The MC2 Presents: Secret Warriors, Week 2

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 “X-Men 92’”, “Old Man Logan”, and more whilst giving up our own thoughts on the event as a whole! 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

Inhumans: Attilan Rising #1
Written by Charles Soule
Illustrated by John Timms
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

Now we’re getting somewhere with these tie-ins. “Inhumans: Attilan Rising” feels like a natural extension of what was going on in the world of the Inhumans before “Secret Wars” started. I credit this to Charles Soule being the writer of this miniseries. He’s been building a big story and even though it doesn’t seem to really “count” anymore, he’s using some of the established voices and relationships to tell a new story that DEFINITELY ties into the bigger story. Be warned, there are spoilers in this review.

“Inhumans: Attilan Rising” #1 begins with a team of rebels, led by a wild west version of Ghost Rider, entering the domain of the Hulks. They are there to deliver a serum that allows Hulks to regain their ability to think straight. Ghost Rider is caught by the Thor Corps and taken to New Attilan and Medusa instead of God Emperor Doom. God Emperor Doom did this as a test for Medusa. He trusts her ability but wants to see how loyal she is given how important New Attilan is to the security and safety of Battleworld. Medusa is able to gather that there’s something going on at a place called “The Quiet Room” so she sends Auran to investigate. Auran enters “The Quiet Room” and finds a very handsome and secret agent-esque Black Bolt.

This is the kind of tie-in I’ve been looking forward to. As much as I like weird, other universe kind of stories, I don’t want to keep buying a lot of minis that don’t seem to matter much. That probably sounds a bit hypercritical but at $4-$5 an issue, I want it to count and “Inhumans: Attilan Rising” is that. The rebellion is not one just in Attilan. This is something that has the attention of God Emperor Doom but not fully, at least it doesn’t seem that way. This whole things works on so many levels and I credit that with writer Charles Soule. He’s been working on everything Inhumans for the last year and even though he has to adjust his story for “Secret Wars” he keeps in tact some of the drama that was happening before this. The biggest thing being kept, of course, is the bad blood between Medusa and Black Bolt.

Now, of course, as a longtime Inhumans fan, I really love how big a role they’re going to play in this but the rebellion is a big plot point that moves “Secret Wars” along. I had a lot of questions about the conflict going into “Secret Wars” because if Doom creates a world that leaves him as leader, who is going to break that up and ruin it? The answer was apparently very simple. God Emperor Doom has put himself in a corner and even though he has the very power Inhumans in his corner, he has a bunch of different heroes from different domains joining up to take him out. They’re tired of his ways and they’re even more tired, it seems, of the Thor Corps. Soule, very easily balances the issues within the world of the Inhumans with this rising rebellion and it’s what makes this the best tie-in that’s come out so far.

John Timms’ art is so good. The lines are so clean and the whole issue is very polished. Timms crafts some really classic looking, bad ass superheroics in the first few pages with an extended fight scene. This Ghost Rider design is the epitome of rugged and even standing still he’s not someone you’d want to mess with. The few Inhumans we see are very alien like and it’s something I like to see. Often times, artists get a little too into making the Inhumans look too Earth like. They aren’t the mutants, they are the Inhumans. They need to pay homage to the Kirby era and be a little ridiculous. Timms’ God Emperor Doom is very good with special mention of the mask as it’s very cold and steely. Timms’ Black Bolt is very different than I expected. Black Bolt is sort of a combination between Sean Connery era James Bond and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. He’s got a lot of swagger and style and it sells the rebel angle very well.

“Inhumans: Attilan Rising” #1 is a great start to a tie in miniseries that matters and I’m really excited to see this unfold.

Final Verdict:: 8.5 – If you can only buy one tie in make it “Inhumans: Attilian Rising”

Old Man Logan #1
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino
Reviewed by James Johnston

what

Quick recap: “Old Man Logan” is a storyline from Mark Millar and Steve McNiven where “Wanted” happened to Wolverine. The Marvel villains teamed up to kill all the bad guys, leaving Wolverine as the last samurai in a world gone horribly wrong. It got really popular. As a result, it’s been brought back for the “Secret Wars” tie-ins to…?

My biggest problem with “Old Man Logan” is that at its core, it doesn’t make any sense. The Wolverine in the original “Old Man Logan” popped out his claws again and wandered the world with a baby Hulk as a ronin or whatever. Since then, he’s apparently been going to various places, stabbing pimps, and yelling at townspeople that he’s saving them like the sad old man he is. Then, after finding an Ultron helmet, he finds a dying Emma Forst who was shot by a Punisher gang and then climbed a mountain and the book just kind of ends.

“Old Man Logan” raises a lot of questions and most of them aren’t on purpose. The fractured flow in the storytelling leads to a really confusing sequence of events that don’t have much to do with each other. We’re going to praise a couple comics up ahead for doing their own thing in their own bubble, but “Old Man Logan” pokes a hole in some other bubbles, mostly by not explaining what it’s doing. Does the stray Ultron head mean Logan’s looking for an Ultron who made it past The Shield? Why is Emma Frost here? What the hell is that wall doing there?

Andrea Sorrentino’s art on this book is good, like “I’m still kind of pissed ‘I, Vampire’ got cancelled” good. In fact, if this book did anything write, it’s convince me that Sorrentino should have been on the original “Old Man Logan.” Yet, his style isn’t enough to connect the dots on a story that desperately needs some clarification and focus. Old Man Logan roaming around Battleworld sounds like a great idea for the crossover. Hell, you could go “House of M” and have him be the Wolverine going around and asking questions about what the hell’s up with Doom since 616 Wolverine croaked. Instead, “Old Man Logan” #1 is a tie-in that doesn’t want to play with the rest of the crossover while not providing enough for it to stand on its own.

Final Verdict: 3.4 – Pass. You can just read “Old Man Logan” and pretend Sorrentino’s doing the art.

M.O.D.O.K. Assassin #1
Written by Christopher Yost
Illustrated by Amilcar Pinna
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

Oh, boy. Okay. Be strong for mother, Alice. You can do this.

“M.O.D.O.K. Assassin” is a very strange book. On the one hand, I just reviewed a M.O.D.O.K. story last week and thought it was okay if a little confusing thought we were just done with him, but on the other it seems like this book isn’t even about the same M.O.D.O.K. This makes reading this issue all the more confusing (and, boy, is it confusing) as I couldn’t help but think “Didn’t we go over this already?”

This book takes place in the Battleworld realm of Killville where, apparently, the “designed only for killing” part of M.O.D.O.K.’s is being pushed hard as he has apparently killed all of the other heroes. I say apparently because it’s a fact that’s mentioned for one panel and then never brought up again. Much like most of the things in this issue, actually.

What’s confusing about this book more than anything is that it doesn’t really seem to have a story. Instead, Christopher Yost and Amilcar Pinna take M.O.D.O.K. on a series of vignettes through Killville until they hit 20 pages and have to come up with a cliffhanger ending to hopefully bring some poor, unfortunate souls back for the second issue. You see, the first five pages of this comic focus on M.O.D.O.K. fighting Bullseye in order to stop him from killing Otto Octavius… only to kill Otto himself because he stole a thing from him that he stole from the Sentinels? Then, like, all of a sudden Baron Mordo shows up for a couple of pages to talk shit to M.O.D.O.K.? Then he just, like, leaves and M.O.D.O.K. drives around for a couple pages and it’s at this point that I begin to suspect that I might not be enjoying this issue before the comic switches gears entirely so that M.O.D.O.K. can defend Gambit from a bunch of Sentinels… before killing himself? Then the comic ends on a cliffhanger that sort of references what Ales Kot and Michael Walsh did with “Secret Avengers”, but in a way that made me realise I’d rather be reading that.

So, the writing of this comic is messy at best. The narration is clunky and the plot is essentially non-existant, but at least the art is good, right? Well, mostly. Amilcar Pinna’s art is suitably grand in scale during the action scenes, especially the fight with the Sentinels, but in many panels there feels like a distinct lack of detail in Pinna’s lines. This makes some panels that should be cool feel underwhelming because of a lack of detail. Still, the art is perhaps the best part of the book and the focus on M.O.D.O.K. as a killing machine allows Pinna to do something interesting things in the actions scenes.

Overall, this is one of the weakest “Secret Wars” tie-ins I’ve had to read. The plot is non-existent and the writing is all over the place as M.O.D.O.K. seems to walk into scenes that are already happening just to kill anyone involved. This is, thankfully, made bearable by some enjoyable art so if you for some reason have to read all of the “Secret Wars” issues this isn’t the worst thing ever, but it’s definitely not the best thing ever either.

Final Verdict: 4.6 – Avoid.

X-Men ’92 #1
Written by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims
Illustrated by Scott Koblish
Reviewed by James Johnston

“X-Men ’92” #1 definitely lives in its own playground. It’s a nostalgia rush of 90’s excess, from Storm’s hair to the extended laser tag sequence. The comic also delves into some other X-Men tropes like dialogue balloons that go on FOREVER and Cyclops insisting that THIS TIME he is LEAVING THE X-MEN! As a result of the former, “X-Men ’92” can be a slog to get through at points, especially since the plot’s appropriately paper thin at this point. Since most characters have been reduced to parodies of the X-Men cartoon, there isn’t a whole lot to get truly attached to. Still, scenes like Wolverine shopping for plaid in the middle of a Sentinel fight are admittedly a little charming.

The digital format of the comic allows Scott Koblish to really play with the motion of his artwork, leading to some cool moments during big fight sequences that have more impact than if they were in print. Speaking of Koblish, he does a successful job in balancing the 90’s style with enough modern sensibility to keep readers from totally groaning. Of course, the high point of this issue comes from Baron Senator Kelly who swoops in to lay down some exposition and tie-in to Battleworld while wearing a cape and riding a chariot of Lockheeds. If anyone needed a one-shot about them right now, it’s Baron Kelly.

Final Verdict: 6.3 – “X-Men ’92” is a serviceable look back on the cartoon of old infused with some silliness of its own. It’s not a terribly groundbreaking comic, but those with a love for the days of Gambit/Rouge shipping should get a kick out of it.

Secret Wars Journal #1
Written by Pru Shen, Matthew Rosenberg
Illustrated by Ramon Bachs, Luca Pizzari
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

Like “Battleworld” last week, “Secret Wars Journal” is an anthology series that tells short stories taking place in the Battleworld, helping to flesh out this world more and give some attention to weird, different versions of well known characters. This first issue received a nice amount of buzz around it because it featured a 1602 version of Kate Bishop, a fan favorite. She is the focus of the first story in “Secret Wars Journal”. In King James’ England, Kate is known as The Arrowhead, a thief very similar to Robin Hood. She is joined by the 1602 versions of Wiccan and Hulkling in an effort to steal a magic orb from Sheriff Punisher. Of course, Sheriff Punisher isn’t going to let that happen and he’s there to trap the trio and finally end Kate’s rebellion against him.

This is a really fun and kind of fan servicey story. None of that is really a bad thing because if you bought this for Kate Bishop, you get exactly what you want. Kate gets some snappy dialogue and some very ass kicking moments. Writer Pru Shen displays a knack for writing the proper team dynamic between this trio and while it doesn’t sound like “Young Avengers”, it feels the way. Ramon Bachs’ artwork is very strong. He crafts some excellent action scenes that are truly eye candy. There’s a full page spread where Kate is falling and shooting an arrow up. Her body is angled perfectly and the look on her face is classic Kate Bishop determination and attitude. Colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu really lets loose with a varied color palette that goes against the typical dark and dreary style that often comes with this time period. Kate’s dress is fabulously colored in different shades of purple while Billy and Teddy echo their modern looks. Beaulieu adds such an extra sense of fun to the entire story through the colors.

The second story is an X-Men story taking place in a part of the Battleworld called Egyptia. Written by Matthew Rosenberg with art by Luca Pizzari and colors by Rain Beredo, this story features Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Blindfold and more living as slaves trying to make their escape. As they get closer to freedom, they find themselves face to face with the moon knights who worship (obviously) Khonshu. This story is over just as quickly as it begins with this group of X-Men not coming out all that great. Rosenberg gives us some cool character moments like Nightcrawler being a pirate and Shadowcat taking a leadership role that I wish we saw more of in the (now dead) Marvel Universe.

I wasn’t familiar with the art of Luca Pizzari before this but I do hope to see more of his work in mainstream comics. Pizzari nails the tone of this world very well and like the first story, taps into the time period perfectly. He’s able to do a lot of different things with the character designs but it isn’t really tough to distinguish who is who. He very much adapts well known characters into a different world without losing their most noticeable features. Rain Beredo’s colors are very, very good because Beredo doesn’t get bogged down by the use of neutral tones. Beredo uses a variety of browns and tans and the characters do not fade into the background. That’s easy to do when everything is sand and there aren’t many buildings to build a background with. It is the desert after all.

Unfortunately, this story isn’t really memorable and it doesn’t really do very much. It feels like an extended action scene that abruptly ends without much gained from it. That’s the problem with these anthologies. The Kate Bishop story will carry into “Siege” but the X-Men story is a one and done kind of thing. While the issue overall isn’t bad, it’s not required reading for the event and you could, sadly, afford to skip it unless you really need some more Kate Bishop in your life.

Final Verdict:: 7.0 – A fun Kate Bishop story and an alright X-Men story. Ultimately, you could afford to skip it.

Inferno #1
Written by Dennis Hopeless
Illustrated by Javier Garrón
Reviewed by James Johnston

Huh. Who knew the X-Men worked really well when thrust into Dark Souls?

“Inferno” follows a group of X-Men who failed their Manhattan (of which there has to be at least twenty of on Battleworld) when it was invaded by demons. Most of the world’s response to the problem is to aggressively shrug at it but Colossus lost his sister, Illyana, to the demons. Now, in exchange for patrolling Cyclops’s domain, he earns a chance once a year to go full The Raid on Inferno and try to save his sister.

“Inferno” may not have much to do with its namesake, but it does offer a chance for Colossus to headline a book after living in relative obscurity for a couple years now. He’s been broken down by the failed attempts to save his sister and its clearly taken some effect on him and those around him, especially the wheelchair-bound Cyclops and Pietr’s new girlfriend, Domino. Like “Infinity Gauntlet”, I’m surprised at that “Secret War” has found room for stories that can focus on a few individual characters, even if its at the expense of some of the world around it. While Colossus’s struggle here is cool, there’s not much behind this domain besides “demons ruined it” and “lolsorry”.

That said, the demons do offer an overwhelming sort of threat not really seen in other X-Men titles. They’ve turned Manhattan into a hellish skyline and the variety of demons coming for the X-Men is impressive. Out of all the Battleworld domains, Inferno seems to be one with some of the most potential to explore. And with Colossus as the central protagonist, we have a flawed anchor into this realm.

Final Verdict: 6.8 – “Inferno” may not be too relevant to the entire “Secret Wars” saga but it does include an interesting concept for the Rasputins family and some violent demon action.

The Infinity Gauntlet #1
Written by Gerry Duggan
Illustrated by Dustin Weaver
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

“The Infinity Gauntlet” is a true fan favorite comic event and it’s typically a go to recommendation for people who want to learn more about Thanos. “The Infinity Gauntlet” #1 “Secret Wars” tie in however is a totally different thing altogether.

“The Infinity Gauntlet” #1 introduces us to Anwen Bakian, a young girl living in the remains of a once great city with what’s left of her family. They spend their days as scavengers, trying to stay alive and survive in a world that was destroyed by giant insects. I’m assuming the Annihilation event happened in this domain and the humans lost. Anwen’s mother was a member of the Nova Corps and has been lost ever since the war was lost. Much of this issue is Anwen and her family interacting and eventually being chased by giant insects. It seems like nothing really happens until the end but this is still one of the most emotional of all the tie-ins so far.

Last week, “Planet Hulk” #1 did the same thing this issue did. It shares its name with a classic Marvel storyline but presents something wildly different leaving you to assume the titles are a marketing ploy. This is nothing like the original series but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The thing with these tie-ins is that they have to make you feel like you’re $4 (or $5) matters. If it doesn’t tie into the bigger plot, then what’s selling point? The selling point here is that this is a story that I don’t think would have been told in the Marvel Universe proper. Anwen’s story hurts. She’s a girl who lost her mother abruptly and now lives in a world where she’s barely making it every day. Duggan and Weaver give us a story about loss but also finding something more powerful in yourself in that loss; at least that’s where we’re headed. The ending is fairly predictable but it doesn’t lose it’s punch.

Anwen is the star of this whole issue though. She is spunky, likable and a great young protagonist. She behaves and sounds like a child caught up in a world she doesn’t understand. Her dialogue is written in a way where you still see her innocence. She’s got a sense of humor and while she seems fearless, she does get scared. She just doesn’t let it rule her. Duggan and Weaver spend a lot of time in this issue illustrating the family dynamic and they do a strong balancing act between serious conversation and typical family bickering.

Dustin Weaver handles all the art duties from pencils to coloring and he straight up kills it. The action scenes with the bugs are straight out a disaster movie. He uses the right angles to show motion and with the correct size proportions, he ensures the bugs look menacing. Weaver’s characters show a lot of emotion with Anwen again being the best of the bunch. He gives her believable range and she goes from bewildered to sad to scared and none of it looks the same. Weaver really flexes some amazing artistic muscle on the backgrounds as well. This isn’t really something visually unbelievable. The destroyed city looks like images on the news and it gives you the same feeling of sadness and dread when you look at it. The decision to make the Bakian’s the only people we see is a smart one because in this big world Weaver has contructed, they do look small and lost.

I was not expecting to like this as much as I did and even though it has nothing to do with the central storyline in “Secret Wars”, it is worth your time. I try to stay away from tie-ins that don’t add something to the main plot of the event but this is just so well done that I’m on board for the whole thing.

Final Verdict: 8.3 – Doesn’t connect to what God Emperor Doom is doing but Duggan and Weaver have something really special on their hands.

Secret Wars 2099 #1
Written by Peter David
Illustrated by Will Sliney
Reviewed by James Johnston

Of all the tie-ins this week, “Secret Wars 2099” #1 might be my favorite. It re-introduces 2099 for new readers (it’s the future as designed by business executives from the 90’s), delivers new characters to ground audiences in its world and features changes to established characters to swerve veteran fans. This comic follows a group of Avengers sponsored by the Alchemax corporation and how they defend the city of Nueva York. The heroes are typically flawed in the Peter David fashion – Hercules in particular has a small problem with alcoholism and infanticide – that present them as real characters. It’s why I liked that Spider-Gwen one-shot from “Spider-Verse.” Both stories feel like they’re being shown in progress, like this is an actual comic from another alternative universe or timeline or whatever.

That said, the clever hiding of exposition in this issue means that not too much happens, aside from the character’s introduction. They’re more or less isolated from Battleworld, but a warning from The Vision promises things to come. Still, since the world is so immediately and professionally established, it can afford an issue to not rush straight into the action. Hell, the status of Spider-Man 2099 alone offers an interesting twist that builds on what’s been going on with David’s recent work on the character.

Plus, the new characters are pretty keen too. Captain America in particular, with a costume that speaks to both Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson’s legacy of the character, stands out with a design from Will Sliney. The city of Nueva York is designed in a futuristic aesthetic that meshes with the 2099 line as a whole, but still manages to find the humor in characters’ posture and emotions. Hell, Iron Man has one of the funniest moments in the comic and he doesn’t even have a face.

Final Verdict: 7.8 – “Secret Wars 2099” #1, like many of these tie-ins if you’re noticing a pattern, doesn’t offer much to the whole Battlewolrd story but manages to be its own fun yet complex thing.

Where Monsters Dwell #1
Written by Garth Ennis
Illustrated by Russ Braun
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

“Where Monsters Dwell” is essentially an excuse to have a corner of Battleworld where Garth Ennis gets to be Garth Ennis and, boy, does he Garth Ennis it up here. That’s it. That’s your review, we can all go home now.

Okay, seriously, “Where Monsters Dwell” is the type of “Secret Wars” tie-in that I’ve actually been enjoying in that it doesn’t even remotely try to address whatever Hickman and Esad have going on in the main title and instead go off on wild adventures. This wild adventure here is noted for the fact that the Far East (really, guys? are we… okay) realm of the Battleword seems to be lifted directly out of the 1920s and Ennis and Russ have a lot of fun with that. However, one of the things that mars Ennis’ writing her is that his usual talent of writing almost entirely unlikeable people rubs up on the PG-ness of this world. Sure, all the characters are bastards, especially Karl Kaufman our main character, but it feels a little out of place that the comic would open with him ditching a native princess he impregnated. Maybe a little too old fashioned, even.

That weirdness is eventually overshadowed by the awesome action as Russ Braun gets to shine and his art is perfect for this story. This story feels like a love letter to all those Golden Age pulp adventure comics that seem to have been mostly lost to history. While those dinosaurs on the cover do take a while to show up, Braun’s gritty and dirty inkwashed style keeps your attention pinned to the page until they do. Even an action sequence that involves having to start a propeller engine plane that just doesn’t want to co-operate before an approaching hoard attacks – something I didn’t think would work on the page because of comic book pacing – works thanks to Braun’s story telling talents as he lays out the page to make everything clear and readable.

Then once the dinosaurs do show up, Ennis and Braun kick into high gear to make this an exciting and enjoyable, action-packed book. Braun’s art is perfect for this book and the ink washed style of colours by Dono Sanchez Almara really bring that pulpy quality to the page. While Ennis’ Ennis-isms feel strangely out of place in a book that isn’t rated mature, he still brings a lot of fun to the script with enjoyably unlikeable characters.

Final Verdict: 7.2 – This is the first “Secret Wars” book that I’ve gotten to the last page of and thought “Wait, is that it? I want more!” and I can’t think of a bigger compliment.

Second Week Thoughts:

Alice: This week was… weird. Without an actual issue of the main series to go off of, all we really got where the first issues of yet more tie-ins that seem to be proving my feeling that the less they have to with said main story, the more I enjoy them. The highlight of this week for me was actually “The Infinity Gauntlet” that brought a surprising amount of emotional depth to the story that I haven’t seen out of any of the other tie-ins. Stuff like “Where Monsters Dwell” and “Secret Wars 2099” was enjoyable to me because they seemed to exist more in their own little bubbles and were focusing on their own stories, but they didn’t quite have that spark that “The Infinity Gauntlet” had.

However, the other four books ranged from pointless, but inoffensive (“Inhumans: Attilan Rising”, “Inferno”) to making me actively question what the hell I was reading (“M.O.D.O.K. Assassin”, “Old Man Logan”). While the former may just be a case of the books not working for me as “Inferno” seemed to be a book I should like under any other circumstances as huge X-Fan and “Attilan Rising” had a goddamn 1920s gangster Ghost Rider, the latter is inexcusable. Special shout out has to go to Brian Michael Bendis, though, for writing my least favourite book two weeks in a row and opening the book with a sequence that had me entirely confused because he and Sorrentino didn’t bother with any kind of establishing shot.

I’m really trying not to come off as the curmudgeon of the team, here, but I still don’t get what the point of all of this is. It might be heresy to bring up “Convergence”, but in that event the tie-ins had a clear purpose: in the first couple issues of the main series, Telos opened a bunch of domed cities and told them all to fight each other and the tie-ins pull double duty in catching up with old favourite characters and showing them fighting other favourite characters. Here, there’s no connective tissue between anything going on that it leaves me wondering what the actual story is here.

James: Yeah I’ll agree with you there. I keep bringing up “Planet Hulk” but I think it really did help fill out the type of planet Battleworld is and what the realms are. Like Greenland is the abandoned land to the north full of Hulks. That’s a solid premise, and it can fit into the rest of the other territories. Then you have Marvel 2099 bopping about that everyone just kind of brushes aside. Like, shouldn’t Marvel 1602 look at Marvel 2099 and figure something ain’t right? I’d sort of buy it if everyone was isolated in their own territory but there’s a clear crossover among all the worlds. Hell, the Thor Corps are everywhere which makes me wonder why no one asks them to help the more dystopian worlds like “Old Man Logan.”

I get that this isn’t a typical alternate universe storyline, but it still feels like Marvel’s trying to mix the best of vintage “Secret Wars” with other storylines like “Age of Apocalypse” or “House of M.” At least those storylines didn’t have any repeats. If Scott Summers was Apocalypse’s new #2 or Spider-Man was Derek Jeter(???) there wasn’t another Cyclops or Peter Parker swinging around to invalidate everything else. It’d be much easier to throw out the whole “Oh, Doom made us” creation myth and just replace it with “All the worlds were smashed together, we know, and now Doom controls everything.” That way we can have returning characters from beloved timelines clashing instead of having to reintroduce them from the ground up.

But yeah, “Infinity Gauntlet” was a blast and a half.

Jess: Not to keep harping on how much I didn’t like “Ultimate End” but I’m even more confused about it now after reading “Inhumans: Attilian Rising”. There’s a rebellion but it’s not because they remember the universe before, they just don’t want to live under Doom’s rule anymore. Totally get that and it makes more sense than some of the characters sort of thinking they are in the wrong universe. That makes “Ultimate End” feel even more out of sync with the rest of this. Also, nit pick here, but why would Doom allow the Infinity Gauntlet to exist in Battleworld?

Also, the titles of these tie-ins are just marketing ploys I guess. “Planet Hulk” was Captain America being a BAMF on a dinosaur and “Infinity Gauntlet” was bringing the feels. It’s kind of misleading right? You buy “Infinity Gauntlet” thinking you’re getting Thanos taking over the galaxy and instead get this story about a family. I liked it a lot but it’s just weird.

James: I’m looking forward to “Civil War” being twenty-two pages of Gambit in a Confederate uniform.