Avengers 36

Avengers 36

Sunspot, with the help of his recently purchased AIM, has finished building a device that should be able to transport people to the center of the collapsing multiverses to find and hopefully destroy whatever is causing all of the Earths to die. The Avengers team assembled to do this, brought together by various understandings of this new threat and by their own personal reasons for this mission, is comprised of Thor, Hyperion, Starbrand, Nightmask, Ex Nihilo, and Abyss. It's an extremely important mission and the fate of all the universes could hinge on it, so these Avengers have volunteered even knowing that, according to Sunspot, no one comes back from this; everyone going is going to die.

As TIME RUNS OUT continues (or as we build to it, look, I don't know), we get a spotlight on our high-powered Avengers, almost all of whom were brought on to this team and into existence by Hickman throughout his AVENGERS run. Also in the spotlight is Sunspot, who we haven't seen too much of in the series and, when we have, has almost always been the comic relief of the book, and Thor, who has a whole lot going on right now in his own life. It's a very good issue that manages to characterize its important characters well, even when it has a lot of explanation and soft science to do. Sometimes the explanations drag a bit as the whole problem is extraordinarily complex and Hickman is using the scientific types in the book to  explain it with very few laymen around to say "NOW HEY, WHAT'S ALL THIS MEAN?" Still, the book moves well and looks great with Stefano Caselli and Frank martin doing excellent work throughout the issue.

Total Score: 5/5

Avengers World 8, Iron Man 28

Avengers World 8
Spencer (w) and Checchetto (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)

In Velletri, Italy, Starbrand has wandered off to find the voices he's been hearing only to find Morgan Le Fay, the sorceress behind the dead rising again. While she captivates him, Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, and Nightmask continue to fight hordes of demons and the undead, eventually sealing off their entrance before they stumble on the Euroforce team that had gone missing, prompting the Avengers' appearance. The Euroforce team is led by none other than the Black Knight, who reveals Le Fay's involvement, to Spider-Woman's chagrin (they have a whole thing). Anyway, Le Fay is leading her armies of the dead to the world of the living. Problems!

I've really grown to like the conceit of this book. Where Hickman's AVENGERS, while very good, has focused on the huge team dealing with big, sweeping problems that never seem really solved, Spencer is taking smaller, dedicated teams to more classic style stories. I've liked Hickman's work a lot but it's nice to see stories that are a little more self-contained and feel big, but not so broad. Each of the three stories Spencer is juggling has proven itself interesting and compelling. This issue, particularly with its narration captions that speak often of death and how its what the people deserve, has a sort of EAST OF WEST feel, another Hickman book that is absolutely incredibly so forcing me to draw comparisons certainly isn't a drawback. I mean, this book isn't blowing me away like EAST OF WEST but that's a pretty tall order. Still, lot of fun here.

Total Score: 5/5


Iron Man 28
Gillen (w) and J. Bennett, C. Richards, and D. Santacruz (p) and Hanna and Magyar (i) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

With most of the rings neutralized, Red Peril takes down Alec Eiffel, Iron Patriot takes down the Influence ring, Arno takes down the Exile, and Iron Man realizes that Marc, who is doing this because he loves Pepper and hates that Tony has treated her so poorly over the years, wouldn't actually threaten Pepper and blasts through the Liar ring's projection to hit him. Mole Man, the last hold out, tosses his ring away to avoid persecution, and the Starks recover them all. With everything turning up Stark, they call the Rigellians to come pick up 451. The Rigellians, super nice dudes, explain to Tony that it was actually something in 451's programming that upgraded the Mandarin rings to act the way they did and a mixture of Tony's position in the world and the original Mandarin's hatred of him caused them to attack him specifically. Everything's wrapped up as Arno secretly sends Abigail Burns the Incandescence ring, allowing her to continue being Red Peril and as Pepper breaks up with Marc, repeating that she doesn't need saving.

Kieron Gillen isn't necessarily known for his happy endings (though it's been seen at times before) but this is about as big a win as Tony could have hoped for (particularly as it seems the rest of the Marvel Universe is crashing down around him). Pepper dumped her apparently crazy/overprotective fiancee, the Stark brothers are as good as ever, 451 is off-planet and the Rigellians were like, super nice, and they've captured all of the Mandarin's rings. Pretty solid day for Tony as Gillen ends his IRON MAN run (though he will team with HULK's Mark Waid for ORIGINAL SIN 3.1-3.4, which will pit Hulk against Iron Man). As I thought with the last couple issues, this series felt like it was starting to wind down really quickly by the end, often going the route of telling instead of showing (which is pretty rare for Gillen, who tends to be acutely aware of that). Still a very good series overall though it's hard not to feel like it peaked with 451.

Total Score: 4/5