AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS: ANTI-VENOM – NEW WAYS TO LIVE #2: Zeb Wells writes a hilarious Punisher, but this issue was very light on action or story of any kind. The title feels longer than the story, honestly. Zing! Plus, it’s basically “Venom: Lethal Protector” by any other name, which is too bad, because I would actually like to like this. Ah well.

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #29: Another consistently solid issue of this title. There are some cheese-ball moments throughout, and the cliffhanger is paced far too quickly for it to have any sort of resonance (unless I’m forgetting things from previous issues). But those quibbles aside, A:TI continues to shine the light in the forgotten corners of the Marvel Universe, while still staying squarely in the middle. I’m going to be a little bummed if it gets canceled at the end of Dark Reign, but if the rumored Avengers Academy takes its place, and stays consistent to the tone presented here, I’m definitely on board.

DARK AVENGERS: ARES #1: Kieron Gillen continues to prove why he was made to write about gods and mortals, perfectly capturing Ares character here, as well as creating some indelible military images. Which is why its such a bummer that this suggests, at least, its going to tie into other comics at the end of the issue. It may not, who knows, but the first 20 or so pages are filled with brilliant menace. I hope the next issue is as good as this one, and doesn’t exactly follow up on the promise of the cliffhanger here.

DARK REIGN: THE LIST – PUNISHER: Now this is what the “List” books should have been all along. This is easily the biggest issue of the week, Marvel-wise, and if you ignore that the ending has been effectively spoiled for months now by Marvel itself, and take the book on its own merits, it kicks an ass and a half. My main problem with the List books so far is this: they purport to be Normie taking Dark Reign to the next level, attacking the heroes where they live. But they come off as attempts hampered by continuity, lack of change, and perhaps editorial decree (oh no! editors! run!). So you get lame things like sending Bullseye after Daredevil with Norman’s over-arching plan being, “Make Daredevil feel bad.” Or Norman’s plan to take down Clint Barton is to wait until he comes into Avengers Tower, and then arrest him. Or, my personal favorite, taking care of Namor once and for all by killing a character we haven’t seen in more than a decade (though I will admit that got to me). I think the key term there is “once and for all…” The endings of these one shots have felt very much like Norman going in loops (standing in for the authors), explaining how the result of the book was a big victory for him. The other problem I’ve had is that these plans have consistently had a reverse Acts of Vengeance feel to them. Rather than mixing things up, Norman sends the same villains who have previously gotten their butts handed to them multiple times by the hero, and expects they’ll be victorious this time. They’re not.

All of this, and I still haven’t talked about this issue, so here we go… And there are spoilers here: Norman decides to take care of the Punisher once and for all. Does he resurrect Jigsaw and send him after Frank? Heck no. He blows up everything in a five block radius around him. And when that doesn’t work, he sends hundreds of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents to kill him. And when that starts to work, he sends in Daken, who slices Frank Castle into tiny little pieces. And if you’re not sure that worked, the issue ends with tiny little pieces of Frank lying in a pile in a alleyway. The end.

Now, that is what I’m talking about. Plus, you’ve got John Romita Jr. drawing at the top of his game, Klaus Janson writing, and insane, over the top action courtesy of Rick Remender. If there’s one fault with this issue, it’s that we also get a preview of the next issue of Punisher (by Tony Moore and Rick Remender, hells yeah), and we know he’s not gone for long.

But like I said, on its own merits? This is a classic comic, and worth every penny.

DARK REIGN: THE LIST – WOLVERINE: Yeah, and then there’s this. Totally fine writing and art, Jason Aaron writing a fun, over the top story as usual, but read above for all my previous criticisms of the List books, and apply that here, too.

DARK REIGN: YOUNG AVENGERS #5: The resolution of this series is hampered a bit by the idea that I don’t think we’ll ever see these characters again, so its a little hard to get into their struggle. Also, though Paul Cornell’s scripting is reliably good, most of the last few issues of this mini have taken place in one warehouse, with the characters just talking. Kinda boring, honestly. I think there was potential here to have a new, Young Masters of Evil to counter the Young Avengers, but it was squandered on yet another recruitment drive story. Ah well.

FANTASTIC FOUR #572: People are really loving this run a lot, and… I’m not totally sold. Love Jonathan Hickman, LOVE Dale Eaglesham, and the inventiveness on display here is surprising and fun in all the right ways. But the situation with the Council of Reeds and the Celestials is resolved a little too quickly and easily, without using all the tools on display (hey, what about that room full of Dooms, huh?), and Reed’s emotional resolution with Sue, while nice, also feels a little quick. Plus, Hickman separates Johnny and Ben from the group before Reed even gets back. So we’re not gonna get a full group story for a while, which is a bummer. It’s possible Hickman is holding certain ideas and arcs in reserve, so we haven’t seen how this all plays out yet, but I’m not quite falling in love with this as hard as other people are. I’m still keeping with it, though, because its a well made comic, and I expect it’ll get even better, even if it isn’t grabbing me right now.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #19: Well, that situation was resolved way more quickly than I thought it would be. GotG is solid month after month, and its a thrill to see Kang, one of the most integral characters in the history of the Marvel U, back in the spotlight, however briefly.

HULK #16: Who is the Red She-Hulk? Who cares? And I mean that in a good sense, actually, because Loeb is finally remembering that comics are about characters, not just blow-em-ups and super-secrets. I could actually care less about the whole conspiracy angle, but like the attempt to give the Red Hulk some sort of character, and how more is revealed through the new Red She-Hulk. This is not high art by any means, but its been fun, and a step up for two issues in a row.

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #137: There’s nothing I don’t like about this book. Tying up the Amadeus Cho half of this particular arc, we get good emotion, great ideas, and lots of myths, just the way we like it. This book is great.

MS. MARVEL #46: Brian Reed made a pretty bold choice with this arc, to make Karla Sofen (Moonstone) the focus, and “hero” of the arc, while Carol Danvers is most decidedly the villain. And it works, while keeping them both on their sides of the fence anyway. I do think this fizzled a bit, starting far stronger than it ended, but we’re probably (hopefully) getting some follow up on this arc as we switch perspectives back to Danvers. Definitely one of the more underrated titles Marvel is publishing right now, and worth jumping on for next issue at least to check it out.

NEW AVENGERS #58: Bendis has really gotten his groove back on this arc. Its based in the characters, good action, and fun beats throughout. Hope it keeps up, ’cause this is a lot of fun.

NEW MUTANTS #6: The moment we have all been waiting for has finally come: Doug Ramsey is back. Okay, maybe only I was waiting for it, and herein lies the crux of this review: I can’t divorce myself from my feelings for Doug enough to properly review this issue. Everybody has that character, that one character they unequivocally love, and for me it was always Cypher. So… Yeah. Good issue, but I couldn’t read it without feeling kind of uncomfortable, because this isn’t even close to the Doug I know. Amping up his powers to treat combat as a “language” is cool in theory, but it does just come off as “Doug’s powers are lame, let’s figure out a way to make ‘em interesting.” Also, this is probably the 56th time he’s come back as a techno-organic being, so its lost its power a bit. Take this all with a very large grain of salt, by the way. If you haven’t already.

PUNISHER #10: Read this before The List. I would say that this has one of the most insane moments in Punisher history; so much so, it made me angry. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m… Can’t think of a word to finish that statement. Oh well!

SECRET WARRIORS #9: I keep going back and forth about this title. If it focuses on one character (say, Nick Fury or Phobos), I like it quite a bit. If it’s a team story, like this issue, I honestly can’t remember who all the Secret Warriors are, so it’s a little difficult to follow. Does that make me racist towards Secret Warriors? Probably.

ULTIMATE COMICS ARMOR WARS #2: Did Bryan Hitch ghost-pencil this? I swear to god, I didn’t realize this was Steve Kurth and not Hitch until I went back to check the title page. This is silly, the kind of “remixing old stories” that the Ultimate U was supposed to have left behind. I honestly don’t know if any of it would make any sense to someone who hasn’t read the main Marvel U. For someone who has, like myself, it’s a lark, but a negligible one.

ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS #3: Same thing here, with remixing Marvel U ideas… Except it kind of works, because Millar is drawing on his run on Ultimates, and skipping right over the Loeb stuff. Great art, big over the top globe trotting story, huge action… Just the way we like it.

X NECROSHA: Blackest Night begins here! Its actually unfortunate that this is coming so close to the heels of BN, though to the writer’s credit, it zips through the “Oh my god! Look who’s back alive!” thing much more quickly and efficiently. I’m not sold on this yet, but if you want the tapestry of the X-Men part of the universe for the next few months, you have to start here. Actually, read X-Force first, then this, then New Mutants. But yeah, start here. In the middle.

X-FACTOR #50: I would love to say this is a triumphant end of this title’s biggest arc, but… Well, X-Factor is always solid, and always fun, but this is a little too texty. And plotty. And wraps up a bunch of stuff that I didn’t really care about, so unfortunately the stuff I do care about, like Layla Miller’s secret origin, and what’s going on with Evil Madrox kind of get short shrift. That’s too bad, but at least we’re clearing the deck for a new start next issue, and hopefully more people will start picking it up.

X-FORCE #20: Basically a continuation of the X-23 series, this is hardcore, sad, and everything that is good about this comic on a regular basis.