She-Hulk 4, Loki: Agent of Asgard 4

She-Hulk 4
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c) and Cowles (l)

She-Hulk pays a visit to San Francisco to get some advice from fellow lawyer-superhero Matt Murdock about her recent case involving Kristoff Vernard, son of Dr. Doom. With his counsel, she flies to Latveria in the hopes of finishing her case. She manages to sneak into the country and launches a small attack on Castle Doom before a giant Doombot controlled by Doom himself stops her. She talks with him, telling him that it would serve Doom well to let Kristoff live a life since all he's doing now is teaching the future ruler of Latveria to bow and that letting him go out on his own, whether in Latveria or abroad, will let him become a stronger person. Doom consents reluctantly and Kristoff brings She-Hulk home, where she begins to look into the facts of her mysterious blue file.

Story
The conclusion of the Doom storyline works out nicely as Jen manages to get into Latveria and makes another compelling argument (her first came when she won her actual trial to grant Kristoff asylum) on behalf of her client. It paints a picture of a good lawyer at work and, as she and Matt discuss, the role of a lawyer who has the ability to do far more for a client than most. On top of it, we start to get a sense of what's in the blue file as she reveals to Hellcat and Angie Huang that she and several other in the superhero/villain community are being sued by someone in North Dakota for something she cannot recall. Interesting stuff ahead. 5/5

Character
There are plenty of strong character moments here from just about everyone who appears. She-Hulk gets plenty of her own moments in the way that she speaks and in the way she acts; her tone and her demeanor give us as much a sense of her character as her willingness to visit San Francisco for advice and her willingness to travel to Latveria for a client she doesn't even like. Kristoff and Doom get some decent characterization (a well-written Doom continues to be just an absolute pleasure to read), as do Hellcat and Angie Huang in their much smaller roles. 5/5

Writing
Soule's writing continues to be very strong, giving great dialogue and compelling story beats as the series continues. I've covered most of that in the above two sections but it feels more and more each issue like Soule is building his world in some really strong ways. Hopefully the book hangs on long enough to let us see it (I've no idea how sales on this or any other new book are doing but I fear that the cuts have to come somewhere). 5/5

Art
Pulido's art continues to impress, though I get the sense that his work continues to be very polarizing. Matt Murdock is characterized some by his dialogue in this one but even more by his inability to sit still as he and She-Hulk hang out on the Golden Gate Bridge. He's constantly doing handstands and jumping from wire to wire and all sorts of different things in the course of his regular conversation. It's pretty fun and it adds a lot to the book, which is about all you can ask from any artist on any book. Muntsa Vicente does a solid job too on the colors for this extremely specific art style. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Just another in a line of Soule books that's proven to be a lot of fun to read while also being an engaging superhero comic.

Total score: 5/5


Loki: Agent of Asgard 4
Ewing (w) and Garbett (a) and Woodard (c) and Cowles (l)

Loki needs to send Sigurd home to Asgardia on behalf of the All-Mothers but Sigurd has other plans. Sigurd wants to remain on Earth but also to change his religion to one of resurrection upon death, hoping to avoid the fate that's been promised to him when he dies (consumed by the ex-Disir Valkyries, as happened a few years ago in NEW MUTANTS). For his plan, he needs his sword Gram, which Loki happens to have. The two fight for it and it seems Sigurd was the winner, though the conclusion of the fight happens out of sight. Sigurd visits Tibet and finds dark sorcerer Kaluu, hoping that he can change his religion. Sigurd explains what happened between himself and Loki while Kaluu listens and, at the end, agrees to aid Sigurd. They both shed blood on the wheel of karma to agree to terms and to get the ball rolling only for Kaluu to transform into Mephisto and show Sigurd that the karma wheel was, in fact, a contract and that his soul now belongs to Hell. Unfortunately for Mephisto, Loki had been on the mountaintop all along, courtesy of a number of invisibility charms and spells, and swapped out the wheel/contract for a contract of his own that banishes Mephisto and sends Sigurd back to Asgardia. Though the All-Mothers are pleased with Loki, he's not so thrilled with them and enlists the help of Verity Willis, Lorelai, and Thor to try to open up the dungeons of Asgardia to release the gods who have been imprisoned there recently.

Story
Every issue of this book has ended so far (with the exception of issue one, but even that had this problem, I just thought the story was more interesting) with me going "geez, that was awfully convoluted." I do believe, to Ewing's credit, that "convoluted" is rather the book's intent. Loki's the god of mischief, not the god of straightforward cause and effect. Were there probably easier, more generic ways for Loki to send Sigurd back to Asgardia? Probably. Maybe fighting? Who knows, it's all moot at this point. I think Ewing's not wrong to want to take the roundabout way to get it done, since people picking up this book want to see Loki being mischievous and outsmarting people. Still, at some point, convoluted for convoluted's sake wears a little thin and the story has to be exciting and compelling enough to warrant it. It didn't feel like this one ever really hit that point. 3/5

Character
Though we get some character beats in dialogue, the strongest sense of character comes from the aforementioned Rube Goldberg-ness of Loki's plots. It's strong characterization in that sense but the dialogue doesn't always support it. One of the most impressive things that Kieron Gillen did in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (and no, it's not fair to keep comparing this series to that one but I'm going to keep doing it) was to make Loki continually outsmart his foes even when it looked like he wasn't doing it or wasn't doing it intentionally because every once in a while you'd get a dark or foreboding line from Kid Loki that showed that maybe his young and excitable exterior was maybe a little deeper than it seemed. I haven't seen a lot of that from this Loki so his dialogue feels incongruous with his plots. Suddenly he just appears and goes "AHA, I had it planned this way from the start!" which, while true, doesn't feel particularly rewarding. 3/5

Writing
I think I pretty much said all I wanted to say about the writing above. The only other thing I'd mention is that I still tend not to like the faintly gimmicky asides that feel more at place in a SCOTT PILGRIM than in a book whose tone hasn't really been firmly established yet (for example, there's a cutaway sequence outlining what Sigurd's wearing and another establishing what Verity is eating in longer detail - it's not necessarily a dumb idea as it's stuff that needs to be explained and an aside is perhaps more useful than clunky dialogue but it really breaks the tone and rather makes me roll my eyes, which is not the last time I'll discuss eye-rolling this time out). 3/5

Art
Lee Garbett's art is pretty strong throughout this one, switching back and forth between realism and fantasy pretty effortlessly. He keeps up with a lot of the tone changes pretty well and really manages to hold the book together when it starts to come undone. Woodard's colors don't hurt either. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Still rolling my eyes continuously at Verity Willis. I understand there's quite possibly a longer game going on with her, but it would have to be a pretty darn convincing and exciting reveal to make me not roll my eyes at her.

Total score: 3/5

Punisher 4, She-Hulk 3

Punisher 4
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c)

Captured by Dos Soles and Electro, Punisher is in a bit of a bind. Electro tortures him while the leader of the Dos Soles promises that he'll earn money loaning Punisher out to be tortured to other villains who have been hurt by his actions. Electro has no intention of letting Punisher live that long but doesn't mention that bit to the Dos Soles' leader. After the drug lord leaves the room, Electro continues to brag to Punisher before Punisher kicks out at the chest of Electro and propels himself, chair and all, through a window behind him. Freed from his chains on impact, he rushes to one of the bombs in the room, daring the Dos Soles who saw his escape to shoot him. He manages to get a gun from one of them and he works his way through the building before the Dos Soles' leader detonates the building, preferring not to leave anything behind. Punisher reunites with Tuggs and tells him that the Soles are planning a citywide strike on LA with Electro, who is also working with AIM and has come to work with the Dos Soles as part of an arrangement with AIM (though Frank doesn't know this part yet). While Frank sets out to shut them down, Tuggs is captured by the new Howling Commandoes closing in on Punisher. A new wrench is going to be thrown into everything, though, as AIM hires another mercenary to work for whatever their plan is: former X-Man/X-Force member Domino.

Like BLACK WIDOW, Edmondson is here writing another story about a strong protagonist who is good at what he does even if what he does is arguably "good." He also makes sure that the protagonist has a strong narrative running throughout, something important for both books that he's writing right now. With BLACK WIDOW, he has to ensure that she's not characterized as cold or heartless; Noto's art helps bunches with that because she's so very human in the art but having a running narrative of the way she thinks helps tremendously. In that same way, Punisher is brutal and efficient in his methods and he's very steadfast in what he believes, all of which has put him toe-to-toe with unambiguously "good" superheroes time and again. Giving him a strong narrative and putting his very human thoughts there (as writers sometimes use the "Punisher's War Journal" entries to do, though I think it's less effective than a straight shot into his mind) humanize him in a way that his actions never could. Strong issue here and plenty of story to follow as Punisher's new universe gets a bit bigger every issue.

She-Hulk 3
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)

She-Hulk has been approached by Kristoff Vernard, son of Dr. Doom, seeking asylum in the United States. As the two go out for coffee so she can hear his case, he says that he's being kept in Latveria and groomed to be the next ruler of the nation, which may be okay except that he knows he wouldn't be a ruler in his own right, he'd be the ruler holding all of Doom's positions and doing only what he wanted. He wants to be allowed to experience the world for himself and he knows Doom will never allow it. She agrees to help him but, since he's been in America for exactly a year at this point, they have to get the paperwork in that day. She calls in a favor with a judge and they get into Kristoff's car. His driver begins to take them to the airport, revealing himself to be a Doombot as they figure out where they're going. She-Hulk stops him and tracks down an old Fantasticar kept at JFK to get them back into the city. On the way in, they're besieged by legions of Doombots as they try to make their way into the courthouse in disguise. One catches what they assume is Kristoff only to find it's Hellcat posing as Kristoff to allow the actual man time to get into the courtroom. He does and She-Hulk rushes in behind him, rather beat up. Given the difficulty it took just getting past Doom and into the court that day, the judge approves his grant for asylum but no sooner does she pound the gavel than does Doom himself descend into the courtroom and drag Kristoff away, with She-Hulk vowing to get him back.

Bold move here as Soule puts She-Hulk right up against Dr. Doom to kick off her brand new series. There's a lot of legal work here as we understand why Kristoff wants asylum and the case in which it can be granted to him, not to mention some of the logistics of gaining asylum. The book kicks off with double page spreads galore as She-Hulk and Kristoff walk through the city with elongated panels stretching between the two pages. It's certainly an interesting layout and makes the story feel almost widescreen, in a way, though it's not a tactic I think I'd enjoy so much on repeated issues (I'm a bit conservative with my fondness for double page spreads, another thing I tend not to enjoy from Bendis). The book flows pretty well, though it's an interestingly paced book. There are long swaths of dialogue as procedure and history is explained but the double page spreads serve to make the book read faster; though there's a lot of dialogue, every page-worth of dialogue is spread across two pages. So the book flows but it's not in a regular sort of way. Still, it works and the book continues to be a pretty fun ride.

This week's picks

Geez, didn't quite realize how hard these three would be to choose until I actually started to think about it. Sometimes I'm not particularly confident in my pre-game picks so the pull list is pretty up-for-grabs. This week I was totally sure of my pre-game, barring possible freak inexplicably bad issues from really talented creators, so I had a good feeling that was where the picks would go. With the exception of one possibility jumping into the fray, I'm torn. The worst part is I know two of my three picks already. Alphabetically, though, they're the last two and I just hate working out of order. Well, let's see what I decide! It's a journey for ALL OF US!

She-Hulk 1

GUYS, this was a really tough pick and I'm writing these words without knowing if I'm going to use them or delete them later. SHE-HULK beats out, just by a hair, SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN 27, which gets lots of points for tying together all of its plots and constructing a very interesting upcoming arc to lead us back to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and WINTER SOLDIER: BITTER MARCH, which established an amazing tone and is just a really well-constructed book. SHE-HULK wins the day, though, as it's hard to come away from a first issue with such a good grasp on who this character is and what to expect from this book. I'm not going to say that things won't change or that the book won't be dynamic or anything like that, that we're just going to get this style of issue every time out; quite the opposite, in fact. SHE-HULK shows itself as an interesting and quirky book with a real sense of its main character and of the world she inhabits. I can't imagine how hard it is, though Soule is helped by his many forebears, to take a character who is constantly giant and green (by choice, mind you) and drop her into a real world and make it still relatable and not crazy. Soule does it, though, with absolutely no problems and with a nice little flair for humor and personality through every single character. This book was almost hurt by the next book on the list if only because I don't want to look stupid when I say that "number ones are rarely this good" twice in one post but, hey, whatever, I think I've proven just how stupid I can look already.

X-Force 1

Number ones are rarely this good. This one doesn't have the kind of shock value of the sheer beauty of something like BLACK WIDOW or NEW AVENGERS but it has such a well-defined sense of itself and such a wonderful sense of the narrative that anyone, whether they're new to X-MEN, new to X-FORCE, new to Marvel, or probably even new to comics, can, I would speculate, pick up what's happening in this book so far. Despite the amount of information that kind of comfortability requires, Spurrier makes sure the book isn't loaded with exposition. It leaves us with exactly the right amount of questions and the right tone for this series as it moves forward. Our team is well-established, their purpose even more so. Spurrier even knocks it out of the park with the decision to cast our initial narrator as Marrow, easily the least visible member of the team in recent years. He took the risk of alienating readers by putting in a relative unknown with a relatively unknown point of view and a rather crazed perspective as our narrator and it pays off well, allowing us to understand her better than we would have if it were, say, Psylocke or Cable's more tempered narration, or no narration at all. Rock-He Kim's art flows well with the book and I look forward to the way that Spurrier and Kim continue to improve as they work more and more together. There is, of course, also a measure of trust in this pick. As I said earlier, the book leaves us with exactly the right amount of questions by the end and the trust comes in as I trust Spurrier to eventually reveal those questions before they fade into "does anyone really care any more?" territory. I think one of the big problems with, say, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is that they prodded the watchers to ask so many questions (and like, explicitly told them to ask, unlike something like Lost where the characters were just as in the dark, or lost, even, as the audience) and refused answers that it's gotten fairly monotonous and annoying. I don't want to have to ask questions that I know you have the answers to and that you'll only divulge at the right time. That is, I don't if you don't overstay that time. Like a good mystery novel, the satisfaction is in the figuring it out, not in the asking. I trust Spurrier to lead us to that point because he's done it so masterfully across his other works.

X-Men Legacy 24

If you didn't think this book was going to be on this list after the "review" I posted this week that was less review and more open love letter, I can't help you any more. This is the kind of book that will stay with me for years to come and this issue has been on my mind as much as anything else in the last week. I can't stress enough how much I want you all to read it. I've made just about everyone who's come into contact with me in the last few days read it because I need people to talk to about it or even just to know it exists. Every bit as meaningful as the comic itself was to me, so too was Spurrier's little letter to the audience at the issue's conclusion. There's so much to love about this and it's so hard to be sad that the book's over since, you know, kind of the point of this is that we shouldn't be sad that it's over. David himself told us not to be, you guys. As a whole, this series has been one of the best Marvel, or any publisher out there, has put out in quite some time. David is one of the most well-characterized and, despite all of his power and the scale of his problems, relatable characters I've seen. Check this title out and tell me what you think. Am I overblowing it? Maybe. But I suppose that's my right, isn't it?