Catching Up with Marvel

Agents of Shield started back. The appearance of the Robby Reyes Ghost Rider is a mixed bag as even my 6 year daughter expected him to be on a motorcycle. Not really blown away by the first episode, but it's darker and I guess we will see where it goes from here and how it is going to tie in with Dr. Strange though it looks like things like the spirit world and ghosts will factor in. It's gotten to the point of where Marvel is getting so contrived it's hard for me to even write about it . Sure I have the Unworthy Thor 4 issue series  and a She-Hulk series just called Hulk, which is a slap in the face to both characters, but even the big throw down in the 4th issue of Civil War 2 didn't feel that inspired. None of the fights were very decisive. Spider-Man finds most of the issue dedicated to Miles talking to Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, then goes back to the fateful day banner died, which really doesn't shed a ton of new light on any one's perspective. One of the better issues of Uncanny In-humans however does more to push the Civil War story along.

While it is the lesser of the two In-humans books, All- New In-humans finally finds Gorgon back on his feet in the 11th issue, the rest of the book is life on a ship and Crystal's birthday. While it's a little more hooked into the story, the 6th issue of  Black Panther finds the book still floundering. So the Crew which is a quartet of black super-heroes who have nothing else in common aside from race, gets introduced. The 7th issue of International Iron-Man is another waste of time, who gives a shit who Stark's parents, it's just more ret-conning.It's a shame that they writing went out of the window for the 10th issue of the Punisher. Jane Foster like Capt Hammer is the hammer is what we learn from the last issue of Thor which I can in some ways deal with better than her being Thor, but still have severe problems with booth this book and the character. None of the X-books including the Civil War tie in did much for me, though X-23's Wolverine book seemed to be the best of the bunch.

The 12th issue of Guardians of the Galaxy was well done and shows how they got screwed by teaming up with Carol. The 10th issue of Scarlet Witch was ok. Better than some and she fights an Oni, but in the grand scheme of things the book could be a lot better. Old Man Logan continues to squander it's potential in a similar fashion. The Unbelievable Gwenpool's sixth issue finds her more intent on breaking the 4th wall to convince Miles that he is in a comic book. The fight they get in is very one sided and makes this character even harder take seriously, with her getting jobbed like this. Speaking of silly books Dead-Pool's 18th issue was pretty decent. The 9th issue of Agents of Shield was pretty entertaining. The 11th issue of Vision might have been my favorite book as it was cool seeing Vision single handedly kick the asses of the Avengers. The beating he dealt the Jane Foster Thor the most satisfying. Amazing Spider-man's 18th issue really handled Doc Octopus's looming return well.

This Week In Marvel

So Marvel might not be as bas as D/C, but they are making some poor choices like re-writing Captain Marvel's origin and not using Johnny Blaze for when Ghost Rider rides into Agents of Shield. Sure there is the Nick Cage connection and they claim Danvers origin is too close to Green Lanterns, but here powers are not.So now on the poor choices made in comics like  the Avengers annual is the worst waste of time ever, much like the rabbit hole of fan fic the book delves, I am not sure why they would think anyone over the age of 20, which is the bulk of the comic buying public would want to waster their money on it, is Marvel this out of touch with their demographics? Like the comment section of the page I read the tenth issue of Daredevil the new story arc is off to a slow start. This goes to show my the writing of the golden age of comics is superior to today's writing, this is not a Netflix show, this is a comic this would never have flown twenty years ago. The 9th issue of Scarlet Witch is a mixed bag, though the vast improvement in the art work makes some of my questions in regards to how she interacts with her brother. Black Panther continues to be terrible so start asking your self now if these past issues were the story board for a movie just how bad would it be....terrible.

Old Man Logan was decent. Some of the perspective the scenes were drawn from one of the books strongest traits. I think it has everything you might want from the book.All-New X-man was o.k, not great, I like X-23, Warren not so much. The story was a little teeny bopper in places. Black Panther show nominal improvements in it's fifth issue, but continues to make me question if he can hold his own in a full length film. The 8th issue of Agents of Shield was the best Civil War 2 cross over so far , even better than the Accused. The Accused one shot breaks down the Hawkeye trial and was more of a Dare-devil issue. The latest issue of Agents of Shield also focused in on Daredevil's world finding him becoming more of a player in the Marvel universe, guess his Netflix series doesn't play into that.

Marvel this Year

2014 is leaving comics is at a weird place. Marvel is building up everything into a Secret Wars event, which is going to be a  D/C like mess of alternate universes and realities colliding. Captain America, the Steve Rogers brand, meaning with Avengers coming out in theaters in May, this Sam Wilson Captain America, which has been awkward at best, is going to prove to be much less worthy of the shield than Bucky Barnes. He is just a less interesting character. In the 70's Cap's jive turkey counter part made a little more sense to me  and he flew, so that was cool, but as an adult just flying doesn't make for a interesting character even if you are gay Northstar. But Northstar has a few more dimensions, he is a mutant and has a weird relationship with his twin sister. More interesting than I talk to birds.

Speaking of worthy, the female Thor is sure to be as short lived, since Thor is in the Avengers. And has anyone seen Valkyrie ? Though bringing Barbara Norriss over from the Ultimate universe would not surprise me either. She is about to fight Odinson in the next issue. But the few issues with her thus far have proved pretty boring. Speaking of female super hero's every one is always talking about have powerful Carol Danvers is but if you caught the last issue of Avengers it's one of this weeks best books. There is a hilarious scene where a fight goes down between Roger's crew Warmachine and Captain Marvel taking onAvenger, Hulk pretty much takes care of both beating up War Machine drones, then when Carol flies down to save the day, she appears to be wailing away on the Hulk. Who turns about to be laying back smiling with his hands behind his head, before he punches her out into space. How did the Carol Corps like that one?

Spider-verse, is a D/C like jumbled mess no doubt with the Morlun spider eaters vs all the Spider men ever. It is slightly more readable than anticipated. Spider Man is also in Axis so not sure where that is occurring in the time line. I am under whelmed by Axis, so the big twist is it turns peoples personalities around? Well the inverted Thor is how Thor should always be written. Kluh is not being used enough and is the most interesting part of this. The X-men as bad guys was just done as X-men vs Avengers, the bad guys are good guys and the whole thing with Deadpool is childishly dumb.Another big even with little pay off. Dr Strange gets cranky. Scarlet Witch is mean, and perhaps Magneto isn't her father after all, it's going to be Darth Vader since Disney has Star Wars rights.At this point it wouldn't surprise me.

Hulk is this Dr. Green, a little meaner version of the Professor Hulk. He is cleaning up the gamma problem ,while curing the Red-Betty She-hulk and Rock Jones A-bomb, it is a shame they got rid of Skaar, who it seemed is more of a mutant so should have retained hiss powers. I hope they don't mess with the Red Hulk. Of course Jennifer Walters is not going anywhere. I would like to have seen him go after Sasquatch before Red Hulk, but that is coming next. It could be worse. Last issue however was a little boring.

All New X-men is getting convoluted going off into the Ultimate Universe. That was my favorite X-book, the Wolverine Spin offs are pretty dumb, it's not like someone else , aside from Daken is going to suit up as Logan. None of the other X titles are doing much for me. As team books go Guardians of the Galaxy is boring and way off any story you care about, not too mention the fact Venom just doesn't work tagging along with them. Why not bring back Adam Warlock. Fantastic Four is fading away and I really don't care despite liking the characters.

Sliver Surfer is obtuse. Invaders' faded from view and interest. Daredevil was getting good now I no longer care. Nova got his butt beat by Kluh, which was the most entertaining moment aside from the Beta Ray Bill team up. Spider-woman's book is not getting a fair shot as it's tied into the Spider verse thing. The Avengers titles...well Secret Avengers and Mighty Avengers have no usefulness. Avengers World i headed that way, leaving me to only miss Uncanny Avengers that felt more like an Avengers books than the others.New Avengers is only good because of Dr.Strange. Just give him either the Defenders back or his own book, which we know is coming with a movie, if Ant-man is getting his own book, which I give until four months after the movie to get cancelled if it makes it that far.

Far as tv goes, we Agents of Shield now has brought us Absorbing Man, Mr Hyde,Mocking Bird and Quake, which is more than last season and we are only at the half way point , sure they are tying into Inhumans, but will that run until the Inhumans movie that a long time. Looking forward to the Netflix shows than Agent Carter.I would not be surprised if the ravaged face May clone turns out to be Madame Masque.

State of the Union Marvel

Haven't been keeping you guys up to date on weekly books ,and to be honest none have really been blowing my socks off even though Marvel continues to unload new titles in it's Now! campaign so here is a state of the Union on where Marvel is at now. We will start with my favorites and go from there.

Thor ....is picking up in his solo title. He is back in Oklahoma and having a show down with Roxxon, the company that normally trouble Stark so it's a switch up, though the trolls have been brought in. I think the book suffers from, leaning on the future story line that is thrown in. In the Avengers books it seems like his role is crowded by having Hyperion around. He does seem to have a major role in this Original Sin series.

Hulk.. Banner was shot left brain dead. A shadow organization, that might be Hydra, creates a Abomination from gamma goo. Abomination is a zombie controlled by someone pull ing his strings , put he emit radiation that weakened the Hulk enabling him to dish out beat down. The Avengers.. Cap, Iron - man Ms. Marvel and Sunspot show up and Abomination doesn't try to fight them but still gives them a beat down. Hulk turns into Banner though Banner is not as brain dead but his brain is still scrambled and he is talking gibberish. So things are off to a better beginning than they have for some time with this book, though the Shield element is heavy, but with the success of agents of shield most of the books are starting to take on that tone. Agents of Shield are getting there own comic book which at this point would make Secret Avengers a mute point, though hopefully it looks like they are killing off the Samuel Jackson looking Fury.

Marvel is sorting through a lot of convoluted multi-universes in Avengers, there is a big mess with the Illuminati story line becoming the most interesting. Dr Strange is a major player in Original Sin though teamed up with Punisher for a buddy cop storyline. Lost interest in the solo books of Captain America and Iron-man. Ms- Marvel was paling around with Guardians of the Galaxy who of course are getting their big moment in the spotlight with the movie in August. Nova isn't bad, the guardians book is alright. Fantastic Four is back at a starting over point and hard to tell at this point.

Spider-man is Peter Parker, Slott is doing a good job of cleaning up the mess and there are not a ton of Spider-man books that are too hard to keep up with. X-men are a mess. All New is now getting hard to read. The under cover Avengers Accademy kids , I have also lost rack of with only Hellstorm making me keep an eye open, not sure where Skaar is but with the new Hulk writing cropping up in two more issues, he is supposed to be surfacing along with every other Hulk. Hulk is also going into a vs Iron-man thing as part of Original Sin.

From the solicits I have seen, it looks hopeful though, they need to steer clear of making a d/c mess with all the multiverses and don't go the other direction of making every thing Agents of Shield.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. COMIC -Con Spoilers

It's Saturday Morning  is the midway point for Comic-Con, many out of towners begin to pack it up to catch flights on Sunday afternoon so this is the biggest day of the Con so lets take a look at the biggest panel of the weekend so far  Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There is now way we can discuss what went down at the panel with out spoilers being revealed so you have been warned ...the mandatory SPOILER ALERT is in effect .

This panel seemed to be more Marvel fueled than ABC, Jeff Loeb starting of as the Master of Ceremonies. He was soon joined by Writers/executive producers/show runners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen  followed by writer Jeff Bell and then the cast of the show before Greg Clark came out to deafening applause that was eclipsed by the fan reaction when Joss himself came out.   Whedon fielded a few questions and it almost seemed planted when a girl asked if their were any clips to share and he answered  "There was a whole legal thing with lawyers, So we can't show you a clip. We're just going to show you the episode." Before they showed the pilot episode. Which is very much felt like a Whedon show closer to Dollhouse and Avengers than his other work, the dialogue retains the very real feeling banter than is his trademark. I have friends who aren't familiar with his work previous to Avengers other than knowing I'm a huge Buffy freak so it didn't catch them in the Avengers movie and might fall just as flat on the general minority would didn't like Avengers. Cobie Smoulders reprises her role as Maria Hill on the show, though how much of a role she can have in the series remains to be seen as she is still under contract for another Season of How I Met Your Mother.   It's no secret  Gregg Clark returns to play fan favorite Agent Coulson who is back from the dead. Though the story gives purposefully conflicts account of how this happened , so it looks to be another plot thread in the series, as Coulson thinks S.H.I.E.L.D  just had him fake his death.

J. August Richards role has been speculated as being Luke Cage and this is not the case. He does play into the shows tie-in to Iron-man 3 , as his powers come from Extremis. That's not the only tie in as Iron-man appears on one of the monitor screens in the control room. The movie tie-in's to the larger Marvel Movie Universe  don't stop there, as the Super-Soldier Serum , Gamma Radiation and the Chitauri whose weapons have fallen into the wrong hands factor in, not to mention  Black Widow and Thor come up in conversation.     though any one of these elements.

Fans of the Whedonverse will be happy that Ron Glass — who played Book on Firefly — appears as a doctor so going forward we can hope to see many other familiar faces as casting has Buffy, Angel , Dollhouse and Firefly to pull from. The Show premieres September 24th on ABC