Bottom of the Pile: Mar. 11th, 2015

Right in time for the second half of school.

All-New X-Men

An interesting thing to note here is that Professor Xavier did most likely keep her psychic powers dampened.  He was always more of a "ease you into it" sort of guy, while Emma has always been more of a "toss you into the deep end, see if you swim" sort of woman.   Is one better or worse?  Well, Xavier's students do die a lot...but then, there also used to be five Cuckoos. 

Amazing Spider-Man

It's hard to argue against Spider-Verse being a bit of a bust when this is probably the strongest (and funniest) issue of AMS Dan Slott's done in months.  Spider-Island was pretty great though, so I think what happened here is that Spider-Verse probably grew a little too big for the guy.  It spanned like four books, had several lead-ins and even had to tie-in to Secret Wars--at that level, very few people (if anyone) can still pull a story together tightly enough to make it work.   Still, Spider-Verse is over and we've moved back to pushing forward the stories of "Peter Parker, Idiot Businessman" and "Black Cat, the new Kingpin".   I'm excited.

Batman Eternal

And yet, I have so much trouble believing you, Alfred.  We still have no idea who is behind all this (though I've my own guesses), and this is like the third time someone's had to knock Hush the fuck out to stop his shenanigans.

Guardians Team-Up

 It's not that you're wrong Black Widow, but....

1.) Fuck what a nihilistic way of looking at things.
2.) At some point you'd have to hit the bottom of the barrel, wouldn't you?  D-Man ain't avengin' anything, is he?

Justice League United

This is a bit of a bummer.   With the Legion currently going title-less, the only lasting effect this book will have is having Rann (Adam Strange's home) and Thanagar (Hawkman's home) next to each other again.    This was never a particularly interesting idea to me, to begin with.   You don't see the Kree and the Shi'ar homeworlds next to each other, do you?   It lends to the idea that DC's space is just...smaller than Marvel's.   It's got plenty of cool bits, but I think if you did the DC equivalent of Marvel's duology of space epics Annihlation and Conquest, they'd have to be a lot shorter.

Plus, this is basically another concept from the original DCU that they've brought back.   And, while I want that universe back, I'd like the actual universe back, not for this new place to imitate it.  At that point it just makes you ask why they changed it in the first place. 

Miles Morales - Ultimate Spider-Man

 I feel like if Miles did the infamous unmasking scene Peter did a la Civil War, it'd just end up with everyone going "WE KNOW ALREADY!" immediately followed by a bunch of people walking away disinterested while looking at their phones. 

Ms. Marvel

 Evil.  Evil evil evil.  Eeeeeevil.  Kamala spends the whole day swooning over the guy and he's like the most perfect person ever.  No teenager gets that.  And since Kamala is basically the new Spider-Man, there's no way this guy's good.

Y'know, that or he gets merked saving her at the end, but I don't think this book is going to get that dark.  I could be wrong, though.

New 52: Futures End

What's this building to?!   I mean, I've loved Amethyst since DC launched that comic about her in the "Second Wave" of the New 52, but this title's winding down and in the past Gemworld hasn't actually been conquered.    It just feels like they forgot about where this was going.  I hope not though--I'd love to see Amy again.

New Avengers

 At the beginning of New Avengers, Rabum Alal is described as the reason these universes have been collapsing and forcing the deaths of so many Earths.  If that's true....Dr. Doom is the most evil supervillain ever created, responsible for literally untold trillions of lives being sacrificed. 

It reminds me of early in Hickman's Fantastic Four, where Reed met a council of Reeds from alternate universes, and one of the things they showed him was a room full of lobotomized Dr. Dooms, and said while it was wrong, it was necessary because "there is no greater threat in the universe than Doom".   When I read that I believed it was an exaggeration...but this issue made me do a bit of a 180. 

Spider-Gwen

 I thought I couldn't love Spider-Gwen's comic any more than I already do...y'know, until they decided that her conscience is apparently the Spectacular Spider-Ham!  

If that's actually her conscience.  He's been around for quite some time, and the two of them are meant to team up during the Spider-Verse Secret Wars book, so...

Spider-Man & the X-Men

This is that thing Marvel does where they ignore their own history until they need it.  I've been reading X-Men off and on since Ed Brubaker's Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire--that's roughly the better part of a decade.   And, in all that time, the first time I knew about Rachel's history as a hound was when I finally decided to go back and re-read Claremont's X-Men last year.   I'm surprised they do remember it, since she's basically been an X-Men of our timeline at this point far longer than she has her "own".  

Still, this is a good issue overall, and a pretty decent replacement for the It-Would-Be-Hard-To-Still-Call-It-Wolverine & the X-Men book. 

Superior Iron Man

 For what its worth, Superior Spider- Iron Man isn't a bad read, and Cinar is absolutely killing it on the art, but I can't help poking fun at it.  In part because technically Douche Tony has only been gone about eight years, but primarily because I prefer when Tony's a decent guy.  With that said:

How is it possible that evil Tony is a much, much worse businessman than regular Tony?  Most successful businessmen ARE evil, so how is he failing at it so badly...unless they inverted THAT too.

 Thor

 "Sometimes a whisper can fell even a god."    See, I knew that panel from last issue was a fluke, and here we are.  Back to Jason Aaron doing some of the best work on Thor in years.   It might be my sensitivity to cancer and the effects it can have not only on the lives of people who have it, but the friends and family around them, but this is probably my scene of the week.

Author's Note: Bottom of the Pile is a weekly column (or at least, my attempt at said) in which I cover the comics that found their way to the bottom of my reading stack, thus being the "best".   Since bog standard reviews can be found literally anywhere, coverage here can range from mini-reviews to funny comments to commentary on a creator's run or comics as a whole, depending on a wide range of factors including the comic itself, the amount of time I have, and my general mood.