Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #13: This is billed as being a tie-in to the “Divided We Fall” crossover running between “Ultimate Comics Ultimates” and “Ultimate Comics X-Men.”  It’s notable for the fact that this is only the second time this title has acted in such a capacity — the first was in the issues that closed out the first volume as part of the “Ultimatum” event.  I think it’s kind of odd to see this title function in that capacity, since you’d figure that Bendis would have enough clout to say that he doesn’t want to participate, but all the “Ultimate” titles need all the sales they can get these days.

Daredevil #17: It’s not mentioned in the solicitations on Comic Book Resources, but this issue is going to have art from Mike Allred.  That sounds too awesome for just one issue.  There will be more, right?

Hawkeye #1: The last series to star the character lasted only seven issues in the early aughts.  Given that this is being written by Matt Fraction with art from David Aja (for the first arc at least) I can see this lasting a bit longer.  After all, the Bendis/Maleev version of “Moon Knight” made it to twelve.

The Mighty Thor #18, Journey Into Mystery #642, Daredevil Annual #1, Wolverine Annual #1: All of these feature art from Alan Davis with the latter two being double-sized.  That means we’ll be seeing over a hundred pages of art from him this month.  Dude’s been busy, with some ferocious lead time on these projects too.

Fear Itself: It took about seven months, but we’re finally being graced with the paperback edition of Marvel’s next-most-recent crossover.  Everything I’ve heard about it has screamed “Wait for the trade paperback, or just skip it entirely” as this came off as the least focused of any of their crossovers since “House of M” kicked off the narrative that wrapped up in “Siege.”  Apparently the idea is that an old pre-Asgard evil god has come back and is spreading fear throughout the world while transforming certain heroes and villains into unstoppable engines of destruction.  It’s a decent enough jumping off point for more superhero face-punching action and the one friend I know who did read this liked it.  Eh.  We’ll see.

Fear Itself:  Journey Into Mystery and Journey Into Mystery:  Fear Itself Fallout: It’s a naming convention that would confuse lesser readers, but make no mistake:  Marvel is releasing two volumes of the Kieron Gillen-written series about Kid Loki’s adventures in the crossover.  Comparisons to “Sandman” have been tossed about whenever this series is mentioned, but I think that’s setting the bar a little too high.  Regardless, with Gillen involved both volumes should be great reads.

Ultimate Comics Ultimates vol. 1 & Ultimate Comics X-Men vol. 1: The former I’m buying because it’s Hickman at the helm.  Though the premise for the story, superpowered beings emerging from a place called “The City” and stomping all over our heroes, sounds a bit too close to the “Children of the Vault” from Mike Carey’s “X-Men” run I’m betting the writer has something clever in mind to set his take apart.  As for the latter, it’s been a while since I’ve read an “Ultimate X-Men” story and I’ve liked what I’ve read of Spencer in “Morning Glories” and “Forgetless.”  Neither of these series have set the world on fire sales-wise or creatively, but even if they do turn out to be failures I’m betting that they’ll be interesting ones at least.

Elektra:  Assassin: Hey everyone, remember when Frank Miller could be counted on to produce groundbreaking, boundary-pushing and most importantly GOOD comics?  Yeah, it seems like the man has let his “legendary creator” status go to his head and his quality and output have both fallen off a cliff in recent years.  However, he did create so many great comics for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and others that his “legendary” status is secure no matter what he chooses to do next.  This, is one of those classic projects.  A mindbending take on the iconic female ninja assassin he created, “Elektra” will confuse and mystify you until everything snaps into place and you see that Miller had everything planned out all along.  It also features some of Bill Sienkiewicz’s best art as his impressionistic, over-the-top style was exactly what this story needed and gave it a look that’s still unique in comics today.  So if you’ve never read this, here’s an opportunity to fix that now.

Superman:  Earth One vol. 2: With all the origin stuff out of the way, my hope was that this next volume would be free to tell some interesting stories with the character in this new “Ultimate” setting.  And that most of it would involve Lex Luthor as well.  That won’t be happening here as the main villain is going to be the Parasite and we’re getting a story of someone who has Superman’s powers but not his morals and a merely mortal Clark Kent.  J. Michael Straczynski hasn’t had the best track record of late, but I’m going to try and be optimistic here.  Also, the fact that this volume is arriving about a year and a half since the first volume is itself a great argument for the graphic novel format.  At 136 pages, there’s a little more than six issues worth of content here and I’m betting that having that content dripped out over a quarterly schedule would’ve killed any storytelling and sales momentum it had.

Batman:  The Dark Knight vol. 1 — Knight Terrors: Along those lines, I just wanted to say that after a first series of five issues that came out haphazardly and with some that weren’t entirely illustrated by David “The Whole Reason This Series Exists” Finch, this one collects eight issues illustrated by him that came out on time.  And one fill-in.  I’ve got no plans to buy it, the series seems to be aimed at fans of teeth-grinding extreemness, but he deserves credit for finding a system that works for him.

Batman:  Arkham City: This story serves as the “bridge” between the “Arkham Asylum” and “Arkham City” games.  If that were all there was to it, I wouldn’t be giving this series a second look.  However, it’s written by Paul Dini who, aside from being a Bat-writer of considerable talent, also wrote both games.  So there’s actually a pretty good chance that it’ll actually be a worthwhile read instead of the usual superfluous dreck that is videogame tie-in stories.

Stormwatch vol. 2 HC: This collects vols. 3 & 4, and most of vol. 5 of the trade paperbacks and contains the first appearances of Apollo and The Midnighter, as well as the first mention of the boundary between universes known as the “Bleed.”  If you’ve never read these before, then this comes highly recommended.  Warren Ellis’ work here kept getting better as it went along until it mutated into “The Authority” and delivered a figurative nutshot to superhero comics at the time.  The catch here is that it doesn’t appear to be collecting the “Wildcats vs. Aliens” (yes THOSE “Aliens”) one-shot where Ellis killed off most of the team.  Most people were surprised by the fact that the issue was collected at all due to the rights issues with 20th Century Fox, but whatever deal they struck then seems to have lapsed now.  Too bad.  It was a fun one-off and it’ll be interesting to see how they explain the death of most of the team and destruction of Skywatch between issues #10 & #11.

Death:  The Deluxe Edition: Aside from the two “Death” mini-series written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham, this looks to collect every other one-off and short featuring the character.  I don’t have all of everything collected here, but I have the majority of what is.  It’s also worth mentioning that it was the first “Death” mini-series that finally got me to read “Sandman” as Gaiman’s depiction of the character as an effortlessly upbeat goth was as charming as it was against the grain.  So I decided to start with vol. 2 of the series, “The Doll’s House,” because it had two appearances by her, and even though I was hopelessly lost at first the story really grew on me in the end.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Hellblazer #294: Wow, we’re closing in on issue #300 aren’t we.  Guess I’d better start catching up.  I also think that Peter Milligan has written more issues here than any other writer in the title’s history.  In spite of this, I’m hard pressed to think of a story he wrote that really knocked my socks off.  Even Mike Carey had one in “The Gift” and most of his run annoyed the hell out of me.  Short version:  I like reading “John Constantine:  Hellblazer,” not “John Constantine:  Bitch.”

Then they announced that Joss Whedon would be writing and directing it.  Looking at the final product, that seems like the smartest decision anyone involved with it made.

Whedon has been a beloved fixture in geekdom for his work on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly.”  While those that are unmitigated classics, just about everything else he has been involved with has been entertaining on some level, from his “Buffy”-related comics work and his run on “Astonishing X-Men.”  I even heard that “Dollhouse” got better as it went along, and though he only co-wrote and produced “The Cabin in the Woods” other films should be lucky to suffer a fate like being less than the sum of their parts.  As anyone and they’ll tell you that the man has been long overdue for the kind of mainstream success that he’s experiencing now.  It’s very well deserved as his touch is all over the film from the sharply developed characters, witty dialogue, and expertly timed flashes of humor throughout.

That being said, if there’s one criticism that can be leveled against the movie it’s that there’s not a whole lot of depth to it.  The plot can essentially be summed up by saying that Loki shows up, steals the cosmic cube, and unleashes an alien invasion on Manhattan.  “The Dark Knight” this is not.  However, Whedon wisely keeps the focus on the characters and packs most of the film’s nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time with so many great moments that involve them just talking to each other that you won’t mind.  Hell, I didn’t want to get up in the middle of the movie to use the bathroom for fear that I’d miss something great.

As for the actors, they continued to own their roles.  You may have expected that Robert Downey Jr. would walk away with the movie as his portrayal of Tony Stark has been the most entertaining and definitive take on any of these characters.  The fact that he doesn’t try to do so is to his credit, and the fact that the rest of the cast is interesting enough that it doesn’t matter is to theirs.

Though the film doesn’t adapt any specific story, its streamlined take on the mythos of these characters and alien invasion plot does recall Mark Millar’s “Ultimates” run.  Of course, the fact that the aliens here are the “Chitauri” (read:  Ultimate Skrulls) could’ve just put me in that mindset from the beginning.  If Whedon was inspired by Millar’s work, then just imagine how much better those comics would’ve been if they were written by someone who wasn’t completely awful at writing dialogue.

In the end, “The Avengers” is everything a summer movie should be.  Fun, fast-paced, with lots of humor, and a lot of things blowing up that don’t cause an affront to your intelligence.  Unless you absolutely don’t like superheroes, then you will be entertained by this movie.  (Of course, if you absolutely don’t like superheroes, you’re probably not reading this right now.)  Oh, and about the villain from the end credits… After what I said on Friday, my money is now on seeing the cosmic characters brought out of mothballs sooner rather than later.

After thwarting the Skrull plot to take control of the Dire Wraiths, the Annihilators — Quasar, Beta Ray Bill, Ronan, Gladiator, and Ikon the Spaceknight — find themselves embroiled in the latest scheme by the Church of Universal Truth.  This time it takes them to Earth where they come face-to-face with the Church’s agents and the Avengers.  Much kicking and punching to the face ensues.  It’s the oldest and most unoriginal result when two teams meet and writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning don’t find a way to put any kind of interesting spin on it.  The story is predictable, straightforward and boring for the first two issues before the threat is revealed and then it gets… marginally more interesting.

You see, the main antagonist here is the latest reincarnation of a key cosmic figure, but he’s also a character I have no real affinity for in this form.  It doesn’t help the fact that I’d have no idea how this guy even exists if my friend who got me into these stories hadn’t explained him to me.  As such, it’s really hard to get invested in this conflict when the bad guy has no real personality and is just there to provide a reason for the two teams to join up.  However, I will say that he does come up with a clever way of insulating himself from the heroes’ wrath which eventually spirals out into a statewide conflagration in Colorado.  Artist Tan Eng Huat does what he can to liven things up, but he can only do so much.  He also seems to have acquired this annoying quirk where a lot of the characters look like they have an open-mouthed grimace in most scenes that looks like the worst of Greg Land’s traits in a non-photo-referenced situation.

The “Groot & Rocket Raccoon” back-up stories are better simply by virtue of being willfully insane.  They’re tossed from one outlandish situation to the next and as each installment is five pages long, they don’t overstay their welcome.  It has no depth whatsoever, but it’s enjoyable for what it is.  If this is the last we see of them for the forseeable future, then they’re at least left in a good place.

However, it’s regrettable that the main story feels like everyone was just going through the motions as I think there’s a good Annihilators/Avengers story to be told from the two teams meeting and butting heads.  Only it wouldn’t take place on Earth, it’d involve the Avengers heading out into space to realize that as big as they are on Earth, they’re the small fish in the galactic pond.  Abnett, Lanning and co. have done a lot to re-energize and re-define the cosmic aspect of the Marvel Universe, but it has remained pretty segregated from the mainstream on Earth.  That’s probably been for the best with these stories, but it also means that it’s not really “important” to the overall narrative of the Marvel Universe.  As any comics blogger can tell you, that’s the kiss of sales death for just about any Marvel title these days.  I’d like to think that by bringing the Avengers into the realm of the cosmic characters it would’ve given Abnett and Lanning a chance to show off what they and everyone else have accomplished with them.  It could still happen, but it likely won’t be on their terms.

So things end with a whimper, and with the future of these characters in limbo.  As these things go this will probably be the last we see of them for a few years before they try another “Annihilation”-style relaunch or uses them as cannon fodder to show how bad the threat of the next crossover event is.  They deserve better than that, so here’s to several years of good stories and a few more in mothballs until the cycle (hopefully) begins again.

They’re all after Fantomex because he’s currently in possession of The World, the time-accelerated breeding ground for the Weapon Plus program which gave birth to him, Wolverine and Deadpool previously.  Now it’s also home to The Father, a creepy mind-controlling schemer who is using Deathloks to manipulate the future so he can rule the past.  None of this is good news for the faux-Frenchman who is on the outs with the rest of the team for shooting kid Apocalypse in the head at the end of vol. 1.

The three issues of this arc feature plenty of snappy writing from Rick Remender who makes the most of Fantomex and shows us that there’s more to him than his wisecracking self-consciously cool exterior.  It’s too bad we won’t be seeing more of his relationship with his mother, but I’m dying to know what the motivation is for his secret project.  We’re also treated to what is probably the best use of Deadpool that I’ve ever read as he learns that there’s a fine line between “nice dad” and “creepy uncle.”  Art for this arc is from Esad Ribic who proves to be a deft hand at action-driven storytelling with a strong enough design sense to make the parts set in the world appealingly bizarre.  My only quibbles are an overreliance on technobabble in some parts and one obvious plot hole during the second chase with EVA.  Otherwise, it’s good stuff.

That’s not all, as the volume leads off with a one-off tale of the team versus Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers.  It’s an issue made up mostly of fighting with a perfunctory plot about Psylocke worried about getting too much enjoyment out of beating on the villains who nearly ruined her life.  Remender makes it serviceable, but the real star of the issue is artist Rafael Albuquerque.  Best known around here for his work on “American Vampire,” he offers up a much less restrained style here that takes a “slash and burn” approach to rendering the characters and their environment.  The end result is an issue dripping with barely contained rage, which fits the tone and story quite well.

Next up is the first part of the much-vaunted “Dark Angel Saga.”  After this volume, I’m expecting it to live up to the hype.

With his ability to discern the history of something by eating it, not to mention his terrible, terrible luck, it’s kind of a given that Tony has wound up being a magnet for all sorts of crap in this series.  However, for all the suffering he endures things always find a way of evening out in the end.  Not here.  After his first, very successful, day on the job as a traffic cop, Tony gets kidnapped by a crazed sportswriter who wants to write a book on the sexual proclivities of the greatest baseball players.  The greatest dead baseball players.  Can you see where this is going?

Unfortunately the suffering he endures at the hands of his captors is far too mean-spirited and downright cruel to make his eventual triumph satisfying.  Writer John Layman usually manages to balance Tony’s suffering with hilarity, but he drops the ball big time with this volume.  It’s a shame as there’s still a lot to enjoy here, particularly in the way the relationship between his daughter Olive and his former partner/current nemesis Mason Savoy takes some interesting turns and winds up going in a direction I wouldn’t have expected.  There’s great stuff here in this volume, but it’s dragged down by a big black mass of suck at its center.  Still worth reading, but unlike the previous volumes, you probably won’t feel like coming back for seconds [*rimshot*].

Picking up shortly after Bruce Wayne outed himself as Batman’s financial backer and announced the crimefighter’s plans to take the franchise global, we get to see him doing just that.  The first stop is Japan where he, with Catwoman’s help, seeks to recruit legendary local crimefighter Mr. Unknown but winds up running afoul of his nemesis Lord Death Man.  Then we’re off to Argentina and a reunion with El Gaucho, and a rematch with a member of The Black Glove that quickly spirals out into something much more.  How do the original Batwoman, Kathy Kane, master spy Doctor Dedalus, Indian reservation hero Man-Of-Bats, and the St. Hadrian’s School For Girls all tie in to the criminal organization known as Leviathan?  For that matter, which of Batman’s foes has the resources, cunning and motivation to engineer such an epic plan for his destruction?

On its face, the idea of a Batman specific to each country sounds like a ridiculous Silver Age idea that would lend itself to horrible ethnic stereotyping, such as France’s Batman having a ridiculous accent and an overbearing fondness for cheese, and other silliness that would dilute the uniqueness of the character.  Then you’d have other writers putting the concept to the torch as the concept is quietly swept under the rug.  Grant Morrison is not “other writers.”  As an avowed fan of that time and the crazy weirdness that sprung from it he not only has the guts to embrace it, but the skill to make it work in the modern era.  This allows him to pull off a fairly standard “sidekick replaces his mentor” story in the case of the opening arc by not only making Lord Death Man an unkillable violent sadist, but by working in Japan’s predilection for tentacles in its porn into a deathtrap involving a giant octopus in an apartment building.  Also, France’s Batman is a Muslim specialist in the art of parkour who goes by the alias Nightrunner.  So there.

Morrison also continues his “everything is true” approach to the “Batman” canon by finding a way to recast the original Batwoman, Kathy Kane, as the caped crusader’s first true love and one of the few women to actually break his heart.  Revisiting a character who hasn’t been in this universe since before I was born could’ve come off as forced, but the writer re-casts Kane as a determined thrill-seeker who convincingly manages to one-up our hero early on in his career.  Even the goofy Silver Age bits come off as fun, such as when she cites the Joker taking a hostage and running into the ladies’ room as but one example of a situation where she’d be better suited for the job than Batman.

The first five issues do a good job of juxtaposing the setup of “Batman Incorporated” with the fight against Leviathan, it doesn’t really come together until the sixth issue, “Nyktomorph.”  This is the highlight of the book as we finally see the big picture behind Batman’s plans for the franchise, the roles his supporting cast have in it, “Incorporated’s” necessity for fighting Leviathan and how effective it can be in fighting crime on a global scale.  You’d think that it would take more than one issue to effectively show all this, but Morrison squeezes it all into one with an efficiency that doesn’t undermine its drama or scope, and sold me on the concept more than anything else I’d read before it.

Though the majority of this volume is thoroughly enjoyable, there are parts where its reach exceeds its grasp.  A lot of this volume didn’t click for me until I read it a second time, but that’s because it is a very dense read which demands your attention.  However, certain sections such as the scenes with Doctor Dedalus come off as confusing and very hard to follow as Morrison plays up the character’s mind-warping capabilities to not always exceptional effect.  Then you’ve got the CG-rendered eight issue which takes place in Internet 3.0-land as we get Batman and Batgirl teaming up to fight cyber-crime after a meeting with Bruce and several other investors comes under attack by internet zombies.  While it’s clear that none of this is meant to be taken seriously on a technological level, the amount of cyber-babble becomes even more off-putting as a result.  Though artist Scott Clark’s work is impressive from a design standpoint, and the story still flows well enough in his hands, the CG comes off as painfully stiff and old-fashioned.  That’s “old-fashioned” in the sense that it’s being used to represent cyberspace which has not only been done before, but feels like the most obvious and therefore boring way of rendering it.  The whole issue makes you wish that one of Morrison’s more inventive collaborators, say J.H. Williams III or Doug Mahnke, had been given a crack at the material.

So while Clark is the weak link in terms of the art in this volume, the other three artists still acquit themselves well in spite of their stylistic differences.  Paquette’s style is more suited to traditional supeheroics, but he’s more than willing to embrace the weirdness present in Morrison’s vision — particularly in the sequences set in Japan.  Stewart’s contribution is up to his usual standards and the fun he has with the academy of killer schoolgirls (and nicking the likenesses of certain female pop music artists) is infectious.  However, the standout here is Chris Burnham who owes a clear stylistic debt to frequent Morrison collaborator Frank Quitely, but with a more cartoonish vibe.  There’s a quirky energy to his work that mixes perfectly with the Silver Age vibe that permeates this book, but he’s also perfectly capable of tweaking his style to darker effect.  The scenes with Doctor Dedalus exemplify this perfectly, along with his willingness and capability for being able to draw anything that Morrison throws at him.

Burnham has been announced as the (hopefully only) artist on the final leg of Morrison’s Bat-epic, the twelve-issue “Batman:  Leviathan” series set to debut any week now.  Not only is it great to see that the conclusion is in good artistic hands, but the final conflict and stakes have been established beautifully here.  Though his run has had its weak points, and parts where it was a bit too ambitious for its own good, that same ambition has led to some of the best stories featuring the character in the past few years.  Everything in this volume, warts and all, indicates that the resolution will be nothing less than awesome.

Katsuya Terada is probably best known here as the character designer for the “Blood:  The Last Vampire” OVA from over a decade ago.  The man also has a lot of pin-up work to his credit, which Dark Horse has also seen fit to release as well.  As far as I can tell, this adaptation of the classic “Journey to the West” story represents his only long-form work.  The original tale represents one of the best-known Chinese stories and has been adapted into numerous forms and mediums over the years — it even served as the original basis for Akira Toryiama’s “Dragonball.”  Terada’s take, however, is far less family-friendly due to the sheer amount of exposed flesh and body-pulping violence on display here.

Goku, the titular Monkey King, is a brutish vandal who agrees to guide the holy nun Sanzo, in full bondage to Tenjiku after he is freed by her male form who then regresses into an embryo.  Believe it or not, that was probably the most coherent part of the first volume, which spent most of its time jumping around in time and space from each bite-sized chapter.  Terada’s art is lush and detailed, and full of creative grotesqueries to go along with his gorgeous women… who, more often than not, usually wind up turning into one of these grotesqueries.  His work here is good enough to keep holding your eye for most of this and it’s one of the VERY FEW mainstream titles I’ve read where the art can be said to have a real erotic charge to it.  That said, the whole package is still pure style over substance that can only be appreciated on a chapter-by-chapter basis and not as any kind of ongoing narrative.

After that, many years passed and I read other stuff.  I did hear from Carl Horn, who once again provides not only the English adaptation, but copious notes on the story as well, that this title hadn’t been put on hiatus.  Terada was just taking a really long time to complete the second volume.  So when the second volume finally came out, admiration of the fact that they actually brought it out after such a long wait and morbid curiosity about its very existence got me to pick it up.

To my surprise, I actually enjoyed this one more than the first volume.  I’m sure that lowered expectations helped, but there’s actually more coherence to the story here.  Things actually progress in a logical manner, the characters are more clearly defined, and the narrative builds up some nice momentum to the point that by the end of the volume I actually found myself looking forward to the next volume.  Terada’s art is still the main reason for checking things out, and while I doubt he spent all of these (nearly seven) years working on this the results are even more pleasing to the eye.  Goku’s rages are more visceral, the women are even sexier, and there are some real moments of strange beauty, such as when a half-insect girl freezes to death along with her beast brother in the snow.  Even though there’s not a whole lot of dialogue here, Horn even gets some of his trademarked wittiness in at a few key points.  This second volume is easily a better package all around.

Of course, the rather high levels of sex and violence mean that this certainly won’t be for everyone (that parental advisory sticker is there on the cover for a very good reason).  Terada’s “The Monkey King” marches to its creator’s own distinctive beat, which can also very easily be interpreted as self indulgence.  However, this second volume has it all going down a whole lot smoother.  It’s different, but I can now say that this is the “good” kind of different.

It all comes down to a matter of pacing as the story doesn’t feel like it was given enough time to build up a proper momentum.  You’ve got Wolverine going to Hell and fighting his way out in the first part, reclaiming himself in the second, and wrapping things up in the third with an epilogue to put things right with the world.  While the stories themselves read well enough, the actual sequence of events goes by way too quickly for the reader to become properly involved or to feel that things are truly important.

So this isn’t the be-all, end-all of Wolverine stories, but it still manages to read pretty well overall.  This volume, specifically, ultimately succeeds by pulling off two things that really shouldn’t work, but do.  The first is that while this is yet another Marvel story where… things don’t go too well for our main character, this one actually works.  Instead of Doctor Octopus making Tony Stark his bitch, or Bucky Barnes failing on multiple occasions to stop the bad guys, the Red Right Hand’s method of seeking vengeance against Wolverine is actually really clever in the way that it uses the character’s own worst impulses against him.  The end result is truly horrible in a way that you can’t help but admire.  Of course, Aaron doesn’t have The Red Right Hand getting off scott-free as these people get just what they deserve as well.

The other thing that works occurs at the end of the two-issue epilogue where Wolverine deals with the fallout from this arc by retreating from civilization and falling in with the wolves of the north.  It’s when he’s at his lowest point here that he finds out what kind of person he’s truly is and the way in which it’s handled should’ve come off as unforgivably sentimental.  But… after all that hardship, all that pain… reading those testimonials, and seeing that long panel with everyone in it towards the end actually did warm my heart without turning my stomach.  So while this isn’t the definitive story for the character, or even the best one Aaron has written featuring him, it’s still one worth reading if you’re a fan.

(Oh, and for anyone who’s interested, art is from Renato Guedes in the main story and Goran Sudzuka in the epilogue.  Guedes’ style benefits greatly from not being tasked with drawing anything supernatural, and the real-world carnage is appropriately brutal.  Sudzuka, best known for providing better-than-you’d expect fill-in art in on “Y:  The Last Man,” uses the skills from that series to give the story the beaten, then broken, then redeemed Wolverine that the story demands.  That’s it.  ‘Night all.)

If nothing else, the means of his demise was both unexpected and logical (so if you don’t want it spoiled for you, skip to the next paragraph).  You see, way back when the “Ultimate Six” mini-series came out writer Brian Michael Bendis stated that the Ultimate Universe version of the Sinister Six would be way too much for a teenage Peter Parker to handle on his own.  So the story effectively became a team-up between the character and The Ultimates.  Though most of its members eventually resurfaced individually later on, they’ve never re-teamed.  Until now, that is.  In a twist that should surprise absolutely no one, Norman Osborn didn’t die after being shot in the head all those volumes ago and has only recently regained consciousness… along with his powers much to the surprise of everyone on the Triskelion.  Now he, along with the new members of the Sinister Six, are out to finish off Spider-Man once and for all.

Now if you’ve read “Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates” you’ll also know that at the same time all this is going on, the two teams are busy punching each other in the face.  So there’s actually a logical reason for why our hero has to go it alone.  Regrettably, the fact that Parker was shot in that title isn’t given any more significance than it was there.  While the fact that he throws himself in front of a bullet meant for Captain America’s kneecaps is very much in character, it comes off as a needles bit of tension in light of the larger-than-life threats who already have him in their sights.  I also feel the need to point out that after having read this, the fact that Mark Millar had Parker get shot saving Cap from a non-life-threatening injury was a real dick move on his part.  Would it have been that hard to give the Punisher some dialogue stating that he was going for a headshot?.

However, the story itself also has a number of plot holes and inconsistencies to contend with.  The fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. failed to account for the return of the main villain’s powers is one example.  Then you’ve also got Captain America’s “training” session which consists mainly of a lecture on the need to not rush into situations like an idiot that serves as a really ham-fisted example of foreshadowing.  This is then followed by a remarkable display of oblivousness on his part as Cap rushes off to confront Fury’s team in the city in a way that practically begs for Parker to follow along.  Just so you know, everything I described here is in the first issue!  There aren’t as many of these in the rest of the arc, though the display of super-duper strength in the final chapter is pretty ridiculous, but the fact that these are here at all really drives home the fact that the story’s only objective is to kill the main character at all costs.  It also has the side effect of making you wonder if the strain of writing more than four titles a month is starting to get to Bendis.

Speaking of which, I’ve read more issues of Spider-Man written by him than just about any other superhero save for Batman, and maybe Wolverine.  His is certainly the longest run dedicated to a single character in my collection and that comes to an end with this volume.  Let me say that there was never a time when I felt like I was buying these collections out of obligation, the twenty-six volumes (and change) he wrote about Ultimate Spider-Man (though at this point I guess we have to qualify this part of his run as “Ultimate Peter Parker’s”) were thoroughly entertaining and the single best modern update of a character I’ve seen.

Yet… after over 160 issues, I have to wonder just what kind of story Bendis was trying to tell here.  You hear all the time about writers who have grand plans for the characters they wanted to write for that were cut down because of editorial conflicts or low sales, but that didn’t happen with this title.  I wanted to think that Bendis had a definite story he wanted to tell with Ultimate Spider-Man, but at this point it feels like he’s just writing the character to keep writing the character and the goal is to not get cancelled.  Looking at the story in this volume, it’s really hard to see it as any kind of organic conclusion to the struggles of the character that were started way back in the early aughts.  It’s essentially a mechanism to facilitate the arrival of a new take on the character that will hopefully boost sales.

It may sound hard to believe after reading all that, but I didn’t hate the story being told in this volume.  After writing the character for so long, Bendis has an iron-clad grasp on the characterization and voice of the title character and there’s plenty of entertainment to be had from seeing how he reacts to everything that’s put in front of him.  The same goes for his supporting cast, as the crisis brings out the best in Aunt May, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, the Human Torch and Iceman, and the main villain demonstrates the insanity that has driven him to this point in spectacularly gonzo fashion.

Even though the story itself doesn’t feel like it was planned in any way to be the natural conclusion to the character’s tale, Bendis does manage to bring things full circle at the end.  Peter’s last words to Aunt May really do get to the core of the character and the tragedy that has driven his superhero career all these years.  Adding to the “full circle” feel is the art of Mark Bagley, who drew the series for 110 consecutive issues and returns to draw the final story here.  He was never the flashiest or most spectacular of artists, but Bagley defined the look of the series and was responsible for most of its best stories.  Seeing his work here is a fitting capstone to the title.

Except it’s not over yet.  “Ultimate Fallout” comes next with the introduction of Miles Morales who will be taking up the Spider-Man mantle.  I should be seeing with fanboy rage at the thought of someone replacing Peter Parker, but while I enjoyed the take on the character here it was never the man himself that kept me coming back to the title.  It was Bendis and I’ll be onboard to see where he goes with Miles.  We can only hope that what he does with him will be good enough to sustain another 160 issues of writing the character for the sake of writing it.

It’s not the first time the writer has done this kind of plot, but as ridiculous as this sounds it ultimately turns out to be fairly inconsequential to the book’s overall quality.  That’s because David knows to (Say it with me now!) “keep the focus on the characters.”  We get some good scenes between Rhane and Shatterstar in the book’s opening chapter as they hash out their differences while fighting off a horrific monster known as the Sin-Eater.  Then, at the story’s climax we’re treated to a moment that’s heartbreaking in the way Rhane reacts to her newborn in a way that’s both “I can’t belive she did that!/I CAN believe she did that!”  If you remember what happened to Madrox and Siryn’s kid, well, this is almost as bad.  Still, it easily stands as one of the most memorable and striking moments in this series painful though it may be.

Between all that is the usual high-quality mix of superhero fighting and character-driven storytelling that has been the foundation of the title since day one.  Though the stakes are high and the subject matter is ostensibly quite serious, we get a number of quality comedy moments that help to lighten the tone and keep things from getting too dire.  David also advances and even resolves some plot threads as the downside to Strong Guy’s resurrection is acknowledged and put on the back burner for future development and we find out just why Pip the Troll has decided to hook up with X-Factor Investigations.  Serviceable art is provided by Paul Davidson and Dennis Calero for the first two issues, with Emanuela Lupacchino showing up to make things much more lively in the final three.  Even with the ridiculousness of the main plot, the characters still make this volume another worthwhile read.

The year is 1916 and young Jack Garron has just found out that not only is he an adopted child, but that his father is making a living as a musician in Chicago.  So he hitches a ride on a train to the west determined to start a new life there.  Naturally, the trip is fraught with twists and turns, from hobos on trains who see him as an easy mark, to Sam who winds up becoming the first friend he makes on the road.  Then there’s Mr. Porter, or is it Mr. Fisher, or does this older man even have a name?  He also crosses Jack’s path and that’s when the boy finds out that there are things far worse than being let down by your friends or family.

“Severed” does get points right off the bat for its unique setting.  Much as the spirit of the “Roaring 20’s” added to the appeal of “American Vampire,” the sights of an America poised to enter World War I captivate as something seen so rarely in this medium does.  From the farmlands of New York and Illinois to the stockyards of Chicago, the art of Attila Futaki brings a bygone era to life in all its gritty and grimy spectacle.  Futaki is clearly a talent to watch as there’s a warmth to his work that infuses his photorealistic style and makes it easy to get absorbed in the presentation of the story.  Things can get a little murky at times, but it’s a strong effort all around.

As for the story itself, Jeff Lemire unwittingly hits the nail on the head when he states in his introduction that Scott Tuft, a filmmaker, friend of Snyder, and co-writer of this tale, helped bring a real cinematic presentation to his friend’s writing.  I’m not saying that everything wrong here is his fault, but “Severed” feels too much like your average horror movie to be truly memorable.  Everything that happens to Jack along the way is thoroughly predictable and plays out pretty much the way you’d expect.  Will Jack and Sam argue about whether or not the old man is to be trusted?  Will Jack continue to trust this old man against all reason?  Is there an awful contrivance behind the truth about Jack’s dad?  If you guessed that the answer to all three of these is “yes” then you’ll probably be as let down by this title as I was.  Yes, it’s competently put together but the whole experience feels like a generic narrative whose rough edges have been sanded off in order to appeal to the masses.

Though the narrative itself is predictable and ultimately unsatisfying, “Severed” utterly fails as a horror comic as well.  I’ll admit that most comics billed as “horror” titles fail to get under my skin.  Housui Yamazaki’s “Mail” is the rare exception, and there are several parts of Alan Moore’s “Swamp Thing” that never fail to creep me out.  However, there’s nothing here that comes off as even remotely shocking in terms of violence or in terms of human nature.  You know how I said this story was predictable?  Well it’s hard to be scared of the monster lying in wait when you can see him around the corner and can prepare yourself for his coming.  This is especially true with the framing sequence which shows an older Jack, minus part of an arm, some fifty years after the main narrative.  How are we supposed to feel any suspense for his fate when we know that he’s going to survive the experience?  It also gives away the fact that the monster is still out there all these years later.  To me, this comes off as a failure to understand one of the core tenets of horror — that it’s never really about the horrible thing that’s lurking under our bed or in our closet, but what we’re capable of doing to our fellow man.

“Severed” ends with the knowledge that monsters exist in this world, which is something anyone could tell you before they read this.  Regrettably, anyone old enough to understand that is probably too old to be scared by this.  I’m not sure if I’d want to recommend this based on the fact that kids are probably the only ones who will be scared by it, but outside of the very squeamish it’s hard to see it having much of an impact on anyone.

After surviving the massacre at firebase Valley Forge, a young Frank Castle finds that he’s being shipped home by an army that doesn’t know what to do with him.  Problem is, the soldier doesn’t know what to do with his life once he’s back in the arms of his loving wife and children.  Castle discovered something about himself that he didn’t know existed and is now trying to bury all of his murderous impulses in his attempt to resume a normal life.  It’s a hard thing to do when you have to deal with arrogant pricks at work, mobsters who want favors, and Nick Fury trying to get you back doing what you do best.

The idea that Castle was already a lost cause before his family was taken from him has been hinted at but never explored until now.  Aaron’s take is completely plausible in light of the experiences of most war veterans and I like the idea about how the character is finally remembering these events and characters as they were, instead of sacred objects to his crusade.  Unfortunately the writer can’t stop hammering this point home through the characters and dialogue that crop up through the story.  The most egregious example of this is the crazy patient who pops up in the first issue and lays out the entire point — at length — for the reader.  This is then reiterated throughout the issue with some blatantly obvious match cutting in the art in the second chapter, Fury’s appearances, and Castle’s own inner monologue.  It’s enough to make a reader yell, “OKAY!  I GET IT!” at the pages themselves.

And yet, there are parts where the isolation of Castle’s existence come through loud and clear.  The brief bits of interaction he has with his children.  A moment at night where he tries to comfort his wife as she cries herself to sleep.  That moment where he utters those final words to his wife before his world shatters.  I was amazed at how subtly that was handled after the setup with Bullseye in the previous volume, but it makes perfect sense while standing in stark contrast to being hit with the sledgehammer of the obvious for most of this volume.

I haven’t said anything about the prison scenes because there’s really nothing bad about them.  Personally, I think that a whole volume could be written about a weakened Punisher trying to survive in prison.  What’s here, however, is really good with a number of memorable scenes and twists throughout.

This volume was also illustrated by Steve Dillon, and I’m sure you’ll all be glad to know that I don’t think he has gotten any less awesome since the release of the previous volume.

Things end with Castle escaping prison and at what is probably the lowest point for him in his entire crusade.  No weapons.  No money.  Almost no morale.  It’s a great setup for what will be Aaron’s final storyline with the character.  Though this volume had that one big problem, I still found a lot to enjoy in it.  Here’s hoping that the finish is problem-free.

Revival #1: Launching another zombie-themed series this month is either a fool’s errand or a brilliant bit of marketing synergy.  It’ll be a couple months before we find out which it is, but this new title from writer Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton at least has a distinct take on the genre.  For one day in rural central Wisconsin, the dead come back to life and the living inhabitants of the town have to deal with the fallout from not only that, but from fringe and mainstream elements of society as well.  A murder mystery appears to be at the heart of the story which will live or die based on how clever Seeley is about exploiting the unique possibilities this offers.  For instance, if someone is killed but then comes back to life as a zombie and identifies his killer, how do you investigate a crime like that?  I’m just speculating here, but we shall see.

Chew:  Secret Agent Poyo #1: Though the title rooster was killed off back in vol. 3, that was just a reason for him to get cybernetic implants and come back, better, stronger and faster than before.  Anyone who reads this series will tell you that it makes perfect sense.  At least, that’s what I think.

Sunset HC: This graphic novel about a former mob enforcer living a quiet life after he successfully stole a fortune from his former employers sounds like it would’ve fit right in with the “Vertigo Crime” line.  Christos Gage even wrote one of the imprint’s titles, “Area 10,” which was less a piece of crime fiction and more of a suspense thriller with an eye-rolling bit of pseudoscience at its core.  I want to think this will be better, but it sounds too generic for me.  That said, whoever came up with the idea to offer a one-dollar sampler of the title should be commended for their cleverness.

Invincible vol. 16:  Family Ties: I was wondering when Kirkman would get around to using that particular title.  Anyway, I’m hoping that we’ll get a good idea of how Mark’s team-up with Dinosaurus to save the world will play out with this volume.  I’ve said before that had this been done in the Marvel or DC Universes, this would end in tragedy with the hero being duped by the villain’s master plan before he redeems himself by punching the bad guy in the face.  Here, Kirkman is bound by no rules other than his own so I’m hoping that this partnership subverts that trope by having the two bring out the best in each other and actually make a better world in the process.  Of course, this move will pit them against EVERYONE at first so the face-punching quota will still be met in the process.

Mudman vol. 1: This is the latest from Paul Grist, creator of “Kane” and “Jack Staff.”  Much as I like those two series (the former more than the latter), they’ve both remained incomplete to this day.  So even though I recognize that this latest series, about a man who finds his body is turning into mud, is an attempt to leverage the incredibly positive word-of-mouth his other efforts have garnered into some sales traction, I can’t help but wonder if this title will share their fate.  Even so, the odds point to this being a good read and worth picking up regardless of my speculations about its future.

The setup almost steamrollers past suspension of disbelief, but with the back of the book spotlighting the “murder cult” business it helps prepare you for what’s coming.  Of course, if Luther himself wasn’t such a likeable, easy-to-empathize-with character then everything here would have been for naught.  It’s not just that he encapsulates the desire a lot of us have for easy power to beat the hell out of our enemies, but he also doesn’t let it consume him.  He’s actually eager to use his new abilities to be a better person and make the world safer in the process.  Things don’t quite play out that way, but what would a superhero origin be without some tragedy.

Make no mistake, this is an origin story, and it would be a pretty bland one if it wasn’t for the strong characterization of the main character from writer Justin Jordan and striking art of Tradd Moore.  This is the first I’ve seen of his work, and while it does recall the expressive, kinetic violence of John Romita Jr., there’s a cleaner, more animated edge to the art here.  He also manages to stage some impressively gonzo fight scenes with levels of blood, gore and dismemberment that would impress the likes of Ennis and Ellis.

Those two assets aside, and everything else about “Luther Strode” is pretty standard issue from the wisecracking friend and implacable antagonist.  Luther’s girlfriend deserves special mention as her attraction to him feels like it comes straight from the department of wish fulfillment.  The ending also feels a little rushed, though it does set up an interesting status quo for the inevitable sequel.  Though I’ll admit that just about anything looks good when compared to “Kick-Ass,” it’s still an engaging take on superheroics in the real world.  (It also won’t have to be reworked in the way that comic was in order for it to make a good movie.)

Avengers vs. X-Men #7: From the solicitation, “Cyclops changes the game with these three words, ‘No more Avengers.’”  I doubt that he’s going to get the Scarlet Witch to depower or delete all of the opposing team, but it would be hilarious if he did.  Just imagine them standing around for the next five issues doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  If the plan is to drive the audience’s expectations down with this kind of text, so that they’re surprised when the end result is actually good, then it’s working great so far.

Space Punisher #1: Yes, it’s the Punisher.  In space.  The way I see it, there are two ways to go about this:  Full-on comedy in the Garth Ennis “Welcome Back Frank” vein, or dead straight a la Peter Milligan’s “Wolverine/Punisher” and let the comedy flow from the absurdity happening around the characters.  You’ll notice that I gave no setup for how this can be taken seriously.  That’s because I sincerely hope writer Frank Tieri isn’t dumb enough to imagine that such a premise can produce a legitimately dramatic story.  The very title begs over-the-top ridiculousness and the man had better be prepared to deliver on it, or else… or… else… uh… Well, I guess if it sucks, Chris Simms should be primed to give us a good post-mortem on what went wrong.

X-Treme X-Men #1: Spinning out from writer Greg Pak’s recent “Astonishing X-Men” arc is a series that takes its name from the Chris Claremont title of the early aughts and its premise from “Exiles.”  I didn’t think we needed a series like this, but okay.

X-Men #32: Brian Wood’s writing this now.  Guess I finally have a reason to start reading it.

Powers FBI #1 & Takio #2: So let me get this straight:  After the schedule for the most recent launch of Bendis and Oeming’s “Powers” went right the fuck out the window around the time the first arc ended, these guys think they can do TWO ongoing series now.  Much as I love “Powers” and the idea of them doing an all-ages title, I can’t see how they’re going to come out on any kind of regular schedule based on the team’s previous track record.  Hell, I’m skeptical we’ll even get the final two issues of the trade paperback for vol. 14 of “Powers” solicited here before it’s scheduled to arrive in July.  Again, THIS IS WHY I BUY THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF COMICS I READ IN COLLECTED EDITIONS.  I’d love to see these guys prove me wrong and show that they can deliver these on a monthly basis, but… it’s not going to happen.

Casanova:  Avarita: Speaking of series where their final issue may not arrive before the trade paperback is scheduled to…  At least this one didn’t reach “Halo:  Uprising” levels of delays.  I’m actually really looking forward to it too, based on the previous two volumes (both of which I want to re-read before this arrives).

Man-Thing Omnibus HC: From the solicitation text:  “Trim size:  Oversized.”  So it’s an oversized Man-Thing now? *rimshot*

Captain America by Ed Brubaker vol. 1: Apparently this title marks a return towards more superhero-centric action with the writer’s noir/espionage impulses being channelled towards the “Winter Soldier” series.  The premise for this volume, which has yet another mysterious figure from Cap’s past out to get him, doesn’t fill me with hope, but if it at least allows him to be heroic and beat up the bad guy in a decisive manner then I’ll be satisfied.

Daredevil by Mark Waid vol. 1: I’ve been anticipating this ever since the rave reviews started pouring out from the critics after each successive issue.  With the character written into a corner of self-destructive loathing and miserabalism (mostly driven there by Brubaker), Waid has apparently lightened the tone successfully while not ignoring anything that has come before.  The art from Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera is supposed to be phenomenal as well.  Probably the thing I’m most looking forward to reading in these solicitations.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis vol. 1: Is Bendis’ name actually going to be part of the title in order to differentiate itself from the previous “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” series, which is likely still in print?  I kid (mostly), but despite my pessimism about the upcoming crossover I’m still looking forward to reading about the adventures of Miles Morales.  Though he may have been born through out-of-the-box thinking about how to rejuvenate a title’s flagging sales, Bendis has gone on record as stating that he had a vested interest in creating a character his daughters could read and identify with.  So I’m down with that, and the fact that he writes “Spider-Man” better than any other writer I’ve read.  But how will MM be a substantially different character than PP other than in skin tone?  Stay tuned to find out true believers!

The Punisher by Greg Rucka vol. 1: It feels somewhat anticlimactic by closing on this, but oh well.  Rucka pretty much set the standard for novelists looking to start a second career in comics with his work on “Whiteout,” “Queen and Country,” many Bat-titles… hell, pretty much everything he’s written has been eminently readable if not great.  Though he’s not the first writer with a background in crime fiction to tackle the character, his history in the medium suggests that he’ll be the only one (Duane Swierczynski excluded) to write something worthwhile with the character.

However, it gets old after a while and we’re left with a steadily escalating series of torture porn scenarios that only serve to drive home the fact that Harold is an unredeemable madman.  By the time we get to the story’s grand guignol climax, it was beyond obvious that the story had ceased to have a point.  Yes, Harold represents a threat as bad or even worse than the Crossed themselves, but that represents little beyond the old zombie movie adage that the biggest threat to our survival is our own nature rather than the monsters themselves.  In fact, by bringing out a human even more threatening than the creatures that represent humanity’s worst impulses laid bare it serves to make them less threatening as a result.

I will say that the carnage is rendered in appropriately stomach-turning detail by Raulo Caceres.  All the dismemberment, bloodletting and base savagery that the series is known for is vividly rendered by the artist, who puts the substandard work seen in the previous volume to shame here.  Unfortunately it’s all in the service of a story that ceases to have any meaning or substance long before it runs out of steam.  After two whacks at the material, I think it’s time for Lapham to forego any future stories with this series.  Fortunately Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows are returning to “Crossed” for the first arc of the ongoing “Badlands” series.  I look forward to seeing what else Ennis has to say about this world, as the Crossed allow him to exploit his scatalogic/sophomoric impulses while leaving plenty of room to explore the cost of what it takes to survive here in a serious fashion.  Lapham may have had some good ideas, but his stories were ultimately exercises in near-pointless gorefests.