Chase goes about his business, being awesome, getting groceries, completely failing to notice his helpful clerk is hitting on him. He continues his awesomeness when he gets home and talks to Molly, and Karolina experiences powerful stuff on her day out. This looks and sounds fantastic and it does an amazing job of turning insightful characterization into a star attraction.

This reads more like a bonus issue of FNSM than a team one-shot, but why complain when the result is this charming? Tom Taylor's script comes correct with comedy and pathos, and Jorge Molina + Adriano Di Benedetto deliver an impressively big-budget art performance. Pretty much everything you could ask for in a Spider-Man event tie-in.

Gorilla-Man's day in the spotlight covers a lot of ground: Espionage and betrayal in addition to helping save Avengers Mountain from Malekith. The art is gorgeous through and through and Ken's voice is charming. But I'm worried about the long-term ramifications. I think this issue filled up my quota for Gorilla-Man antics; I'd rather not see future pages spent on a damnation/redemption arc for him. more

Miles teams up with Starling to clobber Tombstone. It's pretty well-worn ground when it comes to introducing a new super-teen, and Miles's soap opera entanglements remain a little scattershot. I was pleasantly surprised by how endearing Starling wound up, though; I'm looking forward to more of her.

I have a nasty habit of writing Cullen Bunn's scripts off as flat/shallow, but it'd be a mortal mistake to lump this one into that pile. The depth and subtlety with which Eddie is characterized are truly impressive.

Respect the craft: The creators added an extra Watcher-analog (Ykolon) to their Galactus story just because they could.

I love these characters, but the ensemble approach didn't need to be applied to the villains, too. Suddenly the heroes have 300% more antagonism than they need.

Throwing a brief timeskip between the last issue and this one works wonders. I like the way the plots are coming together. Characterization's less impressive, though, and Dani still feels criminally under-utilized. Some outstanding art helps cushion the rough edges.

The artist change-up combined with Cullen Bunn's subtle approach to characterization makes it hard to maintain consistent interest in this title. Like, is this REALLY the same story as #8? My head says yes but my heart has its doubts.

It's charming, sure. Charming enough to excuse the rough storytelling in the script and the very sketchy finish on the art? The creators hope yes, I say no. It'll be fun for a juvenile Lunella fan, but it doesn't deliver the "all ages" parent-pleasing appeal this title normally has.

"Memories are the sweetest music" and "Once a story is written, it can never be unwritten." I wish all of the storytelling lived up to that imaginative, poetic high point. But it devolves into frantic space bug fights and hacker-chasing, alas.

I feel bad for Charles Soule because his preceding run on Daredevil was good. But five issues in, this volume is clarifying the vast difference between great and merely "good."

At tremendous cost, the heroes regroup and reinforce and set themselves to defeat Malekith's armies on Midgard. All the Bifrosts are shattered. Odin and Freyja are MIA, as is Malekith. But Thor lives and stands ready to lead. Solid plotting and nice character details -- #4 features a welcome burst of focus after the far-ranging "survey" tone of #3.

Joe Fixit versus Bushwacker doesn't end well for the plastic man. As is typical for this series, this issue handles a straightforward fight with polish and cleverness while also peppering the proceedings with ominous foreshadowing and cool references. A few bits got too cute for me personally (the Aliens gag and Dr. McGowan talking about the "rules of the Hulk"), but I'm pretty sure the fault is in my mood rather than the material. more

Peter survives -- barely -- an inventive combination of the Alien Costume Saga and Kraven's Last Hunt. The Cold War turns hot and super-powered, but global politics are a distant third behind Spider-business and the unending tragedy of Pete's personal life. It's a story well-told and gorgeously-drawn, but it's damned bleak so far. Zdarsky & Bagley may end up doing an excellent job showing why we DON'T want to follow ageing superheroes through generations of traumatic adventures. more

Riri accepts a mission to check up on Miles when he goes MIA for two weeks and rescues him from a timey-wimey trap. It's a rock-solid story combining several classic comics tropes that have become uncommon: the (nearly) self-contained one-shot, the crossover team-up, the one-and-done villain. They're used so effectively here that they make a deceptively persuasive argument in favor of resurrecting them. The secret is that the storytelling required to make them work is a lot trickier than it looks; this issue has really strong writing and art working very well together.
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This is a pretty dang good Thanos comic. But it's supposed to be a Guardians of the Galaxy comic.

Anole pushes his sect's agenda to a scary result, with his school friends just a little too far behind him and the authorities bringing up the rear. Interesting ideas, solid art, and an excellent pace. Yet somehow the prose, while clear, fails to evoke an emotional connection or a sense of urgency -- and the latter particularly seems needed.

This final chapter ties a pretty nice bow on the series. Things got mighty muddled in the middle, though; I think this tale should be filed under "for Widow completionists only."

I read it on release day and read it again on MU 6 months later and forgot literally everything about it in between; that's really all I need to say.