Not-So-New Comics: The July 11 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #1:  Since "Brand New Day" began, I’ve been bothered by two developments:  Mary Jane and Peter making a deal with Mephisto to dissolve their marriage (obviously) and Peter accepting the doctorate Dr. Octopus got for him.  Spencer unexpectedly fixes both of them here.  First, a new technology designed to identify plagiarism correctly pegs Otto as the author of Peter’s dissertation.  Later, Peter’s near-death experience fighting Mysterio inspires him to tell Mary Jane he needs her.  As thrilled as I am in Spencer addressing these issues, I can’t say it’s a fun issue to read.  As Kingpin himself says, Peter needs to be isolated to be defeated, and he is here.  Robbie is forced to fire him to protect the Bugle’s integrity, and Aunt May is appalled when he refuses to take responsibility for his mistake.  But, Kingpin didn’t count on Mary Jane.  My hope is Spencer doesn’t take Peter any lower than he is now.  After the events of the “Fall of the House of Parker,” Slott and Spencer have now taken everything (including Aunt May) but Mary Jane from Peter.  If we go much lower, we’re going to return to the terrible period during the “Clone Saga” when he turned his back on Peter Parker because his life was so terrible.  I just can’t do that again.

Infinity Countdown #5:  From the hurried art to the dropped plots, this issue is the definition of rushed, even at 36 pages.  We start with Black Widow appearing to Dr. Strange to tell him -- via a hand-written note she passes to him -- someone is listening to her through the Space Gem.  (Duggan never clarifies how Nat knew that, at least as far as I can tell.)  Dr. Strange chimes a "crystal that was grown in the lowest dimension known to exist," presumably to find the eavesdropper, though Duggan never makes that clear.  The frequency leads him to Turk.  (If Turk was using the Mind Gem to read Nat's mind, wouldn't he know what she wrote in the note?  Isn't the whole point of reading minds not needing people to say their thoughts aloud?)  At Oblitus, Warlock approaches the Guardians, hoping they can lead him and Kang to the Time Gem.  Gamora asks Warlock to show her the Soul Gem, and he agrees, but tells her he cannot open it without help.  Gamora demands he does so, and Drax tries to help her, punching Warlock and grabbing the Soul Gem as he drops it.  Something...happens when Drax touches it, and it results in Drax throwing in his lot with Warlock.  He tells Gamora no one can open the Gem and it's no longer the heaven it was.  Cryptically saying he "saw someone in the trees[;] they all died horribly," he follows Kang and Warlock through a portal after Kang realizes the Guardians don't know where the Time Gem is.  Peter, Groot, and Rocket then refuse to go after them with Gamora, who's becoming increasingly unstable.  (That said, she's not necessarily wrong that Peter leaving Rich in the Cancerverse was a good indicator of how he'd behave here.)  Meanwhile, in the Soul Gem, something traps Hank in a fantasy of his own making where the Avengers rescue him and greet him with open arms.  The issue concludes with Dr. Strange calling an assembly of the Infinity Watch; in this moment, we learn Peter has the Power Gem (even though Drax is shown as possessing it in the intro page).  In other words?  It's all just a fucking mess.  It's hardly an inducement to read "Infinity Wars," given how rushed even this 36-page issue is.  Barely anyone's actions are explained.  I still don't understand why Peter, Groot, and Rocket didn't support Gamora.  I have no idea why Drax threw in his lot with Warlock and Kang.  Again, we also never get confirmation it was Turk eavesdropping on Nat through the Space Gem.  Moreover, other than the Gems changing hands, nothing has actually happened since the start of this prelude.  Darkhawk, Dr. Strange, the Guardians, Natasha -- they're all essentially where they started.  I can't believe I spent money on this event (and that I'm still likely to get the main "Infinity Wars" series).

Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk #4:  Sims and Bowers again change a status quo here, as Dark Starhawk seems to evolve simply into Starhawk before our eyes.  He executes Gyre, announcing he’s evolved beyond advancing Gyre’s goals (which I’ll be honest weren’t entirely clear to me).  Now, he's dedicated to safeguarding order in the universe by taking out entities with special powers that threaten it (like the possessors of the Infinity Gems).  However, Chris takes back his amulet, destroying the nexus between his soul and Robbie’s body.  Robbie disappears, and Rich vows to imprison Chris if he sees him off Earth again.  To be honest, Rich is pretty true to character here:  he leaps to conclusions and doesn’t even pretend to listen to Chris as he explains Robbie willingly sacrificed himself to become Dark Starhawk.  We end the issue with Chris committed to staying on Earth.  However, that night, Sleepwalker pays him a visit, telling him he needs to become a Sleepwalker, too.  I mean, why not change everything all over again?

The New Mutants: Dead Souls #5:  This issue is really solid.  Tran manipulates Illyana into breaking into Dr. Strange’s house and drawing her Soulsword.  In so doing, she apparently (and conveniently) breaks the seals that prevent him from entering the house.  Rictor then inadvertently presents Tran with what he wants, a gem that converts him to his physical form.  Reborn, Tran is all the more formidable.  This series of errors seems to prove his point that this team is the B-team.  Guido grabs Tran and has Illyana send the two of them into Limbo.  This moment is significant because Rosenberg had earlier forced Rahne and Guido into a room in the house that seemed to show them their nightmares.  There, Rahne learned that her nightmare — Guido killing her son — is also Guido’s nightmare.  It brings resolution to their story as Guido tearfully begs Rahne for forgiveness and Rahne grants it to him.  (I totally cried.)  Reconciled, Rahne refuses to let Guido stay trapped in Limbo, knowing how nightmarish it would be for him.  But, Rosenberg also uses it as a bit of therapy for all of us, showing us how we remain stuck in cycles of grief and guilt that serve little purpose.  This series just continues to get better and better, and I think Rosenberg makes a great case for continuing it as an ongoing.

X-Men:  Blue #31:  Although the last arc was awful, Bunn rights the ship here, as the kids follow Magneto’s path of devastation as he makes his way to Emma.  Bloodstorm exposits that Magneto was driven over the edge when he was forced to kill the Mothervine-controlled mutants in his care who attacked him, though I’ll admit I don’t totally buy that.  Bunn seems to be arguing that Magneto is inherently unstable and violent (if not exactly evil), and the events of the Mothervine arc simply overrode his ability to control his behavior.  But, he is slowly but surely destroying Hellfire Club chapters along the way, so we’ll see where it all goes.

Also Read: Darth Vader #18; Detective Comics #984; The Hunt for Wolverine:  Adamantium Agenda #3; Ms. Marvel #32

New-ish Comics: The June 27 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Infinity Countdown:  Darkhawk #3:  Seriously how many times can Marvel ret-con Darkhawk’s origin?  We learn here the Gardener, one of the Elders of the Universe, created the Tree of Shadows.  He was obsessed with seeing where he could grow life, and he saw the Darkforce Dimension as a challenge.  He apparently forgot about the Tree after planting it.  However, millennia later, the Shi’ar and Skrulls somehow discovered it and fought over it.  A Shi’ar soldier gets to the Tree first and steals a seed, and it somehow transforms him into a set of “living armor.”  (I'm definitely not sure how that happened.  Did his armor take over his body?  If so, how and why did the Tree make that happen?)  Moreover, the soldier observes the Skrulls changing shape, which somehow allows him to change shape?  I don’t know.  At any rate, he seems to be the first Raptor.  Chris gets this information from Razor, who was supposedly dead but whose essence is apparently still rattling around wherever Chris’ consciousness/soul is.  Along those lines, I think the amulet is Chris' soul now?  He mentions how his soul is powering Starhawk; since Robbie became Starhawk when he got his hands on the amulet, the transitive property means Chris' soul is the amulet.  At any rate, Razor’s pep talk here means Chris can suddenly alter his armor again.  This time, he sheds his former armor like a skin and becomes a new set of armor that can turn into a ship.  I don't know.  This whole story just feels like a mess.

Multiple Man #1:  "Dammit, Jamie!  Stuff like this is why everyone finds you so annoying!"  Truer words, Beast, truer words.  The new New Mutants find one of Jamie's dupes in a sealed-off lab, though we're never told why they're looking for the lab in the first place.  It turns out this dupe had all of Jamie's science abilities and was trying to create a serum that would stabilize dupes and let them live independently from Jamie, in cases just like this one, where Jamie Prime is dead.  However, he's not as smart as Beast, so the serum only works temporarily.  As Beast works to stabilize the serum, Jamie swipes Bishop's time-travel device and heads to the future.  He returns almost immediately to stop something (we're not sure what yet) from happening, and he unexpectedly brings back versions of himself who are also Cable, Deadpool, Dr. Strange, and Hulk.  Yeah, it's confusing.  At this stage, Rosenberg hasn't hinted Jamie Prime survived the Terrigen Mists, so we're left to assume Jamie Prime is really dead.  But, that said, if Jamie could travel to the future, why not travel to the past, grab Jamie Prime, travel back to the present (skipping the Terrigen Mists), and have him reabsorb Jamie?  Anyone?

Peter Parker:  The Spectacular Spider-Man #306:  I've said it before and I'll say it again: this title is the Spider-Man title.  From his fresh take on JJJ, Jr. to his introduction of new characters (like Teresa), Zdarsky is telling a modern Spider-Man tale, not entangled in all the usual clichés and tropes Spider-Man carries with him after 55 years.  But, it's still a Spider-Man story at its heart.  In the present, Daredevil leads Peter and the gang to the Resistance's secret base in the Baxter Building.  There, T'Challa analyzes the device the Vedomi scout gave Peter and reveals it's a capsule that connects a biological consciousness with the Vedomi's hivemind.  The connected person would then be able to override the Vedomi's directive, making them see Earth as an empty planet.  Before anyone can react, Peter opens the capsule and absorbs the programming.  It allows him full access to his memories, including his parents.  He's overwhelmed, but Teresa encourages him to embrace it, a reminder that he needs to save the people who love him.  (He sees MJ at one point, and I wonder if the editors would let Zdarsky have Peter remember the deal with Mephisto...)  At any rate, these sequences are what makes this story a Spider-Man story, grounded as they are in Peter Parker and his experiences.  He tells Teresa he's not going to survive this adventure, since his body is overheating due to the presence of the programming.  He makes his way onto the ship, but, before he can merge with the core, the Tinkerer appears.  (Earlier he had hacked into Ironheart's armor and used her as a ride to the ship.)  Dun-dun-DUN!  Zdarsky even manages to upgrade the Tinkerer here into a threat in and of himself.  I'll admit I rolled my eyes at the claim that Peter is going to die, but, otherwise, Zdarsky is telling a great story here.  Whereas I'm bored of the similarly long "Daredevil" arc about Wilson Fisk as Mayor of New York, Zdarsky has managed to keep this tale fresh as we enter the last act.

Star Wars:  Doctor Aphra #21:  Spurrier is clearly writing for the trade, because I had to re-read last issue and this one just to get a basic sense of the plot.  But, it's not just because there are twists and turns, because twists and turns are good.  It's because it's all lost in a variety of technical mumbo-jumbo that I find hard to understand but is unfortunately key to understanding the plot.  Moreover, the technical mumbo-jumbo consists of a string of overly convenient developments that even Aphra seems unlikely to be able to arrange.  This title keeps creeping down my list, to be honest.

X-Men:  Blue #30:  These two issues have just been uncharacteristically terrible.  I barely care about Jimmy let alone Jimmy as the central figure in a storyline that continues from a cross-over event I didn't read.  It's like a particularly bad hangover.  Like last issue, this issue focuses on Jimmy as a Poison, something we're supposed to believe means he's functionally dead.  Yet, Bunn has already shown Jean was able to resurrect herself, so it's clear Jimmy will be able to do so, too.  As such, I'm not sure why Bunn made the decision to extend this story, when he has much more interesting ones to tell.  Whatever.  This series ends in six issues anyway.

Also Read:  Marvel 2-in-One #7; Ms. Marvel #31; Old Man Hawkeye #6; Star Wars:  Lando - Double or Nothing #2; Thor #2

New-ish Comics: The June 13 Marvel "A-M" Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Darth Vader #17:  When Darth Vader tells you you’re an asshole, you’re really an asshole.  Barr reveals to Lee-char and Vader that he knew billions on Mon Cala would die, but he needed to set the stage for the Mon Calamari’s involvement in the Rebellion and thus the events we’re currently seeing develop in the main series.  (I assume it means Trios and Vader fail in their attempt to destroy the Mon Calamari fleet, but we’ll see.)  Lee-char is appalled (particularly after Barr admits to killing the Imperial ambassador, setting off the armed conflict), but his surrender doesn’t convince Tarkin to stop the bombardment.  It’s a tactical error on Tarkin’s part, as Raddus is left with no choice but to order the fleet to flee the planet, with three ships successfully breaking through the blockade.  In so doing, Barr succeeds, as the Mon Calamari who escape are clearly allied with the Rebellion from this point forward.  But, Soule makes Barr’s treachery clear; as he himself admits, Barr might not have been Sith, but he sure as hell wasn’t a Jedi.  An interesting loose end here is that Verla, Barr’s remaining apprentice, survives.  I wonder how she’s going to play in later issues.  At this point, though, all hope is loss; as Vader says to Lee-char, Mon Cala no longer exists; only the Empire does.

Infinity Countdown:  Darkhawk #2:  This issue is admittedly hard to follow, mainly because it once again descends so far into the constantly changing Darkhawk mythos that you feel like you’re reading a Wikipedia entry at times.  We learn the Fraternity of Raptors was created as synthetic versions of Ratha’kon, the Starhawk, allegedly the Phoenix’s predator (whatever that means).  The Fraternity has long been seeking the full power of the “celestial raptor” (i.e., Ratha'kon, I'm assuming), but it wasn't able to perform the necessary ritual, because it required a willing as well as forced sacrifice.  Enter Talonar and Darkhawk.  Robbie is perfectly happy to watch Gyre, the lead Raptor, seemingly kill Chris in cold blood by ripping the amulet from the Razor armor.  You have to wonder how Rich is going to respond (per “Infinity Countdown” #4) when he learns his brother is this far gone.  By taking the amulet from the Razor armor and giving it to Talonar, the ritual is complete and Dark Starhawk is born.  This part is fine, though I question why Gyre allows the host to be a human, given humans’ alleged incompatibility with the armor.  According to this issue, we learned in “Darkhawk” #51 that the Datasong was so overwhelming to Chris at times that his mind created false memories — “I saw things, remembered people and places that weren’t there.”  It was all presumably to ease the burden of the Datasong, though I’m not sure how it accomplished that.  I also don’t remember this part from that issue, but, as Sims and Bowers specifically mention it here, it’s presumably relevant.  If you’re willing to accept the Raptors' origin story and Chris' memory issues on faith at this point, it’s otherwise a solid issue.  I’m hoping Sim and Bowers put aside the exposition for now and give us the space opera Darkhawk always should’ve been but rarely seemed to be.  They infuse this issue with some rare humor for the franchise, and it makes it a much stronger read as a result.  They could really do a lot with Chris so long as they don’t repeat the mistakes of their predecessors.

Marvel 2-in-One Annual #1:  I’m not particularly a fan of Doom or Reed, so I’ll admit this issue was wasted on me a bit.  It was billed as containing the secrets of “Secret Wars,” and I was attracted to that, since “Secret Wars” never really explained how we wound up where we did.  But, the “secret” is really that Reed made Doom think he and Susan were dead so he could have a fresh start.  Robbed of his intense rivalry with Reed, would he become a better man?  The answer is...muddled.  At some point, Doom rants against Reed's imperiousness as he disapproves of Doom killing one of his alternate selves in combat.  In his rant, Doom focuses on Reed’s decision to let Ben and Johnny think him (and Sue and the kids) dead, a crime against the family he so allegedly prizes.  It’s a reminder to me that I probably won’t be collecting the new “Fantastic Four” series, because I still find Reed insufferable, in any iteration of him.

Also Read:   Hunt for Wolverine:  The Adamantium Agenda #2

New-ish Comics: The May 23 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Detective Comics #981:  This issue is so good.  Tynion has everything completely and totally collapse.  That alone is a surprise in comics, but he goes one better by making everyone the better for it.

The end comes as Stephanie shows Tim the future that Brother Eye edited -- where Kate kills Bruce not because she's working for the President but because he had terminal cancer and killing him allowed her to pass Amanda Waller's psi-scans.  It's then a quick road to Tim reasserting control over himself.  The Belfry collapses, and the dream is dead.

But, Tynion makes it clear it should be dead.  Both Kate and Tim are shaken by the revelations about their future, mostly because they realize they both spent so much time worried about their futures that they've neglected their presents.  The team ends so everyone can take time to assess where they are.  The President pardons Jacob on the promise he dissolve the Colony, so he helps Kate as she becomes an independent Batwoman again.  Cass goes to live with Leslie, and Babs has agreed to tutor her.  Clayface (in human form) watches her happy ending from the shadows with a tear in his eye before leaving Gotham with Victoria.  Tim and Bruce embrace the fiction of Tim going to Ivy University as, instead, he and Stephanie head into the sunset (literally).  (Tim tells her he doesn't want to take the lonely path his future self took.)  Jean-Paul is left searching for his own truth while Luke dedicates himself to studying Brother Eye so something like it can never happen again.  In other words, none of them is in the place to be part of a superteam right now.

Tynion does a great job of showing of how each development is connected to each character's experience over the course of his run; they're not just left somewhere DC needed them to be because of some upcoming event.  Interestingly, it's Bruce who's possibly the most changed.  He's still smarting from Babs' analysis of his relationship with Kate, and, in typical Bruce fashion, he sees it as a problem (Bruce = bad at relationships) to solve.  (Tim even comments on how odd it is to see him smile.)  In other words, Bruce's lesson is the value of trusting his family and saying he's sorry.

It takes someone of Tynion's talent to leave everyone so broken but thus better, but he totally does that here.  This entire long arc has been one of the strongest Batman stories ever told, incorporating a supporting cast in a more profound way than we've previously seen.  I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Hunt for Wolverine #1:  I wasn't going to read this event, because, OMFG, I'm over events.  Also, Marvel is engaged in a cash grab of almost unprecedented proportions with four mini-series spawning from this issue.  But, when I saw one of the mini-series involved getting the New Avengers together, well, I just couldn't pass up the chance to see the old band again.  The goods news is Soule is as good as he usually is here.  He wisely chooses the Reavers to be the villains who go after Logan's corpse.  First, their motive is pretty clear:  their last few jobs haven't gone well (a nod to the general incompetence of villains), and they need money for repairs and upgrades.  But, they're also formidable enemies even in their weakened condition (a nod to their illustrious past of ass-kicking).  Along the way, we learn their attempt to extract Wolverine from the statue was always doomed to fail, because Kitty had phased his body from the adamantium months ago.  I've wondered why she hadn't done so numerous times since Wolverine "died," so it's good to see Marvel going with this approach here.  It also makes sense:  they wanted to keep it a secret so he could have a legitimate resting place.  Soule also wisely uses a framing device of Kitty telling Logan this story at his grave, not just because it's lovely, but also because it sets up her discovering he's not there.  The second story has Kitty recruiting help from all the corners of Logan's life, setting up the four (!) mini-series.  Soule is successful here because he spends a lot of time focused on the characters' voices and personalities; everyone sounds and acts like s/he should.  If the authors of the mini-series keep that attention to detail, it could be a good time, even if it is a cash grab.

Infinity Countdown:  Darkhawk #1:  I have two main questions after reading this issue, and I'm afraid only one is going to get answered.  The one I expect to get answered is how the Raptors are now able to survive without their link to the Tree of Shadows.  But, the question I don't think I'll get answered is how the Fraternity of Raptors went from a somewhat feared group to the hot mess it is here.  The Raptors are apparently mad at the Fraternity for stealing from them, but I'm not entirely clear what they stole.  In Chris Powell's case, he switched places physically with the Darkhawk armor.  If the Fraternity only opened a portal into the Nullspace for the first time in this issue, how did they get their hands on Raptor suits in the first place?  If I remember correctly, they're actually using knock-off Raptor suits but, if that's the case, what did they steal from the Raptors to make them so angry?  Moreover, why did Robbie wait until now to actually open the portal to the Nullspace with the Nega-Bands?  Shouldn't they have jumped on that opportunity previously?  It seems like they've maybe been waiting to collect the Power Stone and their failure to do so left them with no choice, but I'm not sure.  I guess I had more questions than I thought...

Star Wars #48:  I'm not really sure what Urtya's plan is here.  I get the idea that he wanted to be the one to broadcast the king's dying message to his people; as he himself said to Leia, it wasn't Leia's responsibility to do so.  In fact, Gillen does a pretty good job of showing Leia as too forceful here.  Urtya's right:  she's endangering the lives of his people, and she's not the one to get to make that call.  But, Leia's also right that his decision to broadcast the piece to his people almost immediately is absurd, since they're nowhere near prepared to rebel.  Why hold Leia and her allies at gun point to retrieve the video instead of working with her and her considerable resources to free Mon Cala from the Empire's rule?  I'm assuming Gillen has an ace up his sleeve, because this sort of loose end is unusual for him.  That said, Threepio's star turn is hilarious, as he and the Clawdite deliver an impromptu three-hour play after the Shu-Torun opera concludes to buy Leia and her team more time.  A big break indeed.

Star Wars Annual #4:  This issue is sort of fun, mostly for the fanwank moment where Darth Vader is impressed with Luke's ability to fly a podracer but then damages the racer to keep his legend (as Anakin Skywalker) for being the only human able to do so in tact.  But, despite Bunn having 30 pages, I still have a lot of questions here.  I don't get why Vader wordlessly destroys one of Darth Astrius' lightsaber.  I mean, assuming he somehow knows Luke destroyed its twin (though I'm not sure how), did it really not have any value on its own?  Also, was I supposed to recognize the items Sana swiped to fence?  It seems like I am, but I don't.  It's not a terrible issue, but I feel like Bunn skipped some steps here.

Also Read:  Falcon #8; Hunt for Wolverine:  Adamantium Advantage #1; Old Man Hawkeye #5; Star Wars:  Doctor Aphra #20; X-Men:  Gold #28