Category Archives: Marvel
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/19/14
I have a feeling that the closer we get to the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, the more prevalent the GotG cameos will be in Marvel comics. We’ve got at least two this week – that I read – and both are painfully obvious. It’s like Marvel is working overtime to erase all of the goodwill built up by all those amazing movie trailers.
I am going to be seeing Guardians of the Galaxy on opening night. But you better believe I’m not about to pay for one of their comics.
Fortunately, we’ve got a pretty good pile of books this week. New issues of Uncanny X-Men and She-Hulk were pretty darn great. If you’re a supporter of Cyclops, like me, things are going to get pretty awesome pretty fast. We also kick off the return of Robin at DC Comics, but for some reason, I’m pretty much subdued as far as that goes. And we’ve still got comics like Original Sin and Batwoman to stink up the joint. But we rebound with another (inter)stellar issue of Silver Surfer, which wins Comic Book of the Week for an adorable trip to Cape Cod.
But if I’m being completely honest, and more than a little shocked, Batman Eternal wins moment of the week for this hilarious bit. Batwing and the Spectre have just entered the haunted, overrun Arkham Asylum.
That is the smartest thing Batman Eternal has written so far.
Comic Reviews: Batman Eternal #15, Batwoman #33, Original Sin #6, Robin Rises: Omega #1, She-Hulk #6, Silver Surfer #4, and Uncanny X-Men #23.
You can also eventually check out my larger review of Ms. Marvel #6 over at Word of the Nerd.
Change. Change Never Changes. The Next Marvel NOW!
Guess what! Marvel Comics has a bunch of awesome plans in store for all of their most popular characters! And for a few of their upcoming movie stars! They’re setting up their third Marvel NOW! wave, and personally, I think it all looks pretty neat. Check out this lineup!
The Amazing Avengers? Invincible Avengers? Irredeemable Avengers?
If you haven’t heard yet, we’ve got female Thor and the fact that Sam Wilson, the Falcon, is taking over at Captain America. I’m a big fan of that idea. Cap with wings? Bring it on! The Winter Soldier is getting a new series, where he becomes the protector of Earth. Deathlok is getting a reboot to bring him closer to his TV counterpart. And Marvel is still trying desperately to make Inhuman happen. See that flaming guy in the picture there? That’s Inferno, the new Inhuman. He and Medusa are the stars of the comic Inhuman, which has published all of 2 issues so far. If Marvel is really serious about making the Inhumans a force to be reckoned with, they are failing terribly.
Seriously, Inhuman is terrible. Inferno should be ashamed to be in that group picture.
Also in that picture, you can see Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, both of whom have upcoming movies on the Marvel slate. I’m excited for both, and if Marvel can get both heroes their own comics, that would be a blast. Marvel is doing great things with comics these days. I’m dying for a quality Ant-Man comic.
Entertainment Weekly has some of the details.
Iron Man is getting a big change too. See his fancy new white/silver armor? That’s the Superior Iron Man!
Iron Man is suddenly big into testing
Tony Stark will be moving to San Francisco, where he plans to implement some darker, tougher technology upgrades. Tony’s going a little dark. Good for him.
I don’t know about you, but all of this looks great to me. Maybe I’m just really into Marvel these days. I know that’s the truth. They can do little wrong in my book. I have always been a Marvel man, and the various Marvel NOW! campaigns have been comic book gold. So you better believe I’m excited to get my hands on some of these new books.
This is going to be the year of the Ant-Man!
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First Official Sneak Peek at Avengers: Age of Ultron
Entertainment Weekly continues to be a magazine in circulation, and they have landed the first official look at Avengers 2: Age of Ultron! I used to love that magazine in high school in the swinging late 90s. So good for them at this pretty awesome scoop. Check out this cover, with our first real look at Ultron himself!
He looks pretty gnarly. And Captain America and Iron Man look pretty cool too.
You can check out an early sneak peek at the Avengers 2 interview at their website. It gives a lot of details on the plot, so be careful of spoilers, and talks about a few of the new characters. You can check out a few pictures by clicking here, including an official look at Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, as well as a possible surprise superhero cameo. Or you can just wait for the actual magazine, because people still apparently buy those. Right now, I’m legitimately considering it.
Thor Becomes a Lady, the World Loses Its Mind
I love it when comic book storylines somehow become mainstream news. I love watching reporters or celebrities or whoever try to interpret something that probably doesn’t make any sense to them, but they’re being paid to promote it nonetheless. Like when Fox News freaked out about the death of Ultimate Spider-Man. Or when Fox News freaked out about the introduction of a half black, half Latino Spider-Man.
Today’s comic book news is that Marvel is going to tell a story about a female Thor. This was announced on The View, of all places, and it’s all over the Internet. Lady Thor is even trending on Facebook!
Still blonde
First of all, why the heck is Marvel using The View to announce anything? Is there really a big crossover audience? I think they’ve done it before, and while it may be a female-centric show, is that the only place they could think of to announce news about a female character? Why not package the announcement during Sex and the City reruns? There has to be a better way to reach women.
Second of all, who cares?! It’s a comic book storyline! It may be getting a new #1 issue, but it’s still just a single storyline that Marvel feels like doing. Why does this warrant mainstream news coverage?
Why the metal face mask?
I’ve felt pretty cynical about the world for a few years now. This sort of thing falls squarely in the whole ‘the mainstream news is distraction’ sort of conspiracy theory. Why bother reporting on important things when the news can talk about a comic book storyline? Or the search for a crashed airplane? Does any of this coverage talk about how awesome Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder has been? Did Whoopi Goldberg on The View tell people where, how and why they should start reading this Lady Thor comic? Or is this just an announcement for announcement’s sake?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely going to read the comic, because Jason Aaron’s Thor has been pretty amazing. But how weird is it that it’s getting this much attention? I wish the universe cared this much about comic books for real. But why not have reporters who actually understand comics talk about real comic book news instead of paying Whoopi Goldberg to read a press release?
Maybe then they could make jokes about Frog Thor or Horse Thor.
Or Valkyrie, who already is a blonde, female Thor.
First Full Big Hero 6 Trailer!
The first real Big Hero 6 trailer hit the Internet today, and I managed to find a version of it on Youtube. Watch it quick before it’s taken down!
You can also watch it by clicking here and that’ll be fine.
I like it! The trailer focuses on Baymax and Hiro, which is fine, but you don’t get a very good look at the other character. Don’t worry, though, you can check out all the character posters to get a good look at them. The only complaint I have is that T.J. Miller is voicing Fredzilla. That’s the slacker guy who shouts from the back of the car. He’ been in everything lately, including both Transformers 4 and How to Train Your Dragon 2 this summer. So when I hear his voice, I don’t think ‘Fred’, I think ‘oh that guy’. That’s very distracting.
Otherwise, it looks good!
Henchman-4-Hire