I mean, Ewing kind of whiffed the swing by not finding room for classic villain Goldbug, but here's a 10 anyway.

This ending was fucking great. I know some people might be a little... confused or disappointed by the ambiguity of the issue. And, ambiguity is being used for lack of a better word here, I just don't know what else to call it. I remember way back during the Hulk in Hell arc, there were a lot of people who turned their nose up to the Judaism mythology present there. So, if those people even make it this far, I wonder if they'll dismiss this too. Hulk is essentially the Job of the Marvel universe here. The One Above All created him as a test. Either he becomes a hero, and becomes Geburah (Good), or he succumbs to all the suffering and he becomes Golachab (Evil). Luckily, in spite of issue 25's dire predictions, he is not broken, and therefore he's Geburah. And from there, it's all about the balance of Geburah and Chesed. Either Hulk becomes the left hand of God, embracing strength, and therefore the breaker of worlds. Or he becomes the right hand, embracing mercy, and doesn't smash everything. I'm simplifying the ideas here, but nonetheless, this is a very smart way to end this book and I can't help but get that needling feeling in the back of my neck that too many people will not appreciate it. This is one of best Hulk runs ever. It deserves all the praise it gets, if not more.

I have no idea how Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley are going to transition from this to what they're doing. It's going to be very different, it's probably going to turn some people off, and I just hope there isn't nonstop comparisons between that run and this run. That won't be good for anyone. Seriously, if Al Ewing never writes another issue of comics, he's left an indelible mark on not just Hulk, but Marvel, and the wider industry. I guarantee that, much like with Hickman's Avengers into Secret Wars, there will be attempts to capture this lightning in a bottle again by other creators on other properties. I just hope they're successful. We need smart comics. They're always written by people from the United Kingdom, it seems. Maybe the rest of the world can get in on this at some point. more

I have actually read into the mistreatment of asylum seekers during the Trump administration and, as much as the Trump simps here don't want to admit it, this portrayal is accurate, all the way down to the notorious "Icebox." Several children died of untreated sickness, thousands report sexual abuse, and for a period of time there was no attempt to keep records that would allow parents to be reunited with their children, which is why so many still have not been reunited today. Everyone who denies these events out of some misguided sense of nationalist pride is complicit and deserving of their role as the modern comic book villain. Keep crying. more

This was fine. Anthologies can be rough, but doing things like this is nothing but a net benefit for uplifting marginalized communities. Because this is about race, we've got some racist reviews here.

Briton seems to think that publishing comics that celebrate an immutable characteristic is divisive. This is not the case. It's only divisive if you have a problem with people celebrating who they are. Nothing in any of these comics is at the expense of people outside of whichever group is being celebrated. The reason it's good to celebrate these groups is because society's treatment of them is not up to par with what it should be, and these people are looked down upon for it. We need to uplift marginalized groups instead of ignoring them.

Merlyn thinks it is cringe to point out how Asian people are treated. The term cringe is so overused, and it's become a blanket term to hide behind when you want to point at something and call it degeneracy or claim it is invalid, and yet any which way you do that would make you look like a piece of shit. In this case, it would make you look like a racist piece of shit.

Vern isn't being racist, as far as I can tell, but they are perpetuating this super fucked up conflict between Asians and African Americans in the US. This goes back a very long time, it isn't a new thing that BLM created, nor is it a by-product of having a BLM movement, nor is the BLM movement inherently racist towards Asians. This sort of conflict is actually a product of Asians being seen as the "good minority" by white people. This is because Asians are considered hard working and smart. The actuality is that Asians fall prey to the many problems all minorities face in this country, and the scales for their socioeconomic and educational statuses are skewed due to specific immigrants that come to America who are wealthy and highly educated. Anyway, all this is to say that Asians are propped up as being "better" than African Americans, Hispanics, etc, and this creates a tension between these groups, beyond the tensions that already exist in the lower classes. Don't perpetuate this sort of thing, it's bad for everyone. more

This is confusing because so much to grasp. It was good that I made a chart for Spencer run because during last remain I understood that it is going to be confusing which it did. So making a chart helped me to enjoy the issue much better and not been confused while first time reading.

Sins Past gone. It's victory.
If he retcons OMD too, then he is going to hailed for writing Spidey even though I would hail him even today but if he does that too then it's just fricking awesome.
This makes Sarah and Gabriel interesting than before.
And Spencer really tried to make sense in everything while making a retcon. This thing I liked. I thought most of writer don't even care for previous work before them much but he clearly does which is clearly be seen in his entirety of run. Looking at you, Cates who retconned Galactus origin and killed Galactus. Looking at you, Jason Aaron who retconned Thor mother as Phoenix without considering the fact that he himself wrote Phoenix dated Thor.
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At its core, this issue is retconning away the worst of Sins Past and all the related storylines. That's great. I'm very glad about that. I really don't know what to expect from the final issue of this run. The two week wait will be hard, assuming the spoilers don't come out ahead of time. I'm kind of dreading explaining this issue to my friends when they read it and only get like half of it. So... Kindred's body is the result of an evolution of cloning tech, a campaign led by an AI Harry Osborn, to fuck with Peter and Norman, spinning out of his original Pursuit plan with Chameleon. Kindred is the original Harry Osborn's soul, that has escaped Hell, which he was sent to due to Norman's deal with Mephisto, who has possessed the body of Sarah Stacy, and has used Chameleon serum to keep up his appearance as Harry Osborn. The question is, what does that make Brand New Day Harry Osborn if Harry was never revived? I guess we'll find out next issue. We have to. I kind of love comic books being comic books, so I don't mind how convoluted it is. I just worry about the accessibility of this issue to people who aren't clued into the last few decades of Spider-Man. more

I'm so glad less people stuck around for Marvel's attempt at a Pride anthology. It means I don't have to make quite so long a review this time. Blah blah blah *insert sexuality here* blah blah.

"Introduction" by Luciano Vecchio and Mike O'Sullivan is probably one of my favorite stories from this anthology because I think it shows why I like Marvel as much as I do. I do not think you could get so much out of DC's history the way you can with Marvel's, and I think that's part of why Marvel can be so much more relatable.

"The Vows" by Allan Heinberg is cute. I like Wiccan and Hulkling as a couple and their vows are cute. That's all.

"Under the Stars" by Mariko Tamaki is alright. I feel like it doesn't really get itself across that well, but it's not terrible.

"Something New Every Day" by Lilah Sturges is odd. I feel like they couldn't decide whether to be super respectful to trans people or say whatever trans-related witticism they could come up with to fit the situation. Which is why they have characters say it, and then point out how it's kind of not cool. Or like pointing out how trans people don't know each other but then they totally do. It is neat how it mirrors Dr. Charlene McGowan's origin from Immortal Hulk #31, at least.

"When a Black Cat Crosses Your Path, You Give Them the Right-Of-Way" by Leah Williams kind of falls into the trap of being a story that could exist in any anthology and it wouldn't really matter. But I live for it because people have decided to die on the "Black Cat is not Bisexual" hill, which is totally normal and not a sign of any bigotry.

"Totally Invulnerable" by Crystal Frasier is one of my favorites of the anthology because I feel like it does a lot to humanize trans people, which is something that the DC anthology didn't even attempt, and they're an important part of the queer community that have been the target of so much bullshit lately.

"Colossus" by Kieron Gillen is probably my favorite story in the anthology. I think it has a great message of being open-minded and being willing to see new perspectives. Like I mentioned above, we need to humanize queer people, because society is constantly otherizing them, and the best way to do that is to be open to their experiences and their perspectives. We've seen very famous homophobes change their tune when someone in the family turns out gay, for instance. And I know this story is more about David coming to terms with his bisexuality, and that's important too, but I think this story, intentionally or not, tapped into something really great here.

"Good Judy" by Terry Blas is okay. I mean, the message is good, but I really think it's hindered by some of the dialogue. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about that tongue" shouldn't be something people say, in my opinion. But maybe Daken is beyond people.

"Early Thaw" by Anthony Oliveira is a really good story. I really like how it's an overt tie between mutantdom and gayness. I like the idea that Magneto, even at his worst, was willing to comfort someone who emotionally distraught over who they are. Good job.

"The Man I know" by J.J. Kirby is.. fine. I really don't like how sinewy and muscular the art is here and that's really the only thing I can say about this one.

"The Grey Ladies" by Tini Howard is really good. I am a Mystique/Destiny stan, I can't help it.

"You Deserve" by Vita Ayala is a cute little story about someone finally realizing they deserve some happiness, which I think will hit home with some queer people who find themselves filled with self-hatred and guilt over who they are, which is unfortunately very common.

"Man of His Dreams" by Steve Orlando is really weird. I have a feeling this man will not abandon his family who thinks he died for Krakoa no matter how much Daken and he shared in a lifetime dream once.

"Love is Love" by Jacopo Camagni is a nice piece of art, I wish there were more characters in it though.

The Alpha Flight excerpt that shows the first openly gay hero come out is not bad. It's just very dated, and I've never been a fan of Scott Lobdell.

Now for the complaints from the bad people who I feel like have some personal problems to work out:

This is more reserved for the people who I feel like genuinely have homophobic attitudes, or generally are against progressivism and have outted themselves to be terrible.

Briton was pretty much disregarded in my review for DC Pride, but luckily, he’s just as dumb over this issue. He says, “The comics industry continues to cut its own throat by backing identity politics. Very few people will actually buy this comic. The print run will be shipped out to schools to poison and confuse children.”

So, one, the comics industry isn’t dying. If you look at the numbers - just released in easy-to-read graphs just today actually – the comics industry is on an upswing. Doing better than it has in a long time. Also, I’m not aware of any concerted effort by Marvel to put this issue in schools. Comic books cannot poison, silly. They are made of perfectly safe materials. And what’s confusing here? It’s just a collection of stories about characters that are queer. Kids know what that is. If anything, this clears it up for them! Maybe Merlyn’s comment can clear it up for me.

Merlyn commented, “I'm all for tolerance and acceptance but indoctrinating children... yeah, that doesn't fly well with me, sorry.”

Hmm, I’m still not sure what this means. This is literally just an anthology of stories of people being okay with who they are. There’s no indoctrination in this comic, unless you consider any material representing queer people in a positive light as a form of indoctrination. Which would be super fucked up, huh? The only reason one would think that is if they were homophobic. Indoctrination of children usually involves fear, like say when a Christian church tells them they will burn in a lake of fire for all eternity unless they accept the almighty.

But let’s not take Merlyn seriously, you guys. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is severely stubborn. I actually happened to see him commenting on a Newsarama article and I clicked on his disqus account, and man, he is complaining about this issue on other websites too. I’ll go over it now!

“Since when was Union Jack gay? Are we just making stuff up now?

Oh, and Black Cat still isn't bi, sorry, she's always been straight, regardless of how much Marvel and crazies online want us to think otherwise.

And why are Captain Marvel and War Machine in the "Love is love" splash page with all the other LGBT characters? Oh wait, the feminist and the black guy have to be there too, of course. :))

Also, the amount of flags out there is ridiculous, one, maybe two was more than enough, it's not like we're talking about nations here.”

So, Union Jack was made officially gay in the Citizen V miniseries by Fabian Nicieza in 2002. Nicieza did this after noting apparent subtext in the original Invaders run, specifically Invaders #34 from 1978.

Black Cat is bisexual and has been since Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #1, published in 2002. This was later hinted at in Jed MacKay’s Black Cat run, and then outright stated. And now she’s appearing in Pride anthologies. The horror. Guess who owns the character? Marvel. Guess who has the say of what a character is and isn’t? The owner. She’s bisexual. Get over it, you weirdo.

Captain Marvel and War Machine are not in there because one’s a feminist and one’s black. Thanks for the glimpse into how your mind works. Love is love, Merlyn. Even heterosexual love. That’s why they’re there. I don’t know why you’d be so heterophobic like that. Openly, too!

There are an appropriate number of flags. There are flags to represent each letter of the alphabet people. Like, what would be an actual unnecessary number of flags would be, like, what you see at a Donald Trump rally. You know? Flags upon flags upon flags, just like they did at Nazi rallies. I think we can all agree that that is way worse than like 12 flags spread out over a massive crowd of people.

So, there you go. I feel like Marvel did a better job at this than DC. I feel like it was more representative of queer people, and that Marvel is definitely multiple steps ahead of DC in this regard. But hey, DC is trying. more

"THE BIG GUN IS BACK" indeed. What's Breakworld doing in this story? Oh, Ewing's using elements from Whedon's Astonishing run and leading up to a fairly audacious resolution to the Dormammu problem. Might have too much early Cable/X-Force nostalgia for most people, based on the reviews, but the plot and its use of past continuity is solid.

Fails on every level. Everyone acts out of character and makes baffling choices. None of the corporate skullduggery makes any sense. The plot contradicts itself from issue to issue (remember that bit where Monet disappeared through a hole in the ceiling last issue?) And worst of all, it's just plain boring. This series runs a close second to Fallen Angels for the Krakoa era worst title, only because the art is better. more

I can't imagine the lengths of self-oppression one has to go through to be offended by the slightest hint of political themes.

This was a great issue! Then again, most Zdaredevil issues are. I think it juggled everything very well. I'm not sure how I feel about multiple Bullseyes, but let's see where it goes. Merlyn once again shows how insane he is. He's recognizing patterns and themes on a level the rest of us just can't comprehend. You should see his dissertation on Flat Earth.