A very middling week this week as most of the issues are stories that aren't super important and are merely middle of the story. First of these is Justice League United 3. It feels like nothing happened in this issue. There's some techno babble about the zeta beam and they undo what happened last issue, then Manhunter helps win over the child who can destroy the world or something. Then Hawkman saves everyone by taking a bomb far into the atmosphere and blows up. Story is still rather boring. I'll finish this story next issue then see what the next story looks like. Likely to only be a few more issues for me. 1 out of 5.
On the Marvel side we have Amazing X-Men 9 where the team gets up to Canada to find Wolverine only to have him turn into a Wendigo and kill Talisman after she and Puck showed up to save him. It's not a great story but does have a few strong points. The first half of the book jumps around in time to tell the story in a montage style. It works very well here for some reason. They also escape their crashing Blackbird by Iceman freezing them all in a giant ice block then having Firestar thaw them out. Awesome teamwork being shown which is when the X-Men work so well as a story. That said, I have no real attachment to any of these characters or the story. Again I will probably finish out this arc then I'm out. 2 out of 5.
Next up we have Nightcrawler 4. Another issue spent trying to undo the villainy of last issue. Amanda and Kurt chase after Margali, who apparently set up all the trimega attacks in order for her to find a way to the afterlife and claim it for her own. There is a ton of action in this book and it wraps up nicely with Amanda making it through the afterlife portal. Kurt is left on Earth since he chose to leave heaven he is unable to return. This book shouldn't be as fun as it is, but I did quite enjoy it. There are actual stakes it seems. I am looking forward to seeing where this arc ends up. 3 out of 5.
Lastly for Marvel, Jason Aaron and Al Ewing take a break from their regularly scheduled books to bring the Original Sin tie-in miniseries Thor and Loki: The Tenth Realm 1. This book is super interesting. It's also a good way to take care or tie-ins for the big events. Instead of putting the story in the normal run of the book, just make a new miniseries so it's easy to skip them if you aren't interested. As far as story, this book is quite intriguing. It introduces the idea and history of a tenth realm and Thor's long thought dead sister. This book fits logically in the timeline of Thor: God of Thunder and Loki: Agent of Asgard which makes sense due to the two writers being the writers of those books. It's crazy that they're retconning the history of Thor and Asgard by adding a tenth realm and intriguing enough to hook me from the get go. Thor and Loki head out and break into the locked off and long-lost realm in search of the lost sister. Artwise this book is good. Not overwhelmingly great, but good. It's not as stylistic and gorgeous as Ribic's work on Thor but also not as cartoonish and jovial as Loki. The weird part is that Simone Bianchi does a full 2-page spread as Thor and Loki arrive in the tenth realm and it is beautifully painted. It works since it's a new world we haven't explored yet. Excellent book. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. 4 out of 5.
Last up is Bunn's The Empty Man 2. This issue is all about history. More history of the virus which appears to cause all sorts of hallucinations, Langford apparently has a dead wife, son, and both parents, and hints that Jensen has some sort of bad history with the virus. We don't know exactly what yet, but it's there. This story is sufficiently dark and wonderful. Mystery at its finest. The art is a mystical, stylized painted style and it matches the story perfectly. It's a little too stylized. The character designs aren't always distinct enough to tell the characters apart at times. Looking forward to more as usual. 4 out of 5.
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