Thursday, October 24, 2013

New Comics!: The "Uncanny Avengers" Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Uncanny Avengers #10:  Reading this issue, I almost felt like Remender was talking about American politics, given the events of recent week.  Wanda wondering whether the violence is ever going to end with people like Apocalypse, Cyclops, and the Red Skull taking such extreme positions.  Moreover, she notes that she's essentially lost hope that it will because no one seems to care, talking about how the riots that the Red Skull inspired faded from the public's attention after two news-cycles.  Given that the shutdown is already a distant memory, Wanda's instincts here ring remarkably true.  Remender has done an excellent job of making you feel like you're reading events that are happening in reality and this issue's eerie parallels to American politics increases that feeling all the more.

Given how much I loved Remender's arc in "Captain America," I'm thrilled to see Steve talking about the repercussions of Dimension Z here.  However, it also made me realize that Steve was there for longer than he's been an Avenger (something that I think I read somewhere else in another review but only really realized here).  It continues to raise some interesting questions, particularly the idea that Steve is off his game at a time when the Avengers really can't afford it.

Along those lines, Remender does a great job of reminding us just how great of a threat the Twins are.  They've chose their Horsemen perfectly, though why they're attacking the specific Avengers remain unclear.  Why do the Twins need Wanda and Wonder Man?  Why do Havok need to be saved and Thor need to be removed?  Is Daken supposed to kill Logan?  We don't know the answers to those questions yet, though Daken (along with the other Horsemen) make it clear that the Twins themselves have those answers.  In fact, Daken does really make you wonder what weakness the Avengers could possibly exploit to defeat the Twins.


Uncanny Avengers #11:  Although it veers close to the bright burning sun of excessive narration, this issue does manage to give us a LOT of information.  We learn that Kang intervened in Eimin and Uriel's life in order to convince them to save mutantkind from its eventual massacre at the hands of the Red Skull.  To do so, he suggests removing them from Earth, for the selfish reason of removing future opposition to his eventual rule.  However, despite disagreeing with Kang's reasoning, the Twins come to accept the answer and create Planet X.  We learn that it's why they wanted Wanda and Simon, for her to perform the Rapture spell, using Simon's power to amplify her hex and whisk away mutants to Planet X.  Then, the Twins were be the gods who saved mutantkind.

Or, will they?

Remender places some doubt on the Twins' motives there, as we learn that it wasn't the Twins who ordered Thor to survive, but the Sentry himself.  (In fact, the Twins wanted Thor dead lest he stop the Rapture.)  The Sentry implies that he saved Thor to help save humanity, so some part of him seems through the Twins' words.  Are the Twins going to wipe out Earth once they "rescue" the mutants?  Are they really just trying to get the mutants to Planet X to harvest their energy or something?  Remender isn't saying.  Meanwhile, we still have other remaining mysteries, like Logan's role in this affair, since they do seem to be harvesting his energies, for an unclear purpose.

Curioser and curioser.

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