Thor: God of Thunder 25, Original Sin 5.5 - Thor and Loki

Thor: God of Thunder 25

Thor's granddaughters, by order of King Thor, must spend time daily in the library honing their minds just as they hone their bodies. One day in their required library time, they read the origin story of Malekith, watching him grow from a shy and scared young elf to the hateful and powerful magician he is today. They next read a story about young Thor, along with an army of humans, stopping Frost Giants from resurrecting Laufey, though they came awfully close and the king's head is still out there ready to be pushed the extra step. Finally, a hidden and chained book falls on to their table, which they eagerly dive into, learning of a dark time in Thor's history when he was deemed unworthy and an all-new Thor took up Mjolnir. King Thor bursts in and closes the book, sending his granddaughters out and closing the book again.

Jason Aaron ends this volume of THOR: GOD OF THUNDER in the sort of classic series ending way, where he tells a few single-shot stories with the ability to be extended later, and teases the next volume, but he does it well enough to keep the reader interested and invested and artists like Esad Ribic, Simon Bisley, and RM Guera provide an extraordinarily good looking book to go along with the stories. It's a nice ending for the series that brought us the epic Gorr storyline and created a couple of new and powerful supervillains like Gorr and Roxxon CEO Dario Agger AKA The Minotaur and it certainly builds a bit of hype (if there wasn't enough out there for you already) for the new THOR and the new Thor. Pretty good series, this one.

Total Score: 4/5


Original Sin 5.5 - Thor and Loki

Thor is free and wreaking havoc on Heven as Loki, having betrayed his new sisterhood in record time, leads Odin back into the tenth realm to end this fight once and for all. As Thor and Angela prepare to kill one another, Odin arrives and demands his son stop, revealing that Angela is very clearly his daughter Aldrif, alive after so much time thought dead. The news is pretty quickly met as true but isn't received well otherwise, as Angela is banished from Heven and swears she'll kill Odin the next time she sees him, leaving her out in the galaxy somewhere, trying to find a place she's welcome and wants to be.

As I said from the get-go, maybe some of the drama was ripped from this one given that the very first images of this book, that asked who Thor's sister was as it's main question, were images of Angela standing between Thor and Loki, as if shocked by some recent revelation. Kind of a give away and it takes a bit of the tension out for the reader, though it was likely a measured choice, with Marvel likely deciding that fans would figure it out early into the series even without the reveal and hoping that fans would still be interested in learning about how this could be possible and in learning more about Angela, Asgard, and Heven. It pays off well enough; though it's not something that particularly blows the reader away, it serves its purpose and establishes something of a new status quo in the Thor universe (which, coincidentally, is going to have all manner of status quo changes to contend with in no time at all). Solid Simone Bianchi art, teamed with Lee Garbett, Szymon Kudranski, and Marco Checchetto, carries this issue.

Total Score: 4/5

Original Sin 5.2 - Thor and Loki

Original Sin 5.2 - Thor and Loki

Aaron and Ewing (s) and Ewing (w) and Garbett and Bianchi (a) and Woodard and Dall'Alpi (c) and Sabino (l)

Thor and Loki know about their sister and adoptive sister, respectively, and know she's been in the Tenth Realm, the Realm of Heven where Asgard is not much liked, but know little else. Still, it's a fair amount to go on and the pair travel to Heven to meet this sister and promptly get into a fight. While Thor mows down the forces of Heven, Loki sneaks away and ambushes the queen of Heven only to strike a mutually beneficial deal with her. Angela shows up as Thor tires of fighting the Angels, who are eager to strike at Midgard now that their gates have opened again.

Like the last issue, this one struggles with keeping up with the solicits. It's not a bad issue in terms of helping us to understand Heven and the Angels. In fact, that's what I'd say makes this one worth reading. The Thor-Loki relationship isn't bad here but it's also not a particular stand-out and most readers interested in this sort of thing probably know it all already. However, Heven is kind of a new area for most readers and it certainly makes sense for Ewing to highlight it here. He does a good job giving us a sense of these Angels but the driving plot of the story, the meeting between siblings, is somewhat dragged out considering everyone knows it's going to happen and there's no sense of suspense about it thanks to all of the pre-release information everyone got. Still, Ewing makes it readable and builds a tone and a background for us and that's certainly commendable and he can hardly be faulted for the swell of information prior to the book's release.

Total Score: 4/5

(sorry for the late review today and the fact there's just the one but I warned you yesterday, slow week this week and this felt like the one worth bumping to Wednesday...in theory)

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.

New Avengers 13, Guardians of the Galaxy 10

Hey all, sorry for the wait for these reviews. Some important issues here (okay, one, in NEW AVENGERS) so I didn't want to skip this week or anything but I took last week off after the remarkably long year-in-review and year-ahead posts. Sorry!


New Avengers 13
Hickman (w) and Bianchi (a) and Dell'Alpi (c)

It's a tale of two universes as we get a look at our Illuminati juxtaposed with a look at Earth-23099 which has come up with a similar team to solve the problem of these incursions. Also similarly, Earth-23099 has had a recent influx of Inhumans as Maximus the Mad, king of their Inhumans, set off a Terrigen bomb on their planet. Back on the 616, Black Swan warns the Illuminati that they need to be prepared for the other enemies they'll face, on top of the incursions, and advises them to focus on the Black Priests, who jump from world to world via what she and they call a mirror, allowing them to see between dimensions with relative ease. Reed realizes he's already built one in the Bridge (back from Hickman's run with the FANTASTIC FOUR and FF books) and they use it to look in on 23099, who have just run up against the Black Priests and find themselves severely outgunned. The Black Priests kill them with very little effort and, sensing an open mirror nearby, shoot a quick threat at those watching.

"No rest for the wicked" seems to be the mantra of this series and it takes every word of that mantra seriously. The series has been among the most interesting since its start and it's interesting because of the layers it has. We already have a compelling story about other Earths incurring on our universe and destroying worlds but the cast of characters that Hickman's chosen has made the difference for this one. Granted, these characters already existed in this team (with the notable exceptions of Beast, replacing Charles, and Panther, who refused to join the first iteration) but Hickman has brought them together on this to underscore the ethical choices of what's happening and what's yet to happen. The Illuminati are a team that, by their very existence, is morally questionable (big brains making covert decisions for the rest of the world) and throwing them up against a problem that now regularly threatens the Earth continues to be such a cool idea. Presumably it will only continue to get more confusing from here as the cast of adversaries grows (we already know about the Mapmakers, who may be on Earth already and now we have the Black Priests and the promise of more) but it feels like it will all be worthwhile.

Guardians of the Galaxy 10
Bendis (w) and Maguire (a) and Ponsor (c)

Gamora and Angela set out on a secret mission of their own to lay waste to a Badoon slave-trade world that Gamora suspects may know the whereabouts of the now-missing Thanos. They attack, they chat, they stop a piece of the slave-trade, etc. One of the Badoon mentions having some sort of deal with Angela's people, which flusters her, but Quill, when he and Rocket arrive on the scene, waves it off as just a lying Badoon, deciding that his point has been underscored when the Badoon also claim that Thanos is on Earth. Next up: the Trial of Jean Grey.

Some decent action and not too bad to see Gamora and Angela in action, even if it requires turning more of a blind-eye to the Angela costume. I do get that she's a character imported from another series, SPAWN, and that this costume is her costume from that and it therefore makes her recognizable and it's her legacy and so on and so forth but SPAWN also isn't particularly well known for its progressivism. It's tricky to be attempting to develop her as this strong female character but then have a double-page spread where you can see an absurd amount of skin. There's an argument to be made, probably, about her being a strong woman and having a strong sense of sexuality but she doesn't really have that, at least not at the moment. It's not like she's some sexual being and the way she's being written is showing her as someone who is equally comfortable on the battlefield and expressing her sexuality, unafraid to show her body; instead, she has something of a blank personality right now and fights a bunch. I don't think Gamora's at her strongest either. If the cover is any indication (or if a lot of the way he's writing this and, you know, his history), boy am I not excited for the inevitable Bendis love triangle. And, again, somewhat shorter than normal book out of Bendis (another series that seems to be hitting at about 18 pages an issue, which is striking since I see so many comic book writers cutting scenes they don't want to cut to limit the book to the average 21-22 pages) with altogether too many words. Speaking of words, words cannot begin to describe just how uninterested I am in the upcoming Trial of Jean Grey.

Guardians of the Galaxy 8, Cataclysm 0.1

Guardians of the Galaxy 8
Bendis (w) and Francavilla (a and c)

The Guardians of the Galaxy are approaching Earth and have discovered, then, that Thanos' army is pretty well in control of its airspace about now. Gamora insists that they charge in and show her dad (Thanos, you guys) who's boss but Quill prefers they make a plan, which they do after some amount of tension and Gamora setting out on her own to attack Thanos himself. They receive a distress call from Abigail Brand at the Peak and Quill decides it's not a trap and that they have to save her and the Peak before it's turned on the Earth. He and Rocket stealth their way in and bust her out before attempting to fight their way to the command center, counting on air support from Drax and Groot. Unfortunately, by the time they call those two in, they're rather busy and embroiled in their own fight. Plus side, though, when it looks as if all is lost, Angela shows up and busts her way into the space station to save them (probably).

Solid action here as the Guardians get involved in the universe-spanning events of Infinity, albeit in the part that doesn't span the universe but rather just Earth. There's some decent characterization though occasionally it swings hard on an emotion and it comes up just a little short. In this case, it's Gamora bursting with anger at Quill for wanting to plan their attack on Thanos. Of course, there's more to Gamora's emotions than simply the need for haste, adding on the turmoil she feels about her father and the imminent threat he poses, but it does seem more than a little sudden and rash for Gamora. Again, though, Bendis' strength comes out of dropping some of the back-and-forth dialogue here as we have a bit of a faster paced and more coherent book, one that doesn't lose its focus and its tone while those elements battle for control over snappy, out-of-place dialogue. There's a bit here but, as I've said in the past, a bit doesn't hurt. A bit establishes character and the like. It's when you have more than a bit that things go downhill. Instead, it's another solid Guardians issue that brings the Guardians themselves to the fight against Thanos, a place they're rather used to being.

Cataclysm 0.1
Fialkov (w) and Suayan, Pierfederici, and Kirk (a) and Woodard (c)

Galactus is in the Ultimate Universe and it could spell the end for that branch of Marvel. The Vision of that universe, a female android, if we're applying genders, was built to detect and protect the world from the Gah Lak Tus swarm and so is shocked to find that a piece of that swarm ended up beached in the Bahamas during the Hunger event without her notice. She and boyfriend Sam Wilson go to investigate and Vision interfaces with the swarm member, learning of Galactus' arrival in the Ultimate Universe and learning of his history in the 616. She immediately recognizes the threat and needs to go see for herself, understanding that it will likely mean her death. There's a scene where she weighs her Earth's chances against Galactus, given its history, that compares the Ultimate Universe to the 616 and boy does it highlight some things. She eventually arrives by Galactus and urges him to stand down. When he refuses, she attacks with her impressive weaponry. It backfires, though, as he absorbs her shots and turns them on her, ultimately destroying her and leaving her floating in space. Before her system shuts down, she sends a message back to Earth, primarily to Sam Wilson who she realized, in the end, that she truly loved and warning them that they'll need everybody's help to stave off Galactus, including and perhaps centered on the incarcerated and absolutely crazy Reed Richards.

Certainly a nice little book to set the stage for us and Fialkov again delivers on his mantra of showing characters on their absolute worst days. Despite the fact that this story is one mostly meant to illustrate the dangers posed to the Ultimate Universe with Galactus' arrival and, as an aside to that, to establish the differences between the universe Galactus came from and this one, Fialkov does a solid job in one regular-sized issue, creating a full character in Vision, who has a crisis of self (or as much of one as an android can have) and realizes who she really is in her dying moments. On top of that, as I mentioned above, there was a nice little summation of the differences between the two major universes under Marvel's umbrella, particularly highlighting the plight of the mutant in this world, the loss of Spider-Man, the craziness of Reed Richards, the decimation of the superhero community, and the flaws of the Ultimates vs. the Avengers. Really helps put things in perspective while giving off the distinct feeling of "aw man, it's going to be pretty tricky for them to fight off Galactus." Good book, nice way to build interest for the event.

Superior Spider-Man 19, Fantastic Four 13, Guardians of the Galaxy 7

Superior Spider-Man 19
Slott (w) and Stegman and Livesay (a) and Delgado (c)

Spider-Man knocked out Spider-Man 2099 for some perceived slight and now finds himself at the center of an imploding space-time portal at Horizon Labs. He and Max Modell set the other scientists to work building a device that they hope can defeat the portal but it requires a formula Peter came up with his very first meeting with Max. Doc Ock can't remember it and zones out for a while trying, significantly reducing the amount of time he has to figure out how to stop things. Max evacuates the building, though Spider-Man stays in, as does the recovering Spider-Man 2099, who is holding Tiberius Stone. He's had a bit of a change of heart and seems ready to destroy Stone to destroy the future that revolves around Alchemax, even if it means destroying himself. At the last second, he recants and the two flee from the explosion. Spider-Man is able to contain it to just that area, saving the future and the present, but he disappears in the blast. Tyler Stone strands Spider-Man 2099 in the present, where he gets a job as Tiberius' personal assistant at the newly formed Alchemax. Modell and company manage to rig up a device to pull Spider-Man out of the time flux and save him, though Max sees it as the two of them evening up and leaves him behind as they set off to sea to do science in open waters. Meanwhile, Carlie Cooper and Wraith have tracked the money that Spider-Man used to hire his private army back to Otto Octavius.

Plenty of things changing for the Spider-Man universe as Spider-Man 2099 finds himself stuck in the present and guarding his own great-grandfather while ultimately trying to bring down his company. Doc, meanwhile, finds himself removed from Horizon Labs, though he's trying to recruit at least former co-worker Sajani, who was also left behind by Max. Last but not least (well not quite last either, MJ also distanced herself from Spider-Man), Carlie seems to recognize the link between the stranger and stranger actions of Spider-Man and Doc Ock's money. Still, the writing of this one is a little bogged down by the plot and the changes it needs to facilitate, making this one of the weaker issues for character and writing even though it's a significant event in this Spider-Man's run. This arc, seemingly coming to a close though the events it kicked off certainly are just starting, was not my favorite arc of the new run (far from it) but it seems to have done its job in changing the status quo a bit. I'll be interested to see where the book goes from here.

Fantastic Four 13
Fraction and Kesel (w) and Bagley and Rubinstein (a) and Mounts (c)

Slightly confusing issue as we see what exactly happened in Old John Storm's universe before he found himself in the 616. Like his 616 counterparts, the Fantastic Four of his universe left to explore the cosmos, with John accompanying his brother Stevenson Storm and Stevenson's wife Sue, as well as their friend Ben Grimm as the Fantastic Four (their powers are essentially the same). In their universe, Doom, Kang, and Annihilus have teamed up to take over the world but find themselves blocked by the F4. They've considered jumping universes but prefer, for now, to end the F4 and do what they need to rule this universe. Despite a solid plan by Stevenson and the FF, someone in the F4 seems to have betrayed them and forewarned Doom about an attack, which ended up making their powers useless against Doom and leaving them without any sort of way to protect themselves (which is how John lost his eye). It's at this point that John wakes up in the 616 again and finds our F4's powers rapidly deteriorating. However, the dream seems to have jarred something loose as suddenly he knows a way to fix their powers, though it will leave them, as he says, "doomed."

Alternate universe are and always will be tricky things to handle. When they're done well (like so much Jeff Parker's Dark Avengers run), they're entertaining and challenging, typically twisting characters we already know into something we don't know them as but which we can understand. In this case, we get a few changes that seem more than a little strange and a few non-changes that seem altogether entirely too coincidental to be ignored. They still choose the same successors to lead the FF in their absence, Doom has still killed Scott Lang's daughter, the same kids (majority) are still involved in the FF, the original X-Men are in the present again (though Jean Grey seems less obsessed with staying there), and so on. The conceit of a lot of these other universes is that tiny changes all over the universe have resulted in massive, sweeping changes as time went on. It's essentially the butterfly effect but in a parallel universe, or the idea of timeline-splitting. Here, it seems like little changes here and there have resulted in just very little change at all in the superhero community. Granted, this is a small window into that community so it's maybe best not to judge, but it's a strange decision, just as it's a strange decision to reveal this much to us. Sure we needed at some point to explain Old John Storm away but this seems like a lot we didn't necessarily need to see. I guess we'll see if that's the case moving forward.

Guardians of the Galaxy 7
Bendis (w) and Pichelli and Schiti (a) and Ponsor (c)

Angela's past is explained as she gives a brief history of her home, in her dimension. Her home is called Heven and it sounds more or less like the stories we know of Heaven, though with a darker and grittier twist of everyone there being hunters, essentially. As I've said before, I don't know Angela prior to this so all of this information is rather new to me. Like us hearing of Heaven, she's heard about Earth and she wants to see it for herself. She describes seeing what Starlord saw when the time-space continuum ruptured and he decides that she's telling the truth and that they should let her go. She moves to Earth with the understanding that Earth is full of super-people and that she shouldn't pick any fights there. She goes, with them following to make sure they didn't screw up in letting her go, and she's blown away by how much it matches the description she had. She's still lost and a bit confused in this universe and so Starlord gives her a comm so she can call to them if she needs help while she finds her way and she departs into the stars again while the Guardians discuss what else might have come through.

Not a bad issue as this continues to be, for my money, the best book Bendis is writing. I think the characters do tend to stray a little far into his generic personalities but he manages to reel them in well enough to keep them distinct. I heard an interview on the Nerdist Writer's Panel: Comic Edition podcast with one of the writers for the first Thor movie and, when asked what he's liking right now in comics he cited Bendis and said that he recognizes complaints that say Bendis loads books with a disproportionate text to story ratio but he thinks the dialogue is wonderful in building character. I still disagree on the whole as I think Bendis mostly writes the same personality or the same couple of personalities for every character. I've talked about this more than enough on here but I do think it diminishes character when you could read just about any dialogue block without looking at who it's attached to you would have about five guesses at who it could be. The best written characters are one where you can read the dialogue and you know who's talking, even if you don't see them. I think Guardians is Bendis' best book to try to do that with but, even in that, there are a couple of personalities; there's the Tony/Quill/kind of Rocket personality and there's the Gamora/Drax personality. Take out the names and pictures in this issue and it's a little hard to discern who's who but it definitely keeps itself closer here. Next issue claims to be about Infinity, which should kick off a tie-in just as Infinity begins wrapping up. Strange choice but a choice, I suppose, nonetheless.

Age of Ultron 10, Captain Marvel 13

Age of Ultron 10
Bendis (w) and Maleev, Hitch, Neary, Guice, Peterson, Pacheco, and Bonet w/ Palmer, Marquez, and Quesada (a) and Mounts and Isanove (c)

Age of Ultron reaches its conclusion as past Pym sends a message to near-current day Pym (a day back in Bendis' run on Avengers) that explains to him how to defeat Ultron. It involves a special team of Avengers breaking up a meeting of the Intelligencia (I want to say it happened in a point one back in Bendis' run, but I could be wrong. It definitely happened in Bendis' run) that spawns Ultron. In the original issue Ultron runs off, deciding he's not prepared for the fight just yet. He tries to do that here but Pym, knowing the outcome, stops him. Pym has prepared a code to try to shut Ultron down but it will take a bit of time to upload and kick in so the team of Avengers that are present with Ultron (Beast, Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, Iron Man, and Moon Knight) have to keep him occupied while Pym does his work from his lab. Ultron is outraged that Pym would try to use such a code against him and begins to break down the code as it's uploaded. Fortunately, this is all part of Pym's plan as it triggers a self-replicating virus that breaks Ultron apart, ending the threat. Not all is perfect, though, as, with Wolverine's return to the present, timelines start to make themselves clear in several characters' heads. Suddenly our Tony Stark gets images of all his different universe's armors and Wolverine sees all sorts of Wolverine iterations and even Miles Morales catches glimpses of different universe from his spot in the Ultimate Universe. Tony, Beast, and Pym reconvene to discuss what's happened and they speculate that Wolverine has broken the timeline and pushed it one step too far, throwing the entire 616, as well as possibly all other universe, into a bit of chaos. This chaos is illustrated for the audience as Miles Morales runs afoul of Galactus in his own universe. Finally, Angela, a character I don't know a ton about (besides knowing she was created by Neil Gaiman and Todd MacFarlane back in the '90s for Spawn) appears and claims revenge on whoever has woken her.

It's still a little hard to talk about this comic. There are reasons to believe it's a story worth telling, especially with the results it's borne, such as Galactus in the Ultimate Universe and Angela's appearance and the destruction of Ultron. However, I do still heartily believe that it's a story that was far too long in the telling and it's hard for that to feel like anything except a bit of a slap in the face. Buying the whole series would have cost people about forty dollars and I very much cannot say this is worth forty dollars as a story. I'm not saying that about the creative team, who obviously deserves to be paid what they got (mostly) but this seems like it could have fit into five books instead of ten. It's part of a series of events that last for far too many books and seem to pad out their existence in the middle before winding down. It is a business, sure, and Marvel has to make money, something I'll hopefully never begrudge them, but it does hurt a bit when it feels so blatantly like we've been sold something just for the sake of the money. As for this issue by itself, I still think there's a weird amount of talking down to the audience about why time shouldn't be broken and I think that there's a whole ton of dialogue for things that don't require as much dialogue. Again, the universe is certainly changed a bit as a result of this series but, in truth, until we see more, it's hard to say how much.

Captain Marvel 13
DeConnick (w) and Hepburn w/ Sandoval (a) and Bellaire and Troy (c)

Kree Sentries are waking up the world over and still no one knows who is behind all of this. Carol has assembled her own little team, consisting of Spider-Woman, Tracy, Dakota North, and Frank Gianelli to try to piece together what exactly is happening and what it has to do with her and the theft of her piece of the Psyche-Magnetron. Her assistant Wendy brings Bruce Banner over to try to help more and he explains that SWORD has discovered that someone placed a call to Kreespace while the Avengers were dealing with the Brood and SWORD was trying to figure out how they missed a Brood appearance in their space before they hit New York. Carol still fears it could be anyone but Bruce points out that there's a camera pointed at her apartment door, one that was clearly installed by Carol's angry neighbor. Carol goes to him and insists that she see the footage, promising that she'll move out if he lets her see it. He does but she has to join up with the other Avengers to stop this sudden rash of Sentries that are attacking anything that comes near and seem to be attempting to converge with one another. Her team, minus her, Spider-Woman, and Banner, start to comb through the footage to see who broke into her apartment that day. Meanwhile, she manages to use a jet and her skycycle (that's what it's called now, at least in my head) to defeat the Sentry she's gone after, though it takes more than she expected (including crashing the jet into it). Yon-Rogg seems to have little problem with this, as he needs twelve Sentries for his plan to work and there are scores hidden on the planet; defeating one, he claims, will not stop him. Wendy and company get a glimpse on the camera of the thief and send it to Carol, who immediately identifies him and knows where he's planning to go.

Unlike certain other events, events that happen more on the down-low, that aren't billed as universe-shaking events, tend to have a little more wiggle room. The world can be in jeopardy, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. There can be a team of Avengers working on it, but there doesn't have to be. The villain can be a huge Marvel Universe foe of the likes of Ultron or Thanos, but...well, nevermind, it kind of can't be that these days without it being a full-blown event. It also is rarely pumped up to ten issues or more. In this case, as was the case in the most recent event like this one (X-Termination), we're now officially halfway through the crossover and it's hard to imagine how they're going to wrap all of this up in just two more books. It gives a sense of tension and excitement that a long series just can't sustain. Instead of a drawn out series with too much dialogue and too much explanation and probably too many fight scenes, we get a pretty tight story that gives us what we need to know and jumps quickly from plot point to plot point. In this case, it's also giving us a good insight into Captain Marvel, as she's the center of this whole event. A fantastic issue and this event is shaping up into a good one. Like I said, it's a little hard to see how it could be over in just two more issues but I'm sure the team will find a way.