Sorry I was at work when I typed that comment, I was furious reading it
It reads like it's a #1 for an event book, not an issue #675. Treats every character like you're meeting them for the first time. Clearly meant for a trade, which I guess is fine, but it makes the dialogue really stilted and unnatural.
It starts with Living Lightning monologuing to himself, but at the same time he's speaking the exact same exposition out loud, so it's really redundant. I feel like Mark Waid wrote the actual dialogue and Editorial told him to add the expository thought-bubble things to make the event as accessible as possible.
Also, the new character they are focusing the event on is just some dumb OC self-insert. She's basically the Sentry, and the dialogue introducing her is really hammy.
Most scenes don't contribute to the plot and the threat being set up is really vague. Just overall a really poorly written book that's a chore to read.
Marvel wanted our shop to do a midnight release and our owner legitimately laughed at the request. Nobody cares about this "event." Can't believe they have a lenticular cover for it by default with no plentiful alternative to it. It reeks of a cash grab, and while I know that's all Marvel's been doing lately, this one is so apparent that it's actually offensive to me.
I don't usually read comics and more as being surrounded by them for the better part of a decade has completely turned me off to most hero books, but I try to skim through the events so I can talk about them with customers. This one is probably one of the worst I've read since... Secret Empire. Marvel is going to need to do a lot to win back its fans. Nobody at my shop even really reads Marvel anymore, so I don't know why I try to keep up with their terrible events. We pulled new books today for subscribers and I think there were three or four titles nobody requested at all (Squirrel Girl, Gwenpool, Secret Warriors, Runaways, maybe Secret Warriors), and that used to be really rare, but it's a weekly occurrence with Marvel now.
The sad thing is that there's no way DC can pick up sales slack for Marvel. Our overall sales are way down even though DC and Indie are up. You just can't have independent comic shops without the Big 2 there to prop it up. The worst part is that I used to love Marvel, so it hurts even more to watch them fall apart.
Maybe Akira Yoshi-- err, CB Cebulski can turn it around?
Is this Elite Beat Agents 2?