#they had wolverine hulk docs doom and ock | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

owlixx · 4 months

Text

Comics I Read Yesterday

Moon Knight ‘16-‘18

So, Marvel Unlimited is weird. They count 3 very distinct runs here as one big run. The ‘16 Lemire run was pretty fun because the tv show clearly rips it off but the comic is of course way better. But then yesterday I finally got through to the end of the ‘17 Bemis run about fighting Amon Ra/Sun King which was fine, I guess, but not on the same level. And then that turned into the ‘18 Bemis run which started by revealing an insane version of how Marc Spector developed his split personalities that seemed a little over the top edgy to me, so I put it down.

In the end, I like Moon Knight. He’s cool. But now I know to be a bit more skeptical of Marvel Unlimited’s comic issue collections and just put a series down if it suddenly changes art style and writing style in a direction I don’t like. And I also wanted to put this down so I could get cracking on the long list of good, short series ahead of me.

Contest of Champions ‘82

This was just kind of a silly, fun one. Very early crossover, of course. Only 3 issue. It was apparently supposed to be a tie-in for the Olympics until the US pulled out in ‘80. That explains the focus on now-obscure international and why they must compete “at all four corners of the Earth”. Very simple, very straightforward. Not a ton of questioning the nature of the competition or nitty gritty about the rules, just some toe-dipping into “hey wouldn’t it be neat if X met Y”. It is very funny to see these all-powerful deities drafting for their team and leaving out Hulk/Thor so they can instead take “Le Peregrine” or whoever so more countries can be included. And the contest itself is so silly - just lay hands on a golden object that’s…nearby. Easy read since it’s so short, but so funny that there’s a sequel and a whole phone game based on this and that it’s really the template for a lot of these crossovers.

Secret Wars ‘84

This one I was much more looking forward to. I love Symbiote Spider-Man, although we really just get the design and origin here. Overall this was a lot of fun, much more fleshed out than Contest of Champions. I really liked the dynamic of villains vs heroes vs xmen vs galactic. I also liked that they didn’t just play the game here, and instead Doom tried to break the rules. Also I just generally like Doom and he was pretty cool in this one. I think I had only ever read the last issue as a kid since my dad owned it physically so it was nice to finally make sense of how Cap broke his shield, plus the general events leading up to the finale. I also really liked when they were stuck under the mountain and all combined tech and powers to soup up Iron Man for one big laser. I think the weakest part of this was the weird Jonny Storm/Colossus love triangle with the local alien healer woman. It was funny also though how the villains included respectable names such as Doom, Galactus, Kang, Doc Ock, Lizard, but then also people like Absorbing Man and Wrecking Ball who have really faded into obscurity. Also fun to see what seemed like the origin of Titania! Surely her backstory has been retconned to not be “in the 80s, a chunk of Denver was pulled into a planet arena and Doom gave magic powers to two random women off the street”. Also cool to see Rhodey in the Iron Man suit and Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel! Certain unsavory folk would have you believe that such characters only started to exist like, a year ago. Also I switched from reading on just my phone to busting out my foldable laptop and reading these in portrait mode on it. The Marvel Unlimited web interface is a nightmare, so it’s best used in tandem with the app, but it’s fine once you’re actually inside the comic you want and boy does it look good on a larger-than-life screen.

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine ‘84

This one was a lot of fun! Seems like this is where the name Shadowcat comes from as far as I can tell? I really liked how small-scale and personal this was, especially coming off the heels of Secret Wars. I would imagine that at the time, this kind of intimate, personal story was a little less common, but that’s just me guessing. I genuinely wasn’t sure how this was going to go, which is a lot of fun. I do always think there’s something kind of inherently funny about Wolverine being a weeaboo, but it’s not a problem or anything.

#comic books #comics #marvel #marvel comics #marvel unlimited

0 notes

doesithavetobeaspider · 4 years

Photo

Boom-Boom’s Take On Me New Mutants Annual #5 (1989) by Judy and Jon Bogdanove

60 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

A Tale of Two Pietros: Explaining the MCU X-Men Problem With a Mutant Speedster

https://ift.tt/3jFtUYS

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

Since his creation by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in the mid-60s, Quicksilver has been a fairly important part of the Marvel Universe. The mutant speedster started as a member of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, then became one of the earliest members of the Avengers. Over the decades, he’s married into the Inhumans, joined various X-teams, been a mentor to the Avengers Academy, and had his parentage retconned several times over.

He’s never been the most popular character in the Marvel Universe, but due to some legal complications, he became the focal point between two rival movie studios. It’s those complications that make his appearance in the fifth episode of WandaVision such a huge deal.

But let’s get to where this all started. As hard as it may be to believe now, b ack in the ‘90s, Marvel Comics was on the verge of bankruptcy. One way to get some money together was to sell the movie rights of its various characters to whatever studio was willing to pay. After all, shared cinematic universes weren’t really a thing back then.

Not every movie got made, of course. There were instances of studios sitting on rights and not doing anything for so long that they had to give them up. For instance, New Line Cinema had the rights to make a Venom movie, albeit one where they couldn’t reference Spider-Man directly in any way. Such an idea was worth a laugh in the ‘90s, but Sony actually pulled it off 20 years later, so go figure.

Studios would only have so much time to make a movie before the rights would revert to Marvel. By the time Marvel decided to get into the movie making business themselves and kick off the MCU concept, the field had settled. Sony had the Spider-Man franchise and had just finished Sam Raimi’s initial trilogy, preparing for a fourth movie that didn’t work out and would ultimately be replaced by a reboot. Universal had a complicated hold on the Hulk that lent itself to a unique partnership with Marvel. Fox was able to make the X-Men a successful franchise, but had less success with two attempts at the Fantastic Four franchise.

Essentially, the entire Marvel Universe had to be categorized into different properties. A lot of these were pretty easy. Doc Ock? He was clearly part of Spider-Man’s corner and could only be used in Spider-Man movies. Dr. Doom gets around as a villain in the comics and fights just about everyone, but at the end of the day, he’s grouped in with the Fantastic Four and could only be handled by Fox. But it wasn’t as simple for other characters.

One major complication was what to do with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Which corner of Marvel did they truly belong to? They were technically under the X-Men umbrella as the mutant children of Magneto. Quicksilver himself was a major member of X-Factor.

On the other hand, the two were also huge staples of the Avengers. They were Avengers longer than the likes of Hulk and Black Widow. Scarlet Witch was even the centerpiece in one of the most important Avengers storylines of the early 21st century.

20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios finally came up with an agreement. Both sides had the rights to the Maximoff twins, but the Avengers movies couldn’t describe the two as mutants or mention Magneto and the X-Men movies couldn’t bring up the Avengers or, uh… Yeah, this was pretty much on Marvel’s side to be creative.

Around the same time, each studio cast their Quicksilvers. Marvel had Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Fox had Evan Peters. Marvel cast Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch while Fox declined to actually use the character, likely due to how hard to write her powers could be at times. The most they did was include an unnamed little sister for Quicksilver, but director Bryan Singer insisted she wasn’t Wanda.

LAP 1 – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Fittingly, with each studio having their own speedster, there was a race to be the first to get their Quicksilver on the big screen. It was really Fox’s race to lose, considering X-Men: Days of Future Past was the seventh X-Men movie and the most the character has ever gotten beforehand was an Easter egg namedrop on a computer monitor in X-Men 2. At least Days of Future Past was going to be released nearly a full year before Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Marvel still won the race, though. Weeks before the release of Days of Future Past, Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit theaters with a post-credits scene that revealed Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff to the world. And while they were indeed showing off their powers in those brief moments, it wasn’t because they were mutants, but rather had been altered by Baron Strucker and HYDRA using Loki’s scepter from Avengers.

LAP 2 – X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Fox got their chance later that year with X-Men: Days of Future Past. Overall, Evan Peters’ Quicksilver didn’t get too much screen time, but he was definitely considered a highlight by fans.

Referred to as Peter Maximoff in this continuity, the speedster is a little more laid back than other characters in the X-Men series. Not only does his power give him a feeling of casual superiority over others, but the unbelievability of it all makes him feel almost untouchable. His high-speed crimes would come off as more of a myth that nobody with authority would logically believe. He’s recruited by Xavier, Wolverine, and Beast to break Magneto out of the Pentagon, which he does for the sake of the challenge.

It’s there that he shows his stuff in a slow-motion segment set to Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle,” displaying seemingly endless charisma as he protects his allies from armed prison guards and spends his perpetual head start straight-up fucking with their would-be killers. It’s a fun moment in a film about dystopian genocide and Peters makes Quicksilver really likeable.

He doesn’t really get to do too much otherwise, though he does make a remark to Magneto hinting that the Master of Magnetism is his father, but that’s as far as it ever went.

LAP 3 – AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

2015 gave us Avengers: Age of Ultron, which opened with the Avengers crushing the remnants of HYDRA while Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch got away. Still, Quicksilver was able to scrap with the Avengers and start up a rivalry with Hawkeye while Scarlet Witch could screw with Iron Man’s mind and increase his paranoia to dangerous levels.

In the comics, Quicksilver has been best defined in an issue of X-Factor where he described his demeanor by comparing himself to someone stuck in line at the ATM, having to wait behind an idiot who doesn’t know what they’re doing and keeps taking forever. That’s his every waking moment and Taylor-Johnson certainly tapped into that with his performance.

WandaVision: How Monica Rambeau Fits in the MCU

By Delia Harrington

WandaVision: The Endgame Is In Sight

By Don Kaye

In terms of action, Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver wasn’t quite as fun as Peters’, but he had his moments. The closest thing he really had to the slow-mo rescue scenes was a short sequence that had him punch Captain America and foolishly attempt to pull Mjolnir out of the air. There was a feeling of playfulness underneath the character’s resentment at times, but he wasn’t quite the goofball of Peters’ version.

He also didn’t come off as ridiculously fast as the X-Men Quicksilver, even though that was probably for the better. Sometimes a speedster can be impossible to write for and believe in. Taylor-Johnson’s version was still impressively quick and a danger to any enemy, but he didn’t come off as unbeatable.

Unfortunately for this version of Quicksilver, his relationship with Scarlet Witch was arguably his undoing. The Quicksilver of the X-Men films wasn’t held down by his siblings and got to stand on his own, but MCU Quicksilver was treated as an extension of Wanda and her story. That made him expendable by the time the movie was ready to wrap up.

The Maximoff twins went from being Ultron’s lackies battling against the Avengers to betraying Ultron and joining the good guys. In the end, Quicksilver sacrificed himself to save Hawkeye, and despite his gift for speed, it was a believable death, and felt far weightier than the way such character exits had been approached in the past.

As far as the MCU was concerned, Pietro Maximoff’s story was over. Wanda, however, had a new life waiting for her as an Avenger.

LAP 4 – X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

In the X-Men universe, Quicksilver showed up again in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. It took place about a decade after Days of Future Past, reminding us that Peters’ Quicksilver is like thirty years older than Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver. Ah, these X-Men movies and their screwy timeline.

Quicksilver’s arc in this film ultimately showed the innate problems of the later X-Men movies. When Magneto joined the mad mutant Apocalypse as one of his Four Horsemen, Peter Maximoff finally realized that Magneto was his father and tried to find him. This led to another fantastic slow-motion scene where he single handedly evacuated the X-Men’s school during an explosion to the song “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics.

But Quicksilver’s larger arc in the movie remained unsatisfying, and he and Magneto never came to terms with the question of their relationship. Peter may have survived the final battle with Apocalypse, but he also was ignored in what should have been his big moment. Magneto and Quicksilver’s relationship was a card only Fox could have played and they fumbled it. It remains a missed opportunity for both characters.

Funny enough, around this time, Marvel Comics was going the opposite direction and placed a narrative wedge between the characters when Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver discovered that Magneto wasn’t actually their father after all. Though at the same time, it came across that Scarlet Witch may have altered reality to make that true. Regardless, it looked like Marvel was trying to go out of their way to sever Magneto from the twins’ existence.

FINAL LAP – DARK PHOENIX

Outside of a hilarious cameo in Deadpool 2, the Fox version of Quicksilver next appeared in 2019’s Dark Phoenix, the final film in the main X-Men franchise. Quicksilver only has about two and a half minutes of screentime. Halfway into the movie, he makes a slow-motion run at Jean Grey, loses his footing, tumbles, and is forgotten about for the rest of the picture. And his connection to Magneto? Never even mentioned.

Back in the MCU, Pietro remained just a memory, one more trauma stacked upon trauma in the life of Wanda Maximoff. There was already the death of her parents and the horrible experimentation. Soon after, there was the trauma of the innocent blood on her hands, her incarceration, and her role in the death of Vision. It wasn’t until the third episode of WandaVision where Wanda even talked about her long-lost brother.

Wanda could puppet Vision’s android corpse and surround herself with people forced to be friendly to her, but the horrible loss of her brother was something she couldn’t undo. Or it was something she refused to undo. While we still don’t get the reasoning behind what’s going on, the Evan Peters version of Quicksilver popped into Westview, NJ to see his long-lost sister, all while acting like Uncle Jesse from Full House.

We have four episodes to go, but we’re left wondering what this truly means. Will Peters’ Quicksilver outright be a replacement for the disgruntled counterpart who died at Ultron’s hand? Will the joke run its course and he’ll be sent away where he came from? Will this be the big moment that instigates the existence of mutants in the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, giving credence to the overused internet joke of Wanda demanding, “No, MORE mutants!”?

Whatever it is, it’s a special moment. The Evan Peters Quicksilver not only finally has a super-powered relative who seems to give a damn about him, but as the first link to the X-Men in the MCU (big or small, we’ll see), he finally gets the spotlight he deserves.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Now let’s see how long until Deadpool finally shows his scarred face.

The post A Tale of Two Pietros: Explaining the MCU X-Men Problem With a Mutant Speedster appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3a8kJNm

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 7 years

Text

Shit I Hate #1: Killing Villains

I love movies. I love superhero movies in particular. These statements should be no surprise to anyone. But like everything I love, these things have a lot of elements that just grind my gears, so I’m making an infrequent series for me to detail my issues in depth. And what better issue to start with than one of my biggest pet peeves with the superhero genre: killing the villain.

Now, comic books have always had wonderful rogues galleries full of insane and creative foes for the heroes to fight; sure, Spider-Man is interesting on his own, but he’s even better when you set him up against someone like Green Goblin, Mysterio, Venom, or Kraven the Hunter. Heroes are only as cool as the villains they fight, basically. And comic book movies have always done a great job of bringing villains to the screen, be they obscure or beloved… the problem is, by film’s end, these villains are typically dead.

Now, this pisses me off for a great many reasons, the chief among them that killing off the rogues gallery tends to spit in the face of the comics; sure, people like Norman Osborn have died before, so him dying is perfectly fine, but when you kill characters like Doctor Octopus, Ronan the Accuser, and the fucking Joker of all people, there’s a big problem. This almost always leads to cases where villains who could have been interesting recurring foes get totally shafted as a best-case scenario (which is the case with characters like Ronan, Joker, Penguin in Batman Returns, Ultron, and so on), or worst case a villain who was boring or poorly developed is not allowed to improve since they are now dad, with Malekith being the worst offender in this regard.

Now, to show you how widespread this issue is, I’m going back to the big kickstarter of this trend, Tim Burton’s Batman, and showing all the major superhero films that did this between then and today. Obviously I’m only going to focus on films that kill a major rogue of one of the main hero.

Batman: Jack Nicholson’s Joker is killed off

Dick Tracy: Almost every antagonistic force in the film is dead by the end.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder dies at the end. I believe this keeps in line with the original comics, but at this point in the franchise Shredder was an established archenemy; it’s a very weird case.

Batman Returns: Penguin and Catwoman are both dead at film’s end, though Catwoman is ambiguous… though she may as well have been dead for all the later appearances she made.

Mask of the Phantasm: One of the few animated films that sort of fall into this, Joker’s fate is rather ambiguous. While he still shows up in the series, this movie almost seems like it’s in its own canon. Again, very weird case.

Batman Forever: Two-Face falls to his death, though Riddler lives; he’s totally insane at this point but it’s still something.

Batman & Robin: As more evidence that this isn’t a terrible movie, none of the major villains die; Ivy and Freeze are both alive and locked up by film’s end, as Batman would do in the comics. Hell, Clooney’s Batman is the only Batman that has not in any way been responsible for the death of one of his foes in some way.

Return of the Joker: Batman’s biggest foe comes back only to be completely erased forever. He dies twice over the course of this film.

X-Men: Magneto is one of the biggest names to avoid this, as he has consistently survived every movie he’s in. Toad and Sabretooth are not quite so lucky here.

Spider-Man: Green Goblin dies, though at least this is in line with the comics and he does impact the whole trilogy. Still counts though, as he was a major antagonist for a long while before his first ‘death.’

Daredevil: This one actually has both Kingpin and Bullseye live; in fact, it is one of the heroes, Elektra, who dies.

X2: X-Men United: Stryker does die in this, as does Lady Deathstrike.

Hellboy: Rasputin dies.

The Punisher: I really shouldn’t have to even list this, because with a guy like Punisher, no villain is coming out alive. This goes for War Zone later on down the line.

Spider-Man 2: Doc Ock is dead by film’s end. At least he didn’t posses Peter’s body.

Batman Begins: While Scarecrow is a notable aversion as he cameos in the following two films, the one DC villain best known for being immortal, Ra’s al-Ghul, dies at the end.

Superman Returns: Proving yet again that this film, while flawed, has the heart and spirit of

Superman right, Lex does not die in this film.

Fantastic Four: Doctor Doom doesn’t die, surprisingly.

X-Men: The Last Stand: Phoenix gets snikt’d by the end. Magneto, however, gets away.

Spider-Man 3: 2 out of 3 villains die, with only Sandman surviving; Venom and Harry Osborn are both dead at film’s end.

Ghost Rider: Blackheart dies, and I’m pretty sure a powerful demon like that doesn’t just die in the comics.

The Dark Knight: In a depressing twist, Joker lives, but Heath Ledger did not. Two-Face plays this straight yet again, dying with very little time to shine.

Iron Man: Interestingly, Iron Monger was originally going to be hinted to have lived. Perhaps he did, but right now everything points to dead.

The Incredible Hulk: Depressingly, every villain lives, but due to issues with distribution rights for Hulk, none of their plotlines have been followed up, meaning Abomination and Leader are in cinematic limbo.

The Spirit: The Octopus dies, which is the least of this film’s problems.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Deadpool dies, which is bad enough.

Iron Man 2: Whiplash is dead, but Justin Hammer is in jail. Yay. The lame villain lives.

Captain America: The First Avenger: Red Skull is maybe dead… though it’s not only ambiguous, but highly probable he’s still out there. For now, he’s presumed dead.

Thor: Loki is another notable aversion; he still hasn’t died after appearing in three major films.

X-Men: First Class: Not only does Sebastian Shaw die, but every single villain dies offscreen between this film and the next, which includes Emma Frost and Azazel.

The Amazing Spider-Man: The only thing this movie does right is letting the villain live.

The Avengers: Loki lives, as stated above.

The Dark Knight Rises: Bane and Talia are both dead by the end of the movie.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance: Blackout dies.

Iron Man 3: The Fake Mandarin dies.

Man of Steel: As is well known by now, Superman snaps Zod’s neck, and Zod’s pals don’t fare any better.

Thor: The Dark World: Malekith dies, wasting any potential he may have had.

The Wolverine: Viper and the Silver Samurai both die.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: In this not-so-amazing sequel, Electro maybe dies. Goblin and Rhino live, however.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Arnim Zola may or may not be gone for good; it’s pretty likely he’s still out there, but again, gotta presume him dead. Pierce is definitely dead.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Ronan the Accuser dies.

X-Men: Days of Future Past: Trask doesn’t die, yet another reason this movie is amazing.

Ant-Man: Yellowjacket dies at the end.

Shitastic Fuck: In this turd, Gimp Doom dies.

Avengers: Age of Ultron: Ultron is killed in an ambiguous fashion. Klaw, however, is ok, if down by a hand. Strucker on the other hand… dead. And so is Quicksilver.

Deadpool: Ajax is dead.

Doctor Strange: Kaecilius is probably dead.

Batman v Superman: Luthor is sadly not dead, but Doomsday and KGBeast a re.

Suicide Squad: Enchantress gets killed in the end.

Captain America: Civil War: Zemo is thankfully alive at the end.

X-Men: Apocalypse: Apocalypse is blown apart in the end.

A LOT of these villains are dead, or if not, they never amount to anything ever again. It pisses me off that studios refuse to continuously utilize beloved foes, especially when it ends up going against a heroes code by letting the villain die or killing them themselves. It’s a trend I really hope dies off soon (ha ha).

#Shit I Hate #Supervillains #movies

11 notes · View notes

gokinjeespot · 4 years

Text

off the rack #1300

Monday, February 10, 2020

I was waiting for our new comic shipment Tuesday morning when I realised that I have been working in comic book retailing for 40 years now. That answers the question grade 8 me had while sitting in Social Studies class while I was at Glashan Public School. I am so lucky to have landed in a job that I love and am still doing. Who would not want to work somewhere where you get 52 Christmases a year?

Young Justice #13 - Brian Michael Bendis & David F. Walker (writers) Michael Avon Oeming, Mike Grell & John Timms (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Wes Abbott (letters). Conner gets life lessons from Travis Morgan/Warlord in Skartaris while his team mates come up with a plan to hit S.T.A.R. Labs to try to get him back. The mission gets a few more rescuers so next issue will be wall to wall heroes.

Black Cat #9 - Jed MacKay (writer) Kris Anka (art) Brian Reber (colours) Ferran Delgado (letters). Boy, I haven't heard that alias in a while. Felicia lands in Madripoor to steal a painting. The last know owner is a guy named Patch. You got that right. It's a Black Cat and Wolverine team-up. I was wondering where Kris Anka would go next after he left Runaways.

Lois Lane #8 - Greg Rucka (writer) Mike Perkins (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). The two-page spread where Rene Montoya fights the skull-headed assassin was poetry in motion. No words necessary. Lois is proving herself without her hubby's help in this book.

Daredevil #17 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Jorge Fornes (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Just call Matt Murdock the Red Robin Hood. He and Elektra stole from the Stromwyns and gave to the people of Hell's Kitchen. The bad guys don't get mad, they're going to get even. Their solution to their Daredevil problem has me all aquiver.

Doctor Doom #5 - Christopher Cantwell (writer) Salvador Larroca (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I may not like the return of ruthless dictator Doom but I sure do like the art in this book. I'm also not a fan of the time hopping Kang but his presence makes things interesting. This is one book that I would stop reading if the art wasn't so nice.

Batman #88 - James Tynion IV (writer) Guillem March (art) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). Oh man, this story just keeps getting better and better. Catwoman is exhuming a body while talking to the Riddler. You won't believe who's resting in peace. Meanwhile, the Penguin makes a grave error in not killing Deathstroke. Finally, when it looks like Selina is going to be buried alive, someone comes to her rescue. Waiting around to find out who the Designer is adds to the fun.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #15 - Saladin Ahmed (writer) Javier Garron (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). If you're a fan of big bad super villains fighting super heroes then this issue is for you. The new Green Goblin trashes Miles's school looking for Spider-Man. Huge fight, then bad guy runs away. Miles's secret identity could be compromised during the debacle. This one had me guessing.

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #3 - Kami Garcia (writer) Mico Suayan & Jason Badower (art) Annette Kwok (colours) Richard Starkings of Comicraft (letters). I love this serial killer mystery and not just because the art is so pretty. The alternating black and white pages with the colour pages highlights the two main characters, Doctor Quinn the profiler and John Kelly the possible psychopath. I can't wait to see if the killer gets caught.

Ant-Man #1 - Zeb Wells (writer) Dylan Burnett (art) Mike Spicer (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I like Scott Lang but I don't like loser Scott Lang and that's the Scott Lang that's in this new 5-issue mini. This story starts with him and his son Stinger making a drug bust. When did he get a son? Scott is hired later to find out why bees are disappearing which leads to him fighting Swarm. They lost me when they introduced three new bad guys: Vespa the spectre of hornets, Thread the Silkworm ghoul and Tusk the Rhino beetle hulk. Stinger is in 4 pages and then poof, he's gone. Scott's daughter Cassie shows up and then she exits stage left. The three insect themed villains crawl out from under a rock with no explanation so all the nonsense turned me off. This is supposed to be fun but I just found it dumb.

Dark Agnes #1 - Becky Cloonan (writer) Luca Pizzari (art) Jay David Ramos (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). This is bad. I expected a lot better from Becky Cloonan. I did not find the adventures of the red-headed swordswoman in 16th Century France to be very appealing. Agnes was okay in short doses teamed up with Conan in Serpent War but this solo story bored me. Here's another 5-issue mini that I'll take a pass on.

Conan: Battle for the Serpent Crown #1 - Saladin Ahmed (writer) Luke Ross (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). It must the week for new 5-issue minis from Marvel to hit the racks because here's another one. Conan's adventures in the modern world continues as his wandering brings him to Las Vegas. He's tazered by the guards while trying to rob an armoured truck but is saved by a fellow thief named Nyla. They then decide to team up and rob a hotel of money and jewels but someone beats them to the booty. That someone and the surprise villain at the end of this issue was enough to make me want to read the next issue.

The Immortal Hulk: Great Power #1 - Tom Taylor (writer) Jorge Molina (pencils) Adriano Di Benedetto & Roberto Poggi (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Attention Immortal Hulk and Amazing Spider-Man fans; this $4.99 US one-shot featuring an amalgam of the Hulk and Spider-Man is well worth adding to your collection. You will discover that Tom Taylor is an excellent writer and this story of friendship and camaraderie is a nice change from the typical super heroes fighting. The guest stars are fun too.

Marauders #7 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Stefano Caselli (art) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I know that I said that I was going to bench this book but there were rack copies left over after pulling subs and I can't resist a book with nice art. I still think there's too much going on plot-wise that makes following storylines difficult and I hate when I see art mistakes. Emma is wearing sexy thong panties in one panel and 5 panels later she's wearing granny underwear. I think Stefano's original drawing in the later panel wasn't chaste enough for someone at Marvel/Disney.

X-Men/Fantastic Four #1 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Terry Dodson (pencils) Rachel Dodson (inks) Dexter Vines & Karl Story (ink assist) Laura Martin (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I've been looking forward to this 4-issue mini to hit the racks because I like both the writer and artists involved. This story establishes that Franklin Richards is a mutant. Charles Xavier thinks Franklin should be with his kinfolk on Krakoa. Reed and Sue don't want their teenage son to be away from his family. Instant drama. When Franklin stows away on Kitty's ship returning to Krakoa you know more super hero fights are in the future. But first we have a super villain attack. I thought it was Doc Ock since the attack happens at sea but I was wrong. I'm reading the rest of this to see how the two teams resolve their differences.

Batman 100-Page Giant #3 - These $4.99 US one-shots are a great value. There are two new stories in this and 3 lengthy reprints. I consider these excellent teasers for the trade collections on the shelves if you want to get the whole story.

DC's Crimes of Passion #1 - This may not seem like a good deal at $9.99 US for just 80 pages but there are 10 new stories inside featuring more Batman heroes and villains than you can count on two hands. Please don't be discouraged by the cheesy cover, none of the stories inside are that bad.

0 notes