Secret Wars: Best Week Yet

No new issue of the core series this week, but nevertheless, I think it may be the strongest batch so far. For an Elseworlds nut from way back, Week 6 brings all sorts of goodies. A fantasy epic in Weirdworld (who would have thought this very blog would reference Skull the Slayer twice in the same week?), an Elizabethan demon hunt in 1602 Witch Hunter Angela, high-flying ace adventure in Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, and the Ghost Riders amalgamated with Speed Racer in, what else, Ghost Racers. Even the anthology book, Secret Wars Journal, provides some fun nuggets this week and ISN'T the weakest book of the lot. Avengers 2099 makes me hope this team will go to series sooner than later. Marvel Zombies finds a protagonist I can root for (see below), so it ISN'T an inane blood-soaked massacre. Even Inhumans Attilan Rising, the first issue of which I found a little dull, really ups the ante in the second. If I had to name a weakest link, I'd still have to name something I found pretty solid, like Spider-Verse, Ultimate End, Mrs. Deadpool vs. the Howling Commandos (which steals from DC's Creature Commandos), or Inferno.

Pick almost any book and you'll find something interesting you can folllow to the end, no need to really collect the entire event. But that's not to say there AREN'T some interesting elements relating to the greater story. Three of these series, for example, question the great and powerful Doom's rules, and show that Battleworld's denizens may be able to realize their universe doesn't really make sense. Captain Marvel, for example, becomes fascinated with "stars" - there are none in the sky, and yet she wears one on her shirt... And what about the obvious dimensional schism in Manhattan, where 616 and Ultimate doubles co-exist? Doom doesn't want them to pull on any threads. And of course, there's the mystery of why all the Spider-people, no matter their home domain, are finding themselves in the same version of New York.

I'm definitely not bored yet! SO! Here are my choices for Top 5 Moments from this week's Secret Wars (and it was a difficult whittling it down):

5. Kid Cable! Ha! I hate Cable with a passion, but kiddifying Loki did wonders for the character. Let's apply the formula to all the tired characters! ;-)

4. Daredevil as Mister Sinister's chef. If you're going to clone and enslave heroes, put them to their right use.

3. Elsa Bloodstone in full Agents of HATE mode. Man, I miss that team.

2. It's 1602 and though King James is a Wolverine, the people of his Britain rightly don't know what that animal is.

1. Captain America and the Mighty Avengers might as well be the ONLY Last Days crossover issues you need to read. I wasn't really reading it before, but the sheer heroism and sacrifice in this issue is outstanding. And it's not just the costumes...

The end of the world well-chronicled and a lot more PERSONAL than the core series made it seem. Very touching. And a wink at the return of the Defenders when this is all over and restarted.

Makes sense.