Star-Lord & Kitty Pryde #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Despite the brief moment of seriousness last issue, Humphries finishes out this series focused on the yuks.  Peter sings Kitty's favorite song ("Once upon a Dream") to Widget to convince her to free him and Kitty, and, just when it looks like Gambit's Longshot blades are going to finish them, Drax appears dressed as Doom to fool Gambit and save the day.  In the end, the anomaly that Gambit had was Rocket's tail, and Kitty allows Peter to keep it since she knows what it's like to miss home.  They also share a kiss before she leaves, and Drax and Peter walk into the sunset with hopes of cloning Rocket from his tail.  It may not be the most serious of the "Secret Wars" series, but I can't deny that it put a smile on my face.

*** (three of five stars)

Star-Lord & Kitty Pryde #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The Cannonball robot reverting to its original programming and muttering "Ah'm near invulnerable when ah'm blastin'" as it "dies" made me literally LOL.  The good news is that pretty much everything else in this issue is equally awesome.

I admit that I totally squealed when I saw the New Mutants (a.k.a. the New "Mutdroids").  The fact that they're robotic "friends" that Doug Ramsey created makes it all the creepier.  (Of all the takes that we've seen on familiar characters in "Secret Was," this one is probably the most unexpected.)  Kitty and Peter make pretty short work of them, allowing Kitty to shake down Doug for Gambit's location.  (Doug apparently works for Gambit, a fact that Kitty learned by shaking down someone else.)  Doug tells her that Gambit is looking to make a score at a museum but then, unfortunately for him, recognizes her as Kitty Pryde.  The issue kicks into high gear at this point, because she proceeds to kill him in cold blood.

Humphries and Firmansyah wisely play their cards close to their chests in the following panels, because it initially seems like Kitty may actually be a remorseless killer.  (She is from the Age of Apocalypse, after all.)  Instead, we learn that she was a spy for Apocalypse that Valeria recruited essentially at the end of a gun, threatening to kill her loved ones if she didn't join the Foundation.  Kitty agreed, and she now hunts down anomalies for Valeria without Doom's knowledge.  It explains why she's absent in "Secret Wars" #5 when Valeria assembles the Foundation for exactly this sort of task.  It also explains why she had to kill Doug, because no one can know what she's doing.  (That said, you'd think that she'd take maybe a little more precaution in hiding her identity.)  Peter offers to help her retrieve the artifact that Gambit is trying to steal (since, after all, she would've gotten it from him in the first issue if Peter hadn't intervened).  But, of course, it's a trap.  Even better, it's a trap involving Widget!  Gambit fed Doug the information about the museum.  Since Widget is a version of Kitty, its presence near her cancels out their powers (a fun new fact about "Battleworld").  As such, Gambit is able to trap the two of them because he wants Kitty...for his collection.  (Again, creepy.)

I am very intrigued where we go from here.  The first issue was more or less a cute romp that I didn't expect to get serious.  But, Humphries and Firmansyah do an excellent job of moving us through the tumult of emotions that both Peter and Kitty feel in this issue (particularly Peter, as he deals with the reality that his Kitty is lost and this Kitty might be a homicidal maniac).  It's this sort of heart that Humphries often got so right about Peter, and I'm glad to see it here.  When you consider the fact that we've also got such a strong plot and hilarious winks like the Cannonball line, this series is really hitting above its weight.

**** (four of five stars)

Star-Lord & Kitty Pryde #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

First, I didn't remember Peter getting separated from the rest of the raft group.  I had to do a quick re-read of "Secret Wars" #4, reminding myself that Dr. Strange scattered the survivors of Earth-616 -- both the heroes and villains -- to the Four Winds.  But, does it matter?  Peter Quill as a crooner in an upscale Manhattan club singing "Little Mermaid" songs because Battleworld doesn't have Disney movies?  I'm all in.

Not surprisingly, Humphries gets Peter's voice exactly right.  You can hear his pain as he pines for Kitty, and it's really the first time that we've seen one of the survivors of Earth-616 confront the reality that everyone that they knew and loved is gone.  (Verity had a similar reaction in "Loki:  Agent of Asgard" #16 but right now she's...Beyond.)  Of course, enter the "Age of Apocalypse" version of Kitty Pryde.  Humphries has cleverly made Kitty into an agent for Valeria Richards' Foundation:  she hunts down potentially heretical objects (a.k.a. objects from a place and time outside Battleworld).  In other words, Humphries twists her faith in science:  her faith in natural laws of physics now means that she has faith that no object can counteract the natural law of Doom.  Similarly, enter Peter Quill:  his blood lands on her scanner after she decks him for kissing her, and she realizes that Quill himself could be a potentially heretical "object."  Shenanigans are sure to ensue.

Amping up the sense that we're in a Disney movie full of hijinx, Firmansyah and Kholinne use clean lines and bright colors to convey this world.  It's a change from the way that we've previously seen Battleworld, and, in a way, underscores the isolation that Peter feels by making him live in this technicolor yet fake reality.  Sure, Humphries maybe plays up the Disney vibe a little too much (in particular in Drax as a highly coiffed club owner), but, overall, I appreciate the sort of creative risk that everyone involved takes here.  It's the sort of story that the "Secret Wars" premise invites them to tell.

*** (three of five stars)