Wow. Could NOT find an online review to this, yet, using the standard quick searchwords combos, only saw this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ILLUMINATI-4-TITANIA-THOR-ROSSMO-WILLIAMSON-MARVEL-COMICS-2-10-/361482817207

This does NOT seem like a good sign for the reception of this book...

Illuminati 004 (2016)

And rightly so?

Cover: Perfect.

Footnote to Thor#5: Reader friendly gesture. [It should have noted it was last volume http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Thor_Vol_4_5]

Titania: The whole ish is about her 'rematch' with Lady Thor. It was... alright even though Marvel was clearly reinforcing the fact Titania has another Stalemate Equal besides She-Hulk. And is this the 1st time Marvel has allowed Skeeter a Hulk's Distance Leap showing - 'cuz that was felt a bit forced to keep their battle on the roof to keep her with the team easypeasy.

Mad Thinker: The beard, the irratability - his regressive characterization just felt awkwardly offputting. But we have to give kudos to him for thinking of a way of stealing the entire Asgardian secret armory.

Black Ant: It would be a good thing if this turned to be just an android approximation of the original and if this copy really does explode to destroyed means destroyed status. His simple Pym Particle shrinking of the entire Asgardian Magical Armory was TOO simple. Clearly the plot point but tooo, tooo simple.

Enchantress: WOW. They are really pushing the likelihood that this is really Amora. No reason for the 'new look' but then again everyone on the book is made over. Is the Loki/Enchantress/Malekith arc/dealings in the current volume of Thor http://www.comicboards.com/php/show.php?rpy=thor-2015121618444255 before or after this - of course Marvel cant/wont tell us while it would spoil the other story arc but, wow, is it distracting/detracting.

Thunderball: Useless waste of time this chapter.

The Hood: Still a putz; which is fine as a character flaw but this is another incarnation that still hasn't grabbed me as entertaining as he was in his introductory mini. Keeping that codename -at this point- feels too annoyingly generic/illogical for Marvel Marketing/Trademark purposes only. His whole 'The Illuminati is his dysfunctional family' thing on the RecapPage just makes him look dumb - especially in light of Mad Thinker's quick doublecross. Robbins' team up with Enchantress against Roxxon's fodder patrol was silly shootout too: the team had to get thru a piddly little security door (instead of porting right in); Titania surgically managed to 'Hulk Smash' ONLY the roof and open the wall and hardly stun the fodder (enough for some of the team to sneak past while this team up take care of the security forces all huddled together); Parker using his piddly pistols (instead of a true Encantress spell showing)... meh. Maybe if we had gotten more exposition on his endgame it would have helped the reception of this.

http://www.comicboards.com/php/show.php?msg=avengers-2016021016195189&layout=thread

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Well it's pretty obvious that nobody seems to be interested in the comic to begin with the first issue only had the focus on a single character and apparently in successive issues when you could have had the option of dealing with the other characters, you only see that everything revolves around the same than issue one, there is no explanation of how the group is formed, or the what is the Hood´s plan or anything, the other team characters seems statues and there is no kind of dynamism and all act totally out of character, all it is a confusing mess, and only you can worry about these characters if they appear in other series (as the case of the Enchantress, which was my only interest in the series but is treated even worse than in previous appearances in other series).

The art does not help anything either, it is very clear that this series has no attention from readers and apparently not for the publishers too, it´s so alarming the few variant covers that it have and also think about the fact that so soon it will be published a new Thunderbolts series with original members (except for Zemo and Songbird) that make this book totally irrelevant (even more).

It´s sad to say it, but it is what is happening.

Yep.


Yep.



Yep.




It certainly seems that way.

Without surprise, it will probably suffer the same fate as Black Knight:
http://www.comicboards.com/php/show.php?msg=mub-2016020214502554

It's too bad, because the latest installment, Black Knight #4, was comparitively more palatable than it's terrible first three issues. This is a cheap segue to the Avengers connection in it...

Black Knight 004

This actually was decent spotlight on Dane (and his 2 compatriots featured on the bland poser cover). Of course it was at the expense of making Old Man Cap look bad. Steve foolishly chose to wield the cursed Ebony Blade in battle; he bold face lied about the purity of the Avengers not toppling governments - 'cuz how many secret Avengers missions has he personally spearheaded already now; and he basically and debatably let the wanted murderer go.

Sadly, Rebecca Stevens got more characterization than all the Unity Squad members combined. Well, with the possible exception of Deadpool who did deliver a number of good lines for a change - although he did... boringly just surrender between panels when she was held hostage. [Loved the New Adventures of Old Christine line - Clark Gregg was very funny in that.]

The art did not help here either but it was much more likable than Illuminati's. And the ongoing lack of exposition on Weirdworld -which is supposed to be relevant- is maddening. We didn't even get how they were getting back home (although the k.i.s.s. answer is Doc Voodoo). However, that may be 'cuz they ain't done judging by the next issue cover with the failing Unity Squad Leader http://www.pixhost.org/show/67/31476432_blackknigh5.jpg apparently getting his dose of bad karma.

http://www.comicboards.com/php/show.php?msg=avengers-2016021016195189

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What governments were toppled?