This week the Age of Ultron ends with a whimper, wonder Woman has a family reunion, mutant and human relations in the Avengers hit an impasse, Invincible is expecting a baby and war is brewing between Atlantis and Wakanda while Dr. Doom throws a delightful dinner party.

AGE OF ULTRON #10

The time-shattering ending to the lamest event of the year. Wolverine has broken the big ball of wobbly wobbly timey wimey stuff in the Marvel Universe and nothing will ever be the same again!!!
Final Verdict: This series was just awful. It started awful…it continued to become eve more increasingly awful in the middle parts and it ended with an awful whimper. Skip the fact that entire resolution to this tale was just one gigantic mcguffin but nothing really happened in this book. And for a story that was named after him, Ultron barely appeared in the damn thing. If anyone out there actually wanted to see a massive galaxy spanning event with Ultron as the big bad then I recommend you track down ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST; that was a billion times better than this nonsense that Bendis probably scribbled on a couple sheets of toilet paper while taking a crap.
And for a boo that was as oft-delyed as this one it looked like hell. The art all looks rushed and sloppy as hell.
Grade: F

WONDER WOMAN #21

There is no rest for the weary as Wonder woman is fresh from the battle of her life and she runs smack into her big brother…the demigod known as The First Born. and he isn’t looking to have a happy reunion.
Final Verdict: The First Born is a great addition to Wonder Woman’s rogues gallery. He is single-minded (he wants to get his hands on Zola’s newborn baby really bad), ruthless (the way he treats his mother Hera is just wrong) and incredibly powerful (the guy can stop a Boom Tube!) so I can’t wait till he and wonder Woman have a proper face-off. this issue also took the reader deeper into the world of New 52 New Gods with Orion continuing to be a welcome supporting cast member and one of the major players in the new Gods saga making his debut. Brian Azzerello and Cliff Chiang continue to deliver one of the best books that the Big Two companies publish.
Grade: B+

UNCANNY AVENGERS #9

Everything is going the Apocalypse Twins way…they have bested Kang, they are ripping apart Celestials all willy nilly, they have caused a massive split between the humans and mutants in The Avangers, and they have debuted their own versions of the Four Horsemen.
Final Verdict: I really want to like this book more but the storyline choices that Rick Remender makes just annoy the hell out of me. The villains all have a tendency to pontificate ad nauseum (how many panels of this book were dedicated to the twins basically just repeating the same haughty lines they have been saying since ether showed up?) and the heroes spend more time arguing human/mutant politics than anything else. Plus Remender has a terrible handle on these characters: The Wasp is an intolerant beeyotch, Rogue is an overly aggressive beeyotch, Captain America is a bit of a dick (Remender writes a terrible Cap in this book and in Cap’s own title). I really do not like any of the Avengers members in this book aside from Wonder Gahndi and I don’t really care about the villain’s plans either. Daniel Acuna’s art is great though.
Grade: C-

INVINCIBLE #103

Invincible and Atom Eve are basking int he afterglow of their recent engagement and the bun in the oven that the two of them have made. Problems arise though when the villainous Angstrom Levy shows up looking for revenge.
Final Verdict: I really enjoyed the glimpses into the down time of not only Invincible but other heroes from his supporting cast (especially the increasingly unraveling psyche of Robot) and the scenes with Atom Eve where she is concerned about how her powers will adversely effect her unborn child were very good. And Ryan Ottley’s art is perfect for this book especially how he draws Eve as being more rubinesque than the average female in comics looks.
Props to Kirkman for taking a villain like Angstrom Levy, who I have considered to be a major clownshoe, and making him actually be believably menacing.
And that last page his really cool and would definitely bring e back next month even if I wasn’t already a regular reader of this book.
Grade: B

NEW AVENGERS #7

Things slow down in this issue as the immediate dangers the Illuminati have formed to battle are taking a bit of a breather which leaves the members of the group time to have some fascination interactions with one another and a few other interesting parties.
Final Verdict:
Two things made this book for me…Namor and T’Challa discussing the ever growing hostilities between their two kingdoms and Reed Richards and Dr. Strange having a nice meal with Dr. Doom in Latveria. The T’Challa/Namor scenes showed how complex their relationship is because their actions do not just affect them or even the Illuminatti but also two civilizations and if they cannot table their issues and prevent a war between the two kingdoms then the damage that will result from it will be catastrophic. And the Doom dinner scene was great just because it has me even more confident that Doom is going to end up taking his place in Illuminati. The total disrespect that Strange (and Reed to a lesser degree) shows Doom will not be forgotten and for Reed to be so shortsighted to not realize that threatening Doom to mind his own business or else is about the worst possible thing he could have done.
Jonathan Hickman has done more to get me really excited about this title again after being a bit let down with the way this book has been going in the last few issues.
Grade: B+