Krakoa's status quo remains ever mercurial. Arakko arrives and Jean and Scott refuse to join the Quiet Council. I love the art and the ideas are brilliant. This issue does take a lot of time and space to lay them out, though. A faster pace and a little more content would be the keys to taking this from good to great for me.

With the cast assembled, Harry finally lays out his full grievances against Spider-Man. But he gets blindsided by MJ and Norman launching a play against him that might or might not be a put-on. I admire how neatly the plot threads come together here, reinforcing strong storytelling with interesting content. It's right next door to greatness and I can't wait to see how it wraps up.

The Power Pack finds a mentor who is, of course, too good to be true. There's a decent if slow-paced serving of plot development here, and it's garnished with an ample side of Ryan North Humor™ that I really liked. I felt like I was surely going to hit a blinking "EDU-TAINMENT!" sign by the time the turbine diagrams came out, though. But I would 100% endorse giving or reading this to a nerdy kid. more

Wolverine gets back to X-Force business, with personal spy-history rising up to influence his next steps. It's a smooth evolution of his status quo and it sinks plenty of promising plot hooks. This oversized anniversary serving is a little bit indulgent, though. It spreads out so wide that it gets difficult to prioritize all the ongoing storylines. Icy writing and sharp art smooth the reading experience and demonstrate considerable storytelling skill. more

How the Swift Tide became the Black Tide is, they got sucked into the Cthulhu Mythos. Which is okay, but me, I like the olden days when Marvel writers would take a second to file the serial numbers off their Lovecraft swipes. The script is well crafted and the art's really nice; I was just hoping for something more original.

Today in the Aaronvengers AU: It's Contest of Champions, Firechicken Edition! Check your brain at the door, put up your feet, accept your complimentary bag o' popcorn, and root for your favorites!

It's a shame to waste Javier Garrón (who is NOT just phoning it in here, this looks gorgeous) on this carnival sideshow.

Also, attention Marvel: I am full up on Steve Rogers saying "I can do this all day" in comics, thanks. I could go 12 months, at least, without reading that again. It's not cute, it's not clever, it's not subtle. It's not ripe for deconstruction or irony or repurposing. Just (literally!) give it a rest for a little while.
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I dunno about nationalist propaganda, but this comic mentioned Clif Bars 4 times, and that's pretty terrible.

This entertained me for 24 pages but afterward, the pile of ☠☠☠☠s I give about Vengeance remains microscopic.

Red Wolf rescues Jake and angles to be his mentor. But a second attack by Monster Squad riles everybody up and leads Jake (who, bless his hairy heart, is not very bright) to motorbike his way right into the clutches of the evil pharma corp and its supervillainous leader.

I like what the creators are TRYING to do here, but it's just not coming together in a competent way. Flaws abound. The writers seem to think "characterization" is something you do only once per character. Unfortunate artistic shortcuts undermine the visuals. And there's a criminal page layout error: The Song of the Wolf spread is gorgeous. To stick the page that explains it BEFORE it instead of after it is rock stupid. And avoidable. I can forgive the writers, who are new to the medium. But for EVERYBODY ELSE to miss what a dramatic improvement that little change would make is nigh unbelievable.
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The Runaways are badly shaken in the aftermath of Doc Justice. Gert provides new focus by deciding to go back to school -- but the wounds and pains of the previous arc are far from healed. This is a great, quiet mood piece that starts laying track for new stories while reminding us that the characters have a lot of baggage to unpack in the future. Solid guest art lives up to the challenge of carrying a lot of storytelling weight when the script needs it to. more

Spidey salvages Eddie after his big fall and 4 Yancy Street becomes anti-Knull HQ. An impressive roster of heroes and concepts join the fight -- but this issue is more about the Brocks than their allies. The plot is decent and I think the structure of the script is really formidable. Great execution of good ideas. The finale hits hard in the moment, though I don't buy its permanence.

Carol summons Jessica home to clobber a Knull-dragon. She resents her friend doing so in a completely unjustified/justified manner. This "Marchand Serum" thing snuck up on us in the form of "curing a super-disease," blinding us to the fact that Jess is actually caught in an addiction scenario. The reality is (hopefully) clear now, and combining some stellar art with the nasty (good nasty) plot pulls this title back up into greatness. more

The team draws itself together and goes hunting for 616 Betsy, with only Rictor feeling any real regret for also losing Apocalypse. Very pretty art, a solid pace, and intriguing plot developments are the positives for me. It's a pretty wordy comic, though, and some of the character voices sound "off."

Kindred's big plan comes together, and even though the Order of the Web wins a fight, things look rough for the good guys. An accelerating plot, solid dialogue, and good art all combine to make this run toward the climax a lot more satisfying than the set-up issues -- at least for me.

Doom gets to vacation in his "shiny happy Doom" AU. His doppelganger makes the full pitch for peace, love and understanding. And once the pitch is made, Doom burns it all down, the whole shiny happy universe. A pretty definitive ending. The language had to get awfully exposition-y to cram in all the points the author wanted to make. There's a last burst of artistic excellence, spent well in illustrating the splendor of the AU.

Flirting with redemption is the eternal theme of Doom-centric stories, and the great thing is, different authors can take him to opposite ends of the moral spectrum. Doom is flexible in his inflexibility; this is certainly not the last time he'll be tempted by the light.

I doubt this particular temptation story needed 10 issues, though. Maybe 6. Maybe less. Of course, 2020 being what it was, I could also believe that the author was given the go-ahead to extend his story, only to catch a premature COVID cancellation after starting his second arc.
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Johnny's reunion with his sister isn't all that friendly, and by the end, it looks like Kate is even further from "on his side" than Johnny thinks. I'm still really enjoying the storytelling, but I admit the plot hasn't really come together yet. This may end up as a shaggy dog story -- but it also could become great.

Banner/Maestro still thinks post-apocalyptic humans are sheep to be led, owned, and slaughtered when necessary. Rick Jones still thinks that's wrong. Less a continuation of the climax than a loop back to underline the already-established points. The big twist is that there is no big twist; Banner just woke up after the apocalypse and decided the only course of action was to out-bastard everybody he came across.
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A somewhat feeble "hooray art, hooray comics" strip from Bill Sienkiewicz and a bunch of Golden Age throwback stuff. (And a nice portrait of Rocket Raccoon.) Basically, this issue isn't going to be of interest unless you're the kind of comics fan who's invested significant time and/or money reading Golden Age strips. I AM such a fan and I still don't like this much.

Oh, c'mon. They can't ALL be perfect … oh, wait, yes they can. Al Ewing and Joe Bennett are comic-ing on a whole different level.

Sure, Immortal Hulk's in the middle of a tight story and this is an event tie-in, but HULK WANT CHRISTMAS! So he gets Christmas and it's terrific. This is a no-words issue, but that hardly means author Al Ewing is slacking off. He assembles a silent tale with wit and charm, and Aaron Kuder does a bang-up job illustrating it. Not an essential tale for either the series or the event, but way too fun to skip. more

The Black Cat is back, getting her latest heist spoiled by Knull's arrival and swearing revenge on the cosmic death-god. Everything I loved about the last volume makes the jump to this one; it's still well-drawn, brilliantly written, and dangerously clever. The tie-in to the event is practically perfect. This reads fine on its own, but Felicia's overall role looks significant. A kudo for strategic writing: I love a dual-motivated character. And here Felicia is putting Knull in her sights not just out of wounded pride but also because it's what Captain America told her to do. That is wonderful. more

Ms. Marvel gets Dugan off her back by teaming up with him against one of her established villains. The fight does show off Kamala at her best; Dum Dum's not the only one who should be impressed. The storytelling is strong, particularly the art. There are a lot of dangling plot threads left behind. But Dugan's arc wraps up so nicely that the issue is a very satisfying read.

Beast cooks up a spy-scheme using Omega Red in a sinister way while a more immediate threat grows beneath his feet. The plotlines are fine, there's solid character work tucked around the edges, and good Lord, the artwork! It's a stunningly gorgeous issue to look at, and the writing isn't a slouch either.

Tony and Nick Fury Jr tackle what they figure is their hardest mission first: Phil Coulson, who tends to hang out with Hyperion these days. "Taskmaster vs. Hyperion" should only go one way -- but look at whose name is on the book. The creators show exactly what you need to do to turn a potentially-boring slugfest into a fascinating struggle. My two favorite bits are the outstanding timing (those planning flashbacks are perfectly placed) and the slurred but significant character revelations Tony shares as he gets clobbered. more

The classic New Mutants find themselves volunteered as teachers for the younger generation. It's a very simple set-up, but the character work is terrific and there's more than a little humor. Magik is the star, but I'm also delighted to see Scout (aka Gabby aka Honey Badger) back and handled well. I have a conflicted reaction to the art. I love the blocking, the colors, a lot of the faces. But the linework is so very improvable!
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The shoe finally drops and the Griever attacks. But the FF have plans. I admire the way the script is structured, though the prose doesn't thrill me. On the art, I have the reverse impression: A lot of strong pages, but no unifying stylistic consistency. And I do like the plot, particularly the finale. It's a really good comic, but also definitely an improvable one.

Never trust editors, particularly when they say things like, "Oh, we've got one full-time artist now."
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Everybody makes it out of the Bone Beast story alive (not intact in Wade's case, but he's *alive*). The action and the resolution are perfectly satisfactory; what pushes this issue up close to greatness is the continued excellence in evolving the Wade-Elsa relationship. We're rooting for you so hard guys!

Korvac grinds ahead on his "ascend to godhood" plan, having captured Rhodey in between issues. Meanwhile, Tony and Patsy are too busy resolving their weakly-foreshadowed sexual tension to make much progress against the baddy. I still like this volume's storytelling, but I begin to doubt the quality of the actual content being conveyed.

It is extremely hard for an author to predict how many plot-dots a reader will be comfortable connecting on her own and I think this issue edged past the line for me.

Also, big tone shift: Note how we went from tons of Tony monologue to NONE in this issue? Feels like an over-correction at best. more

The good guys win in Madripoor, and Thunderbolt Ross (somehow) regains his Red Hulk form. It's a solid plot with some cool twists. But these creators are just not bringing the talent this story deserves. I like the blocking of the art, but not the way the characters are finished. I hate Steve's dumb doe eyes; I hate Sam's stupid skull mask. And the author continues to rely on divergent narration to philosophize while the action plays out. But it doesn't work as well as he thinks; in fact, I think it's getting worse over time. more