Front Lines - Week of November 11, 2015

Mike: Maillaro: We’re going to start transitioning to a POST-SECRET WARS version of Front lines, discussing a bunch of different comics in addition to Secret Wars.

SECRET WARS #7 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic

Summary: This issue reveals that the Prophet leading the attacks on Doom is the Inhuman, Maximus.  He has been working with the Reeds to cause a distraction so they can put their real plan in place.

​Doom summons his Thors to protect Doomstadt from the Prophet’s forces, but 616 Thor has convinced the Thors that Doom is the real enemy.  They join the fight against Doom.  

Doom’s barons seem split in their loyalty.  Sinister has a mind-controlled 616 Carol Danvers working with him against Doom.  But Sinister is ripped apart by Apocalypse. Then Maestro arrives with an army of Hulks.  He tells them to “Break the world.”

Meanwhile, T’Challa and Namor set the Siege Courageous up near the Deadlands.  Panther is able to break the wall open since it was weakened when Ben Grimm left the wall.  Panther tells the zombies they can cross through the Siege Courageous and be given a new life and a second change.  They are reluctant, but Namor and Panther convince them by force.  The issue ends with all the zombies chanting “Glory and honor!”

Maillaro: Man...NOTHING happened in this issue.  The more annoying part was that a lot of real important things basically happened off panel in this crossover.  Which is crazy since there have been over 200 tie-in issues.  Maximus becoming the Prophet and raising an army.  Captain Marvel being brainwashed by Sinister. 616 Thor managing to convince all the Thors that Doom is evil (this was mentioned real briefly in Thors...but it didn’t feel all that convincing).  All of these big plot points should have been covered in detail someplace.

There also seemed to be a lot of continuity issues.  Baron Apocalypse is dead (Age of Apocalypse), but he was fighting for Doom.  Baron Maestro (Future Imperfect) was basically put into a coma by Rick Jones, but he’s here fighting against Doom.  And what happened to Ben Grimm?  Last issue made a real big deal about Ben Grimm coming to fight Doom...and he doesn’t even show up here.

Hickman’s work (for me) is constantly packed with failed potential.  I liked a lot of the Secret War tie-ins, but the main series has felt pointless.  Especially since we’ve already seen the aftermath of Secret Wars and not much seems to have changed.  A few alternate reality characters now exist in the 616 universe.  And <<SPOILERS>> Reed seems to be dead, and Doom is alive and has his face back.  We needed a 200 issue plus crossover for this??

Grey: Event fatigue: When a tentpole event just won’t end, even after the aftermath has come out.

Mike said it best. NOTHING HAPPENS! And beyond that, now it’s entered the House of M zone where the characters from the tie ins start to appear in the core book, but the tie ins themselves are ignored. Maestro shows up to defend Doom, which would make sense if it wasn’t for the fact that Future Imperfect ended with Maestro stuck in a dream for the rest of his life. Apocalypse shows up to fight for Doom, which would be nice if he hadn’t died in Age of Apocalypse. I’m honestly shocked that The Goblin Queen showed up to represent Inferno instead of Illyana, because Yana died (and thus would fit right in).

Mike: LOL!  Yeah, Secret Wars is the ultimate death is a revolving door event.  

Score: 2.5/5

Infinity Gauntlet #5 by Dustin Weaver and Gerry Duggan

Summary: Thanos takes Nova’s soul with the soul gem.  He teleports away to get the last Infinity Gem, the reality gem.

Gamora, Quill, and Groot use the Nova Force to fight the Annihilation Behemoth that Thanos unleashed.  Anwen’s dog Zigzag can track the reality stone.

Thanos is attacked by a future version of himself.  Future Thanos said the plan was that past selves must die to pass the stones forward.  But past Thanos have fives stones and refuses to die.  The Novas recover the reality stone.  Thanos defeats his future self.  Even with the reality stone, the Novas still don’t have the power to defeat Thanos. Anwen and the Novas go all Voltron, but Thanos is still too powerful.  Thanos defeats them all.  Anwen offers to give Thanos the stone.  He takes it, but it’s a fake Anwen created with the reality stone.  She calls it the deathstone and it immediately destroys Thanos.

Anwen uses the soul gem to restore her mother. The end.

Mike: Adding in the time travel element could have ruined this story, but I thought it was great that Past Thanos is so disagreeable he would even kill his future self.  That is the Thanos I grew up as a fan of.  This story had some rough edges, but I really enjoyed the new characters that were introduced, and this version of the Guardians of the Galaxy was a lot of fun.  This one wasn’t quite what I expected, but it still ended up being a pretty good series.Score: 3.5/5

Squadron Sinister #4 by Marc Guggenheim and Carlos Pacheco

Summary: Hyperion is pissed that Warrior Woman has deserted him.  Nighthawk attacks him with Argonite and Doctor Spectrum’s Power Prism.   Hyperion realizes that Nighthawk was behind all the problems he’s been dealing with.  The two of them fight it out.

Meanwhile, Sandman works with the Starbrands to one more try and liberate Utopolis from the Squadron Sinister’s rule.

Nighthawk is able to kill Hyperion.  The Starbrands arrive.  He tells them to go back to Nutopia.  Sandman and the Starbrands enter the fight.  Suddenly, Thors arrive to arrest Nighthawk for disrupting the natural order of Battleworld.  He is brought before Doom.  Nighthawk tries to talk his way out of it, but Doom sees through his lies...especially when Warrior Woman arrives and gives testimony.  Nighthawk is tossed over the shield wall.  The Starbrands try to take over Utopia, but they are driven out by the populace.  They would rather live under the Squadron’s Iron rule than foreigners.  The end.

Mike: The best part of this comic for me was that Nighthawk got the comeuppance he deserved.  Throughout the series, he seemed to have everyone fooled constantly and was able to get all his plans to come off perfectly.  Until we reach the end, and he finds himself faced with Doom.  It worked real well.  I also loved the ending when the people of Utopolis decided they would rather have the dictatorship they knew than any kind of external rule.  Definitely an important political statement there that we should take to heart when it comes to the Middle East.

Score: 4/5

Thors #4 by Jason Aaron and Chris Sprouse

Summary: Ultimate Thor and Thor the Unworthy realize that Rune Thor and Destroyer Thor killed Beta Ray Bill, the Jane Fosters, and the Donald Blakes. Thor the Unworthy realized that the Jane Fosters and Donald Blakes hold the truth of Battleworld.  

Rune Thor and Destroyer Thor are about to kill Loki to cover their tracks.  Ultimate Thor and Thor the Unworthy arrive to stop them.  Rune Thor confesses his crimes, saying he did it for the good of all Thors.  They have a brutal fight.

Suddenly, 616 Thor arrives.  She tells them Doom is not God.  He is a liar.  As the Thors hear the truth, they realize that they have been duped.  They go to join the fight against Doom.  Rune Thor tries to stop them, but he suddenly finds himself unable to wield his hammer.  Ultimate Thor knocks him out.  The Thors head off to fight Doom. Thor the Unworthy is tempted to try and pick up Rune Thor’s hammer, but decides to wait until another time.

Some time later, Ultimate Thor ends up hurling his hammer.  It ends up landing in Old Asgard sometime after Secret Wars.

Mike: For the most part, I really enjoyed Thors, though I did think the end was a little too clean.  The Thors basically go from loyal Doom soldiers to traitors with just the slightest nudge from 616 Thor.  This book does give it a little more context, but not enough.  My biggest problem with how Secret Wars is wrapping up is that even though there have been many, many tie ins, everything feels very rushed.

Grey Scherl: Yeah, I liked this mini, but it goes from murder mystery to “Everybody gather to go fight in a different book” in the blink of an eye, with the Loki plot pretty much dropped instantly. But hey, Ultimate Thor’s hammer survives!

Mike: Definitely agree with you about Loki.  He basically appears, drops some cryptic comments...and that was it.  It was sort of like a celebrity cameo on Law and Order.  

Score: 4/5

Batman and Robin Eternal #6 by James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, and Tony S. Daniel.

Summary: Jason Todd and Dick Grayson are continuing to look into this mysterious Mother.  Mother seems to take orphans, kidnap them, and reprogram them for various purposes.  The Robins seem to this she may have worked on them for Bruce.  But Bruce has no answers.  His memories of his time as Batman are completely gone.

Dick brings them to St Elijah’s church.  They find Cassandra’s training facility.  This is also where Robin first encountered Scarecrow.

Flashback!  Dick Grayson as Robin chases Scarecrow, who is escaping in a plane.  Robin catches up to the plane, but it’s a decoy.  It explodes.  Batman has to rescue the falling Robin. Which sucks for Dick because he’s already been feeling like he’s not good enough to be Robin.   Later that day, Bruce meets an old friend, Maxwell, at a dinner party.  Maxwell starts to tell Bruce that he purchased a bride for $40 million dollars.  The woman was a homeless woman who was reprogrammed by Mother for him. Someone is watching them, and is pretty pissed at Maxwell for telling Mother’s secrets.  Maxwell and his bridge are murdered by a white-clad assassin.  Batman starts to investigate this Mother.  His research takes him and Robin to Prague.

Back today, Dick, Jason, Cassandra, and Harper are heading to Prague to investigate.  Mother seems to have planned this all along...

Mike: I think I have a pretty good guess where this series is going, but I wanted to get your thoughts first.  Do you think Bruce used this Mother to “create” his Robins the way he wanted them?

Grey: I think what we’ll find out is that for as similar as they were, Bruce never intentionally used Mother. Dick will have been legitimate, Jason too, but I think that Tim will be revealed as a creation of Mother meant to fully infiltrate Batman’s organization. Likely after a point where he considered her to be dead. I also think that Harper is one of her children.

Actually, don’t scrap that, but here’s the mindfuck I just thought of.

What if Bruce was the original experiment by Mother? What if the deaths of his parents were orchestrated for Mother to take control of this super rich orphan, but Gordon and Alfred being there for him is what kept him out of her reach?

Mike: I do love the idea of Bruce being of Mother’s experiments.  Though I would say that Jason might be too, just because of how he came into Bruce’s life….assuming the “orphan who steals hubcaps off the Batman” origins is still valid.

I actually had a slightly different thought.  What if Dick had Mother “reprogram him” because of how insecure he was after his defeats by the Scarecrow.  Young Dick seems to think he was not good enough to be Batman’s partner.  So could he be so desperate to be a good Robin that he would turn himself over to Mother?   

I just hope that DC does something interesting here and this isn’t just another “Batman is a jerk” story.  It doesn’t seem like these creators would go that way…

Grey: Batjerk Returns!

Score: 4.5/5

CARNAGE #1 by Gerry Conway and Mike Perkins

Summary: Carnage is terrorizing a waitress in a diner in Minnesota, when he sees a news report about Manny Calderon.  Manny was a woman who survived Carnage’s first murder spree when both were children.  Manny being alive causes Carnage to go into a rage and slaughter everyone in the diner.

We find out that Manny works for the government, and they are working to lure Carnage into a trap.  Manny’s teamed with Colonel John Jameson and Eddie Brock.  Brock still has the Toxin symbiote, but it seems to be controlled like Flash Thompson with the Venom symbiote.  Carnage arrives, and they manage to trick him into a massive sonic grid.  Unfortunately, the sonics cause a cave in and Carnage escapes.  The team prepares to give chase as the issue ends.

Mike: I actually had no plans to pick up this issue.  I actually loved Carnage when I was starting to read comics, but the character has gotten a little stale to me.  I did like the “psychotic heroic” Carnage from Axis, but they got rid of him. I felt the same way about Gerry Conway.  Loved his work back in the day, but his recent Spider-Man mini-series, Spiral, did nothing for me.  But Grey suggested it as a book to review this week, so I decided to give it a look so he wasn’t talking to himself.  And I’m real glad he did! 

Grey: They had me sold when they pitched the book as a horror movie in a mine shaft. You know as well as anyone that I’ve never really been a fan of the symbiotes, but Carnage just lends himself to being a horror movie monster. I have no idea if this book is an ongoing or a mini, but so long as they keep the dark tone and the high body count, I’m going to keep coming back.

Mike: That is a good question.  I think it is an ongoing.  Yeah, I am definitely in for the long haul. I immediately added this to my pull list about halfway into the issue.  It was just that good.

Grey: The new solicit talks about the second arc starting, so I am super happy.

Score: 5/5

ALL-NEW WOLVERINE #1 by Tom Taylor, David Lopez, David Navarrot, and Nathan Fairbairn

Summary: Laura Kinney (Formerly known as X-23, now the new Wolverine) has come to Paris, France to stop an assassin.  She manages to protect the target, but is shot several times herself.  She heals up, and puts on Wolverine’s costume.  She pursues the assassin high into the Eiffel Tower.  A drone arrives to help the assassin escape. Laura jumps off the tower and Angel is there to catch her.  Angel gets her to  the drone, and Laura manages to bring the drone down.  Laura’s pretty banged up, but she’s survive.  She checks on the assassin, who seems to be dead.  She’s another clone like Laura, except this model is incapable of feeling any pain.  There are more out there, and Laura vows to find and stop them.

Grey: I’ve read a lot of first issues of Wolverine over the last ten years or so, what with the constant relaunches. Thing is...this is the first time I was excited for one. It’s not the first time I’ve wanted to see what happens next (Logan goes to hell was the last time that happened), but that doesn’t take away from how stoked I am after reading this book. I’ve been a fan of Laura’s for a while now (seriously, my fandom kicked in when Kyle and Yost were writing New X-Men), and I was one of the louder voices (there weren’t many of us) when Marvel canned the X-23 solo title. So yeah, I was in on this book the second they announced Laura was the new Wolverine.

Then they attached Tom Taylor, who I’ve been a huge fan of over the last few years. So yeah, this turned into a must read book for me, and I set the expectation bar pretty high. Part of me wondered if I was looking for too much out of it, or if I’d be disappointed, and then Laura got shot in the head with a bazooka on page three and I knew that this was exactly the book I was hoping it would be.

Maillaro: I really enjoyed this book.  Wasn’t sure I was going to pick it up, but I’ve pretty much enjoyed every Marvel “relaunch” book I’ve read so far, so it seemed worth checking out, especially since you were so excited about it.

It was a great mix of action, characterization, and humor.  Angel patting Wolverine on the head because everything else on her hurt made me laugh far more than it should have.  I also liked the flashbacks with her talking to Logan.  Everything about this comic felt fresh and new.  This was definitely the shot in the ass they needed to do with “Wolverine.”  

Grey: “I didn’t say stop”

This book had a lot of great quotes, and none of them were related to murdering people. The softening that Laura has gone through over the past few years paid out wonderfully here, you still have the issues of being raised as a weapon, but she no longer feels like a broken toy.

I also loved Warren getting really concerned right before throwing her at the Drone. “There’s a time and a place, Warren!”

Score: 5/5

All New All Different Avengers #1 by Mark Waid and Adam Kubert

Summary: Captain America saves a car from falling off a bridge.  When he lands, he’s swarmed by civilians.  He spots Stark in the crowd, and they leave in Stark’s flying car. They talk about Stark’s money problems and the fact there is currently no Avengers team.

Avengers Tower has been sold. The new owner is clearing out Stark’s stuff when Nova’s enemy Warbringer arrives.  The new owner tells Warbringer about three lost Chitauran artifacts that will give Warbringer the power to destroy Earth and get revenge on Nova.  This is overheard by Miles Morales in stealth mode.  Warbringer attacks Miles, knocking him out of the building.  Cap and Iron Man arrive.  Warbringer defeats all three of them easily.

There is also a backup story by Waid and Mahmud Asrar where Ms Marvel and Nova meet for the first time.  They don’t get along all that well, but together they defeat some monsters that escaped from the Microverse.

Mike:  This comic suffered from a condition most modern comics suffer from: decompression.  I was hoping Waid would keep this book old school just with new characters. Instead, we get a team book where most of the team didn’t appear in the book (well, Ms Marvel and Nova appeared in the pointless back up story).  What we got here was real good...but I really wanted a lot more.  

Grey: For five bucks, that opening story needed at least another six pages. The backup wasn’t bad...well, it wasn’t very good either. This book just really didn’t gel with me, I mean, it’s not the worst thing I’ve read recently, but it killed my hype as fast as New Avengers #1 did when Bendis first relaunched it. Every other first issue from Marvel I read this week had something actually happen.