Not-So-New Comics: The February 21 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Infinity Countdown:  Prime #1:  It's probably easiest to describe the events of this issue by Infinity Stone, as the premise of this event is the struggle to unify the Stones.

- Space Gem:  A group of Ultrons -- including both robots and humanoids affected by the Ultron virus --  arrive on Earth to steal the Space Gem from Logan.  Unsurprisingly, they fail, though along the way we're treated to a teleporting Logan remarking how much fun "bamfing" is.  Loki then tries to convince Logan to hand over the gem to him, noting "things are a little different behind the scenes of this reality now."  (The reference to "behind the scenes" reminded me of Neil Gaiman's "American Gods.")  Loki is clearly referring to the rearrangement of reality in the wake of "Secret Wars," though he implies something about the structure of that reorganization would allow for it to be reorganized again fairly easily.  Logan smartly refuses Loki's overture.

- Reality Gem:  Our Captain Marvel has it, though it's a little unclear how she found it, as the narrator of this issue (more on him in a minute) says it wasn't in our reality.  I'm assuming it happened in her series.

- Power Gem:  The Guardians are still on the moon Xitaung, as Gamora tries to convince Peter to go after the Soul Gem since it contains a piece of her soul (which I didn't know).  Conversely, Peter wants to go after the guy who's turned Groot's old limbs into man-eating trees (which I also didn't know, in the sense that the mad Groots were his former limbs).  Seemingly unknown to them, the Chitauri (now ruled by Thanos) and the Fraternity of Raptors are en route to Xitaung to steal the Power Gem.

- Time Gem:  K'lrt apparently has it on Planet Sakaar, which totally bodes well.

- Soul Gem:  Adam Warlock awakens in 2018 (after the events of "Infinity Countdown:  Adam Warlock" #1), and we learn Magus has the Soul Gem.  The narrator of this issue is revealed to be a disembodied head I don't recognize (though who may be called the Contemplator), and he informs Magus that he (the Contemplator) made sure "greedy eyes" saw Magus' search for the Soul Gem.  Magus is expecting Thanos to try to take it from him, but it's Ultron who kills him (supposedly).  As a result, Hank Pym suddenly finds himself in the landscape of the Soul Gem, after the Contemplator told him "all may not be lost" for him.  In the Gem, the portion of Gamora's soul stuck there greets him.

Mind Gem:  It seems to be possession of a "Mr. Turk" on Earth, but I'm not 100 percent sure who that is.  (The epilogue refers to him as "Turk Barrett," an "Earth criminal.")

According to the epilogue, the colors of the Gems have switched and their forms changed with this ninth iteration of reality, though I'm not sure if Marvel is just acknowledging an error (and no-prizing it) or if they're hinting at a larger plot to be revealed during this event.  Either way, it doesn't really matter, since even I'm not that anal-retentive to care.  Overall, I feel like we're in a good place.  Despite the numbering, this issue is really the third issue of this event, after "All-New Guardians of the Galaxy" #150 and "Infinity Countdown:  Adam Warlock" #1.  If you haven't read them, I'd recommend getting your hands on them.  If you have, it seems like we're ready for a pretty solid ride.

Amazing Spider-Man #796:  Slott and Gage do great stuff here.  First, I love the focus on updated basics:  Liz as head of Alchemax, Flash as Anti-Venom, MJ as CEO of Stark Enterprises.  It’s an homage to a past that doesn’t feel like the past.  Moreover, Slott and Gage get down Peter’s relationship with MJ perfectly, in part because they set it back several steps; it’s like reading the early days of their relationship, except Peter’s the neurotic one this time.  If they're going to get together by issue #700, I really hope Slott gives us an issue focused on just the two of them talking through their issues, like Zdarsky did with JJJ, Jr. and Spider-Man in "Peter Parker:  The Spectacular Spider-Man" #6.  Also, the larger plot is great.  The Goblin King steals the tritium from “Amazing Spider-Man Annual” #42, which Liz was hoping to put to use as an energy source.  Even more disturbingly, Norman has Carnage purge the anti-Goblin nanites from his bloodstream, turning him fully into the Red Goblin.  “Epic” does seem too weak of a word at this point.

Astonishing X-Men #8:  This issue is pretty great.  (Seriously, comics are just killing it lately.)  Soule employs an arch voice here, as pretty much everyone gets in a sarcastic comment.  First, whoever X is, it’s pretty clear he’s not fully Xavier.  He spends most of the issue trying to distract the X-Men so they don't blame him for releasing Proteus.  The good news is, they’re not buying it.  Psylocke seems the most willing to believe him, but even she’s shaky.  (I loved the moment where Gambit expressed shock no one else was particularly worried when X remarks, “[Fantomex's] flesh was raw material."  Also, Logan and Raven flirting was awesome and disturbing at the same time.)  Logan thinks he and Archangel should just go and use their metal to take out Proteus (since it's his weakness), but Archangel expresses hope they can find another way (even though, as he acknowledges, he’s basically an Angel of Death).  X agrees, and he and Psylocke psychically visit Proteus, who appears as an red-headed Irish lord in a castle.  He makes a pretty compelling case that he deserves a second chance, since the first time the X-Men encountered him he was a ten-year-old who’d spent his entire life living in a cage his mother built.  (His entire monologue is filled with great zingers, like his tongue-in-cheek description of Moira as, “Lovely lady.  Wonderful parent.”)  He says the Shadow King stole his soul, and he’s spent thousands of years coming to adulthood on the Astral Plane.  (He acknowledges how scary of a concept that is, particularly with Farouk as his guide.)  He refuses to return to a cage and, showing how not Charles Xavier X is, X pulls two psychic guns on Kevin to end his threat.  Except, Kevin acts quicker and combines Charles and Psylocke physically and psychically.  They appear separately on the cover of issue #9, so hopefully they’ll work out that little problem before Proteus destroys London.

Avengers #681:  The most notable aspect of this issue is the purported origin of Voyager.  Her father was a scientist researching “quantum enlargement,” the idea that every particle has a counterpart that’s linked to it by faster-than-light forces.  However, his fascination with his work led him to neglect his family.  Her mother apparently decided to ask for a divorce not only while he was actively engaged in an experiment but also while Voyager herself was supposed to be waiting in the car.  Of course, she wasn’t actually in the car; she snuck into the lab, overheard the conversation and, in her grief, ran into the experiment.  She and her later father developed her new powers into teleportation powers.  She reveals here she wasn’t too devastated by getting lost in time because her parents (conveniently) died right before she was “lost,” leaving her few connections to people to mourn.  (Um, OK.  She didn't make a single friend?  Suspicious.)  Meanwhile, in New Mexico, Captain Glory and Mentacle unveil their plan to win the fire Pyramoid, using Mentacle's powers to force one of the Blood Brothers to activate it.  However, Hawkeye and Red Wolf arrive just before the chosen Blood Brother (unwillingly) touches it, and Hawkeye fires off an explosion arrow that knocks him from it.  In Antarctica, Ferene takes advantage of the Avengers’ focus on Rogue having killed Corvus Glaive and activates the water/ice Pyramoid.  Along the way, we learn the Gamemaser holds the lives of his team as leverage:  he saved all of them from certain death and would return them to that situation if they fail.  We also learn the battlefield (i.e., Earth) will be destroyed once the game concludes.  I feel like we’re now getting to the next, important stage.  First, the new characters’ origins — both Voyager’s and Captain Glory’s (Glah-ree) — are on the table now.  Second, the Avengers now know the stakes, so they’re on the same page as we are.  All that said, the oral history of the naming of “Mentacle” in the letters page is worth the price of admission.

Batman #41:  I honestly don't know if I like this issue or not.  The best part, as expected by this point, is Bruce and Selina's interactions.  When they face Ivy at the end of the issue,  you get the sense of them working as a team, something we haven't really seen yet.  Sure, they worked together when they went after Talia, but they were in control of the situation then.  Here, they're on their back feet.  Ivy manages to take possession of everyone in the world except Bruce and Selina, thanks to Bruce recognizing the sensation and managing to use the antidote he developed (from an extremely rare flower) to inoculate them from her possession.  I'm sure King will expand on how Ivy managed to pull off this feat, though, for it to be believable, he really must explain how she experienced such a power surge.  But, my real criticism of this issue is that it's a little sparse, even for King.  He's been using fewer and fewer words lately, and I feel like he's in danger of sliding into Hickman territory.  I often feel like Hickman writes a script and then removes a third of the words just to make it interesting (to his mind).  King went far down this road during the "War of Jokes and Riddles," and it often felt like we missed the actual war and saw only unimportant side skirmishes.  I'm hoping he doesn't make the mistake of not giving us enough information again, sacrificing story for experimentation.

Mighty Thor #704:  Perhaps the most unexpectedly emotional panel in a pretty emotional issue is when Thori asks Jane why she's murdering herself by finally taking up the hammer.  She does so after an issue where she contemplates the losses in her life -- her mother from cancer, her father from heart failure, her ex-husband and son in a car accident.  She realizes she never found the god her mother had hoped she would find to provide her comfort, and Aaron draws a straight line to the idea she instead had to become that god.  She overhears Roz on the phone learning Asgard is falling into the Sun (after Mangog destroyed its navigational system, ensuring there'd be nothing left to resurrect), and her decision is made.  Poor Thori.

Nightwing #39:  I’m not a Nightwing aficionado, given I only started reading DC Comics on a regular basis about seven or eight years ago.  With the DCnU, it’s hard to tell sometimes if flashbacks are portraying a reality we’ve already seen or not.  Either way, I like the idea of Dick first coming to Blüdhaven to attend its College of Law, as a chance to escape Gotham.  He makes it clear he struggled to find himself , from coming to terms with his grief over his parents’ death that he ignored through his focus on Robin to finding relationships that weren’t with superheroes after breaking off his relationship with Kory.  This series of pages (as in messages you receive on a pager) were particularly brilliant, showing the concern his family and friends had for him.  (I say pages, because the artist does a great job of winking to the fact that young Dick actually went to college in the ‘80s not the ‘00s, so he manages to make the messages look like pages and texts at the same time. It’s like a wink to us oldsters.)  We also learn the Judge is actually the original judge sent from the Netherlands to Blüdhaven in its days as a Dutch colony.  He was thrown into the waters for investigating corruption against a noble and “something” in the waters changed him.  If Higgins doesn’t want me rolling my eyes at the end of this story, that “something” needs to be explained.  But, at least the flashback to Dick’s past was solid.

X-Men:  Gold #22:  I like the idea of this new iteration of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants working for Lydia Nance.   Mesmero makes it clear he doesn't worry about mutantkind so much as a paycheck, and the new Avalanche seems to agree.  The new Pyro doesn't agree, though it's unclear to me whether he views himself as a hero or villain.  After all, he's furious with Mesmero when he reveals they only attacked Nance to entrap the X-Men, but, when Mesmero reminds him he's already a criminal now, he comment's he's not.  Is he going to save the X-Men?  But, my real problem here is the entrapment itself.  Mesmero confuses the X-Men into attacking members of the NYPD, thinking they're part of his new Brotherhood.  They willingly fall for it in a way that defies belief.  Really?  They just suddenly thought Omega Red and Sebastian Shaw joined Mesmero?  Kitty and Rachel both note something was wrong, and you'd think given the experience of this team they'd be able to ID it immediately, given they're dealing with Mesmero.  Apparently not.  It's hard to believe Kitty in particular would fall for this trick.

Also Read:  Jean Grey #11; Quantum & Woody #3; Star Wars:  Doctor Aphra #17