Front Lines - Mini-Reviews (Week of May 11 and May 18 ) - Civil War II, Super-League, Apocalypse Wars, Spider-Women

Action Comics #52 (Super-League) by Peter J. Tomasi, Dale Eaglesham, and Scot Eaton

Summary: Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are heading back to the Batcave to try and get a lead on “Fire Superman.”  Superman’s powers are fading; he even ends up almost falling out of the sky while trying to fly.

Fire Superman is talking to Lois, trying to convince her that he’s the real deal.  He convinces her that he has something important to show her.  He brings her to Salinas, California where pre-Flashpoint Superman and Lois have been living in secret with their son Jonathan.  Fire Superman attacks Clark.

Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman see Fire Superman’s powers flare up, so they arrive.  Fire Superman tries to convince them they need to kill Clark as an imposter.

Mike Maillaro: FINALLY, the two “real” Superman have met.  This was a pretty cheap way to bring them together with “Fire Superman” just knowing where to find Pre-Flashpoint Superman.  But, as a writer, I do understand that sometimes you need a plot contrivance to get the story moving.  And this wasn’t nearly as big a jump as some of the contrivances required to read Spider-Women.  And I am sure someone out there will say I just don’t like Spider-Women because of sexism.  Seems to be the easy answer for anyone who doesn’t like the new Ghostbusters movie...

I feel kind of repetitive, but Super-League has been a terrific arc.  I still don’t know exactly where this all ends, but I have really enjoyed what Tomasi has brought to the table. And yes, I know, the story is actually called “The Final Days of Superman,” but I have been calling it Super-League so long, I’ve basically just stuck with it.  

Grey Scherl: Fire Clark is an incredibly lame villain, but everything else in this story has been fantastic. Despite that DC never gave us a reason to care about New 52 Superman, they’re sending him out with a bang.

Apparently not liking the new Ghostbusters movie makes you a misogynist. I mean, if not liking Melissa McCarthy (while being a fan of the rest of the cast) and thinking it looks like a CGI ****fest that will age as poorly as the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies means that I’m a misogynist? Well, yeah. I can’t even make that leap in logic.

Mike: At some point during the week, I basically decided “I just will not talk about this movie anymore at all.”  You just can’t win.  If you say anything positive, you are a shill for the company.  And if you say anything negative, you are sexist.  I’m officially dealing myself out of that game cashing in my pennies and going home.

All-New X-Men #9 (Apocalypse Wars) by Dennis Hopeless and Mark Bagley

Summary: It’s Evan’s birthday.  But he doesn’t feel much like celebrating.  Meanwhile, McCoy is still tinkering with time travel. Evan goes to see McCoy, and one of the time travel devices goes wonky, sending them back into Ancient Egypt (with the Horus mask McCoy got from Dr Strange last issue).  

A cloaked woman is trying to convince a young prince that he needs to make his first kill, but the prince seems reluctant.  The arrival of Evan and McCoy throws everything into confusion. The prince grabs Evan and races off on horseback.  McCoy is badly injured by the cloaked woman.  The prince and Evan get to a walled city, where the prince reveals that he is a son of Apocalypse and wants Evan and McCoy to take him back with them.

Mike: I like that just like Fall of the Mutants, each “section” of Apocalypse Wars has been very different stories, but all build around Apocalypse in different times periods.  We got the future in Extraordinary X-Men, the present in Uncanny, and now the past.  This has been a really strong crossover, and I’m surprised it has not received more press and attention.  You hear a lot of talk that Marvel is ignoring X-Men in favor of Inhumans, but I will say that at the moment, quality-wise, the X-Men line is stronger than it’s been in a real long time.

Civil War II FCBD by Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung

Summary: War Machine arrives at the Triskelion to meet up with Captain Marvel and Black Panther.  They are meeting with the Inhumans to discuss a new Inhuman with the ability to see into the future.  Ulysses sees Thanos is coming.  The various Avengers teams decide to use this knowledge of the future to set an ambush...but Thanos is still pretty badass and ends up seriously injuring She-Hulk and War Machine before they manage to take him down.

Mike: Inhumans, Thanos...yeah, we can’t figure out that this entire crossover is basically the Marvel Cinematic Universe in comic form.  Even Rhodey’s injuries in this issue seem suspiciously like what happened to him in Captain America: Civil War.  

Personally, I usually enjoy crossovers, but I haven’t seen much about Civil War II to really engage me.  I don’t really care about the Inhumans as much as Marvel tries to push them on us, and adding Thanos to the mix just makes this unnecessarily complicated.  Secret Wars was supposed to be a huge game changer, and it fell pretty flat (despite some awesome tie-ins), so I don’t expect much from Civil War II.

Silk #8 (Spider-Women) by Robbie Thompson and Tana Ford

Summary: SHIELD arrives to arrest Silk, thinking she’s responsible for all the trouble the alternate reality Silk has been causing.  Black Cat arrives to free her, thinking Silk has finally embraced her dark side completely.  Spider-Gwen abandons Silk, because something seems to be wrong with Spider-Gwen’s powers and she blames Silk for it.  Silk decides to help Black Cat rob an Avengers’ vault in order to get something there Silk needs.

Mike: The endless crossover continues.  I think my biggest problem with this one is that I just don’t get the animosity between Gwen and Silk. Gwen seems to think Silk is a coward because she lived in a bunker for ten years.  I actually like when characters rub each other the wrong way, but there has just been nothing in the story to explain why Gwen dislikes Silk so much.  It feels real contrived.  At this point, my enjoyment of these characters and books has really taken a hit from this needless crossover which seems to be a real character assassination job.  

Web Warriors #7 by Mike Costa and David Baldeon

Summary: On Earth-138. Spider-Punk is heading up a concert in protest of Osborn’s iron rule.  Adrian Toomes, head of a record company, has arrived with his army to stop them.  Before Toomes can do anything, Spider-Ham 2099 arrives.  Spider-Punk captures Spider-Ham 2099 and brings him to the Web Warriors.

Spider-Punk brings them all back to his world, which is being invaded by duck robots working for Ducktor Doom 2099.  Spider-Ham is able to use his cartoony like powers to summon up a tornado to send them all back through the portal.  Everyone is pretty shocked that Spider-Ham saved the day.  And then a giant Spider-Man and Green Goblin robot appear and start fighting.

Mike: I always love when a comic can get ridiculous but somehow still stay serious at the same time.  The invasion of Ducktor Doom 2099 should have been so dumb, but I really found myself completely engaged by the story they were telling here.  Reminded me of some of my favorite Peter David comics over the years.

The chaos of the “web” causing all these alternate realities to start to collide is a real compelling storyline.  Kind of makes me wish Mike Costa had written Secret Wars' instead of Hickman.  The stories seem similar, but Costa seems to always remember that comics are supposed to be fun and accessible.  Web Warriors first arc may have been a little too long, but I enjoy the characters and love what Costa is doing here.  

Grey: Oh. My. God. THIS BOOK IS AMAZING! I mean, there is zero reason in the world that this story should have worked, but I ate it up and couldn’t stop texting people (well, you) saying to hurry up and read it.

Gwen finding out that she was a punk rock icon who died too young was also pretty awesome. This book is easily her best portrayal on a monthly basis.

Gwenpool #2 by Christopher Hastings and Gurihuru

Summary: Gwenpool has gone to work for MODOK after his murder of her sidekick Cecil.  She is determined to kill MODOK when she can. MODOK sends Gwen and the team (including Batroc) to kill a Black Druid currently in police custody.  Thor arrives, needing the Black Druid’s help in eradicating a plant that is threatening to destroy an elven colony.

Gwenpool yells “Jane!” at Thor, which completely freaks Thor out.  Thor demands to know why Gwenpool said that.  Gwen manages to play it off, using the distraction to kill Black Druid.  Thor is pretty pissed, though one of the team is able to distil the Druid’s body into a weed killer which will solve her problems.  Thor takes the formula and heads off.

Back at base, Gwen is having a hard time reconciling what her life has become.  Batroc arrives demanding to know what’s going on with her. He calls her a fraud and plans to rat her out to MODOK.

Mike: Gwenpool might be my pick for sleeper hit of the season.  I didn’t expect much from this series.  Hell, I only read the first issue because Matt basically dared me to include it in this column.  But the first two issues have been so damn good.  It’s very different from anything else out there.  It is very funny at times, but doesn’t hesitate to turn up the drama in some surprisingly powerful ways.  The battle against Thor was a lot of fun, but then at the end, we see Gwenpool basically crashing when she is despairing over what her life has become.   It just works!

Civil War II #0 by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel

Summary: The comic starts with She-Hulk defending a former costumed criminal named Jester.  Jester had been talking about the “good old days” and ended up arrested for crimes he had not yet committed.  Jester ends up getting killed in prison by an overzealous guard.

Meanwhile, War Machine is called into a private meeting with the President of the United States.  He asks War Machine to become Secretary of Defense, suggesting that it would be a great first step towards Rhodey becoming President some day.

Dr Samson visits Captain Marvel on the Triskelion, sent by unnamed high muck mucks. Captain Marvel seems very concerned about not being able to stop all the threats Earth faces.

At Ohio State University, the Terrigen Mist cloud arrives and two students (Michelle and Ulysses) end up in cocoons.  Michelle ends up becoming a monster.  Ulysses has a vision of the future where everything seems to be in rubble.

Mike: This wasn’t even a bad comic, but it was not worth $5.  It was basically over before it started and very little happens here.  I have no idea why this wasn’t part of the Free Comic Book Day issue above.  These zero issues, especially when NOTHING HAPPENS, always feel like cash grabs.  Kudos to DC for making Rebirth 80 pages and $3.  Meanwhile, Marvel gives you a preview issue for $5.

Spider-Woman #7 (Spider-Women) by Dennis Hopeless and Joelle Jones

Summary: Jessica Drew has returned home and finds that her male counterpart from Spider-Gwen’s world has convinced her babysitter (Porcupine) that he’s her twin brother.  After Porcupine leaves, they have a brief fight, but the baby starts to cry, so they call a truce.  

Meanwhile, Gwen uses the Fact Channel’s computers to look at the SILK files they stole.  She finds out Jesse’s origin.  Jesse believes that her world’s Cindy Moon saved his life, and he has to rely on her giving him a cure twice a day, but Gwen realizes that is a lie.  The “cure” just gives him powers.  His illness has already been cured.  When she tells Jesse this, Jesse decides to go back to being normal.  He gives her his “treatment” device which should restore Gwen’s lost powers.  Jessica tries to talk her out of regaining her powers, but Gwen insists.  

Mike: Just like the rest of this crossover, there are some real questionable moments here.  Jesse’s device happens to be the only thing that can restore Gwen’s powers?  Jesse pulls a gun on Porcupine to get Jessica to keep his secrets, but deep down he’s really a good guy?  And why would Gwen just be able to walk into the Fact Channel and use their computers?  Every issue, I just shake me head and hope that Spider-Woman and Silk return to form after these issues.  They have been a real low point for me.

Superman/Wonder Woman #29 (Super-League) by Peter J. Tomasi and Jorge Jimenez

Summary: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman confront Fire Superman.  Superman convinces Batman to take Lois to safety.  

Meanwhile, Pre-Flashpoint Superman takes his Lois and Jonathan to a Fortress of Solitude he built in Colorado.  And Supergirl leaves STAR Labs even though her powers are wonky to try and help Superman in his battle with Fire Superman.

Superman and Wonder Woman pound on Fire Superman.  They manage to turn him human momentarily, but he recovers quickly.  He takes down Wonder Woman, and seems able to overpower Superman as well.

Mike: This story all comes to an end next week in Superman #52.  I really would have liked to see more interaction between Superman and Pre-Flashpoint Superman, but I did like the revelation that he had a secret base of his own.  There are still a lot of threads hanging here, so I suspect many of them won’t be dealt with until Superman Rebirth.

Grey: I think we’re getting all of that in Superman this week. Going by original covers and solicits, it was supposed to happen a few months ago but DC padded it out. I’m actually fine with that, I mean, I would have liked a two part story of them teaming up, but the torch passing shouldn’t be dragged out too long after they really get to meet. And of course, by torch passing I mean New 52 Superman giving it back to the One True Man of Steel.