Original Sin 6, Original Sin 3.2 - Hulk vs. Iron Man

Original Sin 6
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

Nick still won't confess or deny the murder of the Watcher but he admits that he called all of them there (aside from Rocket, who turned up on Moon Knight's and Gamora's behalf) in the hopes that at least one of them would want to take up his mantle, that these are the people most able to do his job. Fury Prime, who also reveals that the Infinity Formula keeping him young is now gone and he's aging rapidly as a result, returns to his work and begins interrogating the Orb on how to make the eyes talk. The team he left behind fight the other Furys in the hope that they'd get to the other Fury just as the Avengers also arrive only to find Nick waiting for them in a battle suit.

Look, who killed the Watcher? I don't want to say that there wasn't interesting stuff in here because I think there still was but I've often chided events for lasting too long and I think this event is suffering from that in this very issue. Aaron does a solid job keeping the pace of this issue moving but you're not in an event to see the rest issues or to reset for a minute. You're in an event because something huge is happening. Nothing huge happened in this issue. It felt like a recap of the last one and a prep for the next one, which will be the penultimate issue. Not a lot more I can say about it. AND YET, this review took SO LONG TO WRITE. I'm a little out of it, you guys. Long day. ANYWAY, don't let that cloud your judgment of my Total Score.

Total Score: 2/5


Original Sin 3.2 - Hulk vs. Iron Man
Gillen and Waid (s) and Gillen (w) and L. Ross (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

Tony buys an unsuccessful motel nearby to where the original gamma bomb went off, trying to remember what happened there back when he and Banner once yelled at one another there, as Banner goes to Arno to work on a tweak for Extremis. Tony remembers back to a time with Thunderbolt Ross wherein he was officially paid to help Banner, back to the fight the two geniuses had, and back to his decision to knowingly sabotage the bomb. Meanwhile, Banner's tweak worked and he's off and running.

I liked this issue a good deal more than the first for a couple reasons: first and foremost, it's an actual addition to the story as opposed to just kicking things off with information solicits and interviews told us (again, not Waid nor Gillen's fault there, but still made for a more boring read). Second, though, I really do appreciate that Tony very clearly is the villain here. We all know that Tony was a war profiteer and an arms dealer and, you know, still rather Tony but drunker and less ethical. To then have Gillen make Tony completely at fault for what's happening, a pretty major "completely at fault," is pretty gutsy, particularly where this is still a well-liked "hero" character. Strong move. Still some slowness to the plot as we build to the climax (there was some good new information and information that colored the story a bit more, but by and large, it didn't give much new).

Total Score: 4/5

Iron Man 26, Iron Patriot 3

Iron Man 26

Gillen (w) and Bennett and Ross (p) and Hanna and Ross (i) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

Malekith, unable to defend himself from the other six rings and their wearers, makes a deal with Tony: he'll give the ring up if Tony will get him out of the area safely. Tony is wary but agrees, preferring, as Malekith puts it, to win than to take revenge. Tony returns to Earth with the rings intact and hides them away in his encasement. something is happening with the Bride (from way back in the Extremis storyline) and it may just be tied to the fact that Tony has discovered that Arno is trying to perfect Extremis. It's a problem Tony will have to deal with later, though, as four rings has brought them closer to their own goals, which seem to be constructing a ring of their own.

The book is appropriately dark, both in tone and in art/color, for the sorts of shady goings-on that are happening here. Between Iron Man making a deal with Malekith to protect him from the ring-bearers and Iron Man discovering who some of the other ring-bearers are and Arno trying to work the kinks out of the extremely dangerous Extremis and the two of them concocting something to do with the rings, there are a lot of threads here and exactly none of them guarantee any sort of a happy ending. There are outcomes, potentially, that may be less terrible than others available, but many of the possible outcomes are very worrying for Iron Man and it's impossible not to recognize that to some extent in this story. Well done overall.

Total Score: 4/5

Iron Patriot 3

Kot (w) and G. Brown (a) and Charalampidis (c) and Cowles (l)

Rhodes nearly dies from his time underwater but his mysterious savior/possible attacker revives him with a jolt of electricity as a homemade defibrillator. Rhodes attacks him but is forced to stop when the armored man threatens James' father and Lila. Meanwhile, James' father throws himself at the kidnappers, who seem to have some personal issue with him, allowing Lila a chance to run. Back with the masked man, a former agent of SHIELD, James learns that the man has kidnapped him in the hopes that he'll assassinate the former president for him, throwing the country into a civil war over how soldiers are used.

It's a compelling enough story and, I'd say, the most compelling aspect of it is how fast each issue reads. I try not to compare a writer's work to his other work (I do this unsuccessfully OFTEN) but it's hard to separate that I haven't really liked Kot's work with Marvel to this point, mostly because I think it's trying too hard to hit too many points and it ends up slowing an issue down or needlessly complicating things. Here, Kot has an interesting story and seemingly complicated moral decision for our protagonist to make and he's keeping the exposition and the dialogue to a minimum, letting both the art breathe and the story to stand on its own. Each of these issues has read quickly but not because they're uninteresting or poorly written or anything along those lines. They're gripping and compelling and Garry Brown's art and Jim Charalampidis' colors work extremely well with the tone and the content.

Total Score: 5/5

Gillen leaving IRON MAN, Waid leaving HULK

Gillen from his fantastic blog post today
on how to pre-order a comic at your LCS

News has broken on a couple of fronts in the last few days as the August solicits have come out. Chief among it has been the odd disappearance of IRON MAN among those solicits (as well as THOR: GOD OF THUNDER - as yet, I've heard nothing on that one). Kieron Gillen (seen at left) confirmed today that he is indeed leaving the book after ORIGINAL SIN. According to Gillen, he's been offered a major opportunity at Marvel (very exciting) and he needed to make room somewhere. He realized that ORIGINAL SIN would be a pretty perfect spot to leave IRON MAN and pulled the trigger, making his total issue count (including the Annual) 31, the same count he left UNCANNY X-MEN and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY after. Guess we can't ask for more than that. Extremely sad to lose him on IRON MAN after a very impressive run but thrilled to hear about his new opportunity and to see that Marvel continues to recognize his strong work and reward it with greater opportunities. I've seen no news yet as to whether IRON MAN will restart or who will take it over.

In the same vein, veteran Marvel writer Mark Waid has announced that he is leaving HULK after ORIGINAL SIN (conveniently, he and Gillen will work together on the OS tie-in series ORIGINAL SIN: HULK VS IRON MAN) and that writer Gerry Duggan (already writing NOVA and co-writing DEADPOOL with Brian Posehn) will be taking over on that book. As seen below, Waid assures his fans that there's no bad blood, that Duggan will be great, and that he simply wanted to get further ahead on his other projects, which is a lot to say in fewer than 140 characters.

.@GerryDuggan will do a spectacular job on HULK. Zero bad blood--I just want to get further ahead on Daredevil and http://t.co/vOHwbZDFMi!
— Mark Waid (@MarkWaid) May 21, 2014

Also worth noting, though it's not Marvel related so I'm hiding it here, at the bottom of this post, that Si Spurrier has announced that he's doing a book with Alan Moore and I think that's pretty neat.

Iron Man 25, Captain America 20, Captain Marvel 3

Iron Man 25
Gillen (w) and Ross (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

Tony Stark is not happy. However, he's now not happy and also armed in actual iron, ready to tear through some dark elves. Though the elves put on quite a tough front, Tony slaughters them pretty ably. He manages to take back the Lightning ring (he's already taken Incandescence) and then gets to Malekith himself, eventually besting him and taking back the Remaker ring. Malekith flees but Tony isn't satisfied, following him back to his throne. However, there are surprises for everyone when the other Mandarins are revealed, all united to teach Mandarin a thing or two (they are Alec Eiffel, Thomas Wilkins, Colin Anderson Sixty, Unknown [he wields the liar ring], Victor Kohl, and, of course, Mole Man).

Story
Tony wastes no time in taking it to Malekith in a book that really shows off the sort of power that an enraged Tony Stark can have. Of course, Gillen's setting us up for the bigger fight, wherein Tony fights a more organized and more dangerous and less weak-to-iron force, so it's great to see him so strong in this issue, beating up pretty much every dark elf in the realm and taking back three of the four rings Mandarin has (Mandarin reclaims the Spectral ring when he returns to his throne but it needs full recharge time, don't think that we've seen the last of it). And now, perhaps most impressively, all the rings are in the same place for what promises to be an impressive final fight. 5/5

Character
The biggest character stuff comes out of Tony's anger and out of Shevaun's frustration with him as she tries to advise him at every turn to find his way back home and he declines at every turn. There's character in all of that and character in the way Tony fights and the fight intelligence he has even when he's been driven to anger (typically when strong characters are prone to mistakes). It's also a bit of a strange character issue for Malekith, who gets thoroughly beaten but turns to fear a little faster than I'd've expected (unless, of course, this is some weird situation where Malekith wanted to lure the other rings here in which case his plan is tenuous). 4/5

Writing
Gillen clearly relishes writing the dark elves, with their menacing and old-timey threats and their disregard for human emotion. The tone of the book works pretty well as it never really feels, once the fighting starts, like Tony's not in control. He very much dominates the fight, which is, I think, exactly what Gillen needs right now. Still, some of the writing feels a little cut down, which I think is partly done for humor (the abruptness of cutting down some of the Svatalfheimian dialogue) but some of it still comes off as choppy. 4/5

Art
Luke Ross continues to do impressive work with the art here and Guru's colors continue to really shape the tone and the feel of the book. Ross draws excellent people and elves and still manages to make a menacing Iron Man, which is always an impressive thing. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Another Del Mundo cover as Marvel clearly understands what they have in him.

Total Score: 4/5


Captain America 20
Remender (w) and Klein (a) and White (c) and Caramagna (l)

Cap's been mindbubbled and BOY is it depressing. He "wakes up" (guys, I could put quotation marks throughout this whole section and frankly, I'm not above doing that, but I WON'T) in a SHIELD hospital wondering whether or not his ongoing fight is worth it only to find his "family" all around him. This includes Fury and Hill but also Bucky, Falcon, and Jet. Banner and Pym also enter the room to say they went to Dimension Z to make sure there was nothing else that could trigger the virus in Cap and found instead that Ian alive and well and brought him out and that the Sharon who died had been an LMD while the real one went deep undercover. As a parade for Cap rages outside, Cap realizes what's happening and throws himself off the balcony, waking him from the Mindbubble (this was the suicide Jet told him he needed to break out) and putting him directly up against Iron Nail and Mindbubble himself. As Jet arrives and begins to fight Iron Nail,  bounces his shield into Mindbubble's dumb, jerk face and makes him freak out, sprinting off the helicarrier and presumably to his death. However, Steve soon learns he may be too late as Nail reveals that he's pinned the attack on SHIELD on Nrosvekistan and that now the world will watch in horror as SHIELD retaliates with the transformer-like Gungnir, a huge overreaction to any perceived attacks. The world will see SHIELD as the overstepping, incredibly dangerous and unregulated army it is.

Story
Guys, I'm not sure I can do this justice. Poor Steve has the absolute worst life. It's super depressing and you know it's happening the whole time and you can only watch as poor Steve slowly figures it out. Iron Nail's plan is an intriguing one as it involves just doing what SHIELD is already so good at doing: overreacting. Iron Nail continues to be an interesting villain as he more or less raises a lot of questions that Steve himself has had over the years but does it in such a way that obviously Steve can't help but fight him. It's a really compelling story and one that perfectly works to Captain America. 5/5

Character
Poor Steve. 5/5

Writing
I'm not sure why Remender enjoys being so mean to Captain America but it's pretty effective. As I said, everyone reading should know that Cap's in his mindbubble but that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking. I got a little nervous that maybe Remender would spend the whole time in the mindbubble and nothing else would happen in the issue until the last second reveal that he was there but Remender gave the audience the benefit of the doubt and let us get right back into the story after what seemed like the perfect amount of time. 5/5

Art
Really strong art from Nic Klein here and Dean White's colors are perfect, really relaxing in the mindbubble and then jarringly dark back on the Gungnir. Klein's art really highlights just how sad Steve is. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I DON'T LIKE SEEING STEVE SO SAD, OKAY? That sentiment, though, may perhaps be interpreted differently considering the overall score of this one.

Total Score: 5/5


Captain Marvel 3
DeConnick (w) and D. Lopez (a) and Loughridge (c) and Caramagna (l)

Tic has stolen Captain Marvel's ship (and her cat along with it) and Carol is now worried about where she'll go with it, concerned both for Tic's safety and for her ship's (and her cat's, inexplicably). Fortunately for her, Tic is really concerned with attacking the son of J-Son, so she comes right on back, dropping in and out of hyperdrive (which shows pretty good strategy) and attacking quickly. Carol's pretty sick of it though and stops her as she attacks one of the times. She gets back into the ship, using her helmet to override the ship's commands and let her back in. She and Star-Lord convince Tic that J-Son wouldn't care about the capture of his son and that, likely, the Spartax didn't try to poison her new home planet. Carol returns her to her people and offers her assistance, though quickly realizes that maybe she's out of her depth a bit.

Story
Carol's out in space and, though I worried last issue about her involvement with the Guardians of the Galaxy because I feared it would take the focus too much off of the amazing work DeConnick has done to establish Carol as a great character (particularly now that she's lost her memories), it's shaping up to be a fairly personal story. Obviously we'll get more of Tic and her people but there's a lot happening to let us see more about Carol. She's offered herself to Tic's people in the hopes that she'll be able to assist them but has quickly learned that she's a bit out of her element which will help to establish who she is and how she deals with the sorts of problems she can't punch away. 5/5

Character
Carol's concern for Tic, the girl she hadn't even spoken to until she stole her ship, says a lot about her character, as does her willingness to throw herself into a ship that keeps going in and out of hyperdrive to get her ship back and to help the girl. She also very quickly realizes that the leader of Tic's people sees her as more a hindrance than a help but she's determined to prove her worth and save these people, no matter what it takes. It's about proving worth but it's also very clearly just about wanting to help and that speaks volumes. 5/5

Writing
I think the move to get Carol away from the Guardians, despite the good fit for the team and for her, is a strong move for DeConnick and one she knew she had to make, just as Gillen knew he had to separate Tony from the Guardians in IRON MAN when they teamed up. There's a lot happening in this book and we're getting a sense of some interstellar politics and alien cultures but it never feels overwhelming, which is definitely to the book's credit. 5/5

Art
I still really like David Lopez's art on the interiors of this book and I think that it's particularly well-suited to the kind of calm in this issue after the initial action (the action was pretty strong too but he does emotions and stillness really well too, which is impressive for a comic book artist who knows he'll have to draw so much action. 5/5

Miscellaneous
After really disliking the last cover, I really love this one. What a turnaround!

Total Score: 5/5

Comics this week

Hey there everybody, pretty standard release week this week as, by my possibly inaccurate count, fifteen new titles will be released. Let's get right into it.

Avengers Undercover 4
I think this series is headed for some interesting places considering the sorts of things Hopeless is setting up and the sorts of things he already did in AVENGERS ARENA. It's been exciting so far to come back to that little corner of the world with the memories of it not so faded and to see where our characters are primed to go next.

Captain Marvel 3
The new start to this series has given some opportunity for some really intriguing changes and to explore a whole different side of Carol (not to mention for her to explore a whole different side as she continues to work around her lost memories). I don't think the series has been at its strongest yet but we all know what it's capable of.

Iron Man 25
I've liked what Gillen has done on IRON MAN over the past two years and I think this Mandarin's rings storyline that has pitted him against Malekith, of all characters, is intriguing in its own right, let alone all of the surrounding story. I also feel I maybe haven't shined enough of a spotlight on this one for being just a really interesting and often fun book for a solid 24 issues. Also, I didn't want to pick AVENGERS because it's 4.99 this week and I'm getting more and more critical of that as it keeps happening.

New Avengers 18
The Illuminati, likely moving very soon into an ORIGINAL SIN tie-in, is currently set to face an incursion-defeating world as two teams with solid incursion records square off for the first time in this book. See, who says that sports and comics can't be simpatico?

X-Force 5
After last issue's crazy narrative and the whole series' real dedication to developing its extremely interesting characters, everyone should be interested to see where X-FORCE plans to go next. There's nothing stronger than a book where we have such a personal view of the characters yet don't know the story nor the actual decisions a character might make. We have a good sense of who these guys are and what they think about and what this team means to them (some more than others at this point) but that certainly doesn't mean we know what they're capable of. Really excited about this book.

Savage Wolverine 16, Origin II 4

Savage Wolverine 16
Isanove (w and a)

Wolverine and Sofia have been locked up and, despite his protestations, won't be released until he can see a judge the next day for claims of disturbing the peace. The peace in the station doesn't last long either, though, as Marion, Pierre, and their hired guns come to the prison to finish off Wolverine and get their girl back. They've been tipped off by one of the officers that Wolverine is being kept there and promised that they'll be able to take him but the chief refuses, saying that's not how things are done. Quickly the situation comes to all guns drawn and gets more hectic when Peter, who has been following Wolverine and Sofia, enters with a machine gun he took out of the back of the gangsters' car. After some tense stand-offs, the guns start going off and the body count ends up rather steep as every cop ends up dead, Wolverine ends up pretty shot up (though ultimately okay), the gangsters we don't really know end up dead, and Peter ends up fatally wounded. Wolverine manages to get Sofia out as Pierre and Marion tend to their own wounds before taking the very near-dead (Wolverine thought he was dead and wasn't able to carry his body as well) Peter with them. Wolverine and Sofia return to the place where Elias' other kids are laying low and finds that things have only gotten worse as Vicky has finally succumbed to her sickness.

It's the very definition of things going from bad to worse for Wolverine here as the kids he was tasked with taking care of begin to drop like flies, most of them in front of him. Isanove has done an excellent job showing one of those stories that you know has probably happened in Wolverine's dark past but that you never really want to think about. There have been plenty of stories about Wolverine's past and just how they've shaped the dark and brooding man today but you occasionally need ones like this to show just how dark it could get. Isanove has come at this with exactly the right eye for the time period and the drama, not to mention a pretty solid take on Wolverine, who has taken almost a backseat to everything else that's happened lately as we've focused on villains Marion and Pierre and even on Peter more than Wolverine over the last couple issues. Still, a good writer can absolutely pull off a Wolverine-in-the-background sort of Wolverine story because he's the type of character who isn't going to push and shove his way into the foreground. More contemplative and more quiet than most, Wolverine can absolutely be a vehicle for action and let the story take place around him when he's handled well. It's pretty good stuff here and it's accompanied by really appropriate art (probably helps when the artist you're trying to communicate with is yourself) and a perfect tone for the book.

Origin II 4
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin (c)

Clara, Creed, and Logan have been on the run for a month now, moving frequently as Logan continues to have trouble with trust and every day human interactions. He lashes out and attacks when startled and word of who he is has spread, meaning they can't exactly stick around after he reveals himself. Though Clara still sympathizes with Logan and though he's actually begun talking with them now about himself and his past, Creed can't help wondering if maybe he would have been better off with Sinister's experiments. Clara shoos him away after he says it and that night, Clara and Logan talk more and eventually, of course, fall into bed together. Creed sees them from a rooftop across the street (little creepy) but looks on. The pair are woken up as Sinister's men have found them and barge into the room. Logan refuses to be taken and goes berserk as they try to bring him down. In the middle of the fight, he turns and accidentally stabs Clara through the chest. She tells him it's okay, hoping he'll calm down, before she falls to the ground. As the memories of those he's loved and hurt flood through him, he sees red, seemingly giving in to the berserker. When he comes to, he's covered in blood and standing over the bodies of all of Sinister's men and Clara. Creed bursts in and falls on the floor beside Clara. He tells Logan they need to get revenge and, as Logan tells Creed that he loved her, Creed reveals that Clara is his sister. With Logan and Creed out of the apartment, Clara's good eye opens.

More action and a good look at Wolverine's emotions carry this issue as Gillen delves deeper into who Logan is at this moment in time. He remembers what he's done to his mother and his other loved ones and he remembers what happened with the wolves and the polar bear and what Essex has pulled him away from by trying to capture him. He has clearly gained some humanity back with the help of Clara and maybe even with Creed but now that he's killed someone else he loves (this is Wolverine after all, he's certainly not done doing that) it's a matter of where he goes next. One of the most stunning things about this series has been the way the art and the colors and the layout of the pages have all worked so brilliantly together. After a relatively standard format to start this issue off as Logan and Clara work on bringing back his humanity and showing off their love for one another, the issue's action changes up the format of the book, with more chaotic panels and tight camera shots before we get a wide panel of Logan stabbing Clara followed by a series of quick bursts while all of Wolverine's most painful memories sear through him. After that is an entirely red page as Wolverine goes berserk followed by another large panel of a bloody and shocked Logan before the book returns to a more standard format when Creed returns. It's a wonderful layout and it's expert comic presentation as Gillen, Kubert, and Martin direct you through the comic to make you feel as much as possible for the book and to make sure you're torn out of the comfort the beginning of the book provided just as Logan is torn out of the safety and comfort he'd been finally starting to find.




HEY EVERYONE, this is my 616th post on the blog and THAT FEELS IMPORTANT, given the universe designation of the main Marvel Universe! To celebrate, I, uh, have nothing planned. So, sorry, this kind of snuck up on me so I guess I'll just go the normal route of saying thank you so much to anyone who's ever checked in on this blog. You're all aces.

Wolverine and the X-Men 40, Origin II 2, Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3

Wolverine and the X-Men 40
Aaron (w) and Larraz (a) and Milla (c)

The kids of the Jean Grey School (well, the kids we always see, anyway, sorry Young X-Men) have figured out that Joseph and Josephine are not quite on the level and, though they're disappointed that they couldn't sway them to be cool about everything (particularly saddened by Joseph, who seemed to actually be taking to the school), they resolve to show them everything by having them take a tour with the bamfs. The bamfs jump them from dangerous spot to dangerous spot to dangerous spot in the school and eventually the pair return, shaken and more uptight. The students are still ready to fight if need be but Joseph finally makes his decision and uses his guns to stun his sister. They resolve to have Quentin put new memories into the pair of them, making them forget this whole thing, and to go report back to Dazzler with no real information. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Cyclops have finally finished fighting all of the Sentinels at the mostly abandoned SHIELD base and they search around for first aid. Wolverine is satisfied when they come across the beer supply and the two of them sit and drink beers and talk about things. Cyclops prods Wolverine to figure out why exactly he (and everyone else) hates him so much and Wolverine reveals that it's largely driven by the fact that they shouldn't be hating him. They don't want Cyclops to be the image of the militant mutant or the mutant that people need to be scared of. That should be Wolverine's job. The two don't necessarily bury the hatchet but it's one of the best interactions they've had together since SCHISM and they leave amicably enough.

Not a bad issue. I didn't really need the Joseph/Josephine storyline at all, let alone for as long as it took. I think that storyline will perhaps mean a little more after the next couple of issues drop, with Jason Aaron ending his 40+ issue run on the title with issue 42. If this was his way of mostly saying goodbye to the kids and the school, I think it works fine. If he goes on to do another big goodbye to them all or something, I'm not sure how necessary it is. It's certainly readable but it does carry on a bit past when you get the point and know how things are going to shape up. The Wolverine and Cyclops bit, though, is very well done and hints at the sort of thing that's been happening a little more recently, building on the last issue of X-MEN LEGACY which saw the two fight side by side and even on the ongoing A+X storyline which finds Cap more willing to work with Cyclops than when the story started. It's a nice conversation between the two and it's pretty real. It's also the second book this week (coming in after MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN) that posits that Wolverine is allowed to kill and be the dangerous one because he knows who he is. Weird moral, you guys.

Origin II 2
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin (c)

There's been rumor of a polar bear who wandered too far south into Canada and killed a wolf pack before being murdered by some other unknown creature, like a wildcat but as big and strong as a man. There are two entities that have heard about the strange happenings, Dr. Nathaniel Essex, to whom the bear belonged, and, thanks to one of Essex's blabbermouth trackers (no longer employed/alive), an independent businessman named Hugo and his trackers Clara, good with animals, and Victor Creed, ace tracker. As the two units set out on their own ways, Essex's Marauders run into Wolverine after a gas-based attack draws him out of the woods. He attacks Essex's men but leaves as quickly as he came. After that, Creed tracks him down to an undergrowth and helps capture him for Hugo, to the chagrin of Clara. Hugo, of course, then quickly puts him center-stage in his circus.

I still like this story, its presentation, its characters, and the art of the book. I will say that I have a feeling that ORIGIN II, even as a concept, is a little flawed in a world where we suddenly know SO MUCH about Wolverine and his history. Sure he's lived for over a hundred years at this point so there's plenty out there we still don't know but we now know more than we did. ORIGIN, the first book in this story, came out in 2001 and a lot has changed in a little over a decade for the character. On top of Wolverine's actual memories being restored, the Marvel market has been absolutely saturated with Wolverine in the last several years. He's starred in an untold number of comic books, he's been in a score of major motion pictures, and we've delved pretty deep into his past in every medium in which he's appeared. That doesn't make ORIGIN II a bad book or a bad story or not worth reading, it just means that it almost can't feel necessary. I will say, masterstroke by Marvel in putting Kieron Gillen on this book. Gillen's a guy who, just in the last couple of years, rewrote Loki, one of Marvel's earliest full-fledged villains, into a totally new character and managed to give Iron Man, founding Avenger and star of his own set of major motion pictures, an almost entirely different backstory that somehow still perfectly fits with his history. If anyone can make this meaningful, I trust that Gillen can. Worth sticking with it if just for that, particularly as the price of this one dropped to a more reasonable 3.99.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3
Fialkov (w) and A. Martinez, J. Lucas, and R. Fernandez (a) and Bellaire (c)

Rogue powers herself up with everybody's power set (except Beak, turns out she didn't need any of that) and amps THAT up with Amp's power set. She vows that no one else will die and charges headfirst into the swarm. She goes a little crazy up there but manages to do a solid amount of damage to Gah Lak Tus. Unfortunately, she's too late to safe Pixie, who is dying pretty quickly on the ground. The X-Men have to pull her back down and out of her rage so that she can take Pixie's powers and get them all home but getting her out of her rage is a little harder than they bargained for. Rick Jones leaps into action and helps fight alongside Rogue but, more importantly, relates to her about his recent past and everything he's learned from it and who he's chosen to be as a result. The talk (and the fact that he can touch and kiss her without dying thanks to his cosmic powers) inspires her to come back down but she refuses to take Pixie's power since the energy she'll take will certainly kill her. Pixie wants it done, though, as she's dying either way and wants the others to live so she touches Rogue's face and dies peacefully. Rogue prepares to make the jump but, to her continued disappointment, Rick stays behind to give them a chance to go without the swarm. He swears he'll make it out and, I have to say, we have no reason not to believe him. They arrive back home and see that Galactus is still out there and Rogue rallies them to fight him no matter the cost.

It's a nice little story and a fitting finish for the Ultimate X-Men as Rogue has to overcome her issues and understand who she is before she can save the world. The pacing is good as each beat seems pretty necessary, either for plot or for characterization (there's even a nice little moment between Beak and Pixie as Beak helps to care for her while she slips away), and the action moves particularly well. There was maybe a little too much happening in this issue to drop focus on too many of the people there but I don't think it hurts the book in any way. You don't need to know what Guido's doing if Rogue and Rick Jones are fighting against time to destroy the Gah Lak Tus swarm and only have twenty pages to do it. In fact, you never really think about the characters on the ground not integral to what's happening through all of the action, which seems like a pretty good misdirect for Fialkov to pull off. That guy knows how to handle a script and how to handle action. Marvel took a risk putting this event pretty much into the hands of someone who hadn't worked a ton on their books before but I think it's really paid off and turned into a nice and pretty well-structured event, though there might be one too many books out there because it's starting to feel like it's dragging a bit. Fortunately, that doesn't really bite the X-Men because their story is so different from everyone else's. Good work all around.

Black Widow 1, Iron Man 20

Black Widow 1
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a and c)

Black Widow kicks off her new solo book with a couple of quick missions and a sense of how the book is going to play out. We join her in the middle of a mission as she convinces a possible suicide bomber with a gun who is hiding out in a hotel room, ready to detonate if it comes to that, that she is working on his side and that she was hired by his employers to get him out of the tight spot. She relaxes him with a bit of a backstory and a shared heritage (the bomber is also Russian). When he inevitably opens the door to her, she cuts the detonation wire and takes the gun from him before strapping him up to a rope to rappel him down the building with and pushes him out the window to the cops waiting below. Twenty hours later, she's meeting in Central Park with her lawyer/manager Isaiah to get her next assignment. They talk about her reasons for taking jobs and why she's not in it for money beyond the money she needs to repay debts and live life and so on. There's a nice moment where Natasha seems to zone out and watches a woman play with her red-headed daughter and her son. Another 36 hours later and she's in Dubai trying to stop an assassination by taking out the target's bodyguards, as well as the bodyguards of the man with whom he's meeting. Once everyone is down and Natasha has breached the room, she explains the situation to him and puts a bulletproof vest on him before shoving him in front of a window. The sniper planed across the way fires at him, hitting the vest, and Natasha shoots a rocket back. Fifteen hours later back in New York, she tells a not-quite-adopted cat the story and wonders if she's too far gone to pay back her debts.

Obviously this comic is taking a lot of its cues from The Avengers and the "I've got red in my ledger" mentality of that Natasha. Not to say that she doesn't have those feelings in the comics throughout her history but it's being brought into focus here and it's hard not to feel like it's trying to match the movie. That, of course, doesn't mean it's not a compelling story to tell. The more important thing to it, though, is the way that Natasha carries and conducts herself in the midst of all of this and that's what Edmondson, already, is proving he can do. This Natasha is already proving to have everything I like about Natasha's character and, as yet, none of the weird psychotic sort of tendencies that are sometimes ascribed to her. Occasionally people will write her with a sort of psychopathic cold-blooded thing that I don't think is fair but I think comes from the idea that she has been an assassin and a mercenary and everything else. Certainly she's not entirely normalized but some writers can make that lean a little too far and make her almost bloodthirsty. That very clearly isn't Edmondson's intent and he gives her a couple of really human moments throughout the book, between watching the mother and her children and her conversation (which is simultaneously sweet and no-nonsense) with a cat and a couple of wistful stares (between this book and one of the Marvel previews books lurking around out there). Also, I'm ashamed that I've gone this far in analysis and not mentioned Phil Noto's frankly incredible art. The only thing I'd really heard about the book before I read it was that everyone was saying how great the art was. I assumed it would be very good; people's word and Phil Noto's reputation and history wouldn't lie to me. But I'm not lying when I say every person was absolutely right, the art is amazing in this book. Natasha looks stupendous and very real, the supporting characters all have real personality built in, and the set pieces are gorgeous. Great, great art. Very fun book and a great way to kick off the new series.

Iron Man 20
Gillen (w) and Bennett and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The christening of Troy has been interrupted by one of the Mandarin's rings, specifically, as Tony realizes, the Remaker. Unwilling to sit by and let it happen without her, Abby Burns (just got that, "burns") jumps in with her newfound Mandarin ring, the Incinerator (see, burns). The ring and Abby talk back and forth about ways to further destroy Stark and about how she's using the ring and so on before a ring-caused solar flare shorts out all electronics in the area (of course, not including Stark's suit, he's beyond that) and Tony has to flee to check on Arno. Arno is safe, having taken his own precautions against this sort of thing in the past, but Burns escapes and tweets a video of herself next to a space satellite. Tony vows to find her and to find the Remaker but starts to understand just what all of this means; the Mandarin's rings are loose. He and Rhodey pay a visit to SHIELD's high-security weapons vault to check on the rings and see that they're all there, but Tony quickly realizes that one of the rings, the Liar ring, is actually creating a false image of all of them; it subsequently disappears, leaving Tony and Rhodey to wonder where the rings are, who has them, how long they've been gone, and how long they've been apparently sentient. The rings, meanwhile, have decided to escalate things now that Incinerator and Remaker have shown their hand.

There's a lot going on and a lot to like in this series. The idea of the rings as sentient and dead-set on destroying Stark is certainly something that changes the playing field a bit and makes Mandarin an exciting and almost entirely new foe. There's also an undercurrent of mild suspicion around Tony that is both warranted and unwarranted. Rhodey points out that everyone's a little worried about what Tony's up to with this city and these new ideas and locking himself in his lab for weeks at a time, but Tony counters it with his usual "whenever I'm up to something new, the military worries, even though I'm pretty definitively one of the good guys." There are valid points to each argument and it's clear that this debate is one that Gillen will shine light on as we keep pressing. The art looks good and fits the issue well, particularly the action of the issue. There are some bits of the issue that I had to re-read because I started to gloss over them, particularly with Abby. She's a tricky character to read because she's suddenly so at home with this ring and so quickly adapting to possible supervillainy. She's also somewhat irritating, which doesn't help matters. Still, the good easily outweighs the bad here and it's nice to see a re-imagination of one of Iron Man's classic foes. But, you know, not like the re-imagination in Iron Man 3. Which was garbage.

Avengers 24, Origin II 1

Avengers 24
Hickman (w) and Ribic, Larroca, Deodato, and Guice (a) and White, Mounts, F. Martin, and L. Martin (c)

It's a new page for the Avengers as they celebrate their victories in INFINITY (and their total lack of deaths! Props to Hickman for not capping this event with any deaths) before being reminded that they're the Avengers and that they can't take days off because a time traveler from the year 3030 might show up at any moment to warn them of their impending doom thanks to a rogue planet on a collision course with Earth. With the help of the Iron Man derived time traveler, they build a device that allows the two worlds to exist on more or less the same plane but the message is clear; someone launched this planet at them and they likely won't just stop at that. The time traveler also gives Tony a special new weapon in private and explains that she's doing it because he's going to need help soon and that everyone he knows is going to be trying to kill him. Bum bum buuuuuum.

Pretty neat little book for the holidays. People should at this point realize that I'm a fun of the occasional hang-out issue where the team gets to unwind just a little bit, even if it's only for a handful of pages before a giant new threat emerges. I like that the team realizes the enormity of their success, even if it comes with a heavy weight still for Tony, who is still hiding his Illuminati business and for people like Steve who is never done working. There's a great contrast there between the party going on up at the top of Avengers tower and the planning Steve and Tony have going on downstairs. Tony still has the Illuminati business on his mind so he's not exactly leaping to party (despite his typical mode) and Steve probably never feels quite right at a party. One of the things that's great about a well-written Steve Rogers is that he's still sometimes fun and can be funny but, when he's not leading people into battle, he's not really a hang-out kind of guy. This issue was a nice way to change pace just a bit as the seriousness of NEW AVENGERS starts to bleed into AVENGERS as we turn the corner into All-New Marvel NOW! Technically the label for this review should have been AVENGERS 24.NOW but I've made a conscious decision to not include those point-words things. Kind of weird. It's a big year coming and many of the books on sale in January will have to do with the new Marvel branding. This isn't a bad lead-in for it.

Origin II 1
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin (c)

After the events of the first ORIGIN, we're sent back into the woods to see a still feral Wolverine living with a family of wolves as he makes his way in the natural world. There's some amount of narration from a third person omniscient narrator, someone who's able to tell us that wolves stay together as a pack not out of fear or particular survival instinct but because they want to. It also tells us that they don't typically accept others into their pack but relate that this particular pack has accepted the wolfish man in as he has spent so much time protecting and helping them that he's essentially a part of the family. There's a polar bear lurking around that Wolverine has sort of communed with and there's a lone wolf watching with a peculiar red marking on its forehead. With Wolverine out hunting one day, the polar bear finds its way to the home of his wolf family and brutally kills them all. Wolverine returns too late to help and fights the bear in a battle that kills them both. Of course, being dead doesn't stop Wolverine from getting back up and killing the lone wolf when it comes to gnaw at his carcass. The final shot of the issue shows a wounded and mourning Wolverine behind the body of the polar bear which has a metal tag on it, asserting that the bear is property of Nathaniel Essex, Mr. Sinister.

ORIGIN was a really seminal work for Wolverine fans and one that went a long way to giving a fan favorite character a true backstory. It's not often that a retconned backstory really lands with fans and is so readily adopted but ORIGIN certainly was. Why not go back to that trough to make another hit and to put a new spin on a character who, by this point, we've seen almost entirely too much of? Wolverine is one of the characters like Spider-Man who is everywhere in the Marvel Universe (interestingly, in AVENGERS 24, Cap removed both of them from the team, citing Wolverine's recently lost healing factor and Spider-Man's erratic behavior) and given the amount of minis and on-goings he's had, it feels like we know all there is to know about the character. Kieron Gillen and Adam Kubert set out to prove that wrong as they go back to the end of ORIGIN and start from there, with Gillen revisiting his own history as he pulls out Mr. Sinister, one of his biggest villains from his run on UNCANNY X-MEN. I don't think that Marvel could have chosen a more interesting writer to take a spin on Wolverine; as I said, this is now a character who we know a TON about because he's everywhere all the time. If anyone's able to find new ground, it's going to be Kieron Gillen. Adam Kubert's art in this issue (as well as Frank Martin's colors) is amazing and particularly haunting in the full page panel of the bear with the dead wolves around him. The writing is somewhat minimal in this issue but the story is very clearly there and our character is very clearly established. The art does the rest of the work and Gillen again does a great job knowing when to tell and when to show. The book is a bit longer than a standard book (reaching about 30 pages) which may justify (kind of) the five dollar price point but, in truth, it's probably because they know it has the ability to be a real hit. Is it worth the money? Yeah, probably. Really gorgeous book with some A+ characterization to kick our story off.

Comics this week!

Easiest. Pre-game. Ever.

Avengers 24
The first AVENGERS issue post-INFINITY. This is our lead-in book to All-New Marvel NOW, the newest rebranding and something I've already had to write out too many times. As I said a couple weeks ago when I mistakenly put this on my pre-game, it's a big issue anyway but it's particularly big (as in large) when purchased with the Daniel Acuña foldout AVENGERS 50th Anniversary poster. Look for that one, you guys.

Origin II
You know how when people talk about great Wolverine stories, they always bring up ORIGIN? Well now's your chance to jump onboard with another possible legendary mini-series as Kieron Gillen and Adam Kubert join forces to tell the tale of Wolverine set after ORIGIN, with Wolverine still living his days in the wild. I'm sure this series is going to be a fun ride and something with extra meaning and I'm really interested to see how Gillen works on this, a story set in the past of the Marvel Universe and which is a set five issues, meaning he has to really speed up his more novel-like storytelling. I'm heartily recommending this book as I will with just about anything Kieron Gillen touches these days, but I will add a caveat: Marvel apparently is aware of how big the first ORIGIN was so the price on this mini is 4.99 an issue. Kind of pricey for what seems to be a normal sized issue. I'll confirm that at some point.

THAT'S IT! Just two books out from Marvel this week so neither of them have to fight for top spot on pre-game or on post-game (spoilers). Truth told, though, I can't envision even the most hectic week going by without me suggesting these two books anyway. If you have the ability, get out today (comic shops should have these books out the 24th, as Christmas itself falls on the Wednesday) and check these ones out. Should be fun. I may post my reviews of them ANY OF THESE NEXT THREE DAYS so, I mean, keep checking back? And tell all your friends?



I'd like to say, again, thank you to everyone who's ever shown any sort of even mild interest in this blog. Any and all support means a ton to me. This started as a way to make sure I'm writing about something, anything, just about every day but it's turned into something of a way of life for me. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad, but the support is incredibly meaningful. This blog will reach it's one-year anniversary on Thursday, when I started it because I had been thinking about it in vague terms for a while and I had things to say about the very controversial AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 700 (and, because I'd already started the blog by that point, the less controversial AVENGING SPIDER-MAN 15.1). If you've stopped by for even a moment, even if it was just to snag a screen cap or to hear some news or because you clicked my insidious links on Twitter accidentally...thank you. Thank you all. There might be changes in 2014 to the way I review or to the volume of books I review (GUYS, this has been a ton of books) but we'll talk about that later. Thanks guys. Happy holidays.

Avengers Annual 1, Iron Man 19

Avengers Annual 1
K. Immonen (w) and Lafuente (a) and Beredo w/ Loughridge (c)

Shang-Chi is taking some kids who may or may not have powers and who may or may not be delinquents of some kind (different Avengers seem to have different perspectives on the issue) on a tour of Avengers Tower. It's just before Christmas and most of the Avengers have gone elsewhere for the holidays, leaving only Shang-Chi, Captain America, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, and Tony Stark behind. Shang-Chi's tour is something of a failure, as all of the Avengers present a not so clean look at what it is to be super powered. Manifold turns up to help Shang bring all of the kids away but one, unbeknownst to the Avengers and the other kids, sneaks away and stays at the tower. Everyone sets off to their own holiday plans except Cap, who has volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on the tower. He locks up and goes to help at a local kitchen, where he spends a good amount of time chatting with another vet about days gone by. He returns to the Tower later  and is alerted to a break-in in Tony's lab. The girl who stayed behind, an eager and excited girl named Zamira, has the power to manifest voices with alarming accuracy, meaning that she creates versions of herself that have the voices of the people they're meant to represent. FOR EXAMPLE, she manifests a Tony Stark who can access his lab with voice recognition and who speaks not dissimilarly to someone's perception of Tony Stark. Apparently she tends to lose control and create these voices when she gets anxious and she's super anxious now. Her voices run amok, issuing voice commands throughout Avengers Tower from Tony's lab. Cap goes to check it out and is quickly joined by Natasha and Hulk, both of whom ended up staying behind in the Tower after all. They try to calm Zamira down and, particularly Widow, try to get her to use her perceived liability as an asset. Tony, who also apparently stayed behind, joins in the action and things start to go crazy as too many voices start issuing commands and one of them accidentally sets off the self-destruct command. Zamira pulls herself together just in time to help set everything right, issuing other commands with other voices to stop the countdown. All of them clean things up and decide to spend the evening together, eating and talking.

It's a goofy issue, breaking very much from the current feel of Hickman's AVENGERS, but it's well-placed and extremely well-executed. I was excited to see Kathryn Immonen's name on the cover for this one, knowing we'd get a good dose of character and some solid dialogue. Between her fast-paced and chaotic story and David Lafuente's art, this Annual stands up on its own as a perfectly pleasant and easily read standalone story. I'm a big fan of showing off character and this one is pretty much just a showcase of that, giving us a really nice look at some of our core Avengers in their downtime. It's a little like DeConnick's AVENGERS ASSEMBLE in the way that it focuses on the more familial feel of the Avengers but manages to let itself be a little goofier and a little less story-driven. The story is still clearly important but one of the nice things about an Annual is that it doesn't require a story that's going to keep going beyond its one issue; sometimes you'll get one that sets up the future of a book but by and large Annuals tend to be a chance to let someone else take the characters for a spin and see what comes out of it. It was really nice to see a break from the super-serious feel of the current line of Avengers books and I hope, if it leads to anything, it leads to Kathryn Immonen on another book.

Iron Man 19
Gillen (w) and Bennett and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Tony has a surprise for Pepper. Well, a couple of them. He introduces her to Arno and gives the briefest of explanations of what's happening. He also inadvertently introduces her to his newest suit operating system, PEPPER, which is a bit awkward (he quickly promotes PEPPER to running the new city and renames her HELEN, giving her a Troy to look after). He also tells her of his plan to take over and rebuild Mandarin City, feral since the death of Mandarin over a year ago (back at the end of Fraction's run on IRON MAN). She's worried about him and about this whole plan, which seems entirely like an overreaction to something deeper. He admits that she's probably right but isn't too bothered by it, preferring to overreact and do something good with it than to overreact and become an alcoholic again. She convinces him to hire her new fiancee as PR person for the whole undertaking, which would probably go relatively well if not for an attack by Mandarin Ring 1 (in the presence of Mandarin Ring 7 and Abigail Burns, who we met last time) at the time of his press conference.

Plenty going on in this series still but it's rather underlined by the somewhat sweet moments of this issue. There's a relief to Tony and Arno both knowing that they're overreaching a bit and that they're trying something so big, meaning that if they have a fall during this, it won't come with full issues of "oh my hubris!" but rather with something like "well, it would have been pretty cool if it had worked!" There are also sweet and very human moments between Tony and Pepper as he explains why it's maybe not as creepy as she thinks it is that he built and named his AI after her, something that we kind of already knew but that she deserves to hear as well. He, of course, does try to hide it from her, but it's sweet and creepy nonetheless. The idea, for those who missed it in the beginning of Gillen's run, is that Pepper is Tony's best friend and that he wasn't trying to replace her or obsess over her or anything like that, but that he needed something to remind him of her and to keep him balanced as he traversed the infinite space he was going to enter. Look, I think it's sweet, okay? There's also a moment in here where Tony's narration kind of apologizes for leaving Mandarin City in shambles and justifies it by saying "I was in space, guys." Anyone who's read even, like, one post from this blog will note my love of talking to an audience and referring to it as "guys" so WHAT AN EASY WAY TO WIN ME OVER.

Comics this week!

Another week chock full of comics but there are fewer Thanksgivings so hopefully it won't feel quite so jam-packed. Also, Annuals time is apparently in full-swing as we have another pair this week to join the recent surge of them. ALSO also, the finale of FEARLESS DEFENDERS, which I'm less invested in than I was the books that ended last week and the books ending in our near future (SCARLET SPIDER and, oh my god, X-MEN LEGACY and YOUNG AVENGERS, to name a few). Well let's worry about this week rather than the future for now, hm?

Inhumanity 1
Not often that my pre-game picks, listed alphabetically, start at "I." Anyway, INHUMANITY is the follow-up to INFINITY and it's set to change the landscape of the Marvel Universe considerably. Hickman gets a break from events as Fraction takes over and Fraction has been absolutely on fire of late. His last event, FEAR ITSELF, was maybe my least favorite event of the past...wait, I can't say that any more, thanks to AGE OF ULTRON and BATTLE OF THE ATOM...still, it wasn't great and it dragged on and on and on, like so much AVENGERS VS. X-MEN (though it came first). All of this mention of other events, though, clouds the fact that Fraction is on fire and this is bound to be interesting. Check it out.

Iron Man 19
New set of Mandarins coming out, it seems, plus the continued story that is the combination of Tony and Arno Stark, determined to build the future. Kieron Gillen keeps on rolling in all of his books and may be as on fire or more on fire than Fraction right now so this is another one continually worth checking in on.

Secret Avengers 12
We're rolling up on the final issue of this volume of SECRET AVENGERS before it changes hands and (very slightly) teams in 2014. Unfortunate as Spencer is starting to hit his groove here but we still have a couple of issues coming and they WILL, at some point, FEATURE WINTER SOLDIER. Geez, finally.

X-Men Legacy 21
This is one of those ones I'm just not ready to end. That said, it looks as if it will be heading to a very powerful and action-packed ending and, as much as I don't want this to end, I'm not dreading the issues themselves coming out; much the opposite, I'm very excited to see them and can't wait to delve further into Legion's mind. This issue will find David fighting for everything as he goes up against the gold-skinned Xavier.

Young Avengers 13
This is, by my count, the final issue of the ongoing Mother arc/story, with the final two issues of the series (set to both come out before mid-January, so get ready for a rush of YOUNG AVENGERS, hoorayyyyyyyy before it's all gone booooooooo) focusing on the afterparty. Everything will come to a head here and, as I've been saying all along, this is one of the best books on the market and you would be well-served to check it out.

Marvel news - Young Avengers and Wolverine and the X-Men ending, Wolverine and F4 relaunch news

The first bit of news here is the heartbreaking news - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie will be ending their run of YOUNG AVENGERS, effectively ending the fourth volume of YOUNG AVENGERS (it might just be the third? I don't really remember and I'm too broken up to check), with issue 15. It sounds like this was a decision made by Gillen and McKelvie, not by Marvel, as addressed on Kieron Gillen's Tumblr. All along they've referred to this ongoing story as the first season of YOUNG AVENGERS, leaving themselves with enough story and enough of an opening to keep going if they wanted but also giving them a backdoor if they wanted a way out. They're taking the latter and, while I accept and maybe even kind of adore their choice (go out strong, make sure you don't let it sit too long and stagnate), it's still heartbreaking news. Brilliant book all the way through, will definitely cherish the final few issues. I will also say that it doesn't come as a HUGE surprise because they've definitely been very guarded about their plans after the first season's conclusion, which certainly has the feel of a goodbye issue.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN will also seemingly be coming to an end in February with issue 42, as reported by Aaron on his blog. In the very least, it will be Jason Aaron's last issue with the book, whether or not that exactly means the book is ending. He was hoping to run this book and AMAZING X-MEN side-by-side but it seems like his work schedule is catching up to him and he had to let one book go. I'm not terribly upset about this one.

Meanwhile, it's been confirmed that WOLVERINE will be relaunching as a part of All-New Marvel NOW in February, following the conclusion of Paul Cornell's "Killable" arc on the current WOLVERINE series. The relaunch will feature Cornell still writing but swapping out Alan Davis for Ryan Stegman. While I like that move (I prefer Stegman's work to Davis' by about a mile), I'm still not totally into Cornell's WOLVERINE as is and I'm not sure how I feel about him continuing the run. This new series will apparently feature a shift for the character, though, as Wolvy seems to be coming out of this arc still without his healing power; the teaser image proclaimed "MORTAL" and Cornell has said that it will impact the way he works, giving us a more strategic Wolverine rather than a more guns-blazing Wolverine. Could be interesting, though this one promises to also put Wolverine on a team of not-so-good-guys so we'll see. According to the article linked above, they've apparently also announced a Fantastic Four relaunch that I think I missed. OH NO WAIT, I remember seeing something about it. Hang about.

James Robinson, who will also be leading the new ALL-NEW INVADERS series (pumped), is relaunching FANTASTIC FOUR with a bit of a strange bent to it, from the summary. The FF are evicted from the Baxter Building, Johnny is powerless, Thing is arrested for murder, Dragon Man is sentenced to death, Franklin's imagination is running wild, Val is on her own, etc. Weird, right? We'll see how this goes too.

This week's picks

Twelve books this week and not a whole ton of standouts among them. Some good books, some fun books, some really irritating books, but very light in books that really blew me away. I guess not every book can do that every time. Sigh.

Iron Man 15

This one seems like it might be able to though. Just a great series with another great issue. 451 has been a suspicious character ever since he, you know, allowed the Voldi to be destroyed. Truthfully, he was suspicious before that, with his Tony obsession and everything else. Still though, he alternated between good and bad, usually doing bad things but claiming them to be for good reasons. There was little indication that this was all true and that he wouldn't just get Tony in the Godkiller then point him at whatever planet he felt needed destroying that week. Until now. Now we're talking about a being who had sacrificed everything good about himself to save Earth only to find he couldn't, not in the way he intended, so everything horrible he did now has no purpose; they're just horrible acts. If we do believe everything he said is true now, 451 went from being a watcher (not a Watcher, just similar) who never interfered to finally choosing to interfere and, in his first real opportunity to change things, killing billions of lifeforms for nothing. The weight bears down on him here and it's amazing and devastating all at once. Great issue, continues to be a great series.

Venom 40

This was a tough pick for the week. I had Iron Man in the list all along and the next book, particularly in what was kind of a weak week, earned a pick as an "in memoriam" pick so that left this spot for a couple of similar books. It was really between this, Infinity 2, and X-Men Legacy 16. In the end, though, the pacing of this one really won out as it seemed like a well-packed issue without being too overdone or too hard to follow. Legacy had some cooler moments, with David facing down some of the most respected mutants in the world and picking them apart one-by-one, but that one's conclusion might have more weight to it than the set-up had. This has some good character weight between Flash and Andi dealing with their symbiotes and what exactly they want and mean as well as a solid plot that will serve as a jumping off point for the next story. Sad this book is coming to an end; the stories keep flowing out of it and providing genuinely interesting issues.

X-Factor 262

The final issue of Peter David's long run on X-Factor which, if my math is right, led to over one hundred issues for the long-time comic scribe. It was a reliably solid book with one of the best true "teams" in the Marvel Universe. Not a super powerful team or a particularly influential team, just a team that has banded together and grown closer, despite their differences, to do what little they can. Pretty consistent sense of fun and some really great characters who probably wouldn't have a home if not for this series. The final issue wasn't anything super special but it deserves to be here as a summation of the series. The conclusion of 262 finds the team spread out, disbanded after Hell on Earth, and team leader Jamie Madrox choosing to settle down with new wife Layla and coming child on their family farm. A nice sendoff for the man who started it all (Peter David was given the book after a Madrox mini-series). Sad to see it go but it seems like maybe it was time.

This week's picks

Ton of books out this week seems like a justifiable excuse for why I'm having so much trouble picking my top three. Look guys, I have one locked down and one almost locked down. It's tricky because most of the books didn't blow me away this week, even the typical standouts. They were good, they weren't the best. In some cases that affected my decision more (I really liked the Cap arc finale but it didn't totally blow me away, which it seemed like it should have), in some cases it didn't (one or two of the books that made this list are in that category). One of the books in consideration was Deadpool which I thought was a good issue, surprisingly so because I haven't liked the series, but it still wasn't an amazing issue (it almost made the cut because it was such a far cry from how I've felt about the rest of the series). Okay, I'm stalling. Here we go.

Journey into Mystery 655

I tend to give more consideration to a book on its final issue. That still won't get it on this list if it's a bad issue, but I tend to bump it up a little for time served. This week, Journey into Mystery didn't even need that boost. It was a really good issue, a solid end to a solid arc with beautiful art and fun writing which served to enhance the plot and to characterize people involved. Just a really good issue and, sadly, the last time I'll get to choose this book for a top pick. The book that spawned Kid Loki and Kieron Gillen's defining run at Marvel has now reached its end after a great Kathryn Immonen run. She better find a new book quickly at Marvel. Marvel's made a few good moves in terms of trying to highlight women characters and women writers and it's clear they want to make that something of a priority (slowly but surely). It would be ridiculous to have such a talented and proven female writer at your disposal and not put her on a book immediately. Buy this issue. The art alone will make it worth it.

Thor: God of Thunder 12

As good as the heavy-hitting action and revealing characterization of a really great comic book can be, occasionally the change in pace can be as meaningful as anything else. We rarely see Thor in a capacity as an emotional hero; his role has very much become the strong character role (it really always was) so they bring him out in the biggest situations because he's too powerful to use on, say, street-level villains. It's really gratifying to see him take a little time off from punching Kang to travel around and do equally important but more one-on-one heroic things. It's very neat and it was really well done. Nic Klein's art is very impressive as well. It's no easy feat following up Esad Ribic or even leading in comic veteran Ron Garney (who I think is on at least the next issue). Really solid issue.







Young Avengers 9

Young Avengers is a phenomenal book. Every issue has been wonderful and had little hidden wonders to it, on top of the very blatant wonders. It's got stunning art, great characterization, interesting plot, and fantastic writing. All of that said, I did think this was a very slightly weaker issue than we've had from this book. However, slightly weaker from this book is still scores above most other books so it's impossible to not put it on this list (and it would be silly not to). Even with it being slightly weaker (it just felt a little slower than the ones we've had already, and not in a "this needs to be slowed down" kind of way), it still had a ton to love (including, as ever, the art). Also, an adult-ish Leah looking both super cool and oh my god she's going to wreak some serious havoc, you guys. Look, this book is great and always worth your time. Check-check it.


I don't want it to go

This is a new segment, to be used probably just this once, to award the book I least want to be over following this most recent issue. This week's winner is, you guessed it, Journey into Mystery. GUYS, I'M JUST REALLY SAD ABOUT THIS, OKAY?

This week's picks

Kind of a tough week to pick three. There are a few standouts and many that are just on the cusp of being standout. Always tricky. Let's dive right in, hmm?

Avengers Assemble 17

I love the pacing of this story and how the characters are coming through. Kelly Sue DeConnick has been laying significant groundwork for this without any of us even noticing because she hasn't necessarily been laying groundwork to the plot. What she's been doing all along, so brilliantly, in Captain Marvel and Avengers Assemble is building a cast. Both books have their own independent casts and it's all coming together nicely now. The Avengers still talk like the Avengers that lay a wager on whether Banner or Iron Man would get to a remote science base first. Carol's team still surrounds her, tightening up to protect her, as they did when she got the news of her illness. This event doesn't work so well without all of that, without all of the pieces sliding neatly into place, so neatly that we didn't even really notice them doing it. This is a book and an event where the characters act like people and it's wonderful that we can fit that around an interesting story instead of sacrificing character to serve plot.

Iron Man 13

This series has quietly been really impressive. I don't know why it's been so quiet, considering how popular Iron Man is as a character right now and how fantastic Kieron Gillen's been for Marvel, but it's felt like something of a slow burn from the start. Now the book is pretty on fire though as 451 is close to his endgame for Earth's protection and reveals that it also means the end of Tony as an independent character. His body and mind would be more or less absorbed into the Godkiller. Death's Head makes another great appearance and Gillen again shows off his aptitude for writing the "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent," as he prefers to be called. Now Tony has quite possibly one more moment of freedom before 451 retakes him in which to try to solve all of his mounting problems. Who's not excited to see how that plays out?

Savage Wolverine 7

This one had some fairly strong competition for the three-spot, going head-to-head against Thor, Cable and X-Force, both F4 and FF, and Thunderbolts, in particular. Still, this one won out because it's something of a pleasant surprise. I was fairly against the first arc of this book and I was worried about the direction of this series as a whole but the last two issues have been solid, with nice character moments mixed into an interesting plot. This issue specifically is the best Wolverine book we have right now. Cornell's Wolverine has a couple of interesting ideas kicking around but it's bogged down by a dragging pace and supporting characters that you couldn't pay me to care about (unless you wanted to try, I'd be willing to give it a shot). Wolverine MAX is equally slow and when Wolverine actually has a personality it's just a heavy brooding. Here he's got all of the trademarks of Wolverine, asking interesting questions about his nature and the nature that someone like Elektra, who is not so different than him, brings out in him. On top of that, the story has gotten more intriguing as we learn that Kingpin is being Kingpin and manipulating Elektra and Wolverine to do his work for him.


Best Page

This was going to be a best panel but I couldn't narrow it down far enough. I suppose if I had to it would be the fourth panel of this page but guess what, it's my blog, I don't have to. Anyway, I talked about this in my actual review for Iron Man but this page stood out so strongly to me as we get a real moment of seemingly true emotion for 451 and it's so palpable, what he's feeling. It's a really well-timed moment and it's perfectly executed as it shows 451 in something of a brief moment of weakness, which we haven't seen at all in his calm and collected manner. Of course, the weakness is detracted a bit because he accomplished his goal of taking over Death's Head before getting smashed, but it's still there, that one-off feeling. It's amazingly well done and really very quickly and quietly adds depth to his character.

Iron Man 13, Thor: God of Thunder 10

Iron Man 13
Gillen (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Tony is still under 451's control and the pair of them have arrived at the Godkiller armor. 451 gives a little history, citing the makers, the Aspirants, and their war with the Celestials. They ended up losing the war but the Godkiller gave them an incredible edge before their defeat, annihilating the number of Celestials down to the handful we have today. 451 is eager to get Tony in the armor to stand watch over Earth and to protect humanity from the growing threats on the horizon but Tony doesn't have any desire and he learns that 451 and the Aspirants have far more control than 451 has even now once he becomes the pilot. 451's plans are complicated when Death's Head shows up again, knowing now about a humungous bounty on 451's head and wanting to cash in. Tony gets away from 451 for a brief moment but what will he do with his time?

There's a lot to really like about this issue. The best parts come from 451 and from the conceit of 451's alleged plans in general. Gillen's put in a lot of effort characterizing 451 from the start, including giving him some amount of personality in varying degrees. Here the best moment is a small one, as he tries to corrupt Death's Head. There's a single panel that shows him acknowledging how close he came to destruction and it's a really phenomenal touch and a perfect way to further make him as human as we can wish for. I'm also very interested in the idea that humans view themselves far lower on the universal scale than they should. 451 wants Earth protected (or so he says) because he believes that Earth is the best chance to create an empire in the universe and, thereby, to establish peace in the universe. It's a really fascinating idea and one that plays pretty well into the longstanding themes of the Marvel Universe as a whole. Another excellent issue as Gillen keeps churning them out.

Thor: God of Thunder 10
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c)

We're nearing the conclusion of Godbomb as the Thors find themselves spread out, wounded, and without their hammers. King Thor is crucified on a comet, Avenger Thor is thrown into the depths of the planet, and young Thor is dragged by Gorr to add the last bits of needed blood to the Godbomb. On the way, Gorr is hailed by his wife as the new god, a compliment which is met in very much the way anyone who has met Gorr should probably have expected. However, it sets the Gorr's own son against him, who promptly goes to assist Avengers Thor, trying to climb out of the center of the planet. Gorr's son doesn't know what to believe any more as Gorr reaches his ultimate goal and helps Thor back onto his feet to stop his father. As Thor arms the other remaining gods, Gorr arms the Godbomb, leading us into our conclusion.

This story has been a very intriguing one though I think it has dragged on a bit longer than it needed to. Of course, I'm not someone who writes comics for a living and there has certainly been something to like and something new in every issue. Still, it feels like the initial shock and awe of this story has faded a bit as we've built to what we knew to be inevitably coming. This issue on its own, though, is certainly a good one, finally bringing us to the culmination of things we've probably been expecting and that have been hinted at already. Gorr has become what he hates most and is desperately trying to ignore it while Gorr's son has his own questions about this plan. Meanwhile, the three Thors aren't so easily defeated as what we saw last time and now we're heading for the final battle. The ideas and the writing continue to be good and on an issue-to-issue basis this has been a pretty phenomenal series. As a whole, it's moved a bit slow but let's assume I'm just talking about this issue. In that case, Esad Ribic's incredible art continues to make this issue more than worthwhile and bits and pieces still hold the book together nicely (including the rare dual-wielding of Mjolnirs, which is kind of worth this whole story anyway). Excited for the conclusion because overall the story has still been a pretty interesting one and it's been a great way to view the three Thors in various times of their lives.