Point One #1:
Summary: Okay, 7 stories here, and unfortunately? Most of them suck. Let's get this over with. The main thread between all of the stories is that two guys have managed to sneak into the Watcher's base on the moon while he was meditating(or something) and begin to look through the information he has stored, which reveals what may or may not be visions of the future(the Watcher can see all realities, so these could simply be other realities). After looking at the six other tales I'll be detailing in due time, the two men escape from the Watcher's base unseen, having gained the knowledge of how to kill a Watcher. Now the other six stories... The first concerned Nova trying to warn Terrax to get off of a planet before it was too late. Terrax instead wants to fight so Nova has to abandon the world, which is soon devoured by the Phoenix(a white Phoenix at that). Story two deals with the human resistance in the Age of Apocalypse, which basically consists of a bunch of the most deplorable characters in the mainstream Marvel U... And yes, of COURSE William Stryker is there, because he's EVERYWHERE!!! Next up, Kaine, the future Scarlet Spider, decides to stop a bank robbery, and not only does he stop it, he does it the Peter Parker way, that is without killing. Story four deals with AIM creating some kids in a lab with super-powers. Naturally the kids get away and want to take down AIM. They end up running into the Avengers. Story five details Dr. Strange learning of some sort of machine that could break the universe. The final story shows us a world where the Avengers lost the upcoming battle against Ultron and the planet was lorded over by the mad robot.
Thoughts: That sucked. In plain English. You know what the weird/hilarious thing is? The story I enjoyed the most was written by the writer I like the least in ALL of comics, Chris Yost! Go figure THAT out! Let's see, the Watcher story was okay, if extremely vague. The Nova story was pretty much useless since we don't know a) who Nova was, b) why the Phoenix was white, and c) why the Phoenix was rampaging through the universe destroying entire planets. The AOA story was utterly ludicrous! Why the HELL would I want to read a comic book starring THAT band of characters!? It's basically all of the worst anti-mutant racists banded together in a group! Yeah, nothing says “great read” like rooting for the racists... Idiotic... The Scarlet Spider one was, as I stated, my favorite of the bunch, as it wasn't insanely vague, and gave us some great character development in a few pages... Who knew Yost could write a story without murdering several children in the process! Color me impressed! The Coldmoon and Dragonfire/AIM story? All I'll say is that it was written by Fred Van Lente and was titled Yin and Yang... As I said, I won't be saying another thing about that story. The Dr. Strange story was probably the most confusing... It's a good thing I'm already planning on picking up the Defenders series, because if THIS story was trying to convince me to pick up the Defenders, it would have failed. Miserably. Finally, the second best story of the bunch(for me at least) was written by Brian Bendis and shows us the world if Ultron emerges victorious in his upcoming battle with the Avengers. It's Ultron. Not even Bendis can screw that up... Wait, you know what, I'll take that back because once Bendis DID screw up what should have been a slam dunk, cut and dry good Ultron story by inexplicably making Ultron female, thus destroying all of Ultron's issues with his “father” Hank Pym. But at least THIS Bendis/Ultron story looks promising. So out of 7 stories, only 3 would pass my “it didn't suck!” test, and only barely for the most part... Not good, Marvel... Not good at all...
Score: 4 out of 10.
Yep, my favorite story out of this one was written by Yost, a sure sign the Apocalypse is nigh...
