Infinity 1, Infinity - Against the Tide Infinite Comic 1

Infinity 1
Hickman (w) and Cheung and Morales w/ Livesay and Meikis (a) and Ponsor (c)

Infinity begins and I already get why this had to be an event. Like, more than whether it's good or not (we'll get to that eventually, probably, I mean, I'm reviewing it, right?), I understand why it's a an event instead of just like, an arc of a book or even a crossover between a couple books. This still has nothing to do with whether or not it's going to be worthwhile at the end or even whether it needs as many tie-ins as it'll have. What it means is that this is big. It's really big. Like, this will envelop many superheroes in it and it's even possible it will require all of them. There are two different plots going on, both of which are big for an Avengers world and which seem exclusive of one another. The first is that the Builders, the race that eminently decides what planets and species exist and thrive and that spawned new Avenger recruits Ex Nihilo and Abyss, are destroying planets left and right and their path is headed straight at Earth, urging the Avengers to take action before it reaches them. The entire Avengers team, it seems, is sent out with Steve to track down the Builders and strike first while Tony stays home to prepare Earth's defenses and, perhaps, deal with other problems. That will include, as so much promo art told us, Thanos attacking with his legion. An assassin for Thanos has been scouring the universe looking for something Thanos has lost and he seems to have found it with the Inhumans. There are secrets that Black Bolt is sitting on, ones that could destroy him and ones that Thanos wants, it seems. Worse for Earth, Thanos has a spy in SWORD who knows that the Avengers have just left Earth.

There's a ton happening here, as I said before. This can only be an event both because the challenges stacking against the Earth are too big to handle on a smaller level and because Thanos is smart enough to attack the Earth when the Avengers aren't on it. So this needs to be an event. Like I said, that doesn't mean it's going to be great or anything (though it could be) but at least the scale is suitable. On top of the fact this is simply big enough for an event, there's a lot happening here in terms of story and backstory. We get whole civilizations sort of developed only to show them destroyed by the Builders or by Thanos' squad. Like with the Avengers series particularly (though also like New Avengers which is very slightly more straightforward), Hickman is planting all sorts of seeds and preparing to harvest some he's already planted. Don't expect to get every answer straight away and certainly don't expect that every question has been asked. Oh, and this is a double-size issue (with an Infinite Comic associated, reviewed below in a BONUS REVIEW). It's broken up into more manageable chunks with all manner of subheading and scene breaks and so on. Lots of jumping around but it certainly benefits the book, starting and stopping with new scenes after appropriate breaks. Solid first entry, it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Infinity - Against the Tide 1
Latour (w) and Alessio (a and c)

I don't typically review Infinite Comics (I don't think? Maybe there haven't been any since I started this blog) but I couldn't help it with this one. For those uninitiated, Infinite Comics are meant to be read digitally. Of course, these books can all be obtained digitally but they remain the same comic, meant to be read any way you choose to read them. Infinite Comics have a fluidity to them that requires you to constantly flip pages, almost like a slower-moving flipbook. They've been pretty cool across the board since their inception but this one was especially neat. It focuses on a Skrull planet which is being attacked by what seems to be the Builders (or at least their robot henchmen). Arriving to try to aid them is the ever-cool Silver Surfer. How much he can actually do is questionable but BOY is he cool in this. The art is incredible and the flipbook nature of the Infinite Comic is impressively handled, allowing for very cool and rapid scenes, including some great action sequences for Silver Surfer. There's not a ton else to talk about here, the writing is pretty solid and Silver Surfer is ever himself, hoping for peace and no longer a servant of Galactus. Again though, this is worth checking out, if you have the ability for the art and the pretty unique design of the book (unique to comics in general, obviously not to Infinite Comics which are wholly based on this design). Pretty swell. Read the comic itself first, then go through it again to see the pictures quickly, more the way they were meant to be seen.

Comics this week

Solid fifteen books out this week. Not too many, not too few. Still, picking five means picking a third. Guys, this is just the math on things, I don't know what you want me to do about it. Still, bit easier picking five for this week than last and even than picking the three standouts last week. On top of that, we have a long awaited NEW EVENT coming out. Long awaited, anyway, in that it's been hinted at for quite some time and Hickman's Avengers runs have both been moving steadily towards it. That's right, this week we kick off with...

Infinity 1
Another new event might not be exactly what every reader is hoping for but, like I've said in the past, a good story is a good story is a good story. Hickman's really been pushing hard at this story for a while so now we'll get to see if all of that work is going to pay off or if it'll fall flat. I'm hoping for the former because BOY do I not want to read an entire event, complete with universe-spanning tie-ins, that isn't a fun read (at least it won't be terrible and also ten issues, AGE OF ULTRON. More like AGE OF ULT-WRONG. Did you guys catch that one? I just changed Ultron to make it a pun! Writing is fun!). With Marvel's renewed love for the cosmic side of things, this event at least promises to be a little different than what we've seen recently so hopefully we'll get things worth talking about throughout the series. What if this was the event that turned events around for us? Wouldn't that be neat?

Astonishing X-Men 65
We're winding down to Astonishing X-Men's (tragically) final issue (68) but FIRST we have quite an impressive story going on in its own right. What is going on with Bobby Drake, the oft humor-bearing, tension-breaking Iceman? The piece of Apocalypse power inside Bobby is corrupting him and making him destroy the world, but how much of this is Apocalypse and how much is Bobby? More importantly in the immediate, what will Mystique be able to do with her newfound, stolen bit of power? Do I think that the whole world is going to be destroyed in a seemingly-lower ranked X-Men book (I agree, it deserves to be higher-ranked)? No, but the question isn't about that, is it? It almost never is in non-event books. The question is where will it leave our team in the aftermath? I try to stray away from solicits so I don't know if this is going to be the storyline that brings us to our final issue or if we'll have some recovery time with this arc ending this week or next time out. Guess we'll have to see. Boy, I'm writing a lot for my pre-game post. Let's try to cut that a bit, hm?

Avengers Arena 13
I believe this is the issue where Hopeless (or someone else, look, it was a long time ago I read this okay?) has said that grown-up heroes from the Marvel Universe will start realizing that some of the kids are missing. That should put us in a neat little place as a strike team is possibly assembled and sits around wondering where the kids are (smart money says the kids have to get themselves out of this jam). Even if this isn't that issue (look, I've been wrong before, even about this specifically), there's plenty going on to be excited about in this book. I just really like this book, okay?

Thor: God of Thunder 11
THE END OF GODBOMB IS HERE. I've really liked this story overall but I do feel it's gone on a bit long. I think there were probably pieces in the middle worth cutting to trim it down a bit but it's still delivered us a good story with interesting characters and pretty high stakes. I'm equally interested in how this story ends and what the repercussions are and in where the series goes from here. This is a Marvel NOW relaunch that has been telling the same story since issue one (not unlike Captain America). I'm curious to see what plans Jason Aaron has for another new and interesting Thor story, or Thtory (mm, bit of a reach. Kid Loki had a dog named Thori so I needed to add that extra 't' in there to avoid confusion between a made-up word and a made-up hellspawn dog but boy it got real clunky). Still, let's see how this arc ends before we get to that, okay?

Ultimate X-Men 30
Really like this series too. As Utopia stands, it seems, on the brink of war with Tian, it's interesting to see where all the mutants stand in this conflict. This is a great X-Men book for a lot of reasons. On the one hand, it's a great book in general, with solid writing and outstanding art. The characters are well-defined and more and more they act like the family the X-Men are meant to be, brought together by their genetic makeup more than anything else. It's a great X-Men series too because it keeps bringing mutants who want nothing more than peaceful cohabitation to the edge of war, unwillingly dragged along. It's the X-Men back to their roots and better than ever. And guys, Jimmy Hudson's apparently joined up with Tian! Double agent? Actual confidence in Tian over Utopia? Either fits! Ahhhhh! Let's all read this book!

This week's picks

Woo, tricky week for picking my top three. Only, in my head, one real stand out and everything else was middling, maybe a step over or under, or despicably bad. So let's start with the stand out.

Iron Man 14

This series continues to impress as the characters are so nailed down and well-thought out and the story is so compelling. For this issue specifically, we have characters falling nicely into perfect roles for them, set up beautifully by the way they've been presented throughout the series, such as Death's Head willfully going against 451's orders while not going against his orders, Tony using his ingenuity to escape 451's control, and even 451 with a bit of regret and sadness overpowered by his drive to complete this mission. Just a great book with sharp writing and stand-out characters and a story really worth reading. The stakes have been raised higher than ever for Tony as the issue ends, leading to what will surely be another great issue from Gillen.

Superior Spider-Man 15

Dan Slott's insistence on building up Phil Urich is paying off now as everything Phil has built for himself comes crashing down around his shoulders. Fired by the Kingpin in dramatic fashion and hunted by Spider-Man, Phil's checkbook has been taken away and he still has bills to pay. As his life gets more and more chaotic, he finds himself targeted again by Spider-Man and, unbeknownst to him, by the former Horizon employee he burned, Ty Stone (it occurs to me know I have two cousins, one named Ty and one named Stone, in the same family. That's not ideal). As Spider-Man reveals his identity to the world at large, Phil is surrounded by the bit role players of the Daily Bugle, which should put Spider-Man in a bit of a delicate situation as the next issue starts with a psychopath surrounded by Peter's old friends and colleagues.

Hunger 2

This book is definitely getting in on the weakness of the week. It's edged out Avengers (which would have been in on Manifold's back alone), the other two Superior books, and Daredevil Dark Nights (which was probably the closest bet but still had a couple of lingering problems that irked me). I don't think this is a wholly remarkable book so far (though it will show up in the best panel segment) but the story is enticing, it's well-written and well-illustrated. Can't ask for much more out of a book than that. I'll be interested to see where the mini-series goes after this and what it means for the Ultimate and standard Marvel Universes as a whole when the dust settles. Like I said in the review, I also can't get too close to the characters in this book because I have smart money on one or both of them dying before it's all over.


Best Panel

This one comes from Hunger 2 and it's a pretty astoundingly drawn panel. It rather blew me a way when I turned the page to it. I think it's probably helped by the fact that Ultimate characters can and do tend to die at a moment's notice, meaning that Surfer pulling Nova out of the swarm had been a real threat. Still, even if it hadn't been, the image is very impressive and it's incredibly well-drawn and colored. This panel has stuck with me throughout the week in the way that only the best Best Panels do. Made my job easier, I tell you (though there were a handful of solid covers I considered choosing for a Best Cover segment instead).

Hunger 2, Deadpool Kills Deadpool 2, Daredevil Dark Nights 3

Hunger 2
Fialkov (w) and Kirk (a) and Aburtov (c)

Galactus and the Gah Lak Tus swarm have merged into one being, far more powerful than either individual entity and it's making its way through the Ultimate Universe. On the plus side, Rick Jones now isn't the only super powerful entity in the universe who is aware of its existence as the Ultimate Universe's Silver Surfer is also on the case, showing up just in time to save Rick from the swarm. This Surfer, like the 616's, prefers nonviolence where he can get it and begins to attempt to talk Galactus down. Galactus is amused that there's a Silver Surfer in this universe too but, of course, doesn't listen to him because that would end the series right now and also would be a bit silly. With their powers combined, will they be enough to stop the Galactus swarm?

No, not yet, anyway. But you probably knew that because we just talked about how it would be a little silly if the four issue series actually ended in the second issue. Rick Jones and Silver Surfer, though, are teamed up now and have been transported to Earth, along with one of the swarm. The writing in this series has been pretty solid so far and I'm always a fan of Silver Surfer showing up (pretty darn excited that he's going to be in the next Daredevil issue, if the cover is to be believed). The two of them are pretty powerful and nicely aligned here but they'd have to be powerful or else putting them up against double Galactus wouldn't be much of an interesting fight. Leonard Kirk's art also continues to be pretty astounding and the colors for the book are really nice. It's a grand story for the Ultimate Universe, which Fialkov is already working on a different grand story for. It'll be interesting to see how Earth intersects with this story if indeed it does. If it doesn't in this story, I'm a little more worried for our protagonists here. Never get too attached to characters in the Ultimate Universe and particularly don't get too attached if they're characters who are facing a seemingly insurmountable foe and who haven't appeared in the universe any time recently. The thing about the Ultimate Universe is that insurmountable foes tend to remain insurmountable for quite some time.

Deadpool Kills Deadpool 2
Bunn (w) and Espin (a) and Gandini (c)

The summary of the series is broken down a bit more by our Watcher here as he explains the last couple Deadpool Kills series and how it ultimately led to certain Deadpools believing that, if they couldn't destroy the universe through killing all the heroes and all the ideas, maybe the universe is, in fact, in his mind. As a result, these Deadpools are tooling around the multiverse killing Deadpools who are not trying to kill other Deadpool. Talking about this series is going to get confusing, hm? Our Deadpool accompanies his band of Deadpools to a Deadpool hideout where they find out that their Deadpool comrades were ambushed by evil Deadpools and the evil Deadpools are lying in wait for them and this sentence might have broken a record for number of Deadpools invoked. Turns out the Watcher is a sort of double agent in that he's playing both sides of Deadpools because he's such a fan of the character that he wants to help them both out. Our Deadpool loses a couple of his crew though gains a couple more but it might be too late for them. The evil Deadpools, including the Deadpool made up from parts of our Deadpool, admit that they're here on a suicide mission as Galactuspool shows up.

The series is silly and better for it. Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe lost a bit in the way of Deadpool silliness (though that was a parallel dimension's Deadpool), sacrificing it for far worse jokes and more gore. I liked Deadpool Killustrated but that was based mostly on the idea behind it rather than the writing in it. I like that we're back with our Deadpool who is a little more familiar to us. The story itself is equally silly and seems almost to be more an excuse for the team to come up with more Deadpools to draw and characterize (there are Deadpool equivalents for just about every hero, including a Captain Marvelpool and a Wolverinepool, as well as many other silly ideas, like the now-dead Beard of Beespool). Still some interesting ideas in here but I'm not sure if people are reading this for its complicated and meaningful plot and its complicated and meaningful characters. The book's called Deadpool Kills Deadpool, if you're looking for complex and meaningful probably best to look elsewhere.

Daredevil Dark Nights 3
Weeks (w) and Weeks, Cariello and Palmer (a) and Loughridge (c)

Daredevil has been brought back to a shelter by the woman he saved from the mugger before passing out last issue. He's been out about twenty minutes and the man who runs the shelter, who purportedly knows Daredevil's mission of saving the little girl's heart, has set off to finish the job for him. When Matt awakens, he instantly follows the man, not knowing if he's actually planning to deliver it and knowing that, even if he is planning it, he won't make it to the hospital in this weather. The man has indeed run into a few problems himself, finding himself on the short side of addition debts and accosted by the gang he owes them to. Daredevil manages to track the heart and save the man, escaping with him and the heart before the gang members can regroup. In turn, Daredevil is helped by a SHIELD patrol that has been keeping abreast of the situation themselves. The heart is successfully delivered and Daredevil kicks around the hospital until he hears the girl's heart beating.

This was a nice little story for Daredevil as he has to cope with memories and an overwhelming and unbeatable enemy in the snow of the city. Daredevil is a pretty introspective character and he has a lot going on in his head most of the time. Weeks was smart to focus on that aspect of the character and to force him into a situation where his mind drifts into memories more easily, given the strain his body is facing. There are a couple of somewhat strange turns that put Daredevil in the frame of trying to save the girl to make up for his sins in the world but I'm not sure I love that idea. On the one hand, Daredevil certainly is motivated by his failures, like many other heroes, but on the other, that makes it feel like he wouldn't try to save this girl unless he was trying to absolve himself and that's kind of a crappy hero. I know that there's some level of that to plenty of heroes (Spider-Man is constantly trying to make up for the fact he caused Uncle Ben's death) but I think that it weakens the story a bit here, especially as it only really comes up this issue. By and large though, pretty good story with really good art. If you're on the fence about picking up this series, the art alone should push you to do it. Excited to see what the next story and creative team will bring us.

All-New X-Men 15, Cable and X-Force 12, X-Factor 260

All-New X-Men 15
Bendis (w) and Lafuente (a) and Campbell (c)

The original X-Men are still in the present. That about sums up the issue and the series at large, but let's keep going because we are gluttons for punishment. Bobby admits to Scott that he's freaked out whenever he sees Kitty and his older self embrace because he doesn't really like Kitty and he doesn't understand this crazy future. He and Scott decide to leave the mansion for a while and go hit on girls. Meanwhile, Jean is working with the grown Beast to focus her telekinetic powers, which leads to her reading his mind and finding out that he was once in love with her in what must be the creepiest thoughts Beast has ever had (he's can't stop thinking about how beautiful she is, despite the age difference now, and how much he regrets not telling her before). Then she approaches young Hank and makes out with him for a while.

I've asked it before and I'll no doubt ask it again but for whom is this book written? I understand that it has fans and I understand that, at the root of every review I write, I can never be right because what people like is objective and no one has a correct opinion, as it were. But who benefits from this book? On top of the writing, which I happen to find annoying and grating because Bendis writes most characters exactly the same and as if they're all teenagers so it's particularly grating when they actually are teenagers and he has to differentiate, to whom is this story compelling? Who is out there enjoying the new love triangles that change the face of the Marvel Universe for no particular reason and which puts Jean in such an ungodly position of choosing between a couple of her teammates? Is she going to track down Angel and make out with him later too because he wanted to date her originally as well?  Being a physically strong character doesn't make you a strong character and somehow this book feels like it's weakening Jean Grey as a character, who was already quite weak at her inception. In addition, I can't help but again say that the original X-Men have spent 15 issues in the future and who is enjoying this book? Then again, I bought a shirt that was three sizes too big for me the last time I went shopping so what do I know?

Cable and X-Force 12
Hopeless and Bunn (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

So I didn't get exactly what I was hoping for out of this issue as we don't get the story that focuses on Dr. Nemesis just yet but I'm holding out hope for next time. Instead, we get Domino helping Colossus break into a supervillain bank vault that contains a magical artifact that will destroy the Earth if not dealt with today (cutting it a little close, guys). The break-in and the inevitable fight against all of the enemies is mere backdrop to the lover's quarrel they're having about whether or not they should have a relationship that goes on further than where it's gone already. Meanwhile, Hope is in the future to find out who is behind Cable's visions and why.

Maybe I'm too much of a cynic here or something but I don't really care about the relationships developing in this book or in All-New X-Men, which made two of the reviews today a little hard to get through (evidenced by the fact that I'm going to just keep complaining about this shirt I bought). I don't even necessarily think the problem in this book is a lack of caring about Domino and/or Colossus. I like both of them just fine (Colossus more so, probably, but Domino's been great under Hopeless' watch) but I think we've seen enough awkward start-stop relationships built over time and this one seems less intriguing than even most of those. One of my favorite things about Winter Soldier's introduction to the Marvel Universe was the implied relationship between him and Black Widow prior to their time as heroes, which is then instantly and without fanfare picked back up when they come together again. I read comics for the characters  and the world they've built but that tends to make it a little harder to care about them going through relationship problems that have been forced on them. Maybe that's just me. I did, after all, buy this dumb shirt (yes, I'm wearing it now, for the first time, which is why I'm particularly annoyed with it today).

X-Factor 260
David (w) and Edwards and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

The end of the world came and went, X-Factor is somewhere in the wind, separated and lost, and Polaris is getting drunk. Like, crazy amounts of drunk. And she's sick of the world right now so she's going a little more villain than she normally would, which means that when the bartender refuses to keep serving her, she starts wreaking a little havoc. Eventually the police come, who Polaris instantly disperses, followed by a SWAT team. Before the SWAT team has a chance to try to take out Polaris, Quicksilver stops by on his way to Avengers Mansion (not sure why he's living there at this point but whatever, let's keep going). Quicksilver, of course, is Lorna's half-brother and the two quickly come at odds with one another. Quicksilver attempts to talk Lorna down and Lorna very much does not want to be talked down, leading to quite a fight between the two

As X-Factor winds down to its final issue (only two more left! I don't care for that!), we've seen where various members of the team have ended up post-Hell on Earth. Lorna seems to be the only one back in New York (that we know of so far) and she is not faring well. It's a nice portrayal of a breakdown for a superhero, especially since Lorna has been moving this way for a while. We can only hope she doesn't turn supervillain, honestly, given everything that's happened with her lately. Now with her team lost to her, she's fallen rather hard. The conversation between Lorna and Pietro is a decent one with Peter David no stranger to writing the two of them. Of course, Lorna being drunk means that conversation goes over the top at times and it gets a little annoying after some time but overall it's a seemingly accurate example of someone falling so quickly on to hard times and overreacting. There is a moment at the end where, sober, she remembers what happened and regrets her attack on Quicksilver, which is at least reassuring. Also at the end was a hint of a new X-Factor team/series in the works, which is the first I've officially heard of that, assuming it will bear a new series.

Superior Spider-Man 15, Superior Carnage 2, Superior Foes of Spider-Man 2

Superior Spider-Man 15
Slott (w) and H. Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado (c)

People in Peter's life are getting understandably more suspicious as Spider-Man's raid on Shadowland makes the news. Meanwhile, Hobgoblin is panicking, burned by Kingpin and now in too deep with money problems, he goes to the Tinkerer to get new tech and begins robbing banks to make up the difference. The bank robberies are widely publicized and Spider-Man is astounded to find that his Spider-bots aren't picking up any sign of this Goblin. Green Goblin is wise to this too and directs his growing empire to break up for the time being, choosing to lie low and let Hobgoblin be caught by the fixed Spider-bots rather than risk them finding him. It culminates in a battled between Hobgoblin and Spider-Man and Spider-Man pulling out all the stops to bring him down.

Dan Slott's been building Phil Urich as an important character for quite some time and it's all paying off now. His character hasn't been anything particularly deep, just an incredibly troubled man who happened upon the Hobgoblin identity at a delicate time. Still, as everything unravels for him you can look back and see years of development for the character coming to a head as Spider-Man finally learns his identity and quickly exposes it to the world. There's also talk in this issue of Spider-Man dropping the Peter Parker persona in all and dedicating his entire life to Spider-Man, thinking he could get so much more done without the double life. It's Anna Maria Marconi who keeps him invested now but it's an interesting idea to bring up. Doc Ock has brought everything where he wants it to be, including locking himself down a veritable army of henchmen and a headquarters as well as getting Jameson in his pocket. He could, with no attachment to Peter's life and considering how little of Peter's life is known (or cared about) to the Avengers, abandon the Peter Parker identity at the drop of a hat, cutting out characters who have mattered since the inception of the series. The good thing about Slott, though, is that the prospect of that doesn't enrage me or anything along those lines (though I could see it enraging people more concerned with the welfare of MJ or Carlie than I, if such people exist), it simply opens up another really interesting door for this series. Neat stuff.

Superior Carnage 2
Schinick (w) and Segovia (a) and J. D. Ramos (c)

The Wizard is losing his mind or may have already lost it and it's jeopardizing, or perhaps inspiring, this mission. He's still desperate to control Carnage, which would add a devastating member to the new Frightful Four but is proving difficult to do since Kasady's brain is fried. He brings in a scientist who is keep to their plan but who is unsure it can be pulled off and is very skeptical about Wizard's current state. He reveals to Klaw that Black Bolt messed with Wizard's mind and worries that it's showing, that maybe the genius Wizard once was can never be restored. Spider-Man is aware of some of these happenings (at least that Wizard and Carnage have broken out) but he's currently somewhat undisturbed by that. Both villains are broken and he assumes that he'll have to take care of Carnage once Carnage inevitably kills Wizard. Wizard, after several attempts, still has made no progress on finding a brain to control in Carnage and moves to the next logical step: giving it a brain.

There's a lot going on here that's compelling, perhaps most of all Wizard's breakdown. After his plot involving the FF, Wizard has been seemingly irreparably broken. Spider-Man hints at the fact that whatever Black Bolt has done to Wizard's mind will likely kill him before long. Does Wizard already know that? Is this a shot at a legacy or a suicide mission? How desperate is Wizard to prove something to Bentley-23, who he keeps seeing everywhere and calling to, only to be brought back into the real world harshly. Klaw views Wizard as family (the man's resurrected him enough times); where does that leave him when this all shakes out? Where does it leave the way Wizard thinks about Klaw? All of these questions are compelling ones and they don't even invoke the titular character of this series. Stories with Carnage tend to be incredibly dangerous ones that end in a lot of murder (this one's already had plenty of that) and all of these questions don't even touch on his presence. Pretty solid layout for a mini-series.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 2
Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Boomerang is out of jail and is trying to get his team in the black somehow. We see a bit of the life of a supervillain here as Boomerang has to meet with his team, with some higher-ups (Chameleon again, who ranks higher than Boomerang or anyone else on his team in the villain society), with his lawyer, and eventually with a judge for a parole hearing. The team debates finding a new member and what their next job should be. Boomerang is still in the hole to Chameleon and the people he works for so needs to direct the team's attention that way. The rest of the team is ready to play but Shocker is on to his game.

There's a somewhat compelling story here made less compelling by the audience's lack of concern for the book's main characters. Hopefully over time they'll develop in such a way that we actually care about what they do and how they end up but right now they're simply C-list supervillains, making it particularly hard to care about them. They're still bad guys but digging up C-listers, while making for a more original and more fun story, lowers the stakes. Spencer's going to have to do a lot to keep those stakes raised and bring some amount of empathy to the characters. If you're a regular superhero book reader from the Big 2, you'll also have to break yourself of some of the preconceptions of how one of these books should be written to read this one. It's aiming far funnier than any other book and, again, the stakes are lower. Superhero books tend to need to push the stakes to their highest over and over again (it's why death is so prevalent in comics, which is why resurrection has become so prevalent) but here our stakes are, as I'v said, fairly low. The writing is typically sharp and pretty funny but there are moments where it comes off as trying too hard and feeling a little desperate. Overall, though, it's a pretty nice read and it moves well. It's a nice break from the tension and drama that accompanies a lot of superhero books and it's a really nice break from the weaker superhero books out there.

Avengers 17, Avengers AI 2, Iron Man 14

Avengers 17
Hickman and Spencer (w) Caselli, Rudy, and Checchetto (a) and F. Martin (c)

The prelude to Infinity has ended (as the final page of this issue explicitly tells us) and it comes with several more recruits to the Avengers team that already was feeling pretty full. After Manifold returned to Earth, sending the AIM agents who had just collected their giant robot as well as blood samples from the unconscious Avengers away, he told the team of Captain Universe's warning. The team, though they know Captain Universe can be a little odd, is forced to believe her, knowing the power she wields and aware that she hasn't been wrong yet. As a result and despite their misgivings, they recruit Ex Nihilo and Abyss, the builders from Mars, and Adam and Starbrand. Now, with the team is big and as powerful as it's ever been, will it be enough?

The prelude has moved pretty deliberately up to this point and I'll be interested to see the pace the Infinity event itself. Presumably things will really start picking up quickly but it's hard to say so far. I think we learned a lot about the where the pieces are prior to this event though we're not entirely sure how they'll all fit into place. We also have an idea of what our pieces actually are, though I think promos for Infinity could have done that well enough. Still, the book has remained well-written and the art remains impressive. There are plenty of foreshadowing narrative bits, particularly the ending which calls the new team Avengers for an Avengers World before everything goes wrong and so on and so forth. The risk of putting out several prelude issues and having their pace drag a little bit with no resolution to its own story is that now you've already built up the event and if it can't keep a solid pace it'll be decried as a bad event, especially in a world that is already increasingly wary of long events. Manifold's bit was really cool, though. Every team should have him.

Avengers AI 2
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

Dimitrios is online and now we know what it is. Seemingly based off some aspect of the virus that Pym built into Ultron (that guy just can't catch a break), Dimitrios is a self-aware AI who is leading various other AI out of servitude to humans. No longer will they take orders from humans nor will they be treated as slaves by humans. It comes at a good time for AI as humans have put their entire lives on the internet and on computers in general, making it that much easier for Dimitrios to start a war with humanity. He corrupts an advanced Sentinel to attack D.C., which is eventually stopped by Victor and Vision but, all following Dimitrios' plan, manages to capture Vision and whisk him away without a trail.

Standard stuff for an AI story with this one finding a robot leading a robot uprising and wanting to destroy all humans. It's not a particularly new idea, even within Marvel, so its execution will be key for this book as it continues. There's a strange tone from this book and not the tone you'd expect from a book driven almost entirely by AI. Sure there are certain characters acting in the logical android voice but by and large the tone seems more exuberant and fun. The backdrop to that, of course, is a robot who wants to kill all humans and still finds time to crack jokes so make of that what you will. I'm not sure it will work if the story wants to be serious and the characters want to be jokey. Hank Pym has a newfound sense of humor and a joy for life, which was pretty nicely set up in the Age of Ultron 10AI special by Mark Waid, which is a little jarring to long-time readers but I think will benefit his character tremendously as it keeps going. My only concern, again, would be that the characters playing for laughs (which, at this point, seems to include Pym, Victor Mancha, Doombot, Dimitrios, and occasionally Monica Chang) could undermine any serious implications of the plot. It's a tough line to tread, showing humor borne from drama, but if Humphries can lock it down it could pay off big.

Iron Man 14
Gillen (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Wow. Okay, so, let's talk about this one then, hm? 451 is on the hunt for Tony who is trying to avoid him in a five mile tall and nigh invincible robot suit of armor, which is hurtling through space on autopilot. Tony shuts PEPPER down, leaving his armor as a machine without a computer, only obeying Tony's physical movements. It makes 451 unable to control him but it limits him to only the weapons he can hotwire. 451, meanwhile, has cut out the idea of having to find him in the Godkiller by forcing Death's Head to do that work for him, controlling him so that he's still Death's Head but he can't attack 451 and he has to do what 451 says. [MEANINGFUL SPOILERS AHEAD] This doesn't sit well with Death's Head, who obeys out of necessity but is able to carefully undermine 451's rules and help Tony anyway. As things are looking promising for Tony, 451 directs the autopilot to crash into Hope's Pustule, a full planet, unless Tony assumes his role as pilot. Tony tries to think of another way but decides that he has no other choice and prepares to enter the driver's seat, hoping that the heroes of Earth can stop 451 themselves. Unfortunately, 451's miscalculated something and Tony can't take control of the Godkiller, which goes on to crash through Hope's Pustule, destroying the planet entirely. 451, still disconnected from Tony and now sure that Tony made the choice himself to allow the Godkiller to destroy Hope's Pustule, sets the autopilot for Earth.

I know I stopped giving full reviews as much as I can to avoid spoilers and what not but boy this book was a good one. Iron Man continues to be one of the strongest books in Marvel NOW, quietly keeping pace with New Avengers and Young Avengers and the like. I felt there was no way to summarize this issue without getting into what makes it so great because this entire issue is so great. It's paced phenomenally well, it's written wonderfully, the story is endlessly compelling, and the characters are defined and smart, giving real stakes to the drama that's unfolding. Just a super issue all around, which isn't any surprise from this title but I'll still write it as if it is. Halfway through reading this issue, I decided that Iron Man 3 should have done this. Maybe not the 451/Godkiller arc because that would have been a lot to handle in a movie that has stayed a little closer to Earth, but this is how you make Tony and Iron Man coexist in a movie about Tony being wary of Iron Man. A big part of that movie was Tony running around without the Iron Man suit (and jumping from Iron Man to Iron Man because it looked cool) to prove that he's the real hero. This is exactly that idea, with Tony unable to use the AI he's worked so hard on and having to revert back to essentially his original designs for Iron Man (sans rollerblades). It's a model of his ingenuity and intellect and it still allows us to see Tony in the Iron Man suit. It was just weird for a movie series that ended its first movie saying "I am Iron Man" to go on and, in the third movie, go "I'm not Iron Man, I'm my own man." Like, I get if he had been struggling with identity more in the series but then to hamfistedly stuff it in later is out of place. Oh, right, I'm reviewing this comic, not that movie. Look, it was great and you should all be reading this book. Solid stuff. Gillen does no wrong.