This is a tie-in that I had a lot of hesitancy towards in ASM 49 due to what I feel is a lacking editorial standard. That continues here, because while I didn't mind this story, I have issues with it stemming almost exclusively from editorial mishaps. The biggest one being Peter's incoherent characterization. One of the strong points with ASM 49 was Peter's empathy for the vampires, and his being very conflicted on how to go about saving people while not hurting or killing the vampires, who are mostly innocents who'd just been turned. This issue just sort of throws that away. While the Lizard and Misty Knight brutalize and murder their vampiric enemies, Spidey says nothing. It isn't until the end of the book where Peter again starts to take moral umbrage with the concept of mindlessly killing these vampires. A good editorial team would notice this essential reset of the main character's arc, and rectify that, but this editorial team seems more invested in tying back into the Beyond arc. Will we get any follow up on that epilogue from Beyond where Morbius had the Lizard chained up, and wanted to make more Chimeras? Does anyone reading this even remember that plot point? I hope it comes up, with all these call backs to a story from over two years ago. more

With a whole new team, this book takes on a very different vibe than the first 14 issues. It's good, but different. I think MacKay has a great voice for Steve Rogers in particular.

This book never really went anywhere interesting. Marvel really doesn't know what to do with these 20th Century IPs, I swear.

The stuff with Bruce works. The problem is everything else. I couldn't give a fuck less about Absolute Power, and Captio is an abysmal plot device of a character that I just hope is killed off quickly. If not for the stuff with Bruce where I feel Zdarsky actually works in a nice voice for him, this issue would've made me so tired.

This issue was so meh. Bruce is being saved by the power of love. Flash and Tim tell him he’s not alone, amazing considering the first five decades of Batman had him working with Robin, Superman, Justice League. Now we are told Bruce’s mind has been seeded so he doesn’t have to take responsibility for writers going edgelord. Also Damian realizes robot is not dad. Evil shrink, the 87th we’ve seen in Batman is really ripped and notes robot is making mistakes. Robot also captures Damian and unveils his own robot Bat family. Now everyone will have their own doppelgänger to fight. This story is going around the block to get next door. I am all for Batman being sane, I put you don’t have to have a convoluted years long story to get there, just write him sane. All in all dull. Or I could be wrong. more

This comic isn't bad, but it's just so convoluted.

This issue doesn't really hit on the social and political climate as much as the first issue did but the tone of this series still really works for me.

I honestly loved this issue. It's just so well written and the art is incredible.

This was a very disappointing ending to a decent story. I was hoping it wouldn't lean heavily into feminism, but my hopes fell on the universe's deaf ears. We start with revisionist history of female gods teaching men everything they know. "But man was furious that woman possessed such knowledge at all." An actual line from the issue. Wait, I just puked a little in my mouth. The villain gives her life in a flashback all to show how bad men are. Apparently, this book is doing the heavy lifting for Tom King's Wonder Woman book as that has taken a break to have Superman and WW search for Batman's birthday present, while this book pretty much wraps up the assassinations in the bar. Oh, well. So much for subverting expectations, when this was exactly how I expected this end. A sharp kick to the proverbial balls.

My Comic Review Channel - https://youtu.be/UjWhKmMnA1k more

King uses this issue to set up his Trump allegory in Piggy. It works very well. If you're an American who's been tuned into politics, everything in this issue should be familiar. From the regressions of rights and the divided nature of the pound's residents, to the dogs calling themselves Stormers. Remember who *stormed* the Capitol on January 6th. Even the hushed and quiet excitement at the election of an unproven, crass, fat and vaguely entertaining capitalist. The rabbits, of course, represent the most vulnerable in society and the ending is appropriately harrowing in that context. Everyone should be reading this. It's fantastic. more

A solid ending to a miniseries that I wish would've had more of an impact. It doesn't really have much of a purpose besides adding more commentary on a status quo that Tom King doesn't fully take advantage of in his Wonder Woman run. The commentary is good but you wonder if it's worth a six issue miniseries where things more or less end where they started, status quo wise.

This is better than the first issue. I think it's still written in too goofy a tone for the story it wants to tell. Hopefully it continues to get better from here.

This issue is weaker than the rest, mostly due to the art feeling a bit unfinished. This is essentially a wrap up on what Si Spurrier was doing with his various series. This issue in particular really feels like they had written most of FoHoX/RoPoX and then realized that there were storylines that didn't really conclude, and they needed to fix that.

Color me surprised that I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Claremont has his tropes and his weirdness that cannot be denied, however his writing is mired in his insistence to overwrite and to base his stories in very specific continuity that, even for someone as big into comics as I am, can bog things down. This was mostly clean though. You don't need to read Uncanny X-Men #268 to enjoy this. You can shrug off Wolverine's current status quo even. And you get a rather classic feeling story out of it. If Marvel insists on giving older creators these nostalgia bait comics to write, I hope they veer more into this lane where they can stand on their own. more

This is a good issue, with baffling editorial decisions behind it. Wells does his best with what he can do in the space of one issue. One of the best things about Wells' run is how he writes Peter's empathy and that comes out in spades in this issue. JRJR's art isn't terrible but there's a fine line between awkward and dynamic, and Romita keeps falling into awkward in this book.

I don't know why this issue exists. Why end this book on a cliffhanger leading into a separate miniseries? Usually with these sorts of tie-ins, it ends with a vague "See what happens next in the main event", and that's fine enough. You can tell your small story and get out, and readers won't wonder how it all plays out. In this case though, you have to read a separate miniseries to get the conclusion to your story. It's frustrating. And the best reason Lowe can give is that they just couldn't stop the Goblin story? Bleh. more

I liked the way this issue ties up the character beats from the Sabretooth miniseries that this story arc spun out from. Having Sabretooth essentially learn nothing is quite on brand for him. As for the plot, it's kind of meandering. Glad it's wrapping up.

The shift in this issue works really well. It takes what could be a very run of the mill story and gives it an interesting angle. Jane Howlett, while obviously not the most creative, is probably my favorite character in this miniseries.

The Original X-Men one-shot did not excite me for this miniseries. And yeah, I'm not surprised it's just sort of middling.