Huge Marvel Cinematic Universe announcements!

GUYS. Hot on the heels of the Benedict-Cumberbatch-as-Doctor-Strange maybe-news yesterday (which was, ironically, the only bit of news Kevin Feige did NOT confirm, if just to make my blog look wrong), Marvel held a press conference to announce the slate of upcoming movies for phase three of the MCU. There are, you guys, some really huge, if not suspected, announcements here.

Captain America 3 gets new title!
After the news that Robert Downey Jr. would join the cast of Cap 3, the next installment of the fantastic Captain America movies will officially be called Captain America: Civil War. This is a huge deal and is likely something that will have seeds planted all over the coming Marvel movies. I talked a lot about the implications of Civil War in my post about RDJ in Cap 3 so I won't spend too much time here, except to note that when I went to IMDb for this news, they said it would be called Captain America: Serpent Society, which is...interesting? Whatever. Mark May 6th, 2016 on your calendars now.

Doctor Strange gets a release date!
No new news here (and, as I mentioned, no confirmation of now day-old news) except to say that the new Doctor Strange will land on November 4th, 2016.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 gets bumped up!
After a wildly successful and unexpected opening for the first film, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will now open May 5th, 2017.

Thor 3 ALSO gets new title!
Things are decidedly about to go bad for Thor as the latest in his franchise has officially taken the name Thor: Ragnarok. It has also slid into the release spot vacated by Guardians 2, set to release July 28th, 2017.

Black Panther officially confirmed for 2017, star announced
Ahhhhh, this one is huge! One of Marvel's best and most underrated heroes, Black Panther, will officially get his solo movie. Black Panther is set to be released November 3rd, 2017 and will star 42 and Get On Up star Chadwick Boseman, who is decidedly great. Very, very cool.

Captain Marvel!
Guys! Captain Marvel! Carol Danvers Captain Marvel, no less! Coming July 6th, 2018, everyone's favorite pilot-turned-Captain Marvel will take to the skies in Captain Marvel, which will purportedly find Carol trapped between Earth and outer space. Feige said there's no other news yet, but that a director and writer will be announced soon, though casting, obviously, is still a ways off.

Inhumans coming in 2018
With 2018 shaping up to be a big year for space experiment heroes, Marvel has also confirmed that Inhumans will release November 2nd, 2018 and will at least tie to the hitherto unseen in the MCU Kree-Skrull War.

Avengers: Infinity War to be two parts, spread apart one year
With the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron on the horizon, the third and fourth installments of the landmark Marvel franchise have been given name and tentative dates, with Avengers: Infinity War Part One set to land May 4th, 2018, and Infinity War Part Two coming almost exactly a year later, May 3rd, 2019.




Again, it's confirmation of a ton of news that has been speculated at for some time, with Marvel finally making the splash it needs to with movies like Black Panther and Captain Marvel and other major characters and events coming soon. Really exciting stuff, tucked away on a slow Tuesday. Special thanks to the security guard who wandered over to ask me who Dr. Strange was and kicked all of this off.

New Avengers 25

New Avengers 25

After the first two issues of EIGHT MONTHS LATER (I keep writing and/or wanting to write TIME RUNS OUT but I think that's AFTER all this business?) in NEW AVENGERS 24 and AVENGERS 35 (and 36, but that doesn't apply here), we've seen what some of the Illuminati and their new associates are up to, with Amadeus Cho getting captured by the Avengers and SHIELD trying to salvage Stark files, and Black Panther forced to watch as Wakanda falls to the Cabal. Now we see what Beast, Reed Richards, Hulk (DOC GREEN), and Captain Britain are doing these days. Mostly they're trying to figure out what the Avengers are doing and what the Cabal is doing and how the planets are doing and so on and so forth. Things aren't going great. The book ends after the team checks in on the captured and interrogated (by Sue Storm) Amadeus Cho and Black Panther returns, proclaiming that Wakanda has fallen.

There's still a good deal of useful information here but it's on a backdrop of events we've seen already, so most of this issue is soft science and reactions to the things we've seen. Again, that's not to say this isn't still a useful and/or important issue, but it almost serves more to catch readers up on what's been happening since this new event started. Hickman tends to take opportunities like this to give us a sense of the current tone and a little bit more on the characters and I think he does that well here, letting us see Reed's reaction to Sue's pursuit of his team and him specifically and building up the characters of people like Amadeus Cho and Captain Britain. Hickman also does a good job of highlighting while not hitting us over the head with the absences of some major characters in this future. I've had some issues with Kev Walker on some of the NEW AVENGERS art that he's done prior to this but I think he handles this issue admirably. If you're looking to save a bit of money this month and you've read the first couple issues of this mini-event so far, you can probably skip this one without missing too much.

Total Score: 3/5

New Avengers 24, Mighty Avengers 14, Secret Avengers 8

New Avengers 24

We're eight months in the future and Namor comes to Doom for help getting rid of his cabal, who he has realized are maybe a little too violent and bloodthirsty for his liking, and for help with the incursions. Doom provides neither, resentful that he is Namor's second choice. Meanwhile, Black Panther and Shuri use the distraction of another incursion to attempt to steal back all the anti-matter bombs housed in Wakanda, currently occupied by the Cabal, but find themselves facing Maximus and Proxima Midnight, left behind to guard. They barely escape and Black Panther teleports back to the Illuminati but Shuri chooses to stay behind and fight for Wakanda. Back in Latveria, Doom explains to Kristoff that he didn't accept Namor's offer because it's clear he understands more of what's going on than Namor does, so he wouldn't benefit from an alliance. Instead, the Mad Thinker has been working for Doom to study the piece of a world the Mapmakers left behind and finally Thinker has used it to map out all of the marked worlds and to trace it back to its originator, the person behind all this. Doom intends to turn the tables on this person, hoping to use the Molecule Man to strike back at the incursions.

As with AVENGERS, this book has leapt eight months into the future and now has 30+ pages to get us somewhat caught up on the state of the world. Also like AVENGERS, it does a pretty good job of it. Hickman delicately balances things we need to know now with things that can wait, meaning that we largely get good explanation without over-exposition. We also get a glimpse at what the Cabal is doing to other worlds, annihilating their people and relishing the opportunity to destroy their incurring worlds. Where everything seemed slightly askew and mildly threatening in AVENGERS, everything in this book seems horrible, like every plan ever devised has gone wrong,w which seems to be Hickman's intent. Valerio Schiti does an excellent job on the art front and overall it's an engaging and exciting finished project. NEW AVENGERS brings the last two years of stories to a head masterfully, never hand-holding and never over-explaining, illustrating a world that came about naturally well down the line.

Total Score: 5/5


Mighty Avengers 14

The Deathwalker Prime begins to transmit nightmares to every living being on the planet, causing everyone to kneel to it, but Luke Cage stands against the nightmares, fighting back and ultimately securing the ceremonial goblet in which the blood was combined and passing it on to a similarly breaking-free Kaluu, who manages to use the goblet himself to create the Avenger Prime, a mighty being with the combined strengths of the entire Mighty Avengers (except for Cage, who remains out of it) and which manages to defeat the Deathwalker Prime, freeing everyone on Earth. Cage destroys the goblet and the team decides to take a little vacation, primed to return in CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE MIGHTY AVENGERS.

It's a pretty strong ending to a book I mostly found middling. Most of my problems with the book have been tonal dissonance or inside jokes or whatever you'd call the captions strewn about the book and that sort of thing kind of continues here but mostly reins it in to let the story and the characters do the talking. When the book got out of its own way, I liked it more. As with my feelings toward SECRET AVENGERS (we'll get to that), it's entirely possible those captions and other little bits strewn here and there appealed to a great number of people. They weren't my thing and they got int he way of the book for me, taking what could have been a personal and strong tone and muddying it with a need for forced laughs. Still, that's more a critique of the series and less a critique of this issue, which remains rather strong, though I have little connection to the main villain so it's a little difficult to feel the weight of the story. Ewing does what he can by showing that the entire planet is affected by the attack but it's a global threat that feels like it came out of nowhere, so its actual threat-level is hard to take seriously (okay, it's comics, seriously is CLEARLY "comics seriously" here). Kind of nitpicky but you have to believe the villains just as much as you believe the heroes. Still a good book.

Total Score: 4/5


Secret Avengers 8

Maria Hill believes that MODOK is behind everything and explains, bit by bit, why to Spider-Woman, who has more questions than answers. We also flash back to various points in the last eight months or so to see MODOK working with head scientist Snapper to plan their allegiance switch to SHIELD and to quickly rise through the ranks and take it over from Hill, a plan that is slightly stalled as he reveals by issue's end that he's, in fact, in love with Maria Hill.

Nope, still don't get and/or like this one. It's not helped that one of the key contributors to the series is Maria Hill, who I cannot come around to. Right now, we're talking about a personal, intimate battle of wits between Maria Hill and MODOK and I don't understand who that sentence appeals to.

Total Score: 1/5

Daredevil 7, Elektra 5

Daredevil 7
Waid (w) and J. Rodriguez (p and c) and A. Lopez (i) and Caramagna (l)

Daredevil hitches a ride with SHIELD to Wakanda, which SHIELD isn't willing to fly over because they're not entirely stupid. DD drops down into the most technologically advanced nation on Earth and is quickly captured, which, of course, turns out to be part of his plan. Instead of hoping to fight his way through Queen Shuri and the rest of Wakanda, he aims to lawyer the nuns out of jail, which he does by revealing that he's brought the corrupt army general to Wakanda and made his disappearance known, which will certainly get people looking and checking into his background and likely lead them to Wakanda. Shuri's only option is to release the nuns and separate herself from the general before things start to look ugly for them, which she does. On the way home, Maggie explains to her son that she had severe postpartum depression and it caused her to attack her husband and, nearly, her infant son, which led her to leaving the house and the family and taking up with God to protect her loved ones. With Jack proven innocent and a relationship with Maggie rekindled, Daredevil gets to return home happy.

I'm fairly pleased that this didn't end up being a "I have daddy issues" sort of revelation. Instead, it's far more nuanced and a bit more interesting as we learn a good deal about the rarely seen Maggie and get to see Daredevil spend some meaningful time with his family, who were misunderstood and not abusive after all. This one, as opposed to, say, ORIGINAL SIN: HULK VS IRON MAN, paints someone as a villain then reveals them to be a hero...but I found it interesting as opposed to somewhat predictable and boring. Javier Rodriguez does pretty phenomenal work here. I'll certainly miss his contributions on the book, though I look forward to colorist extraordinaire Matt Wilson's take on Samnee's art starting next issue.

Total Score: 4/5


Elektra 5
W.H. Blackman (w) and Del Mundo (a) and Del Mundo w/D'Alfonso (c) and Cowles (l)

Cape Crow fights with Elektra and reveals that he was able to beat all of his previous attackers because he has extremely limited pre-cognition. It's maybe only half a second, but it's enough for him to use his instincts and win each fight. Elektra, armed with this knowledge, manages to clear her head and fight on pure instinct, defeating him in a close fight. With Cape Crow down and his helmet removed, she learns that he is, in fact, her dead father. But not really, that's just some psychic image put there by Kento, who has some amount of psychic power. She's super mad but agrees to continue to help them assuming Kento never does that again and that they still pay her. Bad news, though, Bloody Lips has arrived, still desperate to eat Elektra. Having a pretty tough day already, Elektra cuts herself and drips blood onto Bloody Lips' lips, giving him a full range of her memories and experiences, which breaks him and he stumbles off a cliff. So long, Bloody Lips! Anyway, Lady Bullseye is back and vows revenge on Elektra.

Lots of really great stuff here, including Elektra's bio-signature-based sai (nice try using them against her, Cape Crow), a great taste of her fighting prowess and strategies, the demise of Bloody Lips after a really impressive and very cool if mildly horrific double page spread detailing Elektra's memories, the promise of more assassin fights, and the promise of more Matchmaker, who, if I haven't said it enough, is the best. I really like this book and I think Blackman has plenty of ideas for this book and Del Mundo is an unbelievable artist who really brings this book alive. Just really fun stuff with lots of upside.

Total Score: 5/5

New Avengers 23, Mighty Avengers 12, Secret Avengers 7

New Avengers 23
Hickman (w) and K. Walker (a) and F. Martin (c) and Caramagna (l)

The next incursion is coming and the Illuminati agree that they can't go through with destroying another world so they resign themselves to their fate instead. As each member of the team consoles themselves as best they can, spending their final moments with loved ones, letting off steam, or pondering, the clock ticks down. Finally the moment of incursion comes...and goes. They reconvene to ask what happened, happy that the universe isn't destroyed but worried they may have gotten some calculation wrong and subsequently have already destroyed a world for nothing. Black Bolt realizes, though, that Namor didn't show up for their meeting and the truth dawns on them, though maybe not the extent of their troubles. Namor has formed the Cabal, consisting of him, Maximus, Black Swan, Thanos, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, and Terrax, to do what the Illuminati cannot.

Rather a nice issue as Hickman has the team take a step back and analyze what's important to each of them. We see Black Panther returning to Storm (they have a tryst but she calls it a mistake, even as he admits that his only thoughts as the world is about to die were of her), Banner drinking to the thought of his final moments with Hulk, Tony pouring but ultimately turning down a row of shots, and Reed visiting his entire, spread-out family, among other moments. It's a simplistic but very nice idea, watching the heroes resign themselves to going out with a whimper and not a bang, as most superheroes tend to do. The introduction of the Cabal, too, is very interesting and certainly worthy of a gasp as we get the reveal. I think Walker's art is better here than the last one, which relied so much on serious fighting and screaming, but I still think it's wrong for this book, though Martin's colors help ease it on its way.

Total Score: 4/5


Mighty Avengers 12
Ewing (w) and Larroca (a) and Milla (c) and Petit (l)

The Deathwalkers have drained enough out of Blade to start their ritual, though they're interrupted when he breaks free and comes after them. His breaking free also allows Power Man to find Blade's chi in the city, with help from a powerful speech by Cage's father, and direct the Mighty Avengers plus Kaluu and Constance Molina to his side. They fight a bunch of Ani-Men and try to attack the four Deathwalkers destined to divvy up the Earth but aren't able to get to them before they can finish their ritual, which bonds the four into one who is surely destined to take over the world. I mean, nothing can probably stop something that powerful, right?

Man, leave it to a regular, unpowered human to lecture about the difference a regular person can make and then to be left behind by the superpowers because he's old and would probably just die anyway. But we can agree, he'd probably die, right? Anyway, that's what happens to Cage's dad here but he does get to meet little Danielle while the adults go attack. Also interesting: Spitfire and Blade are apparently together. Did not know that, but I'm a Spitfire fan and I guess I can see that, though I'm sad she doesn't seem to be rushing to the rescue on this occasion. STILL, not an awful issue, though I still think the tone could use a bit of regulation here, choosing whether it should be fun or tough or maybe if the heroes should just focus on the potential world-ending fight instead of idle chit-chat at times. Not bad, though.

Total Score: 4/5


Secret Avengers 7
Kot (w) and Walsh (a) and Wilson (c) and Cowles (l)

Black Widow has traveled through a black hole, Fury is still in a coma, Maria Hill admits to Spider-Woman, who is having something of a bad day herself, that MODOK is on the team, Coulson is tracking mysterious leads, and Hawkeye has been brought in by Deadpool and a pair of AIM agents and Deadpool has revealed to his new Avenging pal that they're in a comic book. Lots of fourth wall breaking here and very explicit about it. The issue ends as Hill reveals to Spider-Woman about MODOK and reveals that she has reasons.

Little inside baseball here: I read and reviewed NEW AVENGERS pretty immediately, then read MIGHTY AVENGERS, SECRET AVENGERS, and a handful of other books (the ones most likely to get extended reviews this week), then I reviewed MIGHTY AVENGERS, then I showered and praised myself for my ability to keep the above two reviews pretty tight and decided if I could do that with SECRET AVENGERS, I really ought to be proud. Fortunately, I reasoned, that wouldn't be too hard since I have no idea what's happening in this book and the Deadpool explicit fourth wall breaking really tends to take me out of it. I don't mind slight nods to it here and again in this day and age or full-on reference to it in strange side-books (like the DEADPOOL KILLS- series), but I don't think it really fits into current Marvel continuity and I think, therefore, it's very strange here just as I think the overall tone of this book is very strange. BUT HERE'S THE THING, MY FRIENDS: I'm accepting it really well today. Can't promise next time won't be worse (though I've gotten better with this book each issue, I think), but it's hard not to think that maybe, just MAYBE, every book shouldn't be for me. Presumably if every book were for me I'd be incredibly happy but plenty of people (probably people I wouldn't get along with but PEOPLE NONETHELESS) wouldn't be reading comics. So this issue, and probably this series, isn't for me. And that's fine.

Total Score: 2/5*

*But, as with most other scores, that's just what I think and...actually, there's no way to finish this thought without implicitly recommending you stop reading this blog so NEVER MIND, WHAT I THINK IS BEST.

New Avengers 22

New Avengers 22
Hickman (w) and K. Walker (a) and F. Martin (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Illuminati have done the unthinkable as Namor has used their bomb to destroy and incurring Earth. They take a moment to examine the men they've become with Namor as unsympathetic and cold as ever, which sends Black Panther into a rage over the decision Namor made and therefore took from him. The two fight hand-to-hand before Reed pulls them apart but Namor then reveals that he had sold Wakanda out to Thanos, leading to another rage from T'Challa, only stopped when the Hulk separates them. The team heads in its separate directions but they'll be pulled together sooner rather than later as another incursion is coming in just under eight hours.

The fight we've been waiting for between Black Panther and Namor has finally come as Panther reels from his very recent disowning and the bomb going off in the hands of his new sworn enemy. Unfortunately, it maybe falls a little flat at the hands of Kev Walker, who I typically like well enough and have really liked on AVENGERS ARENA and AVENGERS UNDERCOVER. I don't know, maybe it's that this book has set itself up as something so grand and cinematic and Walker's style doesn't really carry the sort of weight that original series artist Steve Epting established as the norm. So instead, the art becomes almost a distraction. Still, the issue is big for the book as the terms of what they're doing have changed a bit with the first actual instance of destroying a thriving world. I also appreciate Hickman's built-in tension builder (used a-plenty in this series already) of showing that an incursion is once again coming to end an issue.

Total Score: 3/5

Avengers 33, New Avengers 21, Uncanny Avengers 22

Avengers 33
Hickman (w) and Yu (p) and Alanguilan (i) and Gho (c) and Petit (l)

In his continued time-travels, Captain America ends up 50,000 years in the future, where life has been exterminated and the world is run by something called The Worldcore. Spawned out of the death of Ultron, The Worldcore has recently started changing moments in the past despite the Herculean effort it takes. It's also been plagued by time-assassins (timessassins) of a sort (not entirely accurate but I wanted to write "timessassins" so we'll have to just pretend) and is now suspicious of any sort of time traveler. It intends to dissect Cap for further information about him but it finds and accidentally activate the bomb that was put inside him in the past, which targets and destroys The Worldcore. Cap is summoned again by the time gem but things seem a little different and he begins to fall through a crack in time, but he's pulled back by Iron Man, promising him that everything will be all right.

What I like about this time-travel story is that we can pretty clearly see that these futures, at least in some way or another, are connected. Occasionally superheroes will travel into the future and the entire future is fabricated in such a way that you can't really track how you get from one to another. Instead, it's just a cool idea that a writer and/or artist wanted to present. Sometimes, a book will jump so far into the future in one go that it will be kind of irrelevant to whatever story they're telling. This one jumps further and further ahead but shows hints of its interconnectedness, particularly apropos as it seems the time gem is jumping them intentionally to different futures. Still, time-travel like this tends to turn me off a bit, where I'd prefer instead to stay fixed in the present story. As such, the upcoming conclusion is a little more interesting to me as Iron Man and Cap meet again.

Total Score: 4/5


New Avengers 21
Hickman (w) and Schiti w/Larroca (a) and F. Martin w/Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

Dr. Strange unleashes his newfound powers, losing control as the monster inside him ages their foes into dust one at a time without mercy and without trouble. Black Panther and Iron Man adjust Tony's repulsors to knock Strange out before the monster can turn on them. Though the heroes of this other Earth are defeated, it still leaves the matter of the bomb and the incurring world. After returning to their own Earth, each man considers detonating the bomb (some longer than others) before Black Panther, urged by the ghosts of his ancestors carried within him, takes it. However, while he holds it, he decides he cannot use, shaming his ancestors who denounce him and disown him as a Black Panther, leaving him. He throws the detonator aside and falls to his knees. As the Illuminati begin to resign themselves to the idea that they won't be able to blow up the other world, home to billions of innocents, Namor takes the detonator and, insulting them all, uses it.

We all knew this day had to come, the day when the Illuminati would be forced to find a solution for an incurring world that was actually heavily populated. And of course, the heroes that represent the team are unable to pull the trigger until Namor proves his usefulness to a team like this. I really like everything about this issue. It's exactly as emotional and passionate as it needs to be without ever going too over-the-top with it. I also really love the focus this issue places on the makeup of this team. There's a scene between Maximus and Black Swan that highlights her penchant for finding the heroes of a world she wishes to save and how this world differs in that she accidentally picked a team full of kings, natural leaders who would do whatever it takes to preserve their kingdoms and who are willing to kill for their people. It's one of the things that draws me to characters like Black Panther, Namor, and Black Bolt and it's been extremely important but rather under the surface so far in this series. Hickman here brings it to the forefront to show how different this situation is from the typical Avengers-esque potential world-ending dilemmas. Really great issue, great job by artist Schiti on the emotions of the issue and the facial expressions of our heroes, which are paramount for an issue like this. Frank Martin also excels but, then, he always does (guys, read EAST OF WEST, it's so good).

Total Score: 5/5


Uncanny Avengers 22
Remender (w) and Acuña (a and c) and Cowles (l)

Kang has begun to drink of the Celestial's blood and his powers have increased an untold amount. Thor, weakened from Kang's immediate betrayal, is struck back down to Earth, leaving only Havok and Sunfire still in the fight against Kang at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. Their only hope is to attempt to absorb the cosmic energy Kang is using but both realize it could mean their own deaths and may still not work. As the only ones available, though (and perhaps the ones most at fault for trusting Kang, particularly Havok), they push forward, only to have Kang immediately stab Sunfire through the chest, disintegrating him instantly. He tells Havok to stop fighting, that it's the only way to see his daughter again, but Havok refuses to believe him. Instead, he turns all of Kang's power back against him in the hopes it will stop the conqueror. He manages to weaken and stall Kang enough to allow Sunfire, imbued with cosmic energy and no longer bound by his old form, appearing now as a figure of all blue and yellow, to rejoin the fight. Together, they force Kang to flee, taking his forces fighting on Earth with him, swearing revenge on humanity and particularly on Alex. The heroes all return to Earth to see the aftermath, including Sentry departing with the body of the Celestial, Wanda restoring all the powers Rogue borrowed to their rightful owners but Wonder Man inexplicably staying behind, and Janet's reaction to her lost daughter. Finally, Horsemen Daken and Grim Reaper emerge from the crashed Apocalypse Ship with the inert bodies of Uriel and Eimin in the Sahara Desert.

Geez, tons going on, which is what you'd expect and probably want from an arc that's lasted the better part of fifteen or so issues. Overall, it's been a really engaging story and this finale, certainly with plenty of questions left to answer and plenty of expectations attached to the finale of such a long story, lived up to it pretty well. All along it's been a full team story and we definitely get a sense of the whole team here and how much it means to everyone and how important a role everyone has played, but it's also felt particularly like an Alex Summers story, as he's been something of a catalyst for the team and certainly been the leader of the team. In that way, Remender makes sure to end things strongly, putting the focus on Havok as AVENGE THE EARTH ends. Strong work and, as ever, really great art out of Daniel Acuña, whose art and colors shine in this issue.

Total Score: 5/5

Original Sins 1, New Avengers 19

Original Sins 1
Deathlok: Edmondson (w) and Perkins (a) and Troy (c) and Cowles (l)
Young Avengers: North (w) and Villalobos (a) and Gibson (c) and Cowles (l)
Lockjaw: S. Moore (w) and Geary (a) and Svorcina (c) and Cowles (l)

Three stories to kick off our ORIGINAL SIN tie-in book which here is two-thirds ORIGINAL SIN tie-in and one third promotional. The first third is the promotional, with a short story by Nathan Edmondson (BLACK WIDOW, PUNISHER) and Mike Perkins (CAPTAIN AMERICA, UNION JACK) featuring Henry Hayes, a new Deathlok, unbeknownst to Hayes. Seemingly leaping right out of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, Hayes is war vet with bionic parts and who is, on occasion, mind controlled to execute missions at the behest of his handlers, whereafter he is dumped back where he started with no memory of the mission. He has just such a mission when a SHIELD agent approaches him in a train station and tells him that he's Deathlok, as was revealed to him by the Watcher's truth-bomb. As the SHIELD agent leaves, Hayes' handlers send Deathlok to execute the man. Though there is a clear tie-in to ORIGINAL SIN, the key of this book is building excitement for October's DEATHLOK, also written by Edmondson and illustrated by Perkins. It's not an awful test-run and it's certainly an easy enough premise to kick things off. Right now, Edmondson can do no wrong by me so let's hope that even a series spawned by (though with no connection to) a show I find almost entirely boring will separate itself the way BLACK WIDOW and PUNISHER have.

The second story finds three members of the Young Avengers, Hulkling, Noh-Varr, and Prodigy, teaming up to investigate what's happening in Manhattan. When Hulkling sees footage from the fight and recognizes Exterminatrix in the middle of it, he gets Prodigy to hijack Noh-Varr's shuttle so it will pick them up and bring them to their friend (who isn't leaving his space station home and also isn't picking up his phone). They convince him to come along and, in the course of their investigation, they run into a somehow un-evacuated woman being held hostage by the Hood, who needs the help of these three Young Avengers. Ryan North, who writes MIDAS FLESH and ADVENTURE TIME for BOOM! Studios and has countless other adventures in comics and other text (like his great Dinosaur Comics or like the choose-your-own-adventure Hamlet or his upcoming choose-your-own-adventure Romeo and Juliet), brings his usual playfulness and fun, natural, conversational style of writing to this project and it really works for the Young Avengers. Looking forward to where this goes.

Finally, Stuart Moore and Rick Geary bring us a short tale of Lockjaw uncovering a secret from the Watcher's truth treasure trove and, after trying a number of other heroes, conveying the importance of said secret to Iron Man, who accompanies him to the moon where he digs up a bone he'd left there. Fun little story which must have given a slight break from all those gorgeous painted THOR interiors to Eisner-nominated colorist Ive Svorcina.

Total Score: 4/5


New Avengers 19
Hickman (w) and Schiti (a) and F. Martin (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Illuminati travel to Earth-4,290,001, the home of the Great Society (Boundless, Dr. Spectrum, Sun God, The Rider, The Jovian, and The Norn) to discuss what's coming. They reveal that they have a doomsday device, something capable of destroying a world, but would much rather not have to use it. While they argue about how they would use such a device (in the case they can't figure something out, one world has to be destroyed to save the other world and to save both universes; the incursion going off as planned would mean the end of both worlds and both universes), Maximus runs some experiments on the frozen Corvus Glaive, locked away with his master Thanos. Back on Earth-4,290,001, the Illuminati try to justify their actions to the Great Society and continue to ask for help coming up with a way to save both worlds before they have to move on to worst-case scenarios but Namor, tired of the indecision, attacks The Rider, prepared to be what the incursion will make them all and provoking a fight between the two once-heroic groups.

One of the things I'd been saying since the start of this series was that NEW AVENGERS feels like a movie or a television show (its presentation, particularly at the beginning, felt more like gorgeous cinema but its episodic nature makes it more like a television show) and it seems to be sticking with that feeling. Hickman knows how to write scenes and how to present them and the artists attached to this book (including series colorist Frank Martin) really know how to make everything feel big and grand. In this issue (as in the last several) we get a number of recent flashbacks that add context and weight to the actions of the present while also allowing us to move on with the story in a way that maybe isn't so dry or straightforward. Some of those flashbacks involve Bruce and Hank talking about morality and the choices they face, Reed talking with Black Swan about the things they can do to help push forward, and Tony telling Reed that Cap knows and soon the most powerful Avengers team ever assembled will be coming for them. It's a strong story and the flashbacks allow the book an opportunity to remind you just how many threads are still out there and how intricate this situation is. I've also been looking for a way to plug this some more and so, while it's only tangentially related, it feels as big and grand, at times (though not always so gripping), as Hickman's EAST OF WEST, which is an absolutely phenomenal book I can't recommend enough. Val Schiti does the art on this issue and really brings great emotion to the characters, from hubris to fear to arrogance to sadness to resignation (guys, most of those descriptions are just for Namor).

Total Score: 5/5

Original Sin 3, Avengers World 7

Original Sin 3
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

While the Avengers in the immediate vicinity of the Orb (who, it turns out, was working alongside Oubliette's father Dr. Midas, all of which makes me quite glad I read Morrison's MARVEL BOY not too long ago) are sent reeling from the weight of their secrets (soon to be seen in all the tie-in books), the mysterious murder investigation boss's teams are spread out finding other such murders. Black Panther, Emma Frost, and Ant-Man examine bullets they've found while Punisher and Doctor Strange discuss the people who could shoot a target from such a huge distance. Meanwhile, Moon Knight, Winter Soldier, and Gamora explore space and find a trail of meteor-sized bullet casing that lead to a murdered sentient planet (not Ego the Living Planet, but similar enough that Gamora namedrops him). While Moon Knight and Gamora discuss how much this must narrow down the possible suspects, Bucky destroys their ship and teleports to Fury's base, where he's trying to glean more from the eye they've recovered. Winter Soldier proclaims that everyone has to pay for their sins and that there will be no more secrets before he shoots and stabs Fury and takes the eye.

In FEAR ITSELF, the last event he appeared in, Winter Soldier (at the time, Captain America) seemingly died in issue three. Now he returns to events as he seemingly murders someone in issue three of ORIGINAL SIN. There's a lot going on and plenty that's hinted at for us to read elsewhere (some pretty intense selling of the tie-ins as everyone starts to see their applicable secrets, with the most egregious being Thor yelling "BY THE SPIRES OF ASGARD, I HAVE A SISTER?") but the murder investigation and Bucky's apparent betrayal take center stage here. Like in any crime drama, it feels rather too early a reveal for Bucky to be the actual killer (not to mention that like, does he even know who the Watcher is?) but there's still clearly something pretty deep happening here. Also interesting is Fury's concern that everyone in the vicinity saw their secrets but he didn't see anything. Plenty happening, including a bit of less appealing salesmanship, but it's hard to read where this one will go next.

Total Score: 4/5


Avengers World 7
Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)

Madripoor has lifted off the Earth on the back of an ancient dragon at the behest of Gorgon, who has defeated Shang-Chi while his teammates Falcon, Black Widow, and Wolverine try to calm riots on the street. Black Widow calls for extraction, saying it's futile to keep fighting there, while Falcon goes to find Shang. With no birds in the sky around them (what do you think Redwing does on his days off? Bird social worker?), it's up to Sam entirely to find the missing Avenger and he follows a drone leading away from the flying nation. The drone drops him at a giant airship hovering near by called the Circle (because it's circular). He enters and meets Xian Zheng, who informs him that the Circle is his ship and it's one of many new Chinese airships. He explains that China realized it had relied too much upon SHIELD and the Avengers when the war of the Builders struck and now they've put together their own force, called SPEAR, with their own team of heroes called the Ascendants including Weather Witch, Saber, Vector, Devastator, and the Monkey King (last seen in IRON MAN 2.0, I think). Zheng tells Falcon it's nothing that he need worry about, that they're all fighting for the same cause, just that the world looks to China for defense and protection and China hasn't provided it yet. He also asks Falcon to help deliver the message to the world, which he does by appearing on footage broadcast around the world with the new team.

Occasionally a series will delve into the politics of the world, moving away from the individual superheroes and the individual villains and giving us a look at the world that these heroes and villains have created and how it differs from ours. AVENGERS WORLD 7 is one of the times where such a look is smart and compelling. We've seen other country-sanctioned teams and loyal national heroes (Britain has the most obvious example but there are heroes in the Middle East and in Russia and in Japan and, well, pretty much everywhere our heroes occasionally visit) but there's nothing out there with the sort of power and reach that SHIELD has. Now we've taken a story that was interesting, featuring Gorgon raising Madripoor on the back of a dragon, and turned it into something else entirely, introducing SPEAR (the acronym is never explained by Zheng points out that there has always been the shield in the west and the spear in the east so, I mean, pretty much just a word, huh?). I like having Falcon run point on this because he's someone who can understand the need for something like this without feeling entirely threatened. He's worked with SHIELD, he's worked against SHIELD, and he understand the way the world is changing so he's skeptical and hesitant but ultimately willing to give this a shot. Cool idea overall, we'll have to see how this plays across the rest of this arc and the rest of the universe.

Total Score: 5/5

Avengers 29, New Avengers 18, Secret Avengers 3

Avengers 29
Hickman (w) and Yu (p) and Alanguilan (i) and Gho (c) and Petit (l)

Steve Rogers has been having bad dreams but they've gotten clearer. Suddenly he remembers his time with the Illuminati and the way in which they parted. Furious, he grabs Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Thor, who subsequently grabs Starbrand and Hyperion, and the team of core Avengers and muscle confront Tony in his lab. Steve accuses him of all of his sins and it pretty quickly comes to blows as Tony regrets nothing about fighting to save the world through whatever means necessary and has a whole ton of suits with him. It's a bitter and brutal fight but it's ended abruptly (for now) when the time gem, the only one of the Infinity gems that didn't shatter right away (BECAUSE IT'S TIME, GUYS), appears and shatters in Cap's hand, sending the story to 48 years in the future.

Story
This is the one we've been waiting for since Tony ordered Steve's memories wiped way back in NEW AVENGERS 3 and everything's fallen nicely into place for Hickman and company. The story is appropriately dark and tense and it's impossible not to be impressed by how well Hickman has crafted his Tony Stark. Stark has never been above doing whatever it takes to do what he thinks is right but it's all come into focus here as the last two issues of AVENGERS (coming nearly thirty issues into a book that started by casting Steve as life and Tony as death) have found longtime associates of Tony accusing him of unthinkable crimes only to discover that they're entirely correct. Tony manages to convince one but not the other and, unfortunately for him, the other rather commands respect from just about everyone, including Thor, Hyperion, and Starbrand. Not really the best guy to go up against. 5/5

Character
This is very much meant to be a turning point moment for AVENGERS as it will fundamentally shake the two real leaders of Hickman's team. As such, it rather has to be a big moment for character and it certainly works out that way as we see the rage building in Steve and his swift decisiveness, immediately calling on Black Widow and Hawkeye as well as Thor. It's also worth noting that character is often built just as much on how other characters perceive someone and the fact that he can turn to this set of core Avengers and immediately have them trust him enough to storm their friend and fellow hero's home speaks volumes about both Cap and Tony. It's really brilliantly executed and enormously important. 5/5

Writing
I've pretty much covered this already, though I'll add that the tone of this book, as with the tone of the last issue, is that perfect blend of darkness and increasing hostility that this story absolutely needs. This will also tie to Yu and Gho's art and colors in the book but it comes first and foremost from the writing. 5/5

Art
Pretty much already said it all above but Yu, Alanguilan, and Gho capture the dark tone and the anger as well as anything Hickman wrote. Really strong work to tie everything nicely here. 5/5

Miscellaneous
The first ten pages of this issue or so are taken directly from NEW AVENGERS and serve as a really good point to get into this issue. On top of that, the book is an extra ten pages long to make up for the summary. Still, I continue to question Marvel's pricing as this one jumps up a dollar to $4.99, a disturbing trend recently. I understand that a bigger book means more cost to Marvel but I steadfastly maintain that keeping the price $3.99 does far more to gain readers/keep readers and to keep readers from getting skeptical and cynical about your prices while still not, I would think, bankrupting your company. Also, you're now forcing people who already know what's going on to pay an extra dollar to get recap they already have. This book itself is really good (and will get the score it merits on that alone) but it's another example in a worrying trend from Marvel.

Total score: 5/5


New Avengers 18
Hickman (w) and Schiti (a) and F. Martin (c) and Caramagna (l)

With a very short time before the Illuminati know they'll have to face another world, this one populated with innocents and heroes alike, it's time for some serious soul-searching. T'Challa seeks and receives counsel from the dead kings of Wakanda who allow him his moment of sadness and heavy-heartedness before reminding him that the very act of keeping Wakanda so secluded has cost many innocents in the outside world their lives, that the kings of Wakanda (or any place) have always been beyond these sorts of decisions, and that he needs to do what is best for Wakanda. Meanwhile, Beast shows Banner around their antimatter bombs, a powered-up and soulless Stephen Strange returns to the Illuminati, and Stark and Reed confront Black Swan in the hopes she has more information for them. By issue's end, though, it's time for the Illuminati to square off against heroes.

Story
It's fitting that this issue and this arc comes out alongside the current AVENGERS storyline (certainly, you guys, that's not by mistake) as it's the first time that the Illuminati are tested in exactly the sort of way Cap feared they would be when he "left" the team. Now, as Cap returns to dole out some justice on Tony over in AVENGERS, the Illuminati has to deal with a world populated by real people and real heroes alike in order to keep their own world alive. Will the most heroic among these men falter? The question is asked here and, though it puts off seeing the actual fight we're waiting for until next time, it's given the room linger for an issue, allowing the audience to understand just what everyone's going through. As this is a book driven by these consequences, it's important to give this fight the space it needs to really breathe. 5/5

Character
The characters are al highlighted by how troubled they are to enter into this fight. For T'Challa, that means his ongoing struggle to do what's right by his own moral code while also protecting and upholding Wakanda. Panther has always been a great character for seeing that sort of struggle and it's at a fever pitch right now. Tony Stark is the same way, though his feelings come out through anger and frustration where T'Challa's really border on abject sadness. Also worth seeing the characters who aren't seemingly struggling with this, including a somewhat-repowered Black Bolt, Namor, and Stephen Strange. Next issue should show us a lot. 5/5

Writing
Hickman's writing continues to be very strong and, as with AVENGERS, you can see the strengths of his long game all through these issues (long con). He has spent over a year building these stories and now it's all coming together wonderfully. He's also doing a solid job developing the tone really switching back and forth between all of the various emotions that the team is feeling. 5/5

Art
The talented Valerio Schiti steps in to provide the art for this issue and, while I quite like Schiti's art, I'm not sure it totally works here. It's at its strongest in this issue on the various emotions, particularly when we see Black Panther with his council, but it occasionally feels too clean for the dark things that are happening. Schiti is helped tremendously by Frank Martin's colors, which set up the tone really well, but it's hard not to feel like Schiti might have been a bit of a strange choice on this one. 4/5

Miscellaneous
Extra points here to Christian Ward's unbelievable variant cover (at right).

Total score: 5/5


Secret Avengers 3
Kot (w) and Walsh (a) and Wilson (c) and Cowles (l)

A deranged poet has built a superbomb and is planning to sell it on the island nation of Sokotra, possibly to Latverians. Hill sends Coulson, Black Widow, and Spider-Woman to the scene to try to capture the bomb and dispose of the poet while Fury and Hawkeye go on a different mission. Things start to break down in Sokotra as Coulson experiences a bit of PTSD from his recent mission and as Black Widow has to learn to trust her colleagues to do what they do. She covers Coulson while he snaps out of it and Spider-Woman attacks the poet, managing to subdue him and talk the superbomb out of committing suicide (yes, the superbomb talks and thinks). While Black Widow wonders if this isn't all a weird set-up (there appears to be no buyer for the bomb present after all), Lady Bullseye turns up and attacks before Coulson drives her off a cliff after hitting her with a jeep. They begin to return home as we learn that Fury and Hawkeye's mission is to go out and find and capture the Fury, who Fury and Coulson managed to dispatch in the last issue.

Story
Pretty standard story here as part of the team is sent to stop an arms deal that could put a devastating weapon in the hands of enemies (or of anyone, really) and part of the team, separated from the others, is sent to do something shady for SHIELD. Coulson's PTSD seems a bit forced as, although he only first appeared a few years ago in BATTLE SCARS, he's touted to be this big super agent who has had his hands in plenty of soups up to this point. Not to say his PTSD isn't warranted, it just kind of feels like it's here to develop Natasha more, who is forced to figure out what to do in this situation. Also, though the story is pretty standard, that doesn't mean it also doesn't feel a bit forced, particularly the criminal mastermind poet bit. 3/5

Character
The two biggest complaints I have about this issue's characters are that Kot is set on doing the somewhat standard Black Widow-team-writer thing of making her a cold and relentless killing machine, someone who revels in murder as much as any supervillain. I've always felt the best Natashas are the ones who don't get hung up on the killing but also aren't exactly licking their lips while they think of how best to kill someone. Here, she's absolutely flippant about murder and I think it weakens who she is. Kot is also set on making Hawkeye something of a twelve-year-old, which I think is a cue taken from Fraction's Hawkeye. The difference is that Fraction shows us all sides of Hawkeye; he's immature, sure, but he's also a guy with a dark past just trying to do what's right in whatever way seems best. Here, he's little more than comic relief and something of an audience stand-in, apparently needing explanation of what the team does because he's too dumb to understand it any other way, despite the fact that he recently ran his own Secret Avengers team so probably he's not too unfamiliar with it. It feels very much like it's trying way too hard on a lot of fronts, more of which we'll get into in the next section. 2/5

Writing
It's trying way too hard on a lot of fronts. I talked in the review of the first issue (and the second issue) about how Kot himself has called the tone of this book something akin to Breaking Bad, a Michael Bay movie, and Arrested Development. I think that all of those tones are coming at the expense of the overall quality of the book which feels like it's trying just so very hard to be different or to challenge common comic book conceptions. There's a poet screaming about Mailer and Plath as he prepares to detonate a reality ending bomb, there's a mention of Scarlett Johansson playing Black Widow in one of the inane introductory captions, and there's a page of the book dedicated to Natasha playing a weird text adventure sort of game in her mind as she decides how best to proceed, meaning that Natasha's mind is working in precisely the last way anyone would expect it to. I'm going to stop harping on this book trying too hard now because, in finding those links above, I looked at my last two reviews and saw that I'm just repeating myself OVER AND OVER AGAIN so I'm going to let you all assume what I'm saying. 1/5

Art
In case you missed it, I don't like the tone of this book and I don't like how hard this book is trying but I will say that the art is doing its job to keep up with whatever tone Kot wants to put forward. Though I'm not onboard with the book so far, I think the art is doing everything it can to make it palatable. Credit to Michael Walsh and Matt Wilson for doing some strong work to keep this book moving. 5/5

Miscellaneous
As with everything, this is all just based on my personal opinion as well as whatever technical knowledge I've gained throughout my life (that's why I tend to focus so much more on writing aspects than art aspects; I'm far more experienced with writing than with art). Maybe this book is working for you. For me, though, I tend to get super skeptical and cynical when you can smell a book trying too hard and this is nailing that (I thought FEARLESS DEFENDERS was doing it too but I was more willing to forgive that on some levels because it was at least doing it with C-list characters).

Total score: 2/5

Original Sin 1

Original Sin 1
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopolous (l)

The Watcher has been murdered, a hole blown into his forehead and his eyes removed, and it's up to the original Nick Fury and a few of the other heroes out there to find out why and by whom. Thor discovered the body and immediately alerted fellow Avengers Iron Man and Captain America, who in turn told Fury, Black Widow, and Wolverine (all of whom were enjoying a nice dinner together, members of, presumably, the pals of Fury club). Also working the case from a different angle is a ragtag team consisting of Black Panther, Ant-Man (Lang), Moon Knight, Winter Soldier, Gamora, Emma Frost, Dr. Strange, and Punisher and assembled by a mysterious shadowy figure. Meanwhile, back on Earth, a Mindless One has encountered Thing and Spider-Man in New York wielding the Ultimate Nullifier that was in the Watcher's armory and claiming that he has seen too much. After the Mindless One ultimately nullifies himself, Thing reports in to Cap about what he said. It seems like plenty of people will be seeing too many sins too soon.

Story
This is a tough one to judge story on if just because we've known the general plot of ORIGINAL SIN for months now but Aaron and company still need to address it. It's no easy chore to write a story where just about everyone reading already knows the first act (thanks again SOLICITS, and also press interviews but WHO KNOWS much of this would have come out already if the solicits didn't exist) and Aaron does a commendable job getting it out of the way here. Still, more questions will have to be answered before we can actually call this a worthy story. Of course, it's not the job of the first issue to answer every question a story can have. Look, what I'm saying is that it's hard to judge the story on this one. 4/5

Character
Events are particularly hard to judge character (I'm just going to make excuses the whole way through, apparently) because events are driven by plot. To a point, those plots can be driven by the characters involved, i.e., Civil War (driven very much by who Cap is, who Tony is, etc.), but by and large the focus is on a big and sweeping story. As such, it's incredibly difficult to insert too many meaningful character beats because there isn't enough time and, typically, there are just too many characters. There's a little development for the Fury's pals club as they reminisce and a little development for Black Panther as he reacts to information from the mystery figure but everyone else is incredibly bare bones, presumably out of space concerns. Still, hard not to look at the team I listed in the summary and not read it as simply a line-wide advertisement. Is it an intriguing team? Sure. But each one, very randomly pulled together with particular outsiders Moon Knight (possibly crazy), Winter Soldier (thought dead by most), and Gamora (unknown by just about everyone on the planet), seems hand-picked not for their stealth or mercenary or brutal ways (though, sure, they share that) but for representation of seemingly every single book out there right now. Thing and Spider-Man even get a nod because I guess we hadn't swept in the Fantastic Four or the Spider-Man universe yet. I'm not saying that the team is bad or that they're uninteresting or a bad fit for the job, but it's hard not to view this as simply a huge push for tie-ins and advertising and that stings pretty bad. 2/5

Writing
Aaron has a lot of ground to cover here in explaining a tiny bit about the Watcher for those who didn't pick up ORIGINAL SIN 0 or who don't know him well anyway and then killing him off and getting all his pieces moved into place in this roughly double sized issue (full of double page spreads). He does the job well enough and, though I think we're maybe keeping a few too many cards close to the chest (I've grown to rather hate the "someone is talking to a shadowy figure and that someone knows who the shadowy figure is but the audience CAN'T" trope because I simply don't understand it. I understand its purpose but I can't accept the logistics of it). 4/5

Art
Deodato's art is ever Deodato's art. It's clean, skillful, and tends to make up for its lack of emotion with strength of action. Sadly, there's not a lot of action here, bar the fight between Thing and the Mindless One, and plenty of room for emotion. Deodato is an incredibly talented artist but I remember seeing interviews that were talking about how he was picked particularly because of his ability to draw just about anyone identifiably and to work fast, a necessity to keep up the pacing of the event. I think Deodato's a strong choice for artist on an event but it's getting a little hard not to read that as "time constraints were more important in this situation than finding the best fit." That's probably not fair but it's also not something I'd have considered if not for the points I brought up in the character section and for the price tag on this first issue, which I'll talk about more in just a sec. 4/5

Miscellaneous
This book, first of the eight-issue double-shipping four-month event, retails for 4.99 and, although it's another extra-size book, it's hard not to look at this with the same cynical eyes as, say, the recent AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1. ASM was a huge book, probably worth the 5.99 price tag it held, but I mentioned in my review of that book that I think a show of good faith sort of move, keeping the book at 3.99, would have allowed more people to buy it and get involved while also garnering praise for releasing so much without a price hike despite the recent move to bump all books to 3.99. I think this is the same situation: the onus should be on Marvel to get us to buy into their event and physically buy their event, not on us to need to keep up with the Marvel Universe for whatever price they may put the lynchpins at. We're off to a rocky start so far and it's nothing to do with the story behind ORIGINAL SIN just yet. Right now, it's hard not to look at this new event and see it as everything people complain about when they complain about events: money-grubbing and devoid of substance.

Total score: an extremely wary 3/5

Avengers 28, New Avengers 17

Avengers 28
Hickman (w) and Larroca (a) and F. Martin w/Mossa (c) and Petit (l)

AIM has taken back the Avengers from another world, hoping to send them away because they seriously do not need two Avengers teams out there. However, the Banner that seemed to be the other world's Banner asks the Scientist Supreme why worlds are dying. With nothing to lose from this conversation, Forson admits that they believe the multiverse is dying and that Earth is the center point. It turns out that this Banner is actually our Banner, though, and he escapes AIM, doing a bunch of damage on the way out, before making his way to Avengers Tower. He interrogates Tony and, with a smart line of questioning, realizes what's been happening and realizes that Tony has re-formed the Illuminati, the same Illuminati that launched Hulk into space so long ago. Banner pumps himself full of tranquilizers to keep from hulking out while Tony explains and while Tony invites him to join the team, which he reluctantly does, understanding how big the threat is. Tony hands off the other universe's Banner to SHIELD and the Avengers, who are looking to dole out punishment for attacking the Avengers and Avengers Tower, and the Illuminati meets its newest member. OH, and also the Adapoids that went out to explore the multiverse meet up with the Mapmakers and it turns out that they're all one and the same.

Story
Really great story here as Hickman preps for ORIGINAL SIN and props up his amazing NEW AVENGERS work with a new and crucial addition to the team. It's a wonderful idea, putting the worldbreaker Hulk and the genius scientist Banner into this situation wherein worlds may need to be broken if science can't answer these questions. On top of that, it's executed perfectly; there's plenty of time at the beginning where you don't know if Banner is our Banner or the other universe's and we figure out definitively that it's ours just as the other drama of the plot, the idea that Banner has figured everything out, is coming to the head of the story. It's extremely well done and it's a huge step for this series and for NEW AVENGERS. Plus, as if Cap wasn't going to be mad ENOUGH at Tony and crew for wiping his memories when he finds out in ORIGINAL SIN, he's now had an innocent(ish) Bruce Banner handed to him in lieu of the real deal. 5/5

Character
AVENGERS hasn't had a ton of room for character because the plots have been so sweeping and the team has been so big. It's nice to have an issue that pulls back to just two major characters to give us a better look at those two guys and BOY what a great look it is. It's Banner at his most tense, a perfect portrait of someone right on the brink of hulking out with one false step, and it's Tony at his most duplicitous and covert, the weapons maker returned. It's incredibly tense and it's incredibly well-crafted, two could-be/have-been allies in a conversation that could turn them into quick enemies, another thing they have been. It's a dynamic built on decades of discontent and it's perfect. 5/5

Writing
This is one of those issues whose writing score is based on the perfect execution of story and character more than any one thing in the dialogue. That's not to say the dialogue isn't sharp. In fact, the dialogue is extremely well-balanced as the audience knows Tony is hiding something and Banner is pretty sure Tony is hiding something all while we're not sure if Banner is Banner and as we and Tony try to figure out what's in the case. There's so much happening here and it's all done in service to the tone, which, in turn, builds our story and our character. It's all a circle and it all feeds itself. 5/5

Art
I often have issues with Salvador Larroca's art but he does solid work here. Larroca uses a mix of close-ups and wide shots to help establish the tone as two people snipe back and forth trying to outwit one another. I don't know that it's the best possible art for this book but that way madness lies so we're not going to worry about that. In this case, it works perfectly well. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I've been back and forth on this AVENGERS series for a while. It's largely good but sometimes the long con style game Hickman and company tend to play makes it a little harder to get into as a whole series. When it's said and done, though, I think this series will read extremely well as one long volume. Solid work here and BOY was this issue good.

Total score: 5/5


New Avengers 17
Hickman (w) and Morales (a) and F. Martin (c) and Caramagna (l)

Namor and T'Challa continue to watch Earth-4290001 to learn how they deal with their incursion. With the help of the Norn, they've defeated the incurring world but not before four Mapmakers land on their planet. Their hero Boundless manages to destroy the AI of one but is stopped before she can damage the rest but their leader Sun God, warning everyone to take cover under Dr. Spectrum's shielding, unleashes his full power and destroys the others. T'Challa and Namor watch as the heroes, all surviving the fight recover a bit until they realize that another incursion is already underway. Namor steps away from the screen to have a drink, complaining that it seems an unwinnable scenario; they're up against not just incurring planets but the Mapmakers, the Black Priests, and the Ivory Kings. He jokes darkly about their chances and he and T'Challa have some real talk about hope and honor and nobility and share a laugh about their survival before T'Challa is pulled back to the screen to find that, in two hours time (thanks to the window's strange effect on time), the world incurring on Earth-4290001 is their own Earth.

Story
Hickman's created an interesting batch of characters from this alternate Earth and, though we can't care about them in the same way we care about characters we've known for decades, it's hard not to root for them. They're pointedly the opposite of our heroes; they're still fighting the incursions and they still hope to see their Earth win but they refuse to give up hope that this is unwinnable. Sun God himself kicked off their mission by saying "Everything lives" in the same way that Reed Richards continues to say "Everything dies." So it's hope against despair as the theme here, even as T'Challa and Namor discuss it as two kings with no kingdoms. Solid story and quite a cliffhanger. 5/5

Character
The Namor-Black Panther dynamic has been one of the more interesting stories in this book all the way around. From the time this series kicked off, Atlantis and Wakanda have been at war with one another, putting their champions at odds even as they're forced to work together for the survival of the world. It's also worth pointing out that we are rather rooting for Earth-4290001's champions despite their relative obscurity, to the credit of Hickman. 5/5

Writing
The hope/despair theme prevails and plays well as Hickman particularly focuses us on Namor, a character for whom the difference between himself and everyone else is hope. It's a great tool and it's explored really well here as Namor keeps up his personality even against T'Challa, his equal in power but someone who fights because he has hope, among other reasons. It's smart writing. 5/5

Art
Rags Morales has some really incredible art and the expressiveness and the emotion of these characters really stands out in these particularly emotional times. An artist who wasn't as capable of showing the minute emotional turns of these two pretty calculated characters, even if they did better action or something (which is just an example, by the way, I think Morales' action has been pretty cool so far), wouldn't be nearly as successful. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I should have seen the twist at the end coming and I didn't and it still made me go "ohhhhhhhhhhhh wowwwwwwwww."

Total score: 5/5

New Avengers 16, Uncanny Avengers 18

New Avengers 16
Hickman (w) and R. Morales (a) and F. Martin (c)

Namor has returned to the Illuminati to see how the research is faring. He's not particularly into the research aspect, not being one of the many geniuses on the team, and believes that preparing to destroy worlds rather than studying ones that have been destroyed is the way to go in this situation. He enters one of the observation rooms where Black Panther is recording data and the two trade barbs very briefly before getting into business. In this case, the business is T'Challa showing Namor that, in the forty worlds they've observed, one has survived incursions twice in different manners than the Illuminati have used. The world in question, Earth-4,290,001, has seen its share of invasions and super-powered coups, the most recent of which has left a team of six in charge of protecting the world. Those six, Boundless, Doctor Spectrum, the Rider, the Jovian, the Norn, and Sun God, have banded together to save the people of Earth multiple times and have been called to do so twice more during incursions. As individuals, they are powerful enough to withstands many attacks, including those of the Mapmakers (who they seem familiar with) but as a team they're able to even stop the incurring worlds. The Norn, though it does him great personal harm, is able to use his magics to destroy the incurring world on his own.

For a while now, the book has been more about gathering research and strategies and seeing worlds fall as if to drive the point home to the Illuminati that their attempts are futile and that, as has been the mantra of the entire series, everything dies. Panther's latest discovery, though, seems to point in another direction. Not only does this team withstand two incursions, shattering planets that would destroy their own, Sun God himself even makes a speech á la Reed Richards wherein he says "Everything lives. It lives before it dies, and we are judged by what we do during that time." It's a pretty powerful speech and it's one that shifts, ever so slightly, the running speech and tone of this book. It's very clear that these heroes have seen tremendous hardship - Hickman makes that clear in a little scene between Sun God and the Rider - but their outlook is the glass-half-full side of Reed's continual glass-half-empty approach of "Everything dies. I accept that." It'll be interesting to see where this new data leads. On top of that, as an issue in and of itself, I think Hickman does a pretty fantastic job once again writing the Namor-Black Panther dynamic. It's very clear that these two do not like each other but they are acting very professionally as they discuss matters bigger than either of them. It's one of the things I like about the kings of the Marvel Universe (Namor, Black Panther, and Black Bolt chief among them): each and every one of them cares more for the protection of their people and act accordingly. Here they put aside their feud because, although their people are at war with one another, the destruction of Earth is the bigger threat to their kingdoms. Solid stuff. Rags Morales does a solid job bringing it to the page as well.

Uncanny Avengers 18
Remender (w) and Acuña (a and c)

Smash cut to Planet X, the new mutant planet, several years down the line. Among all the mutants who have created their new planet, full of beautiful and impressive architecture and seemingly a more functional government, are two enemies of the state. Havok still feels responsible for the death of the Earth and refuses to allow Eimin's propaganda, which explains to the populace that Thor and the Avengers were responsible for the death of their world and for holding back mutants, to color his view of the Earth that was. He knows how the final battle happened, as does his wife, the human stowaway Wasp. It's been several years since the loss of Earth and the two have a child now, though parenthood has not stopped them from working to restore their home planet. With the help of Hank McCoy, fellow human supporter, they've realized that their only hope is to bring down the tachyon dam still around the planet. They have no idea if their plan will work as all experiments rely on the wall being down before they can be tested but Alex and Janet set off anyway, pursued by Blob (whose X-gene was reignited), Toad, and Magneto. They manage, after a long and exciting chase scene, to bring down the dam but Janet is captured in the process. Alex returns to his home to find that Kang has finally been able to bring his reinforcements.

After months of teasing, Planet X is here and it's everything you might have imagined. Remender, who is so fond of abruptly jumping forward in time as evidenced by CAPTAIN AMERICA, here jumps maybe five years forward or so onto this planet, where the guilt that drives Alex is palpable and we can really see what a planet full of mutants would look like. It's not that much of a stretch to believe that, upon waking from their pods, the mutants were easily convinced that their life now and here was better. Eimin probably didn't have to do too much propaganda spreading, which is kind of the beauty of this whole conceit. Things probably are better for mutants here. They have a whole planet which, sure, at first was probably jarring but now that it's been several years, they're starting to come into their own. Remender's done a solid job here and the decision to send us into the future as well as off-planet really pays off. The first instinct is to think that the followers of Xavier would want to save Earth and even the humans on it. However, it makes a whole lot of sense that once they settled in, it's everything even the staunchest human supporter could want. The only reason Havok and Wasp haven't decided to just hedge their bets and settle down (other than the reason that Wasp is a human and probably not well liked for it) is that they know the truth of what's happened and the truth about Eimin, not to mention the guilt each of them feels for the loss of the Earth and their teammates. Hank, of course, is just a pretty swell guy so he wants his planet back too. Really interesting stuff here and a great call to skip ahead of the kind of shock and awe phase of the new planet. Daniel Acuña continues to do phenomenal work on the title and really drives home the tone and look of the new world. Very good book all around.

2014's event "Original Sin" revealed

Quick note to say that CBR has confirmed this year's big event at Marvel (or, the way things have been going lately, presumably one of its big events) will be ORIGINAL SIN, by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato. ORIGINAL SIN will center around the murder of the Watcher and the villain who stole his secrets, harkening back a bit to Ed Brubaker and Javier Pulido's 2011 POINT ONE one-shot, which saw a couple of spies trying to steal secrets from the Watcher. The series will be eight issues itself and will have its share of tie-ins (those tie-ins haven't been revealed yet but Aaron promises they'll be a bit different than other tie-ins have worked in the past, swearing that these tie-ins wouldn't exist if they didn't have something important to say). ORIGINAL SIN will feature a big cast of both A-listers and people more out of the spotlight (Aaron says, for example, characters like Emma Frost, Black Panther, Punisher, and Ant-Man will all play big roles) and will focus on solving the murder of the Watcher by "head detective" Nick Fury, as in original Nick Fury (excited about that, anyway). I'm fairly on the fence about this one and will just have to wait until May to start forming an opinion.

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.