Thor's thunder in its veins, Loki's gleam in its eye, Cap's courage to the fore, and Spider-Man's wise-cracks around the edges. It's fitting that this story launches right around the time Avengers: Endgame hits theaters; War of the Realms is an epic of no less ambition and spectacle. The creators show EXACTLY how you make a humble comic book stand up to the highest cinematic expectations of the 21st century. more

Dating Harry Osborn is a bit of a disaster. But Gwen's hero-for-hire business is starting to pick up, so she's got that going for her, which is nice. Rock-solid art, snappy dialogue, and a superb little episode of retail life-saving heroism are all big positives, and negatives are pretty thin on the ground. Taking a panel to pet a cat is sweet, too.

The poor benighted Gibbon is ground between the gears of the Hunted event, and this aside story takes a moment to mourn his downfall. It's a story told with superlative skill. The script excels at soliciting sympathy, and a gritty, painful story like this is a perfect fit for Ken Lashley's art. It certainly yanked my heartstrings hard. But I do recall that this sort of petit Walter Mitty tragedy is what the Gibbon has ALWAYS been about. Stan Lee and John Romita invented him specifically to be a lovable loser. Here, he bows out, more lovable and sympathetic than ever before. more

In this story all about Rick Jones, it's Doc Samson who plays the hapless sidekick, and I find that fascinating. The Doc timidly accuses Devil Hulk of sadism and is no help at all in a fight. General Fortean is back in the shadows, ominously cranking out both long and short-term antagonism for the Hulk. It looks superb and the plot developments are satisfying, as is the climactic re-introduction of a new old Hulk personality. The "divergent narration" trick pulled with Rick's autobiography tends to interrupt the flow of the story in unfortunate ways, though. more

Fate brings Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel together and pits them against a classic team-up situation. The "two parallel stories" gimmick is nicely executed, with each track satisfying on its own and combining into an even better whole. Character work on the two leads is quietly encouraging, building a recognizable base while also ramping up for the theme of the story.

Miles quits after explaining his devil's pact to Kamala, which shakes her to the core. And Sam grabs an incredibly dumb opportunity: Kaldera will help him retrieve his Nova helmet so she can then kill him honorably. The Sam thread is perfectly suited to the creators' style and comes off terrific. The Miles/Kamala thread lies a little outside their wheelhouse, visually and verbally. It's done well here, but I'm pretty sure it could be done even better.
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Good Night lays out his complete backstory which, as Deadpool points out at the end, is a tactical error when you're battling somebody with one of Marvel's strongest healing factors. It's got a certain grandeur to it, but Good Night's relentless focus on specific vengeance rather than general justice ensures that he has none of Batman's righteousness. It'll be incredibly easy to root against him in the climactic beatdown next month. more

Reading a second take on the "I don't trust the new girls" scene from #1 brought on a disagreeable feeling of deja-vu.

Hercules triumphs over despair - which is really kind of his Whole Deal - and Hulk pays for his hubris as the whole shebang climbs toward a climax.

I appear to be the sole occupant of the bit of the Venn diagram where "Cosmic Ghost Rider irreverence" meets "obsessive 20th-century Marvel continuity wanking." I'm a fan of Todd Nauck's art, too. But even I can see the premises beginning to fall apart here; the writers have spun up too many plates and the ones further away from the core "CGR cracks wise in historical flashbacks" mission are wobbling in a way that probably can't be fixed. more

I like the way this story hustles right along even when Cyclops is out of action; nothing stops the bad news train.

This story could be satirical comedy gold if it was being told by creators who were willing to acknowledge/celebrate its stupidity. But I'd as soon take a blood transfusion from a turnip as I would expect self-aware irony from a Rob Liefeld comic. He seems like a nice guy in interviews and even willing to joke about his various infamies. But on the comics page, he's all deadly seriousness and earnest naivete and "what do you mean attacking Wolverine with a future sword forged out of his own bones isn't the coolest thing ever? Did I mention it's FROM THE FUTURE?!" more

Daredevil comes within one curly hair's breadth of getting arrested and unmasked, and he has a terrible buddy to thank for his reprieve. While all the storytelling duties are handled with exquisite skill, there's also a hard-to-shake feeling of familiarity.

Or perhaps I'm just In A Mood today and if I weren't being so cynical, I could find the bit of je ne sais quoi I'm looking for. That moment when Daredevil silently throws down the gun is certainly a strong contender.
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Midnight's Fire rolls by Riri's garage to make a Darth Vader pitch. It's compellingly nasty stuff, but he errs by pushing too hard for a paternal role; it sticks in Riri's craw coming shortly after she and her Mom reminisced about her stepfather's wisdom. This is a formidable issue in words and art, rolling straight up to the precipice of greatness.

Gambit thieves and Spiral fights while Rogue dives into her memories. She comes up with a very simple explanation for her power control issues. Simplicity doesn't stop it from being logical and satisfying. Giving Rogue's introspective journey the lion's share of panel space is actually great for the Gambit and Spiral stories; brevity sharpens them to formidable points. Wrap it all up in some clean, powerful art (and give it a notable absence of Mojo!) and you've got a comic I'm eager to read and to call good. more

Monica's canny leadership reunites the team, but they fail to stop Nyx from claiming one of her MacGuffin crystals. The POV characterization on Monica is incredibly great. A real treat for fans of the character, and a generally good read for anybody who's invested in the series.

Anna Maria pushes SpOck into helping with rescue work after his big battle. It creates tremendous characterization opportunities. A clever idea on the part of both Anna Maria and the author. Some quietly brilliant art helps it all along - I could stand to see some brighter colors, though.

It's a good Spidey-comic, but the shadow of a potentially-better Spidey-comic seems to loom over every page. The focus actively avoids the principal characters to filigree around the edges of the premise instead. Is that becoming a chronic problem for this volume?

My reaction was similar to other commenters, except when art makes me go "ugh," I actually ratchet down my rating.

Department X's fluffy status quo is disturbed when Blob confesses a crush and Moneta veers way too close to evil territory. Some of the prose and characterization simply blows me away, but the scattershot plot development disagrees with me. I'm not in love with the story but I do love the way it's being told.

Strategically, I think I'm going to end up strongly against the idea of inventing a brand new mutant (Moneta) to take all the morally-dodgy stances in this title. How much more gripping it would be if it were Jubilee or Psylocke going off the deep end!
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The heroes and villains all work out that they're being puppeted, which promises some intense craziness for the bigger bad (Agger?) in the near future. The action, art, and dialogue are quite solid, and it's a pleasure to see the big guest stars, Logan and Devil Hulk, both putting their base cunning to work. Plus, I ain't gonna turn my nose up at a last dance with the endearingly bonkers Dr. Alba from Weapon H. more

Stephen says, "I'm sick of doing the same three Dr. Strange stories over and over." The universe hears him and replies, "OK, Mr. Sorcerer Smug-preme, let's see how you do with premise #3 from the Galactus playbook." I like the last act because it actually stirs the Galactus chocolate into the Dr. Strange peanut butter with delicious results, but the first two-thirds are rather blah. I can't tell whether the start is too meta or not meta enough. Could it somehow be both? more

I agree with this issue's letter-writers; it's disturbing and disappointing that this volume can't find a regular artist. The constant art shifts and Dan Slott's "greatest hits" plotting reduce this to comfort food. It's tasty if you're in a nostalgic mood, but if you're looking for something daring, this is way too bland.

I can't shake the feeling that I wouldn't be able to explain this comic's plot to a curious six-year-old -- and I don't think the fault lies on my end of the reading experience.