Secret Wars: The Infinity Gauntlet #1 - Review

Script by Gerry Duggan. Story by Gerry Duggan & Dustin Weaver. Art by Justin Weaver.
Rating: 4/5.
Worth your $3.99?: Maybe. Probably worth waiting for the trade.

I'm honestly not sure what to do with Secret Wars: The Infinity Gauntlet.

The basic story puts us in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The world has been ravaged by "The Bugs" and, as far as we can tell, the Bakians are the only survivors, scavenging off the ruins of the city. Now, the Bakians are what make this a story worth reading. Where the temptation for many of these alternate-Earth's has been the spectacle (new version of this character, this character shockingly friends with this character, etc), Weaver and Duggan have given us a story that focuses in on family drama (set against the aforementioned post-apocalyptic wasteland, of course).

Told more-or-less from the teenage Anwen's point of view, we get a look at a family that has been ripped apart. Although Anwen, her sister, her father, and her grandfather have all survived, her mother left them to fight the bugs as a member of the Nova Corps. They haven't heard from her since.

And this is where it starts to get real... and by real I mean, these start to feel like real people dealing with a relatable, human problem. The question of how to handle losing a loved is tough, but it only gets tougher when you don't know for sure if they're even dead. And they each struggle with this question of 'when to give up' differently. Menzin (Dad) and Fayne (lil sister) live in hope or denial depending on how you see it. Anwen and Gramps assume the worst. This difference manifests in difficult ways for the family. In less than a page, we see Grampa go from calling Menzin "the son I never had" to harshly telling he "Never knew what she saw in you." The stress of this world leaves their bonds immensely fragile and it is only while in danger that the bond's true unbreakability is shown.

***WARNING: SPOILERS FROM HERE DOWN***

Now, they'll be tested once again as Anwen stumble across one of the Infinity Gems and shortly after, finds that her mom, in full Nova battle-armor, has come back to her. Of course, we find out that the person lurking in the shadows is none other than.... Thanos! (Or as I'll call him Alterna-Thanos, since Thanos is one of the few 616 characters we can officially account for thanks to Secret Wars #2).

Now let's take a moment here for an...

EXTREME GEEK QUESTION

Question: How did the blue Infinity Gem bring Mom back?
Issue: In 616, the blue gem is the mind gem. In the MCU, it's the space stone. The book seems to imply that it's the reality gem since she says, "Suddenly everything I ever wish for came true," and wishes is part of how the reality gem works.
Possible Explanation A: If, like many comics choices these days, it's affected by the MCU and this is the space stone, she could have teleported her mom from somewhere in space. It's simple and does the job, although since mom wasn't surprised about being back, this seems unlikely.
Possible Explanation B: Alterna-Thanos has the yellow gem in his glove (the 616 reality gem is yellow) and rather than let Anwen discover the power of the Infinity Gem, he used his own stone to grant her wish.  If it's the space gem, Thanos would be worried that she would teleport away and take the stone with her. Bringing her mother in keeps her here. This theory is very interesting to me since it would imply a slightly more empathetic Thanos if he could understand that. Or, of course, there's....
Possibly Explanation C: It's just the reality gem and this universe just has different colors.

Either way, Mom is back and now it looks like this will likely be a Nova vs Thanos story. I don't know about you, but I got excited about this story after reading, in an interview with Hero Complex, what Dustin Weaver had to say of this version of Thanos:

"This is a more grizzled version of the character; he caries the weight of his experiences. He’s colder, more mysterious, and impenetrable. But you can be certain, some things about Thanos will never change."

Different is good, and I'm looking forward to finding out what this version of Thanos has in store for us.

Now, after all that praise, you're probably wondering why I opened this review saying that I wasn't sure what do with it. Well, the reason is mainly routed as a reader of the wider Secret Wars story. Consider that this destroyed land is part of the greater Battleworld, but unlike some of the other books (A-Force, Planet Hulk, Attilan Rising) there's no clear acknowledgement of the larger world at work.

Though the story, doesn't acknowledge it, I've heard the thought that this is New Xandar (or kingdom 40), which is a land south of the Shield. This makes sense since it's overrun by monsters, but separated by water from The Deadlands (Marvel Zombies-world) and Perfection (i.e. Age of Ultron-land). But this raises the question: do the Bakians know there are other kingdoms out there? Were the bugs before or after Battleworld started? I'm extremely curious, though the book makes no hints either way.

What confuses me more though, is the revelation of the Infinity Gems. These are immensely powerful objects and it seems unlikely that Doom would allow any of them into his carefully constructed world (at least not out of his control). If Alterna-Thanos gathers them all, is there anything to stop him from bending the Battleworld to his will? Or do these gems only work in this zone? Point is, it forces some questions about the structure of Battleworld and I'll be very curious to see how they explain it (or if they just won't).

FINAL THOUGHTS
You've got to hand it to Duggan, Weaver, and Marvel with this one. They have taken full advantage of the chance to just tell a story without being bogged down in too much outside canon. They took the opportunity to get very deep and personal, and still sneak in some crazy universe stuff at the same time, even if it raises some questions to how the rules of Battleworld are laid out.

Secret Wars: Planet Hulk #1 - Review

Main Story: Written by Sam Humphries. Art by Marc Laming.
Pheonix Burning mini: Written by Greg Pak. Art by Takeshi Miyazawa.
Published by Marvel Comics, May 20th, 2015.
Rating: 4.5/5.

Welcome to the new Marvel's Secret Wars game show! The game where the writers come up with the most ridiculous idea they possibly can and then somehow craft it into a good story. Today's entrant is Sam Humphries, the writer behind the recent "Black Vortex" crossover series. And for his entry, he's going wiiiiiiiith: A gladiator version of Steve Rogers and his partner, Devil Dinosaur, must sneak into a land populated entirely by Hulks in order to rescue Bucky Barnes. Yes, you read that right. That is the story going on in Secret Wars: Planet Hulk.

The story is fun, full of action and deeply engrained into the Battleworld mythos. We opened on the Killeseum, a gladiator death match that is apparently broadcast on television to an unknown amount of the Battleworld. It is an interesting piece of the world, because even in the parts that have that Marvel's Game of Thrones feel, there is still technology at work and more modern day horrors (i.e. reality television).

The bit about Arcade (the sadistic man behind the recent Avengers Arena series) and the Killeseum, is built perfectly, with reveals falling at just the right time to be dramatic and still funny because of the absurdity. Speaking of absurdity, of all the Marvel characters they could have paired with Cap... they went with Devil Dinosaur. Back at this year's WonderCon, Humphries was asked about pitching stories and said something along the lines of that he pitched 'Steve Rogers with an axe, slicing at a bunch of Devil Dinosaurs trying to get to Bucky.' Well, we got something pretty damn close.

There are some interesting choices in this version of the characters. The brief flashback of this Cap and Bucky has Cap appearing very MCU-feeling garb and Bucky is already Winter Soldier, although the two seem to still be buddy buddy (there's even an American flag on Winter Soldier's non-metal arm). I like this because it sets up a similar but different enough world. We understand this Cap, even if we don't quite know him.

Greenland is a genuinely cool setting, and honestly why I bought this book. The secondary story in the back of this issue sets up an alterna-Earth where Bruce Banner and Amadeus Cho (MCU fans may know his mother, Dr. Helen Cho, who appeared in Age of Ultron) create the tech that goes into a gamma bomb and instead of just creating Banner's Hulk, changes the entire city. Side note: I love that this back story was called "Amazing Science." It's not a real book, but it's definitely a silver age book that was published on a parallel Earth somewhere.

A great moment at the end of the issue came as Steve, reeling from a battle with Gamma Worms, is saved by TWIST: an intelligent, mohawk Hulk with some kind of gamma ray weapon strapped to his chest. One thing the books so far have lacked is representation (or at least, acknowledged representation) of our 616 heroes. That said, I think this actually might be OUR Hulk (aka Doc Green).

Reasons: He walks up and his first word to this Steve is "Incredible." The Mohawk is a staple of Doc Green (although he's missing his new trademark goatee. He recognizes, but is surprised, to see Steve Rogers. And lastly, he asks Steve "what forgotten kingdom did Doom dig you up from?" It feels like the language of someone who has knowledge of the entire world, not just where they live and I'm working under the assumption that anyone who will eventually challenge Doom will be characters we are familiar with (also, I just really liked Doc Green and want more of him).

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a fun story. Steve Rogers dressed like a gladiator is just.... awesome. It expands the Battleworld with the addition of the Killiseum (which I believe will also be the setting of Ghost Racers) and is taking us into an entire land of Hulks. Who will we meet? Banner? Ross? Walters? Betty? Is the "Red King" our classic Red Hulk? If you're a fan of Hulks of any kind, I feel like this is going to just be a great story. Here's looking forward to issue #2!

Secret Wars: Spider-Verse #1 - Review

Written by Mike Costa. Art by Andre Araujo and Rochelle Rosenberg
Published by Marvel Comics: May 20th, 2015.
Rating: 3.75/5

Spider-Verse (the original one) is one of my favorite stories in the past few years. So, naturally, if Marvel was going to use it's previous events as titles for it's various side stories, Spider-Verse was a logical place to go.
comic book events of all time. So, yeah, I was going to buy this book from the moment it was announced. Looking back, the various spiders that showed up from across the Multiverse seems like a pretty clear test run for Secret Wars. So many examples of the same basic superhero, boiled down and applied to different characters. It was brilliant and it was

With Dan Slott covering the "Last Days of Silver Surfer" and "Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows" runs for Secret Wars, Marvel turned to Mike Costa (writer of Spider-Verse's "Scarlett Spiders" books) to give us a tale following a team made up the most popular Spiders to come out of the event. Billy Braddock aka Spider-UK, Anya Corazon (Spider-Girl), Paviitr Prabhakar (Spider-Man India), Spider-Man Noir (who doesn't appear in this issue except as a photo), Peter Porker the Amazing Spider-Ham, and, easily the most popular new spider, Spider-Gwen. Sound like an awesome team? You're damn right.

The story really focuses in on Spider-Gwen, who since Spider-Verse has had her own very successful solo book. What I really latched on to in this book, like many in this week's wave of Secret Wars titles is how it's providing us just a few more details into what it's like to be a resident of Battleworld. Though we're not sure exactly which realm this is in (my money's on Arachnia), it's definitely a convergence of Spider-themed characters.

The bigger reveal is that most of the people of this world appear to have had their memories wiped, though no entirely. This is absolutely our Gwen Stacy, but she doesn't remember anything about the stories we've seen her in. Not the original Spider-Verse, not her recent battles with Lt. Castle, not the Vulture, not even her band The Mary Janes. Tunes slowly seep through her subconcious, so we know those memories are buried in there, the question will be what it takes for those to come out.

We also run into Pavittr, who has a similar memory loss, though as a scientist, he's trying to figure out why he has vague memories of these people. Paviitr and Gwen show an interesting flip from their emotional places in Spider-Verse. Paviitr was originally seen facing an existential crisis because of how he felt like a pale shadow of Peter Parker-616, whereas Gwen was confident and sure of herself in battle. Fighting was something she knew and she was able to act along that. Here their roles are somewhat reverse. Paviitr is at home when he's studying something, trying to reason out the science, but outside of kicking some butts Gwen doesn't know what to do with herself. Add to that the fact that the universe mashup results in her visiting her own grave and it's definitely her turn for an existential crisis.

It was nice seeing Anya and Spider-UK still swinging about together, since we didn't know what happened to them after Spider-Verse, other than that they were traveling together to help right the Inheritors wrongs (also an interesting addition that Spider-UK doesn't have spider-senses, which I hadn't realized before)

The ending has a nice twist, although since Peter Porker is on the cover, it's not really that big of surprise. Gwen discovering that Mayor Osborn has deemed this Spider-Team the Sinister Six, which is an awesome little snippet. Just more evidence of the fun the writers can have with these books.

As for the art, its nice. It's simple in a good way, not overpowering the characters or what's going on in the scene.

Overall, the book was really only as strong as the characters. I was excited to see each and every one of them again, and that made it fun to read. That being said, the story here was a little inconsistant at best. It seemed more like just a series of cool encounters and reminders of who these characters are and where they are mentally on Battleworld as opposed to a cohesive story. That said, you can tell Costa is building something and there was enough here that I will definitely be back for issue #2.

Also: there's a mini at the back where we get to see Spider-Ham in a tale "Pig in the City" (because of course). It's cute story, in which, at one point, Peter is a food photographer and blogger. Yes, they went there.... because they could. While I give main story 3.5, this story I would give 4.5/5, which is why the rating at the top has that insane 3.75/5.

Secret Wars: Battleworld #1 - Review

Sadly, no Howard the Duck or
Franken-Castle in this issue.

Published by Marvel Comics: May 20th, 2015.
Rating: 4/5.

The biggest thing that Secret Wars has going for is the pure opportunity for fun. Regular runs of comics within the established universes of DC or Marvel, whether it be 616, Ultimate, New 52, Golden Age... whatever... is that they're beholden to the larger continuity that's at work. Now, usually, I find this to be what makes these comics amazing. It makes each tale larger than life and allows you to get lost in the world of these books. But sometimes you want to shed of those shackles and just have some ridiculous fun.

Secret Wars: Battleworld #1 is broken into two separate minis. Learning from the success of the "Spider-Verse" books during the Spider-event of the same name, Marvel is taking the chance to just let some of their writers go balls-to-the-wall insane with their stories. Even if the story doesn't have a multi-issue potential, why not just go for it? If the insanity of Frank Castle merged with Doctor Strange makes your eyes widen excitedly rather than roll, this book is for you (although I'd HIGHLY advise that you read Secret Wars #1 and #2 to get the context of what's happening).

*****SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT*****

Story #1: "Soldier Supreme"
Written by Joshua Williamson. Art by Mike Henderson.

As I said earlier: it's Frank Castle merged with Doctor Strange. Sound insane? It is and that's everything that's right about this mini. The story is quick and to the point. It spends just enough time setting up the situation here (this Doctor Strange got attacked by vampires and so his soul latched onto the closest person it could, a Frank Castle). Now with his own magical passenger, we get the skull costumed Punisher wearing the Sorcerer Supreme's cape. It's a ridiculous and beautiful sight.

If that's not ridiculous enough, Castle is wandering through the Kingdom of "2099," the 616 world of Spider-Man 2099 when he is encountered by four of Doom's bounty hunters, who he conveniently refers to as simply "The Four." The Four consists of a Hulk, a Ghost Rider, a Wolverine, and a Spiderman. Note the use of "a," since none of these are either of our universe's versions of the characters, which is nice because it lets the writers do whatever they want with them (including Castle simply saying "Calm." at The Hulk, shrinking him into Banner, and then turning him into dust). This probably isn't 616 Frank, but it might as well be. He's familiar enough that we get the character immediately.

Anyway, this fight is pretty much just pure fun. The Punisher whips out some magic sorcerer uzi guns, a conjured Rocket of Raggadorr, and even a spirit grenade called Weapon of Watoomb. It's awesome. Wolverine wins the day, but not before being saddled with the wandering spirit of Doctor Strange. Creepy and dark in a way that is perfect for Wolverine.

There are two moments worth noting in terms of the larger Battleworld in this story. One: The Four mention that people are not allowed to leave their Kingdoms without permission. This makes sense in terms of writing because it allows them to remain sectioned, as opposed to King James England running around with technology from 2099. I am curious, however, what the in world explanation is. Is it just a way for Doom to exert his control? Or does keeping it separate somehow allow the God-Doom to keep his power?

I think lots of future is hinted in this panel.

Two: Doom's Strange appears to be going after other versions of himself, but to what end? Does he just want to be the only Sorcerer? It would make him truly the Sorcerer Supreme. During Spiderverse, I always thought the different Spiders would wind up literally merging to make 616 Spider-Man stronger (ie what happens in the Spider-Man Unlimited game). This might be what's happening here... we'll see.

Oh and Limbo is currently ruled by a Baron Summers! Is it Scott or Alex?? Is it crazy alternate dimension Limbo? Just a name? So many questions!


Story #2: "M.O.D.O.K. Madness"
Written by Ed Brisson. Art by Scott Hepburn.

Have you ever thought, 'I like M.O.D.O.K. but I wish there were a lot of different M.O.D.O.K.'s teaming up and running around together'? No? Well, too bad because that's exactly what Ed Brisson. This story makes Soldier Supreme look downright grounded by comparison.

A classic looking M.O.D.O.K. (potentially our 616 model) decides that now that he can, he's going to create a little army of different versions of himself in order to overthrow Doom. Apparantly M.O.D.O.K.s don't come in the same shape and size often because these alternate universe models are insane. There's a cycolops M.O.D.O.K., a biological-fire-breathing M.O.D.O.K., a Spider-M.O.D.O.K., a Ghost Rider M.O.D.O.K., a M.O.D.O.K. that joined SHIELD, and even a little baby girl M.O.D.O.K. with an extreme set of daddy issues.

Of course that creates hilarious chaos. The story itself was alright. It was cute, funny, and exactly what this story was supposed to be. I imagine it's helping to set up the M.O.D.O.K. Assassin book that is coming out soon. For me, it didn't quite hold up to the first story but it does what it needed to and it's a nice little mini.

Gotta love that ending line: "Put me out of out of my misery and spare me from myself!" It almost begged to be followed by a sad trombone.

As for larger world stuff, we met a few more Thors at the tail end. A brunette male Thor and a redheaded female Thor. So picking up the hammer doesn't automatically make you blonde as it turns out! We also hear from their talking that apparantly A.I.M. facilities are found hidden throughout the Battleworld and whiping them out is one of the Thors' duties. So this suggests that Doom is actively trying to take out any supervillain competition. It'll be interesting to see this play out more as we go forward. Villains and heroes teaming up to take on Doom maybe?

Secret Wars #2 (aka Marvel Does "Game of Thrones") - Review

Written by Jonathan Hickman. Art by Esad Ribic.
Published by Marvel Comics: May 13th, 2015.
Rating: 4.5/5.

Now that Secret Wars #2 has been released we can tell where the decision to do it came from: someone over there loves Game of Thrones (and why wouldn’t they). One day they started wondering: ‘what house would Tony Stark be in if he was in Westeros?’ (ironically it’s probably Baratheon, not Stark). That thought process quickly evolved into, what if the Marvel Universe just was Westeros….. and before you knew it, (this iteration of) Secret Wars was born.

If you were left a little unsure of whether Secret Wars was going to be fun after issue #1 (I personally was scared it felt a little close to the burdeningly large scope of Infinity), this issue should assuage those fears as we’ve now set up the insanity of Battleworld. Divided into Kingdoms, this world is set up as single planet of all of Marvel.

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.

Let's be clear. Much of this book is spent simply setting up the insanity that is Battleworld. As such, there's actually very little "story" in this issue. But it's really the first chapter (#1 being more of a prelude) so I'm willing to forgive that. 

Like any good story in a new world, we need a character who has to be introduced to various aspects of the world so we can learn with them, and Hickman gives us a young recruit to the Thors (or Thor Corp... say it out loud, it's kind of fun). They're sort of the police of Battleworld and it's a really cool thing to see and it's revealed slowly which is nice. We see a couple familiar faces in the crowd. Old Man Thor from the recent God Butcher storyline and Beta Rey Bill. Bill may be a resident of the good ol' 616, but we don't see our Odinson or SPOILER REDACTED, our current Thor (see my Thor #8 review here for discussion on that reveal).

The SHIELD... see what they did there?

In the Game of Thrones comparison at work here, Thors are effectively a combination of Kings Guard and the Watchers on the Wall. You volunteer, pledge your allegiance to God, and are tasked with protecting the realm, which includes the protection of "the Shield" a wall that protects the kingdoms from the armies of Marvel Zombies (Deadlands), Age of Ultron bots (Perfection), and Annihlus and his forces. If I hadn't picked up the GOT vibe before this, a wall protecting us from the dead pretty much solidified it. I actually really love this reveal. If we're truly smashing together all the famous Marvel stories, it makes sense that these world consuming forces are here, but (being world consuming forces) they'd have to be contained in some way. It's fun and cool and calling it the Shield made me giggle. 

Of course, the BIG reveal is that the "God" that the Thors spoke of is in fact Victor Von Doom himself. Clad in all white, Doom has taken control over the entire Battleworld. For better or worse, he has formed this planet to his means. He protects the subjects of his world, while also crushing and killing anyone who violates his laws. This includes two Braddock brothers (aka Captain Britain's people), who accuse Baron Sinister of making moves against them. The hearing leads to a trial by combat, with Sinister winning and so Jamie Braddock (again, Marvel sees no reason to be subtle with the GOT references) is forced to reveal himself a traitor to Doom or watch his innocent brother die. This whole sequence is filled with awesome little snippits, references, and hints about the world at large: Stephen Strange is Doom's right hand man, Sue Storm is his advisor (queen?), and he has a Galactus (there could be more than one in Battleworld) guarding his palace. 

The big question surrounding Doom being in charge is whether he got that seat by taking control of a world in chaos or if it's Doom himself that crafted this world. There was a brief moment in issue #1 where we saw the Beyonders and Doom, so I'm personally assuming that he either manipulated or bargained with them. Certainly, I don't imagine we're going to make it to our New Marvel Universe without dealing with them at some point. 

Sue saddled up with Doom? Creepy.

Doom does make a brief reference to a group of "heretics and thieves" who are working to bring him down. They're gathering in something called "The Silent Chambers." I haven't the faintest idea what those are if it's a reference to something but I think it's a safe bet that those heretics are our 616 and/or Ultimate heroes. Probably 616's Reed Richards and team. 

If they're slowly making a revolution away from Doom's forces, we might be able to assume they're sort of going to fill Daenerys' or Stannis' role. The usurping army who will pull teammates from unlikely sources as they vie for the throne. 

MEANWHILE, we also get an interesting side note as a team of explorers from Castle Doom (but also from the 616 FF (I think) discover a hole in the ground that leads to the inside of the planet which has full gravity working opposite of the normal side. Here they find a ship, identical to the one the Illuminati built at the end of "Time Runs Out," only this one has the Cabal on it and Thanos emerges. (Are you out of breath and exhausted? Me too.) All cool moving pieces that will hopefully get paid off in the remaining six issues.

Oof. If that wasn't enough to digest, this book prints a non-censored version of the Battleworld map and, honestly, I could just keep staring at it. There' SO MUCH story packed into that map. We get somewhat obvious (though still intriguing) lands like "King James England" or "2099" to the more what-is-the-difference realms like Arachnia/Spider-Island and Mutopia/Westchester (being from Westchester, NY this excites me to no end). I also really want to visit New Quack City...

Secret Wars has a metric ton of tie ins. I doubt I'll be able to keep up with them all but in case anyone's curious. I'll definitely be reading Spider-Verse, Renew Your Vows, Thors, Star Lord and Kitty Pryde, Planet Hulk, 2099, Civil War, Spider-Island, Guardians of Knowhere, Howard the Human.... and maybe if I'm not broke Captain Marvel & the Carol Corps, Red Skull, Giant Size Little Marvel, and A-Force. We'll what else winds up in short box. If you want to see all of the titles coming out, this guide from How to Love Comics is pretty encompassing.

Do you think Marvel's Game of Thrones is a cool idea? Over it already? What book's are you planning on reading over the next few months? Let me know in the comments!

Silk #4 - Quick Review

Written by Robbie Thompson. Art by Annapaola Martello
Published by Marvel Comics: May 13, 2015.

Rating 3.5/5

This was a decent issue, if not a great one. It's sort of a filler episode in Silk's life. It is nice that it's a very real life thing (anxiety) but put into a superhero context. As someone who's work life often produces anxiety that could metaphorically level a small town, it's interesting to see someone who's powers might let them do that dealing with the stress.

There is a great moment in the flashback as we saw Cindy's parents walking in on her having shot webbing everywhere. This is a great choice in that it's such the opposite of what Peter went through. I'm excited to see more of that storyline, but I'd like to spend some signifcant time there as opposed to slowly getting these flashbacks dolled out one page at a time.

Silk and Johnny Storm on a date was cute, though I'm not really shipping them that much. I'm sort of shipping #Pindy, to be honest. I think Peter's got a crush too (and not just the pheromones.

One thing to note, this issue had a guest artist with Annapaola Martello. As a big fan of the art in the first three issues, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss Stacey Lee's style as part of this book. Martello's are a little bit harsher on the lines and have a bit of an anime feel to them. It's not bad by any means, it's a different style and it looks nice throughout the book, but I am looking forward to Lee's return next issue.

Thor #8 - Review

Written by Jason Aaron. Art by Russell Dauterman

Rating 5/5.

SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS.


No, seriously, if you don't want to know who the new Thor is, don't read below this.