FF 16, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 9

FF 16
Fraction and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)
Backup story: Kesel and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and Quinones and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

It's Scott Lang vs. Doom in the battle that the entirety of this run of FF has been building towards. The team has depowered Doom and kept him from the power he so desperately craves after getting his hands on it for such a short time last issue and wielding it like the god he wants to be. So it's man-to-man for Scott and Doom and Scott starts pounding on the evil dictator and giving him a piece of his mind. There's a lot to do with Doom being a sociopath and Lang being an ex-con Cassie's death and so forth. Just as Lang's preparing for his final Doom beat-down, the Living Tribunal shows up to punish Doom for striking the Watcher. He decrees that Doom's face gain a new scar for every horrible crime he enacts going forward. Then he leaves and Lang beats him up some more. The story ends as Ravonna brings Franklin and Val to Scott and gives Doom a vision that he killed Val in the same way he killed Cassie and I guess all is as it should be maybe? The issue ends with the same backup story as in FANTASTIC FOUR 16.

The fatal flaw of this issue is that it just seems to want to do a little too much. Between the really long and somehow rather preachy speech from Scott Lang as he pounds on Doom and the sudden appearance of the Living Tribunal and a somewhat ham-fisted explanation of how powerful Scott Lang is and how he harnessed the true power of Pym Particles and all sorts of other things, the issue really starts to drag on to the point where I was reading it and kind of saying "okay, we get it." It leaves you almost feeling bad for Doom who is very CLEARLY the villain here but who doesn't really come off that way after Scott's long speech. I think the problem has also had to do with focus as the series wound its way down. Bit of a strange send-off, really, and one that, like FANTASTIC FOUR 16, felt a little like maybe it snuck up on the creators a bit. Ah well.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 9
Shinick (w) and Checchetto (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Spider-Man can't help but feel like things are a little tense in the city despite his anti-crime campaign. Everything is eerily quiet until bullets start flying at him. He dodges them and decks his stomach and chest area in his webbing before flying down at his assailant. Spidey is surprised to find that it's Punisher shooting at him (and unaware that his new webbing is bulletproof) and quickly learns that Punisher was trying to get his attention for Daredevil, who is also hanging around. The two are suspicious of the way Spider-Man has been acting lately and they both suspect that he may have had a hand in the theft of a goblin glider from one of Punisher's armories. Spider-Man consents to bring them to Spider-Island to show them his own armory and to prove that he didn't take Punisher's stuff. They talk about how secure Spidey has made the place and how protected he's made the arms he's found but, of course, when he opens the weapons room everything is gone, save one pumpkin bomb flying at them. Punisher shoots it out of the air and he and Daredevil manage to see (or "see," in Daredevil's case) someone trying to escape, disguised as one of Spidey's henchmen. Daredevil sniffs the guy out and the guy reveals that he's covered himself in pumpkin bombs, ready to take the whole place down if need be. He asks for directions from the person he's working for but said person (who we know to be the Green Goblin) does not respond, realizing that Daredevil would hear him and preferring not to be in the open yet. Punisher shoots the trigger out of his hand but it doesn't stop the henchman from dropping a smoke grenade followed by a flashbomb, effectively blinding Punisher (wearing night vision goggles). Punisher throws a knife at the man, upsetting Spider-Man who hoped to get answers about other people that the man referenced. Soon, though, his answers come as seemingly his entire henchman army turns on the three superheroes.

Geez, plenty going on for a typically pretty self-contained book. AVENGING SPIDER-MAN also had a team-up between these three and it was a bit more tense in terms of the relationship between the three established characters, even though that one featured Peter Parker as Spider-Man. This one ties very nicely into the events of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN and builds well off both the imminent GOBLIN NATION arc and the pretty obvious building antipathy between Spider-Man and his henchmen. It also kicks off with the typical accusation that maybe something isn't quite right with Spider-Man, an accusation well-leveled here (geez Daredevil, get in on the action) and one that slots nicely into a time when everyone is at their most suspicious of him. In fact, the only real flaw I see with this book is that, as the back cover indicates, it takes place between SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN 26 and 27, meaning that it comes out before the books its supposed to take place between. It's not bad enough that it really damages the issue in any significant way, just kind of gives you the sneaking suspicion that maybe there's even more to this story that we haven't seen yet. Otherwise, though, really good issue, fun and quick-paced. Lot of action and a solid team-up between these three oft-teamed heroes. Also really good Marco Checchetto art. I think I keep accidentally confusing his name with maybe Carmine Di Giandomenico (I know, don't ask me how) and I like Checchetto's art a good deal more so I'm excited whenever I get a book from the one I like more.

More Ant-Man movie details

So this is a new bit. I don't actually know if I talked about it when it started to come up last month but Paul Rudd is confirmed as Edgar Wright's Ant-Man in the 2015 Marvel movie Ant-Man. This still left Marvel fans wondering which Ant-Man Rudd would be playing, as there were three options for the role (but really two major options, no one was really banking on it being Eric O'Grady). Well it seems as if Marvel and Wright are ready to close the doors on those questions as they've just cast Hollywood legend Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, leaving Rudd in the Scott Lang role. The way Lang has worked in the past, for those unfamiliar, is that he becomes Ant-Man after stealing Pym's suit to use it to try to save his daughter Cassie who has a lung condition and requires expensive treatment. Eventually it gets sorted and Pym gives Lang his blessing to become Ant-Man full time, leading to Lang's affiliation with the Fantastic Four (as seen most recently in the current FF series) and to membership on the Avengers. To give away a little too much, probably, he's killed in the AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED storyline that would lead to the major HOUSE OF M business when Scarlet Witch goes a little crazy and ends up accidentally killing members of the Avengers including Lang. He's brought back in the events of 2011's YOUNG AVENGERS: CHILDREN'S CRUSADE when...okay, maybe I'm getting a little too deep into something that does not matter considering this post was originally just about casting news and its implications. Let's get to that then.

So obviously the biggest news of this whole announcement is that Michael Douglas, who will be 70 this year, seems to age Hank Pym out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, like or dislike Pym, it's hard to argue that he's an important character in the Marvel Universe. In the comics, he's a founding Avenger, he invented Pym particles, and he created Ultron, among other things (probably too bad for him that he's pretty well-known for striking his wife on a particularly bad occasion). He's also not 70 years old in the comics. This changes a lot of what people (me) may have been predicting about the movie. It's almost weirder that they're leaving Pym in but making him 70 than it is to just make it Lang and kind of combine the two characters. I suppose this is a way to keep Pym in the MCU but to de-complicate things a bit instead of having two potential Ant-Mans running around. There are also some other rumors floating around after Edgar Wright posted posted a screencap from Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes on his website which showed a character grabbing for the Ant-Man mask. The episode the shot was taken from is entitled "To Steal an Ant-Man" and features Lang's first appearance on the show, wherein he steals the Ant-Man costume, which caused plenty of people to think a week ago that Rudd would play Lang and not Pym. However, sources like Hollywood Reporter speculated it might mean more than that, as that particular episode also invoked, for the first time in that series, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. I waved that off at first as maybe reaching a little far, even after the article went on to link the whole thing to Iron Fist and Luke Cage's upcoming Netflix series, but I'm not as convinced now. First and foremost: can Ant-Man sustain his own movie? Second: Avengers: EMH was very clearly a sort of testing ground for future MCU concepts so it's not entirely farfetched. Third: Lang, in the comics, had a relationship with Jessica Jones for a time, also slated to get her own Netflix series, which could potentially tie everything together pretty nicely. OKAY, maybe I'm getting a little farfetched now, but maybe-OH MAN, EDGAR WRIGHT DIRECTING A MOVIE WITH IRON FIST IN IT WOULD BE THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED.

Hawkeye 14, Indestructible Hulk 16, FF 14

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daredevil 32, FF 13

Daredevil 32
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and Rodriguez (c)

Foggy's not dead and Matt isn't fooled by the dummy hanging in front of him, nor is he fooled by the cyanide-laced "suicide note" that "Foggy left." He picks up the trail again after taking down a couple of dirty cops and enlisting Foggy's help in research on the Serpent Society. The research leads him down a more mystical path and so Daredevil pays a visit to his personal mystical consultant, Dr. Strange. Strange, in turn, points him to known-werewolf Jack Russell down in Kentucky. Matt arrives in Kentucky to find Russell and finish his research. It doesn't go as planned, though, when he ends up unwittingly defending a posse of monsters led by Satana, daughter of the devil. He escapes into the trees to figure out his next move where he is shot by a member of the angry crowd chasing the monsters.

Geez, now we're going to be maybe-killing a character at the end of every issue apparently. It's a good issue though with Daredevil immediately outwitting Jester and a nice little look from Jester at how some of the villains in the world view him. Even when supervillains know that Matt is Daredevil, they don't necessarily know the truth about Matt. Jester's Foggy prank relies entirely on Matt seeing the body, not smelling it, as well as seeing the suicide note instead of smelling the cyanide inside. Some nice character work between the Matt and Foggy as they get a nice moment of tough love from Matt, slapping some junk food out of Foggy's hand. More good Matt character stuff as he pays a visit to Doc Strange (wouldn't be upset if Strange started getting a bigger role in this book) and Strange doesn't reveal Russell's...condition to Matt, leaving him a little in the dark when he arrives and thinks that the townspeople are simply crazy racists, not monster-haters (unless "monster" is a race, in which case they're still totally racist). There's a lot happening here and most of it, despite the interesting and kind of abrupt plot-change, is character-based. More great Samnee art, of course, as Daredevil continues to be one of the most complete solo books out there, maybe second only to Hawkeye (if it's second to Hawkeye). I think Captain Marvel would be up there but the art team has changed so much it's hard to call it continuously the most complete solo book. It's still certainly up there. Okay, I'll stop ranking now.

FF 13
Fraction and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

The FF has been transported somewhere after Alex's tampering with the portal intended to bring the F4 back. They've been transported somewhere...impossible. That's right, obviously they're in the fabrics of the pants of the Impossible Man. Scott instantly realizes that this is Alex and Ahura's doing and puts them aside for now. The Impossible Man drops them off on the moon alongside the Watcher (and, inexplicably, a lady Watcher), who Scott instantly threatens with a fake Ultimate Nullifier so that his motley crew can stay there and plan their next move. After a weird and useless subplot with the Red Ghost trying to steal secrets from the Watcher and freaking out about everyone he sees, Scott starts planning their return and their next move against Doom, one that he'll have to come at with less emotion than he's been reserving for Doom of late.

The FF has had a fairly quirky bent throughout its recent run but, over the last couple issues, it's gotten openly more goofy. There is a difference, in case you haven't thought about it before. Quirky still leaves room for solid emotion and solid growth, things like Tong deciding she's female and the clone of a supervillain marring attempts to foil a date and only making it more wonderful. Goofy's a little different and allows for less character while we get a little more comic relief. The problem with comic relief is that it needs to relieve something. If there's not enough going on in the story or if that story doesn't have much by way of stakes or drama, it means that comic relief doesn't quite work. Of course, there is still a plot going on that has drama inherent to it (the F4 are in space and their replacements aren't feeling particularly confident with how things have gone, no one knows what to make of old John Storm, two kids just tried to commit murder, Scott is going to be pitted against the man who was responsible for his daughter's death, etc.) but it feels like the excess of comic relief has taken away from that. There aren't many issues of FF left and they'll need to turn that tone around pretty quickly if they want to make a meaningful exit.

This week's picks

This is a bit of an interesting week for me as none of my standbys were out. I'm not saying that's a bad thing; there are tons of great books out there from Marvel and I don't love that my chosen picks are always from the same well of series but I can't help what I find best, I suppose. It's nice, though, to be able to spotlight other books for a change, even if one of them is just a one shot for an event that features a book/writer I do always pick.

Avengers: The Enemy Within 1

Obviously it helps a great deal to have an event focused on a character and/or going between a couple books if the author of the event is the same author behind that character/those books. What I'm trying to say is that Kelly Sue DeConnick has a perfect handle on Carol and on the way she acts and the troubles she faces. Add to that an intriguing story and the promise of more characters showing up and you have a great event starter in Enemy Within. In my review, I didn't even touch on Carol's fear that she'll start hallucinating as Helen reportedly did (though Helen may actually have been transported through time, jury's still out). On top of that, DeConnick has done something no other writer has ever been able to do: made me enjoy reading Spider-Woman. There's plenty to think about going forward with this arc and I'm confident that the event will be a solid one.

FF 7

Incredibly sweet story that serves many purposes as far as this pretty young series goes. Scott steps into the leader role and away, if only a little bit, from the overprotective and fearful father role. The FF comes together as a famiy. Darla shows her chops and fights as hard as anyone else out there. The story itself is resolved and Medusa is freed from the Wizard's control. Bentley-23 fights for the FF and sends Blastaar into his recent story with the Fantastic Four. All in one issue. It's emotionally satisfying to watch Scott take charge and show himself as not too in over his head. It's a nice wrap-up for this arc while still giving ample opportunities to expand later. Add to that the promise of Doom sooner or later and FF seems to be in pretty good shape.

Iron Man 10

We've already had the surprise that 451 was working alongside Howard Stark in some capacity but this issue does a good job to not rest on that secret. Gillen isn't afraid to delve into places in Tony's history that other writers haven't gone. Given the popularity of the character right now particularly, that isn't a lightly made decision, I'm sure. Tony should have been dead in the womb or just out of it. Somehow he didn't die and somehow it has to do with his father making some sort of deal or something with 451, a somewhat nefarious robot whose true goal hasn't really been revealed yet. Is he the fact-gatherer who is sincerely trying to make the best out of bad situations or is he more sinister than that? I guess we'll have to keep reading to find out. That doesn't even mention the fact that Gillen and Eaglesham put in a full-on heist in about five pages and it's interesting and well-executed while keep up the fun of heist movies and the like. Solid issue and a great launching point for the arc.


Best Panel:
I had far less trouble than I should have had picking this week's panel. We had Cable and his X-Force in space, we had Carol Danvers punching out dinosaurs, we had Gambit with a jetpack, we had Venom shielding an explosion, we had Scott Lang looking into the Negative Zone and saying "What." (Fun fact: I will always giggle at "what" not asked as a question. Hilarious every time). However, we also had two dogs with goggles to protect their eyes from explosion debris. So should I have maybe gone with something different here? There's a chance. Was I ever going to? Nope.

FF 7, Wolverine and the X-Men 29, X-Factor 256

FF 7
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

Everything FF has been building to (well, a lot of things) comes to a head here in issue seven as Scott is forced to confront his fear of his new children dying in his arms like Cassie, as Darla shows off her new Thing powers pretty impressively, and as the Wizard's plan becomes clear to everyone. The Wizard has transported the Baxter Building into the Negative Zone in the hopes of showing Bentley-23 that his fake family, the FF, is weak and doesn't deserve him whereas his "real" family, comprised of the Wizard, a brainwashed Medusa, and Blastaar, wants him to be home with them. A fight ensues, wherein Scott tells the kids to get ready to battle instead of hiding. Onome expresses concern about that and Scott explains that he's terrified for them every moment of every day but that the world is a scary and dangerous place and they're just as likely to choke on waffles as they are to die in a battle and that eventually you just have to live your life. Leech mostly calms Medusa, who flips in and out of the brainwashing, while Darla fights Blastaar and Scott fights the Wizard. Darla fights surprisingly well but eventually has her Thing suit destroyed by a Blastaar punch. Fortunately, Bentley-23 has rushed off in the Baxter Building and returns with a vest that he wraps Blastaar in and activates, sending him to the end of time (hence his arc in Fantastic Four; well done, Fraction). They stop the Wizard and hand him over to Black Bolt who, despite Medusa's plea for compassion from her husband (as Wizard is clearly insane and just wanted the love of his "son"), "would have words" with Wizard. Meanwhile, Doom questions Alex Power about the FF's plan to "end Doom."

This is a nice wrap up to, really, the team's first arc. There have been plenty of things going on and even a couple of nice standalone sort of issues but this is the first real storyline that's wrapped up. It's especially good going forward because now Medusa can officially be a member of the team, which is always interesting. Add to that the newfound feeling of family the FF seems to have and we have ourselves a different book. The writing continues to be solid and the art fits incredibly well. The Allreds create images and colors that call back images of the original Fantastic Four books and in a bygone generation of comics as a whole. Even the cover image (shown above) has the old school style coloring and drawing with the rarely seen word bubbles on the cover explaining some of what's happening. If I had a stronger knowledge of F4 covers, I'd even say it's a direct parody of one, just as old John Storm's walk through the bowery an issue or two ago. Very fun book, well executed again.

Wolverine and the X-Men 29
Aaron (w) and R. Perez (a) and L. Martin (c)

Fresh off his return from the Savage Land, Wolverine makes a speech to the students and faculty of the Jean Grey School, thanking them for sticking with him and explaining to them that he knows the school is important and that the person he is today is a far different one than the one he'd be without Xavier's school in his past. They bury a time capsule to be opened in 25 years. Fortunately for us, we are merely an audience, so we are then transported 25 years into the future to see what exactly is going on when the time capsule is opened. The school still exists and Wolverine is still there (though now weirdly with grey hair; he doesn't seem to have aged at all in his first 100+ years alive but these last 25 seem to have really gotten to him. Maybe it's the teaching). Looking inside, he finds something that unsettles him and that he can trace back to everything going wrong. Longtime comic fans will already recognize this set-up as boilerplate teaser issue and they're 100% correct. Grey-hair Wolverine teleports into space to a satellite maintained by a now 40 year old Eye Boy, who monitors all mutant activity and other such things and dispatches controls as needed. Locked away in the satellite is time travel equipment which Wolverine hopes to use, despite Eye Boy's request not to and the fact that Wolverine has clearly gotten into trouble doing this before. Eye Boy is needed on Earth and so leaves Wolvy there, saying that he's welcome to use the time machine stuff if he really needs to but that maybe he should just leave a note to the present day Wolverine (as is grey-hair Wolverine's intent) that says "thanks," as Eye Boy clearly appreciates what he's done for him. Grey-hair eventually does just that. Meanwhile, in the present, Idie meets with a shadowy traitor from the Jean Grey School who has joined the Hellfire Academy and requests to join as well.

As I said, this is pretty boilerplate for comics. It doesn't happen in every series (thankfully) but there are several series that wish to tease the future of their books by actually showing the future to keep people interested. In Bendis' Avengers run, near the beginning of the Heroic Age, there was an issue of Avengers that found the present day Avengers transported into the future by Kang and looking over a timeline Kang had constructed of events that were happening. The timeline was at least mildly familiar to fans as they could see events that had happened already on it and events that they knew were set to happen (this was just prior to Johnny Storm's "death" and there was a marker on the timeline that said "THREE," for example). It's a way of keeping people onboard without having to actually thread suspense through the series. Am I a little bitter about it? Maybe. It is boilerplate but that doesn't mean that it's the best routine. Maybe the first time or two that you see it you'll pour over the dialogue and try to piece together the things they're referring to but, in the end, I try not to read solicits for a reason. I care about a long-term plan for these characters and these books, sure, but I don't appreciate the poking and prodding that seems to say "hey, do you care yet? Want me to tell you what's going to happen? Going to have to keep reading!" I was already going to keep reading, Wolverine and the X-Men. You didn't have to waste an issue telling me to.

X-Factor 256
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

Interesting ending to the seemingly very long Lords of Hell storyline. Tier, after explaining for about the fiftieth time who he is, kills all the hell lords who had previously lost and makes his way to Mephisto. Polaris and Jezebel are leading an army of goat-Madroxes through the gates in a frontal assault while the rest of the team comes in through the backdoor. Tier attacks Mephisto, who in turn traps him and attacks Shatterstar and Rictor. Tier breaks free and starts to attack Mephisto again but eventually is slain through the gut with a trident by Guido, who has just appeared on the scene. As the rules of the game were "whoever kills Tier becomes the lord of Hell," Guido assumes the throne. He uses his power to restore Monet (obviously) and sends her away. Layla, who was away from the action with Madrox-prime, is transported onto a city building's roof, unsure of what's happening and having lost Jamie. Hopefully the defeat of Mephisto will return Jamie to mutant form and out of goat form because he has sorely been missing from this arc.

It's an interesting ending because it puts Guido in a position of power and takes Tier out of the equation. Of course, that's going to make Rahne even more violent and angry and therefore present, but you can't win on all counts. OKAY, look, I really didn't like Tier and I wasn't a big fan of this story in general. I guess I didn't even totally mind the story (except that it seemed to last forever) but it's hard to really feel involved with the story when you don't care about the narrator and, in essence, the driving force. Madrox is also my favorite member of the team so losing him to a transformation didn't help my feelings for the arc. Just as it seemed Tier might end up staying with the team in the case of their victory, Guido ends that, which is interesting enough purely based on what Guido's become, and takes over as lord of hell. Nice little twist to finish it off that I, admittedly, never saw coming. Looking forward to the next arc which will have to resolve quite a few things and which, Peter David willing, will restore Madrox to the character we know and love.

Fantastic Four 7, FF 6

Fantastic Four 7
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Hennessey (a) and Mounts (c)

The Fantastic Four go into prevention mode as Franklin saves the team from the sun and Blastaar explosion by sending them through time and space to the end of the universe, just before the aliens who sentenced Blastaar to being the first death in the universe send him back to it. They arrive and instantly head it off with the aliens, who help repair their ship and talk to Reed, Susan, and Ben about how their bodies are decaying. They know that Reed's cellular structure is decaying while something is happening to Ben's mind. Ben is angry Reed didn't tell him, but has more pressing issues. The next day is the one day a year where he transforms out of the Thing and into Ben Grimm for 24 hours and he'd like to be able to spend that day himself. Reed promises to be done with what they're doing at the end of the universe by then to allow Ben to choose where ever he wants to go. The whole team works together to pull one over on the aliens (after the aliens fix up and improve the F4's ship and everything) by rescuing Blastaar for themselves. If he isn't sent back in time to the start of the universe, he'd never explode there and they'd never be caught in the explosion. Johnny asks the question "what sparks us to come back here if he never explodes?" opening up a loop of time travel issues, but Sue rebuffs him by simply demanding he not ask. Val creates a containment unit for Blastaar that should keep him from exploding and helps prepare the ship. Everyone plays a role in the long con and eventually they end up leaving with Blastaar, who they drop off in the Negative Zone. Reed asks Ben what he wants to do with the rest of his day (they've taken out an hour doing this) and he asks to go home.
It's a nice little issue that has a lot of layers to it. There are nice mentions from the aliens of Franklin (when they first see Franklin, who is unconscious from the effort to bring them there, they tell him he's not the first Franklin Richards they've seen) and Valeria (the head alien says "while your species as a whole may not have survived this long, everyone knows of Valeria Richards"). It all fits in nicely with the F4 mythos without dominating too much of the story. Now 3/4 of the Fantastic Four know that their powers could be killing them, which will likely bring out some more tension as we continue. There's also a Reed-defining moment as he says to the alien, once the long con is complete, "your society, this civilization, you might have a few billion years on me and mine, sure...but I'm Reed Richards. Nobody's smarter than me." Fun issue. By the end it does feel rather like a heist movie (hence all the long con references) with all the pieces coming into place. Nicely done.

FF 6
Fraction (w) and Quinones (a) and L. Allred (c)

We get a fun look into the Baxter Building (complete with map of the tower) as Dragon Man searches for his roommate Bentley-23, who we know has been taken by Medusa. Dragon Man's character has been pretty fun in this series, if far removed. He's constantly off to the side, reading a newspaper and making "hmm" kinds of sounds. This issue starts the same way, though with several more "hmm"s. He searches the general area and starts asking about Bentley, but no one can tell him anything. At breakfast, he brings it up again, as Ahura (Medusa's son) brings up that she's missing. Meanwhile, Scott has been having trouble sleeping because of an incredibly depressing dream about his daughter that's keeping him from rest. He too questions where Medusa is as She-Hulk shows Darla the paper, which has hacked cell phone pictures of her trying on different headwear (as seen last issue). Darla is furious but has to get over it to go to a gig at Carnegie Hall. Of course, the Yancy Street Gang, who has joined the modern age as hackers, is behind it. Tong, one of the Moloids, expresses to his brothers that there's something inside him now that "there is a girl inside of him" and she dons a dress and asks for their understanding. They grant it and parade through the Baxter Building, to the enjoyment of She-Hulk and Darla and the confusion of Scott. She-Hulk and Ahura meet with his father Black Bolt to tell of Medusa's disappearance. It's actually a pretty funny scene as Black Bolt and Ahura communicate telepathically and Black Bolt continually gets closer to his son's head. Ahura reveals that Black Bolt has given them permission to take Lockjaw with them (rad) to help them find Medusa again. Darla's gig goes badly as everyone in attendance has been brought there by the Yancy Street Gang and are all wearing Thing masks and throw things at her to force her off the stage. Scott has seemingly disappeared on her and she eventually meets up with him at an internet cafe. He's invited the heads of the YSG to the cafe and reveals to them that he was with them as they went home that night, watching as they hacked things. He got all of their passwords and sent them around to any other hackers or news organizations or embassies they've embarrassed. He tells them to back off and it seems to have the desired effect. It's nice for Scott to finally win one. They return home to find that Dragon Man has connected Medusa and Bentley-23's disappearances after all, just in time for the whole building to be sent to the Negative Zone.
If this recap seemed like it jumped around a lot, it's because it did. There are a lot of things going on at the Baxter Building these days and a lot of storylines Fraction wants covered. He switches back and forth between them effortlessly and doesn't really seem to care if you're comfortable with the pace. There are places to be and things to do. I think it's a solid way to approach this book, which he's set up as being a pretty hectic time. Of course it would be hectic, there are 15 or so children living in one building with four adults (three right now) who don't quite know how they fit with one another yet, or how they fit into the lives of the children. The jumping back and forth at random and quickly, without allowing us to get too comfortable in one story, helps show how chaotic the FF life is. When I said above it was nice that Scott was able to win one, I meant it. It felt like such a victory for him in that it was a near-total victory over the YSG and it was so needed. Will it help stem the tide of emotion over Cassie? No, of course not. But it's nice to win occasionally. Good book. Next issue we send everyone into the Negative Zone. Fun stuff ahoy.

FF 5, Scarlet Spider 15

FUN FACT: I like this team-up of books because they're my displaced books this week. I would have matched them with Fantastic Four and Superior Spider-Man (for seemingly obvious reasons) but both of those books were direct tie-ins to Age of Ultron so it seemed silly to split it that way. A LOOK INTO THE PROCESS, dear readers.

FF 5
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred

Quick second fun fact (because we're all having fun): I don't think I would be at all upset if Laura Allred decided to color every single one of her books entirely red.
The FF is a little bit falling apart. Medusa is a bit...problematic, at the moment. Scott is freaking out about losing Alex who Darla assures him is 18 and well within his rights to leave if he wants. Old John Storm is still pretty crazy and has wandered off himself. She-Hulk and Darla both seem okay but it's still not an easy position for anyone to be in. In a beautiful bit of homage to early Fantastic Four, John Storm wanders into the former bowery mumbling about how it's as good a place as any for him to mix with the other derelicts in the city. John's lines in this scene are direct quotes from the first appearance of Namor in F4 from way back when. Johnny, then, was also walking around the bowery mumbling to himself before stumbling into Namor, who has lost his memory and made himself at home among the city's derelicts. Whether it's done to indicate that John is aware of his past or crazy or whatever it might be, it's a wonderful little toy that still fits pretty well in the story even if you don't know the history. Fraction is among the industry's best (I think in general, but specifically) at fitting in nods to the past in his work and it's almost always a delight. Anyway, here in FF 5, John then gets his flame on and starts to burn the city down little bit by bit. The F4 rush out to try to stop him and are aided by two members of the Future Foundation, old Atlanteans Vil and Wu, who summon a many-spouted beast from the river to help keep John extinguished. A member of the press catches the team at the site and belittles them in the paper. Then, cliffhangers abound as Alex shows up at Castle Doom to talk about this new FF and Medusa brings Bentley to his father, Wizard (who refers to Medusa as his wife). Weird and creepy.
There are a lot of fun things happening in the forefront of this book with just as many sinister strings waiting to be pulled just under the surface. It's an interesting place for this book to come from and it's interesting to watch it all come together. I particularly like what Scott's going through right now, as he hasn't really been looked at since he was resurrected in Young Avengers (not that he knew he was resurrected) and after his daughter's death shortly after that. In this issue, he snaps a bit with Darla as he screams about everyone just being stupid kids. There's a lot going on in his head and I'm excited to see more of it. Another fun issue.

Scarlet Spider 15
Yost (w) and Pham, Edwards, Siqueira, Pallot, Bit, and Olazaba (a) and Fabela (c)

Speaking of books that have gone to an interesting place, Scarlet Spider. After two issues ago saw Kaine killed and last issue saw him revived and giving up his humanity to try to save Aracely. This issue finds Kaine as a hideous spider-like monster, now calling himself and/or deeming everyone else "prey," intent on killing just about everything. He finds Aracely and the two wolves and stabs one of the wolves through the chest. The other grabs the fallen wolf and rushes him away hopefully to safety. Kaine lunges at Aracely and, just before he's about to kill her, she's able to get him to revert back to human. The experience, naturally, upsets Kaine a bit though it opens his eyes as to his possible true nature. It's an interesting look into the mind of Kaine and exactly how he's feeling about everything that's been going on in his life over the last few weeks. We're also getting closer and closer to figuring out who is behind everything here and what Aracely's true role in everything is.
I'll be honest I've gotten a little bogged down in this story. I think that's probably on me, in truth, and the amount of books I read. I kind of can't believe this series is already at issue 15. I don't think I've missed issues along the way but I've definitely pushed some to the back of my mind here and there and I think that's all going to come back to bite me as Aracely takes center stage for whatever story eventually comes our way. I don't know if it'll be the next arc the focuses on Aracely or if it'll just be something that makes its way to us over time but I feel equally uncomfortable delving into Aracely-centric stories. Maybe, though, that's the way I'm supposed to feel. She's touted as a mysterious character who kind of sprung up out of nowhere and has some amount of power but seems unsure on using it. Maybe I'm supposed to know exactly as much as I feel I do (very little) and that it will be revealed over time. I'm going to go with that.
Overall not a bad issue. Some things come to a head. I don't remember the specifics of last issue but I wouldn't be surprised if this and the last one could have been combined. Not my call and I sure don't feel like digging up that issue to nitpick. I think there was probably enough in each that neither would could be effectively cut down to half an issue or less, so both might have ended up feeling a little padded out but were still worthwhile.