Category Archives: Avengers
The Top 6 Soldier Superheroes
While researching this article, I came upon a very popular slogan: “Who needs superheroes, my dad is a Marine”. Talk about summing it up nicely. Is there anyone more superheroic in our real world than the men and women of the armed services, who push themselves to the limit and sacrifice everything in the name of protecting the innocent and fighting bad guys? They wear awesome uniforms, sometimes get cool code names and they have powers and abilities far surpassing the average person.
Every soldier can be a superhero.
“Wonder Twin powers, activate!”
So it makes perfect sense to turn soldiers into superheroes in the world of comic books. Who better to take a stand and fight evil on a superhuman level than the men and women who’ve already dedicated their lives to that cause? Sometimes superheroes are nerdy science geeks like Spider-Man, or rich playboys like Batman. And sometimes they are the ass-kicking, freedom-saving men and women of the armed services.
In honor of Memorial Day, here are 6 people who don’t need the colorful costumes or super-powers – but it helps.
Review: Avengers vs. X-Men #4
Four issues in to Marvel’s big summer event, one thing has become very clear: Avengers vs. X-Men the series is going to speed through the basic plot, leaving all the actual fighting and meaningful character interaction to the tie-ins. While normally I might have a problem with this, I’m happy to say that Avengers vs. X-Men remains a good read in and of itself. I’ve been avoiding the AvX fight series, because I don’t need to spend good money on pages full of punching. And I’ve been buying a few of the regular series tie-ins, especially the X-Men ones. They haven’t exactly matched up perfectly with the main series, but I can live with that.
Avengers vs. X-Men #4
Four issues in and Avengers vs. X-Men is still good, as far as I’m concerned. The story is moving at a crisp pace, always changing and always giving me something new and exciting to read. Heck, everybody visits the Moon in this issue, for crying out loud!
Comic rating: 4/5: Good.
At the end of last issue, I was worried that we were going to spend several issues with the various teams searching for Hope in the five different locations across the globe. Turns out, those searches were relegated to the tie-ins. We see brief glimpses of each search in this issue, and the fights that occur in those places, but by the end of the issue they’ve found Hope and we move on to the next big part of the story. One could argue that those five separate location visits were just filler or padding, but not the kind we usually get in these big event comics. If the filler lasts less than an issue before moving on to the next exciting event, I’m cool with that. If I wanted to read that filler, I know which tie-in comics to buy.
I’m definitely enjoying the pace of Avengers vs. X-Men. That’s probably it’s strongest element. Part of me wants to give this comic a lower grade because of the lack of depth, but I can honestly say I enjoyed the comic while I was reading it. All in one sitting, I bet the full series is going to be even better. Avengers vs. X-Men isn’t going to have depth and intense character drama. While that might improve things, the series definitely isn’t broke without them.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more analysis.
6 Things I Want in the Captain America, Iron Man and Thor Sequels
The Avengers 2 is the most obvious decision a movie studio has ever made. It’s going to come out. But before we experience that awesomeness, we’re going to have to sit through Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Captain America 2. Such suffering, I know. The first two are going to arrive in theaters as early as next year, and Captain America 2 is scheduled for 2014. These movies are already planned, with plot outlines and possibly even scripts at the ready. Iron Man 3 begins filming in only a few weeks.
No doubt it will feature Iron Man
This is all exciting news, because based on the movies we’ve seen so far, these sequels are going to be awesome. But what are they going to be about? How do you go from The Avengers, which has already broken the $1 billion mark in only a matter of weeks, back to individual solo movies? Which characters are going to appear? What’s the story going to be like? What kinds of hints and Easter Eggs will they include pointing towards The Avengers 2?
So to continue the celebration that has been The Avengers movie, here is my list of the 6 things I want to see in the upcoming sequels.
Marvel Superheroes are a Wacky Bunch
Somebody needs to give Imajunation a lot of money so that they can make a million more of these videos! A wacky, hilarious little clip show of wonderful Marvel superhero vignettes called ‘Disassembled’. DC may have the Super Best Friends Forever, but this video is almost as good. If you watch only one video on my blog, make it this one. Enjoy!
Review: Mimic and the X-Men #3
How freakin’ awesome is it that the Mimic is now a regular character in an ongoing comic book series? We haven’t enjoyed this since back in the 1960s for about three issues of X-Men – that is if you don’t count Exiles, which I don’t, since it was a very different Mimic. We’re truly living in a Golden Age of being a fan of the obscure comic book character the Mimic! But sadly, as awesome as this is, it’s also a double-edged sword. Because in the first issue following Mimic’s grand return to the X-Men, he’s reduced to just a side character with very little panel-time.
One very Mimic-less issue
This is Rogue’s comic, after all. But I may keep up these reviews since I know I’m not the only Mimic fan in the world.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
As a Mimic comic, this issue sucks. He barely appears. It’s great that he’s in the cast now, but it’s sad to see him doing nothing. As a tie-in to Avengers vs. X-Men, the comic isn’t any good either. It’s been less than a year since Regenesis, when Wolverine split the X-Men in half in order to go off and re-open the school in Westchester. Yet one giant crossover later and everything he set up is being thrown under the bus, all in the name of yet another punch-fest between superheroes.
This issue pushes the whole school idea just a little too far, revealing it to be the sham that it is. The students don’t want to learn, they want to join in the fight against the Avengers. If they wanted to fight so badly, why didn’t they stay on Utopia? And the ‘teachers’ spend all their time worrying about making sure they stick to the class schedule – yet they all still dress in superhero costumes.
But who cares about all of that? Bring on the Mimic!
