When a writer with a resume like Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four, SHIELD, Manhattan Projects) takes on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes you know they won’t be staying on our big blue marble for long!
The Marvel solicitations for February 2013 reveal another member of Hickman’s growing roster for his era. In Avengers #5 the team travels across the galaxy to fight off an invading enemy. Smasher, a member of the Imperial Guard, joins the team. The solicitation reveals that Smasher is the first human member of the Imperial Guard who appear to suffer a major defeat on an alien moon.
The Imperial Guard are a collection of alien warriors from the universe who serve the Shi’ar Empire. The X-Men have clashed and fought with them over the years. Imperial Guard leader Gladiator is now the Emperor and is currently recovering after a beating by the Phoenix Five in AvX.
The cosmic month continues in Avengers #6 with the guest appearance of Captain Universe!
Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy from X-Men: First Class courtesy Marvel.com
Bryan Singer will direct the next movie starring the Children of the Atom! In the first X-Men movie the team wore leather suits (Cyke even made a reference to Logan about “what did you expect, yellow spandex?”) The dark leather look inspired Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men run.
In X-Men: First Class the kids wore the blue and yellow uniforms but will the change of directors mean a change of costume?
Bryan Singer said via Twitter “For those of you wondering…no leather suits.” #xmen
X-Men: Days of Future Past will be based on the classic Chris Claremont/John Byrne tales of surviving mutants from a dystopian future going into the past to prevent an assassination and the events that led to their darker future.
United geeks rejoice! What’s better than a big screen version of The Hobbit by Peter Jackson on IMAX? How about an extended preview of the new Star Trek sequel before?
9 minutes of Star Trek: Into Darkness will screen in front of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on 500 IMAX screens starting December 14th according to Dark Horizons.
IDW will be publishing a comic book prequel to the movie sequel to feed your Trek need until the film arrives.
The once and future Beast is at the heart of All-New X-Men #1. Brian Michael Bendis has made a perfect choice in making Henry McCoy the catalyst for a dramatic evolution of the Children of the Atom.
In the aftermath of Avengers vs X-Men, new mutants are being born, other mutants are evolving and a war of mutants is building that could make Schism seem like a kindergarten scrap.
In the Marvel Now Henry McCoy is painfully mutating again and he may not survive the experience – to borrow a Marvel marketing line! Cyclops (with fellow fugitives Emma Frost, Magneto and Magik as his strike force) is brazenly attacking humans to save newly manifested mutants.
Fearing the future is the theme of this issue. It’s been a long time since new mutants have been introduced. Bendis crafts two compelling moments reminding how that “first time” is so frightening for the mutant.
Bendis captures what the essence of the X-Men’s mission has always been about: fighting prejudice and fear. The writer creates two sympathetic young mutants thrust into a world that fears and hates them and what will be a tug of war between the revolutionary (Scott) and the teachers (Logan, Kitty, Henry, Ororo.) I want to know their stories and see which side they will follow.
All-New X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel
Back at the Jean Grey School – Bobby, Storm, Kitty and Hank watch in shock as their former friends (ok, maybe not Emma) violently sweep in to rescue and recruit. The revolutionary Cyclops is forcing them in a no-win scenario. Original students Hank and Bobby share a bond and inspire an idea that ignites the series: maybe the secret saving the future is in the past?
Bendis takes us into the past at a precise moment when the young students are in a crisis and one future X-Man is questioning his faith in Xavier’s dream. The issue does not play the way I pictured it would but I was still entertained and intrigued. The creators have given us the new status quo and the threat to the future. This issue is a wonderful moment for those who love the X-Men or are looking for that perfect “jumping on” point. This is it – welcome to the new world of the X-Men…hope you enjoy the experience.
By Editor
Bendis captures what the essence of the X-Men’s mission has always been about fighting prejudice and fear. The writer creates two sympathetic young mutants thrust into a world that fears and hates them and into a tug of war between the revolutionary (Scott) and the teachers (Logan, Kitty, Henry, Ororo.)
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are making the Joker more terrifying and twisted than you’ve ever seen him in Death of the Family. In the first chapter the Joker turned Gotham Central into a slaughterhouse and made a surprise attack on Bruce’s oldest friend. This week’s Batman #13 picks up with Batman in a deathtrap at the scene of the Joker’s birth. Bruce soon learns the terrible truth. Alfred is in the Joker’s clutches.
There is a truly chilling moment when the Joker is torturing Alfred. We never see it. Bruce hears it. I felt it.
After a confession to Nightwing, Batman races to save the next victims but in every circumstance the Joker has beaten him. The Joker is revisiting scenes of his old crimes and putting a theatrically sick twist on each one.
The Joker reveals to Batman the bizarre reason behind his comeback and new campaign against Batman’s allies and friends. But there are two huge declarations from the villain that set the stage for Death of the Family striking into the other Bat-family books.
Snyder and Capullo have orchestrated a chapter of psychological and visceral terror with the Joker’s painfully personal attacks. This creative team delivers a disturbing thrill ride that only gets more twisted from here.
Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley show us why Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben are Marvel’s First Family of fun and faith in Fantastic Four #1. The creative team is sending the family (with kids in tow) across time and space on the ultimate vacation. This road trip through unexplored universes masks a darker purpose that will grip the heart of every FF fan.
Something is very wrong with Reed Richards. Like a good father he accepts the burden on his own and puts on a brave face for his family. Fraction does a great job setting up each member of the team. There are perfect scenes showing us the essence of each character and setting up Reed’s decision to take the family away and search for a new “Four” to stand in for them on Earth.
Like every family there are flaws. Franklin has a terrifying nightmare (or vision of the road trip’s wrong turn) and what happens next really made me feel for the kid. Mark Bagley creates a moment when Susan is pleading for Reed to share what’s really behind this trip. The endearing and tender scenes are as gripping as the moment in the far future “where everything went wrong” and leads to Reed’s disheartening diagnosis.
The story will continue in FF#1 in which Fraction reveals the new FOUR and maybe Johnny’s girl and her transformation into Miss Thing. This is great time to rejoin or start following the Fantastic Four as they embark on a fun journey and face a looming crisis that threatens their future. Welcome to the family.
All-New X-Men #1 finally arrives with a time twist to the mutant universe. Professor X’s five original students are thrust into their future – our Marvel Now – and are in for a future shock. Professor X is dead. Cyclops killed their mentor. And Hank McCoy is a blue furry beast.
Brian Michael Bendis talks with Marvel.com about the young man would become an Avenger, beloved monster, and the X-Men’s resident genius and often moral compass.
“We’re meeting the X-Men at a crossroads for the Beast. He is the most frustrated with his mutant powers, and with his relationship to the humans. He doesn’t like, or find it funny or a challenge that humans are, to quote Ali G “racializing” on him. So we actually meet the younger Beast at a time when he’s out of there, he’s leaving, he’s had it,” Bendis says of the teen Beast, “And I think that represents a lot of the team as well. It wasn’t like the Avengers where everybody goes “yay”; with the X-Men, they’d do something and everyone would go “boo.” How much of that can you take?”
Even the young McCoy was somewhat deformed looking but what will his reaction be to seeing his future (blue furry) self?
“I think you’ll see in the very first issue, literally just the fact that his blue, furry self shows up. Younger Beast is saying, “I have to see what this is, I have to follow it.” As a scientist, how do you not follow this? He goes, “all right please show me.”
How did the original five get to the present and how do the Henrys affect the teams?
“Beast has a lot to do with why this story happens, so it’s going to be a very important storyline for Beast, and all of the Beasts that there are in ALL-NEW X-MEN. On a smaller level, here is the Beast who realizes that he has done this to himself, this alteration to this mutation, and has made some bold choices, some of which have been successful, and some that just haven’t. He’s going to be faced with that.”
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
THOR: God of Thunder #1 is the next new Marvel Now series starring the powerhouse Avenger. Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic bring the hammer down with a brand new series set in the past, present and future. Here’s a look at Ribic’s pages from inside the first issue courtesy Marvel.com Aaron will unleash the God Butcher on the Nine Realms. Can the Odison can stop the serial killer of Immortals?
Thor: God of Thunder #1 courtesy Marvel
Thor: God of Thunder #1 is out tomorrow. In the Marvel Now Thor will also appear in Uncanny Avengers and Avengers.
