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Spoiler warning.
And not the kind that you think. This is the issue where, after months of teasing, the new Batgirl is revealed to be Stephanie Brown. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this issue, and none of them stem from the writing. The book does well in depicting Steph's struggles with maintaining a normal life as a college freshman, versus taking up the heavy mantle of the Batgirl. And it's a struggle where she expectedly makes errors in her effort to the role that fell into her hands. All well and good. It will be interesting to see how far her commitment to the cowl takes her, especially with the suggested tutelage of Barbara Gordon forthcoming. I have great hopes for her, believing as I still do that she would have made a great Robin. The issue I have about the book is likely shared by many fans. See, I'm a Cassandra Cain fan. It's difficult not to be a fan if you've read her story all the way back from No Man's Land till right before DC editorial violated her in One Year Later. Cass grew into the role wonderfully, rising as she did from one of the worst backgrounds imaginable. It appealed to me that she was antithetical to the rest of the Bat family in so many ways. She was taught to be an assassin, not a hero. Unlike Bruce, Dick and Tim, both her natural parents are alive, but both are villainous. While the rest of the Bat family struggle to keep from descending into darkness, Cass would struggle to emerge from darkness into light. It also appealed to me that she was distinctly Asian. I liked how an iconic role like Batgirl could be given to a person who wasn't blonde, blue-eyed and white. While the way she made her exit in this book in no way matched the horrors of her OYL story arc, it still left a sour taste in my mouth, and an unfulfilled longing to know what would happen to her. It was so unexpected, and too mysterious, as if the writer or DC editors had not yet decided what to do with her. Never mind that her reason for leaving went against what she said was her motivation in her original series. (FYI, she served the symbol and the crusade behind it, NOT the Batman). Never mind that the best way to honor the man who would have been her new father would be to fight on as Batgirl. At the very least, the fans of this badly-treated character deserve to know that their heroine will stay such, and will remain in the realm of the Bat. 
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Let me be frank. This was bad. Really, really, really bad.
I've never seen Loeb write this terribly, and this is from someone who's been reading his Hulk issues. How a great writer like him could write such entertaining stories in DC, but produce such utter garbage in the Marvel Universe is a puzzle to me, but a puzzle no less confusing than Ultimatum. I will admit, I liked the pace and flow of the first issue. Everything else from that point was a cascade of escalating filth leading up to this glorious example of bad writing. Very little made sense. It's like Loeb doesn't even know how to write a proper action sequence anymore. The characters during the fight scenes were moronic equivalents of their true selves, with only Wolverine acting remotely like himself. you're fighting Magneto, and everyone else just stands there, gaping stupidly, while Wolverine fights the guy. Nobody helps. Magneto somehow controls not only Tony's repulsor emitters, but also forces Scott to blast Wolverine, an admirable tactic that made only half-sense. Even if his magnetic powers could manipulate Stark's suit, and his electrical control (repeat after me kids, magnetism and electricity are related) was able to activate the repulsors, how is it that Scott couldn't shut his stupid eyes? And again, note, Jean just stands there. No TK to counter Magneto, no force fields to defend Logan, nothing. Storm gapes. Only thing missing was the drool. In another scene, Mystique goes up against Hulk and Colossus with a flamethrower. Where did her brain go? But it;s okay in the end, because the heroes are just as inept. Hulk threatens to eat the blue lady, and then does NOTHING while Colossus chases her. Sabertooth manages to save her, and they somehow escape both the Hulk and Colossus (both of whom I assume stopped chasing her coz, y'know, Loeb thought it was a good idea). And the two escape on a hang-glider. Wow. Only award-winning writers like Loeb can make stuff like this, I assure you. The ending and epilogue were equally inexplicable. Fury shows up, Magneto doesn't kill him. Or anybody else. Is he too weak from the injuries Wolverine gave him? No, apparently not, because he still has enough strength to fix the Earth's magnetic poles. All because the revalation that mutants were engineered gave him a crisis of conscience. And we also see Namor, a prisoner of Doom in Latveria. Ben Grimm arrives, and proceeds to crush Doom's skull. Where. Did. That. Come. From?! Doom is suddenly too helpless to deal with a now-murderous Thing? Did I miss something somewhere? As I recall, Ultimate Doom is made of METAL. Metal so dense and strong that Sue can't pierce it with her force fields. And I seem to recall Ultimate Doom also being versed in Atlantean sorcery. And being so powerful that an alien parasite chose Doom over Thor as a host. I can only hope that guy wasn;t really Doom but one of his brainwashed lackeys. But who cares right? It's not like there's not much to hope for after Loeb wiped his shoes on the stepping mat that used to be the Ultimate Unvierse. So long, fare NOT-so-well.
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This was a very refreshing second issue. This is atypical of so many Legion-related story arcs in that we normally have no understanding of what goes on in Legion's mind. We are usually ignorant spectators only withnessing the collateral side effects of the powerful mutant's madness. In this issue, we see the creepy correlation between the little girl and the "bad men" in the first issue and Legion's fractured psyche. The significance of the doll was a very good touch. It was like a twisted mutant-themed retelling of the movie Identity, along with the background drama. An interesting departure from the usual mutant brawls that dominate the pages of comics like these.
The only downside to the issue, if it can be called that, is the lack of Ilyana's own disturbed mental awesomeness. Her personality quirks and mind games with everyone dominated the first issue to the point where the dedicated Magick fan (such as myself) would have at least one geekgasm. With her on a more serious mode, the issue's centerpiece New Mutant was Shan. She held her own in the spotlight, though not with the same strength that Ilyana did to carry the first issue. If this keeps up, I'm all for getting the first TPB of this promising series.
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The title says it all. People. Buy this issue if you hate Stark as much as I do. "Thor vs Iron Man" isn't the right way to describe this issue. That would imply that Iron Man stood something of a chance. He didn't. Okay. Maybe he mussed up Thor's hair for a few seconds. Maybe. But otherwise, it was Thor proving that if didn't bother holding back, the entire Initiative couldn't stop him. This issue is all about the God of Thunder teaching the mortals why he's a god. Finding the first of the sleeping Asgardians is the icing. The setting being placed in New Orleans adds a lot of flavor to an issue already filled with the joys of seeing Marvel's favorite new punching bag take another solid beating.
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Relatively Spoiler-Proof This continues the story begun in Annihilation: Conquest#0 and the first issue of the mini. Phylla and Heather are revealed to each be saddled with their own demons as they seek the mysterious "savior." Phylla has to deal with not having fully mastered the quantum bands and the fact that they are losing more power. This is without taking into account the corruptive berserk influence Annihilus left in the bands themselves. There is an excellent summary of Moondragon's origins, narrated by Heather herself, which establishes the character's present state quite nicely. The Super Adaptoid and the Phalanx drones continue to plague the pair, resulting in a transformation at the end of the book that almost guarantees you'll buy the next one. Art-wise, the pencils continue to please, though you would strictly note that the quality in book 1 is slightly better. Another great issue.
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While I wasn't anticipating a book centered around Liberty Belle, I'm grateful. She's one of those characters that intrigues you, but later discover that you know very little about them. The book does a great job of telling the reader about the present-day character, her background, her powers, and her motives. Despite the limited space, there's enough of a story to keep readers already familiar with Liberty Belle interested. The history and animosity between Damage and Zoom is well-presented. A couple of things made me scratch my head. The whole "mantra allowing me to channel my powers" was a bit too weird for my tastes. Also, the ending illustrates just how powerless mundane law enforcement in the DCU really is in the face of powered heroes.
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Spoiler warning. With the defeat of all the major heroes, Avengers and FF included, the US military moves in, under the command of Hulk's most classic mundane foe, General Ross. This time though they're armed with ADAMANTIUM bullets and tank shells. How they obtained that much adamantium, or why they stockpiled so much of it in the shape of ammunition, I'm not certain. While the Hulk's under the adamantium barrage, Dr. Strange uses the distraction to force the Hulk into the astral plane, where he manages to convince Banner to speak with him. He discovers though that Bruce is just as angry as the Hulk, with painful consequences. The Hulk then goes on to destroy the entire military force sent against him, adamantium ammo notwithstanding. When Hulk's warbound go to fetch Dr. Strange, capturing Iron Fist, Echo and Ronin in the process, the desperate magician is forced to unite with the essence of the demon Zom in order to fight back on the Hulk's own terms An important element here is that this is the first time an member of the Illuminati denied planning the explosion that destroyed Hulk's new home and killed his queen. Also presented here are the opposing points-of-view of the Hulk's two closest "friends," Rick Jones and Miek (carried over from the latest Incredible Hulk issue). Overall, the book does a great job of maintaining the violent elements of the previous two installments while promoting the underlying plot elements which motivate the green goliath. All this while promising a greater smashfest to come.
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