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Captain Marvel, A-Force, and the Totally Awesome Hulk are Just a Few More New Marvel Comics
Marvel keeps rolling out their new comics at a near snail’s pace, and seeing as how I’m a busy, important man with a busy, important job, I haven’t been able to jump on every announcement. Or maybe I’m just lazy. One of those two.
Anyway, it’s Friday, and I’ve decided to do a quick summation of a few more of the announced comics! Most of them look pretty great so far. I’m getting a little worried for my wallet.
A-Force
Writer G. Willow Wilson is going to return to the Marvel Universe with her all-female Avengers team following Secret Wars. She’s a great writer, and the first issue of A-Force was full of character and energy. But the context of Battleworld hampered the execution, something that I hope a transplant to the regular Marvel Universe will fix. Based on Wilson alone, this is a must-see sort of book. Not much else is known, though.
Avengers
The Avengers are the flagship of Marvel these days, so of course they’re back, and under the pen of the extraordinary Mark Waid. He is a legend in the industry, deservedly so, and I bet he has a lot of great ideas for the Avengers. Marvel is once again doubling down on their popular characters with this series, putting Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Spider-Man on the team — just not the ones we’d expect. Tony Stark is still around, but Cap is still Sam Wilson, Thor is still Jane Foster, and Spider-Man is now Miles Morales for good. I’m a little iffy on how well Miles is going to fit in the Marvel Universe, and I think it’s way too soon for Kamala Khan to join the Avengers, but I’m going to try to have a little faith on this one.
Captain Marvel
I’m sad that Kelly Sue DeConnick is leaving the title she turned into a smash hit, but I have to have hope that Carol has staying power of her own. The writers of the Agent Carter TV show, Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, are taking over, and I’m excited to see what they bring. Apparently the story is going to be about Carol running a planetary defense force, which is kind of a big deal. Hopefully Butters and Fazekas can bring solid character work to Carol’s outer space adventures, which I never felt DeConnick managed to do.
Totally Awesome Hulk
They’re keeping the identity of the new Hulk a secret for now, but Bleeding Cool is convinced that it’s going to be Amadeus Cho. And considering that tuft of hair, the youthful title and the return of writer Greg Pak, I’m going to have to agree with them. Should be a fun change up to the Hulk, and Pak will probably have the right amount of fun with the series. With a name like that, I should darn well hope so.
Squadron Supreme
I didn’t care for their Secret Wars tie-in, and I’m not sure if I’ll bother with Squadron Supreme. I’ve never cared about the characters, and Marvel’s decision to mix and match different Squadron characters from across the Multiverse does not have me interested either. Still, more power to everyone involved.
Spider-Gwen
Spider-Gwen is getting a new #1 issue, just to fit alongside the rest of the line. It’s not changing anything from its brief beginning pre-Secret Wars, which is fine. I keep meaning to get caught up with Spider-Gwen, but I haven’t found the time. It seems like it’ll be fun. Maybe now I should read all those back issues I have piling up and get on board for the new #1.
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Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Avengers: Age of Ultron is like a new episode of the biggest, most expensive TV show of all time. It’s not the event that the first movie was, and it might not be as Earth-shattering as I expected, but Age of Ultron is nonetheless a fun, exciting and action-packed movie starring all of our favorite superheroes. And therein lies my biggest complaint, which is really a non-complaint.
There’s a familiarity to Age of Ultron that leads to contentment. The movie doesn’t really give us anything new to get excited about, instead delivering just another solid chapter in this ongoing saga.
Movie Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.
I liken Age of Ultron to a TV show because that’s exactly what it felt like while I was watching. I may have been in a packed movie theater, and it’s been three years since the last episode, but Ultron was definitely the ‘monster-of-the-week’ in the latest episode of The Avengers. All of our favorite characters are back, their friendly, comfortable banter is exactly what we’d expect, and everything is more or less tied up in a nice, tidy bow by the end. Lessons are learned, a little romance is slipped in, and now we just sit back and wait for the next episode.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way with any movie sequel before. It’s a weird feeling.
But the episodic feel doesn’t keep the movie from being entertaining. It’s an exciting film from beginning to end. In the big picture sense, the movie is amazing. But when you step back and really think about all the moving parts, it’s not without some flaws. Director Joss Whedon juggles a few too many characters, so that some get a lot of attention — like Hawkeye, in some standout moments — while others are little more than props — like Thor, who spends most of his time dropping hints about future movies.
The new characters are a mixed bag. The titular villain, Ultron, is too entertaining to be menacing. That’s an odd way to describe a super villain, but it’s exactly how actor James Spader pulls it off.
I like Age of Ultron, a lot. It’s not as good at the first Avengers film, largely because the spectacle has worn off, but also for a lot of little reasons. Yet overall, it’s another exciting film in my favorite franchise of all time, despite those little reasons.
Join me after the jump for my full, detailed review. And there will be SPOILERS!
Hulk is My Favorite Avenger!
Avengers: Age of Ultron is a very fun, exciting movie, and I’m going to see it again tonight! It’s not as amazing as the first one because everything is more familiar than last time, and a little too comfortable, but it’s still another high mark on Marvel’s resume. It absolutely deserves to break box office records, though I don’t think it’s going to have people talking as much as the last Avengers movie did. Still, very good stuff!
Here are a couple of videos poking fun at my favorite Avenger, the Hulk! First up is the Honest Trailer for Hulk’s original movie, all the way back before Marvel got into making movies.
Personally, I liked Hulk when it first came out. I haven’t seen it in years, and I probably won’t ever be watching it again, but I liked Hulk and I’m not ashamed of that.
Next up, the fine folks at Cinema Sins tackle the second movie, The Incredible Hulk. And I think we can all agree that we liked Incredible Hulk better, though it’s easy to forget that it came out the same year as Iron Man and is technically part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Of course, we’re all better off with Hulk in the Avengers movies, so there’s definitely no complaining now. And probably expect my full Age of Ultron review by Sunday!
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I Am On the Fence About a Planet Hulk Movie
How cool was it when the Hulk punched that Leviathan during the big climax of The Avengers? I can still remember the audience bursting into cheers as my own heart soared. I don’t think I’ve seen anything as thrilling as that moment since. That punch may very well be the defining moment of the entire Avengers franchise.
He’s always angry
So where’s the new Hulk solo movie?
Mark Ruffalo nailed it in The Avengers. He fit the role perfectly, and I for one couldn’t be happier with his performance. I think we can all also agree that the Hulk was the breakout character of the movie. Joss Whedon got the Hulk absolutely right, his feats of strength writ large on the big screen. The character couldn’t be hotter. But we’ve heard bupkis about any new Hulk movies.
Other than rumors that Marvel might send the Hulk into space for an adaptation of the Planet Hulk storyline from the comics – to which I am fairly unsure about. A lot of people want to see Planet Hulk on the big screen, but I don’t think I’m one of them.
Hulk doubtful
On the one hand, I just don’t think Planet Hulk would be the best use of the character in the Marvel Movieverse. The storyline worked fine for the comics, but a movie is a different beast entirely, especially in the Movieverse continuity. For one thing, Bruce Banner barely factors into Planet Hulk, so Ruffalo would be wasted. You better believe that matters in a big budget movie.
In the comics, Planet Hulk is a story about the Avengers sending Hulk out into space so that he can’t trouble the people of Earth anymore. Hulk winds up on a strange alien planet, where he’s immediately captured and turned into a gladiator, exactly like the gladiators of Ancient Rome. Hulk suppresses Banner so that he never has to change back, and the Big Green Machine eventually fights his way to freedom and then leads an uprising against the cruel regime that imprisoned him. It’s a pretty standard storyline, but the bare bones approach of Hulk smashing everything to freedom really appealed to readers.
So good!
But I don’t want this adapted to film (other than the cartoon adaptation they already made). The story is as basic as it gets: Hulk as a gladiator. There is little depth to the Hulk or his characterization. He doesn’t like being controlled, so he breaks free and then takes the fight to the people who tried to control him. He makes a bunch of friends along the way, and finds love, but it’s just the Hulk smashing everything until he wins, and that’s not my kind of movie.
I prefer my Hulk set firmly in the context of Earth, where HULK IS THE STRONGEST THERE IS! If you plop the Hulk into the world of Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s just another freaky looking alien. And if you take away Banner, that makes it even worse, and Hulk becomes even less human. Do we really want Mark Ruffalo running around on some alien gladiator planet? Doesn’t he work better as the nerdy science guy on Earth?
A handsome nerdy science guy
On the other hand, Hulk has already had two mediocre outings that kept him on Earth. Sending him into space would be new and interesting. I will go on record as a fan of both Ang Lee’s Hulk in 2003 and the Edward Norton reboot in 2008, which is an often-ignored part of the wider Movieverse. But society as a whole isn’t too favorable to either film. They outright dislike Lee’s film, and generally ignore the Norton movie. Both were about Bruce Banner as a tortured soul, where being the Hulk was a great curse that he tried to cure.
That’s why Joss Whedon got the character right in The Avengers. In that film, the Hulk was embraced, treated as something useful and fun. Sure, Banner was still bothered by having to become the Hulk, but by the end, both he and the Big Green Guy were embraced by their fellow heroes, and Hulk was instrumental in saving the day.
That’s the Hulk I want to see in future films.
I don’t want to watch the Avengers or anyone else send Hulk off into space to get rid of him. I don’t want to see Banner and friends spend their lives trying to cure the Hulk. I want to see a movie where Banner embraces the Hulk in the context of life on Earth, where he remains the strongest person alive, but also fallibly human.
Sorry, I lost my train of thought due to awesomeness…
I don’t exactly have any ideas beyond that. But there are decades worth of great Hulk stories out there. People only remember ‘Planet Hulk’ because it was recent, and there haven’t been any Hulk stories as notable since. But these movies no longer rely on any sort of direct adaptation. Most of the new Marvel movies are original stories, borrowing freely from the comics to make something uniquely their own.
The Hulk is in just such a position. Planet Hulk would be a rote adaptation for the breakout star of the franchise. There’s no doubt that the character is going to explode all over again in next year’s Age of Ultron.
After that, Hulk is going to be too big to just sit around playing gladiator games.
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Casting Col. Talbot on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Could Mean Bigger, Greener Things!
Revealed just yesterday, Adrian Pasdar has been cast as Colonel Glenn Talbot on Agents of SHIELD! That’s pretty exciting news, seeing as how Talbot is a major player in Hulk comics. And it’s always a good sign when SHIELD adds some real comic characters.
Save the Hulk, save the world
You can check out an interview with Pasdar here.
The best news is that Talbot will probably open the door to other Hulk characters. We probably won’t see General Ross or the Hulk himself, but what about Doc Samson? Or, dare I say it…the Leader!? A few months ago, I wrote a List of Six about what I’d like to see on Agents of SHIELD, and the Leader was the #1 choice. I suggested he could be the season’s Big Bad, especially if they use actor Timothy Blake, who played Samuel Sterns in The Incredible Hulk movie.
I made that suggestion before SHIELD introduced a Big Bad called ‘The Clairvoyant’. Mind powers…the Leader…it all adds up!
Henchman-4-Hire 