This is Entry 284: Ultron Five-Ever

A Brief look at "Ultron Forever"

Once again I'll be looking at a mini-series from Marvel that has the Ultron in the title that includes a time travel element to it. Is this series as bad as Age of Ultron?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: No. It's actually kind of fun. It's only 3 issues long & doesn't overstay it's welcome. There really isn't much to the plot of the story so I'm not sure if it would worked in a longer format. You have a form beginning middle & end. There are some twist & turns. You do get some nicer cliffhangers at the end of 1st & 2nd issues.

This story is a semi sequel to 1998's Avengers Forever at least in concept: Avengers from a few different points in the team's history are pulled together to do something. Both books ever have the 2 different versions of the same character where AF had 2 versions of Hank Pym (a at the present 1998 version of Giant Man & a past version of himself during his original run as Yellowjackets), UF has "sometime in the near future" female Thor & male Thor from the 1980's.

The other members of the group are 60's era Hulk, James Rhodes during his run as being Iron Man during the 1980's. Present Day Vision & Black Widow. The only *new* character from the book is the Captain America they use. She is from the future & is Danielle Cage, the daughter of Luke Cage & Jessica Jones. Danielle has grown up & taken on the mantle of the Captain. At the end of Issue 3, we get to see the version of the Avenger is a member of. Not sure we'll see her or her team in the anything else.

The group has been drawn together by "Doctor Doom". I put that in quote since you find out in Issue 3 that it is Doctor Doom but isn't at the same time. I'm just going to leave it at that. Doom has drawn these Avengers together when in THE FUTURE where Ultron has taken over the world. He has turned the world populous into mindless drones & has "converted" the Avengers of 2420 into his own personal group of enforcers. This reminds me partly of Futures End but these converted heroes look a whole lot better. 

This mini series has elements of Age of Ultron, Futures End & Avengers Forever. It take some of the better parts of the first 2 & some similar elements of the third to make their story. 

Another big selling point of this mini series is the art. I don't think I've found an book by Alan Davis that was disappointed by. The art is consistant through out & doesn't change midway like some other Ultron mini series did.

Only 1 thing that I found confusing was the titling of the books. Instead of just calling each issue Ultron Forever. They are titled: Ultron Forever: Avengers #1, Ultron Forever: The New Avengers #1 & Ultron Forever: Uncanny Avengers #1. The story doesn't change because the title did. Since they are all listed #1, it can be hard to know where to start. Once you open the book, it says which it is but until you do or if you skip of that page, you might be lost since you could be coming into the story mid way or end up reading the issues out of order.

Some of the elements of the story rely on knowledge of the Avengers history but they do attempt to explain why things are how they are (especially with The Hulk & what happens to him).

Over all a fun little mini-series. Not required reading by any means, just some fun fluff. Check it out if you liked Avengers Forever, team up stories or just want a fun easy read.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 283: Age of Uh FINALE, part 2

Oh… Age of Ultron, what are we doing to do with you?

Welcome back to the final part of the chapter to my review of the “Age of Ultron” comic. It’s been a long time coming but we made it. Not as originally planned but we are here. The end of an Age.

Issue 10

The cover: Various characters we have not seen for a few issue fight a weird looking Ultron. Not sure what it is about this cover but it looks weird. I thinks it’s Ultron himself. He looks weird. Not looking the look of his body. His head looks odd but then his head has always looked weird. I've looked at the cover a dozen or more times & I'm still not sure who's head that is at the bottom.

The Short Review of the Issue: WHAT THE HELL?

Longer Review of the Issue:

We start “some Months ago”  which may or may not be the “months ago” as mentioned & seen in Issue 5. We are in Hank Pym’s lab. He’s doing science stuff. A message pops on his screen telling to “follow the white rabbit”. No… He’s told open his door. He thinks it’s Janet, his wife. Might be ex-wife, depending on when this happened. But really it couldn’t have been Janet since if this was really a few months before Issue 1 had come out, Janet had been dead for awhile. So… Hank thinking it’s his dead wife playing a joke on him is a bit strange.

He open the door to find no one but a package. Down the hallway a bit is Sue Richards in Invisible mode. Hank closes the door to find a tablet computer with a note that reads “play me” on it. He presses play to find a message for himself!

*DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNNNNN*

1 Question: Did they have tablet computer in the 1970’s when He most likely made that message for himself? That could be explained away as Sue put the message on the tablet. Another question: Did he have a “home video camera” to make the video?

Another thing I noticed: Video Hank looks like he’s dressed in the latest fashions of the 1980’s. And yes I’m off on yet another tangent: that’s what this comic make me do. I have spent so much time reading, re-reading, looking it over that I can’t help be question it all!

The Message basically goes like this:

“Hi Hank! It’s Hank! You don’t remember making this video & that’s because that’s how it happened to be BUT if your seeing this it means that we still got a chance to stop Ultron from doing a massive no no. We have scrwed up a lot of things so let’s not screw this one up!”

We flip the page to see reused art! I didn’t notice when the book first came & hadn’t in the few times I had looked through the issue BUT today I did. It was all because I happened to look at another related book. One that I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before.  In May 2012, for Free Comic Book Day, Marvel came out with a book, Avengers: Age of Ultron! It’s the prequel that I had forgotten about until I go to this point in my first reading of the book. There was a little over a 1 year in between books (the FCBD book & Issue 1). My forgetting of the book might because it didn’t seem all that memorable of a book (it’s still not).

I guess that’s ok since everthing you need to know about the old comic is ok with it since Marvel pretty REPRINTS 8 PAGES from the original FCBD comic as is in Issue 10. Those 8 pages are the later half of the FCBD book. The only changes in Age of Ultron #10 are a few speech & text bubbles. The rest is EXACTLY THE SAME!

What happens in both books:  A group of Avengers all rush into a secret base run by the Intelligencia (a group of “super smart” super villains). They had kidnapped Spider-Woman as she was checking out something in a jungle somewhere (the earlier book doesn't say where so let's just say The Savage Lands). The thing that is found was a Space Knight (from the 80’s comic ROM Space Knight). You remember them from earlier in Age of Ultron, don't you? Of course you do! They aren't reference ANYWHERE by name but there is one vaguely Space Knight looking guy on Nick Fury's wall of photos back in Issue 2!

Back to the reprinted pages: The Bad Guy want it & didn’t want the Good Guys to have it so they kidnapped her which of course means the Good Guys are going to go to rescue her. Yeah... real smart!

We have a multi-page fight scene. The Bad Guys give up but not before finding a way to turn back on the Space Knight (some are robots, most are cyborgs). But OH NO! This Space Knight is holding a secret, It transforms & is really ULTRON! Ultron had been out in space the past few years so that wasn't that much of a stretch.

Thor decides to do something stupid by hitting Ultron in the chest with his hammer, BIG EXPLOSION happens. This is the point where the 2 comics change. In the FCBD comic, lots of destruction. Bad Guys look like they are dead & the heroes try to regroup. They think about tracking Ultron down BUT Iron Man says that pointless since “He has seen the Future” & it’s crappy. That’s where the FCBD comic ends. A year long cliff hanger!

Where it changes in Issue 10, just before Thor does the stupid thing, Iron Man gets a call from Hank. Iron Man takes the call but tries to brush him off since “He’s busy” But Hank continues to talk & is “sending” Iron Man something. Maybe it’s an E-Mail? tonystark@IMsuit.org! Hank has sent Iron Man “Highly Evolved Calculations” & Iron Man isn’t sure they’ll work but Hank says they will. Iron Man “launches the code” over Wi-Fi i guess since Iron Man never touches Ultron or get near him. Is the Iron Man suit Wi-Fi enabled? If not then how did Hank send Iron Man the stuff? All while Hank is chatting with Iron Man to do the thing, Thor hits Ultron with his hammer. BIG EXPLOSION!

And what happens? It still destroys the Intelligencia’s hideout but after the explosion, Ultron isn’t gone & he’s confused. The “kill code” as Hank calls it which “is very specific to a backdoor code portal program” that is in the “deepest recesses of his program”. 

All while Ultron is confused, the Avengers attack. Ultra says that they are “adding buffering code to my infrastructure”. He wonders how they were prepared. He suspects Iron Man & his “father” Hank Pym. Thor zaps Ultron with a bolt of lightning. The fight between the Avengers & Ultron is all distraction so Hank can completely uploading the “kill code” to Ultron. 

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Load! Load! Load!

Ultron starts to crackle with energy. The program loads, Ultron shuts down & once more Thor smacks Ultron with his hammer. Pieces fly everywhere!

Iron Man ask exactly what happened. Hank replies:

“We sent him what looked like an average backdoor trojan horse code, but the trick of it was — When Ultron tired to defend himself and re-code it an shut it down… It triggered a self replicating virus that was implanted in at his creation. By the time he could process what was happening… There was nothing left of him.”

Iron Man asks a very good question: Why didn’t we try this before? Hank Replied: I didn’t have it before.

Before we got into the ending. Let’s chat about the “kill code” for a bit. I'm crying all kinds of BULL SHIT on that working. That’s some “access port on the Death Star” Deus Ex Machina level of tying up a loose end that they didn't bother having in the main book. It has been clearly stated that Ultron had upgraded, updated, recreated himself dozen of times since he was created. To me it would seems rather stupid of the robot to not close up a fatal back door in his programing. WHY LEAVE IT OPEN LIKE THAT? Sure, He might of thought “no one could get into my programing that far in for that to be a problem?” If that’s so, why leave it open? WHY?

With Ultron defeated you know what? The past 9 issues & the 8 tie-in issues NEVER HAPPENED! THE AGE OF ULTRON NEVER HAPPENED! They also never told us how Ultron got from blowing up a building to taking over the whole world! Or how long it took for him to do that? Those are 2 questions I have been asking since Issue 1 & they still aren’t answered or even hinted at. Also, we never find out what happened to the Future Group! They simply drop out of the series at issue 6! But what does it matter what they did or even if they ever accomplished anything since THE AGE OF ULTRON NEVER HAPPENED! They had no need to go to the future to stop Ultron from taking over the world since he never did! Also, they say that Ultron was controlling the world from THE FUTURE! But how did he get there? He was there in the present, blew up & then waited years of time to get to the future so he could change the past? But if he did that wouldn’t that cause a time paradox?

TOO MANY QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANY ANSWERS!

Now on to the ending of the series. Wolverine & Sue fly away from somewhere (maybe Pym’s lab). They land on a roof top & say their goodbyes. Then time literally breaks.

Then we see the Earth in a black void for a panel & then it’s back out in space with the sun, moon & stars. Tony Stark, The Beast & a blonde guy (might be Captain America) are looking at a holographic monitor. They ask what happens & the answers straight from the book is “Wolverine repeatedly abused the space-time continuum” and They broke it.

The group says they’ve time traveled before this time might of been one time too many. The last 8 pages of the book are all preview bits showing some of the breaks: Galactus has crossed over to the Ultimate Universe & Angela (originally an Image Comics character) is now in the main universe.

That’s it. That’s the end.

There were 7 artist on this book. Bryan Hitch (the artist for the 1st half of the series) get credited for his reused art from the FCBD book. The Angela pages were done by Joe Quesada. The Parts with Sue, Wolverine & the breaking of time look to be by Carlos Pacheco. The other artist from the past issues (Brandon Peterson) is back.

This issue is a mismash of things. The Last 9 pages are just “ads” for other books. There is the reused 8 pages of art from a past book. That’s half of the book. There is 5 pages of the breaking of time. That's 22 pages. Most comics are that long! The amount of pages that aren't ads for other comics, reused art or breakage is 11 pages (minus all the ads). 11 pages that finish up the series but then this issue throws out the first 9 issues to tie up the plot threads from the Free Comic Book Day comics (which on sale for money under a different name).

——————

There was an epilogue book: Age of Ultron #10 A.I. which was to be a bridging point between Age of Ultron & Avengers A.I. It’s a good book. It’s written by Mark Waid & is devoted to Hank Pym. It gives you an overview of his early life & career leading up to the events of the series. I read Avengers A.I., it was an enjoyable series. Neither Avengers A.I. or this epilogue have much to do with the main series. I’d more call this issue Avengers A.I. #0 then Age of Ultron #10 A.I.

There was also a 5 issue “What If” mini series revolving around Age of Ultron vaguely. It’s also pretty good.

And that’s it. The Age is over. We can all now move on with our lives!

But what about the Movie? Or the Age of Ultron related book that’s coming out as part of this summer’s Secret Wars?

Then I guess I'm not done. *sigh* Well... you can all now move on with your lives.

This is Entry 282: Age of Uh FINALE, Part 1

Welcome back to the Age of Uh! The on again, but mostly off again review of the “Age of Ultron” comic book series. I now have to say it’s the comic series & not the movie. I can say this: the movie will mostly be better then the series. It seems everything that bares the name of “Age of Ultron” that is not the main series is better then the main series. This will be the final part of my review of the series. So… Let’s finish this thing!

———

Last Time in the Age of Ultron: I made a whole recap post of the 1st 5 issues of the series last March. I also made a post about the Age of Ultron tie-in issues for Superior Spider-Man & The Fantastic Four last March. Now that we have that out of the way, Let’s briefly talk about the rest of the tie-in books!

If it had the word “Avengers” in the title it was a good tie-in book (Avengers Assemble #14AU, Avengers Assemble #15AU & Uncanny Avengers #8AU). It seems that Uncanny Avengers actually tied into both series (it’s own series & Age of Ultron).This probably due to the fact that Kang was there in the issue. And of course Kang would be aware of a change in timelines because Kang is cool like that! The Ultron one shot (which does not have Ultron in it) dealt with his biological son, Victor Mancha & how he got involved in this Age.  It didn’t tie into the main events of the series all that much. I’m guessing it was just there to remind people that Victor existed & the prep them for Avengers A.I. The last 2 tie in Issues (Wolverine and The X-Men #27AU & Fearless Defenders #4AU) I’ll get to when they tie into the main series.

On to the series…

ISSUE 6

They fight floating Ultron heads in a blue void on the cover. That is a theme with a number of the covers. Issue 4, 5, 6, 7 & 10 all have a solid color as the background. Issue #2 & 9 almost has a solid color for the background but has minimal detail laid over a single color.

Brief Recap: In Issue 5, 2 plans where suggested on how to deal with a problem like Ultron. Plan A: Go TO THE FUTURE to stop Ultron from doing stuff. Plan B (suggested by Wolverine): Go back to the past & stop Hank Pym from creating Ultron. And by “stop” he means “kill”. At the end of Issue 5, the group went with Plan A & most of group headed off to the future. Wolverine stayed behind & asks any of those left if they know how to use the time machine.

We start Issue 6 Wolverine having already traveled TO THE PAST! The comic says “years ago” & they are right. It’s the 1970’s! But due to the sliding scale that super hero comic use they can’t say that since most super heroes have only been active for a “few years”. Normally 5 to 10 years. Wolverine sniffs out that he was followed. How? Neither of the 2 people had showered “in at least a week at least”. That is another vague reference to this Age’s timeline. Wolverine could be referring to the time that it took to travel to the Savage Land (which took a week) or he could be referring to the Age it’s self. It’s the first reason that still make me angry. How did Ultron take over the world in few days? If it was even a few days, there is never any firm established timeline to when Ultron took over the world or even if he did. Large parts of the world were unmentioned in the series.

The person who followed him is Sue Richards, The Invisible Woman. She came along to keep an eye on him. Shortly there after, Wolverine has her cloak both of them since younger Nick Fury shows up in one of SHEILD’s flying cars. He gets out his car & walks into the cave. There is mention why Fury was there, it wasn’t to set of the cave bunker. We clearly see it already made later on. He also doesn’t stay long since we flip the page, Fury comes out of the cave to see the car is gone! Wolverine & Sue have stolen it! OMG!

We now join the future party in THE FUTURE! Ultron still hasn’t taken over the Savage Land apparently.  I guess he’ll let organic life remain alive just as long as it’s in a jungle in the Antarctic. The Future Party then realize that Sue isn’t with them (she was to go with them but decided to go with Wolverine because of “the look in his eye”). So… without Sue to keep them invisible they still decide to go ahead with the Mission. Quicksilver is to run ahead of them really, really fast so he’s “invisible”. I still think the plan to go to the future is stupid. Ultron is in the future & somehow figured out a way to control the past (their present) from there. Ultra could easily have known that the Future Party was coming & could have easily set a trap for them. But we never find that out since after this issue, we never check in to see what is going on with the Future Party due to stuff Wolverine will do at the end of this issue.

Another thing, Issue 6 marks the 1st issue with new artists. Brandon Peterson takes over for Bryan Hitch in the “Present” which I guess is for the group that went to the Future & Carlos Pacheco does the art for Wolverine & Sue in the Past.

Wolverine flies back to New York. They land Wolverine goes to talk to Hank Pam & he knows where he is because he can smell him!  Hank is in his lab & is examining a dead/unconscious/turned off Dragon Man, which is an “Artificial Intelligence”. Dragon Man looks like giant purple half dragon, half man creature but is a robot of some sort. Hank is thinking out loud. His speak balloons are a taupe colors which I guess to give the look of “paper” old comics were printed on. Hank rambles on about robots that can think for themselves. How he hasn’t made anything meaningful since The Pym Particle. (How to do create a particle? I always assumed he just discovered it, named it after himself & not created it.) As he looks at the creature, he says the next breakthrough in AI should be his! This is where Wolverine (with white speech balloons) comes in. 

Basically it goes like this…

“I’m here to stop you from screwing over the world!”

“Who are you?”

“A guy from the future! The future you screwed over by creating a robot!”

“You picked the wrong place to break into!”

“I don’t care! Don’t do the thing I know your thinking of doing!”

“Who are you?”

“I’m from the future! Don’t do the thing!”

“Do you know who I am?”

*Wolverine pops his claws out*

“yeah. Don’t do the thing!”

FIGHT SCENE!

Back to the Future & the Future Group has arrived in Ultron control New York.  It’s a lot more brightly colored then in past issues. What we saw on the cover (a fight with Ultron heads) happens. There are a lot more heads & more then 3 people in this fight.

We cut back to the past fight. Sue comes out to try & reason with Wolverine.

“Don’t do the thing your thinking of doing!”

“I gotta! it’s the only way!”

In between that, we cut back & forth between the past & the future. 

“Don’t do the thing your thinking of doing!”

“I gotta! it’s the only way!”

“Don’t!”

“He allowed your family to die! He allowed all of your friends to die!”

“Don’t do it!”

*Sue starts to cry*

*STAB*

And Hank is dead with a crying Sue just standing by. She turns away so she doesn’t see him die but she still let’s it happen. She asks what happens now. Wolverine walks away & says they go home back to “whatever is waiting’ for us… Hell, we know it’s got to be better than what we left.”  Let’s flashback to issue 5 to when Sue said that traveling back in time & doing Wolverine’s plan might “completely obliterate the space-time continuum”. The tie-in Issue for Wolverine and The X-Men #27AU takes place after stealing the SHEILD car & before they get to New York. it’s a skippable story. Doesn’t truly add anything to the over all story. None of the tie-in books do really, some of are just better side stories then others.

ISSUE 7

The cover is once more in a blue void, We see a group of heroes & the results of Wolverine’s trip back in time. 

Starting here in Issue 7 & going to Issue 9 (along with 1 tie in book: Fearless Defenders #4AU) is the “good” part of the series. At least for me. It’s was something I enjoyed reading. It is sadly buried here in the later half of the series & is under developed. Too bad they spent the first half doing much of nothing!  Wolverine & Sue fly back to the Savage Land. They talk about what has been done. I just noticed the flying car vaguely resembles a Delorean. They land & Wolverine pushes the car into a bush. Why? They’ll need it IN THE FUTURE! Because no one is going to look under that bush that has tire tracks leading into it for the next 30 some odd years! They then fight a T-Rex. After fighting it off, they head back to the cave. Wolverine notes that the young Nick Fury has left. How? they don’t say. Maybe in this altered timeline, he was never there. BUT he was since Wolverine still smells him. Maybe Wolverine is smelling Fury’s scent from before Wolverine altered the timeline? There many, many, many, many, many, times in my reading & rereading that I could easily spends minutes (over)thinking of what is going on in the series. Most times I come up with no answers, only more questions.

Sue & Wolverine go into the bunker in the cave, use the time platform to travel BACK TO THE FUTURE!

*cue the Huey Lewis*

They exit the cave & the Savage land is now ittered with a bunch of junk. Looks like a Airplane graveyard. Sue even says “looks like the Savage Land is now an Alien Spacecraft junkyard” when they get closer to the junk. They find a Skrull skull. Wolverine comments the Secret Invasion must of ended differently. Sue brings up that there are Kree ships there & she says The Kree/Skrull War (an Avengers storyline from the 70’s) must of ended differently.  They go invisible as a trio Starkguards come by.  This is the second sign that Wolverine done screwed up real good! They go back to the cave, amazingly the car is still there & it still works after sitting there for years! 

They fly back to New York. The car must be really fast since the 1st trip from New York to the Savage Land in Antartica took 8 days. This was without the help of any flying machine because Ultron could sense their usage of a airplane FROM THE FUTURE!  With them using a flying car it’s apparently no big thing to just pop on down to the Savage Land. The Manhattan skyline is surrounded by 6 mini SHEILD Hellicarriers. Sue starts to freak out a bit. Wolverine basically tells her to “calm your tits. The world is still here. It might be one that I totally screwed up & might be a different kind of bad then what he left but at least people are alive!”

The car is then hit by a laser which make them bail out. As they touch down, they are meet up by The Defenders! They are Doctor Strange, Captain America (who has an eye patch), The Thing, The Hulk, Cyclops (sporting a visor like the one from Age of Apocalypse), Starlord, Wolverine & someone who could be Captain Marvel (who we find out on the next page is Janet Van Dyne but isn’t called The Wasp).  Some of the Defenders think that Wolverine & Sue are Skrulls. But The Thing thinks that it might be the real sue (who is “back” from somewhere) & the Defenders verion of Wolverine says other Wolverine smells like him. There is a lot about Wolverine being able to smell stuff in this series. Brian Micheal Bendis does know that Wolverine has other powers, right? 

Original recipe Wolverine & Sue get way but not for long because smells. Doc Strange using his powers to disrupt Sue’s powers during a fight. OG Wolverine throws a trash can lib at Doc Strange which cause him to stop spell casting. More fighting is going on. The Wolverine’s fight each other. It looks like Wolverine might of killed himself (and that won’t be the last time he’ll do that in this series). Actual Wolverine is taken down by a punch by The Thing. We find out on the next page, Wolverine did not kill himself. We end the issue on a cool image of what Iron Man looks like in his altered timeline. Or more altered timeline. I still not sure if the 1st 6 issues take place in an altered present timeline or in the future. Also, according to this page: the Mini-Hellicarriers belong to Iron Man. He also has his own Iron Man drones but they don’t look exactly like he does as Ultron does/did.

ISSUE 8

On the cover, Wolverine & Sue are in an alley way. Iron Man is hovering before them.

We open on Iron Man, which I don’t think he’s called that in this timeline. He’s just Tony Stark & I doubt he can take off his suit. He has taken the captured Wolverine & Sue. He has also gained access to to their memories somehow. Images are floating all around him. 2 Images are covers from past comics (Age of Ultron #1 & Secret Wars #1). Another is the image of Scarlet Witch’s face breaking apart into puzzle pieces from House of M.

In the room with him is Emma Frost & Charles Xavier. They are discussing if what they are seeing is true. Emma & Charles confirm that those 2 are who they say they are, just the versions from their timeline. It is brought of that in this timeline, it’s not Captain America. He’s come up in the world & is Colonel America!

Tony says “We’re saying these two lunatics have broken the timeline. They went back in time and broke it."

Yes, Tony. That’s what they are saying & what I’ve continued to say since this series has come out.

Tony goes to interrogate Wolverine.

What we find out:

1. Tony can’t leave his suit. He is the suit. He doesn’t have a lower body. He lost it in the “Latveria/Asgard War”. He tried to stop Morgana Le Fey from taking over Europe & the World.

2. It seems like Jarvis is a computer program. Keeps talking to a Jarvis but a Jarvis is heard & never actually seen.

2. Hank Lab’s has a security camera in it (something Wolverine didn’t think was in place at the time).

3. The Skrulls had been blamed for Hank’s Death & The Avengers had broken up shortly after that.

4. They were abandoned by Asgard. Doesn’t say who exactly “they” are (The Avengers or Earth in general) or if it was before or after the war.

5. The “Mini-Hellicarriers” are called Starkguard Carriers which I guess makes Starkguard the SHEILD of that timeline.

I want a book, 10 issues, of this timeline. There is a lot of cool sounding/looking things in it! Where is my Latveria/Asgard war book?

During the Interrogation, The Defenders are just hanging out awaiting further word on the dopplegangers. Frost & Xavier tell them to go away & leave Stark to his business. They says “Screw that!” and a fight breaks out.

Alt-Tony brings up one possible way Wolverine could have gone about solving the Ultron problem: Have Pym create Ultron but have him install something hidden in the programing. Let time run it’s course. Before Tony can finish off his thought, he’s told their is a security breach. It’s the Defenders!  Before Tony goes off to deal with it, Wolverine says it’s a nice theory (it’s more then a theory in a few issues).

The Thing, Cyclops & Alt-Wolverine get to Sue’s cell & open it. She’s gone. Or she turned invisible & when they opened the door, she ran out. She is found by Tony who can “see all spectrums”. The Starkguard carrier is then attacked by Morgan Le Fey & her army. She flies in a fire breathing flying creature. Her army flies in with her wearing very Doctor Doom looking armor (the Doom/Le Fey connection is gone into a bit more detail in the Fearless Defenders tie-in).

MULTI-PAGE FIGHT SCENE!

The issue ends with at least 2 of the 6 Starkgaurd Carrier’s crashing down onto New York.

ISSUE 9

Wolverine stabs Wolverine in a void composed of speed lines on the cover.

Issue 9 picked up where Issue 8 left off with a massive 2 page EXPLOSION! We then get another 2 page spread, this time showing the destruction. Still not as worse looking as the OG timeline. But there are more dead bodies scattered about NYC then in the OG timeline. Wolverine climbs out of the destruction. He’s missing his leg below the knee, only his bones remain. Tries to walk on it, can’t. Lays there on the ground for 5 days (according to the comic) as the leg regenerates. Shortly after it, He is attacked by one of Le Fey’s Doomesque army guys. Fight Scene! Wolverine wins.

Wolverine walks off, finds Stark laying on the ground trapped under some rubble. Stark talks about how one man (Hank Pym) could make such a difference. Stark knows that Wolverine will try & go back & fix things. He says that Wolverine can’t do that because “Time is an Organism” & every time someone travels through it Time rips & tears. The more you travel through it, the more you hurt it & actually kill time. Stark begs Wolverine to no do the thing he’s thinking of. That’s a theme of this later of the book: asking Wolverine to no do stuff but he does it anyways.

I think the book implies that Stark dies (the lights of Stark’s armor have turned off) & Wolverine walks on. We flip the page & Wolverine is once more in Pym’s lab in the 1970’s. But this is “flashback” to 1st trip back in time. Wolverine tries to reason with Pym, doesn’t go all that well & a fight scene break out.

We cut to Sue Richards waiting by the flying car. She is approached by someone, says “are you done so quickly?” The mystery person knocks her out. We cut back into fight & another Wolverine has appeared on the scene in 1970’s appropriate costume. The fight stops.

The reason 2nd Wolverine is wearing the costume is that “it’s all Fury had in his secret bunker”. Not only Fury paranoid but he’s also a kleptomanic. There is a discussion between the 3. Mainly between the 2 Wolverines’. Newer Wolverine proves he is Wolverine. They have to move on to “Plan B”! I thought stabbing Pym was Plan B, Plan A being talking to him. We are technically on Plan C. Pym just sits there amazed at what he’s seeing (2 people at different times in their life? Time travel? How does that work?)

The “Plan B” they are going with is the plan that Alt-Tony brought up last issue. Wolverine says that *he* can’t do it, Pym has to do it. Pym says he doesn’t make robots, he’s just been “tinkering” around with some A.I. stuff. The newer Wolverine says that it’ll be Ultron, Pym says he won’t make it. BUT Wolverine says he has too. Everything has to go as it once did before he came back & killed him. Wolverine only wants to avoid the last part where Ultron takes over THE WORLD!

Pym isn’t sure how to do that, New Wolverine explains about implanting a virus or a code into Ultron so that “when the thing is about to go full-blown — it just can’t”. Yes, “The Thing”! That’s how Ultron takes over the world! He uses The Thing! Why not use The Stuff? I hear it’s twice as powerful!

Pym brings up a good point: If he creates Ultron & the world has to go on as it did, what is to stop him from using this fail safe the 1st time Ultron becomes to much of threat? How could he let Ultron do what he did/will do known that he has the “kill switch”?

Future Sue comes in to say that Pym has to forget that he put in the kill code. Pym is still unsure about all that he is asked to do:

“So all I have to do is create an artificial intelligence that doesn’t exist yet… Put a time release program inside of it that doesn’t exist yet… Make my self forget about it and go about my life… How do I do this exactly?”

Good question, Dr. Pym. He don’t get an answer since we flip the page & are in the Savage Land. Sue asks what they are going to do with 2 Wolverines. Newer Wolverine asks for a minute alone with his other self. They walk off & talk about which one is not going back. Newer Wolverine says he is not since “he saw stuff”. Original timeline Wolverine pops his claws, We turn the page & Wolverine has blood on his claws. He killed himself: is that homicide or suicide?

This is intercut with flashbacks to Pym in his lab in the 70’s, he’s working on something. We turn the page to see the creation of ULTRON! Last page of issue 9 & it’s the 1st time he’s been seen in the whole series! That is if you don’t count anytime he is seen on the covers of the series.

This is it! 1 More issue to go & this is where it all goes off the rails.

Next Time: Issue 10!

This is Entry 281: Futures End FINAL UPDATE!

So... I've done a breakdown of the first two issue of the series & did an update of the series back in October. Now that the series is over here is the final update:

AVOID! DO NOT READ! SAVE YOUR TIME & MONEY! DO NOT READ! IT IS NOT WORTH IT! SAVE YOURSELF!

If you want to know what happened save yourself time & money: go to Wikipedia & read it's article on the series. Here I'll link you to it. It's Right Here! That's all you'll ever need to about the series.

There really is no "end" to the series. It just kind of stopped. There are no more issues coming out & there really is no End to to series called Futures End. Maybe we'll get some answers (but I doubt it) in  the new Batman Beyond series that's coming out in June.

Yes there were some cool looking visuals in the series BUT that's no reason to subject yourself to having to read the darn thing to get them. Go to Google, it's show you them all for no pennies on the dollar!

Until Next time which most likely will the final update of another series that involves time travel & a crap alternate future! The End of a Age!

Until then: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 280: Falling off the Edge of The Spider-Verse!

Back in August, I did a break down of the prologue to the prologue of the Spider-Verse event (which can be seen here) & now that we are firmly in the trenches of the event I thought I’d give an update on what has been happening.

By the checklist that is in the back of most of the Spider-Verse books, there are 14 tie-in books to the series proper. There is also the 5 issue “Edge of Spider-Verse” series, the 2 issue of Amazing Spider-Man that lead up to the event, a lead up issue of Spider-Man 2099, 2 issues of Superior Spider-Man. So… 23 tie-in issues. Then the main series it’s self which is 5 issues. That’s 28 issues & I think I might of missed some stuff. That is a lot of stuff. Before you even get to the main series there are at least 12 issues, many event comics are dead & gone by that point. I’m not even counting any sort of epilogue issues or spin off series (there are going to be at least 2 that I know of).

1 thing before I go on: the guy in the cool looking diving helmet that I kept on calling Morlun last time wasn’t Morlun but his brother Karn. Morlun & Karn are members of a family called The Inheritors. What do they inherit? I don’t know. I still don’t know after reading a dozen or more comics. I’m guessing power of some kind. They seem to work on a Highlander principal: Kill every Spider-Person you can, absorb their life force until your the only one left standing which will lead to a crappy sequel. BUT given that I don’t regularly read Spider-Man comics, the only name I knew was Morlun & the character I was unfamiliar with shared a similar MO to what I had gathered about Morlun: it’s easy to get confused. I did say last time that it might not been Morlun but someone working with him. So…. I was close.

But… getting to the comics….

Karn & his cool looking helmet

Where to start? Let’s start with the issue following the one I talked about last time: Superior Spider-Man #33. We got what we’ll be getting in a number of Books so far. Let’s go to a random universe with a Spider-Man. He’s being chased Karn because he wants to have them for dinner literally.  A portal opens to show various other Spider-People show up to help out. FIGHT SCENE! This is the formula for many of comics leading up to the main event where we change gears to a slightly different type of set up. Spider-Verse is almost all set up with very little pay off.

In this issue Karn is helped out by 2 members of his “family”, fraternal twins Brix and Bora. I am having to look online what a number of these people’s names are. The books really like to tell you who each & ever Spider-Person is & what world they came from but the names of anyone else: you are on your own for the most part! Sometimes people will say the other names but most times they won’t. If I gotta do extra work to understand your book: your doing a crappy job.

The Family’s driving force is to kill various Spider-People across the multiverse. Not sure what happens after they kill one.  Sometimes they seem to just leave the Spider-Corpse in their home universe, where in other books it shows The Inheritors taking the body back to their home world called Loomworld (for all you Loom needs, right off the freeway) or Earth-001 to be “eaten” later. This also confuses me. Sometimes they seem to only suck the life force from a Spider-Person & at other times it seems like they are going to consume the actual person to give the life force from them. We never actually see them eating the person (I think). Maybe it’s different from Spider-Corpse to Spider-Corpse. The Inheritor’s keep mentioning the different smells & tastes of the Spiders, maybe some they wanna save & savor the taste?  Or at least gloat over back at home. The Inheritors also seem to be working off not just a Highlander principal but some sort of honor/dibs system. Honors/Dibs is like super important & stuff!

On Earth-001, there is the Master Weaver. Sadly I have yet to see a Dream Weaver anywhere in any of the comics which given the lyrics of that song I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not referenced somehow somewhere. The Master Weaver sits in the middle of the Web of All Realities… uh… the Great Web of Life & Destiny. At least it looks like he does in every picture I see him in. He “spins” the portals the Inheritors use to travel via the Multiverse & he seems to be somehow connect to every Spider-People (maybe he cause he’s a spider-person himself?). The Master Weaver looks kind of cool & his gimmick is also kind of cool. The weaver is half robot which depending on the book & artist can look cool.

What is the issue actually about? I told you. Random Universe with a Spider-Man. He’s being chased Karn.  A portal opens to show various Spider-People show up to help out. FIGHT SCENE! Some of the less important Spider-People die. There is bickering between the Spider-People & between the Inheritors. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I’ve only read 2 of the Spider-Man 2099 tie in issues & 1 thing I noticed in regards to Spider-Verse: only one variation on a character gets to be in the main story. In Spider-Man 2099 #5, there are seen a few versions of Spider-Man 2099 & one of his dopplegangers (that’s 1 version of Spider-Man I have yet to see pop up in this series) contacts the one we are accustomed to seeing. It seems by the “luck” of the draw, He gets to be in the main event. Another thing most universe are only repressed by 1 person where as the 616 universe (the “main” Marvel Universe”) is represented by at least 6 people: Superior Spider-Man, regular Spider-Man, the original Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Spider-Girl (Anya Sofia Corazon), Scarlet Spider (Kaine Parker) & Silk.

*disgruntled sigh*

Silk. Why you even a thing? My first time seeing you (in Amazing Spider-Man #7) you go out to fight crime in what might be the stupidest costume: nothing but webbing! She does have a pink crop top & matching shorts on under it. BUT unless you saw her web up you don’t know that. Also, doesn’t webbing fade away after awhile? so… she could be left outside during a fight without a costume. “Halt, base villain! It is I, the Pink Panties Avenger!”

Also in Issue 7 I see Peter Parker is hanging out with a little girl, who I have come to find out is the basis for the holographic helper Octo-Spidey (the Superior Spider-Man) uses. There is some story there which I don’t know. Not sure what it is. I could look it up but that might take more work then I wanna do. The girl does seem super smart for a child her age.  Silk does get a vasty better costume in Issue 8. But as a character just seems to be an inferior copy of other people. Other better Spider-People. Her back story (from what I’ve gleamed from the issues) is she’s a female Peter Parker which we don’t need since we have ACTUAL Peter Parker! We also don’t need another Spider-Woman running around New York: we already have a few & are getting more! Especially one with black hair: We already have one! If we wanted a young, untested female with spider based powers we already have one in Spider-Girl. Any reason for Silk to exist is already being filled by someone else & has been doing that job for a while.

Then we get to Issue #9. Oh, Issue 9. Marvel, how much did you not want me to like Silk? A lot? Well you succeeded! Big emphasizes on the Suck part! I’ve read 2 issue with her in it & she didn’t seem that bad of a character,  just kind of pointless. Then Issue 9 sent me over the edge (of the Spider-Verse). It’s morning in the 616 & Peter Parker is asleep. He might be naked. In comes Cindy Moon.  yeah.. that’s Silk’s real name. Not sure if that’s as bad a name as Future’s End Fifty Sue but it’s up there.

Cindy breaks into Peter’s apartment (?) to first stare at the maybe naked Peter Parker sleeping but to also talk to him about something. They have a problem! When ever they are close to each other their “animal urges” take over & they, to quote issue 9 “both feel the urge to mate. Like Spider-Bunnies.”  So far I have not seen any Spider-Bunnies in the event. There has been a Spider-Monkey & a Spider-Pig. This “problem” doesn’t seem like a problem to me because Issue 9 is the last time it’s brought up. The two of them interact in various situations after this & the “OMG I toats gotta have hot & sweat Spider-Sex with you!” never comes up. Maybe they are just good at keeping it in check THEN there isn’t a problem then, is there?  BUT Cindy has been thinking about this & has come up with the most ingenious plan to fix the whole darn thing: Peter should move!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Screw you, Cindy Moon & the irradiated spider you came in on! You don’t get to even suggest that sort of thing. If anything it’s her who should move! It would be the easier thing for her to do. She’s been spending the last few years/some period of time in a bunker/cave/hidden place somewhere & has no real ties to New York or the outside world. She doesn’t seem to have any family. She doesn’t have any friends beyond a little girl & Peter.  She has a job but hasn’t had it not for long. She could easily quit & move somewhere else. The Midwest! Silk, Iowa’s own Spider-Woman! She could go join the Great Lakes Avengers up in Minnesota. No… wait… I like the GLA & wouldn’t wish the plague of Silk on them. Silk could move to… the… The West Coast! yeah… The West Coast! That’s where most Marvel Super Heroes go if they don’t wanna be in New York!  Peter has way too many ties to New York for him to just pack up & leave. Plus, you think the rest of the super hero community is just going to except Cindy right into the club. “Hey! I have no idea who you are & you seem really untested in a fight. But if Spider-Man says your ok, I’m ok with you! Since when has Spider-Man’s word ever been untrustworthy?”  Plus in her further appearances in the event she really does not seem to have things together. There are many a “Damn it, Cindy!” moments in the event.

Before I get to the rest of Issue 9 which is the 1st part of the main series Let’s go back & talk about some of the stuff that lead up to it.

-——————————

The Prologue tie-in series “The Edge of Spider-Verse”

ISSUE #1: I think this issue could have gone to a different character.  It revolves around the Spider-Man from the “Spider-Man: Noir” books. The other 4 issues of brand new, never before seen characters. Noir Spidey has been around since 2009.  Plus a person is going to be a bit lost without past knowledge of who he is or what has happened in his past outings.  There is a recap page on the first page (the only Edge book to have one) but even with that I was a bit lost. I had read some of the Noir book back in ’09 but hadn’t since then. It wasn’t a bad story. Just was a bit lost & though the spot could have gone to someone else.

ISSUE #2: Most likely the most talked about & looked forward to issue of the set. The issue with Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman. It’s also of the most fleshed out worlds & most fun. She’s a fan favorite online & Marvel seems to be giving in since they have already announced that after the Spider-Verse she’ll be running around the main universe for awhile. When she is introduced in Issue 9 along with her name & what world she is from , the issue says “your new favorite”

ISSUE #3: Another cool issue. This take a more scientific angle to Spider-Man. Aaron Aikman (who I don’t think will be showing up elsewhere since I think he died at the end of the issue) is a scientist who gave himself spider powers & created a cool suit to go with it. I’d read more about him (if he didn’t die at the end of the issue) & his world! Maybe a prequel series?

ISSUE #4: Creepy for the sake of being Creepy! I did not like this issue since that’s what it felt like it was doing. What if…. a Peter Parker like character was a sadistic jerk who lived with an equally Jerky Uncle Ben stand in & then the Parker stand in gets bite by a radioactive spider? OH NO! He’s still a Sadistic Jerk!  He thankful died at the end of the issue so we never have to see or hear from him ever again.

ISSUE #5: Has a cool Pacific Rim/Giant Robots feel to it. I’d return that world also but sadly I don’t think anyone for this issue appears elsewhere.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Check out Issues 2, 3 & 5. #2 might be a bit harder to find due to it’s popularity but it’s also the only book with a character that is going forth after the  event.

———————————

The Spider-Verse Team-Up book is a lot of fun. Small groups of Spider-People all team-up to do stuff but is also by Spider-Writers & Spider-Artists from the past & present. Some fun stories but nothing really essential to the event at large!

———————————

We now inch closer to the actually event with the first two of the Amazing Spider-Man tie-in issues. I got a problem with these. well…. mainly what is the last page of #8 as part of “The Amazing Spider-Mail” section which: contains no mail until you consider what is written there a letter from Senior Editor Nick Lowe. About 5 paragraphs in is this sentence:  “The main Spider-Verse story runs in the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN starting in two weeks in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #9!”

uh… what?

“The main Spider-Verse story runs in the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN….”

what?

“The main Spider-Verse story runs in the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN….”

If the the “main story” is in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man then what runs in the pages of… oh.. you know… the page of the comic actually titled Spider-Verse? Oh… extra stuff. Issue #1 was just further set up stuff that seems like a retread of what was in Superior Spider-Man #33 & Amazing Spider-Man #9. Issue #2 was basically another issue of “Spider-Verse Team-Up”. If anything else Issue 1 should have been part one of the main event with Amazing Spider-Man #9 part 2 & Issue 2 of Spider-Verse should have been the final part of the event with the 5 center parts of the event be in Amazing Spider-Man. The way it has been handled both issue were rendered useless/pointless.

Team-Up depicted here is not
contained in this comic.

The main story in Issues 7 & 8 is skippable event wise as they don’t apply to anything Spider-Verse related. It’s a 2 part team up story between Spider-Man & the new Ms. Marvel. Now the cover to Issue 8 might tell you otherwise. It would have to believe that Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel & Spider-Girl have an adventure which happens to be “Spider-Girl’s Last Stand!”  NOPE! Spider-Girl does not interact with Spider-Man or Ms. Marvel at all. This isn’t even her last stand: she continues on after this issue & her tale here only takes up the last 8 pages of the issue. As for most of his loved one’s this is there last stand. Spider-Girl’s family (save for her infant brother) are killed in this story. Who by? If you guessed Morlun, you’d be wrong. It’s his brother Daemos, which I had thought was Morlun & he was just wrong really huge. Most of the Inheritor men all look very similar to each other.

This also reads like half a story. The last half of a story. Like it was going to be 18 pages but they didn’t have space for it all so they cut out all the set up (something I wish they’d do elsewhere in this event) & just give you the end part. You don’t need to set up why people are dying just how they died but don’t spend too much time on it. It’s not like these are important characters like the Spider-Girl’s parents! Who are PETER PARKER and MARY-JANE WATSON! Or her boyfriend, which she did not in the Spider-Girl comics I had read BUT I only read the early Spider-Girl with any regularity. Still, that’s her boyfriend! He’s an important person to her! There death scenes are just brushed aside. They happen, moving on.

The back up story in Issue 7 involves Spider-UK, a Captain Britain counterpart who also happens to be Spider-Man. He notices that various Spider-People are dying in the multiverse (like those from a universe that looks a lot like the old “Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends” cartoon). He goes to the inter-dimensional HQ for the Captain Britain Corps but is given the brush since that “That’s a Spider-Man issue, we are the Captain Britain Corps. We have more important things to worry about”. He is then sent off by himself to search out a solution to the problem.

———————————

And I think that’s enough for now. I’ll make another post talking about the main event it’s self. 

Until then: Stay Jazzy Everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 279: I've got Disappointment with The Doctor!

*sigh*

I’m a bit disappointed in your Doctor Who. There was something… rather something not in your latest episode that is making me disappointed in you.  At the end of Episode 7 (Kill the Moon): Clara seemed to be really, really mad at The Doctor for the events of the episode & past episodes. It’s looks like she has sworn off any further travels in the TARDIS. The preview at the end of the episode made it look like she was not going to be in next episode which would be understandable.

I assumed she wouldn’t be in an episode or two. Like The Doctor isn’t sure about human emotions but he knows enough to give her time away from the blue box. Maybe she would be seen in a few short scene without The Doctor while he is out there doing stuff but as he did then he might find out that needs her. So we get a “make up” scene a few episodes later on where they are both better people for it?

NO! It’s the very next episode  (Mummy on The Orient Express) & We have the TARDIS, The Doctor & Clara. WHA HUH? Why is she there? If I was super mad with someone I would not agree to go on an adventure in time & space with them. Why is she there? It’s no like 6, 9 months later for Clara (how long it’s been for The Doctor is unknown) & she seems to be ok with it. Or she seems to be half way ok with it all. 

Am I ok with it? NO!  You, the writers/producers of the show don’t get to skip over that part of the story. She doesn’t get to be mad in between episodes. We, the viewer, would want to see some of that. It adds to character. On both ends. Actions have consequences. We don’t get to skip over them. Yes I understand this is a TV show with many fantasy elements but some of the fantasy needs to be roots in reality for us to get a crap about it.

Just skipping over the period of time that Clara was mad at The Doctor feels cheap to me. Why have it happen if you not going to show the fall out from it? Why bring it up & then skip over it. We get the resolution of sorts at the end of the episode which glosses over the who thing. “I was mad before but now I’m not” 

WHY? Answer me this? Maybe I’m just dense but why Clara suddenly ok with it? Did her magic phone with Danny make it ok? 

Futures End UPDATE

Welcome back to the long awaited second part of Days of Futures End!

yeah…. Not sure how many people have been waiting for this things. My original plan was to review DC’s weekly series Futures End in a small chunks as it came out. Like 2 or 3 issues at a time. What actually got posted was a review of issues 0 & 1 back in May. I did start in on a review of issue 2 but given that issue was a bit boring & I really did not have anything to say about that issue or then the artist apparently has never Seattle at all.  I never finished that review & never wrote any reviews for the other later issues.

Today, Wednesday October 8th Issue 23 has come out. Will I go back & review the other 22 issues: no.  BUT this is what this post is about: It’s an update! I’m not going to go through it issue by issue or every really skim the plot for series here. I doubt I can really. It’s kind of all over the place. Even reading it weekly I sometimes get lost. There is a lot going on in a few different time & places. At times there are 3 different time periods going on & in those times you might get 2 or 3 different locations.

If you really want to know my opinion of the series. I can sum that up in 1 sentence: Cool stuff is sitting next to some really stupid stuff.  For every Fifty Sue (yes. That is an actual character’s name), Banger & Mash (British themed sisters with super strength), The Nan-Knight (that’s the name of the spaceship The Atom built): there is things like Brainiac. Go check him out Future Brainiac looks AWESOME! Future Firestorm also looks pretty cool.

Is Futures End a must read series?  I don’t know. The end of Futures End (like the last few issues) might be. If you read into things like me DC’s seems to be prepping something for early next year that might be spun out of the aftermath of Futures End. But… is it worth reading on a weekly basis? No. Not really. There are other things you could be reading from DC or the other companies out there.

1 thing: If you only read Issue 0 or only heard about Issue 0 & nothing else: That is not what the series is like. What is seen there in that 1 issue isn’t really touched expect for a few less crudely put together scenes. Issue 0 was a crappy way to get people to read the series. It’s one of the worse parts of the series. I wanted to read the series so I pushed through it & the series did get better as it went along for the most part. It’s still that a great series. It is readable. It’s got some interesting visuals & ideas.

Last month, DC flashed every book forward 5 years to show what their characters are doing in the main future time period of the series. This was this year’s anniversary lenticular event. Are these one-shots worth reading? Depends, do you read  any of those series? If no then no. You don’t need to read them to understand the main series. Of the ones that I looked at (in my local comic shop) very few of them tied into the main Futures End series. There are some “interesting” things in the one-shots. 2 Highlights:

1. Luchador Batgirl. Yes. you read that correctly: a Luchador Batgirl. She who heads a team of other 3 Batgirl (Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, and Tiffany Fox). The Batgirl of the Future has given up the ways of the Bat & has become a now former (by the time of the comic) apprentice of Bane. Most people focused on the fact that Stephanie & Cassandra were back in a comic. I focused on the Luchador Batgirl which we sadly don’t see much of in the comic. At least full shot of her in her costume. It’s awesome in all the worse ways.

2. Harley Quinn in the Suicide Squad one-shot. I’ll just leave you all to find check that out for yourself.

Of all the books that came out there is only 1 book that I think is worth picking up or at looking at is the Booster Gold one-shot. His book was the only 1 not connected to a series & seemed to fore tell of future events. Most likely what ever is coming next year.

Another book that came out today is Earth 2: World’s End, which is connected to Futures End. FE tells us the end of the story where as E2:WE will tell us the beginning. The End of the story is during some sort of battle/war/event, Earth 2 becomes unlivable for the people of that Earth. The heroes of Earth 2 escape from their World in giant flying Arks to Earth 1. The way Future End reads in Earth 2 isn’t just unlivable, it’s not there anymore.

Do you need to read Earth 2: World’s End if you reading Futures End? at the this point it's a toss up. With Issue 1 it does help if you were already reading the Earth 2 book.  It skims over the various past events from the book but does not explain what many of them are. Not sure how much Earth 2: World’s End with tie into Futures End or the main Earth 2 book.

And that's it for this update. I will most likely make another one at...  THE END!

Until then Stay Jazzy everybody!