High Over Collection. Such a fun way to start an issue with Rocket complaining about how he’s already tired of hearing Thing’s catchphrases. He has three, that immediately spring to time.
Agent Venom is keeping the hole that Howard created last issue, plugged so that no one falls out into space. I guess Howard doesn’t know how to use the Power Cosmic enough to repair holes in space ships, that he created.
The heroes are about to land on Collection.
Not only does Stan Lee present the comic but so does Chip & Joe and even President Obama!
The Collector is happy to have Howard back in his collection, his collector number is – G5-18-2E18.
Now that Howard has a fraction of Silver Surfer’s power, he is able to stand up against The Collector. In doing so, Howard uses the last of the borrowed power.
Luckily, Silver Surfer arrives on the scene. Scout, the would-be Herald of Galactus, tries to get noticed but Collector doesn’t pay her any attention. I like the two guys calling each other by their whole real names.
The heroes crash land. Kitty immediately starts giving orders. Kitty is going to free prisoners and Thing & Drax going to are to destroy and punch everything.
Tara wants to help but Thing doesn’t know anything about her so she shows off that she can stretch her legs and transform one of her hands into an anvil. So she has Ms. Marvel powers, I guess?
Linda, Shocket and Tara are going to find Howard. One of the prisoners recognizes the lady clones, Taylor, but they look older. Due to time travel, they’ve been gone for six months but to them, it was 25 years.
While Surfer and Collector are fighting, Tara hugs Howard and they begin to run away.
The ladies come back with prisoners but no Howard. Just then, Howard and Tara arrive. He explains that all the prisoners have to do is think where they would rather be and walk into him. Tara finds Collector to be attractive.
Collector is doing very well against two Surfers. He breaks away and is about to attack Howard.
Collector begins to taunt Howard but he tries to draw Collector’s attention to the next prisoner. Collector tries to grab Howard by the throat but his hand keeps passing through him.
I do like “Lady Star Lord” as a name for Kitty’s era of being Star Lord.
This is a decent page to show off my one complaint of the issue. Does Kitty and Collector both have to wear red jackets? Made it hard for me to tell when it was her and him, as I missed scanning two pages because of it.
Pryde is a huge upgrade from Quill, she has a mutant phasing power and she’s smart. Dude Star Lord has nothing on her.
The ladies start shooting Collector, he calls them by their collectible numbers – G5-19-2E30 & G5-19-2E31.
Pryde has airwalked herself and Howard above Collector’s head giving Howard the higher ground. Howard grabs Collector’s ankles and begins to transport him away.
The Collector is gone and Howard is exhausted. We get Quinones continuing to draw Pryde from behind.
Four Hours Later. Shocket calls her, Pryde, as well – so you know she’s pretty kewl. Howard sends Shocket and Linda to Mirvos-12.
As a next step, Howard is going to join the Guardians as they are clearly allowing anyone to join their ranks. Something Grimm takes offense too but it is super funny.
Howard and Tara have a nice good bye. Howard sends Tara to George Clooney, she liked him in Batman & Robin.
Howard wants to be separated from the nexus, and I like how easily Silver Surfer separates Howard from the nexus.
Pryde allows Howard to ride with the Guardians, until he can get to where he wants to be.
Scout notices that the nexus is still connected to Howard, just not inside of him anymore. Silver Surfer seems confused by this turn too.
Once Howard walks through it, he should no longer be connected to it. I like how Howard takes the time to thank the Guardians for their help. He ever thanks the surfers. He thinks home and walks through the nexus.
Issue ends with Beverley! Long time lady friend companion of Howard’s. Looking it up, Beverly’s last appearance was in the fifth issue of the previous volume, that’s pretty fun.
Back cover ad is promoting M&Ms turning 75, so they’re the same age as Captain America. How zany was the year 1939! I didn’t know Tina Turner was born in 1939. She’s still amazing.
Helpful editor note stating that this issue takes place before Ultimates (volume four or five, right?) as in that issue, Galactus gets a reverse makeover and becomes a being of rebirth.
One Year Ago. Two scientists, Roberta and Mister Wiebe are observers with a giant telescope. He’s interested in looking for life in the universe. I like Roberta, she points out how often Earth is invaded by aliens. There definitely is life out there beyond the stars. Through the telescope lens, Roberta sees Galactus. There is an editor note stating that this is from Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volume One Issue 4.
Now. The title was this issue was “Fowl Movement!” but they changed it to “Duck! Duck! Loose!” as the other one was too silly.
Howard is trying to convince The Stranger to free him, as Howard makes a terrible prisoner. Stranger wants to speed up the process of using Howard to open portals as Stranger knows people are going to try to either rescue Howard or steal him for themselves.
The new Herald of Galactus, Scout, has come for Howard. I imagine this is Roberta. Stranger has eaten free-range asteroids with Galactus. Stranger dismisses Scout, with a wave. Roberta grabs Howard and surfs out of there.
Once they have gone a distance, Scout stops talking like a cosmic Stan Lee character, which she was pretending to do, as it felt like the thing to do. Howard makes it super clear that he isn’t a cosmic person. He just keeps ending up in these cosmic situations. Fun little comment box of the writer saying he’s sorry.
Scout offers Howard to Galactus, but he is tired of all of these pursuits of Scout’s. Galactus goes on to say that Scout is not his herald.
Once Scout has explained that Howard is the Living Nexus of Realities so she can open portals to a vast number of planets that Galactus can dine on. This intrigues Galactus. Howard stands up for himself and Galactus is tempted to to make Howard his new herald. This upsets Scout.
Just then, Silver Suffer arrives. Howard isn’t a gift to be given away. Galactus points out that Dawn isn’t around, she doesn’t like the world devourer. Roberta tells Surfer that she is a huge fan, which catches him off guard. . Surfer asks how she got some of his power.
Five Months Ago. Roberta, who’s nickname is Scout, meets Alicia Masters. Roberta finds a small statue that Alicia made from a speck of Silver Surfer’s power, that she shaped into Ben Grimm. The page ends with Roberta hitting Alicia with the statue, from behind, to her head!
We finally get to a page where we see Scout’s character design.
Roberta, wisely, just hints that she found the power – somewhere. All she wants to do is help, she thought she could cure Galactus’ hunger. Surfer understands Scout’s earth based desire to help but one can’t give people away like items. Howard appreciates the slick nudist for standing up for him. Howard also misses his pantless days. Which that line made me realize that he is wearing shorts.
We finally get to the reason why I’m buying this issue and the next one. Kitty Pryde and the Guardians are getting closer to Howard’s location. Linda is with them. Kitty takes note of Galactus, but Grimm isn’t that concern. Rocket points out that others are also in pursuit of Howard.
Galactus silences his two chrome guests. Galactus will study Howard and see if he is capable of opening portals. Grimm arrives, surprising Surfer. Grimm wants to take Howard and leave. Surfer likes the idea of Galactus being gone, and no more massive amount of deaths. Grimm lays down the facts about how Reed use to say that Galactus is a balancing force. Without Galactus, things would get worst.
The writer, Chip Zdarsky, wants to know what happened to Reed Richards – he hasn’t been told how Secret Wars 2015 ended.
There is an ad for the Deadpool game’s rerelease, now on PS4 and XBox One.
Galactus is fired upon by a Kree fool and he turns his attention and shoots his laser eyes, destroying the silly ship.
Groot is holding onto Grimm, but he wants Groot to stop, so he can reach out and grab Howard.
Meanwhile, we see Silver Surfer . . . surfing away with Howard. Surfer is going to find Howard a safe place to hide. In case they get separated, Surfer gives Howard a piece of the Power Cosmic.
As Howard is trying to use to the cosmic surfboard, he goes straight through a space ship.
We see Kitty’s butt there, in that panel. So that counts! Don’t worry, she appears properly in the issue too.
Tara can’t believe this team doesn’t have a telepath, one would think that is a mandatory requirement.
Grimm puts on a space helmet and he is going old fashion with his approach. He opens the hatch and just shouts at a passing Howard. He didn’t need to shout, with the power cosmic, Howard hears pretty well.
Tara and Howard hug, they both have had quite the day.
We get to see Pryde’s butt again, it is an interesting angle to take. Pryde asks if Howard is always like this, Tara says that he isn’t typically so naked and shiny.
The ships engines are dead but Howard is powering their ship with the surfboard.
Quinones finally draws Pryde properly.
This must be the first time Pryde and Howard have met, as they don’t know each other. He thinks, very funnily, that this is Quill, but now a woman. Pryde quickly recaps how Quill is out and she’s replacing him and the team hasn’t been happier.
So funny the exchanges of Agent Venom, Pryde and Rocket. No one knows how Rocket became leader but they are living with it.
Howard is sending them straight for Collecton, one would think The Collector would have a better name for his house. Tara can’t believe that they are heading into danger. Howard, having a sad revelation that he will always be chased and will always get caught up in weirdness.
Tara doesn’t know who Bev is. Howard refers to Beverly in the past tense, so I would like to know what happened there with her and Howard.
Now that they are minutes away, Howard gets dragged away by a green chord.
Issue ends with Howard vs The Collector!
Feather Regions, letters from – Jason Greenly of Champaign, IL / John Rule of Manchester, England / Steve McSheffrey / Osvaldo Oyola of The Middle Spaces.
I would send an e-mail but I’m crazy behind on my current books as I was way late in getting the May special issues I wanted to cover out.
I haven’t read an issue of Howard the Duck’s previous volume’s fourth issue. I thought I had checked on Marvel Comics Database when this issue first came out and didn’t see Kitty listed as a character. Then at Hastings, I remembered the Guardians were going to appear in this title and I thought I might as well check the last page of this issue to see if they were teased, at all.
What I found was a Gwenpool back-up feature, so now I’ve read an appearance of that character BUT the important thing was that the last page of Howard’s main story, was a real winner. Glad I double checked, but now I’m worried that I may have missed some appearances of Kitty Pryde.
Here is what has been happening in the title, thus far. Linda, a female duck like how Howard is a male duck and Shocket (a female Rocket Raccoon) are on an adventure. The recap page implies that these two dames have a sad origin story. These two ladies are after Howard. Apparently he and Rocket caused these two ladies to be on the other side of the universe and now they are after him. Also, Howard is now the living Nexus of all Realities, which I have to wonder what that means for Man-Thing. Nice reference to co-creator, Steve Gerber, at the end.
The issue opens with Howard the Duck, riding a cosmic surf board and cast in all chrome – like from the cover. He’s worried that the universe is after him.
One week earlier, the majestic swamps of Citrusville, FL. Shocket and Linda have guns aimed at Howard and his female companion, Tara. Tara implies she is a superhero now, with a fun editor note stating that we can expect to see the “Captain Tara, the Last Avenger” film in 2032.
Shocket shoots Tara, which Linda isn’t happy with that choice. Linda is about to touch Howard, to plead with him to come with them but Shocket tells her to not to touch him. They are not sure what could happen.
Somehow, the Wizard (of Frightful Four fame) arrives and takes Howard hostage. As he touches Howard, there is a flash of light and the Wizard is gone. Howard freaks out, as he believes he has absorbed the Wizard. Linda explains the situation. Howard can now teleport people, or they can teleport him.
Howard asks who Linda is, she says that it is a long story. An awesome editorial note hips us that this happened in issue two. Not the previous issue two but the one from the previous volume but not the original volume from 1976 but the early 2015 volume not the late 2015 volume (which this one is, technically). Which is a fun jab at how silly relaunching this title, as often as Marvel has done.
Actually I got my asterisks backwards. Linda references how Howard and Rocket were prisoners of the Collector, which was from the early 2015 volume and Linda and Shocket’s story is found in the previous issue of this volume.
Linda, thankfully, explains the situation. Linda and Shocket are gender-altered clones that the Collector made, so that they would mate with Howard and Rocket (respectfully, I assume) so that their species will continue. Linda and Shocket, traveled back in time to avoid the Collector’s schemes but here they are now. I did check and I didn’t see any previous issues of this series at Hastings. I like Tara pausing the story so that she can process this. A lot has happened over two pages.
Linda and Shocket want Howard’s help to free the Collector’s other prisoners. Tara isn’t sure about the plan but Howard is still haunted by the prisoners. This wasn’t referenced in the later issue that I read.
The four of them are flying towards the Collector. Tara is excited about being in space. Howard isn’t that impressed, as space is full of nothing. Shocket takes offense to his attitude as space is their home. They have been on the run, for so long. Linda can’t wait to have a home and not just be on the run. She’s pretty excited about owning a couch that isn’t connected to a ship. So the two ladies match the personalities of their male counterparts.
Their ship, the Thundertrek, gets bombarded by one of the Collector’s ships. Right after that, a Skrull ship comes on top of them. Howard blames his involvement as to why everyone is after them. This gives Linda an idea.
Shocket expects that they are able to track Howard’s new cosmic signature. Linda knows that the other crews are only after Howard.
Tara keeps wanting to contact Doctor Weird (I imagine she really means, Doctor Strange, close enough!) to separate Howard from the Nexus of Realities.
Howard starts getting into flux, as the people on the ships are trying to teleport Howard off of them. This gives Howard an idea.
Howard is teleported to the bigger ship, that belongs to the Stranger. Neither one is impressed with the other. Howard wants answers from the Stranger. People want Howard as instead of using fancy technology (that could be chancy) Howard is a done-in-one trip. You think of the location, Howard makes it happen – super simple. Strange further explains that Howard has the ability to create new universes as well.
Stranger, as a scientist, would love to create a new universe that he can study and be a “god scientist” of. Howard agrees to be the gateway to this new universe, he only wants his friends to be set free. Stranger doesn’t like Howard having friends, that could be distracting, so Stranger blows up their ship.
Five minutes earlier, elsewhere. Tara, Linda and Shocket are teleported into a cargo bay. They are not sure where they are, they only know that Howard sent them someplace that they can get help at. They turn a corner to see . . .
The Guardians of the Galaxy! This is the first part of three issues guest starring the Guardians!
Feather Regions, no letters but some fun plugs and segues. This is written by Wil Moss, who is a Kitty Pryde fanboy so now I follow him on Twitter. @Wil_Moss, good guy.
Mostly the page has promotions for Gwenpool and her special that is coming out.
Then we got the final back-up that teams up Gwenpool and Howard the Duck.
Ms. Poole if You’re Nasty
Part Three of Three
Writer Christopher Hastings
Artist Danilo S. Beyruth
Color Artist Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer Travis Lantham
Issue opens with Howard giving Black Cat a box. Then the next page, starts the tale of how he got the box.
Howard and Gwenpool are crash landing into a Hydra base. Gwenpool, who seems more like Deadpool than Gwen Stacy – so a lady Deadpool who shows off her legs – something that Spider-Gwen doesn’t do in her costume, she’s covered from head to toe. Howard is also in a Deadpool-esque story.
There is a female head of Hydra, who isn’t Viper. She is working on that classic villain scheme of creating a disease and providing the cure afterwards.
Apparently, Gwenpool sold Hydra the disease and now is trying to get it back. I could have really used a recap page PLUS a page of what Gwenpool’s deal is.
Gwenpool calls the lady, Madame Hydra, but that isn’t her name. She and Viper are brunettes (though I always prefer Viper as a green haired beauty) but they are not the same person. Gwenpool references that she read an old Nick Fury story involving Madame Hydra’s weakness which reminds me that I believe Gwenpool is from our reality, somehow in a comic book – probably Marvel’s way of explaining her ability to fourth wall breakage.
Gwenpool grabs the box and drinks the virus. NotViper tells everyone to evacuate.
Howard stops NotViper by throwing a table at her. Gwenpool thought the guy, who was affected by the virus, and that he had super-mumps. She was vaccinated for mumps in her universe, so she thought she wouldn’t have to worry about it. Howard shouts at her that they have the mumps vaccine in the Marvel Universe too. Just then, the effects of the virus hit Gwenpool. Lady Hydra offers the cure, so that she doesn’t get sick and Gwenpool injects herself with it.
The Present. Black Cat as the box but now the people who first sold it to her want it back. I take it, there has been several double crosses here. They offer Felicia double the money and she takes the new deal.
Turns out, it wasn’t the person who sold Black Cat the virus but Gwenpool in disguise.
A decent nine page story, I’m sure I’m suppose to wikipedia “Gwenpool” and I may one day but not today.
I’m super excited about the next two issues of this title though, I can’t wait!
Color Artists Rico “Excelsior” Renzi & Rachelle “Face Front” Rosenberg
Letterer Travis “True Believer” Lanham
I like comics that have fun recap pages, this one makes me want to check out the previous issues. Squirrel Girl’s recap pages are pretty fun too. Previously, in this series – Howard the Duck took on a case where he was hired to locate a lost necklace. He found it, somehow ended up in space with a guest appearance by Rocket. He got back to Earth and Aunt May (that one!) ended up stealing the necklace. This was part of a scheme the Ringmaster (of Circus of Crime fame), that involved getting the elderly to commit his crimes. Turns out, the guy who hired Howard, was Talos the Untamed!
Which is the issue that Rick Jones married Marlo during. Mile High Comics, at the most expensive, has a copy for $7.20 or $2, if you don’t mind having dulexe edition. The cheapest is $2.35 or $1.50, the deluxe being a lower quality so I would go with the cheaper but Fine quality but I’m not really sure what the difference between the DeluxeNews and the Special versions.
Talos has twelve appearances.
Onto the issue. Detective Mike is also getting a recap from Howard. It has been thirty minutes, since the previous issue. Howard the Duck used his Duck-Fu to fight Talos. Peter Parker is not happy that his never-dying aunt was used as a pawn.
The Next Day in New! York! Cityyyyy! Howard is telling his friend, Tara Tam, that he is going to keep investigating the necklace. He is going to go consort his old friend, Doctor Strange – from the cover. I like how Editor Wil Moss (who probably don’t have time for two l’s) instructs that we look at the cover, to see who Doctor Strange is.
Greenwich Village, NYC. Yes, it is a village inside a city, just go with it. Wong, at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, tries to cover for the good doctor, as he is busy at the moment – in a different dimension. Howard, knowing that he can help with that, jumps into the portal. Tara stays back, as she doesn’t like magic.
Howard using some Duck-Fu on some demons and finds Strange, at a poker game! Strange, sometimes, makes up these elaborate tales, so that he can spend a few minutes away from Wong.
Once back, Howard takes the opportunity to use this information to tell Wong and Tara that he saved Strange’s life. Strange, not wanting to lose his cover story or the ability to use a cover story, to have to swallow his pride and confirmed that Howard did save his life. So funny.
Strange reveals that there is a second famous, gauntlet, the Abundant Glove. The gems that go onto it are – Compassion / Laughter / Dance / Respect / A Second Dance Gem. It is clearly the B-Grade hand accessory. It is the Mark Wahlberg to Matt Damon’s Infinity Gauntlet. Strange has found the location of the gem and the trio (minus Wong) go on a slight trip.
Soon. Shortly. Soonly. The trio run into Human Torch, who gives a little background on his experience with the gem.
We get to the reason why I bought this issue! Good ol’ Colossus cheating on Kitty with Zsaji, keeps paying off with my Marvel purchases.
I like how Johnny Storm refers to his shameless flirting as “Captain Kirking” but the responses from the ladies is to be disgusted. Awesome use of ‘new continuity’ by having Deadpool being present in Secret Wars. I thought it was just the cover blurb about the new miniseries. That’s a fun synergy.
Also great? That Spider-Man panel, the middle outfit is the outfit Peter Parker wore in Amazing Fantasy 15!
So great, that the present day scene takes place at the Fantastic Four’s Pier 4 headquarters. Johnny brought the gem home and just lost it, in the move or sometime later.
Now this new group of four go to Bohemian Valhalla, where cool warriors chill. One-bedrooms starting at $850.00, opening Fall 2015.
I do like the Human Torch thinking that the trio were the current roster for the Defenders, with Strange leading them.
The heroes get to the corner where the gem should be and a huge explosion occurs.
Issue ends with Talos the Untamed, with the Abundant Glove – fully stocked.
There is a huge back up feature, drawn by Katie Cook and colored by Heather Breckel. It stars Howard the Duck, White Rabbit (who I feel like I just saw in another comic, not too long ago) and Ant Man.
The Letters Page, Feather Regons – has letters from – “Quack” Goettemoeller, Jack Cooper of Cardiff, Wales and Adam. I sent a letter, we’ll see if it ever gets printed.
(So I typed this on May 26, 2015 – so I’m seven months behind on my reviews – I have lots of comics! I didn’t realize I had that many but I really don’t want to just do reviews every single day but I recognize that the event is nearly over and I’m just now reviewing the issues.)
I went with this variant, as I’m sure that is Kitty Pryde playfully punching Peter Quill’s arm. I posed the question to the Uncanny X-Cast Facebook group and I’m being told there that those two are Clint Barton and Kate Bishop, the Hawkeyes, which would explain the target on his shirt. Still, I had to buy this issue for one character in specific, so I took a shot with this variant.
Issue opens with Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange and Molecule Man are trying to plead with the Beyonders but Doom has a plan. This is the only pages, I feel, that one needed to read the entire Hickman Avengers opus to fully grasp. Instead, to me, it just reads like Doom is speaking to a mysterious force, which sort of still works.
The Multiverse is dying. Only two universes remain. Today, Earths collide.
Manhattan. Earth-1610. Incursion Event Imminent. Just for anyone who doesn’t know and may be reading this, for the first time – 1610 is the Ultimate Universe and 616 is the Proper Marvel Universe.
The Triskelion. Headquarters of this Earth’s SHIELD. Ultimate Fury wants Reed to explain how much time is left.
The City. Home of the Cabal and the Children of Tomorrow. Currently residing in Manhattan. Ultimate Reed has a weird helmet on his head. Reed gives Fury some hope, there is still time to fight this out. Once Reed ends the call, we see that Reed has been working with the Proper Marvel’s Cabal (the villain version of the Illuminati) – Thanos, Black Swan and Terrax. Reed reveals that the two Earths should have no hope, he lied to Fury so that Fury could feel decent about his last hours.
Once I saw that Ultimate Shadowcat was actually in this title, I knew I was in a for a good time. As I suspect that I will be jumping in and out of this series.
Another crossover and looking over the list, I feel pretty good for knowing all but a few characters.
I still don’t know who the Avengers Manifold & Pod are. I’m not sure about the X-Men’s Nation X Sentinels, I know Hickman’s Avengers 38 dealt with Cyclops and Nation X but that didn’t have Kitty at all. So I didn’t read that issue.
I’m disappointed that proper Kitty isn’t counted amongst the Guardians of the Galaxy.
I’m not sure who Inferno is of the Inhumans, but I’m sure he’s just a new Inhuman that won’t be around in a year.
Ultimate Universe, I just assume that The City and Children of Tomorrow are both related to Reed, I know that is true of the City but it sounds right with the Children of Tomorrow, as well.
The only members of the Cabal, that I don’t know are Proxima Midnight & Corvus Glaive. This is a more cosmic Cabal than Norman Osborn’s Cabal. I do like the note that they are on the Ultimate Earth but they are from the Proper Marvel Universe.
Manhattan. Earth-616. The Incursion Point between both Worlds.Though the narrative, we are informed that the this world’s populace knows that their end is soon. Unless the heroes can help.
Baxter Building. Near it, an explosion occurs. We see that the Fantastic Four have been making a Life Raft, with a bunch of brains being invited. I like Reed growing a beard. Black Panther is also on board. We get the first check in with Black Widow and Spider-Woman, who are bringing in the majority of the scientists. A few didn’t want to come, opting to spend their last hours with their families. That is an impossible choice but I can only imagine I choose to stay on Earth. Unless I can pull an Elijah Wood in Deep Impact and marry Leelee Sobieski and bring her along with me.
Manifold is trying to save the day, by following Black Panther’s instructions but it really isn’t explained how he is going to do it or what his powerset is. He isn’t successful, like, not even a tad.
Ultimate Iron Man is leading the Ultimate army (of SHIELD soldiers) against a main heroes listed on the character list, so the Ultimate side of things have no chance.
Spider-Man is about, saving civilians as is Iron Fist and Luke Cage. Representing the Guardians of the Galaxy are – Star Lord, Drax and Rocket. No mention of where the other members are. Not sure why they didn’t bring their cosmically enhanced members such as Gamora and Shadowcat. Thor (who is really Jane Foster) is fighting along with Storm.
FalCap and Iceman witness Sentinels coming to assist as Cyclops is leading them, as he is a leader of Nation X. Captain Marvel is directly fighting Ultimate Iron Man. Groot is on the scene, as well. Ultimate Iron Man inappropriately hits on Captain Marvel.
She-Hulk fights a weak spot in the Ultimate Hellicarrier and Colossus fastball specials Doc Green, in that direction. The Ultimate Universe is not putting up a decent fight, at all. Ultimate Hawkeye is on board, aiding Ultimate Nick Fury, they know they are not putting up a fight. Fury tells Reed to begin to use his doomsday worldkiller weapon.
Giant explosions star occurring. We get a panel with Ultimate Jean, Wolverine, Cloak & Dagger and Shadowcat! Hence, why I own this issue. I’m hoping, since they are included here, that they are crucial (or at least, involved) in Ultimate End. Which I can only imagine takes place right before this issue. So the final issue has to recreate some of this.
There are these, practically, city wide domes on Earth now. They slowly open, revealing a slew of smaller ships. Seems like Ultimate City is just the Proper version of The World, of the Weapon X facility.
Ultimate Spider-Man was standing on one of the globes. Now the Ultimate Universe has brought its big guns.
Kingpin sent a massive e-mail to his fellow villains. I like their e-mails
I wish they were more imaginative e-mail handles, Fisk’s is pretty great. Punisher arrives at the party, he can’t bring his bullets to the afterlife, and so he kills all that are present. I imagine, the villains, didn’t put up much of a fight.
Natasha calls Susan, they are not going to make it to the Baxter Building. Black Widow is the first hero (and Spider-Woman) that we see die, on panel.
Oh, Manifold’s ability is to get the second life raft (you know, the one that contains named characters), and they take off. So we have Reed, Black Panther and Susan that are safe and the other Fantastic Four family members and fellow Foundation students.
Black Panther puts out the call to get the survivors that they need.
Cyclops grabs his Phoenix Egg, which I’m still not sure about.
Apparently, it just contains the Phoenix Force. Cyclops gets the Phoenix Force aura around him but not the red thong.
We get Drax, Groot and Rocket’s deaths – and Rocket did not want to be on Earth. We see Drax and an uncosmically enhanced Gamora, so that is odd. I imagine that Hickman was told everything before he wrote this issue, so he should have been told about the end of a very well promoted crossover, Black Vortex.
Star Lord disappears, as does Thor, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man. Manifold decides not to take off in the life raft, he wants to stay and keep gathering the needed heroes. The life raft launches from the Baxter Building. Phoenix Force empowered Cyclops is also on the life raft. Instead of a black mask with red cross, Cyclops’ mask is now yellow.
Reed if flying the life raft into the heart of the Incursion, as that is their best chance at survival. A lightning blast strikes the side of their round life raft. The carrier section breaks away, Black Panther tells Reed (and us) that Susan and their children are located there. Which is odd, as two pages earlier – Susan, Franklin and Val, are strapping in right behind Reed. What happened in the ensuing page (which was the full page of the lightning blast)?
Susan places a force field around the carrier section. Reed tells T’Challa to drop the shields, he is going to reach out and grab them. T’Challa tells him he only has seconds to make the attempt. Reed has five seconds and they go by so quickly and . . . this is so heartbreaking, fails. We see the carrier burn up – so Susan, Franklin, Val and Thing are all dead.
On Reed’s section – for sure – are, Star Lord, Thor, Captain Marvel and Black Panther.
How great is that narration? I full agree with it. You find your life partner, and you can’t believe you can love anyone as much and then you go ahead and have a child. You still love your life partner, but – somehow – you love this child more than you love anything you ever loved before. Reed has lost his family and, with that middle panel, has lost an entire planet and worst, a universe. Such a devastating page!
We end the issue with Doom, who use to believe in tomorrow but now he believes in nothing. Issue two will be defining Doom’s role and the new (temporary) Marvel Earth – Battleworld.
Such a great way to end the issue with the tombstone of the two great Marvel lines. The proper one, 1961 – 2015 and the Ultimate one, 2000 – 2015. I can’t believe the Ultimate Universe was 15 years old. Marvel was a very young, 54 year old.
Other famous 53 year olds? Michael J. Fox, Melissa Etheridge, Ralph Macchio, Eddie Murphy, Boy George, Richard Hatch, Scott Baio, KD Lang, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jane Leeves, Meg Ryan, Thomas Hayden Church, Enya, George Clooney and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky. All born in 1961 – how crazy how much they al accomplished for being born the same year and how different each of their careers are, no two have the same path. All with various levels of success.
While working at Hastings, I was trying to sell slash hype this issue and this one guy started flipping through the pages. I asked him to slow down as with each quick page turn, he was quickly killing the Marvel Universe. We had a good laugh after that.
Sadly, this fantastic issue is ruined with a six page preview of Uncanny Inhumans. Which is unwanted and unnecessary.
This handy website has a more detailed commentary of the issue :
Which is a pretty interesting read, as I read none of Hickman’s Avengers and two issues of his Fantastic Four run.
YouTuber ComicsIsland had this pretty awesome hour long episode –
Which is pretty great as I rather just watched this than buy the eventful Hickman Avengers Omnibus. There were parts that almost lost my interest but then the reveal with Doom and how everything starts paying off, sounds pretty great.
ComicsIsland has plenty of similar theme episodes, which is pretty great as well as review episodes and fun top ten lists and such.
. . .
Since I bought the variant cover at Hastings, I was awarded with a giant poster of the Battleworld Map!
I do enjoy being able to hold the entire map and seeing everything larger than I can on a computer screen.
I’ve tried my hand at scanning the one I have :
That isn’t any better but maybe someone with sweet skills can make that work.
I’m trying to find an image with all of the covers revealed, as at this point, only three portions of the map are still CLASSIFIED and no further information is available on those.
Apparently, Marvel released a trailer for this event and had started connecting with portions are which titles.
Thanks to Marvel Entertainment for hosting their own video, also this next video!
This was the first video of The Watcher’s that I have seen. I’ve seen previous videos of Lorraine Cink’s advertised before but I may have to check more of them out.
I was surprised that Wikipedia had the full list and the corresponding titles, that is pretty handy!
Battleworld map
Following numerous incursions across the multiverse, the remains of various realities have been fused together to create a new Battleworld. All of these realities are known as domains and have the ability to interact with each other, except for three (consisting of the Deadlands, Perfection and New Xandar) which are separated from the rest by the Wall for the simple fact that these domains contains threats that if set loose, would destroy all the others.
The following is a list of the domains and the Marvel Comics event titles that are their basis or reimagining as revealed on Marvel Comics’ Interactive Battleworld map. Secret Wars #2 will publish a complete guide to each domain:
43. Timely (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – The town of Timely where all the Marvel characters exist in an 1872 Wild West setting.
44. Genosha (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – The island that became the Mutant homeland and where the E is For Extinction mini-series will be set.
45. Holy Wood and Forest Hills (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – Though mentioned in the solicitation for the Korvac Saga, they are not shown on the Battleworld map.
Special thanks and shoutout to whomever typed all of that up and figuring it out!
I was looking for this Marvel Interaction Secret Wars 2015 Battlemap page but unfortunately it is only a hotlink on their main page for the event, so I’m not sure if it will still be an active website but it should work for a while, I imagine.
A nice brief summary of what each portion of Battleworld and which comic series that it correspondences with.
The titles and sections of the map that I’m mostly interested in, and at the very least, tracking are –
Number – Region Title – Comic Title
3 – Domain of Apocalypse – Age of Apocalypse
Which is above Limbo (which I’m also tracking) to the left of both Egyptia and Technopolis (which I’m not tracking). To the left of it is – Mutopia to the top left, Westchester (the FOX X-Men Animated series by Chris Sims) shares a small border and The Wastelands makes up the bulk of it.
11 – K’un-Lun – Master of Kung Fu
Which is to the right of Regency (the world if Peter never made a deal with THE DEVIL to undo his marriage to Mary Jane, so that his elderly aunt can live a few more years) / below King James’ England (the 1602 world) / to the right of Utopolis and above Weirdworld
17 – Marville – Giant Size Little Marvel
Which is surrounded by Utopolis above it, Arachnia to the right and New Quack City – where Howard the Duck is from, below it.
20 – Manhattan – a) Attilan (Inhumans) b) Proper Marvel New York City c) Ultimate Marvel New York City d ) Monster Metropolis
Don’t care about the Inhumans, but I’m sure b & c are going to crucial to the main series and whichever titles are not associated with a certain portion (such as Star Lord and Age of Apocalypse Kitty Pryde) and Ultimate should be where Ultimate End takes place in. Monster Metropolis is where Shiklah‘s kingdom is.
They are surrounded by several locations too! High Avalon to the left / CLASSIFIED above / CLASSIFIED to the left / The City (but not the City from The Tick, unfortunately) below. I imagine those CLASSIFIED locations are important only because of how close they are to the most important locations.
29 – Monarchy of M – House of M
I highly doubt SHIELD agent Illyana Rasputin or school teacher, Kitty Pryde, are going to be in this at all. Killville (where MODOK is important) to the top right and 2099 to the bottom right. 2099 is suppose to be a title that survives this event, somehow.
30 – Sentinel Territories – Years of Future Past
Killville to the left / 2099 to the bottom left / The Wastelands (Old Man Logan) to the bottom right / Mutopia (Morrison’s E is for Extinction) to the right
37 – Limbo – Inferno
Limbo, being so vast, covers quite some ground on Battleworld. Well, until I realize it was suppose to be a globe, so now I want a gif of the map spinning so I can get a better grasp on it. To the top of it is Domains of Apocalypse, along with 36 and 31 and below it (but separated by the SHIELD) is both The Deadlands (Marvel Zombies) & Perfection (Age of Ultron). Which makes sense as there is a comic, Age of Ultron v Marvel Zombies, which seems highly missable to me now. New Xandar (where Thanos is kept) is also separated by THE SHIELD. The SHIELD is there to prevent the horrors from escaping into the rest of Battleworld.
So this is all pretty exciting!
I was looking at the map, to make this post an my wife had a few things to add. First, that the Battleworld doesn’t look like Earth. Which brought her to ask if America was even represented. Which sort of blew my mind, as Battleworld is now like 90 percent American. There is an England, Egypt, Howard the Duck world, and maybe Mars? but the other 30 sections are American. New Xandar is Xandrian. Limbo is a different dimension. K’un -Lun is also another dimension.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 