Best of Marvel: Week of July 17th, 2019

Runner Up: The Superior Spider-Man #9 (Legacy #42) – Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles

The “Superior” Spider-Man is actually starting to live up to the ideal.

After the events of the War of the Realms, the Spider-Man of San Francisco is awarded the key to the city for his efforts in making sure that there were zero casualties as Frost Giants stomped their way across SanFran. He accepts the gesture, but “crime” calls him away, only it’s not a crime, he simply thinks he has better things to do with his time than deal with the trivialities of ceremonies. He heads back to his lab and converses with Anna Maria about her making him go to the ceremony and summarily dismisses his colleague Emma after she apologizes for freaking out on him on their first date.

Otto seems to be in a bigger huff than usual and takes his frustrations out on a minor villain by the name of Turner D. Century. Century’s quickly defeated after a savage beating by Otto and the surprise appearance by Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Peter shows up at the request of Anna Maria and being one of the men who knows Otto best, he simply asks what’s wrong. Otto has been irritable, moody and angry since he saved the city and he obviously has no one to talk to.

He immediately spills to Peter that while he was able to keep San Francisco safe, thousands of people still died in the US, more abroad. He removes his mask and Hawthorne paints the face of a man that’s tortured by guilt and doubt. Otto feels that he’s the greatest mind in the world and that he should have thought of something. He doesn’t want to hear Pete say that he can’t save everyone, but it’s eating him up inside that he can’t.

By far, this is some of the best character work and advancement that we’ve seen from Otto in a while. He tried to become a hero, tried to be a good guy while he was inhabiting Peter’s body, but now that he’s doing it on his own and seeing the fruits and consequences of his labors, he sees how hard it is. He’s becoming a good guy and I’m here for it.

After Peter tells him that he’s doing the hero thing right, Emma shows up on the roof that they’ve swung up to and Otto breaks down in tears in front of her. He tries to posture that he’s a loner and asks if he looks like someone that needs anything from anyone before being held by her. He cries in her arms and they finally go on a second date with a surprising enemy spying on them.

I love it when heroes become good guys, no matter how brief it might be, watching Otto rise before his inevitable fall is interesting. I love the fact that he’s sort of mended fences with Anna Maria, I love that he’s found a near intellectual equal in Emma. He has a life and is using his smarts as a teacher and a hero in San Francisco. His ego is still huge, but he’s finally starting to see his faults, becoming Superior than Doctor Octopus.

Mike Hawthorne’s art is stellar. He has a talent for faces and body language. Otto expresses frustration, annoyance and grief; not only in his face, but with the slumping of his shoulders, the shaking in his hands and the tension in his fists. He even somehow finds a way to differentiate between Peter and Otto’s bodies given that Otto’s is cloned.

This Superior Spider-Man has far more emotion in this one issue than Otto’s had in the many years since the original run. It’s a joy to see the once horrible villain embrace his own good emotions for the benefit of others. This is a definite high recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of July 17th, 2019

Best of this Week: Uncanny X-Men #22 (Legacy #644) – Matthew Rosenberg, Salvador Larroca, David Messina, GURU-eFX and Joe Caramagna

It’s the end of an era and for once, I’m terrified.

I’ve been a fan of the X-Men for a long time. I’d even go so far as to say that they’re my favorite team in all of comics ever because of the range that their stories can go, from tales of marginalization to various stories of abuse and moral relativism, the X-Men have been amazing so why has it taken them so long to feel relevant again? At some point even the best books run out of good stories to tell or end up retreading old waters for a drink of nostalgia and that’s been the X-Men for the last five to six years.

Cyclops had become what Magneto was, young versions of the original five were brought to the future, villains like Mojo and Exodus were brought back, Sentinel threats reemerged X-Men died and were brought back. In the grand scheme of things, it was all a mess with no cohesive direction and Marvel noticed. In comes Matthew Rosenberg who, I admittedly, was very wary of because I hated both his time on Astonishing X-Men and the Multiple Man mini-series. I don’t know if it was all his idea, but he decided to wipe the slate clean with a new Uncanny X-Men series and… it was stupendous from start to finish.

In the aftermath of Emma Frost’s actions from the last issue, the X-Men that are still on our Earth have found a peace that Mutants have never known. With humanities knowledge of mutants erased, Scott Summers is at a loss and questioning what his role in life is now that no one needs protecting. He and Dani Moonstar, aka Mirage, wax poetic on the nature of mutations and what their next course of action is. Scott is morose, seeing as his mutation made him function primarily as a weapon to fight back against humanity as it tried to destroy him, but now that they don’t know he exists, what is he good for?

The dynamic between them is interesting. Scott has been fighting since he was a teenager and he’s only ever seen this life as one big war. Dani is still young, but has the experience of several lifetimes and all that she can think of is helping people. Both of them have experienced loss but process it differently. Scott sees all of his friends as soldiers in the fight where Dani sees them as family. Of course this is because Scott has been leading everyone for so long and Dani has gone through thick and thin with the New Mutants, the Fearless Defenders and the X-Men themselves.

This causes a disagreement between the two and she simply walks away from him as Alex Summers, aka Havok, speaks with his brother about the freedom of being ignored over being targeted. On their way back to the Hellfire Mansion, Alex explains that every bit of leadership he’s ever had to exhibit was learned from Scott. Even with all of his brooding, Scott has been a great leader and it definitely helped when Alex was an Avenger, and he lets his brother know that he’s thankful for it before they’re attacked by some kind of golden Sentinel.

Scott’s unable to damage it and Alex surmises that they’ll never make it back to the mansion before the Sentinel kills them both, so in an act of self sacrifice, knowing that his powers won’t affect Scott, he self destructs and destroys the evil machine. Soon after, more arrive under the control of the General that originally help Emma Frost captive and target the remaining mutants. The battle is hard fought with heavy casualties before the rest of the X-Men return from Nate Grey’s utopian world, winning the battle for mutantkind.

This is the final issue of Uncanny X-Men and it ends on a bittersweet note.

*Slight SPOILERS BELOW*

Havok, a man who was on top of the world, brought low and tried to climb his way back up made the ultimate sacrifice just so that his brother could continue being the leader he is. Madrox, who was just brought back to life has met yet another grisly end, but the status quo has reset though very similarly to the Astonishing X-Men or Mutopia eras in a way. Jean Grey has returned to Scott, Emma and Magneto appear to be on the side of angels again and the X-Men are choosing not to hide anymore.

Shifting focus from this amazingly written and fantastically drawn book, I want to look towards the future and the threads left untied. House of X begins next week and I don’t know how to make heads or tails of things. Who is the man with the giant globe on his head? Is it professor X who had recently taken over the body of Fantomex and is now known as X? Will Magneto ever make use of the Brotherhood he established late last year? What will happen to Illyana now that she’s a demon again? I don’t know, but I am very excited.

This run was great. Rosenberg wrote everything in the most dire way possible given the situation and it fit each and every month. Scott remained hopeful in the face of ever present adversity, flanked by Logan who back up almost all of his actions. Characterizations were great from Dani acting as a voice of reason and Hope being a militaristic badass and the surprisingly black humored Jamie. Larroca’s art never faltered in being action packed but also still and dark.

Whatever comes next from this team, I have high hopes for.

Best of Marvel: Week of July 10th, 2019

Runner Up: Miles Morales: Spider-Man #8 (Legacy #248) – Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garrón, David Curiel and Travis Lanham

Something about black people and being experimented on makes me uncomfortable.

In the last issue, Miles was captured by some sort of weird teleporting being after helping Bombshell fight off some ridiculously strong robots. This issue begins with him in some dark room, strapped to some kind of operating table with a heart beat monitor and only a creepy robot-thing to keep him company.

Miles looks absolutely terrified. Not only because he doesn’t know where he is or who captured him, but the robot interacting with him says that its boss, The Assessor, will target Miles’ family and friends if he doesn’t comply. Miles agrees to the experiments and tests if only just to keep them safe.

The Assessor tests his combat, speed and climbing abilities and pushes Miles to his absolute limits. He’s run ragged in a way that is seldom seen except in cases where the threat is life or death. It goes on and on for an undetermined amount of time until Miles wakes up in an operating room where doctors discuss his DNA and maybe kidnapping his family for more subjects.

This angers and scares Miles into breaking free, beating up the doctors and defeating the teleporting enemy from before to make his grand escape.

Only… it turns out to be another test.

Saladin Ahmed absolutely nailed this issue with his focus on the bleakness and fear in Miles and the situation he’s in. He made me genuinely terrified to turn the pages and see the next torture Miles would have to go through. Ahmed writes Miles like the scared teenage superhero that he is, he’s hopeful, but frantic in the face of an enemy that knows who he is and how to hurt him.

Javier Garrón and David Curiel do their best to nail the unsettling feeling of the sanitized experimental environment that Miles finds himself in and utilize panel layouts to make the book even more terrifying.

Every blank space around each panel is black compared to the normal white. Every panel is also small and feels claustrophobic, leaning heavily into the nature of the facility Miles finds himself in. In it’s own way, it’s clean and very structured to the point where it feels like you could be trapped reading the book.

I also feel like there’s something here in the fact that it’s the black Spider-Man being experimented on. Of course Pete has been poked and prodded every which way for years, but the way that the doctors and the robot were talking about Miles, made him seem less than human. He was never called a kid, just “the Subject.”

Truly there are three absolutely horrifying pages in this issue. The first is where Miles has been ordered to sleep and he’s shrouded in darkness aside from his face and the heartbeat monitor. The other is the double page spread of about 18 – 26 panels of Miles running, fighting, being scared, bleeding and all of the tortures he’s put through while captured.

This issue is a high recommend because it’s a well written and fantastically drawn chapter in this Miles Morales run. Saladin Ahmed draws heavily from his Black Bolt series in terms of storytelling and Garrón makes it all so real and visceral. As far as this run goes, this issue and the one prior are pretty good starting points if you’ve missed the rest!

Best of Marvel: Week of July 10th, 2019

Best of this Week: Wolverine Vs. Blade – Marc Guggenheim, Dave Wilkins and Travis Lanham

It is quite possible to just have TOO MUCH AWESOME in one book.

Wolverine Vs. Blade had been advertised for a while, but that didn’t stop it from hitting me like a train from out of nowhere. Hile the story is very one note, it still fits both of these characters and the art elevates it to a level that I haven’t been excited about from Marvel since Clayton Crain was doing Carnage USA and X-Force. It blended the line between almost 3D and photorealistic and the writing turned this into an awesome buddy-hero story with hilarity and badass banter.

Taking place in Wolverine’s X-Force days, prior to Avengers vs. X-Men and before Blade became a full time member of the Avengers, we open to Blade and Wolverine in the middle of taking down a Cult of vampires known as “The Creed.” The book wastes no time on the banter or the action as Wolverine makes a nod to one of their previous interactions where blade stuck him full of Vampire blood while slicing a vampire head into pieces.

Wolverine shines in these opening pages in the always badass black and grey. His face is alive with burning vampire hating rage, showcasing his sharp canines and HEAVILY muscled body as he slashes and slices through vampires with the reckless abandon that he’s known for. The vampire LOOK scary, but Wolverine IS SCARY, especially covered in their blood and surrounded by the still burning remains of their bodies.

After thinking they’ve completely torn through the cult, Blade offers Wolverine a marshmallow from the fire that he’s about to set. Wolverine thinks he’s joking, but then, in a moment that I regret laughing heartily at, Blade shows off a single white marshmallow and gives us ONE of the best shit eating grin in this entire book.

Cutting to six months later, Wolverine is being attacked by very minor villain, Dragoness, who has been turned into a vampire. For no other reason, I think, than to flex his art skills and give me something to fawn over, Wilkins draws Wolverine standing with his back to a window and arms flexed so hard that I almost thought his veins were going to EXPLODE. He was Huge Jackedman levels of vascular and needed to rehydrate like hell, but I couldn’t look away from how ridiculous and magnificent he looked. However, he cuts through one of Dragoness’ wings and sends her spiraling into a conveniently placed piece of sharpened wood. Soon after, he finds the item that she was fighting him for; a mysterious box radiating with magic.

Elsewhere in Germany, Blade is taking down a Vampire Count who fires at him with eye beams that curiously look like Cyclops’. Blade allows the vampire to think he has him on the ropes before setting off explosive charges that trap the vampire under rubble. Blade is the undisputed king of banter in this issue as he offers to pick up a rock or two before the sun rises and kills the vampire for a little bit of information. When the vampire says he’d rather die, Blade gives another grin as the sun rises and burns the vamp to ash.

Both men are given information from their sources, Wolverine in Doctor Strange and Blade in some fellow he dangles off the side of a building. They learn about the prophecy of a Vampire Messiah named Varkis. Logan sees a pictogram that looks like him fighting Blade and Blade learns that Varkis may be a mutant. Armed with their information, the two make their ways separately to South America for a final confrontation.

The fight is epic.

Both men ripple with brutal and blood energy and their musculature is a sight to behold. Blade impales Wolverine with his sword, but Wolverine, being the badass that he is, rips it out and slashes blade across the face, destroying his glasses. Wolverine pounces at him again, but Blade hits him with an anti-vampire glave and Wolverine stands confused. The two work out their equal confusion until Varkis appears, looking like Wolverine, but still with bone claws.

He tells the pair that he was created from a portion of Wolverine that was sliced off and grown using magic as Wolverine has left many parts all over the world, but none have spawned a whole person. Wolverine tries to take on Varkis while Blade cuts through more lesser vampires until Wolverine remembers the picture and suggests he and blade recreate the battle ON VARKIS. Wolvie aims low while Blade aims high and Varkis is thoroughly killed.

Blade gives his last shit eating grin as he says he forgot the marshmallows this time after they blow up another temple. It’s a nice call back to earlier and the perfect cherry to top this wonderful book.

This book was a treasure. Wilkins art was amazingly dynamic, making every fight scene feel like it was brutal, bloody and horrifically violent. His colors straddle the line between very dark and amazingly bright when they need to be. The red from Wolverine’s eyes in the X-Force costume stand out alongside the red of Blade’s sunglasses as they glean with their movements and create little motion lines as they go. Most of the book takes place during the night and Wilkins makes great use of lighting to set the mood, giving a real goth or Castlevania-esque feel to things.

Guggenheim is in top form for the characterization of Blade of Wolverine. Logan is no-nonsense and violent to a terrifying degree as he always should be. Blade is snarky and effortlessly cool like Wesley Snipes before him. If there were to be a mini-series between these two, I would love it if this team came together again, but for a One-Shot, this was absolutely fantastic.

If you want to see amazing art and basic story that still is a riot to enjoy, this book is definitely made for you. Dave Wilkins wows on every page and Guggenheim brings his skills back to the best of the mid-2000s Marvel style. If it did have any pitfalls, it would have to be that it should have been even longer. High recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Runner Up: Savage Avengers #3 – Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato Jr., Frank Martin and Travis Lanham

Well, this was wild, wacky and amazingly violent.

Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr. have come up with an absolutely fantastic story that’s full of brutal action, some cheeky comedy and remains true to every character involved up to a point. It pulls no punches and with Deodato’s amazing art, not only does it read well, but it looks damn good at the same time.

Starting off with a bang, we see Frank Castle tearing his way through Kulan Gath’s stronghold in the Savage Land looking for the bodies of his family. Of course Frank knows that it’s a trap, but never in his life has he let that stop him. With rage as his eyes, he tears through the Hand Ninjas, using a sniper rifle at close range and taking their own katanas to use against them. Suddenly, one of the ninjas puts a sai into the barrel of his weapon and he immediately recognizes them. Elektra has joined the fight.

Elektra seems to know of Kulan Gath’s plan to use the blood of warriors to summon something and she’s there to put a stop to it. She looks absolutely fierce back in her old gear, especially as she roundhouses and slices through Hand Ninjas while telling Castle to be careful as they make their way through the castle.

Meanwhile, Wolverine is captured by Gath and is suspended over his blood pit. Unfortunately for Logan, his healing ability only helps the evil Wizard as his blood only makes the plot come closer to fruition and Logan has an ever flowing amount of it. Soon after, Jericho, in the disguise of one of Gath’s students, tries to fool him. The Wizard sees through the ruse and gets stabbed in the chest, but given his sheer power, says that the insult hurts a lot more than the blade does and Jericho insults him by saying that’s not even worth Doctor Strange’s time.

Just as Gath is about to stab Jericho again, remarking that in his time he is the Sorcerer Supreme, he is shot right in the head by Castle. Gath makes Castle an offer to return his family to him alive in exchange for finding the thief who stole his amulet. Logan smirks and muses that the thief is long gone by now… only for him to return and threaten the Wizard. Conan is portrayed is a comedic man out of time and element in contrast to his own books where he is as serious as death and twice as deadly. Elektra frees Logan who collapses as he tries to stand and fight and Gath commands his forces to attack.

Conan picks up Logan and uses his still unsheathed claws as weapons as he swings the diminutive mutant around. Gath uses his magic to toss Logan into Elektra and runs his hand through the heart of Conan for the Amulet of Power and just as things are getting bleak, a certain symbiote attaches itself to the warrior as Gath summons his creature, Jhoatun Lau, The Marrow God.

Savage Avengers is shaping up to be the same kind of sleeper hit that Secret Avengers was back in 2012, especially while building Conan up to be a possible major player in future stories and hopefully in the upcoming Absolute Carnage event now that he’s had the Symbiote become part of him. The rest of this team itself is pretty good, fusing Castle and Logan’s rage with Jericho’s magic, Elektra’s skill and Conan’s cunning, this is definitely a book to keep watch of.

Best of Marvel: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Best of this Week: Captain America and the Invaders – Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Jay David Ramos and Joe Caramagna

What better way to celebrate American Freedom than by having Captain America inspire us to keep the country safe from Facist, Authoritarian rule of the dirty Nazis?

Reuniting two of the co-creators of DCs All-Star Squadron, Captain America and the Invaders tells a one-shot story of an adventure in the Bahamas Triangle a short time before the team actually assembles. With fantastic art by Ordway and perfectly campy writing, this book captures the feel of both the 1940s books and the stellar 80s works that these two are famous for.

Beginning with Captain America, Steve Rogers, bursting through and interrupting a meeting of home grown Nazi-sympathizers, the book manages to set the stage for what the action and dialogue will be like for the entire issue. Captain America is certain of his every action, punching and jumping over obstacles to take down the bastards and when one tries to escape, Steve sets upon him with fervor as the FBI emerges to arrest the Nazis. Once they’re taken down, Cap gets his next assignment, Protection Detail for President Roosevelt as he meets the Duke of Windsor as he governs the Bahamas..

We get the background that the Duke stepped down as King at the request of Winston Churchill for getting too cosy with the Nazis after being guests in Germany. President Roosevelt hopes to sway them to America’s side by offering them protection from Nazis. Ordway makes sure that everything looks absolutely of the time. Cars and some structures look exactly like they did in the 40s, however, the US Navy Sailor uniforms he and another sailor by the name of Jim Hammond wear for the undercover assignment, are not. Captain America himself looks very good in his original costume.

After a nasty storm, the President’s ship arrives on the island and not long after, he, The Duke and his wife are met by Baron Heinrich Zemo, the father of Helmut Zemo. Zemo takes everyone hostage as his men kill all of the Sailors protecting the President aside from one draped in the American flag and another who can become living fire. The Human Torch looks absolutely awesome “flaming on” to contrast the cloudy night sky. His flames are seen from the house and he proceeds to fly into the air and burn several Nazis alive. I’ve always loved the old look of a mostly naked Torch with bright oranges and yellows for the flame and his body with hatch lines for details.

As Zemo prepares to kill Roosevelt, the lights in the house turn off and a mysterious agent proceeds to knock out Zemos men while the Baron runs away. The rain picks up and Hammond’s flame goes out as other Nazis escape into a U-Boat. Rogers catches up to Zemo who uses a Death Ray of some sort to fight the American and is goaded into fighting in an enclosed space during the chase. Cap gets one good punch in, sending the Death Ray out of Zemos hands, causing the roof to fall on Caps head as Zemo makes his escape.

Cutting back to the escaping U-Boat, the Nazis think they’ve made the escape from America’s living flamethrower as their ship is torn through by an unknown assailant, Namor showing up to make sure that they didn’t get away. Cap and Hammond get back into their uniforms and make up stories about what happened to them during the night as they rejoin the protection detail with their flimsy excuses before musing to each other about meeting up again in the future.

This book was a fun little romp in a simpler time and definitely had less seriousness than the current Invaders series, but did have the heart given that Thomas co-created the team way back in 1969. It felt like he was slipping back into his old baseball glove and found that it still fit. Ordway’s art was well complimented by Ramos’ colors and looks amazing. I know he’d done some cover work recently, but his panel to panel art was certainly fantastic, like he hadn’t missed a step at all.

Flying the flag high and on Independence Eve ensures that this book is a must-read!

Best of Marvel: Week of June 26th, 2019

Runner Up: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #20 (Legacy #720) – Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith and Cory Petit

I love She-Hulk.

She’s always been a fun, sexy character that’s easy for me to project my McMahon-esque muscle fetish on and this issue deconstructs that in the most brutal way that needed to be acknowledged.

Starting off with a trial of the She-Hulks, Attorney She-Hulk accuses current She-Hulk of flushing Jen’s reputation as the jolly yet sassy, beautiful She-Hulk down the drain after her powers were enhanced by the Celestials in the first arc of this Avengers series.

Effectively, Killing the Fun. Current She-Hulk objects and the two get into a fist fight as we cut back to reality and see that it’s just Jen giving herself some therapy to control her powers.

But the theme of “No Fun” runs throughout the issue almost to a maddening degree. It’s the name of this chapter, Jen makes nods to it and even wears a shirt with the saying on it. I don’t take this to mean that Aaron dislikes the old She-Hulk, but that the objectification that came with her was not fun or good at all and that is a strong stance to take.

Sensational She-Hulk was an amazing series, not only for the writing and art, but also because of those spectacular pin-up covers. She-Hulk has been one of Marvel’s top tier sex symbols for decades almost to the point where it overshadowed a complex character with a fantastic personality and maybe more heroic deeds than her cousin, especially as he’s a Horrifying Gamma Monster now and she’s an Avenger saving the world.

Through the book, Jen tells us how villains would make crude jokes at her old form, grope her during fights and just in general not take her seriously. As she fights Ulik, King of the Trolls (a title that doubles as a use against some fans that didn’t accept Jane Foster Thor as he makes a comment about Thor being a name and not a legacy to pass on) he asks her to marry him as she beats his ass to a pulp. This, though contrary I think to the point that only her slim form got this kind of harassment, is the objectification and invalidation of her character.

Deadpool, for whatever reason, suddenly appears. He asks her why she stopped being funny. She replies so that she’s free to be ugly, to which Deadpool replies as she jumps away, “Can’t you do both?” This gets expanded on as Jen monologues of a conversation that she and Bruce had, where he said that he was envious of her Hulk looking the way that she did and that people didn’t run away in fear of her.

Of course, we then learn that she’s been hit on during team ups, groped, had topless pictures taken of her while she was in the Fantastic Four and just had horrible stuff happen to her that would never happen to Bruce. She thinks that being an “ugly monster” sounds good sometimes.

This book was powerful in exploring why Jen doesn’t necessarily miss being The Sensational She-Hulk. Even after that’s what it seemed like she was going back to after Mariko Tamaki’s Hulk series, I can see how Aaron feels about her character and the respect he has for her. She’s still not as strong as Bruce, but goddamn if she isn’t still one of the strongest Avengers.

And now to ruin any good will and intent I had with this review by gushing and arguing against the “Ugly Monster” statement with my own personal opinion.

Ed McGuinness has a very cartoony and exaggerated style of drawing and I absolutely love it, especially when it comes to heavily muscled characters. Back when he was doing pencils for every Hulk series, McGuinness always drew the She-Hulks exquisitely and now that Jen Walters She-Hulk has taken on a more JACKED look, she’s only gotten better.

Jen knows her Hulk form to be ugly and that gives her all of the validation and strength that she needs. I, HOWEVER, see “ugly” and all I can ask is WHERE?

In ny OH SO HUMBLE OPINION, this Hulk design is one of her best and most appealing. I loved the design of the “Broken” She-Hulk from Mariko Tamaki’s run with the character and McGuinness’ design builds on that with AN EVEN BIGGER FRAME and the MUSCULATURE to carry it.

Jen’s biceps and triceps are so large that both Scott Steiner and Hulk Hogan would blush and cower in fear. Her hands are boulder hard and could easily crush ANYONE with no effort. Her shoulders are wide and imposing in a way that should strike fear into even Mephistos heart.

Her legs and abs ripple with the strength to RIP KICK CELESTIALS APART and DO CRUNCHES WITH THEIR MASSIVE REMAINS as weight. Her chiseled jaw and face of anger make her a FORCE to be reckoned with. Any coward that runs away in terror of the sight may be justified, but anyone who sees this is as “Ugly” does not deserve the gift of being crushed under the weight of any of these muscles.

This She-Hulk is TOP THREE in most beautiful HULK designs and it takes up all three spots. Maybe this issue was directed at me, in regards to undue comments about Jen Walters appearance, but to mirror Ulik’s statement – Marry Me tho.

Best of Marvel: Week of June 26th, 2019

Best of this Week: Conan the Barbarian #7 (Legacy #282) – Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham

Conan’s heart is as cold as ice.

As such, he has great trouble letting people in and, in all honesty, why would he? He’s a thief and a killer in a world of thieves, killers and maniacs around every corner. The very idea of trust and love is something that Conan keeps far away from his heart as either a distraction or something that can be a grave detriment to any traveler. As such, when this book begins and Conan requests a few ladies of the night to join him on a journey, he is very cold to them initially.

He rides ahead of them on his horse to avoid unnecessary talk while they gossip amongst themselves over his intentions; whether or not he’s going to sacrifice them to a savage god, or planning a robbery and they laugh at the barbarian. It’s not uncommon for anyone to underestimate Conan, but his lack of willingness to touch them or even share a tent with them, given the nature of almost everyone in the Hyborian Age, is a little bit suspicious. We then get our first hints of what the underlying plot of this issue might be as Conan is unable to sleep because of memories of a certain Pirate Queen.

The next morning, one of the girls holds a blade to Conan’s throat and the barbarian doesn’t flinch. The Khitan woman asks where he is leading them and he surprises her by acknowledging what kind of hardships that they’ve shared in life, without any prior knowledge and she, the coldest of the girls sort of falls for Conan, earning him the respect of all of them. That’s what makes Conan great and so admirable, he has lived a life that most Hyperborians could only dream of and has suffered almost every pain imaginable. His eyes are filled with conviction and a darkness that commands respect.

Not only are Conan’s words hard, but his body is as well. I haven’t commented on it in a while, but Asrar’s work still shines amazingly as he draws Conan as a rock hard, man of power as he protects the girls from wolves. Though only one panel, Conan looks as ferocious as the beasts, driving his sword through the wolves, blood splashing from their wounds. His biceps and triceps tighten as he overcomes the animals in his frothing rage. Conan is intimidating and as the girls look on, their various faces from stunned bewilderment to gazes of lustful want only makes this entire book that much more beautiful to look at.

Not only is the action good, but the scenes of downtime are even better. With Wilson’s spectacular coloring, their evening feast feels all the more intimate. Conan, unable to fetch more than a rabbit, is surprised when the girls show up with a nice dinner and the way that they look at him, lit with the warm orange of their fire, is fantastic. Conan sat by and ate their food, thinking it was the finest meal he’d had in months and that was the moment they’d entered his heart. He listened to them tell tales of their various homes and stunning sights and when he did speak after being asked why he left Cimmeria, he looked at all of them and said that he knew that there was a world with sights that would leave him stunned.

He didn’t sleep with memories on his mind that night. The next morning, he reveals his plan to the girls, that they would sneak upon a pleasure ship so that Conan may kill a man that he had his eyes set upon for quite some time, telling the girls of a great reward for his head. Making fun of him for looking like a shipwrecked hobo, they clean him up nicely and board the ship. Unfortunately, Conan’s drink was poisoned and he finds himself dangling over croc infested waters at the mercy of the ships owner, Pheidus, an Argossean money lender. Love had made him sloppy. Pheidus, thinking he has the upperhand because he knew Conan was coming, drops him into the crocs, while taunting him about having the girls captured.

But, amazingly, the girls kill the guards holding them, toss Conan a sword to free himself and tear through Pheidus’ men. Violence is sexy and this scene might as well have been porn because not only did Conan rip and tear as normal, but each of the five girls did as well. They slashed and sliced with daggers and fists, grit their teeth in rage and screamed the same mad scream that Conan is famous for. As Conan tosses Pheidus from the ship, his inner monologue explains why he targeted him with such fervor.

Conan’s thoughts drift to his one true love, Bêlit, and how Pheidus ensured that her father would flounder on a sand dune until he died. This was all personal to him and the sheer amount of depth this adds to his character is astounding. Conan and Bêlit had one of the most beautiful and storied romances in Conan’s history before her death due to greed MANY, MANY years ago. Conan taking revenge on a man that wronged her family whose vice also happens to be greed is mighty poetic.

This book, as with the others in this series was absolutely beautiful. Jason Aaron really understands this character, his moods, his wants and desires and Mahmud Asrar is able to capture it with perfect line art and intensity. The action is amazing and using these one-shot stories to connect the overarching narrative is masterful and I cannot wait to see where this all ends up, high recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of June 19th, 2019

Runner Up: Iron Man #13 (Legacy #613) War of the Realms tie-in – Gail Simone, Paolo Villanelli, Edgar Delgado and Joe Caramagna

There’s a lot to be said for how greed changes a man.

Tony Stark, eccentric, billionaire tech mogul, loved by millions across the world definitely had his flaws. He used to be a terrible alcoholic who sold weapons of war to the highest bidder until his failings led him down the path of heroism. His is a very heartwarming story and it’s intriguing to see what he used to be reflected back to him in the form of a greedy, magic leaking dragon as the War of the Realms reaches his front door.

With Tony’s armor being transformed due to being infected after his first encounter with Sadurang, he has to contend with one of the few things he tends to avoid like a plague: Magic. As a man of science and technology, it makes sense that Tony is averse to such things, taking a more structured approach to fighting people like Doctor Doom. He figures that it has to function similarly to coding and does his best to figure things out as lives are in danger.

His thoughts immediately drift to Sadurang and how similar they are. Sadurang, the All-Consuming is a gold hungry dragon, sometimes in the form of a man, whose appetite causes him to destroy everything that will be a profit to him. Tony used to be much the same and claims that while he was changed, his time in the eScape let him hit the bottle again and he hasn’t managed to tell his new girlfriend, Janet van Dyne aka. The Wasp. To me, this seems like the next step to a destructive end after Rhodey manages to stop him from walking into a bar in the last issue. He’s not dealing with his problem by telling her and only seems to be pulled further in as Sadurang mocks him for his weakness.

With Janet and Rhodey’s help, they manage to take down Sadurang by distraction and utilizing an improved Mk. I armor. Villanelli’s art shined throughout this issue. I have a weakness for stipple shading and this issue is full of it, almost giving it sort of Pop Art feel that really helps with the gleans and reflections of Tony’s armor. Delgado’s coloring accentuates this by making everything much brighter. Tony’s red and gold stand out amongst the beautiful purple magic effects and Sadurang is beautiful in a similar shade of red. Wasps yellow makes her look downright angelic as she zips around before the bright silver of the Mk. I armor steals the show.

With the upcoming Ultron Agenda being teased by Mike Deodato Jr. and Marvel a few days ago and the secrets that Tony is keeping from Janet, this book is a high recommend from me because of the story possibilities that are likely to follow from this. Tony has an awful habit of pushing the women he loves away and as Ultron returns, will his secrets spill out then? Who knows, but buy this book!

Best of Marvel: Week of June 19th, 2019

Best of this Week: Guardians of the Galaxy #6 (Legacy #156) – Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, David Curiel and Cory Petit

Talk about an explosive end to the first arc, huh?

Battered and bruised from their fight with Hela and the Black Order, Quill and the rest of the Guardians are pissed off and ready for round two. With Lockjaw’s help, they teleport to Knowhere, taking the fight directly to villains.

Geoff Shaw takes this story to its absolute peak with his amazing art. Propelled by a psychic dragon construct created by Moondragon, Beta Ray Bill sends his Stormbreaker hammer into Hela, taking her out of the fight. The sight is awesome, but unfortunately the only teamwork really seen here. The dragon looks ferocious and rightfully takes Hela out, or else the fight would have been very one sided again.

Shots are far and mostly wide, showcasing the various means of attack as the Guardians tear through Thanos’ alien creatures, mostly with Gladiator shooting everything in sight with his laser eyes. Shaw makes things look grand in scale, even when things are focused on one character such as Phyla-Vell after taking Proxima Midnight out of the fight with rays from her hands.

Things get even more tense as Peter confronts Cosmic Ghost Rider, who betrayed the Guardians in the last issue because of Hela’s control of the dead. He falls apart as Hela’s control over him fades and it’s actually pretty sad, mostly thanks to Petit’s lettering making The Riders apology even more melancholic.

Quill catches up to Gamora, who went to stop Thanos from being resurrected, and tries to convince her against killing her Uncle Eros, aka Starfox. Starfox had been the main antagonist of this Guardians book, thinking that Thanos would use Gamora’s body to house his consciousness when it turned out to be his Brother, the only other Titan left. Gamora rationalizes that if it had indeed been her that Thanos took over and she were in Peter’s shoes, she would have killed the possessed body in an instant, stabbing Eros through the heart and preventing Thanos from being resurrected.

That one panel was absolutely beautiful, if a bit marred by the lettering covering the exit wound. Eros snaps out of his trance and looks like he’s gasping in pain. Gamora is resolute in her decision, much like she was when she killed Thanos in the beginning of Infinity Wars (2018). She apologizes to her Uncle who muses that the plot was miserably predictable. It’s heart wrenching, especially knowing how light hearted and heroic Eros was before all of this started, seeing him fall as low as he did, almost killing Gamora before the gambit was discovered.

Suddenly, Thanos’ body erupts awake, though his mind not fully intact due to the transfer not being completed. Hela returns and in her anger, fires a black hole missile at Gamora, but it gets deflected back at the Incomplete Thanos, causing him to become the center of the black hole. The Guardians escape as Hela and presumably everyone else gets sucked into the black hole.

Setting up the Death of Rocket arc at the end, I really enjoyed this issue. Not only was it action packed, it also subverted my expectations about its outcome. I absolutely thought that Thanos would come back in full force in the final pages of the story and while he may in the future, it was great to see that it won’t be a YEAR after he was killed in the first place. I had some initial bad feelings about this team of Guardians, but they meld together very well. The power of Beta Ray Bill, Phyla-Vell and Moondragon combined with the skill of Star Lord, Groot and Gamora makes for an absolutely interesting and banterful team. Also because I’m a huge Phyla-Dragon fan and I can’t wait to see more of them. High recommend!