Not-Very-Deep Thoughts: The June 14 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Secret Empire #4:  Spencer handles the Avengers' fucked up family dynamics and history so well here I hope they hand him the reins of that book after this event ends.  I'll admit I can't quite remember where we left things with Hanktron after his arc in "Uncanny Avengers."  But, it seems totally reasonable to me that his response to the current situation is to hide in a city full of his clones in Alaska and wait for everyone to kill each other.

Spencer does a great job of slowly building to the conflict as Tony and his team and Steve and his team make their respective ways to Alaska and the Cosmic Cube shard.  When they unexpectedly encounter each other, we're all ready for a battle royale.  But, instead, Ultron captures everyone and makes them suffer through an awkward family dinner.  Just as I was wondering why Odinson, Scarlet Witch, and Vision were on Steve's side, Spencer uses the dinner as a vehicle to explain:  Thor wants back the Hammer Steve took in "FCBD:  Secret Empire #1," Wanda is possessed by Chthon, and the Vision has a virus.  But, everything goes to Hell in a handbasket why Tony antagonizes Hank, realizing his raging inferiority complex means he might actually be Hank.  Hank just wants everything to be like it was, but it can't be, Tony says, because no one ever forgave him for beating Jan.  I mean, talk about dropping a bomb of truth!

I love Spencer using the Avengers' history as the catalyst for the fight here.  It really heightens the sense I've had throughout this event that Marvel might actually make the developments stick (and not magically erase them with the Cosmic Cube.)  By the second or third issue of most cross-over events -- I'm thinking particularly of "Age of Ultron" and "Avengers vs. X-Men" -- it's pretty clear some device (metaphorical or physical) is going to be used to undo the developments occurring in the event.  But, you really get the sense this event is going to have consequences, as Spencer keeps it firmly rooted in the Marvel Universe's history.  For example, Hank stresses how everyone is tired of Steve's strategizing and Tony's plotting, reminding them how disastrous "Civil War" was.  In other words, everything we're seeing here has been a long time coming, not an artificially manufactured crisis to test our heroes.

In the end, it's Scott Lang who saves the day.  He tells Hank he's his idol because he, too, screwed up his life in one moment, but he kept on going.  Scott says he lives his life by asking what his daughter would do in difficult situations, and he asks Hank what Jan would want him to do.  Hank gives Scott the shard and sends everyone on his way.  But, Spencer has two aces up his sleeve.  First, the destruction of the Atlantean temple in issue #3 sends Namor to Washington to surrender his shard, disillusioning Hawkeye's team.  Mockingbird tries to rally them, reminding them they just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other one.  But, Cap reveals to Dr. Faustus he has a mole on the team.  It's hard to see how the heroes are going to win this one, and it's why this series so far is legitimately exciting.

Uncanny Avengers #24:  This issue starts off oddly, since we ended last issue expecting the team to head to New Orleans to fight Brother Voodoo's brother.  But, Zub makes it clear the team is as surprised as we are to find themselves suddenly trapped in New York.  Spencer hasn't had a lot of time to focus on New York in the main "Secret Empire" title; we've only really seen Dagger lighting the city when she can and Kingpin planning for the post-bubble days.  As such, I'm intrigued to get this insight into New York as it struggles with the isolation imposed by Blackout.  The events in this issue happen right after "Secret Empire" #0, so the team is basically acting as first responders.  Presumably, if we fast-forwarded to where we are in "Secret Empire" #4, they're connected with all the other heroes.  But, right now, they're trying to save who they can.  The weirdest part is Jan and Rogue fighting.  Jan is trying to convince Rogue they need a strategy, and Rogue is just trying to punch stuff.  It's like Zub hasn't read a comic with Rogue in it since 2008.  But, hopefully it's just a weird blip, an attempt to illustrate how rattled they all are by the sudden turn of events.  We'll see.

Ben Reilly:  Scarlet Spider #3:  I can't say it doesn't feel forced, but David at least puts Ben in his original costume in this issue, so I feel like I have some hope for the future.

Ms. Marvel #19:  Willow doesn't pull any punches here, as HYDRA Chuck from the previous gentrification arc has somehow gotten himself made into Mayor Worthy and placed Basic Becky (a.k.a. Lockdown) in charge of the Gestapo.  (They're actually called Keepers of Integration, Normalization, and Deference, or KIND.)  Kamala puts two and two together pretty quickly when KIND "agents" accost her outside her house, revealing they're looking for someone with superpowers.  Like any good bureaucrat, Becky delegates the fight with Kamala to her henchman, Discord.  (I can't remember how Kamala connects KIND to Becky but she does.)  When Discord neutralized Kamala with electricity, she realizes he's spent a lot of time studying her, since he knows it's her weakness.  (We're obviously supposed to believe it's Bruno, but that seems too obvious.)  He eventually zaps her into unconsciousness.  Elsewhere, KIND winds up arresting Aamir, Kamala's brother, believing him to have the superpowers.  Moreover, all these events take place against the backdrop of Eid al-Fitr celebrations.  Although KIND takes in Aamir for allegedly possessing superpowers, it's not hard to see the larger point Willow is making.  (She also has Zoe panic when she hears about KIND, revealing she's an illegal immigrant:  she was born in France.)  Willow makes it even more complicated as Discord gets Kamala to admit to herself the crowds who rallied to Worthy side's in the gentrification arc didn't do so simply because they were mesmerized:  some people really believed what he was saying.  By returning to this issue, Willow shows she's telling an ongoing story about the struggle between freedom and fear.  She manages not to get preachy as she does it, keeping the story focused on the emotions people feel on both sides.  I'm intrigued to see where she goes in the next three issues in this arc.

Star Wars #32:  I have to admit, I'm really enjoying the Screaming Citadel arc.  Aaron cleverly uses a rebooted Rur to exposit not only the regret Aphra feels for abandoning Luke but the fact she doesn't normally feel this way about someone she betrays.  Rur correctly posits they understand each other because of their shared tragedies and all I have to say is I'm beyond excited if we're getting a buddy-comedy series featuring Aphra and Luke.  Aphra reminds us why she's a survivor when she not only returns to save Luke but also infects him with the symbiote.  I know it doesn't sound like doing Luke a solid, but it is:  Aphra correctly figures the Hive is run by the strongest will, setting up a conflict between Luke and the Queen.

X-Men:  Blue #5:  First, I love Bunn adding Jimmy to the team as a way to make sure they always have some sort of Wolverine.  Clever.  Moreover, the fight sequence with the Marauders was really one of the best I've read in a while, exactly the sort of excellent match of opposing personalities and powers that makes for archenemies.  But, Bunn raises the stakes when he reveals the Marauders are all displaced from other realities, presumably ones destroyed as part of "Secret Wars."  They've had their memories wiped, and Miss Sinister reveals to Jean she's taken advantage of that situation to turn them into weapons.  She allows Jean to keep Jimmy since his resistance to telepathy is too strong to make him useful to her, and Jean is left wondering about her agenda.  Bunn doesn't stop the mystery there, though.  First, we have no idea how many of these reality-displaced mutants there are (and how many Miss Sinister controls).  Second, Jean, Magneto, and Miss Sinister all observe something "different' about these mutants:  they're not "just" mutants, but it's unclear what that means.  In other words, Bunn has given us enough questions to keep us interested for a good long while.  Along the way, he's doing a great job with the characterization as well:  Bobby and Quicksilver essentially compete in out-annoying the other one, and I could read that all day.

Also Read:  Captain America:  Sam Wilson #23; Dragon Age:  Knight Errant #2; Dungeons & Dragons:  Frost Giant's Fury #3; Generation X #3; Secret Empire:  United #1

Not-Very-Deep Thoughts: The May 10 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #27:  I start every issue hoping Dan Slott has gotten a good night's sleep and woken up that next morning focused a little more on the story he's trying to tell.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have happened for this issue.  First, we have Sable's ridiculous explanation of how she survived the precarious scenario where we last saw her in "End of the Earth."  She apparently used her suit to turn invisible, which made Rhino think she vanished.  The problem with that explanation is Rhino had his hands around her neck at the time.  Rhino might not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but he's been around the block a few times:  he understands invisibility.  If Sable disappeared, but he still felt her, I find it unlikely he'd let go, scratch his head, and decide maybe he wasn't as suicidal as he appeared to be.  To make matters worse, everyone continues to take a leave of their senses in this issue.  Nick Fury tries to intimidate Harry and May to convince Peter not to invade Symkaria.  After all, Peter is obviously in the wrong for wanting to stop Norman Osborn from turning the country's population into slave labor for his war machine.  Sable is shocked - shocked! - that her people turned to the Countess during her "absence."  Who knew they'd actually believe her when she faked her on death?  The good news is the issue improves greatly when Slott puts behind the plot and focuses on the action.  Spidey is legitimately funny as he, Mockingbird, Sable, and the Wild Pack take on Norman's army of Goblins and machinery.  Slott even manages to give at least one of the Pack a personality!  He also makes clear Bobbi and Peter are getting closer and closer to a relationship, as Bobbi admits she left S.H.I.E.L.D. because she knows Pete always does the right thing.  (Of course, he ruins the moment by joking about her believing in him.)  Moreover, Slott continues his pattern of doing better with the grand sketches of a plot than the intimate details:  Norman's plan to turn everyone in Symkaria into a Goblin is legitimately scary.  However, Slott has demonstrated this trouble in sticking the landing, so we'll see how it goes next issue.  I feel like someone from editorial needs to step in here and help him do a better job connecting the dots.  You can't crank out the number of issues he has and not lose sight of the larger plot a bit.  Someone has to say, "Dan, that Sable explanation makes no sense," or, "At some point you have to show Nick understanding S.H.I.E.L.D. is being hypocritical."  The Zodiac arc is a great example of this problem.  Like this issue, we had a super-fun romp through the British Museum, but Slott dragged down that issue when he bumbled through explaining why Scorpio was there in the first place.  At this point, I'm trying to just enjoy the best art team this series has possibly ever had while hoping Dan takes a sabbatical at some point.

Detective Comics #956:  This issue wraps up the arc better than I thought it could, but Tynion still leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions (and not necessarily in a good way).  We learn Shiva left R'as al Ghul after she learned what his true intentions for the League of Shadows were, but we don't get told why it was necessary for the League of Shadows to exist separately from the League of Assassins in the first place.  We learn Bruce once walked a dark path of magic and he'll need to walk it again since it's what al Ghul used to make him forget about the League.  But, we still don't know why al Ghul wanted him to forget about the League.  Bruce also now realizes the Colony was more involved with the League than he thought, but we don't have any idea why.  Were they originally allies and the relationship went bad?  Does the Colony support al Ghul's original plans for the League?  As Bruce said, all we really do know is Shiva's defection from al Ghul forced him to reveal more than he intended.  This arc has felt like butter scraped over too much bread, as Tynion avoided giving us any answers to the mystery at the heart of it.  But, hopefully he can fill in the gaps now that Bruce is on the hunt.

Ms. Marvel #18:  Yup, I totally cried.  The cover implies we're going to see some sort of interaction between Bruno and Kamala (pet peeve #1), but Wilson actually focused solely on Bruno and his attempts to adjust to his new life in Wakanda.  Wilson grounds the story in reality in a way we don't usually see in comics:  Bruno isn't suddenly going to have a cybernetic hand and leg.  He doesn't get the deus ex machina superheroes get.  Bruno has to earn it, and he does, with the help of his classmates who he now realizes are his friends.  It's not hard to see a great lesson in perseverance in the face of obstacles here, the type of story we're often denied when the aforementioned deus ex machina magically makes a problem better.  (I'm looking at you, Cosmic Cube.)  Like the rest of us, Bruno will be facing the consequences of his actions for a long time.

Star Wars:  The Screaming Citadel #1:  OK, Gillen is definitely embracing the creepier side of the "Star Wars" Universe here.  (It's not a bad thing.)  In the wake of the opening arc of her own series, Aphra tracks down Luke (thanks to some assistance from Sana) and convinces him to help her unlock the core she swiped from the Ordu Aspectu.  Apparently it contains Rur's personality, so it's a win-win proposition:  Aphra gets an eyewitness to ancient history and Luke gets a Jedi Master to instruct him.  The only problem is she doesn't know how to open the core.  As such, they have to travel to the titular Screaming Citadel.  The ancient (and bored) queen of Ktath'atn holds a contest at the Citadel every year:  she swaps favors for the chance to meet "interesting people."  Not surprisingly, Aphra and Luke qualify after Luke uses his Jedi powers in front of the queen.  However, it appears the queen is a vampire:  her minions feed off the citizens' energy and then feed that energy to her.  Needless to say, she's...excited about the possibility of feeding off a Jedi, since she hasn't done so in a while.  Checchetto and Mossa do an amazing job of using "Alice in Wonderland" imagery when it comes to the queen, as she looks not dissimilar from a modern Queen of Hearts.  After the disappointing "Yoda's Secret War" arc in "Star Wars," I'm excited for this arc.  It reorients us around a cast of characters we recognize, but tells a story that we haven't seen before.  Gillen does a great job of reminding us how hungry Luke is for training in this period before he learns of Yoda's location, and filling in this sort of gap drives the excitement for this arc (something "Yoda's Secret War" lacked).  I'm not saying everything needs to advance the larger story we know from the movies, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Uncanny Avengers #23:  Honestly, this series is the best team book on the shelves.  Duggan does a great job of conveying honest-to-goodness emotions on almost every page, from Synapse learning Cable stayed with the team to be her mentor to Rogue wistfully looking at the photo of the team in happier days.  In fact, Rogue and Synapse have really been Duggan's signature characters, as much as you'd expect it to be Deadpool.  We learn Synapse eventually became the Shredded Man in the future Cable tried to prevent by returning to our time, and his words of encouragement to her -- about how that future is no longer possible and how she makes her own choices -- really shows how far she's come as a character.  Rogue's feelings about the team are also instructive.  She's lost a lot recently, as Duggan reminded us in the previous issue where she contemplates Xavier's death.  It's probably the first time we've seen Rogue committed to this team as a team and not just as the X-Men's plant on it.  It's a great moment, and it's made all the better when she, Johnny, and Synapse agree to travel with Brother Voodoo to New Orleans to take care of his brother and the Hand.  In so doing, Duggan shows how he's really made this series an integrated narrative, as past events aren't just conveniently forgotten when we move to the next arc.  I'm thrilled it's still going strong, if only because I'm hoping we get some sort of Deadpool and Wonder Man buddy-comedy arc as they try to get back Simon's money.  (Did I mention Deadpool lost all of it?  Apparently he had some cash flow problems and figured Simon was dead...)

Youngblood #1:  According to my comic-book database, I own issues #0-#4 of the original run of "Youngblood."  (I believe the only two Image comics I collected beyond ten issues were "Wild C.A.T.s" at 12 issues and then "Stormwatch," at ten issues exactly.)  Similar to my experience reading "The Wild Storm," I don't really remember much the original plot.  All I really remember is the ginger Hawkeye was hot.  (My recollection of "Wild C.A.T.s" similarly revoked around the hot ginger.)  Knowing Liefeld, I probably wasn't missing much.  The good news is Liefeld got someone else to write the story this time and, even better news, it's not too bad.  Bowers quickly establishes that Youngblood ended when a hacktivist group called the Bloodstream revealed the behind-the-scenes dirt about the team, "a litany of criminal activity, illicit sex scandals, assassinations, and government cover-ups."  In the present, superheroing appears to revolve entirely around an app called Help! operating like Task Rabbit, if you will.  However, one of its stars, Man-Up, has gone missing.  His friend, Gunner, is looking for him, but she doesn't know anything about the "real" him.  She eventually recognizes his photo on a missing poster and meets his aunt, learning his name is Horatio and he's a 19-year-old kid who got his powers after a chemical spill at work.  Gunner pledges to find him and comes to the attention of President Diehard and his wife, Vogue, when she (Gunner) starts using Vogue's look and name.  Diehard is in the process of negotiating a deal with Help!, essentially to replace Youngblood.  However, he decides to send Shaft and Badrock, both incarcerated, to arrest Gunner and her friends, because he disapproves of vigilantism (likely because the new Vogue and her friends are working outside Help!).  Bowers doesn't establish what motivates Gunner to leave Help! and become Vogue, but I'm sure we'll get there.  The challenge for Bowers is going to be not just wallowing in nostalgia.  Warren Ellis is doing amazing work in "The Wild Storm," and Bowers, whether he likes it or not, is competing with that.  The art is solid here, though, again, Jon Davis-Hunt is doing spectacular work over there.  (Also, is that supposed to be Shaft at the end?  He looks...12 years old.)  At any rate, it's a high bar for Bowers and Towe to clear, but it would be exciting if they did, to have life breathed into both these franchises.

Also Read:  Dragon Age:  Knight Errant #1; Titans #11; X-Men:  Blue #3