Magneto #15 Review
Okay, last time we checked Magneto surrendered to SHIELD for some inexplicable reason. We find out that reason in Magneto #15. Here’s my review and recap.
The comic begins with him being walked into a Helicarrier, soon to be moved to a more permanent location because he’s too dangerous. When she calls him out on killing people in cold blood, he asks her how many mutants are murdered each day and she tells him that they aren’t her department before leaving out. We then get a flashback to Magneto visiting Charles and warning him about Cerebro falling into the wrong hands.
Two guards are left to watch him, with one being a callous asshole because Magneto crippled their colleague. I get why he did it, but he signed his own death warrant once the power dampener goes off and Magneto breaks free as Briar is being told they’ll have to debrief her. Magneto’s inner-monologue reveals he broke on-board because he was told they had a version of Cerebro by an Agent Rodriguez, who is helping him because her boyfriend had been a mutant who was killed by a hate-group.
He deletes every one of the catalogs the government has on mutants and decides to make a grand spectacle so they remember this day by unleashing clones of the Marauders. He finds Briar and explains he doesn’t want to completely destroy them because SHIELD still has its uses and he doesn’t want to go to war just yet. Someone didn’t tell the Sabertooth clone that, so Magneto puts him into the plane engine and turns him into a smoothie to kill him off.
Agent Rodriguez then tells him to surrender, keeping her head down so she’s still of use to him. He then warns the lady that this was a demonstration and if she comes to Genosha again, it will be worse the next time as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
No complaints. In fact, this brightened my day give what happened in Uncanny X-Men #31. 5 out of 5.
Uncanny X – Men #31 Review
….Well, this is a bitter review, but I told myself I’d get through with it. So here’s my review of the final tie-in of the Last Will and Testament filler that is Uncanny X-Man #31. Note there will be a lot of swearing.
Story begins with the students of the NXS tripping over the arrival of Xavier and Celeste calling Tempus out on bringing him here. Given the cluster-fuck that is the 05 when Tyke nearly bit the bullet, it’s understandable. More so since Celeste knows she lost her family because of her powers. But they don’t have time to dwell on it since Cyclops left a message to be activated in the event of the teachers’ deaths, telling them to go the Jean Grey School.
At said School, Malloy is losing control of his passive defense powers and all of a sudden everyone has lost their damn minds and decides to take revenge for the deaths and every single person there is killed. First off, since when did Iceman, Beast, and Storm give two-shits about the NXS staff? Hell, they were the most vocal about putting Cyclops down like an issue or two ago. Second off, what the hell did the students think they were doing by charging him head-on?
This isn’t just lazy writing; it’s bad and only serves as a stupid excuse for both Tempus and Xavier to cross a moral threshold by going back in time and stopping Malloy’s parents from meeting, aborting him from time. See my notes below on that. Anyway, after that he goes back to his time and wipes his brain clean of this mess.
In the rebooted timeline, Xavier bequeaths everything to Cyclops at the Will reading, which none of the JGS Staff like. Cyclops sees Tempus and asks her what she’s doing there, and she explains that she went to the past after they all got killed and aborted a mutant who was too powerful to control. He tells her she’s out of the school, she tells him she’s graduated and will be watching him so if he doesn’t get his shit together she’s going to abort him next, and then Cyclops gives the estate to Storm in exchange for taking in the NXS students while he disappears as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Let me start off by saying, this gets a 2 out of 5. They wasted months on build-up, only to erase it and turn everything prior into filler. The sad thing is… I expected this. I was already skeptical when they introduced Malloy as the most powerful mutant ever because never once has any of those types of characters lasted simply because they’re too powerful to live.
It’s the same thing that happened with Legion, the only solution would be to alter the timeline, which is already morally dubious considering that Tempus erased her own child from time, so she should know fucking better than anyone how messed up that was. Not to mention it goes against Xavier’s creed about now mutant being left behind.
And her self-loathing (or at least that’s what the new writer or whoever it is that brings her back will retcon into the reason) led to her taking out her anger on Cyclops. Note he was the only one who got Malloy to calm down before SHIELD fucked up and didn’t do anything wrong. Him, and Magik, are blameless, yet everyone’s on-board the Cyclops hate train.
Do I think this could have been handled better? Fuck Yes. She literally had all the time in the world to go back to when they had a mutant cure, get one, and just give him the shot before he awoke his powers so he’d continue to live a normal life… until the Skrull killed him anyway.
And how she says she’ll be watching, and the threat to abort him, is the sort of shit I’d expect from super-villains or one of his ex-wives. She the new Kang the Conqueror, only it took one issue to make her unlikable. Bendis was forced to rewrite his story, and from the cover you’d believe him, but this was just poorly done overall.
I was supportive of this series, because I believed in the characters and what Cyclops needed to do. Tempus was the first student he saved, proof he wasn’t sitting on his ass and doing nothing. But now? After this waste of several months, BOTA, and all the other meaningless crap?
I don’t think I can do it for much longer. I’ll probably still review it, but honestly I’m not going to put in more effort than the writer did. They’re clearly of the opinion that none of it will matter once Secret Wars becomes the damn end of it.
The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (Spider-Verse Tie-In) Review
This is the climax of Spider-Verse! Read my review on Amazing Spider-Man #14 as we draw this crossover to a close.
It picks up on the streets of Loomworld, where Spider-Woman and Spider-Gwen have to deal with a plethora of goblins from across dimensions. Peter’s group arrives as they wrap things up, but it turns out that the Inheritors made off with Silk, meaning they have all three and can begin the ritual.
With the life-eaters, they are having a moment of bitter sadness as they mourn the death of their father, especially that asshole Daemos. Never thought him to be such a daddy’s boy, but he does take comfort in the fact that Jennix has a crystal that has what amounts to his soul so they can resurrect him once everything is done. Morlun then starts the ritual, ordering the others to stop the spiders from getting in.
His cut into Kaine that stains the Great Web with blood ensures that the Other can no longer find a host, though I can’t tell if Kaine is dead, and Morlun drops hints to Silk being special beyond merely being The Bride. Her blood, however, makes it so that no more Spider Totems are born by accident, like Peter getting bitten by chance. Morlun then moves to kill The Scion, which would stop any more from being born completely, but the Spiders intervene.
Peter takes Morlun, Otto gets Daemos and then Mayday gets her turn looking for vengeance. Uncle Ben appears to run away, and then Karn shows up to fight alongside the Spiders and free every world from their grasp. Morlun realizes it’s a distraction too late, as Uncle Ben had taken The Scion with him and left Spider-Ham in his place.
As beatdown continues, Leopardon arrives with Miguel and Lady Spider, Morlun states they have only delayed the inevitable. Otto agrees and decides to take out the one thing that will ensure their survival. By that, I mean he just murders the goddamn Master Weaver to solve that problem… which means he’s just screwed up the entire fabric of space and time to an extent. That won’t end well, at all.
The battle ends at that point with Peter dumping the Inheritors in the toxic world and telling them to get to the shelter, stating that they should make it. The comic ends there abruptly, with the fallout yet to come.
Okay, review time.
Most of it is done now, and it was decent, but there are questions I still have that will have to be answered in the epilogue in two weeks. But seriously, why the hell did they let the Inheritors live? Daemos would have cleared out the Unlimited Spider-Man’s world if Jennix hadn’t shown up, and even he points out that it doesn’t make sense. Leaving them to die a slow and painful death by starvation may be just desserts, but being quicker about it and simply tearing their heads off make more sense so they don’t return by chance after one of them cannibalizes the other.
Anyway, I still have to say that to this point it was a much better crossover than AXIS or Battle of the Atom. My main regret is that once they pull that Secret Wars bullcrap reboot, most of it will be for nothing. Didn’t Marvel learn from DC and the New 52?
5 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 #8 Review
Now it’s time we took a look into Lady Spider world! Here’s my Spider-Man 2099 #8 review!
Miguel and Lady Spider arrive at the former safe zone only to see corpses lying around, much to the detriment of Lady Spider’s stomach. They share a moment of compassion with a hug, before they stumble across the giant robot that we lost to Solus before he got ganked by Kaine. They immediately decide to fix it up and she knows just the place to go.
She visits her time period and asks for permission to use the lab of Harold Osborn’s father, Norman Osborn as you would expect. He agrees, planning to attack it, and Miguel hitches a ride as they transfer it piece-by-piece. Miguel points out the Inheritors are weak to radiation, so if they had some for the robot it would screw the Inheritors over big time.
Anyway, Peter decides to call in and tell them about the new safe zone as Harold arrives to see Lady Spider and they get attacked by the Six Men of Sinestry. They get beaten by Lady Spider, Miguel, and the giant robot, before Miguel recognizes that the Doc Ock was using some radioactive materials to power his arms and has her get some Lead to contain it. Using parts from the six, they manage to fix the robot and get to leave, only for Lady Spider to wonder how Harold is doing. Harold goes to visit his father, only to get shot as the comic ends with the robot back in action.
Okay, review time…
Overall, it was another tie-in, but it was interesting over all. Shame about that Harold dude, but there was nothing to be done with it.
3 out of 5.
Uncanny X-Men #30 Review
Okay, this event is starting to drag out, but I still have a self-proclaimed duty to review it. So here’s my review of Uncanny X-Men #30!
The issue starts out with Maria Hill receiving confirmation that Magik, Malloy, and Cyclops have been killed by missile fire. She doesn’t know whether to be happy or to get ready for war with the rest of the X-Men, but she gets on a plane to go see it for herself. At the same time, Eva is with Charles Xavier and gives him permission to look into her head to see why she’s supposedly angry at Cyclops while, in the present, Beast tells the others he’s dead now right before Storm suggests trying to kill him.
Anyway, the professor finally gives in and looks into her mind as Malloy casts Auto-Revive on himself but can’t do the same for other people, subsequently proving Cyclops point about how SHIELD were dicks and him deciding to end it today. End of World scenario, people. As for Charles, Eva then calls him out for saying one thing and then doing another when he threatens to simply wipe her mind and then send her off.
Emma, in grief, ends up sending out a psychic signal that hurts everyone in the JGS and then calls to Malloy, who is naked for some reason. Really, he can’t conjure up clothing or something? Anyway, she punches him in rage over Cyclops’ death, only for him to kill her too by accident.
So, that’s the last of the NXS staff. As for the students, the Stepford Sisters sense Emma’s death and Hijack decides it’s time to get into the game. Eva appears with Charles Xavier to do just that, once again violating the time stream. As the comic ends, he does his iconic line and hopefully we move into the final part of this arc.
Okay, review time….
Yeah, they’re wasting time at the point. As you may or may not know, Secret Wars is going to reboot the Marvel Universe, so with that on the way they’re killing as much time as possible by doing stupid things like SHIELD getting in a lucky missile strike and Malloy killing Emma. I’m sorry, but my patience for an arc that’s been dragging on for months with little shock value has run out.
3 out of 5, and that’s me being nice.
Amazing Spider-Man #13 (Spider-Verse Part 5) Review
Amazing Spider-Man #13 (Spider-Verse Part 5) review!
Things are reaching the climax in Spider-Verse and they start with the Inheritors announcing their failure to their father. If you read Scarlet Spiders #3 you know they cannot clone themselves into spare bodies, and Silk has discovered the one world they can’t travel in. What this means is that for the first time they have the advantage, but Solus has no fear since he has the Scion and by tonight there won’t be any left once they complete a ritual.
Back with the group of Spiders, Peter is shocked at seeing that his Uncle Ben was a Spider-Man. But he corrects them by explaining he gave up being Spider-Man, which even Otto finds to make no sense with him being the man who teaches nearly every Peter that with great power comes great responsibility. Ben explains that his version of the Green Goblin killed Peter and Aunt May and it broke him.
Otto calls him out on being a coward, which led to his world being ruined. Ben explains that his version of Otto held the world hostage with nuclear weapons and thus he ruined the entire dimension when it went off early. Our Otto takes that more than a bit hard, but Peter decides to give the clue that Spider-Woman sent back only for none of them to be able to read it, meaning they lost an important players for nothing according to Otto.
Silk takes this hard since she was the one who lost her device and left Spider-Woman stranded and excuses herself to go rescue her. Spider-Gwen follows her, thinking they can go in and out without anyone noticing. Of course, the Spider-Woman tie-in says otherwise.
Meanwhile, the India Spider-Man is still coming to terms with how he feels like one in a million considering all the similar Spider-Men. Spider-UK assures him that each one of them is unique in their own way, much like the members of his Captain Britain Corps. This brings him some comfort right as Otto loses his patience with the scroll and has his computer scan it for any matching languages.
This act leads to Peter pointing out the resemblance to Anna Maria Marconi, which tells Otto that Peter is from the future. This means that he loses in the end, which doesn’t bode well. Before he can make out anything, Anya explains she can read it because of her power and that it’s a prophecy that says that the spiders will end the Inheritors existence in a thousand years, so the only way to stop it is to perform a ritual with the blood of the Other, the Scion, and the Bride.
Much to their horror, both Silk and Kaine are on Loom World. Silk’s rescue attempt ended up getting their device busted again, which makes for like the third time she’s screwed up in this event. Kaine went there for revenge since the attempt to stop the Inheritor clones succeeded at the cost of Ben Reilly’s life. With both of them on Loom world, the Inheritors can smell them and go off to hunt them.
Anya puts together a team to go and get an advantage they can use from the second scroll, while Kaine hulked out on the Other to go kill some of the bastards. Jessica is stuck on Jennix’s world, but Miles ‘ team will go pick her up, and Miguel is working on something in the old Safe Zone and will be there in five or so minutes, so that leaves the rest to deal with the final battle… except for Ben, who doesn’t have it in him.
Kaine, in the meanwhile kills Solus in a single panel like some mook, despite him supposedly being hopped up on Uni-Force. This drives Morlun to the point of rage and he tears one of Kaine’s limbs off and stabs him through the head with it. Whether or not this kills him is unknown, but either way he’s down for the count. Silk and the other two Spider-Women come under fire by the twins and the beast tamer, who brought a bunch of Green Goblins with her.
With rest of them, Peter tries to get Ben to come. But it’s ultimately Otto who gets him back onto his feet, stating he never gave up no matter how great his mistakes, and an easy victory is never rewarding. Peter and I can’t believe it, especially when you consider this is a villain talking, but it does the job and gets him into action.
Now they’re all heading to the final battle as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
I loved this issue with a burning passion. Nothing was wrong with it. Even Otto got some decent lines and character development. I honestly wish they’d bring him back once this is over.
Anyway, 5 out of 5.
Scarlet Spiders #3 (Tie-In Final Issue) Review
A hero dies in Scarlet Spiders #3 (Tie-In Final Issue)! Read my recap and review below!
The comic begins with an overview of Ben Reilly’s life, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about who’s going to bite the bullet. Kaine is the Other and Jessica is part of the only Ultimate Universe series still active, so she’s not going to die in an event that doesn’t tie in there. Anyway, he’s a Spider-Man, so he’s suffered every pain imaginable, but he earnestly believes what is right and just will prevail. That being said, things look grim as, despite him and Kaine wailing on the bastard, Jennix doesn’t go down easy.
Eventually Kaine decides to break out the stingers and start tearing into the Inheritor since, unlike Ben, he realizes this is a fight of extinction and he refuses to be slaughtered like some animal. Jennix instantly awakes from a clone and then gets shot by a turret that Jessica hacked. Ben wants her to shut it down for two reasons: If they regain control of it then they’re all screwed, and they don’t kill.
Jessica and even Jennix point out the futility of upholding that rule in this circumstance of this, but he instead states that it’s also pointless to keep killing him over and over since they need to trap him. Jessica happens to be at the receiver that sends the signal to wake the clones, but she runs into the Human Torch as an obstacle to doing that… and then she knocks him out in like three seconds flat to go and help the boys.
Ben thinks back, while nursing a concussion, about how he had always done right in the past and it was Peter who lost everything in his world while even getting the acceptance Peter didn’t. But things aren’t looking so hot here, and Jennix makes it clear he has thousands of these facilities, so it was all pointless. But, being a science expert himself, Ben realizes that the signal comes from this facility and tells Jennix he’s going to destroy it to stop them from coming back.
He succeeds, buying the other spiders time to run, but the act apparently kills him in the process with only his torn mask left behind. While Jessica tells Kaine not to let the ugliness of his death poison him, Kaine promptly gives into the Other, using it as fuel and hijacking a portal to Loom world to kill them while they can’t revive themselves.
In the end, they won but it wasn’t without sacrifices.
Okay, review time…
I loved the tie-in, but Ben Reilly dying was still hard. I mean, you could see it coming, but it still hurts because between the cynical Kaine and realistic Jessica, we see that the optimistic one was the one that bit the bullet. Other than that it was a pretty solid tie-in.
The issue and series gets a 5 out of 5.
Magneto #14 Review
Magneto #14 review is here! Read below!
In the aftermath of Axis, Magneto finds himself amongst the ruins of Genosha, where he acts as the guardian of those mutants that remain from the camps Red Skull had established. While there, he receives notice that SHIELD is coming and tells the boy to inform the others to keep their heads down. He takes MGH, determined not to be as weak as he had been the last time Genosha was under siege by the enemy, and then proceeds to do as planned.
Speaking of that last time, he had been injured as shown in the flashback and forced metal into his skin to make his legs move. He wanted to protect them, but his loyal followers took him to the bunker and told him to live on since he wasn’t strong enough. Now back in the present, he states he knows how this will end, but he will determine how it will be remembered.
The SHIELD agents land and promptly gets manhandled. Looks like Briar ‘forgot’ to inform them that he was powered up. He tells that he knew they would meet again, and could almost forgive them for hunting and attacking him, but not in Genosha.
He points out that they can muster all of this to capture him, but didn’t have the decency to try when Sentinels were laying waste to it in the past or Red Skull merely days before. They were too busy to even help with the clean up after both cases. And then, to punctuate the point, he drops a giant hand on them.
Now, it’s clear they don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell right now. But, like he said, he knew how this would end. Thus, he decides to surrender for some reason unimaginable to me as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
We see once more that Magneto continues to be haunted by his past. For everything he’s done, for as much as he loathes others, he clearly hates himself just as much for not being there when they needed him. And it can be said that he’s still feeling the effects from seeing Charles’ ghost, which may play a role in why he decided to simply call it a day. Whatever happens next is anyone’s guess.
5 out of 5 is the score.
All-New X-Factor #20 (Final Issue) Review
The final issue of the series is here, and here’s my All New X-Factor #20 review!
Okay, the issue opens with the team on the ship. It’ll be a couple of weeks before Polaris recovers, but she asks Warlock to try and comfort Danger after her realizing she has no soul, so to speak. While he and Cypher made up with one another, with a parting hit to seal the deal., it’s still a bit bitter. Warlock meets with her and tells her that he has a soul, or something inside of him that he cannot explain with words. Instead he shares it with her, and I think robot sex ensues.
While that’s going on, Polaris is instead dealing with a message from Quicksilver. He’s leaving the team for the Avengers Unity division and taking his daughter with him. Personally, I blame Scarlet Witch and would love to be there when he has words with her, but he states he’ll be there if she needs him.
On Serval side of things, Snow has a meeting with Ty Stone of Alchemax and continues to be a sort of corporate sleaze ball who wants his assistant in on the meeting to provide eye candy. This brings him into contact with Miguel O’hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, who recognize one another. As soon as Stone and his assistant are out of the room, secrets come out.
Harrison Snow, or Harry as Miguel calls him, came from the future in a Time Dilation accident with Barry, the man from the last issue. Naturally, an accident sent them both back. Harrison explains that the handgun he used last issue was a device to send him back to the future, however, Miguel explains that time is wonky because of Age of Ultron and thus he just killed the man and his wife as readily as if he had incinerated them.
Harrison then reveals he plans to take down Alchemax using mutants. He plans on recruiting them all, and then the Avengers, and then all the heroes under Serval’s banner. Then he’s going to sic them on Alchemax and obliterate it in five years. It’s ballsy, and he believes that it will lead to a golden age for mankind.
Given how cutthroat Alchemax is in the future, I’m kinda with him. That being said, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Anyway, the team returns just as Miguel leaves and the comic ends its run.
Okay, review time.
Well, it wraps up the series fairly well given the circumstances. While there are some inconsistencies, we can honestly say that X-Factor was probably the best X-Men series out at present. It has better pacing that Uncanny X-Men, the team actually accomplished something unlike the Uncanny Avengers, and it held more worth than All-New X-Men and all the damn Wolverine comics.
I’m still not a fan of the art work though, so the issue and series gets a 4 out of 5. I’d read a sequel.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #9 Review
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #9 review and recap! Read on to see my thoughts on the issue!
Following where we left off, Miles mentions he never heard any of this, which means that Fury kept his word by keeping silent. That might explain why he was less than eager to make him the next Spider-Man at first. Though when Miles brings up Norman mentioning it, Jefferson mentions that it’s good he bit the bullet before continuing his story.
Kingpin, before he was the kingpin, tells Jefferson that his brother can keep doing what he does as long as he pays up and doesn’t disrespect him. He then tells Jefferson he works for him. Not just for money, but so that his family remained untouched.
Immediately after that, things got real as he began to move on conquering territory. Kingpin made it so that the greedy and seedy underworld dwellers working for him got richer than they could without, and all they had to do was mention who they worked for to get what they wanted. It goes to show that, even in the past, the Kingpin did not screw around.
It was getting to be too much for Jefferson, and he wanted out. But Fury pointed out they didn’t have enough evidence to do something to him yet and if he leaves, the Kingpin will kill him. He was trapped in his role whether he liked it or not.
Anyway, the next meeting with Kingpin has Jefferson going to a seedy warehouse with Toad, the mutant, giving one of his men Mutant Growth Hormone. If you’ve never read X-Men, then to summarize it, using it gives you temporary mutant powers. When one of his men takes it, he gets beefed up, and they talk business.
Jefferson, still having some morals, calls Toad out for selling out one of his own kind to make the growth serum. Fighting ensues, and then SHIELD busts in. Afterwards, there are arrests and a mutant trafficking operation is shut down, and Jefferson gets the chance to join up with SHIELD officially.
He tells Fury to shove it because he didn’t want to have anything to do with his world, his brother’s world, or Kingpin’s world, and just wanted to be better. A week later he met Rio at a physical therapist office and fell in love. Then he had Miles and as the years passed by he kept worrying if he would make the same mistakes as him, and then the ugliness.
He apologizes for what he said, for lashing out in anger. He’s not over his wife’s death, not over his brother’s death, and not over passing up the chance to become an agent of SHIELD and do some good in the world. Miles says he’s never been mad at his Dad for it, and they should have like a year of no drama to get their lives in order as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
The issue is solid and hopefully wraps up the bit about Jefferson; we see that not everyone is cut out for the life of a SHIELD agent. More so when he has to do this sort of thing. It gives you an understanding of the way things are, but Miles clearly forgives easier than I do. It’s what makes him worthy to be Spider-Man.
4 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 #7 (Spider-Verse) Review
Spider-Verse is still in effect and Miguel O’hara is doing his part to aid his fellow spiders! Read my review of Spider-man 2099 #7!
The comic opens with Daemos trapped in the field, unable to escape. Miguel tells Lady Spider that the more he struggles, the higher the energy level multiplies, so he’s not going anywhere. He then pays a visit to Tyler Stone and basically tells him that he’s still pissed about being dumped in 2014, but Daemos is the bigger threat and he needs a lab to work on the dissection.
When it begins, Daemos continues boasting about how he cannot be stopped. Miguel doesn’t think they can hold him for long so he has Lady Spider analyzing a device that he got from the other him that was killed by Morlun, with Tyler Stone taking a peek as well. I mean, interdimensional tech just screams profit.
Daemos, having grown bored, gives them an ultimatum, let him go and they will be spared to die of old age. They aren’t going to take it, of course, but tell him they’ll think it over. Miguel was hoping to find something else they could survive off so they didn’t eat his kind, but there’s nothing so far, while Lady Spider has a little more luck with the device.
When time is up they reject his offer, so he tells them they’re his new targets and starts meditating. Miguel runs off to a Bio-lab for some kind of cure that was done back in the 2040s. Whatever it is seems important and useful, but Lady Spider calls him back when Daemos begins to fight against the field hard enough to absorb enough energy to power the city. While this does kill him, he has a clone on the ground in mere minutes afterwards.
To buy them a few more minutes, Miguel called in Punisher 2099. Armed with a decent gun, it punches him away until he misses and then he does what might be the coolest thing ever. He beats Daemos over the head with a titanium bat three times before lighting him up with a plasma cannon and melting the floor beneath him. This man is made of win!
That buys the two spiders enough time to jump back to the Safe Zone, only this is after Morlun’s family ran through the place, so they end up amidst corpses as the comic ends.
Okay, review time!
I love it. Not only do we see more of 2099’s world and characters, we get to see someone ordinary putting a halt to the Inheritors momentarily and they even managed to snag what amounts to a win. 5 out of 5!
Amazing Man #12 (Spider-verse) review
The new year is here and so are the comics, here’s my Amazing Spider-Man #12 (Spider-verse) review!
The comic open with Morlun having Benjy, the youngest totem ever in any reality, which makes him The Scion. Otto tells them to jump Solarus as this might be their only chance to get him, but this dude is cranked up on cosmic power so that goes poorly. Mayday tries to get her brother back, but Morlun gets away.
Spider-Man UK calls Peter to tell him to get there, and they bring with them a giant robot! As in Power Rangers Megazord robot. While this dude buys them some time, they retreat while Silk ends up in the radioactive world that is the bane of all Inheritors. The nuclear air is toxic to her, but more so to them and she manages to make a hazmat suit out of webbing before moving on.
Peter’s group lands in a random world, and plans to regroup. Otto calls him out, stating his ineptness cost him his base, his absence got their safe zone taken, and his return cost them a giant robot. Mayday, in grief, calls them all fakes and Peter tries to calm her down when the calls come in.
Jessica Drew states she helped Silk escape but can’t jump herself and is Morlun’s serving girl, thinking this is a little convenient while in the presence of the Master Weaver. Miles is on a recruitment kick and thinks that this is insane (and I’m inclined to agree with him given he’s in a sentient spider-buggy), and 2099 is beginning the dissection. Jennix reveals he can hear everything they’re saying then, because while hearing them chatter is amusing they aren’t going to start letting them plan tactics, and sends his sister to get Peter’s group.
With Jessica, the Master Weaver gets her the brief version that he’s the one spinning the web and can only perform small acts of rebellion to help them. He gives her prophecy scrolls that she passes through her warp device to Peter as Morlun returns with Benjy. Back with Peter, Cindy gives them the location of the world she’s on before Jennix cuts her off and then they jump there.
The air is toxic, as mentioned before, but Cindy drew web arrows to guide them to a new Safe Zone. It turns out to be that universe’s bunker that she had been locked in, which is shielded from the Inheritors. That means not only is their location livable, but they can’t be attacked in that world. And there’s one more surprise waiting for them at the shelter as the comic ends: Uncle Ben, that world’s totem.
Okay, review time…
Right out of the gate, this gets a solid 5 out of 5. The plot continues, leading from the fall of one haven to the rise of another, and we see what everyone else is doing. This was the comic of the week, filed with emotion and sacrifice, and just a bit of comedy.
All New X-Factor #19 Review
Okay, we’re at the end of the battle between the team and the goddess of the underworld. Read my All-New X-Factor #19 review!
At Serval industries, Harrison is speaking with the man whose daughter he had his team go out to bring her corpse back. Whatever reason they were out there, they want out now and Harrison agrees, but he begs them to let his team do what they were asked.
The team, now facing a goddess within a mortal vessel, is given the choice to kneel or die. Polaris has them kneel, so that she could figure out what was going on, but Sunfire screws that up and nearly gets munched until she intervenes and asks why the goddess chose now. The goddess says that in five years there will be a peace accord, and for some reason it has to stop that so it will kill the inhabitants of the old city and borrowed Elena’s body for that. Then she wipes the floor with them and decides to be on her way.
They get right back up and start hitting back, but Lorna gets taken out by plastic bullets and the goddess decides to just eat their souls. Danger, lacking a soul, proceeds to tear the goddess apart until it runs back to the underworld. If there was any doubt about why you should have a robot on the team, there’s your rebuttal.
Later, Polaris is recovering and the body had been returned. They conclude that it was merely coincidence that the terrorist had plastic bullets, but are curious as to what the goddess meant about being out of time. While Polaris congratulates Danger, she admits that she can’t feel good about it since she doesn’t have a soul and doesn’t feel real.
With Harrison, the couple has finally laid their daughter to rest. They want out, after doing whatever they were there to do, and it seems like Harrison is willing to let them leave. But he promptly kills them both as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
The battle with the goddess was honestly expected. They’re not going to kill of the team just yet, after all. However, the real meat of the story is what happened in the end. We always knew Harrison was so shady he could shield you from the sun in the summer, but we never thought he could go to outright murder.
Gets a 4 out of 5, the deducted point coming from the art work. While it may normally be like that, I still don’t like it.
Magneto #13 Review
After the events of Axis, we go to a look into a day in the life of his new assistant, Briar Raleigh. She gets out of a taxi and enters into what may as well have been a super-villain fan swap meet, with booths and stands set up to peddle goods around, like photos and videos of attacks. There she meets with one guy named Henry.
Like her, Henry bears a scar from when Magneto attacked Sacramento and he was a camera man filming it. He was part of a program named Mutants Among Us and, to keep a long story short, he loses his eye in the process. It’s then some of the other girls come up and are willing to tell her the story of how they got their scars if she tells them how she got her leg brace.
The story they tell if obviously fake, but she gives them a DVD that tells how she got her leg brace. She thinks its fine since they all are connected thinking Magneto hurt them some way, even if self-inflicted. It’s then that those annoying agents of SHIELD show up and ask her Magneto is.
Magneto, as it turns out, is wandering around the ruins of Genosha as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
This comic was more filler than I would have liked. But it was a somewhat unique look into the lives of those who were touched by Magneto….
I’ll call it a 3 out of 5.
Uncanny X-Men #29 Review
Following up from the last issue, Magik visits Doctor Strange in the past, interrupting his…. Private time. I guess even the Sorcerer Supreme is entitled to getting action on the side. Anyway, Magik discusses the problem and asks what he can do about the issue with Malloy. He gives her a suggestion.
With Magneto, Malloy, and Cyclops, Magneto thinks that Cyclops is going too far while Cyclops defends his actions and eventually Malloy sends him off to the school. Magneto then feels he failed Cyclops because he didn’t notice that he had a breakdown and was now endangering them all. Tempus thinks to herself that she can go back in the past to fix all of this, which Celeste calls her out on because she read her mind and knows what happened to her.
To sum up the events of the Eva special, she got lost in time and eventually ended up in the year 2099. There Magik was the Sorceress Supreme and she stayed for seven years, mothered a child and had a husband, before losing control of her powers and ending up at the beginning of Mankind. Morgan Le Fay was there and explained to her that the future she had been to no longer existed, but she ended up trying to get back only to find everything had changed and Stark had become Sorcerer Supreme. He tells her the truth of the matter and then helps her get back to her own time.
Anyway, the rest of the X-Men are divided on the whole time-travel thing while the adults are stuck at the Jean Grey school and learn that Beast essentially screwed up when he told everyone that Malloy was a threat. This is proven when Magik shows up with the Eye of Agamotto, intent on using it to see into him and what he is capable of, when Helicarriers arrive and open fire. The comic ends with the sight of three skeletons burning and Eva arriving in the past to greet Charles Xavier.
Okay, review time…
In truth, I’m more than a little mad. They keep dragging this arc on and, from the looks of it, plan on retconning the entire thing if she prevents his death somehow. That would mean, much like BOTA, the entire thing was a waste of time.
It gets a 3 out of 5.
All-New X-Factor #18 Review
The aftermath of Axis is felt in All-New X-Factor. Read on my recap and review of this issue!
Our comic begins with Harrison telling the team about how his goddaughter’s corpse was taken from a funeral procession and into a series of tunnels. He wants them to retrieve her body so it can be laid to rest. Everyone is in agreement to get to work, which both Gambit and Quicksilver find odd since they never agree with each other on anything.
Meanwhile, Cypher apparently had sex with Danger, somehow. Honestly, I question if this was really consensual, but either way he begs her not to tell Warlock. True enough, this violates a number of things in the Bro Code.
The team assembles with Sunfire there to apologize for attacking them. Now that Axis is over the nuclear football had been returned to the president, and Polaris invites Sunfire on the mission. Quicksilver protests and then decides to stay with Luna at the base if he’s coming along. Along the way, the news comes out about Danger and Cypher, leading to Warlock being more than a little mad.
After they land, they venture into the tunnel where they find hieroglyphs and two men try and shoot them. They are quickly subdued before telling them they took the girl’s body because they want to use her for some kind of ritual, having guarded over her family line for thousands of years. As the comic ends the team arrives to see that the girl has been turned into an Avatar of Ammit.
Okay, review time…
This issue starts what may be the last arc of the series. I find that animosity between Sunfire and Quicksilver, one-sided as is, is a bit weird. The fact that Danger also slept with Cypher showcases her lack of empathy, while Warlock has a more emotional response since Cypher is his closest friend. Also, I do question just how consensual it was since she came in during the middle of the night… or the logistics of how it was possible.
Anyway, it gets a 3 out of 5.
Scarlet Spiders (Spider-Verse Tie-In) #2 Review
The Scarlet Spiders Spider-Verse Mini-Event continues in issue #2! Here’s my recap and review!
The comic picks up with the evil Johnny Storm realizing something is wrong with this scenario only to get knocked out while he’s Flamed-On. Ben has to abandon the Iron Man suit because Kaine points out that the suit probably has fail-safes on it and Jennix would be able to pull him in and peel him out of it like a sardine. Their cover is blown, which Jessica doesn’t like since her plan ultimately hinged on her being the decoy rather than them, so they have to wing it.
Ben and Kaine get into where they keep the clones. It turns out Jennix has about a thousand clones divided into levels for him and his siblings. When one dies their consciousness is transferred into the body and then released. Kaine votes on destroying the entire building, but Ben doesn’t want to since it means everyone else would go with it, so that means they’ll have to try a little harder than that.
Meanwhile, Jennix isn’t paying much attention to the fight since he has other things to handle. He tells Dr. Warren to simply keep monitoring the situation and if they make it to the special projects then he’ll run interference. It shows he’s both cocky and delegates his workload like a proper mad scientist should.
The spiders split up with Jessica playing the spymaster until she can get somewhere to interfere with the counter-measures, Kaine goes to deal with the main power cells, and Ben stays behind to try to do something in the clone room. Kaine… he wrecks the hell out of the security detail, with the caption mentioning that while he doesn’t have much of a life outside of violence, he’s making the most out of it. Then he finds something so shocking he has to go get Ben and the technician.
It turns out that special project is that Jennix has been cloning Spiders and these are the failures. Given what Kaine has gone through, it triggers a rage moment and that alerts Jennix that they are there. So Jennix makes good on his promise and goes to deal with them personally after showing them some footage of his experiments and how the clones don’t contain any of the essence that they have. As the comic ends Jennix makes it clear he’s going to turn them into an experiment once he’s done kicking them around.
Okay, review time….
I loved it for a tie-in. It got straight to the point and we have everyone in the roles they’re meant to play. 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #8 Review
Here’s my review of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #8! Read on as we dive into the past of Jefferson and his secret history with SHIELD!
The story picks up with Jefferson in what I can only assume to be the seventies rather than the eighties with those hairstyles. Aaron came to collect money with his brother in tow, Jefferson clearly not comfortable with the situation. It proves to be the right thing when Jefferson ends up getting into a fight because they try to gang up on him. He does surprisingly well against them, but when the police came he ended up going to jail.
Nick Fury turns up to bail him out and then lets him loose. He explains that because he did a damn good job of kicking ass, Turk’s men were going to come recruit him for a job as a professional hood rat. If he doesn’t take it then they’d kill him, but Fury wants him inside as a recruit.
It goes down like Fury said, but Fury tells him from then on the long-plan. They don’t care about Turk, he’s small time after all. He wants Jefferson to make him big-time enough to gain Wilson Fisk’s attention and buy him out so that he works for him. With a mole in place he wants him to act like a gangster until he gets something to nail the Kingpin so that SHIELD can get his ass. The comic ends after that with Miles and Jefferson about to go into the second part, of when his mother came into play.
Okay, review time….
Well, I’ll start right out and say that I didn’t like the flashback art. I get why they did it, but it hurts the eyes just to look at it. Still, it could be worse.
Now, on the subject of the past, we see that Aaron was thug even back then. Only he dragged his brother into it and nearly led to him getting his ass beaten. Where Jefferson learned to scrap like that I have no clue, but at least we see now why he’s ashamed of what he’s done to this point.
I give it a 4 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #11 (Spider-verse)
It’s time for my admittedly-late review of Amazing Spider-Man #11.
Okay, this entry into the Spider-verse event has Otto trying to take over. He believes that the Peter Parker that’s leading the good guys is a younger version of Peter rather than one after he surrendered, because he can’t imagine a world where he gave up. They fight for a few panels, but Peter uses the fact that Otto can’t kill him (because of the previously established misunderstanding) to knock him down. I’d like to point out that, technically speaking, Otto was leading his team better than Peter when it came to the whole matter of the inheritors though.
Meanwhile, of the Inheritors, Karn is still trying to get out of his punishment. His dick of a father has the Master Weaver send him to a harder world while talking with his favored son Morlun. They talk about the three spiders who could get rid of them and decide to go and crush their last hope.
Meanwhile Peter waits until Otto wakes up before telling him that they do need his help because he did hold his own against Morlun and the others. He then does a check up on everyone he can before moving out to make sure that Noir Spider-Man is safe and Spider-Woman sneaks into the Homeworld of the Inheritors while Miles and a younger him go gather more spider-people. That’s when things go bad.
Long story short, Solus and his sons break into Cosmic Spider’s world, kill a few, and only Jennix gets killed (before being respawned). Then Cosmic Spider gets munched on, like we all knew would happen. The comic ends with the fat bastard getting his hands on Mayday’s younger brother, who is The Scion.
Okay, review time…
I found this one to be okay. It moved the story along, Cosmic Spider got munched, like we kind of figured, and we see prompts leading to the tie-in. It was okay, but it could have been better in some ways. 4 out of 5.
All New X-Factor #17 Review
My review of All-New X-Factor #17 is out now! Read on!
The comic opens with Gambit remembering the time he, Sunfire, and Polaris were members of Apocalypse’s Four Housemen. It wasn’t a nice time, and now the three of them are in a fight over who gets the Nuclear Football. Sunfire and Longshot, inverted by AXIS, were sent here by the X-Men to take it, while the Serval crew would rather that not happen.
Sunfire then tries to set them on fire with a blast that Danger simply walked out of and slaps him before they have Warlock trap him in an airless sphere, meaning no flames. Round one to the Serval team….wait, didn’t he produce bio-oxygen or some BS to explain how he could breathe in space in Uncanny Avengers?
Anyway, Longshot tries to get past them but Quicksilver goes to stop him. That ends when he’s suddenly yanked into the sky by some invisible force, which is weird since he can’t fly. Oh yeah, and Sunfire escapes by burning up Warlock (so I was right on the bio-oxygen thing) and then melts Danger who was mad because she didn’t get a chance to bang him. It’s this type of thing the comic has devolved to.
Longshot gets in and takes out the guards, Dakota takes him out, and Sunfire stops her from finishing him off. After discussing how they plan on nuking the place after they get the Nuclear Football, Cypher leads them on a goose chase before using the teleporter to drop them off in Tokyo. As the comic ends we see that Pietro was being pulled up by Magneto who wants his help in stopping his insane sister again.
Okay, review time…
On the one hand, I believe this to be the last AXIS tie-in, which is a good thing. I’m tired of the event and Wanda already. Anyway, the art was… okay, no real complaints there, and it was the follow up to the tie-in. It gets a 3 out of 5 for not being too bad, but not really doing much.
Spider-Man 2099 #6 (Spider-Verse) Review
Spider-Verse continues within Spider-Man 2099 #6! Read my review on the story as Miguel, Lady Spider, and the Six-Armed Spider-Man try to carve up Daemos’ corpse for science!
The story begins with that asshole Stone after he had finally gotten rid of Spider-Man 2099 by trapping him in the past. He’s then greeted to the sight of footage Public Eye caught of that spider-man and his two friends. His assistant points out that they’re lucky he didn’t come back in time before they sent him off or another paradox would have occurred, but either way Stone wants him killed once and for all.
Meanwhile Miguel’s brother is talking with their mother when he shows up with his friends, who are lacking Daemos’ corpse I noticed. Lady Spider, or May, instantly gets on his radar as Miguel tries to get in touch with the other heroes of 2099. That’s when Daemos pops in and we lose the Six-Armed Spider-Man before Gabriel pops his ass with a giant gun when he got somewhere. The kiss he gets is well-earned.
Daemos then proceeds to tear Public Eye a new one when Miguel tells Tyler Stone that while he would normally kick his ass, instead he’ll owe him a favor if they ready the 82 floor of Alchemax Lab C. He jumps on that like there’s no tomorrow and together they trap Daemos in a stasis cell as the comic ends. Suck it!
Okay review time…
Much like in Spider-Woman, we’ve lost another Spider from Otto’s team to the Inheritors (although Noir was simply wounded) and Daemos continues to be a creepy bastard with all the sexual undertones. Seriously, kill him permanently already. But otherwise it’s good stuff.
I give it a 5 out of 5.
Scarlet Spiders #1 of 3 Review
Scarlet Spiders is out now and contains two of my favorite Spider people, so naturally I’m going to review it! How does the first issue go? Read my review and find out!
The comic opens up and follows the thoughts of Jessica Drew, the Spider-Woman (Black Widow now) from the Ultimates Universe, as she, Ben Reilly, and Kaine venture to the world where the clones came from. The city is beautiful, in contrast to a villain like you would expect from Doom. But they can’t exactly go out looking like they do, even if they are cloaked from the Inheritors.
Kaine fetches some smocks for them and they discuss the invisibility suit before they run out and meet a bunch of clones. The disguises don’t last three pages before they suit up again and get into a tussle with the security forces after the fighting spills out. Ben fights with grace and banter, Kaine goes with rage but restraint, and Jessica is the trained fighter of the group.
The fighting ends when Iron Man shows up, and Ben forgets they are on a villain controlled world. So he gets blasted into unconsciousness for two hours while they stripped Tony Stark of his armor. It turns out this Tony is a insufferably smug kiss-up which makes even the Superior Iron Man looks good, and that’s saying something, so they take his armor and use it to infiltrate the Baxter Building.
There Jessica breaks free and acts as a distraction while the other two go on ahead, but they get stopped as the comic ends by alternate universe Johnny Storm.
Okay, review.
In this issue we get more introspective into the different cloned spiders. Kaine beats the hell out of anyone in his way and lacks Peter’s smarts, but he’s been trying to be a hero to live up to his rep and has to temper his strength, which is greater than the others by a fair margin. Black Widow as the most training and strategic mind, while Ben still has Peter’s intelligence and witty nature.
All and all it’s not a bad start and I like the artwork. We’ll call it a 5 out of 5.
New Warriors #12 (Final Issue) Review
New Warriors final issue! How will the team come back from the jaws of defeat! Read on and find out!
Okay, so the issue starts with the device going off and Justice rushing towards where they were, thinking how his team were the only ones ready but they weren’t enough to handle the threat. He’s talking to someone else, by the way.
Anyway, the teams seemed screwed until Justice mans the hell up and gives us the best line in the series with “It’s time for you to face Justice”. Round two goes off much better with Justice revealing the Celestials were not coming to the planet and he went ahead and confirmed it, meaning they’ve been trying to commit genocide for nothing. This puts Zuras’ lying ass in a tight spot, to which he promptly blames the High Evolutionary and escapes judgement with a stern warning.
So the day is saved and as the comic ends we see Justice was talking to Old Steve with plans to expand.
Okay, review time.
To cover the issue, I have to say that I was disappointed with how it ended. I understand the good guys had no chance in hell against the Eternals in a fair fight, but I at least expected Zuras to get what was coming to him. Instead he used the High Evolutionary as a patsy and only stopped because he couldn’t take both the New Warriors and the rest of his team, who have morals apparently.
It’s bittersweet as hell. 3 out of 5.
As for the series, you can tell it got cut short because we never explored Water Snake’s history or development besides some evil thing haunting her. Or that deal Waffles made. It feels cut short, not even rushed, and that they dragged the Inhuman thing out for as long as possible didn’t help. I’m forced to give the series, which I liked, a 3 out of 5.
It was a fun ride and the art was good, but it could have been better.
Amazing Spider-Man #10 Review (Spiderverse)
Amazing Spider-Man #10 Review (Spiderverse)
Okay, we continue from where we last left off, with Miles Morales being attacked by the crazy lady until Otto shows up with backup and tells them to Spider-Up or die. They follow him, with Miles under the assumption that Otto is Peter since he was wearing the same outfit as the last time he saw him during that colossal failure Cataclysm, but Verna destroys his mother’s grave stone, making it personal for Miles. Him and Mayday have much to discuss.
Meanwhile, at the Safe Zone, British Spider-Man tells him that he’s basically the only one who fought an Inheritor and won. He’s Harry Potter. Silk, on the other hand, is fishing around to see if any of the others give her the warm and tingly feeling like her Peter does, only getting a reaction from Kaine. Anyway, they’ve found where Otto’s group are and jump to them with Silk tagging along after being warned to stay behind. That won’t end well.
They meet up with Peter, Kaine, and Spider-Woman recognizing Otto, while Miguel recognizes that they’re in his timeline. Otto tells them they’ve ruined everything by showing up because the cloaking device he had built couldn’t hide them with both Kaine and Silk there because they give off huge signals. He’s right as Daemos arrives right then looking to go on a feeding frenzy.
They jump him and make him work for it, but Cyborg Spider-Man gets killed. Silk blames herself once they finally take him down, to which Old Man Spider agrees. Otto sees the loss as acceptable since because Kaine did a huge amount of damage and with a stasis charge in his arms he managed to stop the body disintegrating and they can perform science on it. Old Man Spider tells them that he knows what’s going on, but naturally he gets his neck snapped by Daemos as he arrives with his siblings.
Otto is more than a little pissed at losing his kill, but Ben, Kaine, and Jessica realize they can clone themselves to come back as many times as they want and set out to deal with that, Meanwhile Old Man Spider, who is Ezekiel of a different dimension where Morlun killed Peter, reveals that The Scion, The Bride, and The Other are the only spiders that matter and must be protected. My personal thought is Kaine, Miles, and Silk are the three most important totems.
Silk uses this opportunity to take Peter’s teleport device and lure the twins away, with Spider-Woman and Noir following and to be continued in Spider-Woman #1. I’m not covering that, but I’ve read it and to sum it up, Silk’s hero tendencies get Noir taken out of the fight and Spider-Woman’s jaded nature drives her to run away on her own out of guilt again. Miguel and a few others take the corpse to analyze it, with Daemos chasing after them.
With a moment’s reprieve Peter, Otto, and the other survivors return to the Safe Zone and Otto’s decided he’s taking charge with his claws out as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Now, this 5 out of 5 right off the bat since everything was great, but reasonably speaking if Otto somehow manages to take out the Peter with the power of a god, asspull.
Twilit Dreams Circle 