Category Archives: Marvel
Age of Ultron Will Make Us All Believe Again
Believe that Brian Michael Bendis can write a good Event Comic, that is. Marvel and Bendis finally got around to revealing the worst kept secret in comics: that his time on the Avengers will end next year with a 10-part Age of Ultron!
Looks like Ultron also gets a fancy new suit
In good news, Bryan Hitch will be drawing the first half. And Bryan Hitch is amazing.
So basically, based on this interview, Age of Ultron is a story where the evil robot Ultron finally achieves world domination. Pretty fun, right? And from what I can tell, a few heroes like Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Moon Knight (of all people) are left to figure out how to save the day. Because Bendis absolutely loves Moon Knight, even though he couldn’t get his Moon Knight comic series to sell. The series is going to ship between March and June next year, so another quick event, similar to Avengers vs. X-Men. This is a smart way to do it. We don’t want Event Fatigue.
Bendis is definitely excited about it.
“I couldn’t be more excited for this book to hit the stands,” Bendis says. “Literally not a day has gone by that people haven’t asked me about this online. I know that people are looking forward to this, and have voiced so to me, so to finally debut it, and for it to be, I imagine, much more than people thought it was going to be, is very exciting for us. It takes one of Marvel’s classic villains to a level we’ve never seen before, and it pushes our Marvel heroes into a place that they’ve never been before, and gets us to a place in the Marvel Universe that you won’t be able to guess.”
Personally, I’m luke warm about this idea. I’ve never been a particularly big fan of Ultron, and he was already the major villain in Annihilation: Conquest a few years ago. He was defeated then too. However, considering how lame the Serpent turned out to be in Fear Itself, perhaps going with a known villain as the big bad is a smart way to go. Plus it’ll be a relief to have the heroes fighting a super-villain for once, instead of each other.
I’m also not a big fan of Bendis’ events. House of M, Seige and especially Secret Invasion were bollocks. They all basically amount to a lot of pointless build up, all leading to just a giant fight at the end where somebody shouts ‘Avengers Assemble!’ That’s how it always goes. So I don’t have much faith in him to pull this off.
But I can hope…
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/17/12
AvX: Consequences has been cleaning up as the best comic of the week in all the initial Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews, but DC Comics isn’t about to give up just yet. They launched an onslaught of Batman titles this week (at least 2), playing into their revitalized Joker. Was I impressed? Maybe. Has it changed my opinion at all about the Joker? Well you’ll just have to read on to see. Suffice to say, Batman #14 earns the title of Comic Book of the Week! But don’t count Marvel out completely. They launch new X-Men and Thor comics, possibly for the better. And believe you me, the new Thor may be the best Marvel NOW! has to offer so far!
Yes, yes, we all fondly remember The Dark Knight Returns
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #1, Amazing Spider-Man #697, Batman #14, Batman and Robin #14, Thor: God of Thunder #1 and Wolverine and the X-Men #20.
6 Things I Want to See in the Next X-Men Sequel
We know that the next X-Men movie is going to be called ‘Days of Future Past’, and that it’s going to be directed by Bryan Singer. That’s pretty much all we know so far. But have we really already forgiven Singer for abandoning the X-Men franchise in order to make the crummy Superman Returns? I haven’t. Especially not after new director Matthew Vaughn did such an amazing job with X-Men: First Class. I loved that movie and I want to see more of Vaughn’s First Class world. But I’m not in charge of Hollywood – yet – so it looks like Singer is in the director’s chair and the next sequel begins filming next year-ish.
Let me first say that I think adapting ‘Days of Future Past’ is a bad idea. Dystopian futures, parallel dimensions and time travel may be staples of X-Men comics, but I just don’t think they’re going to translate as well on the big screen.
Days of Future Wolverine
This is just my own personal preference, but when it comes to superhero movies, I strictly adhere to the ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’ rule. The comics are full of wild and weird stories like ‘Days of Future Past’, but that’s comics. We comic book fans are used to that kind of storytelling. I find that when it comes to movies, adding too many weird shenanigans just mucks up the whole show. It adds confusion for an audience that is already trying to keep up with all the different mutants on screen. People respond to the X-Men films because they have strong themes like acceptance of minorities and heroism. Adding time travel and parallel dimensions on top of that is just going to complicate the story.
But again, that’s just me. Maybe people will love it. And after the greatness of X-Men: First Class, I’m definitely in favor of more X-Men movies. Plus somebody requested this list. So here are 6 things I want to see in X-Men: Days of Future Past the motion picture.
Review: Scarlet Spider #11
Talking about burying the lead. Minimum Carnage was supposed to be a team-up between Scarlet Spider and Venom, as they join forces to take down the super-villain serial killer Carnage. But the two characters haven’t even been in the same room together since the start of the crossover. Instead, this is one big space alien story that just happens to involve Scarlet Spider and Venom on the side. It’s as if writers Christopher Yost and Cullen Bunn were huge fans of the Micronauts back in the day, and Marvel agreed to let them write the ultimate Microverse story, but only if they could slap some existing characters into the tale. Then someone came up with the pun ‘Minimum Carnage’, and they were off!
Scarlet Spider #11
This story is turning out to be a weird, convoluted political tale about characters we’ve either never heard of before or haven’t heard from in decades. No thank you.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
I can’t even be sure if this story has anything to do with the Microverse of the past. I’m only vaguely familiar with the Micronauts, but who is the Redeemer? What is the Enigma Force? Or Marquis Radu? I imagine these are all characters and concepts thought up by Yost and Bunn to tell their story. But none of it has anything to do with Scarlet Spider or Venom, and very little to do with Carnage. They might as well have used any combination of heroes and villains in this story. Nothing that has happened so far, at least as far as I can see, has any direct impact or importance to either hero, especially Scarlet Spider. He is just along for the ride, and doesn’t even particularly want to be there.
The decision to set this tale in the Microverse was the completely wrong decision. Nobody cares about the Microverse anymore. Nobody is interested in that kind of story. A comic where Scarlet Spider and Venom team up to fight Carnage is a good idea for a comic. But Yost and Bunn have instead buried that cool seed of an idea into tainted soil, and as a result, a crummy story has grown. And that’s my metaphor of the month!
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/10/12
Marvel NOW! is in full effect with this week’s books, and we get our first looks at the new Iron Man and Deadpool. Sad to say, I wasn’t terribly impressed. Marvel has a big opportunity on their hands with this relaunch. But I have yet to see that potential really come to fruition just yet. Hopefully some of the other upcoming series can really wow me. But at least there are plenty of other good comics still plugging along. I think AvX: Consequences once again seals the Comic of the Week for me. Too bad it’s the final issue of that mini-series.
While a certain Merc with a Mouth earned ‘worst comic’ honors
Weekly Reviews: AvX: Consequences #5, Deadpool #1, Green Lantern #14, Iron Man #1, and Uncanny X-Force #33.
Henchman-4-Hire