Amazing Spider-Man #24: This issue is really solid. Spencer uses a session between Mysterio and his new Ravencroft therapist to tease out details about the mysterious goblin that we've seen lurking in the background these last few issues. We learn that Quentin thinks that he went to Hell after he committed suicide in his battle with Daredevil. (Wha?) In Hell, we learn that this goblin endlessly tortured Mysterio and that the goblin is possibly a condemned soul who rose through Hell's ranks to devil. He was also an enemy of Spider-Man, and he sent back Mysterio to enact his plan against Peter. Spencer throws us off the trail here by having the therapist walk us through a theory that Quentin invented his death and condemnation as a way to deal with his terminal-cancer diagnosis. The therapist provides a number of examples to support his claim, and you almost believe him at the end. Of course, the goblin arrives, throwing that theory out the window and prompting the therapist to flee. The goblin then unexpectedly murders Mysterio because he's somehow arranged Peter to see this moment in his dreams. He taunts Peter by telling him that he won't appear to face him until he guesses who he is. It seems clichéd, but Spencer really sells it. This entire issue feels like "Faust," with all the bargains and side deals with devils. It also explains why Peter's vision of Mary Jane during "Hunted" seemed so real, since we learn the goblin can (somehow) directly affect Peter's thinking through dreams and visions. The goblin then provides a hint to his identity, calling himself "Kindred." At first, I thought we were dealing with Harry Osborn, and we still may be. But, now I wonder if it isn't someone like Ben Reilly or some other clone with a soul. I'm just glad that we're getting some information at this point.
Mr. and Mrs. X #12: Marvel seems insane to cancel this series. But, it looks like sales fell in almost half from issue #3 to issue #12, so it did what it had to do, I guess. Given "West Coast Avengers'" cancelation as well, I worry that readers aren't appreciating the kind of emotional yet hilarious stories that Thompson is telling. Or maybe people just got tired of stories involving power-inhibitor collars? I don't know. Whatever the reason, I definitely feel like comics telling these stories aren't finding their footing lately, particularly since I see "Invaders" near this series on the sales lists. At any rate, Thompson does her best here. She gets to wrap up this series in less of a rush than "West Coast Avengers," and I'm glad that we at least got to walk down this road with her. It's unbelievable that after so many years she's really the first author to explore the root of Rogue's problems with her powers, and I'm glad that she at least had time to do that. Hopefully Marvel gets to a point where she can return to telling these sorts of stories soon. I would love for her to take over "Amazing Spider-Man" one day. Here's hoping.
Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #10: This issue ends the same way every other Spider-Gwen series has ended, with Gwen committing to live her life despite the challenges in doing so. The problem is, the challenges never really change and she never really accomplishes this goal. At first, we had Matt Murdoch as the shadowy figure and Rhino as the powerful enforcer; now, we have Miles Warren and Man-Wolf. We had Gwen dealing with her Spider powers not working after she lost them and replaced them with shots; now we have her Venom powers not working. After fifty issues, it's hard to see such a great character just spinning her wheels. It's like each successive creative team is nervous about doing anything that could impact the story that the next creative team will tell, so they just change the names and keep telling the same story. We even return her to the Multiverse here despite her seemingly abandoning it in this volume, undoing the one step toward progress that we've had. In other words, I sadly don't think that I'm following her into the next series. Fare ye well, Gwen. See you in the next inevitable "Spider-Verse" event.
Star Wars: Target Vader #1: I'll admit that my first thought was that I'd be more interested in this series if they didn't decide to make the protagonist a cut-rate Han Solo cyborg, down to (sort of) recreating the Greedo cantina scene and everything. But, it was clear that I was supposed to recognize him, and some Googling revealed that he's the asshole from Han's squad in "Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet." I feel like Thompson could've done a little bit more to help make that connection clearer. Without it, it all feels derivative and rushed. Thompson also wants us to be surprised when it turns out the Hidden Hand isn't just a smuggler outfit running guns for the Rebellion, but actually part of the Rebellion itself. I mean, is it that surprising? They're a pretty scrappy group, the rebels, by definition. At any rate, I feel like I shouldn't complain, because this premise is the sort of "edge of the Empire" story that I keep saying I want to see. I just wish this one was a little more interesting at the start.
Transformers #8: Ruckey is trying here, but, OMG, this series is moving at a glacial pace. Even Megatron's conversation with Termagax is boring, despite Ruckey using it to hint at the larger story that he's telling. Termagax implies that she's only willing to return from her exile if a series of events occur, such as the Ascenticons securing a quarter of the Senate seats or someone finding some unnamed artifacts. (She also asks if the Autobots released so-and-so. I'm assuming that so-and-so is the one prisoner who Orion Pax won't allow released, as mentioned a few issues ago.) We learn later that Megatron wasn't there to convince Termagax to leave her exile, but to confirm that she doesn't plan to do so, so she won't interfere with his plans. But, again, we're still just getting hints about plans. At some point, someone is going to have to do something to put one of these many, many plans into action. But, I'm pretty sure that I won't be here to see it.
Uncanny X-Men #21: This issue is solid. Rosenberg does an excellent job of staying in control of the chaos, as Emma sends the X-Men on a rescue mission to implement her plan of wiping away humanity's memories of mutants. Although she succeeds in her mission, the cost is high: Banshee is killed, Callahan strips Illyana of her mutant powers and thus brings back Darkchilde, Darkchilde tears out the Gem of Cyttorak and sends Cain...somewhere, and Hope and Logan are injured. Earlier, Callahan also stripped Triage of his mutant abilities, and Logan mercy killed a dying Velocidad after Callahan used his powers to manufacture new Warlocks, who Rosenberg turns into the new Sentinels. In the end, we're left only with Cyclops, Havoc, Mirage, and Multiple Man. In other words, Rosenberg brings the X-Men to a moment of triumph, but one with few X-Men left to celebrate. As usual, Marvel has ruined this moment with its relentless advertising of the upcoming Hickman era: we already know that pretty much everyone is returning. But, Rosenberg does what he can with the constraints that he's been given, and I applaud him for that.
The Weatherman, Vol. 2 #1: If the first volume of this series was a breakneck tour of the galaxy's precarious status quo, LeHeup goes in the opposite direction here. Rather than spreading his focus across several groups of actors as he did in the first volume, we have one team with one mission: find Dr. Nyseth and, hopefully, Ian Black's mind somewhere on Earth.
After keeping Earth a mystery for the first volume, LeHeup somehow met all my expectations when we first arrive. First, he starts off the issue with two soldiers' banter about how boring it is guarding Earth. It's here that we first get the sense that everything isn't as it seems. I think LeHeup had alluded to the fact that some people on Earth might be alive, but I had no idea that it was as many as we see here. LeHeup makes it clear that entire cities of people are still alive, and you immediately begin to wonder if people off-Earth know that. In a conversation the Martian president has with a lobbyist eager to kill the remaining population to cut up the spoils, LeHeup hints at just one reason the galaxy's leaders might want that information to remain hidden.
But LeHeup also shows that it isn't like life as normal is continuing down there. We're introduced to one of the outposts, where people are sent on suicide missions by lottery, presumably as a form of population control. We also learn that the remaining population is expected to succumb to the virus within three months. LeHeup goes one step even further, as the team arrives in New York and is unaware a group of zombie-like humans are following them. Now you begin to see the chaos in store for them.
But this series avoids sliding just into simple sci-fi conjecture with LeHeup's laser focus on Nathan. He's his usual idiot self here, though he has moments of reflection, like when they stumble upon the skyscraper-sized pile of skeletons in New York. But the most heart-breaking moment is when Nathan is left to eat alone after all his companions leave. He's left simply with an image of his now-dead dog as company. LeHeup and Fox turn it into a meditation on not just what Nathan has lost, but what everyone has lost. It's hard to see any happy ending for Nathan, but the glimmer of one is one of the many things that keeps me returning.
The Wild Storm #24: It's almost impossible to sum up this issue, coming at the end of Ellis' two-year journey in this world. In a lesser author's hands, the denouement would feel rushed. Craven kills Cray! Jackie kills Craven! Jackie takes over IO! But, in Ellis' hands, it feels more like the dominoes all falling into place. That said, Ellis leaves some dominoes still standing, leaving you at the end of this issue feeling like we've just gotten a glimpse of the complicated dynamics at play.
First, Ellis presents the hypothesis that we're at this point because Craven was an incompetent leader. Slayton mentions how crappy of a manager of Earth Craven was right before Clay kills Slayton and saves Craven. Jackie refers to him as a "scared little emperor." I accept this hypothesis at face value; you don't get to the point where Skywatch is willing to destroy New York in its war with IO and not believe that Craven didn't play a role in that escalation. But, I wish Ellis had taken the time to go into a little more detail about why Craven sucked at managing the planet so badly. Ellis hints at a larger reason as his eyes glow red with rage right before he decides to kill Cray. Was he a Kheran? Right now we don't know.
After the Authority takes out the Skywatch sleeper agents, Angie goes after Skywatch itself to stop the diamond spike that Bendix dropped. Jackie agrees to help her. The surprise comes when Craven tries to stop Jackie, believing that she's a traitor. He's totally unhinged in this conversation, and Jackie fries him with some sort of electric blast from her head. She then buys Angie time to synthesize all her powers. Apollo flies Angie to the rapidly descending spike and then Shen sends a door through her telepathic link with Angie, allowing Angie to send the spike right at Skywatch. Boom.
At IO, Baiul think she's going to take over IO, believing that she's rid of Jackie because she saw her kill Craven. She gloats that she planned everything so perfectly and that she's surprised in the end that it was so easy because Jackie just vaporized Craven. But, Jackie then reveals that she planted an "unauthorized" weapon on Baiul and security takes her into custody. Jackie King: IO chief. Meanwhile, Skywatch now stands revealed and we learn someone (Angie?) dumped a bunch of IO-related documents on the internet.
Ellis includes all sorts of Easter eggs along the way here, like Voodoo seemingly using her power to save Angie (or Miles' husband, it's unclear to me). He also recalls previous attacks on Skywatch: Angie first has Jackie run her bot attack on Skywatch so they can get an image of the station, even though I though the Wild C.A.T.s did that first? Isn't that the bot attack that started the war, with Bendix thinking it was IO but it was actually the Wild C.A.T.s? Or did the Wild C.A.T.s just take advantage of IO's attack? I can't remember.
Anyway, it's all complicated, right? If I re-read this series from the start, I feel like it would be clearer to me just how many loose ends Ellis leaves here. Voodoo never really materialized as anyone important. Zealot initially seemed like she was going to play a major role but then faded into the background. Ditto Michael Cray, and he even had his own series. Most importantly, I can't remember the last time we saw the Wild C.A.T.s, as the last six or seven issues have mostly focused on the Authority. The Comicbook Database tells me that we haven't seen Grifter since issue #16, which Ellis explains by the fact that he's in hiding because IO now knows that he's alive. That makes sense, but would Marlowe really sit out this war? Ellis wants us to believe that he would (as he does so here), but it's hard to believe that Ellis doesn't even bother to tell us what Marlowe and his team are doing right now. They've got to be scheming somewhere, right?
What was it all about then? In the end, Jenny Sparks says it was all about Angie learning how to use her powers so she could help people, not the secret history of the world. But, that feels...unrealistic. Angie spent most of the series in the background. Sure, she saved New York, but that really just puts her in the same category as everyone else here, doesn't it? In other words, I'm not disappointed, but I also can't say I'm totally satisfied. I think it makes the most sense to look at this series as the first arc of a larger story, with Ellis setting the groundwork for the series and stories that will follow. If so, I might find myself more satisfied as the loose ends that Ellis leaves here later get addressed. I hope that's the case, given how exciting it was to read this series at the start.
Also Read: Conan the Barbarian #7; Detective Comics #1,006; Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #8; Marvel Comics Presents #6
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