I'm bailing on both "Captain America: Symbol of Truth" and "Marauders" because Marvel has pushed beyond where my loyalty to these characters lie. Both series read as if the editors failed to read them. I'm not doing it if people paid to do it aren't.
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #3: Surprisingly for an event, people act...rationally here. That said, the issue is confusing particularly after the twist at the end.
We begin with the new god (a.k.a., the Progenitor) judging Captain America as a failure; he's tried to inspire America to be a better country for the better part of a century, but, despite America's role as the world leader, the world "is what it is," "worse every day." As such, Captain America is a failure. This pronouncement doesn't particularly bother Steve, and he urges Iron Man and his cohorts to solve the problem while he calms the world with a speech.
Not unreasonably, the Progenitor's judgment leads Druig to surmise that the Progenitor is judging people based on whether they fulfill their "aims and duties." As such, he orders the Eternals to step up their campaign against Krakoa so they can fulfill their duty. After all, as Uranos says, "any deviation is excess deviation."
Elsewhere, Tony and company try to find a way to stop the Progenitor. Ajak is trying to commune with it while Tony identifies its weak point. Phastos warns Tony that destroying it would create a backlash that affects the Eternals and destroys cities. After Ajak and Makkari leave, Phastos warns Tony and Mr. Sinister that killing it may still end up being the only option, even if millions die. But he warns them that the Eternals would have to try to stop them, given their third principle is to protect Celestials.
Sinister tells Destiny about the weakness, and she convinces the Quiet Council to send a strike team to take out the Progenitor. To ensure they don't balk at the prospect of millions dying, the Council withholds that information from the team. Emma reveals that she's made outreach to the Deviants, who are similar enough to mutants that they can use Krakoa's gates. They travel to Krakoa to take on the battle with the Hex so the X-Men can go attack the Progenitor. As Phastos warned Tony, the mutants' attack prompts an immediate response from the Eternals.
Jean successfully hits the Progenitor's weak spot, triggering its destruction. Jean is the first to realize the destruction isn't real: they were inside the Progenitor's mind the entire time. As humanity expresses relief at its survival, the Progenitor reminds them that their heroes aren't above judgment. He then gives the White Queen, Kor (the Deviant's leader), Destiny, and Mystique "thumbs down."
With Tony and his team realizing that they have no choice but face judgment, Sersi travels to the Exclusion to free Starfox, who's imprisoned there for some reason. She hopes that he can convince everyone to love each other, which is probably the best shot they have right now, admittedly.
Captain America: Symbol of Truth #4: Sam Wilson deserves better than this series. It's all exposition and randomness. Oof.
First, Crossbones and his men attack Sam once he enters Wakanda, which you'd kind of think the Wakandans would've prevented from happening.
Second, he delivers a supervillain speech telling Sam all about the White Wolf's plan to engage in a terrorist attack in Wakanda at the same time as telling Sam that he wasn't going to deliver a supervillain speech. Hi, pet peeve #3!
Third, when Sam uses birds to subdue Crossbones (yup, Crossbones), Crossbones spills the beans, telling Sam that the White Wolf has infected the Wakanda Forever emigrants (including the undercover Sam) with a virus that vibranium triggers. How exactly does an inert metal trigger a virus? No idea.
Fourth, Onyebuchi doesn't explain why Crossbones even bothered to accost Sam if everyone else is already infected with the virus. After all, if he hadn't engaged him, he'd have no chance of stopping the attack.
Instead of addressing these weaknesses, Onyebuchi instead spends time on the Falcon B story that that I still don't understand.
First, Crossbones doesn't seem like the kind of guy to leave a hostage alive, but he conveniently does so here. Thankfully, it means the Falcon can help the superhuman immigrants when they try to escape the facility.
Second, Onyebuchi conveniently has one of the immigrants explain that they staged the break-out when the guards' numbers dwindled as they left to accompany Crossbones to Wakanda. Does the White Wolf really care that much about payroll that he left a skeleton crew (heh) guarding superhuman immigrants?
As if we don't have enough hackneyed plot devices in this issue, the issue ends with Sam fighting Black Panther, because apparently it's OK for Crossbones to come to Wakanda but not Sam.
In other words, I'm done.
Marauders #5: This issue is incomprehensible. I seriously have no idea what happens. As far as I can tell, the Marauders get their hands on the timedrive, but it only contains the consciousness of one mutant. Otherwise, it's just a mess, particularly the art department, which looks like a junior high student handled it. Thank God Bobby is in "X-Men" now.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #26: We've had so many of these issues - where events pass before us wordlessly but show us how they remind Vader of his life as Anakin Skywalker - that it's hard to feel the impact that Pak wants to evoke here. We're supposed to feel for Vader as he contemplates not only his long history with sand but also his failure to save his mother or Padmé. Vader drives into the storm to save Sabé, something that elicits laughter from the Emperor. But Pak leans so heavily into the Kingesque approach, with barely any dialogue, that it feels almost like you'r reading a children's book. It's time to wrap up this arc, as we're so far from the original story involving Crimson Dawn and Sabé that I really can't remember what it was anymore.
Also Read: Amazing Spider-Man #8
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