Bendis, Brian Michael

About the Author:

Brian Michael Bendis was born in Cleveland, USA, and began working in comics on creator-owned titles in the 1990s.  He has also written for film and television, including as a writer-producer for MTV's animed Spider-Man series.  Bendis also consulted on several of the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor and The Avengers.

 

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

3.3 out of 5

(56 books)

 

TOP PICK:

House Of M

All-New X-Men: Here To Stay

(Art by David Marquez, Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger)

Book 2.  The time-displaced original X-Men have decided to stay in the future but one of their number, Angel, struggles with what they find here, a situation made worse by an encounter with his future self.  Meanwhile, young Scott Summers struggles to come to terms with how far his future self has strayed from the path of righteousness.

The drama inherent in having the young X-Men experience the world where (in the real world) more than forty years worth of stuff has happened, most of it traumatic, remains strong in this book.  There is also enough variation of how each of the five is coping that it provides the necessary variety.

The problem this book suffers from, however, and the reason I can't rate it higher, is that it feels a little bit like it's spinning its wheels.  Although stuff happens throughout the book, I can't really say that anything significant is different by the end than what it was at the beginning.  This feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Also, (and I know it's intentional) I find it frustrating that older Scott Summers is such an arse and that no-one has kicked the crap out of him for it yet.

3 out of 5

 

All-New X-Men: One Down

(Art by Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Arthur Adams, Lee Bermejo, Jeff Scott Campbell, Ronnie Del Carmen, Rafael Grampa, Dan Hipp, J. G. Jones, David Mack, David Marquez, Jake Parker, Robbi Rodriguez, Jason Shiga, Paul M. Smith, Jill Thompson, Bruce Timm, Kent Williams, Max Wittert, Skottie Young and Bob Wiacek)

Reeling from one of their number leaving the team, the time-displaced young X-Men find themselves once again attacked by the future incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

One of the things I liked least about the messy 'Battle of the Atom' crossover event was the poorly-realised and confusingly-motivated Brotherhood from the future.  Imagine my joy at seeing them return here (yes, you do detect sarcasm).  Whilst they do get a little more fleshed-out here, this incarnation of the Brotherhood is still a really bad one and here we learn that their previously opaque motives are actually more or less that they just want to do evil stuff.  Pretty crappy stuff from a branch of the Marvel Universe that gave us such nuanced villains as Magneto.

The team of young X-Men remain engaging characters, but everything else here is boring an/or annoying.

2 out of 5

 

All-New X-Men: Out Of Their Depth

(Art by Stuart Immonen, David Lafuente and Wade Von Grawbadger)

Book 3.  When Mystique, Sabretooth and Lady Mastermind begin framing the young X-Men for a series of robberies, the time-displaced team have to set out on their first real mission in the modern world, overseen by Wolverine and Kitty Pryde.

This book is an improvement over the last volume in that it actually gives the five young X-Men something to do, whilst also continuing to develop the individual ways that are coping with the new world they find themselves in.  It also helps that there are some actual positive outcomes in this book, after the consistent string of downers that have been hitting the young team ever since they were brought forward through time.

My favourite element of the book was seeing young Cyclops encounter his brother Havok, now the leader of the Uncanny Avengers.  It was a great moment for both characters, giving young Scott proof that the ideals he believes in can be lived up to and giving Alex Summers chance to have a positive moment with his brother after having become estranged from the older version of Scott.  It was a moment of genuine warmth and pathos that the series (and the character of young Scott) definitely needed.

My least favourite element of the book was seeing young Hank and Jean hooking up.  I guess it's important for Bendis to explore new ideas for these characters, but Beast and Marvel Girl kissing just felt wrong to me after a lifetime of seeing their platonic relationship.

4 out of 5

 

All-New X-Men: Yesterday's X-Men

(Art by Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger)

Book 1.  When Beast believes he is dying he decides upon a desperate course of action; to hold the renegade Cyclops to account, Beast travels back in time and recruits the original five X-Men to return to the future with him.  The younger Cyclopes, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and the younger version of Beast himself then have to face a future in which their lives have all taken dark turns, where a mutant genocide is brewing and where Charles Xavier has been murdered by his most beloved student.

Comics are notorious for tying themselves in knots to return to the most recognisable (and therefore the most saleable) status quo and it has to be said that simply bringing the original versions of the character through time into the modern era is one of the dumber iterations of that trope.

However, it has to be said that there is some genuine narrative mileage in having the younger X-Men confront their future and vice versa.  In the case of Cyclops we see the dedicated idealist facing off with the ruthless revolutionary, with both appalled by what the encounter means for them.  The other really interesting element of this is seeing young Jean Grey have to discover her convoluted and terrible future, in which she dies and returns only to die again, whilst the man she loves becomes everything she despises.

The amusing flip-side to all of this is the way that old and young Hank McCoy immediately fall into a perfect scientific partnership and bromance.

4 out of 5

 

All-New X-Men/Guardians Of The Galaxy: The Trial Of Jean Grey

(Art by Sara Pichelli, Stuart Immonen, David Marquez and Wade Von Grawbadger)

Young Jean Grey is kidnapped by the Shi'ar Empire in order to be put on trial and punished for the crimes her future self committed as the Phoenix.  Meanwhile, the X-Men team-up with the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Starjammers to mount a rescue mission.

The trial side of this story has lots of elements that make it an interesting take on the concept.  For example, it's clearly a show-trial but it faces opposition even from within the Shi'ar themselves, as well as the fact that Jean is both innocent and guilty depending on your point of view.  She hasn't committed the crimes she's accused of but, if her life plays out the way it's supposed to, she WILL.

The other side of the story is the X-Men/Guardians/Starjammers team-up and that's made interesting by having the cynical and veteran Guardians working with the naieve but righteous young X-Men.  There's even an emotional core to this aspect as we get to see young Scott discover that his father is both alive and working as a space pirate, just as his older self once had to discover.

I initially worried that this was just a cheap excuse for Bendis to crossover his two pet projects and whilst yes, it is that, it's also an enjoyable story in its own right.

4 out of 5

 

Avengers Disassembled

(Art by David Finch, Danny Miki, Olivier Coipel, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Bob Sharen, George Perez, John Byrne, Scott Kolins, Kieron Dwyer, Alan Davis, Michael Golden, Brent Anderson, J. G. Jones, Alex Maleev, Steve Epting, Lee Weeks, Michael Gaydos, Eric Powell, Darick Robertson, Mike Mayhew, David Mack, Gary Frank, Mike Avon Oeming, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Steve McNiven and Mike Perkins)

The Avengers suddenly find themselves besieged by a series of tragedies which leave several members of the team dead, the Avengers Mansion in ruins and some of them losing control of their own behaviour.  Calling in all of their reserves, the Avengers soon discover that the enemy behind their misfortunes is one of their own.

This is one of those books whose actual content gets overshadowed by its obvious real-world influences.  Bendis was clearly given the mission statement of breaking up the Avengers status quo to make way for something new (literally, the New Avengers, as it turned out) and that real-world imperative overrides any internal logic the book might have had.  Too much happens in too short a time to be credible and, as a result, this feels somewhat like a box-ticking exercise.  That's particularly tragic when you consider that some very famous and important Avengers die in this book.

All that said, this isn't a bad book and I particularly enjoyed the scenes where Avengers past and present come together in support of each other.  Nevertheless, the story feels 'functional' when it should probably have been 'iconic'.

3 out of 5

 

Avengers Prime

(Art by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer)

In the aftermath of 'Siege', which saw the fall of Asgard, the Avengers have reassembled.  However, some divisions remain between the leading members Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Thor.  These three are forced to put their differences aside when they are cast out into the Nine Realms to confront Hela, the Goddess of Death.

This book could easily be called 'Avengers Bromance' as it's all about rebuilding the bonds of friendship between Steve, Tony and Thor.  Marvel spent most of the early 2000s tearing the Avengers apart ('Disassembled', 'House of M', 'Civil War' etcetera) but with the movies of the MCU heading towards the first Avengers film it was imperative to return to the original core characters as friends and allies.  This book then serves a very functional purpose and is perhaps a bit too transparent in being driven by brand recognition rather than story imperatives.

That said, there is something deeply satisfying to a longtime Avengers fan in seeing these particular three separated off to fight as comrades in arms once more.  And as a fan of Norse mythology, it was nice for them to be confronting elements from that as the Nine Realms begin to fold in upon themselves following the fall of Asgard.  For me the highlight was seeing Steve battling a group of elves from whom he takes a set of blue scalemail armour and a shield.  There's even a brilliant panel where Davis has shadows and light fall on Steve in just the right way so that, for a moment, he is Captain America again (probably worth pointing out to the uninitiated that Steve wasn't Cap at this point - Bucky was, if I rememeber right).

3 out of 5

 

Civil War II

(Art by David Marquez, Sean Izaakse, Andrea Sorrentino, Olivier Coipel, Jim Cheung and John Dell)

When an Inhuman appears with the ability to see the future, he helps the superhero community to proactively defeat an interdimensional threat.  Some heroes, led by Captain Marvel, see him as the perfect way to avert disaster before it can happen but other, led by Iron Man, see the risks in attempting to punish crimes before they've been committed.  The deaths of two leading Avengers inevitably propel the two sides into open conflict.

This book gets a lot of flak from comics fans but I'll say straight off that I don't think it's deserving of all the hate it gets.  There is a great deal wrong with it, don't get me wrong, but it's not awful.  If nothing else, the artwork is so gorgeous that after finishing the book I thumbed back through the pages just to take the images in again.

Hero versus hero stories have a tendency to be as narratively justified as a small child banging their two favourite action figures together, so I'm always dubious about them.  However, it has been done right in the past.  In the original 'Civil War' (which I liked, but I know a lot of people didn't) by Mark Millar, the pretext of the conflict was rooted in the real world dilemma of civil liberty versus national security in post-9/11 America and in 'Avengers vs X-Men' (reviewed here) we actually saw a sliding scale which saw both sides of the conflict alternately hold the moral high ground.  Here, however, there is too clear a right and wrong to justify these life-long friends smacking the crap out of each other.  In fact, the prologue has She-Hulk clearly laying out how wrong it is to convict anyone of a crime they haven't yet committed (a standpoint she inexplicably totally ignores later to side with Captain Marvel).  There's no justifiable moral counterpoint to that and therefore, despite their efforts to make us feel sorry for her, Carol Danvers is clearly the bad guy here.  That means that anyone who's a fan of Captain Marvel or any of the other heroes who, equally inexplicably, choose her side will feel like their characters are being betrayed.  In fact, the only characters who are done any justice here are Steve Rogers and Miles Morales.

So, without any real poignancy to the core dispute, what we're left with is a mash-up of 'Civil War' and 'Minority Report' that is just about enjoyable on the purely childish level of seeing things like a teenager with spider powers fighting a gun-toting talking raccoon.

3 out of 5

 

Dark Avengers: Assemble

(Art by Mike Deodato and Will Conrad)

Book 1.  In the wake of the Secret Invasion, surprising hero-of-the-hour Norman Osborn is given control of SHIELD, the Initiative and the Avengers.  He creates a new security organisation, HAMMER, and gathers a group of dangerous individuals to be his new Dark Avengers.  Their first mission leads them to the aid of Doctor Doom against the sorceress Morgana Le Fey.

The main selling point of this new team of Avengers is somewhat akin to the original team of Thunderbolts, in that it is made up of (mostly) villains masquerading as heroes.  It creates an interesting dynamic which is further enhanced by the inclusion of the violent Ares, the mentally unstable Sentry and Osborn himself, who is still struggling against the personality of the Green Goblin buried within himself.

I will say that the Dark Avengers' first mission together was something of a disappointment.  They more or less have to battle endless waves of nondescript demonic monsters, with it all feeling a bit like those big-budget blockbusters (the MCU among them) which just have the heroes fighting lots of samey CGI baddies, lacking any actual emotional content.

I did, however, particularly like the dynamic between Osborn and Doom, as well as that between Norman and Namor later in the book.  It's clear that Osborn feels he is in the ascendant, but the likes of Doom and Namor are not ones to accept that lightly.

3 out of 5

 

Dark Avengers: Molecule Man

(Art by Mike Deodato)

Book 2.  The Dark Avengers are a team, led by former Green Goblin Norman Osborn, with dark pasts who have adopted the mantles of the Avengers whom they used to do battle against.  Here they confront the Molecule Man, a foe so powerful he can literally tear them to pieces with a thought.

This is the first Dark Avengers story I've read and I have to say that, to my initial surprise, I really enjoyed this shadowy take on the classic Avengers.  I also liked which former villains take on the roles of which Avenger; Bullseye makes a brilliant alternate Hawkeye for example and Osborn himself, a brilliant industrialist, makes a good shadowy reflection of Tony Stark.  This book definitely got me interested in this team and I'll be sure to pick up more of their adventures at some point.

Molecule Man is an old-school Fantastic Four villain and, as such, his power levels are way beyond anything this team has come up against before, even if he is a somewhat obscure antagonist.  I really liked the fact that the 'good' guys were making no headway until Victoria Hand (memorably played by Saffron Burrows in the Agents of SHIELD TV series), who has no powers, confronts Molecule Man in an attempt to talk him down.  The fact that her fear of him is palpable as she nevertheless stands up to him makes for a very compelling character moment for her.

Ultimately there's not much depth to this book beyond the set-up of the characters involved, but as I say, it did engage my interest far more than I expected for such a short-lived incarnation of the Avengers.

3 out of 5

 

Fear Itself: Avengers

(Art by Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey, Wayne Faucher, Victor Olazaba, Mark Irwin, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson and Mike Deodato)

A tie-in to the 'Fear Itself' crossover event (reviewed here), in which Sin unleashes the Asgardian god of fear, the Serpent, and, using heroes corrupted by magic hammers, launches a blitzkrieg against America.

The framing of this book, which contains issues from both the main Avengers series and the New Avengers, has various heroes being interviewed after the events depicted and, to begin with, I found this framing device cliched and irritating.  However, it has to be said, that as the book went on it proved an excellent way of conveying the fact that the characters themselves, despite clearly having survived the events, knew that they were totally outmatched by Asgardian powers unleashed by Sin.  It is this sense of iconic heroes knowing that they're out of their league that actually gives weight to what would otherwise be 'generic crossover threat of the month'.

What I like most here, though, was the way that the book explores what makes one 'worthy' of being an Avenger.  It begins with Red Hulk confronting the hammer-powered Thing and goes on to show the self-doubting Spider-Woman going toe-to-toe with the similarly Asgardian-enhanced original Hulk.  This theme is rounded-out nicely by showing Daredevil, not part of the main battle, beating overwhelming odds to save Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' daughter (not to mention Squirrel Girl), for which his friends make him an official Avenger.

Honestly, this book surprised me with it's heart and sincerity and is, to my mind, better than the crossover event it ties-in to.

4 out of 5

 

Guardians Of Knowhere

(Art by Mike Deodato, Jim Cheung and Mark Morales)

A tie-in to the Secrets Wars and Warzones crossovers.  Knowhere is the severed head of a Celestial orbiting Battleworld after that being was killed by Doom Almighty, its ragtag denizens protected by the Guardians.  However one of their number, Gamora, senses that there is something very wrong with the reality they're living in and flouts Doom's laws in the hope of discovering the truth.

I can't say I'm hugely invested in the Warzones spinoffs, with them seeming to be little more than overblown 'What if...?' stories (also akin to DC's Elseworlds, which were mostly inconsequential and half-baked).  There is an interesting element here, with Gamora having a vague notion that Battleworld and Doom Almighty aren't the real world but, unfortunately, it goes nowhere (pun intended), or at least not in this book.

I did enjoy most of the characters here, however, with Angela's respect/antagonism with the Guardians being quite engaging, as is the similar relationship between the Guardians and the Nova Corps (here including Captain Marvel, Moondragon, Adam Warlock, Iron Man, Nova and Agent Venom).

Tagged on to the end of the book is a short Illuminati story in which that group confront the Beyonder after discovering that the strange being is both a mutant and an Inhuman.  Aside from the implications of a character being both of those things, there's not a great deal to write home about in this story.

3 out of 5

 

Guardians Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers

(Art by Steve McNiven, Sara Pichelli, Michael Avon Oeming, Ming Doyle, Michael Del Mundo and John Dell)

As well as a series of vignettes starring Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Rocket Raccoon and Gamora, here we see the reconstituted Guardians, joined by Iron Man, as they face down the forces of the Badoon and the machinations of Star-Lord's own father, the King of Spartax.

This book is something of a taster for the Guardians series, with only the back half actually getting up and running with the ongoing plot.  That would make it a fine introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the Guardians but, honestly, anyone reading this book has to have seen the movies, so there's nothing here that won't be familiar to you already.  Well, maybe the fact that Peter Quill isn't the son of Ego the Living Planet, or that Tony Stark was on the team for a while...

So, whilst this book is thin on plot and doesn't break much new ground, it does have one really good thing in its favour; it's characters.  What makes the Guardians stand out here is that they each, individually, love what they're doing and are clearly never happier than when in way over their heads.  It makes it particularly triumphant to see them defy the edicts of Peter's father and then give him a metaphorical middle finger into the bargain.

I was not impressed with the shade thrown at Captain Britain, however.  You leave Brian alone!

3 out of 5

 

Guardians Of The Galaxy: New Guard - Civil War II

(Art by Valerio Schiti, Jim Cheung and John Dell)

Book 3, tying-in to Bendis' own crossover event, 'Civil War II'.  The Guardians answer the call of their friend Captain Marvel to return to Earth to fight in the second superhero civil war.  However, their presence on Earth is complicated by the secret that their arch-enemy Thanos is being held prisoner there.

It is weird that, considering the main crossover was also written by the writer of this, that this is one of the least successful tie-in books I've ever read.  I'm used to Marvel's usual terrible, choppy way of vaguely tying-in ongoing series into the main event, but this one took it to a new level.  

The core of both Civil War events is a key moral conundrum; in the first it was individual liberty versus national security, whereas in the second it was that, if you could predict the future, would it be right to punish people now for crimes they will commit later.  Now, unless you're a right-wing arsehole (please, feel free to exit my website immediately, neither of us want you here), it should be obvious that no one should be punished for something they haven't done, no matter how confident you are that they will in the future.  It is the very antithesis of justice.  Here the moral conundrum is never actually posed on the page.  It's indicated that it happens off-panel and we're never actually given the opportunity as readers to contemplate the question and how it relates to the Guardians.  But what we do get to see is that literally everyone in this book thinks Carol Danvers is right in her Minority Report-esque precog policing.  Even random members of the public voice their support of it.  There is no grey area explored and, in fact, the opposite side of the argument is literally never even addressed.  It's both weird and bad.

The only good thing in this book in the end is the team division (quite separate to the Civil War) caused by the discovery that Thanos is on Earth and both Carol Danvers and Peter Quill are hiding that fact from the other Guardians.

2 out of 5

 

Guardians Of The Galaxy: New Guard - Emperor Quill

(Art by Valerio Schiti)

Book 1 of the relaunched series.  Peter Quill has left the Guardians to become King of Spartax but their paths cross again when the Guardians discover a mysterious Chitauri artifact.  They then all come under attack by Hala the Accuser, who blames the Guardians for the destruction of the Kree homeworld and intends to destroy both Spartax and Earth for revenge.

This isn't a great relaunch of the series and, honestly, feels like one of those times that comics decide to revert to #1 in a cynical attempt to draw in new readers who wouldn't start at #37 or whatever.  This book is entirely reliant on you knowing the backstory of Quill, Spartax, Hala and the Guardians in general and never stops to explain things like why Kitty Pryde is Star Lord now and why the Thing is with the Guardians.  After decades of reading comics I'm pretty good at just rolling with whatever the current status quo is, but it's worth pointing out that this isn't a good jumping-on point for Guardians stories.

Plot wise there's nothing special here but there are a few nice character moments and I found myself particularly enjoying Kitty's role on the team.  Also, whilst it's never laugh-out-loud funny, there is a solid core of humour running throughout the book (thanks, presumably, to the movie version of the Guardians being so popular).

Overall, it's fine but nothing to get too excited about.

3 out of 5

 

Guardians Of The Galaxy: New Guard - Grounded

(Art by Valerio Schiti, Phil Noto, Andrea Sorrentino, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Arthur Adams, Kevin Maguire, Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessy, Sara Pichelli and Filipe Andrade)

Book 4.  Following the second superhero civil war the Guardians are separated and stranded on Earth, trying to make the best of it.  An invasion by Thanos, the Brood and the Badoon forced the team back together to defend Earth one last time.

This is Bendis' swansong from his time writing Guardians and, honestly, it's very much 'not with a bang, but with a whimper'.  In a book where the Brood Queen, Annihilus and Thanos team-up there should be a sense of epic scale and high stakes, but that's simply not the case.  It's such a weak story that it even ends with a scene where Annihilus reacts to the failure of their plan which is played for laughs.  Not even one of the most heinous villains in the Marvel multiverse can take this story seriously.

The final lazy nail in the coffin is the way that several of the Guardians are unceremoniously dumped on Earth, leaving the remaining Guardians the exact line-up that appears in the first Guardians movie, reinstating the most saleable status quo and making all the adventures of the likes of The Thing, Kitty Pryde, Agent Venom and Angela basically meaningless.

1 out of 5

 

Halo: Uprising

(Art by Alex Maleev)

Set between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3, here we see the Master Chief returning to Earth aboard the Covenant-controlled Forerunner dreadnought.  Meanwhile, on Earth, a hotel concierge discovers that he's the key to preventing the Covenant from destroying a city.

At first I was unimpressed by the story of the concierge and the famous musician he meets amid the Covenant invasion, feeling like it was just another derivative 'here's two nobodies caught up in the conflict, isn't that sad?' storyline.  They're not always bad, but they have been played out ad infinitum.  It was therefore refreshing to see that these ordinary people do actually have an important role to play in the overarching story of the Covenant attack on Earth.

The Master Chief's storyline is largely disconnected from everything else going on in the book but it was nevertheless entertaining to see him, alone, outgunned and massively outnumbered, proving to the Covenant why he is The Demon.

I honestly enjoyed this book more than I was expecting to, thinking that it would just be a run-of-the-mill filler story between the main narratives of the two games.  But there was more here than I initially thought.

4 out of 5

 

House Of M

(Art by Oliver Coipel, Tim Townsend. Rick Magyar, Scott Hanna and John Dell)

One of Marvel's periodic big event stories.  Wanda Maximoff, AKA the Scarlet Witch, is losing her mind and control of her mutant power; the ability to alter reality.  Whilst the X-Men and the Avengers meet to decide her fate, Wanda and her family undertake desperate measures.  In a flash she uses her power to completely change reality, creating a new world in which each of the heroes featured has been gifted with an ideal life.  However, the world order has been turned on its head, with humans being a minority oppressed by mutants and the planet being ruled by the House of Magnus (Magneto, Quicksilver, Polaris and the Scarlet Witch herself). 

I loved this alternate reality for the wealth of 'what if?' scenarios it features.  As it turns out, two people remember the world as it was; Wolverine and a girl who can unlock the truth in the minds of others.  Slowly the heroes are awakened from their new lives with mixed results.  Spiderman was always my favourite Marvel character and I liked the way in which he is emotionally torn apart when his new life, in which he's married to Gwen Stacy and both Uncle Ben and Aunt May are alive, is shown to be a lie.  Perhaps the best story element here is the way in which the heroes are so devastated by the changes wrought that they make revenge against Magneto and Wanda their priority rather than justice. 

My favourite single scene of the book is a great bit where Wolverine, awaking to find himself the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D and the lover of Mystique, jumps off of the Hellicarrier a couple of thousand feet above New York. 

Bendis saves the biggest upheaval for last, though.  When Wanda uses her power to return the world largely to the way it was, she makes a dramatic change which leaves mutantkind reeling from it's worst disaster ever.  This is a brilliant event story and is made all the more enjoyable by the fact that the entire core story is told here, allowing the tie-ins to tell parallel stories rather than having to read half a dozen books to get to that core story.

5 out of 5

 

Jessica Jones: The Pulse: Thin Air/Happily Ever After

(Art by Mark Bagley, Scott Hanna, Olivier Coipel, Drew Geraci, Drew Hennessy, John Livesay, Rick Magyar, Danny Miki, Mark Morales, Mike Perkins and Tim Townsend)

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 92.  In 'The Pulse: Thin Air' Jessica is hired by J. Jonah Jameson to work on a special superhero-focused feature in The Daily Bugle.  The first story she works on involves the murder of a Bugle journalist who ran afoul of the deranged Norman Osborn.  'Happily Ever After' sees the Avengers attacked by an old foe with new adaptive powers as Jessica Jones and Luke Cage build up to their wedding.

Jessica Jones is a strong contender for the best new Marvel character of the 21st Century (although, personally, I think she's edged-out by Kamala Khan), with a complex and mature backstory which sees her recovering from being the victim of abuse.  Also, if you've not already seen it, the first season of the Netflix series 'Jessica Jones', starring Krysten Ritter, is one of the best things in the entire MCU.

Unfortunately, what we get here aren't the best Jessica Jones stories we could have.  Neither are particularly focused on Jessica herself and, aside from the wedding scene at the end, she barely even appears in 'Happily Ever After'.  That's not to say that these stories aren't enjoyable; I particularly liked seeing the journalists of The Bugle being the ones to finally reveal Norman Osborn's villainy; but they feel a tad too generic and not focused enough on the title character of this book.

3 out of 5

 

Marvel Knights: Daredevil - Underboss

(Art by Alex Maleev)

When the Kingpin is, literally, stabbed in the back by his underlings, Matt Murdock's dual identity is threatened with exposure and he becomes the target of professional assassins.

This is a pretty dark story about Daredevil having to face a criminal underworld not being held in check by force of will by Kingpin, adding a great edge of danger and chaos to the story.  This is absolutely the kind of story which inspired the feel of the Netflix series, of which I'm a big fan.  Alex Maleev's darkly atmospheric artwork only adds to the tone of Daredevil getting his hands dirty among the criminal underworld.

This would be a perfect 'street-level hero takes on the mob' story if not for the simple fact that it ends with a 'To be continued...' rather than a satisfying resolution.

4 out of 5

 

New Avengers: Civil War

(Art by Howard Chaykin, Leinil Yu, Livier Coipel, Mark Morales, Pasqual Ferry, Jim Cheung and Livesay)

A tie-in to 'Civil War' by Mark Millar, in which the Superhuman Refgistration Act splits the Marvel Universe down the middle, with violent results.  Here we are presented with five stories telling of how various members of the New Avengers deal with the events of the Civil War. 

The first features the leader of the rebel heroes, Captain America, as he becomes a fugitive and begins gathering other heroes to his banner, beginning with Falcon.  The second is by far the most poignant as Luke Cage refuses to sign the Registration and points out it's fascist nature.  He is forced to send his wife and child into hiding and then is attacked in his own home by SHIELD agents.  Next, Spider Woman, pursued by SHIELD is driven into the arms of Hydra, who offer to make her their leader.  The fourth story focuses on Sentry, as he wrestles with the knowledge that his power could win the Civil War for whichever side he chooses.  Finally, we are presented with a story in which one of Tony Stark's friends brings down the mighty Iron Man out of disgust at how the technology he helped build is being used. 

Overall, this is nice little collection of vignettes from across both sides of the Civil War.

4 out of 5

 

Secret War

(Art by Gabriele Dell'Otto)

Nick Fury and SHIELD trace supervillain tech in the US to the government of Latveria but the US government refuses to address the implied terrorist threat.  Fury then undertakes his own unsanctioned mission to overthrow Latveria's leaders, roping in Captain America, Wolverine, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Black Widow to help.  A year later, the heroes have had their memories of the mission erased but soon face the consequences of Fury's actions.

This book is very much a product of its time both in its very on-the-nose approach to the US foreign policy in the wake of 9/11 and in the way that in the 2000s Marvel was systematically tearing down its long-term institutions (see 'Avengers: Disassembled', 'Civil War' etcetera).  These real-world influences on the book are so surface-deep that its sometimes hard to read the book without rolling your eyes at the contrivance.

However, if you can get past those elements then this is actually a really enjoyable graphic novel.  The obvious 'war on terror' allegory aside, this book does explore some genuinely interesting murky moral waters.  The threat of the supervillain terrorist is very real and Fury absolutely believes that stopping them is the right thing to do, and yet he comes out of this feeling like the villain.  Not least because of his decision to wipe the heroes' memories so that they won't try to hold him to account.  What really surprised me is just how much of Fury's underhanded behaviour Captain America is okay with.  I'm not used to seeing that character putting being a soldier above what is morally right.

Dell'Otto's fully-painted artwork is also absolutely worth a mention as it is glorious.  Aside from Spider-Man's weirdly squinty look, every page is real feast for the eyes.

Finally, fans of the 'Agents of SHIELD' TV series might want to check this book out for the first ever appearance of Daisy 'Skye/Quake' Johnson...

4 out of 5

 

Siege: Dark Avengers

(Art by Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey and Mike Deodato)

The final book of the series.  Noh-Varr, having discovered the villainous nature of Norman Osborn and his Avengers, is in hiding and trying to figure out his purpose on Earth.  Then, when Lindy Reynolds tries to kill her husband, the Sentry, his dark alter ego the Void grows out of control and threatens the entire planet.  Finally, following the Siege of Asgard, the Dark Avengers fall into the custody of Captain Steve Rogers.

I found the first part of this book by far the most engaging, seeing Noh-Varr make connections with the humans he walks amongst and trying to understand what he should do with himself, all the while hunted by the Sentry.

The middle section about the Sentry himself was less interesting for me.  I've found the character far less engaging as time goes on and here we don't really find out anything about him that we didn't know before or couldn't have guessed.  That said, I did like the fact that where before Norman Osborn had forged a relationship with Bob Reynolds, here he makes a deal with the Void instead.

The post-Siege section of the book provided a perfectly adequate epilogue for the Dark Avengers but, again, didn't really do much that surprised me.  In fact, I found it a little insulting that Cap gives Victoria Hand a get-out-of-jail-free because she was just a patriot doing her best.  'I was just following orders' wasn't a good enough excuse for the Nazis and I don't feel like a character who was willingly working with Osborn and the Dark Avengers, knowing the monsters they were, should get off scott-free.

3 out of 5

 

Siege: New Avengers

(Art by Marko Djurdjevic, Mark Morales, Mike Mayhew, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Mike McKone, Bryan Hitch, Butch Guice, Andrew Currie, Karl Story, David Finch, Danny Miki, Frank D'Armata, Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines, Morry Hollowell, Olivier Coipel, John Dell, Mike Deodato Jr., Joe Pimental, Dave Stewart, Leinil Yu, Laura Martin, Rain Beredo, Billy Tan, Batt and Justin Ponsor)

The conclusion of this era of the New Avengers.  Clint Barton breaks ranks in order to attempt to assassinate Norman Osborn but his mission rapidly goes awry.  As the New Avengers find themselves chased from their home by H.A.M.M.E.R., the return of Steve Rogers heralds the turning of the tide.

Usually with Marvel tie-ins to their big events, the separate series don't get to tell any significant stories, with the event miniseries soaking up all the main characters and major events.  Here, however, that's not how this feels.  Sure, we don't get the main plot points of 'Siege', but we do get the immediate build-up to the event and then get to closely follow the New Avengers amid the Siege of Asgard battle itself, not to mention getting the immediate aftermath and fallout.

I really liked seeing the New Avengers take the fight to Osborn and his cronies, and I was particularly glad to see that, unlike events like House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion, here we get a genuine and satisfying ending to the story.

4 out of 5

 

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Vol. 4

(Art by Oscar Bazaldua)

With his powers behaving in new and unexpected ways, Miles is forced into a confrontation with a new iteration of the Sinister Six, one of whom is a shocking face from Miles' past.

I'm a lifelong fan of the Peter Parker version of Spider-Man but I'm rapidly developing a real love for Miles Morales, so it was great to see him continuing to grow in that role here.  His struggles with his personal life and the responsibilities of being a superhero are ones that are an essential part of the themes of Spider-Man but here they're told with a fresh new angle.  It's particularly fitting that Miles should battle a version of the Sinister Six too, which was a real watershed for Peter too back in the day.

I have to say that I also very much enjoyed this new Sinister Six.  Sandman is the only returning original member, but we get the new incarnations of both Electro and Hobgoblin too, as well as all-new members The Spot, Bombshell and Iron Spider.  Two of those characters lead to a great scene where Bombshell and Iron Spider confront the younger Bombshell (the daughter) and Miles, who has something of a history with the villainous spider-person too.  It's a great moment for the two teen heroes to be confronted by older and darker versions of themselves.

4 out of 5

 

The Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1

(Art by John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer)

After the siege of Asgard and the defeat of Norman Osborn, Steve Rogers sets out to rebuild the Avengers once more.  The team's first mission begins when Kang the Conqueror calls on them for help in preventing damage to the timeline caused in the future by the children of the Avengers themselves.

I can't be the only reader who's tired of seeing the Avengers rebuilt.  Time and time again Marvel (and Bendis in particular) have milked story tension from the Avengers being disassembled, only to immediately reform them straight afterwards.  Within a few short years they gave us the New Avengers, the Mighty Avengers, the Dark Avengers and now, once again, just the Avengers.  It has been done so much that the rebuilding of the Avengers is all but meaningless at this point.

On top of that, this relaunched series tries to get off to an epic start by throwing Kang, Ultron, Maestro and Apocalypse into the mix, not to mention alternate reality versions of the Avengers and future versions of the Avengers.  Ultimately, rather than feeling epic, it just feels like a mess.  Time travel shenanigans are always a challenge to sell convincingly and here Bendis fails spectacularly.

The only reason I didn't rate this book lower is because there is actually some solid character work within it, particularly the developing friendship between Spider-Man and Spider-Woman.

2 out of 5

 

The Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2

(Art by John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Tom Palmer, Scott Hanna, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary)

The Red Hulk makes contact with the Avengers and reveals that he has been thoroughly beaten by an incredibly powerful individual.  The Avengers' enemy turns out to be none other than the Hood, who has uncovered the locations of the Infinity Gems and begun collecting them and their power.

This book is a definite improvement over Volume 1, as this time the threat the Avengers are facing is cohesive and credible.  What I liked about the Hood's attempt to unite the Infinity Gems is that he totally fails to understand their true power and the risks involved in using it, instead simply being obsessed with recovering the power he lost.

There are two interesting character elements to this book too.  The first, and best, is that of the Red Hulk AKA Thunderbolt Ross, who is seeking redemption for his life's poor choices and, in doing so, proves himself worthy of a place on the team co-founded by his former nemesis, the Hulk.  The other character element is a little less satisfying.  It involves Steve Rogers (and the Avengers at large) discovering the secret machinations of the Illuminati, opening a rift of distrust between him and Tony Stark once more.  I disliked this element in part because I didn't want to see a rehashing of the Civil War tensions, but mostly because Steve is entirely justified in his outrage but, at the end, rolls over and becomes complicit in it.  It did not feel like a Steve Rogers kind of move.

3 out of 5

 

The Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3

(Art by Daniel Acuna, Renato Guedes, Jose Magalhaes and Brandon Peterson)

After breaking out of prison, Norman Osborn builds a new H.A.M.M.E.R. from Hydra, A.I.M., the Hand and, crucially, disaffected former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.  Meanwhile, Captain America puts together a new roster of Avengers but they are immediately confronted by a public relations crisis caused by Osborn.

A lot happens in this book.  Probably too much.  Osborn's return, the reveal of a new Avengers roster, the turn of public opinion against the Avengers, the defeat of numerous key Avengers, the turn of the tide and the final confrontation with Osborn.  And that's just the first three quarters of the book.  It felt almost like Bendis was trying to fit an entire 'event' storyline into one book half the size of the usual ones (and it makes me sad that event stories are now so cyclical and common that I can use the word 'usual' about them).  There's nothing really bad here, but it does feel rushed.

One of the scenes I really did enjoy was seeing Daisy Johnson AKA Quake (I'm a big 'Agents of SHIELD' fan) giving John Walker AKA USAgent a thorough dressing down, with Hawkeye and Spider-Woman looking on in awe.  I also enjoyed seeing the captured and disabled Tony Stark pouring his searing scorn on a former SHIELD scientist turned HAMMER stooge who idolises him.

For me the best element of this book was the return of the original Vision who, destroyed amid 'Avengers Disassembled', definitely has some questions about the world that has arisen in his absence.  The final quarter of the book focuses on him and his search for both Wanda and his place within this strange and hostile new world.  I've been a Vision fan since his time in the West Coast Avengers comics I read as a kid and it was nice to finally see him back.

3 out of 5

 

The Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 4

(Art by Walter Simonson and Scott Hanna)

A tie-in to the Avengers vs X-Men event (reviewed here).  The Avengers launch a pre-emptive strike against the Phoenix Force before it can reach Earth but are faced with both failure and betrayal from within.  Then, as the Phoenix Force empowers five of the world's leading mutants, Red Hulk sets out to assassinate their leader; Cyclops.  Finally, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman work to prevent the Red Skull's weaponry from falling into the hands of Negative Man.

The problem with these books that are part of an ongoing series but which also have to tie-in to a crossover event is that they inevitably contain b- or even c-list stories that have to work around the main event book.  That's very much the case here and even within the b-list stories on offer, there are moments when it skips over important events and tells us to go look elsewhere for the details.

The vignette stories on offer here are perfectly okay, with Noh-Varr's tale of divided loyalties being particularly compelling, but they feel incomplete and, frankly, feel like an insult to the series because it's so obvious that priority was given to the main event book.

2 out of 5

 

The Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5

(Art by Gabriele Dell'Otto, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Brandon Peterson, Mike Mayhew, Mike Deodato, Walter Simonson, Scott Hanna, Leinil Yu, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales and Olivier Coipel)

The finale of Bendis' eight-year run writing the Avengers.  Here Simon Williams, formerly the Avenger Wonder Man, publicly declares his intent to force the Avengers to disband, gather a team of other disaffected heroes to help him.  Then, following the conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men, a distress signal is received from the Microverse which gives Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Giant Man the opportunity to save a long-lost member of the team.

What I found interesting about Simon's (seemingly) unshakeable hatred of the Avengers is that he generally has a point.  Most of the worst things to happen in the Marvel Universe have been a direct result of the actions of one of the Avengers or the team as a whole.  The one that feels particularly personal is Simon's focus on the actions of the Scarlet Witch, who used her power to bring him back to life but left him wondering if, as a result, he's a real person at all.  Unfortunately, this genuine moral debate is somewhat spoiled by the fact that Simon ditches the moral high ground to go with the plan 'let's try to kill the Avengers in their homes'.

Simon's justified concerns are further undermined in the second half of the book (after AvX) where he has seemingly had a complete change of heart and wants to get back on the team.  That and who it is that the Avengers rescue from the Microverse (honestly, if you've seen 'Ant-Man and the Wasp', you already know) mean that the latter half of the book seems to be just an opportunity to get all of the Avengers back to the status quo for when Bendis hands the series over to another writer (that writer being Jonathan Hickman).   It's not badly done, but it does feel transparent in it's real-world imperatives and is yet another example of the comic book trope that no-one can stay dead (and, honestly, the death-to-resurrection pipeline seems to get shorter all the time).

3 out of 5

 

The Mighty Avengers: Secret Invasion Book 1

(Art by Alex Maleev, Khoi Pham, Danny Miki, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer)

The third volume of the series features three stories tying-in to the Secret Invasion crossover event.  Initially we see Nick Fury, gone to ground after the Secret War debacle, begin to put together a team to counter the Skrull infiltration of Earth.  We then get a story focusing on how the Skrulls view the threat posed by the Sentry, and finally, we see the tale of how Hank Pym was targeted and replaced by the alien invaders.

This is the third Avengers Secret War tie-in I've read (after the books 1 and 2 of the New Avengers tie-in) and, honestly, I've grown a bit tired of the format.  Since the significant events of the crossover happen in the main miniseries, all these books get to do is have tangential stories.  That wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the fact that it feels like a betrayal of the character arcs going on in this series itself.  It is an ongoing flaw in Marvel's approach to crossovers that they completely interrupt the narrative of these series in order to shift focus to a separate miniseries.

Here, I quite enjoyed the story about Nick Fury's off-grid attempts at putting together Skrull countermeasures but the other two stories on offer felt pretty pointless and more or less seemed like the series spinning its wheels until the crossover is passed and it can get back to the ongoing story.

2 out of 5

 

The Mighty Avengers: Secret Invasion Book 2

(Art by Khoi Pham, Danny Miki, Andy Lanning, Stefano Caselli, Allen Martinez, Carlo Pagulayan, Lee Weeks, Jim Cheung and Jeffrey Huet)

The fourth and final volume of this run of Mighty Avengers (before it transitioned into Dark Avengers).  Here we learn more details of Skrull infiltration of Earth, including how Elektra was replaced, Nick Fury's ongoing secret opposition to the alien invaders and the troubled personalities of the Skrulls impersonating Hank Pym and Captain Mar-Vell.  Finally we get an epilogue to the Secret Invasion, where the real Hank Pym has to deal with learning all the terrible events he missed, as well as the death of the Wasp, his wife.

By this point, I'm fairly tired of Bendis' 'Secret Invasion' tie-in tangents and, honestly, the actual crossover event wasn't that inspiring to me in the first place.  The whole 'anyone could be an enemy infiltrator' shtick feels very Cold War in flavour and, by 2009, was fairly old hat.

Parts of this book did at least deal with interesting alternative aspects of the conflict, such as Skrull infiltrators who have started going native and the fact that Nick Fury is driven to increasingly extreme and unheroic ends in his one-man quest to 'save' Earth.

2 out of 5

 

The Mighty Avengers: The Ultron Initiative

(Art by Frank Cho)

Book 1.  Following his victory in the superhero Civil War (by Mark Millar), Iron Man uses his new unprecedented position of power to found a new team of Avengers, comprising of Ms Marvel, Wonder Man, Sentry, Black Widow, Wasp and Ares.  The team is immediately put to the test when Mole Man resurfaces and a new version of Ultron takes control of Tony Stark himself.

Surely this is no-one's favourite Avengers line-up of all time, especially considering that this is the post-Civil War sellout Avengers.  Nevertheless, there is some interesting mileage in the team dynamic, particularly in how the abrasive former-villain Ares and ticking-time-bomb Sentry fit into it.

In order to establish this new team, Bendis trots out some tried-and-tested villains to face in the form of Mole Man (seriously, just leave the poor dude alone underground) and Ultron.  It's nothing particularly new, except the fact that the new Ultron is, for some reason, a hot and naked copy of the Wasp made by melting Iron Man.  No, seriously.

This would all be perfectly alright if not for one big misstep in how the book is written.  Bendis inserts thought bubbles after (approximately) every third speech bubble and often the things the characters are thinking are completely contrary to whatever they've just been saying.  And when that's not the case, the thought bubbles are just them thinking spiteful things (Carol mentally calling Janet a tramp) or the men sexually objectifying the female members of the team.  This book would've easily been 20% better without all of those thought bubbles and their often objectionable contents.

3 out of 5

 

The Mighty Avengers: Venom Bomb

(Art by Mark Bagley, Danny Miki, Allen Martinez, Victor Olazaba and Marko Djurdjevic)

Book 2.  Spider-Woman reveals to Iron Man that the Skrulls have infiltrated Earth, but before he can react to the news the population of Manhattan begins transforming into Venom symbiotes.  Iron Man then discovers that the symbiote attack is the result of a biological weapon developed by none other than Doctor Doom, whom the Mighty Avengers then have to confront.

Weirdly the venom bomb event and the confrontation with Doctor Doom felt far less momentous than they should have done, seeming little more than minor annoyances to be dealt with before moving on.  I suspect it's a combination of the Skrull secret invasion overshadowing these 'lesser' events and this team of Avengers being fairly uncharismatic.

Also, as with the last book, 'The Ultron Initiative', Bendis continues to make use of too frequent thought bubbles usually just filled with the character having obnoxious thoughts.  It must be a specific choice, since Bendis' concurrent series 'New Avengers' doesn't feature them, but it's not a good choice and it undercuts both the dialogue and the scenes in general.

All that said, there is stuff to like here.  I particularly liked the interplay between Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom, with their respective intellects, armours and technologies going toe-to-toe.  They are an intriguingly matched hero/villain combo and it was nice to see that play out.  I especially liked some of their dialogue, such as the scene where Tony threatens to have Sentry fold Doom's armour in half with him in it or the bit where Doom points out that, following the Civil War, more people hate Tony than hate him.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: A vs. X

(Art by Mike Deodato and Will Conrad)

A tie-in to the 'Avengers vs X-Men' crossover event (reviewed here).  Here we see Luke Cage struggling with the conflicting needs of being a father and an Avenger, we learn of K'un-Lun's historical connection to the Phoenix Force and we see the Illuminati meeting to discuss the threat of the Phoenix Five.

To be clear, this is not a graphic novel with a single coherent story.  Too many of the New Avengers play front-and-centre roles in the actual main AvX event for them to get too much to do here.  So instead what we get here are a few short interludes set amongst the more major events covered in the main book.

These little vignettes are pretty enjoyable overall, with the scene where Spider-Man is bewildered to be tasked with training Hope being my favourite moment, and add a little extra depth to AvX itself.  However, nothing of particular consequence can or does happen, so you're pretty much always aware that this book is really just a sideshow.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Breakout

(Art by David Finch, Danny Miki and Mark Morales)

The first book of the New Avengers series.  Six months after the Avengers disbanded, a mass breakout of supervillains at the Raft leads a small and unorthodox team of heroes to attempt to contain the escapees.  With this impromptu team-up, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Spider-Woman, Captain America sees the potential for a new team of Avengers.  As he attempts to convince the team to Assemble permanently, they undertake the task of hunting down those responsible for the mass breakout.

It does feel a bit cheap and plays into the criticisms that comics always return to the status quo, to have a new team of Avengers come together so soon after the team was so dramatically broken up in the first place.  It feels like, despite what its own press would have us believe, 'Avengers Disassembled' was little more than a bump in the road for the team, which absolutely lessens the impact of that story.

However, Bendis quickly won me over here with the specific team of Avengers he decides to put together.  Captain America and Iron Man are, of course, the core of the group but rather than taking the most powerful heroes of the Marvel Universe, we're instead given a team of Avengers who are, to some extent, misfits.  Spider-Man is a habitual loner, Luke Cage is a street-level hero-for-hire, Spider-Woman is a Hydra-turned-SHIELD agent and Wolverine is part of a different super-team altogether.  It is specifically this unlikely and somewhat ill-fitting line-up that makes the New Avengers interesting and I enjoyed that both Steve and Tony recognise that a different type of team is needed for a different age (post 'Disassembled' and 'Secret War').

So, whilst the set-up feels a little contrived, I'm a sucker for a team of misfits and having them go toe-to-toe with villains as diverse as Sauron, Electro, Mister Hyde and Purple Man really got me onboard.

4 out of 5

 

The New Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1

(Art by Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger)

In the aftermath of the siege of Asgard and the defeat of Norman Osborn, Steve Rogers tasks Luke Cage with establishing a new team of New Avengers.  The team's first challenge comes in the form of a mystical being which sends demonic entities to possess the Avengers in an attempt to steal the Eye of Agamotto.

I've been quite a fan of the New Avengers since their inception, but truth be told this book feels a bit stale to me.  Intended as a big relaunch of the title, it instead feels more like a tired late-in-a-dying-series entry to me.

The roster of the New Avengers is more interesting than their mainline counterparts but even in that there are a few missteps, not least the inclusion of Victoria Hand.  Oh, she was trying to do the right thing siding with Norman Osborn?  Okay then, let's just welcome her into the fold then shall we?  I always hate it when clear antagonists are given roles like this for no better reason than forced tension.  No matter what Steve Rogers says, Hand should be in prison and none of the New Avengers should be okay with her being on the team.  It's just stupid.

As for the actual plot; I liked seeing Doctor Stranger, Brother Voodoo and Daimon Hellstrom having to team up, with their wildly different styles as magic users making for some interesting contrasts.  However, the actual antagonist was pretty disappointing and failed to engage me.

2 out of 5

 

The New Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 2

(Art by Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Daniel Acuna, Mike Deodato and Howard Chaykin)

As the team begins to come together, the New Avengers confront a cell of HAMMER agents, leading to one of them being mortally wounded.  However, through flashbacks to Nick Fury's first team of Avengers in 1959, we learn of a possible solution to the situation.

This was a much better book than the first one, feeling much more character-focused and giving us some real stakes to get invested in.  Also, the remnants of Norman Osborn's HAMMER are a much more credible threat than some mystical long-dead sorcerer.

I also enjoyed the flashbacks to the 1950s Avengers, a black ops unit targeting the remains of the Nazi regime.  It's line-up is particularly interesting, with the likes of Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Kraven the Hunter, Sabertooth and others.  For a while, however, it felt like the earlier timeline story was totally failing to link in any way to the 'current' timeline events, but right at the end we see where it's all been leading.

4 out of 5

 

The New Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 3

(Art by Neal Adams, Tom Palmer, Mike Deodato and Will Conrad)

Norman Osborn escapes from prison and unites the loyalists of H.A.M.M.E.R. with Hydra, A.I.M. and the Hand.  As the New Avengers try to track him down, Osborn unleashes the New Dark Avengers and works to destroy the credibility of the true heroes.

This is a well-written book, with some good action set pieces, some solid character work and a couple of nice twists.  In isolation I would've rated it very highly.

Unfortunately, this book doesn't exist in isolation and many of the key story points here are just rehashes of things that have come before, some of which weren't even that long before.  So, Osborn ascendant is a rehash of the Dark Reign era, as are his Dark Avengers (villains masquerading as heroes - which itself is something of a rehash of the original Thunderbolts).  Then there's the fact that the heroes become fugitives from the US government, which is a rehash of the post-Civil War era, in which most of these same characters were the fugitives.  This is further compounded by the reintroduction of Ragnarok, the insane Thor clone which played a pivotal role in Civil War (by Mark Millar).  Finally, there's the emotional beat of Jessica Jones disappearing with her child and leaving Luke Cage in the dark, something that happened in Secret Invasion.

Ultimately, anyone who's versed in the preceding five years or so of Marvel lore will find too much of this book as recycled story beats, which is a shame because it has a lot of good stuff otherwise.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers By Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 5

(Art by Michael Gaydos, Carlos Pacheco, Roger Martinez, Cam Smith, Scott Hanna, Michael Avon Oeming, Mike Deodato, Chuch BB, Farel Dalrymple, Ming Doyle, Lucy Knisley, Becky Cloonan and Yves Bigerel)

The final book of the series has a mystical enemy framing the New Avengers for murder and then turning them against each other, with only Doctor Strange able to save the day.

There where two things I particularly liked about this book; the first being the fact that just as Luke Cage and Jessica Jones are making the tough decision to leave the New Avengers, they're faced with exactly the kind of threat to their child that makes it imperative.  It would've been too easy for Bendis to get all angsty with those characters about if it's the right decision, but I prefer the idea that it's the final nail in the coffin of their time as Avengers, proving that they're making the right choice.

The other thing I liked was seeing Doctor Strange really step up to the challenge again.  He's one of the most powerful beings on Earth, but in recent years (well, when 'recent' was 2013 anyway) he's been somewhat nerfed, as if the writers didn't really know what to do with him.  Here, however, we see just why he is the Master of the Mystic Arts.

Unfortunately, this book is held back from greatness by one thing; the fact that the story feels very familiar.  Having armed government agents on the lawn of the Avengers Mansion, accusing the Avengers of being criminals, feels like something the comics have been doing every other week for years.  It means that what would've once been a moment of "Oh no! The Avengers are now on the wrong side of the law!" is instead an eye-rolling moment of "Oh.  This again."

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Power

(Art by Alex Maleev, Billy Tan and Matt Banning)

Book 10.  In the aftermath of the Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn creates a supervillain Illuminati and then announces a new team of Avengers to the world, made up of villains masquerading as their heroic counterparts.  Still fugitives from the government, the New Avengers are determined to stand against Osborn and his Dark Reign.

I'm very glad for this series to finally be clear of the Secret Invasion guff, which dragged it down considerably and meant that the journeys some of the characters had taken (Spider-Woman in particular) meant nothing because it was actually them.  Here however, we get a nice return to form.

In fact, where I enjoyed seeing the renegade Avengers standing up to Tony Stark's pro-Registration team before, that it dialled up to 11 here because now there isn't the moral grey area there was before.  I'm all for exploring complex moral situations, but the Civil War stuff was becoming as stale as the Secret Invasion stuff.  Here, instead, we get a team of rogue underdogs who are taking the fight to a government-sanctioned group that is very clearly evil.  (With everything going on with ICE in America at the moment, I can't imagine why that narrative would appeal to me...).

I also liked seeing the team have to readjust its dynamic to encompass things like a new Captain America (Bucky), the real Spider-Woman and the long-lost Mockingbird.  And that's not even including the effect seeing their identities stolen by villains has on the team.

4 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Powerloss

(Art by Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger)

Book 12.  A group of supervillains develop a device which cancels out superpowers and decide to use it to broker a deal with former villain turned leader of the officially-sanctioned Avengers, Norman Osborn.  However, the rogue Avengers come between the two parties whilst trying to continue to fight the good fight and soon one of their number is captured by Obsorn and suffering from a life-threatening condition.  Their teammates then have to call in additional help in order to stage a dramatic rescue.

Pretty much since 'Civil War' (by Mark Millar), I've loved the idea of a team of renegade Avengers who refuse to bow to governmental pressures in order to keep doing what they feel is the right thing.  More than that, the type of heroes who make up this team have always interested me; mostly being the smaller-scale characters like Spider-Man and Luke Cage, who don't fight for the big national/global/galactic picture but instead try to right each wrong as they encounter them.  Realistically, they're hugely outmatched by Osborn, the Dark Avengers and HAMMER but they still refuse to give up.

On the run and with one of their number captured, this book highlights just how determined this team of Avengers is, not to mention their dedication to each other, even if they don't always see eye to eye.  As a result I found this book a really enjoyable read, made all the better by the triumphant moment when the metaphorical cavalry arrives to help in the rescue attempt.

4 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Revolution

(Art by Alex Maleev and Leinil Yu)

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the Avengers have been split into two separate teams; the Government-sanctioned Mighty Avengers and the fugitive New Avengers.  This book focuses on the latter, an interesting new mix of Avengers, including Ronin, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman and Iron Fist. 

This book cleverly plays with time in an almost 'Pulp Fiction' sort of way, which I found very interesting to read (but which must've been a nightmare in the original comic books).  Basically the story is split between two timeframes, a day apart.  In the earlier of the two the New Avengers follow up the rumoured possibility that Captain America is not actually dead, only to run headlong into Iron Man and the Mighty Avengers.  The later of the two timeframes has the New Avengers travelling to Japan to rescue one of their own who has fallen afoul of Elektra and the Hand (ninjas, lots of ninjas!). 

I really enjoyed this book, primarily because I'm glad to see some heroes still fighting the good fight despite losing the Civil War, but also because this new team of Avengers is one of the most interesting and unconventional there's ever been, particularly the inclusion of Doctor Strange, the most powerful magic-user on Earth.  I will say that something about Bendis' writing of Spider-Man just didn't seem to ring true, but you can't have everything. 

Also of note here is a sort of 'House of M' epilogue in which Clint Barton (AKA Hawkeye) tracks down Wanda Maximoff (AKA the Scarlet Witch) in search of closure.

4 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Search For The Sorcerer Supreme

(Art by Billy Tan, Chris Bachalo, Matt Banning and Tim Townsend)

Book 11.  Doctor Strange, having relinquished his position as Sorcerer Supreme, sets out to find and support whoever has been chosen as his replacement.  The New Avengers offer him their help in preventing the powerful Eye of Agamotto from falling into the hands of their recurring foe The Hood.

I enjoyed this book allowing us to check in with a number of Marvel's prominent magic users amid the Dark Reign, including Wiccan, Helstrom and Brother Voodoo, as well as measuring them (and Doctor Strange) against the growing power of The Hood.

It was also nice to get a few scenes focusing on the struggles of this post-Secret Invasion team of Avengers in their efforts to gel as a team.  Unfortunately, they don't actually have a lot to do in regards to the main plot of this book though.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Secret Invasion Book 1

(Art by Michael Gaydos, David Mack, Jim Cheung, John Dell and Billy Tan)

Book 8.  As the fugitive New Avengers begin to fragment, the Skrulls make an attempt to replace one of them and infiltrate the team.  The story of Skrull Princess Veranke is then revealed, showing how she rose to power and, ultimately, infiltrated the Avengers as Spider-Woman.

The beginning of this book has a powerful moral dilemma, as Jessica Jones abandons the New Avengers and defects to Tony Stark's team in order to protect her child.  This leads to a rift between her and husband Luke Cage, who still holds to the principles that forced the New Avengers to become fugitives in the first place.  There is some genuine moral grey areas to be explored here, with both characters having valid points and I enjoyed that there wasn't a clear right or wrong for them, with their love for each other clashing with their choices in a really impactful way.

The latter half of the book, flashing back to before the Skrulls began their secret invasion and working through the events which led up to it with the secrets of Jessica Drew's true identity revealed, made for an interesting bit of background info for the Secret Invasion crossover event.  Whilst it's not necessarily the most engaging plot, I did enjoy seeing earlier events, such as the founding of the New Avengers, recontextualised with the information that the Skrulls are secretly at work behind the scenes.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Secret Invasion Book 2

(Art by Billy Tan, Jim Cheung, Michael Gaydos, Danny Miki, Matt Banning, John Dell and Jay Leisten)

Book 9.  Here we learn how the Skrulls planned their infiltration of Earth, using clones of the Illuminati to probe the planet's weaknesses.  Then, impersonating Jessica Drew, Skrull Queen Veranke lives through the events of 'House of M'.  We then see how The Hood's cadre of villains deals with the Secret Invasion, before learning some backstory to the relationship between Luke Cage and Jessica Jones.

Because the main Secret Invasion story told elsewhere, this book is very much supplemental information and, honestly, feels a bit fragmented.  It's a little bit of a shame that the New Avengers' own series doesn't actually get to tell an important event for all of them.  Unfortunately, this is just how Marvel manages it's annual crossovers.

There is good stuff here though.  Getting flashbacks that show Veranke's reaction to the events of 'House of M' was particularly interesting, seeing how baffled the Skrulls are by just how powerful some of Earth's heroes can be.  The flashbacks with Luke and Jessica were engaging too, giving a bit of context to the breakdown of their marriage happening in the 'present day'.

The best part of this book was definitely seeing how The Hood and his fellow supervillains react to the discovery of the Skrull infiltration of Earth, with the knowledge that there are Skrulls among the Avengers being as much a bombshell for them as it is for the heroes themselves.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: Secrets & Lies

(Art by David Finch, Danny Miki, Rick Mays, Jason Martin and Frank Cho)

Book 3.  The New Avengers, joined by mysterious new member Ronin, head to Japan in order to break up a meeting between Hydra, the Hand and the Silver Samurai.  They are then forced to confront the complicated history and loyalties of Spider-Woman and decide whether she can be trusted as a member of the team.

Sooner or later every Marvel hero or team has to take a random detour to Japan in order to fight some ninjas and this is that for the New Avengers.  Is it jarringly nonsensical?  Yes, but it's still fun to see heroes fighting ninjas and I did enjoy the role Ronin had to play.

More interesting to me, however, was getting the condensed history of Jessica Drew AKA Spider-Woman, who is a particularly interesting character to me and exploring the details of her complex loyalties and personal struggles.  It does feel a little rushed, but I still found it engaging.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: The Collective

(Art by Steve McNiven, Mike Deodato Jr., Dexter Vines and Joe Pimentel)

Book 4.  In the wake of 'House of M', the Avengers are trying to keep the secret of those events out of the hands of SHIELD; something which becomes far harder when in Alaska a mutant is empowered with all of the energies of those who lost their powers on M-Day.

It's hard to say why, but I just didn't entirely buy the threat posed by the Collective.  Perhaps it's because they supposedly have all the powers of the 99% of depowered mutants and yet most just glow and blast the Avengers with generic energy blasts.  It's not an interesting use of those powers and I also didn't like that the recipient of them is just some random guy called Michael.  Would've been far more interesting if it was someone like Onslaught or even Apocalypse, someone whose empowerment actually meant something.

One other thing I didn't like about this book is actually probably an intentional writing choice but still interfered with my enjoyment of the story; Maria Hill.  Having the Director of SHIELD be so aggressively obnoxious was really grating and it took me a little while to remember that this is the story directly before the events of 'Civil War' (by Mark Millar), where she'll turn her 'cape-killers' against Captain America on the bridge of the Helicarrier.  So, it is all probably intended to be building up to the Civil War, but it still annoyed me.

How the story unfolds other than those gripes is perfectly enjoyable, but they really did limit my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: The Sentry

(Art by Steve McNiven, Mark Morales and John Dell)

Book 2.  As the New Avengers begin to come together cohesively as a team, facing foes like the Wrecker, they find themselves confronted by the Sentry.  Sentry is one of the most powerful superheroes on the planet but the problem is that no-one remembers him, often not even himself.

I really liked Paul Jenkins' 'The Sentry' and was particularly intrigued by the idea of a hero so powerful but so flawed that the very memory of him had to be erased from the minds of the world.  This book revisits the character and those concepts but, it has to be said, with much less finesse.

If anything, this feels like a speedrun of how to rehabilitate and reintroduce Sentry as quickly as possible, and that feels like something of a betrayal of Jenkins' original story.  Weirdly, in fact, Paul Jenkins actually appears in-universe in this story as a comic book writer who seemingly 'created' the Sentry.  I think Bendis was trying for 'meta' but actually just ended up with 'weird'.

So, as a way of catching-up the uninitiated and reintroducing Sentry to the Marvel Universe, this is a perfectly passable book but, for me, was let down by how much lesser it felt than Jenkins' origin story of the character.

3 out of 5

 

The New Avengers: The Trust

(Art by Leinil Yu, Carlo Pagulayan and Jeff Huet)

Book 7.  Having discovered that the Skrulls have infiltrated Earth, the New Avengers are almost torn asunder by mistrust, worsened when one of their number switches to the side of their enemy Iron Man.  However, they are pulled together as a team by an encounter with the magical supervillain known as the Hood, who has begun gathering together an army of supervillains and who intends to target them where it will hurt the most.

This book served to remind me just how much more engaging this team of Avengers is when compared with their contemporaries in Iron Man's Mighty Avengers.  I'm also a sucker for an underdog story, so seeing this team of fugitives facing the terrifying implications of the Skrull invasion without any of the resources to deal with it was pretty powerful.  The Hood and his crew also prove to be a genuine threat which takes a real toll on the team (not to mention what happens to poor Tigra).

Overall, another strong outing for the fugitive Avengers.

4 out of 5

 

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man - Chameleons

(Art by David Lafuente and Takeshi Miyazawa)

Book 2.  Spider-Man, Iceman and the Human Torch are all living under the same roof and together have to tackle a young man trying to come to terms with developing superpowers, the backlash against their friend Kitty Pryde's status as a mutant and a pair of shapeshifting siblings.

I found this book notably more enjoyable than the last one, in large part due to the new elements from 'The World According to Peter Parker' having had a bit of time to bed in with me.  So now having all the teen heroes together doesn't feel so contrived and I've gotten a bit more used to Lafuente's too-young-looking version of Peter Parker (in fact, one of the Chameleons calls this out in quite a self-aware meta moment, saying that Peter looks more like he's thirteen).  This is not to say that I particular approve of these elements, just that they're not as jarring here as I found them the first time.

We get three main story beats here and the first two in particular are very interesting.  The first sees the Ultimate Universe version of Rick Jones awaking with cosmic power and then having Peter, Johnny and Bobby try to help him adjust.  It's pretty engaging too because each of them have had very different experiences of gaining their powers and being accepted (or not) afterwards.  The second story is the true emotional core of this book as we see Kitty persecuted at school for being a mutant.  The X-Men have always been about challenging prejudice and it's good to see them tackle it here, although I felt Kitty's ultimate (no pun intended) reaction being pretty unfair to her as a character.  The third story has Peter being replaced by a shapeshifting duplicate who infiltrates his life to learn his secrets.  It's the least engaging of the plotlines but we at least get to see a bit of genuine drama unfold amid the Gwen/MJ love triangle as a result of the Chameleon's meddling.

4 out of 5

 

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man - Death Of Spider-Man: Prelude

(Art by Sara Pichelli, David Lafuente, Joelle Jones, Jamie Mckelvie, Skottie Young and Chris Samnee)

After the Chameleons caused chaos in his personal life, the damage done in his attempts to help as Spider-Man put Peter in the sights of SHIELD Director Carol Danvers.  As he tries to rebuild the relationships most important to him, Peter is forced to undertake super-hero training supervised by the Ultimates themselves.

This is a solid continuation of the second run of Ultimate Spider-Man stories, with the slightly irritating teen elements of the first couple of books much more muted.  I particularly liked seeing Tony Stark mentoring Peter and its a dynamic that was later adopted by the MCU to great effect.

Whilst most of this book was perfectly good reading, there was one element which spoiled the experience overall and it's not even really Bendis' fault.  This problem element is just how badly some classic Marvel characters were reimagined for the Ultimate universe.  They thankfully course-correct Iron Man out of his ghastly original Ultimates look and into something a bit cooler and more familiar, but characters like Carol Danvers and, much worse, Captain America are so completely unlikable that they feel like a betrayal of the original characters.  And don't even get me started on the re-imagining of Mysterio... sure the goldfish bowl looked a bit silly but this... this is just garbage.

3 out of 5

 

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man - The World According To Peter Parker

(Art by David Lafuente)

A relaunch of the Ultimate Spider-Man line, set six months after New York was devastated in 'Ultimatum'.  Spider-Man has become a people's hero but Peter Parker's life remains complicated and gets worse when Iceman and the Human Torch turn up on his doorstep seeking refuge.

Bendis has long-since proved that he can write Spider-Man well and that's still the case here.  However, too much of this relaunch feels geared towards drawing in a tween audience, with little regard for more established readers (I've been enjoying Spidey adventures since the 1980s).  What this means is that suddenly we have all these teenage heroes suddenly and literally under one roof in a way that feels horribly contrived.

Lafuente's artwork doesn't help matters either, with his style making Peter look too young.  Sure this is him at sixteen, rather than the older Peter Parker I'm used to, but the artwork makes him look more like twelve than sixteen and he's tiny in comparison with just about every other character, which feels very weird.  On the other hand we have MJ (poor MJ, sidelined in favour of Gwen Stacy again), who is drawn like she's actually in her 20s.  None of this is helped by the abundance of low-slung waistlines and the fact that just about every girl at Peter's highschool now has a pierced eyebrow.

So whilst there's some definite potential here, the YA approach to storytelling and art style spoiled it for me.

3 out of 5

 

Ultimate Origins

(Art by Butch Guice)

Beginning in the 1940s and running through to the present day, this book reveals that all of the events and characters of the Ultimate Universe, be it the X-Men, the Ultimates, the Fantastic Four or Spider-Man, are all secretly linked together.  As the secrets of the past are revealed, a new potential threat emerges as all across the world mysterious alien objects come to life; objects calling themselves the Watchers.

I liked the way that Bendis finds a way to stitch the disparate elements of the Ultimate Universe together, creating a through-line to all of the major players of that version of Earth.  I also liked Guice's artwork.  Unfortunately, that's about all I liked about this book.

As much as I enjoyed the linking threads, it can't be avoided that they are terribly contrived.  On top of that is the fact that this book leans into the mean-spirited nature of so much of the Ultimate line.  Here's it's most obvious in the fact that mutants are revealed to be a human genetic experiment which gets out of hand.  Now, Marvel's mutants have always been a very thinly veiled metaphor for race relations in America, so to have mutants literally treated as a disease epidemic is very uncomfortable.

The worst thing about this book, for me, was the way that the Watchers storyline is steadily built up across the course of the book and then leads precisely nowhere.  It's clear that this story is just a lead-in to something else and as a result you finish the book feeling pretty short-changed.

2 out of 5

 

Uncanny X-Men: Storyville

(Art by Chris Bachalo, Kris Anka, Valerio Schiti, Tim Townsend, Wayne Faucher, Mark Irwin, Victor Olazaba and Al Vey)

Book 6.  Cyclops dismantles his New Xavier School, Dazzler hunts down Mystique and the X-Men hold Beast to account.

If the plot synopsis above seems a bit choppy and lacking in depth, then it's given you an accurate impression of this book.  Rather than a cohesive narrative, this is more a collection of brief vignettes about the various characters of the series.

Unfortunately, what that means is that none of the story beats here get any time to develop before we just jump on to whatever the next one is.  Iceman is gay now?  Okay.  Now, moving right along...  It leaves the whole book feeling shallow and unfinished, particularly in the case of the 'trial' of Beast.

2 out of 5

 

Uncanny X-Men: The Omega Mutant

(Art by Chris Bachalo, Kris Anka, Marc Deering, Wayne Faucher, Mark Irwin, Jaime Mendoza, Victor Olazaba, Tim Townsend and Al Vey)

Book 5.  Matthew Malloy is the most powerful mutant who ever existed and, due to his complete inability to control his powers, threatens the entire world with destruction.  As SHIELD seeks a way to neutralise or kill Malloy, Scott Summers decides that Malloy could be the ultimate weapon in his mutant revolution.  As events spiral out of control the young mutant Tempus makes a desperate trip through time to seek the help of young Charles Xavier.

Time-travel shenanigans are a very difficult thing to pull off well.  Usually they're either too dumb to make any sense (check out 'Battle of the Atom') or they fail to maintain any internal consistency and comes off feeling lazy.  Here, thankfully, Bendis pulls it off nicely.

It's a little derivative to have a story where the worst happens and only a desperate bit of time-travel can avert disaster but when it's done well, as it is here, it can make for a thoroughly enjoyable story.  Matthew Malloy genuinely feels like a credible threat that no-one knows how to properly handle, which leads inevitably to a pretty dark series of events which Tempus has to undo.

I also liked that this book sees both Cyclops and Magneto finally having to face the consequences of their ruthless revolutionary aims; something that I feel the series up to this point has been avoiding and, at times, outright pretending that they're not even in the wrong.

4 out of 5

 

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1

(Art by Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey, Victor Olazaba, Mark Irwin, Frazer Irving, Kris Anka and Marco Rudy)

Comprising sixteen issues of Bendis relaunch of the Uncanny X-Men, this book focuses on Scott Summers' team, branded fugitives and terrorists, as they seek out newly emerged mutants and work to train a new generation of X-Men.

There's plenty to enjoy here and I particularly liked seeing the senior X-Men (Cyclops, Magik, Magneto and Emma Frost) trying to come to terms with the fact that their powers have been malfunctioning since their encounters with the Phoenix Force.  Also, despite the fact it took me a little while to warm to them, the new mutants introduced are an engaging bunch too.  Not least the young man who is desperately trying to avoid his superhero name becoming Goldballs.

There is one major element to this book that held me back from really enjoying it, however, and that's the fact that Bendis has clearly decided to give Scott Summers a free pass.  I know it's the old comic book trope that characters always have to revert back to the most-marketable status quo, but Scott's descent into extremism and, ultimately, villainy has been the most interesting thing to happen to the character in years.  Here, though, it's not Scott's fault and it was all the Phoenix's fault that he murdered Charles Xavier.  He claims at various points that he'll never forgive himself, but it's clear that he already has, and so does everyone else and so, it seems has the writer.  The 'I feel bad about it, so shouldn't face any sort of punishment' argument always annoys me but here it also undoes the interesting writing which took Cyclops to the point where he would murder Professor X.  Here SHIELD are treated as the unreasonable oppressors for trying to arrest a man who publicly murdered someone and I'm just not okay with that and it really bothers me that so many characters in-universe are okay with it.

3 out of 5

 

Uncanny X-Men: Vs S.H.I.E.L.D.

(Art by Chris Bachalo, Kris Anka, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Jaime Mendoza, Mark Irwin, Victor Olazaba, Wayne Faucher, Jon Holdredge and Marc Deering)

Book 4.  The tension between SHIELD and the X-Men reaches a pinnacle when Sentinels attack the Jean Grey School.  Meanwhile, Magneto has to rescue Dazzler from the clutches of Mystique.  The divided X-Men teams then have to put their differences aside in order to hear the shocking Last Will and Testament of Professor Charles Xavier.

This book ties off two ongoing story arcs and sets up a new one.  Of the three, the story of Dazzler's imprisonment and abuse, followed by her rescue is the most compelling and emotionally engaging.  The other one that gets tied-off is the one involving the mysterious Sentinels that keep tracking the X-Men down and whilst the action in that story was pretty good, the revelation of the person behind it all left me feeling a bit 'Who cares?'.  The unseen villain in question is one who hasn't been relevant to the X-Men for a long time and felt like an unnecessary callback.

The story kicked-off by Charles' will is one that has the potential to have some really interesting moral and ethical questions for the already morally and ethically divided X-Men.  Unfortunately, it's let down massively by the fact that the crux of the plot is pretty much lifted wholesale from the third X-Men movie ('The Last Stand', in case the countless X-Men movies confuse you).  I won't spoil anything by saying which bit it steals, but the fact that Bendis couldn't come up with a convincing plot on his own lets down the whole series.

2 out of 5

Collaborations & Anthologies:

All-New X-Men: All-Different (here)

Avengers vs X-Men (here)

Avengers vs X-Men: It's Coming (here)

Civil War: Marvel Universe (here)

Civil War: The Road To Civil War (here)

Guardians Of The Galaxy: Guardians Disassembled (here)

Guardians Team-Up: Guardians Assemble (here)

House Of M: World Of M Featuring Wolverine (here)

Jean Grey: X-Men Origins - Jean Grey/Here Comes Yesterday (here)

Nick Fury: Seven Against The Nazis/Nick Fury: Agent Of Nothing (here)

Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic (here)

Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Collection Book 1 (here)

X-Men: Battle Of The Atom (here)

Read more...

Halo (here)

Marvel Comics (here)