ABC renews AGENTS OF SHIELD and picks up AGENT CARTER

News from the Marvel TV front: ABC has renewed the hit show (?) Marvel's Agents of SHIELD for a second season as the season finale approaches. Perhaps more exciting for people who like shows that have the potential to be less boring than Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, they've also picked up Agent Carter (also detailed in that link above), a show focusing on Hayley Atwell's Agent Peggy Carter from Captain America: The First Avenger (and from Winter Soldier but like, barely, ya know?). Will it get us more invested in characters than Agents of SHIELD? Will it reference the MCU unendingly as well? Only time will tell.

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

Moon Knight 3, Magneto 3

Moon Knight 3
Ellis (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

Moon Knight finds himself up against a gang of punk rock ghosts who he quickly learns he cannot touch though they can touch him. His first encounter with them goes badly and he returns to his mansion to consult with Khonshu, who advises him to use some of the various tricks and tools he's picked up from Egypt in his travels. The next night, wearing all new armor that looks more Egyptian (including a Khonshu-like mask) and is capable of touching ghosts, Moon Knight sets out again and absolutely destroys the punks, eventually tracking down the source, a music box left behind bye a deceased member of the gang underground where they all once died.

Story
The story of this one takes a back seat to introducing more of what we can expect from this series as a whole. The story, of course, is apparent through the issue as Moon Knight sets out to defeat ghosts but the key in this one is seeing how he interacts with Khonshu and how he's set himself up in this new world. We've seen his wealth in action in all sorts of ways already, from his car to his tools to his flying glider (which gets a little more screen time in this one), and now we're seeing the fruits of his travels, a plethora of ancient Egyptian artifacts that, in some cases, he admits he doesn't remember buying. There's a lot happening here but Ellis is keeping it pretty firmly below the surface for now. 4/5

Character
Moon Knight keeps doing what he's been doing to kick this series off. He's assisting the police, he's keeping his dialogue to a minimum, only interjecting a few words here and there, and he seems to be mostly enjoying himself. Ellis' vision for this book was putting Moon Knight in a situation where his craziness helped him, made him stand out. He travels around at night wearing all white. His glider swoops in and out of the city with ease. He finds criminals. He's not trying to be stealthy, he's not Batmanning it out there, he's attacking criminals head on and it's working. With that attitude and with the new Khonshu information, it feels rather like we're learning quite a lot about Moon Knight without the need for a lot of dialogue or any narration. 5/5

Writing
Ellis has kept the writing pretty limited, as I said above. The quick bits of dialogue and the times when it's used most (Khonshu has the largest chunk of dialogue when he's telling Spector that he needs to be prepared for any adversary he may come across but it's used in the quiet moments, with Spector sitting at home with his various identities) give the book the exact sort of pacing it needs. It's fast, it's action-packed, and it's creating our character and his world well. 5/5

Art
Declan Shalvey continues to absolutely kill it with his designs, including the new fight-the-dead suit, and his action sequences. Jordie Bellaire is on fire with her amazing colors (it's always going to stand out, this white on night, which is very much what this book is counting on and what it will rely on and Bellaire is proving that it will sustain). It's all extremely cool while sticking to the somewhat creepy that this book needs. More outstanding work. 5/5

Miscellaneous
The book reads about as fast as any book out there right now, given the limited dialogue and the great action. You want to just keep reading it but you also want to stay on each page and examine each panel.

Total score: 5/5


Magneto 3
Bunn (w) and Walta (a) and Bellaire (c) and Petit (l)

Magneto finds the lab responsible for creating the new breed of Omega Sentinels and begins to make his way through the ducts, eventually finding project leader Dr. Elizabeth Alain. He deactivates a few incomplete Sentinels and sends a paper clip into Alain's arm to make her talk about what's happening in the lab. She tells him he has it all wrong, that they don't want to hurt mutants, they simply want to create a refuge for people who don't want to be subject to the whims of mutants. She believes that the place they're creating will be a sanctuary for people afraid that mutants will destroy the world and it calls back memories of Genosha for Magneto. Sentinels destroyed his mutant utopia and killed millions so he's not particularly sympathetic to an idea for human sanctuary patrolled by Sentinels. He finally kills Alain and sets the area to self-destruct, taking the giant Sentinel within with it.

Story
Though he's wiped his first real objective off the map (though it took more time than it once would have, as he points out), there's still plenty to come for Magneto as he realizes too late he should have pressed Alain for more information about who guided her to the Master Mold to create her Sentinels. Still, all in all it's a pretty successful first outing for Magneto as he manages to bring down an Omega Sentinel factory, regardless of its true purpose, and has also managed to stay a step ahead of SHIELD and whoever else may be chasing him, though a destroyed lab with a giant Sentinel sticking out may paint a picture of where he's been. 5/5

Character
There's been a lot to get into with Magneto so far as we've now covered his tragic Holocaust past and the horrors of Genosha, two of the biggest influences in his life. There's a lot of regret in his Genosha attempts and Bunn makes sure it comes to the forefront here, creating a parallel in the story to Genosha, but for humans, and showing us effectively why Magneto has such a specific bone to pick with Sentinels and Sentinel creation. Magneto's doing some horrible things but Bunn is making sure to cast it in such a light that we understand his motives for doing them, even if we're Professor X sympathizers. 5/5

Writing
The tone of this book continues to be incredibly dark, shifting back and forth from tragedy to impending tragedy. The strongest thing that Bunn has done has been to infuse this book with an overall sadness. There are plenty of dark and gritty books out there, probably plenty that are better than this one, but making sure that the tone is always tinged with sadness and regret gives it a much more palpable feeling. It humanizes Magneto in a way that just showing him as angry can never do. I think it's Bunn's strongest Marvel work since VENOM and it may prove to be stronger than that. 5/5

Art
Walta's art shines and really focuses on the humanity of these characters (I hate writing about "humanity" for mutant-based books but it seems a particular affront to Magneto), giving some real emotion to everyone involved. Bellaire again comes through with some great color work, giving everything exactly the right tone and fluctuating between past and present with lots of red in the past and a mix of blues, blacks, and grays for the present. Real tone building work with this art and these colors. 5/5

Miscellaneous
This book continues to be really impressive, going above and beyond what I expected of it. It's not hitting on the same sorts of awe-inspiring notes (for me) as something like BLACK WIDOW or X-MEN LEGACY or HAWKEYE, to name a few, but it's really very technically good.

Total score: 5/5

Black Widow 6, Punisher 5, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2

Black Widow 6
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a) and Cowles (l)

Black Widow has been captured and has spent her interrogation trying to learn what she can about her captors but it's only led her to realize that they're more scared than anything, desperately striking out while they can at anything that could give them information. She breaks out of her bonds when the time is right and begins to make her way down to Damon Dran, who has apparently reconstructed Molot Boga in the hopes that the new steel Hammer of God will be able to protect him from whatever's after him. Widow throws him overboard and captures Dran but whoever it is that's after him has infiltrated SHIELD to some extent as well, turning one of their officers who delivers a poisonous gas to Dran in his cell. Not knowing who she can trust, Natasha returns to her regular life and gets her new assignment from Isaiah.

Story
Edmondson is doing something really interesting with this series so far. He's telling quick stories, getting in and out with a good read on the character and a good sense of what these sorts of missions are. Of course, between this new ongoing plot line and the Iron Scorpion plot line from issue two, there are plenty of directions still to go out there but neither requires immediate action. Instead, they create an atmosphere around Natasha, one that shows the world seemingly closing in around her and closing her off (there's a nice theme through this one that she can't trust anyone and that it's possible she'll need friends going forward with Hawkeye tossed out as a possibility). 5/5

Character
The biggest character movements here are seeing Widow using her interrogation to learn more about her enemies, something not uncommon to Widow's character (even enough that it was referenced in The Avengers), and when she realizes just how alone she is. Seeing how she copes with that, if she decides to pursue allies or pushes forward alone, will show a lot about her character while also allowing us a glimpse behind her process. Really looking forward to it. 5/5

Writing
Edmondson, on top of getting in and out of stories relatively quickly, even the ones that he leaves open-ended to return to later, knows that fewer words can often tell more. There's limited dialogue and limited narration, never distracting from the story or the art but still doing more than enough to convey the plot and the character and everything else he may need to do. Natasha has always seemed a terse character and Edmondson isn't afraid to let her action do the talking. Of course, that's made easier when you have Phil Noto doing astonishing work on the book. 5/5

Art
Gorgeous book with phenomenal characters, solid emotion, great action, and perfect colors. I've already said it all about this series but Noto continues to impress. This issue kicks off with a full page panel of a close-up on Natasha's punched face and it still looks phenomenal. I put this issue down, as I do with seemingly every new release from this book, going "geez, this book is great to look at." 5/5

Miscellaneous
Man, it's going to get a five. It'd be nice if she had her memories of Bucky because NATASHA, I KNOW SOMEONE YOU COULD TRUST.

Total score: 5/5


Punisher 5
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a) and Petit (l)

The Commandos after Frank tagged the coyote Loot with a tracker and waited while he traveled from Tuggs' place to Frank's hideout. Frank returns to Tuggs, freeing him from his binds, but doesn't have time to think on who attacked him as Electro has just shut down all power to the city. With the power out and the green light given, the Dos Sols attack every cop they can find, killing off police officers with abandon and creating havoc while their boss prepares to trigger the chemical weapon. Punisher finds him and manages to slow him down, nearly able to kill him, before Electro arrives and strikes at Punisher.

Story
The attack on LA is ramping up quickly as the Dos Sols begin to shoot cops and wrap their hand around the city. Guillermo, their leader, is ready to kill the city to show his strength and to advertise his gang to any who would join up. Meanwhile, the Commandos are still after Punisher and the other characters that have joined Frank's new life are all getting enough screen time to show that they'll warrant some attention here as well. Another strong outing from Edmondson as he shows a city in real chaos (which is, coincidentally, a buzzword in this week's BLACK WIDOW as well). 5/5

Character
It continues to be hard to judge Castle's character as he continues to be someone who plays things pretty close to the vest and doesn't have the benefit that, say, BLACK WIDOW has because there's not a lot of narration to show the reader what's really going through Frank's mind. Still, the speed with which he reacts to Loot's presence and his single-mindedness to stop the Dos Sols and Electro say a lot about him. Like with BLACK WIDOW (it's hard not to compare the books as they star protagonists who are similar in their demeanor and sort of in their skills and as they're both written by the same guy right now), Edmondson keeps it pretty short with Frank's dialogue and allows the art to do the talking for the character. It's strong work and it can be rare to see in a Marvel book but Edmondson is doing well in both his books. 5/5

Writing
Covered a lot of this section both in the story and character sections and in my BLACK WIDOW review, honestly. This story, obviously, is more of a traditional long arc than what B-Widz is going through right now but that makes sense with who Punisher is. You don't send Black Widow into a Punisher story any more than you'd send Punisher into a Black Widow story. Though they're presented in a similar fashion in some of the technical stuff, the stories are pretty diverse and I think Edmondson is showing a lot of poise in crafting them the way they need to be crafted. 5/5

Art
Mitch Gerads is doing really cool stuff with this book both in the action sequences and in the colors. It's a very dark book but he continues to mix in moments that are a bit lighter in their presentation if not in their tone, necessarily. Of course, this issue is largely darker because the power's gone out all around the city and cops are being killed in droves. Still, everyone has a very distinct look and Frank and Electro fighting has the sort of kinetic energy (and electric energy) that it should. 5/5

Miscellaneous
It's a testament to this book that I'm not sure I'm coming around a lot on Frank Castle as a character but I'm still finding this series remarkably engaging and well executed.

Total score: 5/5


Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2
K. Andrews (w and a) and Caramagna (l)

Danny has to rush to K'un Lun, which isn't supposed to intersect with this plane for years still to come. Fortunately, he has a secret path back secreted away under Rand Tower, a way to teleport into the magic city. While the girl Brenda calls an ambulance for the messenger in Danny's apartment, Danny recalls more of his childhood, now remembering the crazed look in his mother's eye as she swears Danny to avenge his family on Harold and as she sacrifices herself to the wolves so Danny can make it to K'un Lun. Now he's apparently made it to K'un Lun, overrun by the cybernetic ninjas that attacked his apartment, where just days ago Davos, son of the original Thunderer, attacks his sister, who has since taken on the mantle of Thunderer while their father has taken on the role of Yu-Ti, leader of K'un Lun. When Danny finally arrives in K'un Lun, he finds it aflame with what seems to be a decapitated Shou-Lao front and center.

Story
Andrews really throws it all at us right at once, which is a gutsy move for someone delving so deep into K'un Lun history in just the second issue. We see Davos, we see the Thunderer, we see Shou-Lao, we see more Iron Fist origin, etc. It's kind of stunning all presented in there and it shows a lot of guts to hope that readers who may not know all of this will understand it as we push forward and that they'll stick with the book long enough to see how it fits together or where it's going. Still, the story itself is something of a mystery but what we need to know now is that there's discontent in K'un Lun and that someone somehow related to its past is transformed and attacking. It's an interesting story but we'll have to see where it goes now. 4/5

Character
There's a bit more to Danny revealed here particularly as Andrews ekes out the last bit of his childhood origin in this issue and as we get a slightly better sense of his voice through the narration and the way he views himself. We also get a quick tutorial in the way Davos thinks, which will undoubtedly be important, and we get a quick look at the new Yu-Ti (new-ish, anyway. I think this is one of the first times we've seen him acting as Yu-Ti). There are moving parts all around here and the story is at the forefront so there's maybe a little less character than the first issue's initial information dump but there's still a bit here to learn about. You can't expect every issue to come with major revelations. 4/5

Writing
The tone, helped along by the art and the color, is decidedly dark and hectic, all of which comes through pretty strongly here. Andrews deciding not to go into tons of detail about who these characters are and how their lives fit together may be a somewhat risky move in terms of keeping readers onboard but it makes sense as far as establishing a frantic tone and keeping an air of mystery to the book. It's a clever move, we'll just have to see if it pays off as we continue. 4/5

Art
Andrews' art continues to be pretty outstanding and the colors really help to set the tone effectively. The switches between looking at the present and looking at Danny's past are made more interesting and made easier to see as Andrews switches art forms a little bit and switches color palettes while also giving the past sections a more classic comic book faded feel. It's effective and it's useful to establish what's going on in a book that can come off so chaotic at times, intentional or not. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Another strong issue though there are real concerns about how vague and cryptic Andrews is going to be as we push forward. Obviously way too early to tell if this is a real concern just yet.

Total score: 4/5

Original Sin 1

Original Sin 1
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopolous (l)

The Watcher has been murdered, a hole blown into his forehead and his eyes removed, and it's up to the original Nick Fury and a few of the other heroes out there to find out why and by whom. Thor discovered the body and immediately alerted fellow Avengers Iron Man and Captain America, who in turn told Fury, Black Widow, and Wolverine (all of whom were enjoying a nice dinner together, members of, presumably, the pals of Fury club). Also working the case from a different angle is a ragtag team consisting of Black Panther, Ant-Man (Lang), Moon Knight, Winter Soldier, Gamora, Emma Frost, Dr. Strange, and Punisher and assembled by a mysterious shadowy figure. Meanwhile, back on Earth, a Mindless One has encountered Thing and Spider-Man in New York wielding the Ultimate Nullifier that was in the Watcher's armory and claiming that he has seen too much. After the Mindless One ultimately nullifies himself, Thing reports in to Cap about what he said. It seems like plenty of people will be seeing too many sins too soon.

Story
This is a tough one to judge story on if just because we've known the general plot of ORIGINAL SIN for months now but Aaron and company still need to address it. It's no easy chore to write a story where just about everyone reading already knows the first act (thanks again SOLICITS, and also press interviews but WHO KNOWS much of this would have come out already if the solicits didn't exist) and Aaron does a commendable job getting it out of the way here. Still, more questions will have to be answered before we can actually call this a worthy story. Of course, it's not the job of the first issue to answer every question a story can have. Look, what I'm saying is that it's hard to judge the story on this one. 4/5

Character
Events are particularly hard to judge character (I'm just going to make excuses the whole way through, apparently) because events are driven by plot. To a point, those plots can be driven by the characters involved, i.e., Civil War (driven very much by who Cap is, who Tony is, etc.), but by and large the focus is on a big and sweeping story. As such, it's incredibly difficult to insert too many meaningful character beats because there isn't enough time and, typically, there are just too many characters. There's a little development for the Fury's pals club as they reminisce and a little development for Black Panther as he reacts to information from the mystery figure but everyone else is incredibly bare bones, presumably out of space concerns. Still, hard not to look at the team I listed in the summary and not read it as simply a line-wide advertisement. Is it an intriguing team? Sure. But each one, very randomly pulled together with particular outsiders Moon Knight (possibly crazy), Winter Soldier (thought dead by most), and Gamora (unknown by just about everyone on the planet), seems hand-picked not for their stealth or mercenary or brutal ways (though, sure, they share that) but for representation of seemingly every single book out there right now. Thing and Spider-Man even get a nod because I guess we hadn't swept in the Fantastic Four or the Spider-Man universe yet. I'm not saying that the team is bad or that they're uninteresting or a bad fit for the job, but it's hard not to view this as simply a huge push for tie-ins and advertising and that stings pretty bad. 2/5

Writing
Aaron has a lot of ground to cover here in explaining a tiny bit about the Watcher for those who didn't pick up ORIGINAL SIN 0 or who don't know him well anyway and then killing him off and getting all his pieces moved into place in this roughly double sized issue (full of double page spreads). He does the job well enough and, though I think we're maybe keeping a few too many cards close to the chest (I've grown to rather hate the "someone is talking to a shadowy figure and that someone knows who the shadowy figure is but the audience CAN'T" trope because I simply don't understand it. I understand its purpose but I can't accept the logistics of it). 4/5

Art
Deodato's art is ever Deodato's art. It's clean, skillful, and tends to make up for its lack of emotion with strength of action. Sadly, there's not a lot of action here, bar the fight between Thing and the Mindless One, and plenty of room for emotion. Deodato is an incredibly talented artist but I remember seeing interviews that were talking about how he was picked particularly because of his ability to draw just about anyone identifiably and to work fast, a necessity to keep up the pacing of the event. I think Deodato's a strong choice for artist on an event but it's getting a little hard not to read that as "time constraints were more important in this situation than finding the best fit." That's probably not fair but it's also not something I'd have considered if not for the points I brought up in the character section and for the price tag on this first issue, which I'll talk about more in just a sec. 4/5

Miscellaneous
This book, first of the eight-issue double-shipping four-month event, retails for 4.99 and, although it's another extra-size book, it's hard not to look at this with the same cynical eyes as, say, the recent AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1. ASM was a huge book, probably worth the 5.99 price tag it held, but I mentioned in my review of that book that I think a show of good faith sort of move, keeping the book at 3.99, would have allowed more people to buy it and get involved while also garnering praise for releasing so much without a price hike despite the recent move to bump all books to 3.99. I think this is the same situation: the onus should be on Marvel to get us to buy into their event and physically buy their event, not on us to need to keep up with the Marvel Universe for whatever price they may put the lynchpins at. We're off to a rocky start so far and it's nothing to do with the story behind ORIGINAL SIN just yet. Right now, it's hard not to look at this new event and see it as everything people complain about when they complain about events: money-grubbing and devoid of substance.

Total score: an extremely wary 3/5

Comics this week

With the premiere of several newish books, including Marvel's big summer event, what books will make the cut for ones to be excited about? Let's talk about it.

Black Widow 6
Natasha has been captured by the forces of the indestructible man but has also learned that whoever it is she's after has even someone purportedly indestructible in hiding. More pressing matters first, though, as Natasha will have to find her way out of captivity before she can figure out why.

Cyclops 1
Readers of the blog know I'm not a big fan of the original X-Men being in the present and I'm not a big fan of Cyclops as a character in general, so perhaps this pick is a bit of a strange one. The real reason I'm picking this is that it'll be written by Greg Rucka, who has a lot of talent and an extremely impressive resume. Hopefully he can make us care about this series.

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2
After an exciting and rather gorgeous first issue that delved into both Danny's power and his childhood, I'm excited to see where Kaare Andrews takes the immortal Iron Fist next. Probably K'un-Lun, right? Yeah, I think I'm right. Very excited.

Moon Knight 3
Boy, some really good art out there this week. BLACK WIDOW, IRON FIST, and MOON KNIGHT are all among my regularly cited for great art (albeit IRON FIST has only had one issue so far). Anyway, this series is going pretty well so far with a pair of gorgeous and really thought-provoking if not entirely haunting first issues. Excited to see where Ellis, Shalvey, and Bellaire take it this time.

Original Sin 1
Can't have a new event kick off without a little anticipation. We'll see where this one takes us as the MU prepares to be thrown into some sort of chaos. INFINITY, the last major event in the MU, was a pretty good one all the way through but it didn't go far enough to restore my confidence in events. FEAR ITSELF, AVX, and AGE OF ULTRON have done a bit too much damage to be restored by one impressive event. Let's see if we can get two in a row.

Guys

We didn't even talk about how X-FORCE 4 started with Fantomex chasing a cat-related person who didn't want anything to do with him in an issue called "Le Pew." I was laughing out loud even before the name came, then it just got better.