Posts Tagged ‘ Avengers ’

With the concept art for Thor and Captain America hitting the internet the past few days, I figured it was time to flex my not-so-mighty photoshopPixlr skills and mash up a few images…

And you know what? As thrown together as it is, I kind of like it.

Ain’t it Cool is reporting that The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner may be signing on to the Avengers movie as Hawkeye.

Not a bad bit of casting; this rumor surfaced months ago but was debunked. However, AICN seems to think that that rumor was regarding negotiations, while this rumor is about actually signing up.

Sadly, I suspect that Hawkeye is less likely to be wearing his traditional purple togs, and more likely to be wearing something along these lines instead:

In other casting news, last week Bleeding Cool ran a story about Nathan Fillion being a lock for Hank Pym – which would be nice, but if I want any Whedon alum playing the Avenger’s batshit crazy scientist I’d rather it be Alan Tudyk.

But then, it is Bleeding Cool…

..love your planet.

Or Ego the Loving Planet may just do it for you…

Never gets old.

From Marvel Adventures Avengers: Bizarre Adventures

…Echo?

Echo – at one point an integral part of New Avengers – hasn’t been seen since Secret Invasion. In fact, she hasn’t even been mentioned since Secret Invasion and this is the gal that was at the heart of the woman-in-man-suit Ronin storyline and had taken steps towards a romance with Clint Barton prior to Mockingbird’s return.

I’d finally grown to like her, and she vanishes without a trace. What’s up with that?

…that door?

Back in New Avengers #26, ol’ Clint Barton went looking for the Scarlet Witch and found her living a tranquil life unaware of her past. Clint being Clint, he ended up sleeping with her and the next day went to investigate a door in her house behind which her Aunt Agatha (presumably longtime witchy-nanny to the stars Agatha Harkness) was supposedly sleeping. Instead he remembered Dr Strange’s warning about looking for things that would make things worse, so he leaves it be.

Now since the last time we saw Agatha Harkness she was dead as a doornail and had apparently been so since her last return to life way back in West Coast Avengers the question remains – what was behind the door?

And why does Clint Barton look like Simon Pegg?

…Tigra’s unborn Skrullbaby?

During the time that a Skrull (well, multiple Skrulls) were masquerading as Hank Pym, he was knocking boots with Tigra. Well, unfortunately, that Skrullsperm’s mighty adaptable and Tigra is currently with child. So what happened to it?

Actually, writer Christos Gage has told me to check out Avengers: The Initiative #35. I just wanted to write Skrullsperm. Twice.

Over at Bleeding Cool, Rich Johnston posted the cover to the upcoming Secret Avengers with the cast revealed:

So as anticipated (well, okay, between the original post and one of my comments, don’t give me grief) the roster is…Steve Rogers, Nova (!), Beast, War Machine, Valkyrie and Moon Knight.

And that’s one godawful costume that Steve has on. Oddly familiar, though, even if I can’t place it.

I also worry what this means for Nova’s solo book which is going on ‘hiatus’ while The Thanos Imperative runs its course…

Deadline is reporting that Joss Whedon is in final negotiations to direct Marvel’s The Avengers movie.

Given that Cap (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) are already cast, and it seems likely that Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Bruce Banner (Ed Norton) may turn up in some capacity – not to mention the possibility of the Abomination (Tim Roth) and General Ross (William Hurt) putting in an appearance, can we just go ahead and cast some of Whedon’s regular gang as the other Avengers?

I mean, it should keep costs down a bit…

Like…Alan Tudyk?

Summer Glau?

Enver Gjokaj?

Please?

Updated with another suggestion that I particularly liked…Dichen Lachman.

You know if there’s a way to get Fran Kranz in there…

Over at iFanboy, a copy of the first Secret Avenger to be revealed is up – to very few people’s surprise.

Hey, look – he’s got a big ‘A’ on his chest. Aw.

So I guess pretty soon we’ll be seeing the rest of them.

Money on Steve Rogers, War Machine, Wonder Man, Valkyrie and Scarlet Witch, anyone?

Edit: okay, one of those at least was on the money…

Well. I guess that sorts out the whole ‘pity we didn’t get a front shot instead of her ass’ thing from yesterday…

Via

Good to see that Mickey Rourke’s unfortunately-attired Whiplash hasn’t made it onto the domestic poster for Iron Man 2, cementing my hope that his character isn’t going to be quite as major as we’ve been lead to believe (although Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury and Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer are also absent), but it’s Scarlett Johansson’s pose that has generated some discussion on Twitter.

Her Black Widow – looking back over her shoulder, allowing a generous profile and her ass (obscured as it is) to pointing towards the viewer – is, presumably, as Twyst notes, to show tits and ass at the same time.

It’s not an unsurprising choice. After all, Johansson has quite the figure and has been known to hold some kind of appeal to a certain demographic. Also, at the ripe old age of 37, Gwyneth Paltrow can clearly no longer appeal to that same demo.

Of more interest* than the improbably amalgamation of genetics that is Scarlett Johansson (and lord only knows what kind of hideous offspring she and Ryan ‘oh I seem to have lost my shirt’ Reynolds will produce), is the symbol on her shoulder.

I’d add another member to the roster for the Avengers movie. So that makes Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury and the Black Widow – and, if we can hope, the Hulk.

That’s going to be one expensive movie…
Via

*The fact that a SHIELD symbol is of more interest to me than pictures of Scarlett Johansson is pretty depressing, actually.

After yesterday’s look at the state of my DC pulls, it’s Marvel’s turn, what with the new solicits being up and all.

And the grand total of ongoing titles I’ll be picking up is…EIGHT – another incredibly low number for me. One of them is Amazing Spider-Man though, so I guess that counts as three which makes eleven titles, the others being Web of Spider-Man, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Young Allies, Deadpool, Deadpool Merc With A Mouth (ending in July) and Deadpool Team-Up.

There’s probably another post or two about my current Deadpool obsession, but at least I’m picking up Deadpool Corps in trade, okay?

So what happened to all the rest of the Marvel Universe?

Well my X-Men withdrawal is pretty well documented, but what I haven’t really mentioned before is that I’m out of the Avengers once everything comes to an end with Siege. It’s a tough decision for me, too, since Avengers has for a long time been hands down my favorite team book out there – and the Stern/Buscema reprints of the Sanctuary II saga and tie-ins to Secret Wars II in the UK weekly are what converted me to US comics in the first place.

But I’ve finally come round to the fact that these Avengers aren’t my Avengers. I’ve been dissatisfied with New Avengers for a while now as it limped from event to event; Mighty Avengers is ending; Dark Avengers was never going to last and just felt like Thunderbolts anyway, and Avengers The Initiative is done too. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably be picking up the trades but monthly-wise, I’m done.

Then there’s the cosmic books. With Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy both going on hiatus for the duration of The Thanos Imperative, I think I’ll move to trades for them too – and the big hardcover collections of the cosmic crossovers have been pretty impressive, so I’ll be getting the Thanos story in that format.

I’m waiting patiently for a great big Fall of the Hulks hardcover to be solicited containing the entire thing, so I’m not following the Hulk books right now, even if I’ve grown quite fond of Llyra in her appearances so far.

I was disappointed in the conclusion of Incredible Hercules – the Assault on New Olympus storyline felt rushed and packed with too many incidental characters that weren’t needed or didn’t add anything. I don’t believe Hercules to be gone for good, of course, but I don’t feel the need to follow Amadeus Cho into his own Prince of Power series, at least not in monthly installments.

Similarly, the relaunched Atlas holds limited appeal monthly as I found the last series read better when I read a few issues together. I haven’t picked up Thor since this volume began (but have already pre-ordered the JMS omnibus), and I won’t be starting now. I like Black Widow a lot, and I’m intrigued by her ongoing but, again, it’s a trades issue for me; same with the new iteration of Thunderbolts (which I dropped a while back anyway), and the new Hawkeye & Mockingbird series – I like the Reunion mini but it read better in one sitting than it did in single issues.

Iron Man I moved onto trades a few months back, Secret Warriors I dropped because I honestly believe it to be a very poorly written book (I know I’m in the minority there), and as a result I have very little interest in Shield. I’m sticking with Hickman’s FF only because it’s the Fantastic Goddamn Four, and I’ve been through a hell of a lot worse with them. Hickman’s big ideas are great, the execution not so much – and you know what no comic should have? A last text page telling you what happens at the end of the story. If it’s important to the story, put it in the story.

If there’s one thing I may get outside of these, it’s David Gallaher and Steve Ellis’ Darkstar and the Winter Guard mini – partly because I’m a big fan of both creators and partly because, you know, Ursa Major.

He’s a talking bear, people. A talking bear.

I like comics. I like comics for adults. I like comics for kids. God knows I like comic book villains, and I like comics about comic book villains – but sometimes something comes along that you just feel is…wrong.

Due to the fact that there’s spoilers for this week’s Dark Avengers in this post, I’m putting it behind a jump…

At the wake of Hercules, some of his (mainly more recent) conquests opened up about what kind of man he was.

Generally, the consensus was that he was a hot one – but it would appear that Herc didn’t just limit himself to female conquests.

That isn’t entirely out of line with either the Heracles of myth (his companion Iolaus was the patron of male love) or with the commonly held belief that the Ancient Greek soldiers often had homosexual relationships with one another, partly to boost the fighting morale of the unit; the Sacred Band of Thebes unit consisted entirely of male couples.

Either way, I think this was a nice touch and I’m hoping that nobody gets too annoyed by it. I’m kind of assuming that there will be a vocal minority who do get annoyed, but tough.

Continuity geek that I am, I’m also assuming it happened after the Avengers and Alpha Flight helped Namor free Marrina from the Attuma-led Atlantis back in Avengers #272 /Alpha Flight #39.

And it’s not like Northstar’s had a lot of action since he came out, so its nice to know that he got some before that (although I always assumed he and Raymond Belmonde were an item in the early days of Alpha Flight). Shortly after the time I assume this encounter took place, Hercules was beaten into a coma by the Masters of Evil and subsequently died (told you it had happened before), and Northstar contracted a disease which originally intended to be AIDS, but was instead revealed to be a disease he contracted as he’d been away from his Asgardian fairy homeland for too long.

Yes, Northstar was retconned into being a fairy when Marvel editorial got nervous about him being a gay man with AIDS.

Anyway.

I’m now thinking the disease was actually an STD from Hercules, which would make far more sense.

It seems to me that Marvel are screwing with me.

I’ve dropped X-Men in favor of trades, something that would have been unthinkable to me a few years ago and, with the end of Siege and the dawning of the Heroic Age, I was going to jump ship on all the Avengers books too – again, in favor of trades.

While I’m still planning to do this, Marvel seem intent on luring me back to the comic store week to week. It started with Ben Grimm.

The Thing – probably my second favorite Marvel character (or at least Marvel superhero) is on the Avengers, a team that has always been one of my favorites. I enjoyed his (very) brief stint on the West Coast Avengers (yet another firm favorite) back in the early days of that team, loved Marvel Two-In-One and his solo series – so having him on this team is one hell of a way to make me want to carry on picking up the New Avengers.

But no, that wasn’t enough.

They also announced Young Allies by Sean McKeever. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge deal for me, but two of the members are former member of the New Warriors Firestar (favorite team book ever, just in case you missed that) and Gravity (McKeever’s Gravity mini-series made me a fan of the character for life).

Anything else?

Oh yes, the bastards.

Jim McCann has a Hawkeye & Mockingbird ongoing coming March. So that would be my third favorite Marvel hero and his wife.

Goddammit.

What else have you got up your sleeve, Marvel?

A New Warriors relaunch?

The return of Marvel Team-Up?

A back-in-continuity Power Pack?

An ongoing Cloak & Dagger?

What, Marvel, what?

…please be Sentry, please be Sentry…

FALLEN (Not Final Title)
Written by To Be Announced
Art by Tom Raney
Cover by Leinil Yu
The SIEGE has ended and taken its toll on both sides of the battle field. The event seven years in the making has claimed many lives, and in this, its final chapter, a universe comes together to mourn (CLASSIFIED). The shocking death that ended the fight and gave birth to a new Heroic Age is remembered as a writer (CLASSIFIED) returns to lead the farewells.
32 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T+…$3.99

..because honestly if its not the Sentry (and writer Paul Jenkins) then there’s no justice in the world.

Never have I seen a character with some potential screwed over so badly. Written out of every fight by silly plot devices as he’s too powerful, a poorly defined power set, saddled with a ridiculous, mutable origin and a villainous alter-ego who appears to have biblical connections – there’s just no salvaging this character.

What I don’t understand is why any of the heroes that you see there (Spidey, Thor, Black Widow, Iron Man, maybe Spider-Woman…, Mr Fantastic) would even bother mourning this waste of narrative.

Yesterday Newsarama ‘debuted’ an X-Men teaser for post-Second Coming, the latest in the X-universe shake-ups that have been prevalent for the last few years.

Of course, it would have been a more effective debut if the ad hadn’t shown up in some of last week’s Marvel Comics…

Anyway, also yesterday, Marvel released yet another ‘I am an Avenger’ teaser – this time spotlighting double-duty pulling Luke Cage in an outfit best described as minimalist – on the oddly named relaunched New Avengers:

That got me thinking: I wonder if there’s a concerted push to differentiate the Avengers and the X-Men these days at Marvel. After all, under Bendis the Avengers have become arguably the biggest franchise at the company, knocking the X-Men into second place – and you may have noticed that I’m not a huge fan of what’s going on in the X-books right now.

Still, I look at these ads and I see the collective ‘we are’ X-Men while ‘I am an’ Avenger. I suppose that’s the way it’s always been; the Avengers were originally formed of characters all strong enough to hold their own features due to the limitations placed on the number of comics the company could distribute at the time. The idea was if you like Thor, you might pick up Avengers in addition to Journey into Mystery and then would be tempted to check out Ant-Man and the Wasp in Tales to Astonish, or Iron Man in Tales of Suspense or so on.

That pretty much went out the window early on when Cap joined with #4 – his first Silver Age appearance after a dry run in with an impostor in the Human Torch feature in Strange Tales #114.

By the time Avengers #16 rolled around, Cap was the only member with a co-feature, but the limitations on the number of books had begun to ease, so it no longer needed to be the cross-pollinating book that it started out as, but the original idea is still right there in the masthead (or used to be back when every Marvel book came with a masthead):

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat…

These guys aren’t a team, they’re a collection of individuals who get together to fight big threats.

The X-Men on the other hand have always been a team first, individuals second. The original roster’s closest thing to a breakout star was the Beast, who bounced into his own feature in Amazing Adventures, over a year after the X-Men were effectively canceled and put into reprints.

It wasn’t until the advent of the new team of X-Men that Wolverine became a hit character – and even then it would take an incredible amount of time after the book relaunched before he got his own mini series (7 years!) and even longer before he got his own ongoing (11 years!).

I think this distinction has been lost over the years, but when I see these ads I kind of hope it represents a refocusing on what always differentiated the two teams.

And, if at all possible, an end to this island nation nonsense…

Because some things never get old.

Thanks to The Weekly Crisis

Well so far I have to say that there is nothing unexpected about the line-up for the new bright and shiny Avengers that we’ve seen.

Boring…

Not entirely unexpected that Clint Barton should be returning to his classic Hawkeye costume in order to redeem it after Bullseye’s actions in it, or that Clint will be on the team, given his recent prominence in New Avengers…

…but somewhere, Kate Bishop is weeping.

I have to say – so far this Avengers line-up is pretty uninspired.

Where’s the shock character? The character that will cause friction and shake things up?

Iron Man, Cap and Spider-Woman?

Hoping for more wildcards soon…

As with Captain America, no real surprise since Spider-Woman has been one of Bendis’ pet character since he started on New Avengers (and was originally meant to be the lead in Alias).

What this image does tell us is, firstly, that the Avengers roster isn’t necessarily limited to the number of letters in the word ‘Avengers’ (as some people thought yesterday with the large ‘A’ behind the Cap image) – probably a pretty good job given the plethora of characters running around currently claiming Avengerhood.

Secondly, it suggest that the Heroic Age teaser that was released a couple of weeks back -

- is just that, a teaser, and not a roster for the team. That in itself suggests that the Agents of Atlas will be around in some form or another, since Gorilla Man is so prominent in the image.

I’m also taking away from this that the Thing isn’t going to be an Avenger – which relieves me greatly as quite honestly, the Thing as an Avenger just doesn’t work.

West Coast Avengers excluded, natch.