This Week on Marvel Unlimted: 08/05/2020

Marvel drops another 13 comics on the app…more Empire, Star Wars, and Dawn of X. Plus a bunch of quick hit reviews and a look at the new Darth Vader series set after Empire.

New This Week
Black Cat #12
Captain America #21
Deadpool #6
Dr. Strange #6
Empyre #4
Empyre Handbook #1
Empyre: X-Men #2
Fantastic Four #22
Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex #1
Guardians of the Galaxy #5
Lords of Empyre: Celestial Messiah #1
Star Wars #5
Strikeforce #9

Notes: Empyre reading order for this week: Lords of Empyre: Celestial Messiah, Empyre: X-Men, Fantastic Four, Empyre (the Handbook has no place in the official order; there are numerous books missing from the order this week, so at this point, just read it however)…Fantomex focuses on the Weapon Plus program…Guardians of the Galaxy continue the battle between the old team and the new one…Star Wars continues the story between Empire and Jedi…Deadpool goes to Krakoa in his newest issue…Strikeforce heads to Monster Island for more Deadpool this month…

Best of the Week
Amazing Spider-Man #45 – Spider-Man’s dream of meeting up with Overdrive happens and he faces off against Sin-Eater. This is the start of Sins Rising, which is supposed to have lasting impacts for Spidey. Since it’s the first part of the story (not including the one-shot and the little prelude in the previous issue), I’m willing to give it a little more time, as there wasn’t much here story-wise.

Cable #2 – Cable discovers that Stinger and Omerta’s mutant child has been kidnapped in Philadelphia. As he’s investigating with one of the Cuckoos (he’s dating the 5 of them), he’s taken by Space Knights, looking for the sword that he found on Krakoa. There is some really good dialogue, but not much story. I believe the sword will have an impact on Swords of X, so I’ll stick it out.

X-Men #10
Captain Marvel #18
Empyre: Captain America #1
Empyre #3 – The Empyre rundown for this week. Vulcan struggles with his inner rage and there are some flashbacks to some aliens unleashing that rage. He discovers the Cotati on the moon and deals with them. Straight forward issue that wasn’t key to the overall story at this point. Captain Marvel was better; the new Accuser is sent to deal with a rogue Kree agent who is destroying peaceful habitats. She discovers that the person she’s to accuse is her half sister, who she didn’t know was alive. They leave without judgement, making Captain Marvel an enemy of the Empire. Captain America deals with the battle on Earth; after helping a pinned down platoon, he pleads with the higher ups in the U.S. Military to help the lesser countries that are being decimated. When they won’t help, Cap enlists the platoon to go with him to Central and South America. Points for one of the characters declaring they are the new Howling Commandos. Empyre focuses on the overall battle. Tony Stark is upset that he fell for the Cotati plan. Black Panther has realized that Wakanda is what the Cotati want because the vibranium enriched soil will make them stronger. Hulkling has to decide between sacrificing and Avenger or give up the Star Sword. And we get a nice little surprise about Tanalth. Besides the Tony sulking angle, I got frustrated here because this appears to be set before X-Men and Captain Marvel while the reading order suggests otherwise. If you are going to tell people the order to read it, make the story. That said, the stories this week weren’t bad.

Spider-Man Noir #2 – It’s been so long since issue 1 came out, I almost forgot what had happened. Spidey goes to the U.K. with an archeologist to help solve her sister’s murder. There is a lot more going on than just a murder investigation. To learn about a necklace the murdered woman was holding, they have to infiltrate Nazi Germany to talk with another archeologist, who they discover has been murdered. I’m torn on this story; I really don’t care about the character, but there was enough intrigue that I wanted to read the next issue.

Star Wars: Darth Vader #3 – See the Retro Review.

X-Factor #1 – Northstar gets the feeling that his sister Aurora is dead, but he doesn’t have proof to get the 5 to resurrect her. With the help of Polaris, they form a team to find out what happened and if Aurora is really dead. I’m excited to see X-Factor back as an investigative unit and this is a fun team; I only wish they’d use Maddrox and that PAD was writing it. I’m sold though.

Retro Review: Darth Vader 1-3.

This might not be all that retro, but I wanted to be current on the Darth Vader series. I read the first series set between A New Hope and Empire and I’ve read about half of the one set after Revenge of the Sith; one series has not been required to read the next, so I felt safe picking this up without being done with the previous one.

Vader is upset to learn that Luke was alive and hidden from him and he’s wanting to get those that kept his child from him. He starts following leads, which brings him to Sabe, one of Padme’s agents/body doubles and the Queen’s Shadow. Vader forces her to help him find out what happens, and she agrees since it’s a common goal. They go to Naboo to get missing footage from Padme’s security system that was taken from Coruscant. The whole thing was a trap though, as Sabe and her team believe Vader killed Padme on Mustafar.

It’s a very good story that touches on the past; in fact, there are a lot of flashbacks to Padme and Anakin from the movies that show you what Vader is going through. It’s fun to see characters that have been forgotten (Sabe, Captain Typho) since the prequels. They also do a good job fitting this in with the existing story; Vader is driven, which we’ve seen in the movies, but it’s towards Luke rather than the Emperor’s tasks.

Don’t forget, the Krakoa Mutant Tracker is updated weekly as new books come to Marvel Unlimited.