104 Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears Vol. 3: Scare Tactice

I'm mad.  Pissed off.  Spider-Woman Vol. 3 ends Dennis Hopeless's epic run on the character.  I went into this book with trepidation.  I love Spider-Woman, but the spin on the character was to give her a baby, change her costume and change her entire tone.  I hated all of that, yet my love for Spider-Woman made me try the book.  And it quickly became on of my favorite books.  Who knew?  But like I just said, this book ends Hopeless's run and makes me incredibly sad.  Like all Marvel books, it's really not a continuing series, it's a mini-series dressed up in regular series clothing.  Seventeen issues is a long lifespan in the current Marvel Comics world, so I should be happy I got this much Spider-Woman goodness.

Like I was saying in my blurb about the Kate Bishop Hawkeye book, this is the type of Marvel book I have been gravitating towards lately.  Funny, grounded, not afraid to poke fun at itself and comic books in general, female lead.  I'm really going to miss this book.  They could revive it under a new creative team, but I'm afraid it's just not going to be the same.  I love this book.  Go buy all three volumes.  I demand it.

Spider-Woman Shifting Gears Vol. 3: Scare Tactics

Writer: Dennis Hopeless

Artist: Veronica Fish, Andy Fish

Marvel Comics

061 All-New X-Men: Inevitable Vol 3: Hell Hath So Much Fury

This volume of All-New X-Men: Inevitable could be named Interlude.  Not a ton goes on, but it's a nice break before the next story arc.  The first few chapters all take place over the course of the same night, each focusing on a different character or group of characters.  Wolverine gets out of the headquarters to bampf around on some missions, only to find out her boyfriend, Angel, has beaten her to the punch.  Idie and Kid Apocalypse take Iceman out so he can meet boys.  After failing miserably, he does meet an Inhuman and they kind of sort of hit it off.  Cyclops is still wheelchair ridden and going stir crazy after the events of the last trade.  He goes from playing video games to battling demons Beast may have inadvertently unleashed. Finally, the team converges as Goblin Queen shows up to test them.

It's a fun book with some real character driven moments.  And it's laying the groundwork for a big battle with the Goblin Queen.  Which I find intriguing since at one point in time, she was married to older Cyclops.  Seeing younger Cyclops battle her could prove to be an interesting thing.

All-New X-Men: Inevitable Vol 3: Hell Hath So Much Fury

Writer: Dennis Hopeless

Artist: Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessy

Marvel Comics

004 Spider-Woman Vol 02: Shifting Gears - Civil War II

Much like Pasty Walker aka Hellcat from a couple posts ago, this is another book Marvel has given a lighter touch to.  I will admit that I was skeptical about this whole Batgirling of Spider-Woman.  She didn't seem the type of character that this would work with.  To me, at least.  I was against the costume redesign.  I was really against the having a baby thing.  But I still like the character, so I tried it.  And you know what?  I was mostly wrong about everything.  While I'm still not sure I like the baby part of her history now, it is growing on me.  And the book's tone is perfect.  The costume fits the mood of the book and I like where this is going.  Also, this trade crosses over into the widespread Civil War II crossover, but it only really touches the fringes of it, sort of like the Hellcat trade did.  I'm loving watching the relationship between Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel grow and change because of what's going on in the Marvel U.  Read this book. It's good.

Spider-Woman Vol 02: Shifting Gears - Civil War II

Writer: Dennis Hopeless

Artist: Javier Rodriguez, Veronica Fish

Marvel Comics