Category Archives: Comics
6 Reasons Why I Think ‘Civil War’ is Perfect for the Marvel Movieverse
I liked Mark Millar’s Civil War. It wasn’t perfect, there were parts I didn’t like, and it left a bad taste in a lot of fandoms’ mouths, but overall, and especially in hindsight, I liked Civil War. I’m not ashamed to admit it, nor am I embarrassed to have read it. Civil War was a pretty insane comic book endeavor, but it’s also probably the best Marvel Big Event of the past decade.
So when Marvel Studios announced that Captain America 3 was going to be Captain America: Civil War, I was absolutely thrilled!
Captain America probably wasn’t too thrilled
I hope I’m not the only one. But reading around the web, I see a lot of people freaking out over the choice of Civil War. I understand that a lot of comic book fans apparently hated the story. By all means, everybody’s entitled to their opinions. But hating a comic book that came out nearly a decade ago and worrying that Marvel Studios is making a mistake are two very different things. I think Civil War is the perfect storyline going forward, and if you’ll join me after the jump, I’ll tell you why.
Marvel Comics is Doing Something Fancy
For the past few weeks, Marvel Comics has been releasing teaser images about their upcoming Big Events in 2015. Each teaser mentions a classic Marvel story, like the Age of Apocalypse, Planet Hulk or House of M, while a few have been brand new, like Attilan Rising or The End of the Ultimate Universe.
I haven’t been posting these various teasers because I was waiting for their purpose to be revealed. You can check out the full gallery at ComicBookResources if you’re so inclined.
Now, the purpose hasn’t been revealed, but Marvel has put out yet another teaser today that might hint towards the outcome.
Maybe they’re teasing Agents of SHIELD’s cancellation?
Sounds pretty ominous, no?
But what does it all mean? I’m definitely going to write more when the real purpose is revealed, but this ominous teaser, coupled with a slow news day, has been curious enough to write and pick your brains a little.
What do you henchies think it means?
Obviously the popular theory is that Marvel is going to do a big universal reboot, a first for the company. Writer Jonathan Hickman has been writing a pretty amazing story in his Avengers comics over the past few years, about the Multiverse coming to blows. And we already know that Hickman is going to be penning a new Secret Wars story next Spring that’s going to involve a bunch of popular Multiverse planets, including the Ultimate Universe.
So I think it’s kind of obvious that all of these teasers are showing us the various combatants in the new Secret Wars. All of the various alternate realities in the Marvel Universe are going to get into a big, multiversal slugfest.
But where does Marvel go from there? Do they actually go through with a reboot? Do they tear down their decades of continuity and rebuild their universe to better fit the Movieverse?
I don’t know…but I don’t think so. I’m with Bleeding Cool on this one, I think a reboot is highly unlikely. I think Marvel knows that we’d all go nuts over a reboot, so they’re doing everything in their power to tease a reboot just to get us talking. Marvel loves to get us talking, and as last week’s movie announcement revealed, they know how to play the PR game better than anyone.
Obviously something big and fancy is going to happen at Marvel next Spring, and Secret Wars is going to be huge. But I don’t think it’s going to lead to a company-wide reboot.
But then again, maybe I’m wrong…
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DC Comics is Doing Something Fancy
In the Spring, DC Comics will be moving their corporate offices from New York to California for business reasons (business, business, business, numbers!). For reasons I don’t quite understand, this is going to disrupt comic book production for about two months. Rather than not publish anything, DC is putting together a special weekly event called Convergence, revealed today for the first official time by USA Today.
Convergence is going to be about a bunch of different alternate realities coming together to fight Brainiac and a new villain!
Behold the terror of Random Guy!
How this differs from Multiversity, I don’t know. Marvel is also doing a new Secret Wars event with all of their alternate realities at about the same time. But that’s comics for you.
The plot is that Brianiac has been bottling whole worlds instead of just cities, and in Convergence, he’s going to just smash ’em all together to see what happens. So various versions of a whole bunch of DC characters, from classic, to modern, to alternate, are going to fight…maybe. Or they’ll team up to fight Brainiac, probably.
They’re also going to have to contend with new villain, Telos, which is a pretty terrible name.
I believe there’s going to be a main Convergence mini-series, which will come out weekly, and then a bunch of 2-part tie-in comics to fill the months. Writer Jeff King will be making his comics debut on Convergence, with help from Dan Jurgens and Scott Lobdell, which doesn’t fill me with glee.
Basically, I have no idea what to really think about this event. I’ve been slowly abandoning DC Comics for awhile now, and this event just doesn’t sound very interesting. But I wish them all the luck in the world in pulling it off. Maybe they’ll have some fun and sell some comics!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/1/14
Happy Day-After-Halloween, henchies! Or better yet, Happy All Saints Day! I wonder if anybody in the world actually celebrates All Saints Day. I know I had to Google it to remember what November 1 was actually called. No worries if you don’t celebrate, but hopefully you have plenty of candy to tide you over.
This week was very light on new comics because it’s a Fifth Wednesday week. Comic publishers usually only plan for 4 Wednesdays a month, so when a fifth week comes along, they usually throw out some minor comics. DC put out a couple of annuals that I didn’t bother to read. But I did pick up All-New X-Men and Batman Eternal.
The week’s crowning jewel, however, is the final issue of Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman! He’s been telling one ongoing, epic saga since the start of the New 52, and it all comes to an end with this issue, the Comic Book of the Week!
Meanwhile, Marvel put out the first issue of their new Deathlok series. I wrote a pretty thorough review at Word of the Nerd that you can check out.
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #33, Batman Eternal #30 and Wonder Woman #35.
Review: Saga #24
When all is said and done, and we’re looking back at Saga in the big picture, this volume is going to be seen as one of transition. People in the future who read Saga in one sitting are going to breeze through this chapter to get to the really good stuff. And that makes this volume – and this issue in particular – kind of an odd duckling. Better literary critics than I will probably be able to explain it better, but for me, this was all just a nice visit with some good friends.
Saga #24
Saga #24 ends the current volume by looking ahead to the future, underlining this whole volume as a tiny bit unnecessary.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
Not that I would ever consider a single issue of Saga ‘unnecessary’ – unless, of course, it got really bad somehow. But after reading this issue, and it’s wild departure from every other issue in this volume, I find myself slightly confused by the whole experience. Writer Brian K. Vaughn shocked us at the end of issue #18 with a jump forward in time, giving us Hazel as a toddler and her family changed. That could have been the start of a great new status quo, and for a little while, it was. But with this issue, everything has changed once again.
Vaughn spent the majority of this volume establishing that new status quo only to rip us away from it at the end. This volume didn’t really take us from Point A to Point B because, like I said, Vaughn pretty much created Point A out of thin air.
But I suppose there’s no real reason to complain. We got some good drama, we met some new characters, and toddler Hazel was something spectacular. Maybe I’m just looking at this from the wrong perspective. Alana and her family are obviously the stars of the book, but the plot in this volume was all about the Robot Kingdom. A lot happened on that front. So it’s possible I don’t have any idea what I’m talking about.
I think Saga really should be read all at once, whenever it’s completed, even if it would mean waiting years.
At least Vaughn brought back Lying Cat in this issue, and effortlessly reminded us why she is Saga‘s breakout character. There is some great Lying Cat in Saga #24!
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