Amazing Spider-Man #3: This issue makes not a lick of sense. Don't get me wrong, it's fun. In fact, it doesn't make sense in part because Spencer is trying to invoke the same sense of fun (and wackiness) that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did: Peter and Spider-Man are split into two separate people thanks to yet another accident involving the Isotope Genome Accelerator. Suddenly, Peter sees the real possibility of living his life without the burden of being Spider-Man. He won't have to feel guilty that he's not out there as Spider-Man, because Spider-Man will still be out there, fighting terrible evil like the...Tri-Sentinel. On the downside, Peter discovers Spider-Man got his intellect and his powers, but not his sense of morality and responsibility. Uh-oh. Unfortunately, this premise gets a little...wobbly the more you think about it. For example, the creative team shows Spider-Man only in costume, almost implying if you lifted up his mask his face would be blank. It's just a little over the top, particularly as Peter doesn't seem anywhere near as worried about it as I think Peter probably would be. I guess we'll see where Spencer goes from here.
Bloodshot Salvation #12: I was tempted not to continue reading "Bloodshot" the last time Lemire seemed to give Ray a happy ending, but I’m happy I hung in here. This issue isn’t perfect, as Lemire seems to be in a rush to hit his marks to get us to the finale. For example, we never really confirm the identity of his 4002 A.D. doppelgänger or why Baron Samedi wanted the maintenance worker killed. Moreover, Punk Mambo’s powers seem a little too conveniently strong here, as she essentially shuts down all of Omen’s systems to let Magic and the Bloodshots invade. But, I’m willing to look past the plot holes because the excellent character beats remain the same. Lemire never turns Ray into a full-fledged good guy; he murders the maintenance worker because he had to murder him. Lemire makes it clear that Ray feels some guilt, but he doesn’t regret it, because he did it for his family. Lemire also reminds us Magic has never been just a scared girl hiding in a hotel room; her childhood left her comfortable with mayhem and murder, making her a match for Bloodshot’s neutral-goodish outlook on life. Their happiness at the end feels hard won, and it feels like a good time to exit this train with Lemire. Good luck, Ray. I’m sure you won’t need it.
Detective Comics #986: Yup, I’m definitely canceling this series. I’m not going to stand for Barbara Gordon getting treated like a rank amateur in favor of some C-list hero from Metropolis. Firstable, she was right to question Jefferson's "plan." His attempt to keep everyone from the fight likely would’ve resulted in the children dying, because Orphan wouldn’t have been on hand to save them. Second, I’m also not exactly sure what Jefferson’s powers are. He controls lightning...and explosions? Whatever. Then, Batman announces Black Lightning — a guy he barely knows — speaks for him. He still can’t let Dick Grayson totally into his circle of trust, but this random guy from Metropolis is basically the new Alfred? I’ll stay for James Robinson’s arc but then I’m done.
Fantastic Four #1: Look, Dan Slott and I have been on a long, rough road, and I'm not saying I'm here for the long haul. But, I've loved what Chip Zdarsky has been doing with "Marvel Two-in-One," so I'm definitely here for as long as it takes to tell the story of Reed and Sue's return. However, as Skottie Young himself says in the Mr. Impossible short that ends the issue, I'm not quite sure what that timeframe is. In "Marvel Two-in-One," Ben and Johnny are stranded, powerless, on an alternate Earth. However, they're back on our Earth here. Moreover, Victor has apparently lost his pretty face, which I don't think we've seen happen in "Marvel Two-in-One" yet. It raises questions how Marvel could've timed these releases so poorly, particularly because they seem to have done so intentionally. To make matters worse, Slott still struggles with conveying emotions here, despite Ben proposing to Alicia and Johnny tearfully accepting Reed and Sue's fate. I can't exactly put my finger on the problem, but these emotions never feel organic. It's like a dog trying to explain what they hear to us. But, it is what it is. I'm tired of complaining about him and he'd be tired of hearing about it if he knew who I was. We'll see where we go from here.
Hunt for Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda #4: I initially bought this mini-series reluctantly, annoyed with Marvel for using the reunion of the New Avengers as part of its bloated “Hunt for Wolverine” “event.” But, I can’t say I’m disappointed. Not only was it great to see the team together again, but Taylor takes us some interesting places here. First, his character work is excellent. Tony recalls Wolverine beseeching him to see people before potential after Logan reveals he knew Tony created the superhero suicide-machine. Logan accepts Tony’s explanation that he’d never use it, but stresses to Tony how its deployment nonetheless proves his point. As such, Tony caves to Jessica and Peter ordering him to destroy Mister Sinister’s catalogue of the DNA of every living person. However, he had initially started to decrypt the catalogue, and he learned two things along the way. First, Laura Kinney isn’t a clone; she’s the actual daughter of Logan and Sarah Kinney. (I don’t follow X-23 closely enough to get all the implications of that, but I get why it’s important.) Second, one of the X-Men isn’t a mutant; s/he’s been genetically engineered to appear as one, possibly as a sleeper agent. Given we don’t know who set loose Tony's suicide machine or invaded Sinister’s catalogue in the first place, Tony seems to be onto something. This mini-series still doesn't really show us how Logan was resurrected, but that's almost besides the point. Taylor told a self-contained story that raises some interesting questions for Logan and the X-Men down the line. I'm not saying it's essential, but it's one of the better examples of the tie-in genre out there.
Oblivion Song #6: Whoa. I really didn’t see that one coming. Kirkman reveals here that Nathan and his team of scientists were the ones who caused the Transference, after a device they built to explore an alternate dimension went haywire. Nathan explains they built the device because they sensed energy on the other side of the field, but he tells Bridget the field shouldn’t have expanded the way it did. He initially hypothesized it was because some energy on the other side amplified his device’s power, but he hasn’t seen any technology capable of that on the other side. To make matters worse, he’s relaying this information in handcuffs, after the feds arrested him for building the device they found in the storage locker. It's particularly bad timing, too, as he’s convinced his brother Ed to return with him to see what Earth is like. As such, Ed is functionally stranded on Earth. Underlining how no one is really having a good go of it, Benjamin appears at Bridget and Duncan’s doorstep when they’re already fighting about Nathan. Shit’s getting real, folks.
X-Men: Blue #33: Yet another time-travel story, yet another unclear situation. Magneto arrives in the future he's previously hinted he's seen and intuitively knows the devastation he sees there is his fault. A Nightcrawler-looking child exposits that he assembled a Brotherhood of Mutants — Magic, Toad, Exodus, the Blob, Sabretooth, and someone I think is Unuscione based on her head gear — to stop the "Reaver virus" from destroying the world. The Avengers and X-Men had been unable to stop the virus because it meant killing the hosts, and Nightcrawler, Jr. tells Magneto that he and the Brotherhood were the only ones willing to do so. Before we learn more, an Iceman-less team of the original X-Men appears, less than thrilled to see Magneto. It makes you wonder if Nightcrawler, Jr. isn’t skipping over some parts, since he seems to view Magneto as a hero. This story ties into “Extermination,” so I wonder where we go from here.
Also Read: Darth Vader #19; The Wild Storm: Michael Cray #10
