AvX Should Be Called Operation: Hate Cyclops?

Avengers vs X-Men #11 courtesy Marvel

 Op/Ed:

  Avengers vs. X-Men could be retitled Operation: Hate Cyclops. When AvX was first announced I was on fully on board with Cyclops and the mutants. I posted “Cyke Is Right!” on my blog and all over rallying my fellow X-Men fans. X-Men were my first comic book and I’ve always identified with them. Captain America and the Avengers were yanking away the one Hope the mutants had to save their species.

The architects of AvX turned the greatest hero and leader in comic books into an arrogant, power mad egomaniac. The Marvel masterminds even did the unthinkable – turn me against Scott! I’ve actually rooting for the Avengers. Cyke was right. Now I’m not so sure.

AvX is a dark and critical chapter in Scott’s life. The man Professor Xavier chose to lead the mutants has never had it easy. He’s been put in incredible scenarios against impossible odds and faced tragedy after tragedy. His fellow mutants have constantly been under attack and he’s been forced to make tough calls without a single Avenger coming to his aid. That’s what I love about him.

Scott Summers must always been in control. Holding back his optic blasts is a symbol of the life Scott has been forced to lead. Professor Xavier made him team leader. Cyke pushed himself to be a better leader while the other X-Men got to laugh and escape from training at Harry’s Hideaway. Scott is always living in the Danger Room.

Scott has lost Jean, Madelyne, Nathan. Cyke has hold firm despite insults from Wolverine and wavering support from longtime friends. He’s a better X-Man than any mutant…including Logan.

Avengers vs. X-Men #11 courtesy Marvel.com

This week’s AvX #11 sees the Phoenix possessed Cyclops and Emma Frost turn on each other because there can be only one.  AvX appears to be the end of a powerhouse Marvel romance. Grant Morrison slowly separated Scott and Jean and paired Cyke with the reformed Emma Frost during his New X-Men run. Joss Whedon united Scott and Emma as the mutant power couple in his Astonishing X-Men epic. As much as I love Jean, Emma is the one true woman for Scott.

The Phoenix Force is now divided between Scott and Emma. Scott has been transformed into arrogant cosmic level zealot. The God-like power of the Phoenix Force has twisted Scott’s intense dedication to save his race. Emma’s behavior is now dangerously similar to the Dark Phoenix. The reformed White Queen has always kept her ruthless streak and it’s been necessary and easy for her to slip back into the role of a villain (Dark Reign & Dark X-Men Saga) to use it for the sake of saving the mutants.

I kept hoping Scott and Emma’s extreme and ruthless behavior was a result of having slivers of The Void (The Sentry’s evil alter ego) in their minds. It was these two mutants who sacrificed to trap the Void when the Avengers couldn’t stop him. I wanted some excuse so it would be easy to redeem Scott and Emma for their actions. Alas, I can blame the Phoenix Force but isn’t the entity just feeding off and empowering the emotions and motivations existing in my favorite Marvel power couple?

Avengers vs. X-Men made me side against Scott and Emma. This week’s chapter is teasing a fatality. Will Cyclops destroy his lover or his father figure and mentor? Can Scott live with it if he does kill Emma or the Professor?

Every hero falls. Every fan loves redemption. I hope Scott and Emma survive AvX to rise to greatness again in the Marvel NOW.

By Editor

Inside the Prison of The Walking Dead Season Three

courtesy AMC TV

  Robert Kirkman takes you inside “The PRISON!” AMC shared this new video of creator Kirkman touring the prison set. Rick and his band of survivors think they have found a safe refuge inside this fortress but soon learn the living can be just as dangerous as the dead.

The Walking Dead Season Three with the prison, The Governor and Michonne begins October 14, 2012.

By Editor

Joss Whedon on Avengers Sequel: Diggs Deeper

 

Marvel’s The Avengers courtesy Marvel

  The Avengers sequel is two and half years away but that won’t stop fans from geeking out over every morsel, comment and hint between now and then. Director Joss Whedon does promise assembling the team in the first film was just the beginning.

 “The creation of the team is not the happy ending,” he tells 24 Hours. “It is the beginning of something that is complex and difficult, and now I get to dig a little deeper. And maybe, while I’m digging, just twist that knife. And that’s exciting for me.”

 While Whedon will write and direct the sequel that assembles Earth’s Mightiest Heroes don’t expect him to be the Grandmaster (to pay homage to a Marvel villain) over the solo films coming out before the mega-sequel.

 “Very talented people are writing and directing these movies, and what I don’t want to be is the guy they dread, who’s going to come in and say” — here, Whedon reportedly affected a “pompous British accent” — “‘Oh, well I have the power to say change this,’” he said. “I’m not that.”

Thanks to Spinoff Online. The Avengers 2 assembles May 1, 2015.

By Editor

Batwoman, Wonder Woman, and More Zero Issue Preview

Batwoman #0 courtesy DC Comics

  DC Comics One Year Anniversary of The New 52 continues with more zero issues. The Source shared an early look at covers for next week’s releases.

 

Birds of Prey #0 courtesy DC Comics

  My most anticipated issues are Batwoman, Birds of Prey, Nightwing and Wonder Woman.

Nightwing #0 courtesy DC Comics

  The stand-alone stories reveals how Kate Kane became the Batwoman, the first meeting of Batgirl and Black Canary, the origin of Dick Grayson and Wonder Woman’s connection to Ares will be explored.

Wonder Woman #0 courtesy DC Comics

All these zero issues are out September 19th.

By Editor

Billy the Vampire Slayer?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #14 courtesy Dark Horse Comics

  Buffy, The Vampire Slayer Season Nine #14 will introduce a new twist on the vampire killer. Jane Espenson and Drew Greenberg will introduce Billy: a gay male without “slayer” powers.

  The series went off the air in 2003 but adventures in “Buffyverse”continue in Dark Horse Comics. Joss Whedon (The Avengers) executive produces the continuing comic book series. In Buffy mythology only young girls are “chosen” to become slayers so why Billy?

  Espenson says she developed the character while working on her web series Husbands.

  “I already knew [the character] Cheeks, and he has a line in Season 1 of Husbands, that Brad [Bell] wrote, that really struck me about how Cheeks has an ‘exotic femininity’ that’s equated with weakness,” she told OUT.

  “I thought: ‘Gee, all the work we’ve done with Buffy is about being female, and how that doesn’t mean that you are lesser’. It suddenly struck me: If being feminine doesn’t mean that you’re lesser, then liking guys also doesn’t mean you’re lesser.”

“For very good reason, we’ve focused on the female empowerment part of Buffy, but I wondered, ‘Did we leave something out? What if someone in high school is looking up to Buffy as a role model, and we’re saying: You can’t be a slayer’.”

 Billy is a new character who trains himself to fight like a slayer.

 “He may not have the actual powers of the slayers, but he’s determined to be his own kind of hero, one who’s sort of modeled after those who do have the power, and he sets out to make due with what he has,” said Greenberg.

 “Batman doesn’t have super powers. He wasn’t gifted with an exotic foreign birth. So we take the Batman route; Billy is earning the Slayer mantle,” Espenson adds.

  Billy’s introduction is the latest chapter in GLBT characters (Willow and Tara)and storylines of the “Buffyverse.” 

  “We’re hardly pandering when we make a comic book,” Espenson said. “There’s always growing pains when making progress, but I think cynicism in the face of inclusion may not be a profitable route in making progress.”

   Here in Seattle, GeekGirlCon welcomed Espenson and the cast of Husbands earlier this year. Dark Horse Comics will bring Husbands to comic books later this year.

Thanks to OUT.

By Editor

Top Comic Book Picks for 9/12/12

Avenging Spider-Man #12 Spidey and Deadpool go back to high school? I’m sure there’s something much more sinister going on but the idea of Peter Parker and the Merc With a Mouth in detention is too good to pass up!

Avengers vs. X-Men #11 courtesy Marvel.com

Avengers vs. X-Men #11 X-Men join the Avengers in a last stand against the cosmic might of the Phoenix Two. What happens when Cyclops and Emma Frost turn on each other? What is Professor X prepared to do to save humanity? Marvel is teasing a fatality – who will pay the ultimate price to defeat the Phoenix Force?

Batman #0 A look into the past. Bruce Wayne returns from his global quest ready to launch his war on crime. See how the gadgets, Batcave, costume and more were born.

Manhattan Projects #6 Some of the most famous scientific geniuses in history as you’ve never seen them before. Creating the atomic bomb was nothing compared to what this American think tank was really up to. You can catch up with the first 5 issues in a new collection. Now see the other side of this twisted alterate history and weird science. Go back into the Cold War days and inside the Russia’s scientific counterpart to the Manhattan Projects.

The Massive #4 How you continue to have the moral companss of a pacifist when the world has gone to hell? A crew of environmentalists sail the poison oceans in search of their friends and trying to survive modern day pirates. What happens when the Captain meets a ghost from his past when he was a corporate mercenary.

I could have written a top 15 this week there are so many good books out there! Here’s my previews of the Doctor Who Annual, more Batman Family Zero issue books and a legion of X-Men books!

By Editor

Remender Exits Uncanny X-Force

Uncanny X-Force: The Apocalypse Solution cover courtesy Marvel.com

Rick Remender on Uncanny X-Force may be hailed as one of the most dangerously ambitious epics of fearless writing, senses-shattering and violent storytelling in Marvel history.

Remender tells Comic Book Resources he’s leaving the title with December’s Uncanny X-Force #35. The last chapter of Final Execution will be the series finale.

  “There were a lot of different factors involved. It was a very tough decision to make and it came down to a conversation I had about it with Kieron Gillen about how long I would stay past this. He said, “Know when to get off the stage.” That’s something that we maybe overlook.

I’m now doing “Uncanny Avengers” and “Captain America” and I realized that in order for me to do those and not want to blow my brains out, I might have to walk away from “Venom,” “Secret Avengers” and “Uncanny X-Force.” That was a bummer because I put so much into building them and getting the trains out of the station. I love all the characters, but that’s just the reality. With “X-Force,” I feel like this final story, which I’m very excited and have been building towards for a while now, pretty much wraps up everything we’ve been doing. It says everything I wanted to say about a kill squad while also really digging into the X-Universe that I loved so much as a kid growing up. So it really did come down to the fact that it was time to get off the stage.

Uncanny X-Force #31 courtesy Marvel

Hopefully, I’ll be able to stick a nice landing with “Final Execution” and people will really enjoy it, so the series will never have that part where it tapered and stopped being as good. That’s the upshot. You do your best work — and we all have — and then you wrap things up and walk away from it.”

In this week’s Uncanny X-Force #31 what’s left of Wolverine’s unit takes the fight to the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

 

Remender is moving on to Uncanny Avengers and Captain America. Marvel has teased Sam Humphries and Ron Garney on a Marvel NOW book with the teaser KILLERS – a perfect description of Wolverine’s black ops squad.  The series may be coming to an end but it’s a good bet the X-Force concept will live to kill again.

By Editor

 

Doctor Who, Dinosaurs and Unexpected Aliens

SPOILER WARNING

 

THIS REVIEW AND OP/ED REVEALS KEY PLOT POINTS FROM THE LATEST DOCTOR WHO EPISODE

 

SERIOUSLY

 

HERE IT COMES

 

courtesy SFX.co.uk and BBC

  I loved Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Who wouldn’t? It’s DINOSAURS – ON A SPACESHIP!

  A massive ship heading for Earth. A military leader orders the Doctor to investigate and stop it or they will nuke it. The Time Lord assembles Amy, Rory, an English big game hunter named John Riddell and the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. It’s pure coincidence that the Queen is on board but she becomes a key ingredient of the plot later. Rory’s dad Brian is accidentally brought along for the ride.

The motley crew lands on an abandoned spaceship with nothing but cobwebs and dinosaurs roaming wild on board. The team soon learns it’s a Silurian ark taking the reptilian race, their flora and fauna in search of a new world. The Doctor, Rory and his dad encounter the villain (played by a veteran of the Harry Potter films) who killed the sleeping Silurians in order to steal and sell the dinosaurs.

This is a perfect episode for new Whovians and to have Rory’s dad as the ‘everyman’ baffled then marveling at outrageous weirdness that is Doctor Who. This story shows that at the center of the most twisted sci-fi tale is heart. Brian learns to appreciate the nursing skills of Rory and a nice father/son bonding while under siege moment and to appreciate the love of a triceratops.   At the end I loved how Brian just wanted a quiet “above the Earth moment” before going home. Once we rejoin Amy and Rory we see how the once travel-shy Brian is a changed man. These scenes capture the spirit of watching Doctor Who and why we love it.

Op/Ed:

To borrow and twist a phrase from Obi-Wan, “these are not the aliens I was looking for.”

My first instinct was the Zygons were behind this flying ark of dinosaurs. The Zygons appeared way back in 1975 in the Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen era. Terror of the Zygons terrified me as a little kid. The Loch Ness Monster was actually a living weapon of the Zygons who were trying to conquer and colonize Earth. Nessie aka Skarasen may have not looked scary but those suction cup covered orange Zygons freaked me out as a kid. It was like an octobus, crab and lizard had been fused into a nightmarish new hybrid – Dr. Moreau seafood?

I loved the twist with the Silurians but I thought sure the Zygons were going to be behind a Jurassic attack on the planet. Maybe Steven Moffat will resurrect those nasty aliens who once plotted and schemed at the bottom of Loch Ness!

Here’s a fan made trailer for the classic episode on YouTube. Watch for the Zygon after Sarah Jane Smith!

 

By Editor