Front Lines - Secret Wars (Week of October 7, 2015)

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

1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA #4 by Marguerite Bennett, Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, and Kody Chamberlain

Summary: Angela and Serah’s skull head to Faerie to finish off Enchantress.  Serah seems to have been manipulating events to distill magic to be ready to stay alive after Enchantress killed her.  All the free floating faerie magic Enchantress has been sending out should allow that to happen.  Serah returns as a ghost.  Angela promises to restore her to full life.  Enchantress arrives.

Enchantress uses illusions to try and get Angela to give herself over to Enchantress.  Serah helps her resist.  Angela is about to kill Enchantress and take her place as head of the Faerie.  Enchantress tries to convince her that is an awful job.  Everyone will want something from her and curse her name when she can’t deliver.  Angela decides to take that chance.  She kills Enchantress.

Angela’s first act is to restore Serah to full life.  Then she tells Serah to leave, because she doesn’t know what the power will do to her.  Sreah does as Angela tells her, but she vows to help restore Angela.  Serah finds Marlowe and realizes that Enchantress has made him immortal to bring his stories to life.  He says the magic of story runs through his veins.  So Serah takes his blood and gives it to Shakespeare, asking him to use it as ink to write his play A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  By doing so, she will make Angela immortal.

Mike Maillaro:  I’ve said throughout this series that I was never quite sure how I felt about it.  Sometimes it was good, and sometimes it read as a little weak. The last issue was actually mostly good, but I did think the ending was a little drawn out. Also, I am not sure what the point of making Angela immortal was.  I would think with the power she took from Enchantress, she would have already been immortal.  But it was mostly a satisfy ending, which has been kind of rare in SECRET WARS.  So I have to give them some credit for that at least.

Score: 3.5/5

OLD MAN LOGAN #5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino

Summary: Old Man Logan finds himself in New York, but a New York that is far before his time.  It turns out to be the combined New York from ULTIMATE END.  The place seems to be relatively normal, which is making Logan feel real uncomfortable.

He runs into Emma Frost and Jean Grey.  They scan him psychically and understand his story.  They take him to meet the X-Men.  Logan was tricked into killing the X-Men of his time, so he’s not sure if this is a trick, a hallucination, or a true shot at redemption.  They introduce him to “his son” Jimmy.  Wolverine breaks down in tears.

Emma talks with Logan psychically.  She is starting to realize what Doom did here and how broken Battleworld is.  She believes the Ultimate and 616 heroes will rise up against Doom when they realize the truth, and Logan will lead them.  

Later, Logan wakes up in an alleyway, seemingly in a post-SECRET WARS New York City.

Grey: It’s weird seeing Cyclops here despite knowing that actual Scott was killed by Doom. I did like the ending, though, and it made me hope that Jimmy Hudson shows up in the new rebooted universe. First time I’ve ever not actively hated the character when thinking of him.

Mike Maillaro: A real trippy way to end this series.  I actually think the last page might have made more sense at the end of SECRET WARS.  It just felt a little odd here.

Jimmy Hudson was decent in some of the later runs of Ultimate X-Men, but yeah, for the most part I can usually do without the character.  But in a world with an older Logan, he could have an interesting dynamic.  Same with him encountered X-23.

Score: 3.5/5

SECRET WARS #6 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic

Summary: It has been three weeks, and Valeria has been unable to find most of the “rebels” who Doom claimed killed Strange.  Apocalypse and his horseman managed to capture two of Thanos’ Cabal, Corvus Glaive and Promixa Midnight.  Black Swan has turned herself over to Doom.  Doom is also very concerned about all the disorder breaking out in the various domains.

Valeria tells the rest of the Foundation that she believes Doom is lying  Her insticts are telling her that everything is wrong.  The Foundation say they have found the source of Doom’s powers, and it is directly under Doom’s palace.  Also, they keep finding drones all over Battleworld.  We find out they were made by 616 Reed Richards working with Maker (Ultimate Reed).  They are looking for chinks in Doom’s “armor.”  But Reed is concerned that defeating Doom could destroy Battleworld, and all that is left of the universe.  Maker is certain that no matter what, Doom will be able to hold it all together.  Both Reeds seem to have secret plans of their own.

Peter and Miles are using a tracker made by Reed to track down Doom’s powers.  They end up at the Molecule Man statue, where Valeira is there.  Peter immediately recognizes her, but she has no idea who he is.  She grabs the tracking device, realizing it’s made by the same person who build the drones. Peter says that is Reed Richards.  Valeria has never heard of him either, but says he does shoddy work.  She has decided not to go down the hatch, she can’t take the idea that her father lied to her.  She asks them if anyone on the Life Raft killed Strange.  Peter says no, and Valeria admits that she didn’t think so.  The Spider-Men head down the hatch and find Molecule Man.

Meanwhile, someone called the Prophet is rallying forces against Doom.  He orders the Barons to go after Prophet.   Sinister seems to have a plan of his own.

Black Panther and Namor have found Strange’s Island of Agamotto.  They get inside and find that Strange left them a message and some artifacts.  The Siege Courageous, which can teleport anyone anywhere they way to go, and transform the traveller in a manner befitting their true potential. The other is the Infinity Gauntlet, which will only work in Doomstadt.

Frankly asks his mother to tell him the story of the Fantastic Four.  In this version, the four who went to space were Johnny, Ben, Sue, and her father.  The ship crashed...and the world ended.  They were saved by Victor Von Doom. Apocalypse killed Sue’s dad.  And Doom remade the world.  Johnny became the sun.  Franklin asks what happened to Ben, she says that is a story for another time.

At this point, we see the events of SIEGE #5.  Thanos tells Ben (who was made part of the shield wall) the truth of his past.  Thanos says that Doom feared Ben and Johnny.  Ben realizes that Thanos is telling the truth.  He rips free from the shield wall allowing the enemies behind the wall access to Battleworld.

Grey: This series is going to make for a great collected edition, but as an issue by issue event it’s borderline awful. I mean, the happenings are cool, and I don’t hate the series, but the giant gaps between issues are killing all of the momentum. I’m more aware of what’s happening in the minis than I am the event, and that’s not how it should be.

Mike: The biggest problem for me is that the characters talk more than doing any real action.  It’s odd to read a major comic event without any action or fighting at all in the main series.  I’ve really enjoyed most of the tie-ins, but the main series has done nothing for me.  I could really do without Hickman.

Score: 3/5

SIEGE #4 by Kieron Gillen, Filipe Andrade, Pepe Larraz, Ian Herring, Gary Choo, and Bill Sienkiewicz

Summary: Thanos arrives at the shield wall.  Kang and Abigail Brand are ready to take him out.  Thanos says he’s there to talk.  If they refuse, he will reactivate The Fury.  Brand reluctantly tells Kang to stand down.  Thanos asks them to put him in a cell.  After they leave him there, he starts to talk to Ben Grimm, who seems to be a part of the shield wall.  Ben doesn’t remember who he was before being part of the wall.  Thanos is here mostly to talk to Grimm and help him see the truth.

On the shield wall, Davinci is talking to one of the Summers Clones.  Kang comes to get them to interrogate the prisoner.  Thanos says, “I cannot stand the false god that is Doom.”  Thanos has united the forces behind the shield wall to crush the wall.  They have arrived in mass.

Thanos goes back to talking to Ben Grimm.  Thanos asks Ben if he knows why Doom hates him so much.  Thanos tells him about Reed Richards and the many defeats the Fantastic Four dealt Doom before Battleworld.  Ben asks if Battleworld is real. Thanos says, “It’s as real as anything.  It’s just not reality as it should be.”

DaVinci is using an enlightenment cannon to turn back the forces from beyond the wall.  Ben asks him to use the cannon on the wall.  After DaVinci does, Ben realizes that Thanos was telling the truth.  Ben can’t decide whether to hug or punch Thanos.  He decides to punch him.  Thanos asks, “What time is it?”  Ben pulls the mass of the wall into himself, turning himself into a giant version of himself.  He starts to head towards Doom yelling “It’s clobbering time!”

Kang offers to go back in time and stop all this, but he fails.  American takes Kate Bishop and teleports away.  That is basically where this book ends.

Grey: Jesus, this book is ugly. Story is good, has been all along, but it’s just...it’s ugly. It’s hard to read, just like the Juan Bobillo issues of FF. 

Mike: It feels like they knew the book was ugly, that is why they had so many beautiful double-page spreads by different artists.  I liked how important this series ended up being in the end.  There was a great parallel between this week’s issues of Siege and Secret Wars revolving around Ben Grimm.  It kind of made a lot of the slow down in issue 2 feel worthwhile.

Score: 4/5

SPIDER-ISLAND #5 by Christos Gage and Paco Diaz

Summary: Spider-Queen has mutated into a giant spider-monster.  Agent Venom asks Peter if he has any last-minute world-saving ideas up his sleeve.  Peter admits that he has nothing.  He suggests that maybe they can distract her and get away.  Flash refuses to run again, last time he failed so many people died.  He charges the spider-monster.  Her sonics start to overwhelm his suit, but it allows him to get within striking range.  

Flash asks the symbiote to help him. The symbiote leaves Flash and takes over the Spider-Queen, forcing her to throw herself off of the building.  She survives, until Stegron and his army of dinosaurs arrive to finish her off.  Flash, without the symbiote, is dying from his many injuries.  He is satisfied to know that he managed to save everyone.  He tells Betty how much he loves her, and apologizes to Peter for all the crap he gave him back in high school.

Days later, everyone is rebuilding.  A Thor arrives and says that now that this domain is free, Doom wants someone to become a Thor.  Everyone names Peter as Baron, and Peter renames the domain as Thompsonville.

SPIDER-WOMAN by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Sal Buscema

Summary: May saves Scott Lang from his mind-controlled daughter’s attempts to kill him.  She gets him out of Avengers Mansion.  Meanwhile, Enthralla has taken down Kaine, and several other of Spider-Woman’s allies.  Spider-Woman realizes that DarkDevil might be their only chance.  She convince DarkDevil to let Enthralla try to take over his mind. His darkness overwhelms her.  Hope tries to run away, and is knocked out by Uncle Ben wearing a new costume.  May reflects on her father’s life and death.  She realizes that in all the mutiverse, she is the only spider who was raised by a happy and loving Peter Parker, and that makes her unique.

Grey: May’s new costume is amazing and I want to see it in a new ongoing series. Now.

Mike: Come for the Spider-Woman, stay for Spider-Island.  This is probably the best Secret Wars tie-in.  I especially loved the end of the main story when Lizard Thor arrives and says, “Hey, thanks for getting rid of Spider-Queen.  That chick was cray-cray.  Now who wants to be part of the bigger Battleworld?”   And they did a great job making Flash feel important.  I am kind of bummed out that his new series looks so bad.

Grey: God, that new series just looks so stupid. This was a great mini, Gage needs more work in the Spider office.

Score: 5/5