I'd have gone with 1.5 stars for this comic, but I gave it an extra half star because I got to find out that Ultimate Doctor Doom's name is Victor van Damme. Because I want my tyrannical, goat-legged monarchs of fictional Eastern European nations to have realistic last names.

But overall, I enjoyed the issue. I'm intrigued. This was a perfectly serviceable issue for to kick off an event, and I'd recommend picking it up if you are at all interested in Spider-Man.

Its not that the story is bad I actually think its a really cool and interesting concept. There is just entirely too much packed into entirely too few pages. I imagine this might read a lot better in a giant omnibus format, where there was more time and space to dedicate to everyone. But trying to read this as a monthly series without picking up all of the ancillary tie-ins seems like an impossible task. Ill keep at it, because Im a trouper, but for someone unwilling to do a lot of homework and/or be confused, I really cant recommend the series.

My suspension of disbelief can only take me so far. A man with spider-powers trying to reclaim his life after having his body and life stolen by one of his archenemies? Sure, I'm in. The government spending anything more than the absolute bare minimum on the Department of Corrections? Eh" not so much.

I think I may just not be the target audience for this book. Were I an animal loving 12-year-old girl, rather than a 31-year-old man who never owned a childhood pet, I might feel differently. As it stands, though, it was laborious for me to get through Angelic #1. Points for world-building, but poor execution, lack of fun, and no intrigue equal a hard pass from me.

If you hadn't been reading this book because of bad early buzz or if you jumped off because of the extensively drawn out fight sequence through the first few issues, this might not be a bad jumping on point. The real plot seems to start here. Plus, we're now getting into some philosophical issues on nature v. nurture, whether people are inherently good or evil, or if it's the decisions they choose to make: things that are way too complicated to go into in a 400 word review. I don't know if Remender is actually going to get into those things during this book. He seems to be leaning heavily on the side of "nature," but it's impossible to not at least think about it while reading this.

So nothing groundbreaking plot-wise, but serviceable enough. The characters seem well-written, even if I'm not particularly interested in them. The art is fine, but again, nothing groundbreaking. I guess that's just how the book feels to me: It's fine. It's a standard, slightly above-average book. Read it if you're particularly interested in the characters or the teams. If you're not, I'd definitely say give this book a pass.

However, the last page reveal was a twist that surprised me, and Im glad to see Snyder tying his entire run together and getting the plot back on track after the insufferably interminable events of Zero Year.

Overall, I'd say this "JG:B-C" story arc doesn't really have the potential to match the heights of the best Batman tales, but it's a fun little sidetrack that's worth a read just to get a little new flavor on the Batman mythos.

But ultimately this was a perfectly fun, enjoyable issue that serves as a harbinger of things to come. Im excited to see where this title is headed.

Mainly this book accomplished one goal, and it was the only one it needed to do: I now want to read more about Hawkeye. Both versions. The premise is silly, but for an editorially-mandated story, its executed extremely well. This book won't change your life or anything, but you'll have a good time. Though I still say it wouldve made a fantastic annual.

I probably just need to make a leap of logic here and take everything at face value. The focus of the story pretty clearly seems like its going to be on those two cops and their murder investigation. But I really wish this whole thing was about pirates.

If you are a human being who has ever cared about another person, you should definitely give this series a try. I honestly can't imagine you won't be glad you did.

Overall, this just felt like a waste of everyones time. Nothing happened. Nothing changed. There wasnt even any character analysis since Captain America wasnt acting of his own free will. Lets just all do like Marvel is apparently going to do and pretend this didnt happen.

It seems that ride is going to be coming to an end before long, but Im going to enjoy it for as long as I can. My only real concern/hope is that whatever conclusion we get out of this serves the story that Bendis has been telling without shoehorning in editorial mandates about the fates of specific characters based solely upon which movie studio owns the rights to which characters.

Overall, a really good start for something which I admittedly had zero expectations. Itll be fun to see where this story goes from here.