Posts Tagged ‘ Agents of Atlas ’

IDW’s new Godzilla comic launches today – but it’s by no means the first foray the King of Monsters has had into the US comic market. Yes, he had some Dark Horse series in the 80s and 90s, but – more memorably he also had a 24 issue run from 1977 to 1979 as a fully integrated part of the Marvel Universe.

And that Godzilla series will forever beat all challengers for these simple reasons…

1. Eating the Seattle Space Needle!

Well, I’m assuming he’s eating it, as opposed to going in for some lovin’. It’s been a while since I read the series.

2. Fighting the Champions! (of Los Angeles!)

That’s right, Godzilla threw down with the short-lived 70′s hero team that inexplicably hung out together for no real reason. Hercules! Black Widow! Angel! Ice Man! I guess it was Ghost Rider’s day off. And this was back when Hercules was really incredible. Like, towing-the-island-of-Manhattan-incredible.

3. Hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Godzilla’s not much of a conversationalist so the primary human content of the comic came from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mainly inept attempts to capture him. Lead by Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones and Jimmy Woo – yes, that Jimmy Woo – the organization kept trying and, largely, failing to capture (or even keep track of) the green behemoth. Will the same be said of IDW’s Godzilla? Clearly not.

4. Red Ronin!

Red Ronin, people. Red Ronin is certainly not a Shogun Warrior, just in case you were wondering. Designed by S.H.I.E.L.D-advising Japanese scientists Tamara Hashioka and Yuriko Takiguchi in conjunction with Stark International to battle Godzilla, Red Ronin was usually piloted by cheeky 12 year old Rob Takiguchi because, let’s face it, the person you want controlling a 100ft tall robot warrior is definitely a 12 year old boy with raging hormones.

5. Being kidnapped by aliens to fight other monsters as Earth’s champion!

Is it just me or did that seem to happen a lot to Marvel characters in the 60s and 70s?

6. Cattle rustling!

Will IDW’s Godzilla be falsely accused of cattle rustling and chased by a bunch of angry cowboy types? I don’t think so.

7. The Incredible Shrinking Godzilla!

Obviously having a 100ft tall lizardKing of Monsters traipsing around the US pretty much unhindered (not to mention cattle rustling) would be a bit of an embarrassment for S.H.I.E.L.D., so Godzilla was miniaturized using the ever-popular Pym Particles (Hank Pym, is there anything you can’t do?!?) which led to a whole other set of adventures as he slowly started to grow back to normal…

- he got molested by Dum Dum Dugan! (Oh, come on, you were never really going to trust a man with a hat and mustache like that, were you?)

- he fought rats!

- he wrestled on the docks!

Bet IDW’s Godzilla doesn’t throw down with rats under 8th Avenue.

8. The Fantastic Four!

Eventually, if you’re in the Marvel Universe and you’re a big-ass monster chances are good that you’re going to throw down with the Fantastic Four, if only so the Thing can lament about how he’s just a monster too. And let’s face it, he did that a lot back in the 70s.

9. Devil Dinosaur! (And Moon Boy too, but nobody likes him)

There’s certain super-hero tropes that you can’t get away from, like fighting another hero over some silly misunderstanding then teaming up against a greater threat. Thing is, when you’re Godzilla, fighting another hero should really only last as long as it takes for you to stand on them – unless you’re Devil Dinosaur. Moon Boy, though? He should probably have just been trod on.

10. A real ending!

It takes low sales (or the lapsing of the license, whichever came first) to finally put Marvel’s Godzilla book to rest, but Big Green went out fighting the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D. before finally heading off out into the Atlantic to hibernate.

What that means is that – licensing aside – Godzilla is still out there. Sleeping. Waiting. Dream on that, Merry Marvelites!

What’s that you say?

That’s only 10 reasons why Marvel’s Godzilla rules, but the title said 11?

11. J. Jonah Jameson vs Godzilla.

Nuff said.

I hate retcons.

Not all retcons, mind you, just the retcons that reveal ‘events so shattering that when they come to light, EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE!!’. You know the kind I mean. The kind that Marvel often do.

Like Professor X having a whole other team of X-Men that he left for dead, including Cyclops and Havok’s other brother.

Like Wolverine, Sabretooth, Wolfsbane and pretty much every other vaguely feral mutant not actually being a mutant but being part of another race.

Like Nick Fury forming a team of Avengers way back before the actual Avengers first formed, consisting of these guys:

That’s Sabretooth, Kraven, Namora, Dominic Fortune, Ulysses Bloodstone and Dum Dum Dugan, for those keeping score, and they’re showing up on the cover of the upcoming New Avengers #12. It’s not actually a bad team, and one that makes a certain amount of sense.

And to be fair, it’s not like all Marvel’s retcons are bad; Marvel: The Lost Generation may have been ignored by pretty much everybody, but it was a neat idea that accounted for a period of time in the MU that was now hero-less thanks to Marvel’s ever-shifting timeline that keeps the debut of the Fantastic Four and Spidey as being ‘about ten years ago’ (although that may be twelve years now).

Similarly, the 1950s ‘Avengers’ that debuted in a What If..? story have been neatly incorporated into mainstream continuity as the Agents of Atlas – after adding Namora to the roster.

Finally, First Avenger Ulysses Bloodstone showed up as a member of the Monster Hunters for a short run in the fun-while-it-lasted Marvel Universe. In fact, fellow First Avenger and Agent of Atlas Namora was also added to the roster of the Monster Hunters in an issue of Marvel: The Lost Generation.

So perhaps I don’t hate all retcons after all – I’m hoping that this falls into the latter type of retcon rather than the former – the type that adds a fun layer to the history of the MU, rather than the type that becomes some kind of devastating secret that changes a bunch of stuff.

And now that I think about it, I need to go and write a story about Namora being some kind of unstable nexus point in the MU that allows her to show up in every decent retcon going…

Tuesday seems to be developing into the day I post my reviews so…

Batman and Robin #2 – Another good issue, and I know this is being overwhelmingly positively reviewed but…(and you knew there’d be a but)…I really don’t like Damien and that’s souring the whole book for me. I understand that I’m not supposed to, but when there’s very little likable about a character, why bother reading about them?

Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 – Better late than never! A good set up issue, but I need more Hush like I need an axe in the head. I know that he’s become Dini’s pet bad guy over the past year or so, but let it go already. The Manhunter back-up was a good start to Kate’s Gotham adventures, but had very little weight to it.

Gotham City Sirens #1 Nice art, but once again there’s very little of note going on. Catwoman’s weak as a kitten (ho ho) so decides to set up house with Ivy and Harley, because obviously nothing could possibly go wrong with that – and that’s about it. Sure there’s a random bad guy thrown in but…that’s it.

Green Lantern Corps #38 – Good, but underwhelming intro to Blackest Night. The Guardians continue to be bastards, and nobody really seems to mind aside from Kyle and Guy. Suspect that’ll come back to bite them in their little blue asses.

Justice League: Cry for Justice#1 – Nice art, shame about the cliched writing. Every character wants “…Justice!”, which appears to be another way of saying “…Revenge!”. Overwrought, over played, and distressingly unsubtle. Although it does have a talking gorilla, so there’s that.

Agents Of Atlas #7 – I’m teetering on dropping this, as much as I like it. I’m just not sure where it’s going exactly. Right now, it feels oddly directionless – it seems desperate to define itself by reference to its guest stars. Next issue may make it or break it, Gorilla Man or not.

Amazing Spider-Man Family #8 – As good as ever, and per Bleeding Cool, not exactly cancelled, which is good news.

Captain America Reborn #1 – I don’t even have an opinion on this. It reads well, it looks good, it makes some sense…but I need to let it play out a little more before I make a decision one way or the other on the book. Something just feels iffy to me, using time travel as a plot point – even if it was heavily telegraphed in the early days of this volume of Captain America. And if that was Steve pulled out of time, who was buried in his coffin?

Fantastic Four #568 – Splash pages galore as the Marquis of Doom and his hooded disciple knock the team around a bit and then Reed shows him what a real man is. And then Reed gets the crap kicked out of him by a whole bunch of alternate versions of the Torch, the Thing and Sue. What? Ridiculous, borderline incoherent, but a very good looking book.

Invincible Iron Man #15 – Good issue, if a little light on action – but the plot moved forward nicely anyway. It’s the first time that the loss of Tony’s memory and intelligence hit on an emotional level, too, with a simple “Who’s Happy?” showing just how bad things are getting.

Uncanny X-Men #513 – Pointless posturing as Norman Osborn consolidates his power and clumsily muddles through some exposition as he introduces his own team of X-Men, and Cyclops ponders his next move. Honestly, I don’t know how this is the same guy writing this and Iron Man right now.

War Of Kings #5 – Continues to be an example of how to do a crossover right. And, of course, it all seems to boil down to the two leaders duking it out. I’m intrigued for what’s next for these characters, and hope that we get an Inhumans regular series out of it, or at least something starring Ronan and Crystal, who are really the break out stars of the story.

I also picked up Buffy but haven’t a chance to read it, so next week for that. I know, you can’t wait!

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Pick up Agents of Atlas this week – or you’ll make Gorilla Man angry!

And you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry…

Sorry Hercules, you’ve been bumped…

Go buy Agents of Atlas this week!

Looks like I flunked my plan to post every week day – although in my defense, yesterday was a holiday and I posted twice at one point last week so the average worked out…

Anyway, some interesting things and thoughts…

Marvel’s Omega Flight has been reduced to a five-issue mini. I actually don’t think that this is necessarily a bad idea – too many books get launched as full ongoings only to have the plug pulled 6 or 12 issues in. At least this way there’s a defined end-point, and – according to writer Mike Oeming – a shot at an ongoing.

DC has pulled the plug on Firestorm as of #35. I have to admit that I haven’t followed the book since OYL, mainly because it irked me that they spent all this time bringing back Professor Stein then had him missing after the one year jump. Even so, I’m sorry to see this go – I think that it suffered unfairly from a lack of support after the original Firestorm’s death in Identity Crisis, and it face an uphill battle because of that. Add to that that Jason Rusch is one of the few lead non-caucasian characters published by the big two, and I think it’s doubly sad that the title is going.

I understand that Blue Beetle and Atom - also featuring non-white leads – are also on shaky ground sales-wise. Is this a sign that there’s not a big enough readership to support minority characters, despite the clamour for them?

Sean McKeever has signed with DC – this is especially surprising as he was just announced as the writer on the new ongoing Spider-Man Family and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is a critical darling. Rumors abound that he will be working on a New Gods title, despite his denial. Personally I’d love to see him take on a Lois Lane book, but that may just be me…

There’s even more stuff spinning out of Civil War. Now I’m as big a Marvel fan as anyone but this is getting a bit much even for me.

The first issue of Warren Ellis’ take on Thunderbolts was really good – not a surprise as I’m a big Ellis fan – and I’m looking forward to seeing Songbird and Penance getting more facetime. Speaking of Penance…I’ve still not fully processed what has happened here to my one of my favorite under-appreciated characters. When I have, I’ll have something to say.

I should say that I succumbed to the T-bolts variant cover. I’m weak, dammit, weak!

Agents of Atlas ended with a bang. A great mini with great art – now can we please see a reunion between Namora and Namor in his upcoming mini? Please? Pretty please?

Manhunter has been confirmed as bowing out as of #30. Here’s hoping that Kate sticks around in Birds of Prey for a while.

JOHN OSTRANDER IS BACK ON SUICIDE SQUAD!!!

JSA is going from strength to strength. Looks like the new Starman is indeed the Starman of Kingdom Come – and as such, I think that he’s Thom Kallor of the Legion. Which Legion, I have no idea…

Of all the DC books I’m picking up right now, I’m enjoyin Superman the most. Seriously, it’s all kind of good.

Well, maybe not quite that good, but pretty damn close.

Last week’s books may well have constituted one of the best single weeks that I can remember, with hardly a mis-step amongst them.

Supergirl #12 finally had someone pointing out to Kara what a whiny little cow she’s being. The fact that that person was newcomer Terra (soon to be starring in her own mini courtesy of this issue’s guest creative team of Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner) just added to the fun – this is someone greener than Kara, and she still put her in her place. Great stuff.

Justice Society of America #1 is being lauded all over the place, and rightly so. As I posted over on Kalinara’s blog:

Pros: Maxine being a gushing fangirl and yet obviously having a lot more depth (her depression, having no friends…she’s coming across a little too healthy)

: Jessie and Rick and Jessie’s new costume

amage being a bitter bad-ass

:Ted and Alan and Jay being Ted and Alan and Jay

: Mr America’s look and reaction to his, er, tragedies

: Starman not being your prototypical hero – and being aware that he’s losing it

: Power Girl’s reaction to Maxine

:Courtney being…well, Courtney

:Coming this year in JSA!

Cons: Not a goddamn thing. Sooo much better than the JLA relaunch that it’s not funny.

52 #31 upped the ante with the death of Captain Comet and a look at new villainess Lady Styx and her cubes of doom (okay, they’re not called that but damned if that’s not what they are) who eats Green Lantern rings as snacks. Seriously. Looks like things aren’t going to be easy for the space-faring heroes… And the ‘who is Supernova’ takes a giant leap forward. I’m going to guess that he is indeed Booster Gold, and the Booster who died previously was in fact Daniel Carter (in fact I’ll go so far as to say that Daniel is the Booster we’ve seen since 52 #1…

Detective #826 had a note-perfect Joker taking Robin on a joyride with Batman only making a brief appearance in the best single issue of Paul Dini’s run yet.

Manhunter #26 returned in grand style in an extremely packed issue. My only concern is that it may have been a bit too packed for the new readers it was aiming for. Even so,looking good…

And Nightwing #127 continued to remind me that Wolfman and Jurgens actually get this character.

Elsewhere, Spider-Man: Reign kicked off in grand style with a Peter Parker that I felt genuinely sorry for – I’m not sure what exactly happened to MJ all those years before but I think that it’s what pushed Peter into retirement. It captured Peter – and the city’s – desperation in a really effective way. Comparisons are already being drawn to The Dark Knight Returns and it’s not hard to see why.

Beyond #6 sent off one of my favorite new characters in grand style with a promise that despite appearances this wasn’t the end, so that’s good to know. One of the most fun minis this year…

…a title it needs to fight over with Agents of Atlas #5 which focused on the origin of Venus and showed just what Namora can do when she lets rip, not to mention the fact that she has slightly icky feelings for a certain royal cousin of hers!

In another two other great minis, Doc Strange proved what a bad ass he can be (Dr Strange: The Oath #3), while the new White Tiger still hasn’t realised that the current DD is actually her uncle and former babysitter, Danny Rand (White Tiger #2).

In Uncanny X-Men #481, new boy Korus hooked up with Rachel while Darwin mashed some face as he tried to save Xavier from a particularly nasty looking torture machine.

And Eric proved himself to be a tool not once (getting it on with his dead best friend’s girlfriend on said best friend’s grave), not twice (hanging out after a lousy date waiting for sex) but three times (moving into said date’s apartment while ant-sized and cheerfully watching her shower). Yep, the Irredeemable Ant-Man is starting to live up to his moniker in #3 of his book!

On another planet, Incredible Hulk #101 gave even more hints as to who’s going to be the main target of the green behemoth’s rage when he gets home (hint: he wears red and gold) even as the big guy made some more unlikely allies in his war against the Red King.

Finally, in a galaxy far, far away, Luke and Tank seem to have reached the end – finally – of their friendship in the long-delayed Star Wars Rebellion #5.

Not a bum note in the lot!

If you’re not reading Marvel’s Agents of Atlas mini, you’re missing a damn good read – even Joe Q is teasing it at Newsarama.

So why is it so good? Here’s 10 reasons…

1. 1. It’s a globe-trotting, world-hopping whirlwind adventure starring a bunch of characters that you haven’t been seen in years.

2. Writer Jeff Parker is one of Marvel’s rising stars, and this seires shows why.

3. Leonard Kirk. Let me say that again: Leonard Kirk. One of comic’s most under-rated artists.

4. It’s stand-alone – no Civil War, no Annihilation, no Plane Hulk!

5. It pokes fun at comics’ old stereotypes using an old Marvel villain, the Yellow Claw! (Now why can’t they just retcon him into being Shang-Chi’s father to get round the whole Fu Manchu copyright thing?)

6. It rescues agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Jimmy Woo from limbo – and almost makes up for the Godzilla series in the process. Almost.

7. Namora is back! Civil War taketh away one blonde Atlantean, Agents of Atlas gives us back her mom! And how – last issue’s return was the best of the series yet!

8. Did I mention Leonard Kirk?

9. It brings back the original Marvel Boy at a time when his successor Quasar is down for dirt-nap! Now if we can just get him back in the suit…

10. GORILLA MAN! He’s a man…who’s a gorilla! You can’t get better than that!

http://leonardkirk.comicbloc.com/wp-content/ATLAS0306thumb.jpg