Avengers Undercover #10 (Series Finale) Review
The finale of Avengers Undercover is here! How does it end? Read my review of Avengers Undercover #10 and find out!
The comic starts out with Arcade when he first approached Zemo, who makes it clear that the events of Avengers Arena weren’t worthy of respect, only the technology. For that reason Zemo gave the one who actually made the technology, Corriander, a position of power. As for Arcade, he was zapped, his image grafted onto a meat suit by Hellstrom, and then locked into a cell.
In the present the heroes, who for some reason that Hill expressly points out decided to barge into protected territory on the urgings of the kids, are digging their way out. Again, since when does SHIELD have a sorcery department and what do they do that warrants them being called Necromancers? I don’t see anyone raising the dead there besides Hellstrom.
While they’re doing that various villains over the world are raising hell, which for some reason one of the other dozens of non-SHIELD affiliated heroes are jumping on. Only in an Avengers title, even if in name. Zemo strokes his own ego while Constrictor and Masque go to the lower levels for a final sweep and catch Cammi once again.
Zemo then broadcasts to the world that SHIELD has basically been spying on them like Big Brother and asks who the real villain is. Cue Cammi in god-mode curb-stomping everyone. I mean that literally. She then tells the world about Arcade being alive and the stupid undercover plan, before leaving Earth because she doesn’t feel like she belongs there.
The rest of the kids get off scot-free courtesy of Maria Hill being uncharacteristically generous, especially when you consider that while they didn’t commit actual murder they did commit several criminal acts while on an unsanctioned undercover mission. But since they have to force a happy ending, cue everyone alive and well chilling out on a lake, even the rest of the Runaways they forgot like Klara and Old Lace. Except for Gert, because apparently she stays dead no matter what.
The comic ends with Zemo and his crew, including Alex and Death Locket sailing out in their brand-new Helicarrier into the sunset…. Literally.
Okay, review time.
Well, it ended in a way that I honestly expected so I can’t blast them for that, but it feels a little unfulfilling. While I came for the Runaways and stayed for them, not much changed in the grand scheme of things. Where they’ll pop up next I have no idea, but here’s hoping it’s in something I can actually read where the art isn’t atrocious in the end…
But it’s still better than All-New Ultimates on all accounts. The issue and series as a whole gets a 3 out of 5.
New Warriors #9 Review
The New Warriors have retrieved Haechi from the Inhumans, but what happens next? Read my review of New Warriors #9 and find out.
The comic starts with a flashback of some guy in a bear mascot suit named Choke getting hit by a meteorite from space. The chances are one in a few million, but given I’ve seen Chronicle and this is the marvel universe, bad things are coming. It then goes to the present where Scarlet Spider decks Justice for bringing them back to Houston because a lot of crap went down there. Justice wants to know if he’s really planning on quitting when Hummingbird wants to stay and he thinks she’s better off with them rather than him. You can see he’s still going through some self-esteem issues, but that gets shelved when that mascot from before pops up while the size of a skyscraper and calls him out.
With the others, they try and console Hummingbird about Scarlet Spider leaving but she’s sure he’ll be back. Instead she tells them they should be worry about Haechi since everyone he loves think he’s a monster and his own people tried to kill him. Again, she’s about as subtle as a brick in abusing the empath-powers, but they all agree that a Rave in Prague is the perfect distraction.
I should mention that the Midwest only has one team of superheroes compared to… all of them being on the east coast, so Choke could pretty much run wild for ages until he grew bored and left for Mexico. He apparently sees himself as a rival to Scarlet Spider, and well… he’s insane. I’m not even going to say evil, but insane. Anyway, he thinks that Scarlet Spider is a villain and there isn’t enough room for two of them, so Scarlet Spider leaves and the bear mascot decides that Justice will be an adequate replacement for the time being.
Scarlet Spider’s departure is halted when someone shoots at him, only for him to find its Lieutenant Layton from the Scarlet Spider series. He did it to grab his attention and apologizes for the last time they met, which was responsible for him leaving if you include the shape-shifter and crazy one-night stand (seriously, go read the Scarlet Spider series) but states that he’s a hero. Scarlet Spider leaves, saying he’s wrong, but Layton is certain he’ll help.
With the others the bouncer won’t let them in since Nova is a kid. They promptly have Hummingbird brain-blast him. Inside the Rave, Hummingbird notes that Sun Girl and Haechi have some chemistry and they should enjoy it while they can. When asked what that means, she does the whole oracle thing and states she’s going to die soon without realizing it. Foreshadowing ho!
Justice gets knocked around a bit before Scarlet Spider jumps in and they talk. He still has a lot of baggage because he feels he failed being a hero in Houston and he doesn’t want Hummingbird to stay with him and suffer since he’s a bad person who’s done bad things. Justice relates, telling him that if he wants to make amends for past mistakes that’s what the New Warriors do now.
They then proceed to kick the mascot’s furry ass and Scarlet Spider guts him only to see that inside of the bear was a twig of a student. Turns out the suit was enhanced by the meteorite while he drives it like a robot, not that it matters once Justice tears it to shreds. They then have a bonding moment as the comic ends, with Justice assuring him that he belongs with them.
Okay review time.
I honestly expected this to be filler…. And it was, kind of. But I came for Scarlet Spider in the first place and despite the ridiculousness of the giant bear I must acknowledge this was a good read. The art was great, and there was foreshadowing…. Damn shame that Marvel plans on nuking it in three-issues… bastards.
5 out of 5.
Magneto #9 Review
The March to Axis begins in Magneto #9! Read my review below about this tie-in to the event!
The comic begins with Magneto returning to the island nation of Genosha, a land that was once a safe haven to millions of mutants after he took it from the mutant slavers and then ran it. Then Sentinels came and destroyed it, now it’s a labor camp where mutants and inhumans have been rounded up. Magneto enters through one of many escape routes he had and sees the bodies piled up, reminding him of the time when he was in a labor camp and forced to feed corpses to the fire. On his way back he passed a man named Hitzig, and endured it with the intention of killing the man.
He frees two women he finds of their collars, but they panic because if they are caught without the collar they are screwed. It’s here that he learns that Red Skull took Charles power, and he tells them to run and cower while he’ll shoulder the fight and they can live with the shame, because they lack the conviction. He recalls that he failed to kill Hitzig, but let someone else do it and lived with the shame and humiliation, intent on making amends by killing Red Skull.
Unfortunately the S-Men sneak up on him and cost him the element of surprise. Apparently he killed one of their families or more, but he’s intent on killing Red Skull and tries to do so again only to be interrupted again. They chide him for coming without back-up and even he has to agree that he was too eager to prove himself. Once goat-face girl gazes at him and strips him of his power, they corner him.
Magneto sees one of the girls from before, whose collar he removed and can project minor illusions, and tells her not to help him since there was nothing either of them could do. The S-Men then gang-beat him as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
Yeah, I’m the glad the series is continuing but Red Skull is a monster. I always thought the Uncanny Avengers dropped the ball in letting him get away and this only proves it. I’m not exactly thrilled about the upcoming cross over, but maybe they won’t botch it as bad as they did Battle of the Atom.
5 out of 5.
Edge of Spider-Verse #1: Spider-Man Noir Review
Spider-Verse is coming and the first in the Edge of Spider-Verse series is out with Spider-Man Noir. Read my recap and review below.
Our story begins in New York 1939 in a movie theater where some people are reviewing footage caught of Spider-Man beating up some robbers and questioning whether or not there’s a place for a vigilante now that most of the mobsters have been taken out. One of the people, a woman, hopes to meet him soon for the blood of the spider-god runs through him, while Mysterio gets a diss by someone choosing to pay for a monkey over his show. Even in the past he couldn’t win…
Anyway, at the World’s Fair we have Peter, Aunt May, and Mary Jane browsing around. Apparently MJ went overseas for three years to record a war in Spain and changed, but not really relevant unless you’ve read the past series I’m assuming. They go to Mysterio’s show when Peter’s Spider-Sense starts acting up but nothing immediately comes of it, and the show ends with Peter realizing Mysterio’s a fake but saying nothing since it made MJ smile.
After the show Mysterio and his assistant go on about his plan to become a new Kingpin once they get Spider-Man’s blood when Fisk shows up telling him they got the last living member of Goblin’s gang. They do a recap about how Spider-Man got his powers before he asks about Felicia Hardy.
They go to see her, where Felicia is wearing a mask, and when she refuses to move it they kill her friend. It’s a gore-discretion shot so you can’t see, but her face has been disfigured by the last person who thought she could lead them to Spider-Man. Fisk notes that he can do nothing to her that hasn’t been done so she won’t talk, but Mysterio goes with the holding the former love interest hostage gambit.
He leaves a message in a newspaper for him to come and make a blood-sacrifice or she dies, and Peter goes along to save her while his Spider-Sense, which is new for him I guess, is blaring. At the show, where the audience thinks it’s just a show, he shows up and gets gassed, then put into a water closet death trap after having his blood taken.
Peter traps air in a web on his face to last ten minutes before breaking out of the chains and kicking Mysterio’s butt with one hit. The guy hunting Spider-Men pops up and then Otto does too and rescues him. As the comic ends Felicia steals the blood taken from Peter as he arrives to meet a few other Spider-Men in the year 2099.
Okay review time.
Spider-verse is shaping up to look decent. This is only the second time I’ve seen Spider-Man Noir, the first being the Shattered Dimensions game, so I don’t know much about him, but I’m eager to see his role in things. I can’t wait for this crossover to continue with Gwen Stacy next in line.
5 out of 5 folks.
Twilit Dreams Circle 