Overall, this was an overhyped mini that had absolutely nothing to do with Fear Itself. It ran a bit too long and had a weak predictable revelation at the end. All while looking very pretty. Read Full Review

Marvel will get lots of new readers with The Avengers movie coming out this week, so it makes sense for this interpretation.  Regardless of how you feel about this decision from the Marvel brain trust, this is one of those issues that you will want to add to your collection because it is a huge character shift that will have a major impact on events to come. Read Full Review

Good-bye, good ol' Nicholas J. Fury, you badass, no-bullshit, hard-bitten, stogie-chompin', one-eyed master of espionage, shell games, international intrigue and balls-to-the-wall ass-kicking. It's been a a hell of an adventure, and we couldn't ask for a better pilot through the last 50 years of Marvel Comics. Read Full Review

While I honestly have enjoyed Battle Scars as a whole, its bizarre and frankly lengthy approach to establish parallels with the Marvel movie universe is painfully uninspired and disappointing. While there are nuggets of potential laced in this series' outcome, I'm not sure I have faith in the current state of superhero comics to deliver on it. Read Full Review

Do I sound cynical? Not at all" because I know what the whole point of this exercise really is: to get the original Nick Fury out of the Marvel Universe so that Garth Ennis can once more have his wicked way with the crusty superagent in his upcoming new MAX series! See, now that they've got a big-time movie star playing Fury onscreen, everyone can forget the legendary gaffe of George Clooney putting the kibosh on a Fury film when someone slipped him a copy of Ennis' previous outing with the character. Instead, Ennis can make Nick the same antisocial bastard we saw in Fury and in his Punisher MAX appearances, without offending anyone's tender sensibilities, since no one outside the established MAX/Ennis fanbase will ever see it– I can't wait. Well played, Mr. Quesada! Read Full Review

While competently written and illustrated, Battle Scars is, in its essence, creatively bankrupt and insulting to the intelligence of the fans. Marcus Johnson could be an interesting character in his own right if he was a character in his own right. But he's not, is he? He's a forced attempt at marketing synergy. His purpose is solely to supplant an already popular character. It's disrespectful to both the current readers and the hypothetical readers Marvel hopes to gain from the Avengers movie. Read Full Review

This could have been an easy bunt, and considering Marvel got from Point A to Point B in terms of aligning their IP, that might have been enough for them. But I expect more out of my comics, and I think this could have been worlds more interesting. Here's hoping that these Battle Scars leave some character on Marvel's newest addition. Read Full Review