New-ish Comics!: The Top-Shelf February 9 & 16 and March 2 & 9 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Star Wars:  Darth Vader #20 (February 9):  Vader's campaign to rid the Empire of Crimson Dawn collaborators goes badly-ish here.  He uses a list that Sabé planted for him to find, and only half the people on it actually were Crimson Dawn collaborators.  Then again, as the Emperor notes, it isn't terrible that people are afraid that Vader is going to come after them one day, collaborator or not.  Administrator Moore and Ochi discuss how lucky they were not to be on the list, but their luck may change when Sabé arrives and informs them that she's their new handler.

Dungeons & Dragons:  Mindbreaker #5 (February 16):  Zub almost had me here, as I really did think that Krydle was going to successfully ditch the group to figure out how to resolve his infernal contract.  (The team learned about it when Lord Bel's minion arrived to remove the illithid "squirmer" from Krydle's mind before it killed him.)  But, the team lives to ride another day, much to my joy.

Star Wars #21 (March 2):  This issue is great in no small part because the premise is great.  Soule makes it clear that he's been building this story since we were first introduced to Zahra and the Tarkin's Will.  

For example, we learn that the large portions of the ship that remain damaged from the Death Star explosion are obviously also off the scanner network, allowing Shara to move undetected.  Moreover, the Imperials left their dead colleagues' bodies where they fell (for "inspiration"), which allowed Shara to steal a Stormtrooper uniform.  But, Zahra is too good and suspects that the Starlight Squadron pilot that her men allegedly killed is alive.  She orders a sweep of the ship's damaged portions, and Shara realizes that she has to escape.  

Since she needs a hyperdrive-enabled ship, Shara disables a Lambda-class shuttle so that it gets moved to the maintenance hangar, from which it's apparently easier to escape.  But, Zahra is hiding in the shuttled, excited to capture her so that she can torture her.  When Kes realizes that Shara didn't escape on the timeframe that her message to him promised, he and the remaining Pathfinder and Starlight Squadron members pledge to get her, despite Mon Mothma's orders for them not to go after her.

I'm very excited to see where we go from here.  It's essentially going to replicate Leia's escape from the Death Star in "Star Wars" with a different team, and I'm here for it.

Star Wars: Crimson Reign #3 (March 9):  Soule somehow manages to make an exposition-heavy issue gripping as the Archivist searches for Yoda on Qi'ra's behalf.  

When she initially meets the Archivist, Qi'ra asks how the Jedi disappeared from the galaxy so completely.  Although the answer is obvious - fear - the Archivist's discussion of it really underlines what we've come to see in "Star Wars:  The Mandalorian," where the Force is essentially a myth.  Qi'ra asks the Archivist to recruit Yoda to help with her cause, to overthrow the Sith. The Archivist tracks down Bail Organa's former pilot, who's in Imperial custody after the Empire captured the Tantine IV.  She has to use mind-reading technology to get the information from him, and she eventually goes to Dagobah...and decides not to tell anyone, despite the power and wealth that either Palpatine or Qi'ra would give her for the information.  

Again, it's an exposition-heavy issue, but it's a fascinating tour through the galaxy far, far away.  This story is exactly the sort of one that I hoped we'd get when the "Star Wars" comics launched.

Star Wars:  Han Solo and Chewbacca #1 (March 9):  Holy shit.  I knew something was happening here when Han mentioned his father, which I don't think that I've ever seen him do.  After all, if Han remembered that his father built ships for the Corellian Engineering Corporation (CEC), why wasn't his father raising him?  Why was he a White Worms scumrat?  It seems like we're going to get the answer when the CEC employee Han is pumping for information says that he's Han's father!  Dun-dun-DUN!  Beyond that excitement, this issue is pretty much how I wanted it to be.  Jabba sends Chewie and Han on a mission to Corellia to steal an urn containing his nemesis' ashes, but the catch is that Greedo has to go with them.  That'll turn out well.  Moreover, it has a cool-looking "corpo lawman" named Buck Vanto, who's sent after Han after he helped pull a heist on the casino planet of Galator III (a heist that started the issue).  In other words, color me excited.

Also Read:  Newburn #4 (March 2)

Over Year-Old Comics: The Superhero September 23 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

X of Swords:  Creation #1 (September 23):  Hickman generally makes it difficult to summarize his work, given how he writes on so many levels.  But, this issue in particular defies easy summarization.  I'll say right at the start that the 66 pages move extremely quickly, thanks not only to Hickman and Howard's script but Laraz and Gracia's beyond spectacular art.  I'll try to stick to the 30,000-foot view here.

After Summoner returns through the External Gate with a wounded Banshee, Apocalypse forms a team to return through the Gate with him to save Arakko.  (He confirms that the part of Arakko that joined with Krakoa in "X-Men" #2 was a small part, seemingly sent simply to bring Summoner to Earth.)  The Quiet Council is against this move until Krakoa informs it that it will do what Apocalypse wants.  Apocalypse's team consists of Polaris (at Magneto's request), Havok (at Cyclops' request), Rictor (seemingly one of Apocalypse's disciples now), Rockslide (a "friend" of Summoner), Siryn (given her father's experience in Arakko), Archangel (to keep Apocalypse honest), Beast ("a creature of habit"), and Monet (who feels like she might want Saturnyne's job down the road).

Everything goes to Hell in a hand basket pretty quickly.   Apocalypse is overwhelmed to see his children, the Horsemen.  War tells him that the only thing that kept them going in such a hellscape wasn't love, and she and Summoner then stab him.  The Horsemen and Summoner make quick work of the team:  Summoner uses his knowledge of Rockslide's physiology (from the game that they played in "X-Men" #12) to cut him in half, and Pestilence takes down Rictor.  Archangel and Siryn carry Apocalypse and Rictor to the gate, and Havok sends Beast with them to get help, leaving Havok, Monet, and Polaris to protect the gate.

Saturnyne eventually stops the combat.  Death informs her that he seeks Krakoa by right of the Twilight Sword and "our liege who wields it," so it's interesting the Horsemen have thrown in their weight with the enemy who initially sundered Okarra.  Saturyne makes Death the acting regent of Dryador, one of Otherworld's ten lands, which the Horsemen conquered at the issue's start.  She informs the Krakoans that, in three days' time, they will fight the Horsemen to stop them from taking Krakoa.

Meanwhile, on Krakoa, Cable and Rachel enter Banshee's mind and learn of Summoner's treachery.  Saturnyne contacts them directly and instructs them to find an object that she burns into their minds.  Cable goes to Cyclops and Jean, and Cyclops recognizes the object.  Accompanied by Cyclops and Jean, Cable uses his sword to reactivate object, the "igniter" that powers up the "trans-space bridge" on S.W.O.R.D.'s orbital station, the Peak.

Hickman is so detailed here that I feel like I have a good understanding of what's happening even if I don't understand the stakes.  He makes it clear that Saturnyne - despite repeatedly telling everyone that the outcome is preordained - is working within the context of that destiny to affect the outcome.  To that extent, the biggest mystery at this point is what sort of creature exactly Saturnyne's fish-like priestess brought with her from "some forgotten place," "some forgotten time."

In other words, I'm here for X of Swords!  Hickman has a lot of places to go here, and I'm excited to accompany him on that journey.

Over Year-Old Comics: The Superhero September 16 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man:  The Sins of Norman Osborn #1 (September 16):  I'm surprised that Marvel made this issue a one-shot because pretty much everything is revealed here.  It turns out the Order of the Web members, and not MJ, were the ones having the dreams about Peter dying, all in different places but in all cases at Norman Osborn's hand.  The hooded figure from "Amazing Spider-Man" #47 was Martin Li.  Sin-Eater cleanses him, and his power allows Sin-Eater to make a resurrected Dr. Kafka free Norman's secret prisoner:  Juggernaut.  Norman shares with Peter that he's also had Kindred-visited dreams.  Spencer ends the issue with the biggest pay-off yet for this storyline:  Green Goblin and Spider-Man will have to partner together to stop Kindred and Sin-Eater.  I'm sure it'll turn out well...

Captain America #23 (September 16):  It seemed pretty clear from the start of the Blood-Marine storyline that Coates intended to restore Sharon fully.  It follows the trend of other lines, from Spencer essentially wiping away the post-"One More Day" era in "Amazing Spider-Man" to Hickman ushering in the X-Men's Krakoan Age.  Although I also await Ian Roger's return, I'm thrilled to have back the old Sharon (pardon the pun).  Moreover, Coates doesn't have it happen in an instant.  Sharon has to fight Selene for it, and, along the way, we're treated to her rumination on aging.  As Sharon said, Zola stole her youth, and its restoration is well deserved when it comes.

Falcon & Winter Solider #3 (September 16):  This issue is so fucking good.  In fact, it's banterific.  Bucky complaining that Sam's trick shot through Bucky's legs was too close to the "gentlemen?"  The HYDRA goon commenting that "Sally McKenzie" is a strange battle cry after Sam yells her name?  Sam conceding that Bucky won't go easy on anyone who knows where Sally is?  I could continue, but I won't.  You get the picture.  Speaking of picture, Bucky looks, um, good here.  Like, really good.  Like...really good.

Giant-Size X-Men:  Storm #1 (September 16):  Ever since Cypher was my first superhero death, I've been attached to him.  He was bookish and vaguely queer (and blond), and I fell hard.  Since his return, he's been treated like, well, a cypher, a neutered boy lost in his own world.  Hickman gives him a personality here, and Dauterman makes him beautiful.  I mean, he isn't Dauterman's Thor beautiful; it would be wrong if he were.  But, he's a drunken-Wiccan-making-a-pass-at-him beautiful, exactly how I want him to be.  This issue may have been about saving Storm (which the team does), but, for me, it's all about Doug and his beautiful blond eyebrows.  (Following on "Giant-Size X-Men:  Fantomex #1," Fantomex decides to stay in the World after his most current version says that he isn't leaving.  I still don't understand this plot at all, but I guess that it doesn't really matter.)

X-Men #12 (September 16):  Hickman returns to threads that he's seeded since this series' start, with Summoner telling Apocalypse Arakko's history.  It's surprisingly straight-forward, to be honest.

Summoner tells Apocalypse what he himself already knows:  in a time "ancient before that word existed," "the Twilight Sword of the enemy" tore Okkara into two separate islands:  Krakoa and Arakko.  The enemy then poured into the world, and Apocalypse sent the remaining Arakkii (and Arakko itself) through a portal into Otherworld.   Summoner informs Apocalypse that the Arakkit tell three stories about that day:  1) that Apocalypse stayed on Earth to seal the breach so that the enemy couldn't follow Arakko into Otherworld; 2) that Apocalypse - "the first mutant of the second generation of mutantdom on Earth" - abandoned his family to save himself; and 3) people other than Apocalypse (and, here, we see four figures, possibly the Horsemen) dictated his fate.

Moving through the portal, Arakko arrived on a world called Amenth.  It was apparently a world bereft of people because of "the black acts of the White Sword and his One Hundred Champions."  The Arakkii took advantage of the quiet and built a city that ten towers protected.  At some point - and this point is unclear - the demon hordes that the White Sword and his One Hundred Champions destroyed reconstituted and began throwing themselves against the Arakkii's walls.  After generations of war, Apocalypse's wife, Genesis, took the war to the White Sword.  We learn that the White Sword is such a successful warlord because he's able to resurrect his One Hundred Champion.  Genesis decides to try to eliminate him, though I'm not sure why he's no longer seen as fighting for Arakko.  She fails.  She and her few remaining soliders return to the Arakkii.

Eventually, Annihilation - the Amenth god and, presumably, demon-horde leader - invites Genesis to trial by combat.  Again, she fails.  The remaining Arakkii leadership send Summoner to Earth to try to enlist Apocalypse while other squads are sent to search out "a different kind of salvation."  Later, Apocalypse brings Summoner to the External Gate that he has constructed to enter Amenth.  He sends through Summoner with Banshee and Unus the Untouchable.  Summoner is hopeful that the X-Men can save the Arakkii, but Apocalypse is clearly playing some sort of game here.  

For all my prior complaints about Hickman on other titles, his imagination is really this issues tour de force.  He leaves a lot on the table that we just have to have faith that he'll eventually address.  That said, I cannot wait for "X of Swords!"

Over Year-Old Comics: The Superhero September 2 and 9 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Hawkeye:  Freefall #6 (September 2):  Holy fucking shit.  I did not see this issue coming.

When Bryce survived Bullseye's attack last issue, I assumed that he'd survive period.  Like, of course he would.  Rosenberg wouldn't kill the breakdancing Skrull and hipster hacker.  But, he does.  Of course, Bryce doesn't just die; he dies after Clint agrees not to take him to a hospital (because cops) and instead take him to Linda's.  Linda berates him for this decision, and you have to agree with her.  It's one of those moments where Clint just can't be the adult.  He can't say to a teenage boy, "Dude, it doesn't matter if you have warrants against you, you're going to die if I don't get you to a hospital."  

It's an excellent example of his fucked-up optimism that he can fix everything when all his experience shows that he cannot.  It's like when the Clown kills Grills in "Hawkeye" #9.  Clint just pulls people into his vortex without understanding the responsibility that he has to them.  He's like the anti-Peter Parker.  You can't have your teenage assistant hang in your barely secured basement while you're fighting an increasingly personal war against a demon-powered supervillain and expect that he'll be safe.

Of course, instead of asking for help, Clint doubles down.  He almost kills Bullseye, he robs Parker's legitimate bank of the money that Parker has stashed in safety deposit boxes, he has Count Nefaria summon a demon to steal Parker's hood, and he maybe kills Parker.  As Fancy Dan says to Ox at the issue's end, Clint's become one of them even if he doesn't realize it.  At some point, Parker wonders if Clint isn't suicidal, and it's hard to argue with him.  I mean, he always seems too willing just to set his life on fire, but he goes totally over the edge here.

In other words, Rosenberg and Schmidt have really delivered one of the best Hawkeye stories that I've ever read, which is a high fucking bar.  I can't recommend this series enough.

Empyre #6 (September 2):  Calling this issue a dumpster fire feels unfair to dumpster fires.  After ignoring the tie-in mini-series for the first five issues, the main title's resolution turns entirely on events that apparently happened in said tie-in issues.  Cap learned the value of friends, Thor learned a lesson about family, and Tony reaffirmed a truth about...I don't know, something.  In the end, the heroes win because the heroes win.  I can't really explain it better than that.  The event ends where we began, with Hulkling as Emperor of the Kree-Skrull Alliance.  I think we're supposed to believe that his defeat of R'Kill (whose survival of Throneworld's destruction I'm pretty sure Ewing never explained) means that the Kree and Skrulls will rally to his leadership now that they've been reminded of how futile war is by...some device that the two kids the Fantastic Four rescued used...despite it actually holding them hostage?  Anyway, we're done here.

Guardians of the Galaxy #6 (September 2):  I'll be honest that I wanted this issue to end with a sobbing Richard admitting that it wasn't his fault like "Good Will Hunting."  But, we don't get that here.  Instead, we get a Richard maybe starting to get comfortable with the idea that he needs help, which is admittedly truer to his character.

The most telling part isn't his discussion with his therapist, but the flashback with Gamora.  I've often wondered why we've glossed over the fact that Gamora and Richard were a couple, and Ewing at least does a great job here explaining why they aren't any longer.  Richard runs into her at Gosnell's Bar, which offers Annihilation War veterans half-priced beer.  Gamora confesses that she loved Richard after Peter told her what he said to Peter in the Cancerverse, about how he hoped that he could convince her just to be happy.  But, Gamora tells Richard that she ultimately chose Peter over him because Peter isn't like Richard:  he came home from the war.  To Gamora, Richard is more like her:  they didn't, and Richard never will.  It's sad because it's true.  Gamora leaves, telling Richard that they'll never see each other again.  Before she goes, Richard tells her that he loved Peter, too.  When the therapist asks why, he tells her that it's because he was the only loyal friend that he had, and, as Richard says, it's what got him killed.

Ewing ends this issue on two hopeful notes.  First, Richard agrees to return to therapy next week.  Second, he learns about the Kree-Skrull Alliance and contemplates a lesson violent galaxy.  I mean, it clearly won't be, but at least he gets some hope that it'll be for a minute.

New Mutants #12 (September 2):  This issue is spectacular.  This series has been middling for a while, but Brisson really summarizes the need for Krakoa in this issue.

Magik has Trinary track Dox activity, and she confirms that its "reporting" has led to numerou attacks on mutants.  (In one of the interstitial pages, we learn that Dox has been publishing gate-related activity.)  Magik decides to take the fight to Dox.  With Glob and Mirage, she goes to Dox's headquarters.  Dani tells the employees the story of three mutants who Dox's reporting injured.  But, the editor interrupts, saying that mutantkind "escalated the war" when it started using human lives as bargaining chips.  He uses the standard cable TV line that they can't blame the actions of a few lunatics on them.  But, Magik goes one step further:  Dani informs them that Trinary has developed an algorithm that publishes the author's full name and address when they dox a mutant.  When the editor starts screaming at them as they leave, Glob attacks him.  (As Magik said, she never thought Glob would be the one to lose his shit.)  He tells the editor that he'll kill him if another mutant dies.  Dox subsequently is, um, "down for temporary maintenance."

But, it's Magik's conversation with Glob on Krakoa that takes the cake.  With his chickens feeding at his feet, Glob tells Magik about how his father was an anti-mutant nutjob.  It took over his entire life.  He'd drag Glob to protests with him.  When Glob mutated, he beat him for any trespass.  It only ended when his mother snuck him to Westchester in the middle of the night.  In a heartbreaking sentence, Glob says, "She gave me a kiss on the forehead and told me not to call home."  Glob says that he's really felt happy on Krakoa, and the editor reminded him of his father and the people who want to take that from him.  He tells Magik that he needs to be better, but Magik hugs him and tells him that a little anger is good for the soul so long as it doesn't consume you.

Glob's story is why I've realized that Krakoa really is necessary.  As Charles and Erik tell Reed in "X-Men/Fantastic Four" #4, it really is about survival.  It's also about fighting on the same level as the humans fight, as Magik does here.  It's hard not to worry that it'll end in tears, but for now I'm glad that people like Glob get to have their anger in a safe space.  As Magik said, it's good for the soul.

Amazing Spider-Man #48 (September 9):  Ugh.  As a long-time Spider-Man fan, I have to say that I've read so many version of this issue - of a navel-gazing Peter wondering what he's going to do about Norman Osborn - that I just can't.  First, I find the idea that Norman somehow managed to get himself appointed the head of Ravencroft to be a hard sell, even with Kingpin as Mayor.  But, even if I accept that, it's hard to get excited about a Norman Osborn story.  He's like Spider-Man's Joker; he's going to make him feel all the hurts and then he's going to inspire him to rise above it because he's a hero.  The only interesting twist here is this idea that Peter is still working off the premise that Sin-Easter cleansing him of sin is a bad thing.  The rest of Team Spider isn't convinced, and they've pledged to stop Peter from saving Norman.  It's definitely as interesting as a twist as I could imagine for a Norman story, but it doesn't mean I care all that much.

Also Read:  Empyre:  Aftermath - Avengers #1 (September 9); Marauders #12 (September 9)

Almost Two-Year-Old Comics: The Superhero August 5, 12, and 26 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Giant-Size X-Men:  Fantomex #1 (August 5):  This issue picks up the thread from "Giant-Size X-Men:  Jean Grey and Emma Frost" #1, which revealed that the Children of the Vault have done something to Storm that will kill her in one month's time.  Apparently, Krakoa's brain trust has determined that the best way to heal her is in the World, thus Fantomex.  But, before we get there, we're treated to Fantomex returning to the World every decade with a new team of bait - the Howling Commandos, the Hellfire Club Inner Circle - to distract the World while he visits later generations of himself.  In typical Hickman fashion, it makes no sense.  I was hoping for an answer to the question of how Fantomex exists in the same world as Professor X, given that he donated his body to Professor X so he could return to life in "Astonishing X-Men" #6.  At the time, Soule was implying that "X," as he was then known, was something more than Xavier, and I don't think that we've ever resolved that issue.  This issue doesn't address it at all, so I feel like it's just going to be one of those loose ends that we're supposed to forget, like Ian Roger's existence in "Captain America."

Guardians of the Galaxy #5 (August 5):  I'll be honest:  I feel like this arc wrapped up too easily.  I thought that Ewing was hinting that we had some multiverse shenanigans happening with all the team members or, at least, Drax, Moondragon, Peter, and Rocket.  But in the end it appears that just Moondragon was engaged with said shenanigans, and Ewings resolves them as the Moondragons merge.  The two teams also merge after Groot tips off Rocket that Gnawbarque wants him dead.  Herc and Marvel Boy manage to manipulate the other Guardians into destroying Gnawbarque's Galactus-inspired, planet-draining engine.  I think if I re-read the arc, it would make sense given what I now know.  Instead, I just feel kind of confused.  At any rate, I'm really here for next issue, as Nova confronts the demons that he's facing.

Amazing Spider-Man #46 (August 12):  Spencer levels up Sin-Eater in an extremely interesting way here, as he reveals that Sin-Eater's bullets steals the victim's powers and renders them onto him.  Or, at least, sometimes?  It happened with Count Nefaria (who asks Norah to beg his victims' families for forgiveness for him), the Grey Gargoyle, and Whirlwind.  But, it did nothing to Spidey, and Overdrive is comatose in the hospital after his resurrection.  Spencer also complicates matters for Spidey when the audience on hand for the demonstration that the Lethal Legion crashed applauded after Sin-Eater took out the Legion.  Notably, the audience thought they were dead, and they still applauded.  When the world finds out Sin-Eater purged them of their powers and rendered them guilty, well, as someone says, they see him as a more effective Punisher.  Spidey has a tough road ahead.

Hawkeye:  Freefall #5 (August 12):  After he discovers a nearly dead Bryce at the Fortress of Solid Dudes, Clint plays the recording that Bullseye left for him, which walks through the crimes Clint has committed:  robbing S.H.I.E.L.D., stabbing people, paying off cops, threatening elected officials, and laundering stolen drug money through a charity.  It's quite a list.  Although Linda gives an impassioned speech about how Cap and Spidey should trust Clint, she later acknowledges that it was a lie:  they shouldn't trust Clint.  Rosenberg is doing a great job showing how Clint's ego and righteousness lead to disasters:  Hood is blowing up warehouses and killing rival criminals, Bullseye killed the Skrull from last issue and brutalizes Bryce, Linda ends their relationship.  Clint is being Clint, and Rosenberg reminds us how sad that is. 

Marauders #11 (August 12):  I had hoped that we didn't drag out Kate's death for too many issues, and I'm thrilled that Duggan didn't do so.  The Red Queen is back, and Sebastian Shaw should be concerned.

Duggan wisely decided to focus on Emma as he's done in previous issues.  Caseli draws out the moment when we realize that she's dressed in black for Kate's funeral, and it's as impactful as you'd think it would be.  Also impactful?  An exhausted Lockheed appearing in Emma's room.  Emma reads Lockheed's thought and realizes that Shaw killed Kate.  She's ready to storm Blackstone but decides against it.  After all, Emma above all other people knows that revenge is a dish best served cold.  

But, Lockheed's arrivals feels like an omen, and Charles agrees to Emma and Kurt's request to have the Five try again.  With Lockheed perched on Emma's shoulder, they do.  Emma observes that they've been waiting her to break through the egg but realizes that Kate doesn't break through boundaries - she ignores them.  Emma calls to Kate, and she simply phases through the egg.  Ha!  Kate ecstatically greets a still tired-looking Lockheed, and then she and Emma make it clear that they're going to go to work on Shaw.

Interestingly, one of my favorite parts of this issue is when Storm meets the X-Desk analyst!  As someone who once lived near the Foggy Bottom Metro station, this moment was exciting for me.  I loved Dolores telling Storm that she recognized her because she looked like a model and DC doesn't have many models.  Ha!  Storm is there to thank Dolores for tipping off Krakoa that Verendi poisoned the medicine.  Dolores asks for an update, and Storm confirms that they swapped out the tainted medicine for the clean ones, meaning that Verendi gave away perfectly good medicine and sold the poisoned medicine on the black market.  Dolores is delighted.  She thanks Storm for the miracle of her mother's return, and, based on a comment in her report, I'm hoping that Emma invites Dolores to the Hellfire Ball!

Amazing Spider-Man #47 (August 26):  I used to hate comics that portrayed characters' motivations as "evil."  As a comic-reading public, I felt like we had moved past the point where the world is divided into good- and evil-doers.  Sure, you had some exceptions.  For example, I have no problem with authors portraying Joker as evil:  he has no problem embracing evil means to promote his goals and his goals themselves were evil.  But, Magneto is a good example of someone who embraced evil means means to promote his goals, which were grounded in a more morally acceptable premise than Joker's goals.  However, the last few years have shown me that I'm wrong.  Some people have no problem doing evil things to get evil outcomes.  

I mention all that here because Carlie asks Peter to consider the fact that the people who respond to Sin-Eater's appeal to join him aren't just brainwashed:  they're excited someone's offering them the power to take out their hate and hurt on the world.  Period.  End of story.  It's Spencer at his "Captain America" best, taking the political moment where we find ourselves and using it to imbue this arc with real-world meaning.  I have no problem believes this moment could happen in the "real" world.  Spencer underlines this point when he reveals that Sin-Eater's bullet didn't kill Overdrive:  just like the Lethal Legion, he woke up powerless and begging to confess his sins.  But, when Carlie called in the detectives, they almost beat him to death.

Spidey later prevents Sin-Eater from cleansing someone who appears at his gathering of followers and asks for Sin-Eater to cleanse him/er.  By this point, it's hard to understand why Spidey does so.  After all, the man - whose face is hidden so I'm sure it's significant - asked Sin-Easter to do it.  Spidey suspects that there's more to Sin-Easter's powers than just helping people, and he's probably right.  But, what if he isn't?  What if he is denying these people a chance at penance just because he can't get past his own hang-ups?  Spencer makes it clear that we might be going in that direction and, man, I'd be excited to read that story.

Also Read:  Captain America #21 (August 5) and #22 (August 19)

Almost Two-Year-Old Comics: The Superhero August 5 and 26 (2020) "Empyre" Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Empyre #4 (August 5):  As a Hulkling and Wiccan fan, this issue's main value is the revelation that Hulkling and Wiccan got married in Vegas with the Young Avengers in attendance.  I know that Marvel will address that fully at some point.  In the meantime, the main development in terms of "Empyre" follows on last issue's revelation that Hulkling's grandmother, R'Kill, has all this time been posing as Kree hero Tanalth the Pursuer.  With Hulkling's sudden decision to use the Pyre to destroy Earth if necessary, it seems likely that R'Kill has adopted another persona.  After "Hulkling" orders Mur-G'nn to send away Carol Danvers and Johnny Storm before they can stop "Hulkling," Mur-G'nn wisely sends them to Wiccan, who confirms that "Hulkling" isn't Hulkling.  Oh, Skrulls.

Lords of Empyre:  Emperor Hulking #1 (June 22):  "Oh, M.O.D.O.K., your gown is so pretty!  The prince is sure to dance with..." is possibly the best line that I've ever read in a comic.  (It's a dreaming Billy talking in his sleep, and it's exactly what I imagine Billy dreams.) "Protect the hot twunk with the enormous arms!" (spoken by Krystal M'Kraan the drag queen about Teddy) is a close second best line.

I somehow missed this issue in my pull list, so I just read it.  Beyond anything in the main title, this issue makes it clear how dangerous and precarious Teddy's position is.  Although we now know that "Tanalth" is R'Kill, she isn't the only threat that Teddy faces.  Seconds after Bel-Dann and Raksor approach Teddy about taking the throne,  the Children of Lost Tarnax - a Skrull fundamentalist group dedicated to Teddy's grandfather's purity doctrine - attempt to assassinate him.  Later, "Tanalth" arranges for Kree zealots - who Teddy's peace overture to the Utopian Kree infuriated - to attack his flagship.  In so doing, she underscores how Teddy's commitment to peace resulted in the deaths of his "own" subjects aboard the flagship.  Captain Glory, Kl'rt, Mur-G'nn, and Tanalth then all insist he ends his relationship with Billy.  He does so in public, though he and Billy know that he doesn't actually do so.  But, it's still a lot.  Billy later visits Teddy in secret, and Teddy stresses how scared he is to take on all this responsibility without Billy.

The only criticism that I have is that it's weird that Marvel shunted Teddy's story, which is the story's core, to a tie-in issue.  If Ewing and Slott had incorporated this level of emotion and intrigue into the main title, I think that I'd enjoy it more.  This issue is also helped due to all the sexy Teddy time.  Twunk indeed!

X-Men #11 (August 26):  Given Hickman's penchant for jumping from story to story, this "Empyre" tie-in issue fits into the story that he's telling fairly seamlessly.  Just as Rockslide and Summoner are prepared to play a game that definitely isn't what it seems, the Cotati strike.  Magneto puts into effect a protocol that Cyclops and the other captains developed that creates offensive and defensive groupings of X-Men whose powers fit well together, like the Five's.  To that end, Magma delivers lava to Iceman who freezes it into metal for Magneto to use against the invaders.  Needless to say, Magneto wins.  I'm guessing that "Empyre:  X-Men" deals with Cyclops and his team's fight against the Cotati on the Moon, but given that the main title hasn't mentioned that fight at all and we only have one issue left in it, I'm not bothering with that mini-series.  But, this issue works well enough to see how the mutants are involved in "Empyre."

Also Read:  Empyre #5 (August 12)

Almost Two-Year-Old Comics: The Superhero July 15, 22, and 29 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #44 (July 15):  Man, this issue is fucking intense.  Kindred uses his ability to control Peter's dreams to show Sin-Eater tracking down Overdrive and the Inner Demons.  It's a lot, like, "I want to hug my kids" a lot.  Sin-Eater appears as a demon chasing Overdrive wherever he tries to run, and it seems pretty clear that he kills him in the end.  But, Peter "awakens" to a new dream where he calls MJ and tells her that he feels like Spider-Man is swallowing him whole.  He acknowledges that Jonah had a point in issue #39 that Peter pushes away everyone.  Peter plays with the engagement ring that he bought MJ as he finishes telling her that he wants to ask her something when she returns.  But, it isn't hopeful.  Spencer does an amazing job showing how he does really seems broken and completely isolated from everyone he loves.  It feels like he's asking MJ to marry him more because he needs someone to love him.  But, maybe it's just Kindred's spin:  at the end of the issue, Kindred makes it sound like MJ was having this dream, not Peter.  Peter wanting to marry MJ solely to feel grounded is certainly her nightmare.

Incoming! #1 (December 26, 2019):  Oof.  This issue is rough.  It entails authors handing off their character-specific vignettes to one another to solve a locked-room murder.  Instead of focusing on laying the groundwork for the Empyre cross-over, though, Marvel tries to update us on virtually every character's current status quo.  The only real development is Hulkling becoming the Kree-Skrull emperor and taking on a Cotati threat that a Kree agent and his Skrull partner discovered on Earth.

Empyre #1 (July 15):  This issue is as solid as a first issue of a cross-over event can be.  Tony Stark is confident that his side - the Celestial Messiah known as Quoi and his Cotati followers - is right and the other side - the Kree/Skrull Alliance - is wrong.  He's condescending to Hulkling and doesn't even bother trying to listen to him.  When Hulkling orders a non-lethal attack on the Avengers, Tony has Thor use Mjolnir to deliver a virus into the Alliance's ships, disabling them.  With the Alliance incapacitated, Quoi then reveals his hand:  he and the Cotati transform into more war-like versions of themselves, take out the Avengers, and set their sights on Earth.  Well played as always, Tony.

Empyre #2 (July 22):  It's hard to believe that Marvel thought this plot could sustain as sprawling of a cross-over event as they originally planned.  It's just hard to take the Cotati seriously.  Can't Iceman just freeze them?  At any rate, this issue moves along the narrative at a brisk enough pace.  While the Avengers (particularly Tony) are left reeling at Quoi's betrayal, Carol uses her powers to amplify Hulkling's sword's ability to disrupt the Cotati, saving the remains of the Kree/Skrull Alliance's armada.  (Her argument to Captain Glory and the Super-Skrull that they've made mistakes, too, so the Avengers' mistake is fine is so very Avengers logic that they should probably make her Chairwoman.)  Now, we're heading to Earth where I wonder if the good guys are going to win...

New Mutants #11 (July 22):  Due to Magik's last-minute save, the New Mutants are able to escape Carnelia before its prime minister can have its forces fire on them.  As Boomer notes in her journal, it's yet another situation that could've gone better.  The team seems focused on getting to the bottom of whoever is running the Dox website, which seems like a solid use of their time.  But, it's probably time to winnow down the roster if they plan on not constantly bumping into each other.

X-Men/Fantastic Four #4 (July 22):  Oof.  I was going to write how heart-warming this issue is.  After Franklin ends the experiment to prevent Doom's Latviathans from killing everyone, both the Fantastic Four and X-Men promptly tell Doom to go fuck himself.  

Like an adult, Sue then apologizes to Charles for treating him as a threat, noting that he's dedicated his life to teaching young mutants like her son how to use their powers.  Also like an adult (I know, shocker), Charles apologizes to Sue for seeming to ignore her concerns about Krakoa isolating itself from humanity, stressing that they also share them.  

Later, Valeria tells Doom that she knows that he tried to siphon off some power and sending a microprobe through the conduit that he opened to repower Franklin.  Doom acknowledges that he's trying to find a way to get humanity to evolve its intelligence in response to mutantkind.  Valeria tells Doom that he needs to move to the acceptance phase of his grief over humanity's end.  On Krakoa, Beast is unable to pinpoint why Franklin's powers are failing but notes that Franklin's powers are less drained when he uses them on Krakoa.  Then Franklin goes home for dinner.  All's well that end's well, right?

Wrong.  Charles and Erik accompany Franklin to Yancy St. to speak with Reed.  It turns out his device to cloak the mutant gene can also turn off the gene.  Bam, smack to the face.  On one hand, it raises the question whether he really is behind fucking with Franklin's powers.  On the other hand, it's also a man essentially willing to commit genocide.  Charles erases Reed's ability to reconstruct it and notes that, in the past, he'd erase Reed's memory of him doing so.  Instead, Charles tells Reed that he wants Reed to remember.  To quote Charles, "This is not a game.  This is our right to survive."  Erik then destroys the device and tells Reed that he can't do whatever he wants anymore.

As I said, oof.  Needless to say, Reed doesn't come off well here.  He's surprised when Charles and Erik confront him, because he's so used to keeping secrets and he's so clearly rarely called on it.  The entire sequence definitely leaves me firmly in Team X-Men here, even if I think Charles and Erik fucked up the entire situation.

Amazing Spider-Man #45 (July 29):  Holy shit.  This issue is intense.  After so many issues of Spencer hinting at plots to come, he finally throws himself into one here.

After Mary Jane canceled her trip home at the last minute, Peter mopily goes through the motions of the date where he'd planned to propose.  Along the way, he stumbles upon a manic Overdrive and realizes that his dream - where Overdrive has driven for three straight days to run from Sin-Eater - was true.  The confrontation goes how you expect, as conflicting feelings overwhelm Peter as he tries to save Overdrive.  Sin-Eater appears on the scene and opens fire on Overdrive, but Spidey jumps in front of the bullet.  It goes through Spidey without wounding him but kills Overdrive instead.  

At last, it seemed like it did.  When Carlie Cooper examines the body later, she realizes that the wound has disappeared, and Overdrive suddenly awakens!  

Going forward, the big challenge for Peter is that he seems unable to shake off the presumably Kindred-induced fog and realize that someone (i.e., Kindred) is behind his recent troubles.  Sin-Eater even tells him that someone returned him to Earth to cause Peter pain, and Peter can't put two and two together.  It doesn't bode well.

X-Men #10 (July 29):  Hickman uses this "Empyre" cross-over issue to give us a little more background on Vulcan.  That said, he doesn't totally answer all my questions.  

At some point after Black Bolt and Vulcan went boom in "War of Kings," a triad of nefarious entities examined Vulcan.  They decided that he had a flaw - an inherent goodness - that complicated their plans for him.  For reasons that don't necessarily make sense to me if a "good" Vulcan was the problem, they decide to resurrect him with a "false" good persona on the outside and his "real" broken self on the inside.  Shouldn't that be the other way?  Shouldn't his good persona be "real" and his broken persona be "false?"

This revelation comes when Vulcan takes a walk on the Moon and encounters the Cotati.  For reasons that are also unclear, the Cotati don't immediately kill him.  They use a seed to bring his secrets to the fore, which results in him exploding, presumably as they peeled off his false outer shell.  Afterwards, Petra and Sway come to collect him, and he tells them that he doesn't want to be this way anymore.   

In other words, it's a very Hickman issue, where we get more questions than answers and even some of the questions don't make sense.

Also Read:  New Mutants #10 (June 10); Free Comic Book Day:  X-Men (2020) #1 (July 15); Giant-Size X-Men:  Magneto #1 (July 15); Guardians of the Galaxy #4 (July 15); Amazing Spider-Man:  Sins Rising - Prelude #1 (July 22); Empyre #3 (July 29)

Two-Year-Old Comics: The Superhero March 11, 18, & 25 and May 27 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Hawkeye:  Freefall #4 (March 11):  Rosenberg's script is great, but Schmidt's pencils take the cake here.  I'd love for him to take over "Amazing Spider-Man."  If I can't have that, though, I'm thrilled that he continues delivering shirtless Clint action.  Anyway, enough thirst, onto the story...

In order to throw Falcon, Night Thrasher, and Winter Soldier (the Ronin "task force") off the scent, Bryce hacks into S.W.O.R.D.'s database and finds a Skrull who can impersonate Ronin while Clint is Hawkeye.  The Skrull in question winds up being a subway breakdancer, which adds a whole new level of hilarity to the story.  Of course, it's Clint, so this already complicated plan gets even more complicated when D-Man, Mockingbird, and U.S.Agent join the task force.  

Clint gets paired for patrolling with John, who he was to knock unconscious as John reminisces about their West Coast Avengers days.  Once again, it's Clint so even this complicated plan gets more complicated when Clint's LMD shows up dressed as Ronin because he overheard Clint setting up this plan.  Clint has to kill his LMD and switch costumes with him so that the Skrull can now be Hawkeye since the Skrull definitely can't take on the remaining task-force members as Ronin.  That said, I'm still not sure what Clint's original plan was.  Was the Skrull supposed to just run by the task-force members as Ronin and then pretend to be someone else?  Oh, Clint.  Never good with the plans.

Of course, even this plan doesn't work.  It turns out Spidey followed Clint and knows that he's Ronin (even though Spidey technically followed the LMD).  Although Clint convinces Spidey to trust him "as a friend," their conversation takes so long that the task force disbands for the evening without ever seeing Hawkeye and Ronin in the same place.  Oh, also, Bullseye appears at the end to threaten the Skrull.  Good times.  

New Mutants #9 (March 11):  With Roberto staying with Sam, it seems like the two New Mutants teams who've shared this series are now merged, forming ad hoc teams for missions.  That said, despite their decision to help a mutant who's gone missing in a former Soviet satellite nation, the Council didn't actually ask them to do so.  In fact, Cyclops previously called in Magik to express the Council's concern over the Nebraska debacle.  At this point, it seems like they're replicating what the Marauders do, but without Council approval.  In typical New Mutant fashion, it goes poorly.

X-Men #8 (March 11):  I had forgotten (if I ever really noticed) that Rahne swiped the space egg in "New Mutants" #2, but Hickman reminds us that she did when he sends hordes of Brood to Earth to retrieve it.  Oopsie.

It turns out that it's a King Egg, whose emergence causes the thousand Brood queens to go to war.  Cyclops wisely takes the egg, Broo, Havok, Marvel Girl, and Vulcan to Shi'ar space.  Meanwhile, a Kree Accuser has worked over the Starjammers, and they direct him to Bobby who promises to turn over the egg so long as the Accuser stops bothering him.  Of course, Smasher isn't thrilled when it turns out the Accuser is in Shi'ar space, and Kallark and Kubark (yay!) put aside their Brood hunting trip and make their way to the Accuser.  In other words, space war!  

Although this issue is occasionally hard to follow, it's still fun and hopefully Hickman actually continues the story next issue.  To be honest, though, I'm most interesting in hints across the various X-titles that paradise is turning into debauchery for many mutants, notably Boomer and Vulcan.  Hickman seems to be building to something, and I'm intrigued to see where he goes with it.

Captain America #20 (March 18):  I knew General Ross wasn't dead-dead, but I also didn't expect him to turn up working with Black Widow to track down Sin and the Watchdogs.  It'll certainly make it easier to prove Steve didn't kill him.  Right now, though, Coates is focusing a different story.  He's returning to the story that he and Nick Spencer before him have been telling, about a world where people like Selene can manipulate men who long for the days when men were men.  Selene has set up shop in a town dedicated to helping men rediscover their manhood through hard work and frequent religion.  Of course, she's really running, as Bucky says, a multilevel-marketing scheme where, if you don't bring in more souls, she takes your soul.  Steve notes the similarity to the town that he encountered earlier in this series dedicated to manufacturing Nukes, and he wonders what Selene is hiding here.  I'm guessing that it isn't good.

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 (March 18):  Ewing is building to something here, and I'm totally game.  But, it's confusing.  

First, "our" Moondragon talks to her father, Drax, about how it's unclear who he actually is, since the real Arthur Douglas and Drax the Destroyer stayed in the Soul Gem in "Infinity Wars" #6.  Second, "our" Moondragon is dealing with the fact that the more heroic Moondragon and Phyla-Vell are active Guardians.  Finally, everyone keeps calling Rocket "Ranger Rocket," which may or may not imply that we have a second Rocket in the mix.  As I said, it's confusing.  But, Ewing is doing a solid job of making it clear that we have a mystery afoot so I can be patient.  

The best part of the issue is when it takes you a while to realize that everyone is saying "I am [their name]" because we're seeing Groot talk.  It happens when Rocket informs Gamora and the team that Peter has died and Gamora (as we learn later) expels Rocket from the team.  Given we all know that Peter is going to return, Ewing's use of this approach somehow really amps up the moment's emotions, as we can only watch their grief unfold.

Amazing Spider-Man #42 (March 25):  This issue should hit me square in the feels.  We learn that Gog is actually a space prince's pet who managed to return to him in time to see him die on the battle front.  Oof.  I can't tell why I didn't feel anything, though.  It's part of the problem that I've had with this series for a while.  Despite the fact that I generally like the plots themselves, something about the execution feels color-by-number.  It could be Ottley's spare art, which I find too spare at times.  I feel like someone like Russell Dauterman, Stephanie Hans, or Jamie McKelvie would have left me a broken shell of a human being.  Instead, all these stories feel disposable to me, like I'm just reading reprints of previous issues.

Amazing Spider-Man #43 (May 27):  OK, issue #42 may not have done the job for me, but I felt all the feels when Gog koala-ed himself on Peter.  Spider-Gog!  Spencer's narration is key, because I didn't really buy it until Peter talked about how both he and Gog know what it's like to lose someone but try to do the right thing anyway.  Peter isn't replacing Gog's boy, but Gog isn't alone now either.  I'm a pretty happy camper.

Marauders #10 (May 27):  We've been building to what Duggan hints is coming next issue, namely the Five coming to the conclusion that they can't resurrect Kate.   Charles tells them that he'll inform the White Queen, and I'm sure that conversation will go well. 

Meanwhile, the Marauders are wrapping up loose ends related to the first few issues, making it seem like we'll go in a new direction after Kate's funeral.  In this issue, they seize not only the Russian ship carrying Forge's anti-mutant technology but also Forge's former employee whose photographic memory helped the Russians create it.  We learn the Mercury is a UFO that Emma has somehow acquired, though Christian and Emma refuse to reveal how, telling people who ask only that it's a story.  (Of course it is.)

Again, if the plan is to keep Kate dead for a while, I wonder where we go from here.  I feel like this title is really the most X-Men title of the current line, given not only the sheer number of X-Men that appear in it but also the team's mandate to rescue mutants in trouble.  I wonder if that mission changes with Kate's (alleged) death.

Also Read:  Marauders #9 (March 4); X-Men/Fantastic Four #2 (March 4) and #3 (March 25); Amazing Spider-Man #41 (March 11); Falcon & Winter Soldier #2 (March 25); Giant-Size X-Men:  Nightcrawler (March 25); X-Men #9 (March 25)

Over Two-Year-Old Comics: The Superhero February 17, 19, and 26 (2020) Edition: HERE BE SPOILERS!

Marauders #8 (February 17):  I'm tempted to recap Emma and Storm's conversation here, but it would be like trying to describe the glory of a perfect sunset or a snowy mountain.  Duggan makes their mutual grief over Kate's death so extremely real.  When Professor X resurrected the X-Men who took out Mother Mold, he said that he feels each death, making it clear that it wasn't something that he really wanted happening all that often.  In so doing, Duggan reminds us that death still matters; even as Emma tries to instill hope in Storm (a humbling experience, as Storm notes) that they will find a way to resurrect Kate, their fear that they won't be able to do so is palpable.  When you add Bobby's Omega-level rage to Emma and Storm's sorrow, Sebastian Shaw should be more than a little concerned about Bishop finding the rope around Kate's legs.

Captain America #19 (February 19):  I've said it before and I'll hopefully say it again:  it's a great time to be a Cap fan.

This issue is everything that I hoped it would be.  In his search for Peggy, Steve encounters Agatha Harkness, who takes us on a journey through the years to show how the Daughters of Liberty came into existence.  It's a great story:  as the American and Industrial Revolutions changed the world, the men in power acknowledged that they needed a group to keep them honest as they came into so much new power.  They realized that group should be women.

The most surprising (and best) development is that Alexa Lukin was the one to recruit Peggy after Peggy's African-American boyfriend left her, saying that America wasn't the type of place where they could be together.  Alexa was a true believer at the time, but she eventually followed wherever the winds took her:  communism, oligarchs, etc.  

Steve eventually comes face-to-face with Petty, and she explains that the goal is to discover the rock where Selene stored part of Sharon's soul (as seen in issues #4-#5).  Sharon then enters with Bucky and Sam, and Steve is overwhelmed that they were all in together on the plot.  They explain that they initially needed to ensure that Steve was Steve.  Once they were, they were then worried that he already had too much on his plate.  Bucky notes that their mission isn't just about Sharon and Steve:  it's about getting revenge on all the people who fucked with all their minds.  

Steve acknowledges that it's been a lot, and he apologizes to Sharon for not trusting her; she in turn apologizes for keeping secrets.  She then hands him his shield, and they tell him that it's time for him to return.  To up the ante, they explain that Alexa has brought back Alexander and, thus, the Red Skull.

In other words, I'm all fucking in here.  Coates is pulling together years of Cap history and distilling it to the best parts.

New Mutants #7 (February 19):  It was the best of issues, it was the worst of issues.  It drove me insane, it made me smile.  

Hickman makes the right decision not to get the band back together in the way that we all thought Bobby wanted (i.e., getting the New Mutants together again) but in the way that Bobby actually wanted (i.e., getting him and Sam back together again).  The advantage of reading this series two years later is that I know that they eventually headline "Secret X-Men," so this decision obviously sticks.  Was Bobby a dick to Dani when she asks if he meant the New Mutants and he said, "God, no!  I mean me and Sam."  Yes, yes, he was.  But, is Bobby a dick?  Yes, yes, he is.  Would Bobby also fall in love with someone like Deathbird?  Yes, yes, he would.  

In exchange for the last three pages of two bros doing bro things, I can forgive the bizarre recap of an issue that didn't happen (I won't even call it pet peeve #2) and Hickman treating Rahne like she had some sort of head injury.  Onwards and upwards!

Amazing Spider-Man #40 (February 26):  I have no idea what's happening here.  The Foreigner helped Chance win the bet, which means that the Foreigner has to pay everyone's debts at the Palace.  But, somehow it means Chance is ruined and the Foreigner is going to provide him capital?  I think it's because Chance realizes that the Foreigner knows that he's cheating (and that the super-villains who populate the Palace wouldn't handle that revelation well), but I'm still not clear on that.  Did the drones from issue #38 help him cheat?  If I cared more, I'd re-read this arc, but I don't so I won't.  Suffice it to say, I really feel like I'm hanging on here to see the Kindred bit resolved, though God knows how long it'll be before that happens.

Falcon & Winter Soldier #1 (February 26):  This issue is fun.   I don't think that it's going to be a ground-breaking miniseries for either character, but it does a good job of keeping their characters fresh in our minds.  

Sam's running a veterans-support group in Harlem, and one of his participants has gone missing.  He finds out the Office of Federal Utilities (OFU) was looking for her and learns that OFU takes out domestic terrorist groups.  Upon arriving at OFU's office, he encounters Bucky (and his cat).  As part of his pardon, Bucky does OFU's dirty work (i.e., killing everyone in said terrorist groups).  Bucky got attacked at his home, presumably by the survivor(s) of one of his attacks.  He (and his cat) then made his way to OFU only to discover, as Sam does, that someone killed everyone in the office. 

Bucky's handler managed to escape the massacre because she called in drunk, but a kid named the Natural arrives at her house, announces that he was responsible for slaughtering OFU on Hydra's behalf, and proceeds to hand Bucky and Sam their asses.  Given he's a Captain America obsessive, he allows them to live and invites them to try to take out Hydra, warning them that he'll kill them the next time that he sees them.

Is it a kind of weird premise for this miniseries?  Yes.  Does Bucky look handsome?  Yes.  Do we get to see him carry around his cat in his leather jacket?  Yes.  In other words, I'm all in.

X-Men #7 (February 26):  On the surface, this issue is pretty direct.  For the mutants who lost their powers in M-Day, the Council has created the Crucible:  the mutant faces Apocalypse in combat and, when he inevitably kills them, they're resurrected with their powers.  It's how the Council addresses the fact that they can't have the million mutants who lost their powers all kill themselves at once, since it would strain the Five, to say the least.  But, Hickman uses the Crucible as a way to tease out the philosophical issues that the Resurrection Protocols bring with them, and he does it in the best way possible:  a conversation between Cyclops and Nightcrawler.  Kurt obviously has thoughts.  Or, more accurately, he has questions and not a lot of answers.  He's mostly struggling with the idea that, if mutants can live forever, they won't seek God's grace, since they can do God's work on Earth.  It leads him to tell Scott that he think that he needs to create a new mutant religion, which makes a lot of sense given the Resurrection Protocols' quasi-religious nature.  Overall, it's part of Hickman's focus over the last few issues on the realities that Krakoa's leaders are facing now that the initial joy of its founding has begun to fade.

Also Read:  Guardians of the Galaxy #2 (February 19); Giant-Size X-Men:  Jean Grey and Emma Frost (February 26); New Mutants #8 (February 26)

Over Two-Year-Old Comics: The Superhero February 5 and 12 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

X-Men/Fantastic Four #1 (February 5):  The nice thing about this issue is that virtually everyone is a raging asshole:  Charles, Erik, Johnny, Logan, Reed, Sue.  Kate and Storm are the only ones who remotely keep their cool.  But, it's Reed (not surprisingly) who takes the cake.  First, Franklin has a point that Reed's inability to solve his and Ben's problems might come from a subconscious desire not to do so:  to watch Franklin become powerless and to keep Ben usefully strong.  Second, without telling Franklin, Reed installed a device that masks his mutant gene, preventing him from accessing the Krakoan gates.  It's an incredible breach of trust, prompting Franklin (and Valeria) to stowaway on the Marauder.  Moreover, I don't want to let Sue off the hook.  I understand her hair-trigger response to the X-Men's arrival came from her concern since Krakoa's founding that this moment would come.  But, she pushes Franklin out the door as much as Reed does.  Both of them not only completely ignore what he wants but refuse even to discuss it with him.  I'm Team Franklin all the way here.

Amazing Spider-Man #39 (February 12):  After almost 40 years of reading "Amazing Spider-Man," I can't say that I really care about yet another JJJ, Jr.-Spidey argument, even if Spencer puts a fun spin on it by making JJJ, Jr. right.  But, OMG, the Overdrive back-up story is fucking intense.  Overdrive takes a job as a get-away driver for some former Inner Demon henchmen, and he's appalled when they gun down a bunch of cops and then assassinate the one who survived even after he begs for his life.  (The cop tells them that he has a daughter who already lost her mother, and the Inner Demon who kills him replies, "Looks like someone will be sleeping at grandma's tonight."  Seriously, I shivered.)  This story hints that the Inner Demons and Overdrive are on Sin-Eater's hit list.  Given how long Spencer has been teasing Kindred, I'm thrilled that we're going to have something happen soon-ish.

Hawkeye:  Freefall #3 (February 12):  Rosenberg continues delivering a story that is both hilarious and intense.  On one hand, you have a furious Linda discovering Clint's new "assistant" Bryce hiding in Hawkeye's closet.  How did she discover him?  Bryce was trying to silence a suddenly talking LMD Clint whom non-LMD Clint stole from S.H.I.E.L.D.  (Did I mention LMD Clint was naked and sitting on stacks of money?)  On the other hand, you have a horrified Clint realizing that the Hood murdered everyone in a Maggia human-trafficking site while looking for Ronin.  We know that Clint is Ronin after he exposits that the item that he swiped in issue #1 was one of Kang's time-traveling devices, explaining how Hawkeye and Ronin were at the same place at once.  But, Daredevil now also knows that Clint is Ronin when he appears at the site as a maskless Clint stares at the bodies around him.  (I'm not quite sure how Daredevil knows that it's Clint since, you know, he's blind, but I'm just going with it.)  Clint is playing an extremely dangerous game here, and I'm impressed that Rosenberg is able to balance that with the humor (and nakedness) that you also need in a good Hawkeye story.

X-Men #6 (February 12):  If you ever need a reminder that Charles Xavier is an asshole and a hypocrite, this issue will satisfy that need.  

We learn in this issue that Mystique accompanied the team on their strike against Orchis in "House of X" because Magneto and Professor X are holding Destiny's resurrection hostage until she does what they want.  But, her own death and resurrection aren't enough for them.  Since the X-Men's death on Orchis' space station orbiting the Sun happened outside the Resurrection Protocol, they don't know if Mystique successfully planted the Krakoa seed.  She agrees to travel through the gate to ensure that it worked.  It did, but she discovers that Nimrod likely didn't come from the Master Mold but from Alia Gregor's current project.  (I love that Charles and Erik essentially inspired Alia to create Nimrod, something neither one of them will ever admit.)  

When Mystique says that she didn't kill Alia because they have laws, Magneto comments, "Not for that.  Not for them.  And let's be honest, not for you..if you thought it needed doing."  Charles Xavier, hypocrite.  When Mystique demands that they resurrect Destiny, Charles refuses to do so until she earns it, which Erik defines as murdering Alia.  Charles Xavier, asshole.

This issue's framing device is Destiny in the past predicting Krakoa's existence and telling Mystique to burn the place to the ground if they refuse to resurrect her.  I cannot wait to see what Mystique does.

Also Read:  Marauders #7 (February 5)

Over Two-Year-Old Comics: The Superhero January 1, 22, and 29 (2020) Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Hawkeye:  Freefall #1 (January 1):  Woof.  

The thing about Hawkeye comics is that they only work if he's fuckable, and Schmidt delivers here.  A good Hawkeye comic means that I have to re-read the panels after he first appears shirtless (or naked, lately) because I wasn't paying attention to the plot.  My thought process after this moment was something like, "Hmm, shirtless Hawkeye, his waist is so tiny, his pecs are so large, Linda Carter, oh, Wonder Woman, that's cute, wait, he's dating the Night Nurse?" 

But, he also has to be charming, and Rosenberg also delivers.  From arguing with the Hood over whether or not he sucker-punched him (he totally did) to making Sam buy him a new omelette after Red Bird pooped on it, he's the Clint whom I know and love.  

But, Clint isn't just charming because he's witty in his own lug-headed way.  He's also a charming because he's a mess, and, boy, he's a mess here.  He thinks that he can take on the Hood who has to remind Clint that he's actually a demon, he's clearly fucking up his relationship with Linda when he interrupts sexy time to talk about the Hood, he accidentally admits that he pays Turk to give him intel (undermining his insistence that he's community figure whom people trust), he's jealous that Bucky was right and the new Ronin is in better shape than him:  in other words, he's everything that I expect Clint to be.

Moreover, the plot ain't bad either.  Rosenberg does something that I've never really seen anyone do before in a street-level comic.  When Clint attends what he expects to be the Hood's arraignment, he confronts just how corrupt the justice system is.  The judge is imperious when he sends one of the Hood's henchman to jail but neglects to mention that the Hood himself went free thanks to Kingpin's intervention.

Later, when the aforementioned Ronin appears, Bucky and Sam think that Clint has gone rogue.  He hasn't, but it's hard to get a bead on his motives.  When we first see Ronin, he's taking out an armored vehicle carrying a "package."  But, when we next see him, he's hitting a Hood site.  Amassing powerful items?  Maybe.  While we wait for an answer, I'll be reading this issue again just to enjoy Clint's return.  I can't think of a higher compliment than that.

X-Men #4 (January 1):  This issue is truly spectacular.  Apocalypse, Magneto, and Professor X accept an invitation to Davos to dine with a group of influential humans.  Magneto explains that he's seen the light:  in the past, he'd try to dominate humanity through force.  Now, he realizes that he needs to play humanity's game and dominate them through "your quiet weapons of finance and your silent wars of influence."  He lays out how mutantkind will use the money that it makes through its innovations to buy everything:  banks, media, politicians, schools.  The humans are afraid not because they're worried that the mutants are going to attack them; they're afraid because they know that the mutants will beat them at their own game.  Meanwhile, one of the humans has hired a squad to kill Apocalypse, Magneto, and Professor X, which shows how little they understand.  Cyclops and Gorgon make short work of the squad, but it allows for Magneto to send the humans a message:  don't try us.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 (January 22):  Unfortunately, I can't say that I'm a huge fan of this issue.  

I accept that it's inherently chaotic since the Guardians' attempt to invade New Olympus doesn't work out so well, and all Hell breaks loose (almost literally).  But, Ewing is relying on us having pretty detailed knowledge about the Cosmic Marvel line to understand the plot completely.  Even though I follow those titles pretty closely, I still spent a significant amount of time trying to remember each character's status quo.  For example, Rich mentions losing his younger brother, and I had to do so some serious Googling to remember that Robbie is a Talon...and I even read "Infinity Countdown:  Darkhawk!"  At any rate, hopefully we'll soon focus on the stories at hand and not the past.  

I am intrigued where Ewing goes with the idea that pretty much everyone here (except Marvel Boy, Moondragon, and Phylla-Vel) is suffering from serious post-tramautic stress.  I mean, Rich can barely describe the mission at hand after explaining to Peter how he died...again...in "Annihilation:  Scourge."  He says that he's in recovery, which I assume means that he isn't drinking anymore.  But, it's also clear that he's basically on his own trying to keep order in a galaxy that's quickly descending into chaos, as his review of the current political situations in the Shi'ar Imperium, Skrull Empire, and Utopian Kree shows.  I can't see him holding up well under that strain.

Marauders #6 (January 22):  This issue starts to address whether or not Kate exists outside the Resurrection Protocols.  It's interesting but not as interesting as Duggan thinks that it is.  I mean, I thought the whole point of the Resurrection Protocols is that we didn't have to read this type of story anymore.  I mean, sure, it makes sense that Shaw manipulated all the events here to ensure Kate is by herself so he can kill her.  But, she'll survive, he'll get in trouble, blah, blah, blah.

I'm much more interested in Homines Verendi.  Although I loathed these characters in "Wolverine and the X-Men" and I still hope someone forcibly ages them so that we can take them seriously, they are putting together a pretty serious resistance to Krakoa's drive for hegemony.  They've gotten Donald Pierce appointed the Madripoorean ambassador to the United Nations, they've injected Yellowjacket into Pyro so that they can have a monopoly on gathering intelligence inside Krakoa, and they've apparently got boatloads of power-dampening Stormtrooper armor.  In other words, they're trouble.

Most importantly, Duggan isn't playing the human resistance as the usual chumps.  When Kate snarks that Zhao - now Madripoorean - was a Chinese (ahem, Tawianese) citizen last month, Zhoa comments, "last month your country didn't exist."  We don't usually see the "bad guys" land such rhetorical punches, as the heroes are generally presented as always correct.  Moreover, Hate-Monger and X-Cutioner were legitimately scary here as they battled the mutants.  

Just as Magneto warned humanity not to push Krakoa in "X-Men" #4, Homines Verendi is reminding mutantkind that they don't just get to take over the world.  Mutantkind is now an organized threat, and humanity is responding to that threat the same way that mutantkind did every time humanity came after mutants.  I'm glad to see this realpolitik analysis on the situation underpinning Duggan's story, because it prevents us to falling into eye-rolling moralizing.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Bobby/Lockheed cuddles.  🥰 

Captain America #18 (January 29):  I'll be honest that I don't totally follow what happened here.  I mean, I get the basics:  a cop tips off Cap that Scourge is located in an upstate cabin taking on some cops, and Cap and the Daughters of Liberty go to the cabin to take out Scourge.  Scourge winds up killing himself, prompting Kingpin to reemerge so he can announce the news.  But, I don't get how these events are connected.  Kingpin makes it seem like he faked his own death to draw out Scourge, but as far as I can tell it didn't happen that way.  I mean, we don't know how or why the cops found Scourge, but it doesn't seem related to Kingpin's supposed death.  Moreover, Scourge kills himself, but we never find out his identity.  We just seem to learn that John Walker is the one setting up people to become Scourge, as he does here with Larrimore's sister (or wife?).  Does that mean that John was behind the murder of the Kingpin's cops?  As I said, it isn't particularly clear, at least not yet.

Hawkeye:  Freefall #2 (January 29):  So, Hawkeye has a Giant Man-sized penis, right?  I mean, yes, also, he's Ronin.  But, he has a Giant Man-sized penis, right?

New Mutants #6 (January 29):  Holy shit, this issue is fucking intense.  In a rarity for superhero comics, Brisson not only has everything go really, really badly, but he also pins it squarely on the team's poor decisions.  

To begin, Manon and Maxime use one of the guards to kill the other guard.  The gunshot calls the other thugs' attention, leading to one of them shooting Beak.  Then, in their rush to save Beak, the team forgets about Beak's parents.  The head thug, Túmulo, murders Beak's mother in front of Beak's father and then drags Beak's father to the lawn, demanding that the team abandon his truck (which they were going to use to get Beak to the hospital).  Angel refuses, since either Túmulo will murder Beak's father (which he does) or Beak will die if they don't get him to a hospital in the truck.  After killing Beak's father, Túmulo warms that the other members of the gang will keep coming until they get what they want.  He then kills himself, presumably because he knows that his boss would've done so anyway.

This entire sequence is terrifying.  I had my doubts about the mutants withdrawing from the world.  But, Brisson reminds us that it was Dox, a Breitbart-like website, that brought about this situation.  Before Túmulo kills her father-in-law, Angel tells him that he won:  they thought that they could live without the pointing and staring in rural Nebraska, but they were wrong and they'll go to Krakoa where their children can be safe.  I said in issue #4 that Angel's terror over her children hit home with me as a parent, and I would come to the same conclusion that she does here.  In fact, it makes you wish that we all had a Krakoa.  Angel's despair and terror will stay with me for a long time.

But, Brisson doesn't stop there.  Thinking they were doing the right thing, Manon and Maxime change the Bohusk family's memories so that they think that Beak's parents died in their sleep years ago.  Armor is outraged and makes the kids promise not to change people's memories.  But, she lets what they did stand, despite ominously warning that these actions have a way of "coming back on us."  It raises a question that I've had across the titles, particularly in "Marauders" where no one has solved Kitty's inability to enter Krakoa:  is no one in charge?  Kitty's situation is one thing, but Dox runs a story on the "nightmare" in the "mutant-infested county" and Túmulo's dying words invoke a threat that Costa Perdita's government (clearly a narco-state) will exact vengeance for mutants killing their citizens.  I don't think Armor should really be the final decision-maker here.  Is that why we have the Council?

X-Men #5 (January 29):  If you've read this blog for a while, you know that my main complaint about Hickman on other titles is that he conflates confusing for interesting.  He goes down this road farther than he has previously on the X-titles, and I'm hoping that it's just a blip and not a premonition.

Like issues #2 and #3, this issue picks up a new threat facing mutantkind:  the Children of the Vault.  Given the familiarity the X-Men have with them as they explain the upcoming mission to Darwin, Synch, and Wolverine (X-23), I re-read issue #1 in an attempt to remember if I had clearly forgotten something.  After that didn't work and I hit up the Google, I learned that the Children of the Vault first appeared during an era in the mid-2000s when I wasn't reading comics.  Although it explains said familiarity, I feel like Hickman could've done a little more to explain the Children's background.  If we could get an interstitial page about how Synch's disorientation over his resurrection resulted in Krakoa changing the Resurrection Protocols, we could've gotten one about the Children.  

(That said, the Synch page is fascinating.  They resurrected Synch early in case he had to help one of the Five.  It wound up they didn't need him to do so, but his despair over seeing his friends and teammates having experienced life in the time he was gone meant that they also resurrected Skin early to help him.  The success of that meant that Krakoa started resurrecting people with similar experiences to mitigate the discomfort.)

Turning to the plot itself, the Council sends Darwin, Synch, and Wolverine into the Vault because they can survive the temporal shear at entry.  They're immediately confronted with Vault security, so we'll see how that goes.  The main challenge is that they can't be resurrected if they're inside the Vault, so the stakes are high.  Also, time moves more quickly in the Vault, so the three months that they've been gone translates into something like 500 years.  I wonder how Synch'll handle that...

Also Read:  Marauders #5 (January 1); Amazing Spider-Man #37 (January 8) and #38 (January 22); New Mutants #5 (January 8)