Amazing Spider-Man #14: I was upset about Ben's fall during Spencer's run, but damn if the Beyond arc wasn't one of the most intense stories that I've ever read. Maybe Wells is better at telling other people's stories than his own, because he takes Spencer's ball and fucking runs with it here.
First things first, Wells addresses Janine. We learn at the issue's start that Ben is raiding Beyond warehouses with the goal of finding a technology that'lll help him steal Peter's memories. Janine decides to leave him over his obsession. As she sits dejectedly picking at her eggs at a café in Grand Central Station, the friendly owner asks what's bothering her. But Janine has been down this road many times before and realizes the owner is stalling for time after he called the police. When he begins to judge her for murdering her father, she attacks him and flees. She realizes that Ben is the only sanctuary she's ever had, so she returns to him and commits to supporting him fully.
Meanwhile, Ben finds himself called to Limbo after he discovers that one of the devices he swiped opens a portal there. Enter Madelyne Pryor. This pairing makes perfect sense. In fact, the only reason that I could see for not getting these two together is that they're from such different corners of the Marvel Universe that I'm sure it required some legwork on the authors' and editors' parts to make it happen.
Ben and Janine eventually move to Limbo where Ben convinces Madelyne to lend him her demon army to invade New York. We're not clear why Ben wants to invade New York at this point, but we'll see. For Madelyne's part, she's starting to wonder if the mutants really gave her what she wanted or simply exiled away a bad memory.
Before the invasion begins, Madelyne powers up Janine using S'ym's finger, introducing us to the worst-named character ever, Hallows' Eve. Name aside, Wells does a great job showing how this outcome is really the only one that makes sense for Janine. If she wants to inhabit Ben's world, she needs to do so fully.
The issue ends with Ben standing outside Peter's apartment in the hope of seeing him once last time before he attacks him. Instead, he runs into the increasingly unhinged debt collector chasing Peter. The collector (understandably) mistakes Ben for Peter, and Ben mishears the comma and believes that the collector called him a "fake[,] Peter Parker." Ben loses it and drag the collector to Limbo where we learn that he isn't the nicest of men. Madelyne has him taste from the Tree of Exquisite Liberation, confirming her theory that it can free a soul from a body. Guess how Ben wants to use that?
Honestly, I find myself surprisingly stoked about the upcoming "Dark Web" event after this issue. Go figure.
Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #2: This issue is the finally step in getting us ready for new stories, as Miracleman kisses Dicky at Miraclewoman's urging.
Miraclewoman is convinced that Dicky has always been in love with Miracelman. Miracelman sees Dicky's violent reaction to the kiss as proof that she was wrong and that Dicky doesn't love him, though I wouldn't necessarily read it that way. A devastated Dicky leaves Olympus after telling Miracelman not to follow him, and Miracleman tells Miraclewoman that they need to talk. The way Buckingham draws that last panel, Miracleman seems to suspect Miraclewoman had ulterior motives for pushing him to kiss Dicky.
Looking ahead, Dicky seems destined for some role in taking on the Pantheon. For most of this issue, we're following him as New York throws him a ticker-tape parade. At the post-parade gala, a "spaceman" appears and rambles. Winter tells Dicky that it portends great things (the spaceman is a known quantity somehow to her), and Miraclewoman tells Miracleman later that he didn't understand the spaceman's message because it was meant for Dicky. The intriguing part of said message is the end, when he says, "If sanity consists of adapting to uncover crimes of light." It isn't hard to see Dicky as the one undercovering Miracelman's well meaning crimes.
Beyond the plot, Gaiman and Buckingham do a spectacular job of showing how awful Miracelman's betrayal is. Dicky's been alive for days, maybe weeks. Rather than waiting to address the potential for his feelings when the stress of his reincarnation is less, Miracleman kisses him. The look of horror and shock on Dicky's face is a testament of Buckingham's skill. Miracelman's actions send a confused yet powerful adolescent into this carefully crafted world. We've been down that road before, and it doesn't end well.
Star Wars: Revelations #1: As a public-service announcement, I'd warn anyone reading even one of the "Star Wars" series to skip this issue, as it basically just summarizes recent events in each series. As someone reading all the series except "Star Wars: Doctor Aphra," I was as annoyed as Vader was.
Star Wars: Yoda #1: This issue is solid. Scott does an excellent job of showing Yoda's ability to focus on doing the right thing when he insists on personally responding to a distress call from Turrak, a backwater planet in the Outer Rim. But Scott also doesn't make it that easy.
Arriving on Turrak, Yoda helps Sclavi villagers survive Crulkon pirates' third raid in as many days. Deciding to fight against the galaxy usually works, he decides to stay on the planet. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, Yoda's decision is motivated from the knowledge that the pirates would simply destroy the village the minute he left. It's obviously noble, but the Council isn't wrong when it's concerned that his absence from Coruscant will mean more people will suffer in the aggregate. Yoda clearly knows that, too, so it'll be interesting to explore his thought process as events progress.
I was worried this series would lean too much into Yoda's more cartoon-y iterations, but Scott really captures Yoda's essence here. Great stuff.
X-Men #17: I wasn't really feeling this arc, but Duggan wraps it up beautifully.
Caliban - or, at least, Caliban's essence - argues with Forge when he decides to leave Laura to find Darwin. Forge's logic is that the Five have already resurrected her, which he mutters is the second time that they've resurrected someone not actually dead. (I'm not sure who the other one is.) Caliban's essence sees Forge as yet another person misusing his gift.
But Forge's search is frustrated when Serafina attacks him. Duggan doesn't explain how she avoided Forge's trap, but Caliban's kindness - and her apparent debt to the mutants, who previously saved her from Orchis (seriously, don't we do editor's notes anymore?) convinces her to let them leave with Laura.
Before they can, Darwin contacts Forge in his subconscious, revealing that he turned into code when he needed a way to escape the living autopsies to which the Children of the Vault subjected him. Darwin declines to leave with Forge, and Forge instead leaves with Laura, the happiest of all possible endings for an overjoyed Synch. Seriously, it's possibly the only clear romantic win for an X-Men maybe...ever. Wrapping up a minor mystery, Tempo was the third mutant's gift who Forge used, to make sure that he didn't age in the Vault.
Fascinatingly, Dr. Reyes' medical report about Forge's condition at the issue's end makes it clear that Darwin embedded himself into Forge, since Forge's Cerebro backup "was measured in Zettabytes." It eventually returned to normal, implying Darwin is now in Krakoa somehow. I'm sure that'll turn out well.
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