Guardians of the Galaxy 15, Thunderbolts 26

Guardians of the Galaxy 15
Bendis (w) and Bradshaw and C. Stewart (p) and Bradshaw, Stewart, and Wong (i) and Ponsor (c) and Petit (l)

The Guardians have been separated and captured with Rocket landing with the Kree (to be experimented on), Gamora left with the Badoon brotherhood (to be questioned about Thanos), Drax left to the Shi'ar (to be punished), newly acquired Venom attacked on Knowhere by the Skrulls, Groot left with the Brood, and Star-Lord being held on Spartax. They all seem to be failing at escaping except, as the issue ends, potentially Star-Lord. Despite the cover, no sign of Captain Marvel.

Unless you're a completionist and you're looking to obtain this whole series, it's worth missing this one. There are tiny little glimpses of character in the way each Guardian reacts to his or her capture (Rocket shows fear for the slightest moment, Gamora refuses to stop fighting, Drax threatens calmly but sighs to his deceased wife, etc.) and obviously we see where everyone is but that's pretty much all that happens in twenty pages of book. There are as many double page spreads in this issue as I've ever seen and it ends up just meaning that we get less story in fewer meaningful pages. There's no doubt in my mind that this could have been done just as effectively in ten pages and we could have had another half issue to move to the next step, maybe featuring, oh, I don't know, star of the cover Captain Marvel. Seriously. Look at that cover. Is that the cover of a book that doesn't see nor hear about Captain Marvel in the slightest? It's a low score for this one, then, not because it's a particularly bad book but just because it slows things down at a time when things don't really need to be slowed down and it means you're paying full price for half a book's worth of content (not to belittle Nick Bradshaw and Cameron Stewart's work, which is fine but didn't blow me away to the point where I'll ignore a stagnant story).

Total Score: 2/5


Thunderbolts 26
Soule (w) and Diaz (a) and Silva (c) and Sabino (l)

Ghost Rider's been eaten by a swamp monster thanks to Leader's treachery and Elektra and Punisher have been crushed by a cliche. Deadpool saves Leader from Cordoba and his men, enraged by what they've been through, but it doesn't stop Leader from trying to kill Deadpool as they go into the temple. Deadpool sees through the ruse and stabs Leader but leaves him alive enough to still enact his plan and send Deadpool into a pool of lava. Leader moves forward to find the artifact their after, the head of a long dead Celestial left here by the ancient Deviants, a race the Celestials created then deemed imperfect and unfit to inherit the world. The Deviants killed the young Celestial and left the head here, hoping it could transform their people into something more capable but then lost it to time and struggle. Now Red Hulk's former men have found it and Mancuso, the one who reached out to Red Hulk, explains (after Red Hulk kills his one-time lover scientist lady who turns out to be a Deviant looking for this exact thing) what's happened since he found it. Leader arrives, drinks some Celestial blood, and has his head explode from the power. With his whole team dead, Mancuso tells Red Hulk that he has two options: for Mancuso to kill him and give him the death he seeks or to work for the light. After a moment's hesitation, Red Hulk chooses the light and we're transported back to the very start of this mission, where Red Hulk tells the team that they're actually going to do something else now.

It's Charles Soule's last issue on THUNDERBOLTS, which is rather a shame because he took this book that I found somewhat middling, even if it featured a team that really intrigued me, and he immediately made it something fun and fresh, completely worthy of my one-time excitement. Still, he leaves the book on an up-swing, with the team all alive and perhaps destined for bigger and better things. It's definitely entertaining to see how the final deaths play out (Deadpool has a particularly nice moment as he sees through Leader's attempt to kill him, though it still leads to Leader killing him) and it leaves the book in an interesting place where we know what these characters would have gone through and how they would have acted in this adventure but now this adventure never happened so they don't necessarily know how it would have played out. Ben Acker and Ben Blacker have a really interesting job to take on and I'm excited to see what they produce. But let's not forget to laud Charles Soule for his fantastic take on this book and for, as I see it, righting the ship as soon as he jumped on to it.

Total Score: 5/5

Guardians of the Galaxy 14, Thunderbolts 25

Guardians of the Galaxy 14
Bendis (w) and Bradshaw w/Masters, Nauck, and Wong (a) and Ponsor w/Keith (c) and Petit (l)

The Guardians are being picked off one-by-one and separated. Rocket, Groot, and Starlord are attacked in the ship by Spartax warships while Gamora is chased down elsewhere by the assassin who had previously tried to capture her and while Drax and Venom (??) shop for new weapons on Knowhere. All Guardians are captured, leaving Venom behind on Knowhere and leaving Starlord to have an uncomfortable talk with his dad, who promises that they'll all be dealt with and that no one is coming to save them just as Captain Marvel takes to space. Also featured in this double-sized anniversary issue are stories from legendary GUARDIANS scribes Andy Lanning (who "writes" a story about Groot's origin. Hint: he is Groot) and Dan Abnett, who tells a tale set a thousand years in the future about the future Guardians of the Galaxy needing to go back in time to stop some stuff happening that would ruin their future.

Story
The best way to describe this story is abrupt. For thirteen issues, the Guardians have been wreaking havoc and staying a step ahead of the Spartax Empire and fighting the good fight through the galaxy. Until they weren't. Just today. No hand wrapping around them, no strategy employed to cut their engines and leave them defenseless. Just...caught. I legitimately had to wonder if I had missed an issue where something happened that allowed them to be caught or that explained why Venom was there. Turns out: NOPE, the last issue was still in the midst of that crappy TRIAL OF JEAN GREY crossover and so everything happening here IS still as abrupt as it seems. It feels like we're missing an issue and it's KIND OF an important issue we've missed? Like, we can still catch up, I suppose, but there's a lot of "I guess this is happening now?" feeling to the book. 3/5

Character
Peter Quill has some insomnia and thinks about why and thinks about what women he has crushes on and what ones he doesn't and ugggggh. Then Drax and Venom go and banter at a weapons seller showing that Drax doesn't know the word "cool" and uggggggh. Look, I have some problems here as ever. Also, Venom acts very nearly goofy out in space which, you know, granted it's a pretty big deal to him but Flash is a decorated vet and one who has to maintain control over his symbiote all the time. Maybe he wouldn't be so goofy all the time? 2/5

Writing
A bit of back-and-forth here but everyone's separated and there's too much abrupt story happening for it to really hurt anything. The opening ongoing narration from Quill is as close to that as it gets and it it GRATING though the case can be made that it's just a mind drifting while it does anything but sleep. Putting aside the strange character problems and the abrupt story, there's nothing particularly wrong with the writing, though it's kind of like grading a student's paper with a bad or non-existent thesis: it doesn't matter if the support is great or in-depth or whatever, there's no way it can be proving what it sets out to prove because a bad thesis means there's nothing there to prove (yeah, I've graded some PAPERS, yo). 3/5

Art
I was a little nervous about Bradshaw on this issue. He's clearly a pretty good artist but I've seen him most recently on one of the INHUMAN titles that Fraction wrote prior to Soule's entrance on INHUMANS and it upset me in the way that Medusa looked so feminized in that kind of "big eyes, soft features, bursting breasts (horrifying, that wording) etc." way. No such issues here though the armored Gamora is the only female until the last page reveal of Captain Marvel. Still, good work across the board this time out. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Seriously, were we missing an issue?

Total score: 3/5


Thunderbolts 25
Soule (w) and Diaz (a) and Silva (c) and Sabino (l)

The woman who arrived on the boat at the end of the last issue, Helen, was part of the team Ross sent out but only insofar as she was the researcher who told them about the artifact and was then left behind. They have a thing. Anyway, the sea monsters aren't quite done attacking and they start to pull apart the ship. Ghost Rider manages to get them to shore by using his chain to pull the ship away. However, Leader whispers an incantation that makes his demonic fire go out before he himself can get off the ship and he's ripped apart by the monsters while everyone else looks on. The other T-Bolts push on but their guide Cordoba reveals to Leader that he knows he's responsible for Ghost Rider's death. Leader admits it but also reveals that he knows Cordoba's men are in the woods following them. They form an alliance for all of two minutes before Leader outs him to his team, causing them all to flee. The rest continue to the temple, where Red Hulk demands Leader wait outside (with guard Deadpool) and guide them over the walkie. He quickly betrays them and Elektra and Punisher end up in a death trap themselves.

Story
Tons going on here, enough that I kept wanting to shorten the summary and couldn't figure out where to do it. In fact, I should have PROBABLY gone deeper than I did but GUYS, read the book instead. There's so much happening and it's largely really interesting. The Ghost Rider twist was something unexpected and sharp, brutal and efficient enough to be jarring without feeling like a hook. The Leader has some great moments as his long con continues to play out at the expense of the team. Plenty happening but without ever getting too absurd or too abrupt. 5/5

Character
Everyone has a couple of good looks here but the main focus is on Leader and his sudden but inevitable betrayals. It's crafty and it's clever and it's hard, thanks to his movements with Cordoba, to figure out what his angles are, which is exactly how we should be seeing Leader since he's smarter than all people ever, more or less, so we should never know his true motives. It's the kind of sharp characterization that drove Hickman's SECRET WARRIORS series and others like it. 5/5

Writing
Thanks in large part to the characterization of Leader and the way that he drives the plot here, the tone is always a little bit uncomfortable, which is perfect. You're never supposed to know exactly how to feel about what's happening. The abruptness of Ghost Rider's death, the turn on Leader by Cordoba and the turn on Cordoba by Leader, all of it keeps the reader off-guard and it keeps the tone from settling in to something either too fun or too serious and it instead sticks into this strange "how should I feel?" place that fits everything Soule wants to do. 5/5

Art
The art looks maybe a little more cartoony than it has been but it steps it up to make sure things are tense as the big moments occur, like Ghost Rider being ripped apart or the fall of Punisher and Elektra and their caress as the walls close in on them (slower than haunted house spiked walls but not as slow as evil scientist spiked walls). Overall it fits the tone and feel of the book pretty nicely. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I like the cover on this one but it's the first time in quite some time that I haven't absolutely loved the cover on a THUNDERBOLTS issue. Sigh. All good things, I suppose. Strange that the 25th issue of THUNDERBOLTS, a far riskier book than something with X-MEN in the name written by one of the biggest names in comics over the past decade doesn't get a celebration.

Total score: 5/5

Nova 15, Thunderbolts 23

Nova 15
Duggan (w) and Baldeon and Pallot (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova rushes Cosmo to medical help and manages to get him there just in time and even ends up aiding the doctors in taking the poison out. Before Cosmo has fully recovered, Nova goes to try to slow up Skaarn's next plan, which involves using the continuum cortex transfer on Knowhere. It's essentially a teleporter and he wants to use it, with the assistance of a few other criminals, to break into a secure vault. He scouts ahead leaving the other criminals to wait and use the teleporter to enter as backup. Nova manages to catch up with the three other criminals and defeat them pretty handily, whipping out a couple more new skills, eventually throwing them into the teleporter without allowing them a chance to program it to where they wanted to go. It reverts back to the last destination used, sending them to Beta Ray Bill in Jotunheim. While they wait for Bill to return and for Skaarn's plan to become more evident while Cosmo heals, Sam uses the teleporter to return to school before he can get in any trouble for missing. He completes the day then heads back into space to finish the job. He and Bill meet up again and track Skaarn only to find that he's broken into the vault on his own and that the vault housed big time weapons, not money like Sam thought.

This is sort of a weird issue to critique because, like last issue, Sam spent most of the time this issue fighting obstacles we didn't know were going to be there and the outcome of the fights didn't actually seem to weigh on the completion of whatever mission they may have hurt or aided. To simplify, we had no idea about this vault heist plot until this issue, nor about the criminals Skaarn would need to complete the heist. However, when Nova defeats the criminals, it doesn't seem to stall Skaarn's plan even a little bit. It's hard to say that this was a worthwhile little pit stop since it seems almost entirely unrelated to any plan while posing as something related to the main plan. So it's a weird issue to critique because it's not necessarily a bad issue, per se; it's still rather entertaining, we get a nice little fight scene and we learn a little bit more about Sam (plus some decent Beta Ray Bill), it's just not an issue that feels like it belongs in this story and it seems like little more than a filler story because of that.

Thunderbolts 23
Soule (w) and Jacinto (a) and Silva (c)

It's Deadpool's turn to call a mission but Flash asks Deadpool to cede his mission time over to him, saying that he's going to be leaving the team and wants the team to complete his mission before he's gone. Deadpool is hesitant but when he hears that Flash wants the team to take down the symbiote, he's onboard. Flash says it's getting to hard to control the symbiote with the team considering how much killing they have to do and he wants to see them take it down. He lets the symbiote take control and it beats all of them (save for Deadpool) individually before they decide they need to work as a team to take down Venom. They manage to come together just well enough to separate the symbiote from Flash and contain it. Red Hulk asks Flash if he wants them to contain or destroy the symbiote but Flash declines, saying that it always finds a way to survive and he knows he can control it so he'll continue to wear it. As Flash departs with the symbiote bonded to him once more, Ross tells him that he understands the Flash wants and needs the symbiote but that the mission was good for him in proving that someone is capable of taking down the symbiote if it ever gets out of hand.

There's a lot of really good stuff in this issue. As ever, there are several laugh out loud moments, particularly as Deadpool, who claims he has contingency plans to take down any of his teammates at a moment's notice, showcases his anti-Venom plan that involves drawing on his costume to make it look like Spider-Man and setting it up as bait under a plane ready to drop on any incoming assailants. On top of the funny moments, there's a real core to this issue. Obviously there's something to the Flash-Venom relationship that's always somewhat interesting in the idea that Flash understands the power and danger of the symbiote but knows he can control it and, more telling, knows he wants/needs it. Even beyond that, though, Venom yells some things while it's in control that, as Flash later reveals, aren't lies but are somewhat damaging to the ego of the group, including the idea that Flash also kind of has a crush on Elektra and wouldn't mind if Punisher died, that Flash thinks Ghost Rider is an abomination, and that Flash thinks Red Hulk is the worst of the entire group. It's still a nice issue and one that ends a little bittersweet as Flash admits to Ross that the symbiote doesn't lie about things but that he believes people are capable of changing. Sad to see Venom leave the team but I don't think the roster is a lot weaker for it, especially considering the recent addition of Ghost Rider.

Deadpool 24, Thunderbolts 22

Deadpool 24
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne (a) and Bellaire (c)

It's time for Preston to go into her own body but it turns out Deadpool is having a bit of a harder time letting go than he thought. For all his solitude and multiple personalities, he had gained someone real to talk to and apparently had benefitted from that. Still, he goes to SHIELD to have the process done but, after the transfer begins, problems arise. Agent Gorman had sabotaged the machines making it harder to hold everything together as Preston's consciousness goes into her new body. To help keep everything together, Michael, Ben Franklin, and Dr. Strange travel into Deadpool's mind only to find it overrun by other versions of Deadpool all intent on keep Preston from transferring. Strange realizes that these rogue Deadpools weren't caused by the machines, they're pieces of Deadpool rebelling on their own, something only Deadpool can stop. With some reluctance, he does and he carries Preston to her new home himself, helped by one of the Deadpool versions who refuses to identify himself except as someone who he hasn't met yet before mysteriously leaving. The transfer appears to be successful as Preston later wakes up in her new body but it's not over yet as Deadpool, sulking in a bar, discovers Preston is still in his head.

One of the things people love to do, particularly with Deadpool, is show off various different versions of him. It's a thing artists and writers like to use for all characters across dimensional rifts and the like but Deadpool adds a certain layer of fun to the proceedings because, as we saw in DEADPOOL KILLS DEADPOOL, Deadpool is such a wild card that any sort of amalgamation Deadpool you can build is a possibility. You can have Beespool, a Deadpool filled with bees, where you can't have Beesghost Rider (though Nic Cage may disagree and would likely sign on for a film combining Ghost Rider and The Wicker Man). So the book is helped by an ample dose of separate personality Deadpools, though these ones are largely tame considering what we're used to seeing. The story is the culmination of the long journey from Preston's head to Deadpool's head and finally back to Preston's head but it's hard to say that everything's over just yet as we still need to figure out exactly why Preston is still showing up for Deadpool. Is he just crazy? Probably! Crossbones may be the only one available to get to the bottom of it next time out, as he entered the bar just as Preston revealed herself.

Thunderbolts 22
Soule (w) and Barberi (a) and Silva (c)

The contract is completed and signed and the Thunderbolts are tasked with deposing Guido, the ruler of Hell, in favor of Mephisto, pretty much the actual devil. Though it's a slight wrinkle in Red Hulk's plan, he and the rest of the Thunderbolts begin the fight against Hell's Court, all the demons and monsters the create the first line of defense for Guido. It's a long and arduous fight and Ghost Rider, preferring to skip it, grabs hold of Red Hulk and the two take off to head straight at Guido. Back on Earth, Mercy attacks Punisher and Elektra. Though they manage to survive her attacks, she's immensely more powerful and seemingly unstoppable, leaving them in a bit of a bind. Back in Hell, Guido tells Red Hulk the very short version of how he got there and how he doesn't want to leave because he needs to find his soul and he's actually doing good for people, or as much good as he can, and he can't leave Mephisto in charge of that. Red Hulk convinces Guido to yield and Mephisto takes his throne. He fulfills his part of the bargain and brings Mercy into Hell, dropping Punisher and Elektra from quite a height as she's whisked away, and granting Deadpool his wish of a portal to anywhere he pleases. Deadpool uses the portal, apparently, to enter Heaven and get a new and better feather for his hat, leading an entire Heavenly Host to Hell as Mercy appears and begins to call all the souls to her. Mephisto, of course, is pissed but can't punish the T-Bolts as one of the stipulations of the contract was no retaliation. They return to Earth to find Elektra trying to save an immensely injured Punisher but, before they can come up with a plan of action, Deadpool's new feather reaches out to Frank and restores him with angel powers. Johnny Blaze officially joins the team.

More fun stuff as this book continues to be one of the best that Marvel's putting out consistently. It's found that perfect mix of action and fun without having to get too over-the-top in either. The characters are all their own and have their own distinct personalities and styles and the situations play to all of them equally. Even the sort of deus ex machina of the angel feather saving Frank's life is all built up to, making it less of a deus ex and more of a well-scripted machine. We all know how much I like this series and it just continues perfectly here but I really want to call attention to the covers now. Julian Totino Tedesco has been doing the covers for much of this recent run and he has been absolutely killing it out there. More than the fact that each cover, even aside from the fact I know what to expect from the book, makes me want to buy each issue, his covers completely mix the fun and seriousness in exactly the same amounts and ways that Soule mixes it in his writing. They're the perfect complement to this book in the same way that Mike del Mundo's covers perfectly complemented Spurrier's weird and lovely X-MEN LEGACY. Tedesco's covers unfailingly make me laugh and make me think about the book and the art itself is stunning in its own right. Marvel's been doing a great job with covers lately, from LEGACY and THUNDERBOLTS to the baby/animal variants to the noir-ish ones like WINTER SOLDIER: BITTER MARCH to the simplistically stunning HAWKEYE to anything Jamie McKelvie does. Wonderful stuff.

Guardians of the Galaxy 11, Miracleman 2, Thunderbolts 21

Guardians of the Galaxy 11
Bendis (w) and Pichelli (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Guardians of the Galaxy are still on the search for Thanos and still hunted by J-Son for defying his orders to stay clear of Earth. This doesn't stop Peter Quill from going to all of his favorite seedy places either hoping they won't look in some place so obvious or hoping to get into a fight, depending on who you ask. He, of course, ends up being drugged by a Skrull bounty hunter and carried away. The Skrull doesn't get far, though, as Gamora and Angela happen to be nearby and see the female Skrull coming out of the bar with Quill. The two stop her and Angela, to the chagrin of Gamora, beheads her. They all return to the ship to find that Rocket has bugged a Badoon frequency and they hear talk of a recent council meeting that ended with the Shi'ar vowing to take Jean Grey from Earth and put her on trial for her crimes as the Phoenix. The Guardians decide to stop it and, as we saw in the last ALL-NEW X-MEN, arrive just a few moments too late.

One of my problems with GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (and, in truth, Bendis as a whole on occasion) is that it sometimes feels like it wants to wholly disregard the rest of the Marvel Universe, both from the past and in the present. There's a debate about whether a writer in comics should be bound by a character's often long and complicated chronology or if that writer should tell the story worth telling with the character, even if it conflicts with something in the history. I tend to believe more in the latter because I think times change and these characters are ridiculously old in some cases. However, I think some deference should be paid to the character itself. For example, I think Peter Quill did have that wry sense of humor back in his past but he was a bit more serious and a bit more of a true leader type, reluctant as he may be to accept it. This one seems like a full-on goof with an occasional Mal Reynolds-like flair for the dramatic. I think part of his change to flippancy is the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which has cast Chris Pratt, known best for his comedic turn as Andy in Parks and Recreation, in the role of Peter Quill. Still, it paints a different picture of Quill in the comics than what we'd seen before, seemingly changing his character to something it wasn't. In terms of the present-day incongruities, J-Son betrayed the council in INFINITY and, I guess I took it as assumed, the council knew of his betrayal. Captain Marvel and the Avengers knew for sure, I suppose it's possible that Captain America, learning the news, wouldn't have told anyone else in the council? It...seems unlikely. Yet here they are, their whole council reconvened and not mentioning it with J-Son flippant as his son for no real reason. Perhaps this, and other Bendis books, are meant to only be read as one series, telling the story he set out to tell with the characters with which he set out to tell it. Maybe they read perfectly fluidly by themselves. But when you're part of a bigger universe like this, you at least have to play by the rules of that universe a bit, not just when they're helpful to you (the Shi'ar must punish Jean Grey for her crimes as the Phoenix).

Miracleman 2
Moore (w) and Leach (a) and Oliff (c) and Anglo (w and a)

A couple more collected stories from WARRIOR as we see the first meeting between Mike Moran and Johnny Bates since Moran's memory of Marvelman returned. Johnny Bates, of course, was Kid Marvelman back in the early days but now, claiming to have lost his powers in the explosion that killed Young Marvelman, he's a normal human who owns an incredibly successful tech company. He invites Mike and Liz to his offices to talk but Mike quickly realizes things aren't as they seem. He asks Liz to leave and accuses Johnny of still having his powers and of lying for some nefarious purpose, which is certainly the case as Johnny reveals that he kept his powers after the explosion and now found himself the most powerful being on Earth at 16 and with no one to stop him. He, of course, is now a sociopath who wants only to rule and to destroy and his powers are stronger and he's more experienced than Marvelman. He annihilates Marvelman in combat and turns to face London as he wonders what to do next.

It's certainly an enticing story, one with an equal parts tragic and terrible villain for Marvelman's return to the modern era (safe and sound in good old 1982). It's a classic superhero story as the superhero gains his powers (or, in this case, regains) and finds himself pitted against an ultimate foe, someone seemingly better than him in every way and who has a personal connection to our hero. Most interestingly, this book reads like a modern comic more than most other books from the early '80s, without too much over explaining and with art that would fit into today's pantheon as well as any other era's. For someone who is solely a modern day reader, you may find the narration captions a bit overkill (though there are still some books that employ narrative captions today, they're far and few between. The biggest example I can think of from current Marvel is UNCANNY AVENGERS but even that one varies in how often it uses them, issue-to-issue) but that doesn't take anything away from the writing. Good book, certainly worth checking out and comparing to the books of then and now. Or just reading it because it's pretty good.

Thunderbolts 21
Soule (w) and Barberi (a) and Silva w/ Campbell and Mason (c)

The majority of the Thunderbolts are in Hell with Ghost Rider while Elektra and Punisher await their return with something resembling patience. In Hell, Ghost Rider tries to find a personal hell, a hell crafted specifically by a demon to ensure maximum punishment and pain to a single inhabitant, because those are easier to return to Earth from. However, their search for the perfect hell draws the notice and ire of Mephisto, who had since claimed Red Hulk as his own personal plaything. Unfortunately for Mephisto, he's no longer ruler of Hell and can't really enforce his ownership over the hell mark on Red Hulk's chest. This leads Leader to an idea: make an actual deal with the actual devil to get them out of Hell and put Mercy in it in exchange for dethroning the new ruler of Hell, who, of course, turns out to be Guido, formerly of X-Factor. Meanwhile, Elektra and Punisher go on an assassin journey as Elektra gets a job while the others are out of town. As Punisher begins to question how Elektra can know that she's assassinating people who deserve it, the entire house they're staking out is abruptly and violently destroyed. Mercy appears to Elektra, fresh off destroying the house, and demands to know where Red Hulk and Leader are.

Another good issue as the Thunderbolts are separated and have plenty to deal with on their plates. There's a nice moment for Leader as he gets to exercise his brain a bit constructing a legally binding contract with the devil. It's also an interesting juncture for the reader as we have to wonder whether he's putting things in there that will hurt Red Hulk or, say, Deadpool, who wants his own secret request added into the contract. Meanwhile, Ghost Rider chats with Venom about the purpose of the team and seems into the idea, leading to the probable induction of a new teammate. It's all made even more compelling as the Thunderbolts realize that Guido is the new ruler of Hell and they'll have to kill someone who's been a pretty good guy in the past in order to get what they want and fulfill their promise to Mephisto. As if that weren't enough to entertain, Elektra and Punisher, the two potentially least powerful members of the team (or, at least, most human, somehow), have to face down Mercy while the Thunderbolts in Hell get their business together. Should be a fun time because this book is constantly a fun time.

Fantastic Four 16, Thunderbolts 20

Fantastic Four 16
Main story: Fraction and Kesel (s) and Kesel (w) and Ienco (a) and Mounts (c)
Backup story: Kesel and Lee Allred (s) and Kesel (w) and Quinones and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

The Fantastic Four and the Other Fantastic Four are locked in combat with Doom the Annihilating Conqueror and quickly realizing that their powers are no match for him. As a last ditch plan, the F4 agree to take on the full power of the Other Fantastic Four, effectively doubling their own power. It works and they manage to take down Doom, in a manner of speaking. In truth, Doom has been spread about the cosmos, welcome to reform in any other universe if he should ever figure out how. In the course of the battle, the F4 died but the Other F4 revived them almost immediately so no harm done, I guess. After all this time traveling, the F4 finally return home. They talk with Old John Storm and some weird time travel stuff happens and he returns to his home dimension, setting off an explosion that distracts Doom the AC long enough to give the teams the chance they need to defeat him. It's a sacrifice that actually does cost him his life (for more than a minute, presumably) so the F4 celebrate him by throwing a party in the backup story, which finds everyone from the F4 to the FF catching up and hanging out before a final page send-off for the books and these creative teams.

It's the end of an era for the Fantastic Four as the current series ends. Although Marvel's first family will get a new book as soon as next month, it's still a giant era coming to an end as superstar Marvel editor Tom Brevoort ends his historic time with the title. There's a nice letter from him at the end of the issue that's worth checking out to get a glimpse at the man behind the curtain (who also has a tumblr where he answers even the most petty of fan questions with varying degrees of humor, brutal honesty, and "wait and see"s). As for this issue itself, it serves, particularly with the backup story, as a nice little ending to the series (I don't know this for certain but I wouldn't be surprised if the same backup story appears at the end of FF 16). The execution of the main story is a little lacking, with maybe a little too much of an emphasis on time travel to really work for me. People who have read my reviews of ALL-NEW X-MEN and AGE OF ULTRON and various other time travel books this year will know that I hold the "rules of time travel" in pretty high esteem. I don't believe that I do it because I think there are set rules that must be obeyed; instead, I do it because I think time travel is impossible to set rules to, which means there will always be questions that could otherwise be avoided. I think the "rules of time travel" are absolutely necessary because they're so ridiculously complex that it means any story involving time travel has to be so meticulously planned out that it can't be used lightly. Once the time travel genie is out of the bottle, good luck sticking it back in there. The most recent major example, I think, is probably Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I think Rowling did a good job to work within certain parameters of time travel and tell an engaging story but it didn't stop every single person in the world from suddenly looking at all of the events of the series and saying "well if a time-turner exists, why wouldn't you use that to stop everything?" In the case of this issue, there are too many weird little rules that are kind of followed and kind of not, like Old John Storm's synaptic-relay arm that transfers memories between himself and Johnny and that then he uses to know he goes to the moment in time when there's an explosion that distracts Doom and dies but how does he even exist if the F4 defeated Doom in that and, ugh, time travel. It's often just not worth it. Boy this went longer than I hoped it would.

Thunderbolts 20
Soule (w) and Barberi (a) and Silva (c)

The Thunderbolts have reached their destination, an old, abandoned research facility that fronted as a diner before it shut down. Ross leads the others down to the facility and deems it acceptable as a new base. Deadpool brings out the hat again to choose a name but Ross says it's time for one of his missions. The mission in this case, of course, is to take down Mercy. The Leader proposes a perfect solution, assuming they can enact it: send Mercy to Hell, where she'll have no end of souls who clamor for death. It's up to the T-Bolts to figure out how to actually get her there and Flash and Ross have a plan. They seek out Johnny Blaze, original Ghost Rider, and enlist him to call Mercy to them and then send her through a portal to Hell that Blaze will open up. They set up in the research facility and form a five-pointed star (Blaze would prefer a seven-pointed star but Punisher refuses to take part and a six-pointed star does no good at all so he and Elektra both sit out) and Blaze tells them that, if the spell is done right, Mercy will appear before them and then be sent to Hell. Everything starts moving and then the T-Bolts in the star find themselves in Hell with Blaze saying "Oops."

Another front-to-back really fun book. There are great little moments spread throughout, like Deadpool somehow managing to accidentally pick the "impossible to pick" sequence of songs on a jukebox that opens the way to the research facility or the re-emergence of his ridiculous hat or murmurs of a failed Hollywood career for Johnny Blaze after appearing in two terrible movies (I'd like to note here that a lot of comics tend to start drawing characters a little more like they appear in the movies, if they appear in movies, but I'm both appreciative and amused that Johnny Blaze never started to look like Nicholas Cage). There are also human moments throughout the book that really help establish character more, like Elektra's very human "at least we're out of the van" line and her talk with Punisher about why he's still with the team now that his mission has been achieved. This is one of those rare team books where I'm never wishing we were focusing on someone else; when the story calls on a moment for the Leader, I'm not thinking about the time we could be spending with Deadpool and vice versa, all over the team. It's just a really enjoyable book with a solid cast (I think only improved by Ghost Rider if this issue is any indication of the way Soule will write him) and a really engaging plot. I'm not sure there's another book out there more fun than this one right now.

Best Marvel comics of 2013 (part three of five): 11-15

Let's keep it rolling with picks 11-15.

15. Scarlet Spider

One of the real surprises on the list even though it probably shouldn't have been. Writer Chris Yost has an impressive resumé and 2013 saw issues 13-25 of SCARLET SPIDER so it's not like we hadn't had a year's worth of comics to deem this one "good" already. Even still, I think there's a part of me that still believes this book had no right being good. An evil clone version of Peter Parker flees New York to start a new life in Mexico and gets held up doing good in Houston with a whole new cast of characters doesn't really sounds like the best pitch. Yost never gave it up, though, and showed us what a well-written and well-established Kaine can do. The character was great, the writing was fun, the story was engaging, the fights were impressive and unique, and the ending was appropriately brutal for Kaine. After establishing himself as a reluctant hero in Houston, a city that apparently desperately needed one, and finding himself a slew of new friends in the city, Kaine's life was turned upside down by none other than Kraven the Hunter, the man who most recently killed Kaine, and things spiraled out of control quickly from there, culminating in an unhappy ending as Kaine finally reaches Mexico after all. Sad to see the series go, glad that Yost will pick up Kaine's reins again on NEW WARRIORS in the coming year.

14. Venom

This is another one of those books that lasted far longer than I would have predicted going in. This book kicked off a few years ago with Rick Remender at the helm of a Flash-Thompson-is-Venom story where the high school bully of Peter Parker turned war hero turned paraplegic alcoholic is called back into duty as a newly weaponized military-controlled Venom. Solid start to the series back then and Cullen Bunn this year managed to take the helm and still tell a worthwhile story with some worthwhile characters. As everything starts to crash down around Venom from his new home in Philadelphia, Flash is put up against challenges in the form of Toxin, Carnage, and his own demons. That's not a metaphor, he really did get his own personal demon fighting for control of the Venom symbiote somewhere along the line. On top of that, he lost longtime girlfriend Betty Brant and he gained new pseudo-sidekick Mania after he tossed some symbiote to her to protect her from the attack of his kind-of archnemesis Jack O'Lantern. A more angry and wild new symbiote-wielding character, Mania had the demon transferred to her and began fighting like the dickens (if that's what the dickens does) to avenge her father's death while Flash struggled with the morality of allowing this girl to be a symbiote and a killer. Nice book all the way around and one that allowed Cullen Bunn to play around a little in the Spider-Man world and come out of it with a successful book after all was said and done.

13. Red She-Hulk
For as much as I said I couldn't really believe SCARLET SPIDER worked, RED SHE-HULK certainly shouldn't have worked, at least for me. I was never the biggest Hulk fan (though my top-ten books to watch list early this year will describe my turnaround on the character) and I didn't know these characters very well. Jeff Parker, though, did a phenomenal job creating and developing a wonderful friendship between the rather new character Red She-Hulk and the older but not particularly used X-51. The two had really distinct personalities and their team-up came about incredibly naturally as X-51 was tasked with keeping tabs on Red She-Hulk and bringing her down when the Avengers decided she was a hazard. X-51 analyzed his own findings and decided there was something more to her than what the Avengers had seen and chose to intervene on her behalf, eventually siding with her in the fight against the sketchier branches of SHIELD and General Fortean. Really good characterization supported by an intriguing story that took the pair all over the world and eventually into an alternate reality where Betty Ross became the Hulk back at the test site when Banner should have. This series certainly would have ranked higher if it had continued past the summer but what we did get was a really great book that was able to very clearly do what it set out to do and tell a story worth telling with characters that mattered. Very fun book.

12. Superior Spider-Man

The way I went about constructing this list was to first list off every book I thought worthy of consideration for the top (then) ten. When the list got too long, I adjusted it to the top twenty. Then I looked a little deeper into it and started to arrange by "top ten" and "bottom ten," finally beginning after that to sort more directly within those lists. As we near the top ten, only two books have really switched sides, one jumping out of the bottom ten and into the top ten (to be revealed TOMORROW) and the other sinking down to number 11, only to eventually fall to number 12. That was THIS VERY BOOK. I really love the way that SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN started this year, giving us a look at the brand-new Superior Spider-Man, Doc Ock with the powers and (kind of) the responsibilities of Peter Parker. It was a real separation from the Peter Parker Amazing Spider-Man, someone who leapt headfirst into danger to help and save those who needed helping and saving, no matter if he was playing into a villain's hands. The Superior Spider-Man, meanwhile, plotted and planned, rapidly developing his own methods for protecting the city and doing it with such aplomb and vigor that...well, that he was put on probation from the Avengers. Regardless, it was a great new look at a new type of Spider-Man and one that Dan Slott really stuck with despite plenty of hate tweets and death threats (still illegal, you guys). It slipped out of the top ten with the last few months of 2013 as it started to get into weaker arcs (notably one that stranded Spider-Man 2099 in the present) and started to present more of Doc's personality than I think we really needed at this point. Still, the series never became a bad read, necessarily (okay, it got a little tedious in the late months there) and it seems to be coming out of its spin a bit but the first half of this year with the new Spider-Man really solidified its place somewhere in this list; then it just became where it would land.

11. Avengers

Jonathan Hickman has taken over the major part of the Avengers wing of the Marvel Universe and has really done absolutely phenomenal things with it. I said in that very same top ten list at the start of this year that I wasn't really onboard with what Bendis had been doing in Avengers the last few years (as I'm suddenly even more vehemently against the happenings over in the majority of the X-books now) and that I was hoping for a solid change out of Hickman. Well I got it and I couldn't really be happier about it. All three of Hickman's AVENGERS related titles (INFINITY, AVENGERS, and, spoilers, NEW AVENGERS) will have made this list when it's all said and done and everything about that part of the universe seems to be on the upswing. AVENGERS has been a really interesting book, one that hoped you'd be following along but wasn't ultimately too concerned if you missed a beat or two. There were a lot of really cool single issues at the start of the series to establish some of our newer characters (like Smasher and Hyperion) and eventually the whole series got wrapped into INFINITY and told the tale of the story with a focus on the fight against the Builders. It was a pretty masterfully executed event and all of the groundwork was laid here, in AVENGERS. Looking forward to the next movements by Hickman as the Avengers celebrate one of their biggest victories with no doubt larger foes on the horizon.

Thunderbolts Annual 1, Deadpool 21

Letting the quick hits roll.

Thunderbolts Annual 1
Acker and Blacker (w) and Lolli (a) and Campbell (c)

The Thunderbolts are secretly hired by WAND, SHIELD's branch that deals with magic, to assassinate Doctor Strange, who has apparently snapped and is making everyone happy all the time and whose influence will remake the world within a week. After gathering various magical artifacts from typically unwilling sources in order to protect themselves, the T-Bolts attack and start to press towards Strange, who WAND can't kill themselves because he's an Avenger. One by one, the T-Bolts start to get too happy to accomplish the mission until Punisher manages to make it to Strange and brutally murders him, saying that the killing is what makes him happy. It's revealed that Strange, of course, wasn't really Strange but was a demon from another realm posing as Strange and the real Strange shows up to help with the cleanup. It's not the only book this week that will find Strange interacting with a Thunderbolt!

Pretty fun book. There's a lot to get through in it as there are a lot of moving parts including the introduction of a new wing of SHIELD, the gathering of artifacts from people like Elsa Bloodstone and Valkyrie, the covert explanation of the mission (WAND high command tells Red Hulk and Leader what the plan is but makes them misremember how they'd come to it so they can't trace back involvement), and the fight with Strange, all in one extra-size issue. Pretty fun with a lot of really good moments over a somewhat intriguing plot. The best character bit is the fact that everyone else gets overrun by happiness but that Punisher's happiness comes from killing. Maybe not the boldest statement for Punisher but a nice statement that no one else felt that way. Another solid enough outing for Acker and Blacker.

Deadpool 21
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne (a) and Bellaire (c)

The cover lists Koblish as the artist but the interior lists Hawthorne and my comic list says Hawthorne so SORRY IF I'M WRONG. Anyway, Doctor Strange pays a visit to Deadpool's mind (I told you!) and tells him how messed up it is while also relating that it might be better this way. He also says he could do a soul trap spell on Preston but he has nowhere to put it once he has it. Meanwhile, the Preston LMD is running around committing crimes and answering online work ads because she just needs to work. Agent Adsit discovers it while trying to make his own Preston LMD to find Preston a new body and reports it to Agent Gorman, the jerk from earlier in the series. Gorman is secretly controlling the Preston LMD and, when Adsit tells him that the real Preston is still alive, he orders a hit on Deadpool for anyone who's interested. Crossbones strikes first to no avail but then the Preston LMD itself shows up to get in on the action. In a covert location, Adsit meets with Agent Coulson to inform him that they've baited Gorman.

Not a bad issue as things start to return a bit to form after what was kind of a train-wreck last issue. I still find myself mostly uninterested with the Preston stuff and I think that hurts the overall issue but they're pretty well stuck into that plot now so I have no better course of action for them to take. The mercenaries should be a lot of fun in this book as I maintain that the writing team is at its best when it puts Deadpool up against or up next to other established Marvel characters. Deadpool's team and any other created character doesn't really land for me but this team has a god history with writing for other heroes, like Daredevil, Captain America, Wolverine, and, most recently, Dr. Strange. Should be fun to see all the mercenaries up against one another and up against Deadpool. It usually is relatively fun when all the mercenaries are called to one location.

Superior Spider-Man 24, Scarlet Spider 25, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 8

Superior Spider-Man 24
Slott and Gage (w) and Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado, Fabela, and Gandini (c)

The Venom symbiote has jumped on to Spider-Man and Flash tries to call it back, hoping he can coax it back to familiar territory before Spider-Man loses control. Doc Ock, though, assures everyone he can control it and attacks anyone who thinks otherwise, namely Cardiac. He points out that, if he couldn't control the symbiote, Cardiac would be dead instead of just seriously wounded. Sound logic. He decides to show the world his control of the symbiote by tracking down some crimes and brutally and efficiently stopping them. In the midst of doing this, Anna Maria calls him and he hurries to her, where she's upset that she's damaged his relationship with Aunt May. He vows to take care of it and storms to May and Jay's, where he immediately begins yelling at her for bombarding Anna Maria with questions. She relents but things get crazier as MJ, trying to obey Carlie's wishes on her voicemail, goes to warn May and Jay to stay away from Peter and also gets screamed at by Peter, who reveals the Venom symbiote and leaves. MJ contacts the Avengers as Carlier, deep underground with the Goblins, gets sprayed with the goblin serum.

There's almost too much happening here. There's not and it actually works pretty well as a coherent storyline and as a good example of Doc teaming with Venom but, for someone trying to summarize, there's almost too much happening here. Still, the majority of this issue is dedicated to showing Doc Ock with the Venom symbiote and the effects it's had on him. Though he swears he can control it and loves the additional power it grants him, it's clear that he's extremely unbalanced with the symbiote. Well, more so than usual. He's at everyone's throat and his rage is bubbling at the slightest provocation. Calling the Avengers in on him is certainly going to shake things up as they'll be tasked with taking down Spider-Man, already a worthy foe, powered up by the symbiote, a worthy foe in its own right. Interesting storyline and one that lets us see a slightly different side of Doc Ock, or perhaps an amplified side of him. I'd like to, before I wrap this review up, thank my incredibly aggressive autocorrect for not trying even once to correct the word "symbiote," even though its repeated use is clearly driving autocorrect nuts.

Scarlet Spider 25
Yost (w) and Baldeon (a) and Sotomayor (c)

The final issue of SCARLET SPIDER fluctuates between showing us the immediate aftermath of the explosion in Kaine's hotel and his new life in Mexico with Aracely. He was forced to flee Houston after saving the lives of everyone in the hotel room and below by webbing them all up and webbing up the falling debris on its way to Earth. When he hit the ground, he was attacked by Shathra, the Spider-Wasp that has had run-ins in the past with Peter but who was posing most recently as Annabelle to get close to Kaine. She's seemingly unstoppable and ready to kill anyone in between her and Kaine, namely Wally who tries to step up and protect him. Kaine refuses to let it happen and unleashes Prey, who dispatches Shathra quickly and extremely brutally. Everyone is horrified and Wally tells Kaine he has to leave, promising to take care of the police in Houston but that he cannot stay. So began Kaine and Aracely's journey into Mexico on the hunt for her parents. Kaine is back to where he started, albeit with the addition of Aracely and a world of now painful memories. He doesn't consider himself a hero and he doesn't believe he can get a happy ending. Fortunately, it's not entirely an ending for him as he'll pop up again in Chris Yost's NEW WARRIORS.

Fitting end to a really surprising series. Yost has really nailed down Kaine's character through the course of this book and has been sure to never stray too far from it. He had given Kaine friends and relationships and grudging amounts of friendship but he'd never allowed the darkness in Kaine to leave him or for him to feel fully comfortable in his new life. There was always the chance that Kaine would pick up and leave Houston at any given second but there was also always the chance that he'd stay forever, making his eventual forced exit all the more painful. Even still, in a somewhat depressing final note for the series, there are fun moments here and there, including a moment where Kaine, in Houston, yells that he's not a superhero before watching his Scarlet Spider costume, still impervious to the flames that are hanging around it, float down to him. There's a lot to really like about this series as a character study for Kaine and the book ends in exactly the sort of fashion it should. You like your superhero books to typically end on an up-note, telling us that the hero has done may worthwhile things and has learned from them and made a better world for everyone else, but this book would have felt a little wrong if it ended that way. The truth is Kaine ended up being pretty right. Maybe he's not a hero. Maybe he can't have a normal life. Maybe the evil clone of Spider-Man was never meant to do more. Good series, solid ending.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 8
Yost (w) and Sliney (a) and Fabela (c)

Fresh off the disappointment of losing control of his reformed Sinister Six and the fact that his arrogance nearly caused the death of millions, Spider-Man is in a bit of a more somber mood than we've found him since the death of Peter Parker. After examining himself and being thrust into self-doubt (wondering how Doc thought he could have done any better than Peter, who constantly beat him, among so many others), he's decided he's going to go to the Avengers and hand himself in, explain everything, and hope that they can reverse it still somehow (which would be the absolute cleanest way to get Peter back). On his way to Avengers Tower, he comes across Namor, hunted by invisible-to-the-naked-eye Hatut Zeraze in the war between Atlantis and Wakanda. Despite his negative feelings for Namor, Spider-Man jumps into the fight (able to see the Hatut Zaraze with his lenses) and gets the injured and protesting Namor out of harm's way. They bicker for a bit but eventually sit for a spell under the Brooklyn Bridge where Spider-Man reveals his doubts to Namor and Namor laughs at them, reminding Spider-Man that they are always more important and more powerful than the sheep they protect. The Hatut Zeraze show up there and Spider-Man again dispatches them but quickly learns that these aren't actually Hatut Zeraze, or at least not authorized by T'Challa or Shuri; these ones have been sent by some coward wishing to use the war as a way to attack Namor. These fighters are actually robots with self-destruct options inside, options that will destroy the bridge if they go off. Namor doesn't really care, saying that the perpetrators will face justice at some point, but Spider-Man wills himself to stop the bomb, reminding himself of the promise he made a dying Peter. Namor shares a moment with Spider-Man, telling him that he's shown true bravery and that his display here was superiority. Spider-Man punches him and tells him not to come back to his city, emboldened by his recent victory and even by Namor's words.

Okay, of the three books here, this shouldn't have been the longest summary. I do tend to slip into longer summaries when I'm excited about a book or when I get really interested in a book. This was just such a case as I found just about every beat of this issue to be delightful and a really well-thought out look into Ock's mind. Take Doctor Octopus, a crazy megalomaniac who believes himself to be the smartest person in any room. Now give him morals somewhat based on Peter Parker's unflinchingly good guy mentality. Now make that ego solely responsible for nearly destroying New York City. It wracks Ock with guilt and doubt and it's absolutely a perfect and logical step. However, it also means that Yost may have dug himself a hole because how do you make anyone break out of that? Who out there can both be considered a hero and can support the way the Superior Spider-Man parades himself? Who can have that same sort of ego and talk him out of his perceived inferiority? Well, Namor, of course. It's a great issue with a great premise and near perfect dialogue throughout. It's a much deeper look into this character than we're thus used to and, maybe, than we've had so far. Even the ending, which could very well have just copped out and had Spider-Man swinging away while Namor flies away as grudging allies, is pitch perfect as Spider-Man retakes his pride and punches Namor before demanding that he leave the city. Great issue, solid art and writing and character.

Thunderbolts 19, Nova 11, Marvel Knights Hulk 1

Thunderbolts 19
Soule (w) and Walta (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The Thunderbolts are taking a road trip as they make their way to the next base. Deadpool is dead in the backseat (he'll be fine, he wanted it to pass the time) but everyone else is merely waiting out the car ride. Leader asks Ross for a cigarette lighter, wanting to re-center himself. Ross allows it and quickly Leader figures out a plan to dispatch with everyone in the van, including using his radiation emissions to knock Ross out before lighting Deadpool ablaze and using the magnesium in a road flare to neutralize the Venom symbiote while stabbing Flash through the chest, ultimately sending Punisher and Elektra to their death by directing them to save the others and tossing a bag of grenades in after them. He nixes the plan, though, when he realizes that then Mercy would show up and undoubtedly kill him. He also admits that he's not sure he's thinking clearly and that he's not seeing all the variables so he decides to wait it out, knowing that every team needs a leader.

Pretty fun little book. Despite it being a kind of "it was all a dream" issue, there's a lot to be gained. First and foremost, Leader seems to be moving quickly back to his old ways despite putting on a good show to the contrary. We, of course, have known something was up since we saw him willingly let Mercy out of captivity on the sub and force them to ground but now we can see his plans in their entirety and he's giving us a rare first person look into his mind and his plans and his goals. It's a very interesting issue and one that's certainly interesting to read even if it ends in the somewhat predictable "he's not actually doing any of this" way. Still a story that needs telling to show us exactly where Leader is right now and what he's thinking. Also, Gabriel Walta's first issue on the book brings some pretty impressive and very unique art to the series, not too far removed from Jefte Palo but also definitely its own style. Nice issue, great cover.

Nova 11
Duggan (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova's getting readjusted to his normal life on Earth and trying to get it to fit in with his life as Nova. After believing that he was going blind upon returning home last time and seeing bright lights all across his vision, he visits their family doctor who tells him it's probably just temporary blindness brought on by stress and maybe a little by any recent hits to the head he's taken recently. While in one of his classes, Sam realizes that the lights he had been seeing are a map. That night, he flies to the nearest light and finds a dead Nova there. Also there are a horde of giant spiders hanging around that he manages to take down one-by-one. He hears the log from the dead Nova and it shows him an even bigger spider who gored this Nova throw the chest. Sam figures it out just in time and flies up and blasts the giant one from the safety of space. Realizing that the dots are all dead Novas, he decides to go home for the night. However, new enemy Cadivan, apparently a hunter or gladiator or something from deep space has kept a Nova helmet just in case some others should appear for him to kill and take as trophies. Now his helmet has flickered showing that someone is still out there.

Not a bad start for Duggan on his first full NOVA issue. Little bit of a slow start here as we get some time with Sam at school and Sam still trying to deal with his father running out on them and his mother looking for a job. Still, those things aren't bad things to have; the best characters are the ones who are deeper than what happens under the mask, in the vein of Peter Parker or Tony Stark. It does feel a little like this book wants to create the new Spider-Man, someone who lost the man who initially taught him about power and responsibility but he's still left with a strong if slightly helpless role model and support system all while navigating the treacherous waters of high school. Sam's voice still isn't bad here; it's maybe not as free-flowing or imaginative as Zeb Wells' but that may not be fair to judge after one issue. Not a bad issue and retaining the solid art team of Medina, Vlasco, and Curiel helps keep the tone pretty consistent, as the art of a book has as much to do with tone as any other aspect. It'll be interesting to see how a full arc progresses here.

Marvel Knights Hulk 1
Keatinge (w) and Kowalski (a) and Filardi (c)

Banner is face down in a river as this book starts and pulled out by a woman who saw him earlier that day on the metro (they're in Paris) having something of a freak out. She pulls him out and sees that he's got gunshot wounds. The woman, named Dyane, brings him to her apartment and gets to work trying to fix him up a bit and letting him rest. He wakes later and the two of them walk about the city as he tries to get his bearings. He remembers hulking out at some point but doesn't know where he is or who he is. As they walk around the city and she tries to get him to remember things, two mysterious men in trench coats track down Dyane's uncle George and show him a picture of Banner, asking if he's been seen. George says he has and answers all of their questions without hesitation but they gun him down anyway. They manage to find Banner and try to fight him, trying to bring the Hulk out. On the orders of their superior, they both inject themselves with some sort of serum and turn into something like hulks themselves, wrecking their way through the city on his trail. Finally, after scores of casualties, they explode in a blinding light right on top of Banner.

The first image in this issue is a full page panel of Banner face down in the water and I got flashbacks to Keatinge's first scene back on MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE, which found Morbius chased through the streets and getting "killed" brutally within the first issue. Apparently Keatinge has something of a theme going here. This issue, somewhat unlike MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN and MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN, seems to be hitting some clichéd ground, including the face-down man in the river, the mysterious but helpful stranger, the amnesia, the trench coat guys, etc. On top of that, the art isn't bad but it's not as experimental as it is in the other new MARVEL KNIGHTS books which really sets them apart from the more mainstream titles. So I guess maybe this one isn't going to be my favorite of the bunch; it moved a bit slowly and you could probably play a drinking game with the beats of this book. If he has a memory of hulking out but tries to downplay it, take a drink. If he has amnesia, take a drink. If he inexplicably gets asked out by the girl who really knows nothing about him except that he ends up face down in lakes, take a drink. If the men in trench coats have sunglasses, hats, and dark motives, take a drink. If you're bored by the end of the issue, take a drink. Thirst should be pretty well-quenched by the end of this one.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 7, Marvel Knights Spider-Man 3

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 7
Yost (w) and Checchetto and Diaz (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Spider-Man's control over the Sinister Six has been removed and now he's indeed improved the Sinister Six by filling them with rage and unifying them against an enemy: him. While Sandman holds Spider-Man, Electro decides to try to use his own powers to power the quantum particle engine, which Spider-Man warns will destroy the city. As he starts to power it up, Sun Girl, thought dead, emerges and rescues her father, who had been thrown off the roof of the Empire State Building by Vulture, before attacking the rest of the Six to free Spider-Man. One-by-one the Six fall but the QPE is still detonating and primed to take the city down with it. Spider-Man can't get close enough to stop it but he is able to tell Sun Girl to destroy the device in time to stop everything. She does and everything is barely saved, but everyone knows this was all Spider-Man's fault.

There's a lot of introspection here for Spider-Man, particularly as he faces a foe he cannot defeat himself. Pinned down by Sandman and suddenly realizing the damage of getting the Sinister Six to unite like this, Ock has the time to think about the way his hubris caused all of this and to evaluate what he's done. Of course, it's not necessarily likely that this will change things for Ock as a person, but it is likely to change the way the world views him even further, given that the next arc is advertised as "The Worst Person in the World." It's nice to see Ock a little deeper here than his normal egotistical and angry self over in SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN. Now he can't help a new wash of emotions, from a mild shame to a mild surprise to a mild regret to what might be disappointment that NOW the Sinister Six are actually doing something with themselves. It's only categorized as "mild" in each point because Ock isn't exactly brimming with emotions at any point but mild means that he's capable of feeling some. Should be interesting going forward as we see the way the world turns on him now.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man 3
Kindt (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)

The plot to pit Spider-Man against 99 of his enemies continues as Spidey falls through the water from the plane to a submarine, where he's brought in and taunted by the Spider-Queen, Ana Soria, which creeps Spidey out more than a little. He makes his way through the sub and passes a number of his villains, including a despondent Scarecrow and Tombstone, neither of whom seem thrilled to be there or particularly willing to fight, with which Spider-Man is satisfied. Of course, that's not the case with Venom and Carnage, who seem more feral than ever. As they tear into him, Spidey notices a subwoofer set in their presence emitting a constant low pulse which is setting them more on edge. He destroys it and they start to control themselves a little bit more, enough for Spidey to move forward to Scarecrow and Tombstone. Once past those two, he enters the last room of the sub, where he finds Nitro strapped up to a bomb. Nitro, like Scarecrow and Tombstone, regrets his involvement and is sadder and more discouraged than ever. He talks a little about his past and his motivations in the past, as well as his seeming inability to die despite his wishes, but also makes it clear that he's not able to stop what comes next, which appears to be Nitro exploding.

Each issue of MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN has brought something new to the forefront including, this time out, Spider-Man's discovery that his villains here aren't necessarily here because they want some sort of vengeance on Spider-Man but rather they're not sure why they're here. Maybe they want to die and maybe they knew this part of the plan could lead to that. Maybe they were crazy and kidnapped just like Spider-Man was tricked into coming. Still, while the plot has enough going on to keep it interesting, the draw continues to be the gorgeous art that really flows through the issue. This is definitely a series to check in on and to acknowledge the art on. There's definitely a chance, as with all art, that it won't appeal to you or that you think it's being too showy or something but it's certainly with going to your LCS and picking up a copy and at least leafing through it. If it's the kind of art that will draw you in, you'll probably know immediately and you'll want all of the issues available, no questions asked. If it's not your thing, the story probably isn't enough to trump the art. Personally, I think it's really interesting and very beautiful but I can see this being one that really divides people into "ehhhh, not for me" and "oh man, this is wonderful."

Superior Spider-Man 23, Amazing Spider-Man 700.1

Superior Spider-Man 23
Slott and Gage (w) and Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado (c)

Flash manages to just barely escape Spider-Man's attack, wriggling free enough to let the symbiote grab one of Crime-Master's gas grenades and escaping into the crowd. Spider-Man is furious that he got away and dedicates his troops to finding Flash Thompson, on top of finding Goblin (which is already a priority). Goblin, meanwhile, has learned from Carlie that Doc Ock is now Spider-Man but still wants to know whose face is under the mask, something Carlie won't reveal. Yuri Watanabe has discovered that Carlie is missing and checks in with MJ, who Carlie's phone records indicate she had called last before her disappearance. They listen to Carlie's message (which MJ hadn't yet done because she's been busy rebuilding her club) and, though it doesn't say much, it warns MJ to stay away from Peter Parker. Back with Peter, Anna Maria is helping to clean up Peter's apartment and prepare brunch for May and Jay, who will be returning from May's surgery to fix her leg in no time. Who should show up at the door but Flash Thompson, needing a place to stay and hoping to crash with Peter for a little bit. This throws Peter for a loop but of course he accepts. At brunch, Peter tells Flash that they could use the same nano-based technology they used on May to re-grow his legs. Flash is against it but Peter guilts him into it, saying that such a procedure would help all veterans missing limbs if proven successful. They go right away to the labs and Spider-Man shows up to assist should anything go awry in the testing. They use a sonic imager to scan Flash's body, causing the symbiote to go nuts and leave Flash, where Spider-Man traps it and contains it in an old Reed Richards design. Flash warns Spider-Man that the symbiote has grown stronger since then and it quickly breaks free, launching itself at Spider-Man.

Plenty happening here to talk about. This is the kind of Spider-Man issue we've been looking for for a while. At every turn, something is happening, whether it's with Peter, Flash, Carlie, May, Yuri, MJ, Goblin, or even Mayor Jameson (who has hired Alchemax to make new Spider Slayer bots despite his recent history with them and his current "arrangement" with Spider-Man). The result is a comic that doesn't waste any words or any pages (though, again, with the Miguel O'Hara storyline, the Spider-Man team isn't content with hoping that we've all been reading and paying attention as we get a thought-bubble from Miguel to make a time-quip and an editorial footnote saying that Michael O'Mara is REALLY Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man of 2099. Speaking of, did he need to change his name? Like, that Spider-Man isn't around for almost 90 years, I think we can safely say that very few, if any, people know him in this world. Oh well). Of course, the Venom storyline takes precedence as it mostly directly impacts Spider-Man at current but you can see the wheels turning to take us through a series of these storylines all in a row. Should be a fun time. Still miss the real Peter, though. WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT'S THIS...?

Amazing Spider-Man 700.1
Morrell (w) and Janson (a) and Buccellatto (c)

A look back at our favorite web-slinger as we see Peter Parker, sometime before his fall, patrolling the city once more. He's out on a cold November night with a major storm set to come by any time. Still, Spider-Man watches over the city, not his normal quippy self, but rather someone who knows what he has to do for the city but wishes he wasn't needed. Not so much for himself, but for the city's sake. He saves people, he stops disasters, he beats up muggers, he stops drunk drivers, everything, before going home, knowing that he'll never have done enough. He wakes up with what seems to be a cold and lives his Peter Parker life, going to the Bugle to get yelled at by Jameson about how he's not getting enough pictures of the menace Spider-Man and to be lectured about how Spider-Man is, in fact, a menace. He visits his Aunt May, who comforts and consoles him, letting him know that everyone needs a rest now and then. Peter gets his as he sleeps through the night and most of the next day and waking to a world covered in snow, knowing that he doesn't need to patrol since the lowlifes will be taking it easy too. However, unbeknownst to Peter thanks to blocked communication, his Aunt May is on the brink of freezing as a tree crashes through her window. Spidey's sense starts tingling and he decides to go check in, just in case.

It's nice to see Peter back on the case even if it's a little hard to place the timeline. You a little bit get the sense that someone wanted to write a Peter Parker story but no one had any reason to do it, meaning that they didn't just want to make a special and advertise it as an untold Spider-Man story so, instead, they just numbered it and named it to show us that this is indeed the Amazing Spider-Man and not the Superior Spider-Man. However, the numbering would lead you to believe that this happens right around the time of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 700 (out a year ago this month!) and it pretty clearly doesn't. Peter still works at the Bugle, May seems to live alone, and I don't see a single Octo-bot anywhere, you guys. That puts something of a damper on things but not enough to diminish the bittersweet feeling of seeing Peter back at work and of seeing him having such a hard time of it, just being exhausted and depressed. The writing is good enough at these points, as is the art, to really make you feel how hard it's been of late for Peter and you're really hoping for some form of relief for him, something to make give him a break. But maybe not Doc Ock killing him and taking his body. Maybe not that.

Superior Spider-Man 22, Scarlet Spider 24, Superior Carnage 5

Superior Spider-Man 22
Slott and Gage (w) and Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado (c)

Flash Thompson is back in New York and on the trail of someone going by the name Crime Master, who he had recently fought in his own series and had rather brought his life to something of a stand-still. Meanwhile, Parker Industries has opened its doors and started work. Peter gives his first speech to the scientists (it's practically got super-villain written all over it) and meets with his Aunt May and Uncle Jay to show them around. He's called away from the offices (and from Anna Maria) by his Spider-Army, who alert him to Venom and Crime Master's fight. Venom has figured out that Crime Master isn't Betty Brant's brother, the most recent Crime Master, but some former Maggia guy who bought the name off of Hobgoblin and currently regrets it. Venom pretty easily takes this new Crime Master down a peg and the villain gives up when Spider-Man appears with a small battalion. But he's not there for Crime Master; he's there for Venom. Venom realizes that Spidey probably doesn't realize Venom's a good guy now and eventually is forced to show his face, revealing himself as Flash and hoping that's enough for Spidey but ultimately, this Spider-Man doesn't have any connection to the man and seems poised to kill anyway.

Pretty smooth issue, moves a little bit more quickly than the last handful of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN issues have and sets us up in a lot of different ways. We're no longer in the Parker Industries funding stages, nor in the doctorate-earning stages so we're able to move a little more efficiently through Doc Ock's newest plans. There's a nice character-defining line from Anna Maria as she points to Peter as someone who's quick to action, someone who goes out and does what he wants done and who takes what he wants taken. It's hard not to see that in stark contrast to OG Peter Parker who was constantly second-guessing himself and doubting himself on top of the difference in action vs. reaction we've talked about a lot in other reviews. There's also some more plot-building stuff than was highlighted above as Wraith discovers that Carlie's disappeared and her apartment's been ransacked with all of her notes on Peter similarly gone. She blames Spider-Man and vows to play as dirty as she thinks he's playing. Meanwhile, Jameson is sick of being under Spider-Man's thumb and supposedly has a plan to get out from under it. Plenty happening, plenty of groundwork laid for the next set of issues, and plenty of character development through it all. Pretty solid work.

Scarlet Spider 24
Yost and Burnham (w) and Baldeon (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Kaine still blames himself for Donald's injury and all of the guilt and the pressure he's felt from the start has reached its breaking point, leaving him frustrated and angry with himself, ready to throw away the Scarlet Spider persona for good. Both Annabelle and Aracely are firmly on his side but Wally feels differently, particularly after finally looking Kaine up in his police database and finding the laundry list of crimes attributed to him. After a long day of wallowing and being unable to burn his costume (unstable molecules), Kaine returns home to find Annabelle there, ready to make him feel better and taking a different and more sex-filled tact. While Aracely tries to not hear what's happening in the other room, she has another strange vision laced with plenty of ancient Central and South American imagery and claiming that either she has to die or everyone will die and the likes. As those events both wrap up, all hell breaks loose as Wally comes in to arrest Kaine, the real Annabelle shows up alongside a rocket-launcher-toting Zoe Walsh (unstable daughter of a Roxxon CEO who blames Scarlet Spider for his death but also has a thing for him from back in SCARLET SPIDER 7 or so), and the revealed-to-be-fake Annabelle transforms into a horrifying monster thing we've probably seen before but I don't remember off-hand. Amidst the chaos, Zoe fires her rocket, exploding the penthouse.

The final issue of Scarlet Spider, issue 25, is just around the corner and it shows here as the rising action really speeds to a climax here, bringing everyone who might want to have at Kaine together at once and then firing a rocket-launcher into the room. For all of its last-second action, sudden characters, and confusion, the issue does a really good job sticking to the themes of the book and getting right to the core of everything Kaine's been going through, perfectly summed up by the critical injury to Donald (WAIT, if Wally and Donald got married, would Wally become Walter Meland because that just came to me and I'll never be happy again if I don't decide that's what's going to happen). He's been going through a lot of this kind of reformed villain stress from the first moment of this book, where he didn't intend to be a hero or to stop in Houston and he can't help thinking about how much better everyone would be if he had stopped, unable to even consider that that wouldn't be true because Houston would have blown up like, ages ago if he wasn't there. A lot of really good stuff and the book develops in such a way that Yost and Burnham really get to explore that stuff before turning the jets on ramping up the action, which also has the added benefit of making the action seem incredibly chaotic and shocking the audience with how quickly it moves. Good stuff, looking forward to the final issue though also pretty sad that it's about to be over.

Superior Carnage 5
Shinick (w) and Segovia, Crisostomo, Ho, and Mexia (a) and JD Ramos and Lokus (c)

Klaw has been killed but it doesn't stop him from being our narrator for the issue. As a being made of pure sound, his death has transferred his consciousness and his abilities into the sound wall, making him a part of everything but with the knowledge that he'll continue dispersing, soon to lose his consciousness in the sounds. For now, though, he watches as Carnage runs rampant in his friend the Wizard's body. He outmatches Spider-Man and knows his secrets, he bests all of Spider-Man's men, he rips the legs from Malus, and he still demands to see his son. One of Spider-Man's men reveals that he's there and eventually Spider-Man is forced to play his trump card. To the Wizard's surprise, it's not Bentley-23 on-site but rather the "son" of Carnage, Cletus Kasady. Klaw explains that he's realized over time that Carnage feels the sort of betrayal a teenager feels, passed around from host to host, wanting to separate from everyone while maintaining some sort of link to someone. However, he adjusts it to include the fact that it's Carnage who has left his hosts behind, evolving and changing, but that he longs for someone he can fully control, someone designed especially for him, and that perfect host then is Kasady. Carnage rips itself off of Wizard and makes its way to Kasady as Spider-Man and his men use a specially designed gun to try to contain him. They can't get it running in time but Klaw uses his remaining power from the sound wall to project unbridled sound at the reunited Kasady and Carnage, allowing Spider-Man the chance to contain him. The book ends with the reveal that Wizard's dementia has stopped and, for all intents and purposes, he's doing better than before now that Carnage has seemingly fixed his mind to an extent; that Cletus Kasady's mind has been similarly fixed from his short time with Carnage, fixed enough at least to wake him out of his coma if not to make him less crazy; and that Spider-Man has Carnage under his control for now.

Solid ending to what turned out to be a pretty compelling and well executed story. I wasn't terribly optimistic at the start after the first issue didn't exactly win me over but Shinick had a story that was pretty good and clearly wanted to play with a couple of characters in unexpected ways, showing Wizard as a broken man who wants nothing more than to impress his son, showing Klaw as an extremely loyal and very capable villain right up to the end, and showing Carnage in probably the most complex light it's ever been cast in. Instead of a somewhat mindless and blood-thirsty beast, Carnage has a whole range of purported emotions that have left it an efficient and extremely calculating killer. There's a lot of really good stuff to this and the Carnage bent, not entirely unlike the Deadpool-based but rather silly series (like DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED, and DEADPOOL KILLS DEADPOOL), aims to continue, albeit with less of a silly tone than the Deadpool books and more of a "oh dear god why is this happening tone," with the next Carnage-based series (following up CARNAGE, CARNAGE USA, and now SUPERIOR CARNAGE) revealed as CARNAGE HOMECOMING. Get ready for a lot more Cletus Kasady.