Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

It's funny, it had a point that I didn't get until the end - but it made sense - and Dum Dum Dugan was a Life Model Decoy (LMD, or robots that look like the people who have died or if they need a lookalike they make it look like someone.)

Dum Dum leads a team of monsters: Man-Thing, a zombie, Hit-Monkey, whatever the hell Orrgo is.   And not only are they a team of monsters, they're named S.T.A.K.E, although that acronym isn't explained in this issue, and they go up against supernatural threats to the world. 

It's implied that they do so for privileges like not being killed and the possibility of newer - and I'm assuming better - TVs in their cells.   But the truth is that a lot isn't really spelled out here, so it was hard to connect to the plot completely.   Between that and me not really finding that I cared that much for any of the characters except Dugan, I had to knock own a star.  It wasn't that they weren't well written or did't have personalities, it's just I didn't get to know them, and felt like I was struggling to understand why they were working with S.H.I.E.L.D and questioning some things that could have been explained quite easily in this.   It distracted me, and that took away from my focus on the characters, but it's still something the narrative could have dealt with - easily. 

Still, I wouldn't be adverse to another issue or two of this, just to give it another shot and see where it goes.   After that, I'd reassess about continuing on, as even though this is quite good, there are too many comics out there to get too invested in something I don't feel much about.