Best of Marvel: Week of October 16th, 2019

Best of this Week: Absolute Carnage #4 – Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, Jay Leisten and Clayton Cowles

God is Coming and Eddie Brock is ready for him.

Things have not been looking good for Eddie, Peter and the rest of the heroes of New York. Carnage’s brutality and efficiency has seen him gain the upper hand at every turn imaginable, allowing him to snatch up codices from almost everyone he’s encountered. Ghost Riders haven’t been safe, Spider-People haven’t been safe and even girls with magical powers over hell haven’t been able to stop Carnage’s warpath.

The last issue saw him take the appearance of Eddie Brock to infiltrate The Maker’s lab to steal the codices from Captain America, The Thing and Wolverine, taking everyone by surprise and seeing the Hulk use the Venom Symbiote himself. This issue follows up on that excellently by showing us the fallout of Hulk merging with Venom, Eddie dealing with the loss of his other again and the heroic efforts he makes to protect his son.

The book begins with an amazingly drawn and explosive punch by Venom Hulk. Carnage is laughing as he’s being put through a wall while clawing at Hulk’s eyes. The Symbiote is barely able to contain all of Hulk’s massive musculature as it appears to be tearing apart around his fist and forearm. The use of blur around the edges of the page sell you on the velocity of the punch and all of the rubble flying out as they go through the wall shows just how heavy and impactful the blow was. For added measure, there’s even a pigeon just flying by as it all happens.

As the fight is going on, Eddie and Peter take Normie and Ethan to The Maker’s armory to protect the kids from the Symbiote Zombies and Norman Osborn himself. Eddie is dead set on protecting the other heroes, but Peter tries to convince him to stay down with the rest of them. This issue gives us one of the best glimpses of the inner heroism of Eddie Brock as he looks at Spider-Man with the most desperate look possible, one eye stitched closed and asks him to let him do this. Spider-Man does and Eddie gathers Cap’s shield and maybe some kind of electric glove to go and protect everyone. Presumably, the events of Amazing Spider-Man #31 take place while Eddie is out fighting.

The next few pages are just strings of awesomely paced and spectacularly drawn fight scenes. Eddie, armed with the shield, fights his way through Carnage’s hordes and Miles Morales as an infected symbiote re-emerges. (Sorta ignoring the events of Miles’ own tie-in) Elsewhere, Venom Hulk and Carnage continue their romp around the warehouse district as Carnage is surprisingly holding his own against the black and green giant. Frank Martin and the various inkers really set the mood for the fight. The fires glow bright in the backgrounds with a vibrant red and white coloring to it, almost like a fiery mist. Rain crashes down around them and the inks are dark in the perfect places, really bringing out the deep red in Carnage’s color scheme as well as the black veins that now coil around his body. As Carnage mushes Hulk into a wall, you can feel his expression of pain and rage, accentuated by the glowing green of his eyes.

Pinned under Cap’s shield with Miles bearing down on him, Eddie decides to use the shock glove to blast the symbiote off of the young Spider, allowing the two to finally re-team as Miles runs down what he learned while hearing Carnage’s thoughts. He warns that if he gets Hulk’s Codex and the Venom Symbiote, he’ll be unstoppable. In a surprise upset, Carnage overpowers the mind of the Hulk, turning him back into Banner and rips his spine right out as Eddie and Miles show up. It’s a disgusting scene as they always are with Cowles making sure to put as much emphasis as he can by giving it a nice “SHRIPP” sound effect in big, bold, red letters over an entirely black background.

Before we know it, Carnage is covered in the Venom Symbiote, becoming an ultra badass. Ryan Stegman has done a lot to redesign some of the elements of some symbiotes, but this Black Carnage is somehow so much cooler and so much better. He looks like a demon knight with the pauldrons with spikes, an improbable neck guard/collar and Maleficent-esque horns all crackling with hell energy. Eddie begins to lose all hope upon seeing him, but that feeling is washed away when Captain America, The Thing and Wolverine all show up to help in the fight.

Miles grabs Eddie and tells him that the Maker’s machine that was supposed to destroy the codices did no such thing and instead saved them all. The last moments of the book show the Doverton Avengers fight a losing effort against Carnage while Eddie punches the machine, giving his own inner monologue about how he feels something creeping up inside of him. The hope that he thought was lost. Surrounded by all of this blackness and despair, Carnage and all of his bringers of Death, Eddie punches his way to the light.

As the penultimate issue to Absolute Carnage, have to say that this event and the various tie-ins that have accompanied it have been absolutely amazing to read. I usually decry back to back event stories, especially since we had just come off the heels of War of the Realms, but Absolute Carnage fit the aesthetic of everything I love in stories. It’s dark, it’s bleak and it’s Absolutely Brutal.

Ryan Stegman can do no wrong here as his art style is amazing from start to finish, he has an eye for action scenes and makes great use of single a double page spreads to bring out the most in every scene. Even when the fighting is confined to a few panels, he manages to spring as many infected as he can into the space, making things feel claustrophobic and dangerous. Frank Martin’s colors give this book life, however, when they’re burning with darkness or glimmer with small glimpses of hope. They complete the amazing package by pulling the emotion out of you, whether you’re terrified or you have a bit of hope only or it to be ripped away.

JP Mayer and Jay Leisten help him by making sure that the pages have the perfect amount of darkness to them. The inks are phenomenal and really help to give off that feeling of hopelessness and danger in every scene, even better that most of this story takes place at night so the mood is always set.

I love that Eddie Brock is starting to be seen less as the villain who used to eat people’s brains and more as this responsible every-man that’s been caught in an extraordinary situation. When he got the Symbiote back at the end of Lee Price’s time in All-New, All Different Marvel, I never expected him to get this much heart. That’s the main thing that Donny Cates has contributed to this character, that feeling of heroism.

Eddie’s becoming a much better person than he ever was in the past, but at the same time, we know that he can never fully escape who he was. Even at the end of this issue there was a transcription of his first time in jail when he first met Cletus Kasady and it was so weird to see how unhinged Eddie was not too long ago.

As Absolute Carnage draws to a close (and with Venom Island on the horizon) I can’t wait to see what direction his story takes and how Eddie Brock could possibly see Avenger status in the far future. High recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of October 9th, 2019

Best of this Week: Powers of X #6 – Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva, Marte Gracia, David Curiel and Clayton Cowles

Moira MacTaggert just became far more powerful and dangerous than we could have imagined.

When I wrote the review for House of X #2 all those weeks back, I was under the impression that Moira MacTaggert had an overall purpose for her deaths and reincarnations in regards to making a mutant utopia that works and now I’m not so sure. I’m not saying that that isn’t the main goal, but there’s now a far more nefarious edge that’s been given to her intentions that aligns with my uneasy feeling about Charles throughout this story. I thought this was a story about mutants finally being able to flourish and slowly outnumber humanity.

But it’s about the first steps to utter annihilation.

The book begins with Moira’s 7th or 10th life (around Powers of X #1), I’m very unsure, and gives us the answer to what she showed Charles that set him on the path that we see him on now. Powers of X has been mainly focusing on a dystopian future where mutantkind has been nearly exterminated and both humanity and various forms of sentinels are flourishing. One of the main characters we’ve observed in this future is The Librarian, an evolved human acting as the receptacle of all knowledge of humanity.

The vision begins with him entering a secret entrance to a place called The Preserve, very reminiscent of Krakoa, at least in terms of how to enter it and the residents therein. He’s immediately attacked by a beast-like man who is then revealed to be Logan, still alive after a thousand or so years and he stops him. The Librarian makes it a point to tell Logan that he’ll never be fast enough to kill him as he can’t feel everything about to happen and stop it before Logan has a chance to react. They have a short conversation about how English is now a dead language, but the Librarian has learned it to have a conversation, not with Logan, but with Moira X.

She emerges from the shadows and the Librarian laments that the time of the last Mutants is about to come to an end because of the Phalanx. He also muses that he will separate Moira from the rest to prevent her from dying as that will immediately reset the timeline, stopping the Phalanx and The Librarian from ever coming into existence and he doesn’t want anything to have that power over him if he’s to exit outside of reality.

That’s the first definitive answer to how powerful Moira is that we’ve gotten thus far. We know that no matter what, she will die and come back to life and something like this has been speculated, but actually just resetting the timeline, erasing EVERYTHING that came before and starting again with the wealth of a thousand plus years of knowledge is insane to me.

The Librarian, however, also knows that he likes to observe and see the wonders of the world and asks Moira how she would prevent this future from happening if she could, taunting the pair with their “evolutionary inevitability.” He notes that Mutants have never been able to see their true enemy, always blaming the creation of machines as their ultimate downfall. The book turn everything on its head when it’s revealed that it has never been the machines, but humanity itself.

Mutants adapt traits to their environments, but that doesn’t hold a candle to genetic engineering. Think about heroes like Captain America, The Hulk, Luke Cage, all of them were just regular joe schmoes that gained insane abilities from accidents or experimentation and can rival any one mutant. If you add machines and nanotechnology to that mix, then things become even more insane as they’re constantly able to be upgraded, reprogrammed and will destroy any threat that humanity sees until eventually consuming their masters.

Maybe there’s a reason Charles was so willing to give away the Krakoa drugs. Speculation gives way to the idea that Moira, in her infinite knowledge, found a way to imbue those drugs with DNA chemicals in them. (That is in no way supported by this story) But I would love the idea that Logan proposed, to stop post-humanism, you have to do it at the humanity part. It aligns with Charles’ overall goal of using The Five and Cerebro to bring back the 16 million mutants killed on Genosha and overpower the number of Humans in the world with far greater numbers.

The Librarian turns his back to Logan and Moira and says that maybe since they have no alternative, then maybe it is also his destiny to become as a God…and then Wolverine kills him, quicker than he could have prevented. Armed with this new knowledge, Moira tells Logan to kill her and this scene is beautiful. I believe R.B. Silva draws this part of the book but the gravitas of the scene – Moira gently feeling Logan’s hand to reveal his adamantium claws, their silhouettes juxtaposed against the colors of morning light and the slight smile she gives are perfect. Marte Gracia and/or David Curiel’s colors as he impales her with his claws are immaculate as the lighting implies that life is leaving her body and sort of fits my motif of the bright morning shining on mutant kind.

With all of this, we find out that Moira’s been the one that’s had to break Charles Xavier of the notion of peaceful coexistence with humanity. It’s also revealed that because she’s gotten too close to everything, that she’s had to fake her death to operate in the shadows and let Xavier and Magneto act as figureheads to the movement when in reality, almost everything is according to her plan.

But of course, not everything is as good as we’d hope as Moira’s been hiding the biggest secret from everyone else on Krakoa aside from Charles and Erik – Mutants will always lose.

Everytime, in every scenario, humans and mutants clash and inevitably, mutants are defeated. Moira has set a rule that mutants with precognitive abilities are not allowed to come back to life because if they’re allowed to see the future and they destroy the very foundation that Krakoa is built on, then everything will have been for naught. This could also allude to the visions that Blindfold had before she killed herself in Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men.Charles and Erik promised Mystique that they’d bring Destiny back to life and Moira lambasts them for even promising that, but they explain that they’ve been putting her off as long as they can, but eventually they will tell the truth.

We see the celebration from House of X #6, but it’s been recontextualized. Under all of the celebration, the hope, is the feeling of dread. The feeling of utter hopelessness, knowing that it will all reach its end within a thousand years, all because of the idealism of men.

House of X and Powers of X have been amazing reads thus far. I love how circular this story is, how referential it is to past history of the X-Men and paints a new ideal of the futility of mutant life as long as humanity is still around to destroy them. It separates the X-Men from the numerous other superheroes by pointing directly at the lengths humanity will go to make sure that they remain the dominant species on Earth.

RB Silva and David Curiel have done a phenomenal job of giving this book life. From the cheery beginning of a lush and hopeful green to the ending of the dark night sky, lit by the explosions of fireworks, the flickers of hope with the true darkness behind it. Silva makes sure to draw Charles with an unearned smirk, the look of a man that’s very sure that his part of the plan will be perfect, at least after his initial spirit has been crushed. Moira has the look of determination, the kind of look only gained from centuries of experience and she maintains it even in the face of death.

Hickman has evolved these characters from just a Scottish doctor that used to care for the mutants on her island and hapless man that only wants to be peaceful – to the cold revolutionaries that want mutants to have one day in the sun before it’s ultimately ripped away again.

What does this ultimately mean for the X-Men? For Mutants in general? Hopefully we’ll see in the coming months as seven or eight new series will shine a light on what the rest of them are doing while Charles, Erik and Moira sip tea and wait for the apocalypse.

Best of Marvel: Week of October 2nd, 2019

Best of this Week: The Immortal Hulk #24 (Legacy #741) – Al Ewing, Joe Bennet, Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo, Marc Deering, Roberto Poggi, Paul Mounts and Cory Petit

There are two people in every mirror.

The central theme of The Immortal Hulk has been the reconciliation between the two sides of oneself. For Bruce Banner, it’s himself and the many other personalities that reside inside his mind and body, most notably that of the Devil Hulk. Banner, knowing that because of The Hulk and his connection to the Green Door to Hell he’ll never be able to die or find true peace, has given himself all in to The Devil Hulk’s plan of ending the world as they know it. The Devil Hulk himself is a dark and menacing entity that has some kind of good intention, but a myriad of evil hidden under it.

With an unkillable Hulk and a massive ego, some people are trying to do whatever they can to bring Hulk down and save humanity. One such man is General Reg Fortean. Over the course of this series, Fortean has observed Hulk, taken measures to contain or defeat him time after time. His most recent effort of using Rick Jones’s body to resurrect that of Abomination seemed to work until Banner ripped Jones out of the Abomination shell, saving his old friend. Fortean, however, get s it back and transplants himself into the body of the villain.

This was his biggest mistake. There’s something about peering into The Green Door that corrupts the soul and Fortean cast himself into that rabbit hole with reckless abandon.

This book begins with an amazing shot of the end of all things, potentially the first. We see Galan of Taa, the future Galactus, bathed in the green glow of the Cosmos, the first sign that The Green Door has always been there and that at one point it was wide open. Soon after we cut to the accident that gave Bruce Banner his Hulk powers with the caption of there being two faces in the mirror, “the one you think you know…and the other one.”

Paul Mounts colors each of these of these pages with varying levels of green. The first of Galan with bright shots of green offset by other colors, most notably Galan’s signature purple, echoing back to his origin by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Banner’s accident, in the form of a double page spread, is drawn and coated in an overwhelming Green tint while the rest of the book keeps the sinister Green relegated to Hulk and several backgrounds. It gives off a dark feeling that the Hulk and the presence of the Green Door in general is always lurking about, Mounts does his best to sow that feeling of uncomfortability throughout the book with darkly vibrant colors.

Joe Bennett doesn’t let those colors go to waste as his pencils are as amazing as they have been for the entire run of this story. His art has been instrumental for the success of the story with its focus on body horror, general gore and the extreme sense of scale that makes you feel like intense weights are bearing down on you in every instance. Every shot of the Hulk talking with half of his face ripped off is terrifying as Cory Petit letter it perfectly, emphasizing that at the moment, Hulk has no lips to speak of. It’s fleshy and gross and made even worse as Hulk throws his removed face at another soldier and it sizzles, burning him.

Fortean also goes about using his Abomination bodies abilities to try and spit acid at Hulk. It splashes forth in all of its frothy, bright green goodness. Hulk dodges, it hits reinforcement soldiers and turns them into gross masses of boils, blood and bones as they scream, unable to stop what’s happening to them. Bennet makes you feel the pain and terror by drawing their mouths agape, teeth bared and eyes wide open in pain. Their blood is overpowered by the green of the acid spit and they just melt away.

By this point, Shadow Base’s second-in-command, Doctor Charlene Gowan reconciles with who she is and what she’s done in all of her efforts to contain The Hulk. she realizes that she’s enabled Fortean to become this monster and that she had many opportunities to stop him. She felt the need to serve under Fortean when her obligation to him was the fact that he got her out of prison, gave her a second chance, but that’s changed. His obsession had taken him over and he’s killed his own men and allowed himself to become the monster that he hates. She tells the other personnel to stand down, leaving only Fortean and Hulk to fight it out.

Fortean sort of manges to get the upper hand with a mean right cross and acid directly in the face, but Hulk plunges a finger into Fortean’s eye and ultimately his brain, killing him. They end up in the Below-Place, the realm of The One Below All and Fortean sees the error of his obsession. He sees the hellscape that his soul would be damned to every time he died and he panics. He is terrified, but there’s no time for him to correct what he’s done as Joe Fixit snaps his neck, killing his soul and any chance of him coming back to life.

It’s nihilistic. It’s dark. It’s a sign that once you cross that threshold, there’s nothing left for you but a hellish wasteland. Even at the end of all things, once everything has died and the new world is supposed to begin…there’s a flicker of green and a post credit sequence that spells doom for the future of the Marvel Universe, hell – every Marvel Universe, if The Green Door isn’t closed.

Al Ewing, Joe Bennett and the rest of this creative team have forged something evil. Something dark and twisted that Marvel hasn’t quite seen in years. I gleefully anticipate every issue of the Hulk to see just how dark things will get. There’s this cold certainty to every word that The Devil Hulk says and Banner’s father being the main demon of the Below-Place has this awful feeling of depraved destiny, that maybe the world was right to fear Hulk. Bruce Banner and his alter egos will end the world and it can’t be pretty. It will be violent, bloody and ultimately hopeless.

The other person in the mirror is the one you don’t want to see.

Best of Marvel: Week of October 2nd, 2019

Runner Up: Ghost Rider #1 (Legacy #237) – Ed Brisson, Aaron Kuder, Jason Keith and Joe Caramagna

The Riders roar again!

After months of teasing and anticipation, we finally have a new series centered around Danny Ketch, Johnny Blaze and their constant conflict with the forces that stand against them in Hell.

With Mephisto locked away in his Las Vegas prison (which also makes his appearances in other recent stories very confusing), Johnny Blaze has been crowned the new King of Hell and has inherited all that comes with the position. He’s required to torture souls, oversee the operations in Hell and ensure that demons never escape which seems to be the most common occurrence as some do NOT respect Blaze.

One such breakout results in Blaze having to leave Hell for a bit to hunt down the escaped demons and to do that, he tries to enlist the help of his brother, Danny Ketch. Ketch, having gone through the ringer while watching another Rider get murdered by Carnage, has decided to do his best to stay away from the horrid life of being a Rider unless the urge for Vengeance becomes too powerful for him to take. One such evening brings him back to help his brother defeat a wandering demon, but declining his offer to hunt them down.

Danny laments becoming the Rider at his mother’s funeral, the lack of stable relationships he’s been able to maintain and the life of death and destruction he’ll never escape. He visits his mother’s grave and, of course, his mother’s spirit comes with a warning about Johnny Blaze. As it turns out, the once semi-noble Blaze has let hell corrupt his soul and only Danny (and to a lesser extent Robbie Reyes in the Avengers) can stop him.

Aaron Kuder has been a hit or miss artist to me in the past, so I’m glad to say that his art was a stellar hit on this first awesome issue. While a lot of backgrounds lacked the gory details that other depictions of hell have had this far, that’s more than made up for by the detail on characters like Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch as well as the various demons they encounter through the issue.

Johnny and Danny look very similar as Riders, but they do have some things that differentiate themselves from the other. Johnny is shown to have fiery horns above his head, symbolizing his crown as King of Hell, silver gauntlets and a grey outline for a chest plate(?), similar to the rectangle that used to adorn his leather jacket. Danny, of course, still maintains a spiked leather jacket and spiked gauntlets in Rider form.

The fight visuals are something else entirely, consisting of stylish motorcycle combat with flames shooting out of the back of Danny’s bike as well as his chain waving through the air as if it had a life of its own. Jason Keith on the colors was an amazing choice as the entire story feels like it came out of the mid 90s grunge era. There are badass dark reds, bright oranges and yellows as well as very dark inks to show just how dark the Ghost Rider story is. Kuder does his best to bring the cool back to Ghost Rider, though did it ever really leave?

There’s also this slight feeling of dread as a new villain emerges and with Mephisto musing of change on the horizon and the final page stinger, there’s this feeling that something big is coming for the Ghost Riders. In much the same way we had a revival for Venom post Space Knight, this series is likely to be that amazing set up for bigger and badder things.

Best of Marvel: Week of September 25th, 2019

Runner Up: Christos N. Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles

Norman Osborn is the bane of Spiders everywhere.

After the explosive end to the last issue, Otto has found himself at the end of his rope with Osborn going after everyone that Otto has begun to care about since his turn toward the side of good. Friends, colleagues and even young children that he’s helped after their parents died. At every single turn Osborn has outsmarted him and made him look like a simpleton by comparison.

When Otto goes off to rescue James Martin, the kid he saved back in issue #4, Osborn is already there on James’ heels. Otto does his best to help James escape, but Orborn and his six arms mollywhop Otto and punch him in the ribs 65 times. Absolutely defeated, Otto begs Norman to let the boy go and Norman does agree… on the condition that Otto murders three innocent civilians in full view of broadcasting cameras. Not criminals, not terminally ill people, but three innocents that very well still have a future ahead of them. Osborn then flies off, holding little James by the throat.

Mike Hawthorn continues to really sell this story with his amazing art and Jordie Bellaire’s even more amazing coloring. It’s very easy to tell that Otto is tired, he’s frantic. Even seeing one eye partially under his mask is more then enough to convey his worry alongside his body language. He doesn’t make the coordinated moves that he used to when he had everything planned out, but fights like a cornered animal.

Bellaire captures this best NYC giving most of the pages in this issue a red tint offset by Grawbadger’s dark inks to give things an even more sinister feel. It also shows just how dire the situation is, how intense Otto’s emotions are after suffering such traumatic losses in a single instant. I don’t know if this is meant to foreshadow the rest of the issue, but it absolutely paints a picture of who exactly may be the blame for all of Otto’s hardship, even adjacently.

After passing out from his fight with Osborn, Otto wakes up to the company of Anna-Maria in his lab. He has a fit of anger over his losses and is brought to tears over losing James. Anna Maria asks him if he’s really considering killing innocents for Osborn and Otto says that he won’t, knowing Osborn would betray him anyway. Seeing no other options, Otto summons the second Bane of all Spiders: Mephisto.

Otto asks Mephisto if he’ll change him back into his previous, devious and smarter self for just one day in Hope’s that a ruthless Otto Octavius can outsmart one Norman Osborn. Mephisto taunts him and says that that’s not a deal he’s willing to take, but will change him back into Otto Octavius completely, free of any ailments he supposedly had. Since then beginning of this series, Otto has said that all of his villainy and evil was caused by his addled mind and Mephisto is giving him a chance to prove just that.

I won’t spoil what his ultimate answer is, but I can guarantee you that everything has been leading up to this moment. We’ve seen Otto become an actual symbol for good. A hero that walks the same path as his former enemy Spider-Man. He’s found love, actual friends and intellectual equals that he’s not bent on destroying because of his ego. He’s grown and is still growing to become the man that he’s always believed he could be.

Superior Spider-Man isn’t just a name that Otto chose to show how much better he is than Spider-Man (even though that’s the exact thought process), but a symbol of what a genius he is and how his methods differ from that of the regular Spider-Man. He’s more calculated, more willing to take down crime and not let emotions get in the way…until they ultimately do.

Gage, Hawthorne, Grawbadger, Bellaire and Cowles have done their best job with an amazing character and an even better story of redemption for one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes. With this issue likely being the penultimate, who know just where this story will go. High recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of September 25th, 2019

Best of this Week: Punisher Kill Krew #3 – Gerry Duggan, Juan Ferreyra and Cory Petit

My God, this had me actually laughing.

In an effort to get revenge for children that lost their parents during the events of War of the Realms, Frank Castle alongside the trusty goat of Thor, Toothgnasher has gone on a mission to exact that revenge while picking up new allies along the way like Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. The last issue ended with a cliffhanger of the pair finding a few frost giants trying to take the power of Cytorrak from Juggernaut. This third issue was slapstick, visual and dry comedy all in one in a way that only Gerry Duggan can manage and only Juan Ferreyra can capture.

Frank comes off as a more comedic version of himself with all of his funny coming from how seriously he takes the entire situation. Surrounded by Frost giants, gigantic weapons, ineffective guns and an unstoppable force, Frank Castle is unflappable in his resolve. He decides to wear a horned helmet the entire time, the only piece of armor he puts on at all and looks like a gun toting Dovahkiin. He’s still amazingly violent, cutting down the Frost Giants with his patented rage.

In one particular panel, Frank is shooting his shotgun, his muscles ripple as the weapon rattles and bangs. His mouth agape in righteous fury, the ignition from the barrel as the gun fires is hot with orange coloring and the background has more speedlines than I have seen in months, made even more dynamic with its own red-orange color. Shell casings fly back with each blast and you can just feel the imminent satisfaction of seeing a Frost giant aired out with holes… but then the next panel shows them nonplussed and before they shoot the ground in front of him and send him flying.

Surprisingly, Foggy was absolutely hilarious as hey was played as another unwilling straight man and faced near death many times, but survives in hilariously lucky ways. After trying to run away from the giants attacking Frank, he trips on a human skull, sends the sword he was carrying straight into the ropes holding Juggernaut and frees the brute. Juggernaut then runs through the giants and covers Foggy in giant blood. After they escape the cave, another attacks Foggy, but he slips on the ice and impales his face on Foggy’s sword. Each time, Foggy replies with a “huh,” the same reaction any of us would have if we miraculously got saved by the Frank Castle field of impossible luck.

Juggernaut though… oh my God. I already love Juggernaut, but seeing him here in this situation, especially after appearing in the first arc of 2018’s Thor relaunch, bringing him back into the bullpucky of this magic nonsense because of his nonsense magic powers is hilarious. After being freed, he wastes no time in absolutely decimating the Frost Giants. He runs through them with the rage of a bull, Ferreyra drawing him like a madman as he then gets coated in the blue blood and viscera of the monsters, their limbs and other assorted body parts flying behind him after a speedy charge.

After the group makes their escape, the giants see Frank and Foggy coming out of the cave and threaten that the two aren’t leaving and laugh… then they see Juggernaut and Juggy removes their legs thoroughly. As one of them lies on the ground and Frank finds himself out of shells, he just… chucks the shotgun into the giants face. There’s no warning. It’s just a small panel insult that I found maddeningly hilarious. That same frost giant tells Frank that the other giant they’re looking for is sleeping with Frank’s woman and Frank just cuts his head off from the jaw.

Another proceeds to try and attack Frank and he calls Toothgnasher who sends the car that Frank uses as a carriage into the balls of the attacking Giant before headbutting him to death. The final frost giant catches an ice stalagmite from the Juggernaut in the chest before being tortured by Frank. Ferreryra introduces him so awesomely, posing like a badass, saying that Frank and Co. will pay dearly for the massacre. Juggernaut responds accordingly, saying that they giants destroyed his small garden and rent controlled apartment in New York when they kidnapped him, so he does his best javelin throw and impales the son of a bitch.

Frank’s proceeding torture is only glimpsed as we see his silhouette of his sword in between the toenail of the giant before Juggernaut vomits all over Foggy in the car as they watch it all happen. Normally that kinda thing would gross me out, but by this point I was all in.

Gerry Duggan is probably the only guy I trust to do this kind of humor and pull it off so well, to the point where I didn’t just give a we little chuckle, but an actual hearty laugh. When he was writing Deadpool, I felt much the same and this series has been a treat on the same level. Frank Castle doesn’t always have to be all doom and gloom, but can be absolutely hilarious in the hands of the right writer. (I mean look at the Cosmic Ghost Rider miniseries…and not the Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys the Marvel Universe miniseries.)

Juan Ferreyra caught my serious attention with his amazing and stellar art on Killmonger. He does fantastically with badass serious art and upon remember he did stuff for Green Arrow Rebirth, I went back to those issues just for his art and was blown away by what I didn’t pay attention to. His art here is not only some of his best, but the comedic edge he puts to it makes it so much better and shows just how versatile he is at his own comedic timing alongside Duggan’s story.

Punisher: Kill Krew is an amazing concept that sounds like what happens when a Dungeons and Dragons Game Master lets the inmates run the asylum. Punisher running through the nine realms for the sole purpose of killing anything and everything that has wronged all of those so very adorable children is astoundingly bad, but when given a creative team this good, it’s only a recipe for a sweet cake of comic book goodness. High recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of September 18th, 2019

Best of this Week: House of X #5 – Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles

The X-Men have conquered their greatest enemy: Death.

After the events of the last issue, it was a wonder just how Hickman would write the X-Men out of the predicament that has stopped them so many times before. In the standard Hickman way, he made retcons that enhanced the usefulness of lesser characters and provided a way out that not only makes sense, but can be used for just about anything in regards to all of our favorite dead mutants.

In House of X #1, one of the first things we see is Charles Xavier meeting the reborn forms of Scott Summers and Jean Grey as full adults after they emerge from egg sacs of some kind. Initially, I thought that this was just some sort of strange symbolic rebirth thing and while it still is, it has become far more literal and intriguing because of five mutants – Goldballs, Elixir, Hope Summers, Proteus and Tempus.

Goldballs had one of the dumbest powers for the longest time; the ability to propel golden balls from his chest, but in this book we learn that these balls were actually non-viable eggs that, with the help of Proteus, could be made usable. After they’re injected with mutant DNA and given life by Elixir, Tempus ages the eggs to maturity and thanks to Hope’s powers, all of them operate at peak efficiency. This allows the mutants to effectively resurrect their dead friends as husks until Xavier implants mind engrams into the bodies with their past memories.

Everything about this scene was immaculate and well done to a point where I almost want to cry. What coloring there was felt low and hushed, almost as if we were seeing something miraculous, the gift of light. Camera angles were mostly downwards, to capture the harmony of the group before they began their work. They stood silent and acted on instinct, indicating they’d done this before, showing us that they were absolutely sure of their process.

Xavier leaning down, cradling his children and asking them to not die again as it kills a part of him every time that they do is heart wrenching, but joyous when he gives them their memories back. There’s no hesitation, only love, only care.

The gravity of the event as it happens and seeing someone like Goldballs become one of the most integral mutants in the revival of the mutant race brought me to an unknown level of joy. There was so much weight to their actions with the excellent narration by Magneto as to what exactly they were doing while talking to Polaris, making the point that when they are apart, they are still strong mutants, but together they are even more powerful than previously imagined.

This message also acts as a bit of foreshadowing for the end of the book and as the theme for this issue as a whole; the idea of togetherness, something that the human race has denied mutants for all of their existence.

I’m almost certain they used the exact same pages from House of X #1 as we watch the resurrection of the dead team, but this time we have a whole new perspective of how we got there. In an absolutely beautiful celebration of life, we see the mutants of Krakoa praise the Five for bringing their mutant family back to life and a confirmation of those mutants by Storm. Under the purple leaves of a tree of Krakoa with a bit of sunlight shining through. Purple usually symbolizes nobility, passion and authenticity and with the use of dynamic angles and heroic posing, we can be absolutely sure that these are the same mutants.

Angel, Husk, Mystique, Monet, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Cyclops and Jean Grey all died to ensure that the Mother Mold didn’t come online and destroy the mutant race. In two nine panel grids, Storm greets hew newly reborn friends, questioning how she knows that it’s truly them. After they give their answers from the somber to the cocky to the… Monet, Storm asks what they are and the crowd answers with one word: Mutant.

The level of solidarity among the mutants is inspiring, the love and pride they have in themselves in infections and makes me want to see them do nothing but succeed. However, I do have something of a concern with the level of reverence they seem to be getting. As they walk naked down the stairs to interact with their fellow mutants, the other mutants reach their hands out at them as the sun shines brightly behind them. They seem as saviors, messiahs, people standing above their fellows and that’s a potentially dangerous path for them to go down, especially since Krakoa is performing so well and don’t need egos to ruin it.

On top of their resurrections, Xavier and Emma Frost are also trying to get the world’s governments to accept Krakoa’s pharmaceuticals and accept the Mutant Utopia as an independent nation. With a few notable exceptions from Russia, Latveria and Wakanda (among a few other countries that also would not accept Mutants or their cure alls) most of the world is very into the prospect of life giving drugs in exchange for giving mutants diplomatic immunity and recognition.

In many ways, this is the progress that they have always strived for. Some people aren’t reticent to their acts of kindness out of ideological differences, but others see the benefit of siding with the new Nation as long as they can see the benefits. They may be alliances of necessity or fear, but the point still stands that their autonomy is being recognized. They’re not being actively hunted, at least since Orchis was stopped from activating the Mother Mold and with their population in the cusp of becoming what it was in the past, they are flourishing and don’t NEED human support, but they find it better that they receive it.

With the world coming together for mutants, there’s only one more group left to truly unite the houses: The Villains. In my opinion, most of House of X has been leading up to this, the day when even mutant villains will come in full support of Xavier’s new mission to save the race and there are some nasty ones here: Mister Sinister, Lady Mastermind, Mesmero, Selene, Sebastian Shaw, Emplate, Exodus, Gorgon, Black Tom Cassidy and Azazel.

But these villains pale in comparison to the final arrival in Apocalypse. In more than one way, Apocalypse’s dream has finally come to fruition as well. Mutants have risen above and finally become the dominant species that he always believed they could be. They have evolved past their petty and weak natures and embraced their strength in both numbers and power. With Krakoa welcoming him with some lovely birds, Apocalypse speaks on behalf of all of the evil mutants when he says that they will obey the laws of Krakoa as they are written and cements this new alliance with a handshake with Charles Xavier.

This blew my mind. Apocalypse’s whole deal was that he would absolutely destroy the weakness in the mutant gene pool and was only able to do so with Charles Xavier dead in the Age of Apocalypse timeline. He tore the world asunder, but as we learned from one of Moira MacTaggert’s past lives, even this would not have lasted. If Moira’s been in contact with Apocalypse, then he too knows that following Xavier right now is the only true path to mutant evolution and supremacy.

I have never been so elated, surprised and anticipating of a comic in so long.

Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia are a match made in heaven and this book has a cinematic quality through and through. Larraz allows the characters to appear overjoyed, happy and proud with beautiful facial expressions. With faraway shots and ever changing angles in the panels, there’s such a grandeur in the story being told. The sun is always shining in this particular issue, much like it was in House of X #1, signaling a brand new day and bright future for mutantkind.

Gracia’s colors are bright and vibrant, emanating with a hopeful glow. Their lighting effects are on JJ Abrams levels of shiny and somehow The Five characters stand out apart from the clothes that they used to wear. Tempus’ blue pops out perfectly against Goldballs gold and black. The purple of the tree leaves in the Confirmation is absolutely beautiful and awe-inspiring and the darkness during Apocalypse’s arrival set against the shining God rays is the perfect contrast.

I have never been more proud to be a fan of the X-Men. Knowing their history of death and rebirth, it’s relieving to see that they now have the means to finally conquer their mortal enemy. There’s so many that can be brought back to life (provided their deaths haven’t already been retconned). John Proudstar, the original Thunderbird, Jamie Madrox, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Sean Cassidy, Blindfold and many others that either died so long ago or died at the hands of Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men.

House of X has gone above and beyond and rejuvenated a portion of the Marvel Universe that has been a chaotic mess for the better part of almost 20 years by this point. There’s finally unity amongst all of the mutants in the Universe, from 90s villains to even recent ones from Brian Michael Bendis’ run.

Jonathan Hickman is proving that almost anything he touches turns to gold as he’s crafted an amazing tale in only nine issues, counting Powers of X as well. I find myself, for the first time in a long time, not just going through the motions. I feel as though I’m witnessing a revolution occurring, an actual brand new era for some of my favorite super people.

The series is set to conclude in about three weeks for X-Men #1 and I am already so very excited. Highest of recommends.

What are we? Mutants.

Best of Marvel: Week of September 11th, 2019

Runner Up: Silver Surfer: Black #4 – Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, Dave Stewart and Clayton Cowles

Don’t read this if you’re high, Tradd Moore’s visuals are far more trippy and beautiful than any of the previous issues and this is a WILD ride.

After discovering the incubator of Galactus buried within the body of a young Ego the Living Planet, The Surfer has to make a choice of whether or not he should kill the destroyer before he is able to cause the sheer number of genocides that he will become feared for in the future, all the while his Power Cosmic is fading as Knull encroaches further on the hero.

There are so many intricacies that make Tradd Moore’s art so exciting in this issue. Moore has a particular style where everything seems quite a bit distorted and stretched. His art flows like water and allows the eyes to move gracefully from panel to panel, even in the most trippy of pages because clear lines are drawn to attract ones sight through a page. The Surfer, looks smooth, mostly thanks to Moore’s use of shining techniques and dark inks for reflections.

There are grand portions of the story where you feel like you’re peering into dimensions that your mind just isn’t prepared for. One such scene is when the Surfer takes Galactus’ incubator to a white dwarf star to absolutely destroy it. The sheer scale and magnitude of this thing was almost overwhelming, speaking nothing of its brightness as well.

At a point, The Surfer decides to enter Galactus’ incubator to see into the dying days of the last universe he inhabited before this new one as he went to try and kill him. The Surfer almost looks as if he’s melting upon hearing the dying screams of millions. He’s heard similar cacophonous bellows of terror, but from Galactus these screams are multiplied many times over and the next half of the page is coated in a bloody red of fear.

Dave Stewart’s colors are also a main contributor to this spectacular look. Stewart has an amazing history of great stories that he’s colored and Silver Surfer: Black takes this to a whole new level. After the Surfer enters Galactus’ mindscape, we are met with a torrent of blood, fire and Galactus’ menacing shape standing above it all, acting as a warning to the Surfer. The shading of reds in the blood ocean, the flaming skies, Galactus’ towering figure and the HANDS REACHING UP FROM THE BLOOD OCEAN are absolutely amazing and terrifying.

The Surfer stands out as being the only silver thing on this double splash page which speaks to Stewart’s sense of page awareness as we’re clearly able to start from where he appears and then work our way up to the massive Galactus up above.

Special hell yeahs given to Clayton Cowles and his expert lettering, capturing my imagination with how each bubble is used. Ego’s in particular resonate with me for the choice to have purple letters offset by a background of yellow and purple that creates a hazy, 3D look. It’s a small detail that ultimately gives the book and the Living Planet far more character, making them stand out very well.

Not only is the art some of the best I have ever seen, but the story told here is phenomenal as well. I have almost never seen The Silver Surfer so conflicted over something he was absolutely sure about just moments before. He meets Galan before he becomes Galactus and they have a conversation. Though the Surfer would avoid the death of thousands or more worlds, his hands would still be stained of blood, the Universe itself would face massive consequences and he will have used murder to justify his actions, making him a villain.

This is amazing storytelling in that it is not too often that we see The Surfer speak to his master with a clear mind, even more so when he knows the outcomes of his actions and has to choose between the future he knows or a potentially better future or far worse one. The conflict gives an already layered character even more layers and guilt given the action at the end of this book.

With the next issue being the last of this miniseries, I hope that the ripples of this story will continue to be felt throughout the continuing Guardians of the Galaxy and Absolute Carnage storylines. The Silver Surfer has been around for decades and is in great need of some change and if losing the Power Cosmic through the spread of black on his body is the way to do it, then I am all for it. High recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of September 11th, 2019

Best of this Week: Moon Knight: Acts of Evil Annual #1 – Cullen Bunn, Ibrahim Moustafa, Matt Horak, Mike Spicer and Joe Sabino

It only makes sense that Kang and Khonshu would have some history together.

One of Kangs many aliases over time is that of Rama-Tut, a man that once ruled Egypt before his many, many jumps through time. Khonshu is a God of the Moon and more than likely would have been someone that Rama-Tut worshipped or spat in the face of given Kang’s own ego, but the way that their relationship is developed here is amazing and fantastic, setting up a long and storied history for Moon Knight on par with that of Hawkman.

Beginning in the Egyptian Age of 2,500 BC, the Moon Knight of that era and his followers do their best to keep three artifacts away from Kang and his men as he will no doubt use them to mess with time, a power that they feel should only belong to Khonshu. In just a few short pages, we see just how far back the legacy of the Moon Knight mantle goes as this unnamed warrior fights just as valiantly as Marc Spector in the modern day. As Kang makes short work of the followers and begins to make his way through time, Moon Knight throws a few Moonerangs at the Conqueror, damaging one of the totems, casting all three through time and space.

One of the more interesting things to happen is that Khonshu takes time to visit Kang in the time stream, asking why his child has chosen to do something so horrible to his church. Kang reacts with an anger that we don’t normally see from the cold and calculating villain, suggesting that any worship he may done for Khonshu left him feeling weak and that his own mastery of time proves that he is far superior to the Moon God. Khonshu leaves him with a warning that his other Avatars will continue to stand in Kangs way through time.

From this point on, we’re planted into a modern day that is somehow changed to fit Kang’s will with the only deviation being possibly Marc Spector’s Moon Knight and several followers of Khonshu. They lead Marc through a tear in time and this takes him to the first of many locations throughout time. I won’t go through all of them, but there’s so much future story potential here for any number of Moon Knight tales and their many interesting routes. There’s a Moon Lawman of the West, to a Moon Knight that could have fought with The Invaders in WWII, a Chicago gangster that I refer to as Moons Malone and finally the first Avatar of Khonshu, a woman from Mesopotamia.

Each of these characters are different in personality and yet serve the same purpose and ferocity that we see from the modern moon Knight. Horak and Moustafa do their best to make each one of them distinct and of their times while maintaining that Moon Knight style The actions scenes that are presented are a wild and dynamic ride seeing Marc jumping around and superhero landing or kicking damn near everything in sight. One of the best shots in the book is a panel that stretches between the staple pages with World War Moon Knight punching a Nazi as Marc crashes through a ceiling window, causing glass to fall on a Nazi officer. The blur placed on Marc as he crashes down with terminal velocity is unintentionally hilarious, but also showcases just how crazy he is.

Mike Spicer did an excellent job of coloring this book in such a way that no matter what background was drawn, Moon Knights white color scheme stood out all the time. The same can be said for Kang’s green and purple, but in a more gross and “why does he wear these awful colors way.” He also does extremely well with things that give off energy, making them seem more vibrant and cool. The best examples of this are the moments when The Scarab totem is showcased with a red outline, even in the smallest situations it is absolutely eye catching and the moments when the ther Moon Knights are summoned from all over time to fight Kang and their poofs appear in bright purples and greens.

One of the other panels that stands out is the first appearance of the Mesopotamian Moon Knight. Her mask, crouch pose and makeshift bone claws make her look like a serial killer, especially with the MANY bodies of Kangs through time around her. While looking to be the most intense, she is also the most dedicated as she ends up sacrificing her life to ensure Kangs ultimate defeat at the end of the book. She doesn’t die, but she has to concentrate to keep him trapped for as long as she can so that he cannot try to use the artifacts to change time again, placing her out of time with even her God Khonshu.

This is a really interesting take on belief vs. faith as both Marc and Khonshu have differing points of views on her actions at the end. Marc, being a modern man finds it difficult finds it hard to see her as a priestess without a God. Khonshu see a dedicated follower that is only her faith, knowing that a long as she has that, then she will need nothing else. It’s hard to see whose point of view is more correct, I mean, it should be that of Khonshu right? Given that her actions are the only thing keeping the world from falling into a hellscape ruled by Kang, does that mean that she should really do nothing but concentrate on keeping the Conqueror contained?

One other development that comes out of this is the idea that Marc is starting to become disillusioned by Khonshu’s actions and disregard for the lives of his followers. At the same time, this also may make little sense in the grand scheme of things as Marc, at least by the time of Jeff Lemire’s Moon Knight series, has already conquered Khonshu for control of the legacy. He hasn’t been at the mercy of Khonshu for a long time, but who’s to say how canon this is anyway?

Either way, I loved this book and Moon Knight’s continued storied existence, high recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of September 4th, 2019

Runner Up: Fantastic Four #14 (Legacy #659) – Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Jesus Aburtov and Joe Caramagna

Sometimes you just have to sit back and smell the roses.

Growing up, I actually thought the Fantastic Four were pretty lame. They weren’t exactly high on my radar because they were a family of explorers, scientists and just general nerds. I got seriously into comics around the time their last book hit the shelves prior to all of the Disney/Fox nonsense and that really awful movie which soured me on them even more. Things changed when I began to read Secret War (2015) and realized that there was so much more that I was missing.

I scoured my stores for back issue and trade paperbacks of everything written by Jonathan Hickman, Mark Millar and Reginald Hudlin before seeking out the older stories by George Perez, John Byrne and Roy Thomas. I learned to love their love of science, adventure and family oriented stories, so when they finally made their Marvel return, I was excited and so far they’ve done nothing but impress. This particular issue is one of the best examples of how even just dialogue, dynamics and expressions can build a great foundation for a simple yet amazing story.

The Fantastic Four have been everywhere. Other dimensions,hellscapes, universes and planets, but there’s still one mission that they’ve never completed: their original flight to the stars. After a new gallery opens showcasing the original shuttle that they traveled on in all of its destroyed glory, Reed reminisces of that time with happiness. Ben listens to one of the original black box recordings as they were first getting hit by Cosmic Rays and he’s overwhelmed with negative feelings. Two original Pilots for the space flight thank Johnny and Sue for taking their place, saying that they could have become monsters like Ben and Johnny becomes enraged with Sue having to calm him down.

These moments remind us of who these wonderful characters are and always have been. Reed is a scientific mind that’s always looking to achieve more and better himself and his inventions. Ben still lives with the inner scars of his transformation despite being one of the most respected heroes in all of the Marvel Universe. Johnny is a hothead and Sue, his sister, has always been there to calm him down. The First Family have been there for each other forever, they know each other better than anyone else does. They care about each other.

Paco Medina captures each of their emotions in a Fantastic way with excellent facial expressions and body language accentuated by Jesus Aburtov’s stellar colors.

Reed stands tall as he marvels at the old shuttle with his kids, his face is full of pride and joy while they look mildly unimpressed. Later while he’s working on specs for a new shuttle, we can see how focused he is, how determined. His fantastic beard shows how he’s aged from his previous clean shaven self, but he’s even more refined.

Ben remembers the original flight with trepidation and trembles as he remember his words when he was first becoming a rock monster. He stomps around in his normal grumpiness, but by the end, knowing that Reed, Sue and Johnny know and care about him so much, he smiles and eagerly helps them on their next journey.

Johnny, being the hothead he is, does in fact show his anger as his eyes begin to turn orange after Ben is insulted, but we get an amazing flashback to when he was just a young adult in the shuttle program and the rigorous training that he was put through by Ben. This showcases just how much Johnny wanted to go to the stars and shows us how long he’s been the ultra determined man that we know and love. Medina draws him going through the training with ease, only having space on his mind and the want to prove Ben and the other pilots wrong, becoming the youngest ever back up pilot in that universe.

Sue, being the ever loving sister, is the calm one as she gets Johnny to back off. She’s radiant as a character and Medina portrays as her the linchpin of the family. She’s the graceful one, drawn as serious as Reed, but with her normal beauty as well. She shows just how in love she is with her husband as he works on the specs and lays her head on his shoulder, smiling like she does in the flashback.

Nothing super action-y happens in this issue, in fact, one of the best moments is Johnny and Reed having a bonding moment working on the second shuttle. Both comment on how neither is using their powers to make the work easier and they share a laugh together. It’s just a nice, warm moment between brothers-in-law doing something that they haven’t been able to in years. It was at this time where I just fell in love all over again.

The Fantastic Four are more than just space adventures, aliens and Doctor Doom plots. They are a family in comics unlike any other. Where most teams are just friends that might hang out every once in a while, the FF are a family with a rich history and ever growing numbers with Franklin, Valeria and now Alicia Masters marrying Ben. The love is palpable and I wish I’d understood this for so many years prior. I can’t wait for where this next adventure takes them, but I’m all for it.