Immortal Hulk #3-4

Written by Al Ewing

Penciled by a lot of people
Covers by Alex Ross
Published July 18 and August 1, 2018

   So I've really liked a lot of stuff I've read from Al Ewing and this series is really starting off to not be any exception to that rule. Fresh off the heels of an amazing run on the Avengers, Marvel broke up the team of writers and spread them around a little bit. However you look at it, Al Ewing drew the lucky Hulk straw, and he's determined to make the very best of it.

   Obviously we know the story of the tortured Bruce Banner... Forever scared of his neverending Mr. Hyde turn. This time Ewing employs lots of artists using all kinds of different styles... There's classic pop style that throws back to the Silver Age, as well as a tight minimalist style as well. To tell the truth, it was actually kind of refreshing seeing the book bounce around although as #3 ended, I was more than happy to see #4 get back to a steady artist.

   Journalist Jackie Magee still seeks info on the resurrected Hulk. Amidst drifting references between Hotshot in flashbacks, she finally receives a callback from a subject who just might know a thing or two about the Hulk - Alpha Flight's Sasquatch. 

Gross!

   Ewing pushes and pulls between Banner and Walter Langowski's history together, when the reporter and part-time jock turned superhero are forced to deal with an unexpected murder attempt. At the end, Bruce decides to contact Jackie himself, with the warning that Sasquatch's gamma radiation problem might be ready to cause quite the commotion. What happens next is left for the always inevitable continuation.

   Something intesrting about both of these books though was the way he began and ended them. Both begin with an ominous historical quote, with the issue's title and credits being on the very last page. It's kind of trippy but a neat way to wrap things up. Like #1 and 2 before it, I did where this series is going. I give these two an 8/10.

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Old Man Logan #43-44

BULLSEYE RETURNS pts I-II

Written by Ed Brisson
Penciled by Juan Ferreyra
Covers by Mike Deodato, Jr
Published July 11 and July 25, 2018

   In New York's upper east side, journalist Sarah Dewey is assassinated with a playing card inside her apartment. Days later, Old Man Logan investigates the crime scene, finding evidence of the card and knowing exactly who it was - Bullseye. He's then surprised by a fellow vigilante - a woman who is equally seeking revenge from him killing her FBI agent husband. Logan nicknames her Vendetta.

I HAVE JUST THE NAME FOR YOU!

   Together the duo storm an office of someone who might know his location. As they threaten the mobster, he tells them he doesn't know where Bullseye is, but before he can explain, another playing card pierces the mans skull. Suddenly the dead man's phone rings. Bullseye taunts them from a nearby building. As they run towards the office across the street, they encounter scores of other dead people as it's clear Bullseye plans to leave quite the trail of dead in his wake.

...and you will know him by his trail of dead.

   Next, the assassin interrogates fellow gun for hire, Bullet. He seeks info on Vendetta and after threatening Bullet's kids, the merc gives it up. Back at Joy's apartment, she and Logan realize who it is they can reference, while across town Bullet's partner Shotgun prepares to take part in a robbery.

I'm Shotgun. This hear is Pistol, Uzi, Bullet, and Slingshot.

   As the Logan and Vendetta make it to Bullet's apartment, he explains that his kid is in danger now. Logan calls Glob and asks him to protect the kid. Meanwhile, the robbery immediately goes awry and the thieves find Blindspot lying in wait. He pummels them with weapons as Logan and Vendetta show up and ambush the assassin.

Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Logan!

   With the cops fresh on the scene outside, the battle rages indoors. Armed with an infinite amount of change, Bullseye makes a run for it and kills several cops making his escape. In pursuit are the police, soon joined by Logan, Shotgun, and Vendetta. The issue ends with Logan getting a call from Glob. Unfortunately Bullseye was able to kidnap his young victim already. What happens next? We’re left to find out as this issue is left to be continued.

Glob has gotten more pub these last few months than his character's entire history.

   So with every issue getting this series a little closer to it’s end, it’s pretty clear Ed Brisson plans to write his main character out blazing. Only fitting for the old man, who has made such an impact in his limited run that a reintroduction somewhere down the line is a near certainty. Hopefully when it happens, the person assigned to it is able to push Logan with this much gusto, because it’s been quite a ride. This arc no exception, I give these two a 9/10.

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X-Men Red #5-6

THE HATE MACHINE pts V and VI

Written by Tom Taylor
Penciled by Mahmud Asrar
Covers by Travis Charest
Published June 6 and July 18, 2018

   In Poland, Cassandra Nova has the president sign a decree making mutants illegal... again. Across the world, mutant hatred is at full force, as Gambit breaks into a Louisiana hospital harboring a murderer. When he's inside, Jean reveals herself and the X-Men surrounding the mans bed. Turning off the sentinite in his brain, it's clear he wasn't in control.

It's cool - you were just really really drunk.

   Later Jean brings them all out to the others where they use Trinary's sentinel robot to head out to the Baltic. A young mutant is targeted by the polish army but the X-Men are on the scene, fighting back. Jean melds the minds of everyone involved, temporarily halting their anger. Namor then uses the distraction to force a quick truce between Atlantis and Poland.

Who knew the oldest X-Man ever could do cool stuff?!

   Meanwhile Cassandra uses a brain washed Forge and a powerful unnamed mutant to do her bidding. While in a flashback, we learn all about Gentle's Wakandan upbringing was no match for the anti-mutant sentiment even in a country reared on peace. Later they walk through Atlantis and Jean shows off the aptly named Sea-Rebro they're building. She explains to the X-Men that there was some inner conversation in the British ambassador's head before they exploded a few issues back.
   The X-Men are going to find what this mystery villain is using to amplify the mutant hatred. With a bead on the contents, they teleport into a cargo plan to search, as a now online Searebro finds out the truth. All along it was Cassandra Nova, Professor X's evil twin sister. Jean tells her the X-Men are getting closer to the truth. But she'll have to hurry...

Jean - you're so... ugly.

   In a helicopter over Poland, Cassandra stokes the rage of this mystery mutant. She drops the amphibious child into the water as he lets out a Hulk-like battle cry. He's going to smash Atlantis. But will the X-Men be able to stop him? We'll have to wait to find out as this issue is left to be continued.

Wait. Amadeus Cho?!

   I told myself I'd let this series get off the ground a little before I passed REAL judgement on it, and I'm kind of glad I did. The bi-monthly constant of Gold and Blue keep the action of those books coming so fast, it's hard to fully digest it. With X-Men Red, you get a much slower delivery rate - and it's very much good for the book's longtime readability. Tom Taylor has never been my favorite, but it's looking more and more like better subject matter is certainly only helping him. He's turning this series into a real, bonafied X-series, and at a crucial moment when a lot of these series are starting to wrap up. I give these two a solid 8/10.

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X-Men Blue #31-32

KINGS AND QUEENS pts I - II

Written by Cullen Bunn
Penciled by Jorge Molina and Andres Genolet
Covers by RB Silva
Published July 11 and July 25, 2018
   Some time ago, Magneto allowed Jean to look into his mind and she saw the damage. A little boy in a concentration camp constantly tortured by an evil Nazi guard. Meanwhile in the present, his rage is again stoked... He breaks into the Hellfire Club and murders everyone at will. It seems his anger at Emma Frost has reached it's fevered pitch, and this time, Magneto won't be denied.

Oh well now you're all in big, big trouble...

   The next morning, the X-Men are on the scene. Now that they can see with their own eyes just what Magneto can do, it's clear that they must stop him. They seek out his former disciple Briar Raleigh for advice, as he goes from Hellfire Club chapter to chapter seeking out the White Queen.

Emma? I'm coming to get you...

   Finally tracking her to Paris, the X-Men arrive to warn her. But it's clear after he arrives that that will be a monumental task. They all fight back en masse, including Emma but during one of his many monologues, this is not going to be the pacified version of their former mentor. He doses with the mutant steroid mothervine, becoming superpowered and peppering the young heroes with destructive force.

"Oh that's Mag - NEATO!"

   Jean finds a weakness and Cyclops blasts him, taking him down momentarily but he's able to break the hold within minutes. Suddenly Pickles bamfs in, teleporting Emma from the fray but leaving the X-Men to deal with his rage. Magneto threateningly lifts the surrounding humans, later leveling the Beast with a near lethal shot to the face. Sensing the battle at a stalemate, Jean tries to reach the villain one more time with a plea to his decency but what he's seen from Emma's visions cannot be denied.

Gotta go.

   The issue ends with the X-Men and Emma Frost in a cabin as they attempt to regroup. She tells the teenagers she can handle him herself but as Jean reminds her, the X-Men are going to need both a unified Magneto and White Queen once they return to their original timeline. What does this mean? We'll have to wait as this issue is left to be continued.
   So a little while back, I thought about launching IsMagnetoGoodOrEvilRightNow.com, just to keep up with the status of the X-Men's oldest foe. But similar to IsWolverineStillDead.com or HasDC DoneAnythingStupidToday.com, it would likely have to be updated so much there'd be no point. Still, it's clear that as long as Cullen Bunn is at the helm of this series, it's going to remain readable and should be considered "Can't Miss" in the world of X-books. I'm sad that it's wrapping up, but I look forward to watching them go out with a band. I give these two books a 10/10.

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Punisher #227-228

PUNISHER: WAR CRIMINAL pts IV and V

Written by Matthew Rosenberg
Penciled by Stefano Landini and Guiu Vilanova
Covers by Clayton Crain
Published July 11 and July 25, 2018

   Frank sits at a Mexican restaurant with Black Widow and Bucky Barnes, all the while repairing his armor and jawing it up. Together the three of them team up to stop the rogue Hydra agents from breaking into the prison along with Baron Zemo.

We don't put up with that here. What'd you think this was? Taco Bell?!

   The Punisher walks inside through the flames, all the while murdering random inmates when Zemo opens the cells, allowing scores of supervillains to finally have a crack at one of their biggest enemies. Black Widow and the Winder Soldier back him up but are slowly being overrun. They keep blasting away when eventually Captain Marvel appears, along with tons of Avengers, X-Men, Defenders, and the Fantastic Four. They all fight back as Zemo uses the diversion to free fake Steve Rogers, former Hydra overlord.

Hey rat. Long time no see!

   With the prison riot in full force overhead, the Punisher sneaks away to find Zemo - but is discovered by Iron Man first. He's obviously pretty sore about the armor, but Frank decides to start a massive fire that Tony will have to deal with to save the others.

You better go stop that. It looks pretty bad...

   Meanwhile, the chopper readies for takeoff with the Hydra elite aboard. Frank bursts through the top floor to stop them, blasting the helicopter's tail off in the process. Frank kills the pilot and guards and finally faces down Baron Zemo and Ghost.

Ok, lets go. Wait.. That hurts...

   The battle is epic, but Frank gets the upperhand by shocking Zemo and Ghost into submission.. He begins to beat the Hydra leaders to death but is eventually stopped by Iron Man, who clearly knows his way around a super suit pretty well. 

He's pretty good with these suits, Frank.

   Zemo and Ghost use the distraction to escape, as a determined War Machine appears to take back his armor. With far more advanced tech, James Rhode Rhodes is able to slowly crush the now obsolete suit, eventually dismounting and explaining to Frank how the War Machine armor is bigger than both of them. He realizes he's defeated, and the suit opens up.

Fine!

   Frank is taken into custody along with Stevil Rogers. Nick Fury explains all of Frank's offenses all the while conveniently leaving out that the original mission was on his orders. All in all, two dozen guards were killed, Zemo and Ghost escaped and the Supreme Commander is still alive - a score that Fury obviously doesn't want to hear.

You suck, Fury.

  The issue wraps with Bucky and Natasha standing in the road to block the prison convoy. The Punisher is about to be free once again. What does that mean going forward? We'll have to wait as this issue is left to be continued.

Just give us what's in the trunk.

   And so just like that the Punisher's Legacy era comes to an end. That's cool though. I knew when Rhodes came back. Tony would never let a vigalante keep one of his suits. Even though I think he wore it better than anyone else ever did. So we're back to the old Punisher but with Matthew Rosenberg still at the helm, I think this book is still in better hands than it's ever been. I give these two issues a 9/10.

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Amazing Spider-Man #1-3

BACK TO BASICS pts I-III

Written by Nick Spencer
Penciled by Ryan Ottley
Covers by Ryan Ottley
Published July 11, July 25, and Aug 8 2018

   Now that he’s lost everything, Pete has roommates now.. one of which is uber annoying d-list supervillain Boomerang. Either way, Pete is late for the ESU press conference he’s supposed to be covering for the Bugle. And that reason is because he’s fighting a frightening insect horde with the Avengers... And the Guardians of the Galaxy. But then a few weeks ago, he was winning the key to the city from their Kingpin...

Then this, this, this, this, and this happens...

   You know, this first issue was very irrationally disjointed. But somewhere in there, we find out a lot of people are annoyed with Spidey, we find out he’s been accused of plagiarizing from his old university thanks to the papers written by Doc Ock when he was in Pete’s body, and we learn that he’s now been fired from the Bugle for said plagiarizing. Finally it’s revealed that Mary Jane Watson is back with him, which is at least one win. Though it’s followed by despair that Aunt May is embarrassed to have a paper stealing ingrate for a nephew.

Never stop letting your fam down, Pete.

   Thankfully Empire State allows Pete to return to the university to earn his degree the right way. Only prob is he’ll be assisting the Lizard, Dr. Curt Connors. He reveals that thanks to a surgically implanted inhibitor chip, he’s able to fight his murderous desires. Further more, he’s now in possession of the Isotope Genome Accelerator. Clearly something the bad guys would love, Taskmaster and Black Ant break in to steal it.

Budget Skelator.

   Pete taunts them into throwing him out of the fray. In the confusion, Spider-Man leaps in to fight. He deals with the low priority baddies fairly quickly but is later completely surprised to see Peter Parker standing there right in front of him. So what does this mean? Well it means that Pete can join MJ and his roomie for bowling while this other Spider-Man can deal with the Tri-Sentinel in midtown.

Don't worry, Peter. I got this. Keep bowling.

   Apparently during the fight in Connor’s lab, he somehow triggered the Accelerator, splitting Pete from his alter ego. The two of them followed up the skirmish with a conversation, later highlighting a normal and boring non-powered Peter Parker living a quiet and unextraordinary life.
   The third issue wraps with Dr. Connors showing to Pete an experiment. Using the Accelerator, he splits an intelligent lab rat into two separate rats. One has all of the best traits of the two, but the other is lacking in what he had before. This means the other Spider-Man even inherited the now intellect as well as superpowers. But what does it mean for Pete? We’ll have to wait as this issue is left to be continued.

The experiment officially proves it, Pete. You suck.

   So I fully expected this series to get a bit of a stale upgrade with the loss of Dan Scott. I also expected it to get off to a slow start, but I did not expect it to be this bad. Obviously everyone gets all jazzed up for their first issue of something, especially something as big as this title. But this went all over the place. I still don’t understand putting Mysterio, Taskmaster, Black Ant, and Boomerang in this book for really any reason. Spending pages and pages on Aunt May’s disappointment and Mary Jane flashbacks were also wastes of space while the books steadily tripped all over their own continuity. Not a whole lot revealed here excep the hole Dan Slott left the webhead in. Only time will tell if Nick Spencer can dig him out. I give these three a 6/10.

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Star Wars #50-52

HOPE DIES pts I-III

Written by Kieron Gillen
Penciled by Salvador Larroca
Covers by Travis Charest and David Marquez
Published July 4, July 18, and August 1, 2018

   Princess Leia celebrates their new fleet with Mon Mothma at the Mako Ta Rebel base. She casually talks with Queen Trios who slowly slinks away... you know. For no reason at all. Meanwhile outside the base, Luke Skywalker puts on a cool laser light show with some other X-Wing pilots. After they land, the fleet prepares to hear a dedication speech, which Mon broadcasts out without incident.

"Everything's fine... Oh wait!"

   The problems arise when they plan to disperse. As the pilots attempt to engage hyperspace, the ships are rendered immobilized. Leia tries to figure out what is going on, but when asking where Trios went, learns she left during the speech. Suddenly almost the entire imperial fleet arrives. Before bombarding them, Darth Vader tells his lieutenants to wait until their terror peaks. As the X-Wings prepare to launch again to fight back, that fear is realized. All of the ships are dead in the air, and all bay doors are locked preventing the launch of any fighters.

"You're a go for launch. Actually... nevermind.."

   Vader blows up a nearby cruiser and it’s then the rebels begin to understand the seriousness of the situation. Outside the base, Trios prepares her escape but is boarded by rebels before her ship can retreat. She heads for an escape pod but is unable to blast off before Leia drops a guilt trip on her.

"Before you go, I just wanted to tell you... you suck."

   Han Solo and Chewie arrive late to see Luke’s light show. Instead they run into the Empire. Using shortwave comms, Leia informs Han that flying near the bay doors of the rebel ships will still open them by default. He does his best, but not before Vader decides to climb into his Tie Fighter to take out the Millenium Falcon himself.

Anakin was always pretty good at that flying thing. 

   Han tries his best to evade the Sith Lord but it isn’t easy. He finally has an idea. They put C3P0 in a pod and while using the debris field of a fellow ship to lose Vader, launch the droid towards Luke’s carrier. He drags himself along the outside until finding an airlock. Telling Luke about the fail safe, he boards his fighter and flies towards the bay doors. Once proving it works, the entire squadron deploys behind him, preparing to fight back. What happens next? Will the rebels have enough firepower to take out the empire? We’re left to find out as this issue is left to be continued.

MORE REFERENCES!

   Overall these were 3 well written issues, all but kinda taking an awkward push at the very end with Luke constantly talking about Jyn Erso. I dug the introduction of Benthic a few issues back but there’s no reason to shove references down our throats, ok. We get it. As far as Queen Trios being a traitor, it was a pleasant surprise. Gillen sold it pretty well on her being an Empire turncoat and I wasn’t expecting her heel-heel turn. The battles were great as well as finally sticking some Vader in the mix after such a long absence. I dig where they’re going. I’d give #52 about a 7,  but 50 and 51 get a solid 9/10.

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