2099: Manifest Destiny #1

* (one of five stars)

Summary

Zero Cochrane narrates a history lesson from 1999, informing the reader that some aliens placed a "barrier of absolute interdict" around Earth about the time that humans rose against super-humans.  As the super-humans fell (mainly because many of them refused to kill the humans attacking them), some soldiers put one of the super-humans into suspended animation in the hope that he'd remind future generations of something that they lost.  The humans win the war and the Age of Heroes comes to an end, plunging Earth into a dark period for 20-30 years.  We then switch from Zero's narration to a prophet seemingly talking about an alien invasion (or, at least, "soulless credheads [that] crawled in from the outer darks an' took over hereabouts") that drove Thor and the rest of the gods from Earth.  Cochrane continues his narration, focusing now on the Blue Area of the Moon; the reader learns that Black Bolt opened up Attilan to refugees from Earth during the dark period.  We see a bunch of people smuggling out containers having to do something with the "conversion of Terrigen Mist into polydochloric euphemol." However, they're stopped by Moon Knight 2099.  She fights them, but one of them throws her into the Watcher's domain, which she exposits has been dark for a century.

Meanwhile, underwater, Gabe and Xina follow a "treasure map" that "somebody" got in his e-mail (presumably from Zero) to the location of the capsule containing the person put into suspended animation in 1999, who, not surprisingly, turns out being Captain America.  Meanwhile, Moon Knight conveniently hears Uatu narrate his story to no one in particular (maybe he does it a few times a day just in case an adventurer might hear):  he was stripped of his sight for "compulsive participation in events."  He laments his most egregious crime against his pact of non-interference:  creating "trans-temporal duplicates" of the Fantastic Four, believing them to be Earth's last hope for salvation.  Moon Knight stops him as he's about to euthanize the Fantastic Four, saying that the original Fantastic Four would've preferred fighting against "insurmountable even hopeless odds" than embrace the peace of death.  Uatu agrees, wondering if his eyes are the only thing that have been blinded.

At Alchemax Tower, Miguel converses via video conference with Xi'an, the leader of the Last Refuge, now called Xavier City.  (New York seems to be re-inhabited thanks to a series of bridges connecting the buildings above the water line.)  Miguel and Xi'an argue over the "meta-genome project," which appears to be an abandoned project that sought to map super-human genomes.  Xi'an says that his people prefer to be left alone, telling Miguel that he knows nothing about being persecuted for his genetic code.  Miguel tells him that he'd be surprised and presses the point that it's better for him to start up the project again than someone with more nefarious intents, like Latveria.  Xi'an argues that some information should stay lost, but Miguel disagrees, noting that they still don't know what ended the Age of Heroes or crashed civilization.  At that moment, he's alerted to Gabe and Xina's return.  He meets them at the hanger, where the reader learns that he's married to Xina and that Conchata is alive and using the money that she gained from a lawsuit against "Doc in a Box" for mistakenly declaring her dead to find the shape-changer that framed Gabe for being the Green Goblin.  (Yup.  You read all that correctly).

Cap is awakened and Miguel tells him that they face a similar series of events -- an explosion of technological innovation and a proliferation of super-humans, followed by a a total collapse of civilization -- as the one that happened at the end of the Age of Heroes.  He wants information about this era to see if they can stop the collapse of civilization this time.  Cap tells the story of the end of the Age of Heroes, adding to Zero's narration that shadowy figures consolidated control over the media and used it to foster the war and hide their actual agenda.  Eventually, they stored away the knowledge and technologies that "threatened the status quo," hence the loss of technology that the 2099 series have often mentioned.  Miguel bashes the table over the loss of that information and the cost to the future that it entailed, saying that humanity deserves extinction.  However, Cap counters that they only managed to delay the future for 100 years, showing faith in the fight that the people in the room have.  Later, Miguel approaches Cap, saying that he had another reason to awaken him.  He reveals that they've found the walking stick that Thor used to switch places with Donald Blake and hopes that Cap will use it, because he once was deemed worth enough to wield it.  Cap balks at the responsibility but Miguel pushes, saying that the synthesis of these two symbols would be inspiring and that he understands the burden, telling him that he, too, used to wear a mask.  Cap realizes that Miguel understands what he's asking him to do and agrees.  He becomes Cap-Thor and does indeed inspire people, particularly when he wins over doubters by inviting anyone who asks to see if they're worthy enough to wield the hammer.

Eventually, the Watcher, accompanied by the Fantastic Four and perhaps some Inhumans, approaches Miguel and Steve, asking the former to gather Earth's heroes to make an assault on the barrier.  They head into space and the Watcher orders them to aim their energies at the barrier, hoping to destabilize it.  Screaming, "Avengers Assemble!" Cap-Thor leads the charge.  However, the barrier absorbs the energy and returns it in a greater amount; Uatu takes the blast.  Declaring that he rejects the Watchers' oath and accusing them of becoming "idle voyeurs," he sacrifices his life to destroy the barrier.  The resulting concussion wave scatters the heroes, with Cap drifting closest to "solar escape velocity."  Cap instructs Miguel to focus on saving the others, nothing that he'll have no oxygen left by the time that they get to him.  He then hurls Mjolnir to Miguel, saying that it was an honor to give three lives to his country and to some of the people who'll carry on the fight.  Miguel catches the hammer, but doesn't transform into Thor.  Instead, he realizes that he's not supposed to be a physical warrior, but a bureaucratic one, and runs Alchemax for the greater good, releasing the findings of the "metagene factor" project for free (to the fury of his advisors).

The remaining pages detail the next 1,000 years.  By 2199, Reed Richards has been put in charge of the space program that discovers that Europa's underwater seas are perfect for the Atlanteans to colonize, leading them to sign a peace with humanity, and nano-technology has allowed for the rapid reconstruction of the world  By 2399, the "metagene factor" study allows for the manipulation of DNA so that most of humanity becomes super-humans, allowing them to defend Earth against subsequent attempts at invasion.  By 2799, life extension and space migration are a reality.  In 3099, people gather at Emancipation, an enormous space station built where Uatu sacrificed himself, to hear Miguel, long retired for Alchemax and coaxed from his hermitage, speak on the 1,000th anniversary of "human freedom."  While he extols the virtues of Cap, noting that it was his moral compass and not powers that gave him authority, a ship embedded in a comet is discovered, containing the body of Captain America.  He's re-animated (again) and Miguel greets him as "Cap."  He says that he's no longer Captain America, a now 1,000-year-old myth.  When Miguel suggests that he's earned his right to retire, Steve makes it clear that he's just retiring the title of Captain America.  He wants to go to work on the frontier, where the societies are just taking hold, to help build something, hoping that he can serve as an inspiration just as America did to Earth during its darkest times.  As such, Miguel offers him Mjolnir, saying that "a carpenter needs a good hammer."  He suggests that Cap might meet Thor if he goes far enough and Cap wonders why the gods left.  Miguel suggests that maybe they left because a noble-enough people finally arose to take their place.

In cyberspace, Zero releases several artificial intelligences that he's used to run cyberspace for the last 1,000 years, allowing them to "transcend," meaning that he essentially is now the Internet.

The Review

This issue is...hokey.  First, it doesn't feel like a continuation of the story that Raab and Kelly told in "2099 World of Tomorrow."  Instead, it seems more like a hypothetical contemplation of the possible future of the 2099 world.  If it's actually meant to be the continuation of the story, then, on some level, I got what I wanted:  a hard reboot that ignores or, at least, de-emphasizes what Raab and Kelly did to the line in "2099 World of Tomorrow."  But, the problem is that Kaminsky goes too far in that reboot.  He not only messes with Peter David's Green Goblin story (an unforgivable sin, in my book), but he bends the space/time continuum to the point where it no longer makes sense, with Miguel living to see 3099 for no good reason.  It's hard to see anything that happens in 3099 being viewed as part of the mainstream Marvel Universe and, as such, it's hard to see anything in this entire issue as likely to stick if Marvel were to re-launch the 2099 line at some point.

But, it's most disappointing because, like "2099 World of Tomorrow," you're left wondering what could have been.  With an eight-issue series and a valedictory one-shot to end the line, Marvel could've done something that more or less left readers feeling a sense of closure.  Instead, we were treated to nine issues that focused on fairly minor characters at the expense of the more established ones:  characters like Doom, Spider-Man, and the X-Men were pushed into supporting roles in favor of Captain America (who we never saw in the line until the last issue), Strange, and X-Nation.  If we were going to see minor characters take a prominent place, I would've loved to see Miguel pass the torch as protector of New York to Daredevil 2099 or Doom cultivate Nostro as his heir (and not just announce him as such in his last will and testament).  It's these missed opportunities that make me feel like I've wasted time reading the "2099 World of Tomorrow" and "2099:  Manifest Destiny."  Sad, but true.

The Good

1) The revelation that Uatu created the Fantastic Four of 2099 in the hope of saving a world that he felt lost works on a few levels.  First, Kaminsky cleverly makes it the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to the other Watchers, who finally punish Uatu for his constant intervention into Earth's affairs by blinding him.  But, maybe most importantly, it at least makes it less of an obvious question mark hanging over the 2099 line of where they went after they (or, at least, three of them) entered the Negative Zone.  After all, it's not like Ben Grimm disappeared from the "present" continuity and the now-Fantastic Three had all these memories of the 2099 Universe.  The only negative is that Kaminsky doesn't explain how Uatu managed to pluck the three from the Negative Zone or what exactly happened to Ben after he crash-landed on Mars.  It would've been nice to have spent less time on detailing the events of 3099 and more time on answering those pretty obvious questions.  But, overall, I'll keep it in the "Good" category for at least giving a plausible conclusion to the team's story.

2) I've said before that reading the 2099 line occasionally makes me feel like Marvel has had some sort of 30- or 40-year plan in action.  It happens usually as a result of people in the 2099 line mentioning events that hadn't happened when the issue in question was published, but actually did subsequently happen.  I felt this way here when Miguel tries to convince Steve to take up Thor's hammer (or, actually, walking stick) because he was the only mortal on record having done so previously.  As far as I know, the only time that happened was in "Fear Itself" #7, which happened almost 15 years after this issue was published.  Creepy.

3) I liked the revelation that the end of the Age of Heroes came when humans took up arms against super-humans.  Cap makes the point that they used to think that the humans hated the mutants due to bigotry but realized too late that it was actually jealousy.  It's a point that I'm always surprised isn't explored more often, so I applaud it being used here.

The Unknown

1) Although we know what caused the end of the Age of Heroes, I'm confused about the "end of civilization" aspect.  Cap says that the shadowy figures that stoked anti-super-human sentiment to provoke a war apparently stowed away all knowledge, seemingly because the chaotic status quo benefited them.  However, Kaminsky doesn't really explain how exactly they benefited from that.  Were they all in the Sentinel-manufacturing business?  Didn't they realize that, eventually, humans would win, so the status quo would change?  How would plunging humanity into a second Dark Age help them?  Kaminsky never explains and the story is unfortunately weaker for it.

2) I'm not sure how Cap returns the second time (or, well, third time, really).  When we last saw him, he was Cap-Thor drifting on his own outside Earth's orbit.  However, when they discover him again, he's stowed in a ship with short-range radio and in his original uniform (and not the Cap-Thor one).  I'm putting it in this category as if I just didn't follow what Kaminsky intended, but I think that it's actually probably just sloppy writing.

The Bad

1) Zero says that half of humanity survived the global flood and war with the Phalanx, but I'm pretty sure that "2099 World of Tomorrow" made clear that only 10 percent of the population survived.

2) Alchemax Tower is shown intact, if somewhat damaged, here, despite the fact that the Vulture destroyed it completely at the end of "Spider-Man 2099."  Talk about sloppy.

3) I'm pretty sure that Xi'an knows that Miguel is Spider-Man.  He wasn't exactly hiding it at any point in the Savage Land.  OK, sure, Miguel departed the Savage Land pretty quickly in "2099 World of Tomorrow" #1, so I don't think that they were technically in the same room.  But, it's not like Cerebra or anyone else there would've neglected to mention it to him, particularly given how important the new Alchemax clearly is to this new world.  As such, Xi'an's comment to Miguel, about him not knowing about being persecuted for one's genetic code, is bizarre.

The Terrible

1) It took me a second read to realize that the "barrier of absolute interdict" surrounded Earth, mainly because of Zero's techno-babble narration that Kaminsky employs throughout this issue.  That said, I'm still not sure what it was supposed to do.  The fact that Silver Surfer couldn't pass it to visit Earth implies that we couldn't leave Earth, which makes sense in the context of Earth's colonization of space only happening after the heroes finally destroy it.  But, Zero doesn't make it clear why the barrier was installed in the first place or why humanity didn't do more to remove it earlier.  Kaminsky seems to be implying that the wars that erupted on Earth around that time that the barrier was erected distracted everyone from worrying about it and that civilization then falling into chaos made space exploration a moot point.  But, civilization eventually recovered.  In fact, Alchemax colonized Mars, which presumably required passing through the barrier.  I'm not sure if Kaminsky is ignoring that development or I'm not fully understanding the barrier's intent.  But, if it was to keep us on Earth, it clearly didn't work, so why is it such a big deal?  The whole story smacks of a MacGuffin.

2) Cap had the power of Thor...but couldn't breathe in space or fly through space under his own power?  I guess that they don't make gods like they used to make them.

The Ugly

A shapeshifter pretended to be Gabe pretending to be the Green Goblin? Conchata was "mistakenly" declared dead after taking a point-blank blast to the chest and being left in a building that then exploded before the city where it was located flooded?  I nearly stopped reading at this point.  It got worse when Jake Gallows suddenly appeared alive in the splash page of Earth's heroes heading into space.  Strange also appeared on that page, with no explanation of how she managed to defeat Garrok.  I just...[sigh].

A Note on "Spider-Man #1/2":  This issue technically comes between "2099 World of Tomorrow" and "2099:  Manifest Destiny."  But, it's a Spider-Man focused issue, with Miguel briefly appearing in a flash-forward, non-speaking role.

2099 World of Tomorrow #8: "The Quiet Earth"

* (one of five stars)

Summary

- Victor Ten-Eagles directs the construction of a new building at the Last Refuge and he and Xi'an marvel at humans and mutants working together.  Morphine Somers arrives and tries to convince them to stop building the settlement, warning that it'll become a nightmare.  Meanwhile, La Lunatica holds up a girder as Hodge welds it, but suffers some sort of spell that causes her to drop it.  Hodge manages to jump just in time and La Lunatica privately worries that "the hunger" has returned.  Morphine watches from the bushes, expositing that La Lunatica's "hunger" is tasting the fears of the weak and hoping that he can attract her to his side given that he failed to do so with Xi'an.  Hodge approaches Jade, on whom he has a burgeoning crush, to thank her for her words the previous day.  Acknowledging to herself how strange that is, she accepts his thanks and then tells him that she needs to resume work on building the technological infrastructure for the settlement.  Hodge returns to the structure and Willow replaces La Lunatica.

- Uproar and Wulff float on some debris and Wulff dives into the ocean to kill a sea monster that was stalking them for food.  Uproar tells Wulff that he doesn't know him anymore and they decide to part company:  Wulff heads for some land that he smells nearby to figure out his life by himself and tells Uproar to grow to giant-size and head for a ship on the horizon.  They part with a vague sense of seeing each other again "whenever."

- Miguel, Xina, and some Latverians attempt to find Doom in the rubble of Castle Doom, but only find his mask.  Xina is devastated, saying that she never knew anyone so brave.  A Latverian takes the mask from her, saying that they're putting into place protocols that Doom instructed in the even to his death.  Miguel is told to bring Nostromo to a pre-determined place.  Before Miguel can do so, Winn finds Nostro, who refuses his offer of friendship given his role in Doom manipulating Nostro to rebuild Latveria.  One of Doom's soldiers finds them and orders Nostro to the gathering, wondering why Spider-Man didn't tell him.  After they leave, Winn asks Spidey, who's hiding in the woods, why he didn't approach Nostro himself and Miguel says that it was because of his guilt over almost kiling Nostro.  Winn tells him that Doom purged Nostro's memory of his time as part of the world-engine, but Miguel notes that he still remembers.  At the gathering, a holographic image of Doom activated by his mask reads his last will and testament.  He bids farewell to Xina (making her a permanent ally of Latveria), honors his word to Miguel by giving him the location of his brother (and offers him a place in the cabinet), and makes Nostro the sovereign of Latveria, appointing Winn as his advisor/regent.  Miguel departs to find Gabe, leaving behind his Spider-Man gear and saying that he'll consider the cabinet offer and his role as Spider-Man after he finds him.

- At the Last Refuge, Metalhead dreams that he used his power to purge himself of the Phalanx virus, only to be stalked by Phalanxified members of the X-Men.  He awakens to discover that he's reverted to his original form, expect his knee, which remains Phalanxified.  He is also reunited with his lover, Rosa.  He apologizes that he wasn't there for Rosa after they got separated in the flood and asks about her son, Darkson.  At the lab, Cerebra and Krystallin run tests on Darkson and Cerebra exposits his story to the girl who's been hanging with the X-Men, that he was Rosa's baby who got aged into adolescence by a villain named Vulcann.  She pledges to find a way to revert him to his actual age, noting that it's a time of rebirth on Earth.

- In the waters surrounding what used to be Transverse City, a figure finds an artifact for which it was searching, declaring that the Ghost Rider will once again belond to D/Monix.

The Review

Raab and Kelly make clear in their good-bye letter that they were forced to wrap up their story quickly. As such, we leave Strange stranded beneath the Earth at the mercy of Garrok and December alone on Mars.  We never learn the fate of Gabe or the Thing or the outcome of La Lunatica's "hunger" and Morphine's plotting.  Cerebra's condition is left completely unexplained as is the potential menace of Franklin.  In other words, it's an ignomious end to a line that once provided fresh and gripping stories of a world similar but still far different from our own.

I'm not going to write the eulogy of the 2099 world yet, since I still have two issues remaining:  "Spider-Man #1/2," which looks more like a story of the future Spider-Man that we saw in "Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man," and "2099:  Manifest Destinty," the one-shot that presumably ties up some of the dangling threads mentioned in the above paragraph (and presumably some other ones).

In terms of this series, though, I'll say that Marvel and/or Raab and Kelly made two mistakes.  The first smacks of editorial interference, so I'll blame it on Marvel:  the decision to flood the world due to the invsaion of Phalanx.  Marvel had many other possible options to explore to bring together the characters from the line's ten ongoing series and it's hard to believe that they chose this one as the best one.  I'm still left feeling as I did at the end of "Spider-Man 2099," that the arrival of the Fantastic Four somehow caused a new timeline and Marvel simply chose to follow the wrong one.  If Marvel returns to the 2099 line one day, my guess is that it'll be a pre-flood one or at least one that looks exactly the same as the pre-flood world with lip-service paid to the reconstruction.

The other fault is probably the one to be borne by Raab and Kelly, mainly the decision to focus so much time on the "X-Nation" characters.  I long ago gave up hoping for improved dialogue from the two of them, but I did expect them to find some way to get me to care about these characters.  Instead, I found it bizarre that a title that ran for only six issues essentially hijacked the 2099 line by playing such a disroportionately large role in its final issues.  It makes me wonder why Marvel decided to kill off the Hulk and Punisher 2099, since they were at least long-running characters that clearly could've played a role in this series.  Why chose teenage heroes that many of us had never seen?  Even if they replaced characters like Hulk and Punisher, it's still unbelievable to me that they displaced characters like Spider-Man 2099.  Miguel is essentially just an agent of Doom here and his story, for most people (given how hard "2099:  Manifest Destiny" apparently was to find), ends here, with him giving up being Spider-Man as a result of almost killing Nostro.  As I said, it's ignomious, to say the least.

2099 World of Tomorrow #7: "Blitzkrieg"

(zero of five stars)

Summary

- Smith asks Twilight why they're throwing in their lot with the Takers, questioning a species whose first thought upon awakening from suspended animation is to exact revenge.  On Mars, December continues to work on trying to open a communications link to Smith and Twilight and, at one point, is driven to tears by her loneliness.  Dr. Isaacs opens her son's suspended-animation pod, only to have him disintegrate after a few moments (confirming her fear that the original sample was decomposing like her older clones).  Smith uses his powers to protect the spaceship from the planetoid's defense systems and Twilight uses hers to open a portal into the planetoid so that the Takers can attack.

- Miguel and Xina create a tank that they plan on using on a suicide mission to take out Nostromo.  Meanwhile, Doom watches from a cliff as the techno-organic virus takes over Latveria.  Miguel and Xina break into Castle Doom, with Xina distracting the Phalanx with the tank while Spidey heads from Nostro.  Nostro tells him that he knows what he's doing and begs him to kill him.  However, Doom arrives, announcing that "the borders of Latveria have been restored to their former glory," the apparent goal of Doom's deal with the Phalanx.  Doom offers the Phalanx the possibility of retreat and Magus seems to accept it, saying that Doom's tenacity and "O'Hara's desperate gambit" have given him pause.  Miguel expresses horror that he was willing to kill Nostro, who warns him that it's a trick.  On cue, Magus and the Phalanx then attack, noting that O'Hara would've succeeded had he killed Nostro.  Magus then strips Doom of his armor, thinking that he's won.  Doom tells him that he's overestimated his position and utters a codeword, "Cynthia."  It activates a Trojan-Horse program that frees Nostro and terminates the Phalanx's communications with the Dreadnodes.  Doom exposits that he knew that the Phalanx had left behind the Scout program when the mutants defeated it in the late 1990s, so he kept track of the program and embedded his own programming into it.  He lost of track of the program upon his return, so he spread the rumor of the "mutant messiah myth" to "ferret him out;" he then introduced the Trojan Horse into Nostro.  Moreover, Winn is revealed to have been working for Doom the whole time as he attacks Magus.  Spidey takes a now-freed Nostro and grabs Xina as Doom activates a bomb, destroying Castle Doom as "two dynasties come to a cataclysmic end."

- The X-Men fight the Dreadnode, slowly but surely getting overtaken by it.  Hodge helps Bloodhawk escape, paying the debt that he owed him for saving him in the first issue.  Bloodhawk helps La Lunatica escape and Xi'an is inspired to do the same.  Victor Ten-Eagles then arrives with the cavalry and takes on the Dreadnode on his own, apparently inspiring a legend in the future.  Meanwhile, Franklin connects with the Phalanx and prepares to download his databases to its ship.  Cerebra tells him not to do so, since it'll have access to the "secrets of humanity's destruction."  She says that the Phalanx is evil, but Franklin dismisses that assertion, saying that the Phalanx is just trying to ensure its survival.  However, upon communicating with the Phalanx, Franklin decides that it is evil when one of its members declares that its goal is to destroy all organic life.  As such, Franklin destroys the planetoid, killing Smith, the Takers, and Twilight in the process.  Smith and Twilight embrace before they die and December -- who managed to open the comm-link right before the explosion -- weeps.  The remains of the planetoid then crash into a lake on Earth.

The Review

ARGH!  I gave this issue yet another zero mainly because Raab and Kelly just fall completely to pieces here.  We essentially have three different stories that could spell the end of the Phalanx:  Spider-Man taking out Nostro, Doom activating his Trojan-Horse virus, and the Takers defeating the Phalanx on its planetoid.  Each story essentially usurps the previous story as the most likely candidate to win, but, in the end, it's the deus ex machina - literally, from the machine - of Franklin destroying the Phalanx to save Earth that ends the story.  However, we're given no reason why Franklin only now connects to the Phalanx, leaving open the question why he couldn't have done what he did here several issues ago.  As a result, it makes you realize that most of the stories that have competed with each other throughout this series were completely unnecessary.  In other words, most of this series was a huge waste of time, probably not Raab and Kelly's goal when they set out writing this story.

The Unknown

Winn announces that Doom isn't the only holdover from the Twentieth Century, implying that he's also from then.  But, who the Hell is he?

The Bad

1) I still don't understand the Takers' connection to the Phalanx.  This issue says that they're seeking revenge for the Phalanx invasion of a milennia ago, calling into question Smith's hypothesis that they actually created the planetoid that the Phalanx inhabit.  If I try to pull all those threads together, I think that Raab and Kelly are saying that the Takers did create the planetoid, but the Phalanx took it from them to use in their own world dominations.  However, again, Raab and Kelly don't actually draw that connection, making me feel like I should win a No-Prize for doing it for them.

2) Moreover, we never learn who sabotaged the spaceship that the Takers originally sent to Earth or how the Takers were somehow infected with the techno-organic virus, which at least one of them would have to have been in order for Nostro to become infected with it when he saved Willow after she "became" a Taker.  My guess, then, is that the Phalanx did somehow sabotage the ship, implying that at least one member of the Phalanx remained on Mars after the rest of the species left.  Why would one of it stay?  I have other questions, but, at this point, I'm doing so much work for Raab and Kelly that I might as well stop and just move onto the next problem.

3) Continuing on the Takers, we never really get a sense of why Twilight did what she did.  We had the implication that the Takers somehow amplified her powers and put her under their control, but, in the end, we're just left with vague assertions that she felt the need to put behind her immature ways and be responsible.

4) I'm still not sure why the Phalanx came when it did.  After all these issues, we were never really given that information.  I guess that it didn't necessarily need a reason, but I'm pretty sure, in the "Fantastic Four 2099" series, it was implied that someone called the Phalanx somehow.

5) Doom's plan seems to have been to get the Phalanx to terraform Latveria, restoring it to its previous condition.  But, the art doesn't necessarily convey that and, in fact, Doom himself doesn't actually say that.  Again, I'm just left filling in the narrative and artistic gaps.

The Really Bad

On one hand, the revelation that Doom created the "mutant messiah myth" to ferret out Nostro is cool, particularly since it probably offers readers of "X-Nation" the type of closure that I am looking to get when it comes to Gabe's whereabouts.  (I wonder if we ever learned who the Cable-like figure from "2099 A.D. Genesis" was.)  But, it actually hints at a more disappointing reality, the fact that this entire series was, in a way, just a promotion for the Phalanx storyline that I'm assuming had just happened in the X-books.  I actually hated that event when it was happening, so I'm disappointed that I'm forced to read about the Phalanx once again, particularly given that the entire 2099 line was essentially sacrificed to it.

2099 World of Tomorrow #6: "Final Decisions"

* (one of five stars)

Summary

- Doom, Spidey, and Xina try to figure out a plan after they failed to stop the Phalanx from activating the world-engine last issue.  Doom tries to convince Xina to flee with him, but she refuses, calling him a traitor for helping the Phalanx invade Earth.  Doom hopes that she'll understand when they meet again (presumably because his plan to defeat them will have been revealed).  Miguel tries to free Nostro, but he can't, since he's become an integral part of the world-engine.  He and Xina then flee.  At a church dedicated to Doom, Xina tells Miguel that the only way to stop the Phalanx is to kill Nostro and destroy the world-engine, something that she would do if she had Miguel's power.  She tells Miguel that it's his responsibility and he's mournful when he seems to acknowledge that she's right (and that she's gone cold so quickly).  Winn approaches Nostro (who sports a look of mute horror at having become part of the machine) and apologizes for his role in making him so, noting that he thinks that they could've been friends.

- Bloodhawk attacks the "Dreadnode" that appeared at the end of the last issue, but it dismisses him quickly.  Hodge grabs Jade and heads to the bushes, since he knows that they don't stand a chance against the Dreadnode without powers.  Willow changes into the Taker that she touched a few issues ago, hoping to use its ferocity to take down the Dreadnode while still retaining control of herself; she and La Lunatica engage the Dreadnode.  Krystallin informs Eddie and Shatki that the aliens are attacking; she and Metalhead go to help while Shatki -- who remains paralyzed from Franklin's "attack" -- remains at the base with the human child who's been hanging with them.  Arriving on the scene, Metalhead is attacked by the Dreadnode, which infects him with the techno-organic virus.  An anti-mutant human in the crowd watching the fray calls Morphine Somers a coward for failing to help the mutants fight the Dreadnode, but Victor Ten Eagles stops Morphine before he can attack the human.  He rallies humans and mutants together to fight the alien, much to Morphine's jealous dismay.

- Wulff is horrified by his attack on Trash; the Vulture encourages him to finish the job and earn the right to displace Dorian as his right-hand man.  However, Uproar tries to get him to come to his senses.  Dorian is furious that the Vulture is encouraging Wulff to kill a Wild Boy but, before Wulff can attack anyone, another Dreadnode attacks the ship.  Dorian hurls an explosive device at the Vulture, declaring the Wild Boyz freelancers.  In the confusion, the Vulture escapes with Fiona and Uproar and Wulff make it to shore, though Uproar frets whether Wulff is his friend or the beast.

- On Mars, Dr. Isaacs finds her "children," a group of clones that she created and that the Takers kept alive to work the equipment that they stole from Ares.  However, she realizes that several of the older clones are in the process of decomposition, showing that she got better at cloning as she went.  She reveals that the original strain came from her son, Hayes, and worries that it, too, is decomposing.  Elsewhere in the Takers compound, Twilight uses her power to stop Smith from haranguing her over the aliens, but he uses his magnetic powers to get her to release him.  She storms from the room and December appears.  She reveals to Smith that she thinks that the Takers have lied to Twilight.  She asks why, if the Takers are so devoted to Mars, they stole Ares' technology to build a spaceship (which they're in the process of constructing with Twilight's help).  She hypothesizes that they're going to rendez-vous with the Mothership, a.k.a. the planetoid that wrecked Earth.  Smith postulates that the Takers created the planetoid as a weapon to destroy other planets before their civilizations could threaten Mars.  Smith then goes to find Twilight, sharing their theory with her.  However, she seems to be under the Takers' sway and announces her intent to join them on the spaceship.  Not wanting to leave her by herself, Smith decides to join her in the rocket, which then launches.

The Review

Thank God I only have two more issues.  This series is getting painful to read.  The good news is that Kelly and Raab have at least merged several stories (and ignored others) to get us to four stories in this issue.  But, it's still too many, given how much exposition that the authors are forced to use to advance several plots in this issue.

The Unknown

I'm still not 100% sure what Doom's plan is/was.  Xina seems convinced that he wanted the Phalanx invasion to happen.  If he did, then I'm assuming his plan was to use the lesson that he learned by expelling the Phalanx from his own body to defeat them.  However, given Xina's role in helping him purge the Phalanx, you'd think that this plan would be evident to her, since he said as much in issue #3.  So, if it's not that, then what is it?

The Bad

1) As I think I've made clear, the over-arching problem of this series so far is that Kelly and Raab have two or three plots too many running at the same time.  They thankfully ignore the Strange story here, but they for some reason decide to use the Mars story to complicate the Phalanx story.  (That sentence alone shows you how unnecessarily complicated that it has all become.)  I'm remarkably confused by the revelation that the Takers have something to do with the planetoid.  Are Raab and Kelly saying that the Takers invented the Phalanx?  If not, how were they ever in control of the planetoid?  Or, is Smith's theory wrong?  (If it's the latter, why would Kelly and Raab even bother to introduce it?)

2) In general, I thought that Armstrong and Brewer did a better job than previous pencilers, but they still fail to render the Phalanx in a way that makes it clear what each member is doing.  (Also, Krystallin is unrecognizable.)

3) I don't think that I've made it clear in previous reviews, but Dr. Isaac's name keeps changing between "Isaac" and "Isaacs."  We seem to have stabilized on Isaacs, though.

4) The revelation that the "children" for whom Dr. Isaacs fretted last issue were clones that she created is creepy to say the least.  But, my main problem is that Dr. Isaacs somehow intuits that the Takers kept them alive because they needed them to work the equipment that they stole from Ares.  She simply announces that conclusion as if it's self-evident, but it's not really all that clear to me that she would've necessarily known that.  Also, how did they conveniently steal the suspended-animation devices, which appear to be different than the ones that they used on themselves?

5) Speaking of drawing convenient -- if hardly evident -- conclusions, Smith's aforementioned guess at the Takers plan is not something that he's even remotely shown any evidence of having the intellect to put together on his own.  It just smacks of a desperate need to advance the plot without taking the time necessary to do it organically.

2099 World of Tomorrow #5: "Finders Keepers"

* (one of five stars)

Summary

- Winn makes short work of Doom's men.  However, he accidentally belts Willow when she tries to comfort him and La Lunatica attacks him in response.  He fights off La Lunatica, collects Nostro, and exits through some sort of portal.  Jade manages to get a reading on the message that Winn sends to Magus before he disappears and the remaining members of the team return to the Last Refuge.  Jade announces that her tracking device is getting weird frequencies between the Savage Land and Nos' position.  The "weird frequencies" turn out coming from a Dreadnode that the Phalanx sent to the Savage Land, discovering the position through Jade's tap on their system.

- Doom has managed to purge himself of the nanotechnology that bound him to his armor and Miguel and Xina agree to help him repel the Phalanx.  It's in the beginning of the process of taking over the Earth when Winn arrives with Nostromo, who'll apparently is the final component of the "world-engine."  Doom, Miguel, and Xina attack, but they're quickly overwhelmed by the Phalanx, whose assault on Earth continues apace.

- Garrok tortures Strange with images of her accidental murder of her brother, revealing the story in the process.  Some gang members accosted Strange and her brother, whom she idolized, tried to protect her.  He was losing the fight when she summoned what she thought was the image of a demon, but which turned out being an actual demon, which devoured her brother.  Garrok replays these scenes in her mind in an attempt to get her to surrender her role as Sorcerer Supreme to him (which she apparently didn't do last issue, despite it sounding like she did).  Meanwhile, Umi bides his time in the shadows.

- Franklin the robot has possibly stolen Cerebra's telepathy.

- Twilight appears and tells everyone the story of the Takers.  They were a proud race that once managed to repel the Phalanx when it attacked, but the Phalanx destroyed Mars as it fled.  Their numbers dwindled given the lack of resources and they sent an expedition to find a new home, though the ship was destroyed due to sabotage (as previously seen).  As a result, the Takers entered suspended animation, but, of the 200 who did, only seven remain.  They were disturbed to discover the Ares colony upon waking, hence why they attacked.  Dr. Isaac asks about the children and Twilight confirms that many didn't make it.  However, she tells Isaac that they have other problems:  namely, the Phalanx is invading Earth.  Twilight then uses her powers to alter reality and awaken the remaining slumbering Takers, to the shock of her teammates, who marvel at how her powers have developed.

- Wulff launches himself at Vulture, but he's stopped when Vulture shows him his old collar.  Uproar engages the other Wild Boyz and tells Wulff to flee, but he stays to help Uproar.  Trash attacks him, but he cuts into him with his claws, to the horror of Uproar.

The Review

Ugh.  I thought that we were getting better last issue, but I was wrong.  This issue returns to being almost unreadable, with dialogue that made me wince it was so bad and with exposition that took up pages upon pages.

The Unknown

1) Raab and Kelly seem to imply that Winn is actually trying to help humanity from getting assimilated, based on his comments to the rest of the "Savage Land expedition team."  But, then, he delivers Nostro right to Magus, helping him begin the assimilation, so I'm not really sure what we're supposed to think.

2) How the Hell could a robot, mutant or not, steal Cerebra's telepathy?  I just...[sigh].

3) So, what did the Takers do to the children?

4) Speaking of the Takers, I'm still not sure who sabotaged the mission to Earth (and why s/he did so) and how it connects to the Phalanx.  Did a member of the Phalanx pretend to be a Taker, taking down the ship and crashing onto Earth with them, explaining how Nostro came into contact with the Phalanx via the alien?

The Bad

My main problem with this issue is the vast number of pages dedicated to exposition.  We've got the fairly boring story about Strange accidentally killing her brother and Twilight telling us all about the "Takers" and their complicated history.  Although the Taker story at least tangentially relates to the main story, it would've been better to learn about their history as a part of a story and not Twilight's information dump. 

The Really Bad

In the worst example of pet peeve #1 ever, we learn the following things from "A Guide to THE WORLD OF TOMORROW Part 2" page in the back of this issue:  1) Fiona is the daughter of the Vulture; 2) Dr. Isaac(s) is the mother of the deceased Clarion, from X-Nation; and 3) the Takers are actually called the "Sheenar."

2099 World of Tomorrow #4: "De-Evolution"

** (two of five stars)

Summary
- Strange awakens to discover that Garrok has captured her and wants the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme.  He exposits that he had been a mighty sorcerer, but his powers drove him mad and he wound up getting resurrected as the spirit of the Savage Land.  Strange fights Garrok with Umi's help, but Garrok compensates for his lack of power (compared to Strange) with skill, defeating Strange.  He then turns her into stone and claims the role of Sorcerer Supreme.

- The little kid from Reed's lab finds Metalhead and leads him to the unconscious Cerebra. He runs to find Xi'an and pleads with him to help her.  Xi'an isn't in a great rush to help but eventually agrees to do so, though they have to wait to see if his intervention helps.  Victor asks if Xi'an is willing to take up Cerebra's dream of bridging the schism between humans and mutants, but an angry mob of humans arrives before he can answer.  The leader says that his daughter told him that the "muties" were plotting against him (as seen last issue) and that the only mutant "worth spit" (Cerebra) is almost dead.  Victor offers himself as the first sacrifice in the war between humans and mutants because he'd rather die than watch another civilization self-destruct.  The humans are shamed into leaving and Victor tells Xi'an that he should try reasoning with them in the future.

- On Mars, December, Dr. Isaac, and Smith are taken hostage by the Takers.  At their lair, the trio discovers that the Takers stole Ares' equipment with the same goal in mind:  terra-forming Mars.  (We also get confirmation that the Takers were the ones who initially invaded the team's spaceship in issue #1.)  However, they're startled by a girl screaming for her mother and follow her to find a cavern full of corpses.  December and Smith attack, thinking that they've killed Twilight, but one of the Takers takes (heh) Dr. Isaac hostage.  However, Twilight arrives, telling them that they're attacking their newfound friends.

- Magus attacks Doom and Spidey, telling them that the Scout has arisen and the "rebirth is at hand."  He exposits that the Scout's awakening will activate the legion of Phalanx embryos brought to Earth from the planetoid and that they'll feast on humans.  Spidey attacks, thinking that Doom will help, but Doom instead escapes with Xina.  She accuses him of cowardice, but Doom reveals that the Phalanx will soon be able to infiltrate his armor, since he's now bonded to it.  Since he lost his leverage over Magus (who discovered the Scout's location), he tells Xina to infect him with the techno-organic virus so that he can fight it and purge his system of it, possibly eliminating the Phalanx for good.  Spidey manages to fight his way to the lab where they're located and he and Xina watch as Doom emerges from the test.

- Underground, La Lunatica surfaces from the lagoon, announcing that Nostromo is in a cocoon.  Jade decides to investigate, using her technological expertise to make sure that he's OK.  Hodge says something derogatory about Jade and, as a result, Bloodhawk (who loves her) attacks him.  La Lunatica stops him from killing Hodge just as Jade and Nostro emerge from the lagoon.  Nostro is revealed to have become part of the Phalanx.  Doom's men spring from the shadows to claim him, but Winn gets there first, revealing that he's always been a member of the Phalanx.

- Wulff murders a number of guards on the way to the Big Boss, to Uproar's shock.  However, Fiona tells him that Wulff was originally the Boss' assassin.  Uproar is appalled, since Wulff is just a kid.  Uproar worries about whether he can save Wulff as they burst into the Big Boss' sanctuary.  He's revealed to be the Vulture and he announces that he's ready for them since Fiona told him that they were coming.  Uproar (who had started to have feelings for her) expresses shock as she cries and the Vulture prepares to attack.

The Review
OK, I've been hard on Kelly and Raab, but they're slowly starting to pull it together.  This issue is still a mess, but, the further into this series you get, the more you begin forgetting about the world that came before it.  The problem is that I remain invested only in two stories:  Miguel's (though not because the story itself is all that interesting) and Uproar and Wulff's.  We're got four other stories that just seriously drag.  Even as Kelly and Raab start to tie some of these stories together (as I mention later in this review), I'm still hard pressed to say that I actually care about the characters involved.  I'm sure that other readers of this series had the same problem, the fact that you're really only here for the one or two stories that relate to the characters that you followed in the ongoing series, but you're saddled with the extra four or five stories along the way.

The Good
1) We begin to see some of the various sub-plots start to relate to one another, as it becomes clear that the alien that Bloodhawk and his team encountered underground is from the same race as the Takers that the X-Nation kids encounter on Mars.  (However, I'm still not sure what the connection between the Takers and the Phalanx is, though one clearly exists.)  Moreover, it seems like Nostro is actually the Scout, since both Doom's men and Winn (a Phalanx agent) were on him immediately when he transformed into a Phalanx.

2) OK, I didn't expect the Vulture to be the Big Boss, but it totally fits.  In fact, it sort of raises him up a level and I'm all for that.

The Bad
1) I totally don't get what happens with Xi'an.  He's decided to become some detached Zen master because he's frustrated with the difficult of achieving Xavier's dream.  OK, sure.  But, when Metalhead tries to enlist him to help Cerebra, he burns him "because he can."  What?  What does being a Zen master have to do with inflicting harm on a friend seeking help for another friend?  He then seems disappointed when his attempt to heal Cerebra isn't "excruciating," as he thought that it would be.  What the what?

2) I'm also not entirely sure why the Takers are keeping the colonialists' children as hostages.  I think that Kelly and Raab will get there, but, at this point, I'm rapidly losing interest.

3) Speaking of losing interest, I still have no idea how the Strange story relates to anything.  At this stage, she's really the outlier and the pages and pages dedicated to her story seems better spent on the stories that further the plot.  (We might even be able to get in some characterization!)

2099 World of Tomorrow #3: "Revelations"

* (one of five stars)

Summary
- Crazed from the alien's influence, Willow attacks the members of Bloodhawk's underground team.  Nostro uses his technopathy to purge the alien's influence from her, but then winds up cocooning himself on the bottom of the lagoon.

- The Wild Boyz taunt Uproar for refusing to kill someone in the arena.  He's thrown into the arena again, but this time he has to face Wulff, who's regressed to full dog-form.  Uproar yells at him until Wulff recognizes him and the two join forces to attack the Wild Boyz.  Fiona appears and tells them that she disabled their power-dampening collars.  She tries to get them to flee, but Wulff decides to go after the Big Boss.

- The X-Men (Cerebra, Krystalin, Eddie/"Metalhead," and Xi'an) face an angry mob of humans that blames them for the departure of the Fantastic Four.  A human with a bionic arm named Victor Ten Eagles arrives and calms the crowd, telling them that they have to work together.  Later, Xi'an tells Victor that he's giving up hope, wanting to be left to himself, but Victor says that he doesn't believe that he's given up the fight.  Xi'an complains that humanity still hates mutantkind despite the total destruction of civilization and Morphine Somers arrives to offer Victor a position as liaison to the humans when homo superior takes control.  Victor tells him to leave, but a figure in the shadows sprints to town to warn the humans that the "muties" are plotting against them.

- Inside Reed Richards' lab, Cerebra finds a little girl hiding there.  She had been spying on Reed last issue and now leads Cerebra to "Franklin," the machine that Reed created as the repository of all human knowledge.  Cerebra discovers that Franklin is a mutant, but then Franklin does something to her mind and she loses consciousness.

- Doom holds Miguel hostage, telling him that he's working with the Phalanx to get access to its techno-organic code and find a way to defeat it.  When Miguel refuses to help him, he produces the Green Goblin's mask, telling him that he'll kill Gabe if Miguel doesn't help.  Miguel helps and discovers that Xina has found a way to shield humanity from the virus.  However, Xina is surprised when Miguel reveals that the objective is to control it, sparking a transformation of a nearby "old cyber-deck" into Magus, the leader of the Phalanx.  He says that he knew Doom's plans and that his people are making first contact with the Scout.

- On Mars, the X-Nation kids try to enlist the aid of the colonists, saying that the Takers have taken (heh) Twilight.  When they refuse to help, December and Smith decide to rescue her on their own.  Dr. Isaacs, one of the colonists, agrees to help them, inspired by the memory of the son that she left on Earth who she realizes is likely dead.  They shortly run into the Takers.

- Underground, Umi helps guide Strange into fighting Mole Men, encouraging her to use a spell of gentle persuasion to calm them.  They head through the maze to encounter a rock form of Chimera, who accuses Strange of abandoning her when she needed her.  Umi warns her that she's being goaded into the fight, but she falls for it, much to the delight of Garrok,  the rock figure from last issue.

The Review
This series continues to be a weird amalgram of stories, with no real sense of cohesion or time for actual characterization.  I'm still not sure the point of the Bloodhawk or Strange stories and the Cerebra and Xi'an stories (a.k.a. the Last Refuge stories) aren't much better.  I don't mind the Wild Boyz story, since Uproar and Wulff are the only remotely likable characters in this series, but I again don't see its connection to the plot.  We also continue to see secondary and tertiary characters from the preceding series awkwardly shoe-horned into the book as a sort of status update, like the revelation that Doom has Gabe.  It's all just a mess.

The Good
OK, I do have one good item here, namely that we do get some clarity on some points.  For example, Kelly and Raab make it clear that Doom is working with the Phalanx to gather information about the techno-organic virus to defeat it.  That makes sense and makes the Doom-related plot the most intriguing one going.  Moreover, I had thought that we had dropped the Big Boss plot, but Wulff deciding to go after him makes it clear that we'll likely get some resolution on the issue.

The Unknown
We learn hear that the Phalanx planetoid is actually orbiting the Earth and didn't crash into it.  I thought that it had crashed, creating the contamination zone.  So, if it didn't crash into the Earth, then what caused the contamination zone?  Also, again, is the contamination zone linked to the mist from where the Mistdweller emerged?  Also, who exactly was the Mistdweller?

The Bad
1) So, Doom not only conveniently plucked Xina from her roadtrip somewhere, but he also managed to get Gabe from the ruins of New York?  How resourceful he is.

2) Doom seems to delight in the revelation of Miguel's identity, but, to be honest, Miguel hasn't really done much to hide it since "Spider-Man 2099" #46 and "Fantastic Four 2099" #8.  I really wish that we could spend time with Miguel where he wasn't just a pawn that Kelly and Raab was moving across the board and get a sense of how he feels about his identity being widely known.

3) I was truthfully disgusted by the gross sexual overtone of December’s offer to help Smith "relax" as they face wetworker droids seeking to kill them.  He's stressed because they're facing killer robots and she's basically offering him her body as a tool to relax?  Jesus.  This issue was written in 1996, not 1956.

Young Avengers #15 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

If last issue was the emotional good-bye, this issue is the plot wrap-up, where truths are revealed.  (To be fair, Noh-Varr gets in a few pages of emotional good-bye, saying how good Kate was for him.  We get a real sense of how much he cared for her.  Even if she doesn't get to see that emotion, at least we do.  It's a nice moment.  But, it feels sort of like the last six pages of last issue rather than the first six pages of this one.) 

In a way, this issue is all about David (though Loki would say that it's all about him).  David sends Loki into the night realizing this series' most important truth:  "Saving the world from yourself is the first, most necessary step."  (Loki really should get that emblazoned on a throw pillow.)  Later, Prodigy uses his genius to deduce that Patri-not is one of the Young Avengers sent from the future to make sure that everything happens in this series exactly the way that it happens.  Tommy was the bait to get the Young Avengers to travel the multiverse so that Billy could discover that he was the Demiurge and so that Loki would decide not to steal his powers.  It worked, though Gillen leaves unanswered the question of why it was necessary in the first place.  What happened in the future that leaves the outcome of the present in doubt?  (I'm guessing that it has something to do with Loki.)

The saddest part of this issue is the revelation that David is pretty sure that he's the one who gives up his humanity to become Patri-not.  It's not necessarily because of the fact that he may be right (which is obviously in and of itself sad), but also because he assumes that he would be the one to make that sacrifice.  It underlines the sense that David is a tragic character, at least in his own mind.  He doesn't get the guy and he has to give up his humanity at some point.  Tough breaks.  But, Gillen doesn't actually make it that simple.  Patri-not refuses to confirm David's hunch, so it's unclear if David really is a tragic character or if he's just being a little adolescent in assuming that he is.  After all, he's a little too young to be ruling out the possibility of a happy ending, just because he didn't get the boy this time.  But, I can understand why it doesn't feel that way to David, particularly since he may wind up being right that it is/was him after all.

I'll be honest in saying that I found the gaying-up of every character, including Kate and Noh-Varr, a little over the top.  I mean, I totally bought the idea that Loki would make a pass at David.  As Loki himself says, he's the patron god of certain sexual acts, so he's not exactly limited to a rigid definition of sexual identity.  Plus, David is probably the only person who accepts Loki for who he is and doesn't hold that against him.  If Loki was going to make a pass at anyone, it would be David, even if he rebuffs the offer, since good guys are his type.  Plus, the idea of the gay Avengers is appealing, obviously.  But, we want such a team to come together of its own, not to suddenly turn previously straight characters like Kate and Noh-Varr bisexual.  In a way, it almost cheapens America, Billy, David, and Teddy's sexualities.  It's not the totality of who they are, obviously, but it's part of who they are, in a way that it hasn't been part of who Kate and Noh-Varr are.  Changing that identity on the part of Kate and Noh-Varr makes it feel rushed to underline a point that this series already had made.  In the end, it's a weird way to end the series.

Though, to be fair, the actual end is, indeed, all about Loki.  He takes a photo of the Young Avengers walking through one of America's dimensional doorways and then posts a photo of the team in earlier days, looking at it wistfully.  In that way, he's acting as a surrogate not only for Gillen, whose love of these characters is clear to anyone who reads the letters column, but also for the reader.  As an adult, one of the tragedies of adolescence that I now recognize is your belief (usually woefully) that it'll last for ever.  As we've learned, Loki actually isn't an adolescent and his sadness comes from an adult sense that this moment that he shared with these people is over, never to be regained.  The reader and Gillen share this moment with him as we're all left to wonder what's next.

This series has been a bright shining sun of wonder in an otherwise predictable environment.  I can't possibly begin to express my appreciation for what Gillen and McKelvie did here.  I'll simply say that it's one of those comics that reminds me why I read comics, why they tell stories that can't be told in other media.  I look forward to re-reading this whole series one day and being remind all over again about truths that I had forgotten.  I think that's exactly what Gillen hoped would happen and I congratulate him on a job well done.

*** (three of five stars)

Earth 2 #19 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, Taylor has officially put to rest any lingering concern that I had about Robinson leaving this series.  This issue is great, from start to finish.  He infuses it with a great sense of tension, solving several mysteries and raising new ones.  Awesome stuff.

First, he still does a marvelous job in making sure to spend some time on characterization, despite juggling so many different plots at the same time.  I loved Red Arrow telling Dr. Fate to ramble some prophetic words that could actually help him and Batman and Lois' testy exchange over their identities.  (I'm not sure if Batman just doesn't recognize Red Tornado as Lois or if he doesn't know who Lois is.  If it's the latter, than the mystery surrounding his identity gets curioser and curioser.)  I also loved Batman and Lois blindfolding Jimmy so that he wouldn't be haunted by images of the parademon slaughter as a result of his photographic memory.  It's a rare moment of kindness amidst the chaos and it reminds you who the good guys are.  (Frankly, it's also something that I'm not entirely sure Bruce would've taken the time to do, so it's another way that Taylor creates a separate identity for this Batman.)

Taylor and Scott also do a great job of expressing the majesty of the various players here.  Marella is spectacularly imperial as she takes the full brunt of the World Army's blast and then threatens the soldiers.  Superman is equally imposing as he smashes the Washington Monument into the White House, making you realize why people would surrender all hope for fear of him.  Similarly, the idea that Bedlam now has Terry Sloan and Michael Holt at his disposal really makes you wonder how the heroes are going to win.

Along those lines, this issue seems to bring to a close the "Empire Strikes Back" phase of this story arc.  Batman, Hawkgirl, Marella, and Red Tornado (with Jimmy Olsen, Major Soto, and the mysterious Kryptonian in tow) seem to be heading to the Batcave to re-group.  Meanwhile, Red Arrow and Dr. Fate are stranded fighting parademons while Flash, Michael Holt, and Terry Sloan are all prisoners of Apokolips.  Not a good scene.  Presumably, we have nowhere to go but up.

As I said in last issue, I'm glad that Taylor has decided to embrace the war with Apokolips, pushing aside other stories that Robinson left untold so that he can give this one the attention that it deserves.  After all, we have a number of questions left unanswered.  Who's the "angel in the slaughter" that Red Arrow seems to encounter here?  Where is Darkseid?  Why does he (or, at least, his minions) want to bring Earth into Apokolips space?  How did Superman get corrupted?  Why was Sloan hiding the mysterious Kryptonian?  They're all intriguing questions and I continue to be excited about getting them answered.

**** (four of five stars)

2099 World of Tomorrow #2: "Homecoming"

* (one of five stars)

A Sort of Summary
I'm going to summarize all the various stories separately here, since I think that it's the only way to make sense of the issue.

- Miguel finds himself in the "Fatherland," an oasis populated by the best medical and scientific minds that the world had to offer.  Xina is there and tells him that the "All-Father" has assembled them to find a cure for the techo-organic virus before it consumes the world.  Miguel says that he has to go save Uproar and Wulff, but Xina says that she was only able to risk saving Miguel from the "contaminated zone" because of the value that he brought to the mission.  Miguel refuses to stay and begins to battle his way through the Fatherland's defenses to find the boys.  Meanwhile, the "All-Father" is not surprisingly revealed to be Doom, who secretly allowed Xina to save Miguel for the same reason, his value to the mission.  Doom is revealed to be cooperating with a technarch named the "Emissary."  The Emissary needs Doom since he knows the location of the "Scout," who/which the Emissary needs; Doom allegedly "needs" the Emissary because he "allowed" Doom to create the Fatherland since it's "advantageous to the rebirth."  Before Miguel manages to escape the Fatherland, he runs into Doom.

- Sue Richards continues to press an exhausted Reed to focus more on returning them to their time rather than trying to ensure that he saves the combined knowledge stored in the world's databases before all the computers are flooded.  Johnny and Sue discover that the portal to the Negative Zone is open and leave Reed, who refuses to go because Ben gave his life to help the 2099 people.  In the end, Reed finishes his computer and joins Johnny and Sue, who managed to keep the portal open (almost killing herself in the process).  They then enter for parts unknown.

- Underground, Bloodhawk and his team enter the alien spaceship that they discovered at the end of last issue.  Winn realizes that it came from Mars, but notes that Mars hasn't had intelligent life for millennia.  They discover bodies inside the ship and Winn notes that they didn't seem to have suffered an outside attack, hypothesizing that it was sabotage.  Hodge touches the wrong button and explosions ensue.  Willow bonds with a dead alien to use his retinal pattern to stop the explosions (something that she saw done in a movie), but can't revert to her original form, seemingly having become a technarch.

- Strange finds herself underground as well.  She's approached by a lizard-like creature called Umi who offers to teach her magic.  She arrogantly refuses, to the displeasure of some sort of rock creature who taunts her in an attempt to judge her skills (seemingly with the intent to train her).

- On Mars, Father Jennifer and the X-Nation kids are held hostage, since the Ares colonists inform them that they're not sure who's human anymore.  (Captain Pike, who we last saw speaking with Tyler Stone in "Spider-Man 2099" #45, makes an appearance here.)  One of the X-Nation girls has a fight with Smith, her apparent boyfriend, and leaves Ares.

- The Wild Boyz have Uproar and Wulff and force the former to engage in some sort of gladiatorial fight, similar to the one that Dorian was fighting at the beginning of issue #1.  (Also, the names of the Wild Boyz are confirmed and two other ones, "Warbird" and a woman, "Fiona," are added to the roster.)

The Review
This issue starts with Xina invading Miguel anally with a probe and goes downhill from there.  (No, really.)

Honestly, it's hard to know where to start.  Raab and Kelly continue to throw too much at us in this issue.  I'll admit that we have some more clarity than we did last issue, but it's still a jumble of characters engaged in seemingly disconnected plots and with little focus on characterization.  For example, I had problems caring about the emotional turmoil of the X-Nation girl who left Ares, since it's not like Raab and Kelly put any effort into explaining her back story to me.  Smith exposits that she's upset over "Clarion's" death, since they were friends, but it's too little to make me care, particularly since it's not like I know who Clarion is in the first place.  But, I should be careful what I'm asking Raab and Kelly to do.  When we do get characterization, it's terrible, as the Sue Richards debacle shows (see below).

Unfortunately, as I said, the plots themselves -- Raab and Kelly's only real focus -- are disconnected.  Given that we have six separate stories here, it's impossible for Raab and Kelly to really focus on any story for long enough to make it interesting.  Moreover, it's hard to see any sort of overarching story; only Miguel's adventures in the Fatherland seem to have the potential to impact the other stories.  We also seem to drop some of the threads from last issue.  We don't learn why the Wild Boyz had the Mistdweller in the first place (or who the Big Boss is) and we seemed to have dropped any concern over the future leadership of the Savage Land.  Moreover, we have new mysteries introduced here, such as the contaminated zone, but we never learn much about them.  Is the contaminated zone the same as the mist from where the Mistdweller emerged?  It seems like it could be, since the contamination seems to be the techno-organic virus.  But, again, Raab and Kelly don't bother to explain that.

I still feel like I missed a dozen or so issues between "Fantastic Four 2099" #8 and "2099 World of Tomorrow" #1.  Given that this world doesn't even look like the 2099 world that I used to know, it's hard to identify with anything Raab and Kelly are doing here.

The Bad
1) OK, so, Xina is alive.  Last we saw her, she was driving her convertible with the Net Prophet somewhere in the Southwest (I think), but we now learn that she was somehow miraculously saved and brought to the Fatherland to do science-y stuff for doom.  I'm more or less willing to accept that coincidence without further comment, since I've got bigger fish to fry, but I'll admit to being totally lost when it comes to the Dr. Doom plot.  I have no idea why Doom would be working with the Emissary.  He seems to have everything that the Emissary wants (the location of the Scout), but the Emissary has nothing that he wants.  Since the Phalanx hasn't taken over the Earth yet, his threat about only allowing the Fatherland to exist because it's convenient for him seems empty.  After all, him and what army?  As such, I have no idea why Doom would tolerate him.  Unfortunately, Raab and Kelly don't even try to offer a reason.

2) Sue Richards has been criminally -- criminally -- mis-characterized throughout her appearances in the 2099 titles, but that crime reaches epic proportions in this issue.  Last issue, the remaining members of the FF seemed to hold out hope that Ben was alive, but both Sue and Johnny forget him entirely this issue.  (Sue doesn't even mention his name.)  Reed at least says something about trying to honor his memory, despite not seemingly putting too much effort into trying to ascertain his fate with any certainty. But, Sue whines throughout the issue about wanting to see her son, something that seems unbelievable for a noble character like Sue Richards, given that she's just witnessed the near-total destruction of Earth.  Despite knowing that countless lives (including other people's children's) depend on Mr. Fantastic's genius, all she can do is whine about him spending more time focused on helping this world than trying to return to their own son?  Really?  We've got no sense of noble sacrifice?  Instead, when the opportunity presents itself, she's on the first train home, barely giving a second thought to the fate of the 2099 world or Ben Grimm.  Some superhero.

3) The underground stories are incredibly boring.  At first, I thought that both Bloodhawk's team and Strange had stumbled onto the Phalanx, but it appears neither of them have:  Bloodhawk's team is facing some vague Martian threat that may be linked to the Phalanx and Strange is trading barbs with a living rock.  I just...yeah.  I have no idea why Raab and Kelly are spending time on not one, but two stories that don't seem to have anything to do with anything else happening in this series.

The Really Bad
Raab and Kelly kill off Halloween Jack in two panels, a victim of the Wild Boyz's gladiator ring.  Ugh.  It's like they're just moving through a checklist to make sure that they touch every character whose fate remains unclear.

2099 World of Tomorrow #1: "The World of Tomorrow"

(zero of five stars)

Words can't describe how bad this issue is.  I'm going to try, but I shouldn't, because, again, words are going to be insufficient.  I believe the only other "zero of five stars" that I've given was to the "Lionheart of Avalon" story in "Avengers" #77-#82.

A Sort of Summary
If you're used to my exhaustive summaries of "Spider-Man 2099," you'll notice that I'm doing something a little different here.  Raab and Kelly spend so little time on characterization that it's not really worth it to try to explain the inter-personal dynamics that occur throughout this issue:  I spent most of it just trying to sort out the personae dramatis.  As such, this "summary" is basically just a list of the various groupings that Raab and Kelly assemble.  At the end, I try to give some explanation of the plot surrounding each grouping, but, in some cases, it's hard to tell.

In this issue, we've seven groupings of 30 characters (total):

- the Thing and his crew, on their mission to the Ares colony on Mars (5 characters:  the Thing, Father Jennifer, "Twilight," "December," and "Smith")

- a group of pirates called the "Wild Boyz," working for a mysterious figure called the "Big Boss" (4 characters:  "Shiv," "Trash," "Dorian," and "Spud," though I think some of these names may actually be synonyms for "dude" and not code names, per se)

- Xi'an and a group working on welcoming refugees to the Savage Land (5 characters:  Xi'an, the Human Torch, "Eddie," "Mademoiselle" Strange, and Krystalin)

- Miguel and the various would-be leaders of the Savage Land (5 characters:  Spider-Man, Morphine, Cerebra, Sue Richards, and an unidentified bald guy)

- Bloodhawk and a team trying to make the swamp inhabitable (I think) (4 characters:  Bloodhawk, "Hodge", "Winn," and "Willow")

- La Lunatica and a few others working with Bloodhawk and his team (3 characters:  La Lunatica, "Nostromo," and "Jade Ryuteki"),

- a pair of feral-like characters trolling the coast of the Savage Land, who seem to be ex-Wild Boyz and eventually join with Miguel to look for the Mistdweller (more on him in a minute) (2 characters:  "Wulffie" and "Uproar")

- Dr. Strange and Mr. Fantastic, who are also in the mix.

We also have two seemingly new characters unique to this series:  the aforementioned Mistdweller and the mysterious figure who invades the Thing's downed spaceship.

It's hard to say what the "plot" of this issue is.  If I had to identify two main stories, it's the Mistdweller's escape from the Wild Boyz and his subsequent flight to the Savage Land to warn its inhabitants of the danger of the Phalanx and Mademoiselle Strange accidentally awakening the Phalanx from its slumber when she tries to help unearth some water.  The two secondary stories are Spider-Man's departure from the Savage Land to find the "city in the mists" and its connection to the planetoid (and finding himself burdened with Wulffie and Uproar) and the "Fantastic Five" finally arriving at the Ares colony on Mars.  I'm not really sure the point of the Bloodhawk/La Lunatica story, since they also seem to awaken the Phalanx in the same way that Strange does, but I'm guessing that it'll be clearer in subsequent issues.

The Review
Including "2099 Unlimited," the 2099 line had ten ongoing titles before this series launched.  Unfortunately, Raab and Kelly ignore their responsibility to try to guide the reader as gently as possible into this new world, where the surviving characters of these ten series are all suddenly interacting.  Of the 30 characters I listed in the above section, I didn't recognize 16 of them (they're the ones with names in quotes).  I gather that most of them are from "X-Men 2099" and "X-Nation 2099," but, since it sounds like several members of X-Nation died recently, it seems unlikely that all 16 come from those series.

The problem is that I've read a pretty wide swatch of 2099 titles:  if I don't recognize over half the characters in this issue, it's unlikely others would recognize anywhere near all 30 of them.  Accordingly, the authors have got some sort of responsibility to help the reader  get at least some sense of their loyalties.  Instead, Raab and Kelly just dive right into the story that they're telling.  Moreover, that story seems fairly advanced, making you feel like you've missed several issues, despite this issue being the first one of the series.

Disappointly, this story takes for granted the destruction of the previous status quo and the interruption of the various stories that the ongoing series were telling before the editorial mandate to throw eveyrone together in the Savage Land.  It's jarring, to say the least.  In the case of Spider-Man, we don't see him mourn the loss of both his parents (at the same time) or express concern over his missing family and friends.  As a "Spider-Man 2099" reader, I'm curious about the fate of Gabe, Kasey, the Net Prophet, and Xina, not to mention Spidey's enemies like the Specialist, Venom, Venture, and the Vuture; it's hard to believe that Miguel wouldn't be.  Moreover, we don't even see him comment on the fact that his identity no longer seems to be secret; we just jump right into the Phalanx.  I'm sure readers of other 2099 ongoing titles have similar laments.

I also can't believe that we're left with as little of a clue as we are about the current status quo.  The '90s were big on explanatory pages and inserts in comics, so I'm surprised that we don't get one here.  For example, "Age of Apocalypse" had a map published in most (if not every) issues that showed the world as it was then; we could definitely use something similar, to give us a sense of the scope of the flood.  Instead, Raab and Kelly barely mention the fact that some enormous percentage of the world's residents are presumably dead.  You're left wondering if the Savage Land is really the only remaining inhabitable place on Earth or if the heroes won't eventually find other ones.

Moreover, the chaos surrounding the stories that Raab and Kelly are telling is not helped by the art team, as the penciler, five inkers, and the colorist struggle to display the nuance necessary to keep the 30 characters distinct.  Almost all the women in this issue are blond (despite some characters, like Father Jennifer, previously being brunettes) and drawn so similarly that it's hard to differentiate them.  (I kept thinking that Sue Richards was somehow on Mars and in the Savage Land at the same time.)  Moreover, in at least one panel, the art team draws the wrong character:  it's actually Cerebra who tells Uproad that they're following Miguel, not Wulffie (as it's supposed to be).

Ugh.  I can't believe that we went from the heights of the Venom and Green Goblin stories in "Spider-Man 2099" to this storyline.  It's hard to be excited about anything coming next.

Detective Comics #27 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The Meltzer and Snyder stories are the best of the bunch when it comes to the tribute stories in this anniversary issue, with the Snyder piece opening up a mind-boggling number of potential Batman stories.  The Tomasi story also isn't bad, mostly due to Bertram's homage to Miller's art in the original "Batman:  The Dark Knight Returns" mini-series.  Regarding the other stories, I would've preferred that the Snyder and Layman stories be given the 24 pages spent on them and the pin-up pages.  Both these stories felt constrained by the need to share the issue with all these other stories.  Moreover, Layman's Gothopia story is somewhat ruined by the inclusion of the other stories, since the whole premise of it is that something is different in Gotham.  Given that the other stories also explore "different" Gothams, if you will, it reduces the impact of the changes that we see in Gothtopia.  At the very least, this issue definitely wasn't worth the insane $7.99 that DC had the nerve to charge for it, particularly for another anniversary issue within the last year.  If you're a faithful reader of "Detective Comics," I'd just read the Snyder and Gothopia stories in the aisle of the comic-book shop and call it a day.  For the price alone, I'm giving it two stars, since it set a pretty high bar that it didn't meet.

** (two of five stars)

Batman/Superman #7 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Does Batman have a nano-bot heart now?  How did Superman return to life after the game ended?  What was Mongul going to do with the satellites?  Honestly?  I don't really care.  The first arc of this series might've been great, but between the incoherence of this arc and the fact that Pak is writing Bruce and Clark like they hate each other, I'm think that it's time to say adieu.

* (one of five stars)

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #7 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue is another one that sort of defies recapping, as we get a tour of Janice's life-long journey to become a super-villain.  Unfortunately, Spencer takes the usual shtick a little too far at times; for example, I found Janice's complaint about the glass ceiling in the drug trade to be excessively casual.  I know that we're supposed to see the humor in Janice viewing herself as the Hillary Clinton of vice, but it actually just stoked my sense that most of these characters are going to face some sort of comeuppance for the nonchalant way that they approach crime.  After all, Janice might not be so blasé about crime if she gets killed by the Punisher or spends 20 years in prison.  Also, the Baron Zemo/Fixer dispute smacked of deus ex machina-ness, despite its hilarity.  It was just a little  convenient that they just happened to come to Janice's law firm over a dispute that required the creation of a new super-villain to settle.  It's still an enjoyable issue, but it felt like Spencer was trying too hard to be clever, when this series is as excellent as it is because he usually makes the cleverness look so effortless.  (Now, I'm waiting for Tombstone to come wale on me for saying something slightly negative about Janice.)

*** (three of five stars)

Guardians of the Galaxy #10 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, before I saw anything else, I have to say that the cover to this issue is ridiculous.  I mean, Peter looks like a damn Beatle, for God's sake.  I feel like it vaguely has something to do with the movie, but I don't know what.

Anyway, I guess that I didn't realize that no one knew that the New Avengers have Thanos in suspended animation.  I re-read that part of "Infinity" #6 and it's clearer now, but it still raises the question why they're keeping it quiet.  Interestingly, it also involves at least Captain America, Captain Marvel, the Hulk, Hyperion, and Thor keeping that they defeated Thanos secret, since they also saw Thanos in his cube.  Why not let everyone know that the Avengers defeated Thanos?  Wouldn't the Avengers' galactic allies want confirmation that he was neutralized?  Hickman (not surprisingly) never addressed that question in "Infinity"#6, so I spent most of this issue confused why the Guardians didn't know that Thanos was on Earth.  But, it's not Bendis' fault, so I won't hold it against him.

For the most part, this issue is a rollicking good time, with Angela and Gamora tearing through some Badoon slavers in their search for Thanos.  Angela and Gamora have excellent banter and one-liners throughout the issue; I loved Gamora telling the slaves that they were enslaved because they "just stand there!!" as she's trying to get them to flee from the Badoon.  It's not all fun and games, though:  Bendis raises the stakes in Angela's search for information about her past, since one of the Badoon recognizes "her" people (though she kills him accidentally while interrogating him).  I'm confused, though, why Peter dismisses the possibility that the Badoon knew the truth.  He almost seems to be trying to mislead Angela in order to keep her on the team, rather than helping her get to the bottom of the story; it feels distinctly un-Peter-like.  Bendis justifies it by having Peter dismiss the Badoon world as a toilet and not the type of place where she'd get helpful information.  I get that, but, if we're supposed to believe that Peter actually believes that, then it's a little too obvious of a ploy to keep the mystery going.  It probably would've been better just to skip the mystery angle entirely for this issue.  That said, though, it's a fun issue, so I'm not really complaining.

*** (three of five stars)

Justice League #26 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

First, I totally call bullshit on the cover.  It makes it look like this issue picks up the story right as we left it in "Forever Evil" #4, with Power Ring facing Sinestro.  But, this issue has nothing to do with that battle, in a great example of pet peeve #2.

Other than a lack of truth in advertising, this issue is fine.  It's a little rushed, in the sense that we got full-issue treatments for Owlman and Ultraman, but Johns burns through Atomica, Deathstorm, Johnny Quick, and Power Ring here.  We also get more insight into Grid, who decided to separate from Cyborg because he thought that Victor was bogarting all the feelings.  This issue's intrigue comes from Grid discovering that information about Superwoman is mysteriously gone, something that makes him suspicious (if he were capable of feeling suspicious, harkening to the previous point).  Unfortunately, I most want to know about Superwoman at this point, given that she's not Wonder Woman, but Lois Lane and, wow, that apple fell far from the tree.  But, I guess we'll get there in good time.  Combined with "Forever Evil" #4, though, this issue exacerbated my feeling that the story's stalled just to justify a seven-month event that could've probably been done in five.

*** (three of five stars)

Forever Evil #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue is pretty clearly a filler issue, given that it involves a lot of characters just sort of standing in place and talking.  The main events occurs when Batman and Catwoman unexpectedly run into Lex Luthor and his team at Wayne Enterprises, though I'm not really sure why they're all there.  Batman is there because he believes that it has a device that can help him charge a Mother Box, which will allow him and Catwoman to move freely, something that they can't currently do with Grid controlling all technology.  But, it seems far-fetched, particularly since you'd assume Batman would've made sure that he had the device with him in the Batcave, given that the Mother Box is useless without it.  I also don't quite remember why Lex Luthor is there.

But, we don't really get to explore either team's motivations since they are thrown into conflict with Power Ring and a group of villains that Grid sent with him (as likely described in a tie-in issue that I didn't read).  This sequence leads to the issue's best moment, when Batman dons Sinestro's ring against Power Ring.  However, it's the best moment merely for the bizarre (and unnecessary) combination of Batman's costume with Sinestro's.  Moreover, Sinestro's actual appearance at the end of this issue makes you wonder why we had to go through Bat-Sinestro in the first place.  Couldn't we have just had Sinestro confront Power Ring?

The only other events, such as they are, are Superwoman telling Ultraman of Owlman's plans and Johns awkwardly trying to humanize Luthor by having him share his previous fear of failure with Bizarro to inspire him, since he's apparently afraid of the dark.  (Like I said, it was awkward.)

On a side note, this issue reminded me of one of my main problems with the DCnU, namely that it's hard to remember where certain characters are in their previous timeline.  For example, Batman emerged more or less unscathed from the reboot (despite the fact that we seem to be walking back some stuff lately), but Superboy was returned all the way to his origin.  Here, I was previously confused when Selina didn't know Bruce was Batman, something we get confirmed here.  Similarly, it's weird in this issue to see Bizarro, a character that's existed for 50+ years, treated as an unknown quantity.

At any rate, it's not a terrible issue, but it's sort of hard to tell where we're going from here.  We continue to get hints about this mysterious entity that destroyed most of Earth-3, but it's unclear if it's going to make an appearance in this series or if it's going to be addressed somewhere else.  You also have to wonder if the Justice League is going to defeat the Crime Syndicate or if the Crime Syndicate is going to defeat itself.

*** (three of five stars)