THE BEST OF MARVEL
Spider-Men #5 (writer: Brian Michael Bendis; artist: Sara Pichelli)
Spider-Men was a brilliant concept from the start- Miles Morales (the Spidey of Ultimate Marvel) is coming very close to being as iconic as Peter Parker, so it’s pretty amazing to see them both team up. Basically, a villainous accident sent Peter into the Ultimate Universe, where he met up with Miles, fought bad guys, and tried to get home. Since this is the last in a 5-issue miniseries, obviously we know he’s going to do just that. What else does it bring to the table? Well, think of all the things you love about Spidey: the heartwarming devotion to his family, the inspiring way he stands up for justice, the one-liners. Then double it. They take turns setting each other up for one-liners, their powers and fighting styles complement each other, and they even like each other (which is generally rare with other-world counterparts). Peter’s parting words to Miles manage to combine hilarity with RIGHT IN THE FEELS, and a last-panel stinger means the story isn’t over yet…
Avengers Academy #37 (writer: Christos Gage; artist: Tom Grummett)
The last issue in the Final Exam arc (in which Enchantress teams up with student Jeremy Briggs, who was apparently evil all along… what the hell kind of evil name is Jeremy Briggs anyway?) wraps things up as final issues generally do. Ever since the first few issues, it’s been established that the academy was set up to prevent the students turning evil, and rather than use that as a cheap ploy to add en edge, it actually still comes into play now, years later. Their methods would undoubtedly be disapproved of by the Avengers, but their intentions are good and their loyalty to each other unwavering. The grownups are right to be worried…
The Avengers #30 (writer: Brian Michael Bendis; artists: Walter Simonson & Scott Hanna)
This has all the hallmarks of a good comic: epic splash pages of Avengers assembling, heroes taking on twenty mooks each without breaking a sweat, and a villain proclaiming it was their plan all along. What makes this one of the funniest issues of anything I have read in a long time is that Hawkeye and Spider-Woman have a lover’s quarrel, whilst fighting the aforementioned mooks. For about twenty pages. I can’t describe it in a way that does it justice, but trust me, if you buy this comic your life will be better.
New Mutants #49 (writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning; artists: Felix Ruiz & Klebs)
Another arc-wrapper-upper from Marvel. Usually I hate wrapups almost as much as origin stories, so between DC’s Zero Month and Marvel’s purely coincidental Every Arc Ends Week, this is a hard week for me. But I persevere. So. New Mutants wraps up the Fight the Future arc decently enough. The time paradox exploited to make Evil Cypher’s defeat possible seems sound, but it’s probably best not to think about it too hard lest plot holes start to appear. That’s all par for the course with comic book science, though, so I can forgive it. Plus it has Warlock in, and I love Warlock.
DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON
Dark Avengers #181 (writer: Jeff Parker; artist: Neil Edwards)
I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen the point in Dark Avengers. OK, it was relevant back when Norman Osborn was in charge of the Avengers and the whole team had been replaced by near-identical copies; but now it feels like Marvel just wants to get twice the money for the same characters. Sorry, they’re not the same characters, they have different names, slightly different powers, even different-coloured hair in the case of Scarlet Wi– I mean Toxie Doxie.
And they know, they know that it’s confusing. That’s why the characters cannot get to the end of a sentence without mentioning the name of the person they’re talking to. It’s like Moonstone is thinking to herself I mustn’t call her Scarlet Witch; her name’s Doxie. Doxie Doxie Doxie. and keeps repeating this in her head so the Doxies just slip out, like Tourette’s. “Hey Doxie, did you hear that noise Doxie? Let’s check it out Doxie!”
The final page contains the hook “NEXT: The End.” We can but hope.
(Also, Doxie means prostitute. It’s hard to take a comic seriously when characters keep yelling “Prostitute! Look out!”)
ALSO
Matt Murdock goes mental in Daredevil #18!
Terry goes through some pretty epic life changes in X-Factor #244!
Venom thinks happy thoughts in Venom #25!
