A+X 18, Survive 1

A+X 18
Vision and Kitty Pryde: Krueger (w) and Sliney (a) and Mossa (c)
Captain America and Cyclops: Duggan (w) and Yardin, Lolli, and C. Smith (a) and Mossa (c)

In story the first of this final issue of A+X, Kitty Pryde and the Vision have been unknowingly transported to the remains of Murderworld, the first Murderworld to which Arcade brought the X-Men. They move around only to find that they are unable to use their powers there and can't figure out why. They're faced with ghostly images of many of their friends and loved ones, both living and dead, and eventually faced with images of Arcade's murdered victims. The last part doesn't really seem like a trap and Kitty and the Vision are astounded to find that Murderworld itself has gained sentience but, unlike its creator, it doesn't like all the things it's been tasked with doing. It wants the two heroes to shut it down, ashamed of everything it's done in the past. They convince it that it's a separate entity from Arcade now and that it can make its own path. Murderworld restores their consciousnesses to their bodies (everything had happened in their mind, which is why they couldn't use their powers) and they leave as friends. Not an awful little story here as we see two characters with very similar powers and similar sentiments work together to help another being with loads of guilt and a tie to machinery.

The second story is the conclusion of the long-running Captain America and Cyclops team-up which finds Cyclops and his team leaving Latveria before Doom arrives back but not before destroying a ton of his stuff and stealing his new Doombot prototype. Back at the ranch (GUYS, THAT'S A SAYING BUT IT'S ALSO LITERAL HERE), Cap convinces Agent Adsit that these Skrulls are totally fine and encourages him not to arrest them. He does the same for Cyclops when Cyclops returns, though he advises him to seek legal counsel and still defend himself in court to allow the legal system to clear him. They begin to bicker again and Tempus shows up to try to get Scott out of the situation without any issue but Dr. Strange also shows up as a counter measure to ensure that Tempus doesn't show up and steal Cyclops away. They talk amicably and prepare to leave while Cap and Cyclops begin to fight one another once more. Not a lot more to talk about here that I haven't talked about in all my other reviews for A+X so far. Fitting then that this is the last one. So ends a series that was somewhat ill-advised in the first place and lasted WAY longer than anyone probably thought it should but proved ultimately harmless.

Survive 1
Bendis (w) and Quinones (a) and Beredo w/ Quinones (c)

With the events of CATACLYSM now in the past, everyone is sifting through the wreckage to see what will come of it all. The frame of the issue is a eulogy for Captain America that Tony gives to the hero crowd (though he mentions Thor's loss too). In the course of the eulogy, he mentions what has happened and what will happen as a result of it and the hard work that Cap always inspired, segueing into both a short look at lawyer Franklin Nelson (Foggy!) meeting with Monica Chang about how she's going to be put on trial for failing to protect the world just as SHIELD is likely to be dismantled in the wake of this disaster. Tony's part of the speech that highlights Cap's tendency to be reborn segues into a look at Reed Richards investigating the ruins of the Baxter Building and talking with Sue about the future and how he's learned about the potential they all have from the other universe and that something will need to replace SHIELD. Tony's talk about young heroes taking up the mantle of Cap cuts to Kitty talking with the President of the United States about furthering the mutant goal and about how the President has been trying to pass pro-mutant legislation, a goal he hopes will be furthered by Kitty's recent heroic actions. Finally, Tony's speech about how he can't keep the Ultimates going with Cap and Thor gone leads to a look at Spider-Man and Spider-Woman helping in the clean up and talking about what happens next for all of them, including deciding that the two of them, plus Kitty, Bombshell, and Cloak and Dagger, will be forming a new Ultimates.

Lots of information in this issue as Bendis paves the way for the new look of the Ultimate Universe, one that will re-launch with new ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR, ULTIMATE X-MEN, and ULTIMATES titles. There's not a ton of heart or real character building in this book but it accomplishes its job as it very clearly sets up the next phase for the Ultimate Universe. I'm still not convinced that Captain America is dead and this book did very little to confirm anything, even despite the funeral and so on and so forth. It's on to a brand new day for the Ultimate Universe and it seems like all of the pieces are in place to get things started. Check this book out if you want to see where it's all heading but it's entirely avoidable if you've simply heard the announcements for the upcoming books (thanks for ruining another book, solicits!).

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 5, Guardians of the Galaxy 12

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 5
Bendis (w) and Bagley and Hennessy (a) and Keith (c)

Kitty Pryde is prepped and ready to go in the fight against Galactus. She grows to giant size and goes after Galactus, providing the rest of the Ultimates with the distraction they need. Reed Richards launches a little ship towards Galactus and, as the world-eater begins to retaliate against Kitty, it flies behind him and opens a portal to the Negative Zone. Galactus begins to be pulled in, along with Kitty, as Reed preps to shut the portal. Spider-Man and Sue Storm race to catch up to and save Kitty despite the fact that, as Reed puts it, she knew her chances of survival. The pair of them catch up to Kitty and start trying to pull her back but the pull of the Negative Zone is strong. Galactus is going in first but it won't be long before it pulls the whole city in piece by piece as Galactus struggles against it. Fortunately, the deus ex machina comes in the form of actual deus Thor, who flies straight at Galactus with enough power to push him into the portal. With Spider-Man, Sue, and Kitty still fighting the pull, Reed goes to shut the portal down. Tony stops him for a moment, begging him to give Thor a chance to come out of it, but ultimately relents and Reed closes it down. With the threat gone and the city left to rebuild, Storm finds Captain America's shield in the wreckage, but with no sign of a body.

So this is it for Cataclysm after what feels like a really long time. It's a solid issue and the end of a pretty good event as a whole (though, and this isn't anybody's fault, it seems as if this solution is exactly the same as the solution at the end of the video game Lego: Marvel Superheroes, an immensely frustrating game only because of how broken it is but ultimately fun - this is my review of it, tucked away inside of a review of a comic. Maybe I'll really review it at some point. LOOK, whatever). Given that this is the Ultimate Universe, it's very surprising how few casualties there were in Galactus' would-be world-ending attack. Granted, Galactus is very much, more than anyone else in probably any universe, an all-or-nothing sort of villain, but I think we only really saw the death of Vision and maybe Punisher? Everyone else survived, after a manner of speaking, though the fate of Captain America is still up in the air (I'm going to go ahead and guess that if they didn't show a body this issue they're never going to, not until he's shown to still be alive) and Thor is trapped in the Negative Zone. Neat stuff with a good amount of potential as the Ultimate Universe does indeed survive and continue.

Guardians of the Galaxy 12
Bendis (w) and Pichelli, S. Immonen, and von Grawbadger (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Guardians and all-new X-Men have met up with the Starjammers, shocking a young Cyclops to his core as he comes across his father for the first time since he saw their plane blown up. Of course, for Corsair this isn't the first time he's seen one of his sons since but it's the first time he's seen him so young. All of this is covered and Scott has a lot to deal with as he runs into some new emotional ground and has to work his way through it with X-23, who comes to give him a hug. They've reached the Shi'ar throne world and found their defenses high as a whole ton of Shi'ar have gathered at the planet. Coming soon, too, will be J-Son, head of the Spartax empire and father of Peter Quill as he's received word that, despite his previous announcement to all the planets and races out there, the Shi'ar have meddled with Earth and the Guardians are heading for them. Meanwhile, Gladiator believes that the X-Men, though they may even be aware of Jean Grey's disappearance, won't get there before a decision is reached about Jean's fate. She's not helping her case as she continues to lash out and yell about her innocence as the trial commences.

There are...interesting parts to this storyline. On the one hand, it feels like trying to do too much, throwing the Starjammers into this story after years on the outskirts of the Marvel Universe and really only to show young Scott his father again. Sure they may play a bigger role but it feels like such a weird time to throw them in except as a plot device. By the same token, sending the Spartax there to further J-Son's demands that Earth be left alone makes sense to the story at large but it may also be one too many moving parts. Finally, I still don't particularly care for the driving plot behind this story. Putting aside my many complaints about the O5 X-Men being in the present, I just can't bring myself to care about another story right now where someone is charged with possible crimes from their future. It's been done a lot and it can be done really, really well and it's been done a lot recently and sometimes pretty well. Here, though, it's not as compelling and it's weirdly timed, coming right off of BATTLE OF THE ATOM, which dealt very much with the same sort of ideas, AGE OF ULTRON, which dealt very much with the same sort of ideas, and INFINITY, which dealt with Gladiator and the Shi'ar finding immense respect for Earth and its people. Makes me not love this event as a whole, though there are parts that may work in the end. Hopefully the parts are enough to justify the sum.

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 4, Revolutionary War - Knights of Pendragon 1, Night of the Living Deadpool 2

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 4
Bendis (w) and Bagley and Hennessy (a) and Keith (c)

The Ultimates have recruited the X-Men in the fight against Galactus and their newest, perhaps most desperate, plan revolves around Kitty Pryde. Their hope is to use Pym Particles to allow her to grow to near-Galactus size (or at least nearer-Galactus size) and get her close to the cosmic entity before she phases through him and, if all goes well, disrupts all of his technology inside. It's a gambit but it's the best they can do on such a short schedule. They inject Kitty with the particles but can't actually get her moving just yet as Jean Grey, who Stark had trying to probe Galactus' mind for any useful information, is noticed by Galactus and he turns his attentions towards the helicarrier. While they start to abandon ship, Captain America jumps into a jet and flies straight at Galactus, ramming the jet into Galactus' mouth as Cap attempts to bail. The helicarrier goes down, hopefully after a number of people were able to escape with the distraction Cap provided, and Galactus remains.

The cover would have you believe that Cap doesn't make it from his jump out of the jet but the pages inside don't indicate anything specific and, with comics, specifics are everything. Without a body, you can almost guarantee an alive body will turn up sometime soon. This event is still interesting and still worthy of, it would appear, the possible conclusion of the ULTIMATE line (by the way, I think we've covered but it's not the conclusion as they've already solicited and talked about new parts of the all-new Ultimate line or whatever they're calling it) but I think, for how small and contained the Ultimate Universe feels compared to the main universe, the sheer volume of books about this event has hurt the tension of it. With so many books and an entire universe tied to its outcome, it's starting to feel, even amidst all the action and all of the big set pieces, that the event is dragging. Almost every event at this point seems to reach that threshold, an invisible line where the reader's interest inevitably begins to wane. I do wonder if there are readers out there who are just reading the Ultimate Universe stuff and have been following this event with bated breath. Do you, mysterious reader, feel like it's still moving really well? Am I tainted because I've read every major Marvel book in between all of these CATACLYSM books? I don't know but it's the inherent problem (or one of the inherent problems) with these events and I think this whole event would be wise to start reaching its conclusion.

Revolutionary War - Knights of Pendragon 1
R. Williams (w) and Sliney (a) and Gandini (c)

Dai Thomas and Kate McLellan go to investigate an old underground Mys-Tech base while Pete Wisdom and Union Jack go to Avalon to warn Albion about Mys-Tech's re-emergence. Both pairs run into problems as Dai and Kate run afoul of the zombies of King Arthur's court, intent on returning to run Britain. Wisdom and Jack find that Mys-Tech beat them to Avalon and overran the Green Knight and possibly Albion. The stories converge as Albion falls out of Avalon and into the underground base (they were together the whole time, practically!) and manages to lead the Knights of Pendragon again. However, it's short lived as their overrun again fairly quickly. Fortunately, Wisdom snags zombie Excalibur and uses it to awaken the Green Knight, turning him into a knight for today (something like a marathon runner that's PROBABLY a British reference but I'm not about to understand it) and saving everyone, even resurrecting Dai, who had kind of died during the battle.

I was rather looking forward to this part of REVOLUTIONARY WAR because, on top of continuing the plot that I'm having a bit of trouble really getting into, it was bringing in characters I like and know a bit better in Pete Wisdom and Union Jack. It, instead, didn't really end up working for me and I found the whole thing something of a headache and often more grating than entertaining. It does a lot of the "clever, too-cool-for-this" captions thing I've taken such issue with over the last year or so and goes SO FAR out of its way to make sure we know the key points of these characters. Pete Wisdom calls himself a cynical guy, like, a hundred times in this issue (I didn't actually count but it FEELS like a hundred) and there's nothing I like LESS than a sarcastic or cynical person constantly asserting how cynical or sarcastic they are. UGH. Anyway, the plot doesn't clear up at all here as we only tangentially see what Mys-Tech is up to and the issue serves as just a way to show off a couple more characters and to point out who's Welsh and who isn't (?).

Night of the Living Deadpool 2
Bunn (w) and Rosanas (a and c)

Check it everyone, I can write this review SO FAST and you'll still get a PERFECT sense of this book. Deadpool and his team of humans travel through the zombies and typical zombie stuff happens, with the one person in their group who was already bitten turning and going on to turn someone else before Deadpool kills them both, then the other three people with him get bitten one after the other after Deadpool and company visit a slew of classic zombie-media locales (ie Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, oodles of Walking Dead, others I'm less familiar with, etc). Deadpool, now alone, finds himself near a human commune ready to be invaded by a group of other humans.

This series is a loving homage to zombies and everything zombie in media and, as such, straddles a fine line between nostalgia, hamfisted reference, and Deadpool. The art is really the standout of the book, particularly as we already have something sort of this nature with Headpool from MARVEL ZOMBIES, but it still can't really cover the fact that this book is only going to be for the true Deadpool fans out there and MAYBE for the true zombie fans out there. The problem is that zombie Marvel was already done better in the aforementioned MARVEL ZOMBIES and zombies in general have already been done better in...well, everything they mention from Night of the Living Dead to the amazing Shaun of the Dead to The Walking Dead. So every beat is predictable in some fashion, meaning that the allure of these Deadpool-centric series, the draw of seeing some new idea, is kind of gone. I liked DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED best of all of these little series and that one introduced the most original ideas. After a turn through Deadpool fighting Deadpools (and at least the neat idea of a Deadpool alternate-costume for every hero they could fit on the page), we get to this. I don't know. I think the most I can say is that you'll probably know if you'll like it right from the get-go and if it's not for you in its design than it's not going to ever be for you.

Comics this week

GUYS. ONLY 14 BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK. AND THAT INCLUDES SOME THAT I MAY NOT EVEN REVIEW! WHAT A WEEK! PRAISE BE TO THE END OF JANUARY.

Inhumanity 2
Little confused about this one going into the week so that should be good for us! INHUMANITY continues after a bit of a wait in INHUMANITY 2, previously known as INHUMANITY - MEDUSA. Why the change? Well smart money says its in the crossfire of the switch from Fraction to Soule as writer on INHUMANITY. Who's writing this issue? Who knows! But it should probably be a big one!

Superior Spider-Man 26
With GOBLIN NATION just getting under way and impacting the entire Spider-Man universe and with the knowledge that Peter Parker is still alive inside his own mind somewhere, things are set to start ramping up for this series before April's launch of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Now seems as good a time as any to get onboard if you've been curious.

Thunderbolts 21
Fun! Whimsy! Adventure! Most of the Thunderbolts in Hell and Elektra and Punisher likely facing off against Mercy! Just read this book and enjoy it, you guys.

Uncanny Avengers 16
Things are happening in this book and they've been happening for quite some time in this book. All of the mutants have been whisked away to the ark and put into stasis for the journey, seemingly ending any hope at rebellion against the Apocalypse twins. So what stands in their way? Well it seems probably not Earth since the Earth has been sentenced to death for the death of a Celestial. Geez guys, didn't you have enough problems already?

X-Men Legacy 23
This amazing title has reached its penultimate issue. Well, I mean, it's going to number 25, which will be number 300, but that won't really have to do with David and won't be by Si Spurrier. Well, Spurrier will have a story in it and it might focus on David, I don't know that. OKAY LOOK, this book has been incredible and the story we know is rushing towards its conclusion in the very next issue. Seems like maybe this is a bit of a weird time to jump on but seriously, give this book your money while you have the chance (also buy the trades and tell every single person you know about it, regardless of everything else you know about them).



Here's one of the super awesome things though: THESE FIVE BOOKS ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION. There's also CATACLYSM - ULTIMATES' LAST STAND, which will likely feature the death of a hero whose image is STILL blocked out on certain sites despite the fact they didn't block it out in the back of last week's CATACLYSM - ULTIMATE X-MEN. There's UNCANNY X-FORCE, which will end the VENDETTA crossover and will effectively say goodbye to both CABLE AND X-FORCE and UNCANNY X-FORCE in one fell swoop. There's MIRACLEMAN 2, another fully colored reprint of Alan Moore's original series. There's THOR: GOD OF THUNDER, which will mark the start of another new arc for a series that so violently jumps back and forth between really good and tolerable and may ALSO mark the return of Esad Ribic art. REVOLUTIONARY WAR - KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON is out this week and it stars...the KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON, one of whom is UNION JACK. GUYS. I've only NOT named like, four books and frankly, even some of them will probably catch your eye. Look, what I'm saying is get to your comic book store this week and check out some of these neat books coming out this week.

Wolverine and the X-Men 40, Origin II 2, Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3

Wolverine and the X-Men 40
Aaron (w) and Larraz (a) and Milla (c)

The kids of the Jean Grey School (well, the kids we always see, anyway, sorry Young X-Men) have figured out that Joseph and Josephine are not quite on the level and, though they're disappointed that they couldn't sway them to be cool about everything (particularly saddened by Joseph, who seemed to actually be taking to the school), they resolve to show them everything by having them take a tour with the bamfs. The bamfs jump them from dangerous spot to dangerous spot to dangerous spot in the school and eventually the pair return, shaken and more uptight. The students are still ready to fight if need be but Joseph finally makes his decision and uses his guns to stun his sister. They resolve to have Quentin put new memories into the pair of them, making them forget this whole thing, and to go report back to Dazzler with no real information. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Cyclops have finally finished fighting all of the Sentinels at the mostly abandoned SHIELD base and they search around for first aid. Wolverine is satisfied when they come across the beer supply and the two of them sit and drink beers and talk about things. Cyclops prods Wolverine to figure out why exactly he (and everyone else) hates him so much and Wolverine reveals that it's largely driven by the fact that they shouldn't be hating him. They don't want Cyclops to be the image of the militant mutant or the mutant that people need to be scared of. That should be Wolverine's job. The two don't necessarily bury the hatchet but it's one of the best interactions they've had together since SCHISM and they leave amicably enough.

Not a bad issue. I didn't really need the Joseph/Josephine storyline at all, let alone for as long as it took. I think that storyline will perhaps mean a little more after the next couple of issues drop, with Jason Aaron ending his 40+ issue run on the title with issue 42. If this was his way of mostly saying goodbye to the kids and the school, I think it works fine. If he goes on to do another big goodbye to them all or something, I'm not sure how necessary it is. It's certainly readable but it does carry on a bit past when you get the point and know how things are going to shape up. The Wolverine and Cyclops bit, though, is very well done and hints at the sort of thing that's been happening a little more recently, building on the last issue of X-MEN LEGACY which saw the two fight side by side and even on the ongoing A+X storyline which finds Cap more willing to work with Cyclops than when the story started. It's a nice conversation between the two and it's pretty real. It's also the second book this week (coming in after MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN) that posits that Wolverine is allowed to kill and be the dangerous one because he knows who he is. Weird moral, you guys.

Origin II 2
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin (c)

There's been rumor of a polar bear who wandered too far south into Canada and killed a wolf pack before being murdered by some other unknown creature, like a wildcat but as big and strong as a man. There are two entities that have heard about the strange happenings, Dr. Nathaniel Essex, to whom the bear belonged, and, thanks to one of Essex's blabbermouth trackers (no longer employed/alive), an independent businessman named Hugo and his trackers Clara, good with animals, and Victor Creed, ace tracker. As the two units set out on their own ways, Essex's Marauders run into Wolverine after a gas-based attack draws him out of the woods. He attacks Essex's men but leaves as quickly as he came. After that, Creed tracks him down to an undergrowth and helps capture him for Hugo, to the chagrin of Clara. Hugo, of course, then quickly puts him center-stage in his circus.

I still like this story, its presentation, its characters, and the art of the book. I will say that I have a feeling that ORIGIN II, even as a concept, is a little flawed in a world where we suddenly know SO MUCH about Wolverine and his history. Sure he's lived for over a hundred years at this point so there's plenty out there we still don't know but we now know more than we did. ORIGIN, the first book in this story, came out in 2001 and a lot has changed in a little over a decade for the character. On top of Wolverine's actual memories being restored, the Marvel market has been absolutely saturated with Wolverine in the last several years. He's starred in an untold number of comic books, he's been in a score of major motion pictures, and we've delved pretty deep into his past in every medium in which he's appeared. That doesn't make ORIGIN II a bad book or a bad story or not worth reading, it just means that it almost can't feel necessary. I will say, masterstroke by Marvel in putting Kieron Gillen on this book. Gillen's a guy who, just in the last couple of years, rewrote Loki, one of Marvel's earliest full-fledged villains, into a totally new character and managed to give Iron Man, founding Avenger and star of his own set of major motion pictures, an almost entirely different backstory that somehow still perfectly fits with his history. If anyone can make this meaningful, I trust that Gillen can. Worth sticking with it if just for that, particularly as the price of this one dropped to a more reasonable 3.99.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3
Fialkov (w) and A. Martinez, J. Lucas, and R. Fernandez (a) and Bellaire (c)

Rogue powers herself up with everybody's power set (except Beak, turns out she didn't need any of that) and amps THAT up with Amp's power set. She vows that no one else will die and charges headfirst into the swarm. She goes a little crazy up there but manages to do a solid amount of damage to Gah Lak Tus. Unfortunately, she's too late to safe Pixie, who is dying pretty quickly on the ground. The X-Men have to pull her back down and out of her rage so that she can take Pixie's powers and get them all home but getting her out of her rage is a little harder than they bargained for. Rick Jones leaps into action and helps fight alongside Rogue but, more importantly, relates to her about his recent past and everything he's learned from it and who he's chosen to be as a result. The talk (and the fact that he can touch and kiss her without dying thanks to his cosmic powers) inspires her to come back down but she refuses to take Pixie's power since the energy she'll take will certainly kill her. Pixie wants it done, though, as she's dying either way and wants the others to live so she touches Rogue's face and dies peacefully. Rogue prepares to make the jump but, to her continued disappointment, Rick stays behind to give them a chance to go without the swarm. He swears he'll make it out and, I have to say, we have no reason not to believe him. They arrive back home and see that Galactus is still out there and Rogue rallies them to fight him no matter the cost.

It's a nice little story and a fitting finish for the Ultimate X-Men as Rogue has to overcome her issues and understand who she is before she can save the world. The pacing is good as each beat seems pretty necessary, either for plot or for characterization (there's even a nice little moment between Beak and Pixie as Beak helps to care for her while she slips away), and the action moves particularly well. There was maybe a little too much happening in this issue to drop focus on too many of the people there but I don't think it hurts the book in any way. You don't need to know what Guido's doing if Rogue and Rick Jones are fighting against time to destroy the Gah Lak Tus swarm and only have twenty pages to do it. In fact, you never really think about the characters on the ground not integral to what's happening through all of the action, which seems like a pretty good misdirect for Fialkov to pull off. That guy knows how to handle a script and how to handle action. Marvel took a risk putting this event pretty much into the hands of someone who hadn't worked a ton on their books before but I think it's really paid off and turned into a nice and pretty well-structured event, though there might be one too many books out there because it's starting to feel like it's dragging a bit. Fortunately, that doesn't really bite the X-Men because their story is so different from everyone else's. Good work all around.

Secret Avengers 14, Cataclysm - Ultimates 3

Secret Avengers 14
Spencer and Kot (w) and Guice and Rubinstein (a) and Wilson (c)

Our story is happening on about three fronts right now. On AIM Island, Mockingbird is being reprogrammed by AIM Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson. He's giving her memories that span back years and years and make her believe that she's been all for the AIM Island plan since the start. Forson is trying to completely overwrite and eradicate Bobbi's old mind but Bobbi's not quitting just yet. Elsewhere on AIM Island, Mentallo continues to seclude himself, clearly still not so thrilled with the way things are going. He learns of Taskmaster's death and it seems to depress him further. Back on the helicarrier, MODOK dispenses more AIM intel to Maria Hill. On the AIM submarine en route to AIM Island, Yelena Belova transports Fury, Hawkeye, and Black Widow to AIM Island. When they arrive, they break out of their handcuffs and prepare to finish their assault on the island.

I've had problems in the past with this series for what seemed like a lack of focus. I think it rather continues here as we're reaching a point where all of the plots are kind of coming to a head but some of them kind of feel like they're not done yet. I read this issue late on Wednesday (I was trying to review it for Wednesday, as I do with almost every AVENGERS title, but I didn't get my hands on it until late) and flipped through it again briefly today to refresh my memory and the flip through made me like it more than I had. I think that, as a book with various acts and plots coming together and things like that it works rather well. However, when reading the issue all the way through, it's really easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of it. I don't know if that's a function of needing to rush to get through everything before the series "ends" next issue (the reboot comes a little later this year) or if it's simply not wanting to spend more time on establishing the reprogramming and everything else. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they don't want to spend more time on it but I think cramming more words and images in doesn't necessarily speed things up. Ah well, I guess we'll see as this one ends down next time. Maybe...maybe Bucky will return?

Cataclysm - Ultimates 3
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Quintana and Charalampidis (c)

Hercules continues to fight the horde of infected while Danny Ketch, Fury, and Dum Dum Dugan put Punisher down and prepare to take the fight to Tarleton, running the whole thing from his floating city. They key in on Falcon's coordinates and, after picking up Herc, teleport up there. Hercules attacks Tarleton and wrenches him from running the Gah Lak Tus swarm, leaving an opening for Falcon to work on cutting Tarleton's influence off. He's able to do it but he realizes that just killing Tarleton won't be enough; someone has to take his place to run everything or else the infected won't become uninfected. Without a second thought, Danny jumps into the spot and, with the help of Falcon's instructions, saves everybody still infected, sacrificing himself in the process. Tarleton tries to escape, summoning some of the swarm to him to try to get away but Ketch directs the remaining Ultimates to leave the floating city and he destroys it, catching Tarleton in the explosion. The civilians are restored (those who weren't destroyed as members of the swarm, anyway) and the newly restored Giant Woman helps to catch civilians falling from the sky. They laud Danny's sacrifice and Danny himself, our narrator for the story, is surprised when he finds that he's actually not dead; he's greeted by Agent Coulson and told that they spent a lot of money rebuilding him. They're calling him Machine Man now.

Pretty cool finale to this little mini series as CATACLYSM itself starts to wind down, ready to give way to the new-look Ultimate Universe. Fialkov has done a pretty good job with the rising tension, climax fight, redemption stuff we've seen in the last year from him (between ALPHA and all of his work in the Ultimate Universe). It's no different here as Ketch has a pretty strong narrative throughout and brings it to a head as he talks about the problems he's had and the person he's been that's led him to this spot but ultimately brings it to a head as he remembers the promise he made to himself and to his family to not let someone die while he was just standing by. It's a nice little mini-series and a solid ending for the mini as the new Ultimates manage somehow to survive the day and come out a little ahead (I mean, they lose Punisher but they'll live). Nice book.

Revolutionary War - Alpha 1, Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 3, Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 3

Revolutionary War - Alpha 1
Lanning and Cowsill (w) and Elson (a) and Fabela (c)

Geez that's a long post title with just a whole bunch of hyphens. Anyway, Marvel UK is back on the map with REVOLUTIONARY WAR and this is our opening shot to the series. Of course, plenty of these characters haven't been seen for a while so we're due for a bit of recap and character summarization which the writers provide in excruciating detail. On top of that, we learn a bit about our plot; there had been an organization of techno-wizards (it's always wizards in Britain) from around 1000 AD who had made a deal with Mephisto to grant them immortality. Somewhat recently, though, they had established a corporation called Mys-Tech and fed Mephisto more and more souls in exchange for keeping their own alive. Of course, they got to a point where they wanted to stay immortal but break from their contract. To do so, they found a great deal of artifacts and alien tech to help them and realized that they could get out of their contract if they sacrificed Great Britain's entire population to Mephisto. They tried and everyone fought at the Battle of London Bridge (covered up, of course, by MI-13). Plenty of heroes died in the battle but Mys-Tech was stopped. OR SO IT SEEMED. Colonel Tigon Liger (yes, that's a real Marvel UK hero's name. I know, I rolled my eyes too) has been a drunk since the battle, where he was forced to make the decision to close Mys-Tech's portal to hell before they could bring hell to Earth even though several of their fighters were on the other side. Now they're all coming back to make the world burn.

There's an interesting story in here but I'm a little nervous about the writing of this first issue alone. There is a lot of ground to cover to establish our characters and our history here, which is undoubtedly why the first heroes we see and the ones who we spend the most time with in this issue are our biggest current UK characters in Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom. Conveniently, Wisdom wasn't around for the Battle of London Bridge so he needs as much catching up as we do. I watched the first 15 minutes or so of the pilot for CBS' new drama Intelligence the other day and had to shut it off because it was very clear that the series wasn't really aiming for subtext anywhere (I have plenty of problems with CBS and this is definitely a recurring one). Characters were constantly fully defining other characters so we didn't actually have to learn about a character, we could just be told ("you DO need a handler even though you're a great asset! I know you need a handler because your last mission was to find the location of the nukes in Mongolia, and you went off mission looking for her. I know you don't want to hear this again but your wife, Amelia, is dead. She was captured long ago and we lost contact with her and she's definitely dead" is pretty much the gist of it). That's a little how this issue feels and it's not how you want to dive into a book, with all of this unnatural exposition and dialogue. I'm hoping that now the first issue is out of the way things start to feel a little more natural but we'll see. The story seems good enough to hold up the series, let's just hope it has the chance to.

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 3
Bendis (w) and Bagley and Hennessy (a) and Keith (c)

Under Tony Stark's instruction (and armed with one of his repulsors), Spider-Man is going into the 616 with Reed Richards to ensure that he stays on mission and comes home with the right answer to stop Galactus. Despite protests from Sue and others, Reed and Miles set off and quickly make it to the 616's Baxter Building. They break in with relative ease (you'd think Reed would program in security to stop alternate dimension F4s from getting in, considering how frequently it comes up, but apparently not) and download the data on Galactus without being spotted. However, Valeria shows up as they're about to leave and recognizes that Reed isn't her Reed and the security turns on them. Reed, who had copied two different flash drives with Galactus info and given one to Miles and kept one in case they got separated, tells Miles to go and to get back and deliver the information. He does, ditching the security robots on the other Spider-Man who happens to be swinging by (don't TOTALLY understand how that works, their costumes aren't that similar and there are pretty obvious size differences), and he makes it back to the Ultimate Universe to deliver the info. Before they can question him too long about Reed, Reed makes his way back through the portal. He apologizes to Sue for ruining their life, now that he's seen what they could have had and how beautiful the world really is.

Really cheesy ending and I guess I don't totally buy it? I don't know. This Reed is very strange and it's hard to pin down his personality, exactly. Sometimes he's an aloof psychotic genius and sometimes he's just a psychotic 616 Reed. Look, either way he's pretty psychotic. I get that seeing the way things turned out for an alternate dimension you would change things, potentially, and even meeting your potential daughter could change things but this seems like an abrupt turnaround. Of course, it could all be a lie and he could be playing them but who knows. Anyway, this is a super weird event for me. It's interesting enough and all the books are focusing on interesting parts of the event but I've never had an event that is so hard to distinguish book from book. Characters appear in several books at once, plot seems to move in every book but it's hard to tell which plot is the main plot, etc. I know some of those issues may seem petty, but it's been a little weird to read an issue then see it advertise the next issue of CATACLYSM (the main series) and be surprised that that wasn't what I was reading. It's melding together, which is kind of a good thing but also kind of weird to actually see happen. I guess we'll just have to wait for this one to end before I can tell if the layout worked for me.

Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 3
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

A plane from Great Britain didn't understand in time not to go to Newark because there is no more Newark (I get that no one is anticipating anything like Galactus but I imagine pilots are pretty well-trained to go to a different airport if the tower is telling them to go to a different airport) and, as a result, flies directly at Galactus. It comes crashing down in pieces including right at the foot of the Morales' apartment while Jefferson yells at Miles for being Spider-Man, who Jefferson decides is responsible for the deaths of both his brother and his wife. He says a lot of horrible things and is generally horrible until Miles has to leave him to go help with the plane wreckage, asking him to wait until he can come back and save him. With the help of Spider-Woman, Cloak and Dagger, and Bombshell, they manage to save the survivors (including a very strange J. Jonah Jameson) and teleport them to a Pittsburgh hospital. Miles returns home to find that Jefferson has left as Cap calls him in to help with the Galactus business (as seen in CATACLYSM - ULTIMATES' LAST STAND).

That Jefferson guy is a real jerk. There's a sense, as there has been throughout Miles' story, that we're supposed to find Jefferson as aggressive and quick-to-anger and particularly against Spider-Man, obviously unjustly but with limited information that we can all supposedly understand. It doesn't always read that way, though, and this is no exception. Not to say that he wouldn't act this way in this moment but I can never get a real feel for the character. Sometimes he seems tolerant and like love of his family conquers all (particularly love and pride in his son) and sometimes it seems like he's just gone crazy. I had problems with him earlier in this series too, as he suddenly became a freedom fighter or something. That was pretty weird. Anyway, nice little team-up for the five teenage superheroes we've seen dominating this book recently and presumably a turnaround on this Spider-Man from J. Jonah Jameson (all it takes is for every Ultimate Spider-Man to save his life individually, it seems). More good Marquez art and solid Ponsor colors help the story along.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 2, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 4

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 2
Fialkov (w) and A. Martinez and J. Lucas (a) and Bellaire (c)

Rick Jones showed up in the nick of time to explain some things and Mach Two, with the help of Amp, was able to take the oncoming Gah Lak Tus swarm and crush them into a ball together. The group starts to move and goes into tunnels under the little island they're on. While they talk a bit about home and about the circumstances, the Gah Lak Tus swarm has been healing and upgrading to protect itself from Mach Two again. They swarm again and attack Jimmy, beginning to turn him while they try to escape. Rogue refuses to let him die and powers herself up to go fight with Jimmy to keep him in control. Pixie comes to help too, teleporting infected cells out of Jimmy's body. He seems saved, though somewhat weakened, and Pixie feels ready to get them home...until she's killed by the swarm, stranding them in this other dimension.

Tensions are ramping up here and it's putting these people, who are pretty much still kids, through more than they've been through in their lives, which is particularly impressive considering how much they've been through in their lives. It's nice to see what's up with the swarm while Galactus gets air time over in the main part of the Ultimate Universe. It's also good to explain where the bulk of the X-Men are while we're primed to see the other X-Men start to make appearances over in the main titles. There is good character stuff in here, which is a bonus because there wasn't a ton the last time out and I was afraid some of these characters would just get washed over with the volume of characters in this mini and the scale of the plot. There is still time for character stuff and Fialkov uses it well. Not a bad entry to CATACLYSM.

Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 4
Hastings (w) and Camagni, Calderon-Zurita, and Pallot (a) and Milla (c)

Things are getting desperate as the fight to return things to normalcy rages on. Longshot escapes to try to join up with Spider-Man and Dr. Dipson but he's followed by the controlled Deadpool who isn't quipping and who is driven by his one objective: killing Longshot. Just as they get to Dipson's and as things reach their most dire for Longshot, Deadpool is distracted and brought out of his stupor by the taco truck outside of Dipson's. Dipson reveals that the teddy bear he's been tasked with protecting is actually part of the cosmic cube Longshot used to start everything. They rejoin the parts and return the universe to its normal state, which leaves Longshot facing down the In-Betweener, back as one being. Longshot prepares to face his own death, as this is what the In-Betweener was aiming for the whole time, but the In-Betweener decides that it was probably the broken cosmic cube causing the problems he'd assigned to Longshot and spares him.

Not a bad ending for the series which was a pleasant surprise of a series. I had my doubts, as did probably most people, when they announced a Longshot mini-series because, well, Longshot, you know? I was encouraged by the decision to use Christopher Hastings as the writer and it's one that clearly paid off as the fun in this series outweighed any sort of convoluted plots or anything of the like. The writing was solid, the characters were fairly solid, even the ones who appeared here and there like Captain America or Dr. Strange or the Superior Spider-Man (there's a nice scene in this issue where Dipson tells Spider-Man of the time he foiled Doc Ock and made him look stupid that Spider-Man has to grit his teeth at). Nice little series.

Cataclysm - Ultimates 2, Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 2

Cataclysm - Ultimates 2
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Quintana (c)

Hulk has been infected by the Gah Lak Tus swarm and now leads the charge against the Secret Warriors in Belarus to consume and infect them. Hercules fights him and buys the others the time they need to keep moving through the swarm. However, it's ultimately futile as the swarm goes on to infect Emil Blonsky and, through the already infected Abigail Brand, Stature, giving the swarm an incredible advantage to what was already an incredible advantage. As everything rather falls apart, Falcon has entered Reed Richards' fallen City of Tomorrow to talk with its new head, George Tarleton (GUYS, that's MODOK), who is not a part of the Gah Lak Tus swarm but is clearly running the show in Belarus to some extent. He tells Falcon that he's going to offer up himself and this city, which he's made mobile, to Galactus and become his herald, worshipping him and finding new places for Galactus to feast. He sets the city in motion with Falcon still onboard and rushes to meet Galactus. Meanwhile, Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and Danny Ketch find themselves surrounded and Fury uses an untested teleportation device on them, deciding any outcome is better than what's coming. They successfully teleport but they find themselves not that far away and facing a swarm-infected Punisher. Back in the main kill box, Hercules is still running rampant, throwing Hulk into Stature and demanding more.

Definitely a viable threat here for the Ultimates and the Ultimate Universe as a whole to face. It's an incredibly scary concept, working off the same sort of principles as zombies but all the while being entirely more impressive than zombies. They infect, they brutalize, they, well, they swarm. It's a big enough threat to base an event around and to base an event that incorporates all parts of this universe around and Fialkov isn't doing a bad job showing off some character here and there, particularly where the Secret Warriors are, by and large, newer characters to this universe. The threat is very real and, like the best threats to the Marvel Universe, it comes with no easy solution. The upside of the Ultimate Universe, too, is that a threat with no easy solution may well end with the death of everyone here. Pretty interesting stuff, good hectic and chaotic art from Di Giandomenico and Quintana's colors are appropriately dreary. Nicely done.

Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 2
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

Back in New York, everyone is panicking in the face of Galactus and what he's done to New Jersey. People are running rampant, Galactus is leisurely blowing up bits and pieces of the city, and there are injuries and lost people and really too much to focus on. Cloak and Dagger teleport right to the face of Galactus, where Dagger throws some...daggers...into him, doing absolutely nothing. They bail before Galactus strikes at them. With the Ultimates spread out trying to help things while Iron Man comes up with a plan, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman go out in search of people to help, which isn't hard to find. They find a group of school children who were abandoned by their teacher and promise that they'll get them home. Spider-Man takes a young child screaming for his father and delivers him successfully home before getting a lesson in the importance of sons to their fathers. Miles heads home to try to help Jefferson who shoves him away in his continuing hatred for all things super-powered before Miles pulls off the mask and reveals himself.

The Galactus threat continues seemingly unimpeded and the heroes of the city are left to deal with the more personal problems in the city. The issue is presented alongside memories of ULTIMATUM and the tsunami in New York two years previous. Universally, the kids who were affected by that are older now and are dedicated to helping people where they couldn't the last time a disaster of this scale hit. I don't know, necessarily, that the juxtaposition of the two events is necessary; obviously it's a meaningful parallel and it makes sense that it would be on the mind of the people in the city, but to shape it like this makes it feel like they're only helping because they weren't able to help last time or because they regret not helping last time. One of the ongoing traits of superheroes, though, is that heroes jump in when they're needed, not out of regret or anything along those lines, so it's just as meaningful if they swing into action here without the prodding of the memories. Still, not an awful issue, though occasionally marred by some back-and-forth dialogue that continues to illustrate a somewhat lighter mood in the midst of all of this horror. Miles' reveal at the end is clearly what we're there for, though, and it's a long time coming, something that will show Jefferson's true colors next time out.

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 2, Daredevil Dark Nights 7

Cataclysm - Ultimates' Last Stand 2
Bendis (w) and Bagley and Hennessy (a) and Keith (c)

CATACLYSM keeps on rolling as the Ultimates try to figure out what Galactus is and what it is he's doing there and, most importantly, how they're going to try to stop him. Iron Man has figured out that he seems to be made of cosmic energy and is using whatever power they have against them and taking it into himself to make him stronger. He's also figured out that the readings on it bear a striking resemblance to the reading on Peter Parker from the 616, taken when Peter came to the Ultimate Universe during last year's SPIDER-MEN event. Stark and Chang go down to the holding cells to ask Mysterio (also the Mysterio from 616) what Galactus is and he points them to Reed Richards. There is an active portal that can potentially bring them to the 616 but no one is quite sure what that portal will do. Stark insists on going in himself but everyone talks him down, knowing that they can't afford to lose him. Spider-Man steps forward and offers himself, saying that he's crossed through the portal before (SPIDER-MEN again) and knows it won't hurt him. The crazy Reed Richards also offers to go, which is met with much resistance but he makes a compelling argument about the best way to contact the 616's Reed. Meanwhile, the X-Men have noticed that Galactus is trouble.

Plenty still happening here though I can't help but notice Bendis' back-and-forth dialogue continues and people continue to quip in the absolute darkest of times. There's an element to the quipsters, like Spider-Man, that they quip when they're facing their worst moments because they have to in order to stay sane and I kind of buy that (really I think it was just because comics were so different when Spider-Man was created and Stan Lee wants nothing more than to quip non-stop) but there are times when I think it's fine to do that and there are times where I think it ruins the mood and the tension by throwing quips in. Spider-Man can quip at Rhino all day long while the two of them fight but put Human Torch up against Galactus as New Jersey burns away beneath them and I think something isn't really working. That's in addition to my problem of it making every character sound exactly the same. Maybe, with that out of the way, I can stop saying the word "quip." Plenty still happens here and there's enough plot-related dialogue that the story keeps moving relatively well and the event itself still hasn't lasted too long to overstay its welcome. Should be interesting going forward to see if it does hit that point.

Daredevil Dark Nights 7
Palmiotti (w) and Silas and Decastro (a) and Fabela (c)

Daredevil and Misty Knight fly their helicopter down to Cuba to find King and try to save Nestor, as the narration ham-fistedly relates in massive detail to start the story. Their helicopter gets shot out of the air but they manage to abandon and inflate a raft quickly enough to make it to the mainland. Matt naps the entire way to the disappointment of Misty who is all over him this arc (which seems out of character, far be it for me to imply that Jimmy Palmiotti is a bad writer). King has surveillance on them the whole way and, after a chase through the Cuban markets, his psychotic henchwoman Carmen Alvarez shoots a rocket launcher at the building Matt and Misty are trying to get off of. It collapses, burying Daredevil and allowing Alvarez to take Misty, who was King's target all along as Misty is...his ex-girlfriend! Dum dum duuuuuuuuuuum.

I'm not going to go out and say that this series has been comprised of some of the most thrilling tales about Daredevil we've ever seen but I will say that there have been definite highlights all around. The first arc had some really great Daredevil moments and some outstanding art from Lee Weeks. The second art felt a lot like a somewhat sillier version (though still pretty interesting and character-driven) of Waid and Samnee's incredible run. This arc, though, the final arc to leave this series with, is pretty awful. Bad writing (though there are somewhat fewer unnatural lack-of-contractions here), bad characterization, and an overall uninteresting story make even the somewhat interesting art seem weak and kind of exploitative. It's just a really ugly arc all around and it's unfortunate that this will be what we leave the series with, after an impressive (or, at its worst, somewhat slow) first two arcs. I do remember back to Lee Weeks' arc with really fond memories particularly after seeing this one. We just didn't know how good we had it.

All-New X-Men 19, Uncanny X-Force 14, Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 1

All-New X-Men 19
Bendis (w) and Peterson (a) and Silva (c)

There's a mutant on the run for her life, though she's not convinced she's a mutant, in Miami. A group of heavily armed religious zealots have surrounded her and are ready to finish her for being an abomination when the All-New X-Men show up, clad in their brand new uniforms! There's much quipping about the mutant place in religion and how little sense it all makes while the fight rages. The new mutant runs off and Kitty follows her, hoping to help, calling her Laura and wondering why she's not recognizing her. As the X-Men wrap up the fight, the police arrive and Magik insists they go while Scott insists they stay and try to file a report for the police. Of course, the police don't want to hear it and Magik teleports them away before they're shot. Kitty finally catches up with the new mutant and we find that it's not a new mutant, it's a severely messed up X-23!

Another OG X-Men-in-action issue as they continue to adjust to this future and work together as a team a bit better. Laura is clearly a little out of sorts (and a bit out of memory, it would seem) after her time on Murder World, where she ended up rather left in the woods, feral, and extremely injured. Are they pulling X-23's first Wolverine, erasing her memory and leaving her wounded, defensive, and alone? Boy, sounds like it! The issue is a bit heavy on the back-and-forth and takes a somewhat slow pace because of it, despite being primarily a fight issue and despite so very little happening. There's one somewhat disturbing long-panel that gives rather a close-up on Jean Grey's butt, which goes rather over-the-top and both pulled me out of the issue and made me go "isn't she supposed to be like 15 or 16 at this point?" Jean Grey may be going down the Magneto road, disgusted by humans and angry at everyone, though it's sure to come in stages. The cover for next issue has X-23 throwing herself at Scott which made me groan and roll my eyes. Really sick of all these love triangles (and this isn't X-23's first) and people throwing themselves at other people. Bendis seems not to be sick of that.

Uncanny X-Force 14
Humphries (w) and Briones (a) and Curiel (c)

Cassandra Nova has opened up the portal to the Revenants' world with the sacrifice of a low-level psychic and now has locked down LA to stop communications from going out, leaving Nova herself and Psylocke as the only two psychics in the area. That makes things tricky for X-Force, who has to sacrifice a psychic before daybreak to close the veil (these rules seem arbitrary). As they send an attack force (Puck) at Nova's moving base (she called forth a ground-made creature to carry them all), Nova offers an alliance to Betsy, hoping that she'll help in exchange for her old body back, the original Betsy Braddock British body. She looks on it with sadness and longing as Puck breaks in and rescues her, taking the Demon Bear down in the process. The escape doesn't go particularly well and they end up in the Revenants' world.

Plenty of action here and a pretty neat little choice for Betsy, who has to push away probably her last chance at ending up in the OG British body to save the world. Not that she's done badly in the Hand-resurrected body and not that she hasn't had the time to get used to it, but it's still a really intriguing choice and one that you're like "I can see why she'd want that." Aside from the continually arbitrary rules, there's a lot going on here and a lot to make this seemingly final X-Force-only arc interesting; this arc will lead to the "Vendetta" crossover with CABLE AND X-FORCE which will ultimately result in the two books ending, to be replaced with Si Spurrier's X-FORCE, which will be amazing. Anyway, interested to see where this story in and of itself is going.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 1
Fialkov (w) and Martinez and Lucas (a) and Bellaire (c)

Galactus has reached Earth and it's come at a time when Kitty's X-Men have gone back to Tian to try to find any survivors, including the missing Pixie. They manage to find the small group of mutants (an oddly specific bunch that includes Pixie, a guy who has the power to calm people down, someone who can use and amplify the powers of others, Strong Guy and Beak) right as Galactus appears and Amp and Pixie both panic, leading to the entire group teleporting the entire area into what seems like maybe space, where the Gah-Lak-Tus swarm surrounds them, charging at them over and over in the hopes to consume them. Silence (the calm-people-down guy) is killed pretty quickly and the others begin to fight. Things seem a bit out of control when the new Captain Marvel, AKA Rick Jones, appears to help.

Fialkov has really orchestrated this whole event, it seems, which seems like a really big event for someone who hasn't been at Marvel for that long. I'm not saying he's doing a bad job or doesn't deserve to be doing this, but Marvel tends to give events to people they've been working with for awhile and really know they trust but Fialkov has kind of excelled this year (especially in the Ultimate universe) and has made himself worthy of the new event, apparently. It's certainly an interesting event and you can see all the pieces falling into place, as the Ultimates go after Galactus, along with Spider-Man, and the X-Men go after the Gah-Lak-Tus swarm along with Captain Marvel. That means a fight on all fronts, whether it's going to go well or not. Obviously the plot is the key to this issue, as with most event books, which means that some of the charm of the ULTIMATE X-MEN book under Brian Wood has been lost. I'm not sure that it really could have kept up into this event because, like I said, events tend to be a little too plot heavy and, also, this is going to be a limited run book, meaning it can't hit that same kind of building-tension tone that Wood had hit so well in his run. Still, should be an interesting event.

Thunderbolts 18, A+X 14, Cataclysm: Ultimates 1

Thunderbolts 18
Soule (w) and Palo (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Punisher's quest to kill the Paguros continues as the Terrigen mists and Thanos' attack on Earth continues to rain down. Punisher, Elektra, and Venom are making quick work of all of the mobsters and get some unexpected help from the transformed Nobili after one of the Nobili children is shot through the head by a mobster. Flash tags the Paguros as they attempt to slink away and the three of them begin to make their way after the family. Things aren't going as well for the Nobili, though, as the other Nobili son, believing he'll never be able to re-enter society, kills himself. The elder Nobili is devastated but quickly realizes his power is borne from the strength of his family, meaning that he has all of his lineage in his new body with him, and they convince him to go after Punisher (another day, it seems, as that's the last we see of them this issue). Meanwhile, Red Hulk convinces Mercy that, if she helps him now by killing alien threats and leaving behind even the most desperately wishing-for-death humans, he can provide her with more death than she could ever need. She believes him and heads out, doing a number on the alien invasion by herself. Back on the streets, Deadpool has found his pizza and is ready to dig in. It's, sadly enough, not as good as he remembers it being, which causes him to wonder why he was so fixated on this particular pizza place. As he does, the Paguros walk in. Deadpool sees their pictures on the wall, proclaims "ohhhhhh, right," and shoots the three of them, confusing Punisher to no end when he and the others arrive. The team reunites and they set off for their new base, with the sub destroyed, via 16 hour road trip.

Another fantastic issue and a nice finish to the tie-in arc that I had worried was slowing. The remaining Nobili provides a threat for the coming issues while the threats here are resolved without too much stress but with a lot of interesting twists and turns. Mercy remains a concern and, by the end of the issue, Ross is forced to tell the rest of the team about her. Flash and Frank have some more tension as Flash continues to protest against Frank's "kill everyone, they're all guilty" mentality and Frank gets angry with Flash when he believes Flash watched the Paguros leave the safehouse without mentioning it to anyone. That puts at least two (probably three, if you count Leader, though he's likely not counted) of the Thunderbolts at odds with Castle and suddenly makes I'm the most reviled character on a team that also has a supervillain on it. The twist of Deadpool eating at a pizza place apparently owned by the Paguros is a great one; you knew all along that Deadpool was going to get back into the action at some point but it was hard to know exactly how. This was kind of the perfect way to do it and it resulted in an actual burst of laughter when Deadpool connects the pieces and abruptly shoots the Paguros, after all of Frank's hard work. There are some other fun moments in the relationship of the team and the book continues to be a solid one. I'm excited to see how Soule's first non-tie-in issues go.

A+X 14
Spider-Man and Magneto: Bemis (w) and Lafuente (a) and Delgado (c)
Captain America and Cyclops: Duggan (w) and Yardin (a) and Mossa (c)

The first team-up finds Spider-Man meeting Magneto, after what seemed to be a general summons from Magneto, underground at an AIM base. The two fight their way through a complex and trick-filled facility while discussing the shortcomings of supervillains, who Magneto particularly detests. Spider-Man clearly believes many of them to be inferior but has trouble wholly agreeing to Magneto's diatribe as it conflicts with his own memories as a supervillain. Eventually they face down MODOK and soundly defeat him before arriving at a young, kidnapped mutant, the true reason for the mission. The young mutant hates the idea of being a mutant and vows that he will grow up strong just to stop all mutants and leaves. Magneto basically just says that you win some, you lose some, and they part ways. Bit of an anti-climax, that, but it's most an acceptable ending. The story drags on a bit as Magneto does what basically amounts to a stand-up comedian's routine about supervillains but without any of the humor (for the record, that's not what he's going for so no humor is appropriate but the sentiment remains the same). Hard not to be a bit bored by that, particularly knowing that there's not going to be a huge pay-off because this is A+X, not a book with consequences or continuity. SPEAKING OF CONTINUITY...

Cap and Cyclops continue their quest to find the sleeper cell Skrulls. Cap tried to leave Cyclops behind in cuffs but Cyclops busted his way out of them and rejoins Cap, at least showing some amount of dedication to the mission. The two arrive at a SHIELD safehouse and Cap asks the LMD watching over it helps pull up records of where the Skrulls have been. They also learn that Latverian scientists might have a captured Skrull on site for study. The two set off with a new Skrull detector in hand for Latveria and things go pretty much how you'd expect, as the pair are discovered and they have to fight their way through a slew of Doombots (where Cap discovers Cyclops' powers aren't exactly up to snuff) before ending up on the radar of Doom himself. They convince Doom to release the Skrull to them as another Skrull war would hurt Latveria as well and Doom reluctantly agrees, claiming his scientists have studied him as much as they can but, of course, killing the Skrull just to be a jerk about it. It's not an awful story but, again, I think the nature of A+X kind of hurts just about any story. On top of that, I get Cap's righteous indignation about Cyclops here but it's getting a little old already, which makes it rather feel like more issues of this will wear pretty thin. Oh well, just...a million more A+X issues to go, right? Inexplicably?

Cataclysm: Ultimates 1
Fialkov (w) and Di Giandomenico and Ruggiero (a) and Quintana (c)

Galactus' approach and the arrival of the first of the Gah Lak Tus swarm has some unexpected consequences as the swarm seems to have infected humans, currently the ones in Belarus who are rising up and hailing Galactus and Gah Lak Tus in direct defiance of the onsite SHIELD team, which is comprised of Fury's new super-powered SHIELD team. They're not totally sure how the swarm spreads but they're hoping to contain this without any casualties, realizing that these people are being controlled by the swarm and possibly by AIM, who clearly has a hand in this as well. They get to the ground to try to restrain the people but they're quickly overrun and have to withdraw, but not before Abigail Brand is touched by a swarm member and transforms into one herself. Fury finally calls it and decides to drop their final weapon into play, a weapon AIM assumed they'd use: the Hulk. Hulk touches down and begins to get angry but is quickly overrun by the swarm and, like Brand, is transformed into another piece of Galactus' puzzle. This, of course, is all happening while Galactus himself towers over head and causes his own wave of destruction.

So, as yet, calling this series CATACLYSM: ULTIMATES is a bit of a misnomer because these guys aren't technically the Ultimates, though maybe they were dubbed the back-up Ultimates when the real Ultimates were captured by Reed Richards. Even still, this probably isn't the team you were expecting when you picked up this book. Regardless, it's an interesting enough story and certainly a threat that needs to be examined, given the sheer weight of the situation and the virus-like spreading of the swarm. It does feel a little like maybe Fury should have pieced some things together about these guys before dropping the Hulk in but, as AIM points out, if a problem gets too big for them, they always just throw a Hulk at it. This one got out of hand fast and apparently dropping a Hulk into the middle of situations doesn't always require knowing too much about that situation, letting Hulk kind of piece it together for himself. Fialkov and company are doing a good job to point out just how dangerous this swarm and Galactus himself could be, certainly something worth worrying about and something worthy of being deemed such a threat that it might END THE ULTIMATE UNIVERSE.

Superior Spider-Man 21, Superior Foes of Spider-Man 5, Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 1

Superior Spider-Man 21
Slott (w) and Camuncoli and Dell (a) and Fabela (c)

Old Doc Ock girlfriend Stunner, previously thought dead, is back and on the prowl, hunting down the man who she believes killed her old boyfriend. The woman who was Stunner, Angelina Brancale, is in a near vegetative state but she's been able to construct a virtual reality sort of mechanism that allows her avatar (still Stunner) to search the streets. Doc has no time for this, as shocked as he is to see Stunner alive again. He's busy plotting revenge on Lamaze, who had the gall to suggest he stole his work from Otto Octavius. He can't ignore Stunner, though, and manages to have his spider-bots trace the signal back to the real Angelina, who he confronts. He uses her own equipment to present himself as Otto to her and tell her that he still loves her but he's found someone new and that they both need to move on and hey, don't be mad at Spider-Man, maybe? She agrees to this and he uses the equipment again to have Otto pay a visit to Lamaze, where he convinces the professor that Peter was Otto's assistant and all of the ideas that Otto came up with were actually Peter's, but that Lamaze shouldn't tell anyone. Lamaze rescinds his complaint to the board and Peter is all but certain to be made a doctor. Meanwhile, Carlie Cooper goes to "Doc Ock's" grave and places flowers, swearing to the grave that she'll make sure everything is put right. Unfortunately, before she can do that, she falls into the empty grave (there's no body!) and she's secreted away by the Goblins, who find her journal as well.

I've been reading a lot of compliments of this issue on Twitter (granted, they're posted and retweeted by Dan Slott) and I have to say that I don't really see it. I don't think this issue was bad, per se, I just don't think it was particularly earth-shattering. The Carlie stuff seems to be going on forever, the Stunner stuff seemed less of a threat than a means to an end (letting Peter use the equipment to solve his problems), there was more relationship stuff with Anna Maria (how everyone in the world doesn't realize that Peter Parker is Spider-Man is the biggest example of suspension of disbelief in a comic where someone was bitten by a radioactive spider, granted spider powers, mind-swapped, and killed) but it just kind of solidifies what we've already seen plenty of, and the Lamaze threatening to derail the doctor stuff was kind of already a weak premise (would it really have held up that Peter had "stolen" his data from unpublished works?). That leaves the biggest exciting plot point the fact that there's no body in the grave, I suppose, but it's hard to even see that as a big moment as that could be indicative of just about anything. Not my favorite issue of the series; Slott said on his Twitter that the "cracks are starting to show" for Doc Ock but I'm not even sure I feel that particularly from this. He nearly indicates to Stunner that he's Doc Ock in order to save his life and presumably because he still feels something for her, but how often are ex-girlfriends of Doc liable to show up? We've already seen Aunt May so, you know, that should about cover it all. Next issue will invoke the other spiders (Venom and Kaine, or at least Venom to start) so I'm pretty excited about that, hoping for a stand-out issue.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 5
Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Boomerang is leading his crew on an attack of Owl's hideout, a risky attack at best and one that hasn't been thought out particularly thoroughly, at least not by Boomerang. Beetle is still harboring resentment about the coup on her leadership and drew up plans for everyone for the attack, but Boomerang refuses to use them. Eventually he has to refer back to them, though, as he almost instantly gets lost. His team goes on ahead of him while he covers their rear before discovering that a service elevator they previously thought out of service to be working. His team continues to fight their way, tooth and nail, through a gauntlet of challenges while Boomerang leisurely makes his way to the basement, securing "the most valuable and sought after piece of art on this Earth - - 'The True Face of Victor Von Doom.'" A painting, not the head of Silvermane, which Boomerang asserts does not actually exist. Meanwhile, city workers dig the car Boomerang sent into a lake out of said lake, allowing Shocker to break free again. He runs into a child and his dog at the junkyard he ends up at and, lo and behold, it's the same child from the story Boomerang told in SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN 3, a child who has befriended the head of Silvermane. Shocker grabs the head and runs off.

If you clicked that link above, you won't find my description of the story with the child in the summary; rather you'll find it in the analysis where I complain about how long it took to relate, particularly as it seemed to have no bearing on the plot. Okay, whatever, APPARENTLY it has some bearing on the plot after all and I maybe should have gone into it a little more. The last thing I need is comics telling me I don't summarize enough on this blog. Anyway, this issue has a nice feel to it. I think either this comic has pretty firmly found its footing or, as the audience, I've come to understand the feel better. Either way, the comic is working well and it has a sense of fun and a sense of story that I think matches the art and the tone it's striving for extremely well. Where the plot is going is another question entirely but there are certainly things to be intrigued by, including the near-continual breakdown of the team, Shocker's re-emergence, and Boomerang's insistence on being leader though he's not qualified for it. Fun writing, fun layout, fun art, just an overall pretty fun book.

Cataclysm - Ultimate Spider-Man 1
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor w/ Mounts (c)

Cataclysm has fully hit the Ultimate Universe and it promises to bring destruction with it, possibly ending in the demise of the Ultimate Universe as a whole. Among those in its way are the characters of Spider-Man land, including Miles himself, Jessica Drew, Cloak and Dagger, and Lana Baumgartner (Bombshell). This issue shows exactly what all of them are up to in the moments before Galactus' appearance. Miles is dozing off in class before going out on patrol, where he's greeted extremely favorably by cops. Jessica is presenting her case for not being fired to Monica Chang and the Ultimates, who are unaware of what happened and her background but are fully on her side when they hear. Cloak and Dagger try to return to Dagger's home only to find that her family moved away, leaving them both with their lasting anger. Lana meets with her parole officer who informs her that her latest antics (covered by local newspapers) can get her arrested for using her powers again. Then Galactus shows up.

There is kind of a feeling to this issue that Bendis wishes he had another one before entering into Cataclysm, one to set everything up a little more firmly. So instead, this is that issue. Galactus doesn't appear until the very last page and everything else that's happening, while important to these characters, is nearly unrelated to the actual event, or so it seems. Of course, it does ensure that we see all of these characters, recently teamed in their fight against Roxxon, in the battle against Galactus in the coming issues of CATACLYSM - ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN and it gives us a little idea of where they landed after the fact. The most important part, then, seems to be that everyone has found reasons to fight. Jessica obviously was already fighting but she informs the Ultimates that Miles is back and looking good, Miles is encouraged by the positive reception he gets, Ty and Tandy are pushed by their anger, and Lana is beginning to feel like she was meant to be a superhero and that doing the right thing is worthwhile in and of itself. So there's enough happening here that the story moves pretty well, particularly as a sort of cool-down from the last few issues and a link between those and the next few but it comes at something of a strange time. I do think the book doesn't hurt from the cool-down (though we already had several issues in a row just before this last arc that showed Miles dealing with internal struggles that could serve as something of a cool-down) but to place a relax issue at the start of an event is an odd decision. It feels like either Bendis had too little time for his last arc or has too much or the next one. Neither option is particularly thrilling.