Last Will and Testament of Stana Morgan: Bendis (w) and Maleev (a) and Hollingsworth (c)
The Last Will and Testament of Mike Murdock: Kesel (w and a) and Palmer (a) and Allison (c)

Daredevil's 50th anniversary is celebrated with a double length issue telling three tales from Matt Murdock's past and future. The first is a story from Mark Waid and Javier Rodriguez that finds Matt on his fiftieth birthday. He's more or less retired from the superhero game though his senses have all increased with age. He still lives in San Francisco with his son Jack and near a slimmed down and healthy Foggy. He's had a career in politics and, though it seems he and Jack's mother are separated, gained the love of the city in the process. His fiftieth birthday brings horror to the city, though, as Jubula Pride, deranged daughter of the Owl, blinds the majority of the city with the help of cyber optic eye treatment (like Google Glass but with eye drops) in Matt's honor. He tracks her down and fights her, though he's slowed by her toxins and by his age. He eventually finds the source of the blinding, a machine just bursting with radioactivity, and he destroys it, subjecting himself to the radioactivity and fully blinding him, taking away his radar senses. Sad as it is, he's reunited with his son (who had gone blind in the epidemic) and the two are left to lead a more normal life. It's a pretty neat story with plenty of seeds for stories that may or may not be coming. Javier Rodriguez's art continues to stand out whenever it's called upon and makes the book feel like it's just continued right on up through the next decade of comics. Considering how good this DAREDEVIL book and team are, that's not a bad way to feel.

Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev return to the world of DAREDEVIL as Bendis tells a story in the form of the world's longest letter (probably) from Stana Morgan, purported love interest of Daredevil, to her unborn child and to her husband (they would even go so far as to be MARRIED, you guys). She left the letter because she had a suspicion, thanks to her one-time best friend, that she would die as a result of Daredevil's work, somewhere in the crossfire. I'll be honest, I have no idea the point of this story. It's really, really long-winded and it's about a character it's almost impossible to care about, even if this is presented in a first person letter to make it more sympathetic. It's hard to see her as anything but a woman who fell in love with Daredevil under the weirdest circumstances and quit her job and dedicated herself entirely to him within about five minutes. Then apparently she dies at the hands of Bullseye because that's the only thing Bullseye cares about: killing Daredevil's girlfriends/wives. It's an incredibly lengthy story for five pages and I don't think it really adds much. Add this to my long list of Bendis bias, I suppose.

Story three is a tale from Daredevil's past. As present day Matt and Foggy pack up the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, Reed Richards sends along an old video that was left with him during the days of Mike Murdock, the twin that Matt Murdock invented to convince Foggy and Karen Page that he wasn't Daredevil. Present day Foggy and Matt talk about how unbelievable and crazy the whole situation was and how stupid they were for believing it and for perpetrating it respectively. The video is a sweet little thing where "Mike" dons his Daredevil suit and, followed around by some of Reed's flying cameras, performs stunts and narrates his little video, dedicating bits and pieces to the three (yes, including himself) to whom the video was dedicated. There's not a ton to this little story but it's sweet and it's certainly fun enough with just a pang of regret as Mike says that he's sure they'll be the top law firm in the city by the time they see the video where, in fact, they're packing up their law firm having just been disbarred. Fun little issue overall and definitely worth a look for Daredevil fans. There's a preview of ELEKTRA at the end as well as a nice little letter page that highlights fans who sent in letters about their experience with Daredevil (including a nice shout-out to manwithoutfear.com's Kuljit Mithra) as well as creators who have worked on the series. Always nice to see and looking forward to more DAREDEVIL as the years go on.

Comics this week

Hey all my buddies, it's the start to another new comics week so it's time to highlight the five I'm anticipating most. There are eighteen new books out this week and more than a QUARTER of them start with the worlds "ALL-NEW," as the list on the right would indicate (unless you're looking at this post sometime after the week of this post, in which case there are hopefully different comics there). Though I am interested to see how ALL-NEW GHOST RIDER 2 is after a pretty strong debut issue, I refuse to put it on this list because there are FIVE "ALL-NEW" TITLES and I kind of hate the "ALL-NEW" designation. The tiniest protest aside, there are still more than enough books to choose from this week.

Avengers Undercover 2
A strong opener from Dennis Hopeless and company put the survivors of AVENGERS ARENA back on the map and now they're reunited to try to save the revenge-fueled Cullen Bloodstone from destruction or worse at the hands of bigger villains than even Arcade because, you know, Arcade isn't that big of a villain outside of his island. The tone and the focus on characters drove the initial series and I'd look for it to drive this one too.

Captain Marvel 2
Carol Danvers has gone to space hoping that the time off Earth gets her in a new headspace. It's a whole new start for Carol Danvers and one that will shake things up a bit for our hero. She's taken on a role for the Avengers as a sort of space warning system, fighting off or alerting the Avengers to threats to Earth coming from space. She's also set to join up with the Guardians of the Galaxy as they continue to gain popularity. Could lead to interesting stuff.

Daredevil 1.50
This is one I'm not a hundred percent sure of as it launches. To celebrate the fiftieth year of Daredevil, this 1.50 issue is a standalone issue that will purportedly give us a glimpse into DD's 2014 from the creators of his current series as well as a few stories from DD's past from past creators. By "not sure of it," I mostly mean that I tend not to put in standalone stories or retrospective stories to this list but I really like Daredevil and I think this one will still matter in the long run. Plus, I'm sure it'll still be good.

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 1
Everyone's favorite K'un-Lun chosen one returns to the forefront of Marvel comics as IRON FIST: THE LIVING WEAPON takes off. Writer/artist Kaare Andrews will lead Daniel Rand through all sorts of new and, given Andrews' work with Iron Fist before, presumably beautiful places in this all-new (but pointedly not ALL-NEW) series. I love Iron Fist; he's somewhere up pretty high in my pantheon of superheroes. I'm really excited to see where this series goes.

Nightcrawler 1
With the return of beloved mutant Nightcrawler comes the return of beloved X-Men legend Chris Claremont. I'm very intrigued to see how Claremont comes at this new series. He was always a little wordy for my tastes but that was also certainly a product of the times. Now, in a world where comics are more accepted and understood and the artists are able to do more storytelling with a page, we'll see how Claremont handles a brand new series. I'm interested enough that I'm not even going to mention how much I miss X-MEN LEGACY, the book this one is replacing (kind of, anyway. Originally Nightcrawler was just going to take over LEGACY but then they were like "well hey, let's just title the book NIGHTCRAWLER." Regardless, I think Spurrier's LEGACY would have been over anyway).

Avengers Assemble 24, Mighty Avengers 7

Avengers Assemble 24
DeConnick and W. Ellis (w) and Buffagni (a) and Redmond (c)

Anya, detached from Wolverine after a rather harrowing day with him, returns to Avengers Tower to try to figure out the next step. She gets the help of Tony Stark in this next phase (and gets lectured about the studying and preparation that comes with being a superhero) and they trace Covington to a couple of different smaller AIM hideouts in her strike on AIM. In the process, they manage to recover Anya's teacher, the one whose disappearance kicked off this whole event, and bring him to the hospital. They also realize that his new Inhuman trait has to do with being invisible to machines (Iron Man can't see him through his armor) and determine that Covington has begun to simulate this trait and is using it in her attack on AIM. Now, as she moves to make a big strike, Anya meets with Cap, finally, and he calls the rest of the Avengers in to ready them to move against Covington.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE is ending soon, cancelled likely because of sales and because its successor, AVENGERS WORLD, is already on bookshelves and in long boxes, but this arc is just one of the reasons that's a pretty sad cancellation. I've long said that AVENGERS is the "oh god, you're in pretty deep" Avengers title, with Hickman's intense, very rigidly plotted and often confusing (though good) writing and stories where AVENGERS ASSEMBLE is more the starter-Avengers book or, barring that because it sounds condescending, the more fun-Avengers book. However, this arc is playing at a bigger game. It's showing us Anya, Spider-Girl, sure, but it's going deeper and showing us the roots of these superheroes. It's showing us the way these individual heroes act and move and think and plot and avenge on their own and it's giving us their individual styles (while explicitly giving it to the young hero Anya) before rejoining them all to show the Avengers in action. In a nutshell, it is the heart and soul of an Avengers team, it is the "Earth's Mightiest Super-Heroes team up to fight the foes that no one of them could fight alone" mentality hard at work, and it is paying off. It's going to be sad to see this one go for a lot of different reasons but this arc is one of those arcs that is certainly fun to read, worth reading while it's happening, but really a deeper and more profound arc to look back on afterwards, or even during. Really good stuff and really clearly a great Avengers book.

Mighty Avengers 7
Ewing (w) and Schiti (a) and D'Armata (c)

Ava has learned, intercepting Falcon's call to Cage, that Gideon Mace is out on the streets somewhere, inexplicably freed from prison as a hero to anti-cape Americans who gained particular prominence with the movement during Civil War (though I don't believe he had a part in it, this issue retcons the idea that people, at the height of hating superheroes, took to this man). Now Ava's out to find and kill Mace while her Mighty Avengers brethren are out to stop her from becoming a murderer and inciting a war with Mace's supporters, who have formed the "American Policy Research Initiative," an organization that has set out to essentially buy politicians and form its own militias to counteract laws with which it doesn't agree. It's a delicate process for the Mighty Avengers to try to remove Mace from the situation without getting him killed or inciting some sort of war with these guys made more difficult when Ava turns her body over to the Tiger God to allow him to hunt and run free on Mace, making her loads more powerful and more ruthless, less willing to listen to reason. She makes her way to the APRI and attacks, which She-Hulk claims is grounds enough for the APRI to sue them, but they manage to subdue her with a little subterfuge and some well-placed hits. It's not over so quickly for the Avengers, though, as Mace calls the police on them and immediately makes it all look like an attack on him and his group in front of news organizations and the cops and everyone.

The power of one good issue or one good arc cannot be overstated. I was very luke(cage)warm on this book to start because it immediately got off to the sort of "silly captions and silly moments mask a serious book" stuff I tend to take umbrage with for some reason or another (I mostly just hate incongruous tones; there are ways to add humor or levity to serious matters without making it so blatantly obvious, that's one of the keys to writing). It carried on for about five issues with me not really getting anything else out of the book but last issue saw a big shift for me. Things started to actually happen and the tone really started to solidify a little bit better. This issue continues that trend (although it still does the slightly irritating caption-humor I have such a, probably irrational, distaste for) and keeps the book pretty focused, giving it an enemy and putting it into political and physical turmoil along with really helping to establish our heroes. Pretty good stuff out of this one and I can only hope that it continues this way (like the slightly slower turnaround in the DEADPOOL series after an unbelievably hated first arc).

New Avengers 14, Mighty Avengers 6, Avengers AI 9

New Avengers 14
Hickman (w) and Bianchi (a) and Dall'Alpi (c)

The Illuminati, in their quest to find some solution that's a little more permanent, continue to watch other worlds be invaded by the Mapmakers and deal with Incursions of their own only to find that even the most prepared worlds fall with very little resistance. This time out they find a world, Earth-2319, that has been separated pretty firmly into humans and mutants (with all of the mutants following their savior Magneto's example and setting up a new utopia for themselves in the mutant-established country of Tian) but one willing to work to stop the incursions and the Mapmakers. While they watch, every hero they observe dies, even the ones to whom the Mapmakers give the opportunity to flee. The alternate Reed Richards dies sacrificing himself to (very temporarily) save Dr. Doom, who was actually capable of destroying one of the Mapmakers. No closer to any answers, the Illuminati look away. MEANWHILE, the descent of Dr. Stephen Strange continues as he seeks a way to help more with the problems of these incursions. With his soul already seemingly in jeopardy from the way the Illuminati have been forced to deal with the incursions, he goes to the Sinner's Market (a Black Arts Market, essentially) and asks for a transaction that will grant him the power he needs to unseat planets from the skies. When brought to the throne and asked how much of his soul he is selling to gain the power he seeks (for the power he's asked about, he'll need to give up a fifth of his soul), he replies "all of it."

While seeing the destruction of Earth-2319 at the hands of the Mapmakers was interesting and certainly pushes our own Illuminati further into doubt and madness, the Dr. Strange storyline is the more compelling one to me at the moment. I don't know that we gain a lot more out of the Earth-2319 story than we did from the last issue, seeing the destruction of Earth-23099, except that we see Doom defeat one of the Mapmakers proving them beatable (at least in an individual sense) and, weirdly, a little bit sentimental about the loss. Back to Strange, though. Hickman's played kind of a long game with Strange and it's beginning to pay off. He obviously belongs with the Illuminati, given his expertise in magic and his position as Sorcerer Supreme but he's found that his particular brand of combat and problem-solving hasn't been entirely useful in the fight thus far. Now he appears willing and ready to give himself up to be the power he claims to be, a no-holds-barred version of the most powerful magician on the planet. It's the idea that Dumbledore would have dwarfed Voldemort if he had been willing to use the Dark Arts. It's been a real journey, mostly in tiny little snippets, for Strange to get to this point in the book and it's coming across wonderfully now. It's also a fundamental change for a character with a rich history and with a potentially richer future (there's plenty of talk of a Dr. Strange movie in Marvel Studios' Phase Three). Should be real interesting.

Mighty Avengers 6
Ewing (w) and Schiti (a) and D'Armata (c)

Luke and Jessica are swapping apartments with Dave Griffith, operator of the Gem Theater, so that Dave gets to live in the Gem, which he loves, and Luke and Jessica and Danielle have a home removed from the action that the Mighty Avengers hotline will bring to the Gem. Helping with the move are Blue Marvel, Iron Fist, and White Tiger. Blue Marvel gets along amicably with everyone, though none of them are too familiar with one another, until he and Luke begin to argue about their pasts, with Blue Marvel holding Cage's criminal past against him and Cage holding Blue Marvel accountable for retiring and hiding instead of providing a seemingly all-powerful role model for African-Americans. It's a good argument and one that, particularly from Luke's vantage point, holds water. Across town, Spectrum and She-Hulk work with Power Man to increase his strength, learning that if he studies and feels a connection with the spot he's in (they test this on Liberty Island) he is able to draw more chi from the spot and therefore is more powerful. Elsewhere, Falcon uses his bird connections to follow a far-right nutjob responsible for burning down a bookstore that he claimed promoted Marxism and who Falcon suspects is working with Gideon Mace, former Cage villain and, more recently, murderer of practically the entire family of the current White Tiger (including the past White Tiger).

There's a good amount happening here despite the lack of immediate action and I'm happy to say that this one is, for my money, easily the best issue of MIGHTY AVENGERS thus far. We're starting to get a better look at the personalities of our individual team members and understand a little where each one is coming from. Cage makes a nice speech (that could easily have gone a little far into preachy but managed to avoid that line) about his visibility (though he fails to mention that he spent the better part of his career doing it to make money, it still hits the mark exactly where it needs to) and how meaningful it would have been to know that there was someone out there for decades even before him who was a shining, unbeatable force and who happened to be black. We see a little of Ava's personality as we can pretty easily see her dedication to being a hero (which we've gotten little tastes of already) and the guilt and hurt that remains over the deaths of her family members and, as referenced in the issue, even the kidnapping and deaths of plenty of her Avengers Academy friends during the events of AVENGERS ARENA. We get Monica as a teacher, Power Man as a reluctant student (not the first time he's been there, am I right Iron Fist?), and Falcon as a total pro at his job. For as much character work as I liked in the book, the bit that was maybe coolest for me, as a big ol' Falcon fan, was seeing Sam so perfectly use his advantage and come off almost as a Batman-esque character (though less angsty and less murdered-parentsy). Some very cool stuff in here, hope this tone continues and I also wouldn't mind seeing a bit more Iron Fist, if he's going to be around longer than just as a babysitter (though I also wouldn't mind seeing that).

Avengers AI 9
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

Pym, Doombot, Vision, Captain America, and Rogue (pre-UNCANNY AVENGERS 14, as evidenced by the fact that she's not a charred corpse) have been pulled into the Diamond to fight Dimitrios' troops. They have to adjust to the inner workings of the Diamond where they're only limited by what they can imagine. Victor and new friend Gibson are elsewhere in the Diamond, being interrogated by anti-Dimitrios AI but manage to convince them that the Avengers, just arrived, are there to help and to fight Dimitrios so they reluctantly go to help and, with their powers combined, manage to defeat the horde of Dimitrios' troops. Vision and one of the other AIs work together to try to find the source of Gascheck, the app that's driving the world insane, but have to swear to the anti-Dimitrios group that the Avengers will help them in their fight against Dimitrios before they are able to get a lock on the app. Meanwhile, Alexis meets with her first-six sister, the gardener Eton, in the hopes of unlocking her memories further. Back on the surface, Maria Hill has given Monica Chang and new partner Jocasta their first mission and Jocasta introduces Chang to the rest of the team, a handful of varied-ability Jocastas.

This is a tricky series because it's hard to pinpoint exactly what isn't working about it for me. When I pull back and examine the story as a whole (little Inside Baseball here: I've been thinking of changing up the format of these reviews to break down the various elements a little better and to focus what I talk about with each book to make it a little more standardized, but that's unrelated to what I'm saying oh god why did I start talking about this?) it works as a fairly interesting story. I don't think it's the best out there or the most revolutionary out there but it's certainly one that's capable of holding my interest. However, when I actually read the issues, something gets lost in the translation (or the step before the translation. In this case, it rather feels like the translation is the better part). I don't even think Humphries' writing is bad, per se, I think it just kind of gets in its own way a bit. It feels like there's a lot of dialogue there that must be unnecessary as you kind of keep losing the thread of what's happening. Until you pull back and think about the story by itself, it's very easy to miss the forest for the trees. That puts this whole series into some weird in-between space where I want to like it and want to ignore it ALL AT THE SAME TIME. There have been issues, too, that felt a little less bogged down and therefore read a bit better. Come to think of it, I think I mostly felt similarly (though I couldn't express it as well) about Humphries' UNCANNY X-FORCE. There was something there and also something missing.

More Ant-Man movie details

So this is a new bit. I don't actually know if I talked about it when it started to come up last month but Paul Rudd is confirmed as Edgar Wright's Ant-Man in the 2015 Marvel movie Ant-Man. This still left Marvel fans wondering which Ant-Man Rudd would be playing, as there were three options for the role (but really two major options, no one was really banking on it being Eric O'Grady). Well it seems as if Marvel and Wright are ready to close the doors on those questions as they've just cast Hollywood legend Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, leaving Rudd in the Scott Lang role. The way Lang has worked in the past, for those unfamiliar, is that he becomes Ant-Man after stealing Pym's suit to use it to try to save his daughter Cassie who has a lung condition and requires expensive treatment. Eventually it gets sorted and Pym gives Lang his blessing to become Ant-Man full time, leading to Lang's affiliation with the Fantastic Four (as seen most recently in the current FF series) and to membership on the Avengers. To give away a little too much, probably, he's killed in the AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED storyline that would lead to the major HOUSE OF M business when Scarlet Witch goes a little crazy and ends up accidentally killing members of the Avengers including Lang. He's brought back in the events of 2011's YOUNG AVENGERS: CHILDREN'S CRUSADE when...okay, maybe I'm getting a little too deep into something that does not matter considering this post was originally just about casting news and its implications. Let's get to that then.

So obviously the biggest news of this whole announcement is that Michael Douglas, who will be 70 this year, seems to age Hank Pym out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, like or dislike Pym, it's hard to argue that he's an important character in the Marvel Universe. In the comics, he's a founding Avenger, he invented Pym particles, and he created Ultron, among other things (probably too bad for him that he's pretty well-known for striking his wife on a particularly bad occasion). He's also not 70 years old in the comics. This changes a lot of what people (me) may have been predicting about the movie. It's almost weirder that they're leaving Pym in but making him 70 than it is to just make it Lang and kind of combine the two characters. I suppose this is a way to keep Pym in the MCU but to de-complicate things a bit instead of having two potential Ant-Mans running around. There are also some other rumors floating around after Edgar Wright posted posted a screencap from Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes on his website which showed a character grabbing for the Ant-Man mask. The episode the shot was taken from is entitled "To Steal an Ant-Man" and features Lang's first appearance on the show, wherein he steals the Ant-Man costume, which caused plenty of people to think a week ago that Rudd would play Lang and not Pym. However, sources like Hollywood Reporter speculated it might mean more than that, as that particular episode also invoked, for the first time in that series, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. I waved that off at first as maybe reaching a little far, even after the article went on to link the whole thing to Iron Fist and Luke Cage's upcoming Netflix series, but I'm not as convinced now. First and foremost: can Ant-Man sustain his own movie? Second: Avengers: EMH was very clearly a sort of testing ground for future MCU concepts so it's not entirely farfetched. Third: Lang, in the comics, had a relationship with Jessica Jones for a time, also slated to get her own Netflix series, which could potentially tie everything together pretty nicely. OKAY, maybe I'm getting a little farfetched now, but maybe-OH MAN, EDGAR WRIGHT DIRECTING A MOVIE WITH IRON FIST IN IT WOULD BE THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED.