Hard to determine who gets the icon this week, but I give it to Marvel, as they blew off one of their big storylines with:
DARK AVENGERS/UNCANNY X-MEN: EXODUS #1: This issue wasn't short on action. After Cyclops raises Asteroid M and decides to take the mutants as refugees there, Norman Osborn and the Dark Avengers attack. As mentioned, there's a lot of action, but not a lot of the fighting is resolved. The Archangel/Bullseye fight in particular is way too short and isn't given any resolution. Oh, and the Sentry bails on the fight when he thinks he sees the Void...AGAIN! Someone just needs to bring a Void poster with them to a Sentry fight with how easy it is to take him off the board. The end result of everything is that the mutant population has taken up residence on Asteroid M with more action to come in the upcoming List one-shots. Good for action, but not much else. Thumbs in the middle.
DARK REIGN: THE LIST - AVENGERS #1: And speaking of The List, here it begins. Norman Osborn wants to solve the world's problems...which all happen to be caused by superheroes. Well, who didn't see THAT coming, except maybe Tony Stark? Clint Barton wants to kill Osborn, but the New Avengers don't want any part of the killing business. So Barton dons his Ronin gear and takes the task up himself. He dispatches of various Dark Avengers quite handily, though Moonstone (in her underwear, naturally) manages to hold him off until Avengers Tower goes on lockdown. Barton reaches Osborn, but he's equipped with many of Nick Fury's protective gadgets, which hold off Clint until Ares wipes him out. Issue ends with Clint Barton under arrest. Not the best issue, but certainly entertaining for what it was. Thumbs in the middle, leaning up.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #40: The Black Lantern siege on Oa continues, as Kyle's taken away from the fight by an amorous Black Lantern Jade. Kyle doesn't fall for it, as he was trying to learn any Black Lantern weaknesses. He doesn't and is subsequently wiped out. An issue more notable for the conflict between the GL's and the Alpha Lanterns, as the Alphas are well on their way to becoming the next Manhunters. Hello, Post-Blackest Night story arc. Thumbs in the middle, leaning up.
BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN #2: Gotham is also under siege, as the undead Bat-villains takes out the GCPD and chase after Commissioner Gordon and Barbara. Batman and Robin figure the best solution to this is FIRE and LOTS OF IT! It doesn't do much, but buys them time to escape, with Deadman taking control of Barbara in a cool scene. Issue ends with the arrival of Tim Drake's undead parents and the Zombie Flying Graysons making their presences felt. Tim reacted as expected, but Dick's reaction was almost a little too calm for my taste. Still, a decent read. Thumbs in the middle, leaning up.
SECRET SIX #13: With all the major story arcs going on, this oddly felt like a breath of fresh air. The Six reluctantly help the Amazons escape their captivity until the big twist is revealed. These are the Amazons from the Amazons Attack storyline and their imprisonment is approved by the U.S. government. Of course, details like that don't slow down the Six. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman is still knocked out and Grendel is released from his captivity. Not quite the knockout that the first few issues of this story arc been, but still a great read nonetheless. Thumbs up!
That's it for this week. Next week, the Blackest Night reaches its third issue and Dark Reign: The List continues.
Skipped the List, at least this issue: I've learned my lesson and I'm done buying Bendis books. Looking forward to the Daredevil one, though. Exodus was alright, I thought, but it seems weird how lately the direction the X-books have been going is that Magneto was right all along. After all, he's the one who kept trying to take mutants away to an island sanctuary.
Other stuff I read this week: The War of Kings follow up was good, and indicates direction for most of the story beats that didn't reach conclusion in the War of Kings mini. Really looking forward to the cosmic stuff now that the Magus has entered the field. And for anyone who's been reading Deadpool, after the last two nearly unreadably bad issues, the book's back to form. Not quite as engaging as the stuff with Bullseye or Taskmaster, but good.
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Guys, guys...relax. It's obvious the Cap that died was a clone Shield had made who had been raised in Secret by Cap's blonde shield agent love interest. I think his name will turn out to have been Ben Rogers, or Steve Reilly...