Category Archives: Marvel
‘Inhumanity’ is Marvel’s Next Big Thing
Hey Inhumans fans, your time will come this fall, because Marvel’s next big seismic status quo shift is going to star the Royal Family of Attilan!
Called ‘Inhumanity’, the event is not so much a series as it is just a new status quo. Like Dark Reign or Heroic Era. According to the announcement at Entertainment Weekly, something is going to unleash the Terrigen Mists on Earth, and anyone with some Inhuman DNA in them is suddenly going to sprout super-powers! Could be neat. Though isn’t that just a different kind of mutant?
The event comes with this nifty new picture starring several important characters:
Oh the inhumanity!
Let’s see…we’ve got Black Bolt, Medusa, Silver Surfer, Angela, Thor, Black Widow, the Winter Soldier…all typical. Most noteworthy are Spider-Man in his Peter Parker costume, a new costume for Wolverine and apparently Nightcrawler in the background. Is he going to be brought back from the dead? Maybe!
A new comic called ‘Inhumans’ will also ship, written by writer Matt Fraction, who is one of my current favorite comic book writers. So it’s probably safe to say the series will be good.
Here’s how Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso, who compares this event to Game of Thrones, describes everything:
“The effect on the Marvel Universe will be seismic,” says Alonso. The Terrigen Mists affects all Inhumans differently, granting powers that typically reflect one’s personality, like a hyper-specific Sorting Hat. So “Inhumanity” opens the possibility for a fascinating array of new characters. “You might learn that your new self is fantastic, beautiful, filled with immense power,” says Alonso. “By the same token, you could turn around and find out that you’re nothing. You’re a blob. You have no powers. You can create a little flame out of your pinkie.”
Likewise, Fraction had this to say:
“Our focus characters are drawn into the palace intrigue of this shattered Inhumans Royal family,” says Fraction. “It becomes a superhero story and a mythical story, all revolving around turning the world into a world full of superheroes.” Fraction stresses that the event will appeal to casual readers who might not know their Karnak from their Lockjaw. “It’s giving us a chance to get back to a classic Marvel metaphor of alienation,” he explains. “We’re telling science-fiction stories, but really it’s about race, gender, sexual equality. It’s a very relevant, pertinent metaphor.”
So yeah, I don’t know what to think at this point. It sounds like they have some big ideas, and Matt Fraction is awesome, so maybe it’ll be good. But I’ve never been big on the Inhumans, nor am I very interested in the general idea of Earth becoming an entire planet of superheroes. But we’ll see! What does everybody else think?
Electro No? Or Electro Yes?
The first official, fully-CGI’d picture of Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hit the Internets yesterday, and I for one kind of like it. What do you guys and gals think?
This is how you keep magazines relevant
We’ve known for awhile now that Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, was going to be blue. I was fine with that. The new cover of Entertainment Weekly also shows us that he’s going to have all sorts of neat CGI’d lightning and electricity bits floating around his bald head. I’m sure they’ll be actively buzzing around, and not just static. This Electro looks like a combination of Ultimate Electro and the one from that cell-shaded Spidey cartoon on Mtv. At least it’s not the gaudy green and yellow costume, amiright?
Anyway, I like it. The jumpsuit looks neat and the features on the head are kind of cool. What does everybody else think? Let me know in the comments!
Review: Deadpool, the Game
Holy Chimichangas, they made a Deadpool video game! They haven’t even gotten around to making that Deadpool movie they’re always talking about, and there isn’t anything else coming out to make this game a cash grab tie-in. Marvel and developer High Moon Studios just up and made a Deadpool video game for the sheer hell of it. How cool is that!? We all know how this works. Whenever a superhero movie or cartoon show comes out, some video game developer is hired to make a crummy tie-in game just to make some money. Then the best case scenario is that sometimes those games are mediocre. More often than not, they’re unplayable.
But every so often, once in half a dozen blue moons, a superhero video game is made to stand on its own, and we get a glorious gem like Batman: Arkham City!
And sometimes we get Deadpool, the game.
Who said that?
Game Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
I have good news for Deadpool fans: this game is an absolute perfect adaptation of the character. Comic writer Daniel Way also penned the game, so the same style and humor he brought to the character in the comics is also on the screen. Deadpool is wacky, he’s crude, he breaks the Fourth Wall, he hallucinates and he never stops talking. He’s the Merc with the Mouth, so if you’ve been a fan of the character over the past few years, this game should be fantastic.
But we hate Daniel Way’s Deadpool.
I’ll get to that in a minute. Anyway, even though all of the Deadpoolness in the game is great, the game itself is achingly mediocre. High Moon Studios apparently spent all of their time perfecting the Deadpoolery, then just stapled it to a bare bones hack’n’slasher. The enemies are repetitive and unoriginal, the plot is non-existent, the levels are boring, and the few moments that actually break out of the mold are too short to actually make an impact. That’s not to say any of these things are bad, per se, they’re just bland and uninspired. The game itself is entirely average, but at a short 6 to 7 hours, maybe that’s all you need to enjoy such impressive amounts of Deadpoolocity.
So basically Deadpool, the game, is all about Deadpool. I think they get it.
Either way, join me after the jump for my full review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/6/13
Alright, guys and gals, this is the last time I change up my rating system. I know I changed it just a few months ago, but now that I’ve been trying it out for awhile, I realize just how confusing it might be. I started out with a scale of just 0-5. Then I added decimals, because that seemed like the thing to do, and I wanted my reviews to be a little more nuanced. Now I’ve decided that the decimals just add a lot of unnecessary clutter. But rather than do away with them, I’ve decided to take my 0-5 system and upgrade it to a 0-10 instead. I think, in the long run, this will just be easier.
Let’s do a quick run down:
0 – Abomination; 1 – Terrible; 2 – Very Bad; 3 – Bad; 4 – Pretty Bad; 5 – Alright; 6 – Pretty Good; 7 – Good; 8 – Very Good; 9 – Great; 10 – Fantastic!
Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, on with the reviews!
Short week, this week, with only a handful of comics coming out on my buy pile. Avengers continues their big storyline, Batman Incorporated draws ever close to the finish, and the new writer on Green Lantern settles into his new role of storyteller. All quality comics, and I enjoyed each and every one. But the real standout this week is The Superior Foes of Spider-Man! I’ve been eagerly anticipating this comic since it was announced, and it did not disappoint (though the name could stand to be a little less complex). Superior Foes is about a handful of Spider-Man’s B and C-list foes banding together into a new Sinister Six (which would have been a fine title). The comic takes the down-to-Earth, personal appeal of a book like Hawkeye and adds a dash of villainy. The characters here aren’t out to rule the world. They’re just out to make a living, and costumed crime is the path they’ve chosen. This is exactly my kind of book, and The Superior Foes of Spider-Man easily wins Comic Book of the Week.
It’s the little stuff that matters. Like Shocker and Speed Demon arguing over the keys.
Comic Reviews: Avengers #15, Batman Incorporated #12, Green Lantern #22, The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1.
Review: Scarlet Spider #18
Who knew Kaine could be so funny? I know he’s a clone of Peter Parker and everything, but he’s usually a sourpuss straight man. I guess with Aracely mostly sitting this issue out, somebody’s got to keep up the chuckles. Because what would a book like Scarlet Spider be without some humor? And Wolverine isn’t about to deliver. That guy is as sourpuss as they come. But I’m not going to complain when Scarlet Spider gets some attention from the rest of the Marvel Universe.
Scarlet Spider #18
The continuing Scarlet Spider/Wolverine team-up is as entertaining as it was last issue, albeit for different reasons. Writer Chris Yost is doing a team-up right.
Comic Rating: 4/5 – Good.
Somehow, seemingly against all reason, Scarlet Spider is still chugging along 18 issues later. I’ve never seen it mentioned as a comic due for cancellation. Does it have an audience? Is it actually selling? Because that would be fantastic. Maybe this Wolverine cameo will help punch up sales for a little bit. It was a classic maneuver back in the day for new comics to guest star Wolverine or Spider-Man as quickly as possible. What better way to sell a new hero to audiences than by giving him or her some team-up time with the big shots? That’s kind of what happens here. Maybe this is even an homage. Scarlet Spider and Wolverine team up to take on some colorful bad guys. It’s as classic as comic books get.
The art by Carlo Barberi and Ale Garza is, likewise, top notch. It’s clear, detailed and full of action. I was unhappy for the longest time with Scarlet Spider‘s artist, but now the series has got that taken care of. So at this point, Scarlet Spider needs to take the comic to the next level. It’s got solid storytelling, solid characters and solid art. It’s entertaining and fun to read. But it could stand to be…something more. One can’t exactly say what it could use, or what exactly could be done. Deeper stories. More meaningful character development. Maybe a hot romantic relationship? Who knows! But when you’ve got a good, quality comic, you can’t just rest on your laurels. Kick things up a notch, Chris Yost! Take Scarlet Spider to the next level!
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Henchman-4-Hire