Welcome to my weekly comic book oriented article here at Flipside Gaming. I am going to be reviewing the previous week’s best Marvel books and preview the coming week’s books that are the most intriguing in descending order. So, without any further delay, here we go! Excelsior!

Reviews

Captain America: Steve Rogers #16

So, the one complaint I will have about the start of Secret Empire is that I had no idea the reading order for the start of the series. I started off with Secret Empire #0, so I was mostly confused until I read this book. This definitely fleshed out the start of the event and I have to say that this is going to be a lot harder hitting than I anticipated. Rogers is not following around and the people that have found out are in a lot of trouble.

Daredevil #19

Daredevil has always been a character that jumped between hero and possessed villain, so it was not a stretch to see him be under the Purple Man’s control. Seeing him interact with all the other versions of Daredevil in his mind was a cool thing to see and it shows the conflict that he is constantly dealing with. It also took a cue from the Jessica Jones Netflix show for its resolution, but it was still a cool moment to see him pull through and stop this villain that was seemingly at his height of power.

Deadpool #29

This was the end of the Til Death Do Us arc and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The relationship resolution was a bit spoiled by his recent encounter with Rogue, but the story really focused on Deadpool on the end and kept Spider-Man to the side of the story. I don’t think we have seen the last of Dracula and Shiklah, but I would not be surprised if we do not see them sooner rather than later. I am curious to see where this will go now that Secret Empire is starting.

Secret Empire #0

Wow. That is really how I want to start this review. Secret Wars was one of the best Marvel events of all time and I really think that this has the potential to top it. You could see the issue build to a crescendo and when it was time for Rogers to act he did so quickly. Carter’s and Captain Marvel’s reactions to Rogers turning on them were on point and how the rest of the major players react will be great to see. I can only imagine what Tony Stark’s AI will say! This event took the stakes from an 8 and jumped them to a 20 on a 10-pt scale.

Venom #6

I have to say I was expecting a lot more Eddie Brock Venom in this issue, but it will really kept up with Marvel’s trend of bringing back the old versions of its characters. The Eddie and Spider-Man team up was pretty cool for a few beats but the real punch came with the symbiote hating Spider-Man again and Eddie Brock taking it away from Lee. I am interested to see what happens with Lee going forward and if this is the last we see of the Lee-Venom team-up.

Previews

Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider #1

Clone Conspiracy was a step up from other Spider-Man clone stories, but the heart of the event came from Ben Reilly trying to save all of his love ones from ever dying again. This obviously did not and it sent Ben on the run at the end of the story with a defective body. I am not quite sure if what we are going to see out of this series since we already have a non-killing Spider Man in Peter Parker and then we have Kaine who is not afraid to be a bit more aggressive.

Infamous Iron Man #7

It is Dr. Doom vs Reed Richards just like the old days, however we have a bit of reversed roles. Ultimate Reed Richards was always an intriguing villain and it was no surprise that he escaped Doomworld. Dr. Doom has been doing his best to be the hero he thinks his mother would want him to be despite the rest of the world wanting him to pay for his crimes. Doom’s interactions with Ben Grimm have been among my favorite across all comics recently and I look forward to more of it.

The Mighty Thor #18

We have an all-out Shi’ar and Asgard war going on and it looks like we might have a surprise appearance by the original Odinson himself. This comic series has been pretty great overall between Jane Foster’s journey with her cancer and her turn as Thor and the change in personality that accompany it. I have to assume Odin wakes soon and when he does I think the entire atmosphere is going to radically change and we will see this go to the next level.

Ultimates #6

It has been awhile for this issue, but I cannot wait to see who the Cosmic Jailer is.  I love these Kirby style, universe exploring stories and we are fleshing out characters that have just been on the fringes of cosmic space for a long time. The time of this story might be a bit off with its main characters also dealing with Secret Empire but I think that Marvel will be able to balance the company wide timeline.

X-Men Blue #2

It has been nice to see the original 5 X-men back together, albeit with some interesting twists. The biggest coming from the team taking orders from Magneto. Magneto had just come off being killed by Psylocke after IvX and then quickly resurrected. I think this experience has deeply changed how he views his place in the world and he might be trying to take Charles’ place in leading this new (old?) team of X-men in their fight against mutants that are using their powers against normal humans.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to stop in at Flipside Gaming in East Greenbush to pick up or reserve your copies of these titles today!

 -Stu Somers

Stu is a former M:TG Pro Tour competitor and avid comic book fan. He wants to know what you think about his article, so leave a comment below or hit him up on twitter @Ssomers55.