Sometimes, Goddamnit, you’ve god to resist the nit pick. Finishing this story, my head was full of a half dozen small complaints about what didn’t work; from the broken promise of the cover to the indulgent, confusing two-page paneled spreads that lie at the center of the book, I was ready to hit the internet and go a’ ragin’, prepared to prove my own superiority by pointing out the multiple trifles of inconstancy and incompetence that I had brilliantly noticed in all my brilliance. Then I took a breath. And Another. And I realized that when I left my whines behind, I actually liked the book, kind of really liked it. Yes, it wasn’t the knock down battle of technology vs. myth teased at on the front cover; instead, it was an oddly peaceful and powerful story about a dad deciding to give his boy a bit of room to rebel, room not granted to the dad by his own somewhat overbearing father (or, translated into Marvel: it was a story about the god Ares deciding to let his son and fellow god, Phobos join Nick Fury’s inglorious bastard-spies because Ares didn’t want to parrot his own father who is, y’know, Zeus). It embraced that small-u ultimate Marvel theme of a child blessed with ability finding his way in a world of adults gone seemingly mad. The characterization of Ares was particularly noteworthy; Bendis managed to convey a central irony at the center of this character–his eternal confidence is somehow accompanied by an eternal regret, as if he has to charge into battle always knowing that he perhaps should not be charging into battle–that made me itch for further exploration of someone I always thought was just another muscle head among muscle heads. Ares dismissal of Fury, “I know [Osborn] has your old job. I’m sure that is humiliating to you. But he is doing very well at it,” is both cutting and telling as it occurs at the moment he is walking away from the fight, praising Osborn as he decides not to do what Osborn would’ve wanted i.e. call the Avengers and fight Fury. And yes I realize this is the umpteenth time since Civil War where a “bad guy” Avenger has almost fought with a “good guy” Avenger and then decided for character related reasons just to walk away–and that’s a legitimate, point and a nice nit pick. But, Goddamnit, can’t I just have the moment?