What Grief Does to a Person

     In the shocking conclusion to last issue of War of Kings, Lilandra Neramani, longtime ruler of the Shi’ar Empire and X-Men supporting character, was killed by the Fraternity of Raptors.  With hopes of bringing the war to a safe, early end dashed, Black Bolt makes the decision to utilize his ace in the whole: the T-bomb, a bomb utilizing the Terrigen crystals to force mutation in those it hits.  Basically, the Inhumans plan to forcibly mutate all others in the galaxy into Inhumans, thereby eliminating the need for war.  Vulcan fights some with Talon, and Talon reveals that he is not supporting Vulcan, but rather, the Shi’ar Empire.  Both Ronan and Crystal try to dissuade Black Bolt from his chosen course of action, but the king ultimately decides to go through with using the bomb.  Meanwhile, on Chandilar, Gladiator goes berserk, and the Starjammers fight to stay alive.  Marvel Girl kills Black Cloak, the leader of the Death Commandos, as revenge for all the members of her family that he killed, and Gladiator kills Araki.  Back with the Inhumans, Maximus reveals that, by using the T-bomb, Black Bolt will sacrifice his own life.  Medusa tries to stop him, but Black Bolt silently moves on.  Vulcan bursts into the T-bomb, and the fight between kings is ready to begin.

     This issue is just epic.  Seeing Chandilar burn, Black Bolt making the fateful choice to sacrifice his life…  It’s great.  Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are truly the kings of outer space.  Vulcan is still the loser that he always has been, but they write him better than most people.  I’ve actually completely forgotten his idiotic origin as the third Summers brother.  Crystal, Ronan, and Gladiator continue to be the emotional focuses of the story, and you can really see that through Gladiator’s narration.  I think it’s interesting that Abnett and Lanning picked these characters, none of whom are the main people involved in the war.  They provide a very interesting viewpoint.  Paul Pelletier continues to do outdo himself in these pages.  I especially like his work with Gladiator.  I must admit that I have no idea what’s going to happen next.  Personally, I much prefer that.  It’s the mark of good writesr to be able to keep you guessing even until the end.  However, I do hope that Vulcan will not see the light of day past the end of this miniseries.  He’s the one blotch on Ed Brubaker’s superb record, and it would be better for everyone, both in real life and the Marvel Universe, if he just disappeared.

Plot: 9.2      Art: 9.2      Dialogue: 9.2      Overall: 9.2

More Than It Seems

     After failing their first harrowing mission, the Exiles are now on to their next one, which hopefully, will go better.  They have to overthrow the machines, led by Cerebro, which have taken over the entirety of North America and reduced it to a desert through their use of nuclear weapons.  They end up getting attacked by the machines’ advance forces, a giant mechanical centipede and a bunch of Sentinels.  Polaris owns the Sentinels, and that’s that.  They eventually decide to get some sleep, and a few hours later, Blink travels away to go find everyone some food.  While she’s gone, Cerebro’s three assistants, Machine Man, Ultron, and Vision, come to meet with the Exiles.  The Exiles mistake it for an attack, and the three of them have to beat them up.  Seems that they aren’t so compliant with Cerebro’s wishes as expected.  Blink returns to find her teammates gone and rushes off to find them.  She makes some comments that indicate that she is indeed the same Blink we all known and love, and she manages to find the team.  That’s when we find out that Polaris… is full of machine parts.

     I’m so glad to see Blink finally show that she’s the same Blink from the old Exiles series.  She was by far the most popular character from then, and it’s good to see her back.  Now, I’m curious as to what exactly the machine trio’s agenda is, since they’re not exactly completely following Cerebro.  But this is another intriguingly different world from the mind of Jeff Parker.  He is quite a good successor to Tony Bedard and Judd Winick.  However, I already miss Salvador Espin.  Casey Jones’ art is nice enough, but it’s just not as dynamic looking, and everyone has the tendency to look tired.  Exiles needs artists who can draw whimsicality and dynamism in each and every character in order to properly reflect the mood of the book, and Casey Jones doesn’t quite cut it.  I can’t wait to see how Blink gets them all out of this situation, and I can’t wait to hear how Polaris is going to explain this!

Plot: 8.6      Art: 7.9      Dialogue: 8.5      Overall: 8.4

Coming Apart at the Seams

     As we briefly saw in the last issue, Atlantean terrorists (who, contrary to my prediction, are not at all related to Attuma) attacked Los Angeles.  Melrose, specifically.  So, Norman Osborn calls together the Cabal, and he tries to get Namor to deal with the situation.  Namor, however, regally tells Osborn to piss off and that his very participation in the Cabal is an honor that he bestows on them.  Loki smiles evilly, noting Norman Osborn’s slow disintegration.  So instead, Osborn calls the Dark Avengers.  Noh-Varr, the new Captain Marvel, is missing, since he isn’t sure that he likes the idea of working with a bunch of criminals pretending to be heroes.  At first, he and Sentry are going to go deal with the problem.  But as Victoria Hand points out, Osborn’s not doing so hot.  Instead, she insists that he delegate the task to Sentry alone.  Osborn does so, asking Sentry to bring out the Void to deal with the issue.  Now, that goes counter to how he’s been dealing with Sentry’s mental issues thus far, and both of them know it.  Even still, he kills every single one of the Atlantean terrorists.  Well, almost every single one.  he spares one, which Osborn claims will be given over to the government for interrogation.  Actually, he’s a snack for Venom.  The issue then ends with Osborn having a mental breakdown as his Green Goblin persona starts to haunt him.

     This is possibly the single best issue thus far of this series.  Things pooped out at the end of the first arc, but this issue sees better characterization with characters like Victoria Hand and Venom, characters who have been pushed aside thus far in favor of Osborn, Ares, and Sentry.  It’s very welcome, especially with the Venom thing, as it’s a return to the superb characterization of Warren Ellis’ Thunderbolts era.  And I have to say, half of the fun of the Dark Reign stories, of Invincible Iron Man, Dark Avengers, etc. is seeing how close Osborn is to blowing up.  Dr. Doom’s getting ready for it.  Loki’s getting ready for it.  There are schisms forming in the Cabal, and poor Emma Frost seems to be getting in bed with Osborn (not literally).  But that won’t go well when he blows up.  Then she won’t have him or the X-Men to rely on.  At any rate, I think I can now safely say that Brian Michael Bendis is doing great work on this series.  It’s basically the best work I’ve ever seen him do.  Mike Deodato Jr.’s work here is probably the worst of the run (odd Atlantean/Sentry faces), but even still, his work is the best in the business.  The Dark Avengers’ next two issues will be involved in Utopia, and I wonder just how everything will turn out.

Plot: 9.2      Art: 9.0      Dialogue: 9.2      Overall: 9.2