Bottom of the Pile - Oct. 15th, 2014

Avengers & X-Men: Axis

 I'm gonna pop in here for a sec and poke holes in this: So, in Stark's dreams he imagined some giant, adamantium sentinels that would absorb heroes in case they went evil.  But for whatever reason they don't work on actual villains, and also magnetism works on them because apparently Polaris is not a super-hero.    Yeah, no wonder he kept this in his dreams.

 Avengers World

 Sure, why not?   You've already got an X-Men team from the past--you might as well get an Avengers team from the future.   Though if I had to guess I'd say they're hear for more than just playing the original Donkey Kong. 

 Batman Eternal

"I have been through this before."   Starfire, the certified Silver Medal for Robins.

Also, since in this continuity there was never a Teen Titans led by Dick Grayson (or any Titans team other than the current incarnation), I'm honestly not sure how this could be.    Chop bustin'.

 Daredevil

Uh-oh.  Mark Waid's Daredevil has focused on a Matt Murdock who has, after having a ton of horrible things happen to him over the course of two completely different, lengthy runs on the character, adopted a basic life strategy of "don't worry about it".  Could this be the beginning of a shift back to the mopey Matt?

....Doubtful, because Mark Waid's not known for writing superheroes like that, BOOM! work notwithstanding.   But it may yet be the point at which Matt actually starts examining some of the crappy things that have happened to him. 

 Death of Wolverine

There you have it--the final fate of Wolverine.  Han Solo'd.   I can't actually decide if this is a crap ending or a poetic one.  For certain, the book itself was well done.  Charles Soule turned the end of Wolverine's life into a movie, using widescreen storytelling and working backwards from the life of Wolverine we're familiar with (Avenger and headmaster of the Jean Grey School), to his early 90's and 80's days, all the way back to his origin with the Weapon X program.  Nearly every relevant person to his life was included, from Viper and Sabertooth to freaking Cyber.   The only weakness is that at four issues it moves way too fast for a guy whose life spanned a couple centuries in-universe and several decades of real life storytelling. 

But him being encased in adamantium?   I...well, it's definitely a neat twist, what with 90's Wolverine being obsessed with getting the adamantium placed back in his body.   But something about it is still so...goofy.   Tell you this, too: I don't know how you come back from this.   It'd be painful as hell to actually get him out of that shell, since the melting point of adamantium is like 3600 degrees Fahrenheit and I'm pretty sure the human body would evaporate at temperatures that high. 

Also worth mention: Whenever they do bring him back, he should get a longer story that kind of shows him do a forward progressive movement--from wild animal to trained killer to bad-ass super spy to whatever comes next for the guy. 

Earth 2 - World's End

The real tragedy of Dan Didio's tenure at DC is Earth 2.  Much as I loved Infinite Crisis, the "Original Superman" deserved a better fate than what he got.  And now that Earth 2 is back in full, it's basically the planet that keeps getting it's keister kicked by the forces of Apokolips, because its hero population is so nascent they can't fight back properly.   Ugh.   The perfect ending to World's End is a complete reboot (I know) of Earth 2, without Darkseid's taint--preferably one that sets things right and gives us a World War 2-era setting for the Justice Society of America. 

Loki - Agent of Asgard

Dear DC, take note: THIS is how you write little girl characters.  I was actually excited with Fifty Sue was set on fire, but Valerie is a super-smart kid who works for Doc Doom and I still love her.   Mostly because she's absolutely right about adults and poor decisions related to "doing kissing".

Magneto

This month's Magneto ties into Axis and sees Erik recruit a ton of villains to deal with the "Iron Sentinels" or whatever they're called.  A good writer can't save a bad concept.  But a decent Deadpool appearance can make a stupid idea look better than it is.

  Miles Morales - Ultimate Spider-Man

"Yeah, she's cool."?   Ugh.  Miles, you're passing your awful secret identity-keeping habits on to Not-Peter.   (It's Not-Peter because I'm pretty sure Bendis said Peter was dead forever and ever in the Ultimate verse, and since it IS a side universe there's literally no reason to ever bring the guy back for real.   It's most likely a Return of Barry Allen-type situation.)

 Uncanny X-Men

What I hate most about the post-Schism life of the X-Men is how much they're trying to make Wolverine into the saint of the X-Universe.   Guy's a stone-cold killer with more bodies attached to his name than Scott will ever have, and people still look at him as the guy in the right.   And that's despite the fact that even now, his best solution to a problem is "just kill the guy".  

Wolverine and the X-Men

 I told you it'd be more touching if you waited until Wolverine was actually dead.   That said, was the plan for Wolverine and the X-Men to just collect all the terrible artists working in superhero comics and put them on a single issue?   There's maybe five pages in this whole thing that are readable, this being one of them.

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 pile, thus being the best as I've always been a proponent of "saving the best for last".   Since bog standard reviews can be found literally anywhere, coverage 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.