Marvel is really making fans scratch their heads this week with all the teasers for upcoming Marvel NOW series.
Sam Humphries. Ron Garney. KILLERS. January 2013.
I don’t expect a Brandon Flowers and Alison Blaire duet. I do expect great writing from the man currently behind Ultimates and Fanboys Vs. Zombies. Garney has killed it as artist on several titles including Captain America.
I suspect this might be a relaunched Uncanny X-Force? What about you?
By Editor
Does the world still need the Avengers?
A billion dollar blockbuster movie. A huge comic book franchise. Yes, the world still needs Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
After 8 years Brian Michael Bendis will leave the Avengers franchise with End Times and answers the question above on Marvel.com. I wanted to share this answer.
“My favorite thing about all these events and AVENGERS being the centerpiece of all these events is that there’s fallout. And because they’re always on to the next thing, they don’t even have time to deal with the fallout. Fear Itself happened and all these Nazi robots attacked the world, and nobody in the Avengers feels like doing a press conference and saying, “All right everyone, we’ve saved you all from the Nazis.” Nobody wants to do that. Captain America doesn’t want to do press. He just wants to do what he’s good at. And with that comes conspiracy, hysteria and blame. Nobody knows where [Sin] is, [so] we can’t blame her, but we know where Cap is so let’s go yell at him.
Now, there are some interesting things going on with the Avengers and Captain America in particular in my last issues. When Captain America took this job to lead the Avengers, he took the job of the guy he was always yelling at. It’s like he was the President. Like the minute President Obama got elected, everything was immediately his fault. That’s not a political statement; it’s with any president. “We love you, we love you—now what?”
That’s what’s happening with Captain America. Now that he’s taken the role of leader and with that comes the heavy burden of responsibility for things that he couldn’t possibly be responsible for, but someone’s gotta be responsible for them. That’s gonna be resolved and take its toll with the question of “Does the world need the Avengers?” But I think they do because I believe the book will be continuing without me [Laughs].
Ironic that I read this interview just after watching President Obama’s speech at the DNC.
I can’t believe it’s been 8 years since Disassembled. Wow! That’s when I fell in love with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…this time I think it’s forever.
For his entire interview with Jim Beard here’s the Marvel.com link.
By Editor
I like to call it the smaller Seattle con with a big heart for comics! The Jet City Comic Show is returning for its third year in on Saturday, September 22, 2012 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.
“We’re proud of the fan feedback that we received last year and feel we’ve put together an even better show this year,” says co-founder James Taylor. “Jet City Comics Show is a fan friendly event, a chance for attendees to have fun, be entertained, browse through comics and discover some fantastic artists and writers.”
Secret Avengers artist Gabriel Hardman, Chris Roberson (writer: iZombie and Cinderella) and Dave Roman (creator: Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity) are featured comic book creators.
The Northwest is a hotbed and home of many comic book creators. The show will feature local writers and artists, including:
Brom – World Renowned Fantasy Artist
Amy Brown – Fantasy & Fairy Artist
Matthew Clark – Ghost Rider, Spider-Man
Colleen Coover – Bandette, Gingerbread Girl
Emi Lenox – Emitown
Michel Gagné – Renowned Animator, Creator of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Natalie Nourigat – Between Gears, My Boyfriend is a Monster: Wrapped Up in You
Paul Tobin – Bandette, Marvel Adventures
“Jet City Comic Con….It’s about comics.” says artist Matthew Clark. “The fans are great I love these types of shows. I want to help this show out and I plan to be here every year if they’ll have me. I have fun here and that’s what makes it awesome”
Jet City will feature two costume contests, a Steampunk contest organized by SteamCon. The other will be a traditional superhero / scifi costume contest run by the D20 Girls Project who aim’s to promote women in gaming and comics.
The comic book community always gives back. The show will also be working with local charitable organization Ronald McDonald House.
If you love comics but have never attended a show then this is a perfect one to try out. Jet City Comics Show takes place on September 22, 2012 from 10 am to 6 pm at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, 299 Mercer St., Seattle, WA. For more information visit www.jetcitycomicshow.com.
Tickets can be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets or at any of the following retailers (a great way to support your local comic shop!)
Arcane Comics
5809 15th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
The Comic Stop (Lynnwood)
3333 18th St SW, Suite G
Lynnwood, WA 98037
The Comic Stop (Everett)
1402 SE Everett Mall Way #160
Everett, WA 98208
The Comic Stop (Redmond)
16444 NE 74th, Unit B-135
Redmond, WA 98052
The Comic Stop (U-District)
1307 NE 45th
Seattle, WA 98105
Everett Comics & Cards
2936 Colby Avenue
Everett, WA 98201
Fantasium Comics & Games
1500 South 336th Street
Suite 12A
Federal Way, WA 98003
Tickets cost $8. The first 200 at the doors will receive a free print by special guest Gabriel Hardman.
See you there!
By Editor
Brian Michael Bendis is reflecting on his 8 years of writing The Avengers with Marvel.com before taking on the X-Men franchise. Bendis made me start buying and loving Earth’s Mightiest Heroes again. Fans say they have event fatigue (I’m guilty of saying that) but we sure kept devouring them over the past 8 years. Bendis was the mastermind (or key collaborator) of epic after epic from House of M to Secret Invasion to Siege. Bendis gives some insight into how these Marvel milestones went from brain to page.
Avengers became the center of the Marvel Universe and House of M was a huge game-changer in the Marvel Universe that turned an Avenger into a pariah and depowered millions of mutants.
“When the book becomes the center of everything, there’s a lot of ways for that to go wrong. That wasn’t my goal to turn the AVENGERS into the center; my goal was to just make this the most awesome thing ever, filled with stuff I hadn’t seen in an Avengers book before. I knew that would be slightly controversial, but maybe not as controversial as I intended. The way the market responded to things, the book became a centerpiece for the Marvel Universe and the series of event [stories] that came about. If you remember, events were nothing. Disassembled was one of the first events. And then House of M came right after that. They literally came to me and said, “Listen, Joss [Whedon] isn’t writing ASTONISHING X-MEN this summer, he’s got to go do something else. If you want to do an Avengers/X-Men fun thing, that’d be great.
People can look at the first cover and see New Avengers/Astonishing X-Men and that’s what the book initially was. I had a thing left over that I was talking with [Jeph] Loeb about from Disassembled: if Wanda goes nuts, what does Magneto do about that? That seemed like a great Avengers/X-Men summer thing, because what’s the biggest problem for the Avengers and the X-Men? It’s Wanda. House of M burst out of that, and all of a sudden the Avengers are the centerpiece of all these big events, because by nature, the roster is pulling characters from different parts of the Marvel Universe. Back when the Avengers were just Avengers, and you could only see these characters in the Avengers, they were the Avengers. But the way I set it up, with Spider-Man, and Wolverine from the X-Men, and [Thor’s] an Asgardian—now you’ve got an arm out from every corner of the Marvel Universe pulled into this one book. And that makes it, by its own nature, the centerpiece and with that comes a lot of scary stuff,” says Bendis.
The revelation that Skrulls had infiltrated every team and organization (for years) was huge and made me go back looking for the clues that had been there. Bendis recalls that “OH —-” moment in New Avengers when the knife went in Elektra and she turned green!
“The reveal of the Skrull stuff was a big one because I’d been planning that since the first issue. And when Elektra became a Skrull, if everyone went, “Who cares?” I’d be screwed. It was all I had. I was relieved that Leinil Yu had killed it, he did an amazing job, and we were able to go about with our Skrull storyline with such excitement from our readers for so long to the point that it became its own event, which wasn’t even the plan.”
The Bendis era is filled with action and dramatic moments. The author reveals the other pivotal scenes that mean a lot to him.
“My favorite moments are usually the quieter ones, like CIVIL WAR: THE CONFESSION and some of the tie-ins during Civil War. Discovering the funny repartee between Spider-Man and Luke Cage, that wasn’t in my initial plan. That just kind of happened, the characters kinda took over.Things like that, which may not be exciting to some people, but as a writer, it always makes me happy to do something I haven’t seen before. When I can put something in the Avengers pot that wasn’t there before. And at the end of the day, the whole time I was on AVENGERS, people were yelling at me because Spider-Man wasn’t an Avenger. Well he’s been an Avenger for eight years, so guess what? Wolverine too. Also, discovering new things about the characters because of their placement in AVENGERS,” Bendis said.
“Overall, my top favorite thing is that I can’t think of a day where I haven’t been thrilled with my collaborations. Every single issue on all of the Avengers books has been quite outstanding, as far as high-water marks in super hero comic book art in the last eight years. Even the first two years of NEW AVENGERS with David Finch and Steve McNiven; I still think that was Steve’s best stuff. Me and Jimmy Cheung did an amazing amount of issues together and people don’t even realize. I would steal him in between issues of YOUNG AVENGERS and I ended up getting a lot of comic books out of him. Mike Deodato has done more issues of Avengers with me than anybody over the course of all the books. I got to work with almost all of my heroes. I got to work with Alan Davis, Howard Chaykin, Neal Adams, Walt Simonson, and John Romita, Jr., all on the same book. There is no way I’m not going to look back on this and go “What?!”
For this geek – I love the return of Luke Cage, his relationship with Jessica Jones and his rise to leadership. The New Avengers Annual – the wedding of Luke and Jessica was beautiful. I love the moment when Luke brought to Avengers to his New York City neighborhood. Luke was lifted up to major hero status but stayed grounded and he kept Earth’s Mightiest Heroes grounded and relatable.
By Editor
Dennis Hopeless. Kev Walker. Survive. December 2012.
The blood stained image is the latest teaser for a new Marvel NOW title.
I admit it- I’m stumped!
By Editor
Kieron Gillen and Greg Land will leave Uncanny X-Men for a brand new Iron Man series. Gillen is saying goodbye to Journey Into Mystery too. In a new Comics Newsarama interview Gillen teased he will be writing a second title in the Marvel Now relaunch.
“Hmm. What can I say about my other Marvel NOW! book. On a work-happiness level, I’ve enjoyed writing two ongoing books at Marvel with contrasting stances. One is the book where I find a way to make a pre-existing Marvel powerhouse operate as well as I’m able to make it. The other is the one where I try to make a book from the ground up, and create something relatively unprecedented. Uncanny X-Men was the former, and Journey Into Mystery was the latter.
Clearly, Iron Man is the former, and the unannounced book is the latter.
So at the least, in terms of how it fits in my head, the new book is related to Journey Into Mystery. However, I’ll be pushing whole different areas. It’s not a high fantasy book, for example. While I want to push some technical stuff, rather than trying to reclaim and renovate ’90s caption excess and hyper-compression (normally via the particular choice of ironic narrator), this is trying to push in a whole other bunch of ways. I’m working hand in glove with an artist. I wanted to do something that felt as aesthetically coherent as [Mark] Waid and collaborators have managed to make Daredevil.”
So what will Gillen’s second new series be?
I’ve said on this site before how much I love UNIT. The alien android villain is a brilliant creation with terrifying potential. I think UNIT could be the Ultron for the X-Men and a foil for Tony Stark.
I was a fan of his Generation Next so could Gillen take on a new teen team? Runaways?
What characters would you want to see Gillen write?
By Editor
Lorna Dane is one of the great tragic heroines of the Marvel Universe. Peter David reveals the truth about the biggest mystery of her life in Day 3 of Breaking Points in this week’s X-Factor #243.
Polaris is the daughter of Magneto. Her mother’s death has haunted Lorna until now. The search for the truth unleashes Lorna’s magnetic fury against her own teammates. Peter David is on fire writing this soap opera packed with drama and great characterization. This issue is tense as Polaris is pushed and pushes back in her obsession to learn the truth about her parents.
Polaris has a history of shock and loss: the airplane crash that killed her mother and the man she thought was her dad, the revelation that the evil Magneto was her real father, being possessed by the mutant Malice, the loss of her mutant powers twice and being dumped by Alex Summers at the altar.
In a series of mind games and magnetic manipulation – M and Longshot finally reveal the truth. It’s worse than Lorna thought!
I LOVE this cover. Polaris was co-created by Jim Steranko. This David Yardin cover beautifully captures the Steranko vibe and how Lorna has been torn and twisted between Havok and Magneto.
The ending of Breaking Points Day Three leaves Lorna and Alex at a major turning point. Havok is joining Uncanny Avengers. I’d like to see Polaris survive and thrive in the Marvel NOW. Back in the early days Lorna chose Alex over Bobby Drake. With the original Iceman coming into the present in All-New X-Men maybe Polaris will have a second chance? I’d love to see Lorna heal the pain, start fresh and become a strong heroine and mutant champion.
By Editor
Legendary Neal Adams and Christos Gage are telling a tale of The First X-Men. Logan and his ally (yes, ally!) Victor Creed are hunting for fellow mutants thinking there is strength in numbers. Logan and Creed attempted to recruit Charles Xavier in the premiere issue.
In this week’s The First X-Men #2 Logan, Creed and their new recruits track down a Master of Magnetism. The older mutant is on his own mission of vengeance in Argentina hunting Nazi war criminals. This Magneto is not exactly Michael Fassbender but he will remind you of how the character was portrayed in X-Men: First Class. Logan’s invitation does not go as planned.
Adams was an artist in the early days of X-Men. He dives into the conspiracies and key government figures of that era to shape the big threat of this mini-series and is still affecting mutantkind today.
In this lost X-Men tale Adams and Gage have introduces us to new/old mutants Holly Bright aka Holo, Bombast Aghast and a Yeti. The team shows early on how Logan can be a tough drill instructor and encouraging teacher.
This tale of lost mutants reminded me of some other great stories of “new” mutants created in stories of the X-Men’s past. There have been some great characters created for these stories…but they’re doomed.
X-Men: Deadly Genesis Ed Brubaker created four fascinating lost mutants in this tale of Professor Xavier’s darkest secret. The Professor sent his All-New, All-Different X-Men (Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Wolverine, Banshee, Colossus) to save his original students from the living island Krakoa. But there was another team. The Professor’s biggest secret comes back to haunt him, leaves an X-Man dead and severs the teacher’s relationship with Cyclops. Kid Vulcan, Sway, Petra and Darwin were four fascinating mutants with great backstories and cool powers. Xavier sent these young kids into action unprepared and they paid the ultimate price. Vulcan and Darwin were revived and all hell broke loose.
X-Men: The Hidden Years The Children of the Atom almost vanished from comic book history! In the 1970’s the series went into reprints only. John Byrne created some amazing new tales set in those lost years. The original X-Men even encountered Storm when she was just Ororo.
The First X-Men will join the pantheon of “lost” tales of the past and leave us with “new” characters from the past that might survive and thrive in the here and now.
By Editor