A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2: OK, we have a lot going on here.
I'll say upfront that you probably need to read this event's tie-in issues to enjoy it fully. Gillen is really just hitting the main developments in this issue, leaving the details and drama to the tie-in issues. As such, it reads almost like a bulleted presentation rather than a complete story.
The new "god" Ajak and her team are trying to create narrates the issue, starting with six humans living around the world and their thoughts as the war between the Eternals and X-Men begins. It seems random, but the "god" exhorts us to remember that "everyone is important."
Meanwhile, the Hex - six separate Eternals, as the introduction page informs us - attack Krakoa, and the Avengers arrive to help. Exodus wants them removed from Krakoa but thankfully Cyclops and Magik aren't insane and welcome them. Cap informs Scott that Iron Man is working on a "peaceful" solution, which, honestly, would probably worry me if I were Scott given Tony's track record. Scott sends him after the Hex while he and the other mutants protect the resurrection protocols. Cap takes a shot at Scott here, criticizing him for keeping secrets "after everything we've been through." Scott gives exactly the response I would: "After everything? How could we [not]?"
The Hex's assault on Krakoa takes its toll on Earth's mantle and causes disasters throughout the world. Cyclops dispatches the Avengers to deal with the fallout. Exodus interprets their departure as the Avengers abandoning them, and Destiny cryptically notes that it's an accurate portrayal, because she's seen the future and remembers the past. (The "god" muses: "Do we stand alone? We will see.")
Meanwhile, we get a dense splash page of all the efforts Ajak and her team are putting into creating the "god." Along the way, Gillen refers to a series of past events that I had to Google to appreciate. First, Tony excavates Arishem the Judge's "thumbprint of justice" from London where Arishem fell after the Dark Celestials killed him in Aaron's run on "Avengers (2018)," which I remembered not at all. I also didn't remember Sinister turning the Dreaming Celestial into a version of himself in "Uncanny X-Men (2012)," though he sifts through the debris and finds "a shattered fragment of the heart of a dream." Odin apparently fought a war against the Celestials, which I'm pretty sure I didn't read, and Makarri combs through the body of the Destroyer, which Odin forged as his weapon, to scavenge "tiny fragments of this absolute power." Sersei gathers the Eternals who oppose Druig and head to Lemur to perform a séance in order to gather stories from Deviants who the Celestials previously murdered. Finally, in a move that I'm sure will make Tony insufferable, they use his body as a template for the "god," because his body remembers when "he piloted a dead Celestial when a king wreathed in black ruled the Earth."
Back on Krakoa, Exodus sacrifices himself to take out Syne the Memotaur, leaving five Hex left. The (Krakoa) Five are working overtime in Arbor Magna to bring back warriors (for the moment putting aside the 15 million Arakkii killed who aren't warriors), and Exodus re-joins the fray. Syne does as well, resulting in one of the humans we saw on the first page dying since it's the way that the Eternals resurrect themselves. Syne hurls herself at Krakoa, intending to destroy the island. The mutants realize that they can't evacuate everyone quickly enough and, if they move to stop Syne, the other five Hex members are free to go after Arbor Magna.
Deliverance comes in the form of the "god" who awakens and calls off the Eternals. However, it goes a little differently than Ajax planned, as the "god" decrees that he will judge everyone on Earth and -paging the first page - "if there is more that is just than wicked" he'll spare Earth. If not? It isn't great, folks.
Amazing Spider-Man #7: For all last issue's billing that this issue is the biggest change in Spidery's status quo ever, nothing happens here. Seriously.
Sure, it looks like Peter's going to accept Norman's offer to work for him. After all, he could use Norman's tech after the Vulture exploits Spidey's most obvious weakness: attacking him mid-air and destroying his Web-Shooters so that he can't stop his freefall. (I can't remember anyone ever doing that, surprisingly. How is the Vulture the first one to think of it?) But Peter doesn't actually take the offer here.
In fact, Peter storms from Norman's office after he sets up an "accidental" meeting between MJ and Peter. It sounds like MJ is the step-mom to the kids who we've previously seen, though Wells doesn't confirm that. If you're wondering, MJ is at Oscorp to have Norman run tests on the Krakoa medicines (smart) after she agreed to help the mutants as a brand ambassador. Weirdly Paul is there as well. Does he accompany her on all her work meetings? That's starting to feel creepy.
I should mention that the Vulture attacks Peter because he's convinced that Spidey told his granddaughter about all his murders, even though she could've just, you know, Googled it. (Weirdly, someone did tell her, but I still don't get why we're supposed to believe that she never knew her grandfather - the Vulture - killed people.)
[Sigh.] I've loved Wells work on Spidey, but this run is starting to feel like another Spencer run, where the signs are there early that it isn't going well. I hope I'm wrong.
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #3: I'm intrigued by where Lanzing and Kelly are going here. Right now, they're walking the fine line between conspiracy and ridiculous, and we'll see if they manage to stay on the beam.
The Outer Circle sends a creature called Redacted after Steve to wipe him from history. The fact that the Outer Circle believes that it could wipe Steve Rogers from history shows how powerful its members think they are. Steve defeats the creature but strikes a pipe that spews lava along the way. Realizing that the Forge isn't just a green-power plant, he travels through the complex, discovering an "honest-to-God volcano lair." (He hilariously remarks to himself that Bucky will be mad he missed it.)
In the lair, he sees an imprint of his shield and puts the shield into it, unveiling a recording. The man on the recording informs Steve that he built his shield at this vibranium-alloy forge. In order to get the Outer Circle's secret symbol into the public domain, he put fit on the shield - an outer circle, two inner circles "that obey," and the star for their super-soldier (i.e., Steve). The man doesn't explain why the Outer Circle built the shield for the United States (and thus Steve), but I'm sure we'll get there. A holographic woman with tentacles emerging from her back named the Machine appears and detonates the Forge, which Steve survives by amazingly using the shield to surf the lava. (It could've been hokey, but Carnero really sells it.)
Meanwhile, in Madripoor, Peggy takes offense at Bucky implying that she's been part of a shadowy conspiracy for a long time. He notes several missions that she led that, mission by mission, resulted in the consolidation of power in an increasingly smaller circle. For example, she and Bucky rescued two men in 1944, one of whom created V.X. nerve gas. The United States later traded nukes to the U.K. for the gas, altering the global balance of power. In 1972, Peggy apparently took down the Darkstar oil cartel in Yemen, allowing OPEC to impose the 1973 oil embargo and plunge the world into a three-year recession. As we've seen, she and the Daughters of Liberty just took down the Power Elite, leading to a series of shell companies securing all their assets. Peggy refuses to admit that she's either a patsy or working for them, though it's got to be one or the other.
I loved this entire exchange between Bucky and Peggy. Peggy is so often portrayed as possessing Mary Sue levels of superhumanly brilliant and capable. I loved watching her either panicking at the idea that she's been played or at the idea that Bucky - who she clearly doesn't respect - caught her lie.
As I said, we're close to ridiculous, but we're not there. So long as Lanzing and Kelly stay on this side of ridiculous, this story is a quintessentially Cap one.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #26: Oof, this issue is tough.
Sacks addresses a question that I've had since T'onga functionally took over this series, namely why she thought Cadeliah would trust her when she found her. T'onga comes face to face with Cadeliah here and Cadeliah tells T'onga that she trusts no one. After all, Nakano Lash died, Valence ditched her at the first opportunity, and the Empire killed Valance's ex-girlfriend and her husband: she doesn't have a great record of caretakers. Cadeliah points out she first met T'onga when T'onga came to kill Lash, and you would've thought after all this time T'onga had workshopped a better response than, "I've grown since then."
T'onga and her crew have impressed Qi'ra, though, by getting so far into her citadel so Qi'ra offers her a contract. But it isn't exactly a happy ending. An animal-loving Vukorah is appalled when she has to kill Furball, explaining to Losha that her surrogate father killed her tooka cat in front of her to stress that she couldn't afford attachments. A devastated Losha threatens to kill Vukorah the next time they meet. It goes from bad to worse for Vukorah as she overhears Qi'ra's plan to install Cadeliah at the head of the Mourner's Wail and the Unbroken Clan, despite her promise that Vukorah would head the Clan. Vukorah flees in anguish, a scene matched in its sadness on Tonga's ship when T'onga finds a devastated Losha weeping over Fireball's body asking whether it was all for nothing.
Along the way, Tasu thrashes Dengar and tells him that he's going to kill him one day, and Haydenn makes a pass at Valance who rejects her. In other words, the bounty hunters aren't doing so well, y'all.
Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca #5: Not all that surprisingly, it turns out Han's "dad" isn't his dad but a criminal named Corpus Tyra. (Or maybe his dad became Tyra?) Tyra learned that Jabba hired Han to retrieve the MacGuffin...I mean, urn...from a "Kajain'sa'nikto" named Vizam. Marshal Vancto learned about Vizam from Bib Fortuna and successfully finds Tyra at some sort of Imperial base on Iakar. (Notably, Tyra doesn't obviously have the urn here.)
Meanwhile, Chewie and Han are saved on Mollo Tanka by Khel Tanna and her crew and Greedo. Han informs them that he wasn't sold that his "dad" was his dad, so he put a tracker on him. They follow it to Paqualis III, where the Benelux Marshal Service Headquarters is located. They manage to grab Tyra but leave behind Chewie after Greedo shoots Han while he fights Tanna to go after Chewie. But Chewie finds himself in prison with Maz Kanata, so next issue should be a good time.
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