Front Lines - Secret Wars (Week of October 14, 2015)

A-FORCE #5 by Marguerite Bennett, G.Willow Wilson, and Jorge Molina

Summary: Loki broke a hole in the shield wall allowing zombies to pour into Arcadia. She-Hulk rallies A-Force to stand against them.  Nico finds herself at the end of the water, and she gets attacked by the mutated shark from the first issue.  Nico seems ready to die, but Starchild saves her.  Nico realizes her name is Singularity (I still prefer called her Starchild).  Singularity charges into the zombies, sucking them up into her pocket dimension. Nico is worried she is going to lose Singularity just like she lost her adopted sister and mother.  Singularity says goodbye and explodes, taking all the zombies with her.

A-Force celebrates their victory, but mourns their losses.  They turn Loki over to the Thors. The Thors warn She-Hulk against further trouble.  Two days later, A-Force is getting Arcadia up and running again.  Nico is in rough shape because of all the losses she suffered.  

Meanwhile, somewhere in space, Solidarity seems to have been reborn.

Mike Maillaro: Most of this comic was the fight against the zombies, but there was still a lot of great characterization and banter.  I really enjoyed reading this issue.  Singularity’s sacrifice fell a little short for me, just because she’s been so heavily featured in the A-FORCE solicitations moving forward.   But I still enjoyed this issue and this whole series quite a bit.  I wonder if Ben Grimm abandoning the shield wall means Arcadia will end up getting overwhelmed by forces from behind the shield wall anyway...

Score: 4.5/5

CIVIL WAR #5 by Charles Soule and Leinil Francis Yu

Summary: She-Hulk and Stark are rushing to get out of the Skrull base. They realize they are way down deep in The Divide.

On the surface, the Iron’s forces have converged on Captain America, who is about to set off the Bellcurve Bomb which will take all their powers away.  On the Iron’s Helicarrier, Bucky orders Nitro and Radioactive Man to get down there and detonate over and over again until everything is slag.

Suddenly, one of Iron Man’s armors blasts out of the Helicarrier.  Stark suits up, and rockets out of the Divide, forced to leave She-Hulk behind.  Cap orders Hulk to throw him at Iron Man.  Cap smashes into Iron Man, and both crash on the Helicarrier.  Stark orders his men to get Emma and Bucky.  Cap attacks stark.  Stark tries to tell him about the Skrulls, but Cap refuses to listen.  Stark is forced to fight back.  Barnes and Frost arrive.  Stark blasts Bucky, revealing him to be a Skrull.  Cap is still skeptical, so Stark has Emma link their minds.  Cap is finally convinced.  He suggests they use the Bellcurve Bomb on the Skrulls. 

Cap orders Hulk to throw the Bomb into the Divide.  Cap tries to set it off, but it is too far down.  Cap and Stark head into the Divide.  Skrulls arrive.  Cap holds them off while Stark gets the bomb ready.  Stark has Emma project the truth into everyone’s minds.  The heroes all start to race into the Divide to help Cap and Stark now that they know the truth.  Cap sets off the Bomb.  Stark and Cap seem to be killed.  She-Hulk, no depowered, knocks out the Skrull Queen.

Two months later, both sides are trying to work together.  It’s tense, but everyone tries to move on.  Peter Parker meets with the former She-Hulk.  Jen asks Peter if he thought Cap and Stark intentionally set off the Bomb the way they did to take everyone’s powers to make sure this would never happen again.  Peter admits he doesn’t know, but he doesn’t want to fight any more either way.

Mike Maillaro: As I said many times, this was much better than the actual CIVIL WAR crossover.  The characters all seem much more invested in the story, and there was a lot less certainty about who was the good guys and who were the bad guys.  The ending in particular was real powerful.  You can get far better endings when you don’t have to worry about setting up for the next event and returning everything to the status quo.  I really hoped Marvel learned some lessons from this one.

Score: 5/5

MARVEL ZOMBIES #4 by Simon Spurrier and Kev Walker

Summary: As Elsa Bloodstone confronts her father, Mystique and her zombie horde are getting ready to attack.  They want the kid who has been traveling with Bloodstone, she seems immune to being turned into a zombie which makes her special.

The kid is certain that this version of Ulysses is another version, not that specific Elsa’s father.  The zombies start to charge.  Ulysses suggests Elsa team up with him.  She slices his head off.  Else and the kid are soon overwhelmed by zombies.  She tells the kid to run.  There is a massive explosion as Ulysses starts to repair himself.  Ulysses is covered in bloodstones gathered up from several different domains. Elsa has the only remaining bloodstone.  He tries to get Else to turn her stone over, and let the stones be whole once more.  Elsa threatens to destroy her bloodstone before allowing Ulysses to take it.

Ulysses grabs the child.  Elsa realizes that the child is actually the childhood her father took away from her given physical form.  Elsa distracts Ulysses, and the kid uses the last shot in Elsa’s gun to blast Ulysses.  The stones’ power floods into Elsa.  She absorbs the energy and the kid into herself.  The zombies launch another attack, but Elsa is too powerful now and easily takes them out.  She heals her father and herself.  She tells her father to make a new beginning or she will beat him to death.  They start to head back towards the shield wall.  Together.

Mike Maillaro: The ending felt a little rush, but it was still pretty satisfying.  I had started to suspect the child was Else when it was mentioned that she was a girl in the last issue.  Ulysses having gathered up all the bloodstones from around Battleworld was pretty clever.  I wonder if we will ever see this version of Elsa Bloodstone again.  I really enjoyed this take on the character.

Score: 4/5

MS MARVEL #19 by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona

Summary: Kamala is stunned to discover that her mother has known she was Ms Marvel for months.  Kamala thought she had been real careful, but her mother was able to put it all together.  Her mother says that she’s not mad.  Sneaking out to help suffering people is an incredible act.  She tells Kamala how proud she is of her.

Kamala isn’t sure whether or not to tell her family that this might be the end of the world.  She decides not to. She does tell Bruno, and asks what he would do if this was his last day on Earth.  He tells her that “I’d be here near you for as long as I could.”  Kamala freaks out and rushes off to check on the others, not ready for this conversation.  

Zoe apologizes for how rotten she treated Kamala over the years.  Kamala reconnects with her friend Nakia, who she had grown distant from.  Radios are set up, and Jersey City decides to celebrate the end of the world with a dance party.  

Kamala heads outside and finds Bruno on the roof.  Kamala admits to him that she loves him too, but she’s not sure she can give herself over to a relationship while trying to be a superhero.  Bruno is impressed that she still thinks they are going to survive all this.  Kamala is sure there is still hope..a little bit...but it’s enough.  The world fades to white.

Mike Maillaro: Damn.  I teared up several times while reading this issue.  Honestly, I cid think the dance party was a little much, but I am willing to go along with it.  This was a real beautiful ending to the series...uhm...not that the series is really ending...but we can ignore that too.  I can’t wait to see what happens when MS MARVEL comes back. Make Mine Ms Marvel.

Score: 5/5