It’s Alive! Jason Aaron and Nick Bradshaw are mad scientists who may have created their most twisted issue yet with Wolverine and the X-Men #21.
It was supposed to be a new year of new beginnings. New mutants and the kids from Utopia joined the Jean Grey School. Storm agreed to join the faculty. The dream turns into a nightmare of monsters, clowns and circus freaks.
This week’s issue begins with the teachers gone. Troublemaker Quentin Quire knows this is too easy and suspects the teachers are testing him. The Hellfire Club continues their manipulation of Idie. I’m stumped as to why the villains have created a fake church and pastor to seduce Idie to their latest campaign of revenge against Wolverine and the school.
Wolverine and the X-Men #21 courtesy Marvel
We soon learn where the teachers have gone! Logan, Kitty, Storm, Beast, Bobby and Rachel are willing star performers in a wickedly bizarre circus owned by…Frankenstein. Yes, that Frankenstein. I can’t help but remember when the X-Men were hypnotized into becoming circus stars by Mesmero way back in the Chris Claremont & John Byrne era. This sideshow is even freakier and with a supernatural twist happenning to the audience. This Murder Circus is part of Frankenstein’s revenge against one of Aaron’s newest characters. in The final panel pits is monster against victim and X-Men fighting their own students.
Jason Aaron continues to masterfully spin several storylines and give multiple characters memorable moments. Nick Bradshaw continues to impress. You are watching the birth of a major art superstar. If you were knocked out by Bradshaw’s Planet Sin casino scenes in previous arc wait until you seen his Murder Circus. The creative team pack so much on the pages – watch for a hilarious Doop cameo – but it never feels stuffed. Wolverine and the X-Men remains the X-book delivering the most fun and surprises every issue. Come on. Wolverine transformed into a clown? You know Frank’s in for a world of hurt!
The greatest Avengers enemy (in my opinion) is back in 2013 and no hero in the entire Marvel Universe is safe! Brian Michael Bendis unleashes the android with issues in Age of Ultron #1 this March. The robot has apparently downloaded his evil into an army of Ultrons.
Age of Ultron #1 courtesy Marvel
In an earlier interview Bendis revealed that this 10 part series takes place in the Marvel Now continuity. Comics Newsarama scored some incredible images by Bryan Hitch from the premiere issue.
Age of Ultron #1 courtesy Marvel
The Age of Ultron begins this March. What will this event mean for the Marvel Universe?
This is the Bruce Banner I want to see! Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu start a bold new chapter for the genius and his monstrous alter ego in Indestructible Hulk #1 out this week.
In the premiere you could say Bruce auditions for a job with SHIELD. This works as a great stand-alone story packed with action and humor while setting you up for a future adventures of Banner and the Green Goliath. There is a sense of Bruce finally accepting the monster within and using it.
Mark Waid’s great talent for dialogue, humor and ability to poke fun at his characters shines in this issue. I really look forward to seeing this new Bruce interact with Maria Hill and use the Hulk to forge the smartest, strongest SHIELD agent there is. This issue shines on its one but reminded me of the Peter David era when Bruce ran the Pantheon – and made me smile.
Indestructible Hulk #1 is great fun and has smashed its way up near the top of my favorite Marvel Now relaunch titles.
If this turns out to be true – the Force is with us! Disney and Lucasfilm are recruiting from the X-Men movie franchise and bringing back what you could call a Jedi Master of writing from the Lucasfilm family.
Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg have signed deals to write installments of the new Star Wars trilogy according to The Hollywood Reporter. The team will write and produce but the exact responsibilities have not been divided yet.
Kinberg is writing X-Men: Days of Future Past and produced X-Men: First Class and co-wrote X-Men: The Last Stand.
Kasdan co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Still no word on how the new stories will play out. I’m still rooting for Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire book trilogy may be a story element for the new trilogy.
The Hobbit will be the gift that keeps on giving to geeks this holiday season! The first 9 minutes of Star Trek: Into Darkness will screen on select IMAX screenings of Peter Jackson’s new film. Now Warner Brothers announced a new Man of Steel trailer will screen with The Hobbit in 2-D and 3-D.
“It’s fun. I can’t wait for ‘The Hobbit,’ so it will be fun to see our crazy ‘Man of Steel’ trailer and then enjoy the Hobbit because that’s going to be great,” Snyder told MTV News. “It just feels like a fun Christmas thing to do, drag the whole family out for that action.”
The director of the Superman reboot is praising his two leading men: Henry Cavill and Michael Shannon:
“Shannon is great, he has such great enthusiasm and dedication constantly,” Snyder said the actor playing Zod. “You can imagine that you could get actors who go, ‘Oh right, it’s Zod, it’s not 100 percent serious,’ or [you can play it] slightly with a wink, there is none of that with him. His effort is to make it realized and to understand this character and what he has to go through, so you have that on one side and you have Henry, who basically is Superman, on the other side and that dynamic.”
“I was just incredibly fortunate to play with those guys who really were giving all they had to bring a level of commitment to the scenes they have together so that audiences will get an opportunity to really have their heroes taken seriously,” he said. “As serious as I was taking it, and I don’t mean that from a depressing kind of way but from a, ‘This is important and fun and needs to be given the respect that it deserves,’ from that perspective it was so exciting to watch them drink the Kool-Aid of that concept and go all the way.”
X-Man, Avenger, Mentor, Headmaster, Lover, Killer! Wolverine is a hero with many titles and star of many comic book titles!
Paul Cornell returns to Marvel with a brand new Wolverine series premiering in March 2013. The legendary Alan Davis will be the artist on Logan’s new solo book. Cornell talked with Marvel.com about his return to the House of Ideas and his take on the fan favorite X-Man.
“This is the series that gets into what makes James Logan tick, that shows him being, as he puts it, “a regular guy,” interacting with civilian friends of his in New York City. The most amazing thing about James is that he’s been alive so long, gone through so many extraordinary things, is such a strange being, but holds on—very hard—to being a guy who likes to hang out in bars with good company, who can run a school, who’s a decent, civilized man. Most of the time. No vampire alienation and boredom for him. He’s a man of the people. I’m going to poke that and see what happens.”
The challenge for any new writer is Wolverine’s history of iconic stories by specific writers (Weapon X, Old Man Logan). Cornell explains his big influence and how he will stake his claim in the Logan legacy.
“By looking hard at who he is, dealing with him in the here and now, exploring that voice I’m so fond of. Why does he call people “bub?” That’s now a tic that’s peculiar, that says something. I’ve been a Dad for four weeks now, and it occurs to me that James is the super hero I would be most comfortable in handing my child to. You know he’s going to take care of him, you know he’d be willing to just about die to do it, that while he’s got him, nothing is going to hurt that child. That’s what we’re going to get into: James the determined, bastard hard defender of innocents. I’m an enormous fan of Chris Claremont. I think his contribution to comics is just gigantic, that these days he’s enormously undervalued, to a degree that just staggers me. I’ll be drawing on the love of this character I felt from my childhood, and that means drawing on my own inner Claremont.'”
Wolverine: Weapon X #1 cover by Alan Davis courtesy Marvel
Cornell teases the first arc of the new series:
“James is involved in a hostage situation in the heart of New York, which spirals into an action-movie chase with him pursuing…he has no idea, and neither do we. It’s something absolutely disciplined, ruthless, and absolutely unconcerned with harming innocents. James has to do something not very nice in front of one such innocent. He’s damned if he’s going to let it happen again.
Cornell revealed he will explore the humanity of Wolverine:
“He’s one of the few super heroes who one could have a drink with. And he really should be a lot weirder. So there’s something going on there. I’ll also be examining the consequences of some recent decisions he’s made, but that would only be obvious for those who’ve been following the character lately. You can start with this first issue, not knowing anything, and absolutely know who he is, and what he does. It’s kind of a continuity-free first issue, from which we’ll gradually move to bring in wider aspects of the universe.”
Cornell reveal he’s creating a new villain and new supporting cast members (police officers, bar owners) for Wolverine’s NYC stomping grounds.
Cornell made comparisons between the X-Man and a certain caped hero of the competition when explains Wolverine’s role in the Marvel Now.
“I want it, and him, to be central. I want other titles reacting to what happens here. It’s an accident of history that WOLVERINE as a title has often been following what happens in other books, rather than originating the direction of the character because the title started so late. A new number one gives us the chance to change James’ standing a little, to make him as obvious a lead as Batman is, not just the eternal supporting character.”
Wolverine Annual #1 courtesy Marvel, a Comic Book Resources exclusive
Op/Ed: Alan Davis is on my list of (I MUST MEET THEM) comic book creators! In fact I could program an entire Alan Davis Comicon based on this amazing career which includes X-Men, Excaliburruns as writer/artist and artist with Chris Claremont writing.
Alan Davis recently brought back his ClanDestine in several Marvel Annuals including Wolverine, drew Ed Brubaker’s final volume of Captain America, If you can get your hands on his Wolverine graphic novel Bloodlust– grab it!
For Cornell’s entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
Captain America #1The Star-Spangled Avenger’s new adventure take a sci-fi spin. No country. No allies. Steve Rogers is alone in a bizarre dimension packed with new enemies and an amped up old villain
Indestructible Hulk #1 Bruce Banner and his monstrous alter ego working together? Meet SHIELD’s biggest, brainiest new agent!
Batwoman #14The thrilling showdown between Kate and Wonder Woman against the madness of Medusa!
Star Trek #15You’ve got to love Spock in a stache! Yes, it’s time for a brand new adventure in the Mirror, Mirror universe!
Wolverine and the X-Men #21 This may be Thanksgiving week but a terrifying new villain stalks the staff and kids of the Jean Grey School! Frankenstein’s Murder Circus turns Storm, Logan and Bobby into their strangest new showstopppers.
Indestructible Hulk #1 smashes into the Marvel Now this week. Mark Waid and Leinil Yu take the Green Goliath in a new direction – as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D?
“The reasons why he is–and exactly the deal he cut to become–an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a mystery that will build out as the story goes,” Waid teased on Marvel.com.
How do you bring a freshness to an iconic character for new readers while paying homage to the rich past?
“On the surface of it, its hard. It’s a less human, street-level book, so all the things that worked in Daredevil were harder to duplicate in Hulk. The commonality in the two books is that Bruce Banner, much like Matt Murdock, reaches a point in his life where he realizes the things he’s been doing have not been working. ”
“What Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did back in the day was they created the world’s first persecuted super hero in the Hulk. Bruce Banner was the seminal morose, tortured super hero. 50 years later, you can go to a comic shop, pick up a random stack of super hero comics, and most of them will probably feature tortured super heroes,” Waid explained.
Indestructible Hulk #3 courtesy Marvel
Bruce Banner will take command in an effort become known as a man of science instead of the “Hulk Smash” guy.
“Banner realized that the Hulk is not something he can stop. It’s something he can control to a degree, but “Hulk happens,” as he puts it. So when he comes out, S.H.I.E.L.D. points him where they want him to go. Think of him as a cannon, not a bomb.”
Maria Hill will be Banner’s handler.
“S.H.I.E.L.D. has what they believe is a fairly tight leash on the Hulk, but they’re mistaken. That’s part of the fun of writing Maria Hill and Bruce Banner, they both have different perspectives on the situation.”
What about those shots of the Hulk in armor? Waid says that’s really intended for Bruce. And as for that floating robot head – who looks like Widget of Excalibur? He’s part of the leash S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks they have on the Hulk.
Maid said to expect Hulk to fight Attuma, Frost Giants, a new version of Quintronic Man and a big bad secretly behind the upcoming year’s mystery.
In case you missed an earlier interview – I loved what Waid said about Hulk being his favorite character in The Avengers movie.
“I can watch the Hulk ragdoll Loki all day.”
Indestructible Hulk smashes into stores this week. Here’s the entire liveblog on Marvel.com.
