SPEED ROUND: Punisher 6, New Warriors 5

Quick note to start: having a pretty busy weekend (they're only going to get busier from here, it seems, but I'm going to do my best here) and so the last two sets of reviews this week, both set to drop today, will be done in SPEED ROUND fashion, where I tell very little about the comics (though especially these two deserve a little more) and just drop a rating in. Sorry for all of the format changes recently but such are the ways of a blogger on a limited schedule.


Punisher 6
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c) and Petit (l)

Punisher nearly kills Electro but is stopped by a reluctant Domino, allowing both mercs to escape. He sets out to stop Guillermo Del Sol but finds himself caught in an explosion, seemingly killing Del Sol. He's caught in two more explosions and eventually shot through the back as he lands on a moving city bus by the Howling Commandos, still hot on his trail.

The book keeps its intensity up and manages to fit three nice explosions in (impressively, they all look really good too) without it going so over the top it loses itself. Instead, Punisher even points out how much he's getting blown up. It's smart and quick writing and it's easy to lose yourself in this book, as it's been pretty easy throughout its run so far. Very strong stuff coming from Edmondson on both this and BLACK WIDOW and equally strong stuff from Gerads on this title.

Total Score: 5/5


New Warriors 5
Yost (w) and Roche (a) and Redmond (c) and Caramagna (l)

Still examining things to do with the High Evolutionary, the New Warriors (minus Nova, home per his mom's request) have made their way to the Wundagore Mountains to investigate possible monsters in the mountain. While Justice, Scarlet Spider, and Water Snake search the mountain (complete with Water Snake seeing visions of the whole team dead), Speedball, Hummingbird, Sun Girl, and Haechi make sure the villagers are fine (they are) and chat together. In the mountain are an evolved dog and cat who agree to return the team home but plan to do it by teleporting the mountain to New York.

The book continues to be a lot of fun and Nick Roche's art here matches the tone of this issue, which is a little more humorous and light, brilliantly, right up to and including when Hummingbird questions Speedball's involvement in Stamford and his time as Penance, which silences Speedball for just about the only time we've seen so far. It's a deep, dark moment juxtaposed against the lightness and fun of the issue (minus, of course, the visions Water Snake's having). Definitely worth reading this title, which is something of a breath of fresh air in exactly the sort of way Yost's SCARLET SPIDER was.

Total Score 5/5



BOY I wish I had swapped CYCLOPS and LOKI with these two because I didn't say much about those books and I have more about these books but TOO LATE FOR WISHES NOW.

All-New X-Factor 7, New Warriors 4

All-New X-Factor 7
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c) and Petit (l)

Serval doesn't need X-Factor today so they come up with their own mission, brought to their attention by new team member Cypher. The daughter of anti-mutant author Scott Dakei has broadcast a live stream to the world saying how she's too cooped up and how she wants to experience the world before her stream is stopped by her father having one of his men shoot out the computer. The team agrees (some more willingly than others) to try to secret Georgia away from her father if it's what she really wants. They visit his locked-down home and, after some initial bumps, manage to get a chance to talk with Georgia. She says she doesn't want to run away and that she's happy where she is, happy to wait until she's able to leave. Cypher refuses to accept such an answer, believing that she's being held prisoner by her father, and tries to take her with them regardless. She shows off her own power then, though, as she reaches up and touches Cypher's face, seemingly draining life force from him.

Story
Peter David does have a tendency to take what's in the news of the day and place it into the comics world. I remember, in fact, reading a long section about it in his book on writing comics (I would be more specific but I'm not near the book right now, you guys). There are plenty of examples of this sort of thing happening, a discussion about whether you can separate art from its creator, but the most recent example is Ender's Game creator Orson Scott Card, an outspoken anti-homosexual...uh, bigot (I was trying to go with something classier but nothing came, sorry dudes and dudettes). Scott Dakei (guys, his first name is even Scott!) engenders the same sort of conversation: should Danger be reading his book despite his anti-mutant beliefs? Who does she support when she buys the book? Does she show support for his causes by buying a book unrelated to his beliefs? All sorts of questions and very few answers here because it's a hard question to answer. Beyond that, the attempted rescue of Georgia is a little far-fetched but David (something else he pointed out in his comic-writing book) himself makes sure to point out it's a little far-fetched before we can. Well countered, Peter David, well countered. 4/5

Character
There are some character movements in here, particularly surrounding everyone's motives for saving the girl and how far each is willing to carry on with it. Quicksilver hates Dakei and wants to upset him, Gambit wants to be the sort of hero who doesn't get so muddled up in dealing with supervillains that he forgets the little guy, and Cypher seems particularly attuned to the idea of a depressed girl trapped maybe against her will. Probably some more on that coming later, supposing Cypher isn't dead. There aren't huge revelations here but David is doing a good job to ensure we understand a little more about who these guys are as we push forward. 5/5

Writing
The issue gets a little long-winded and borders very tentatively on preachy well after we understand what the debate is. The order of the day in comics is shorter and quicker interactions but David forgoes that to make sure the specifics of each debate in this issue (whether you can separate an artist from his or her work, why this group of mutants should get involved in Georgia's struggle, the ethics of kidnapping someone who wants to be kidnapped, etc.) are unveiled. It's maybe a slower read than some of the other ones but it doesn't really drag, particularly. If there's a problem with it, it's really that there are too many debates going on and it means we jump from one ethical dilemma to another without any sort of resolution, leaving the reader exhausted by the end. David, though, does a good job to illustrate multiple points and counterpoints to a lot of these questions. 4/5

Art
Di Giandomenico does a pretty good job with the character designs here and works to some of his own strengths by showing faces at very specific angles and often giving the characters somewhat longer, wavier hair to give everyone a solid sense of motion. I don't always love Di Giandomenico's art but it works out pretty well here. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Maybe I should have talked about all that creator/art stuff down here and left "story" to the broader strokes. Whatever.

Total score: 4/5


New Warriors 4
Yost (w) and To (a) and Curiel (c) and Caramagna (l)

Just as Nova has been captured trying to protect his fallen comrades, Justice, Speedball, Sun Girl and Haechi (that's what the splash page calls Mark, the new Inhuman they found) turn up and enter the fight. With the New Warriors assembled, they begin to fight back against the Evolutionary and the High Evolutionary (two different people, you guys, totally unrelated somehow) and manage to send the High Evolutionary fleeing for his machine. Well, maybe it's not totally fleeing because the machine will kill everyone with powers once he starts it up. It immediately knocks out their entire group (save for Nova, who was knocked out at the end of the fight) except for Sun Girl, who is human using tech. The High Evolutionary explains the stakes but Sun Girl refuses to listen and blasts him through the stomach before blasting the machine. With the High Evolutionary wounded and the New Warriors back on their feet, the villains are forced to flee (for reals fleeing this time). Though they regroup in the Savage Land, the High Evolutionary proclaims that there's no time to try again, the Celestials are on their way.

Story
It remains an intriguing story, the idea that the Celestials are ready to wipe out the unclean planet as evolutionary progress has been so...unique up to this point and as the villains of the series are trying to protect the Earth as a whole by killing the majority of the superpowered beings on the planet. It's the ultimate "kill one person to save a hundred" sort of story but ramped up to a much bigger scale (as the High Evolutionary points out). With a pretty neat group of characters representing each of the major evolutionary off-shoots (and a few more at that), this story has set itself up to be an exciting one. Also, bonus points for invoking Ghostbusters with the next issue tease of "Dogs and cats, living together." 5/5

Character
Christopher Yost has been one of my favorite writers recently for picking up just about any character and immediately writing them with a strong voice and a pretty interesting thing to add to a story. No one ever feels like they were just tossed into a story without a reason for being there and that's the case now too as everyone adds something to the issue and as Yost manages to write fun and exciting fight dialogue. It reminds me, in a way, of what Bendis likes to do on just about every page of every book but, instead of it being irritating to me, it's paced in a way that works and that makes sense and flows better. I'd say more but I'm afraid I would just rail against Bendis' back-and-forth dialogue some more and we've all already heard plenty about that. 5/5

Writing
I feel I've rather covered this in the previous two sections, particularly in "character," but Yost's writing continues to be strong and the pacing starts to get pretty hectic right when it needs to here, ramping everything up as the fights start. Solid stuff. 5/5

Art
Marcus To and David Curiel are doing a great job here. There wasn't a lot that really struck me in this book (I'm not great at reviewing art unless it really sticks out to me, positive or negative), but To conveys plenty of emotion and his action sequences work extremely well. Fun and fitting stuff. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I had high hopes for this book when it kicked off and I'm yet to see them disappointed. I also like that cover quite a bit.

Total score: 5/5

Inhuman 1, New Warriors 3

Inhuman 1
Soule (w) and Madureira (a) and Gracia (c)

The Terrigenesis wave has spread across the world and it's brought out Inhumans new and old across the planet. On top of the new Inhumans who experienced Terrigenesis as a result of Black Bolt's bomb, factions of Inhumans have emerged to show off their philosophies. Primarily, that puts Inhuman Lash at odds with Attilan queen Medusa, effectively putting Attilan up against Lash's home of Orollan. Orollan had limited access to Terrigen and thus only evolved people who they thought had earned it and who they believed would help the community with their evolution. As a result, Lash and his Inhumans believe that Terrigenesis is not for everyone, as Black Bolt made it, and he wants to make sure that Inhumans only get stronger with this new wave. He captures one cocoon from Norway and waits for its inhabitant to emerge before deeming it weak and killing it. He then appears at the Des Plaines, Illinois home of a family with some amount of Inhuman DNA in them; the sick and frail mother has enough to trigger Terrigenesis but not enough to survive the process while her son Dante has enough to enter and emerge from the cocoon. Lash believes he's been unchanged and aims to kill him but Dante quickly bursts into flames a la Human Torch and attacks. Though Lash is impressed that he has indeed changed, he believes that Dante (who we may as well just call Inferno at this point) cannot control his transformation and still readies to kill him when Medusa appears to defend Dante and his still-human pregnant sister Gabriela. Medusa forces Lash to leave, though he vows that their paths will cross again, and promises to bring Dante to the remains of the Attilan family.

There are a number of questions to ask about this new series and the aftermath of the Terrigenesis bomb and almost all of them, for me, have to do with process. In this case, is this book going to have enough of an impact to make the Terrigenesis bomb and the new influx of Inhumans worth the wait? The problem with the delay (and I do believe, given what I know of the writer switch and everything, that the delays were worthwhile; you never want a writer who's writing something he doesn't want to be writing as it seems the case had become as the story broke more) is that now we've seen some of the effects of the Terrigenesis wave and, frankly, unless you're a diehard Inhuman fan, I think you're probably mostly over it. Of course, the plan had been to launch this book just after INFINITY and I think it would have had built in impact just with the timing. Now we're rather through the majority of tie-in books to this "event" and we're just starting the core book. While I do believe that the warring Inhuman factions is an interesting story and one well worth watching (hey, I finally mentioned something about this book specifically!), I worry that it may end up being too little too late. Instead of getting a boost from its well-timed release, now Soule and Madureira have to create a better book to actually entice people to pick it up in the first place. Feet to the fire and all that.

New Warriors 3
Yost (w) and To (a) and Curiel (c)

The High Evolutionary explains to Nova that the Celestials had long ago created the Eternals, the Deviants, and the Humans on Earth and that the Eternals and the Deviants fought one another while the Humans grew and evolved, much to their liking. However, all of the mutations and outside effects that have created the Marvel Universe as we know it (mutation, radioactivity, alien experimentation, Atlanteans, etc.) have caused humanity to diverge from the path the Celestials set for it and now they're coming back to erase their mistake. The High Evolutionary, then, is trying to save the world by purging it of the subsets of humanity who differed from the plan. In addition, his Evolutionaries have brought in Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, and Water Snake (Faira) from Mexico. Meanwhile, Sun Girl and Justice come at odds with one another as they escape cops trying to shoot their new horn-headed pal. Justice believes that they should leave well enough alone and set Mark (horn-headed pal!) up with the Attilans while Sun Girl believes they have to get to the bottom of this. Justice reluctantly agrees to step up and says that their first course of action should be finding Nova. Speaking of Nova, Scarlet Spider manages to summon spiders to the High Evolutionary's machinery, breaking it enough that he can bust out of his holding cell and break everyone else out too. Nova vows to go get help but they're all quickly overrun by the Evolutionaries.

I've been a little iffy as this book has kicked off. I think Yost has done a pretty good job starting to establish his characters and giving us a story that's clearly got pretty big pieces to it but it was going to be a tough tightrope to walk (as opposed to the tightropes that are like, totally simple to walk) building the characters up while also navigating a complicated story. This issue proves that he'll be able to knock it out of the park. Really solid issue, we get a lot of character development with our team and one of the most concise and complete definitions of the Marvel Universe in the High Evolutionary's speech to kick the book off. Phenomenal work to clarify parts of the universe that are admittedly difficult to follow for an audience perhaps unfamiliar with it. Suddenly this series is not just a nice selection of characters melded together by a good writer, it's also a fully functioning story that will very clearly carry itself and which has been really well-defined for such a sweeping story. Check this book out for a great look at some neat and under seen characters and a pretty cool story to boot.

Avengers AI 10, New Warriors 2

Avengers AI 10
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

In the physical world, the Gascheck app is still driving people crazy while, in the virtual world of the Diamond, the Avengers team still has to find the root of the problem. With the help of the Lovelace Army and Gibson, they find the giant monstrous being that is Gascheck. After Doombot's failed attempt to attack it, Pym talks with it and explains what's happening in the physical world. Gascheck reveals that Dimitrios hijacked his programming and that he only wants to help humans, not hurt them. To ensure everyone's safety, Gascheck deactivates itself, saving the people of Earth from themselves. After seeing Hank deal with the situation and seeing all the wonders of the Diamond, Captain America announces that he'll back Hank with whatever he thinks is right, even if it puts him at odds with SHIELD or the president or whoever. Meanwhile, SHIELD has sent the AI-hunting unit of Monica Chang and Jocasta to capture Jessie Clatterbuck, the AI who played a part in Dimitrios' first attack. They manage to capture her but Chang can't help feeling that something is wrong. Alexis, down in the Diamond with her sister Eton, realizes that she needs to prevent Clatterbuck from capture if she wants to save the world.

This is the first issue of AVENGERS AI since the cancellation announcement, so maybe it's just knowing that it is being cancelled and that it's going to end soon but there is a sort of rushed sense of finality to the issue. Obviously some of the pieces for the conclusion are just falling into place now or just starting to be realized now but some of the smaller pieces, that stuff that needs to get out of the way (like Cap and his Avengers' tie to this team) is getting out of the way pretty abruptly. I still can't totally get a feel for this team and I don't have a really distinct sense of any of the characters (aside from Doombot who doesn't have a whole lot to him), something that will be really hard to clear up as we race to the finish. It's hard to sustain interest in a book, particularly a book driven by lesser known characters, if we don't really understand our characters. Ah well, let's hope for a mighty conclusion as we head towards 13.

New Warriors 2
Yost (w) and To (a) and Curiel (c)

The Evolutionaries are striking at multiple locations and our heroes are finding out just how difficult they can be to fight. Their targets seem to be mutants, Inhumans, and other heroes or people somehow different on a biological level. This includes both Justice and Speedball and pretty much the entire population of New Salem in Colorado, Kaine, Aracely, and Faira Sar Namora in Mexico, and a new Inhuman named Mark in the sewers of New York, though it does not include Sun Girl, whose powers are derived from the technology on her back and not a power within. After Justice and Speedball force the Evolutionaries out of Colorado, they speed to Avengers Tower to access the database on these things, getting a bit of exposition out of a recording from Cyclops. When they've learned a little bit, they hear the fight in the sewer and join in, giving enough backup to Sun Girl and Mark that they force those Evolutionaries to leave. Meanwhile, Nova has been captured by the High Evolutionary and put into a containment field deep in Wundagore Mountain. The High Evolutionary explains that the Celestials are coming back to judge Earth and that he and Nova are the only chance for humanity's survival.

Things keep on racing along here as now two of our New Warrior pairs have met up and Kaine and Aracely have met up with Faira Sar Namora. The team is quickly coming together and we're starting to learn a little bit more of why they need to come together so quickly. Oftentimes a team like this, one made up of smaller heroes or more inexperienced and unknown characters, will start off stopping some sort of important but far smaller problem. Maybe they tangle with an AIM branch or something and stop civilian casualties. Maybe they team up during a big Marvel event when everyone is coming together and they decide to stick it out. Maybe they have a misunderstanding but realize their both actually fighting the same guys. But no, Chris Yost has decided he's going to put them up against the Celestials and the High Evolutionary, about as big as you can go in any direction. It's a bold choice and one that will have to play out fully before we really know if it was the best choice. The problem, of course, with a big foe like this is that it's harder to characterize if you have to spend so much time establishing. Yost is doing okay with it right now as he's mostly characterized Speedball and Justice with a touch of characterization for everyone else and he's at the point where the plot will still carry the book for a bit but soon we're going to need to get deeper into character if we're going to stay on this journey. I have no doubt that the characterization will come though and we'll be left with a pretty solid book.

Avengers World 3, New Warriors 1

Avengers World 3
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and F. Martin w/ Fabela and Delgado (c)

With the nation of Madripoor raised up on an ancient dragon's back at the hand of Gorgon, Shang-Chi summons all of his strength to fight a much greater opponent. Shang does what he can, fighting in the dark to avoid Gorgon's gaze and, when that fails, using Gorgon's own torch to blind him, and drawing on the power, boldness and resilience of three of his predecessors (whose stories we see briefly as they flash through Shang's mind). In the end, though, it's not enough and he falls to Gorgon, who walks him to the edge of the moving landmass and drops his limp body off.

Not much by way of summary here because there's not too much to summarize. What there is a lot of, though, in this issue is characterization for Shang-Chi, an often forgotten (if somewhat reasonably) member of the Avengers. The book's writing and its focus on Shang as someone who connects deeply with his past and his heritage as well as on his own makeup and his own fortitude is what really drives this issue. And it works, thankfully. It's a pretty quick read and it's worth picking up, at that, even if what you get is a long fight scene that doesn't necessarily provide any new information. I don't know guys, this is a pretty weird one to review. I can't really point to anything that's particularly great about it but I'd definitely slide it to the "pick this issue up" side of the pile over the "worth a miss" side. Stefano Caselli's art is, as ever, impressive and Frank Martin brings his A-game to an issue that relies heavily on dark and on fire to set its tone. Solid work, overall, not a real game-changer of an issue but they don't all have to be, do they? It's the journey. If you want more Shang-Chi after this issue, well, you won't have long to wait. On top of me speculating he's probably not dead by issue's end, he'll be appearing in a new miniseries brought to us by Mike Benson and Tan Eng Huat (he of X-MEN LEGACY fame) in May called DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU.

New Warriors 1
Yost (w) and To (a) and Curiel (c)

Speedball and Justice are still dedicated to re-forming the New Warriors and, though they haven't really picked up supporters beyond an on-call and very hesitant Nova, they've set out to start righting wrongs. They start in New Salem, home of the Salem's Seven and their leader Vertigo. Justice and Vertigo get to talking and Justice learns the history of New Salem, a refuge for the magical born. As they talk, they're surprised by robots (Iron Man-esque robots) descending on the town to destroy what they call "half-breeds." Justice and Vertigo aren't the only ones running into this problem as Sun Girl runs into the robots attacking some mutated peoples in the subway lines of New York, and Nova runs into them in New Mexico, where we find that the robots are Evolutionaries and are led by what seems to be the High Evolutionary himself. Scarlet Spider and Aracely, meanwhile, find themselves on a beach in Mexico that is suddenly full of dead Atlanteans and Faira Sar Namora of Atlantis looking for heroes.

Geez, first issue and Yost didn't waste any time covering ground. We've met just about all of our players and, in good comic book form, they've all run afoul of the same enemy. This team should be assembled in no time and, though we knew plenty of the players well in advance, it seems like it will be a really fun one to watch. One of the things I've really liked about Chris Yost is that, on top of writing stellar ongoing titles like SCARLET SPIDER, he seems able to slot into just about any book for an issue or two and can write just about any character pretty well for whatever story he intends to tell. That will be put to the test here as he wrangles plenty of different heroes from different ends of the fame spectrum, ranging from new and unknown to older and unknown to older and moderately known to newer and moderately known. What I'm saying, guys, is that this isn't the Avengers and Yost isn't aiming for it to be. Justice even says that he's not sure there's room for the New Warriors in a world with the Avengers. All the more reason for everyone to check this book out. Even if you're not familiar with all the characters (I'm certainly not, particularly when it comes to the Salem's Seven), it's a quick read and one that explains just about everything you have to know for now within its pages without having to bog you down with exposition. Very well-handled and should be a refreshing read issue to issue.

Nova 10, Deadpool Annual 1

Nova 10
Wells and Duggan (w) and Barberi, Lopez, Medina, Livesay, Vlasco, and Pallot (a) and Curiel and Stewart (c)

This is technically issue 100 of various NOVA books so we get an oversized issue with a couple of stories in it. The first continues where we'd left off, with Zeb Wells showing us a contract negotiation between Sam and his mother as they try to find a common ground that will allow Sam to join a superhero team. He's under the impression that this team will be the Avengers, who he still recalls being asked by Thor to join, but, in truth, it's for the position of reserve on the New Warriors, soon to be formed by Speedball and Justice. He's angry that he has to deal with this contract at all and angrier still that it'd be for a team without much prestige or power, so he throws a bit of a fit and, against his mother's wishes, he flies off to talk with the Watcher. The Watcher, of course, doesn't really talk back, but does show Sam images of the previous Nova, Richard Rider, teaming up with unknowns and providing them a lot of firepower before teaming up with the Avengers and providing them next to nothing. Sam understands and goes home, signing the contract and optimistic that he can be of use on a smaller team with more realistic goals. The second story gives us our first taste of Gerry Duggan as the new NOVA writer, giving us a quick story that shows Nova responding to a distress call in space and saving the human and alien onboard while his mom, back on Earth, argues with the school principal about Sam's truancy issues. Sam saves the aliens and heads home, hoping to make it to school on time only to find himself nearly mysteriously blinded when he reaches Earth again. Likely, that's where our story will pick up next time. A third story (comprised of solely a double page spread) shows us a peek at what NOVA 1000 would look like. It's cutesy but lacking most charm, honestly. Fortunately, it's two pages so whatever.

Not a bad book. It's certainly a nice transition from Wells to Duggan as we see the official conclusion of the storyline Wells brought to the book throughout INFINITY and with the New Warriors' appearance. Wells brings the same sort of energy to Sam that he'd done throughout his short run on the series and it's easy to recognize why he'll be missed, pushing forward. It's still obviously far too early to say anything about Duggan and a rather short second story in here doesn't give us enough to judge but Wells did a phenomenal job bringing an energy and an easy levity to the series, which is not as easy to do with superhero books as you might expect it to be. Solid conclusion for Wells and a nice little start for Duggan, even if it was too short to really glean a ton about what's coming next, beyond sudden blindness.

Deadpool Annual 1
Acker and Blacker (w) and Shaner (a) and Gandini (c)

A quick trip back in Deadpool's somewhat recent past shows him hired, just before SECRET INVASION, to kill Matt Murdock, Hell's Kitchen's most famous attorney. Deadpool bemoans the fact that New York is a tough place to get things done, what with all of the passing-by superheroes and ninjas and what-not. He's interrupted before he takes his sniper shot by a character calling himself Madcap, someone who seems more than a little crazy and who, like Deadpool, has healing factor powers as well as the power to make people go varying levels of crazy. For the already-crazy Deadpool, it backfires on Madcap and ends with Deadpool feeling pretty relaxed. At this point, Daredevil shows up and delivers a solid beating to the two of them before Thor also appears and lightnings the villains into dust. Deadpool eventually re-shapes but Madcap is nowhere to be seen; at least not until Deadpool starts thinking and realizes that Madcap has clearly reshaped with him. It's been a rather long-time thing with Deadpool that he has two different caption boxes, one yellow and one white. Turns out the white one has been Madcap, trapped in Deadpool's mind. 'Pool admits that it grew on him after a while, having someone else to talk to, but another contract to kill Murdock leads to another superhero smack down when Luke Cage confronts Deadpool (near the start of Marvel NOW) and punches him enough to let Madcap take temporary control of the body, which doesn't sit well with the mercenary. Thor again shows up and Madcap, using his powers, gets Cage and Thor to start a tug of war using Deadpool's body and ripping Madcap from him, hence why there are no more white caption boxes. Daredevil shows up again and beats Deadpool down and Deadpool can't help but miss the other voice in his head.

Fun little book that both gives a direct reason for part of Deadpool's craziness and then takes it away, changing very little but giving us a nice little origin story of sorts. It's a clever little twist, not without its own charms, and it's presented well. Madcap and Deadpool are rather funny together and everyone else that has a cameo is well-written and funny in his own right (as a "Thrilling Adventure Hour" fan, I couldn't help notice that Acker and Blacker wrote Thor a little like Croach the Tracker which did not upset me in the slightest and which also made Daredevil feel a little like Sparks Nevada but probably only to me). Despite the slight shift in "origin," the book certainly isn't particularly serious and it's hard to say if this will impact canon or anything or if Madcap, who leaves this issue miraculously in one piece, will turn up again at some point or if this was a one-off deal but it's certainly a fun book and it has a good deal of charm to back it up and to slot it nicely into its role as an Annual issue.

Nova 9, Thunderbolts 17

Nova 9
Wells (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova has arrived home to find that Kaldera, the slave of Proxima Midnight, has invaded and taken his mother and sister hostage. Kaldera's offer to Nova is that they fight for the lives of his loved ones without their powers. He agrees and promptly starts getting beaten. Of course, he's not particularly beholden to fighting fair with the psycho who attacked his family so he quickly puts the helmet back on, beginning to gain an edge in the fight again. As he attacks her, the two are teleported back to Thanos' ship, where Sam finds another Nova helmet (Kaldera had taken it as a prize after she had killed its owner) and it uploads itself into his. He goes on to strike down Kaldera before being sent him by her attendants, who worry that her failure to kill him will mar them all if Thanos discovers Nova was on the ship. Sam returns home triumphant while Kaldera is punished in space for her failures.

This was, I believe, Zeb Wells' last issue of Nova before handing the reigns off to Gerry Duggan. I'm a bit sad about this because I think Wells found a really good tone for Sam and his cast, one that won't be so easily replicated. I hope I'm wrong; I want to be reading a good book as much or more than the next person. Regardless, it's still a bit of a sad change for me. It's a nice final issue for Wells, though, as Sam bests someone it seems he had no right besting and is able to show his mom that he's a hero worthy of joining a team, even if she refused to allow him to join the Avengers. She changes her tone just a bit here as she excitedly asks him about the new team he's set to join, the New Warriors (which Speedball clearly gushed to her about while Sam was in space). There are nice pieces in this issue for sure, with more big moments for Sam and a couple of fun lines here and there. There's more focus on Kaldera here so we have a little less of the supporting cast who kind of had to sit in the background of this one, though they still have their moments, albeit fewer. Pretty good issue, nice little wrap-up for the arc.

Thunderbolts 17
Soule (w) and Palo (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Punisher and his team strike the Paguros' warehouse while Red Hulk and Leader try to deal with the invasion in the city as well as the new threat of Mercy in a city during an alien invasion, where people are wishing for death left and right. Leader's having some issues of his own and needs to connect to the internet to reboot his mind. Red Hulk gets him an iPhone with a connection and waits him out while his mind reconnects. It's then Leader's idea to get Mercy to attack Thanos' ship by making the people inside wish for death, something Red Hulk is able to do with relative ease. Meanwhile, Deadpool finally arrives at the pizza place and gets his much sought-after pizza as the Terrigen Mists flood the Earth. Among those they transform are the cowardly Nobili family, hiding out with the Paguros as Punisher, Elektra, and Venom attack.

This is a fairly long tie-in, maybe the longest that's not directly related to Infinity (like Avengers and New Avengers). Honestly, it might be longer than those. Regardless, it's still a pretty good story and a story that has mostly kept up its momentum. If anything, I'd say this issue is the weakest of the arc but only because Punisher's attack on the Paguros' safehouse has taken us this long to get to. It is exciting, at least, because now he's finally there and the three of them are really wrecking the place. In truth, though, I'd say that this plot ranks third of the three plots in order of interest for this issue, and that includes one plot where a guy gets pizza. Still, third of three good plots isn't a horrible place to be in and the characterizations still hold strong here as we get a pretty good look at, particularly, Red Hulk, Leader, Mercy, and Deadpool. Flash gets another pretty good look as he continues to argue (somewhat half-heartedly) on behalf of some of the criminals but it's a characterization we've seen pretty consistently in this arc from him. Still a strong book with very strong art and writing. My mild impatience with this one might stem more from wanting to see what Soule does with the team when he's not writing a tie-in, though, as far as long tie-ins go, this has been a good one. I'm anxious to see what happens next when we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Deadpool 17, Nova 8, The Trial of the Punisher 1

Deadpool 17
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c)

Deadpool has freed Captain America and Wolverine and fills them in on the situation: North Korea, Weapon Plus, Butler, mutants based off of Deadpool's DNA and others', Deadpool's daughter, etc. Though they're not totally trusting of Deadpool (despite, as he points out, the fact that he warned them about this very sort of thing happening just a day or two before this very thing happened), they immediately understand the horrors of what's happening here and vow to help. The mutants borne of the Deadpool's DNA are planning to break out but they have to rescue their families first, knowing that leaving them there or alerting anyone to the breakout is as good as killing them. Deadpool, with the help of Cap, takes down the guard towers. A couple of other North Korean guards are prepared, though, as they inject themselves with some sort of serum that turns them into giant rock-like monsters. The pair kill a couple of the mutants (in horrifyingly grotesque ways) before Deadpool and Wolverine team up to blow one of them up. The other surrenders and tells them everything he knows about the situation, up to and including where Butler is now: Camp 23, the same place the families of the new mutants are being kept.

This book continues its upswing as the plot keeps its pace and the characters get fleshed out a little more. We get brief but somewhat interesting looks at the new mutants and we see a good amount about Cap and Deadpool particularly at various times. For Cap, the situation here bears a striking resemblance to Auschwitz and he doesn't hesitate to get involved in this, even if it could be seen as a sort of declaration of war from America. Deadpool, meanwhile, realizes that he's been told since his time in experiments that he's always been told who he is and, instead of being better, he's played the part. We've seen a deeper and more introspective Deadpool over the last two issues without sacrificing too much of the somewhat-crazed and typically funny Deadpool. He has a couple of nice moments with the two heroes and one really nice moment with Wolverine as they talk about Wolverine's healing power being lost (the only book outside of Cornell's Wolverine to even mention it). Some more stellar art from Shalvey and Bellaire and we have yet another book I'm really pleasantly surprised by.

Nova 8
Wells (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova has finished rebuilding the skate park with the local workers and begins to walk away as the girl he has a crush on from school recognizes his voice. He freaks out and flies high into the sky, where he takes off his helmet to yell at it for not disguising his voice. To his credit, he realizes this was a pretty dumb move and instantly falls back to Earth, not protected by his Nova armor. He manages to get the helmet back on right before he hits (ruining the skate park again). There he's picked up by the watching Speedball and Justice, who have followed him since he zoomed by them last issue. They explain that they'd like him on their team and that they know a bit about Novas, enough to entice him to come with. Unfortunately for him, things may be complicated as Thanos has been made aware of the presence of a Nova on Earth and, though he doesn't have time to deal with it himself, he sends Kaldera, the maybe-daughter of Proxima Midnight. The issue ends as Kaldera, in full supervillain regalia, shows up at Sam's house.

Another pretty well-paced book as we get a fair amount of action with some really quick writing. This is the difference, in a nutshell, between back-and-forth dialogue and good, snappy writing in comics. Fewer words per panel moves the book far better. Speedball talks a lot but it's very clear he's talking extremely fast; it's his character and it's specific to him. Justice tries to slow him down but keeps getting overridden by Speedball's energy. When one person is talking in chunks like this, it defines them. Speedball, then, is incredibly well-defined here. His character's a little strange, given the angst he's gone through recently, after Stamford, but it's not a bad turnaround for his character. Like I said, it's a little strange, maybe a little jarring, but it definitely can still work. A lot of time has passed and he's done what he can (as seen mostly in Avengers Academy) to try to pitch in for his part in the accident. Anyway, the book continues to be pretty smart and funny (I had a laugh that startled my dog as Nova crashed right back into the skate park again; granted, it's not at all difficult to startle my dog) and seems to be heading in the right direction. Rather sad that writing is being handed off to Duggan on issue ten; Deadpool is turning around so I'm not as disappointed in this as I was a couple months ago but I'm still not totally sold on him and I am totally sold on Zeb Wells, who impresses me every time I see him pop up. Sad to see his run gone so soon.

The Trial of the Punisher 1
Guggenheim (w) and Yu (a) and Gho (c)

Surprise review as I didn't catch this one on the "new comics" list until after I'd written my pre-game post this week and was standing in the comic book store looking at a new Punisher book. Neat. Anyway, Punisher has handed himself in after killing a district attorney and bringing the body directly to a police station. He's immediately brought to prison and put on trial, where his tough attorney, who doesn't appear to be afraid of him but is equally unsure about what he's trying to pull, begins to make the claim that he's legally insane. The prosecution, then, brings in witnesses who have seen Castle committing crimes or seen the resulting crime scene and have some expertise in the matter, painting a picture of a man with an agenda and with enough mental faculties to be considered aware of what he's doing and aware of a sense of right and wrong. Meanwhile, Castle seems to be plotting something, as he shows his attorney a notepad with what looks to be gibberish on it, claiming it's his "to-do" list.

Not a bad book, though somewhat hard to place in the Marvel Universe. If you're not looking for chronology or anything like that and are a fan of Punisher and/or procedurals, you could do worse than this book. It's not a Punisher book in the sense of "look at all these bad guys he's killing right now, look at him plotting to do it then doing it" (though it could very well turn into that in the second and final issue of this mini). It's more a Punisher book in the sense that it features a nearly silent protagonist who clearly has something going on but who is not about to reveal it right away. The bonus of this is that it's only a two-issue mini, so we're not going to have to wait long for our answers. Hopefully we'll get even a little more than that, as there's a little author's note at the end of this where Guggenheim talks about how he wanted to put the Punisher on trial and have Matt Murdock show up as a witness or somehow related to the trial, as both an antagonist of Punisher and as a lawyer. There was no sign of Murdock here, though, so maybe he's coming next time? Still, the book holds up well enough on its own without any guest stars so now it just kind of feels like a weird note. Solid writing, good characterization for a lot of the newly created characters (one of the police interrogators and Lisa Santos, Frank's lawyer, are both well characterized simply by the way they talk), and a pretty interesting plot. Should have a nice wrap-up next time.