Well, here we are, 6 months after last issue. Secret Wars started the same month as the Pulse. Pulse 6-10 are Secret War tie-ins. And now this book is so late that even though Secret War 1 came out 9 months before Pulse 6, which takes place at the same time, Pulse 7 and 8 have seen print before SW 4. Yeesh! This one actually comes out the same month as MKSM 12, despite Secret War starting 2 months before MKSM 1. Placing these things chronologically is nearly impossible for me. And Bendis will only make that harder with SW #5, but we’ll see that when we get there. We start with Wolverine taking a break on the grounds of the X-Mansion, wishing he had a cigar. I think this must mean we’re past Joe Quesada’s controversial smoking ban in all Marvel Comics. I wasn’t sure when it started, but both Nick Fury and Logan have had their love of cigars references but not shown in this series. No one could smoke in a Marvel comic, not even bad guys. It seemed somewhat less realistic than popping claws out of your hands. But, that was then. These days, I don’t know anyone who smokes, so it’s less obvious, and the idea of Wolverine or Thing with a cigar hanging out of their mouths, so common til this point, seems like it would look kind of weird now. Still seems to suit Nick, tho. Anyway, Logan gets attacked like the others, and all blowed up, because Bendis loved really damaging Logan since he can take it. He evades his captors in the fireball, and then we go to a 2-page splash of everyone else vs. the villains from last issue.
Cap now using Tony’s full name twice just seems out of place. It’s like a comic of a by-gone age where they’re not sure you’ll know who “Tony Stark” is. Also: No star on his back. -5 points, Gab. DD continues to be very irritated that all this is happening with no explanation, and, after saving a homeless person from the melees, sees Scorcher again and zeros in on him, diving him into the water away from the battle to get us some sweet, sweet exposition.
“Let’s do a fully painted series. And let’s make the poor guy paint, like, every character ever on every page. Surely this can’t lead to any scheduling problems.” DD is eager to somehow get this away from a populated area ‘cuz he’s been tipped off, but before they can do anything, all the C-Listers start getting powered down, and Lucia Von Bardas arrives, as DD was warned she would.
Big Bad Lady’s armor is somehow combining everyone else’s into a big bomb. Which, presumably, will kill all those villains, and they seem to know it, and they all showed up for this, anyway. What sense does that make? Reed has figured this out, and as Von Bardas monologues, the heroes are trying to get the villains out of their suits.
Bombs don’t really have… triggers… Whatever. It all comes to a head next issue, which, again, has a 6-month delay. This issue’s backmatter is mostly short profiles on all the villains, including the Crimson Dynamo and Hobgoblin who aren’t actually anybody, not seen before or since. Then there’s a gallery of various Marvel character art Del’Otto did that got him this job, many of which became covers of books (Including Pulse 2 and SMU, Vol. 2 #10, coming soon).