Category Archives: Avengers
A Couple of Marvel Trailers
First up, the debut trailer of Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United confirms my suspicion that it will be crappy.
Stiff, stilted computer animation looks like it was done by a freshman design student. The dialogue appears to be nothing but cheap one-liners and weak banter. The villains are just a bunch of robots and/or additional Iron Man suits. This is a flimsy, boring work of drivel from a company that produces the best superhero stories and movies in the world. I expect better.
Next up is the latest trailer for Marvel Heroes, the upcoming Marvel-themed Massive Multiplayer Online game. I don’t know why I haven’t written about this game yet, probably due to lack of interest. And I don’t know why I’m not very interested in this game. It looks to be the next evolution of the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games, and those were great.
Marvel Heroes wisely forgoes DC Comics’ attempt at an MMO, and instead lets you play as the actual superheroes. DC went with a City of Heroes-style game, where you design your own superhero and then fight alongside the Justice League. Marvel is going with a Diablo-like game, where you get to play as their superheroes in a dungeon-crawler-like environment. They’ve done a good job with that kind of series in the past, like I said, but something about this game has yet to really grab me. I think it’s the generic-ness that I’ve seen from the previews so far.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 was based heavily on Civil War, the comic series that pit hero against hero. It was full of exciting cameos (Multiple Man! Prodigy!), and got really in depth for a video game. Marvel Heroes, so far, seems to be striving to be as generic as possible, probably to bring in as many players as possible. Plus all of the characters they’ve revealed so far are not among my list of favorites. So there’s nothing to get excited about…yet. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.
What do you guys think of movie and this game? Are you looking forward to both? Hating them both? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Cyclops Continues to Be Right
For those of you following my coverage of Avengers vs. X-Men, and readily agree with my assessment that Cyclops was right, then you absolutely need to be reading AvsX: Cosquences. It’s a weekly series that is following Cyclops now that he’s the villain and in prison, and it’s absolutely perfect! The second issue came out today, and it’s all about Cyclops and Wolverine sitting down and talking this through, and it is everything I could have hoped for how Cyclops would be treated after Avengers vs. X-Men. Ignore his villainous cameo in Uncanny Avengers, this is the real Cyclops.
I’m not going to spoil anything or do a review of the issue, just take my advice and pick it up if you’re pro-Cyclops. It’s exciting to know that at least someone at Marvel understood exactly what was happening with Cyclops. And Wolverine gets absolutely put in his place!
Also, let me know in the comments if you would like some spoilers, because I can readily provide should there be demand.
I’m Not Made of Stone, People
When someone makes a video of a bunch of adorable Pugs dressed up like the Avengers, you better believe I’m going to post it!
Because what am I doing with this blog if not bringing you videos like this one?
Marvel Has Got Space Characters Too!
I posted yesterday about Threshold, the new DC Comics space series. Well not to be outdone – especially with a big movie on the way – Marvel revealed their space-based comics at a panel at NYC Comic-Con. First up we have the new Guardians of the Galaxy, written by Brian Michael Bendis.
Young, attractive, blonde male make the best lead characters
As you can see, the team will feature Starlord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora, Drax and someone who appears to be a space-armored Iron Man. This is the exact lineup as the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie in 2014. I wonder if these will be their movie costumes. The inclusion of Iron Man clearly has to do with the shared Marvel movieverse, considering Iron Man is probably the most popular character from the movies. So why not garner some fan attention for the Guardians by throwing Iron Man onto the team?
Personally…I’m not impressed. I’m a huge fan of Bendis, don’t get me wrong, but I was never particularly fond of his Avengers comics, and I doubt I’ll pick up his Guardians comic. I tend to buy comics based on my favorite characters, and none of my favorite Guardians are going to be in this series. I’m sure it will be great, I’m sure Bendis has some great ideas lined up. I just doubt it’s for me.
But I really do hope this works out for Marvel, and I can’t wait for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie!
Next up we have the new Nova series by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness.
Alas, if only he’d been blonde
Sure enough, the new Nova is revealed to be Sam Alexander, a teenager who has taken up the Nova mantle after original Nova, Ritchie Ryder, was lost in space. Sam Alexander is also the same Nova who is appearing in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. He also had that big cameo in the last issue of Avengers vs. X-Men.
Gotta say, I’m also not interested in this one. I loved Ritchie Ryder’s Nova during and after Annihilation, but I have zero interest in reading a new Nova just for Nova’s sake. And Jeph Loeb’s comics haven’t been too great, as of late. I’m just don’t particularly care.
So it looks like both these comics will pass me by. There’s still one more day of the NYCC though, so there may be even more new series announced that I can get behind!
Review: Uncanny Avengers #1
One thing is pretty clear after reading the first issue of the new Uncanny Avengers: Marvel foolishly seems to think Captain America was the hero of Avengers vs. X-Men. Were they reading the same comic I was? Because I’m fairly certain Cyclops was right all along, and it was Captain America who caused all the problems in the first place. But as I said in my review of Avengers vs. X-Men #12, history is written by the winners. And sure enough, Captain America won the big superhero fight. So he gets to decide how the world of superheroes moves forward, and he and all his buddies get to vilify Cyclops like it was their favorite new hobby.
Uncanny Avengers #1
I wonder if the ending to AvX has anything to do with Captain America leading Marvel’s $1 billion Avengers movie franchise, and the X-Men being owned by a whole different studio?
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
I’ll try to tone down my Cyclops love for this review, because it was a good comic. In the sense that it told a straight forward story, set up several main characters and seems to promise a lot of character-based drama in the issues to come. But I’m not blown away by the new series, and there’s nothing in here that’s truly revolutionary or exciting. It’s kind of just…a superhero comic. One that may be a little too closely tied to Avengers vs. X-Men to stand on its own. Both Cyclops and the death of Professor X weigh heavily on this issue, so I don’t know if it’ll be too daunting for new readers who might have been attracted by Marvel NOW!
The choice of villain has been spoiled for a long time, so his appearance wasn’t a surprise. His choice of henchmen, though, leaves a lot to be desired. They sacrificed one of my all-time favorite X-villains for no good reason, then introduced a bunch of new nobodies that literally made me question what the hell I was reading. And not in a good way.
This comic has a lot of potential as Marvel’s new flagship title. I have a lot of faith in writer Rick Remender, and John Cassaday is a very good artist – though I’ve seen him do much better work. He’s definitely not at the top of his game with this issue. Remender and Cassaday lay the groundwork for some hopefully great work coming up. We shall see.
