Amazing Spider-Man #800

GO DOWN SWINGING finale

Written by Dan Slott

Penciled by Everybody
Cover by Alex Ross
Published May 30, 2018

   Spider-Man assesses the damage and takes off. Realizing the anti-venom is the only way to stop the Goblin, he heads for Alchemax. On the way, Harry and Liz catch him up on the Normie situation while Jonah calls Eddie Brock for help.

You can always trust your pal Venom, Jonah.

   When Spidey reaches the vault, it's been raided - but a pumpkin bomb catches him up on Norman's next move. Parker broke the rules so now Aunt May and Mary Jane are his next targets. Before he can reach MJ though, Venom is already on the scene. She sounds the alarm which rattles the symbiote, but not the Red Goblin - who attacks. 

Watch out, now.

   At Aunt May's apartment, an innocent Normie knocks on the door but before he can hurt her, Doc Ock jumps in to protect her. The fight gets intense but not as bad as the one in Stark Tower. Spider-Man, Venom and a repulsor glove wearing MJ hit the goblin simultaneously but Osborne is able to counter it.

   Eventually he's had enough and retreats. Eddie tells Spider-Man to use his symbiote if he's going to have a chance of winning. And so clad in black again, Pete takes off. Before he can get to Aunt May's, Doc Ock fights to protect her from the Goblin Childe. He's joined remotely by Jonah in the Spider Slayer before eventually, grandad Red Goblin shows up to make quick work of what's left.

   When Spidey swings in, the Goblin is on his way out. He finds a wounded May and Octavious, forgiving Ock for all past transgressions for saving his Aunt. Meanwhile Norm and Normie meet Liz at Alchamax in order to make a deal. She declines and hurriedly explains to her son the situation as Harry flies out on a goblin glider and attacks his father with humanitrons. Osborne gets the upper hand and throws Liz from the window. Spider-Man saves her, and seeing his grandfather's true side, Normie turns on him. The red goblin gets pinned by the glider and Liz and Harry promise to love Normie forever.

I don't know what it is, but something about this looks awfully familiar.

   The fight rages outside between Spider-Man and Osborne. He reveals to the webcrawler that he's left tiny shards of the carnage virus in each of his victims. Nearly all of his friends and family are affected. But when he tries to activate it, nothing happens. Flash Thompson used all of the rest of his anti-venom to save them....

Way to go!

You know, this is way too much review for one video. An 80 page comic book? Let's fast track it a little bit.


Flash Thompson is critically wounded during the fight and sadly passes away. Red Goblin lands in Times Square and decides to straight up murder everyone while Spider-Man does all he can to stop him. Finally he explains that Norman Osborne did nothing himself - it was really ALL the Carnage symbiote. They decide to have a mano-y-mano, non-suit fight and eventually Spider-Man is victorious.

Did we win?!

   In the end, Norman gets sent away to an insane asylum and thinks he's Cletus Kasady. Normie is saved from the Carnage symbiote. Flash Thompson is laid to rest as an American hero and the issue ends with one final epilogue.

RIP

   Max Modell welcomes his newest guest fellow Dr. Eliott Tarver to Horizon labs. As he greets a familiar Anna Maria Marconi, it turns out the doctor is none other than the Superior Spider-Man, Dr. Otto Octavious. What happens next? We'll have to wait as this arc is concluded.


   So I did my best but an 80 page book is a little too lengthy to review. Plus I have way too many other books to read. I'll save my farewell to Dan Slott for next issue but as far as this one goes, let's wrap it up. Not a whole lot of 5 minute long comic reviews on youtube. I give this one a 9/10.

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Invincible Iron Man #600

THE SEARCH FOR TONY STARK finale

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by Everyone on Earth
Cover by Chris Sprouse
Published May 23, 2018

   Tony digs up Col James Rhodes and somehow returns him to life. Although both now completely bald, the once dead former War Machine is clearly confused. But a big brohug later and they’re ready to rock.
   Meanwhile Riri and Dr. Tony Ho continue their meet up with the real Leonardo Da Vinci. Displaying his new workshop, complete with Blade the Vampire, training apparently begins immediately. They’re later joined by Spider-Man Miles Morales, care of Cable and parents Rio and Jefferson and the new era of SHIELD is officially underway.
   On Erik Lynch’s boat, the Hood and his army forces Lynch to sign full control of Stark Industries over. Before he can though, a horde of Doombots attack them all and a massive firefight ensues. As if that wasn’t enough, Tony and Rhodey join the ruckus with their own troop of Iron Man bots. In the middle of everything, Tony gets a weird message to call mom. Before he can call her back though, he finally gets to have the conversation with Victor Von Doom we’ve all been waiting for.
   Problem is that conversation is immediately interrupted by Rhodes going into the ocean, as both he and Tony's armor appears to be hijacked from some strange demonic forces. Doom picks up the Hood and rockets him into the air while Erik Lynch officially offers his resignation from Stark Industries.
   As Victor fights Robbins, it's revealed that the Hood is possessed by a demon. The entire ruse was to gain control over Stark's body in order to wield influence. Doom has no plans to back down though and their fight goes the distance. It ends somewhere between the Hood grasping his face and Doom slinking back to his castle in Latveria. He's badly wounded and drags himself through the ruins until it all dissipates into a weird, pink mist thing.
   At Amanda Armstrong’s apartment, she deals with former lover and Tony’s biological father, super Hydra agent Jude. He eagerly awaits a meeting with his son as the old lovebirds hash out some old drama. Luckily for her, Mary Jane Watson appears and shoots the old stranger with a tranquilizer. This of course triggers scores of Hydra agents to pour out of a helicarrier, but their met with Riri, Toni Ho, Spider-Man, Cable, Blade the Vampire and the real Leonardo Da Vinci. Just before Jude can fire at Amanda, he's incapacitated by an arriving Iron Man and War Machine.
   The issue ends with a bizarre epilogue. In the future, former X-Man Eva Bell enters the Sanctum Sanctorum and meets with new Wong appointee, Nightcrawler. She seeks Doctor Strange, but when she reaches him, the sorcerer supreme is none other than Dr. Anthony Stark. Who this mystery man is, or what relationship he has with current Tony Stark will have to wait though, as this issue and this series is officially concluded.
   So in what could be described as the absolute most content Bendis could cram into these 40 pages, there's enough plot twists that are sharply resolved to match a similar amount of those that aren't. I love the way he wrote Iron Man but as much as he was ready for a change, I think all fans could gain some perspective by adding Dan Slott to this series. The Bendis farewell tour officially wraps with this issue, but seeing as he had some things to finish up, I'd say he did the best he could. The mismatched art was kind of a stretch but overall, I'll take it. It was a good issue. I give this one a 9/10.

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Incredible Hulk #717

WORLD WAR HULK II finale

Written by Greg Pak
Penciled by Carlo Barberi
Cover by Frank Cho
Published May 23, 2018

   As Hulk continues to rage, Blank Panther pelts him with microscopic nanobots. Maddy explains to Spider-Man that they're countering the gamma power that's taken over. Meanwhile Amadeus fights his mindless alter-ego but only makes the Hulk madder.

Way to go, dipshit.

   Up top, the Champions and Alpha Flight battle back but have difficulty combating the monster's anger. Finally Amadeus gets the upperhand and the Hulk begins powering down. He thinks back over what he's done and the Hulk issues one more ultimatum to his human counterpart. Amadeus absorbs the now weakened beast and surrenders to Captain Marvel and the authorities.

Well, that was anticlimactic.

   Three months later, Matt Murdock explains to Cho how much restitution he owes. He walks free from the courthouse and breaks down in tears at the sight of his teammates. To make amends, they all attend what looks to be a racially appropriated dinner while Thor drinks 4 beers simultaneously. With that, this series is concluded and the era of the Immortal Hulk officially begins.

Who's idea was the chopsticks?

   So over the course of the last seven months, Greg Pak has revisited two of his most epic storylines: Return to Planet Hulk and World War Hulk II - respectively. Amadeus Cho is an interesting way to change the narrative a little but Hulk will always be Banner and Banner will always be Hulk. Props on the wind down but I look for the next series to be better. I give this one a 7/10.

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The Punisher #224-226

PUNISHER: WAR CRIMINAL pts I-III

Written by Matthew Rosenberg
Penciled by Stefano Landini and Guiu Vilanova
Covers by Clayton Crain
Published May 16, May 30, and June 13, 2018

   Welp, Frank Castle is back stateside, and he's brought the War Machine armor with him. Hot on the trail of Bullseye and Rhino, he's suddenly hit from above by none other than Captain Marvel. The fight gets intense as they argue the points of whether the Punisher is a good guy or bad. Eventually he shakes her but runs right into old friend Daredevil.

Aw man... what that was?!

   He takes off but is later hit with a tracer arrow compliments of Hawkeye. Later from outside his safehouse, Danvers orders him outside but Frank has no plans of going quietly. From there, a team effort hops to bring the Punisher down. This time he's a bit more outmatched, and returns fire until he's able to escape once again.

That's what I wear when I ride the NYC trains too.

   His pursuers will stop at nothing to find him, but each time they track him, they get there too late. Trying to find the Tinkerer to repair the armor, he finally comes across an AIM splinter cell. He, um.. convinces one of them to help remove the tracking nanites. After a conversation with Nick Fury, Frank decides to take the law into his own hands and hunt down Hydra care of the CIA.

Arriving in style.

   He raids the records room and the computer downloads everything the spy organization has. From there he takes off to find Baron Zemo in hopes of becoming a good guy.. or at least, kind of a good guy... i guess. When he gets to their hideout, he rakes down troop after troop until he comes across Taskmaster, Crossbones and Ghost.

"Finally, Taskmaster in a Punisher book..." said no one ever.

   The Punisher has finally met his match, and though he escapes many close calls, Ghost finally fries the armor into near oblivion. But just as Zemo and Taskmaster are about to execute him, Bucky, Mockingbird, Hawkeye and Black Widow show up to save him.

The Avengers R-Squad.

   The issue ends with Zemo and his associates making their escape. Frank picks up the damaged armor when an argument ensues... Clint points out it wasn't his armor to take. Eventually Natasha tases her partner and Mockingbird. Telling Frank to grab the armor - because there's men to kill, we're left to be continued.

Natasha is hardcore.

   Every time a new story comes out, I fear the writers are going to take the Punisher's war machine armor and I'm sorry but at this point, that's just unacceptable. After the last few issues, I don't think there's anyone in the Marvel universe that could do more with this suit, and I can only hope Tony Stark makes that realization as well. I guess there's only one way to find out though. I give these three issues a 10/10.

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Batman #47

THE GIFT finale

Written by Tom King
Penciled by Tony S Daniels
Cover by Tony S Daniels
Published May 16, 2018
   It's another year later, and Bruce Wayne plots his destruction of Batman and Catwoman from this blzzarre alternate timeline. He frees the imprisoned and much skinnier Booster Gold and orders him to use Skeets to bring them back to one year earlier, right before Dick Grayson and an insane Selina Kyle murdered the Waynes.

So RIGHT BEFORE the Waynes were killed... Got it.

   He tells Skeets to deliver them to 10 minutes before Thomas and Martha were killed, but with a wink (and one that Bruce obviously notices), the point Booster means is back when the original Waynes were killed.

"Don't worry, son. It was probably just an adult version of you from the future killing a time traveling robot..."

   Unfortunately for all of them, Bruce kills Skeets again. Enraged, he interrogates Booster who explains it again was just a wedding gift. Suddenly the past Booster arrives from the future with Skeets but is shot while Bruce and Booster-Prime fight over a rifle. It allows the original plan to play out, with the Waynes being shot in the alley.

The pearls fall... again.

   Having to relive the torture of seeing his parents murdered... again, Bruce shoots himself, and luckily the timeline is back to normal. Booster later meets Batman and Catwoman and explains what the gift was supposed to be but since he's obviously a deranged idiot, it comes off as the ramblings of a tortured wanna-be. With that, this issue is completed and the wedding arc officially begins.

Well you know, it's just stupid old Booster.

   So Booster Gold has made many appearances between the superfriends of late, but Tom King clearly pens him as a goofball who can't seem to do anything right. Honestly I think this is a more true portrayal of what the character is supposed to be. He's well loved by creator Dan Jurgens, who used his last few issues of Action Comics to feature Booster one more time. Either way, this arc went on a bit of a tangent but I think it was well worth the wormhole. I give this one a 9/10.

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X-Men Blue #27 and 28

CRY HAVOK pts V and VI

Written by Cullen Bunn
Penciled by Marcus To
Covers by RB Silva
Published May 9 and May 30, 2018

   Weeks prior, Magneto walks with his daughter Polaris and explains to her that Havok is worth saving. Today however, she fights off Wildside's mothervine induced hallucinations. Her X-Men fight valiantly though as the original X-Men Blue team along with Venom drift aimlessly through space.

Remember when we were the stars of this book?

   Back at the mansion, Magneto fights the Mauraders as well as the mutants he was trying to protect. Tragically he's forced to kill them, all the while cursing Havok and Emma Frost. He runs away and escapes through Cerebro's time platform.

Adios!

   In San Francisco, the X-Men interrogate the evil mutants until they learn the location of Havok, Bastian, Emma Frost and Miss Sinister. They teleport into the base and Havok incapacitates them. When Lorna fails to get through to them, they're powerlessly imprisoned while Miss Sinister experiments on Jimmy Hudson directly.

Yeah, just keep poking the Wolverine guy.

   Emma watches quietly but has finally had enough of seeing the X-Men tortured. She compels the Mauraders to attack Sinister but with direct control of their DNA, she kills them all. Unfortunately for the supervillain, it was a just a diversion and a furious Jimmy leaps into action and kills his former master.

Well can't say we didn't warn ya.

   With her down, all of the team members are once again empowered and escape but run right into Jimmy, Bloodstorm and now Emma Frost. Meanwhile Magneto tries to repel the mothervine attacks in Mexico City. Thanks to fellow mutants Exodus and Elixer, he reverses the effects. much to the dismay of Havok. The remaining Brotherhood call for the deaths of Magneto and Elixer but Emma and the X-Men battle their way into the control room.

Hey y'all!

   With Emma's help, Polaris is able to pry into Havok's mind. With the memories of her fresh, Emma inverts whatever made him so evil. Using Elixer, they kill the mothervine virus while Havok shows a pretty good amount of remorse. 

Sorry about all the death...

   The issue wraps with Emma reaching out to Magneto to explain she made a mistake. He refuses her apology however, as he was forced to kill mutants in his care, primarily thanks to her mothervine tactics. He swears revenge but when it's to come will have to wait, as this issue and this story arc is concluded.

Oh, I'll get my revenge... IN MY OWN X-MEN BOOK!

   So with the recent news of this book and it's sister series X-Men Gold to end, along with launches of a Gambit and Rogue team up book, and now rumors of one called X-Men Black - I think it's time for me to reevaluate the X-future. In the coming weeks, I'm going to need to streamline as 5 or 6 titles is just too hard to keep up with for one group of characters. One things for sure though - X-Men Blue has steadily delivered. Wherever Cullen Bunn goes, I'll follow. I give these two issues a 9/10.

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Venom #1

REX pt I

Written by Donny Cates
Penciled by Ryan Stegman
Cover by Ryan Stegman
Published May 9, 2018

   Eddie Brock and his alien are having bad dreams. It forces the human host to take medication to quiet the monster's screaming when he hears some trouble on the police scanner. He arrives just as the Jack O' Lantern opens fire on the officers but unfortunately for the criminals, Venom isn't in the mood for mercy.

Nope. Not good.

   He attacks the villain and the cops open fire on the symbiote. When it turns to face them, the alien projects the freaky images from it's nightmares. As Eddie loses control, someone fires an explosive shell into the monster's head and it detonates.

Never trust anything someone shoots into your alien's head that goes "beep beep.."

   He wakes up surrounded by bass amplifiers and a furnace rendering Venom completely fluid. Eddie's chained to the floor as the man introduces himself - Rex Strickland, former government assassin who wore similar alien symbiote suits in the past. His former teammates are now immobilized and scheduled for execution. He knows a lot about the klyntar though, and wants to help Eddie control his for something in return.

Cool scar.

   They set out to free the transported men. Tearing the trucks apart en route, the trailer cars explode and the symbiotes leap out clad in the same alien images from the nightmares. Suddenly though, the alien leaves Eddie, speaking the foreign language as the others viciously run him through.

SPLUTCH!

  Watching his human host suffer, Venom leaps into action to save him as the monsters leap back into the truck. They throw their now dead carriers outside as they howl and the earth cracks. But Eddie has to know - just what did the monsters say? Finally he tells him... They said "god is coming", as a frightening demon begins to swoop down from the sky. What will happen next? Guess we'll have to wait to see as this issue is left to be continued.

This thing couldn't wait for a sunny day to do this?!

   So this book looks to have picked up months after the events of the last series. There's no mention of Venom's offspring left back at Alchamax, and Eddie looks to be back in some mental trouble again. Still, a fresh set of hands on this character is a welcome change. I like where this first issue is taking us and look forward for the monster's upcoming adventures. I give this one a 9/10.

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