Marvel's 2015-2016 in movies

I missed ALL OF THESE! Let's talk just a little about the Marvel releases since this blog went underwater (that's what happens when anything on the internet goes away. So many Angelfire Atlantises).

Avengers: Age of Ultron

This one suffered amongst fans and critics alike for, I guess, not being The Avengers. That said, I liked it rather a lot. It felt like a movie that knew its characters very well and created an interesting situation for said characters to deal with. It certainly wasn't perfect; Age of Ultron drags a bit in the middle and, likely thanks to the studio, ties its hands a little by cementing its place as a building block in the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than its own removed entity, but that's to be expected with such a huge franchise (especially given that the Avengers films will likely always be very concerned with building towards the next big thing). That aside, we got good characters in Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (whose introduction felt fitting for comics fans without being a carbon copy of the source material) and in Paul Bettany's Vision. Some good jokes, some decidedly fun action, and plenty of character development for a movie that would surely have survived on action and brand recognition alone (*cough* Batman vs. Superman *cough*) make AoU a very nice addition to the MCU. It seems like the movie's biggest crime was that it wasn't as big of a surprise as its predecessor, which is like saying that Aristotle was a real let-down when compared to Plato. I'm sure Marvel's happy to have both in its stable.

Ant-Man

It goes without saying that nobody likes Ant-Man. Like, it's Ant-Man. Don't give me any "oh, sure, Hank Pym is real plain toast and one time hit his wife, but he's not so bad" or any "Eric O'Grady sure is an interesting character!" Like, sure, Scott Lang is your best option; a good guy thief, jailed for trying to save the life of his daughter (the way more fun Cassie Lang who, truth told, is probably only in our hearts because of her ties to the Young Avengers), but saying Catdog is the best cartoon starring a cat/dog creature doesn't really scream praise for Catdog now does it? Anyway, all this to say that the movie was fun. Yup, that was a real turn, right? I have some complicated feelings towards this movie. I like Paul Rudd and I like his inclusion in this universe (after Civil War, I'm pretty sure we're just slowly morphing him into Bobby Newport, which is the best of all possible MCUs) and I thought the movie, while probably the most paint-by-numbers Marvel has yet been (which is probably saying something in its own right), was more than entertaining enough to merit a favorable review, it's hard not to see a better movie creeping in at the seams. That's right, this mini-review, which started with a rant about Ant-Man turned into a positive review about Ant-Man and is now turning into a glowing review about a movie that was never made: Edgar Wright's Ant-Man. Wright, as we probably all now know, was literal years deep into his Ant-Man movie when he abruptly was removed from/left the picture. Rumors have it down to Marvel's insistence that the movie tie in to the greater universe vs. Wright's control freak director personality, which has yielded unbelievably good movie after unbelievably good movie. Marvel's done well for itself since it hired Wright (allegedly) to work on an Ant-Man movie, so I can't really fault them for wanting to continue to build and to change their original promise to Wright (a hypothetical promise; it makes sense to me that they'd have offered Wright full control over the title before they really knew how big they'd get), but Wright is an excellent filmmaker and was a perfect choice for this project. Let him do what he does and get out of his way. You can still see very Wright-esque shots in this perfectly acceptable version of the movie, but those shots only let you see just how delightfully quick Ant-Man could have been.

Captain America: Civil War

Why even mess around? This is quite possibly the best movie Marvel has put out yet and it has absolutely no right to be. This many characters, both new and old, appearing in a film (some for only ten or so minutes) is a recipe for disaster, as so many examples have shown (WHAT UP, SPIDER-MAN 3 AND X-MEN 3?). The Russo brothers, though, have a story they want to tell and set to work expertly telling it and bringing in all the pieces they need to tell it most effectively and efficiently. The movie moves exceedingly well for it's two and a half hour runtime and every character gets at least a few good moments throughout. Special mentions to their treatment of Spider-Man (and the performance of young Tom Holland), which really defines just how the next wave of Spidey movies could turn out, and to both their treatment of Black Panther and Chadwick Boseman's stellar performance as the Wakandan royal. Excellent character work throughout with a few killer action sequences (Marvel has, very intelligently, made every single one of their characters' fight styles distinctive so it's easy to watch a longer fight sequence and still lose yourself in it) and a really tight, exciting, and, most important of all, different story launches this entry right up to the top of Marvel's best.


BONUS ROUND:
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

I walked out of this movie saying to my fiancee, "boy, Bryan Singer sure knows how to make a competent movie." I like the way this X-Men film series is going, but none of the movies its spawned strike me as particularly great movies. They are, however, eminently watchable. There aren't ever particularly exciting ideas (though one could make an argument that placing these movies smack dab in the middle of real world events like the Cold War and the JFK assassination and, just, the '80s, I guess is a decidedly compelling idea) or particularly outstanding writing. The characters who always seem to be the most focused-upon and, perhaps therefore, interesting are Professor X and Magneto, which isn't exactly a bold new direction for the X-Men franchise as a whole. This movie, for example, introduced Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, Psylocke, and Angel, to name a few, and yet I walked away feeling like only Professor X and Magneto had really developed as characters (maybe Jean a little bit, but that's starting from zero, where development should be easy). Granted, I really only find three of the characters I mentioned in that "just introduced" group genuinely interesting in X-Men lore (HINT: none of my picks are original X-Men), but still there should be more there. Obviously they're intending to build on those characters specifically as we move forward (well, maybe not Angel, there aren't many places for him to go post-Apocalypse. Frankly, I'd be a little surprised if they go back to Psylocke, which is a dang shame, but then again, she wasn't even British in the movie, come on), but this was the chance to lay a foundation and, instead, we got another movie about Magneto, Professor X, and boring ol' Mystique. Still, I'll put on FXX when this one is on, won't I? Just like with First Class and Days of Future Past (for what it's worth, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World don't get that kind of treatment).

Leftovers 11-5-14

To say that I meant to do more reviews this week would not be inaccurate. However, it would be typical. So let's stay away from that and just do these reviews literally as quickly as I am capable.

All-New X-Factor 16
X-Factor needs to fight off Sentinels to protect the nuclear football containing the launch codes. They succeed but tensions within the team (and within Serval) run a bit high. Still too quippy at key tense parts for my liking. Total Score: 3/5


Deadpool's Art of War 2

Deadpool's tips lead Loki to total victory over Asgard then inspire him to attack Earth before locking Deadpool up in the dungeon with Thor, only to have 'Pool free himself and Thor. I'm not sure why a Marvel-Universe practical adaptation of Sun Tzu is worth making. I like that cover though. Total Score: 2/5














Death of Wolverine: Life After Logan 1
Jeff Loveness writes a good story about Cyclops' reaction to Wolverine's death, Josh Fialkov writes a fine story about Nightcrawler and Colossus delivering Logan's sword to Mariko's grave, and Rex Ogle writes a perfectly sufficient story about Armor fighting in the Danger Room. You know these books, they happen after every comic book death. Total Score: 3/5


Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program 1

As the new Weapon X facility crumbles, a couple of experimented-on soldiers with various powers make their escape from the debris. With the leadership of one of the soldiers whose face is concealed until the last page, they manage to make it to the roof and take Cornelius' helicopter, wherein we learn that the concealed soldier's face looks an awful lot like Logan's. The genuinely surprising twist makes this issue somewhat worth reading, unless it was spoiled by some reviewer. Total Score: 4/5











Hulk 8
Doc Green is heading for Red She-Hulk, AKA Betty Ross, next. To make matters more personal, he knows now that Betty and her new organization, the Order of the Shield (from the last days of RED SHE-HULK), arranged for Dr. Leucenstern to shoot Banner in the back of the head at the end of INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK, believing that Hulk was to be responsible for an impending Extinction Level event. Doc Green actually harbors no ill will toward either and uses Rick Jones, who is actually loving his newfound lease on a regular life, to trick Betty into using the serum before Doc Green has to. Still some interesting stuff happening (even if it's been the same interesting stuff the last couple issues and even if it de-powers my probably favorite Hulk right now) but it continues to be hard to enjoy watching Doc Green. Total Score: 3/5


Legendary Star-Lord 5
Star-Lord has a lead on a bad guy group heading for the Black Vortex and lulls one into a false sense of security to get more information before unleashing Drax on him. Peter and Kitty continue to have a bad and boring relationship. Said relationship drags the book down at least as much as the story and as the villainous Mr. Knife. Total Score: 3/5


Rocket Raccoon 5

Rocket and Groot tell a story to a couple of camping alien kids. Well, Groot tells it. The results are rather predictable but astonishingly fun and still very clever. Excellent book. Guest artist Jake Parker draws all of Groot's story while Skottie Young provides the frame art. Parker steps in admirably and uses a style that is similar but obviously different to Young. Both work excellently. Total Score: 5/5













X-Men 21
Manifold Tyger put both Storm and Cecelia Reyes in critical condition before the other heroes catch up with him. They also learn that Tyger was working with the villains trying to gene-splice a baby out of Deathbird. Meanwhile, this story is somehow still going. It hasn't been bad, exactly, just slow and and getting more and more bogged down with each issue. Total Score: 3/5

Comics this week

Shorter week than last on new releases, which is pretty neat, but I'm not altogether too excited by the slate of releases, which is less neat. Should I maybe keep that to myself in the future? Feels like it gives away some personal biases that you all surely already know.

Amazing X-Men 12
I dunno, this one's been pretty neat since the inimitable Chris Yost took over. Probably one of the biggest Wendigo events I've ever seen. Anyway, it's been pretty cool and it's a short week and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to send in the ringers on this one (HINT: I rarely plan these out. This is what two years of this blog does to me).

Avengers 37
Do I remember what's happening in this series? No. Of course I don't. I bet it's related to AXIS? WAIT. I do remember, it's eight months later, Sunspot is pulling the strings on the Avengers and on AIM, which are both, suddenly, under the same umbrella. Despite that first sentiment above, I have been enjoying these issues. I just have a bad memory and it's late.

New Warriors 11
Beating out AXIS despite a strong last issue, NEW WARRIORS has been knocking it out of the park since its start and it's time (read: too late) to shine a bigger light on it. Know how I mentioned I like Chris Yost above? I really like Chris Yost and I don't understand how his books don't survive. They're constantly really well-written and a lot of fun. Also, the good will this guy built up from Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes might make him untouchable in my mind.

She-Hulk 9
This too is beating out AXIS since I remembered the last issue ended with She-Hulk preparing to defend Steve Rogers on the stand against none other than Matt Murdock as the prosecutor. Twists and turns abound. This is another book that's regularly been good but hasn't outshined a lot of its competition. Wrong time, wrong place, I suppose. But it's here now!

X-Force 11
I reread X-FORCE 10 a couple days ago and it was still great. This book has been one that I regularly reread and find myself enjoying even more, which should come as a surprise to my readers if only because I won't shut up about this series even on the first read-through. Maybe it won't be a surprise, though, because I also won't shut up about that X-MEN LEGACY book by Si Spurrier so, shocker, I love this one too. This one I predicted I'd love and features one of my favorite writers from the last year and a handful of great characters. Spoilers?

Uncanny X-Men 27, Wolverine and the X-Men 10

Uncanny X-Men 27

Matthew Malloy is still out there, wreaking some serious havoc and baffling the X-Men and SHIELD, nearby in a helicarrier. In an attempt to quell him, Rachel Grey creates a big psychic image in front of him, showing the X-Men and Avengers ready to fight him with Xavier leading the pack, asking if Malloy will allow him to rebuild the barriers in his mind for the good of the world. Malloy waffles between trusting him and hating him but ultimately begins to wonder if maybe he shouldn't be using this power to do much more. He sees through Rachel's trick and lays waste to the helicarrier, transporting most of the X-Men back to their homes (though some remain unaccounted for). Everyone is caught off-guard by this strange tactic but Scott Summers recovers quickly enough for Magik to teleport him back to Malloy, where Cyclops convinces him that he believes what Charles did was wrong and that he wants to help mutant kind, maybe the way Malloy wants to express his new powers. Cyclops asks Malloy if maybe he wants to talk a bit and Malloy consents.

The big plot development here, obviously, is that this sudden omega-level or beyond mutant is potentially ending in Cyclops' smaller camp of militant mutants, tipping the scales of the battle. I have my usual issues with Bendis books (namely some mood-breaking back-and-forth dialogue and quips) but my hesitation about naming this a good arc stems from something bigger here, I think. I don't like SCHISM and I don't like what's spawned from it. Do I think the X-Men probably needed some sort of a shakeup? Yeah, I guess so. Was SCHISM intriguing? Sure. I liked the idea of an increasingly more militant Cyclops and an increasingly more caring and protective Wolverine. On the flipside, I don't think it's carried well and it's clearly weighing on the writers at this point too. Obviously the added wrinkle of "Scott Summers killed Professor X" has extended the life of the split but I even think that's weak. Doing no research on the subject, I'm not sure there's a single character involved in these fights that hasn't been brainwashed or possessed or controlled or what-not. So has Cyclops been skewing another way for a little bit now? Well sure, I suppose people are starting to get more cynical of him. But should they erase their long history with him and his new people because he, very clearly under control of the Phoenix Force he couldn't contain and that they all knew he couldn't contain, was partly responsible for the death of his mentor? Look, I think not. What I'm getting at is that I don't think this whole antipathy between the two sides is warranted and that's entirely what this story is going to boil down to. I also have some amount of problems with omega-level+ mutants just appearing. ANYWAY. Doesn't mean this won't be an interesting story, just means I'm having some trouble buying into it. I also have been wanting to write a tiny bit about the ramifications of SCHISM for a little while now and the WATXM review should be pretty short so WHY NOT PUT IT HERE? Like that cover though.

Total Score: 3/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 10

Wolverine's ex-girlfriend Melita Garner visits the Jean Grey School to collect interviews for her upcoming book on Wolverine, a book that wolverine didn't want her writing but that Beast believes she should write, if just to serve as required reading for the students of the school. She talks with a number of Wolverine's friends and colleagues who all very clearly miss hero. She saves a couple of the big ones for next time, though, between Storm and Quentin Quire.

It's essentially a book of remembrance, showing how everyone is taking the loss and how everyone loved Wolverine. Plenty of books, I'm sure, will be doing this sort of thing over the coming months so I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to talk about these retrospectives, but you could certainly do worse than to read this one, which is sweet, moves pretty well, and highlights a number of different artists. Sometimes the switch between artists is understandably jarring but each section settles into its rhythm nicely.

Total Score: 4/5

Avengers and X-Men: Axis 2

Avengers and X-Men: Axis 2

Red Onslaught has waged an impressive war on the heroes of the world while kicking off what they've quickly dubbed World War Hate. His biggest asset are two Sentinels designed by Tony Stark during Civil War to capture or kill the heroes of the world he was then fighting against. Now, the Sentinels are staving off the heroes while Red Onslaught breaks down their telepathic barriers and disappears them one by one. The Sentinels handle the heroes, even defeating a good if very soft science (or soft magic, as it were) plan from Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange (THANKS NOVA, SCREWING EVERYTHING UP), leaving it up to Iron Man and Magneto (who is, understandably, not so happy that Iron Man built some straight-up Sentinels, even if they're not focused on mutants today). As Iron Man gets crushed by one of his own Sentinels, he sees Magneto looking on. Nightcrawler bamfs in to save Tony at the last moment. He wakes up the next morning to learn that the resistance is only him and a handful of others, who all get disappeared themselves in that day's fight, leaving Red Onslaught bragging to Iron Man about how he's the last one standing thanks to his own devices when Magneto and a cadre of villains show up to keep fighting.

After a disappointing first issue, Remender tilts the focus a bit, putting the spotlight on Iron Man's inner monologue, which goes into depth about his penchant, as a child, of discovering and recording the weaknesses and fears of his fellow classmates in order to exploit them later, a trait he attempted to repent for after he became sober, but something he never really stopped, as he explains. It's a deeply personal issue for Iron Man and one that really redeems a lot of what I didn't like about the first issue (not hurt, of course, by the reduction of double-page spreads and AXIS banners, which only appear on a couple of pages). It's a good story in the way that I liked the ORIGINAL SIN: HULK VS. IRON MAN tie-in before the end changed the story, a story that unquestionably vilifies Tony but also does what it little it can to explain it through his own problems. It's a good tact for the book to take. The book still does drag a bit as we see a lot of characters who have to develop their own voice here. Hard to really fault the pacing for that, I suppose. Certainly a more positive issue than the last one, and one that indicates things might be going somewhere.

Total Score: 4/5

Comics this week

Tons of books out this week. How much is there to love? I mean, not as much of a ton. But certainly some! Let's talk about it.

Daredevil 9
As anyone who's read this blog knows, I'm pretty into this DAREDEVIL run by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. The last issue set up the newest arc for this team (now joined by colorist extraordinaire Matt Wilson), an arc that will pit Daredevil against the evil children of the recently hit-by-a-bus Purple Man. Creepy, creepy stuff almost definitely coming.

Death of Wolverine 4
As I've intimated the last couple reviews that have connected to DEATH OF WOLVERINE, this series has suffered a couple of delays that have made the tie-ins a little less effective. The upside is that this series has been a fairly strong (and, perhaps more excitingly, quick) little event. It's clearly a big shift for the Marvel Universe as key character since his inception Wolverine will, if the title is to be believed, die. So goodnight, sweet prince. Hopefully your death will at least settle out some of these tie-ins.

Ms. Marvel 9
Just a fantastic book. I really can't stop raving about it in my every day life. I wish someone would help me because it's starting to really impact my relationships negatively. But I don't want this book to be less good, so I suppose it's a push.

New Avengers 25
We're eight months in the future and Black Panther is having a tough time. It's never easy to watch Black Panther having a tough time. We're lucky because he so rarely is. That dude knows what's up, like, all the time. But now eight months have passed and NONE of us really know what's up. All we know is that the Cabal is BAD NEWS BEARS and it's going to be quite the fight to stop them. That fight isn't made easier by the fact that the regular type Avengers are none too pleased with the Illuminati. So much happening in this series that has been so reliably good since it started.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 16
It came down, at the end, to voting for SUPERIOR FOES or voting for AXIS as the final book to recommend this week and AXIS left a bad taste in my mouth last week whereas SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN has not disappointed me yet. Or at least since the start of the series. That was like, a year ago, I can't be expected to remember that far back. Anyway, check out this series before it leaves us.

Further NYCC announcements

New York Comic-Con has ended, thereby effectively ending convention season for the year with ostensibly the second biggest annual con (though early numbers suggest that it may have brought in more visitors than SDCC). I've already outlined some of the news that came out this weekend (including the announcement of a new Squirrel Girl ongoing, the new Ant-Man ongoing, the creative team change on HAWKEYE, and the cancellation of FANTASTIC FOUR) but there was plenty more that happened (sorry, I had put off reviews so late that I was busy with those all day and didn't get caught up on the news until TOO LATE. I really need someone to pay me for this, okay world?). Let's try and go beat by beat, with our friends from CBR.

Hickman and Ribic launch a new SECRET WARS

Marvel revealed this weekend that there's a long-game in place for Jonathan Hickman's TIME RUNS OUT arc and that it will lead to a brand new SECRET WARS. Readers will remember the original SECRET WARS from the mid-80s as a huge crossover event (one of the biggest, if not the biggest, to that point) from writer and eventual EIC Jim Shooter. It was...you know, kind of cynical at the time? Kind of a big money grab. Also, I do not love it. However, you have to imagine if Marvel is willing to go back to this well, no less with top flight talent like Hickman and Ribic, that they have to have something more planned. By the same token, is anyone else a little event-exhausted? I sure am. And SECRET WARS, if it keeps with its history and even with its Alex Ross cover (at left), will tie everyone up for a little while so don't expect it to be a one-and-done kind of event.

News about Netflix's new Daredevil series

NYCC had the first significant news and images for the upcoming Daredevil series, set to premiere on Netflix in 2015. Included in that news was a first look at Charlie Cox as both Matt Murdock and as Daredevil (donning a JRJR-esque black suit that the producers called "his first suit"), Rosario Dawson's role as Claire Temple (billed as a "nurse who works at night" and critically important to Matt's story, though it also seems like she'd be a good low-key but important character/actress to tie the four upcoming shows together neatly), Joe Quesada's concept art for the show (seen at left), and a nice panel with much of the announced cast (with plenty more announcements made this weekend). All in all, it's our first real news drop since Cox's casting and it sounds like everyone is optimistic about the pace at which this development is happening.





Weekly WOLVERINES book set to hit in January
Following the death of Wolverine and the loss of plenty of his secrets, an unlikely team comprised of heroes and villains such as Sabretooth, Mystique, X-23, and Daken will need to work together to uncover some of those lost secrets. Charles Soule and Ray Fawkes will head up the series, which will be an ongoing weekly series sure to break anyone's wallet who even considers buying it. Though there's been no price point revealed yet, I have to imagine it's minimum $2.99 but more likely $3.99, given Marvel's current release price average, meaning a prospective buyer would be spending about 16 dollars a month on this book. Yipes.

New Marvel Cosmic event set to kick off in February
Did I say I was sick of events? I meant GEEZ, LET'S GET SOME MORE IN HERE. In a move not unlike the changing of AXIS to AVENGERS AND X-MEN: AXIS, short and sweet ominous title THE BLACK VORTEX will actually be named GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY AND X-MEN: THE BLACK VORTEX because somehow Marvel made a name LONGER than AVENGERS AND X-MEN: AXIS (am I just capitalizing book names or am I shouting, no one will know). The event will be bookended by two issues of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY AND X-MEN: THE BLACK VORTEX with multiple crossovers in-between. The event will move through books like LEGENDARY STAR-LORD, CAPTAIN MARVEL, NOVA, ALL-NEW X-MEN, CYCLOPS, and some other yet-to-be-announced books (money on GAMORA, in the least). Well. On the other hand, I'm happy to see ROCKET RACCOON's not on that list so if Skottie Young stays attached and sticks to his typical issues, I guess I won't be too upset.

New SILK ongoing announced

SILK 1 cover by Dave Johnson

Following the character's recent introduction in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, Cindy Moon, AKA Silk, will be getting a new ongoing written by Robbie Thompson with art from Stacey Lee. Thompson claims that the series will flesh out Silk and follow her "from bite to bunker." The new series is set to begin in February.














New SPIDER-GWEN ongoing announced

SPIDER-GWEN 1 cover by Robbi Rodriguez

A link so nice we used it twice. The hit Spider-Gwen from Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez's EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE 2 will be returning for a new ongoing in February. Latour and Rodriguez will return to the book, which is enough to make anyone excited, given the fun and the great look of Gwen's debut issue. Excited to delve more into that universe.













Juggernaut returning to the Marvel Universe in Yost's AMAZING X-MEN
Come January, the X-Men and likely some bad dudes will be racing to find the Ruby of Cyttorak, the gem that transforms anyone into Cyttorak's unstoppable Juggernaut, in Chris Yost's AMAZING X-MEN. The upcoming arc, titled "THE ONCE AND FUTURE JUGGERNAUT" will start in issue 15 of the current run and would at least seem to potentially expand the X-Men villains a little more than just Mystique and Sabretooth.

Limited series OPERATION S.I.N. to premiere in January
A new five-issue limited series exploring the Marvel Universe in WWII days is set to launch in January. Written by Kathryn Immonen with Rich Ellis art, OPERATION S.I.N. will involve characters such as Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, and the recently introduced Woodrow McCord (ORIGINAL SIN) fighting some aliens. I really like Kathryn Immonen and this will at least have a different focal point than most WWII releases from Marvel. Looking forward to Immonen's take on a recently well-spotlit Peggy Carter.

GAMORA ongoing scheduled for Spring 2015
Some news in that link just there about the new GAMORA upcoming, written by Guardians of the Galaxy co-screenwriter Nicole Perlman.

Also, G. Willow Wilson to have a four-issue arc on X-MEN
Same link, different news. MS MARVEL's G.Willow Wilson will have a four-issue arc on X-MEN starting in January with X-MEN 23. The arc will be titled "THE BURNING WORLD" and will kick off at a Burning Man-esque festival.

Women of Marvel variant line set for March 2015

Stephanie Hans' THOR 7 variant

Third time using the same link is purportedly the charm so here goes. Following the announcement of Phil Noto variant month in February (still excited about that), March will find Marvel releasing 20 Women of Marvel variants by such artists as Sara Pichelli, Stephanie Hans, Vanesa Del Rey, Jill Thompson, Stacey Lee, and Faith Erin Hicks. Pretty neat.













There was also a bunch of other news about things like a James Patterson miniseries, some STAR WARS bidness, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon, the upcoming animated feature film Big Hero 6 (which I think we can all agree looks great), and probably more, but we here at Marvels are focused on the comics and only occasionally on the peripheral stuff. Like how terrible the new animated shows are and how much we miss shows like Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Spectacular Spider-Man. Or how boring we find Marvel's Agents of SHIELD (though this season's debut had more interesting plot points than anything that happened last season). Or how interested in Big Hero 6 we are (pretty interested, you guys). Or those Netflix series that it occurs to me don't fall under the umbrella of comics but still got decent coverage in this here post. Look. Whatever.

Avengers and X-Men: Axis 1

Avengers and X-Men: Axis 1

Magneto killing the Red Skull at the end of the last UNCANNY AVENGERS backfired as it, for reasons unknown, turned him into the Red Onslaught, the Nazi version of X-Men villain Onslaught. With his already impressive power now made more immense, Red Onslaught is able to start broadcasting his hate across the globe, causing rioting and hate crimes everywhere. Iron Man, who has already built in precautions against telepathy into his own suit, manages to block out the Red Onslaught's telepathy to his team, stopping their inherited hatred before things get too disastrous, and leads the Avengers to aid Havok, Rogue, and Scarlet Witch. Scarlet Witch, though, has been taken over by the Red Onslaught and is nearly ready to convert the world to one where the Nazis won. Rogue, fortunately, whacks her out of it and then talks her out of it (being crazy, that is). Unfortunately, with Iron Man now onsite, Red Onslaught is able to access his contingency plans to defeat all of his friends if the need should arise.

Holy double-page-spread, you guys. This event officially kicks off (still with an extraordinarily clunky name, instead of the much easier name "Axis") with an oversized issue and I mean that in every sense. It's longer than a typical issue, it's bigger than a typical issue (thanks to all the DPS), and it probably should have been reined in a bit more. A good chunk of the first half of this issue finds the Avengers fighting some other foe and quipping and generally having a pretty good time. It doesn't really read so well, though, so it's rather a slog to get through it. Sadly, that trend kind of continues as Remender seems intent on getting out as much information as he can in this first issue, meaning this oversized issue drags quite a bit throughout, something you don't want happening in what should be the action-packed start of a new event. The story is compelling, though it smacks of a story of convenience, one created by people going "geez, wouldn't it be cool if we could do X or Y, let's find a reason for X or Y to happen." As a result, this first issue holds together only marginally well and the rampant dialogue and over-explanation drag everything down with it.

Total Score: 2/5

Leftovers 10-1-14

Alright, let's get right into it because you and I both have some Smash Brothers to play.


Edge of Spider-Verse 4

In an alternate universe, a creepy kid named Patton Parnel gets bitten by a radioactive spider and it begins to turn him into something close to a living spider. Patton begins to eat people, starting with his bully Gene and his Uncle Ted before really just uncorking and going for everyone, including his beloved next-door neighbor Sara Jane. Before he can capture Sara Jane, Morlun shows up and finishes him, though all is not well for Sara Jane, who has a number of spider eggs in her from a bite she sustained. Creepy twist on the Peter Parker origin story here as EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE gets a horror comic entry. It's certainly readable though the connections between this world and the 616 are almost distracting. Writer Clay Chapman clearly chose these names for a reason, he's not shy about telling us that this is meant to be similar, but it does border on over-repetitive, a forced wink and nod. Total Score: 3/5



Fantastic Four Annual 1
Sue goes to Latveria to get Val back but Val wants to stay and Sue freaks out and attacks Doom, who reveals that someone else is in her head and Val stops Sue before she can kill Doom and I still do not care one bit about this book. I really don't like any of these characters and again, the exposition here is just SO HEAVY (and not like Marty McFly's "heavy"). It's unbelievable and clunky and obnoxious. I also like Val in certain scenarios but you really have to balance out the genius with the child thing for me, you can't just have a precocious "spouting exposition" and "using big/formal words" child to illustrate who she is. I know that Sue has something going on in her head right now, but it's still such a terrible rendering of this character, a character that I just don't have any interest in reading, regardless of what's in her head. Total Score: 1/5

Guardians 3000 1
The Guardians of the Galaxy in the year 3000 (or 3014, to be exact) are under attack from the Badoon. The Guardians are Vance Astro, Charlie-27, Martinex, Yondu, and Starhawk and they have a refugee, named Geena Drake, from a Badoon camp in tow. They had met up with other powerful space entities fighting the Badoon in what was supposed to be a safe place, but they were ambushed and everyone died. However, there are issues with time right now and Geena seems to be a key to it. She wakes up 30 minutes before they all die trying to escape and she begins to remember, eventually picking up a gun and fighting back. Groundhog Day (the more popular reference) or Edge of Tomorrow (perhaps the more applicable reference), whatever you want to call it, that's happening. It's mixed in with a ton of exposition as if this is the only issue this creative team is going to get and they have to get everything out now. The only reason to believe maybe they have more time than they're letting on is that they won't stop saying made-up words and I get that we're a thousand years in the future and language changes but COME ON, STOP WITH MADE-UP WORDS. I really do not like them. They're always distracting and clumsy and obnoxious. Seriously, it drags the book down and slows the pacing badly, even when the exposition does that plenty. Total Score: 2/5

Legendary Star-Lord 4
Okay, we gotta speed things up again. Star-Lord tracks Thanos to the moon and wants to kill him, what with his guilt about letting him get back into the universe. The Mandalay Gem gets him to a point where he can kill Thanos but he won't do it because it would possibly blow up the moon and then the Earth would be in some real trouble. Meanwhile, Kitty's mad at him but he wins her over again, SOMEHOW, and Mr. Knife wants to steal a powerful artifact. It's hard to get on board with the cast of this book and this one just serves as another of the multitudinous books where I'm beginning not to like Kitty Pryde, who freaks out when Peter travels near Earth and won't see her (irrational and weirdly needy in their line of work) and then forgives him when he GOES TO EARTH AND LEAVES A MESSAGE FOR HER OUTSIDE OF HER PLACE BUT CONTINUES NOT TO SEE HER. There are things happening in this book but it's hard to really care about them if you don't care about the people involved in said things. And I don't right now. Total Score: 2/5

Moon Knight 8

There's a hostage situation in a building in New York and Moon Knight goes to put an end to it. He alternates between his three personalities, all of whom have a very specific way of dealing with problems, and eventually he ends up killing the hostage-taker, only to learn from the news later that the bomb the purported terrorist had was his company's agricultural accelerant that, though harmful, wouldn't have killed his hostages. Now, thanks to news reports of his brutal dealings, Moon Knight has been revealed and exposed as a brutal vigilante, all according to Knight's doctor's plan. There is a lot of interesting stuff here, particularly the multiple personalities we see and another look at Khonshu, but the overall pacing is a little slow here. It's a different sort of layout, almost meant to read more as a picture book than a comic, with dialogue (occasionally ambiguous as to who said it) and narration printed neatly on the sides of smaller panels. Although it's a kind of neat look, it doesn't quite hide the fact that there's a lot of pace-slowing explanation and prose there. Still pretty strong stuff and it's clear with his second issue on the series that Wood is intent on following Ellis' tone for the strong series. Total Score: 4/5

Silver Surfer 6
After a series of requests that try Surfer's patience, Dawn demands they get the best ice cream in the universe, leading them to Planet Prime, a planet where perfection reigns and everyone is the best there is at what they do and what they do is a very specific task, such as Banker One or Tour Guide One or Street Sweeper One. Their actions on the planet inevitably lead to Warrior One, the most perfect warrior, to attack Surfer. He struggles under the might of the warrior, nearly losing the fight, before Dawn tells him to simply remove the Warrior's badge, promoting Warrior Two to his spot and calming things as the new Warrior One calls for an end to the fight, but leading the new Warrior Zero to swear his revenge. As ever, the book strives to be fun and light and mostly hits, occasionally going a little far in one direction or another. It's hard not to draw certain comparisons to Doctor Who, as we have an extremely powerful and knowledgeable alien leading an Earthgirl around on a series of adventures but these issues are self-contained, typically, small anecdotes from a larger story and with very little ongoing drama. The smartest thing about this book is the inclusion of Michael and Laura Allred, whose art and colors grant this book the energy that they'd probably be lacking with anyone else. It's such a specific tone for this book and the Allreds make sure to convey that tone in everything they do. Total Score: 4/5

Spider-Man 2099 4

Scorpion, with a legion of Spider-Slayers at his disposal, is dead set on killing Spider-Man 2099, who he believes to be regular-type Spider-Man. He's succeeding until Miguel gives them the slip just long enough to have his computer Lyla turn on his regular clothes hologram. With no spiders to target, Scorpion begins to threaten the civilians around, believing Spidey won't let them die. Miguel tosses Lyla on to Scorpion's back with direction to hologram him up to look like Spider-Man. The Spider-Slayers attack him and he only barely survives, destroying them in the process. Meanwhile, Tiberius' captor dies saving him from the collapsing building, causing him to have a change of heart and not sell the Slayers to the warlord dictator, even going so far as to oust him with his own legion of Slayers. It's a very strong issue out of this young book, one that moves pretty well and finds Miguel using his smarts and his skills to win the day in classic Spider-Man fashion. The art is strong and the tone is right where it needs to be. I'll be interested to see if this book can fit in with EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE, where it's headed next. Total Score: 5/5

X-Men 20
The mystery deepens as hunters return to their original ship, forcing Rachel, Monet, and Psylocke to take them all down. They discover security footage in the ship and learn about Sharada Darthri, a being who seems intent on creating and cultivating new life, even if it's at the expense of old life (this may be a little vague and/or wrong because they still haven't actually figured out her intents), which is why she's so interested in the Shi'ar/Kree/mutant child of Deathbird. Under Darthri's command is SWORD's Manifold Tyger, who is directed to kill everyone at the Peak. He attacked Storm already and now aims to take out Cecilia Reyes. It's an interesting story so far, even if it's a little tough to follow, and the writing continues to be pretty strong here, though there are maybe a few too many asides and interjections. I'll be interested to rate this one a little more thoroughly once we've seen it all and once the plot is cleared up a bit more. Pretty strong stuff though otherwise. Total Score: 4/5

All-New X-Men 32, Uncanny X-Men 26, Wolverine and the X-Men 9

All-New X-Men 32

The time-displaced X-Men have been sent to the Ultimate Universe by the uncanny powers of a new mutant they overwhelmed because they are just terrible at this and why does anyone leave these dumb kids alone for more than even a minute? Anyway, Beast ends up in Ultimate Latveria, Iceman ends up with Ultimate Mole Man, X-23 ends up in an Ultimate football game and on the run from Ultimate cops, Angel ends up in Ultimate Savage Land with Ultimate Wolverine, and Jean Grey ends up with Ultimate Spider-Man, whose mind she reads to learn where she is and who escorts her to Amadeus Cho, who has been working with the portal to the 616 universe. Of course, it's disappeared by now and the original X-Men, already stuck out of time, are stuck out of their dimension.

On the plus side, now that the X-Men have been stuck out of time and space, there are very few places they can get stuck that would be new to them. Also on the plus side, the issue moves relatively well as the X-Men are separated and largely not back-and-forthing with one another but having somewhat terse conversations with the people around them. The issue also bounces around between the X-Men, who are inexplicably separated after they run into plot-device girl, so the pacing mostly keeps up. On the downside, though, this book continues to feature very few likable characters and very few likable plots. Doesn't really leave them in a particularly good spot.

Total Score: 2/5


Uncanny X-Men 26

Xavier's will has further split his X-Men, with Scott angry that Xavier was a hypocrite for not giving the extraordinarily powerful Matthew Malloy a chance to control his powers and everyone else angry at Scott for being a hypocrite and also for being Scott. Even though Scott doesn't want to, they go to find Malloy, running into SHIELD on the way. SHIELD saw the disaster Malloy just caused (perfect timing, Xavier's will!) and is on their way to try and take him down. Meanwhile, Scott's new X-team runs simulations fighting the Avengers in their Danger Room until healer Christopher muses (that's a pretty dope joke, you guys) that perhaps they're not the good guys if they're training to fight against the good guys, which leads to an equally dumb fight about the mutant revolution.

There are ideas here but they tend to be brought up and argued so clumsily (mostly just that every point is argued so immediately and so clearly ignoring other facts or ignoring reason for their own purposes) that it's easy to roll your eyes at them. I know that from personal experience. Obviously Christopher has the right idea (and whichever Stepford Cuckoo that says he should have picked up on it soon is right too) but it's a complicated issue when thinking about Scott's resentment that the Avengers haven't helped them enough and that SHIELD isn't really on their side and SHIELD tends to work with the Avengers so they may be guilty by association. However, it's brought up by a bunch of teenagers (and the thirty-year-old David) so it has all the tact and grace of a bunch of dumb teenagers arguing then all feeling like they maybe won the argument. That would then almost be excusable if that's not how the grown X-Men fight too.

Total Score: 3/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 9

Quentin Quire has seen his future and isn't thrilled by it so instead ends up sitting on a pile of money from the Phoenix Corporation and an insane amount of telepathic ability. Where go with all of that, plus a substantial resentment of Wolverine and the X-Men (the man and the team, not the series), but the Hellfire Club? He's now the White King of the Hellfire Club and throws himself a lavish birthday part that Wolverine tries to sneak into to have one last talk with Quire. He's found out and beaten pretty mercilessly until Quire hears him out. However, that doesn't go particularly well either as Quentin starts to command the partygoers, dressed as various X-Men, to attack Wolverine while Quentin responds to Wolverine's attempts, laying much of the blame for Quentin's future at his feet (and perhaps rightfully so, perhaps not, it's complicated). Finally Quire lets Wolverine go after forcing him to look inward for the source of the problem and revealing that Quire himself doesn't believe he won, just that Wolverine lost.

It's a tough blow to Wolverine, who has invested so much time on Quire and the other kids (which hasn't gone unnoticed and doesn't go unmentioned by Quire here) only to find that maybe they don't love him for it and maybe, if the future Quire saw is accurate, he didn't necessarily help things. It's a pretty good issue and like a lot of this series it's more complicated than it has to be, for better or worse. It's better because being a little more complicated allows Latour to go deeper and really get into some of the complexities of the characters, but it's also a little worse because it continues at times to be a little hard to keep straight (even writing the summary, which tends to settle out any issues I've had digesting the plot, didn't clear everything up nicely for me, but then maybe it's not meant to). Still, it's been as deep a character study on Quentin Quire as we've seen since his creation and it's not unimpressive for it. Also pretty strong art from Jorge Fornes throughout, and he's asked to draw quite a lot.

Total Score: 4/5

Leftovers 9-3-14

There are still too many books left.

All-New Doop 5

Doop has learned that his mother is also his father and it's shaken him a bit. Still, with the help of Wolverine, he's able to settle himself down and restore the story to its rightful place, even wiping the memories of everyone involved so they can get back to the main narrative and he can return to his place in the margins. It's a nice conclusion for Doop and there's a nice moment between him and Kitty but still the limited series remains baffling to me, even insofar as why it exists. It's not helped by how much I disliked BATTLE OF THE ATOM. Total Score: 2/5









All-New X-Factor 13
Quicksilver's press conference has shaken things up a bit for X-Factor as Polaris stands up for her half-brother to Harrison Snow and then helps him stand up to Gorgon of the Inhumans, who attacks Quicksilver as he takes Luna and Georgia on a trip to Pennsylvania. Gorgon is furious that Quicksilver betrayed the Inhumans and "stole" Luna away, though Luna stands up for her father. Though Quicksilver is prepared to accept his punishment, ex-wife Crystal shows up to calm the situation a bit, taking Gorgon home to Attilan and allowing Luna to stay with Pietro a little longer. Still some good heart in this series as the team begins to stand up for one another and as Quicksilver gets some more development to bring him back to a more respectable place in the Marvel Universe. Total Score: 4/5


Avengers World 12

The Avengers and the new Euroforce work together to try to battle Morgan Le Fay in her new City of the Dead. After a quick bit of origin for each of the new Euroforce characters, Druid shows up to aid the team. Unfortunately, Le Fay quickly kills him. Bit of a surprise there. Anyway, another pretty strong showing here as Spencer does some quick work to create a bit of intrigue for Euroforce, begging us to ask where they've come from. I continue to quite like Checchetto's art. Total Score: 4/5










Deadpool vs. X-Force 4
Deadpool has inauspiciously teamed with Hitler to help Talbot control the world in the present. At Deadpool's disposal is a special gun that will erase its target from all of existence. After some attempts to set the past right, Cable shows up to have a final battle with Deadpool and Talbot. As Deadpool turns the gun on Cable, Cable uses his as-yet unrevealed telekinesis to redirect the blast to hit Talbot, erasing him from all of time and creating something of a paradox but fixing all of the past as Talbot never hired Deadpool in the first place. Not a bad ending but not necessarily a series that I believe needed to exist. Total Score: 3/5


Hawkeye vs. Deadpool 0

A hacker has been targeted after stealing the HR records of every active SHIELD agent. On Halloween, he attempts to get help from Hawkeye, who mistakes him for another ungrateful trick-or-treater and turns him away. He runs into Deadpool on his way out and slips his flash drive into the merc's candy basket. The hacker ends up murdered by a pair of goons dressed up like Punisher and Daredevil and quoting patriotic aphorisms. Deadpool and Hawkeye don't want to team up to solve this murder and protect SHIELD but it looks like they may be forced to, particularly as it seems like they may be going up against Black Cat sooner or later. Pretty fun first issue here as Duggan and Lolli play with Deadpool's typical writing and with homages to Hawkeye's current series that mostly hit the mark. Could be a fun team-up. Total Score: 4/5




Legendary Star-Lord 3
Star-Lord has been captured by the Badoon and wakes up in a Badoon jail along with a young Badoon child and a spy. With some help from Kitty Pryde in the form of a hologram, the trio break out of their cell and head for safety. Despite a hatred for the Badoon, Star-Lord is won over by the young Badoon child who leads Quill to a nice new ship, which he uses to bring the child to the orphanage he robbed in the first issue. Next stop: Earth for a confrontation with Thanos. I continue to believe that this series isn't living up to its potential, which I think could be a pretty high ceiling. Instead, it feels like, as I said last issue, the opposite of ROCKET RACCOON, seemingly trapped in the Marvel Universe and too attached to the new mythos of Guardians of the Galaxy (complete with a terrible "OOGA CHAKA" reference). Give me something fun and crazy, not something that feels tied down. Total Score: 2/5


Punisher 10

Punisher is in prison after his last run-in with Black Widow but prisons mean very little Frank Castle, who quickly enrages the right people and causes a prison riot, allowing him time to go talk to an older man in the prison named Hector Ruiz. Meanwhile, LA has exploded in crime rates and the police officers find themselves becoming more violent in response, with many getting suspended as a result of their actions even as the Dos Sols prepare for another strike. Edmondson keeps the tension up here though this one is still rather a break issue, giving us a chance to settle back into the LA storyline after a bit of time removed. Strong work and I really like that cover right over there. Total Score: 4/5







She-Hulk 8
An elderly Captain America has gone to She-Hulk for help after a deathbed confession from a ninety year-old man questions whether or not Cap killed a man decades and decades ago. As She-Hulk attempts to take the California-based case, she runs into a handful of problems and concerns, only to have them reach their breaking point when she learns she's going up against friend and fellow hero Matt Murdock in court. This book continues to be rather unlike any other book out there right now as it acts as half procedural and half superhero book. The case gets more and more complicated but it's happening on a backdrop of excellent character work and really strong Javier Pulido art. Total Score: 5/5


Spider-Man 2099 3
Miguel O'Hara worries what his reveal to Liz Allan will bring him at work and learns quickly that it will bring him something just short of blackmail, as she requires he accompany Tiberius Stone as Stone goes to a war-torn nation to sell Spider Slayers to the government, despite his objections. Sure enough, as soon as the two arrive, Stone is kidnapped by the rebelling forces. Unfortunately for those forces, Spider-Man 2099 isn't the only protection Stone has, as the corporation had already sent Scorpion to help against the uprising and that the Spider Slayers are already active in the country. There are some interesting ideas here but it's so far a little hard to stay invested in these characters, as David insists we care to some extent about what Liz Allan has to say about things and about Tiberius Stone, whose survival O'Hara counts on for his own life. Certainly not all bad but also not compelling enough to differentiate itself. Total Score: 3/5


Superior Foes of Spider-Man 15

Shocker yells at his old team for betraying him but ends up, of course, betrayed again as the new Sinister Six suddenly finds themselves winning all over the place after a successful raid of Owl's compound and now sitting on the head of Silvermane that could make them heads of the Maggia. After a successful fight against some of their hired help, angry to be cut out of the deal, things seem to be looking up for the villain team...until Owl teams up with Chameleon to find Boomerang, Overdrive makes a deal with Mr. Negative to give him the head of Silvermane, Beetle gives Tombstone the info about the head of Silvermane, and Speed Demon offers the head of Silvermane to Madam Masque because she's hot. Still plenty of fun with a lot of laughs and some great moments, particularly as the issue winds down and we start to see, juxtaposed with Boomerang's pride in the team, the many betrayals upcoming. Total Score: 4/5



Uncanny X-Men 25
The will of Charles Xavier includes, as we learned last time, the fact he married Mystique but it also includes the revelation that there is an extraordinarily powerful mutant out there named Matthew Malloy who Xavier met when Malloy was a child and who he realized was too powerful to allow to continue his regular life. Xavier installed a series of mental blocks to dampen the child's power and visited him yearly in the guise of another child until Malloy caught on to Xavier's trickery and asked him what was really happening. When he learned, he wanted all of his memories removed and the mental blocks reinforced. Now, with Xavier dead, the responsibility of checking in on Malloy falls to his X-Men, a task that may be trouble as Malloy's mental blocks have been removed and the young man finds himself burdened with immense power. There's an interesting story here but it's absolutely buried under narration, dialogue, petty fights, and banter. Also, the story isn't that interesting, let's calm down, okay? Total Score: 2/5


X-Men 19
Jubilee, with some consultation help from Beast, manages to reboot the Peak's systems and repair the shielding while the psychics on the team take out the attacking Sidrian Hunters. Monet, Psylocke, and Rachel Grey take a shuttle out to the last place Deathbird had shown them in her memory, meeting up with a few Shi'ar on the way. Meanwhile, Storm tries to repair the Peak but runs into complications as she's already exhausted from the last battle and is asked to generate electricity herself (not the way her powers work) and power up the ship. She may be in trouble as the suspicious Manifold Tyger attempts to "aid" her while the psychics discover that Deathbird had been brought by the Brood to a place where she and other creatures were experimented on. Some of the experiments, sadly, are still there and ready to attack. Like the last issue, some of the ideas are pretty strong and the dialogue and characters are particularly well done here. It's a good story that's utilizing every member of the team pretty well. Total Score: 4/5

ALL OF THEM

Okay.



Okay.



Okay, so we're back. Apologies for the little break (I may some day take a bigger break but one that's scheduled and doesn't revolve around my axle breaking and my car needing more assistance than my blog). For some dumb reason, I still feel determined to review every book but we're all busy people, we don't need big reviews, particularly the Sunday after the comics have come out. Most of you may already know what books you want! So let's blast through this, super super super condensed version. I may not even mention creators...hold on, I'm getting a thought - start of the week, maybe I'll post all the creators on the side like how I post the new release comics. I gotta update the look of this site anyway. Any suggestions/comments/criticisms? Okay, we're wildly off-topic now. TO THE COMICS, wherein I shall strive to give the SHORTEST REVIEWS I CAN POSSIBLY GIVE.


All-New Invaders 9

The Invaders have been caught off-guard by a bunch of Deathloks and their master, thanks to some sort of AI controlling device, is revealed to be a Martian. The book continues to be horribly slow, to over-explain everything, and to, presumably as an effect of the previous two clauses, seeming have no tension to it. Total Score: 2/5


All-New Ultimates 7
The Ultimates follow Crossbones into the sewers where they run across deformed fellow experiments of Roxxon who have been left there along with a pile of bodies. Geez, now they have to deal with Roxxon and a protracted and uninteresting gang war? This continues to be protracted and uninteresting, though at least something happened this time. Total Score: 2/5


All-New X-Men 31
While the adult X-Men are out of town to figure out Xavier's will, the ANXM find a new mutant named Carmen who can open portals to other dimensions and, in their attempt to help her understand, she sends them off to different universes, namely, it seems, the Ultimate Universe. Wasn't AGE OF ULTRON supposed to knock off this cross-universe business? Didn't BENDIS write that? How many loopholes can we create WITHIN TWO YEARS? What is HAPPENING? Total Score: 2/5


Amazing Spider-Man 1.4
Clash has made something of a name for himself but he's only doing so in comparison to Spider-Man, which enrages him. Finally Spidey invents something that should negate Clash a bit and uses it when Clash attacks the Daily Bugle (they all come there eventually) but Clash breaks it, leading Jonah to call him a real threat and Spider-Man the knock-off, to Clash's delight. Getting a little sick of all of Spider-Man's villains being crazy and wanting attention, is anyone else feeling that way? Total Score: 2/5


Avengers 34

How are we still not out of the As yet? Okay. Captain America gets brought by Iron Lad to the end of time where Iron Lad, Immortus, and Kang tell Cap he has to remain there so he doesn't interfere with events on current Earth that could lead to the end of days. Cap, of course, doesn't take that well and gets the time gem once more, going back to the present and preparing the Avengers for an assault on the Illuminati. Really interesting point to have reached and there's a great classic Cap speech in the middle of all this. Total Score: 4/5


Avengers Undercover 9
The Avengers and other gathered heroes descend on The Pit to attack Zemo and free the former students only to be trapped in The Pit while Zemo and his army attacks the rest of Earth, starting with SHIELD. The bait-and-switch worked pretty well, but it didn't account for Cammi, who broke out of her prison and has the drop on Zemo and his lieutenants. More strong stuff from this series which has reached its sadly penultimate issue. Total Score: 4/5


Cyclops 4
Cyclops and Corsair are running short on Corsair's life-saving medicine, a fate to which Corsair is resigned but about which Cyclops is angry. Corsair has set about trying to teach Cyclops to fight and to live off the land while awaiting rescue but Cyclops has already started to give up hope. Corsair tells him that hope is the difference between the Scott he knew and the Scott on Earth now, that the current Cyclops lost all hope. Not wanting to be that guy, young Cyclops sets about trying to fix the tracking unit the bounty hunters attached to Corsair's ship, which will provide rescue but in the form of bounty hunters. Some solid character work here from Rucka and a nice quiet issue before guns presumably start blazing again. Cyclops and Corsair's relationship is the driving force of this young book and it's well done here. Total Score: 4/5


Fantastic Four 9
Reed has started work with John Eden (ugh) while Johnny is depressed in the Manhattan upper class, Sue frets about the kids, and Thing finds out that She-Thing runs the prison and has an axe to grind with him. I don't know much about Fantastic Four history because I largely don't care about the F4 but She-Thing? Is that what we've chosen to dig up as Thing's greatest foe? There's finally hint of a greater scheme at work behind everything happening but I still refuse to buy plenty of what's happened so I'm unimpressed by a clear hand steering things. Total Score: 2/5


Guardians of the Galaxy 18
Gamora kidnaps Peter Quill and brings him to an interrogation chamber unbeknownst to the rest of the team, where she asks him about what happened in the Cancerverse that allowed he, Thanos, and a living Drax to return. Part one of the story involves Star-Lord and Nova attempting to nobly sacrifice themselves to see Thanos forever trapped but Thanos making a solid argument to Star-Lord about why he should hand over the cosmic cube he's holding. Not much substance, as yet, to this story that should explain some things. McGuinness' art is strong, though, so it's certainly readable. It would be more readable if there wasn't so much quipping in the CANCERVERSE. Total Score: 3/5


Inhuman 4

Medusa has set up New Attilan on the ground near New York and opened it to the public. Thor comes to hang out with her as she explains her reasons for doing so, which are mostly to build relationships and alliances while showing the Inhumans are nothing to fear. However, assassins try to kill her, wounding her handmaiden Elejea in the process. Thor delivers the assassins to Medusa, who learns they are Nuhumans (the convenient term for new Inhumans) angry that they're now different. She offers them a place in her kingdom or the opportunity to leave unharmed and without resistance, showing the people how peaceful and reasonable she can be. Meanwhile, a new and mysterious character named The Reader saves a Nuhuman in China. Plenty happening in this book and Soule is doing a solid job to really make this start feeling like its own culture and own big world, which is very important. Stegman also does really impressive work on these pages. Total Score: 5/5


Original Sin 5.4 - Thor and Loki
As Loki leads the Angels to attack Asgard, Thor summons the storm to him and annihilates his prison, breaking out and immediately wreaking havoc on Heven. Loki does indeed bring the Angels to Asgard but neglects to mention that all the Asgardians live now in Asgardia and that only Odin and The Serpent are in Asgard, finally rousing Odin back to action. Not a terrible little issue though it does drag a little at parts and sometimes the often flowery Asgardian English confuses where it should just push forward. Mostly strong work. Total Score: 4/5


Savage Hulk 3
Jean has the power of the Hulk and seemingly Hulk-strength telepathy now but...wait, it's just a dream of Xavier's as his mind has been manipulated by...wait, it's all happening in Banner's head and the Leader is there with bombs strapped to everyone suddenly and he's ready to detonate Xavier's if he even tries to get into his own mind and...look, I'm not sure what's happening here but I am sure that I'm almost entirely disinterested in it and it still moves slowly, even with a plot that's clearly ramping up. Total Score: 2/5


Silver Surfer 5
It turns out that the barrier around Earth isn't actually real, it's in Surfer's head courtesy of a nearby slumbering Lord of Nightmares. Everyone on Earth has fallen asleep except for Dawn Greenwood, who is drifting off, and it's given the Lord of Nightmares the power, thanks to a rare alignment of the planets, to essentially keep everyone asleep and in nightmares forever if Dawn, Surfer, Hulk, and Dr. Strange don't stop him, which they eventually manage. There's a lot of interesting art and ideas but this one feels a little bogged down by how much Slott wants to do and by this strange mythology. Dawn eventually, I should mention, realizes that she wants to see more of the universe and goes with Surfer. Total Score: 3/5


Thunderbolts 30
Punisher and Elektra fight while the two reminisce, both in their heads and out loud, about their times together. Elektra is a far better fighter than Punisher and doesn't really let him get a moment to rest, but even when he finally does get her pinned, he can't bring himself to kill her and the two separate less than amicably but also with neither dead. As Hawkeye relates everything he's figured out to Iron Man, particularly about the terribleness of the new Thunderbolts team, Punisher calls Red Hulk and tells him that he's next. A pretty good fight scene carries this rather nice break-up issue as the weird relationship that was Elektra and Punisher comes to an end. Total Score: 3/5


Uncanny Avengers 23
The Unity Squad needed a bit of time to recover from everything that's happened, so Janet and Scarlet Witch return finally to everyday life from Janet's family's secluded vacation home to try to put their lives back in order again. Anyone that needed healing or examination was placed in a healing chamber for Hank McCoy to study or heal, though Sunfire remains imbued with tremendous power, Havok's face will never heal again, and Rogue still has Wonder Man in her brain (no one really came out of this alright). Rogue goes a little crazy as the voices and memories she thought she expelled from her brain take over again and she runs rampant through New York until Scarlet Witch catches up to her and swears she'll help her. Meanwhile, Red Skull prepares his next major strike along with Kang's recent right-hand man Ahab. Lots of set-up for the upcoming AXIS and some good closer from the last very long arc make this one a worthwhile read, but not one that feels totally necessary to continue the story. Total Score: 4/5


Wolverine 12

It's another fight in a mall and Wolverine decries Sabretooth's hypocrisy while Sabretooth decries Wolverine's use of armor and they fight and eventually Wolverine powers through his crappy dialogue and narration to defeat Sabretooth and they get the orb back and Death is like "hey Wolvy, see ya soon, like in September's DEATH OF WOLVERINE mini-series!" and I'm just glad another heavy-handed but ultimately ineffective WOLVERINE volume has come to a close and I'm looking forward to Charles Soule's spin. Total Score: 2/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 8
Wolverine and Storm have a date in The World, where time moves differently. They end up staying there a while longer, spending a great deal of time building a life, overthrowing a warlord born of the old Weapon Plus program, and stabilizing the region. They leave after a year with Storm leaving as the queen and Logan as the inspiration for a school and so forth, their love for each other deepened but still unable to overcome their responsibilities with the X-Men. It's not a bad issue and the time jumps make it move quickly enough and stay interesting. It's also the first time in the few years that they've had this on-and-off relationship between Wolverine and Storm where I've felt like maybe it wasn't just something the writers wanted to make work, maybe it is something that can happen in this world. Nicely done, Latour. Total Score: 4/5


GUYS, I DID IT. Why isn't everyone praising me ALREADY?

Comics this week

Okay, we're going to switch it up because I'm not super-duper thrilled about the books out this week. I don't love going negative buuuuuuuuuuut, after some ridiculous amount of these posts, I'm going to mention the five books I'm least excited about because I think I can reach five without stretching, which I'm not sure I could do going the normal way. Sorry pals who don't like when I get negative. Just know, as is the nature of comics, any one of these could be great this week. I'm just not thrilled with them ahead.

All-New Invaders 9
Have I mentioned that I really love the Invaders and I'm really sad by how much I don't like this book? Because that certainly is the case. We'll see as they enter their third arc if things have changed any for this book.

All-New Ultimates 7
I had to read one of these last week! Why is there another one so soon? Maybe releasing them back to back means they won't have to spend most of the issue recapping who all these meaningless and uninteresting characters are.

All-New X-Men 31
Geez, we're three-fifths of the way into this post and we're STILL stuck in the ALL-NEW section. I've been against this book from its very premise so maybe some people have already written off my opinion (teamed also with my typical dislike for series writer Brian Michael Bendis) but if that's true, why do you keep coming back? Look, now I'm not just negative, I'm openly confrontational and argumentative. Feh. What did I hope to accomplish with this post?

Savage Hulk 3
Are we still in the first arc or did we get past that? I honestly can't remember. I certainly have not enjoyed this series as it's started, though I think there's still hope for a book like this one. I've just been real bored to this point, am I right?

Wolverine 12
Perhaps a controversial pick as Paul Cornell's second WOLVERINE series comes to a close and we prepare to move forward to the DEATH OF WOLVERINE mini-series but that doesn't mean I'm willing to forgive this last issue. Maybe my point for this post was just to include books that will likely never make it on to a typical pre-game post. Hey all you books, you can all try to be a DEADPOOL and turn around enough to at least be in consideration.

Leftovers 8-13-14 PART TWO

Alright, let's try this again and hope this is the conclusion of this two part arc on the blog. I can DO IT.

Nightcrawler 5
Claremont (w) and Nauck (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Sabino (l)

Total Score: 2/5

Nightcrawler is sad about Amanda and sad that the X-Men appear to be in such disarray but sometimes you just gotta grit your teeth and move on, so Kurt accepts a job at the Jean Grey school teaching whatever he can. For his first teaching assignment, he leads a handful of students in Danger Room exercises. Later that night, he takes the Blackbird out for a spin along with bug-like student Rico, who bonds with Nightcrawler over scary physical mutations. While out, Storm sends them to find a new potential student, a genius girl named Ziggy Kurst (??) but, unbeknownst to the X-Men, Ziggy has already been targeted by a group of aliens looking to profit off the girl's potential. Claremont's strength was always in building characters even in the midst of big, sweeping stories. Let's hope that strength comes to bear here as he's re-energizing the reborn Nightcrawler but the plots and the ancillary characters have left me less than interested.

Brief detour here just to note that if all goes well, I'll be finishing up this post today but I'm hoping to go even faster as I'm only able to keep working on this today because I'm out sick from work but ALSO I'm sick so lucidity might be right out the window and staring at a small computer screen almost certainly is.

Nova Special 1
Ryan (w) and Timms (p) and Poggi (i) and Redmond (c) and Cowles (l)

So this story continues as the bounty hunter Monark Starstalker has kidnapped Cyclops, who turns out to be the wrong Summers brother, and asks Nova's help to smooth things over with the man for whom Scott was kidnapped. Meanwhile, Scott's students try to track their teacher and Iron Man tries to track the kids who tricked and evaded him. The story ends up being better and more fun than I had expected though I can't help but still feel like it's a bit of a strange choice as some weird characters get teamed up here. Still decent fun and solid writing and art propel this one high enough that it's worth a read if you're interested in any or all of these characters. Total Score: 4/5


Spider-Man 2099 2
David (w) and Sliney (a) and Fabela (c) and Caramagna (l)

Miguel has been trying his hand at the heroing business in the present and finds the same sort of ease with street criminals and the same sort of anger with cops as the modern Spider-Man. He also deduces that his building's super is sick and boss Liz Allan deduces that he's the Spider-Man who "broke into" Alchemax, though he convinces her he's just a man from the future hoping to investigate Alchemax at its roots. She kisses him and leaves. There are bits and pieces of this issue and, so far, of this series that are interesting but there are plenty that are predictable and uninspired. I like Peter David and I think his strengths tend to be in dialogue, though his habit of tongue-in-cheek winks to the audience about the comic format (referencing how often people die and come back, pop culture references, and mentions of superhero tropes in casual conversation) do tend to wear a little thin, particularly, for some reason, here. Total Score: 3/5



Thunderbolts 29
Acker and Blacker (w) and Jacinto (a) and Silva (c) and Sabino (l)

Punisher is still pretty mad about the assassination attempt on him (here we learn that everything in his safehouses is bomb- and bullet-proof so the mini-fridge in which the bomb was placed softened the blow) and takes it out on the team by tracking and destroying each member. First is Deadpool, who he cuts up and places in jars despite Deadpool's protests that he quit the team. He also has a long and impressive battle with Ghost Rider that ends a little differently than Frank would like as he frees Ketch of the Spirit of Vengeance, but it works well enough as the threat is removed. Finally, Elektra tries to talk to him but it seems Punisher isn't in the mood to talk. MEANWHILE, Hawkeye keeps his search up. This is really an extreme Punisher story as we learn that Frank has long been planning, as you would assume, the ways to kill his teammates and now starts to enact his plots. Some cool stuff and a fun twist on the Ghost Rider fight but the end of the series looms large over this one. Total Score: 4/5


Ultimate FF 6
Fialkov and S. Moore (s) and S. Moore (w) and Araujo (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Sabino (l)

Sue is having baby as a portal to a dangerous world opens outside her hospital room. The thought is that it's the baby of Sue and Reed, as recommended by Miles Morhames to save their universe, but Sue reveals once the little girl is born that it is, in fact, boyfriend Ben's child, which Reed helped to obtain and artificially Sue with. Not a way to make that sentence sound good. Anyway, they fight off the aliens and then the series ends. I feel bad for Fialkov, who I think has largely done well in his time with Marvel, that the series ended so abruptly here before he could really get into the crazy designs he seemed to have. Still, not a particularly strong series. Total Score: 2/5


Wolverine 11
Cornell (w) and Woods (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Wolverine strikes Sabretooth's compound with SHIELD's help as Sabretooth prepares to start his new world with the help of the orb. Wolverine breaks out Lost Boy and Pinch and together they catch and interrogate Mystique before knocking her unconscious. In pursuit of Sabretooth, Lost Boy and Pinch get trapped behind a forcefield as Wolverine moves on to his final test, another friggin mall. I think there's stuff in this series and in the last that could work if it wasn't so incredibly full of itself. This one is complete with, as the mall is revealed, a sudden and inexplicable narrator announcing dramatically the "zen joke" of the mall. I also really hate this Sabretooth, which negates pretty much this entire series for me. Could he use an update after decades of pretty much being a one-note act? Sure. Is it weird businessman with a sense of irony/humor? Nope. Total Score: 2/5




Wolverine and the X-Men 7
Latour (w) and Veltri, Deering, and Messina (a) and Silva and B. Smith (c) and Cowles (l)

Wolverine's ex-girlfriend Melita Garner wants to write a book about her old boyfriend, hoping to show a human element to him as opposed to just some cartoon monster and is undeterred even when she's given a cease and desist by Wolverine's lawyer Daredevil. She explains what she wants to do and he goes to present the case to Wolverine, also telling him that he can't live in fear. The speech at least works to the extent that Logan calls Storm to ask her on a date. Meanwhile, Idie sulks about what she's seen and Fantomex wonders who the Jean Grey School's enemies will fear with a powerless Wolverine. Plenty going on here and lots of places for the book to go as it focuses on Wolverine and his story but certainly keeps a light on the rest of the school. The art changes with just about each scene change and sometimes it works well and sometimes it falls a little flat. Not a bad book but certainly not a great one either. Total Score: 3/5


X-Force 8
Spurrier (w) and Kim (a and c) and Sabino (l)

With Volga thought defeated, we follow a British army troop as they, with mega top secret clearance, try to show themselves capable in the Middle East to win a contract to take over superhuman affairs back home. Embedded with them is an American journalist, from whom we get all the narration. The team itself seems to have powers, though they attempt to keep them hidden but they also keep getting guerrilla attacked by X-Force out in the desert, eventually provoking them to use their powers and signaling to current British superhuman affairs contract-holder Pete Wisdom and MI13 to come check the situation. They had been monitoring it for a bit and the only discrepancy they found was dodgy paperwork allowing the journalist, who Wisdom quickly attacks, revealing MeMe controlling a robotic body and forcing X-Force to reveal themselves. Certainly one of those issue where I can't really judge the content because it's clearly so tied to the coming issue(s) and this is just a set-up for that. It's a confusing issue for sure and one that merits reading over a couple times, though it drags a little more than this series usually does, undoubtedly a drawback of such a new story with so many new characters. Still some fun parts and more than enough happening (and enough leeway) to rep going with this series. Total Score: 4/5