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)
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