He's keeping a running tally of all the continuity mistakes...

What has come before: Norman Osborn (formerly the Green Goblin, now the Iron Patriot) pretty much runs America. Clint Barton (formerly Hawkeye, now Ronin) seems to be more upset about this than anyone (even Spider-Man, oddly enough).
This comic dredges up some mixed emotions in me. I’ll get into it further after the break, as there are some spoilers contained herein.

On the one hand, this isssue has everything I enjoy about comics: It’s new-reader friendly and tells a complete story while still contributing to a larger arc. The pacing is excellent, the dialogue is naturalistic (Brian Bendis’ greatest strength as a writer), and the penciller manages to dazzle while still telling a coherent story. Bonus points to penciller Marko Djurdevic for drawing Norman Osborn rather than portraits of Tommy Lee Jones (Mike Deodato, you’re on notice).

On the other hand, Bendis’ complete disrespect for previously established Avengers canon still bothers me. I’m totally willing to overlook the scene where Captain America (formerly Bucky) mentioned that he killed Hitler, even though for years it was accepted that Hitler died at the hands of the original Human Torch. It was a funny bit, it fits the character, and even mentioning it here feels like nitpicking. What I can’t overlook is the idea that Clint Barton is so hell-bent on killing Norman Osborn. Barton has a deeply entrenched code against taking a life. It’s so ingrained that when his then-wife Mockingbird let a villain fall to his death, he kicked her off of the team and out of his life. Come to think of it, Mockingbird should have been way less supportive and called him on his hypocrisy in this issue.

Also, why was Spider-Man talking him out of killing Osborn? You know, the Norman Osborn that murdered Gwen Stacy? The one that knocked up said girlfriend with twins? THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CLONE SAGA (we can’t pretend that it didn’t happen anymore)?!? I know that Spider-Man doesn’t kill either, but it would make much more sense for him to reach a breaking point with Osborn before Ronin would. Besides, wouldn’t it be more logical for Spider-Man to storm into Avengers Tower and take on the Dark Avengers singlehandedly than a guy with conventional weapons and a grappling hook?

In short, if you’re a relative newcomer to Marvel, or if you don’t really care about continuity, then pick this up right away. Otherwise, you may want to give it a miss.

If the War of Kings miniseries had a failing, it was that the ending was rather abrupt. Thankfully, this issue provided a much needed epilogue for this epic crossover.  Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning maintain their high level of quality output here, as does artist Paul Pelletier. Like their Secret Invasion: War of Kings one shot, this issue concisely sums up the previous crossover, tells a self-contained story, and provides all the necessary set up for the next crossover event. My only problem with it is that it makes me want to follow the upcoming Realm of Kings crossover, despite my crossover fatigue and rapidly shrinking comics budget.

Of course, if Marvel continues to publish transitional one-shots of such high quality, I may just skip the crossovers altogether and buy these every few months…

X-Factor Special: Layla Miller

Do you love one-shots? Because I sure as hell do and it’s effing amazing how well the X-Factor writer Peter David wrote this one-shot, but then again it is Peter David so it should have been expected. Even though I thought (for some reason beyond me as I write this) that this was a limited series, as a one-shot it’s simply outstanding.

Before I get things started, I’m going to say one thing real quick:

• I didn’t read the X-Factor/She-Hulk cross over for Secret Invasion just because. I really wanted to just get past the terrible art and push the X-Factor story forward. This doesn’t have anything to do with this review, but it is X-Factor and I was originally going to do a double review, but decided against it.

So! To continue, I’m not even going to come close to giving away all the spoilers of X-Factor: Layla Miller because it’s simply too good for you to not go out an buy, but I’ll do my best to fill you in and let you know how much I liked it. (haha)

**minor spoilers and more after the break**

Our story begins with, you guessed it, Layla Miller, doing what she does best: odd things. And she continues to do odd things–which in this case is standing on an X she drew in the dirt–until someone notices and wants her to stop. In this case, it’s guards at the mutant camp she is being contained at. When they come to stop her (after 8 days of Layla standing, mind you), a satellite comes crashing down to earth killing all of the guards around her and leaving her unscathed… I guess she must have known some kind of stuff (hehe).

Layla Miller is a bad ass

This kind of crash and destruction gives Layla a way to escape the camp. After escaping we see Layla help a few other people by doing the right little thing at the right time which, in turn, causes her to interact with our main characters: Ruby (wiki), the daughter of Cyclops–it sounds crazy, I know–and your average-joe Dwayne. Layla sparks some rebellion into some run-of-the-mill wanna-be protesters and we end up seeing that pan out in the end of the issue.

What this issue really comes down to is Layla doing what she’s great at: putting herself in the right place or saying just the right thing at the right time. It’s perfect. Peter David knows how to write this character so well it’s sick. He captures Layla’s sarcastic tone yet near-emotional-breakdown feeling that makes this character so definitive. It’s wonderous how much Layla knows and can only tell so much to nudge the world in the right direction. I’m hoping to see more of this series (because the end of this comic is so incredible I can’t tell you and it WILL make you want more) even if they are one-shots.

One thing that caught my attention was the lack of young Bishop in this issue. Given that he’s shown to be at the camp where Layla and the Jaime Madrox dupe, back in Messiah CompleX, went into the future to Bishop’s time line (that’s 80 years in the future)… nevertheless, it’s not a big deal.

Art-wise… thing were just as great as the writing. Ruby and the future-Cyclops (yea, he’s in the issue) are drawn almost too well. Just like the writing this art is so amazing. Valentine De Landro mixing with Peter David is utterly stunning throughout this issue. I can’t express how well done all of this is.

Now, you better go out and get this comic… I mean, you have to support great writing like David’s and, as sad as it is to say, you don’t come by art as good as De Landro’s very much.