Hawkeye 20, Captain Marvel 7

Hopefully there aren't many but please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors, particularly today. I wrote a slew of reviews (today's and tomorrow's) on my phone away from the comics and autocorrect REALLY hates comics, I tell you what. Nearly as much as I hate proofreading. So we're all to blame.

Hawkeye 20

Harold H. Harold has been killed and one of Kate's arrows is responsible. She's brought in for questioning but talks her way out of it with Caudle, who still doesn't like her but realizes she couldn't have done it. With the help of her LA friends, the flower shop owner who she helped in her first solo adventure, and the suddenly not-dead Harold, she sneaks into Masque's complex, finding herself suddenly on the losing end of a battle with her henchmen, though not before she manages to steal some really important client files of Masque's, including her father's. She escapes but returns to torch Masque's home as payback for her own torched trailer, which puts her back in the grasp of some more LMD henchmen (for, of course, that is what Masque's business dealing in bodies is and explains the lives of the rich that Harold stumbled on so long ago and Harold's own death and reappearance) and of Masque herself. She manages to walk away from the fight thanks to a timely rescue by SHIELD, who interrogates her but has no ground on which to stand in their interrogation, particularly when Kate questions their involvement, given the LMDs. She settles things up, borrows money from Marcus and Finch (who she refers to as "the best family a girl could have," d'awwwww), and heads home, calling her father and vowing to stop him.

The series is ready to merge into one story once more with Kate headed back east and it leaves me torn. I really love this book and obviously the first 15 or so issues with both Hawkeyes together were excellent but it's a testament to the strength of this series and the strength of Annie Wu that I don't want this to end just as much as I want Kate and Clint reunited. Fraction's Kate, in her first solo arc, has definitely proven she has the ability to stand on her own, showcasing skills and charisma at every turn. It's been tons of fun; credit to Marvel for trusting Fraction with this and for bringing in relative unknown Annie Wu to absolutely kill with a big spotlight on her. This book doesn't land nearly as well, even despite Fraction's writing, with any other artist. As far as this issue goes, fantastic work all around, Kate continues to be one of the most fun characters to read out there and her energy and excitement bursts off the page. There are great long-jokes, great quick-jokes, great references snuck in (the old cranky Hallmark card lady gets referenced! There's a "It's Chinatown" reference too but the cranky old Hallmark card lady is that funny that I'm not even going to mention the Chinatown one), and overall an excellent book.

Total Score: 5/5


Captain Marvel 20

Captain Marvel has returned from her first arc successful, but it hasn't stopped the nightmares she's plagued by, namely a nightmare wherein she cannot protect the people she loves and fails them when they need her most. In perhaps happier news, she's found herself traveling with Tic, who stowed away after their first adventure, and the pair of them return to Carol's ship, currently being grudgingly watched by Rocket Raccoon, who immediately begins fighting with Carol again about the possible alien nature of her cat. Their fight is interrupted by a spaceship latching on to and breaching Carol's. Matters are made worse when Tic finds Chewie the cat sitting on a host of apparent offspring, perhaps confirming Rocket's assessment that a very dangerous Flerkin has made its way onboard.

Despite the nightmare to kick this one off and the tension by the end of the issue, this one is certainly more light-hearted than any of the first arc of this CAPTAIN MARVEL volume. Just about everything both Tic and Rocket say is played for laughs, some hitting well and some missing the mark a bit. It also feels a bit like we're missing a scene here as Carol sees Rocket and IMMEDIATELY tears into him for...watching over her ship and cat for her. Granted, Rocket changes some things on her ship and hates the cat, but there's nothing wrong with Chewie as Carol returns and the changes to the ship aren't cited as problems, which makes Carol just come off as aggressive and ungrateful. As I said, I think there are grounds for a fight present but those grounds never feel like the reason she attacks. It's not an awful issue and certainly guest artist Takara does a very good job filling in, but it never feels fully together the way DeConnick has made us accustomed. Such is the price of repeated success.

Total Score: 3/5

Hawkeye 18, Indestructible Hulk 20

Hawkeye 18
Fraction (w) and Wu (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Kate's mysterious friend from the cat food aisle is on his way out of LA, despite Kate's objections. Before he goes, he gives her his demon cat, which she immediately wants to return. Hoping against hope that he hasn't left yet, she and her neighbors Marcus and Finch go to the address on the cat's carrier to return it, finding an unexpected mansion of a home. Inside, they find Kate's friend, Harold H. Harold (the H. also stands for Harold) bleeding on the couch, muttering that he's going to die in LA. They take care of him and hear his story, which explains just a whole bunch about him. He was a crime writer out in LA to search all the weird crime beats and to uncover crazy stories. When he sold one of his stories to Hollywood, he got wrapped into all new intrigue and inadvertently ended up on the radar of Count Nefaria and his daughter Madam Masque. He accidentally discovered that they've been involved in murder and re-creation, Frankensteining people together from their Hollywood features. With the secret revealed to Harold, he's never been able to leave LA. Every time he tries, he gets run off the road or beat up or something. This time was no exception. Kate buys a ticket in his name out of the city and accompanies him to LAX in the hopes that she will see him on the plane personally, or at least gets a sense of the people after him. While trying to watch over him, none other than Flynt Ward the weed lord (from way back in HAWKEYE 14) turns up and escorts him out with his jackbooted thugs. Kate, Marcus, and Finch try to follow but eventually lose sight of him. Kate, who had learned that her police "contact" had actually been friends with Harold from Harold's crime writer experience, goes to see Officer Caudle about Harold's story and his subsequent disappearance. She tells him everything she knows and he tells her to disentangle herself from it before she winds up hurt. Madam Masque sends a threatening note along to Kate as well as a serious message when Harold winds up dead, arrowed to the Hollywood sign, and Kate's trailer ends up ablaze (Lucky and the cat are okay).

Another phenomenal issue of HAWKEYE and it's hard not to point out here just how impressive this series continues to be. Beyond all the things we already know about how great this series is, one of the things that I haven't talked about too much is just how different the Clint and Kate issues are. Not just that they are in different places with different casts and different artists, it's a wholly different writing style. Kate, of course, is more loquacious and more outgoing than Clint but even beyond that; there's a greater focus on the story and the backstory. There's just so much happening and Fraction so clearly understands his characters and is able to shift almost effortlessly between them, developing completely different voices for each one and building stories that suit each character and that very clearly change depending on which character is leading the book. Wonderful and well-done. The decision to swap between Aja and Wu for the art, while almost startling at first considering how great David Aja is and how great he's been for this book, has been nothing but the most amazing decision as Annie Wu absolutely kills it each and every time out.

Indestructible Hulk 20
Waid (w) and J. Bennett and R. Jose w/ Hanna (a) and Staples (c)

As the kidnapped Jessup is told about the operation that his kidnapper, Ted Goodrich, is running, the rest of Banner's team is forced to work with Hulk to try to get him back. Jessup immediately understands that Goodrich's setup, based on the work of underground experimental scientists who failed badly, is incredibly dangerous and tries to plot a way to stop it. Meanwhile, Hulk's team manages to breach Goodrich's hideaway while Jessup sacrifices himself to his new Inhuman so that he and Hulk can attack the biggest concern, a massive and unstable power source. Eventually Jessup drains all of Hulk's strength, powering himself up incredibly, and takes the brunt of the explosion. It reverts him back down to his human self and Banner commands they stay in Goodrich's lab (Goodrich and his assistant died trying to rip open a cocoon they had stolen) to help Jessup instead of returning to SHIELD only to draw the ire of Maria Hill. Banner returns and explains what happened to Hill but tells her that the team was lost and that he had no idea what happened at the end. She doesn't believe him and is sick of dealing with him. He returns to his lab and is promptly shot in the back of the head.

Geez, pretty abrupt ending to that one, huh? Anyway, the story of Jessup and Banner's lab team as a whole comes to an end here as Banner releases them into the wild. Banner also has made some revelations here, realizing that maybe his "Hulk destroys, Banner builds" mantra isn't as applicable as he thought it was; throughout the series, for all the good Banner has tried to do, he's done just as much destroying as Hulk thanks to his ego and his desperation. It's a real "Who Shot Mr. Burns" ending to this one as we're likely to rejoin this story at the start of its new "season," a rebooted Hulk series coming with the rest of the ALL-NEW MARVEL NOW! relaunches. This one continues to baffle me a bit as Hulk seemed to start in the midst of the ALL-NEW relaunches, or certainly close enough and, while the change seems pretty obvious, it doesn't sound like it's a change the size of, say, Daredevil moving to San Francisco or Captain Marvel moving to space. We'll just have to see. Still, if this is the wrap-up to this series, it's certainly been a worthwhile one. There have been ups and downs but a pretty good core throughout, one that shined the spotlight on Banner and only used Hulk in a more limited capacity. Interesting idea and Mark Waid certainly did a solid job getting his point across.

This week's picks

Pretty good week for comics. I'd say there were a solid handful up near the top, worthy of consideration for the top three (marred by the fact that two pretty quickly took two of the top spots), plenty of books that drifted between "fine" and "good" and really none that slumped into "unreadable" or even "irredeemable." This blog should be called the Irredeemable Unreadable. Anyway. Picks!

Black Widow 2

After a very impressive debut just two short weeks ago, BLACK WIDOW lands on the top picks again with another thought-provoking, character-driven and absolutely gorgeous book. This one is particularly neat because you open the comic and the very first page is a beautiful full-page panel of Natasha flipping away from a car crash ("flipping" perhaps implies a little too much intent). There's a lot to like here and it's not hard to find it all. The action scenes are very impressive and well choreographed, the quieter moments hold their spots perfectly, Natasha's dialogue is exactly what you'd want it to be, the art continues to be amazing (guys, I can't stress how pretty this book is), we get some plot both with the introduction of the Iron Scorpion and with Isaiah's sudden ability to take care of problems. It's just a very interesting, very well made book. I'm really looking forward to this one and I think everyone should probably get in on the ground floor of it now.

Hawkeye 16

Proving that sequential numbering isn't for everyone, HAWKEYE 16 leapt ahead of HAWKEYE 15 in release date and shows, for anyone who may have been asking, that Kate Bishop can absolutely kill in two issues back-to-back about her. I don't know who possibly could have been asking that but, as much as I like the idea of the alternating story and I rather miss seeing what's happening with Clint, Fraction has made Kate such a compelling and entertaining character, pulling her from her more rigidly set YOUNG AVENGERS past and giving her solo adventures the likes of which have never been seen and she's knocking it out of the park every time. Add to that Annie Wu's incredible art and her uncanny ability for expression and emotion and this is a book with both immediate payoff and re-readability through the roof. Look, I love this title anyway and I don't know what else I can say to convince you but this book is amazing.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 9

I like the Spider-Man team-up books in general, with AVENGING SPIDER-MAN earning a special place in my heart and now SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP pulling in good issue after good issue, but this one feels different in a way because of just how tied to the current plot of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN it appears to be. Up to now, the team-up books have been good and extremely entertaining for the most part but have been pretty self-contained. Instead, this one has its roots very much in the GOBLIN NATION arc from SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN and has repercussions that must be felt throughout both books. Also, the writing is impressive, the art is fantastic, and the characterization is spot on. One of the things that always impresses me about this book and AVENGING SPIDER-MAN before it is the adaptability of the writer to pull in a score of other characters, write them for only an issue or two, and somehow nail down the personality. Impressive feat and Kevin Shinick does it every bit as well as people like Christos Gage and Christopher Yost. Great stuff here, enough even to beat out other top picks contenders X-MEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, and IRON MAN.

Hawkeye 14, Indestructible Hulk 16, FF 14

Hawkeye 14
Fraction (w) and Wu (a) and Hollingsworth (c)


Kate Bishop is officially moved into LA (as we already know from the Annual) and just about out of money. Realizing that she has skills that are maybe a little harder to market, she starts to try to put herself out there as a hero for hire and gets her first case as she uses her neighbor's printer to print her flyers out. Her neighbors, a gay couple, are getting married and the florist shop set to handle the wedding has been most burned down, burning almost all of the flowers. Kate goes to investigate and the florist points her to Flynt Ward and tells her that Ward burned everything but the orchids he had for the wedding, which Ward took himself and which Kate's neighbors were most insistent about, as one of them saw orchids specifically in a vision of the wedding. Kate tries to get the police involved and then stakes out Ward herself, who immediately recognizes what she's doing and keeps her out of his way. She decides to stalk him and take pictures of his drug dealing ways but is quickly found out and Ward chases her down in his car, knocking her off her bike before driving away. She snaps a few more pictures and goes back to the police, who inform her that marijuana is legal and so he's not really a dealer but that the hit and run will land him in prison, as will illegal possession of a firearm they found in the car. She recovers the last of the orchids and brings them to the wedding, accomplishing her first mission though also getting into a bit of an antagonistic relationship with her police contact. Ward, meanwhile, makes his first call from prison to none other than Madam Masque, enemy of our hero.

Very solid first Kate-in-LA issue (not counting the Annual which was ALSO extremely good) and it sets a nice tone for the book. Fraction clearly has a very strong voice for Kate, one that's maybe a little less grown-up than the Kate we typically see in books like YOUNG AVENGERS where she's kind of forced to be mature one by the immaturity of her teammates. Here, she's a little more free and a little more stream of consciousness than we've seen her. Though the voice might not totally match the voice we've seen somewhat established for her (I would say previous voices for Kate aren't particularly well-established in and of themselves) but they certainly stay consistent and I think you can absolutely see that voice in any iteration of Kate. Annie Wu hops on the book on art and it's phenomenal. Her Kate is outstanding and it's especially emotive. Hollingsworth's colors are great again and incredibly varied from the darker and somewhat grittier colors we've seen throughout HAWKEYE, giving way to lighter and more vibrant colors for Kate. Really fun intro to our Kate issues arc, very excited to see it. Perhaps the best explanation of the art comes from Matt Fraction's Twitter:

@AnnieW gonna get super-esoteric in the scripts just to see how you draw her: "she just remembered something but is about to sneeze" etc
— BUTT STUFF WEREWOLF (@mattfraction) October 31, 2013

Indestructible Hulk 16
Waid (w) and Asrar (a) and Staples (c)

Hulk is back to Hulking and Banner is back to Bannering after the cross-time adventures of the last arc and after the events of INFINITY. Banner is upset at having fallen behind on his promise of a new world-changing invention or discovery each Friday and plans to recoup some time with a couple of pet projects he's been working on, only to find each one invented or discovered just hours before he would have by the other big brains of the Marvel Universe. His frustration forces Hulk out and he hopes to get a mission from Hill but finds out, with the help of team-member Randall Jessup, that Hill doesn't want him on her newest big mission exploring an Aztec ruin for a potential new renewable energy found there. Frustrated more, Banner starts to Hulk but Jessup manages to talk him down and sneak him into the mission anyway. The two of them go down to Mexico and infiltrate the pyramid, where Banner starts to give way to Hulk again. Jessup earns his stripes again as he controls Hulk enough to get him clear from bringing the whole pyramid down and points him at the thing he needs to fight. Jessup also gives Hulk a successful plan of action, which does result in bringing the whole pyramid down but allows the SHIELD team to get out in time and Jessup to smuggle out the source of the renewable energy, which he shows to Banner. The issue ends with a foreshadowing line explaining that Banner knew he could trust Jessup to his death...seven days later.

Really nice issue of this book. I mentioned in my INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK review last week that Banner's team was the only consistent supporting cast created for its book that I really found myself missing over the course of an arc (thinking especially about Wolverine's dumb science cadre in WOLVERINE). Here Waid brings them back in a big way, even though it only really highlights Jessup. It reminded me a little bit of Dennis Hopeless' early run on AVENGERS ARENA, which made sure to give flashbacks of individuals on Murder World juxtaposed with what was happening with the character currently. The same thing happens here as we see a bit of Jessup's past with a tough upbringing that eventually led to him leaving his family behind a bit only to later find that his father had apparently murder-suicided his mother. It's given Jessup a need to stay with the ones he cares about and resolve to never let them down, which comes out strong with Banner in this issue. Though it's not a bad cliffhanger, I'll be a bit disappointed if Jessup does die next issue. I'd also like more issues like this one, which teams Banner up with members of his think-tank to better get to know them as individuals, which was AVENGERS ARENA's true biggest strength and which paid such dividends as the series went on. Still, very good issue, nice solid core to it and it's setting us up to care about a character who will no doubt be in some danger next time out.

FF 14
Fraction and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and M. Allred (a) and Laura Allred (c)

The FF are regrouping after Doom's interference with Alex Power and their subsequent trip through the portal to the moon and Uatu's base. As they regroup, they plan their next attack, hoping to gain more allies in their fight against Doom, Immortus, and Annihilus. They manage to swipe a slew of bots to go up against Doom's army of Doombots, leaving the replacement F4, along with old John Storm and young Ahura and Alex to go after Doom himself. Scott also appeals to Uatu to do more than watch and it seems to get through on some level, but we'll likely have to see about that later. Scott also admits to Darla that he was forced to kill in prison and that he's worried that side of him, the killer who rather enjoyed the act (though it was clear self-defense), will come out against Doom. There's hijinx and tomfoolery and what-have-you as the team prepares to leave the kids on the moon while they strike. Meanwhile, Doom realizes Lang is about to strike but has more on his mind. As we saw in the last FANTASTIC FOUR, he has figured out that the Negative Zone is connected to every universe and he wishes to control that himself, knocking Annihilus out of his plans and eventually causing it to knock Immortus out of his plans, again as we saw in FANTASTIC FOUR.

Plenty happening as the book heads towards it battle royale finale. Some interesting stuff and some nice character moments for a couple of our heroes but overall the book drags a bit in places that I don't think it needs to drag. This series has long wanted to have a different feel to it, one accomplished by charm and wit and fun as much as it is accomplished by Michael Allred's fresh art and Laura Allred's vibrant colors. I think it still has that but it's running into problems here as it wants to have it both ways, trading off fun and carefree with serious and sometimes dark. It's a very tricky line to balance on and I think Lee Allred is having a little more trouble walking it than Fraction, who has had plenty of experience in a lot of his books, had. I think it's because of that that the book turns extra wordy and starts to feel really off-track at certain points as Allred tries to sprinkle enough of everything in and ends up putting in a little too much of each. The funny thing was that I read maybe a little over half the book before needing to attend to other duties, saving the rest for later. When I came back to it and skimmed the first half to remember my place then continued reading the second half, I found it a better read. It felt a little less wordy in the second half and a lot of the fluff and the mixed tone was in the first half, it turned out. Not an awful book, just not one that I'd have as many recommendations for.