It’s a big week in comics this week with a new Hellfire Gala that changes the face of the X-Men once again! I’ll probably be checking out a lot of the new X-books this fall, so hopefully they’re good.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #110 for an issue where the bad guys win that doesn’t leave me in a bad mood, unlike another certain issue this week.

Meanwhile, I finished both Tears of the Kingdom and Diablo 4 in the same weekend, so now i’m currently sans video game. I should probably get back into reading! I have a huge pile of comic book tpbs that I just keep buying for the fun of buying, but have yet to start reading. Gotta fix that.

Comic Reviews: Avengers #3, Hellfire Gala #1, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #110 and She-Hulk #15.

Avengers #3
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: C.F. Villa
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Moving right along with more Avengers goodness.

The Impossible City spaceship is in Earth’s orbit, and it carries the Ashen Combine, another cadre of random and randomly named sinister villains. Think the Black Order and you’d be close. They are “cityslayers,” and they each pick a random city to cause their own brand of chaos. The Avengers split up to take them on one-on-one, while Black Panther and Captain America sneak into the spaceship.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

There’s not much to this issue. It’s all straight forward set-up for, theoretically, next issue. We’re introduced to each individual member of the Ashen Combine, and then the Avengers split up to face them and issue a cool one-liner. I’m not particularly hooked because the villains are pretty generic at this point. Like I said above, they’re essentially just the Black Order B-Team. Or they’re the various Arakko mutants. The villain template is very obvious as soon as you see them. They’re drawn to look as creepy as possible, and given brooding, haunting names like Idol Alabaster and Meridian Diadem. And that’s all they are.

If I’m being honest, I hope MacKay is doing a parody here. Like, all this time spent setting each of these guys up, and then our heroes, the Avengers, defeat them like the awesome heroes they are. I think that would be super fun. But, of course, I can’t rate issues based on what I hope happens. So as it stands, this is still a solid issue that introduces the threat our heroes are facing. I don’t think very highly of the threat. Every single one of these villains feels really try hard. But I’m ready to be surprised, ready for a twist…and I guess I’m also ready to just see what they do in general. I’m still on board.

Artwork is also superb.

TL;DR: A new batch of villains is introduced straight from central casting. I’m hoping for a fun twist behind them, but perhaps they’re as straight forward as they seem. We’ll find out, but for now, they just get introduced.

Hellfire Gala #1
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artists: Adam Kubert, Luciano Vecchio, Matteo Lolli, Russell Dauterman, Javier Pina, R.B. Silva, Joshua Cassara, Kris Anka and Pepe Larraz
Colorists: Rain Beredo, Ceci De La Cruz, Matthew Wilson, Erick Arciniega and Marte Gracia
Letterer: Virtual Calligraphy

The X-Men hold another Hellfire Gala, which includes resurrecting Ms. Marvel. But the Gala is interrupted by Orchis, who most of the newly elected X-Men and then a bunch of other people. Then it’s just one reveal after another as Orchis lays out all their plans, like poisoning all the Krakoan medicines. They force Professor X to take control of every mutant in the world to make them walk through a Krakoan gate, which have been pointed towards space, to leave Earth forever.

A lot of various X-Men have been trained to resist even Xavier’s mental powers, and they teleport to a secret location. They’re gonna be the resistance. And Firestar has been planted inside Orchis as a mole. And a bunch of other stuff.

Also, all those mutants that Xavier sent through a portal? Turns out the portals were death traps, so several million more mutants have been killed again.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

Really? Another mutant massacre? That was the big idea here? I’m going to hold out hope that this is a fake out, and that all the mutant residents of Krakoa and minor X-Men are off somewhere else, but as of right now, they’ve all been killed in yet another mutant genocide. And it’s left a sour taste in my mouth. Is that the only thing Marvel writers can come up with? Create a mutant island and then massacre them, while letting the X-Men live? It does not get me interested in the rest of the story. It just bums me out. This is one of those stories where the bad guys are a million steps ahead of our heroes and literally just waltz around winning and getting the upper hand. I realize that’s what has to happen for our heroes to then rise again and triumph…but eh. It feels like Orchis has been winning this war since they were first introduced, and the story involving them has been too glum for too long.

All that being said, it’s still a fine issue. The writing is solid and the various artists do a good job. The attack and slaughter by Nimrod is indeed shocking, so he’s a good brute of a villain. I’m not a fan of this psycho, screeching robot Moira-X. She has fallen far from what was introduced in House of X/Powers of X. The good guys do get some good moments, like Rogue saving Professor X from Moira. But it’s still, overall, a downer of a story. I do so hope that all of those mutants have been taken somewhere else, and aren’t just dead. Fingers crossed.

TL;DR: It has forever been a part of storytelling that you heap a bunch of misery on your characters ahead of their eventual moment of triumph, but sometimes that misery can be too overwhelming.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #110
Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Simona Di GianFelice
Colorists: Raul Angulo, with assistance by Jose Enrique Fernandez
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

So apparently all of this was just a build-up to the next big crossover: Darkest Hour. I guess I’m on board for that as well.

The Green Ranger returns to Mistress Vile, who puts Vessel in his place as they head to the secret Master Arch in the Bermuda Triangle. Terona points the Rangers in that direction, and they arrive just in time to see Rita successfully summon Dark Specter through the arch.

Meanwhile, Lord Zedd goes to Safehaven because he doesn’t know about the Earth arch. He ends up inadvertently helping the Omega Rangers as they fight off Rita’s invading army.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Ultimately, I feel like this storyline could have been shorter. There were a lot of cool moments and character stuff throughout, but it could have come in a tighter package. Especially now that we know this has all been prelude to an even bigger event to come next, this Darkest Hour stuff. Everything in this issue felt like it was running on fumes, like it was just padding out the runtime to get to the cliffhanger finale with Dark Specter. I’m all for that revelation. By all means, bring on Dark Specter and lets have a ton of fun (as long as he doesn’t possess Matt). But getting to this moment could have been tighter.

It’s still a very good and engaging comic. The momentum behind Power Rangers is as strong as ever. Personally, I think Matt is playing Rita just to get close to her, but we’ll see. There’s no direct indication of that in this issue. The fights are strong, the villain army is a hoot, and who doesn’t love a scene where Lord Zedd makes a temporary truce with the Power Rangers? That’s good stuff and fun to read. So I have full faith that this big event will be big and cool and fun to read. Just getting there took a bit more time than necessary. This prelude storyline could have been tighter, is all I’m saying.

TL;DR: Despite being solid and still engaging, this issue feels a bit like padding out the runtime to get to the Big Event coming up. Hopefully there’s a full tank of gas waiting for us in the Big Event.

She-Hulk #15
Writer: Rainbow Rowell
Artist: Andres Genolet
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

So apparently this is the final issue of the She-Hulk comic. It’s going to be relaunched as Sensational She-Hulk later this year, with Rowell still at the helm. Sounds fine to me.

The Scoundrel is bad and won’t do anything to stop the bomb, so She-Hulk beats him up and goes to Central Park. The alien bad guy’s horde of henchmen are in the park, and the Punch Club is fighting them while Jen searches for the alien’s bomb. Jack of Hearts shows up and absorbs the bomb, so everybody’s fine. Then he kisses Jen and flies away.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

Eh. It’s a somewhat predictable ending that leaves me somewhat disappointed, but only because of my personal biases. What can I say? The electricity between She-Hulk and the Scoundrel was palpable and really fun to read. The relationship between She-Hulk and Jack of Hearts has been dull as dishwater since it started. So it was disappointing that the Scoundrel was just another evil bad guy with no twist. And it was disappointing that Jack of Hearts could just show up and save the day and be the hero. I wanted more drama! More twists and character development! But as I’ve said before in this very article, I can’t just a comic based on what I wish would have happened instead.

So yeah, it’s an otherwise fine and enjoyable issue. I love everything to do with Punch Club and the humor there. When she’s not writing Jen and Jack’s boring relationship, Rowell continues to be absolute fire when it comes to banter and humor. Just like that book club story from not too long ago, these various heroes and villains getting together for Punch Club is a hoot. And the artwork is as clean and as smooth as one could hope for in a superhero comics.

Seriously, I love everything about this comic…except for the romance at the center.

TL;DR: The storyline wraps up in predictable fashion, but is otherwise still a delight to read.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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