Category Archives: Marvel
Review: X-Factor #255
Penultimate chapters usually rock, and X-Factor #255 is no exception. The balance of power has tipped in the Hell on Earth War, and only the raggedy band of mutant heroes we know and love has any chance of saving the world. Writer Peter David does a great job of setting up the final challenge and positioning X-Factor as the last hope for the fate of the planet – minus one of their own! That’s right! A member of X-Factor dies in this issue, and it’s quite sad.
X-Factor #255
The Hell on Earth War has been generally good all along. It’s dragged a little, maybe, and not all of the characters have had meaningful moments, and Madrox has been almost completely absent, but I’ve enjoyed it and I’m ready for the grand finale!
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good!
Hell on Earth War has been generally entertaining. No part has really blown me away, or connected emotionally, but I’ve enjoyed it better than some of PAD’s other big X-Factor stories. Like I mentioned, most of the characters have just been along for the ride, with all of the emotional weight going to Tier, a character who we don’t really know. And my favorite character, Multiple Man, was quickly saddled with that odd demon transformation, taking him out of the fun. But those are just personal gripes. The rest of the story has been good.
The scope and scale of the Hell on Earth War has been very intense, some of the biggest X-Factor has ever seen, and PAD has kept the pacing sharp. The story hasn’t dragged too much, with something interesting happening in every issue. This issue is no exception. Tier gets a proud moment, there’s an epic fight between Strong Guy and Monet, and Mephisto successfully sets himself up for next issue’s boss fight.
Can X-Factor save the day? Or will their cancellation come early? Join me after the jump to find out!
Joss Whedon Reads My Blog!
Or at least that’s what I have to assume based on the idea that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have been all but confirmed for Avengers 2! And they were No. 5 on my list of the 6 Avengers That I Absolutely Want to See in Future Movies. So by the mathematical process of ‘I’m Awesome’, we can naturally assume that Joss Whedon was trying to think up what to put into Avengers 2, he saw my blog post, and boom, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch!
Yep, brother and sister…
Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily set in stone. But follow this logic.
Last week, Joss Whedon dropped this bombshell during an interview:
“I try not to think of it as topping it. I try to think of this as its own movie,” he replied. “Sometimes, yeah, I feel pressure […] But when you’re in the story and you’re dealing with these characters that you love, that everybody loves, when you’ve got the new characters sliding in next to them it’s very exciting. Then I don’t feel pressure, it’s like I’m reading my favorite comic.” He continued, “I’ve got these two characters … two of my favorite characters from the comic book … a brother-sister act … they’re in the movie …”
That’s pretty clear to us comic book geeks that he means Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who are twins.
Then this week, Entertainment Weekly puts out an article on Iron Man 3, and they write that an unnamed source has confirmed that the two characters are in the movie. EW confronted Marvel Movie Guru Kevin Feige about it, and Feige had this to say:
“I’m not confirming or denying. The draft could change six months from now.”
Which, despite his best efforts to remain mum, pretty much confirms that the two characters are in Joss Whedon’s first draft of the script. And while the movie is a long ways off, you just have to know it’s already in pre-production. A lot of work has to go into securing which characters appear in the movie, I imagine, especially these two. Because of licensing rights disputes, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch would require a lot of work, so I doubt Whedon is just tossing them around into scripts all willy nilly.
Feige said in April 2012 that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are in an odd place when it comes to the licensing rights. The two characters have always been known in the comics as Avengers…but they’re also both mutants, and the children of Magneto, which would theoretically put them in the X-Men films, which are owned by Fox. But Feige said last year that the rights are shared by both Marvel and Fox, and since Fox hasn’t put either of them in their X-Men films, perhaps they’re free for Marvel and Joss Whedon to use in Avengers 2.
Suffice to say, this is awesome news and I really hope the two characters make it into the sequel. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were amazing in The Ultimates, and they could be amazing in the next Avengers movie.
Also, Joss Whedon is more than welcome to keep reading my blog for ideas.
The 6 Most Awesome Cats in Comic Books
I am determined to use the power of the Internet to work for my blog. I have been a devoted follower of the Internet for years. I’m a Brony, I love reminiscing about the 80s, and I especially love cats. Long cats, keyboard cats, Nyan cats, talking cats or just adorable cats, I’m a big cat person. I still remember my first cat, Color, who lived on my grandparents’ farm. My cousin and I found him/her(?) in the weeds beside the barn, and we sang to get the Calico kitty to come out and play. Color was awesome.
Know what else is awesome? Superheroes’ cats.
Avengers Cats needs to be a thing
But I don’t mean cat superheroes, like the List of Six I did a few weeks ago. I mean the pet cats who belong to superheroes and super-villains. Everybody’s heard of Superman’s dog Krypto, right? Well here are the six coolest pet cats in all of comic books!
What is Marvel Going to do About Their Cuddly, Wuddly Wolverine?
Can anybody remember why Wolverine became so popular in the first place? Back in the day, Wolverine was the bad boy, the loner who rebelled against authority. He was the guy who referred to Charles Xavier as ‘Chuck’ and we loved him for it. We always knew he secretly had a heart of gold, but Wolverine was the guy who would get in your face, disobey orders and run off whenever he felt like it. He’d smoke cigars, pound back the beers and chase skirts.
It feels good to be a bad role model
But nowadays, Wolverine has become the exact authority he used to rebel against.
He has replaced Xavier as the headmaster of the School for Higher Learning, where he’s directly responsible for dozens of young mutant students. He’s a leader among the X-Men, and has served on more X-squads than anyone else, including when he was leader of X-Force. He’s also one of the most active and respected members of the Avengers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Wolverine is one of the greatest superheroes on Earth.
So when is Marvel going to come along and take all of that away from him?
Join me after the jump!
Review: Scarlet Spider #16
I’ve been writing a lot lately about how my favorite comic book stories are the ones that focus on the characters as people first and superheroes second. I want to read about heroes who have real lives to worry about, with real drama, real friends, and who act like real people. Scarlet Spider is a comic that definitely gets it, but at the same time, it makes one crucial mistake: Kaine is the center of his social life, and everyone revolves around him. And considering the character and the story, that shouldn’t be the case at all, and it’s a little weird.
Scarlet Spider #16
Still, Scarlet Spider remains an entertaining comic. Here is a done-in-one story about love and romance, which I very much enjoyed, but which was hampered by terrible art.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
The sooner Khoi Pham is gone from this comic, the better. I’ve disliked his style since he started drawing Scarlet Spider, and this is his worst issue yet. There’s a big, climactic moment towards the end of the issue that writer Chris Yost has been building towards for some time, and Yost nails the scene, but Pham fails to stick the artistic landing. And it’s a real shame too, because I thought the story served the moment very well. At least Pham draws a very good Armadillo.
Anyway, as I was saying, the one problem with Scarlet Spider is that Kaine is the center of his social life. According to the story, Kaine simply arrived in Houston one day, and just happened to meet Wally, Donald and Annabelle over the course of his first few days in the city. That they became friends isn’t the issue, it’s that Wally, Donald and Annabelle don’t seem to have lives outside of Kaine. One would think that they had their own friends and family, and entire lives in Houston before Kaine randomly showed up. Yet everything they do seems to involve Kaine, each other and Aracely. It’s a weird gripe, I know, but it reinforces the fiction of it all.
Still, it always makes for a good comic when your love story involves Scarlet Spider fighting the Armadillo at a rodeo!
Henchman-4-Hire