Quick thoughts on emerging Comic-Con news

Avengers: Age of Ultron

That's the official name of the second Avengers movie, slated for release in the first half of 2015. I'm...torn about this. We've gotten hints about things like this with Vin Diesel rumored to be playing Vision in the Avengers 2, which led to speculation about Ultron being a villain in the movie. Also, Marvel had long ago announced Ant Man would be getting his own movie, which opened the door to Ultron's creation. Ultron's an impressive villain and gives us plenty to talk about, especially in recent days where Marvel AI is getting some interesting storylines. So it'll probably be a good movie. Don't forget, Joss Whedon is still set to direct.

However, I've been pretty vocal on this blog about my dissatisfaction with Marvel's recent Age of Ultron event. It was long, it was boring, there was a lot of grandstanding about reality-warping and what-not. If it's based on that, I'm going to be a bit disappointed. None of this, of course, would ever stop me from going, but these are my quick thoughts on it. I can't imagine they'll make a movie just like this story; it's too complex for average moviegoers and, I say again, too boring for comic fan moviegoers. Guys, that event was pretty boring. Still, let's all cross our fingers and hope for the best. Still a lot of time before the release even approaches.

Captain America: Winter Soldier

I'm actually hurting inside because I can't see all of this footage. I'm hearing it described and it sounds amazing. It also sounds like Marvel and the directors and writers had a vision for this movie and that they're really executing. The cast is supposedly pretty huge and I think it's going to do a great job pulling everything in and really tightening up the superhero universe while expanding it enough to allow for new additions (like Falcon, who sounds awesome). Very, very exciting. Can't wait to see more about it as we move closer to next April.

Thor: The Dark World

Honestly haven't seen much about this. Tom Hiddleston came on stage and people apparently went nuts. That's all I know. QUICK THOUGHTS, GUYS, JUST SOME QUICK THOUGHTS.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Seems interesting enough. That's another one with a big cast. We have a big team and a slew of villains. Karen Gillan shaved her head for this one. Pretty weird.


Final quick thoughts

Marvel countered the news that DC is planning a Batman/Superman team-up movie for 2015, a possible Flash movie for 2016, and finally a Justice League movie for 2017 by revealing actual footage and making people remember that we all love these movies pretty unequivocally. Also, by the time a Justice League movie would come out, Marvel will be well into, if not coming out of, Phase III, with a probable Avengers 3. Hard to compete. Marvel's really going for it and they're not wasting time doing it. Beautifully done. Chris Evans apparently said it best: "It turns out Marvel knows what they're doing."

Thanos Rising 4, What If...AvX 2

Thanos Rising 4
Aaron (w) and Bianchi and Pieruccini (a) and Svorcina (c)

Thanos is getting closer and closer to the Thanos we know today and it's all been at the urging of his mysterious would-be lover. He ravages world after world in the hopes that someday it will be enough to please her but she insists that he should be nothing short of a god and so no amount of worlds will ever be enough. Finally the truth comes to light for Thanos: the woman is not a real person, rather it is Death itself. He's horrified to find this but still, he's come this far, so he insists that she love him even if it means killing his own homeworld.

I don't know how much I like this recast of Thanos. It works fine, sure, and I don't know enough about Thanos to say that he wasn't a perfectly fine, inquisitive little boy at first, egged on by Death. The twist here is definitely scores better than the way the series had been pointing otherwise, which meant that a woman drove Thanos to become the universe's biggest murderer, taking blame somewhat off him and putting it on to her. At least here it's kind of saying "of course Death was behind this, Death is the only one who profits from Thanos." Still, in a way, it takes the blame a little bit off Thanos and that's a bit strange, all said. I suppose we like our villains more complicated now but I'm not sure it's really done that. Instead, I think it's complicated him less in the guise of complicating him more. Instead of killing machine with ever-unknown motives, we have a killing machine who is killing simply to kill and that's a little strange, right? Of course, they have to give him a deeper background as we launch into Infinity and, of course, as we'll start to see him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe not too long from now. I guess no other origin would have worked so neatly for Thanos and would have tied him so irrevocably to death as actually tying him so irrevocably to Death. Still, it feels a little weak and, if you haven't noticed from my faffing about here, I can't quite put my finger on what it is. One issue left in the miniseries as Thanos turns towards Titan and, likely, back towards Earth.

What If...AvX 2
Palmiotti (w) and Molina and N. Lee w/ Magyar (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Magneto has destroyed the helicarrier holding all of the Avengers while the Phoenix continues to rush towards Earth. The Avengers fare somewhat well, truth told, despite the helicarrier crumpling. They lose Falcon and Colleen Wing, both of whom I like very much but, frankly, it seems like it could have been a lot worse. Meanwhile, Magneto goes with Hope and Emma to the moon to await the Phoenix while Namor sort of kills Wolverine by beating him up pretty well and throwing him underwater, presumably not giving him a chance to heal. Cyclops and Iron Man shout a bit at one another but Cap directs their attention away, preferring to team up against Magneto and his plans over anything else. Up in space, the AvX space strike-team encounters the Phoenix and, as before, falls to it. However, in this reality, Hope takes on the Phoenix herself on the moon.

This one definitely moves better than the last. I still have some issues with the conceit of this changed reality, wherein Magneto and Namor snap so suddenly and are willing to kill the Avengers so readily. However, burying that a bit now that it's set and we're looking at this issue as it fits into this story, this reality is now playing out differently as Cyclops removes himself a little before the Phoenix attack to presumably ask what he and his X-Men have become if they're this willing to kill Avengers. It still, obviously, remains to be seen what the X-Men will think when a full-strength Phoenix comes back to Earth (in AvX, the full-strength Phoenix only appeared before the real events of the book and at the very end, when Scott went crazy and killed Xavier) but at least we're firmly on this track now and the book is stuttering a little less because of it. Some of the characters still feel a little copy-pasted and it's hard to pull a real identity out for many of them, which is a flaw now and could be a greater one going forward, though I don't think this series will go on long enough to delve too deeply into character for it to matter too much, but the art is pretty great and the story is now at least a bit more of a reasonable "what if" as, instead of asking "what if Magneto and Namor went a bit crazy and killed some of the Avengers before AvX," it's now asking "what if Hope did take on the Phoenix on the moon?" Better question to ask, really.

Deadpool 13, Nova 6, Thunderbolts 13

Deadpool 13
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Koblish (a) and Staples (c)

It's another flashback issue for Deadpool as we get a brand new story from Deadpool's made-up past, this one placing him in the '70s and trying to ingratiate himself with Luke Cage and Iron Fist as the Heroes for Hire. Along the way, he beats up some random people on the street and in the bathroom, he annoys the Heroes for Hire, and he follows predictable plot point to predictable plot point. The issue ends, like the last flashback, with the reveal that the villain he defeated in the past is coming back out of the woodwork to fight in the present.

I've had no limit of problems with this series but I had somewhat higher hopes for this one. The last flashback issue was better than, I think, most of the issues of this series so far, and this Deadpool is at his best when there are other heroes around because they can play straight man to him. Despite that, the issue drags like crazy and is so stalled by all its references to life in the '70s and its desire to nudge you with its elbow as if to say "do you get it? This is a part of Marvel history! Deadpool knows it!" that it negates any good bits from the Heroes for Hire, instead boiling them down to the over-the-top blaxploitation attitude Luke Cage was back then and spending way too much time comparing Iron Fist's iron fist to predictable sex jokes. Predictable is the word I need to keep coming back to because, although the jokes aren't for me, I get that the jokes are supposed to be what's driving this book. You don't choose a comedian to co-write this without making sure it focuses on jokes. So people who are fans of this book could rage at me all they want about how we're not here for the plot, we're here because it's funny, and I'd still deny that in both parts. First, if you're just here for the jokes, why does this have to be a full-fledged series that will run through, at least, two years of issues (they've confirmed it will at least run through issue 21 already, giving me the sense that this book is doing pretty well) doing nothing but cracking jokes with the occasional plot point? Why couldn't that have just been some sort of mini or something that happens in the back of a real issue of Deadpool or something? More than that, though, the jokes are entirely predictable, seen from a mile away and created so awkwardly by supporting characters that they don't give any semblance of cleverness or with to Deadpool, just the guy who keeps yelling "that's what she said!" to inevitably hit on a real one at some point. Why am I reading this book? More to the point, why are you reading this book? Deadpool's an interesting character with seemingly real stories to tell (granted, not as interesting as some of the other characters in the long haul, but he's more popular so whatever) and we're throwing that away by encouraging this series. The art was pretty spot on here though. Nice touch.

Nova 6
Wells (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

We appear to be up to full present as Nova has defeated Titus and established himself as the new Nova in this universe and he's now officially, in this series, been asked to join the Avengers by Thor (hearkening back to AvX, which will seemingly still not leave us alone). He's also been gone for some time, though, as his mother has been worrying about him non-stop. He returns home to a lecture and to misinterpret a lesson from his mother before flying off again to be Nova in New York.

Bit of a break issue here for Nova as new writer Zeb Wells hops on to the book and establishes his own voice for the character. I will say, I liked this issue more than I've liked previous issues and it seems thanks to the new tone. It feels like a better written teenage character, which is such an important and difficult voice to nail down when you're not a teenager yourself. It often comes off as the stereotypical kind of teenager that you see in TV and movies that doesn't quite give you the sense of being a real person. Gillen and McKelvie are doing a great job over on Young Avengers with it but they also have plenty of characters to bounce back and forth between. Here it's even more difficult because Nova has to find a nice voice and keep it with no one to fall back on. If even one of the Young Avengers isn't written well (purely hypothetical, they're all written well), we would still have good characters surrounding them. Here, Marvel has invented a brand new teenage character and given no support system while he finds his feet. Wells' voice seems less predictable and a little more childlike while still maintaining the personality that Loeb left for him. This one is definitely an issue meant to reset us a bit, now that we're aware Nova can mostly handle his Nova powers and he's finished his first big fight, and to set up our next arc in very vague terms. Sam wants to go help the world as Nova and he might actually be able to do it. I'll be interested to see where this one goes.

Thunderbolts 13
Soule (w) and Noto (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Finally we get some answers about the mysterious Mercy in this issue as Flash confronts her and, finding that a little out of his league, goes and confronts Ross about her. Her origin is still pretty covered up, though Ross reveals to Flash that she was a regular-Hulk enemy back in the day (and a Wikipedia check confirms it, you guys) before going on to explain how he dug her up and why he brought her along. The conceit of Mercy is that she is incredibly powerful and she tries to help people who can't help themselves. Sounds good, but the "helping people" bit is more "helping people who want to die but don't have the strength to kill themselves" than it is "find somebody a job" or something. Her power levels are pretty through the roof and Ross admits to Flash that she's on the team because he wants to be able to keep an eye on her but, in truth, she might be more than he can handle.

It's an interesting issue and it starts to bring out a lot of new information for this team, which is useful. In addition to learning a little bit about Mercy's powers and her goals, we get a very brief look into why she's staying here, if she's more powerful than Red Hulk. He thinks that it's because she simply hasn't realized yet that she has a bit of the upperhand here but it seems more driven by her own goals than that. She tells Flash at the start of the issue that he's not interesting to her any more, explaining that she would have helped him commit suicide when he was at his lowest in life, when he considered it. Now he doesn't consider it (which is at the root of Ross' argument against her; everyone can have a bad day, week, year, etc. and be at the end of their rope but it doesn't mean people don't pull through it) but it seems like she's still interested in the rest of the team. It not only gives us more interest in Mercy, it really makes you look at the rest of the team that Ross has assembled. At first, they were all just stone-cold mercenaries, right for the job and willing to do whatever it took. Now, knowing that Mercy has interest in them, it's hard not to see them as the darkness they each have inside of themselves. Really interesting way to recast the team and give us a little bit more as we push forward. Good issue, solid series building.

Cable and X-Force 11, Uncanny X-Force 7, X-Factor 259

Cable and X-Force 11
Hopeless (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

Cable's been taken prisoner by the Uncanny Avengers but it's okay, this issue isn't about that anyway. Before he went down, he divided up his team to accomplish goals to prevent visions he'd had. Domino and Boom Boom are first on the docket and need to kidnap a child from a hospital before his mutation kicks in, which Cable has foreseen will liquify the hospital, killing a bunch of people. The two have to audible a few times as, in true Cable and X-Force fashion, things don't go according to plan. Meanwhile, Hope wakes up in a possible future the Blaquesmith has brought her to so that she can understand why Cable's going through what he's going through.

This book continues to be strong in that it's one of Marvel's best at characterizing its team. Not only has it already set that precent by really hammering home what I talked about in my Avengers Assemble review this week: the team acts like a team and everyone has a voice. That's been true throughout the series and now, as we focus on just two members of the team (outside of the Hope storyline, who is characterized in her own way there) and, to boot, two members of the team who have a longstanding relationship. The two talk naturally (though they do pretty thoroughly fail the Bechdel Test) and with the confidence that a real relationship brings while executing the mission in their very different ways. It leads their talk to a lot of different places, including the subject of Domino's relationship with Colossus (which is all Boom Boom wants to talk about) and examinations of who the two characters are through the way they handle adversity. We get a little of their past and a little of their present mixed with their reactions to situations and to one another. It's a solid look into these two all with the backdrop of a nice X-Force story. Really looking forward to the others in this arc if they're going to be structured in a similar way.

Uncanny X-Force 7
Humphries (w) and Alphona and Talajić (a) and Sotomayor and Loughridge (c)

Psylocke and Cluster have been taken captive by Weapon XIII in the hopes that he will be able to woo Betsy into loving him the way he loves her and the way she loved Fantomex (when the three brains were in one body). We get a bit more of the past as we find out how the rift developed between then and now, when she was so happy with Cluster (again failing the Bechdel Test) and when things broke apart, and we hear Weapon XIII's version of the story, which involves him telling her that he loves her more than Fantomex and Cluster ever could, that he loves and respects her as an equal, not as a prize to be held, and so on. We also get a better look at XIII's powers as his misdirect is hugely amplified now that he's free of the nanites that kept their powers in some sort of check (those nanites went to Fantomex; I'd love to see a list of what abilities went to whom, get that out of the way). Psylocke has the opportunity to stop Weapon XIII, or either of the other Fantomexes for that matter. Will she take it?

I like aspects of this story and I'm interested in a lot of it. I'm not an expert on Psylocke's long and complicated past; I'm most familiar with her in the last few years, as a member of X-Force and the X-Men. However, this new Psylocke is a strange one to get a grasp on. In the time I've seen her, she's been pretty independent and strayed pretty far from games. Here, though, she's being toyed with in the very least by someone and it seems like she's allowing everyone in turn to bend her to what they want her to be, which is a little disconcerting for her character. I really would like a list of the powers and personalities that went to the other Fantomexes because it feels like everything was divided up but it's a bit uneven at this point and I'd like to just know, especially as it feels like it's not going to be clearly revealed for some time, at least. It also feels like the Fantomexes are, as right now, fairly one dimensional, which was never true in the other X-Force book. Maybe that's a result of their three brains splitting into three people but, if that is the case, it makes each individual less interesting, which is depressing. Also, I get that Weapon XIII is in love with Betsy, but isn't that brain the one that's programmed to hunt mutants? I was always under the impression that the other two brains had to keep that one massively in check when they were in one body but maybe it's easier than it seems. Who knows. I wish I did.

X-Factor 259
David (w) and someone (a) and Milla (c)

First, a major complaint. Who is working on this book? The cover shows that Leonard Kirk is the illustrator, the cover page of the book says it's Carmen Carnero and Jay Leisten and my new comic list shows it as Neil Edwards and David Yardin. So I have no idea who drew this book. I probably could do a little more research, see their styles or whatever, or even google around, but I'm not going to. I don't like to come off as more professional than whoever assembled the book. Just madder than them. Anyway, let's talk about this book that was definitely written by Peter David and probably colored by Matt Milla. Rictor and Shatterstar had been blasted somewhere by Mephisto in the Hell on Earth storyline's conclusion and now we get to find out where. They've apparently been blasted to the Mojoverse, but that's not all. Rictor's been fighting for Mojo's broadcasts and trying to wait for a way out. Finally one's presented as an opponent of his ends up being Shatterstar, devoid of his memory of Rictor, and as Longshot, also not remembering Rictor, appears with some rebels to rescue Star, taking Rictor along with them. Yes, it's confusing. But it gets more confusing as we realize that we're not only displaced in space but also in time. We finally get the origin of both Shatterstar and Longshot and boy is it weird and involves a good deal of time travel and strange parentage. The issue itself doesn't really leave us with a great impression of what's going to become of Rictor and Shatterstar (and Longshot but he's not really our time's Longshot anyway) but it's possible they'll get where they need to be off-camera.

Outside of the book's confusion on the artist, the story itself is fairly interesting and finally clears up something that X-Factor fans have likely been wondering about for some time now (I wasn't because, honestly, I jumped onboard to the series in the last couple years and kind of just fell into the idea that I didn't actually know Longshot or Shatterstar's past beyond the basics and that I didn't totally need it; they were still fully fleshed out characters and their past was kind of irrelevant to what I had learned of their personalities). Still, it certainly must clear up a lot of questions that it likely asks several more and boy, there's nothing more confusing than talking about the lineage of time travelers, is there? Maybe this was a poor time to start tightening up my summaries. The end of the issue was a bit of a let-down as nothing really feels resolved the story feels kind of over anyway. Next time it looks like we'll focus on what's going on with Polaris as she has some sort of interaction with half-brother Quicksilver. Should be interesting as Polaris has been kind of the dark-horse of the family lately and her relationship with Magneto has gotten weirder in recent issues.

All-New X-Men 14, Savage Wolverine 7, Wolverine MAX 9

All-New X-Men 14
Bendis (w) and Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

When we last saw the All-New X-Men, Jean seemed to be losing control of her powers under the illusion of Lady Mastermind. Instead, here, we find that she was intentionally making herself seem like Dark Phoenix to scare their attackers and didn't mean for her team to see the illusion. She apologizes to the team, who doesn't seem to have any trouble taking down the rest of the attackers but it still takes the majority of the issue to actually finish the fight. As they do, the Uncanny Avengers again turn up to either lecture or congratulate them as SHIELD again loses Mystique.

It seems here like Bendis does have a sense of who his characters are in a pretty general sense (Ice Man is the goofball, Hank is the smart but fun one, Scott doesn't like to speak, Jean is the important one) but the series is putting him into a weird spot where he doesn't actually have to build the characters because they're staples of the Marvel Universe and so all he has to do is put in some punchy dialogue while he gets to tell the stories he wants to tell with them. It's especially useful to him because these characters were originally written by Stan Lee back when he was writing about a million other books and people were reading more for the stories and the novelty than for the depth of character so their characters didn't have to go beyond the stereotypes. What's obnoxious now, though, is that we're well out of that time and I do care about characters being developed and I'm not seeing it beyond the "boy, Jean sure is powerful before she should be powerful" storyline. On top of that, I continue to not care for Bendis' Captain America, who always seems angry and unapproachable. Also, I tend not to like and/or trust SHIELD as is but they couldn't hold a prisoner for like, five minutes. How is ANYTHING this incompetent beyond as an obvious plot device?

Savage Wolverine 7
Wells (w) and Madureira (a) and Steigerwald (c)

Wolverine and Elektra are heading for the Arbiters in the hopes that they'll arrive before Bullseye's been awakened. Things aren't what they seem, though, as they run into two high-ranking members of the Arbiters and/or of the Hand (not super specific but suffice it to say they're attached). One, the blind truthsayer Mikaru gives warning of the other, the mute giant Shikaru. Once the battle starts with Shikaru, it doesn't end until one is dead. Wolverine happily jumps into that one as Elektra talks with Mikaru, learning that perhaps they've been deceived by Kingpin after all.

Don't let the short description fool you, plenty happens in this issue. First and foremost, I want to compare these two issues to the first five issues of this series. I feel like so much has happened and we've gotten so much understanding of who Wolverine is (nothing particularly revelatory, no, but more to people just diving into the character than we did in the first arc all together) in just two short issues. On top of that, the issues aren't half dedicated to showing as much flesh of the female character as possible, which was pretty much all I took away from the first arc. Yes Elektra still has a fairly skimpy costume but it's not paraded about in the same way that Shanna was in Cho's art. Instead, I would say this art is nearly perfect and amazing for this situation. The art and the colors both work beautifully to show the darkness and the red (particularly) of the situation while still straying away from the grittiness that tends to follow Wolverine where ever he goes. Far fewer browns and grays and more reds and blacks. Granted, the book follows Elektra fighting the Hand, all of whom are heavily red, but the book is still pretty gorgeous all the same. Wolverine's character is being nicely built here as he, like he tends to, begins to expound on his berserker rage and what it means to him and whether or not it's a curse, the extent to which it's a help and to which it's a hindrance. The best moment, though, is when Mikaru warns that locking eyes with Shikaru is a death sentence and gives an impressive speech that's cut off when Wolverine hurls a rock at Shikaru's head. As Shikaru turns around angrily, Wolverine points to his own eyes and says "right here." Perfect Wolverine moment. Solid issue. Pretty great twist of the plot and it casts Kingpin as the crafty puppet-master we know him as rather than the man trying to protect himself from Bullseye. Really nice to see the book becoming something greater than what it had been.

Wolverine MAX 9
Starr (w) and Boschi (a) and D. Brown (c)

Wolverine still doesn't know anything about his past and his only hope, it seems, is a note he found in LA that told him to go to Vegas. On his way there, his bike gets a flat and he has to stop. He helps a man in a diner from some thugs and inner monologues about killing them vs. warning them and so on and so forth. Back on the road the next night, finally, he senses he's being followed and pulls off to stop the guy, only to learn the man is mysteriously tied to his immediate present and somehow to his past.

For how much inner monologue there is in this series, there's not a lot of characterization happening. Part of the obvious problem is that Wolverine doesn't know anything about himself so everything he considers doing is tinged with the idea that maybe his past self wouldn't have done it or maybe his past self would have done it faster and so on. Still, at the present, we're left with a shell of a character who doesn't know if the decisions he makes are in character or not and who doesn't really understand what he's trying to do at any given time, only knowing that he wants to find out more. There's sort of a story here in that Wolverine is trying to find more and he keeps running into people who know a bit about his past (like Sabretooth in the first arc and the gentleman who appears in this one) but he doesn't seem to know anything more about himself than he did when we started this book. In some ways, that might be interesting, but here it's such a slow reveal and it might be impeded by the fact that the audience probably knows who he is. We're not waiting for Wolverine to figure out who he is, we know about Wolverine's past. Even if this is a different universe (at least a few of the MAX titles are technically different continuities) we probably have some idea of who this guy is so we're not exactly roped into the intrigue of what he's dealing with, making the main mystery, the thing that really drives this story, fairly boring. On the other hand, Jock did the cover and Jock covers are pretty amazing.

Morbius the Living Vampire 7, Superior Carnage 1, Ultimate Spider-Man 25

Morbius the Living Vampire 7
Keatinge (w) and De Landro and Ruiz (a) and Fabela (c)

After the attack by Nikoleta Harrow last issue to steal parts for the Rose's new Ultimate Nullifier from Horizon Labs, Spider-Man and Morbius are on the offensive. Of course, it's not as much offense as they'd like as they're still being set up by Harrow and Rose but it's a start, right? They manage to track Harrow where she informs them that the plan is already set in motion and can't be stopped and, most of all, can't be stopped by them. In fact, she plans to use Morbius as a scapegoat for what's about to come next as Rose, with his new Ultimate Nullifier, sets his sights on Brownsville.

I'm trying this week, in case you didn't notice in the first post of yesterday, to cut down on summary to avoid too many spoilers while also giving enough to let us talk about it all. But BOY, this one seems especially cut down, doesn't it? Well that's kind of because that's pretty much all that happens in this issue. It seems short but it reads relatively well. In fact, I think it's probably about the strongest issue of the series yet. Still, there are things about it that I can't quite put my finger on but hey, let's try it out. There's a scene where Morbius turns on the super science for a minute to help Spider-Man create a device that blocks out his spidey sense to stop Harrow from manipulating it as she had before. I'll grant you that Morbius is a talented scientist so it kind of fits in that respect, but it comes in the midst of a book that has hardly acknowledged that fact throughout and it kind of treats the sciences as interchangeable. I'm not particularly well-versed in Morbius but I was pretty sure he was a different sort of scientist, especially since his start in science was to help him cure his own rare blood disease (which, of course, backfired, leaving us where we are now). Add to that the fact that Morbius still flips between brooding and cracking jokes (it might not even be cracking jokes so much as it is relieving tension) and there's a real disconnect within this character. Maybe it's waved away by saying it's the disconnect between the vampirish thing he is and the human he was, but I have my doubts that's the explanation. Still, the art is solid and helps carry the issue (though boy is Morbius always super ugly) and the story seems to want to go somewhere. We'll let it get there before the book ends, I suppose.

Superior Carnage 1
Schinick (w) and Segovia (a) and Ramos (c)

After his last appearance fighting Venom and Scarlet Spider, Cletus Kasady is pretty damaged. Scarlet Spider isn't really one to pull punches, even if Venom is, and he certainly didn't pull his punches against Kasady. Still, the prison he's brought to holds Carnage in high esteem and awaits the day that he returns. The first half of the book is narrated by a white collar criminal in the prison (thanks to Mayor Jameson's weird treatment of the prison system) who is terrified of everyone there and no one more than Carnage. When he dies mid-book (look, I don't think it's a spoiler that Carnage killed a a throwaway, unpowered character since that's pretty much all he ever does), we've gotten pretty much all the background we've needed. Now we're left to find out what engineered Carnage's predictable breakout. It's revealed that the Wizard is behind it, attempting to reform the Frightful Four with Carnage as the cornerstone in both a grasp at power and a way to impress Bentley-23.

Carnage is, as always, an incredibly brutal book. When Venom loses control of himself as Venom and the symbiote goes crazy, killing whatever is trying to hold it back, we all hold our breath and wait for Flash our whoever else to get it under control again. Carnage is that but all the time, with no regard for life and no filter; Cletus Kasady doesn't seem to have sway over Carnage now, his brain battered into disfunction, but even when he was in control he was a raging psychopath. Now it seems like it's all Carnage, all the time. That somehow makes it more worrisome. The book starts off a little on the weaker side, giving us the throwaway character and making us deal with him, knowing he's not likely to get out of the issue alive. On top of that, there's a weird fascination in the writing with how often he soils himself. The Carnage art is pretty solid, as usual, though often hard to watch. Wizard is an interesting choice as our mastermind and his idea of the Frightful Four is worth keeping up with. I'll be curious to see how this one plays out.

Ultimate Spider-Man 25
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

Miles is still having trouble wrapping his head around becoming Spider-Man again. Gwen is mad at him and texts Ganke about the run-in with Cloak and Dagger at the restaurant, making Ganke even more mad at him. Miles can't talk to his girlfriend Kate about it and is still unable to process all the information himself. Meanwhile, Cloak and Dagger are still out in the world somewhere and we get a little more of their backstory as we see a little bit more from the scientists who created them only a week before our story. Finally, Jessica Drew pays another visit to Miles to explain the connection between the two of them, Cloak and Dagger, and so many others.

One of the things you have to kind of come to terms with reading Bendis' books is that there are a lot of words and a very deliberate pace to the plot, which is a nicer way for me to say that Bendis has a lot of waste issues and I still don't care for his style of dialogue. I will say that he very clearly cares about these characters and wants them to act in the way that he thinks they would. I think one of the flaws that comes with that rapid-fire style of back-and-forth dialogue is that no one ends up with a particularly well-defined personality and every personality type kind of bleeds together as people just echo one another. I know I complain about this all the time but it really does hurt the book more than it helps. I think back on books like New Avengers where I really enjoyed this sort of back-and-forth at the Avengers dinner table (though even then I was aware that there were real throwaway issues) but I wonder if I'd go back and feel the same way. I'm not going to actually do that, but I do wonder about it. Still, Miles' break is coming to its end and we're bound to string the Cloak and Dagger story along a bit more but at least Spider-Man is likely to be there.

Fantastic Four 10, FF 9

Fantastic Four 10
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Farmer (a) and Mounts (c)

The news is breaking now amongst the family that their powers are killing them. Sue is the newest member of the F4 to see her powers breaking down as her invisibility is on the fritz, making her skin invisible but not her internal organs and the like. Reed explains what's happening and what he's been doing and why he hasn't told them. As expected, it's not met well. Reed doesn't exactly have time for that, though, as he's decided that the breakdown of their powers isn't natural; it's an attack. The F4 end up in 1776 on the trail of a Skrull messing with the Declaration of Independence (oh, Skrulls). Now they have to deal with in-fighting, Skrulls, and power breakdowns all while trying to figure out how to save themselves.

Fraction has been pretty phenomenal at making this team feel like a family, which is at the heart of what makes the Fantastic Four different. It's not unlike what he's doing with the FF but this team is actually a family so it resonates a bit more. He's had them face petty squabbling, he's had them ignore one another, he's had them focus too much on one another, he's had them fight, he's had them love, and it all feels like a real family (to an extent, assuming your real family is headed up by the smartest man on Earth and he's maybe not that good at human emotions). That makes it particularly palpable when Val tells Reed that he's a jerk and she hates him. Of course, it's not all Fraction, it goes back to series past where we've built this relationship that Fraction inherited and, I think, improved on, but it's well engineered and it's the cornerstone of what makes this book interesting. Granted, we have an interesting plot all by itself with the degradation of their powers and with the added intrigue of it being an attack rather than the natural progression of their molecules, but it's firmly held together by the family itself. A Fantastic Four book can't work any other way.

FF 9
Fraction (w) and Quinones (a) and L. Allred (c)

The FF has been restored to the way it was at the start (with new additions to that team in Ahura and Luna of the Inhumans) for the first time since Alex ran off and Medusa was mind controlled. The entire group is invited to a pool party at Julian Enterprises by CEO Charles Cotta and, despite the strange circumstance, decide to find out what it's all about (and go swimming). Meanwhile, Bentley-23 is making a documentary in what he's decided is the style of Werner Herzog for an assignment She-Hulk gave them that required they understand another culture by talking with fellow FF members. He's chosen the Uhari, Vil and Wu. He decides that there's something dark and sinister to them and he wants to get to the bottom of it. While he makes his documentary at the pool party, Charles Cotta reveals to the adults of the FF that he's actually the alien who posed as Julius Caesar back in Fantastic Four 5 and he'd like to help the FF the way the F4 helped him.

It's another very entertaining issue. The kids of the FF are wholly interesting and well personalized but Fraction has clearly realized that Bentley-23 is the spirit of the group. He's essentially Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes but he's not ready to classify himself as a hero the way that Calvin instantly has. Here's the thing though: Calvin and Hobbes is great, so it's hard for Bentley not to be great. Add to that the previously hinted re-emergence of Caesar to the story and what options he brings the team with the F4 gone long past what they had assumed (we learn why in F4 10) and we have ourselves a solid story. I've liked Michael Allred's art in this book and Joe Quinones has done a great job whenever he's had the shot to fill in. Quinones emulates Allred's style well while also adding his own touches and flair to the story. I'm also a little biased towards Quinones as my girlfriend went to the same school he did and, guys, that's pretty cool, you know?