Hunger #1: It's unanimous (more or less) that Marvel's Age of Ultron story arc ended in surprisingly (though it shouldn't be) unforgivable manner. Seriously, reading that miniseries was the equivalent of getting halfway through Blade Runner only to have someone come in and put on Transformers 3. Anyway, what's done is done and the best we're left to hope for is that we can get some decent titles from the smoldering wreckage. One interesting thing we were left with was the introduction of 616-Galactus into the Ultimate Universe. This book is a jumpstart to exactly the kind of shake up I've been waiting for in the Ultimate books since, with the exception of Ultimate Spider-Man, the existing books have fallen sort of flat. Joshua Hale Fialkov sees you continuity fiends ready to pounce and wants you to know he hasn't forgotten about Warren Ellis' Ultimate Galactus trilogy from a while back.In the first issue, we are reintroduced to the Rick Jones (Ultimate Nova), who has been away exploring space to get comfortable with his powers. His back-and-forth with the Watcher serves as a well written vehicle to keep us going through the story not unlike Richard Rider Nova's relationship with the Worldmind computer. Jones comes across every bit as relateable as his current 616 counterpart, Sam Alexander, reluctant at all the wrong moments and impulsive at all the right ones. Leonard Kirk's artwork is the icing on the cake here, laying out an amazing space battle seems to never get boring to look at. I'm convinced that if any other team were working on this, it would suck. That's probably the main reason this is a win in my book. That and the WTF ending. That's all I'm going to say.
Bottom Line: A well done starting point to springboard into the upcoming Cataclysm event. 8.5 out of 10.
Superior Spider Man Team-Up #1: As we trudge on closer to the end of "Superior Spider Sucks Month," Marvel shut a door and opened a window. We had to say goodbye to Christopher Yost's brilliantly written Avenging Spider Man to...well, I'm not going to lie to you, actually. We didn't have to say goodbye to anything. This is essentially the same book. They basically dropped "Avenging" from the title and replaced it with "Superior." The main difference is that, instead of existing slightly outside of current Spider canon, this issue is up to date with the events of the most recent issue of Superior Spider Man where Doctor Spiderpus is enjoying quite a few victories in winning over the city's hearts. However, the Avengers still aren't terribly happy with the contents of papa's brand new bag and are back for another intervention. Opening up with Webhead's run-ins with the street level status quo in New York was awesome and sort of hilarious to read. Yost knows how to build tension while still keeping it light for a fun read. The fundamental problem with this particular story is that it uses Captain America's bottomless well of clemency. There's no way the Avengers could possibly so stupid as to seriously believe that there's NOTHING amiss about this hard charging, less jovial, know-it-all Sheldon Cooper version of Spider-Man. I mean, for fuck's sake....
"Sure, he's being uncharacteristically dick-ish, but he's probably just going through a rough patch, so leave him be. I mean, Wolverine's a stone cold killer and Spider-Man hasn't done anything nearly that...wait...he DID kill someone? Oh, I'm sure it's fine."
Also, David Lopez's artwork wasn't really bad, but it was sort of a hit or miss scenario. The first half of the book is beautiful, but it's the second half that's a little off-putting because his style is a little too plain and straightforward and the Avengers should be more exciting to look at. This isn't a perfect way to transition from Avenging, but I was entertained enough to pick up another copy.
Bottom Line: If you liked Avenging Spider Man, you might not be as impressed. If you didn't like Avenging Spider Man, you might find something to like here. Either way, it's the little things that make and/or break this book. 7.5 out of 10.
Justice League Dark #22: DC is has officially entered the halfway point of their obligatory "Holy Shit Something's Happening That We Should All Do Something About" event, Trinity War. Geoff Johns has handed the baton off to Jeff Lemire in a fairly seamless fashion which might not be the biggest plus for this story. Why, you ask? Because it's halftime and I still have no earthly idea what's actually happening.
The best thing I can tell you is that Pandora's Box is out in the open and some people seem to be worried about it....for some reason. It's starting to suffer from one of the primary problems that Avengers vs. X-Men did except there are actually characters here that seems to know what this is all building to and just don't seem to feel like talking about it. It's one thing to build suspense and keep the readers in the dark, but you would think one of these mysterious good guys would make a better effort to try to get all of the other good guys on the same page. Instead, they seem to be completely fine with the various Justice Leagues beating the shit out of each other. The standout moment to look out for here is the awesome exchange between Wonder Woman and John Constantine which helps to showcase Lemire's characterization skills. Mikel Janin's pencils certainly deserve a round of applause as well. All of the action looks clean and deliberate, facial expressions look distinctive on purpose and, with such an enormous cast of characters, it's amazing that there was never a feeling claustrophobia in this issue. This isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'd just like it a lot more if someone could explain it to me.
Bottom Line: This issue makes all three Justice League entertaining enough to watch fighting. I just wish I knew why they were fighting. So far it's less of a superhero comic and more of an old Kaiju monster movie. 7 out of 10.
