Now What Marvel?

Marvel has been so focused on movies it seems the quality control of the comics has slipped in the past couple of years. It seems half the books are cleaning up the messes made in Marvel's so called "big events"  or the are ramping up to make another mess. If you have heard anything about the up-coming Secret Wars event, then this catastrophe on the horizon is pretty evident. The worst thing about these events is every since Avengers vs X-men, they have been pretty anti- climatic. From the snooze fest that was Age of Ultron  to garbled story-line of the recent "Spider-verse".

Clean up from Axis is still under way in Superior Iron Man, this book is drawn better than most, it would take another column to go into the downfall of the companies art. 5 explores the origin of the Teen Abomination, who proves to be even more connected to Stark's past. Almost devoid of any action except a flash back scene that is kinda cool as it goes back to the 70s and shows Iron-Man fighting Whiplash for a few panels, even though that a fight we have seen almost too many times at this point. Then on the Avengers side of the fence we have the New Avengers ramping us up this week for Secret Wars, but not a punch is thrown. Secret Avengers is so poorly drawn it's hard to digest the story. When M.O.D.O.K became and Avenger I was pretty much done with that book. The Thor annual was three terrible stories , Thor is in my top five favorite Marvel Heroes ( the other four are the Hulk, Dr.Strange, Scarlet Witch and Vision)  so for me to not have any investment in the book is a sad state of affairs , not asking for Marvel to wow me with every book, but at least don't make me loose interest in my favorite characters.It looked like Invaders is coming to a close in this weeks issue, no one is shedding  any tears from that one with out Steve Rogers as Captain America that team has no point.  S.H.I.E.L.D. was one of the weeks best books it felt like one of the Spider-man team up books from the 80s. The story worked and good things are happening all around on this one.

That was almost the only Spidey book worth buying. Amazing Spider-man has so of the company's better art work, but every Spider- was saying good-bye. Peter Parker and Otto the Superior Spider-man had a throw down. Then in a step down in the art department is "Spider-man and the X-men"  which feels like the Ultimate Spider-an cartoon. the book teams him up with the kids from Xavier academy. The fight solid holograms of Spidey's foes.  Who would  have thought that Spider-man 2099 would be one of the weeks best comics. It was fun watching him get his butt beat by the Maestro Hulk.

The first issue of Spider-Gwen debuted. Boy was it a stinker. The art was marginal. Story thin a rice paper and I could not find myself caring about a single character in the book. Sure the Vulture showed up, the voice he was written with did not even seem like the same character. Marvel is trying to be diverse, but can't seem to get a grip on a female super-hero in her own book. Capt. Marvel might be the best of the bunch, but more often than not it bores me to tears. I like Carol Danvers, but I have a feeling her solo movie will make Halle Berry's Cat-woman seem like a good idea.

Wolverines was the best of the X-titles. It feature Fang from the Imperial Guard, who opening a six-pack of kicked butt on Wolverines foes and family. Amazing X-men, was half-way decent, the Living Pharaoh becoming the next Juggernaut took me by surprise. All- New X-men was a book I really enjoyed and now barely has a story line worth following. It crosses over into their Black Vortex event, featuring Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rounding out the week in Marvel is Fantastic  Four, this issue was more build up though I was pleased that the Hulk was throwing down against some monsters with Ben Grimm and Dare Devil which was another transition issue. Inhuman was well drawn, but Blackbolt giving up his thrown to Medusa who he let slap him around is not in character at all.  Well better luck next week...books to buy  this week... Spider-man 2099, S.H.I.E.L.D and Wolverines. If you are a huge Juggernaut fan then Amazing X-men is a must.

Fifty Shades of Fraction

I can understand not liking Fifty Shades of Gray , however I think Marvel writer Matt Fraction and I dislike it for very different reasons. He is a pretty horrible writer, he penned the worst run of Thor ever, and now on his blog he has gone above and beyond the realms of stupidity by saying the following  “So there’s a movie out this weekend based on books that romanticize, fetishize, glamorize and normalize abusive relationships…And while sex is great and finding someone into all the stuff you’re into is great, sex is not consent to violence, a relationship is not permission to abuse, and there are thousands of women and children who have to deal with that fundamental and erroneous misconstruing of truth and wild misinterpretation of love every day.”

This goes beyond ignorance.For Fraction to be such a supposedly politically correct artist that feels so strongly about diversity in comics, it seems odd he can can insult and show prejudice against an entire lifestyle. As a member of the kink community myself, I can attest that we can be a little elitist and feel about Fifty Shades of Gray the same way old school goths feel bands like Blood on the Dance Floor. In fact I found the book to be rather boring and vanilla. I can understand if it really delved into golden showers and fisting, but it was a far cry from 120 Days in Sodom. Fraction obviously by his statement does not understand the concept of bdsm. Nor did he even crack the book open. If he had Fraction would have found  the two characters came up with contracts and safe-words, as they engaged in this as two consenting adults. Abuse has neither. I also know the main female character doesn't have children, so I am unsure how they even came up in the conversation. He finds that a touchy subject, leading you to believe someone must have been touchy with him as a child. Having issues is fine making judgements about a book you have never read is not. It is ultra-moronic and even that gives morons a bad name.

In response to the fact that the film’s earning millions made him feel “a little sick to think about,” Fraction is planning on matching donations to the Futures Without Violence charity  violence against women. Hopefully this money will go to fund his wife the poor Kelly Sue Deconnick's supply of  Duracell batteries since they  must have the most boring sex life. I am not one of these insecure idiots who wants the kink community to have certain minority rights and be accepted by society. I could not give a fuck what society thinks about me and what I do. I adhere to the fact the stronger you feel about something the less approval you need from others in regards to it be it kink or religion. For some one to speak out on a public platform about something they have no god damn clue about is an insult to even idiots with half a brain. 

Why Spider-man's Arrival into Marvel Films Might Not Be a Good Thing

Sure Marvel set the internet ablaze with the announcement that the character would be swinging his way into the Marvel Studios films after being kicked around in some rather shoddy and too often maskless Sony films. The logistics of this vary depending on the ever shifting accounts some sources say Sony will have the last say other sources cite Marvel as being the final word. It is pretty much decided that this will occur during Captain America 3, which is going to tell the Civil War story that put Stark against Rodgers with Spider-man eventually caught in the middle.  Then a stand alone Spider-Man movie will take place in 2017, pushing the release date of Thor 3 and everything thing else that is not an Avengers Sequel back, such as Captain Marvel, the Inhumans and Black Panther. Sure that is exciting in theory, but before you get your hopes up, having Spider-man might be worse than not having him at all.

I was first clued into what has now swelled into a bigger debate on-line, one which should clearly only have the one right answer, when I read the press release in regards to casting that stated they are looking for an actor considerably younger than Garfield to play Spider-Man. The key word here being Spider-man. They did not say they were looking for a younger actor to play Peter Parker. This means it could be the Spider-man from the Ultimate Universe Miles Morales, a black kid who became Spider-man after Peter Parker died and Norman Osborn did a little genetic tinkering with him. It could be all a legal illusion since Sony still has Spider-man related projects in the work, so like the wiggling being done to share Quicksliver, it could be the deal means Marvel can use Spider-man, but Sony still gets Peter Parker. In this case everyone loses.

I have some friends who feel Marvel will do the right thing and make this Peter Parker. But let's think about the fact they already gave us the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury. But it can be argued that's because every one loves Samuel Jackson. Then came black Norse gods.To which even Jackson raised and eyebrow at. Marvel is operating under the misguided notion that there needs to be more diversity in comics, since the movies are bringing them at a wider audience . But didn't these fan boys and girls buy them when Thor was a man and Captain America was white? Then why change that. Why not give the existing female and black characters a bigger push. But some might say there are not enough super-heroes of color in the pages of Marvel...maybe not if you are stupid and just don't know the mythology but last time I counted there is Blade, Luke Cage, Storm, Black Panther, Brother Voodoo, War-Machine, Bishop, Falcon, Cardiac, Cloak, Deathlok, Bill Foster aka Goliath,Synch, Jetstream, Misty Knight, Triathlon, Moses Magnum, the new Power-man, Moon-boy, Sun-spot, Rage, Night-thrasher, Rocket racer, Silhouette, Patriot, Photon, Prodigy, Prowler, Puma, Vibraxas, Anarchist, Krystalin, and White Tiger...only five of those have hit the big screen so there's the problem. Another question is where is the out cry for other demographics not represented Jewish super heroes, Asian super-heroes, Polish super-heroes or native american super-heroes?

If wanting the character who have stood the test of time for the past fifty plus years to be depicted like they are in the pages of the comics that immortalized them is racist then I better start burning crosses, but even a writer of color for the Washington Post stated that while it's great to have Miles as a Super-hero it's still too early to have him on the big screen. He is not the only one others ask the same questions I do along with others like what happens one Obama is not in office? Why has it taken them so long to bring in Black Panther? Marvel will tell you Miles Morales is a very popular character...sure, but is he more popular than Peter Parker ? I think not.