Front Lines - Secret Wars (Week of September 16, 2015)

 Front Lines Reviews by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

AGE OF APOCALYPSE #4 by Fabian Nicieza and Iban Coello

Summary: Apocalypse unleashes the Legacy Virus.  Magneto goes to attack him, but Sinister points out that the Virus attacks mutant powers.  If Magneto uses his powers, the virus would infect Magneto...and Magneto’s powers going out of control would be bad for everyone.  Emma uses her telepathy on Peter Corbeau to try and figure out what this virus is.  But his memories are being blocked.  All she can tell for sure is the humans didn’t make this virus themselves.  Apocalypse declares there is no cure. Iceman arrives, having survived Holocaust’s attack in the Savage Land.  He manages to freeze Apocalypse.

Meanwhile, Burner, Wolverine, and Cyclops head to McCoy’s lab to find Jean Grey.  Havok attacks them from behind calling Cyclops a traitor.  Cyclops tells Havok about Apocalypse using the Legacy Virus.  Havok agrees to help them find Dr Nemesis and Jean Grey.

Apocalypse breaks free of his icy prison, but his use of his powers allows the virus to infect him.  Apocalypse dies.   Magneto is infected as well.  Emma is forced to kill him before his powers grow out of control and destroy the world.  In a rage, she forces herself into Corbeau’s mind and realizes that the virus was created by Dr Nemesis.

Grey: I know Cannonball as the first victim must have driven you nuts, but I loved watching Apocalypse promptly discover that he’s totally not strong enough to survive.

Mike:  LOL!  The first thing I typed was “Cannonball dies before anyone else...wtf?”  But I ended up just getting rid of to get right to the story.  So, yes!

Grey: Magneto’s death was a great moment, with Emma going in and giving him the peace of believing that he hadn’t accidentally killed Charles to make his last moments easier.

Score: 4/5

ARMOR WARS #5 by James Robinson and Marcio Takaro

Summary: Tony Stark tries to apologize to Kiri for the thing he claimed he was forced to do.  Kiri is using her massive Moving Fortress armor to try and take down Tony and Arno.  Kiri demands Stark explain why he killed Peter, Rhodey, and her parents.  It seems that it was all to try and keep the Stark’s shameful family secret.  Howard Stark had created a virus which would force people to need to buy his armor.  Unfortunately, it went out of control, and required everyone in Technopolis to have to wear armor at all times.  Tony did everything to make sure his family’s name wasn’t tainted, including killing his own friends.

Lila and Kiri manage to infect both Starks’ armors with a computer virus defeating them.  Kiri becomes the new Baron of Technopolis.  Lila is the new Thor replacing her uncle.

Mike Maillaro: This one was just a little too neat and clean an ending.  I still enjoyed the series though.  It was pretty messed up that the whole series ended up revolving around Stark murdering people to just to keep his family’s name intact…even though his father does deserved to take a lot of heat.  I wonder how Doom feels about the real screwed up domain…

Score: 3.5/5

HOUSE OF M #3 by Dennis Hopeless, Cullen Bunn, and Ario Anindito

Summary: Namor’s tidal wave has done massive damage to Magneto’s castle.  Polaris manages to save Magneto and the humans that had come to assassinate him. Magneto wants revenge on the humans, but Polaris convinces him that is not a priority right now.

Namor and Quicksilver take over the palace, but Magneto and Polaris got away.  Namor orders his men to find them.  Pietro is now king, though it seems Namor is likely already plotting against him.  Magneto’s SHIELD team arrive to “gut some fish.”  But King Pietro tells them to stand down.  They reluctantly bow down to him.  

Later, King Pietro appears to the people of Genosha saying his father was killed by Human Rebels, and Namor helped him retake the castle from them.  He also announces that he plans on cracking down hard on human rebels.  Magneto is discussing with Polaris what their next steps should be.  Misty Knight opens fire on them, but Polaris is able to use her powers to protect them.  Misty races off.  Magneto decides to go after them, even without his powers.

Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch heads to the palace to confront her brother.  SHIELD tries to stop her, but she rips apart several Sentinels and the Helicarrier demanding to see her brother.  Pietro arrives and invites her to talk.  He convinces her that Magneto was bad for Genosha, and he needs her at his side.  She reluctantly agrees to work with him.

Magneto tracks down Misty, but he’s ambushed by Deathlocket.  Magneto and Polaris are both taken prisoner.  Deathlocket says she can’t restore Magneto’s powers, but still wants their help in taking down Quicksilver.  They plan to do a jailbreak on the Human Re-education Center.

Grey: I want this as an ongoing series. As a mini I feel like we’re completely wasting the potential, but Hopeless and Bunn I figure could really flesh out this world and the crap happening in it. I dunno, I really enjoyed it, and I’m just bummed that it’s already almost over.

Mike: Yeah, Marvel needs to redo House of M...this time with these guys.  It clearly could have been a great crossover.  Who knew…

Grey: It was the first crossover of the modern era to truly be ruined by all of its tie ins having nothing to do with the book itself.

Mike: So true.  Hell, I am not sure many of the stories COULD have taken place in the same reality as the main story.  That is how disjointed everything felt.

Grey: The Spider-Man mini was completely contradictory, and it was clear that whoever was writing it was given zero information about what was happening in House of M.

Score: 4.5/5

GUARDIANS OF KNOWHERE #4 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato

Summary: A Kree woman arrives, who is unable to speak languages Angela or Gamora understand.  Angela decides to attack her.  The Nova Corps arrives.  The Kree woman ends up destroying the Nova Corps with minimal effort.  Angela and Gamora are able to subdue the Kree.  Angela offers to forgive Gamora of her crimes against Doom, as long as she stays in her own domain.  Gamora says that she can’t do that.  She is haunted by names like Quill, Thanos, and Grotto and needs to find out what this all means.  The Kree recovers and kills Angela.  The other Guardians (including Mantis…who was dead according to one of the “Previously In…” summaries) arrive to help take down the Kree Woman once and for all.

Then 616 Peter Quill arrives.  Gamora is relieved to find out that he is real.  Quill tells them about the real universe and recruits them to go after Doom.

Mike Maillaro: Wow, this whole series was basically just to set up the last page and Quill reuniting with the Guardians.  I will admit I absolutely loved the ending, but it felt like the other 3 1/2 issues of this series were pointless.  Random threats that appeared from nowhere and served no purpose as far as I can tell.

Grey: You said it better than I would have.

Score: 3/5

INFINITY GAUNTLET #4 by Dustin Weaver and Gerry Duggan

Summary: Thanos, the Novas, and company head to a city ruled by Adam Warlock, who wields the Soul Gem.  They try to convince him to give them the gem so they can defeat the Annihilation Wave.  When he refuses, Nova uses the gems they already gathered to try and take them.  But Warlock and his knights prove to be too powerful.  A big fight ensues.  While this is going on, Drax arrives in pursuit of Thanos.

Warlock reveals that he is using the soul gem to control a massive Behemoth bug.  Nova manages to blast Warlock.  Thanos recovers the Soul Gem.  He unleashed the Behemoth bug, and Thanos is able to kill Nova, taking the stones she had already recovered.  He is only missing on.  Drax attacks Thanos, and Thanos kills him.

Mike Maillaro:  While I mostly enjoyed this issue, I did think the art made it a little difficult to follow what was going on.  Also, the cast was a little too big.  Characters end up basically just all getting quick cameos.  I thought Warlock’s knights were great character choices, but since we saw them all just quickly, it felt like a wasted opportunity. And it’s never clear exactly how Thanos was able to just suddenly take all the gems.  Nova had them…and then Thanos had them.  This issue felt real disjointed.

Score: 3/5

SECRET WARS JOURNAL #5

“Risk of Infection” by Jen and Sylvia Soska and Alec Morgan

Summary:In the Wastelands, we meet a Dr. Linda Carter who is reflecting on the lessons from medical school on when a patient is truly considered dead.  She is doing this while stitching up a massive head wound on herself.  She is the Night Nurse, and have been tasked by Doom to travel from region to region try and deal with various “medical holocausts” that were caused by the creation of Battleworld.

She is currently trying to stop a rogue techno-organic virus that just arrived here from Limbo.  She is armed with a gun that cures victims of the T-O infection.  The cure doesn’t work on a massive demon...so she uses sand from the hold land, which kills him off.  She staggers into a nearby church, and she is shot by a terrified child. She manages to make it outside before she collapses dead.

Maillaro: Well that was just one depressing story.  A great idea and really well executed.    But I really felt bummed out afterwards, especially when Night Nurse is killed by basically an innocent child.

“MILL-E the Model Citizen!” by Aaron Alexovich and Diogo Saito

Summary: In Westchester, two teens are talking about Doctor Doom in a deragatory manner.  A cybernetic woman named MILL-E arrives.  She tries to act hip and tell people why Doom is a real cool dude.  The teens have learned something today!  There are other disgruntled people around who don’t seem to buy MILL-E’s rhetoric.  We find out that the two teens were holographic plants.  Doom summons MILL-E to return to Doomstadt.  The Council of Doombots are angry about MILL-E’s failure to spread the word of Doom.  They threaten to melt her down to use her as goblets.  She gets them to agree to giving her one more chance at winning over Westchester.  She brings Chibi Dooms.  She does manage to convert one child, but that’s it.  The Doombots are so enraged, they take over her body and open fire on the citizens of Westchester. MILL-E is later assigned to the Deadlands to try and convert zombies.

Maillaro: I love the title of this one.  Millie the Model was an old school Marvel book that they sometimes bring back in a variety of ways.  This time, she was a cyborg in the service of Doom.  This is a pretty cool idea, and the satire of terrible government “public service announcements” trying desperately to feel hip, but being way behind the times was real well executed.  

I really enjoyed both of these stories.  

Score: 4/5

Spider-Island #4 by Christos Gage and Paco Diaz

Summary: The Resistance has moved into the ruins of Avengers Mansion. They know that the Spider-Queen will soon find them there, but this is just temporary while they prepare to take the fight to the Queen directly. The Resistance seems split over whether or not that is the right plan.  Peter and Jessica try to suggest they should regroup, but Flash says they need to act now or they will all die.  Peter decides to follow Flash’s lead, and gives him his old stealth suit which should help protect Agent Venom from sonic attacks.  Stegron stages a distraction by using his retrogeneration ray to bring all the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History back to life.

While this distraction happens, the Resistance attacks the Queen directly. Agent Venom manages to shoot the Queen and everyone piles on.  They are uncertain to do which her once they defeat her.  A debate ensues over whether or not they should kill her.  As this happens, she evolves into a massive Spider-Monster.

Spider-Woman by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Sal Buscema

Red Queen has taken over the Avengers.  Spider-Woman is playing possum...she calls for help.  Normie and Phil agree to gather “the others.”  Red Queen is about to kill Scott Lang, so Spider-Woman attacks.  She is facing all the mind-controlled Avengers.  For the most part, she holds her own, but the numbers’ game is catching up. Several of her allies arrive; Ladyhawk, Kaine, Raptor, Goblin, Buzz, and Darkdevil.  Before they can save the day, Red Queen orders Cassie to kill her own father.  To be concluded!

Grey: THE WARRIORS! BUZZ! KAINE! So happy. Will be so not happy when they all go back to not being acknowledged by Marvel, but SO HAPPY FOR RIGHT NOW!

But, about the main story, why do good guys always argue over shit like “Do we kill the most evil person we’ve ever faced” while they RECOVER AT YOUR FEET?!

Mike: It’s funny because how many times did that debate break out in the various RPG’s we’ve run over the years?  I immediately thought of that while I was reading this comic.  And then “TURN INTO A GIANT SPIDER.”  Serves those player characters right for being so wishy washy.

Grey: I think that’s where my giant super mutant vampire at Giants Stadium came to pass; Sam and Lasty debating if killing vampires was murder.

Score: 4.5/5

Spider-Verse #5 by Mike Costa and Andre Araujo

Summary: Peter faces off against the Sinister Six on the Bridge,  Osborn thought he had killed Peter years ago, but it turned out it was the clone, Ben Reilly.  Meanwhile, Spider-Ham and company are attacked by a Thor at Oscorp.  The Thor believes they are trying to use the Siege Perilous to take down Doom.  While this fight is going on, Spider-Gwen arrives back at Oscorp to help out.

Peter leads Osborn on a chase through the city.  Osborn realizes this is a distraction, and orders the Sinister Six to return to Oscorp.  Team Spider is getting their butts kicks by the Thor.  Spider-Gwen tries to get Electro to help them.  He tries to hit Thor with electricity but that doesn’t do much.  Gwen they has him try to destroy the Siege Perilous.  That caused reality to warp and a massive explosion, knocking everyone out.

Osborn arrives.  He realizes all his theories about the Web were right.  He goes to activate the Siege Perilous.

Meanwhile, Oscorp goons are holding Peter Parker.  Spider-Ham arrives to rescue him.  They return to the Siege Perilous, and disrupt the activation, frying Osborn’s brain. The rest of the Sinister Six arrive, but the other Spiders are able to convince them to stand down.  The Spiders decide to continue protecting this domain, this time all working together.

Grey: This book kinda sorta fell apart, and I really have no idea what the hell the point is. Osborn is in charge because he killed Spider-Man, but he has an army of Spider-Men to help him get power to kill Doom by using an X-Men plot device that doesn’t work that way?

Mike: Yeah, there are a lot of great character moments here (though too many of the characters seem to fade into the background just to make sure Spider-Gwen and Spider-Ham get the spotlight), but the story itself is a huge stretch.  I still mostly enjoyed it, but it is definitely not one of my favorites.  Hopefully Web Warriors will be much better.

Grey: Web Warriors will benefit from not having a forced status quo and only a few issues to develop it.