Winter Soldier #14 - It's over, baby! After initially resisting Brubaker's Cap run because he brought Bucky back from the dead, i can't deny that i mostly enjoyed it very much. I was a little less enthused with Captain America turning into a franchise, and this Winter Soldier book wasn't very good. Muddy, unclear artwork, really drawn out plots (or really only a single plot: do you realize that since issue #1 we've really only been focused on dealing with the other members of the Winter Soldier experiment? We never just got Bucky doing cool spy stuff!), and a complete failure to deliver on Dr. Doom vs. Super-Apes. I did want to note that Brubaker did partially put his toys away here by wiping the Black Widow's mind of any memories of Bucky. I guess the purpose is to allow the Widow to have other romantic interests again. Anyway, not sorry to see this book end but i will miss Brubaker being at Marvel.

Avengers #3 - Atrocious. Not only has this book been unengaging throughout with Hickman clearly having no knack for dialogue or pacing, but... really? That's the resolution to this conflict? Look, i totally get the idea that you've got these guys that claim to be on a mission for the universe and then the embodiment of the universe literally shows up as Captain Universe and says, "Hey guys, that's not what i wanted. Knock it off." On paper, that's kind of cool. But there's no build to it, no explanation, nothing. God help anyone who doesn't already know who Captain Universe is. If this is your plot idea, maybe do a story where the good guys do some research and go on a quest and find Captain Universe, explain who s/he/it is, and the recruit her to come help you. Don't just make it so you randomly introduce her with eight million other new members and then whoops, we accidentally won that battle. When i read issue #1 and said "If you've got Captain Universe and Hyperion on your team, you probably don't need Spider-Man and Wolverine", i didn't know how right i was going to be. What was the point of introducing Cannonball and Sunspot to the team in this arc? Anyway, the good news is this wrapped up after just three issues, so if min catches up in time and agrees, we can drop this.

Uncanny Avengers #3 - I thought this was pretty good. I really like those panels with the concentric circles where the Red Skull is using his mental powers. Very pseudo-Silver Agey. As you can see from my post below, i like Mzee, at least visually, and i like Honest John. The other minions seem a little lame, though. I did like how even after Cap resisted the anti-mutant effect he was still snippy and Havok, and i generally like the Cap/Havok dynamic.

Uncanny X-Force #1 - This was about when i realized that Marvel was just picking characters and title names out of hats. And i love how on the editorial page they're like "Hey if you don't like this X-Force, try the other one!". But i like Ron Garney's art, so let's see how a team that includes Puck, Bishop, and Spiral works out. And... meh so far. I'm not sure i love this depiction of Puck. Things seem a bit disparate, but i know i have to adjust my pacing expectations for "writing for the trade" (at least we made it back to the opening flash-forward scene in the same issue). I did think the dialogue was good, if you accept randy-Puck. We'll see how it goes. I was trade-waiting on Remender's X-Force and i may decide to do the same here if the plotting continues to seem slow. I do want to say that it's pretty annoying that even with this seemingly random bunch of characters, we've got two team members here that overlap with Brian Wood's X-Men title.

FF #3 - Let me show you something:

As long as i can have something like that in every issue, i don't really care about what is going on in the plot. Which is good because, um, i don't really care about what is going on in the plot.

Young Avengers #1 - So obviously this issue should have been Young Loki tricking Hulkling into going on a rampage and then Hulkling having to hide himself by dressing up as a circus clown that everyone assumes is a robot. But if you can get past that (glaring) mistake, this seemed fine. Not great; i'm a little weirded out by how easily everyone seemed to accept Hulkling's alternate-dimension mom or that Wiccan even thought it was a good idea, and i have a few other quibbles. But i trust Gillen and i think this'll turn out ok. Not the home dunk i was hoping for, but not bad.

WS: i hate that they're breaking up Bucky and Black Widow so they can go have her date Hawkeye so it's more in line with the movie.

what happened to the spy stories i was promised?

Avengers: *sigh* i particularly dislike stories where the message you walk away from with is "Earth is the most awesome planet in the entire universe".

and i had no idea who Captain Universe was. at first i thought she was supposed to be the first chick in a blue, full-face, spandex head mask that showed up with Cap. and i thought some coloring error occurred to change her ethnicity.

i give the ok to stop getting this self-congratulatory book. i can't stand to see Cap and IM hurt themselves with patting each other on the back for "thinking big".

UXF: the dialogue is good. i'm not even bothered by the pacing. what i am upset by is how Psylocke is almost never drawn to look actually Japanese. Or even Asian at all. in comparison, from my limited exposure to Karma, she is pretty much always Asian-esque.

and here's my theory why - because Psylocke is depicted as a 'hot chick'. it'd be creepy to draw Karma that way given her youth. and "default hot chick" in comics usually means some variety of caucasian. you can give her dark hair. you can color her with a more golden skin tone. but it's still not going to make her look Japanese. and Asian chicks are totally hot. so what the hell, eh?

FF: i still don't understand who Darla Deering is or why we want her in the FF. also, is Ant-Man putting the moves on Johnny's gf?? the guy's only been gone for a couple of days, ferchrissakes. and now his (possibly) insane alternate dimension/future self is in the picture. not to mention Scott Lang, the man who had a full-grown daughter, is way too old to be making time with the "barely old enough to drink legally" pop star. ew.

YA: yeah...pulling an alternate dimension mom out as the effort to make Hulkling happy is such an obviously bad idea. and Loki would have prevented it all if only Wonder Girl hadn't hopped over from DC to mess things up.

it's also the laziest way of ensuring your bf's happiness. don't be a better person by being more understanding of his needs and wants or anything. don't quit pushing your agenda on him without considering what his feelings. no. just go pull out an alternate dimension mom. that'll fix everything. what could possibly go wrong?

um...wasn't Noh-Varr totally in love with some college chick before he went into space with the Avengers? now he's picking up one night stands? ew, again.

let's get rid of everybody except Loki.

Regarding Psylocke, it's possible something happened with her and Revanche switching bodies again, which means Betsy might be back to being British. But per my new policy, i'm not looking it up.