Imagine Hannibal Lecter as a member of the family from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? That’s just a starting point to describe how Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have made the ultimate comic book villain even more sadistic and sinister.
In this week’s Batman #15 Snyder opens and closes with a monologue inside Bruce’s mind that makes the Joker creepier and sicker. Taking us inside Bruce’s mind is a perfect parallel with Bruce trying to get in the Joker’s twisted head. Snyder writes one word that gave me that same chilling ick when Hannibal Lecter touched Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.
The Joker claims he knows the true identities of Batman and his costumed allies. He declares when Batman’s friends will be dead by Batman’s hand. Just when you think the madman will be caught he turns the tables and plunges Batman into a new nightmare leading a meeting of the family.
Batman is confronted by Dick, Damian, Jason, Tim and Barbara in the Batcave forcing him to share an old secret. We can only guess what Death of the Family really means but in these scenes we are witnessing the fragile family’s trust being torn apart.
In the backup story by Snyder, James Tynion IV and Jock we see that no one – not even Gotham’s other villains – are safe from the Joker’s endgame. The Joker recruits Riddler and even names his role on the twisted plan to salute the King Batman.
What is the Joker’s final punchline? I have my guesses. Is DC letting the creators go there? Snyder and Capullo are creating a terrifying psychological thriller like masters of horror filmmaking. Inside your head you’re preparing for the shock of what you’ll find but you can’t stop yourself.
Three big chapters of Death of the Family hit this week! In Batman #14the Joker told Batman his deadly endgame! Bruce’s friends and allies are all marked for death. Only one of Batman’s friends knows what’s happened to Alfred (for now.)
DC Comics revealed this image from inside this Batman #15 by Greg Capullo. Barbara, Dick, Jason, Damian and Bruce are gathered in the Batcave to learn the horrible truth of Alfred. As Death of the Family continues it appears friendships and alliances are staring to break and crumble.
In Batman and Robin #15 it’s Joker vs. Damian! The Clown Prince of Crime may have met his match in this ruthless new Robin.
Batgirl #15 courtesy DC Comics
The biggest Death In The Family tie-in may feature…a wedding? Barbara Gordon faces the Joker for the first time since he shot her in Batgirl #15. What kind of sick wedding does the Joker have planned for Barbara? I hope she gets her shot at revenge.
Which ally will die? Will a member of the Family break Batman’s rule and kill the Joker?
The most un-X-Men-like X-Men book I’ve read in a while is this week’s X-Men #39. Domino needed a vacation from her team so she decided to infiltrate an underground casino for criminals. The lucky lady crossed paths with Daredevil and in this issue the duo track down the weapons dealer in an action and humor packed conclusion.
Domino has always been a sidekick – she’s a feisty, sexy chick with guns and luck but not a ton of depth. Neena is lucky that Marvel decided to have Seth Peck write her with a dynamic, funny personality that makes her pop off the page. Neena and Matt’s chemistry sparks in this two-parter. I want to see her guest star in Daredevil now.
Peck deserves accolades for this caper and for how he made me feel about the villain of this two-parter. This secret of Armitage was a big surprise.
All of the art is top-notch! David Lopez’s cover is an in your face pop classic. Paul Azaceta and Matthew Southworth’s bold lines and dark colors really compliment Domino and Daredevil’s underworld adventure.
If this two-parter was an Seth Peck’s audition for Marvel then imagine me giving him a standing ovation! Domino pops and she deserves her own title or team-up book starring Neena! Any hero would be lucky to share an adventure with her!
Marvel – bet on Domino, Peck, Azaceta and Southworth you’ll win big!
An all-new Young Avengers will assemble in 2013. The Marvel Now revamp of the team will include some new members including Kid Loki. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie talked with Marvel.com about their plans for Marvel’s young heroes.
Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung’s Young Avengers is highly acclaimed and loved (especially by yours truly.) Gillen revealed how this new team and title are different.
“Any time I try to describe Young Avengers I sound like I’m having a full neurotic breakdown. I loved Allan Heinberg’s Young Avengers and would never try to duplicate it. That was a book about being 16, looking up to the Avengers like parents. This is a book about being 18 and entering the world on your own terms.”
The Heinberg/Cheung team broke up after Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. The new kids are brought together by Loki (like the original Earth’s Mightiest Heroes) but with a wicked twist.
“The other Avengers books are about big organizations. Young Avengers is about the ideal of Earth’s mightiest coming together.”
“At the end of Children’s Crusade, the traditional Young Avengers agreed they shouldn’t be doing this anymore. The prime mover in getting everybody back together is Kid Loki. He’s recruiting Miss America and people to essentially kill Wiccan.”
One of the new faces is Miss America from Joe Casey’s Vengeance series.
“Miss America is very…violent. She’s been a super hero longer than anybody knows, and she’s not doing it to be famous. The question of what she knows about Wiccan is the big mystery of the book.”
Young Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel
The earlier volumes were recognized by GLAAD for their portrayal of young gay heroes Wiccan and Hulking. The troubled teens in love will be part of the new team.
“Wiccan and Hulkling are the core romantic couple of Young Avengers. Wiccan is phenomenally powerful in ways people don’t understand. He makes a mistake early on and that drives the book. It’s almost a Hank Pym plot in how he creates all his own problems.”
“Hulkling is creeping out at night to do super hero stuff. He figures he has a talent and should be using it.”
“I love drawing Wiccan and Hulkling, their emotional interactions as well as the punching,” added Jamie McKelvie.
Kate Bishop was attracted to Patriot Gillen has recruited the fiery former Marvel Boy to be on the team and her potential love interest.
“Kate Bishop starts the book off to one side with Noh Varr. They’re a B-plot to the first part. Noh Varr has been kicked out of both the Kree and the Avengers, but he’s back on Earth, because nobody ever told James Dean what to do. He’s a hipster alien.”
Gillen stresses this book is not just about teen romance.
“I’m trying to create a book that covers anything connected to youth in the Marvel Universe. I have ideas of a larger infrastructure down the line. I don’t want to over promise though. It’s a book with a focus that can move. You’ll see with issue #6.”
“I knew how the book felt before I knew what the story was. I saw Marvel Boy and Hawkeye waking up. The first night with a strange new boy. She pulls the curtain and they’re in orbit. It’s a perfect metaphor. You take teenage emotions and transform them into the hyper real.”
Young Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel
Gillen wrote about Kid Loki’s search for identity in Journey Into Mystery and will continue exploring that them in this book.
“The question of ‘who can I become?’ remains key to Loki and to the book. Not quite in the same way it was in Journey Into Mystery, but still there.”
Wiccan is on the team but what about his brother: Speed?
“Hopefully. There’s a reason he’s not there to begin. I didn’t want to overload the cast and not just have somebody there to have them there. I like them Speed. I plan to come back to him around issue #6. Where he is gets covered briefly in the first issue.”
Like most teens the young heroes will have a hangout – a diner.
“Super powers is the most important thing in Young Avengers. The second most important thing is breakfast.”
Young Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel
The Young Avengers often clashed with their elders in the previous volumes. Will the kids meet the adults in the new series?
“The Avengers are in issue #2 briefly. It’s hard to explain without giving away the plot…where the Young Avengers are going, they can’t be helped. I don’t want to say much more than that. Parents and growing up are key to the book.”
For the entire liveblog here’s the Marvel.com link.
Director Bryan Singer really is getting the old gang back together for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Hugh Jackman will reprise their roles in the sequel. Movieweb reports that 20th Century Fox wants Halle Berry and James Marsden back for the next movie. I had predicted Halle Berry could be next to reprise her role as Storm but Marsden is a welcome surprise.
In the comic book version of Days of Future Past:
In a future ruled by Sentinels – Storm, Magneto, Colossus, Kate “Kitty” Pryde, Rachel Summers (daughter of Scott and Jean) and Franklin Richards (son of Reed and Sue of the Fantastic Four) are in a concentration camp. Logan leads the resistance movement. Rachel (has telepathic powers like her mother) sends Kitty’s mind into the past to warn the X-Men of the past about an upcoming act of terrorism by evil mutants that will start a chain of events leading to the dark future. While the past X-Men try to stop the assassination – the future Logan, Storm, Magneto and Colossus lead an assault on Sentinel Headquarters. The final battle of the older X-Men is epic!
Could this mean Daniel Cudmore and Ellen Page could return as Colossus and Kitty since those characters are critical to the storyline? Famke Janssen (Jean Grey) could have a cameo too.
Cyclops was killed by Jean (in Dark Phoenix mode) and Jean was killed by Wolverine in The Last Stand but if producers decide to use Rachel in the movie this could be a way to erase those deaths (and Professor X’s death.)
I’ve been hoping this film could serve as a reboot for the entire franchise (like Star Trek) and you can start over.
John Barrowman (Doctor Who, Torchwood) is one of the many scif-fi genre favorites (Tahmoh Penikett, Ben Browder, Kelly Hu, Seth Gabel) to guest star on The CW’s Arrow. Now we know who Barrowman is playing so I better give you this…
SPOILER WARNING!
IF YOU DIDN’T SEE LAST WEEK’S ARROW YOU WANT NOT WANT TO KEEP READING!
OK – HERE IS IS:
Barrowman is playing Malcolm Merlyn – father of Tommy, Oliver Queen’s best friend. Will Malcolm or Tommy evolve into infamous Green Arrow villain Merlyn?
“We start off in the pilot with Tommy being … a little bit suspicious [of Oliver], and we haven’t seen that [since],” Amell tells TV Line, “And one of the things I like about this episode is… if he wereeventually going down a darker path, this is a nice way to sort of push a character in one direction.”
“He’s certainly the most nefarious character we’ve met so far,” Amell says of Malcom. “We don’t know a ton about him, just that whatever that symbol means in [Robert Queen’s] book, and however that list was constructed, he’s not necessarily behind it but he’s the closest to the center we’ve gotten.
“He’s obviously the biggest threat that Oliver has,” Amell continues, “which is ironic, because they’ve never come together. So far.”
Tonight’s Arrow continues the storyline with Helena/Huntress.
Manu Bennett (Spartacus) is joining the show as Deathstroke in an upcoming episode.
The teams Astonishing X-Men, X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse will clash in a major crossover in March 2013. Marjorie Liu, Grek Pak and David Lapham (writer of the three books) tell Marvel.com about the collision of X-Men from alternate realities. The talented trio is writing X-Termination Alpha #1 together before the story hits each title.
“I think we each write our X-Family books from a non-standard perspective. We’re exploring areas outside of the usual X-Men dynamic. Alternate worlds, alternate takes on characters,” said Lapham, “I’ve never met either Marjorie or Greg before and what made this engaging are these story sessions, e-mails, and conference calls we’ve had to develop this crossover event. That has been enormously fun and engaging with everybody playing ideas off each other. I had never really done that, and was a bit wary about it. So far AGE OF APOCALYPSE has operated in its own space. But the plan always was once we established the AoA series to start to tie it to the regular Marvel Universe.”
X-Termination: Alpha #1 will focus on the Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler trying to get back to his own universe. As we’ve seen from Uncanny X-Force: The Final Execution this Kurt is ruthless and willing to betray his own teammates to achieve his goal.
“It’s a cliché, but ever so true: Home is where the heart is. And AoA Nightcrawler’s heart is in another world. In fact, our world still doesn’t feel all that real to him. It’s not where he grew up, where he made friends, fell in love, and lost his love. All these people aren’t his people. And that lack of connection and empathy will prove to be incredibly dangerous,” said Liu.
Age of Apocalypse #13 courtesy Marvel
“The AoA is Nightcrawler’s home. That’s where his family and friends are, that’s where he’s spent his whole life fighting Apocalypse and then Weapon Omega. That’s what he was trying to liberate. Just because he leaves to another place and has an adventure doesn’t mean he turns his back on all that and says “this new universe is a lot safer and cushier. I think I’ll stay here while my loved ones suffer.
We see that in the real world all the time, a political exile from another country comes to the safety of the United States only to return to fight in their homeland even at the price of their life. And with Nightcrawler it’s a step further; as much sympathy as he’s had for what he’s seen and done here in the Marvel Universe, he just can’t bring himself to feel it’s a completely real place. The Marvel Universe is some kind of dreamland. The AoA is real,” said Lapham.
“As far as the greatest damage he could cause. Well, that’s part of our crossover event…”
X-Treme X-Men #12 courtesy Marvel
“As I intimated back when we launched X-TREME X-MEN, eventually our story curls back around to the Marvel Universe. The stakes are huge—multiple realities are at risk, including our own, and something’s definitely gonna break,” said Pak.
Age of Apocalypse #13 will serve as a prologue to the event. In that series – Wolverine of that reality is Apocalypse and Jean Grey is still alive. X-Treme X-Men #12 picks up the story. Pak’s book stars Dazzler (along with alternative reality versions of Emma Frost, Wolverine and Nightcrawler) on a mission to kill ten evil variations of Professor X.
Logan has worked with the AoA Nightcrawler but in Astonishing X-Men other members of team meet this version of their beloved team member who died in Second Coming to save Hope.
“None of them will have an easy time. Imagine your best friend died, and then you found him again, alive, except he has no memory of your friendship, lived a totally different life, and doesn’t want to have anything to do with you? That would hurt,” said Liu, “You might tell yourself it shouldn’t, that it all makes perfect sense, that this isn’t the same person you loved, but that wouldn’t really matter, would it?”
Astonishing X-Men #60
When asked if we might see Wolverine vs. Wolverine?
“There’s more than one Wolverine in the multiverse, and who is to say they will all get along?” teased Liu.
For more from the writers here’s the Marvel.com link.
By Editor
(All this Nightcrawler talk makes me miss the real Fuzzy Elf! I want him back – I don’t care how they explain it!)
This is where it all began: the original Age of Apocalypse still rocks.
This week Earth’s Mightiest Heroes relauches with a new creative team, bigger roster and new #1. As we wait for the debut of Jonathan Hickman’s upcoming Avengers roster I was inspired to share my favorite rosters:
Young Avengers In the aftermath of Avengers Disassembled these teens tried to fill the void of the missing heroes. We learned how these kids were connected to Marvel icons, secrets were revealed and they challenged their adult heroes. Patriot, Iron Lad, Hulking, Wiccan, Stature, Hawkeye, Vision, and Speed became a dymanic team devoted to friendship and carrying on the Avengers legacy. Action, emotion, relationships – Allen Heinberg and Jim Cheung delivered in every issue from the first series to Avengers: Children’s Crusade – one of the most beautifully written and drawn series ever!
New Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel
New Avengers Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman answered the call in breakout when Marvel’s biggest prison was busted. Brian Michael Bendis made the team Mightier by adding popular favorites Spidey and Logan. Spider-Woman, The Sentry, Echo, Iron Fist and Daredevil were more surprise choices. One epic led to another! Loved all the action, conspiracies and fights but I think I loved the Luke and Jessica romance, the tragedy of Robert and Lindy and the redemption of Jessica Drew most of all.
Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel
Heroes Return In the wake of Heroes Reborn Marvel assembled legends Kurt Busiek and George Perez to return Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to greatness. The lineup was Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye, Giant-Man, Wonder Man, Wasp, Vision and Warbird (Carol Danvers but in Ms. Marvel uniform.) Firestar, Silverclaw, Triathalon and Justice (Vance Astro) were the new members. A pitch perfect creative team at the top of their game threw the team up against Morgan Le Fay, Squadron Supreme and the ultimate enemy: Ultron!
Avengers #181 courtesy Marvel
Avengers (Korvac+ era) This is a sentimental vote because this was the first comic book subscription I had as a kid. Can you imagine a young geek buying the issue where Michael Korvac blasted the entire team? The massive team was shortened (in part by government liaison Henry Gyrich) to Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wasp, Yellowjacket, Quicksilver, Beast, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man and Jocasta. Jim Shooter, David Micheline, Roger Stern, George Perez and John Byrne were among the creators during this mighty era.
