Avengers 30, Uncanny Avengers 20, Mighty Avengers 10

Avengers 30
Hickman (w) and Yu (p) and Alanguilan (i) and Gho (c) and Petit (l)

The group of Avengers heavies from last issue (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hyperion, and Starbrand) have been transported to the future, which seems nice on the outside but is hiding something darker, as a fifty-years-older Hawkeye shows up remembering this day and his team starts to intimate the deaths they've seen and future-Hawkeye ends up beating the crap out of Stark until he's pulled off. He gives the team a few warnings about the futures they'll travel to next (the time gem will keep pushing them further) and a secret warning to Cap. Then the team is, indeed, transported away, though Tony returns himself to the present with the device in his palm that warns his team of incoming incursions. Next stop for the rest of them: betrayal+422 years.

The fight between Tony and Steve continues to be remarkably compelling though it ends quickly as they have to get their bearings and figure out the next step. The tensions raise higher, though, as Tony points out that whatever he did must have worked because here the world is, just 50 years later, looking great. Steve's argument is helped by the enraged future-Hawkeye (though he's admittedly not the best judge of character). Some strong stuff in here, some typical Marvel time-travel stuff (note who is and isn't on the team here, Hawkeye makes mention of kids, and so on), and the surprise ending of Tony returning to the present to do what he needs to do and leaving his fellow Avengers bouncing through time. Overall a pretty strong book and, though I find I can't particularly fault it for asking these questions as they're natural questions to ask, I could always do with a little less "HEY AUDIENCE, ASK SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS FUTURE!"

Total Score: 4/5


Uncanny Avengers 20
Remender (w) and Acuña (a) and Cowles (l)

Havok, Beast, and Kang's group fight against the X-Council and X-Force on behalf of trying to save the world. Cyclops turns on Magneto to help his brother, deciding that a chance at saving Earth was better than what they had. He and the rest of the X-Council turn on X-Force to give the others the chance to get away, which they do, going with Kang to attack Eimin and restore Shiro and Wolverine. With the surviving Unity Squad reunited and Eimin out of the fight, punished by her adoptive father, Kang and Magistrate Braddock send the team back.

There are a lot of really strong character moments in here for our team, between Thor seeking retribution on Eimin and eventually giving the speech that should serve to unify the broken team, Wolverine threatening to sabotage the entire plan if Kang doesn't send them far enough back to save Rogue and knocking out Shiro when Shiro tries to rebel against the plan and Kang's involvement, etc. Plenty of great character moments even in a book loaded with plot and with fight scenes. It's a testament to the strength of the writing that we come out with a bigger and better sense of our players even with so much action. Daniel Acuña's art and colors continue to amaze as well. Very strong stuff.

Total Score: 5/5


Mighty Avengers
Ewing (w) and Land (p) and Leisten (i) and D'Armata (c) and Petit (l)

The Watcher's been murdered and everyone is on the case. Blue Marvel, a friend to Watcher, goes to meet with Ulana, wife of Uatu, on the moon. He swears revenge but she requests something different from him: that he be the godfather to their newborn child. Meanwhile, Cage, Spectrum, and Falcon take down one of the Mindless Ones in New York before agreeing to jump into the case as well. Finally, Blade has been brought down by a legion of were-birds after plenty more were-animals have attacked him over the last few weeks and now he's at the center of a plot to unleash a new breed of Deathwalkers.

I was thinking a lot about the role of UNCANNY AVENGERS in the present Marvel Universe and, while I love the fact that these characters all exist in this rich and detailed world where they can run into one another and where the events of the world affect everyone, how nice it is to see a book that feels so removed from all of it. Okay, so obviously UNCANNY AVENGERS is driven at its core by mutant-human relations and what that's meant the universe over (and it obviously impacted a lot of other books early on in its run) but it hasn't touched the last couple of events and it hasn't crossed with many other books (they pop up more in other books than other teams pop up in theirs) and it feels SO REFERESHING. Meanwhile, this book seems to want to get its hands into every little thing the comes along and that kind of works for what Ewing has built, a team that exists only to intercede where it's needed, but it makes it hard to see this book as its own thing. It's not an awful issue by itself but it doesn't really feel like it's about to come into its own, even with the ongoing Blade storyline and the Blue Marvel storyline.

Total Score: 3/5

Wolverine 5, Origin II 5, What If? Age of Ultron 5

Wolverine 5
Cornell (w) and Sandoval (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Wolverine, new girlfriend Pinch, and the Lost Boy go out into the city on a night off while Wolverine gets drugs that keep his metal skeleton from poisoning him. Afterwards, the three of them go to a tattoo parlor where Wolverine gets a tattoo from a superpowered tattoo artist, who has the ability to instantly know what tattoo best fits a person (??). He chooses a rose for Wolverine and, though he doesn't necessarily know why it fits, instantly tattoos it onto his arm. Then the three of them head to Wolverine's favorite bar wherein some of his old pals tend to gather. Tonight, though, Thor is among those old pals and he's not thrilled to see Wolverine. Logan tries to show him the tattoo but it doesn't seem to have an impact on Thor and the three are forced to hustle away. Their next mission will take them to Madripoor in search of Sabretooth.

Story
This issue is more dedicated to character than to story as it's something of a break in the spy work storyline, though a few things are made very slightly more clear story wise. In this case, Wolverine's "I take drugs to stop my skeleton poisoning me" clears that question up with literally the tiniest of explanations (WHATEVER, we're not really reading for the science of this, are we?) and Wolverine sort of reaching out to Thor as if to try to get him to be understand is a neat little story twist, though it's negated somewhat by the fact that SOMEHOW Pinch figures it out. We don't know much about Pinch but I'm willing to believe she's a pretty smart, pretty capable woman. However, the leaps she makes to start to suspect Wolverine's true motive in showing Thor his tattoo feel really convenient, very much like an advance-the-plot kind of thing. 3/5

Character
The focus of this issue is Pinch, which is good because we're five issues in with Wolverine's new team and I feel like we don't know a thing about any of them. I have literally no connection to anyone regularly appearing in this book who isn't named Logan (or Wolverine or James or whatever, you get it). Now Pinch is starting to get a little more personality but, as I mentioned above, I'm not sure it's any more personality than just what's capable of driving the plot forward. The key for Cornell right now is clearly to make Wolverine feel attached to his teammates so he's conflicted when the time comes to turn evidence on them and so most of Pinch's narrative and dialogue this issue can be chalked up to a desire to only do exactly that, drive the plot ahead or tell us more about Wolverine. She's slightly more defined but it's done in such a way that she feels like a plot device as much as anything else. Also, Wolverine's new rose tattoo (meant to symbolize Rose, his childhood friend he ended up accidentally killing as told back in ORIGIN) doesn't so much characterize anything new as it does hit us over the head with the old. 2/5

Writing
There's no big tone to establish here as it's something of a rest issue, meant instead to establish characters over story. As such, I covered most of the writing of the book with my complaints in the above two sections, particularly in character. Not entirely onboard with the writing here. 2/5

Art
Gerardo Sandoval's art isn't totally dissimilar to Ryan Stegman's but it's not totally similar either. Everyone has a rather similar look and build but Sandoval's art seems to be sharper, giving Wolverine's mask and almost Batman Beyond feel. I don't love Wolverine's new costume (reminds me almost too much of someone like Constrictor, weirdly) but I do like Sandoval's much sharper cowl sort of thing. I can't really explain why, just appreciate it aesthetically. And guess what, the art gets full marks because of it. I've gone mad with power! 5/5

Miscellaneous
Whatever.

Total score: 3/5


Origin II 5
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin w/Beredo (c) and Caramagna (l)

With Clara thought dead, Logan and Victor plan to raid Essex's compound and kill Nathaniel Essex. Logan leads the way, plowing through mines and gunfire and soldiers before reaching the building. He makes his way to Essex, who informs him that Creed tipped them off to where Logan would be. Logan guts Essex then goes to find Creed. The two fight and Creed tells Logan that he ought to kill himself now, or at least take some of Essex's poison, because he can never live as a human. Everyone he loves will leave him somehow. Before the fight concludes, Clara shows up wielding a rifle. She explains to Logan that the Creeds are also mutants with varying skills and tries to convince him not to kill Victor. Logan, not wanting to hear that, holds Creed's head in a vat of Essex's concoction until he seems pretty dead. Clara demands he leave, rebuking him for the act and not seeing him again. Four months later, a more animalistic Creed has re-emerged and finds Clara only for Clara to tell him that their little brother Saul is dead.

Story
The conclusion of ORIGIN II is a nice finish as it brings up all the regular Wolverine themes, animal vs. man, Creed vs. Logan, the price of killing people, etc., while leaving a certain amount of ambiguity to the story. Clara, who has some experience both with dealing with animals (it's apparently her mutant power, along with healing) and dealing with broken people (being a Creed), seems the perfect judge of Wolverine's character and rebukes him not for his animal side but for his cold-blooded killer man side. It's a blow to Logan but it's not inaccurate and it puts this story firmly in the camp of interesting Wolverine stories that make a reader wonder what's really going on in there. The story's ending is a little abrupt and feels like it could lead into another story all its own but without any announcement of that (unless I've missed it) or without knowing what already existing story it might refer to (whatever, I don't know it all, okay?), it feels a little strange. 4/5

Character
It's still a relatively young Wolverine and a young Victor Creed we're dealing with here and Gillen is sure to keep that in mind in each issue. Logan isn't someone at this point who weighs his decisions and thinks carefully about the cost of killing. That ends up being the driving force behind the story of this book but it's also the driving force behind the creation of his character in this book, molded as someone who knows he doesn't fit in the human world but also hasn't really had that pointed out to him so he's not even really pondering why. By the end of the miniseries, he's forced to do exactly that, wondering if he's Essex's bear, the grey family wolf, the lone wolf, or something different. Clara puts it in no uncertain terms: he's something else, something worse than any of those. He's a man who has the ability to have a different nature but doesn't. 5/5

Writing
The story and character sections cover a lot of this nicely, though it's worth noting that there are times where the exposition feels a little rushed (Clara is an exposition machine out there) because there are so many ideas Gillen would rather get across than plot points. Still, it's overall a very solid issue and a good conclusion to the series. 4/5

Art
I've liked Adam Kubert's art throughout and continue to really like his portrayal of this pre-serum Sabretooth. His post-serum Sabretooth is strong too but falls more in line with the current look of Sabretooth (albeit lacking the stupid suit. Man, I am really not onboard with many of these new creative decisions in Cornell's book. Sabretooth wears a suit, Wolverine has a rose tattoo, there's a tattooed guy whose costume is just an unzipped hoodie with no shirt underneath named the Lost Boy? All TERRIBLE). The action is good and smooth while still looking brutal and efficient. Martin's colors continue to shine throughout. No complaints here. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I don't think it was an easy job to come in here and tell another Wolverine ORIGIN after the first one had been so big and after we've uncovered so much of Wolverine's history already. Still, Gillen and Kubert came in with a goal and they clearly achieved what they wanted to achieve. Strong stuff.

Total score: 5/5


What If? Age of Ultron 5
Keatinge (w) and Doyle, Villalobos, Ienco, Edwards, and Magyar (a) and Rosenberg, Serrano, Redmond, Beaulieu, and Major (c) and Sabino (l)

In another universe, Hank Pym begins to consider the possibilities of AI when he's hit with the timeline snap and, though it doesn't harm him physically, the thought disappears from his mind entirely. It's a world without Ultron and Ultron from the first issue of this series, the one where Hank is the only human even sort of left, realizes that Earth is prime for the taking. Portals open up all through the multiverse as Ultrons flood past to shatter a new world. Everyone we've seen so far, from Asgardian Natasha to a new Captain America to Wolverine and Ghost Rider is summoned into the world without Ultron to fight these invading Ultrons. As the world verges on defeat, Hank of the first world finds Jan and directs her and the other remaining Avengers to his old, dead world as one that won't have any Ultrons left on it, a world where they can all start over. They rush through and discover it abandoned, leaving them with a whole new world to try to make better than the worlds they left, a new world where they can ask...wait for...WHAT IF?

Story
It's an incredibly convoluted way to tie everything up, if you can call it that, in this limited series. The rips across space-time start to open up and suddenly everyone we've seen in this inexplicably long series comes together and manages to escape the Ultrons out there. If you're left wondering what the point of this all was, you're not alone. 2/5

Character
There's not a lot to look at character-wise as we've already seen the majority of these characters before and we're not really here to see them evolve, just to see how they end up, I suppose. There's nothing more remarkable about them and it's clearly not Keatinge's intent to improve on them, just to push them through a story. 1/5

Writing
There's exposition aplenty in here but it somehow still never really explains what's happening or why. Ultron just has a need to conquer worlds and his other Ultrons want to conquer them too and portals open up that bond all of these worlds together and now these peole we've seen survive for probably nothing. It's convoluted and rather all over the place. 1/5

Art
The art changes throughout the book with Ming Doyle providing the new universe with art and the other artists from this series rejoining to illustrate their respective universes for one more time. It clashes a little but overall you get the point and it helps to differentiate this confusing plot. 4/5

Miscellaneous
No, I don't know why it existed either.

Total score: 2/5

New Avengers 16, Uncanny Avengers 18

New Avengers 16
Hickman (w) and R. Morales (a) and F. Martin (c)

Namor has returned to the Illuminati to see how the research is faring. He's not particularly into the research aspect, not being one of the many geniuses on the team, and believes that preparing to destroy worlds rather than studying ones that have been destroyed is the way to go in this situation. He enters one of the observation rooms where Black Panther is recording data and the two trade barbs very briefly before getting into business. In this case, the business is T'Challa showing Namor that, in the forty worlds they've observed, one has survived incursions twice in different manners than the Illuminati have used. The world in question, Earth-4,290,001, has seen its share of invasions and super-powered coups, the most recent of which has left a team of six in charge of protecting the world. Those six, Boundless, Doctor Spectrum, the Rider, the Jovian, the Norn, and Sun God, have banded together to save the people of Earth multiple times and have been called to do so twice more during incursions. As individuals, they are powerful enough to withstands many attacks, including those of the Mapmakers (who they seem familiar with) but as a team they're able to even stop the incurring worlds. The Norn, though it does him great personal harm, is able to use his magics to destroy the incurring world on his own.

For a while now, the book has been more about gathering research and strategies and seeing worlds fall as if to drive the point home to the Illuminati that their attempts are futile and that, as has been the mantra of the entire series, everything dies. Panther's latest discovery, though, seems to point in another direction. Not only does this team withstand two incursions, shattering planets that would destroy their own, Sun God himself even makes a speech á la Reed Richards wherein he says "Everything lives. It lives before it dies, and we are judged by what we do during that time." It's a pretty powerful speech and it's one that shifts, ever so slightly, the running speech and tone of this book. It's very clear that these heroes have seen tremendous hardship - Hickman makes that clear in a little scene between Sun God and the Rider - but their outlook is the glass-half-full side of Reed's continual glass-half-empty approach of "Everything dies. I accept that." It'll be interesting to see where this new data leads. On top of that, as an issue in and of itself, I think Hickman does a pretty fantastic job once again writing the Namor-Black Panther dynamic. It's very clear that these two do not like each other but they are acting very professionally as they discuss matters bigger than either of them. It's one of the things I like about the kings of the Marvel Universe (Namor, Black Panther, and Black Bolt chief among them): each and every one of them cares more for the protection of their people and act accordingly. Here they put aside their feud because, although their people are at war with one another, the destruction of Earth is the bigger threat to their kingdoms. Solid stuff. Rags Morales does a solid job bringing it to the page as well.

Uncanny Avengers 18
Remender (w) and Acuña (a and c)

Smash cut to Planet X, the new mutant planet, several years down the line. Among all the mutants who have created their new planet, full of beautiful and impressive architecture and seemingly a more functional government, are two enemies of the state. Havok still feels responsible for the death of the Earth and refuses to allow Eimin's propaganda, which explains to the populace that Thor and the Avengers were responsible for the death of their world and for holding back mutants, to color his view of the Earth that was. He knows how the final battle happened, as does his wife, the human stowaway Wasp. It's been several years since the loss of Earth and the two have a child now, though parenthood has not stopped them from working to restore their home planet. With the help of Hank McCoy, fellow human supporter, they've realized that their only hope is to bring down the tachyon dam still around the planet. They have no idea if their plan will work as all experiments rely on the wall being down before they can be tested but Alex and Janet set off anyway, pursued by Blob (whose X-gene was reignited), Toad, and Magneto. They manage, after a long and exciting chase scene, to bring down the dam but Janet is captured in the process. Alex returns to his home to find that Kang has finally been able to bring his reinforcements.

After months of teasing, Planet X is here and it's everything you might have imagined. Remender, who is so fond of abruptly jumping forward in time as evidenced by CAPTAIN AMERICA, here jumps maybe five years forward or so onto this planet, where the guilt that drives Alex is palpable and we can really see what a planet full of mutants would look like. It's not that much of a stretch to believe that, upon waking from their pods, the mutants were easily convinced that their life now and here was better. Eimin probably didn't have to do too much propaganda spreading, which is kind of the beauty of this whole conceit. Things probably are better for mutants here. They have a whole planet which, sure, at first was probably jarring but now that it's been several years, they're starting to come into their own. Remender's done a solid job here and the decision to send us into the future as well as off-planet really pays off. The first instinct is to think that the followers of Xavier would want to save Earth and even the humans on it. However, it makes a whole lot of sense that once they settled in, it's everything even the staunchest human supporter could want. The only reason Havok and Wasp haven't decided to just hedge their bets and settle down (other than the reason that Wasp is a human and probably not well liked for it) is that they know the truth of what's happened and the truth about Eimin, not to mention the guilt each of them feels for the loss of the Earth and their teammates. Hank, of course, is just a pretty swell guy so he wants his planet back too. Really interesting stuff here and a great call to skip ahead of the kind of shock and awe phase of the new planet. Daniel Acuña continues to do phenomenal work on the title and really drives home the tone and look of the new world. Very good book all around.

Uncanny Avengers 15, Young Avengers 14

Uncanny Avengers 15
Remender (w) and McNiven and Dell w/ Vines and Leisten (a) and L. Martin (c)

Steve and Alex are rushing forth to stop the Apocalypse twins when Alex is suddenly magicked away. Wolverine duels with Grim Reaper and Daken before also being magicked away while we get a glimpse of all the major mutant establishments and see all of the mutants magicked away together. Unfortunately for the Uncanny Avengers, Uriel and Eimin have seen through Wanda's attempt at treachery and have directed all of the mutants into their transport sarcophagi (not creepy at all) straight out of the teleportation spell, rendering all of them inert and allowing the ark to take off without incident. It does just that as Wasp rounds the corner, hoping to call forth Immortus and his band of powered-up people but failing to do so in time. She battles Sentry who reveals himself to be just absolutely horrifying. Thor shows up in time to provide support but they're not able to bring down Sentry until Jan communicates with some local bugs who tell her of another giant worm deep under the surface. She call it out and gets it to eat Sentry while she and Thor prepare to go to the Apocalypse twins. Cap, meanwhile, overhears the fate of Scarlet Witch, Simon, and Rogue as he prepares to attack the twins and it both causes him to doubt himself as a leader and to attack even more fiercely. Still, he's pretty easily beaten and forced to watch as Exitar the Executioner turns up on Earth to, as the Watcher explains to Thor and Jan, sentence the Earth to death for the killing of a Celestial.

Whoa. So there's a lot going on here and none of it is good for the Unity Squad or, in the least, for mankind. It's probably not great for mutants either but mankind is in a real pickle. One of the treats of this book has been the way that it continually ramps up the stakes without ever making it feel like it's going crazy. This plot, in its entirety, probably should feel like it's gotten absolutely absurd with so many moving parts and such high stakes but it never really gets to the point where you check out. By the same token, with the number of events that the Marvel Universe seems to constantly have, it's almost a little strange to see something this massive and this interesting come as anything less than an event. Such is the problem of events (or one of the problems, anyway): saving your biggest stories for events means that big stories in standalone comics feel somewhat out of place. Still, the story here is great and a lot of the character developments have worked really well for the series, despite being chock-full of characters and plot. Who would have thought that the death of three giant characters in the last issue wouldn't have even been the climax of the story? AS AN ASIDE, I've seen a lot of people accusing Remender of "fridging" Scarlet Witch and Rogue last issue, that their deaths were only there to make Wolverine or the rest of the team feel the stakes by sacrificing a female character. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard, just as the accusations that Remender was fridging Sharon in CAPTAIN AMERICA. In both cases, these were long established characters with huge histories whose deaths, yes, did motivate the males (and females, particularly in UNCANNY AVENGERS) in their lives but also who sacrificed themselves exactly the way that any male could have died. This isn't a new female character killed solely for a reaction. ANYWAY, this is already too long, just let it be on record that I do not agree with these claims whatsoever. Good issue.

Young Avengers 14
Gillen (w) and McKelvie, Vieceli, Ward, and Wu (a) and Wilson, Loughridge, Ward, and Bellaire (c)

The foes have been vanquished and now all that's left for the year is the after-party. In an issue littered with excellent artists doing vignettes for our characters, we get to see some resolution (the two-issue arc that will finish out this incredible series, in fact, is called "Resolution") at long last. America and Kate prepare for the party and travel there together, having something of a nice moment together for the first time in the series in pages drawn by Jamie McKelvie and colored by Matthew Wilson. Emma Vieceli and Lee Loughridge provide the art for a nice story that shows Billy and Teddy working their way through their doubts and their worries as Billy gets a nice confidence boost from both David (who admits he would be with Teddy in a heartbeat if Billy were out of the picture) and, somehow even more unexpected, from America. The story transitions nicely into the Christian Ward illustrated story for America, which gives a fair amount of backstory and explains America's childhood to a point, which involves her mothers seemingly giving their lives to close portals into the common multiverse from their home, the Utopian Parallel. The Utopian Parallel is, as it sounds, a utopian parallel to the regular multiverse that was created by, get this, the purest incarnation of the Demiurge's magic. When America learned of her moms' sacrifice, she too leapt into the closing holes to find herself in the multiverse, where she could be the sort of hero her moms were and the Demiurge seemed to be. Now she's met him and, by her own admission, he's an idiot like everyone else. Annie Wu beautifully closes the issue out along with Jordie Bellaire to tell a tale of Kate and Noh-Varr making awkward smalltalk before she chooses to walk away. As they stand apart, looking at one another again, Speed shows up and yanks Kate away, demanding she dance with him. He has no time to answer her questions about where he's been and how he returned and she decides that she doesn't care anyway. They kiss as midnight strikes on the new year.

Look, I've said everything I've ever needed to see about this book and this issue falls right in line. Kieron Gillen continues to absolutely marvel with his stories and his characters and the realism and depth of his dialogue. The twist that America was born from the Demiurge and the events of this book is incredible and really provides the only true story in this issue, leaving the rest to character interactions and resolutions of relationships. To boot, all of the artists were chosen perfectly and each and every one of them brings their A-game to the issue. I'm so looking forward to the next issue to see what else it holds in store; plenty more great artists will be there but looking at this one will truly make you say "well who else could they possibly have for the next one? This one really covered it all." Great issue all around and there's no doubt that these two issues will be the absolute perfect way to wrap this series, if there was any doubt before.

Uncanny Avengers 13, Young Avengers 11

Uncanny Avengers 13
Remender (w) and Acuña (a and c)

Captain America, Havok, and Wasp are fighting Banshee, which is only finished when Jan, realizing that his armor is too strong, flies into his mouth and shoots out his vocal cords. Still, it deafened Cap for the time being, leaving their group a little worse for wear. Jan flies ahead to scout out the twins' base and runs into Sentry while Cap and Havok fight off other defenses and realize that Immortus may have hinted to the twins' powers being drawn from one another. Meanwhile, Thor begins plotting his return home and Wolverine is tortured by Daken, told that Red Skull has footage of Daken's death at Wolverine's hand and that he plans to showcase that footage, giving more reasons to hate and fear mutants. After Daken leaves again with the twins, Sunfire and Rogue show up and learn from Wolverine about the twins' plan for Wanda, vowing to stop it. However, that plan might not be quite as it seems as Wanda reveals to Simon that she intends to bring forth the mutants but she'll do it as an army to help take down the twins.

Plenty going on here as all of our storylines start circling their way back to one. There's a lot of really good plot happening but Remender has taken great care to make sure that the book is still, first and foremost, driven by its characters and its ideas. Despite the inherent darkness of this story and its numerous villains, Remender throws in some nice romance bits, including Havok and Wasp's budding relationship (with some more really fun lines from a shouting Cap) and Wanda and Simon's rekindled romance hot on the heels of his immense trust in her, something Wanda could not really expect from anyone else at this point. Remender writes a solid Wolverine here too, one who is perhaps more broken than we've ever seen. He's being tortured by the son he killed, who is both breaking him physically and emotionally as he tells him that it's his fault the mutants are going to be pushed away despite all of his attempts to follow Xavier's dream. Wolverine is kind of the ultimate tough guy in the Marvel Universe so when a writer is really able to capture this kind of broken piece of him, it shines through in a rather big way. It's obviously a well you can't go to too many times for fear that it loses that meaning but it certainly pays off here. There are a lot of directions this book can go and all of them are interesting and seem like they'll improve what's already a good story. Great work out of this book.

Young Avengers 11
Gillen (w) and McKelvie, Anka, and Norton (a) and Wilson (c)

The still-assembled Young Avengers are in the course of their usual journeys when Loki gets a notification from an alarm system he has in place telling him that something is going wrong back home. In this case, he immediately realizes that it's Teddy ending up back in New York. He tries to call Teddy but reaches Leah instead, who reveals that Mother has Teddy and is planning to ruin reality by sending all of the evil-universe versions of the Young Avengers into the 616 before coming in herself. Loki informs the rest of the team of Mother's plan and comes up with a couple of solutions. The first and most possible, he thinks, is getting Billy to use his magic to transform Loki into a conduit that can physically produce more magic. Billy hesitantly agrees and the plan actually works surprisingly well, transforming Loki's body into one that is more adult (more in the ranges of 20-30, in the very least, and with what can only be described as a Tom Hiddleston kind of bent). However, it doesn't work out as planned in the sense that, though he's strengthened a bit by it, he doesn't have full magic back yet. Now, marred once again by distrust from the YA who all believe this was Loki's true plan, he has to convince them to help get Billy to the Demiurge state, the kind of ruler of all state we saw of him in one universe. With that kind of power, even if he only holds it for a moment, he can wrest back the power Mother stole from him and is currently using in her home dimension, giving them a shot at stealing back Teddy and closing her link to this universe. But can they bring Billy back from such a show of power?

Very, very complicated plot. There are elements of magic within magic here and, frankly, magic by itself is hard enough to get a grasp on. Still rather interesting and full of nice twists and turns. Like Remender's Uncanny Avengers above, the story, no matter how big and dire, gives way to character as it's needed. Young Avengers, I would say, presents it differently in that it's a story about characters with some plot getting in there occasionally where Uncanny Avengers is a story first with the characters adding a necessary element. It's hard to describe really well because there is such a strong focus on characters with both books but it seems they take a greater role here, even with the size of the story expanding. Everyone has at least one big moment here, with Loki and Billy obviously getting the lion's share. America gets her moments more sparingly, mostly in the way that she talks and the role she's established for herself in this team. David calls in (most impressively) a rather formidable battalion in the form of his X-Men connections and their own various connections to help the team with their problems. Kate has a nice moment with Noh-Varr and a kind of self-doubting but somewhat heroic moment as she reveals that she's afraid to take part in the mission in case, like Mother intimated, she's compromised in some way (it's waved away when Noh-Varr reveals he, too, is 21 and having no problems). Noh-Varr checks some old messages from ex-girlfriends and admits to himself that his beard isn't fooling anyone. Even Teddy, in a very limited role, appears as a chair at one point, which is interestingly something I didn't know he could do, even if it's very much forced on him. Interesting moments for everyone. Looking forward to where this goes, as ever I am. Amazing art, of course, is a staple here.

Avengers Assemble 20, Hawkeye 13

Avengers Assemble 20
Ewing (w) and Larraz (a) and Woodard (c)

Tie-in to Infinity as we see some of the aftermath of the mass Terrigenesis alongside the Uncanny Avengers' Wasp, Wonder Man, and Scarlet Witch. They're forced to investigate Terrigenesis after defeating some of Thanos' troops and finding themselves suddenly up against a giant, naked man. He's startled but Simon, preferring his new non-violent ways, talks to him and they come to understand what's happened; the man's wife underwent Terrigenesis and the power she gained was the power to change the size of seemingly whatever she chooses. She accidentally giant-sized her husband while shrinking herself, her neighbor, and her neighbor's daughter (along with their house) into the micro-universe. Janet gets Wanda to shrink her down as well so she can go there and fight against Lord Gouzar, the tyrant who kept her there the months she was missing after Secret Invasion. She gets the newly powered woman to fight back against Gouzar and to size them all back up to normal while sizing her husband back down. It sets everything back to normal and helps the civilians get back to their normal life, which they hadn't had since their son died.

Nice little tie-in issue as Avengers Assemble defines itself some more. It's not just the main Avengers team, it's the smaller stories for all of the Avengers out there. This is a nice story but certainly a smaller one in the scale of the things that are happening in Infinity. Still, we get some good characterization from two characters I don't particularly care for and decent stuff out of Scarlet Witch. Wasp and Wonder Man have a pretty good argument about what Simon's non-violent pact really means which helps put both sides of the argument in good perspective. Simon believes that violence is never the answer and that his powers can be used for peace just as effectively but Janet argues that he still doesn't hesitate to call on the Avengers when things get hairy so why not just use his powers himself. I still think he's kind of on the dumb side of the argument, though I do get the idea of wanting to promote peace through non-violence as a superhero. Still, pretty dumb, right? That's what this issue kind of wants to ask and I think it does a good job of asking it. Nice issue for relationships and for characterizations and the like.

Hawkeye 13
Fraction (w) and Aja (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Finally another new Hawkeye. In case you forget what happened last time, the intro page covers it nicely. They. Killed. Grills. This issue takes place mostly between Grills' death, which was after Clint's infidelity, and when Kate leaves, which is before the events of the annual. Time moves in very much its own way in this book and it's always worth it. This issue fills in some of the blanks in that time. He's writing a letter to Jess then has to go out on some Avengers business (with Jess, Black Widow, and Mockingbird) before getting called by Kate and learning that Grills has been killed. He drinks himself to sleep though gets interrupted part-way through by a call from Barney, who asks to come stay with him. Clint promises they'll meet the next night (though Barney, as we saw in his issue, mistakes it for day and ends up giving up on Clint before having to call again). Clint tells Grills' dad what happened to his son and his dad ends up moving into the building and taking up the spot his son had. Kate and Clint attend the funeral and Kate gives a really nice speech to a passed-out Clint. She leaves later, taking Lucky with her. Barney sticks around and Clint introduces him to the building.

Guys, I know you may be expecting a superhero book out of this (though I don't really know why at this point in the book's run you think you'll get one) but that summary above might tell you this isn't really that, not in the conventional way. It's still a wonderful book and I'm so glad to have it back (glad enough, in fact, that I decided to review four books after work today just because I wanted an excuse to read this one tonight). As I said above, time moves very much in its own way in this series, which has been a defining aspect of the run as a whole. It's very smartly done and, unlike, say, Infinity, it has no desire to keep you informed of how that works. You just kind of have to know or place it with your own reading skills. Infinity, of course, breaks up the different pieces of the story by nearly blank, white chapter title pages. Hawkeye moves back and forth in time in any given issue and you may not realize you missed time until four issues later. It's a masterpiece in its design and its seeming effortlessness chaos. Again, it doesn't feel like a normal superhero book but you won't even notice, if that's what you're looking for, because the writing keeps you so on your toes and the characters and story are so well-defined. Really great book. I believe another new one (focusing on Kate with Annie Wu art) is out next week. Pretty pumped, you guys.

Uncanny Avengers 12, Young Avengers 10

Uncanny Avengers 12
Remender (w) and Larroca (a) and F. Martin (c)

Wanda has to choose for or against helping the Apocalypse Twins move every mutant off Earth and to an ark to be brought to their new home on Jupiter, leaving the humans to ruin Earth themselves. What's more, if she chooses that path, she has to convince Wonder Man to help her accomplish it. She's very torn on it and she reveals to Simon just how broken she still is over her role in decimating the mutants, something she hasn't really let on too much about since she's returned to the Universe. It's been a little on the outside, kind of seeping in (no thanks to Rogue's incessant anger), and now it comes to a head here as she sobs to Simon about the weapon she became. She asks him to make the decision, afraid that she won't make a strong one. According to Eimin, who has used her temporal powers to see this future, he will agree to help her. Meanwhile, Cap, Havok, and Wasp are trying to shut down the tachyon transmitters that are blocking aid from the future from coming in. This is all on Immortus' request, who is not the most reliable person but who Havok and Cap feel they have to trust in this situation. They're set upon by Banshee as they're closing in on the tachyon transmitters in one of the Akkaba Society cities and a fight breaks out, slowing their way as Wonder Man makes his decision. Flash forward about 2100 years to the Kang Dynasty where Kang, thrilled that his twins are going to remove the mutant threat from Earth, has a rude awakening as the twins, in a recorded message to Kang, reveal that they've sabotaged his home. It begins crumbling away in front of him as they congratulate him for being king for a day.

There's plenty in this issue, which is particularly exciting as this was kind of billed a little bit as an origin story for Uriel and Eimin. There are certainly elements of that, as we see them try to break from Red Skull's future mutant internment camps only to face more punishment (Uriel is told to cut out Eimin's eyes to prevent her seeing more opportunities for escape), but this is largely involved with the things that are going on at present. Not to say I don't want to hear Uriel and Eimin's origin stories; I think what they've been through is both interesting and obviously integral to this story, but it's not usually great to break from the main story as it's getting intense for a flashback. The way Remender structured it here, showing us a horrible moment clearly pulled from a slew of horrible moments while humans continually let the twins down, was perfect, giving us plenty of backstory and motivation without needing to dedicate an entire issue to it. This gives us a little extra room for a somewhat fun interaction between Havok, Cap, and Wasp as we hear a little too much information from Wasp about her run-ins with the Hellfire Club and as we get a little bit of flirting between Wasp and Havok, which Cap has to somewhat embarrassingly break up. Nice bit of fun, well-timed and well-executed. Really good book overall. I wasn't necessarily thrilled that Salvador Larroca was illustrating this one (I've tired of him a bit over in Cable and X-Force) but the art didn't both me. I think he's better off drawing people in smaller panels or with fewer tight close-ups. Frank Martin's colors don't hurt either. Really good story and some bonus characterization in this one.

Young Avengers 10
Gillen (w) and McKelvie w/ Norton (a) and Wilson (c)

Loki pays a quick visit to Mother back in her dimension to get some questions answered. We find out that, though her entry to this dimension is Billy's fault, it was Loki who subconsciously planted the idea in Billy's head to try to resurrect Teddy's mother. Loki now, though, feels fully in charge of the situation, having used magical rules to his own end and successfully playing the game, which leaves Loki with the trust of Billy, the wizard whose future will dictate the future of magic itself, and leaves Mother stuck in her dimension as long as none of the Young Avengers return to New York. The variable he didn't account for, unfortunately for the team, is Leah's re-emergence. After Loki leaves Mother's dimension (and after a very quick appearance by the Patri-not), Leah pops in to suggest the two team up to take down Loki. She returns to Earth to accompany Teddy to their group in Austin, which consists of her, three former lovers of Noh-Varr, Ultimate Nullifier (from the Teen Brigade America came from), and Patri-not. They all share stories of being dumped and how they all want revenge for these slights. When asked to share, Teddy denies them all, saying that they're all crazy stalkers and that hurt feelings are no reason to hurt people. Leah says he's welcome to leave the magic circle whenever he likes, which he does choose to do. Unfortunately, the magic circle has transported them to New York and Teddy emerges from the basement only to be besieged by Mother and her cronies.

Crazy stuff happening as Leah becomes, yet again, a major player in a Marvel book (pretty exciting, in truth, even if it goes against our team). More than that, we're starting to understand a little bit better the dynamic between this Loki and our team. Specifically, we're seeing the plans Loki has put into place (Loki is always putting plans into place) and how everything is connected. It all pours nicely back into the demiurge idea of Billy being the most powerful being in creation (and nicely points to Loki trying to rush him out of that dimension), which connects very nicely with possible Loki plans. Nothing else out of the rest of the team but Teddy's bits are certainly nice touches here. I think I've mentioned before that I don't have a particular fondness for Teddy, which is different than literally anyone else on this team (even the newest characters are higher on the list typically than Teddy is for me). It's nothing against Teddy, he just doesn't really have a personality that clicks with me (or a personality, sometimes). He gets a little lost in the shuffle as primary supporting character to Billy. Here he actually speaks out and defines himself, not allowing himself to be absorbed into the group of burned lovers. Solid issue for him and a really great Gillen-writes-Loki-and-Leah issue. Art continues to be outstanding, still worth mentioning. Great book.