Marvel and Politics

Maybe you've heard about the SOPA and PIPA acts going through the US congress and senate. It is sort of a big deal, and it has the potential to really mess up the internet as we now know it. If you don't know anything about it, you should probably take a looks see. This document is a pretty good start.

There was a pretty big blackout of Wikipedia yesterday to highlight the issue. 24 hours without Wikipedia, and it did some good.

Internet writer and angry person Maddox was not thrilled with the effort. He wants people to do more, to really drive home the point.

This is a good thing. People should do more.

He lists a bunch of companies that publicly supported these terrible acts, and he suggests making them pay by refusing to support them. One name that popped for me, was of course Marvel.

I get why Marvel would be for laws that protect their copyright, but the problem I have is that they support this act; one that is flawed and vague and brutally open to kicking the little guy around.


It's kind of gross.

It also could be a poor business decision. Most fans don't really know that Marvel (amgonst other publishers) are pushing for these acts to pass into law, but they should. The fans should also know that they have the real power here. Marvel Publishing is a great target for a boycott, each issue selling, what, 100,000 issues at the best of times. A few thousand people can make a real dent in that revenue, if they were so inclined.


I do believe I am going to cancel my (not insignificant) pull list of Marvel comics today. I like me my open and crazy and free internet, and, at the very least, I can stop giving my money to some people who are inclined to fuck with that.

AVX: Stegman Variant - Cap Punches Cyke

Captain America is, inexplicably, one of my favorite characters. Cyclops is easily one of my least favorites. Captain America punching Cyclops on a cover makes me giggle like a little school girl. I feel like that bratty kid at the end of "The Karate Kid", and yelling "Do it, Cap! Yeeeeaaaah!"


The Marvel spiel:


Marvel Unveils AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #1 STEGMAN VARIANT!

This April, the biggest names in the industry pit the largest super hero franchises against one another for the biggest war in comics history in Avengers Vs. X-Men! To celebrate this blockbuster event, Marvel has your first look at the Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 Stegman Variant by red-hot artist Ryan Stegman! The Phoenix Force is headed towards Earth and Captain America is determined to prevent the destruction of the whole world by stopping it. But when word gets to the X-Men that the Phoenix is returning, Cyclops will do anything he can to save it…including going up against Earth’s Mightiest! But who is right? Will mutantkind be saved or will the world be annihilated? Don’t miss out on all the action in Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 in comic shops worldwide and on the Marvel Comics app this April!

Which team will reign supreme? Join the conversation on Twitter with #AvX!

For more on Avengers Vs. X-Men, please visit http://avx.marvel.com

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #1 (JAN120625)
AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #1 STEGMAN VARIANT (JAN120626)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, JASON AARON, MATT FRACTION, JONATHAN HICKMAN, ED BRUBAKER
Art by JOHN ROMITA JR.
Cover by JIM CHEUNG
Variant Cover by RYAN STEGMAN
FOC – 2/27/12, ON SALE – 4/3/12

Free Comic Book Day 2011: Spider-Man

I dropped all the Spider-Man books from my pull list following the "One More Day" storyline. That's a long, and completely separate story.

This year was the first year I have ever been able to participate in Free Comic Book Day. I always managed to be busy or out of town prior, so I was pretty excited. It was fun, and the atmosphere in the shops was really good. I see why it warrants all the hoopla.

I picked up a couple of free comics, and the first that I read was "Amazing Spider-Man" by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. I figured that it would be a good test to see if Spider-Man was going to be a book I could look into picking up again or not.

Other reviewers seemed to like this book well enough, and I've never had any major issues with either Dan Slott (who I liked from his "Avengers: Initiative" work) and Humberto Ramos (who's "Crimson" is still something I like to re-read from time to time) both usually do good work, so I had a sense of enthusiasm getting into this issue. Maybe even hoping that things had turned around for the Spider-Man book, and I could hop back into it. I have just finished reading an Essential Spider-Man book, and it served to whet my appetite for more web-slinging action.

But this book? Meh.

Okay, I'll say, it's not terrible. It looks okay, and it's paced okay.

However, that's it. It's full of just being "okay", and it should have been, in my opinion, great enough to serve as a flagship for the entire Marvel line of comics.

Spoilers follow, be warned. Not in any great detail, but you know, this is the internet. I'm just doing my part.

• Spider-Man fights the Mandrill, and he fights Spider-Woman because the Mandrill has possessed her.

The Mandrill fought them both not too long ago in "New Avengers". This seems like a cheap rehash of another book I already own. Also, "The Mandrill"? Really, Marvel? Not Doc Ock, or a Goblin, or any other of the web-spinner's iconic foes for this book, the one you're giving away to try and win new readers, but instead, the terminally silly Mandrill? For shame.

• Spider-Man has lost his spider-sense.

Not really sure why. It's never really explained, at least not to my satisfaction. Spider-Man's powers going on the fritz is sort of a standard Spidey plot. I think that it's a bit lazy on the part of Dan Slott to trot out this old, "tried and true" trope for Spider-Man. It doesn't feel fresh, it doesn't feel innovative. I'm just going to assume he got hit by a pumpkin bomb full of strange gas, and that's what caused it. Sounds about right.

• The Master of Kung-Fu, Shang Chi, teaches Spider-Man kung fu in order to help him compensate for the loss of his spider sense.

This little plot point, I like. It was sort of jammed into the story, but really, you'd think a guy like Peter Parker who is constantly getting his butt whupped would take a class at the Y or something. I mean, he pals around with Captain America and with Iron Fist all the time. This was a cool little idea that I liked a lot.

• They call his new style "spider fu".

Yeah. They call it that.

-

Was this book arduous to read? No, in general it was okay, but I think that as a Free Comic Book Day offering, it was a failure, as this book did nothing to make me want to shell out four bucks a pop for more.

Thor and Captain America Trailers

Ah the Superbowl. The best commercials that you can't see in Canada because you only get the CTV feed.

But, as they say, the internet heals all wounds.

So check out the trailer for Captain America:

And in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the Thor trailer:

Marvel: Fear

Marvel has been releasing teasers about their next event. A couple of images, and a short video clip. Other than that, no other details are out yet.

Cyclops in Magneto's uniform is pretty awesome, though.



I guess event comics have been paying off for Marvel. I think it makes them a little harder to follow, because every story is so massive, it can be a little daunting to dive into.

Thor: Poster

Marvel.com has released the first look at the new Thor movie poster.

Here it is:

Not too shabby.

I like Thor, but I've always preferred his adventures in Asgard over his time on Earth. I hope it's more "Iron Man" and less "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

Runaways Vol.11

Cover: David Lafuente
Writer: C.B. Cebulski, Kathryn Immonen
Pencils: Sara Pichelli, Patrick Spaziante

I have been a longstanding reader of the Runaways. The Marvel digest format reprinting the books makes it wonderfully affordable, and really is the key factor that keeps me coming back for more, even after a lot of changes to the creative team over the years, from Brian K. Vaughn to Joss Whedon.

The Runaways sort of appeals to me in a way that the New Mutants used to do, as kids in the Marvel Universe, they can act as a tour guide for the MU for newer readers because they also have to be introduced to many facets of the world in which they live.

I'm not all the way through this volume yet, though I am liking it enough to feel comfortable to write about it. The last few books had the kids running all over the place, and through time, and to have them back in the now and without all the crazy Marvel crossovers getting in the way, it feels a lot more like the book I got hooked on and liked so much. the writers do a good job of having the team start to feel a little more like they are Runaways again, while at the same time they keep pumping out the heart-wrenching teen-melodrama that contrasts itself so well against the action and explosions.

Also, I have to show support for anything published in the Marvel Digest format. I wish that Marvel would pump out a few more titles to be collected in this manner. I know that at the very least, my overloaded and sagging bookshelves would appreciate it as much as my wallet does.

11 volumes is a lot, upon reflection. Runaways isn't my favorite comic book. I mean, I do like it, but I don't get really anxious or excited to get the next one. I guess that shows how much I really do like the digest format, as I keep it on my pull list no matter what.

Avengers/Invaders

Avengers/Invaders is a 12-issue crossover that's oddly being joint-published by Marvel and Dynamite Entertainment. I say oddly because every character in the book is a Marvel character, and a far as I can tell, the only reason Dynamite is involved at all is because the idea was pitched by Alex Ross, who has been over at Dynamite working on his “Project: Superpowers” book.

Avengers/Invaders, though only two issues in, has come out to be pretty cool thus far. Set in a post “Civil War” Marvel Universe, the Mighty Avengers (made up of Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Wasp, Wonder Man, The Sentry and Ares) are living their lives as usual when a portal opens up in the middle of Manhatttan and the World War II heroes, the Invaders, tumble out, disoriented and lost. Captain America and Bucky, the original Human Torch and his sidekick Toro and a younger, brasher Namor he Sub-mariner believe this to be a Nazi trick and take on (and take down) the Mighty Avengers, who are just as confused as well as being shocked to see their fallen comrade Cap alive and kicking.

Two big twists at the end of issue two really sold me on the series. The first is the New Avengers being informed by Spider-Man that the Invaders are in town, and they then decide that they will rescue and recruit their former leader. I like the idea of a three-way super-brawl. The second was the terribly hard-core portrayal of Bucky Barnes in escaping the custody of his prison cell onboard the SHEILD heli-carrier. He actually cuts open his arm and removes sticks of plastique he had stored there in order to blow his door open. Bucky shows some of the grit that writer Ed Brubaker would highlight in making him into the “Winter Soldier” over in the pages of Captain America a few years ago.

All in all, the book is good, and still a little under the radar. I recommend it.

Doctor Strange DVD

I've spoken about the direct to DVD movies that Marvel and DC are putting out, and I've just recently sat down and watched the Doctor Strange movie. It was a toss up when I was at the shop between this film and the recently released Superman/Doomsday, but I've heard some less than glorious reviews from the internets about the Death of Superman, and as I quite enjoyed the Invincible Iron Man, I figured that I would give Marvel the benefit of the doubt and go with Doc Strange.

I wasn't disappointed. I thought that Stephen Strange went through a thorough yet believable transformation in personality, from self-obsessed neuro-surgeon to heroic Sorcerer Supreme, and that it seemed organic to the character as to why he was behaving a certain way at any point throughout the film. Make no mistake, this is an origin story, and it does take some liberties with the myth of Doctor Strange, but I feel that they are all for the best, serving to update and flesh out the character, setting it up to be a series I hope to see more of.

The villains are interesting and are classic foes of Strange; The Dread Dormammu and the evil Baron Mordo, and both offer good foils to the protagonist. Mordo was nicely updated to fit in with the retelling of the origin, and I liked his harder edge warrior mage image.

The animation is nice, if not as daring as the Iron Man art, and continues to reinforce the "look" that Marvel is creating with it's animated DVDs. The voice acting is alright, neither hindering nor adding anything special to the experience of the movie. My one complaint with the DVD is that the special features are a little light. There is an "Origin of Doctor Strange" featurette with interviews of comic creators Stan Lee, Steve Englheart, J.M. DeMatteis along with some of the production crew of the DVD, but I didn't get much out of it, as it was often more about the movie than the character's history. The comic creators they did have weren't given enough screen time, and it would have been nice to hear from an artist of two, perhaps Gene Colan, Steve Leialoha, Paul Smith, or even if it would never happen, Steve Ditko.

All in all, I would recommend this DVD, as the movie is fun and does take you on a journey, and there's enough there on screen to give it a re-watch value. Marvel has a trailer up on their site if you're still unsure and want to take a look.

Abayo.

Movies: Spider-Man 3.

I went out to see Spider-Man 3 last night, and even now I'm having trouble putting together my thoughts about how I felt about it.

So I'm going to break it down here. If you haven't seen it, and are adverse to spoilers, you probably don't want to read any further. Consider that your *Spoiler Alert*.

I think my main issue with the movie is the same issue I had with both parts 1 and 2; I don't buy into Tobey Maguire or Kirsten Dunst as the leads. Peter Parker is played very dry, and often looking very sad sack about everything, and Mary-Jane is supposed to be a firebrand, and even if you wanted to argue that they are allowed to recreate characters for film, I believe that the guilty look on Dunst's face makes you simply resent her for even being there at all.

Maguire (or director Sam Raimi) is missing something about Peter Parker. Pete is supposed to be the "cool loser", with his issues and fear more kept to an internal conflict rather than a glassy-eyed hard luck joe. I had always cast Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in my head because he was able to be a dork, look cool, and banter all the while giving a sense that he's covering up some pain inside. Tobey doesn't even try that, and it takes away from Spidey.

The rest of the cast is pretty well done. I like James Franco as Harry Osborne, and as the new Goblin, his fight scenes in the 3rd installment carried the most dramatic weight. It did of course have the benefit of a two movie buildup, but I thought it well executed and managed to both convey emotion and look cool at the same time.

The Sandman was an example of great economy, with motivations and origins wrapped up quickly so he could dive right into the action. I bought Thomas Hayden Church's acting, and most of his displays of power were classic and visually cool looking. Not so hot, for me, was the "sandstorm" flying power, and the giant sand creature-thing at the end. Too much CG, not enough reality there.

Venom was quite possibly the one that had me the most worried, in terms of how they were going to make him look. I personally would have gone for a more "liquid" look, but that's nitpick-y, and all in all, he looked good. Topher Grace as Eddie Brock was good too. He was a dick, plain and simple, and they didn't try and over do it with him. Venom was alright, and since I never really got excited about him in the comics, that's about as good as it gets.

The character of Ursula breaks my heart. I <3 her.

The CG was better this time around, and Spidey's web-swinging looked more interesting than in past films. The fights were still a little too chaotic, and they used the "shakey-cam" technique a little too often towards the end.

I'm still chewing on the plot, so maybe I'll get to that a little later on, but right now, I can say I liked it well enough, and it was pretty to look at, but it wasn't close to awesome, and it failed getting a real, sustained emotional response from me.

Captain America: What went wrong?

When a comic book makes news, every fanboy begins to get asked to fill their non-reader friends in on what's going on. Some hidden need to feel a sense of belonging through knowledge kicks is, and worried about perhaps saying something ill-informed down the line and even though they will in all likelihood never read the comic in question, they must know.

The was the case with Captain America when news of his death was published in the news papers the morning issue 25 was released. I was asked to tell my friends and coworkers what was going on, feeling a little like a front-line analyst with a khaki vest and rugged five o'clock shadow.

Now, it's not at all that I mind talking about comics, but rather the opposite. If I could, I would surrounds myself with interested people and talk comics all day long, so when asked to break down the events leading up to the death of Cap here, I was on that like white on rice. White rice. But, as is customary, I must provide the standard spoiler alert, as I will be going into the plots in order to cover what happened.

*Spoiler Alert*

There. Sigh. Huh, now that I'm at the part of this post where I'm actually going to write about the comics, I'm no longer sure of where to start. Captain America has been around since 1941, so there's a lot of Cap history. Between his own book, being in the Avengers, and all the appearances he's made in other titles, he's got a huge library already written about him. I'm just going to assume you all know his origin and skip right up to more recent events.

There's sort of a timeline of "events" that set Captain America towards his fate, and they are as follows:

*Secret War
*Avengers Disassembled
*House of M
*Civil War

If you would like a detailed account of those story lines, I don't think I could do it better than the wikipedia articles, so don't don't be afraid to take advantage of the hyper-text, it's good reading. Basically, Nick Fury took some heroes on a covert mission and then mind wiped them. Then the Scarlet Witch lost her mind and in the ensuing battle between her and the Avengers, with her reality warping hex magic going wild, Hawkeye, Ant-Man and Vision were killed and Captain Britain and Wasp were badly hurt, and She-Hulk was taken into custody after hulking out and ripping Vision in half in a rage.

They beat her, and gave her over to Professor X and Doctor Strange to tend to her now shattered mind. When all hop had been lost, a discussion about what to do with her led to some dark suggestions, and her brother, Quicksilver, decided to wake her up. Bereft with guilt over what she had done, Wanda decided to call a big "do over" on the world, and ushered in the "House of M".

Boy, this is long. It's taken me like a week just to get this far.

In the House of M, Wanda remade the entire world, trying to give the people she knew what they wanted from life. Magneto was a king and mutants were revered, Spider-man was happy, Hawkeye was alive, and Wolverine was the head of SHEILD, etc. But cracks in reality started to show and a band of heroes realised that this world was fake. The went after Scarlet Witch, and had to cut through her father's forces to get to her, but when it was all said and done, she returned the world to normal, disappeared and all but a few hundred mutants had their powers, down from the millions they numbered before her meddling. Notable mutants to lose their powers were Xavier, Iceman, Quicksilver and the Blob.

Okay, I'll get to Civil War and Cap's murder in the next post.

Comic Book Ramblings: Conan, X-Men

I had some friends over last night, and one of them grabbed a copy of "Conan" I had lying around as we waited for supper to be ready. It got me thinking that "Conan" from Dark Horse is really one of the easiest comics for non comic readers to get into. There is no convoluted continuity that would prevent you from diving right into the story, but read sequentially the plots do flow into one another. Every issue offers the reader what he or she wants from Conan. Sword and sorcery, Conan fights something, and sinister plots unfold.

He sat there reading without looking up to ask me "Who's this guy?" or "What's that?" as other books would have caused him to be lost in the narrative. Aside from that, Cary Nord is a brilliantly gifted artist, whose work has really evolved whilst on Conan and just makes it that much easier to slip into.

So if you're not reading it, why not? It's fun, it looks great, and it's easy to get into.

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I used to be such an X-Junkie. Now, I'm only reading "Astonishing X-Men" and that only comes out once every couple of months. What happened? How did such a fan of the series drop the books without remorse?

I'll try and break it down.

Saturation. Too many damn x-books out there made it too hard to follow what was going on from month to month. Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, X-Men Unlimited, New X-Men, Excalibur, X-Factor, Wolverine and Cable/Deadpool are just too many titles to follow. Even at my peak, I wasn't able to pick them all up.

Quality. I'll be damned if the books didn't take a nosedive over the past five years in terms of their quality. Rotating creative teams and a lack of a-list talent on many of the books sapped my excitement from month to month, eventually losing their spots on my pull list to titles that seemed to give a damn. I would be on the message boards commiserating with other fans about how much we longed for the good old days and invariably someone would appear in the thread and say "Then why are you still reading them if they leave you so unsatisfied?" Why indeed.

Characters. I say "X-Men" to the people in my office, and they think "Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm." They don't think "Polaris, Mystique and Bishop." There is a place for second-tier X-Men, but you have to keep the marquee players in play, or else the branding fails. The books have the teams watered down to a point where there are so spread out, it's hardly worth it to read about them any more.

Marvel, if you want to steal me back to the X-Books, you had better realize that Astonishing has it right, and that once it's over, if you don't have the big hitters lined up to replace Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, I'll be long gone.

My suggestions: Cut back to three team books and Wolverine and Cable/Deadpool. Uncanny X-Men, X-Men and New Mutants. Get one of your top writers on one of the books. Bendis, Heinberg, Vaughn or Millar. Get a stable artist on each of the books. Regulate the look of them and lock them in for a couple of years. Have editorial stop all the roster changes. When I read Spider-Man, I know Spider-Man is the star. X-Men should be the same. Don't be afraid of Wolverine, but don't overdo it either.

That's all for now, folks.

A Comics Blog - Day One

Several years later, I'm back. It's been a hard time with out a place to rail and rant about comics, but after a few other opportunities died on the table, I figured I would have to take matters into my own hands and, *gasp* start a blog about them myself.

If you're looking for my old archive, you can find it here. Though it is a few years old, there's still some fun there.

To the matter at hand: comic books.

Well, what can I say? I love comics. Stories of action and adventure, very nice art, modern allegory and nostalgia all play into the medium. I haven't had cable TV in years, but I have to have my comics. I'm a fanboy, and there's nothing you can do to fix that.

I'll start of simple, I guess, and tell you what I'm reading these days. I'll get more structured later on, or less structured, or, well, I'll get more interesting, but I think my pull list is a good place to start.

52 - DC Comics
Mighty Avengers - Marvel
New Avengers - Marvel
Avengers: The Initiative - Marvel
Conan - Dark Horse
The Goon - Dark Horse
The Spirit - DC Comics
Savage Dragon - Image
Justice League of America - DC Comics
Star Wars: Legacy - Dark Horse
Usagi Yojimbo - Dark Horse
Astonishing X-Men - Marvel

As well, I always am on the lookout for a spicy looking trade paperback to add to my book case.

So you can see, I have what I would like to consider a wide variety of taste in genres for my comics. I started out an x-fan, but most of the new books fail to call to me. I'm not historically an Avengers fan, but Brian Bendis brought me on board a few years ago, just like Geoff Johns did for his stuff at DC. Also, in the spirit of clairity, I didn't get "Identity Crisis", but got "House of M". I also got "Infinite Crisis" and "52" over "Civil War". What does that say about me? I'll let you decide.

All right. I suppose I should say something here that has some content.

I declare 2007 the year of Iron Man. He is the most prominent comic book hero thus far, and I believe he will continue to be a major catalyst for a long time to come. Sure, everyone thinks he's a jerk and a bully, but I like the way he's being written. He's a guy who made a bad decision, but said so much about it, that he cannot back down from it without losing face. Like that time I grew really huge mutton-chop sideburns. I talked the talk, and then I had to wear them for weeks longer than I wanted to.

Iron Man will continue to be the focal point of the Marvel Universe for a good long while. Tony's stepped up his game and taken on the mantle of the elite hero, the first amongst Avengers, and leader of the most powerful people on the Earth. Watching him scramble and fight to stay there will be a lot of fun. New Avengers #29 had Danny Rand and his lawyer shut Iron Man down like nobody's business in one of the best scenes I read in weeks. I don't want to spoil it, but it was fun.

So I'm calling it now. The biggest story of 2007 will be the fall of Tony Stark.