Welcome to this week’s Marvel Comics Preview/Review. This week’s reviews are heavy on X-men and Fantastic Four goodness. This week has the Avengers going to work for Dr. Doom, Deadpool going for a walk on the Moon, and our first real Secret Empire tie-in. So, without any further delay, here we go! Excelsior!

Reviews:

Nova #6

I always thought the Cancerverse was a really cool concept due to its Lovecraftian inspirations and the fact that it involved several team-ups that fans would never expect to see. To see a thread of it picked up again and really explore it was a pretty enjoyable read. The cover also really caught my eye, it is so unsettling with the Cancerverse peering through to the Marvel universe that it will entice a lot of people to pick this series up.

Secret Empire #1

I do not want to spoil too much with this review. The last few pages of the issue really show how terrible things have gone for the Marvel heroes. This is a full blown good vs evil conflict and even if that involves a US icon working for Hydra, it is a welcomed scene. I have a strong feeling this event is going to rival Secret Wars in quality if fans can get past the unnecessary complaint of altering Marvel history to tell a story.

Spider-Man/Deadpool #17

It is weird to see Spider-Man toy with the idea of killing a villain, even if it is someone as vicious as Itsy Bitsy. She has not appeared to be someone to push him this far; he never seemed to go this far when it came to Carnage who I think is probably a far more dangerous adversary. There were a couple panels that really channeled Superior Spider-Man and those looked fantastic. It is great to see Deadpool be a voice of reason because you know things have really gone south and that leads to great story telling.

X-Men Gold #3

I think the first few issues were about setting the tone of this new X-Men relaunch and issue #3 was a perfect bow tie for this. Granted the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants kind of got shuffled off stage, the villain behind the plot really gave me a sense of the X-men stories of the 80s where it was a powerful human trying to rid the world of mutants due to fear and racism. I think things will really ramp soon and we will see some more classic X-men characters appear in prominent roles.

Previews:

Amazing Spider Man #27

It always feels like the things in Spider-Man’s life will go wrong at the slightest sign of success. Parker Industries was going great and then Clone Conspiracy happened. Now SHIELD has declared war on Parker since they are trying to usurp Norman Osborn in a foreign country. Remember, no one knows Spider-Man’s true identity right now so they have no idea the person running Parker Industries is one of the greatest heroes they have.

Avengers #7

What would the Avengers be without an Iron Man? However, I do not think the one wanted was Victor Von Doom. With him trying to join the Avengers (or them joining him), I am excited to see him interact with so many of these long time characters that have battled him over the years. The best part of Infamous Iron Man is his interactions with Ben Grimm so I am hoping we get to see that with new characters in the Avengers.

Deadpool #30

Deadpool is heading to space! That is about all there really is as far as summary for this book. Deadpool’s life has been a bit hectic recently between losing his wife to Dracula, his hero turning out to be a Hydra agent and battling his best friend Spider-Man. I think this will be pretty light-hearted until it starts to tie into Secret Empire.

Secret Warrors #1

The first real Secret Empire tie-in, this will have Daisy Johnson forming a team of Inhumans to try to stop Captain America. Their first priority looks to be protecting other Inhumans since Captain America is targeting them specifically, but I think as it goes along they will focus more on the country as a whole. I am pretty excited to see more of Karnak in action though!

Uncanny Avengers #23

The Unity Squad Avengers have had quite a run recently between Ultron, Red Skull and an Undead Hulk, they now have to deal with Wonder Man coming back. Rogue had absorbed the powers of Deadpool recently through a kiss (I never thought I would write that….) and Wonder Man just showed up. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out and if Rogue and Deadpool turn out to be one of the most unlikely couples out there.

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.