My own summer reading list is in many ways a re-reading list. In the absence of any duties at the university during the break, the sunny summer days are perfect for pulling overtime at my day job and getting paid to revisit some of my favorite creative runs and story-arcs, in addition to some newly …
Ms. Marvel #1 is a delightful smorgasbord of superhero action, sweet romance, bright art, and has a strong, yet fantastical connection to real world issues. G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazwa, and Adrian Alphona craft a first issue that is both exciting and heart wrenching as Kamala Khan starts to take steps into being a more responsible and mature superhero and human being in both her actions and interpersonal relationships.
All throughout the issue, readers are granted a great example of colors from Richard Isanove, and how they blend to make each character look distinct. Every member of the Team has colors that render them dynamic and lets them exude a personality all on their own. If this issue is anything to go by, the Uncanny Avengers will be in good hands under Gerry Duggan’s dialogue, character portrayals as well Ryan Stegman and the rest of the art team making the Unity Squad a team to look out for.
Box Office Sabermetrics is a weekly column that will attempt to apply the statistical analysis Sabermetrics, used in Baseball, to the box office results each weekend. Universal Studios is having a great year. In fact they’re having a year where they are having the biggest box office returns this year by a long shot – …
While DC Comics attempts to play catch-up with their “Divergence” marketing campaign, highlighting new and more diverse status-quo switch-ups along with some #1 issues, Marvel Comics continues to kick ass with more awesome comic books. After Secret Wars, an epic event comic from Jonathan Hickman that changes up the continuity by mashing together the Ultimate and …
Civil War was a massive Marvel crossover event running from 2006 to 2007 and tied into virtually every Marvel comic including cosmic ones, like Nova, and quirky teen ones, like Runaways. The comic begins with the New Warriors (a team of perpetually C-Listers) fighting a group of supervillains to garner better ratings for their reality TV show, which leads to the villain Nitro blowing up a school in Stamford, Connecticut leading to many civilian casualties. This leads to Tony Stark, Reed Richards, the Avengers, and SHIELD supporting the Superhuman Registration Act, which bans secret identities, implements mandatory training for young heroes, and makes superheroes agents of SHIELD. This is opposed by Captain America, who doesn’t want to hunt down his fellow heroes, and the conflict begins as all the heroes of the Marvel Universe must either choose the Pro-Reg or Anti-Reg side.
Avengers #55 marks the first real appearance of Avengers arch-villain, but the Avengers lineup he faces is quite odd. It’s a truly kooky quartet of the recently introduced Black Panther, Hawkeye, Wasp, and Goliath, which is one of Hank Pym’s dozen or so codenames. They open the issue as prisoners of a new, mostly filled with second stringers Masters of Evil, including “sultan of sound” Klaw, Radioactive Man, Whirlwind, and the “mysterious” Melter. Their strings are being pulled by the Crimson Cowl, a truly mysterious figure, who was revealed to be the Avengers’ butler Edwin Jarvis. However, writer Roy Thomas subverts the overused “the butler did it” cliche and throws in an even crazier plot twist that the robot Ultron-5 is behind the Avengers’ capture and infiltration of their HQ.
For the most part, Hickman and Ribic keep Secret Wars #1 from being too bloated with timely reaction close-ups of characters, and little jokes or insights into them, like Thanos being disgusted with humanity’s fear of death or the aforementioned Rocket joke. Esad Ribic’s storytelling makes this comic work as a pure work of superhero action with cutting panels for his sharp fight scenes. He also uses well-placed montages as the stakes continue to get higher as the comic progresses. Secret Wars #1 is a true superhero epic with wide-screen action, the occasional character insight, and real consequences even if it may be a little too expansive at times.
Quicksilver Real Name Pietro Django Maximoff First Appearance X-Men #4, March 1964 Nicknames & Aliases Pietro Frank, Matheo Maximoff, Powers & Abilities Quicksilver possess the mutant ability to move and think exceedingly fast. He can run at speeds up to Mach 5, and his body is designed to survive the rigors of moving at such …
Avengers: Rage of Ultron Written by Rick Remender Art by Jerome Opena, Pepe Larraz, Mark Morales Published by Marvel Comics You might have heard of this tiny little film called Avengers: Age of Ultron hitting theaters on May 1st. Marvel wanted to prep casual readers and hardcore readers alike and published a bold, game-changing, original …
Avengers #41 Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Mike Deodato Colors by Frank Martin Published by Marvel Comics With a cover that is an exact copy of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s The Ultimates #1, Avengers #41 brings the good ol’ (or not so old) Ultimate Universe into Jonathan Hickman’s epic multiversal vision for the Avengers and Marvel Universe as a whole. It also deals with the …
Many were hoping that when Kevin Feige took the stage to unveil the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that he would have a friendly neighborhood Spider-man in tow with him, but alas, it was not to be. All of Marvel’s output was plotted out through 2019, but Spider-man’s name was nowhere to be …
After two-plus glorious minutes of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron trailer, the first clip for the hotly anticipated film debuted last night during an episode of Agents of SHIELD. Marvel initially planned on premiering the trailer during the broadcast.; however, somebody beat them to the punch leaking it online days prior. Watch the clip below. …
First Appearance Avengers #54, July 1968 (unnamed cameo), Avengers #55, August 1968 (full appearance) Nicknames and Aliases Crimson Cowl, Ultimate Ultron, Mark 12, Ultron Pym Powers and Abilities Ultron is an artificial intelligence capable of learning and evolving. To wit, he builds increasingly stronger and more powerful bodies for himself, usually comprised of some form …
At the end of Dracula Untold, the setting shifts from the fantasy plains of Transylvania to the streets of modern day society with the main character, Vlad, dressed to the nines in a suit and chasing a woman who looks just like his deceased wife. As the vampire walks away with the girl, his master …
Avengers #29-34 Written by Jonathan Hickman Pencils by Leinil Francis Yu Inks by Gerry Alanguilan Colors by Sunny Gho & Matt Milla Published by Marvel Jonathan Hickman started writing Marvel Comics’ flagship team back in 2012. Marvel was implementing their “Marvel NOW!” imprint across the board, repackaging The Avengers as a shiny new number one. …
Drawing Captain America either in his own title or Avengers has been a right of passage for superhero artists since the 1960s. Even artists who have gone on to do very different things, like write and draw Superman’s modern origin (John Byrne) or create Blade the vampire hunter (Gene Colan) have had memorable takes on Cap’s adventures. …
Real Name Natalia Alianovna Romanova First Appearance Tales of Suspense #52, April 1964 Nicknames and Aliases Natasha Romanoff (Anglicized name). Powers and Abilities Heightened (but not superhuman) physical abilities, stamina and longevity thanks to an offshoot of Captain America’s super solider serum. Black Widow is also an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant, marksman, linguist, acrobat and espionage …
Call me a holiday Grinch. I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas themed television with its formulaic story-lines and plot devices, obvious attempts to pull at your heart strings. The forced ‘special moments’ designed to get viewers in the ‘holiday spirit’ and spread, joy, and goodwill to all mankind. Of course, I have my …
Hawkeye #6 Writer: Matt Fraction Artist: David Aja Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth Publisher: Marvel Comics Matt Fraction and David Aja’s run on Hawkeye has been critically acclaimed winning two Eisner Awards for Aja’s art. It also has gained a cult following of fans for whom “bro”, “Hawkguy”, and “Pizza Dog” have become part of their personal vernacular. Sometimes Hawkeye can be …
Infinity #6 Writer: Jonathan Hickman Art: Jim Cheung, Dustin Weaver, Mark Morales, Guillermo Ortego, Dave Meikis, and John Livesay Colorist: Justin Ponsor with Ive Svorcina Publisher: Marvel Comics The Avengers have saved the galaxy. Now it’s time to save the Earth. As writer Jonathan Hickman wraps up the Infinity event, a miniseries that has been an Avengers-centric story, …
Strange Tales #178-181, Warlock #9-11, Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2 Writer: Jim Starlin Penciller: Jim Starlin Finishers/Inkers: Steve Leialoha, Joseph Rubenstein, Jim Starlin, Alan Weiss and Al Milgrom Colorists: Jim Starlin, Glynis Oliver Wein and Petra Goldberg Publisher: Marvel Comics Even before Jim Starlin had gotten his creative hands on Adam Warlock …
Infinity #5 Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artists: Jerome Opeña and Dustin Weaver Colorist: Justin Ponsor Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos Infinity #5 is really the end of one event story and the beginning of another. Unfortunately with only one issue left to go, that second event story is going to get short shrifted because there’s no room left. …