Best of Marvel: Week of June 5th, 2019

Best of this Week: Meet the Skrulls #5 – Robbie Thompson, Niko Henrichon, Laurent Grossat and Travis Lanham

Earth has a way of changing everyone.

Of all of the races in the Marvel Universe, the Skrulls absolutely blend in the best. They act like us, laugh like us and even have families like us, but what happens when that family becomes more important than the mission? That’s what Meet the Skrulls asks us as we reach the end of the harrowing series.

Mirroring the happy beginnings of their mission, the rest of the Warner family, mother, Gloria, and her daughters, Alice, Madison and a presumed dead Ivy return to their family home. All is not good as it is engulfed in flame, leading to Gloria driving the family to a safe house just outside their city limits. Alice turns into a butterfly to complete her part of the mission while Gloria and Madison are reunited with their father, Carl, who tells them that their handler, Moloth, has betrayed them.

Meanwhile, Alice infiltrates the home of one of her high school “friends” and tells her of her mission and that once she completes it, she will never show her face again. It’s distressing that things have gone so terribly that she’s willing to throw away her secret in a last ditch effort to salvage her mission, but that’s how the Skrulls are. They are focused on serving their home world and anything less than that is unacceptable in their eyes, especially for Alice who had been trying to become part of humanity for the entirety of the series.

At the same time, Carl begins to systematically incapacitate the rest of the family with stun guns, however Gloria catches on when he asks for a spot of tea from her that this is not her husband. She poisons the tea, but he detects it and they confront each other. Elsewhere, Iron Man arrives at a Stark Enterprises facility and questions how none of his staff knew that there was another floor/room that someone was using and how did a Skrull get in. Alice, posing as her friend’s mother, finds the body of her father, having been shot in the chest in the last issue. An unfortunate sacrifice to save his daughter, Ivy.

At the safehouse, Gloria and Moloth fight fiercely. Henrichon’s art reaches a new level of dynamic as limbs expand, twist and contort because of the Skrull’s shapeshifting abilities. Attacks and bodies look gross and everything is impactful because of the closed nature of the space they occupy. Not only that, but faces are expressive of the fury and betrayal that they all feel.

Moloth is disappointed in Skrull High Command and believe them to be weak and incompetent, choosing to betray them to another unknown benefactor and making the Warner’s take the fall for his actions. The Warners, Gloria and a recovered Madison are pissed and hurt that Moloth killed their father. Gloria rages and as she punches and kicks Moloth, it’s so very satisfying.

Moloth, however, gets the better of them and manages to hold them down with his limbs sort of taking the form of tree trunks, almost. He is dispatched when Alice returns, driving a car through the house and crushing him. He tells the family that the Skrull Homeworld will think that they’ve betrayed their home, that they can’t run, but Gloria tells him that that’s exactly what Moloth’s trained them for, turning her arm into a blade and killing him.The family then puts Carl’s body on a pyre and now have to live a life on the run while being pursued by Tony Stark and the Moloth’s unknown bosses.

I’ve been a fan of Meet the Skrulls since the first issue and I wish I had given it more love when it came to showing the books off because they are amazing. Robbie Thompson writes these characters in such a subtle way. The underlying love for each other is there, but it’s clouded by a cover of duty and a little bit of resentment in the first few issues due to the unexplained loss of Ivy sometime prior. Once it’s revealed that Ivy is alive and you think that the family may have happy ending, that feeling is immediately ripped away and replaced with grief.

These characters are soldiers in a never ending war, but they somehow managed to form a bond beyond the war. It’s even harder because they are an actual family, but adjusting to life on Earth and some semblance of freedom making them supposedly weaker humanizes them in a way that we haven’t seen from the Skrulls before.

Not to mention how beautiful Henrichon’s art is. Henrichon has done amazing art for Doctor Strange and New Mutants with lots of spectacle and style, but the way that he draws small moments… little moments of intimacy and smiles, sometimes panels with no dialogue whatsoever is spectacular. His faces are awesome and the feeling is palpable in each of them. The sorrow from Alice as her “friend” questions who she is, the shock as Madison and Gloria see “Carl” and the rage as previously mentioned.

Meet the Skrulls definitely deserves some acclaim. It’s a spy thriller, a family drama and an alien invasion story wrapped into one nice and neat package. The art is phenomenal and while it may not continue past this story, it’s definitely one worth reading. The characters are engaging, from the overbearing and mission focused Carl, to his loving wife who’s grown disillusioned to the mission, to the dutiful Madison and the wistful Alice who just wants to be as normal as the humans. It’s an emotional journey and the ending is as impactful as its beginning. High recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of May 29th, 2019

Runner Up: Fantastic Four #10 (Legacy #655) War of the Realms Tie-In – Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Kevin Libranda, Jesus Aburtov and Joe Caramagna

Franklin and Valeria Richards are two of the most talented teenagers in the Marvel Universe. Franklin, at least before he started losing his powers, has the ability to create universes among other things. He’s also as headstrong as his Uncle Johnny and stronger than his Uncle Ben Grimm. Valeria has the intellect and engineering skills to match or go above those of Doctor Doom or her own father, Reed Richards.

They’ve spent most of their lives surrounded by other kids as special as they are, as smart as them or as powerful as them. They’re also used to the high life and adventure that being in the Fantastic Four brought them, so it’s no surprise that normal life is the biggest struggle facing either of them.

No longer living in the Baxter Building, missing the cute aquatic prince she met in another universe and not having an intellectual match near her age has left Valeria hopelessly bored. Franklin has become angry and introverted ever since he found out that his powers were depleting and he’s acting out because of it. Ben thinks he has just the right idea and makes Franklin help out at the local youth center.

It helps a little until some Yancy street kids try to bully Franklin, who does his best not to throttle them into the next reality. Alicia Masters, frequent friend of the FF and now Ben’s wife sees that the kids haven’t really had time to adjust and Ben then suggests hosting a Yancy Street block party!

Things go well with Reed and Sue finally meeting their neighbors, Valeria meeting an equal in “Moon Girl” Lunella Lafeyette and Franklin maybe developing a crush on Lunella’s older sister.

Things seem to go well enough until the War of the Realms reaches Yancy Street. The older FF does their best to save the people while Valeria and Lunella come up with a solution to get the Frost Giants away. When Franklin sees the regular people of the street fighting back, a fire is lit in his belly and he unloads on the Frost Giants even with his depleting power. Eventually Lunella and Valeria see that Valeria’s inter-dimensional cell tower is what’s attracting the monsters and Franklin destroys it.

Franklin gets over himself and tells his family that Yancy Street will be safe with his sister, Moon Girl and himself while they solve the larger problem.

The FF has always been about family and for Franklin and Valeria, being apart from the Future Foundation kids was equivalent to losing that family. And with the constant adventure hopping, they haven’t had a chance to establish a new family at home. Hopefully there will be more stories around these two in the future, especially with the upcoming Future Foundation book because they’re both great kids and it’ll be interesting to see how they continue to develop as characters.

Best of Marvel: Week of May 29th, 2019

Best of this Week: The Amazing Spider-Man #22 (Legacy #823) – Hunted pt. 6 – Nick Spencer, Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, Edgar Delgado, Erick Arciniega and Joe Caramagna

Only the Spider can kill Kraven, so says his curse.

In order to regain the peace he’s been craving since his return, Kraven has been pushing Spider-Man to his limits. He’s kidnapped Black Cat and Billy Connors, set hunters loose to kill the animal themed supervillains, poisoned Spidey to see visions of futures that could happen if he failed to do what was necessary. He thought the final step would be to force Spider-Man to make a hard choice.

Spider-Man does and Kraven sets him free, ready for their final confrontation. Kraven goads him into finishing him, lambasting the Spider for being the worst of the animal themed people because the spider is the worlds most horrifying predator, the one that humanity fears on instinct alone. But Spider-Man chooses heroics over everything, bright colors and goodness.

Spider-Man almost falls prey to Kravens words. He was afraid that in releasing Doctor Connors, he’d sacrificed Kravens guards to die, only to find that they were murdered by Kraven himself. After handedly beating the Hunter, Spider-Man makes him watch The Lizard attacks Kravens son and savagely beats him, but relents after seeing his son alive.

Spider-Mans entire message to Kraven is that people weren’t meant to hurt each other and even beasts like the Lizard can cut through their savagery and find the goodness in themselves. Kraven realizes that his mistake was actually becoming a beast himself and not something more as he had always claimed. He has a change of heart and vows to never hunt again, telling Arcade to shut everything down.

But the ending… as Kraven finally becomes a good guy, it almost makes me cry.

This story and all of the little tie-ins have been phenomenal. Not too many stories are worthy of being called sagas, but Hunted absolutely is. Not only does it mirror the first story in the Kraven/Spider-Man Saga, it makes it better by expanding on the idea of Kravens curse and ties a neat bow on his character while introducing a new and more savage threat for Spider-Man in the future.

Ramos absolutely smashes this final part with his art. Everything is beautiful, atmospheric and dark. Olzaba’s skills as an inner shines amazingly as Kravens inner darkness is realized as he dons his Hunter clothing to fight Spider-Man, appearing from the shadows. Delgado’s and Arciniega’s colors make Spider-Man appear a shining light even in the black suit and as day rises on this nightmare of a night, there’s a feeling of the jungle during an orange sunrise as pages are washed in an orange tint. Blows have weight and each tells a story of strength and sacrifice.

Nick Spencer was born to write Spider-Man and his run will no doubt go down in history as one of those Spectacular or Amazing stories in no small part to arcs like this one. I hope he goes on as long as Dan Slott did because he understands Spider-Man. The sacrifice, the humanity, the need to be a hero with the heart to match and never giving up even when things are bleak. This story is definitive of the hope that Spider-Man embodies.

Best of DC: Week of May 29th, 2019

Runner Up: Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 – Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano

“One last adventure together…”

Joker’s words to describe his and Batman’s last run together in the hell that is the world after some unexplained event killed numerous heroes, villains and just about anything else. It also describes what MAY be the last time we see Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo do a big Batman story together and I already feel like we’re in for a BIG one.

After a curious case of large scale chalk drawings, showing a dead Batman, leads the Dark Knight to the Crime Alley he inadvertently sets off a trap laid by an unknown assailant using the decomposing body of a ten year old child. He later wakes up in Arkham Asylum, apparently having been there since KILLING HIS FAMILY in Crime Alley all those years ago. Capullo does a great job of setting atmosphere and making things unsettling as even a small fly buzzing around and “Dr. Redd Hudd” looming over a straight jacketed Bruce Wayne looks creepy. Arkham appears to be just a regular Asylum with Alfred showing up and trying to convince Bruce that Batman was all in his head, showing him a mock costume they made to keep him calm with a cowl stitched to a straight jacket. Bruce sees through it all and fights his way through Arkham until Alfred reveals the truth. He only wanted to keep his boy safe because half of Gotham was just gone. Years had passed and Batman has no idea what happened.

He later wakes up in a desert and coincidentally finds the head of The Joker. He wakes and immediately begins cracking jokes as Batman takes him and they begin to walk to Coast City. I don’t know how much of this is real and that adds to the mystique of the story. We’re never given an explanation as to how he got there from Arkham or how Joker is surviving.

They arrive at Coast City and the decayed corpse of Mogo looms over a giant crater and ruins. Joker says that all of the Lanterns fell and rings are just there for the taking. Suddenly the duo are attacked by projections of babies before being saved by Vixen and Poison Ivy. Ivy then knocks Bruce out just in case and he wakes up surrounded by the new Amazons; Vixen, Donna Troy, Poison Ivy, Supergirl and Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman explains that one day, Luthor just… convinced most that they should just take what they deserve. He told them that goodness was a lie and they just ate it up. It echoed the future that Luthor saw back in Justice League/Legion of Doom #5, but given that this is a Black Label book, one wouldn’t be wrong if they didn’t want to think of this as the explanation of that timeline because they’re not in the same canon.

Wonder Woman also tells Batman that the one wielding the Anti-Life Equation may be one of the Boys and pleads with him to join the Amazons in Hades.

But Batman is Batman and he decides that he’s going to put a stop to this.

Last Knight on Earth reads like an alternative ending for Scott Snyder’s Justice League epic. Even though that story is far from over, not even close, there’s this unsettling feeling that, if Scott didn’t have to have the heroes win in the end, this should be the absolute endgame. A world, no UNIVERSE possibly, under siege by someone wielding the Anti-Life Equation, hope dead and dying and the ever creeping feeling of dread knowing that somehow life and death have lost enough meaning that Joker as a decapitated head still lives… this story is terrifying.

Honestly, this might be some of Capullos best art to date. With Glapion and Plascencia’s help, this book feels so atmospheric and dark. Glapion accentuates Capullos lines and shading well with dark-dark inks, making Batman appear to be shrouded in it even in the sun. It’s haunting, especially in the Arkham scenes where things are absolutely not as they seem and dark secrets hide behind and within the walls. Plascencia, on the other hand, can make even light and vibrant colors threatening. The red sand on Jokers jar is intense and the Green Lantern babies are deadly. Hell, Coast City, Hall Jordan’s crown jewel, looks unbelievably desolate, colored like a wasteland. Capullo pulls all of this together with as much detail as he possibly can and his work shows.

Faces are expressive, from Batmans fear, to Alfreds regret to Jokers madness. Body language is utilized greatly as Batman fights like a caged animal. He’s taken aback by Jokers head, but still finds his resolve. Wonder Woman is still fierce, but even her edge has dulled with the sheer lack of hope that running away and going underground has given her.

This story is terrifying and I absolutely love it. From the creepy visuals of Capullos art, to the expression of thought because of the mature liberties Black Label books can take, it’s all beautiful. This one is absolutely going to match my love for Batman: Damned and every one should go and read this. High recommend!

Best of DC: Week of May 29th, 2019

Best of this Week: Doomsday Clock #10 – Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Brad Anderson and Rob Leigh

And yet another wrinkle is added to the DC Universe.

Or should I say, “Metaverse” now? Yes, after I think three months since the last issue, Doomsday Clock returns with yet another strong issue that expands upon the mythos of the DC Universe and just how Doctor Manhattan viewed and affected things at the many different positions of time that he has been able to inhabit.

The issue is framed around an actor by the name of Carver Colman, a very huge star in DCs 1954, who has been referenced or used in previous issues. This gives some kind of continuity in the context of the story as Johnny Thunder was seen watching his movie in the retirement home all the way back in issue two or three. Colman, unfortunately, has a secret that gets him killed soon after wrapping up the filming of his biggest hit, The Adjournment and as we make it through the issue and the back and forth of his life, we find the biggest change to Doctor Manhattan’s character and how he has to bend to the rules of this new universe.

Doctor Manhattan actually meets Colman in 1938 when he was a struggling actor who had just lost his job delivering mail to a movie studio after an unfortunate accident and things he saw. Manhattan takes Colman out for some food, attempting to use him as a rod to focus on to look towards the future as he can’t seem to do so on his own after arriving. He does so and is able to see a year into the future, then four and so on. His abilities work again, but then he hears something strange.

A radio report of a man lifting a car into the air. The first appearance of Superman on April 13th, 1938. Suddenly, it was gone, the crowds of people were gone as if they never existed. He follows the path where Superman existed in 1938 and finds the Justice Society, having formed and waiting for Superman to answer their summons. Jay Garrick “Flash”, “Green Lantern” Alan Scott, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and others, waiting for the Man of Steel to join their ranks and suddenly, they too have never heard of him.

Manhattan follows the many arrivals of Superman, from 1956, to 1986 and sees his arrival change again and again, noting the many deaths of Ma and Pa Kent and how this “Universe” seems to use Superman as a focal point, even going to a thousand years from now when Superman was briefly part of the Legion of Superheroes. So to test how things revolve around Superman, he changes the past by moving the Lantern away from Alan Scott, killing him, and drastically changes the future, creating the New 52 Timeline.

Everything is recontextualized as Manhattan sees that this action changes this universe and that it’s constant state of flux affects the wider multiverse. From the parallel worlds, to the anti-matter, to the Dark Multiverse, Earth Prime is a “Metaverse” in his words. The others change to match whatever is going on in the Prime World and once it realizes what he’s done, it begins to fight back. Manhattan sees Wally West trying to fight his way back to the Universe. This one action causes a chain reaction that will lead to his inevitable confrontation with Superman where Superman either kills him or he kills the Metaverse.

Cutting back to 1954, Manhattan is at Carver Colman’s home on the night that he’s murdered. He doesn’t do anything to stop it.

There’s a saying that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” In the Watchmen Universe, Doctor Manhattan was allowed to do or not do as he pleased because that world was a little bit more grounded or at worst cynical. Though, one might say that because he refused or didn’t care to use his power at a larger scale, Ozymandias’ “evil” won. Though Ozymandias thought what he did was the right thing, this series proved it it be disastrous in the wake of Rorschach’s journal being published, but initially Veidt’s plan did succeed. Doctor Manhattan escaping to the DC Universe put him into direct conflict with the Metaverse and its Hope. Its innate desire to have the good triumph over evil won’t let Doctor Manhattan get away with inaction and in his words, “To this universe of hope… I have become the villain.”

Words can’t describe how hype I was for this. With each and every issue, a new layer is added and brings us closer and closer to the epic conclusion that only Geoff Johns and Gary Frank can realize. I also love how they’ve expanded on the importance of Earth Prime, seeing as how it has indeed gone through many changes. It’s good to finally have an explanation that implies that even through the many reboots and retcons that if DC wanted to, they could tap into those timelines as main universes at any time. Everyone’s favorite time period matters or will matter again soon.

Best of Marvel: Week of May 22nd, 2019

Runner Up: Venom – War of the Realms tie-in #14 (Legacy #179) – Cullen Bunn, Iban Coello, Andres Mossa and Clayton Cowles

Though this issue wasn’t written by Donny Cates, it does help to forward the amazing story he’s laid out and expands on Eddie Brock’s character and his relationship with the symbiote, somehow making him one of the more compelling and deep characters in Marvel today!

Eddie, after having received a new magical suit from a witch serving Malekith, goes after Roxxon and the forces of the dark in an attempt to save his son Dylan and the world from the Dark Elf. The suit is powered by his dark emotions and he lets loose by using his bad memories of Spider-Man and his own father. The rage starts to take him over and makes him kill the Roxxon agent attacking him before he’s set upon by a returned and rejuvenated Jack o’ Lantern. The two tussle throughout the rest of the issue until Lantern burns away most of Eddie’s new suit and transforms him into some kind of Venom Viking.

Coello’s art shines greatly as he never lets up on the amount of action in the issue. From the beginning, Eddie is tossing tanks and later uses an axe to slash and slice as he goes. The book is saturated with orange-reds as fire litters the background in Jack o’ Lanterns wake, giving every scene a beautiful lighting and sense of urgency. Venom himself his amazing to look at because all of his lines are jagged, sharp and contorted a lot of the time. He’s far more animalistic than he was when he was still wearing the actual symbiote and it definitely shows. Coello even manages to make the PG-13 levels of gore seem brutal and horrifying with Cowles help with sound effects; everything is squishy and silhouettes are used amazingly.

The story inside shines as well as Eddie himself realizes how much negative emotion he carries in his heart. He’s angry at his father, The Maker, Knull, the entire situation with the symbiote manipulating his emotions and states of health to keep their relationship going. At the same time, he’s seeing that this anger is still all him and wonders how much of this was his Other’s fault. We also see how he’s able to overcome his more murderous tendencies by wanting to protect the innocent and the lengths he’s willing to go to to do it.

As far as tie-ins go, this one lives up to the quality of storytelling from both Jason Aaron and Donny Cates stories respectively and even makes it more engaging to see how people in the thick of it are handling things. I love Eddie and can’t wait to see where War of the Realms takes him.

Best of Marvel: Week of May 22nd, 2019

Best of this Week: War of the Realms – Land of Giants #1 – Tom Taylor, Jorge Molina, Adriano di Benedetto, David Curiel and Joe Sabino

Leave it to Tom Taylor and Spider-Man to make me almost tear up about horses.

An upside and downside to these one-shot team up books is that they put on very unexpected teams together. The Darkforce Avengers are okay, but the War Avengers are just awful. The team sent out to rescue Thor, consisting of Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, however, are perfect. These guys know each other and play off of each other very well, making them an impressively cohesive unit.

Spider-Man sits at the heart of this team, acting as the narrator and the only one that chooses not to kill the Frost Giants. Everyone else does of course, and this even affects their weapon choices later in the book. Cap takes Thor’s axe, Iron Fist takes twin swords, Luke takes a hammer, Wolverine is his weapon and Spider-Man takes a shield and Wolverine gives him a helmet.

Each man mounts a flying horse and with Daredevil’s help, enter Jotunheim, the land of the Frost Giants. Immediately they’re attacked by archers who kill every horse aside from Spider-Man’s, who he has affectionately named Buttercup and protects with fury. After the fight, Spider-Man finds that the helmet allows him to communicate with Buttercup, revealing herself to be named Queen Arctorious, leader of the horses. She sends the group away to find Thor and says a prayer for her fallen comrades.

What Tom Taylor does especially well is weaving these somber moments into this action packed and sometimes jokey story. Spider-Man is written like a goof here, but when he needs to be serious, he’s treated as the most honorable and bravest of the team. The others are also written well enough with Luke and Danny being their monk and hard selves, Logan being the morbidly hilarious one and Cap taking the lead as always.

Coming upon Thor in a Berserker Rage, all of the team, sans Spider-Man, remark of times when they’ve gone into similar states of blind fury. They then help Thor tear through the armies of Frost Giants. Throughout the book, Jorge Molina struts his stuff as an artist alongside Curiel and Benedetto. While hits and falls don’t feel like they have the serious weight that they should, everything is beautiful to look at. Colors are bright and stand out greatly against the mostly white backgrounds and of course every hero is distinct by body type and fighting style. Even the art depicting the deaths of the horses is amazing.

The very end of the book is extremely heartbreaking and really makes this particular one-shot worth reading. While War of the Realms is very expansive and has to give a little bit of focus to everything going on at once, it is nice to have these stories being smaller scale. High recommend!

Best of DC: Week of May 15th, 2019

Runner Up: Superman #11 – Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Alex Sinclair and Josh Reed

The lives of those in the House of El are unreasonably hectic.

Maybe an hour or so after Jon returns and tells his parents about his time with his Grandfather, he and Superman are thrust into a giant war instigated by the returning Jor-El. Somehow, he’s managed to piss off the Thanagarians, the Khund, the normally peaceful Trilium Collective and they’re all gunning for him.

Ivan Reis absolutely makes this issue with his stunning visuals! The space combat is intense and Superman only makes it even better as he glides through ships with his red after image and beautiful explosions. The ships themselves are amazingly unique and specific to the races they come from. Heck, there’s a lot to be said for the many facial expressions that Superman makes as he “politely” asks each of them to stand down.

While the art was amazing, the story was good too. Finally, coming back to General Zod after about five issues, Rogol Zaar offers him a truce. Zaar promises to tell Zod why he destroyed Krypton if Zod can help him get out of the Phantom Zone. Somehow, because of Jor-El, the monstrous brute escapes. Zod appears as well, looking like he’s about to offer Jon Kent the ASS WHOOPING OF A LIFETIME, but he simply calms the boy as Zaar faces Superman and an unexpected ally appears.

This issue was a lot of fun and definitely helps to begin the pay off of Zod returning from the Phantom Zone and Zaar confronting the House of El in three generations. Superman was hilarious as he merely has to look at people, mildly annoyed, to get most of them to stop. Zaar, however, continues to be a bland brute as we only get teased about his motivations without any real development. I am excited about Zod’s future, however. I really REALLY want him to come out of this almost year long arc as a reluctant ally of Superman and for that, this is a high recommend!

Best of DC: Week of May 15th, 2019

Best of this Week: Teen Titans #30 – The Terminus Agenda: Epilogue – Adam Glass, Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo, Hi-Fi and Rob Leigh

It’s official. Damian is the WORST leader that the Teen Titans has ever had.

Everything comes to a head in the aftermath of Terminus Agenda as Red Arrow, Kid Flash and Damian are confronted by Crush, Djinn and Roundhouse after all that transpired. They’re angry, but at least for a moment are willing to work with the others on a solution to things. Damian rationalizes that his secret prison for supervillains is needed to put a stop to the villainous criminal organization, The Other.

Kid Flash initially relents and wants to put a stop to the prison, knowing he should have as soon as he found out about it. Red Arrow, sees differently and threatens to shoot him with an arrow if he attempts it. What makes this even worse is that it is these kinds of squabbles that led to Damian putting this team together in the first place, but because of his lies and cruelty it’s tearing apart at the seams.

Djinn, upon hearing his reasoning, remarks that thoughts like that are what led to her brother imprisoning her and making her commit atrocious acts in her past. Damian tries to take her arm and make her see his side, but Crush tosses him into the sign above their building in a rage.

Everything breaks down from here and Bernard Chang struts his dynamic art skills in one long string of action scenes.

The disorientation and weight from Kid Flash smashing Crush through the ceiling is heavy and Roundhouse plowing into the Speedster is even worse. Red Arrow manages to take Djinn down and Damian rocks Crush with a brutal kick to the face and it is magnificent. Everyone regains their composure and Damian gives something of an apology and says that THIS is why it was supposed to be kept secret, “to keep the burden on him.” The moment is ruined, however, with the sudden and violent arrival of a certain someone’s father.

While I generally love when a team comes together, I like it even better when their internal issues flair up, resulting in things like this. Damian didn’t want to be like his father, but became worse, Kid Flash hid things from his friends and tried to play innocent just like Barry does and Red Arrow regressed back to her murderous nature to kill Deathstroke. The new kids aren’t any better. Crush routinely lets her anger get the better of her and pushes people’s buttons, Djinn practices a level of self-righteousness that can be seen as naive and Roundhouse is just an awkward kid playing hero.

This team was a recipe for disaster.

I don’t really know how they can recover from this. Djinn’s trust in Robin, especially after she gave him control of the ring that controlled her, is broken and Crush hates him. I could see Roundhouse possibly staying with the team, but given his close nature with Kid Flash now kinda being severed… I don’t know. Red Arrow and Robin aren’t too far removed from the same motivations so they could stay together, but Kid Flash is likely done with the both of them. I did like this team, but aside from the upcoming issues focusing on one character, I don’t know how much further they can go together.

Best of Marvel: Week of March 15th, 2019

Runner Up: The Amazing Spider-Man: Hunted pt. 5 #21 (Legacy #822) – Nick Spencer, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Erick Arciniega and Joe Caramagna

Kraven has always seen Spider-Man as his greatest opponent.

The Spider has thwarted his greatest plots and schemes and proven himself to be the stronger man half of the time. The only time that Kraven has ever felt superior was when he “proved himself better at crime fighting” than Spider-Man in Kraven’s Last Hunt, killing himself soon after. He found peace in the dark only for it to be ripped away years later and surmises that the only way for him to achieve true death was for Spider-Man to kill him.

This Hunt that he set up with the animal themed villains served three purposes. To rid the world of these undeserving hunters, to kill off the more pathetic animal themed villains and to finally push Spider-Man over the edge.

Swarmed by clones of Vermin, Spider-Man monologues internally about how “this is it” and apologizes to Mary Jane, thinking that the Vermin are going to kill him only for Kraven to come to his rescue. He passes out and later wakes up, injuries healed and chained to the floor in a new Black Suit. (Not actually the Symbiote, just what Kraven considers Spider-Man’s most significant costume, unknown how many he’s made)

Doctor Curt Connors is also in there with him. He explains that the collar around Spider-Man’s neck is rigged to explode and that his inhibitor chip won’t let him rip the collar apart as it prevents him from hurting people. Kraven then shows a live feed of his son catching up to Black Cat and Billy Connors, almost certainly with a killing intent.

Dr. Connors says that the only way that he can save his son is by taking the chip off, but given that it’s attached to his spine, Spider-Man thinks it’ll kill him. In a great moment, Connors says that it’s a chance he’s willing to take and hearkens back to Peter’s power and responsibility speeches and that Spider-Man doesn’t know what real responsibility is because he doesn’t have kids yet.

It’s a good character driven moment that brings Connors full circle. When he didn’t have control of the Lizard, he actually killed Billy. After his resurrection, he wondered if his son remembered what happened, but was too fixed on just having his family back to ask. And now he has the chance to make up for his horrible actions by becoming a beast again? It’s good stuff.

Peter begrudgingly agrees to help, but this is what Kraven wanted. He needed to test Spider-Man to see if he could go the extra mile, to see if he was finally ready to face the Hunter. By removing the chip, he’s also removed a part of himself; the part that would have held back, the part that would have found another way, the part that wouldn’t rip Kraven apart.

Garardo Sandoval’s art absolutely smashes this issue. It’s visceral and makes everything look so much more serious while still maintaining an almost 90s look. The thick jagged lines give everything an edge, making you feel when Peter’s being attacked by Vermin. Kraven showing up in his iconic clothing has weight to it as he’s portrayed in ominous shadow and The Lizard looks absolutely horrifying.

This story is almost at its conclusion and I’m so excited. In story time, all of this couldn’t have been more than a few hours, but it will have aged Peter considerably. As much as any story has pushed him to the brink, everytime he has to deal with Kraven at his most dangerous, he loses something major in himself. Honestly at this point, I want to almost say that Kraven is absolutely one of Spider-Man’s arch enemies and Hunted is the cement of that.