Category Archives: Marvel
My Top 6 Funnest Amalgam Comics Combinations
Newsarama spent all last week designing and showing off their own Amalgam characters, and that’s got me in the mood to keep talking about Amalgam Comics and characters! For those not in the know, Amalgam Comics was a joint project between Marvel and DC in the mid-90s where they merged their characters and put out a couple random, stand alone issues.
The world needs Amalgam now more than ever!
Amalgam Comics is everything I love about comic books. Two rival companies came together with their best talent to produce this insane project. Pepsi and Coke have never come together to create some blended soda. But Amalgam was real, I owned and read a bunch of issues, and the world is a better place knowing this existed. So let’s celebrate Amalgam with a list of my favorite characters, and some of the ones that I think are just a great combination!
Please feel free to share your own favorite Amalgam character combos in the comments!
Let’s Revisit Amalgam Again with Newsarama!
Newsarama is one of those comic book news sites that’s always got some solid content on whenever you’re blandly surfing the internet — which I do all the time. It’s also one of those sites that this blog was created for, like my own personal resume for being able to write comic book news and features that should get me hired! But I never pursued any of that, so here I am excitedly sharing a Newarama feature on Amalgam Comics instead of writing it for them myself!
During these crazy quarantine times, the staff at Newsarama apparently took it upon themselves to revisit Amalgam Comics and come up with a bunch of their own combined characters. Like the Iron Bat!
Billionaire, playboy, genius, philanthropist
Beautiful.
For those who don’t know, Amalgam Comics was this glorious moment in comic book history when Marvel and DC Comics were working together for the greater good of humanity. Amalgam spun out of the Marvel vs. DC event in the 90s, during which the two companies merged their characters and actually jointly published a line of comics about these new oddities.
You had Dark Claw, the combination of Wolverine and Batman. You had Super Soldier, the combination of Superman and Captain America. You had Iron Lantern, the combination of Iron Man and Green Lantern. You had Lobo the Duck, the combination of Lobo and Howard the Duck! Seriously, Amalgam Comics were a perfect sort of thing that only comes along once in a lifetime. I owned a couple issues myself.
Too bad all of the collections have been out of print for decades and cost a princely sum on Amazon.
So kudos to Newsarama and their art teams for having a little fun this quarantine.
The Mighty Mortal: Thor and Shazam!
They did five characters total, which you can check out on their website. This is exactly the sort of fun, creative silliness we should all be doing in quarantine.
Amalgam was everything I love about comics. And I know I’m not the first online to suggest another crossover between Marvel and DC would be a great way to bring the comic book industry back to life following this shutdown.
————————
A More Definitive Hench-Sized Ranking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
If this were a better world, we’d all be watching Black Widow on the big screen this weekend. If this were a better world, I’d have a giant stack of new comics to read and review this weekend. If this were a better world, Best Buy would have the Nintendo Switch in stock. But it’s not a better world. It’s a coronavirus world.
So let’s pass the time by ranking all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies!
Way back in 2015, about halfway through the MCU as we know it today, I did my first ranking of all the Marvel movies. I’m still fairly happy with the list. But a lot has changed since then. Most specifically, the Infinity Saga came to an end! And now it’ll be more than a year between installments as Black Widow and Phase 4 have been pushed back to November.
So yeah, on this traditional Marvel movie release weekend, join me after the jump to see my personal ranking of all the MCU movies! Keep in mind, I’m a devoted fanboy and I love all these films, even the ones other people say are bad. They’re all great. I just like some more than others.
Keep in mind: this is not a ranking of the quality of the films. This is my personal love of the MCU. Expect full bias and preferential treatment.
A New Look at that Avengers Video Game
In theory, new video games are still going to come out this year. One can only hope. As far as we all know, that big, fancy Avengers video game is still coming out, and a new trailer was released the other day with a bit of new detail about actual gameplay.
Sounds helpful! Considering the year we’re dealing with, I think my hesitancy towards this game is evaporating. We could all use a big, fun, multi-player Avengers game by the time this year is out.
In theory, the game is set for Sept. 4 — the week of my birthday!
————————-
This Delightful Squirrel Girl Video!
Quarantine does strange things to us all. And perhaps it has convinced YouTuber Supernova Tova to cosplay as Squirrel Girl and sing the Squirrel Girl theme song from the first issue of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. If that’s the case, bring on more global pandemics!
I kid. But this video is delightful! The song is obviously set to the music of the classic Spider-Man theme song, with lyrics by Ryan North, writer of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. And Supernova Tova give sit her all! Which is exactly the sort of silly, quarantine-inspired comic book YouTubery I like. Standing ovation!
———————–
Henchman-4-Hire 