Top 5 Comics Picks for 2-8-12

Secret Avengers #22 cover Gabriel Hardman courtesy Marvel.com

Secret Avengers #22

Hawkeye takes command and recruits Captain Britain for his covert team. He’s going to need the extra muscle as the Avengers’ version of the Sentinels strike. Rick Remender revolutionized Uncanny X-Force so get ready for a wild ride with the bad boys and girls of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Batgirl #6

Batgirl and Batman meet for the first time since her recovery. The deadly man manipulating Gretel makes her move. Barbara deals with the emotional wallop by a return from someone in her past.

Thief of Thieves #1

When the writers of The Walking Dead and Morning Glories unite for a book it’s a huge reason to rush to the comic store. Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer tells the story of the ultimate thief who can steal anything except the life he lost. A master criminal tries to connect with the son and wife he lost while evading the FBI and an even bigger threat.

Kevin Keller #1 courtesy Archie Comics

Kevin Keller #1

Archie Comics didn’t just give the Riverdale Gang a gay sidekick – they made Kevin Keller openly gay young man who wants to serving in the military. This week the groundbreaking character gets his own series and hardcover graphic novel featuring the GLAAD Media Award outstanding comic story about Kevin’s first meeting with Archie and life before Riverdale.

 Wolverine and the X-Men #5

Kitty Pryde is pregnant. A billion alien Brood show up and I don’t think it’s for a baby shower! Is this the child that could bring Kitty and Colossus back together or has an alien enemy delivered a curse on my favorite X-woman?

This Week in X-Men

 

courtesy Marvel.com

  Two arrogant young guns target Wolverine. Is Kitty Pryde’s mystery pregnancy under alien influence. Love and death. It’s a big week for X-fans with 6 new titles hitting comic book stores this week.

Wolverine and the X-Men #5

  Kitty Pryde pregnant. Billions of Brood show up and I don’t think it’s for a shower. Are these the old school nasty aliens or like new student Broo? Is Colossus the daddy?

X-Men #24

The fun-loving, fireworks generating mall rat is long gone and is the X-Men’s resident Goth girl. Jubilee is now an undead casualty of Marvel’s vampire wars. Raizo and the Forgiven show up to give the former X-girl a lesson in her vampire heritage.

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega #2

Has Wolverine met his match? Omega level telepath Quentin Quire traps Logan and Armor inside Wolverine’s mind but the entire Jean Grey School may be the physical effects of Quire’s psi-game.

Daken: Dark Wolverine#21

  Another Arrogant young buck is taking a  shot at Wolverine this week! Logan’s son starts his final endgame as the series builds to the big finale. Will Daken live long enough to get his revenge?

Deadpool #50

 Simple and easy…DEAD1

New Mutants #37 courtesy Marvel.com

New Mutants #37

  This is one hell of a Valentine’s Day issue! Magma made a deal with the devil to save her friends now she must go on a date with Mephisto!

 

What’s Next for the Black Panther

Black Panther #529 Courtesy Comic Book Resources/Marvel  Let me begin with what I’ve said a gazillion times on Facebook Thor movie updates: IDRIS ELBA can play anything but imagine him on the big screen in as BLACK PANTHER!

  What a finale for Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive #529 out this week! Black Panther versus the Kingpin with Lady Bullseye, Typhoid Mary, Luke Cage and Falcon guest starring!

  T’Challa took over numbering and Daredevil’s role as protector of Hell’s Kitchen but his time in New York is at an end.

Black Panther #35

    What will Marvel do with T’challa?  Will he reclaim his kingdom of Wakanda? Which side will T’Challa choose in Avengers Versus X-Men? T’Challa is a longtime Avenger, Captain America just recruited Storm for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes but she’s in Uncanny X-Men’s Extinction Team so he would be a man in great conflict in AVX.

  Let’s give Black Panther his own team in his own series based in Wakanda. Let’s get Idris Elba as T’Challa, Madds Mikkelsen as Klaw, and Paula Patton as Monica Lynne.

 

Michael Fassbender on Romance Versus Work

Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy from X-Men: First Class courtesy Marvel.com

  The man who played a young Magneto is certainly attracting diverse roles and media attention. Michael Fassbender is saying that his career is takes priority over relationships at the moment.

  “To be honest, relationships as a whole for me in this industry have been a difficult thing to maintain,” Bang Showbiz quotes him as saying.

  “It goes with the territory. I would be prepared to walk away from relationships because of my job. I wanted to give this everything and go for it 110%, so I guess my work has taken precedence over that.”

  Fassbender was romantically linked to Zoe Kravitz who played X-Men traitor Angel in X-Men: First Class. For more of this story here’s the RTE link.

Super Bowl of Super Heroes! Avengers Versus X-Men!

  Today may be the Super Bowl but for comic book fans the big game starts in March with Avengers Versus X-Men! No half time act but I bet Dazzler is available if she’s not fighting Mockingbird!

 

AvX #1 cover by Jim Cheung courtesy Marvel.com

My picks to win:

Overall Team: X-Men!

Cyclops V. Captain America

Iron Man V. Magneto

Thor V. Storm

Beast V. Luke Cage

Ms. Marvel V. Rogue

Spider-Woman V. Gambit

Namor V. Thing

Hulk V. Emma Frost

Black Widow V. Psylocke

Iceman V. Spider Man

Colossus (in Juggernaut mode)V. Rulk

Matchups not teased yet but I hope we’ll see in AVX.

Colossus (in Juggernaut mode) V. Thing

Thor V. Colossal Juggernaut

Warpath V. Hawkeye

Emma Frost V. Ms. Marvel

Winter Soldier V. Warparth

Wolverine V. Captain America – Logan will be on Team Cyke but I suspect he will be forced to switch sides.

 

Jennifer Lawrence on Hunger Games Co-Star Chemistry

  X-Fans like me rejoiced this week with news that Director Matthew Vaughn and the principal cast of X-Men: First Class are signed on for a sequel to the prequel.

  Before Jennifer Lawrence reprises her role as the shapeshifting Mystique she will fight for her life in The Hunger Games based on the best-selling trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Lawrence plays Katniss a girl in a dystopian world in a tournament fighting to the death against other desperate teens. The books are riveting. The movie trailer captures the dangerous atmosphere of the series. I’m surprised a publisher hasn’t started work on a graphic novel adaptation of the trilogy.

  Josh Hutcherson (would made a great young Scott Summers) plays Peeta, one of the combatants in the death tournament who falls in love with Katniss. The two young stars talked with MTV News about their chemistry.

  “We did a chemistry read and kind of hit it off right away, I felt, for the second time, third time,” he joked, playing up the memories of their first meeting. “So that’s the first time we got to play the characters together.”

  “We had tons of chemistry,” Lawrence insisted with a laugh. “He was Peeta,” she added of her first impressions of Hutcherson as “the boy with the bread.” “I had heard the director, I had heard Gary [Ross] say, ‘He is the only one who is actually Peeta,’ and then [Josh] came in, and he was. He’s charming and nice and sweet, like a dog licking your face.”

  “A dog licking on your face?” Hutcherson asked, wondering if Lawrence was giving him a compliment or not.

  “It is! That’s what it’s like hanging out with you, it’s like, ‘Eeeeee!’ ” Lawrence said of her excitement being around the 19-year-old.

  For the entire interview here’s the MTV News link.

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, AVX and Scarlet Witch’s Fate

Avengers The Children's Crusade #9 preview art by Jim Cheung courtesy Marvel, Comic Book Resources

  When the GLAAD Best Comic Book Series Nominee Avengers: The Children’s Crusade began it marked the return of the excellent Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung on the team they created. Wiccan and Speed hoped to find, save and redeem their mother, Scarlet Witch. Their devoted teammates joined them on an adventure into Latveria through time. The heroes faces the Avengers, X-Men, X-Factor and Doctor Doom. Avengers: The Children’s Crusade is one of the most perfectly written and drawn series Marvel is publishing.

  I had no idea how pivotal this story would be to the entire fate and future of the Marvel Universe. When the series ends the Scarlet Witch will be set up for her role in Avengers Versus X-Men, the return of the Phoenix Force and her possible connection to the mutant messiah, Hope Summers will be revealed.

  X-Editor Nick Lowe answered fan questions on Comic Book Resources. The question I found interesting was if the Avengers Editors or X-Editors determined Wanda’s fate after Avengers: The Children’s Crusade?

  “It was Allan Heinberg (with input from Tom Brevoort) mapping out Wanda’s trajectory. Allan had some great ideas on the subject and somehow Tom B. didn’t ruin them all,” Lowe responded. Brevoort is the Avengers Editor.

  Will Wanda be redeemed for Avengers Disassembled and M-Day/The Decimation? Wiccan and Speed may save their mother only to see her fall in AVX. Time will tell but Heinberg and Cheung have created a real Marvel classic with Avengers: The Children’s Crusade.

 

Kitty Pryde Pregnant – Is Colossus the Daddy?

Wolverine and the X-Men preview art courtesy Marvel.com/Comic Book Resources

Kitty Pryde is pregnant.

I assume and hope Colossus is the daddy but in the X-Men world never assume.

When the cover Wolverine and the X-Men #6 revealed a pregnant Kitty surrounded by nasty Brood it sent chills through me and sent X-fans into a frenzy. In last month’s issue #4 Kitty started experiencing sudden symptoms and was soon ballooned out and ready to pop.

Today Marvel gave Comic Book Resources this exclusive preview art from Wolverine and the X-Men #5.

Did our beloved Kitty just deliver the news to Peter? If this were the real world – I’d be thrilled that Kitty and Peter were having a baby and settling down in family bliss. Continue reading Kitty Pryde Pregnant – Is Colossus the Daddy?