Posts Tagged ‘ X-Men ’

Somehow I’ve started to receive lots of promotional emails from people advertising their comic, webcomic, or whatever and while I usually read the email I very rarely mention anything on here – not because I’m being a bastard or anything, but just because I’m usually too damn busy to read whatever they’re pushing.

Anyway, this is an exception because it’s for charity; CharityBuzz has an auction running for a set visit to the upcoming X-Men First Class movie. courtesy of Bryan Singer.

From the email I received:

Bryan Singer, the genius behind the X-Men series, is donating a very exclusive opportunity to the highest bidder: a set visit to the next installment of the highly anticipated X-Men film, as Mr. Singer’s personal guest! The visit will take place in the United Kingdom this coming Fall.

This once-in-a-lifetime experience will also give the winner a chance to meet some of the actors who may be on set that day. For a full description of this item, visit: http://www.charitybuzz.com/catalog_items/206422?source=carousel. Bidding ends June 24, 2010.
…
Project Angel Food’s mission is to nourish the body and spirit of men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses. For more information about the organization, visit http://www.angelfood.org.

It would seem, that travel to the UK and accommodations are not included – but even so, if you have money to burn spare, this is for a good cause and would be pretty nifty.

The auction can be accessed here.

Personally, I’d rather give a much smaller amount than this to charities I already give to, but that’s just me. And if I was going to spend a big amount of money on a charity auction, I’d be more inclined to spend it on a Mad Men set visit with Christina Hendricks.

Because, you know…Christina Hendricks.

There are some reports that Rosamund Pike is up for the role of Emma Frost in the upcoming X-Men: First Class movie.

I’m even more confused by this than ever. I was under the impression that Fox were placing this in the same continuity as the previous X-Men films; after all, the sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine is apparently still alive (I’ve been wondering what they’ll call that – More Origins?) so that would make sense.

That said, James McAvoy being cast as Professor X suggests that the events of this movie will be taking place at least, say, twenty years prior to the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and let’s say thirty years before the first X-Men film (just spitballing dates) and it would seem to preclude any appearances by any of the previous X-Men cast except perhaps for Wolverine himself.

Here’s the thing, though; Emma Frost was already seen in the Wolverine movie, played by Australian Tahyna Tozzi and was, confusingly Silverfox’s sister. Frost ended up heading off with young Cyclops at the end of the film.

So…how does that reconcile with the older Pike playing Frost about twenty years previous to her appearance in Wolverine?

Easy:

I suppose the Emma Frost in Wolverine was never actually identified by name, so we can get away with it but still, this irks me – although I shouldn’t expect anything else from the way that Fox has screwed with characters in the X-Men movies.

Also, and this is just a pet peeve, Emma Frost is not fricking English – although I suppose we have Grant Morrison to thank for that. Sigh.

James McAvoy has been cast as Charles Xavier in the upcoming X-Men: First Class according to THR.

McAvoy’s a great actor but I’m not really sure about this piece of casting – as much as I like him, I think that he’s going to have a hard time stepping into Patrick Stewart’s shoes.

Still, could be worse…

May 4th marks the DVD releases of Iron Man: The Complete Animated Series and X-Men: Volume 5.

IRON MAN

The Complete 1994 Animated Television Series 3-Disc DVD Set
Studio:Buena Vista Home Entertainment

From Stan Lee comes Marvel’s complete 1994 animated television series, Iron Man. Experience every thrilling moment – from the very first episode, to the final climactic battle – in this 3-disc collector’s edition. Witness the action-packed adventure from the very beginning as billionaire inventor Tony Stark dons his invincible suit of iron to battle the villainous Mandarin and the power of his ten deadly rings.

With fellow super heroes Nick Fury, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Spider Woman and Hawkeye at his side, Iron Man faces off against a band of evil foes, including Whiplash…and confronts his own demons, as well.

Go behind the armor and get to know the man under the powered suit. This complete Iron Man collection is a must-have for fans of all ages !

“Iron Man” stars voice talent Robert Hays (Superhero Movie), John Reilly (TV’s “General Hospital: Night Shift”), Jennifer Hale (Ariel’s Beginning – Voice) and is executive produced by Stan Lee (Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Ultimate Avengers II), Avi Arad (Spider-Man 4, Fantastic Four, X-Men: The Last Stand) and Larry Leiber (Iron Man, Iron Man 2).

EPISODE LIST:

Disc 1:

1. And The Sea Shall Give Up It’s Dead
2. Rejoice! I Am Ultimo Thy Deliverer
3. Data In – Chaos Out
4. Silence My Companion, Death My Destination
5. The Grim Reaper Wears A Teflon Coat
6. Enemy Within, Enemy Without
7. Origin Of The Mandarin
8. Defection Of The Hawkeye

Disc 2:
9. Iron Man To The Second Power (Part 1)
10. Iron Man To The Second Power (Part 2)
11. Origin Of Iron Man (Part 1)
12. Origin Of Iron Man (Part 2)
13. Wedding Of Iron Man!
14. The Beast Within
15. Fire And Rain
16. Cell Of Iron
17. Not Far From The Tree

Disc 3:
18. Beauty Knows No Pain
19. On The Inside
20. Distant Boundaries
21. The Armor Wars (Part 1)
22. The Armor Wars (Part 2)
23. Hulkbuster
24. Empowered
25. Hands Of The Mandarin (Part 1)
26. Hands Of The Mandarin (Part 2)

STREET DATE: May 4, 2010

Suggested retail price: $29.99 US; $35.99 Canada

Rated: TV – Y7
Run time: 572 minutes
DVD aspect ratio: 4:3
Sound: Dolby Digital Surround Sound, Spanish and French Language
Tracks & Subtitles
© MARVEL, IRON-MAN and all related characters and their distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries and are used with permission.
© 2010 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. © Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.

I always enjoyed the Iron Man series (which aired, in the UK at least, partnered with the Fantastic Four animated series of the same time), featuring as it did Force Works (because it was the nineties, dammit – and force worked!), even if the animation was a little below what was on elsewhere on TV at the time.

For your viewing edification, some clips from the Iron Man series behind the jump…

Also issued the same day is the final volume of the 90s X-Men series, this time out featuring the Phalanx Covenant episodes and Captain America, amongst others.

This series was as close as I think we’ll ever get to having the comic storylines on screen – and it was a Saturday morning must see for me while I was at university. Good stuff!

X-MEN: Volume 5 – 2-Disc DVD

COMPLETE YOUR COLLECTION WITH THE FINAL VOLUME !

Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

The original tales of Marvel comic books come to life in Volume 5 of the X-men collection.

Relive the action of the popular animated series in this collectible compilation of the X-men adventures. The X-men must turn to their arch-nemesis, Magneto, in an effort to save the life of Professor Xavier! Watch the action unfold in the final episode, “Graduation Day, and don’t miss a moment of X-men excitement in this 2-disc set, complete with 14 riveting episodes. Complete your X-men collection with this must-own final installment of this great animated series.

X-men stars voice talents Iona Morris (Law and Order, Spider-man, Fantastic Four, The Wayans Bros), Lenore Zann (Law and Order, Dragon Tales) and Alison Seasly-Smith (Honey, Degrassi: The Next Generation, M.V.P: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives) and is executive produced by Stan Lee (Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Ultimate Avengers II), Scott Thomas (Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles) and Will Meugniot (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men: Evolution, Silver Surfer).

EPISODE LIST:

Disc 1
Episode 63 The Phalanx Covenant (Part 1)
Episode 64 The Phalanx Covenant (Part 2)
Episode 65 A Deal With The Devil
Episode 66 No Mutant Is An Island
Episode 67 Longshot
Episode 68 Bloodlines

Disc 2
Episode 69 Storm Front (Part 1)
Episode 70 Storm Front (Part 2)
Episode 71 Jubilee’s Fairy Tale Theatre
Episode 72 The Fifth Horseman
Episode 73 Old Soldiers
Episode 74 Descent
Episode 75 Hidden Agendas
Episode 76 Graduation Day

STREET DATE: May 4, 2010

Suggested retail price: $23.99 US; $29.99 Canada
Rated: TV – Y7

Run time: 308 minutes
DVD aspect ratio: 4:3
Sound: Dolby Digital Surround Sound, Spanish and French Language
Tracks & Subtitles
© MARVEL, X-MEN, and all related characters and their distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries and are used with permission.
© 2010 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. © Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.

And some X-Men clips…

Now if only Buena Vista could see their way clear to releasing the 90s Spider-Man animated series…

In the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man (#627), Spidey was stunned to find that someone (actually Captain Universe as it would turn out) had smacked the Juggernaut around, sending him crashing to the Earth…

If the web-head had had the foresight to call San Francisco he would have found out that it wasn’t the first time that Cain has been smacked around and sent crashing to the Earth -

- because Onslaught did exactly the same thing the first time he came on the scene way back in Uncanny X-Men #322.

Juggernaut: jobber to the tough guys.

If Kevin Huxford and Bleeding Cool are to be believed, all these ‘We are the X-Men’ ads are leading to the adjectiveless X-Men book (currently Legacy under Mike Carey) being about X-Men vs Vampires.

And yes, that certainly looks like a vampire Jubilee with Nate Grey up there. The rest of the ads feature Gambit, Elektra, Hope, Blade, Magneto, She-Hulk (Llyra) and Psylocke and Spider-Man.

So…really?

I’m not against it per se, since rumor also has it that Victor Gischler will be writing (although Rick Remender does have that rumored X-Men project) and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of Deadpool Merc With A Mouth, so I’m okay with that.

Furthermore, does anyone think a team using those characters with that premise is going to be around too long? It’ll be an arc or two then done.

In the meantime we can only hope we get something like this:

Speaking of which, I fully expect the next all ages Power Pack series to be Blade and Power Pack. Just because.

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.

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…

…bitching about, of all things, trade paperback collections. Well, hardcover collections as well, but it’s the same thing. There’s also blatant linkage to my Amazon store, but you don’t have to click on anything, do you?

As you may have noted, I’ve been dropping books left, right and center recently. Some I’m done with completely, some I’ll be picking up in trades.

I’ve now dropped pretty much all the X-books – but there are some that I’m going to pick up in trades; X-Force and New Mutants being two of them. I dropped both these titles (and X-Men Legacy) just before Necrosha hit them, figuring that there’d be a nice big juicy hardcover at some point – and there is!

Look, here it is -

It contains the X-Necrosha one-shot, X-Force #21-25, New Mutants #6-8 and X-Men Legacy #231-233. Maybe the Gathering one-shot, but it isn’t listed on the website. Whatever, that’s what I was looking for – great!

Only…wait, no. Not so great.

Because as I also want to pick up X-Force and New Mutants in trades from now on, I’m going to have to do some double purchases.

Take New Mutants. The first arc and its epilogue issue – #1-5 – are collected in one handy volume:

The big X-Necrosha hc picks up #6-8, so that works. The thing is, the second volume of New Mutants picks up #6-11 plus the New Mutants story from the X-Necrosha one-shot:

Which means #6-8 are printed in two collections. Not the end of the world, but irritating.

But wait, it gets better. I also liked the idea of picking up the Siege: Dark Wolverine/New Mutants collection…

…mainly for the Daken story – but that book also contains New Mutants #11. Of course, I could pick up the Siege trade and the X-Necrosha trade and forget about the New Mutants trade – but then that leaves me missing #9-10 of the series. Aaaargh.

Then there’s X-Force. I’m sticking my issues on ebay and plunking for the nice big collection of the first eleven issues:

Nice. But now I’m thinking about the next few issues. It’s only a few issues until Messiah War – so maybe I’ll just pick up that trade and assume that the next big hardcover collection of the book will skip on by that, the way that the individual collections of the book did. That makes sense, right?

But…the collected X-Force Necrosha trade includes #20, a book conspicuously absent from that big X-Necrosha collection, so what if the next hardcover X-Force will skip that? You can drive yourself crazy with this!

See, Marvel, I want to buy your trades. I want to buy the nice big hardcover collections of storylines you put out – but you just don’t make it easy, do you?

I can still remember my first issue of Uncanny X-Men, even though it was a UK reprint in the pages of the Marvel UK Secret Wars II weekly. It was Uncanny X-Men #196.

There was a guy who could read minds, although not very well; a blue guy who appeared to be having a crisis of faith; a short-tempered guy with claws who stabbed a teammate; said teammate who appeared to be from the future; and a young girl who, at the time, seemed quite appealing.

More UK reprints followed – the X-Men fought Sentinels, a depowered Spider-Woman turned up as a pal for no apparent reason, Phoenix tried to kill the Beyonder but didn’t – and as I struggled to make sense of it all (especially jarring was the tendency of the reprint comic to skip issues that it felt were irrelevant) I realized – I liked these guys.

When I finally became aware of US comics and started picking them up, a year or so of continuity had passed me by. The Marauders had struck. The team was split up. Dazzler – a character who I recalled that the omnipotent Beyonder had romanced – had been buried alive by the Juggernaut; an inexplicably purple-haired Brit had joined the team; there was a guy with too few fingers and too much hair that seemed perpetually jaunty; and somehow Rogue seemed to be in charge – but then the next issue, Havok was breaking into the mansion to join the team and, and, and….

…there was something about the X-Men. They seemed to be on the permanent back-foot, constantly reeling from attack to attack, whether it be from giant robots, evil mutants, or public opinion. Their entire story was a tapestry of never-ending, intertwining sub-plots.

Even now, looking back on Chris Claremont’s incredibly verbose run, despite of it’s faults, it holds together amazingly well. The X-Men’s persecution ending in their ‘deaths’ in Dallas lead to their outback years, which lead to their scattering at the hands of the Reavers, which lead to Forge and Banshee’s search for the team, which lead to the eventual banding back together of the team – all over the space of about seventy issues from the point where I started reading.

You may know that I am, on and off, a back issue fiend as well – and Uncanny X-Men is one iof those books that I’ve focused on from time to time. As a result I went backwards from where I started and over the years I’ve accumulated a nice solid run back to about #127 (before it was even Uncanny) and I’m always on the look out for earlier ones at a reasonable price.

My point is that I’ve been with the book – books, including adjectiveless, Astonishing, spin-off and solo titles – ever since, but recently during the purge I’ve been making, I’ve been slowly dropping titles, until only the core book remained.

But as of this week, I won’t be picking it up any more. In fact, I’m even going to go back a bit and stick some of the last few issues on ebay.

I still like the team and I think the central concept of a team fighting for a world that hates and fears them is as strong and as relevant now as it’s ever been – but that’s not what Uncanny X-Men is anymore. Now it’s about an entire people, and more often than not it’s…well…boring.

I’m not sure how Matt Fraction’s managed it, but these days the X-Men are just plain dull. They debate politics (I have the news for that), they have meetings (I have work for that), they worry about their island base sinking (I have Acts of Vengeance for that) and they posture or look at each other silently.

Sure, there’s an attack here or there – usually by a poorly defined group of characters for reasons which are never quite clearly explained – but it seems that the X-Men today are less about superheroics and more about nothing in particular.

Chances are I’ll still pick up the trades. After all, they’re cheaper than the original issues and easier to store and at the pacing that Fraction’s writing at, they just might be more readable too. But on a month-by-month basis…no, I think I’m done.

Matt Fraction has done for me what at one point I thought was impossible. What endless crossovers, mutant Skrulls, nonsensical betrayals, Claremont’s failed returns, Steven Seagle’s crow attack and even Chuck Austen’s origin of Nightcrawler couldn’t do. He’s made me drop the Uncanny X-Men from my monthly pull list.

Newsarama posted a preview of the upcoming Fall of the Hulks: Alpha earlier –

- and although I’m sure this will be the equivalent of a Michael Bay movie, what with Loeb on board, I can’t help but think, ‘I like Michael Bay movies, they’re awesome.’

So, yes, I’ll be picking this up in spite of the Purge.

Plus, homage cover to one of my favorite non-crossover crossovers ever, so bonus there.

Yesterday, Twitter Pal MadMarvelGirl noted:

Jean Grey would not put up with this Osborn bullshit

and then

I have a ‘Jean Grey would not put up with this bullshit’ theory of the current Marvel Universe.

Noted SarahKuhn:

I think that needs to be on a t-shirt.

Asked and answered:

Buy it here, in censored (ladies only) and non-censored (ladies and gents) versions!

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

Oh, you bastard, Fraction. Just when I’m harping on about how terrible you are on X-Men you gives us this page:

If there’s one page last week that got me choked up (well, not really; it’s only a comic) it’s this one. Of course, it would have had even more impact if anyone involved had been able to tell the difference between the Mariana Trench and the character Marrina, but whatever.

It’s still one hell of a page.

There are two other great bits in the comic too – the Stepford Cuckoos’ reaction to scanning Marrina as she approaches (and Namor’s subsequent reaction) -

- although it would have been nice if someone remembered that the Cuckoos can’t feel any emotions any more following that godawful Phoenix Warsong mini a while back.

Finally, of course there was Namor’s final confrontation with Osborn -

- which desperately makes me hope that Namor is involved in finally taking Osborn down, even if I’m almost certain he won’t be.

Of course, this wouldn’t have had any impact at all without the fact that Alan Davis and Mark Farmer are still one of the best artistic teams in comics. I just wish they worked more often.

Actually, you know what? I still don’t like Fraction on the X-Men – but I’d love him to take on a Namor series.

Let me save you some money here…

Over at IGN, there’s a preview of this week’s Dark Reign The List X-Men; apparently something big likes delicious blue sushi, and is eating Atlanteans.

The X-Men, these days being led by Master StrategistTM Cyclops, naturally have a plan now that Namor’s wearing a big ‘X’ on his belt.

Anyway, there’s a bit of luring the big sushi-eater to come get some -

- and then the preview ends.

To me, that approaching beast sure looks familiar; in fact back when the Avengers were being run by Dr Druid (heady days indeed), Namor slew a very similar looking beast himself -

- a beast which was actually his mutated bride, Marrina. Marrina, a former Alpha Flight member, was actually a member of the alien Plodex and mutated when she became pregnant. Subsequently, she laid some eggs – which hatched, leaving little Namor-Plodex hybrids to go swimming into the sea – and then was put out of her misery by Namor, using the Black Knight’s Ebony Blade.

She returned to normal and was buried at sea, but the pretty-lame-as-masterminds-go Master of the World (bet he didn’t get invited to the villains brain-trust meetings) later, during the Kang War apparently used her body for science experiments some time later, although this was never found out by Namor or the Avengers.

Over at Newsarama, an early review of Dark Reign The List X-Men has this to say-

I expect that there will be some discontent from some quarters about what’s done to a particular, possibly obscure, character, but it fits the profile of Norman having gone very much around the bend.

- so I’m left to wonder; has Osborn re-mutated Marrina and sent her out to snack on Atlanteans to get back at Namor?

And if not, shouldn’t I really be writing for Marvel to come up with a cockamamie theory like this?

Images from the always excellent Comic Vine

Go see the trailer here – the autostart on the blog was driving me crazy and I couldn’t disable it.

I don’t really understand the reasoning behind these motion comics – I suppose having a Joss Whedon penned one will probably bring in some additional viewers, but do that many people who don’t read comics really watch these?

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

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

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!

Last week was a huge week, so let’s get to it (some spoilers below) -

Detective Comics #854 – Beautiful artwork, solid story – and that’s on both Batwoman and The Question co-feature. I have to say that I like this version of Kate Kane more than the version we met in 52. Like the look, like the base, like her dad helping…good stuff all around.

Gotham City Sirens #1 – Store I went to was out. Maybe next week.

Green Lantern #42 – A bit of a let down, partly because I find Blue Lanterns of Hope stupid, partly because I find Larfleeze a daft villain, and partly because I’m sick of all the Lanterns just assuming that the Guardians are right, or at least being unwilling to question anything. This is on the endangered list post-Blackest Night.

Justice League of America #34 – Adequate wrap-up to the Starbreaker arc – although I still don’t really get why Cowboy Batman was there and the revelation about Sun Eaters being larvae Starbreakers is pretty much nonsensical. Let’s move on, already.

Superman #689 – A so-so ‘day in the life’ issue, with Valor touring the world and having splash page adventures in every country he visits, along with a one-panel inset where he sees something beautiful. Aw. Yes, it’s as cloying as it sounds.

Amazing Spider-Man #598 – Darker than usual, with Spidey getting a fistful of torture from Bullseye while Harry flounders and Norman proves he has a prediliction for blondes around his son’s age. Also, nodbody’s surprised that this guy seems to have been forgotten by everyone. Can it be? Did OMD delete Sins Past? Because if it did, I’m all for it!

Astonishing X-Men #30 – I asked last week if anyone still cared about this title. The answer is probably not. I’m kind of pissed off that Ellis killed Forge after turning him a little more crazy, though. I always liked him. Beautiful art, though.

Avengers The Initiative #25 – Good solid wrap-up issue as we get the new status quo of the Initiative. Lots to like here – dropping Gravity into the GLA is a genius idea (mini series, please!); I like the idea of the Avengers Resistance – especially with a newly-revitalized Tigra leading it; and Gauntlet sucker punching Ares out of the window of Avengers Tower. Good stuff.

Dark Avengers #6 – So. Norman’s still insane. Sentry’s still useless as a character. Mike Deodato still draws exceptionally well. And the cover doesn’t represent a single thing that happens in the issue. Still good fun.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 – Okay set-up issue for the crossover, but I’m becoming less and less a fan of Fraction’s work on the X-Men, and that carries over here a little. Also, I’ve never been a fan of ‘torn from the headline’ stories, and Proposition X and Proposition 8 are a little too close for me to fully embrace the story yet. Oh, and the apparent treatment of Xavier seems a little pointless given the amount of time we just spent traipsing around the world with him getting him back. And, even though I’m told otherwise, I still think the Loki thing was a screw up.

Dark Reign Lethal Legion #1 – I picked this up because Tieri promised Crusher Creel. Well, he’s in it, barely, but I’ll forgive the false advertising. The majority of the issue focuses on Tiger Shark, in prison, telling how the current Lethal Legion – him, the Grim Reaper, Creel, Mr Hyde, Nekra (who also popped up in Utopia, oddly enough), the Grey Gargoyle and a final mystery member – got together and got set up. I’m not sold on the flashback-heavy structure of the story, but it’s got potential. Oh, and the art by Mateus Santoloco is very reminiscent of Darick Robertson.

Guardians Of The Galaxy #15 – The Guardians wrap up their War of Kings involvement in typical strong fashion; Moondragon’s not the woman she used to be; Warlock might be the man he will become and used to be (look, it makes sense); Crystal’s no helpless hostage; Lockjaw might be god (at least if you’re Cosmo) and Groot is Groot. Simply awesome. What comics should be.

Incredible Hercules #130 – Slight misstep this time out as Zeus gets put on trial, simply because he’s such a pompous ass that you really don’t want him to be saved. That said, there’s some good stuff with Cho and his parents (and Aegis, of all people), and Hercules’ speech in defence of his father is great. So even when this comic’s isn’t firing on all cylinders, it’s still better than 90% of the comics out there.

Nova #26 – A great book, but I’m not a fan of the reintroduced Corps. I don’t want a second rate Green Lantern Corps, I want Rich Rider. Let’s get this back on track and I won’t even mention that Robbie Rider’s supposed to be missing a finger, okay?

Secret Warriors #5 – Best issue so far, and the first one not to feature the team. What does that tell you? That nobody cares about the team because their characters haven’t been developed at all? Probably.

Skaar Son Of Hulk #12 – Some smashing and more than a few surprises. A light, fun read – and there’s more to Skaar than meets the eye. I’ll be picking up Incredible Hulk #600 to see where Skaar and his dad land next.

Thunderbolts #133 – Okay, well…if Black Widow isn’t who we think she is, who is she? Tasha? Mystique? This just got a lot more interesting between that, her real boss, Ghost’s connivingness and Eric O’Grady potentially stepping up in a big way. On top of that there were more examples of HAMMER’s gestapo-like tactics and the welcome return of Songbird. One of Marvel’s most unpredictable titles right now.

Uncanny X-Men #512 – So. Looks like it’s not just Greg Land’s static posing that makes Uncanny a bit of a mess right now, is it? Fraction is not on good form here. The whole X-Men science team thing seems like a good idea but plays like a second rate Planetary, to be honest.

X-Force #16 – The Messiah War concludes with not so much a bang as a whimper. A pity, because it had been pretty good fun up to hear – but at this point its difficult to see what, if any, changes to the status quo of either books this story has really made.

X-Men Forever #2- It feels a little wrong that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. From a page-long soliloquy from Nick Fury to hearing a sound in a corridor, to Wolverine apparently having adamantium hair, there’s so much wrong here that it’s difficult defend. And yet…and yet…it’s still strangely great.

Proof #21 – As much as I like the concept of this book, I think I’m about done. It’s well done, but over the last few arcs it feels like its lost its way – and that’s a damn shame because for a while there it was one of my most anticipated books. I’m out after the conclusion of this arc.