Spider-Verse #5 Cover Columns 

The MC2 Presents: Secret Warriors, Week 18

By , and | September 18th, 2015
Posted in Columns | 4 Comments

Welcome back to the MC2, Multiversity’s panel of noted Marvel experts. The three of us (MC3 sounded weird) are covering Marvel’s straight up CALVACADE of “Secret Wars” tie-ins! This week, we tackle “Age of Apocalypse”, “Spider-Island” and more whilst giving up our own thoughts! Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments and let us know what you think about Marvel’s latest crossover. Spoilers below!

Micro-Reviews

House Of M #3
Written by Dennis Hopeless and Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Ario Anindito
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

Of all the tie-ins I’ve had to read and review, “House Of M” might be the most improved. What started as a kind of middle of the road story of betrayal has turned into something very soap opera-esque and exciting. Quicksilver’s scheming ways have put in him in a power of position and Magneto has been sent running without his powers. Bunn and Hopeless have really settled into this story and I’m actually really excited to see how this plays out. Lorna’s intelligence, quick thinking and “over it” attitude about her father’s reaction to all this is fantastic. She’s often so overlooked and it’s kind of fun to see her be the voice of reason here.

Anindito’s art style is pretty different from what we’ve seen in the series so far. It features a little more detail on the character designs and less on the backgrounds. What I am grateful for is the way Namor is drawn. He’s not only attractive and acting like a perfect professional wrestling heel, but also sports sleeves unattached to a shirt. This isn’t a criticism, it’s praise because even in an alternate world, Namor is still Namor. He’s a douchebag but we love him and Anindito gets that.

Final Verdict: 7.7 – A lot of stuff here is clicking and I hope it finishes strong.

Age of Apocalypse #4
Written by Fabian Nicieza
Illustrated by Iban Coello
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

“Age Of Apocalypse” #4 is where all hell really breaks loose. The legacy virus is out in the open and it has begun claiming victims. The virus attacks mutants when they use their powers so the more one uses, the faster the disease can get to them and destroy them. Surprisingly, “Age Of Apocalypse” #4 is quite exciting. Thanks to the nature of this event, anyone can die and in this issue, two very major characters end up being infected and subsequently die. The problem with this is, you aren’t truly impacted by what happens unless you got invested in the story or are just a big X-Men fan in general. This tends to be the case with most of these tie-ins. With that said, the action flows very nicely and there’s a wonderful sense of danger that comes across in this story. I could have done without the icky Jean Grey/Wolverine/Cyclops love triangle coming up again but that’s par the course with the X-Men nowadays.

Iban Coello’s art is definitely clean and well crafted but stylistically, there’s something missing here. Gerardo Sandoval was far more bombastic with his character designs. He was trying to capture the essence of ridiculous 90’s comic book art. Coello doesn’t quite get there. There are some moments that work like Magneto’s helmet being like a cave on his head and Apocalypse’s size but it doesn’t competely work the same way Sandoval’s art did.

Final Verdict: 7.2 – A much stronger issue for this miniseries that actually got me invested in the finale.

Spider-Island #4
Written by Christos Gage & Tom DeFalco
Illustrated by Paco Diaz & Ron Frenz
Reviewed by James Johnston

“Spider-Island” seems like it’s the most unlikely out of all the Battleworld titles to exist. Flash Thompson of all people leading a resistance against a spider-infested Manhattan, Captain America in his Cap-Wolf persona, reanimated dinosaurs. It’s nuts, and the type of nuts that at least feels grounded in itself. The fact that there’s a caption block that explains the last time Stegron reanimated dinosaurs at a museum feels adorably quaint. As if saying “Hey, we’ve done this before” would somehow make the scene make more sense. I can’t complain, honestly. The double-page spread of dinosaurs attacking spider soldiers while an arachnid J. Jonah Jameson curses Spider-Man out is the type of comics joy I can really get into. “Spider-Island” might be my happy place.

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That “Spider-Girl” back-up however is the visual equivalent of white noise. Why can’t this comic cut out that “Spider-Girl” bit and throw in four more pages of Cap-Wolf riding a stegosaurus?

Final Verdict: 7.3 – Even though the “Spider-Girl” back-up weighs it down a bit, “Spider-Island” is a lot of unexpected fun.

Guardians Of Knowhere #4
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Mike Deodato Jr.
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

If you were to make a list of all the terrible cliches of Brian Michael Bendis’ then put them in a blender, you’d have this comic. This issue was seriously a slog to get through as it felt like i had read every single page before in another comic written by Bendis. All the warriors are here: a majorly decompressed script that draws out scenes far longer than needed so barely anything gets accomplished, all of the characters just attack each other out of misunderstanding rather than talking it out, and all of the women who die in the comic are brutally impaled while gasping absently at the “camera”.

Then, to top it off, Bendis brings back in the Star-Lord from before “Secret Wars” began (as seen in the main series) to ensure that the Guardians will have a major role to play in the finale of the series because his toys have to be the most important. Yawn. At least Mike Deodato can draw a fight well.

Final Verdict: 1.0 – This series went from bad to worse and the fact that it’s going to impact the main series now is just the worst.

Spider-Verse #5
Written by Mike Costa
Illustrated by Andre Araújo
Reviewed by James Johnston

What’s it with Spider-Man tie-ins being a lot of fun? I guess everyone had practice with last year’s “Spider-Verse.” And indeed, the “Secret Wars” edition of “Spider-Verse does a similar job of bringing the various Spiders all together in really clever ways. In fact, I’d say “Spider-Verse” is one of the few Battleworld tie-ins I’d want to see more of, and an admirable backdoor pilot for the upcoming “Web Warriors” series. While it’d be easy to just say that Spider-Ham’s the star of the comic since he’s the most adorable grump of the group, Costa and Araújo really go out of their way to show that other underrated characters like Pavitr can stand on their own.

Final Verdict: 7.1 – “Spider-Verse” was a neat story that tied in the events of “Spider-Verse” with “Secret Wars” in a way that somehow wasn’t totally heavy handed. Another one of the better Battleworld titles.

Armor Wars #5
Written by James Robinson
Illustrated by Marcio Takara
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

The sad thing about stories built around mysteries is that often the momentum of the third act effectively halts in order for the mystery to be explained from one character to another in order to explain it to the audience. However, this effect can be made better for the audience if the twist is shocking and engaging. That’s not the case with “Armor Wars”.

For five issues the mystery surrounding Technopolis and the virus that forces everyone to wear armour has been teased and finally the answer is revealed! Turns out… Howard Stark did it to sell armour and it messed up and now Tony Stark is killing people who find out because he still wants to be the richest, most powerful man in the world. So, like, it’s the least interesting answer possible, basically, and yet Robinson spends the entire issue breaking down the mystery as if everyone’s first reaction was “Yeah, no duh.”

Thankfully, Marcio Takara’s artwork continues to be great, but he’s vastly misused in this issue. The grand revelation of the issue is supposed to be played out against this massive battle between Arno and Tony Stark and Lila and Kiri in giant suits of armour, but the actual fight isn’t the focus and instead it’s the dialogue where Tony Stark has to keep reiterating that he’s for reals the bad guy this time.

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Final Verdict: 4.6 – It’s just entirely disappointing that a series that could have been interesting took the safest, least interesting route possible with its big reveal.

Infinity Gauntlet #4
Written by Dustin Weaver & Gerry Duggan
Illustrated by Dustin Weaver
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

Dustin Weaver and Gerry Duggan have turned the fable of the Infinity Gauntlet into a Super Sentai story. It’s kind of amazing.

The majority of this issue is just one long fight scene, with only a little preamble before and leading up to the big last page reveal that will segue into the big, climactic boss fight next issue. While Weaver’s art makes this fight scene explosive and engaging throughout the issue, filling each page with action and dialogue that keeps everything flowing, the fact that there are so many characters pairing off into smaller fights made it hard to keep a track of who was fighting who. Otherwise, Weaver’s art is mostly fantastic save for a panel that was the most ludicrously posed I have ever seen a woman in a comic. Seriously, it was a panel that made me stop reading just to marvel at how contorted she was.

There’s not a whole lot to say about the writing here as much of the dialogue serves as mid-fight banter, but I will say that Duggan’s dialogue perfectly fits the melodrama of the Super Sentai feeling of Weaver’s art. It really ties the whole issue as everyone makes grand statements mid-battle about the power of soul and stuff like that.

Final Verdict: 7.3 – “Infinity Gauntlet” continues to feel unique and unlike any other Marvel comic with a lot of inspiration from anime and Super Sentai.

Secret Wars Journal #5
Written by Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska, Aaron Alexovich
Illustrated by Alec Morgan, Diogo Saito
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

“Secret Wars Journal” #5 features two vastly different stories with two very different leading ladies. The first story, “Risk of Infection” features Night Nurse (not the one from the Daredevil Netflix series) as she tries to save a town from a giant demon spreading an infection. The Soska Sisters horror background show right through but unfortunately in such a short space, the story doesn’t have enough meat. It’s really just one extended action scene with a little flashback but it does characterize nurses in a very important way. The Soska don’t just make a point about Night Nurse but all of those who help sick people and it’s a nice message underneath all the action. Alexovich’s art is very good and he’s able to do a lot in such a short amount of space. The use of many smaller panels allowed him to pack in a lot of visual storytelling. Action flows very nicely, character designs are excellent and there’s enough gore and violence in here to consider it horror. It’s unfortunately a victim of space confines and a truly dour ending that interestingly enough isn’t too different from one of the Soskas’ films.

The second story, “Mill-E: The Model Citizen!” by Aaron Alexovich and Diogo Saito tells the story of Mill-E, a robotic version of Millie The Model trying to work people over to the side of Doom. Some of the outer lying provinces are not as loyal to Doom as they should be. They aren’t quite rebelling but they don’t have the same devotion to their God Emperor Doom that some of the other zones have. Alexovic writes a very funny and witty story. Mill-E’s sunny disposition is too sweet to hate and even for someone like me, who isn’t the biggest fan of organized religion, wants to see her succeed. Saito’s art is just the perfect fit for this story. Visually, it looks a little influenced by Amanda Conner. It’s cute, fun and Rosenberg’s colors bring the perfect amount of lightness to the story.

Final Verdict: 6.0 – So many of these short stories were hurt by the page limit. Not everything needs a miniseries but the adventures of Mill-E could have made for a fun comedy all on it’s own.

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Final Thoughts

James: Honestly, I think if you stick Spider-Man in a tie-in, I’d like the comic. He’s like the secret ingredient. Marvel could announce that “Secret Wars” is going to extend into January with a two-issue “Wolverine: In The Flesh” series and I’d probably like it if Chris Consentino began to shoot webs.

Jess: This week wasn’t terrible for me. I think the couple of series left that I’m paying attention to are attempting to finish strong. That or I’ve lost all the good taste I had left. It’s also possible that I’m too consumed with the Mets doing so great that I can’t notice “Secret Wars” being bad.

Alice: Will it ever end? Dear God, will it ever just end?


//TAGS | The MC2

James Johnston

James Johnston is a grizzled post-millenial. Follow him on Twitter to challenge him to a fight.

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Jess Camacho

Jess is from New Jersey. She loves comic books, pizza, wrestling and the Mets. She can be seen talking comics here and at Geeked Out Nation. Follow her on Twitter @JessCamNJ for the hottest pro wrestling takes.

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Alice W. Castle

Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears her, Alice W. Castle is a trans femme writing about comics. All things considered, it’s going surprisingly well. Ask her about the unproduced Superman films of 1990 - 2006. She can be found on various corners of the internet, but most frequently on Twitter: @alicewcastle

EMAIL | ARTICLES



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