The Secret Invasion tie-ins on this title were a little less successful than New Avengers. The good issues were about Nick Fury and his new group of super powered people. They are all young recruits that have ties to classic Marvel characters, but at the same time are not part of the superhero community. That’s the only way Fury can trust them not being Skrulls. I like this group, and I like the way Fury trains them, not in simulation rooms, but on the field in a real situation. It also helps that Alex Maleev drew two of those issues.

The other issues are about Hank being kidnapped (I like that one, with JRJR art), and how his substitutes always go crazy. There’s also how Elektra got replaced, as well as other stories in the present, with the Sentry and Nor Vahr. These felt more like short stories that didn’t deserve more than 8 pages to tell.

The final issue is an epilogue to SI, starring Hank catching up with what’s been happening while morning the loss of Jan. Another issue that could have been told in 8 pages.

Bendis run on this title started strong with the Frank Cho arc. The Bagley arc was also fun, but everything else was a meaningless tie-in to Secret Invasion. It basically lost its identity in the last 8-9 months. Dan Slott is the new writer, and I hope he can take this book in new directions.

Continuing on my chronological reading of X-Men titles, in New Mutants we see Magik finally taking a bigger role in the group, proving not only her powers but her character. She defeats Sym in #14 and it’s hinted that Xavier knows about her powers. In the same issue Xavier finally starts walking again, which is picked up in Uncanny X-Men 180. This is a self contained story dealing with relationships between Kitty, Doug and Peter. Kitty also finally has a good talk with Ororo, partly solving their issues.

Kitty then leaves with Doug for Emma’s school, which is then picked up by New Mutants 15-17. This is where the Hellions are introduced, and we also see the extent of Magik’s teleportation portals, which can go through both space and time. That’s a powerful power! This is a pretty important arc, but I wasn’t too crazy about it. It was just a back and forth between the New Mutants and the Hellions, I didn’t really feel any real threat from Shaw or Emma.

The next three issues of Uncanny are single issue stories, with a few subplots running in the background as usual. 181 sees the X-Men coming back from Secret Wars, dealing with a giant monster in Japan. I like that the Japanese movie monsters are real in this world.

182 is a great Rogue story. Danver’s personality surfaces and makes her almost go mad. This is really a great psychological issue that makes Rogue a more interesting character. I like that the issue finishes without a clear resolution for her, this is obviously going to be an ongoing battle.

183 is a heartbreaking story. It starts with Pete breaking up with Kitty, which was hard enough to read. Especially when Kitty finally loses it and starts crying with Magik. She truly loves Pete and would do anything for his happiness. Pete on the other hand is completely selfish and Logan tells him without mercy. Logan’s lesson was very true and I rarely see this kind of depth in relationship nowadays.

This is another great batch of Uncanny issues, I really think this is Claremont at his best. The John Romita Jr art looks very good here, and I am glad that he stayed for so long. The New Mutants story was interesting, but I wasn’t all that crazy about it, same goes for the art. Perfectly capable, but not to my taste. Next issue will see Bill Sienkiewicz on art, which I am really excited about.

After the climactic issue 175, we get a standalone character issue in 176. I love these issues, they allow Claremont to summarize the characters relationship while at the same time give us some action and teasers for future storylines. Here we see Scott and Madelyne “enjoying” their honeymoon with a huge octopus. Mariko clarifies her position with Logan. Teasers of Gyrich/Cooper government plots against the mutants, as well as Caliban joining Callisto.

Issues 177-178 see the return of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, lead by Mystique. They ambush the X-Men into fighting, but their main objective is to get Rogue back. Mystique has a confrontation with Rogue, who tells her that she wants to be left alone with the X-Men, because she wants Xavier to help her with her powers. This was a great scene, however I can’t help thinking that Xavier didn’t manage to help her at all. What she did find was a way to deal with her power and some important friends. There is also a subplot about a scanning wave that hits Xavier.

There is also a subplot about Callisto and Masque, which brings to the next issue (179) where Kitty needs to confront her promise to Caliban in a previous story. There’s another fight with the Morlocks, but then they actually help the X-Men to save Colossus. At the end Kitty goes back to Caliban, but he understands that he cannot trap her, so he frees her.

The art by John Romita Jr is not as polished as it is now, or even during his Daredevil run, but it’s still good and getting better each issue. Both he and Claremont are laying the grounds for future epic storylines.

Issues 172-173 are really a continuation of the Wolverine mini-series, only Logan is finally joined by the rest of the X-Men for his wedding. But the Silver Samurai and Viper aren’t happy about Mariko’s plans.

Logan manages to save Mariko with the help of Rogue, who is starting to integrate into the group by proving herself an ally. Finally we get to the wedding, where a few important things happen. Madelyn finally meets the X-Men, I loved Lilandra’s reaction. And Storm shows up with a new look. Kitty’s reaction was very dramatic.

But the most important thing that happened was Mariko rejecting Logan in front of everybody, humiliating him again. Of course we all knew it was Mastermind behind all this, but it was still a shocking moment.

Next we have a nice issue focusing on the various relationships in the series. Lilandra keeps threatening to leave Earth. Logan is not giving up on Mariko. Kitty and Peter finally make out. More development in the Scott/Maddy relationship, culminating in Scott’s proposal (curiously off panel). But Mastermind is following them, and the issue ends with Phoenix!

175 is another great double sized issue. Phoenix is back, which is a very big deal, they even think that the Starjammers are dead, as well as the Avengers in NY. But it’s all a ruse, Cyclops is the only one who realized it, so he has to fight against the X-Men. The way Cyclops uses the danger room was very clever, it really shows his strategic skills. Ororo really shows how much she’s changed, risking everyone’s life in order to defeat Phoenix. The issue concludes with Scott and Maddy’s wedding, though I wonder who accompanies Maddy to the altar? Is that her father? I thought there was no record of Maddy’s existence before the crash. What about her father?

This issue also sees Paul Smith leaving the title and John Romita Jr starting his first long run. Their styles were actually similar in that period, so I hardly noticed the difference.

Another great batch of issues. As much as I love the Byrne era, story-wise it felt slightly dated. These issues feel more modern, and there is a lot of drama.

I wasn’t blown away by Planet Hulk like a lot of people, so even though I was interested in World War Hulk, I didn’t have very high expectations. It turns out I like this better then Planet Hulk.

This is a very fast paced action packed simple story: Hulk returns to Earth looking for revenge. The whole mini is about Hulk battling the earth heroes, in particular Black Bolt, Iron Man, Reed, Doc Strange, Sentry.

I like the way the heroes keep finding ways to stop Hulk, but this time he is really unstoppable. I am not sure I buy that people would love the fighting arena and cheer for the Hulk, but I liked that Hulk wants the heroes to know what he went through.

The twist at the end was expected, someone else was responsible for the destruction of Sakaar, we just didn’t know who exactly.

The art by John Romita Jr is perfect for this title. His fighting scenes feel epic, just the way he draws Hulk, the big Iron Man combat suit, the demon Doc Strange, the Sentry… they all look massive and powerful.

There is a victim to this war, but I won’t spoil it here. The final page is just a tease for future titles.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. I am not sure I am that excited about the future Hulk titles though. Do we really need 3 series?

This recent mini by Neil Gaiman revives the Eternals concept created by Kirby and tries to once and for all fit them into the Marvel Universe.

Gaiman pretty much keeps the mythology intact (with some exceptions) and creates a story where the Eternals all lost their memory, but little by little they realize their true identity and what they lose by not being humans.

This is a pretty tipical story, and it feels very familiar (it even felt like House of M). There is plenty of action, and also a lot of exposition about the past.

All this is very well drawn by John Romita Jr. His style is perfect for this epic story, especially when it comes to drawing the Celestials. Every page drawn by JRJR already feels bigger than usual, and when he drawn a giant God it really shines.

The ending was surprising to me, a bit underwhelming. Minor Spoiler ahead. The story seems to bring to a huge fight with a Celestial, instead it just stops there, simply presenting us with the new status quo, one where the Eternals are part of the Marvel Universe, in fact Iron Man knows about them.

This ending felt like the setup for an ongoing series, except there is none. I felt disappointed by this. The story is fine, not very exciting or particularly original. The art is very good and perfect. I just wish Neil Gaiman would write his own stories, instead of writing what Marvel wants.